Let's do something fun: Say you work on the Madden team. You, and 39 of your co-workers are responsible for ONLY game play changes. Assume you have the talent and skills do so. Lets assume that you spend 10% (an underestimation) of your time working on Madden 13 post release. In the year between Madden 13 release and Madden 14 release, what do you think are realistic goals to accomplish? Discuss.
I would want running backs to be able to recognize its their own lineman in front of them and have a forearm to the back animation rather than hit a brick wall. I would like to see player lose speed when they are not running forward with shoulders pointing in the direction they are going. I would like to see more variables to the way defensives react in certain zones, rather than the same result each time. I would like to see defenders gain more awareness as the game goes on if the offense is running the same routes over and over. Making the route more prone to being jumped or have tight coverage. I would like to see formation subs to make it easier to match up with personnel. I would like to see the inability to audible formation down. For instance, I do not think a 5 WR should be able to audible to a 4 WR and 1 RB set causing a WR play the RB position or have a 4 WR set audibled into an ACE set in which the WRs end up playing TE. I feel the audibles made available should only be "like" personnel sets. I would like to see less missed tackles in which players square up and hit. Reward good position on tackles, and make arm tackles the ones in which are able to be more likely to be broken. I would like to see onsides kick to mirror the effectiveness in real life. I would like to see the kicking game be less about power and more about accuracy. How often to kickers miss short in real life?
So if all of those things were implemented for the next Madden and nothing else was added for game play, you would consider that a successful cycle?
A more polished Infinity engine-- stuff like RB's putting their hand out instead of running into their offensive lineman like Antcap mentioned would be what I am thinking.
antcap24 had a good list, if just those were added I'd consider it a success. I'd also like to see secondary zone play a little more polished. There are countless times I've seen a corner or safety sit in an empty zone and let a receiver sit by them uncovered. While they are playing their called scheme correctly, I'd like to see them with a bit more awareness of whats happening around them. Also, changing direction should have a much greater affect on a players speed. Its almost like once a player gets to top speed he stays there regardless of movement. I'd also like to see stamina more consistent. While I'm sure there are many different variables that affect it on a game by game basis, it still seems wildly inconsistent to me.
My question was more to the point: How much has to be done in a cycle for people to say "Wow, EA did a great job here". Also, I wanted too see if people have a realistic ability to gauge what is possible in a year.
I would also like the ability to chip block with a TE by audible before running a route. I think I have more but that it what has come to mind. If they implement these stuff I would be happy for sure.
Honestly, I would be happy with the game if they just fixed the current bugs / issues it has before next release. Thats been one of the biggest issues for me about playing NCAA, is that the game is consistently released with the same issues it had the year before. Personally, I expect anything that is generally excepted as a bug / problem with the game to be fixed before the next release. Anything more then that is a bonus imo.
That, the implementation of more commissioner/owner controls in the CCM, and the addition of dynamic/random draft classes and I think the consumer would be delighted.
It would also be nice to see things get a bit more streamlined in CCM. It sucks to have to navigate through 10 menus just to get to something.
Its been so long since I've played NCAA, specifics are shady, but one that comes to mind right away is the Utah pipeline bug.
I think I would consider four key things every year : 1. Did we fix what was "broken"(issues that ruin user experience) from prior cycle ? - For me this was the salary cap glitch , regardless of it being a server issue or what not do we have that fixed so it never happens again ? Beyond that there are bugs but nothing that breaks the game. 2. Are we improving on what we previously improved on ? - The game engine ...... Big step forward , but are we making it better ? Can we improve the collision with the RB's and O-Line ..... Can we make the size / mass of the players really matter more in the engine ? Can we make the tackling look better ? Can we add better interactions at the LOS ? Can we have CPU play calling actually make some sense for once ? 3. How can we improve the CCM ? - I really liked the team building in 13' but how can we improve the game in that regard ? Can we make the draft classes unique so every CCM feels different ? 4. How can we make presentation better ? - I have noticed that a large % of us here at TSO turn of the football commentary on Madden ..... how can we allow our presentation to be so bad that people do not listen to it ? Can we give it a more natural feel , more unique to the league like 2K does , or at least get it to be more tolerable. I know that 4th issue is probably not a big one to us as group of gamers because we have become conditioned to it, but if I worked at EA on Madden I would not feel good about how the commentary and presentation stack up to other sports games. I don't know shit about programming but if I was a big wig in charge of overseeing the product these would be my concerns.
Tbqh, I'm not sure if its fixed now or not, but I know at the beginning of the release it wasnt. I assume it wasnt fixed because they didnt know what caused it.
That isn't typically the case. Sometimes things are far too complicated to fix without disrupting other things.
Which is understandable. By no means do I expect things to be perfect, there just isnt enough time in the year for EA to push out a new release thats absolutely problem free, especially on a yearly basis. Imo, they really need more people testing the game and debugging it throughout the development process.
Most of the issues that "get out" are issues that only become apparent when you add the scale of 2 million poeple.
So the salary cap glitch that plagued most leagues once you entered the 2nd season of a CCM was only found because of the mass number of people that play CCMs? To me that screams inadequate testing. I for one would be more then willing to pay an extra $5 a year to help cover the costs of a proper testing team.
Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. What if the cause was something that happened on the users end? Realize that the real world environment and the testing environment isn't always 1:1.
I understand what you're saying and like I said, I dont expect perfection. I'm just saying, if I was in charge of the development of the game I would higher a team of people with "Game Changer" experience to be full time testers throughout the whole development process. Let them test the game as much as possible. If you had a team of 15-30 guys playing a CCM all day every day, imagine how far you would go and what type of exposure you would get to possible problems.
They have 100's of people doing exactly that. The facility is in Louisiana. I've said this before, I know firsthand as a software engineer, testing obscure bugs is very, very hard. You have an iPhone, right? When you update, do you look at "What's changed?". Everyone of them say "bug fixes", and they can put out an update a day if they want.
