Madden NFL 10 first pic and details

[Da Bucs GM]

long post ahead
Hard Data
* Release Date: Early-Mid August, 2009

* Platforms (confirmed): PS3, XBox 360, Wii, PS2

* Other Platforms: XBox- unknown, PC- a July 2008 article on IGN mentioned Peter Moore saying that Madden 10 would make a return to PC for the 2010 edition, but there has been no mention of it anywhere else since.

* Game Information

** Procedural Awareness- Cosmetically, a system that ensures that each player can realistically follow the ball, using the eyes, head, neck, and shoulders in a realistic manor. Hopefully, this also leads to realistic responses to in-game events rather than no-look interceptions and the like.

** New Ratings Philosophy- Increases the range of the 100 point scale used in each ratings category, with the aim of having a greater degree of distance between players.

** Assists and half-sacks- Long awaited addition to statistics

** All optional onscreen data is off by default- Weapon icons and all other informational overlays except for the score bug are now OFF by default

** Quarterback Improvements- No more suction sacks, new passer ratings, and a reconfigured landing-determination.

** WR/DB Interaction- Huge update with a lot of good information regarding the passing game.

** Creating sim style Gameplay- New Speed Differential slider, retuned speed ratings, and animation speed improvements. FB Dive fix contained here-in

3-16: Player Momentum- Player momentum and inertia physics in Madden 10

3-18 AFL Throwbacks to be included in Madden 10

Rumor/Possibility/Conceptual

* Ian Cummings has indicated that blocking and general OL/DL interaction is a priority this year. Strong possibility of seeing the branching animation system will be expanded to include line moves.

* Time has been set aside in February specifically for tuning the effect of player height and weight on what happens in-game.

* "Pileups" in short yardage situations are something they are "looking into", but there are potential pitfalls they have encountered before (large groups of players locked in animation make it easier for the back to simply break outside and have a free run at the endzone). It's possible using branching animations could create a better environment for this.

* The infamous jumping spin animation that so often plays for both the receiver and the defensive back at the same time has been removed from the game. Some others have as well, and EA is considering a blog specifically to explain which animations have been removed and why.

* The large names on jerseys issue has been fixed.

* Due to time constraints, it is unclear whether the probowl in franchise mode will be moved to the appropriate week.

* Ian Cummings has claimed massive graphical upgrades.

* Phil Frazier has indicated the possibility of either an in-game play editor similar to LegacyGen, or a far more powerful play editor that would be web based and export to your PSN/XBL account

* 2010 Score bug will be on the bottom of the screen

* Per Donny Moore- addressing issues with QBs disappearing by the third round, is confident rookie salaries will be more realistic in '10, imported NCAA draft classes will be addressed (tuning incoming class conversions)

* Madden IQ tests will return, mostly unchanged.

* Both announcers will return with newly recorded material.

* There is a strong possibility the "Lead Blocker Control" will be removed for Madden 10.

* Accelerated clock, refs and chain gang on the field, classic control setting are all tentatively confirmed. In other words, 3rd parties have "confirmed" this information, but I don't yet have it from the horse's mouth.

* Ian Cummings has mentioned working on AI as he was doing so. Specific fixes he was working on was cleaning up the code so it's less of a headache to work on, fixing the AIs tendency to call a time out after no-huddling, and punting from the 35 yard line. There were other fixes deemed "secret"

* The base chance of a player biting on play action will be determined by the success of the team running the ball, weighted toward YPC, and situation (no biting on 3rd and 25). That base chance will be modified by an opposed stat check between the QB and RBs Play Action ratings and the defensive players Play Recognition rating.
* An AI bug has been fixed that caused the CPU to call timeouts in situations advantageous to its opponent.

* All coaches in Franchise mode have been re-rated and been set to act more true-to-life in terms of how they act on 4th down, specifically related to fakes and going for it.

* Per twitter, Ian seems to have made it his personal mission to fix QB sneaks. He's also stated that the FB dive problem has been solved.

* Donny Moore has stated that salary cap increases are being retuned in franchise mode and are, at the time of his statement, were in fact increasing too little. Player salaries are being retuned to fall in line with this, but ultimately it means no more ridiculous cap room figures.

* Ian Cummings mentioned that a new system was added for in-game stat banners in Madden 09 that is bearing fruit for '10. Adding new stat graphics for in-game presentation.

* Per Donny Moore; the Elusiveness rating has received a major overhaul for non-ball carrying positions, especially defensive players. This means that quick players who aren't especially experienced carrying the ball, such as CB, will not be nearly as good at duck under/slippery moves (left right twitchiness, that's agility, or juke, that's juke) wont feel like Barry Sanders anymore. Furthermore, the elusiveness rating across the board has been tuned down to better emphasize the true tackle breakers and reduce the dominance of high-speed runners.

3-18: Per Ian, player stances can now be overridden from their default position entry on a per-play basis. Hense, an outside linebacker can be placed into a 3-point stance in a 3-4 play for hybrid teams such as the Ravens.

3-18: The following teams will be 3-4 teams in Madden 10: Dolphins, Jets, Patriots, Ravens, Steelers, Browns, Chargers, Broncos, Chiefs (More than likely), 49ers, Cardinals, Packers, Cowboys

3-18 Hammond and Collinworth recorded new audio together, rather than in separate sessions.

3-22 Ian stated that the mini-games will likely no longer be used for progression and injury rehab in franchise mode anymore.

Unfounded Rumors
* Hip Hop Gamer Show stated in a recent article that Madden 10 would feature a "brand new engine". This is, as far as I can tell, has no basis in fact. The article also mentions "Endorphin", a NaturalMotion animation system. Once again, there is no substance to backup this claim.

* A short lived rumor that NCAA draft classes could no longer be imported into Madden was shot down by Phil Frazier.

Quotables

"Teams and players will play to their strengths and weaknesses like never before. That is my personal mantra for 10."
- Madden 10 Developer Donny Moore

"I study the hell out of (NFL 2k5) now because I personally don't want people to ever to be able to compare us to them any more."
- Lead Designer Ian Cummings

3-16- "For the future vision of Madden, we want a football coach that's never played Madden before to be able to take down a Madden Challenge competitor."
- Lead Designer Ian Cummings

What will NOT be in Madden 10

* A tiered defensive playcalling system (as per NFL 2kX) will not make this version.

* The Ring Builder will not make a return to Madden 10

* Due to space considerations, the exterior stadium shots will not return for Madden 10

* Madden 10 will not have interactive sidelines, but the same "dummy" players are previous years.

http://itsinthegame.ea.com/cfs-file.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Components.UserFiles/00.00.00.21.27/newMaddenNFL10_5F00_FirstScreen.jpg

Not really a fan of hyping up a madden game( I still play 2k5) but these guys are starting to get me excited about it. If you played nfl head coach the makers of that game are now the lead designers(sp?) for the new madden.

[njdshady2001]

I played Madden 09 more than any other madden in the past (not more than 2k5), but I must say that I was quite impressed and the game seemed to get much more realistic after a couple online updates.

I hope they continue this trend with Madden 10.

[TheOutsider]

Just as the makers of Head Coach were the lead designers specifically for Madden Franchise mode which I hope they fix. Oh yeah, don't get too excited by that shot, preliminary shots for games are notoriously dressed up. I'm willing to bet the game looks almost nothing like that detail wise upon release.

[Cardiac Kids]

Wow, no weapon icons? Madden has harcore now? Sweet. Can we get double XP?

[Da Bucs GM]

I will update this thread probably once a week with new detail being released about the game

[Jakopo]

Great info. Thanks for posting.

They finally seem to be "getting it"! I would be happy if they were able to implement 1/2 of this stuff.

What got me most excited was the following sentence:

"For the future vision of Madden, we want a football coach that's never played Madden before to be able to take down a Madden Challenge competitor."

This seems to be 180 degrees different than their philosophy over the past 5 years where they have essentially turned the game into NFL Blitz Arcade and seemed to be targeting 10 year olds who knew nothing about football.


Let's hope all of this really finds its way into the game. There isn't a single thing on that long list that I disagree with!

[Pantera Canes]

I never understand why people like the 2k games over madden. People keep saying how much they like them, I go and get them, and they fall short of madden.

Don't have as much time anymore so didn't get madden this year. Plus I had a lot of other games I have that just don't play. Did get the college football game. I may switch it up and get the next madden. Just have to see how much time I have and if I am able to get any gaming in. Also how much I am still playing band version of guitar hero metallica at that point too. :D

Ugh, I need to really break out Grand Theft Auto IV. Got it and only about half way through it. Same with Assassins Creed.

[skulldog06]

I never understand why people like the 2k games over madden. People keep saying how much they like them, I go and get them, and they fall short of madden.

Don't have as much time anymore so didn't get madden this year. Plus I had a lot of other games I have that just don't play. Did get the college football game. I may switch it up and get the next madden. Just have to see how much time I have and if I am able to get any gaming in. Also how much I am still playing band version of guitar hero metallica at that point too. :D

Ugh, I need to really break out Grand Theft Auto IV. Got it and only about half way through it. Same with Assassins Creed.

I'm like you, man, as far as not really caring about buying Madden each year due to a combination of it never changing and the fact I don't really have the time (like 12 year olds) to perfect every glitch to be unbeatable online.

With that said, I will recommend one game for you: NHL 09. Nothing more needs to be said. You'll love it. I swear it's a game for the working class.

[BucsLJohnson34]

I'm like you, man, as far as not really caring about buying Madden each year due to a combination of it never changing and the fact I don't really have the time (like 12 year olds) to perfect every glitch to be unbeatable online.

With that said, I will recommend one game for you: NHL 09. Nothing more needs to be said. You'll love it. I swear it's a game for the working class.
NHL 09 is probably the best game out on the market and is doing GREAT things for hockey fans world wide.

It's difficulty is the only thing that gets you at the start.. Other than that, it's great.

If they can compare madden to that game then I'll be truly excited. Madden is no where near the game that NCAA is and if they can make it fun like that fro me then that's when I'll enjoy playing again.

[BayAreaBucFan24]

I am a huge madden fan but i wish ea sports would let espn make football games again, so that ea could make mvp baseball again because the 2k series for baseball is horrible.

[JJRedick7]

NHL 09 is probably the best game out on the market and is doing GREAT things for hockey fans world wide.

It's difficulty is the only thing that gets you at the start.. Other than that, it's great.

If they can compare madden to that game then I'll be truly excited. Madden is no where near the game that NCAA is and if they can make it fun like that fro me then that's when I'll enjoy playing again.


My NHL 09 is now scratched and can no longer be played. So much for the Lightning winning the Cup... I get Madden every year and love it, 10 will be amazing I think.

[skulldog06]

NHL 09 is probably the best game out on the market and is doing GREAT things for hockey fans world wide.

It's difficulty is the only thing that gets you at the start.. Other than that, it's great.

If they can compare madden to that game then I'll be truly excited. Madden is no where near the game that NCAA is and if they can make it fun like that fro me then that's when I'll enjoy playing again.

I love the game even though I am not a hockey fan by any means. My online record is 32-41-7. With that crappy record I still love the game. I don't think I played my 360 for almost 6 months straight before buying this game upon a friend's recommendation. Thank goodness for this game.

[skulldog06]

I am a huge madden fan but i wish ea sports would let espn make football games again, so that ea could make mvp baseball again because the 2k series for baseball is horrible.

MLB2K8 was disgustingly horrible. You know what I miss: MVP College Baseball.

That was an awesome game! That stadium creator option before every game was to die for. Wow!!! Why they discontinued it for the 360 is well beyond me.:mad:

[Da Bucs GM]

We've had some recent news that I thought I should share with you all...

If you've been paying attention to NFL Head Coach 09, you're probably aware of Donny Moore, one of the designers responsible for many of their features. Donny has been at EA for nearly 10 years and is the best in the business when it comes to details. He was responsible for both NCAA and Madden rosters from 2002 to 2006, and has had many influences over designs, from Franchise to gameplay to online. You may also know him as 'Commish Don' from the EA Sports fantasy experts group, where he has been instrumental in driving fans to use that service

Well, the good news, Donny has been brought over to Madden NFL 2010, with the objective of using his Head Coach design experience to take full ownership of the future design and direction of Franchise mode. To clarify...this news doesn't mean we're going to automatically have all of Head Coach's features or anything like that...we honestly don't know our exact direction yet (Donny is working on designing it out as we speak).

Anyway, I thought most folks would be happy to hear this news. Donny is an awesome designer with a ton of experience and a hardcore sim background, and I'm stoked to have him on the team.

[Da Bucs GM]

the deep ball is one of the most exciting and rewarding plays in football, so you get to where you can get frustrated with the game if the deep ball never works, even when you have the guy beat (a la Madden 2005).

I can tell you our 'vision' for how we think we can balance this, but I won't yet claim that it works (since not all of it is implemented)...

We plan on using the new Deep throw accuracy rating extensively - this will really help scale the error a bit, to truly get overthrows and underthrows and throws out of bounds...stuff we've never had before. By doing this, we can really let the fast receivers actually get behind DB's more (assuming they get past the jostling and press and stuff from the good DB's). We also are planning to get rid of the big 'super swats' so a DB has to play the receiver more. We'll probably write a blog on that whole concept if/when those changes go in.

In short, you would see WR's possibly getting 'open' more (getting a step on db's if you're sending them on fly routes), but with our new ratings, the QB can't always get it to them in stride. This is a much more realistic approach IMO.

Also we've re-worked fatigue extensively to make it so you can't keep doing this over and over again.

[BigBucFan87]

i never really liked madden either, nfl 2k5 is my fav football game as well. btw, are there anyplaces i can get roster updates? i can hook my hdd to my computer

[Da Bucs GM]

updates for madden or 2k5?

[BigBucFan87]

2k5, found some tho

[Jakopo]

the deep ball is one of the most exciting and rewarding plays in football, so you get to where you can get frustrated with the game if the deep ball never works, even when you have the guy beat (a la Madden 2005).

I can tell you our 'vision' for how we think we can balance this, but I won't yet claim that it works (since not all of it is implemented)...

We plan on using the new Deep throw accuracy rating extensively - this will really help scale the error a bit, to truly get overthrows and underthrows and throws out of bounds...stuff we've never had before. By doing this, we can really let the fast receivers actually get behind DB's more (assuming they get past the jostling and press and stuff from the good DB's). We also are planning to get rid of the big 'super swats' so a DB has to play the receiver more. We'll probably write a blog on that whole concept if/when those changes go in.

In short, you would see WR's possibly getting 'open' more (getting a step on db's if you're sending them on fly routes), but with our new ratings, the QB can't always get it to them in stride. This is a much more realistic approach IMO.

Also we've re-worked fatigue extensively to make it so you can't keep doing this over and over again.



This sounds pretty cool....one of my biggest gripes about Madden/NCAA is the lack of incomplete passes. Passing will be something like 22 - 25 with 2 Int's. The pass is either caught or picked off -- very few incompletions. On occasion something will bounce off the receivers hands, but there is never a low throw that skips to the receiver or something just out of reach on crossing routes.

It seems like in every dynasty I play, my comp% is something like 85%.

[Chad44]

* Madden 10 will not have interactive sidelines, but the same "dummy" players are previous years######
What was interactive about the sidelines last year:rotf:

[Pantera Canes]

That would be nice if they had interactive sidelines. Had all the players on the team not on the field walking around watching the play, getting some gatoraid, and the coaches. Have them get excited if you make a big play. Also would be cool if you ran through them sometimes as well if the QB leads the WR too far or get pushed out.

[skulldog06]

That would be nice if they had interactive sidelines. Had all the players on the team not on the field walking around watching the play, getting some gatoraid, and the coaches. Have them get excited if you make a big play. Also would be cool if you ran through them sometimes as well if the QB leads the WR too far or get pushed out.

You're not one of those sickos who laughed at JoePa???

[BobLoblaw]

My NHL 09 is now scratched and can no longer be played. So much for the Lightning winning the Cup... I get Madden every year and love it, 10 will be amazing I think.

It can be played again! I scratched Madden 09 and they resurfaced it for $3! Works like a charm now.

Play and Trade 12925 N. Dale Mabry Hwy, , Tampa, Florida, 33618

[Pantera Canes]

You're not one of those sickos who laughed at JoePa???

huh? What kind of tangent are you on?

[Da Bucs GM]

sorry I've been lazy updating this thread guys. franchise blog coming hopefully monday guys

[Da Bucs GM]

I'm in folks, bringing you some more additions and improvements that you can expect to see in Madden NFL 10. This week, I'm going to focus primarily on the QB position and show some of the improvements we've made for this year. First off, I'm going to talk about a new animation technology that we can call "layered blending".

Layered Blending
"Layered blending? I thought you were going to talk about quarterbacks?" You'll see shortly how this works for QB's. First, a quick lesson on what blending is. Anytime a player transitions from one animation to another, he will use a 'blend' of his previous animation into the next animation. When you don't have a nice smooth blend, you'll get poppy / hitching animations. If you make blends that are too long, you can easily not have the correct amount of control over your player (he can feel very 'sluggish' or unresponsive). The most common types of blends are linear, ease in, and ease out. Those just refer to how many frames of either the previous or current animation you use while blending. For Madden NFL 10 though, we've added something new - the ability to actually separate the blends out between different parts of the body. We call this layered blending because it allows us to create different layered animation by blending one part of the body out quicker or slower based on the needs of the game. So how does it relate to QB's? Well, how often has this happened to you?

(i can't show the pics because i'm on a different computer will put pics in later)




I sure can't count on one hand how many times this has happened to me, and it's extremely frustrating, for hardcore and casual gamers alike. You hit the pass button, and you want to throw it! To try and alleviate this problem over the years, we've tried speeding up the release on pass animations, we've trimmed sack animations to be much tighter, as well as all sorts of other ways to make this problem go away. But this never quite solved it perfectly, and it inadvertently made our game a bit less realistic in the process. It's a tough problem though...when two animations start blending together, there was never really any other way around it.

I'm happy to report however that layered blending is the answer! When the sack animation starts, we can blend out the arm and shoulder of the QB at a MUCH slower rate to ensure that he gets the ball off. Here is a sample video of the tech in our ANT tool:


(sorry guys youtube vid)


Obviously we had to do this on an animation-by-animation basis...you don't want the QB throwing the ball when a player has him wrapped up on his throwing arm. Immediately as soon as the tech went in, we realized what a great "sim" element we could turn this into by creating a real risk-reward of trying to get the ball off vs. taking the sack. We totally alter the physics of the ball on release based on how hard the QB is hit while throwing, and how far into the throw animation he was when he was sacked. If you were one frame from releasing the ball when you're hit, then the ball may just come out with some slight wobble. If you are hit right after you started the wind-up, you can expect some wounded duck floaters going up in to the air for the defense to go swarm to. These make for some very dramatic moments, which is a must when you're trying to re-create the 'essence' of NFL football. The great part too is that now we can return all our passes to normal speeds and make the passing game feeling more realistic since we don't have to worry about the 'suction sack'. :)
(For the inquiring minds, we were able to put this technology into NCAA Football 10 as well!)





New QB Ratings
Our next big change for the QB position was the addition of some new ratings. For countless years we've basically had Throw Power, Throw Accuracy, and Awareness as the only ratings for the QB position, so it's very hard to differentiate the players correctly and have them perform more like their real-life counterparts with just those few. For example, a superstar like Tom Brady or Peyton Manning would previously have a very high Throw Accuracy rating like a 98, well that had to be the case for a 5 yard screen or a 65 yard heave! Here are our new ratings:

1. Deep Ball Accuracy: Determines the accuracy on deep passes (streaks, deep posts, etc)
2. Medium Passing Accuracy: Determines the accuracy on medium passes (outs, corners, etc)
3. Short Passing Accuracy: Determines the accuracy on short passes (quick smash, flats, etc)
4. Throw on the Run: Creates a modifier to accuracy when the QB is throwing on the run. Every QB will take some sort of accuracy hit when throwing on the run, but a QB that has a high rating here will take a smaller hit.
5. Play Action: Determines the 'effectiveness' of Play Action for a QB, i.e. how often they can fake out or freeze the defense (which is obviously weighted against the defenders Play Recognition ratings)

With Donny's new philosophy on ratings, the addition of these ratings immediately made the game play VERY differently than in years past. Chucking up the deep ball with a QB with high throw power but bad accuracy is definitely a recipe for disaster! We have recently been doing tuning to scale down these effects on the lower skill levels because QB's are way more inaccurate than you're used to seeing, and we felt this would be a little too hard to play for a casual player. Rest assured though, on All Pro and All Madden, we will have a much more realistic representation of accuracy for the QB's. I know I've read many times that in the past it seems that the only incomplete passes in Madden are either swatted, dropped, or intercepted...that is definitely no longer the case.

The other change that was made once we got in all these accuracy changes was to change our accuracy 'algorithm'. Previously there was a big circle that got drawn around the player and we picked a random point in that circle based on the rating check. However, you could get pretty unpredictable results in this system. I'll show you why in the case of an out route headed towards the sideline:

(update pic in later)


Even if we determined that it should be an inaccurate pass behind him, it could end up hitting the WR right in the numbers since he could slow down as the ball was released. So we changed this up to match more of a realistic system based on what an NFL QB would do. Here is the NEW system:

(insert later)

We implemented across the board based on the 'err on the side of caution' aspect. Good QB's will put the ball where only their receiver can get it, and bad QB's, well, they'll at least try to do that.

We also used this concept for precision passing. It always felt strange to be holding 'down' on a precision pass on a curl route, only to have the ball sail over the player's head. The new algorithm will err on the direction that you are holding...so if you are trying to throw it to low to a player on a quick smash, you would put it in the dirt (assuming that your QB's short accuracy rating determined the pass would be inaccurate). Eagles fans probably know this phenomenon all too well.

Well that's it for this week. We definitely feel these changes will really help make our game much more realistic and authentic, and also improve control, responsiveness, and even accessibility along with it. There are quite a few more improvements coming to the passing game and QB's in general, but it will be a little while until we release that information (as we aren't quite sure how far we're going to get yet).

[Da Bucs GM]

As most folks already know, as a design team we've been very active on the forums recently (starting about a month or so before the Madden NFL 09 release). Within minutes of talking with the community it's easy to tell that one of the most common areas requested for improvement is DB/WR play. Obviously, we're listening to you, and here are just some of the other improvements and changes that you can expect to see in Madden NFL 10 come August.

Defensive Assignments / Matchups

(update pic later)

This screen has some pretty broken stuff all over it, but what the heck, you guys can look at early software objectively right? :)

For any that aren't totally familiar with this feature, in a nutshell it allows you to assign a defender to ALWAYS shadow a specific receiver around the field. So if someone is moving Randy Moss all over the place and you can't keep track of him, then you can assign your best defender to always keep him covered. I am not really going to dwell on this feature too much as it did exist in the PS2/Xbox days, but I did want to mention that we finally have it back (and it sure feels good to have back). Also of note - this is a Madden only feature.


Route Running and Man Coverage
We've really spent quite a bit of time on the 'game within the game' of WR/DB interaction. There are two improvements that I'd like to expand on first (as I feel they are the most important), and both are animation related.

First, we replaced nearly every single receiver route animation in the game, with the goal of more accurately recreating real life acceleration and momentum. We are also utilizing the route running rating much more now when selecting these animations. We totally re-tuned which cut moves play (and how 'open' the WR gets) based on an elite/agile/non-agile separation in regards to that rating. Check out the video below - it should really show you what kind of difference this makes from 09 to 10:


(youtube vid sorry)


We did basically the exact same thing for defensive reactions while in man coverage. This has allowed us to really re-work our man coverage AI to use animations as the true determination of how open the receiver gets. Before, there would typically be a time delay placed on the defender's reaction time based on his (and the receiver's) ratings. Now, we can specifically pick different animations to determine how fast he reacts, or whether he gets faked out or not. This creates a much more believable and realistic simuation of momentum. Here are two example cut moves for a defender backpedaling with the receiver in front of him:

(youtube vid sorry)


Second, we took a page from the FIFA team and added in the concept of 'jostling'. Personally I am extremely stoked to have this in the game because I've written a design for it for 5+ years in a row...unfortunately we just never had the technology to accomplish it. The 'jostling' concept is a set of looping 2-man animations that can play for the WR and DB as they run downfield. The main reason that I am so big on these animations is that it really helps alleviate a balance problem that has existed in Madden for years. I'm talking about the fact that traditionally you can send a player with a 99 speed rating (regardless of his other ratings like route running, catching, etc) on a streak and easily get behind a defender in man coverage. In real life, regardless of the difference in speed, a good defensive back can use his body to keep the receiver in check... a fly route is rarely an untouched foot-race sprint to the endzone. So here's a video example of just one of the many jostling animations you can expect to see in Madden NFL 10:


(youtube vid sorry)

Adding these animations also allowed us the ability to call more realistic pass interference penalties. We've added a lot of variety that ranges from minor hand-fighting to severe push-offs and holds, so now we can make sure that pass interference gets called in a much more accurate manner. We're using the man coverage rating of the defender to determine how well he keeps the WR in check and how often he gets penalized.

Here are some other changes that have been made so far for route running:

Added support for slip & fall receiver cut moves in bad weather (chances of slipping come from route running ratings)
Re-factored all double moves to work correctly, including defensive cut moves that are companions to the WR cuts (chances of defender biting come from man coverage rating, play recognition rating, as well as boosts for correctly timed pump fakes)
Added all new start play WR animations with more realistic acceleration (should be visible in the videos above)
Added "pop" animations where say a LB will hit a WR as he comes across the middle through his zone
Press / Release
Another area that we thought needed definite improvements was in the battle between receivers and DB's at the line. Below is a list of all the fixes we've made so far:

Deleted all previous chuck animations, re-added all newly captured ones from scratch
Extended animation time drastically on chucks. Longer times not only mean smoother looking animations, but also more realistic reactions from WR's (i.e. they can't catch the ball while they are being chucked so you can't fire the ball over to them immediately and expect them to catch it as they aren't looking for the ball)
Removed all animation compression on chucks to increase visual fidelity.
Found and fixed an issue where the players wouldn't align properly during the chuck animation which used to cause some weird clipping through each other
Fixed "suction" bug where press animations could start from like 5 yards away.
Fixed a bug with zone / man chuck animations...in 09 the chucks for DB's in zone coverage looked just like chucks in man coverage.
Re-factored the logic for win/loss on chucks based on the route the receiver wants to run. For example, if the WR wants to run inside (i.e. a post), and he "wins" the press, then he won't just pick an animation that beats the press, he'll pick one of many press beating animations that actually break inside. Likewise for defensive players...they'll push the player inside if they "win" the press in like a Cover 2 situation.
Made it so chucks can now start from stand
Lastly, we've started to use Procedural Awareness (so far just as a purely visual thing). We recently got head tracking in pre-play for WR's so they now look in towards the ball at the snap. This has been long overdue. We also enabled Procedural Awareness head tracking for DB's. In man coverage they will directly 'track' the eyes of the WR, and in zone coverage they will track the QB's eyes, with the ability to also randomly swap targets based on proximity of guys entering their zone.

That's it for this week! We hope these updates and improvements are starting to really show everyone our vision for Madden NFL 10 - one of a true football simulation. For those that would like to know, the NCAA team took all of these improvements (except for the Defensive Matchups - that's Madden only) for NCAA Football 10.

As always, we want your feedback! Definitely let us know any other improvements you'd like to see in this area. We actually have some more improvements still planned to this area but we always want to hear your feedback and any ideas you may have.

Ian Cummings
Lead Designer, Madden NFL 10

[Da Bucs GM]

Well this week we wanted to touch on one of the biggest aspects in creating an NFL sim, and as you might expect, this is also usually most difficult to get to an area where it still 'feels right'. That aspect is Player Momentum. Creating momentum in a football game is typically handled in many different ways, so today I'm going to just touch on one key area (and leave other topics for future weeks).


Turn Rates
Simply put, you can consider the "turn rate" of a player the amount of width it takes him to run in a complete circle (at varying speeds). By a 'circle', I don't mean a spin move, I mean running in a full circle. Obviously a player running at top speed will 'carve' a very wide circle, while a player walking or jogging can complete that circle in a very tiny radius. Inevitably, if you try to run at top speed but still make the circle tighter, you will have to slow down (think about the speed a baseball player loses as he has to come around 3rd base). This turn rate also varies quite a bit on the athletic ability of the player. A player like Darren Sproles can maintain a much higher top speed while turning than say Brandon Jacobs.

With that description out of the way, how does that apply to Madden NFL 10? Well, as most should know by now we are really pushing for an authentic and realistic experience, so we have obviously been pushing to create more realistic turn rates for all of our players. Before we even started changing things for this year though, we did a bit of a case study on some of our previous games. We tested how many yards it took an agile player (Tomlinson for example) running at full speed to curve / turn and face 90 degrees towards the sideline. Check out the result video below:


(youtube vid sorry)


Here are the results:
- Madden NFL 2006 (PS2): ~5 yards
- Madden NFL 08 (X360): ~1 yard
- Madden NFL 09 (X360): ~1 yard

We looked closely at NFL game film to try and find real numbers, but even without watching any film it was pretty obvious that even the most agile of players cannot curve (or plant) to turn 90 degrees within 1 yard when at top speed, so we tuned the entire system down a bit. Here is a video showing some of the new Madden NFL 10 'turn rates' in action for the ballcarrier in the ANT tool:

(youtube vid sorry)



It's not the best video since you don't have yard markers, but his average distance to turn 90 degrees is anywhere from ~4 to 9 yards. As you might expect, we hooked the agility rating directly into this turn rate to scale up and down within that range. Hopefully you can see right away that the player feels like he has a lot more 'weight'...which is definitely what we are going for this year.


These values are also shared with defenders. We really wanted to get rid of that feeling of 'twitch' movement for players on defense, and make their movements much more deliberate. Check out this video of a defender's turn rate compared between Madden NFL 09 and Madden NFL 10:



(youtube vid sorry)


Not only should you notice the differences in turn rates, you should also see a lot more 'momentum' in the Madden NFL 10 version, including acceleration, deceleration, and even planting. We'll talk about that more later in the year though, mainly because we are still heavily tuning it so I don't exactly know what to tell everyone yet. :)

Though these changes to make the game more realistic may seem small on the surface to some, we are really excited about making them because they truly have a serious effect on how you play the game. More than ever, you will see many differences between players on the field, and you'll feel those differences in your hand while controlling them. It adds a whole new layer of strategy and realism to the game knowing that if the QB throws a perfect pass and you are out of position, you can't stop on a dime and go make a play. The same goes for offense - you have to be much more patient and deliberate to succeed. You need to read your blockers, wait for holes to open up, and stop holding the sprint button the entire time if you want to successfully run the ball. These changes, along with the game speed changes, have made major strides in giving Madden that extra layer of a 'thinking man's game'. For the future vision of Madden, we want a football coach that's never played Madden before to be able to take down a Madden Challenge competitor...and these are some of the steps to get us to that goal.

It's been a busy week for us this week having deliverables, milestones, reviews, and the like, but we hope you enjoy what we've got cooking so far. As always, sound off with what you'd like to see when it comes to momentum, turn rates, locomotion, or anything else related to player control...looking forward to your feedback!

- Ian Cummings

[Da Bucs GM]

ok this one is talking about NCAA 10 but Ian verified this is in madden 10


Hey NCAA Football Fans I wanted to jump in and show some work being done with the Offensive/Defensive Line play. Rather than just a bunch of stuff I read, figured it would be better to post some shots and comment a little on each one.

(update pic later)

Well there you have it, a full pocket. You can see that both Offensive Tackles (OT) were able to ride the Defensive Ends (DE) or Linebackers (LB) out wide behind the Quarterback (QB) instead of just standing them straight up. This year we are giving the Tackles the ability to take a Defensive End wide around the QB in a realistic fashion.

First look at the right side of the line:

(update pic later)

Here is a close up view of the LB being strung out wide by an OT; you can see the body lean as the LB is trying to get around the OT using a speed rush. Instead of being pushed once or twice and standing still you’ll notice the interaction between the OT and DE (or LB) play out in a more natural sequence.

Now let’s take a look at the other side of the line and the different rush style:

(insert pic later)

This example is showing an attempt to use a bull rush and muscle his way to the QB; however the OT is able to keep the DE at bay. And like on the other side of the line push him out wide to help create that pocket from the first screen shot.

All the above shots are from the same play to give an example of how things are progressing on the NCAA Football 10 game-play front. And before you ask this does mean we are working on the ability of the Defensive Line to get to the QB as well:

(insert pic later)

The edge rusher in this case was able to make a move back inside. Sorry to ruin the suspense… it ended in a sack.

We are still in the process of working how often the defender vs. the offensive line will win. Like how much does Finesse Moves factor against Pass Block Footwork? Or how often will AI defenders attempt special moves? And a number of other tuning issues. It is a high priority to the team right now to ensure our line play is balanced on both sides of the ball.

That is all for today... Check back in a few days for this week’s NCAA Football 10 Blog.

Russell Kiniry – Designer NCAA Football 10

[Da Bucs GM]

3-31 Press release makes vague mentions of dragging players, pile-on-fumbles, and "new animation technology".

4-4 According to Ian, the affect of Procedural Awareness post play was surprising to the team. The players looking at one another, looking down as they hopped over a fallen opponent, gave the game more life than they anticipated.

4-4 Due to CPU considerations, referees do not have the same awareness as players, however, they will follow their assigned targets. The line judge will follow the ball carrier, the head ref will watch the trenches, etc.

4-4 Camera flashes will be scaled according to the type of game (i.e. Regular season, playoffs, Super Bowl).

4-4 A photo of Ian's workstation was released with a white board behind with the following "To Do" list- Fix QB sneaks, Tune crowd animations so they're not so busy, add "prep steps" to double jukes so they're physically realistic, and fix the spin move so you can't "double spin" to change directions. Ian verified what each of these was. Also, new break tackle animations have been added.

4-4 "Tipped passes" at the line have been added. They are rare but dramatic moments when a pass tipped at the line of scrimmage will float, giving both teams a shot at it.

[Jakopo]

Thanks for the updates again...this is really starting to sound awesome.

[Da Bucs GM]

yeah I want to hear what they did with franchise mode on monday since this development team this year made head coach 09 last year.

[Da Bucs GM]

This week I wanted to give you an update on what we’re addressing in franchise mode this year. We’re probably going to have a few blogs about franchise mode from now until August, so I’m just going to touch on a couple of things we’ve been working on since I joined the team.

One thing we learned on NFL Head Coach ’09 was that in order to have a great franchise mode, you need a solid base. You wouldn’t put a 2nd or 3rd addition on your house if the foundation is crumbling, right?

Since our ‘foundation’ is the logic behind every decision made in franchise mode, we knew we really wanted to address that foundation before anything else major was applied. I know some folks may be expecting the entire NFL Head Coach ’09 game to be dropped into Madden this year, but that’s not going to happen. We have a lot of work to do and it’s going to take us some time to start with the core of franchise mode and take it where we all want it to be.

I’ll break down some of the problems we’ve encountered so far and talk about how we’re addressing them below.



Offseason Player Signing Logic

When we sat down and started taking a look at the logic, the #1 area that stood out to us was how teams handled player decisions in the offseason. After a simulated season, many teams were cutting players left and right in free agency to upgrade much lesser needs (like punter and full back). In fact, that first year we saw the Colts cut Peyton Manning to sign a punter.

We dug through some of the logic and found out that CPU teams were just being too rigid when it came to upgrading positions on their team. They all felt like their #1 priority was to field the best team possible, but when it came to clearing cap room they could possibly just cut the player who would save them the most. Thankfully, this has been addressed. Teams are much more mindful of the amount of cap room they have in free agency now…if they have no room, they’ll pass on that new punter.

Another thing we addressed was contract amounts. We’ve scaled player ratings differently this year, so we needed to make sure a starter in the league was paid like a starter. It’ll be tougher to cherry pick in free agency now, as an 80 overall defensive end is going to ask for the money he’d be paid in real life. We also increased signing bonuses and salaries for elite players. We found that the max a player could get paid was about 60 million over 7 years in previous versions of the game. We fixed that so you’ll see elite players like Asomugha and Haynesworth sign those $100 million dollar deals.

We’re also focusing on the re-sign player stage, making sure that teams intelligently decide whether to keep or release their upcoming free agents. If a team cannot afford to re-sign a player, he’ll become a free agent. It’s that simple.


The Draft

The other big thing we’ve looked at so far is everything surrounding the Draft. After joining the team, I ran through a season and started doing some in-season scouting. Three issues presented themselves immediately:

• When I scouted a player, it was a pretty cumbersome experience. I had to click on a player, enter a sub-screen and then click on him again just to start the first level of scouting.

• After I scouted a player for a few weeks, the comments never seemed to change. Beyond that, they were pretty vague and really told me very little about the player.

• The screen for in-season scouting was actually quite buried as well. Placing it within the “owner mode” sub-menu meant that very few people would necessarily know to go use it.

To fix these issues, we first made the interface a lot easier to use (which we’ll show screenshots of quite soon). Second, we re-vamped the scouting system so that you unlock more comments as you scout the player longer. The comments can go from being broad (We think his awareness is no higher than 80) to telling you exactly what his key ratings are if you scout him the entire time. It won’t tell you his overall rating, but it will give you his potential, which is what you should make your decision off of.

One nice addition that we were able to take from Head Coach was how we handle the rookies in the Draft. We now create every rookie by hand, just like you saw in NFL Head Coach ’09. You might even see a few famous rookies make a re-appearance from those drafts.

In addition, we also have the ability to determine where a player SHOULD be drafted and what his potential is. So we can create busts and sleepers just using those systems. Drafting a player in the top 10 will no longer guarantee that he is a great player in Madden NFL 10. Unless you do some scouting (like the real teams do), you might just pick up this year’s Vernon Gholston. On the flip side, you might also find the next Tom Brady or Marques Colston in later rounds. One piece of advice…don’t be enamored with workout warriors. Running a 4.2 forty or benching a small concrete block does not automatically make you a good football player.

The big thing we’re working on as we speak is the Draft logic. I promise you…you will not see the Colts take a QB in the first round and then in the 3rd, 5th, etc. These type of logic tweaks are happening across the board and the draft is no different.



NCAA Import Draft Class tuning

We have been doing quite a bit of tuning on the NCAA Import Draft classes, as we saw a lot of feedback on the forums regarding this area in general. Here are a few of the changes:

• Added the 5 new QB ratings (Throw on Run, Play Action, Short Accuracy, Mid Accuracy, Deep Accuracy). Since NCAA Football does not have the new ratings in their game to use as a base, we will be using Throw Accuracy for the 3 Madden Accuracy ratings. For Throw on Run, we take a combo of their Speed + Throw Power. For Play Action, we use a combo of Awareness + Throw Accuracy.

• Tuned the import draft class feature to be more superstar based. The community feedback matched our own in the feeling that were too many superstars coming in from NCAA. There was not much of a difference from the 1st Round Picks to the 5th round picks. Nearly all the players were 75+ OVR rated and we felt like that was too high for your average draft picks. We have tuned this quite a bit to ensure that the elite guys will still be elite, but you should expect the middle and lower round guys to be rated much lower in Madden 10 (with a few gems buried in there as well).


Progression

Finally we get to progression, easily one of the most often-discussed areas of Franchise mode in the community for Madden NFL 09. Donny Moore did a lot of good work with progression prior to my joining the team and I’ve been able to keep tweaking it since. Here are the major changes we’ve made so far:

• Older players will digress much faster. In fact, when a running back hits 30, he’s going downhill at warp speed.

• Younger players will progress quickly if they play well. We’re talking up 10 points in overall if he has a great year.

• Veteran players will still progress, but not substantially. They can also digress if they play poorly.

• We added more stat categories to determine a player’s success/failure for a season. For example, if you lead the league in rush TD’s but don’t do all that well in total rushing yards, you’ll still be able to progress accordingly. And it’s not just yards, and TD’s, it’s other stats like rushing attempts and rush yards per carry. This was done across the board for all positions.

• Removed age from ranking players. Some people may not know this but our previous progression systems would ranked each player statistically against players around the same age. Meaning that older players would only be ranked against other older players when determining how well they performed. This often created the situation where those older players never dropped even with sub-par years because other players in their ‘age group’ weren’t performing well either. Now, all players are ranked against all other players at that position, regardless of career phase.

The “potential” rating is another sort of ‘hidden’ addition that we are changing up this year to impact progression (and Franchise mode overall). Every player in the game has a potential rating that he cannot exceed (a la NFL Head Coach 09). This year, we’re actually exposing that rating so you’ll have an idea why your player is not progressing - typically a situation where his potential is maxed out. Exposing this rating also help quite a bit in making personnel decisions when contracts are up. One key detail here is that you’ll only see potential for players on your own team. CPU player potentials will be hidden.

Ok, guys…I’ve probably gone on long enough. Next time I’ll talk about trade logic, hall of fame logic, regular season free agency, salary cap tuning, coach boosts and tons of other franchise stuff.


- Josh Looman
Senior Designer, Madden NFL 10

[TornadoRex]

I browsed through and didn't see anything about it...

Are they going to re-do the running animations? Because it looks like anyone who weighs over 230 has a wooden leg and hobbles to the end zone.

I can't get beyond it, it makes it hard for me to run with Derrick Ward because it looks just so unreal and actually really stupid.

[Da Bucs GM]

I browsed through and didn't see anything about it...

Are they going to re-do the running animations? Because it looks like anyone who weighs over 230 has a wooden leg and hobbles to the end zone.

I can't get beyond it, it makes it hard for me to run with Derrick Ward because it looks just so unreal and actually really stupid.

I'm not sure but I hated the running game period in 09. I pray that they scraped it all together

[Pantera Canes]

Sounds pretty cool. I wish I had more time I would be really into it. :(

[TornadoRex]

I'm not sure but I hated the running game period in 09. I pray that they scraped it all together

That's true. O-line doesn't get any push, the running animations look pretty stupid, etc.

Meh.

[Da Bucs GM]

As we creep closer and closer to the NFL draft and our cover athlete announcement (as well as many other events), it’s getting to that time in the year where our features are getting locked down and we can start talking about some bigger ticket items. We’ve been doing these weekly blogs for quite a while now, so I’d encourage you to take a look back and give them all a read if you have a chance.

This week though, we wanted to really dive into a new feature that we are really excited about – Adaptive AI.


Why Adaptive AI?

In nearly every sports game that you’ve ever played, there usually comes a time where someone discovers some sort of gameplay strategy that is extremely successful (in an unbalanced way). Often times these are considered ‘exploits’ because they are either impossible or extremely hard to stop. You may find it on your own, or you may learn it from someone abusing you with it online, or you may even pay to find it on a shady website. Regardless, these exploits can often extremely hamper the replay value of a game because at some point, nearly everyone gets tired of doing the same thing over and over again and beating up the CPU by 100 points…and at this point the game typically comes out of the tray. Whether it’s an exploit or a “money play”, it’s all frustrating…so from the start of the cycle we knew that we wanted to create an Adaptive AI infrastructure in our football games. Two of our most experienced gameplay / AI engineers – Daniel White and Ryan Burnsides – took the reigns with designing and implementing the majority of this system so I hope this blog does it justice. :)

What does it do?

The adaptive AI framework that we’ve built for Madden NFL 10 is rather simple at its base, but its power is in its ease of use and integration to the game. Any designer or engineer can use a tool to set up any number of inputs (variables that come in from the game), as well as outputs (how the AI should react to those variables), and save them off and quickly preview how those changes come out in game. That may sound really technical, so here’s a good example.

Input: QB scramble outside tackles 3+ times for 5+ yards
Output 1: Defensive hot route: defensive end to flats
Output 2: Defensive play call: Boost to QB spy plays
Output 3: Defensive hot route: corner blitz on scrambling side





Simple right? At its basic core, it means that we as a team can add some ‘success’ parameters to our tool, and give the defense some simple commands that they can try to use to stop them. The cool part is that we basically create these rule sets by collecting data on how we actually play. If someone is burning you with constant passes to the flats, then you call plays with more flat zones. If someone is burning you with dives up the middle, then you pinch your line and crash them. If someone is burning you with corner routes, then maybe you’ll double cover the receiver or drop back more into a cover 3. All of these situations are extremely easy to add, and we can add these types of decisions into the CPU (coaches and defenders) to help them react with whatever is happening to them in the game. When we dictate what ‘success’ actually means (which is often the toughest thing to judge), we can choose that based on total yardage gained, average yards gained, percentage of total plays run, or other factors.

Another really cool part of this system is actually the ability to directly modify attributes under the hood, simulating true on the fly “learning” of a defender. For example, if an offense is running the exact same play over and over again for big gains, we would boost the defense’s play recognition ratings to emulate them learning for their mistakes to have a better chance to react when they see the same look again. Same goes for something like continuous out routes…a defender will get better and better at man coverage if you keep running the same route over and over again, but would drop back down to his original rating if you keep mixing it up. It should also be said that were keeping some integrity by not modifying physical attributes like speed, jumping, or acceleration.

Having individual defenders make realtime adjustments meant that we could implement Adaptive AI for online and head-to-head play as well (i.e. not just for the CPU players). So if your opponent starts running something that is becoming overly effective, and you don’t feel like you can’t stop it with your play calling, then at least your teammates will start learning how to stop it on their own.

One key detail is that we can also change the ‘output’ numbers per skill level. So for example on rookie or pro mode, the defense may actually know what you’re doing and have a solution for it, but we might actually have them wait a little longer and let you run the same thing a few more times before they start stopping it.

We have added a ton of inputs and outputs that allow us to really tweak the AI in a relatively simple manner. Here are some examples:

Play Types
- Play Action
- Screens
- Counter
- Draw
- Pitch / Toss
- etc

Play Style
- Scramble
- No Huddle

Route
- Entire Route Tree (i.e. in, out, comeback, streak, etc)


We don’t have everything covered here, so this is an area we are really looking forward to continue developing out in the future.

Summary

First and foremost, we hope that our Adaptive AI will add a ton of replay value to our games this year by forcing you as a gamer to continue to mix up the way you play to have success. Football is a very complex game of chess – and this is a great first step towards re-creating that. Secondly, we hope this feature will continue to show our commitment at the Tiburon studio to creating a realistic simulation of football, as it exists in both NCAA Football 10 and Madden NFL 10.

[Jakopo]

sounds like good stuff again.

[Da Bucs GM]

sounds like good stuff again.

Yea this is really good stuff and what I wanted. All that " the game adapts to you" was bull****. I game didn't adapted to you till AFTER the actual game was over and prays you do the same thing next game so it seemed like it "learned" what you did.

This time it will adapt to you IN GAME. Meaning every def. player will be learning as you play. i.e. if you run(input) the same play over and over the A.I. will have three correction plays(output) to choose from to shut you down. Or if you always have your #2 WR always doing a hook/comeback route the more you do it the more the CB will realize what you doing and will start jumping the route as long as you keep doing it(hmm then I'll hit the CB with a stop n go route, see how it's a chess match now)

[CanuckBuc40]

EA Sports Reveals Madden Cover Athlete Candidates
Four of nine cover athlete nominees revealed.
by Nate Ahearn

April 7, 2009 - As a build-up to EA Sports' cover athlete reveal on Friday, April 24 before the NFL Draft begins the following day, the company is posting cover athlete candidates every Monday at 3 PM EST to this site prior to that date. Not only that, but there's also a video breakdown from Madden NFL 10's commentary duo Tom Hammond and Chris Collinsworth that makes the case for why the given athlete deserves the cover. No, Madden NFL 10 is not shown.

Thus far Ben Roethlisberger, quarterback for the Super Bowl Champion Pittsburgh Steelers, Brandon Jacobs of the New York Giants, Adrian Peterson of the Minnesota Vikings and Ed Reed of the Baltimore Ravens have been revealed as candidates. Each also has a moment from last season that's called their "Fight For Every Yard Moment" which, of course, is EA Sports' moniker for this year's Madden.

Who do you think should be the cover athlete on Madden NFL 10? Let us know in the comments section.

From IGN's Madden discussion. My guess is Ed Reed since they haven't had a defensive player since Ray Lewis on 05.

[UMiamiBucFan]

I must say, I'm pretty impressed. I'm very glad they fired the old producer.

[Da Bucs GM]

I must say, I'm pretty impressed. I'm very glad they fired the old producer.

yeah the fact that ian has come in year one and basically ****ted on what that guy has done over the course of 4-5 years is funny and shows how much the game really "progressed" under him

[TornadoRex]

From IGN's Madden discussion. My guess is Ed Reed since they haven't had a defensive player since Ray Lewis on 05.

I really would have put my money on Fitz.

[Da Bucs GM]

nothing new this week they just talked about the community day they had. But they released a new screenshot


Damn for some reason I can't post the new pic.

guess I'll explain it?

well it's matt hasselbeck(sp?) after his three step drop zoomed in. Looks like a cold weather game but not snowing.

Things I notice. chin straps, hand warmers for QB's in cold weather. It's really just a zoomed in pic of matt before his throw. hopefully they will have a blog on wednesday on some more tech stuff.

[njdshady2001]

How about you post the link so we can check out the pics and videos ourselves?

[Da Bucs GM]

can't because of comment section. just go to operationsports.com and go to the forums

[TornadoRex]

I'd really like to see them add the towels that players wear.

Adds a touch to the players.

[Da Bucs GM]

I'd really like to see them add the towels that players wear.

Adds a touch to the players.

the QB's have towels now.

[TornadoRex]

the QB's have towels now.

Eh, they can't go all out and put them on someone other than QB?

[Jakopo]

I'll tell you one thing I want to see is the pregame festivities back (and I don't mean Marshall Faulk predicting the score!). Player introdutions, showing guys jumping around, showing the fans go crazy, etc. Something to get some atmosphere back.

[Da Bucs GM]

http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/4696/82095112.jpg


could this be how the draft rookies stats will be displayed?

[TornadoGTS]

I guess you guys are probably hoping for this......

Barrett Ruud Cover (http://i535.photobucket.com/albums/ee355/customsportscovers/Madden/BarrettRuud10Cover.png)

[Da Bucs GM]

yeah I asked if they can make one for me and that's what they made.

[TornadoGTS]

yeah I asked if they can make one for me and that's what they made.

That was me. i just go by a different name on here.

[Da Bucs GM]

well I asked for one and I guess they gave me yours cause we both asked for the same player I guess

[TornadoGTS]

well I asked for one and I guess they gave me yours cause we both asked for the same player I guess

No, im saying i was the one who made it for you on there.

[Da Bucs GM]

O lol ok lmao thank you man. I'm using it as my wallpaper on my desktop now.

[Da Bucs GM]

Hello Madden faithful! This week marks a very big week across the Madden Nation in terms of news - gameplay footage, the cover athlete, and some feature / technology releases. What you might imagine is that is that we (the development team) are extremely busy trying to get the game in good shape for everyone to see. So since we don't actually have a ton of time to spend on the blog, and the marketing / PR folks will be releasing a ton of news about the game anyway, we thought the least we could do was just drop a few quick screenshots to showcase some new stuff we've added.

http://insideblog.easports.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/550x0/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/inside_5F00_ea._5F00_IanBlog/Wildcat_5F00_1.jpg

http://insideblog.easports.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/550x0/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/inside_5F00_ea._5F00_IanBlog/Wildcat_5F00_2.jpg

http://insideblog.easports.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/550x0/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/inside_5F00_ea._5F00_IanBlog/Wildcat_5F00_3.jpg

After our official gameplay footage is released on GameTrailers this week, our playbook gurus are going to follow up soon after that with a full blog detailing the Wildcat in Madden NFL 10 - it's implementation, it's usage, and even footage of it being run. So we hope this holds you over until then.

(P.S. we already are working on the Dolphins helmet logo being too large)

- Ian Cummings
Lead Designer, Madden NFL 10

[Da Bucs GM]

Eh, they can't go all out and put them on someone other than QB?

looks like some RB's will have towels too.

[mr.fusion]

looks like some RB's will have towels too.

Just a very very random suggestion regarding gameplay

Why can't we get "dog piles" during fumbles? It seems like something that happens in ever single NFL game, but video games always just have a bunch of players diving randomly until one of them is lucky enough to land directly on it.........

[njdshady2001]

Just a very very random suggestion regarding gameplay

Why can't we get "dog piles" during fumbles? It seems like something that happens in ever single NFL game, but video games always just have a bunch of players diving randomly until one of them is lucky enough to land directly on it.........

Supposedly, this is one of the things they are trying to implement.

[Da Bucs GM]

well according to the blog this week is where some of the big time stuff get released game footage, the cover (which I don't care about), and features/more tech stuff so I expect more than one blog this week O and for people wondering about presentation/pre-game/post game etc. they said that stuff isn't going to blogged about til july

[TornadoRex]

looks like some RB's will have towels too.

shibby!

[TornadoRex]

Here's a pretty good question for my fellow Maddenites:

When you get your copy, who is the first rookie that you will trade for?

[Da Bucs GM]

heads up guys the game footage will be released on gametrailers tv on spike TV friday 12:30AM

[atlbucfan9088]

I am a huge madden fan but i wish ea sports would let espn make football games again, so that ea could make mvp baseball again because the 2k series for baseball is horrible.

the only reason i'm glad ea isn't making baseball is that MLB 09 the show is the greatest baseball game ever made...

check it out...

[Da Bucs GM]

the only reason i'm glad ea isn't making baseball is that MLB 09 the show is the greatest baseball game ever made...

check it out...

you know I always wondered what's so good about the show(stinky face). 2k9 is ok.










Then I played the show. And yes that is thee best baseball game ever. I was like 2k9 **** you you suck major *** compared to the show lol

[ImAWalkingCorps]

Are they going to make this on PS2?

[Da Bucs GM]

Are they going to make this on PS2?

check the OP I think I put it there.

[Da Bucs GM]

first gameplay footage of madden 10 in 37 mins on spike TV

[UMiamiBucFan]

Trailer is up on Gametrailers.com.

I was really impressed with the pass rushing and coverage, but not so much with the gang tackling. I think they have to work on that animation a bit.

[The Donky]

Looks the same as last year's....what a surprise. Bring back NFL2K.

[Jakopo]

Here's a pretty good question for my fellow Maddenites:

When you get your copy, who is the first rookie that you will trade for?

beanie wells


first vet i get is galloway

[bcf1968]

Trailer is up on Gametrailers.com.

I was really impressed with the pass rushing and coverage, but not so much with the gang tackling. I think they have to work on that animation a bit.

well considering it's not anywhere near a finished product.

[Da Bucs GM]

THE COVER
http://web2.twitpic.com/img/6530411-7b33b9686239c74636cbeb2b2b7554a3.49f1e73c-full.jpg

[Da Bucs GM]

Well, I am a sucker...I had to come back to see the feedback. 30 minutes later and a few notches down on my confidence level, we can be frank about what we saw.

The key thing to note here is that this trailer maybe didn't appease the community, but mainly because it was only focused on a few things. The direction given to them was to re-create the Super Bowl plays instead of actually focus on ALL the new stuff. As I said before there were quite a few cringe worthy moments, but I think it did succeed in showing a lot of new stuff.

If you've posted that you think the game looks exactly the same as 09, I am sorry, you are blindly hating. Just to give some perspective - we as a team have specifically added and changed MANY of the top items from the community, including things that haven't existed in Madden for 20 years. You can say "well it should have been there before" - ok, fair enough, but does that mean it's not supposed to be there now?

Things I'm talking about: More than 3 people in a gang tackle (the system supports up to 9 FWIW), all new OL/DL interaction, all new WR/DB play, fumble pileups, etc. We still have plenty of tuning to do but let's be real here folks...the running animation not being different is a change pretty paltry in comparison to those up above (and we'll try to do that)...those areas above took months of development time and I think we have to call a spade a spade and realize that we are moving in the right direction. For the majority of the shots there isn't a single animation from 09, and the footage also included something never before seen in a football game - 4-5 man gang tackles, and a real fumble pileup. I will be clear - I agree with many of the critical posts though:
- the edge rush/blocking animations were cool but blocking as a whole wasn't impressive. Yep, 'cringe-worthy' is what I would call this.
- the gang tackling was cool but Parker shouldn't be able to break that many...well known before the video went out
- the running animations are the same from 09 (stiff)...our animation director is working on this as we speak. Cringe-worthy as well
- there were times when the defense played in an incorrect fashion (most of these were done for the purpose of the highlight video, but AI tuning is something we work on all cycle)

iCombine's post (Madden NFL 10 Trailer) is a great one to me and spot on - I am very happy we still have 2 months to work on this game and these are the areas that we'll be working on.

So all in all we have plenty of work still to do but at least we have some technology foundations to build off of. What if our first trailer showed no new animations? No OL/DL interaction improvements? No WR/DB jostling? No gang tackling?

(he then put up the madden 09 trailer which showed no gameplay and bull**** crap)

[Da Bucs GM]

http://maddennfl.easports.com/media.action

20 new screenshots

[UMiamiBucFan]

well considering it's not anywhere near a finished product.

I'll of course hope for the best, but Tiburon hasn't always done right by the fans the past few seasons...so I'm not expecting better. So far it seems like the new producer is taking the brand more towards the 2K style of play.

[Da Bucs GM]

here are some

http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2009/022/945504_20090123_790screen003.jpg

http://i42.tinypic.com/vr3tom.png

those aren't the best so go to the url I posted to see them all

[Da Bucs GM]

some CB have towels too.

[Jakopo]

that 1st pic is pretty disheartening (I mean the one on the site, not the one posted here)

you have one DB while most likely sprinting to keep up with Fitzgerald, jumping way too high and somehow looking back too to swat the ball. i have never seen one DB in the position he is in.

the other DB is doing that stupid lunge where he goes for the ball and isn't playing the receiver at all.

[Da Bucs GM]

Pasta Padre was at the EA luncheon today in NYC at which players ratings were announced... all info from pasta's twitter.

****************************************

Brandon Jacobs: 89 (99 trucking) (not in top 10 RB's)

Matt Cassell: 83

Ray Lewis: 96 (99 tackling)

Larry Fitzgerald: 99 (hints at lots of 99's for receiver ratings)

Slaton (99 speed)
----------------------

Madden top 10 rated quarterbacks in order:

1. P Manning

2. Brady

3. Brees (99 throw accuracy)

4. Warner

5. Big Ben

6. Mcnabb

7. Romo

8. Rivers

9. Cutler

10. E. Manning

----------------------------

TE's

1. Gonzalez

2. Witten

3. Gates

------------------------------

Wr's

1. Fitz

2. Steve Smith

3. Andre Johnson

(T.O not in the top 10!!)

---------------------------------


RB's

Top 10 rated RBs:

1. Peterson

2. Westbrook

3. Turner

4. D Williams

5. Portis

6. Tomlinson

7. Jackson

8. Gore

9. Jones Drew

10. Barber

-----------------------

Will be edited when more are announced....tbc.

[Da Bucs GM]

From twitter


Quote:





ian_cummings-Tune into Jimmy Fallon tonight - he's got Fitzgerald on - and you'll probably see some unexpected Madden NFL 10 footage.



Quote:





EA_SPORTS_Rob-Wait until you see the Madden NFL 10 footage tonight on Fallon. You won't expect it.

[Da Bucs GM]

Experience first-hand what it’s like to Fight for Every Yard in Madden NFL 10. With the all-new Pro-Tak™ animation technology, players have more control over the outcome of each play. Whether driving a receiver towards the first down, or battling for a fumble at the bottom of a pile, the play won’t end until the whistle blows. Add to that the most immersive broadcast presentation and online innovation to date, and Madden NFL 10 captures the authenticity and emotion of the NFL like never before.



Key Features

Pro –Tak™ – This all new animation technology provides unprecedented control over the outcome of every play. Drag defenders towards the first down marker, including up to 9-man gang tackles, fight for a fumble at the bottom of the pile, and evade the rush with all-new quarterback avoidance actions. Enhanced play at the line of scrimmage features a new blocking system that allows the quarterback to step into the pocket and gives the defensive line more control over the rush.

Unprecedented Authenticity – Referees peeling players off a fumble pile, the chain gang rushing in to measure for a key first down, and all-new player equipment ensure that if you see it on Sunday, you’ll see it in Madden NFL 10.
Fight for Online Dominance – Delivering the most comprehensive online offerings in franchise history, Madden NFL 10 includes new modes to satisfy the competitive and cooperative football gamer.
The Emotion of the NFL – New TV broadcast-style presentation and cinematic cameras bring the suspense and intensity of the NFL to your living room.
Enhanced Franchise Mode – Run each aspect of an NFL franchise: draft players, sign free agents, manage the salary cap - just like a real GM. Enjoy all of the action throughout the league via a new, network inspired highlight show.
Madden NFL Your Way – The most customizable version of Madden NFL to date! Alter gameplay options to adjust the experience to your liking. A revamped play calling system and menu takes you to kickoff faster than ever before. Speed up online matches with accelerated clocks, streamlined presentation and more.
Back to Top

[UMiamiBucFan]

Rookie ratings are out:
http://maddennfl.easports.com/draftpicks.action

Josh Freeman got a 71 overall...tied for the lowest of all first round picks with Eric Wood.

[Saintlyone]

This game looks and sounds like what we have been waiting for since they advertised next generation gaming. Finally it looks promising.

[BucsLJohnson34]

At least he's got a bomb of a 96 throw power.. I'm sure I'll progress with him over the years.

[Da Bucs GM]

Hey Madden Nation, my name is Larry Richart, and I am one of the designers on the gameplay team working on Madden NFL 10 this year. Just to give you a little background on me, I have been at Tiburon for around 9 years, and this will be my 6th year working on gameplay and the Madden playbooks. Before joining the EA Sports team, I attended the University of Florida and played quarterback for the Gators. In fact, many of the QB animations you have seen in the game over the years from handoffs to passes have been from me getting in the motion capture suit up at our Vancouver studio.




We had one overarching goal to reach when it came to playbooks this year: “our teams MUST play like their real life counterparts do on Sundays”. With that in mind, we have focused on creating several unique formations and plays that are team and playbook specific. Anthony White (another designer / playbook guru) and I have spent countless hours watching game film on every team in the NFL to try and find some of these unique plays and formations. But we also knew that it wasn’t enough to just add some correct plays and formations into the playbooks, we also really had to change up the way the teams called these plays as well. In future blogs, we’re going to touch on the technology we built and tuning we did to hit that goal, as well as more detail on the formations and plays we have added to make the most authentic version of Madden NFL in history.

But before we go too deep on what we’ve added so far, we felt that we needed to go ahead and let everyone get a sneak peek at the formation that everyone has been asking about. The Wildcat! Yes, folks, the Wildcat will be in Madden NFL 10 in full force, including many new animations that were specifically motion captured to support it. Today we will show the Wildcat in action, specifically the Jet Sweep, Power, and Counter plays.

Throughout the season we have witnessed many different teams use variations of the Wildcat, but no one used it more effectively and extensively as the Miami Dolphins. In the Dolphins version of this offense, they placed running back Ronnie Brown at the “Quarterback” position. They then lined up running back Ricky Williams at slot receiver, and often times brought him in motion to either receive or fake a handoff from Brown. The Dolphins also use an unbalanced line by moving the left tackle over to the right side of the formation and lining him up next to the right tackle. The Tight End moves down to replace the left tackle and is still an eligible receiver because he is on the end of the line and uncovered (You’ll see a good video example of this below) by another receiver.

http://insideblog.easports.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/550x0/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/inside_5F00_ea._5F00_IanBlog/wildcatformation.JPG

The Wildcat had its coming out party in a week 3 matchup between the Dolphins and the New England Patriots with Ronnie Brown putting up a remarkable five touchdowns. What was even more remarkable was that four of those touchdowns came out of the Wildcat formation. The first play we are going to breakdown is the “Power” play. On this play, the slot receiver will come in motion from the left and fake the Jet Sweep, and Brown will follow his pulling guard through a hole on the right. Here is a video from the Dolphins-Patriots game:

http://vimeo.com/4210741

We actually could have just added this formation and play to the game in our play designer tool using old/existing handoff animations and movements. But this year we really wanted to go the extra mile and make sure that the Wildcat looked totally perfect and authentic, so we knew we had to motion capture specific animations. When capturing these animations, they took a surprising amount of takes to get correct (6!). It can be quite difficult to get the timing down, mainly because it’s not like these motion capture actors have “practiced” this play together or anything. It’s kind of an interesting dynamic because we basically have to create a little mini football practice session for these guys – we break down the film, go over the basics, and then let them try it a few times to get it right. Even though these guys are in an elaborate studio with millions of dollars of equipment around them, wearing state of the art suits with sensors all over their bodies, often times it’s just like they’re back in practice and we’re the coaching staff. So here it is:

http://vimeo.com/4210873


Now check out a video of this same play in action in Madden NFL 10:


http://vimeo.com/4364813


The next play is the Wildcat “Jet Sweep”. To the defense before the snap, everything looks the same as the Power play. However, Brown will give the ball to Ricky Williams as the FB will lead him around the corner. Here is the Jet Sweep from the Week 3 game:


http://vimeo.com/4210795


Now check out a video of this same play in action in Madden NFL 10:


http://vimeo.com/4364752


There is another wrinkle to the Wildcat that we have added to the Dolphins playbook - the “Counter” play. Just like the other two plays everything looks the same to the defense before the snap. When the play starts, Brown will fake the handoff to Williams on the Jet Sweep and instead of following the strength of his line to the right, he will cut back left behind a pulling guard. Here is this play in action the Week 12 matchup between the Pats and Dolphins:

http://vimeo.com/4210783


Again, here is the motion capture of the new animation that was required for us to accurately portray the “Counter” play (where the QB runs to the left after the fake). This one took a few less takes than the first once they got the concept down.

http://vimeo.com/4210913


Now check out a video of this same play in action in Madden NFL 10:


http://vimeo.com/4365282


The final play that we are going to talk about is the “PA Jet Sweep”. As you might guess, this play looks just like all the others do before the snap. As the play starts, Brown will fake to Williams on the Jet Sweep and then roll out to the left. As he does this, the Tight End (Anthony Fasano) will release on a corner route where Brown hits him for the easy score. Here is the PA Jet Sweep in action:

http://vimeo.com/4210819


Using ANT (our in-house animation tool) we were able to string together the animations captured above to create this play without the need of custom motion capture. Seeing that the Dolphins also just drafted Pat White to seemingly use in this style offense, we figured we'd give you a first look at Pat on the Dolphins running this very deadly play against the Jets. Check out Pat White's first career touchdown pass in Madden NFL 10 out of the Wildcat:

http://vimeo.com/4365017


To those that may be wondering, the Wildcat will not be exclusive to the Dolphins playbook. As I mentioned earlier, several other teams have used a version of this new trend. We won’t talk about which other teams will have it just yet, but as we move forward closer to launch and keep talking about how we’ve made each team’s playbooks more authentic than ever we’ll find out at that time.

Well, that’s it for the Wildcat. I hope this was informative and gets you a little bit stoked about using the Wildcat in Madden NFL 10! We are looking forward to your feedback on what other teams could and should potentially have a “Wildcat” type formation in their playbook, so feel free to post away in the comments section or in the EA Sports forums. Until next time…

[Da Bucs GM]

We've recently added crowd to all of the standing areas of Heinz Field. See images.

Question to you all. What other stadiums would benefit most from this upgrade?

http://www.operationsports.com/forums/attachments/madden-nfl-football/14697d1240851433-adding-standing-crowd-open-areas-ward.jpg
http://www.operationsports.com/forums/attachments/madden-nfl-football/14699d1240851722-adding-standing-crowd-open-areas-standingcrowd.jpg

[Da Bucs GM]

http://a.espncdn.com/media/videogames/photo/2009/0425/madden10_5things1_576x324.jpg

"Madden NFL 10" introduces a new technology system called Pro-Tak. The biggest addition this advanced technology brings comes in the form of gang tackles. In "Madden NFL 10," up to nine-man gang tackles can take place (up from three in last year's edition), and they can be played out in any fashion, as in eight defenders versus the runner, or even four offensive players trying to push four defensive players as they try to move the pile toward the first down. On some plays, the running back gets stood up by a couple of defenders and pushed back to the point where the refs on the field blow the whistle even though he never went down. And on the goal line, if a runner looks to be stopped before reaching pay dirt, you will even see offensive linemen try to hit the pile to help push the ball into the end zone. It's all based on size, strength and the number of guys in the pile.



This might be the most significant difference to the way the game looks and plays this year, and it's a change that definitely helps improve the franchise's realism.



“
Pro-Tak is a new animation technology that helps drive several new features in the game ... nine-man gang tackles, a brand new pocket for the offensive line, steerable blocks, steerable tackles and the fight for the fumble feature that really lets you fight for that ball at the bottom of the pile.

”
-- "Madden NFL 10" senior producer
Phil Frazier


"Pro-Tak is a new animation technology that helps drive several new features in the game," Frazier said. "This includes nine-man gang tackles, a brand new pocket for the offensive line, steerable blocks, steerable tackles and the fight for the fumble feature that really lets you fight for that ball at the bottom of the pile.



"This technology is amazing. It allows us to procedurally move players into gang tackles, it allows us to procedurally move the pile, and the nice thing about it is it's not just one offensive guy against eight defensive players. You can have two guys try to wrap the ball carrier on defense, then have an offensive lineman hit the pile from behind and try to move the pile. It's all dynamic, all procedurally done, and it really allows us to blow out the animations."



Frazier broke down how Pro-Tak handles those fumble piles. "You don't literally try and bend a guy's fingers back or anything like that, but that's the background intent. You hear all these stories about what goes on at the bottom of the pile, and we like to think of the button-mash for the ball as one of those things that you're doing. It's not like the X button is twist the wrist, but you have to pound the buttons in order to fight for the ball.



"The ball hits the ground, and this doesn't happen with every fumble, but if there is a situation where two or three guys are right there, then they'll jump on the ball. You're unclear over who has the actual possession, so we cut to a cut scene, and that cut scene will show players jumping on the pile and fighting for the ball. Then, during that cut scene, we are going to flash a button, and that button you have to button-mash as fast as you can. We are also going to show a meter, and that meter represents possession, and it will either point one way or the other. You basically fight throughout the cut scene, then when the referee comes in and pulls the players off, we finally reveal who recovered the fumble."

[Da Bucs GM]

http://a.espncdn.com/media/videogames/photo/2009/0425/madden10_5things2a_576x324.jpg

One of the toughest aspects of playing quarterback in Madden (or real life) is trying to look down the field during a heavy pass rush. You're trying to spot the open man while at the same time watching the pocket collapse around you and looking for someplace to run.



"Madden NFL 10" introduces a new quarterback avoidance system that should go a long way toward helping solve this issue.



“
Now, when your quarterback is under pressure, your controller will actually start to rumble. And now, when you feel that pressure, you feel that rumble, you can flick the right stick and do an automatic avoidance move.

”
-- "Madden NFL 10" senior producer
Phil Frazier


"When I play the game, I have a hard time looking in two places at the same time," Frazier said. "My eyes want to look at the receiver, but then you also have four or five defenders trying to sack your quarterback. It's a tricky situation when you're trying to throw a pass. So now, when your quarterback is under pressure, your controller will actually start to rumble. And now, when you feel that pressure, you feel that rumble, you can flick the right stick and do an automatic avoidance move. You don't have to think too hard, you just flick the stick, and he'll try to avoid whatever pressure is there. And it is direction-sensitive, so if you press to the right, he'll try to move to the right. And hopefully that avoidance will give you that extra second you need in order to get the pass off.



"And this is all based on player ratings, so if you have a guy like Ben Roethlisberger, you hit the QB-avoidance stick, and he is going to break out of more of those situations than the average quarterback. But the goal is to give most players that extra second to get off that pass, and while that extra second or third attempt might not work for everybody, we typically want people to have success. When they hit that stick during pressure, they will typically have success the first time, but if you keep holding the ball and try to hit the stick a second or even a third time, it's going to be tricky."

[Da Bucs GM]

http://a.espncdn.com/media/videogames/photo/2009/0425/madden10_5things3_576x324.jpg

When I first heard that EA Sports was adding the Wildcat formation to the game this year, the first emotion I felt was panic. If anything will break the game this year and become the most overused formation at the Madden Challenge, the Wildcat is it.



Not to worry, Frazier promised. "I understand the concern, and if we were adding it as a part of downloadable content or something after the fact where we didn't have the time to fix the AI [artificial intelligence] to go with it, then the Wildcat could be a real problem. But the fact that we're adding it during our developmental cycle and we have a chance to take a look at those AI issues that you're concerned about, I don't think it's going to be a problem.



“
Just as we're adding the Wildcat, we're also making sure our defenses are ready for the Wildcat.

”
-- "Madden NFL 10" Senior Producer
Phil Frazier


"Just as we're adding the Wildcat, we're also making sure our defenses are ready for the Wildcat. Just as you saw with the Dolphins, they had great early success with it. Ronnie Brown was putting up huge numbers with it. But then throughout the season, teams started to adjust and they figured out ways to stop it. We had to program that same logic into our defense as well, so you don't see the same five-touchdown performance out of the Wildcat like the Dolphins had early on.



"We have a guy by the name of Anthony White, and he does all our playbooks. He is kind of a playbook hobbyist and he buys coaching books, coaching schemes, and he tries to get his hands on black-market copies of playbooks. All he does is watch NFL tape and read playbooks, and he really nailed the Wildcat."

[Da Bucs GM]

http://a.espncdn.com/media/videogames/photo/2009/0425/madden10_5things4_576x324.jpg

The more I talk to players, the more I realize how important these video game ratings really are. These numbers are talked about in the locker rooms and even on the practice field. When somebody misses a block, guys will joke about how his rating just dropped five points.



But nothing has prepared the NFL for what's about to happen with "Madden NFL 10." The producers of the game have decided to create a bigger gap in the ratings between the elite players and those who ride the pine.




“
Our intention this year was to make the elite players stand out. We're pretty sure a lot of players are going to be extremely unhappy about this, but the result is, there are a lot of guys who are coming down in ratings across the board. Every single rating is being adjusted.

”
-- "Madden NFL 10" senior producer
Phil Frazier


That means that although quarterbacks such as Peyton Manning still strut around with a 99 overall rating, backups such as Matt Leinart can only watch as their overall rating drops from a 85 to a 62. Ouch.



"Quite frankly, we were getting to a point in the game where elite players just felt like every other player in the game," Frazier said. "Brandon Jacobs, who is just a beast, wasn't able to break that many more tackles than the average running back because almost all of the ratings ended up between 80 and 99.



"Our intention this year was to make the elite players stand out. We're pretty sure a lot of players are going to be extremely unhappy about this, but the result is, there are a lot of guys who are coming down in ratings across the board. Every single rating is being adjusted. The elite guys, they're safe. Peyton Manning, Randy Moss, Larry Fitzgerald, guys like that are going to be saved. But the average guy is certainly going to come down. Guys in the 70s are now average. You may even see some guys in the 40s.

"And the game-play impact is absolutely huge. Now the teams actually feel like they have a personality. When you're playing as a team like the 49ers who don't have that elite quarterback, you're going to have a hard time throwing the ball. It's going to feel like you have a problem at that position, and that's a great change."

[Da Bucs GM]

http://a.espncdn.com/media/videogames/photo/2009/0425/madden10_5things5_576x324.jpg

One look at the new screens of "Madden NFL 10" tells you the differences are almost too many to count. "Green gloves in Seattle, all the new jerseys that have been announced, Super Bowl patches for the players -- it's all about authenticity," Frazier said. "We're even looking into fixing Troy Polamalu's hair. Little things like that, we're really trying to bring home. We want everything you see on Sunday to be seen in 'Madden NFL 10.'



"If you see a kicker warming up on the sideline, that's the type of detail we want you to see in Madden as well. All those details, from little things like the right stripes on uniforms to the kickers warming up, that's what you're going to see in the game. We've also slowed the game down a bit this year, and when people first hear that, they don't understand what that really means, but I think that now, it just feels right. When you're running the ball, you can see the holes and you have time to react and hit those holes. When you're going to turn upfield, you actually need to plant your foot and turn upfield. You can't just turn on a dime. There's no more Mario running. I just think the game is really starting to feel like an NFL simulation should feel, and that's really what I'm most proud of.




“
We've also slowed the game down a bit this year ... but I think that now, it just feels right. When you're running the ball, you can see the holes and you have time to react and hit those holes.

”
-- "Madden NFL 10" senior producer
Phil Frazier


"And as much as it would be fun to Hit Stick the referees, I don't think our league insiders over at the NFL would be too pleased. Although we did plan to have an achievement in the game if you were able to play an entire game of Madden without knocking over an official. But it's so hard to do, we had to take it out. But no, you can't Hit Stick them, and even when you run into them in the game, they won't stop your progress, you just knock them over and keep going.



"This year, the focus was just getting the officials on the field. We've never had seven officials on the field before as in the old days, we only had five. So we have more officials on the field, and we're running at 60 frames per second. Maybe in the future you'll be able to knock their hats off with passes or something like that, but we're not quite there just yet.



"And here's the thing, we're not even showing everything about the game just yet. This is just a taste. We have some pretty big online features that will appeal to both competitive gamers and cooperative gamers, we have a lot more presentation features to come, as well as new Dynasty features.



"Everything I just told you, that's only really scratching the surface."

[Da Bucs GM]

We're having some export problems today - the ball keeps showing up rotated 90 degrees in the guys hands. In the meantime, I can show one run style that was slightly adjusted by Simon...this one is still in progress but I figured people would like to see it and give feedback

http://vimeo.com/4432145

Thoughts?




Also to compare, I uploaded the sprinter style (that no one seems to like)...this is the 09 version so hopefully I'll have a comparison video of the new one soon once we sort out Simon's export problems.

http://vimeo.com/4432136

[Dr Death]

We're having some export problems today - the ball keeps showing up rotated 90 degrees in the guys hands. In the meantime, I can show one run style that was slightly adjusted by Simon...this one is still in progress but I figured people would like to see it and give feedback

http://vimeo.com/4432145

Thoughts?




Also to compare, I uploaded the sprinter style (that no one seems to like)...this is the 09 version so hopefully I'll have a comparison video of the new one soon once we sort out Simon's export problems.

http://vimeo.com/4432136

The new one looks much better. More realistic and, correct me if I'm wrong, but has the speed been adjusted to a more appropriate level too? The speed seems more realistic in the new one as well.

[Da Bucs GM]

yea they slowed the game speed down this year.

[caddy&clayton]

I really like that focus on elite players. I'll need to get the ball into Winslow's hands early and often! :D


I wonder how many 90 + players there will be on the Bucs? We already know Winslow is from an earlier announcement. I'd expect Ruud will be (he was an 89 last year), and I also think Joseph will be (he was also in the high 80's). Bryant, Sears and Jackson may all have outside shots.


I also LOVE that they're fixing the deep ball. It was just horrible on past game. Too often, I'd have a WR running WIDE open 25+ yards down the field, and I'd bomb it out there, only to have the CB mysteriously catch up in under 2 seconds, followed by two simletaneous "jump-and-spins" and a pass breakup.

[kickstand]

The whole ratings thing is good. You never really felt the difference between players. Peyton Manning isn't that different from Jay Cutler. Shaun Hill isn't any worse than Jeff Garcia was. The whole rating that ever mattered was speed.

Hopefully the jostling WR's/DB's and the different truck/speed ratings will fix that.

[Jakopo]

The whole ratings thing is good. You never really felt the difference between players. Peyton Manning isn't that different from Jay Cutler. Shaun Hill isn't any worse than Jeff Garcia was. The whole rating that ever mattered was speed.

Hopefully the jostling WR's/DB's and the different truck/speed ratings will fix that.

agreed, it was way too easy to take guys rated 70 and tear up the league.

i just hope it doesn't turn the superstars into immortals that are impossible to stop



--as for the jostling, as a big fan of the FIFA series where EA has taken it from, I think it is a great idea in concept but they need to work out the kinks...too often when players get in "jostles" you lose control of them for way too long.

[kickstand]

Agreed, you felt that difference when you were playing with a team like Man U as compared when you were playing with a team like Aston Villa. Hopefully you feel that kind of change in Madden too.

[Da Bucs GM]

Welcome back to another Monday blog Madden fans! Talk about an eventful couple of weeks in Madden-land…our first Season Preview event on Thursday 4/24, our cover athletes revealed on Friday 4/25 (including a cool guest appearance by Larry Fitzgerald on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon), the NFL Draft, and last week we even released a blog on the Wildcat formation. We’re hard at work trying to finish the game while still balancing our media release schedule, so with this week’s blog, it seemed like a good opportunity to dive deeper into one of our most important gameplay features for the year: PRO-TAK.



What is PRO-TAK?
PRO-TAK (which stands for procedural tackling) is a new animation technology for us, built as a custom animation system to sit above our motion captured animations and procedurally manipulate them as the game runs. “Why?” you may ask? It’s simple really…motion captured animations playing back ‘as is’ can limit the amount of control you as the gamer has while playing the game. In order to truly match the look of the NFL, motion captured animation is still the answer to stay authentic and be realistic. But you can only fit so many animations in the game because of the memory limitations of the hardware. So knowing all that, we knew the way for us to truly build dynamic and fun NFL gameplay was to use a mixture of run-time manipulation and motion capture. This approach can make one animation look totally different every time you see it, while still retaining an authentic look that can be controlled artistically. Why not go 100% procedural you may ask? Moving to a full runtime solution and getting rid of motion capture (like a Havok physics system for example) means handing over full control of your visuals to your code (and away from your artists)…which to us is not an acceptable approach being that we are tasked with creating a true NFL simulation.

At its core, PRO-TAK is actually a collection of a few animation technologies. Though it stands for ‘procedural tackling’, we were able to create some new features sharing the technology (that we are also putting under the can PRO-TAK umbrella):
1. Dynamic gang tackling: New never-before-seen tackling engine in a video game that allows up to 9 players to be involved in a tackle – including offensive and defensive players pushing the pile forward / backward.
2. Steerable tackles: Dynamically manipulating tackle animations based on player ratings means the difference between a first down or a punt.
3. All new OL/DL Interaction system: With steerable and branch-able animation technology, we can now create a true dynamic pocket around the QB as well as a true “flow” to the ball on run plays.
4. QB avoidance: Branch-able animation technology allows for QB’s to shift around the pocket as well as break out of sack animations after they have already started.
5. Fight for the fumble: Dynamic fumble pileups allow possession to change hands while at the bottom of the pile.

Throughout the year we will go into more detail on each of these aspects to PRO-TAK, but this week we wanted to dig deeper into the new gang tackling and how it plays out in Madden NFL 10. With our theme this year of “Fight for Every Yard”, we had a few goals for tackling early on in the cycle:
• In real life, a defense playing against a big bruising player (like Brandon Jacobs) often will need upwards of 2, 3, or 4 defenders to bring him down. These players need to be able to fight for extra yardage at all times - we wanted the bigger stronger players to be relevant in Madden like they are in real life. Speed is not the only factor for success in the NFL; it shouldn’t be in Madden either.
• A shifty / smaller player (like a Chris Johnson) should not need large numbers of defenders to be brought down
• Yardage outcome should be dynamically determined by the ratings and weights of the players involved in the gang tackles. This was the key detail for us to make sure things were procedurally driven – the animations need to be manipulated during the animation playback.
• Defenders with high ‘hit power’ ratings should be able to “hit stick” a tackle – meaning they should be able to dramatically alter a tackle in progress by pushing it in another direction.
• Offensive players should sometimes have the ability to push a tackle forward for extra yards
• Good defensive players (and teams) should swarm to the ball - adding on to the ballcarrier dynamically to ensure him not getting extra yards
• User controlled and CPU players should have the exact same abilities

So with these goals in mind, I wanted to let our animation director, Simon Sherr, talk about the features of this new system and how it all started.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When I moved here from EA Canada nearly two years ago, right before starting work on Madden NFL 09, Ian Cummings gave me a goal to reach for. On my first day at Tiburon he asked “do you think you can solve gang tackling?” Ian always says “I want this game to look like football, not a football video game”. Very nice of Ian that the very first thing on the list I was challenged with was trying to solve a problem that no one had solved in a football video game (well, any video game) before. :) Sure there are many things missing from video game football to 100% recreate the sport accurately, but arguably the most important (and obvious), is that tackling is a team sport.

Well, how do you gang tackle? It was clear at that point that in order to have a solution for this, we were going to have to take what I like to call a “nuke and pave” approach with our tackling engine, and do something with a foundation built around the idea. The plan for gang tackling was hatched and prototyped over the next few months, and from there, a design for a totally new tackling engine emerged.

One of the major challenges of working on a game like Madden NFL (and most sports games for that matter) is that we release them yearly, this means that anything that needs to be done to benefit the game needs to be fit into our year over year cycle. We don’t have the 2-7 years action games get to do massive innovation, so we need tools that let us build on each other, and that is exactly where EA Sports has gotten. All our games steal technology from each other for the EA Sports engine called “ANT”. However, when we do something no one has done before (like PRO-TAK) which will take more than a year, what that means for our development team is that work must be broken up into chunks that give YOU (our customers) something every year. Last year we gave you the breakout system (the ability to break out of tackles) as well as a much more predictable, much smoother, and more refined experience when it comes to tackling, but it was a piece of a much larger picture, which you will see this year in a video game first, a true gang tackling system. This was spear-headed by some very talented engineers on our team (especially James "Superman" Sweeney) – folks that have been working tirelessly on this system with the goal of revamping the way multi-character interactions can work in Madden (and eventually all EA games).

The first thing that Ian gave us was reference. We knew it was going to be extremely tough to match the visual targets perfectly, but we wanted to do as much as we could in one cycle to lay the foundation for the future. Here is a perfect example video of what we were looking to emulate:

http://vimeo.com/4479007


We then built the bread and butter feature to PRO-TAK – which is what we’ve been calling “N-Man Gang tackling” internally. As the name indicates, we can now have a large number of players add on to a tackle once it is already playing. This includes adding on and pushing the tackle in any direction procedurally, and also even if you are powerful enough, immediately knocking everyone over. There is nothing like having nearly half the players on the field involved in a tackle…it’s something that really does change the game. One extra request from Ian and the design team was that we also allowed offensive players to push the guys forward if applicable. This again adds to the ‘game-changing’ moments…you may be tied up fighting at the goal line with no chance at scoring and here comes big Jon Runyan to push everyone into the endzone…it’s a really cool feeling.

So I wanted to show you two quick video examples of PRO-TAK gang tackling. Keep in mind this is very much in progress and we have plenty of work to do to finish this out from tuning to blending to animation. Regardless, I think you can see that even in rough form this system is going to help change the way the game is played forever. Here is Brandon Jacobs carrying a few Cowboys for some extra yards (PS we know the numbers on their shoulders are broken), but having his forward progress stopped right at the end and pushed backwards.

http://vimeo.com/4477885


And here is the swarming Ravens defense making sure that Lendale White will not “Fight For Every Yard”.


http://vimeo.com/4479408



Keeping with the spirit of the breakout system from 09, we extended the ball-carrier’s ability to break out of tackles so that you can even shed these large gang tackles… This means as a ball carrier you can seek the daylight and “fight for every yard” by breaking out of this large mass of defenders. Now don’t panic, it isn’t going to be an easy thing to do (as this happens maybe only a few times per season in the NFL), but we did want to make sure it was possible to shed multiple tacklers with a skilled back, especially if you can find a direction to sneak out of that doesn’t have a defender trying to hang on and bring you to the ground. This was our visual target - a slippery Steve Smith breaking out of the clutches of quite a few defenders:

http://vimeo.com/4479306


(Sorry, we don't have an in-game video yet to show but it will come soon)


“Steering” the tackles is another huge aspect to gang tackling and PRO-TAK in general. When a defender and ballcarrier collide, we not only take into account their mass and ratings (like trucking or hit power or what have you), but also their previous velocities and impact angle to manipulate the hit after impact. This allows the ratings and the real momentum of the tackle to have a bigger role in where a player ends up after he is hit. This also means that a defender “knows” to try and keep players out of the endzone or sideline or first down marker - our runtime code can manipulate the playback of the animation accordingly to steer it in the desired direction. Accounting for all players’ momentum leading into the impact, and following those physics calculations through into the tackles (and the falls), means that tackles are no longer out of control pre-canned motion capture…they can be driven and moved all over the place. We wanted you to have to fight for every yard, and we can now more easily ensure that sure you do. This was a huge help for us as we worked on re-vamping blocking this year, as we were able to use this technology to dynamically form our pocket. Here’s an example of the same exact blocking animation in ANT with drastically different results based on dynamic procedural ‘steering’:

http://vimeo.com/4478802


One of the most dramatic (and fun) gameplay features for me personally, is being on defense. What PRO-TAK gang tackling allows is that as a gamer I can now add-on to an existing tackle before the knees hit the ground (and even after that as well…more on that later) to nearly ALWAYS change the result of the play. An extremely rewarding action is to wrap up a ballcarrier with one tackler (say a cornerback), then switch off to a linebacker, run over, and deliver a crushing hit stick on the ballcarrier to clean up the play. In general what I love about this feature is hearing from everyone that “it just looks like football”. But even more important than the visual fidelity, we also deliver an experience that allows YOU to make the play far more often.

Well Madden fans, that’s it for this week’s blog and hopefully some good info on how PRO-TAK has allowed us to never before seen moments in a football game. We look forward to hearing what you think – post away in the comments section below or put your ideas or suggestions in the forums [here].

- Simon Sherr (and Ian Cummings)
Madden NFL 10

[Legacy]

Those "Pro-Tak" videos look lame as hell. It's the same crap that's already in the game now, with the only difference being that they've added the ability for more than 2 people to pile onto the defender.

The folks over at NaturalMotion are going to absolutely embarass EA Tiburon's pitiful attempt at a tackling system when Backbreaker is released (hopefully this year or early next).

[Da Bucs GM]

lol!!!!!!!

[UMiamiBucFan]

Those "Pro-Tak" videos look lame as hell. It's the same crap that's already in the game now, with the only difference being that they've added the ability for more than 2 people to pile onto the defender.

The folks over at NaturalMotion are going to absolutely embarass EA Tiburon's pitiful attempt at a tackling system when Backbreaker is released (hopefully this year or early next).

^This. Those tackles look bad.

[Da Bucs GM]

Those "Pro-Tak" videos look lame as hell. It's the same crap that's already in the game now, with the only difference being that they've added the ability for more than 2 people to pile onto the defender.

The folks over at NaturalMotion are going to absolutely embarass EA Tiburon's pitiful attempt at a tackling system when Backbreaker is released (hopefully this year or early next).

When is that game coming out? seriously.

[Da Bucs GM]

Just played a full 10 minute quarter game at home on my big screen - Titans (me) vs. Steelers. I won 31-27, Roethlisberger picked me apart (including a deep bomb to Sweed that caught me in man coverage) but I came back with Smash and Dash and scored on the final drive. I saw so many great things (along with a ton of issues that I've got to get fixed asap as well ), but the game overall just put me in a good mood, so I thought I'd share something new and cool.

This hasn't even gone live on our site yet, but I thought I'd give my fellow OS brethren a first look at the Jaguars new uniform and helmet before we post it live tomorrow


Hope you dig.

http://insideblog.easports.com/cfs-filesystemfile.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/inside_5F00_ea._5F00_IanBlog/best.devkit.ever._2D00_image28.jpg
http://insideblog.easports.com/cfs-filesystemfile.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/inside_5F00_ea._5F00_IanBlog/best.devkit.ever._2D00_image29.jpg
http://insideblog.easports.com/cfs-filesystemfile.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/inside_5F00_ea._5F00_IanBlog/best.devkit.ever._2D00_image30.jpg
http://insideblog.easports.com/cfs-filesystemfile.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/inside_5F00_ea._5F00_IanBlog/best.devkit.ever._2D00_image31.jpg

[TheOutsider]

Just played a full 10 minute quarter game at home on my big screen - Titans (me) vs. Steelers. I won 31-27, Roethlisberger picked me apart (including a deep bomb to Sweed that caught me in man coverage) but I came back with Smash and Dash and scored on the final drive. I saw so many great things (along with a ton of issues that I've got to get fixed asap as well ), but the game overall just put me in a good mood, so I thought I'd share something new and cool.

This hasn't even gone live on our site yet, but I thought I'd give my fellow OS brethren a first look at the Jaguars new uniform and helmet before we post it live tomorrow


Hope you dig.

http://insideblog.easports.com/cfs-filesystemfile.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/inside_5F00_ea._5F00_IanBlog/best.devkit.ever._2D00_image28.jpg
http://insideblog.easports.com/cfs-filesystemfile.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/inside_5F00_ea._5F00_IanBlog/best.devkit.ever._2D00_image29.jpg
http://insideblog.easports.com/cfs-filesystemfile.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/inside_5F00_ea._5F00_IanBlog/best.devkit.ever._2D00_image30.jpg
http://insideblog.easports.com/cfs-filesystemfile.ashx/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/inside_5F00_ea._5F00_IanBlog/best.devkit.ever._2D00_image31.jpg

Just a quick question. Considering these things haven't been officially released yet.....and seems like you are either a tester or a dev, aren't you under some sort of NDA?

[mr.fusion]

Just a quick question. Considering these things haven't been officially released yet.....and seems like you are either a tester or a dev, aren't you under some sort of NDA?

Read through the thread.......he pretty much spells out what he does and why he releases the info when he does.....

Seems like most of the pics posted are on the EA site first, or at the most a few days after

[njdshady2001]

Read through the thread.......he pretty much spells out what he does and why he releases the info when he does.....

Seems like most of the pics posted are on the EA site first, or at the most a few days after

Unless I am mistaken...I am pretty sure he is just copy and pasting from a blog....

[UMiamiBucFan]

Yeah, he's just copying stuff from the blogs of EA Sports producers and developers. Mainly Ian Cummings, the lead producer.

[TheOutsider]

Noted, I had just been reading the updates and seeing as how he doesn't quote or anything I assumed he was the source.

[KINGGS]

Those "Pro-Tak" videos look lame as hell. It's the same crap that's already in the game now, with the only difference being that they've added the ability for more than 2 people to pile onto the defender.

The folks over at NaturalMotion are going to absolutely embarass EA Tiburon's pitiful attempt at a tackling system when Backbreaker is released (hopefully this year or early next).

Backbreaker isn't going to be released, they sold their tech to EA (or at least that's what a google search told me a while back).

and to defend this "new" technology, they did say it wasn't complete yet.

[Bucs2theSB]

Noted, I had just been reading the updates and seeing as how he doesn't quote or anything I assumed he was the source.

Thats what I thought to. I thought he was some game developer because everything is in 1st person.

Please start quoting or at least say at the top of every post where you got the information from

[Da Bucs GM]

I told you guys where to go to see this stuff I just posted it here real quick to make your life easier

[Da Bucs GM]

glad to hear that some people thought I was important tho lol I'm just delivering the news folks

[UMiamiBucFan]

Backbreaker isn't going to be released, they sold their tech to EA (or at least that's what a google search told me a while back).

and to defend this "new" technology, they did say it wasn't complete yet.

Backbreaker is still in development. And no, Madden is not using Euphoria. They use their own proprietary physics and animation engines.

[njdshady2001]

glad to hear that some people thought I was important tho lol I'm just delivering the news folks

I fully appreciate..it is a lot easier. I was just making it clear for everyone else not trying to call you out or anything.

[KINGGS]

Backbreaker is still in development. And no, Madden is not using Euphoria. They use their own proprietary physics and animation engines.

I didn't say madden did I?

EA. Electronic Arts.

[UMiamiBucFan]

I didn't say madden did I?

EA. Electronic Arts.

There were rumors of EA buying NaturalMotion, the company that makes Euphoria. However, that turned out to simply be a rumor, not a fact.

EA's FIFA team was interested in using Euphoria for their product, but ended up deciding against it because it doesn't exactly lend itself nicely to player attribute systems (which most sports games have). The only games that are using Euphoria are Indiana Jones, Grand Theft Auto IV, Backbreaker and Star Wars: The Force Unleashed.

EA did NOT buy Euphoria and Backbreaker is still in development. Backbreaker is being made by the same guys who made the animation technology, but they're a bit new to game development. It will simply take them a bit longer to develop a game than experienced game vets like EA.

[Legacy]

UMiamiBucFan is right and, personally, I wouldn't mind if sports games got away from the attribute based system. I'd like to see how sports games work with an ability type system similar to that of All Pro Football.

[Da Bucs GM]

I think more and more videos are going to be coming out by our marketing department and from preview events...just wanted to let you guys know what's missing from the feature still that we are working on

The biggest missing feature is probably carrying through velocity from original animations -> PRO-TAK. You can see that on the Lendale White video...meaning that when players transition from a normal mocap tackle into PRO-TAK stuff their velocities get zeroed out (meaning they stop in place). This will definitely be addressed before we ship...our goal is that you don't even notice the transition from one to the other...it should just look like another guy added on seamlessly. This is causing a lot of the feeling of "it needs more umph"...

Second biggest is the "warping" into the PRO-TAK multi-man stuff. This hasn't been tuned really so guys are just 'suction-ing' like magnets to the ballcarrier. Also when the guys add on the goal is that they drastically effect the pile's velocity and positioning and stuff...right now they just attach and that's about it. Again when the feature is actually done you should feel a lot more 'power' when these guys hit the pile.

The "endless chopping" stuff is often turned on for demo purposes...this will really not happen in the game when it ships...you'll see a guy drive forward and they'll then get pushed to fall forward or backward (or sideways or whatever) way quicker than just standing up chopping their feet.

Lastly, we really don't have barely any animation variety in there yet. We're looking to at least add quadruple the amount of stuff to keep it fresh. We've built some new tech this year that basically swaps the animation banks for each PRO-TAK set of animations after they play (moving them to the end of the list after they do), but up until basically today we haven't had the variety to swap. That will be coming very soon as well.

So anyway, I don't want to act like I don't want feedback from you guys as you see the new stuff...all of it is valuable and please keep posting...but I also wanted to let you know what we're currently working on. We definitely aren't going to be spending our whole cycle on this tech to have it not come out looking perfect. We just have to balance the needs of marketing to show stuff early even when it's not done.

- Ian

[Da Bucs GM]

Hello Madden faithful - it's Monday, and it’s time for another blog! This week we'll be following up a little bit on the last PRO-TAK blog. We covered gang tackling in detail last time, so for this blog we thought we’d dig a little deeper on our pass blocking, and also mention how PRO-TAK’s dynamic steering technology will help take our blocking a little bit farther into that next level that we know we need to hit of realism. At the top of nearly every community wish list for the past 3+ years has been OL/DL interaction…so this year we’re proud to say we’ve spent a really good amount of time improving this area, and we’ve also built a strong foundation that we can continue to add on to in the future.

A look back
Before we dig too far into the details of our blocking improvements, let’s take a look at previous blocking systems within football games. For this purpose, we’ll look at both the Madden NFL and the 2K series.

Madden NFL
Madden’s blocking system has typically always been based around quick looping animations to enhance user control. A quick looping/hand-fighting animation plays quickly (sometimes less than a second), and during that time the game checks to see if a special move should be tried, or if either player should move forward or backward, or if either player should disengage for any reason, or possibly if the animation should just continue to loop. The bonus of a system like this is that it can be typically very responsive. If you hit a button, it responds rather quickly and a new animation can start. If a ball carrier bounces his run outside after a block animation has started, the defender can break off of his blocker quickly and not get stuck in an animation for too long. Example video from Madden NFL 09:

http://vimeo.com/4599235


The main drawback though is that you get very little movement in the animations. You can’t consistently form a pocket when players are playing a multitude of animations back-to-back-to-back. So, when a win/loss decision (that contains randomness) is being made 50 times per play, your level of predictability and consistency in the system is very sub-par. In real life, we all know that even an average defensive lineman has a chance to get past an all-pro offensive lineman (albeit small), but if we put that kind of percentage into our logic, the animation selection can end up being inconsistent since it’s checking to see who’s winning so often.

2K
We all definitely agree that the 2K series did a good job focusing on blocking in their iterations. They had true pocket forming, good motion capture, and good AI. 2K was actually a great visual target we were looking to reach when designing our system for this year. For typical blocking situations, they implemented much longer animations (instead of short looping ones), and this helped their visual quality quite a bit. I don't have a full video of their good stuff...but believe me we think they did a really good job.

Their system also had a drawback though, (which is typically always the negative with using long animation clips) since the user and CPU, in essence, lost control during animation playback. When an animation started playing, the AI really couldn’t update or change it, so you’d see situations where defenders engaged with blockers play really long animations the end up taking themselves well out of the play because they can’t recognize that someone ran past him:


http://vimeo.com/4599183



After looking at the best aspects of both games extensively, we set out designing some of the things we wanted out of our new system. We scrapped a lot of our logic (and nearly all of our animations for players getting engaged) for both run blocking and pass blocking. For run blocking, we wanted players flowing the play much better, especially on outside runs, and for pass plays, we wanted the real pocket forming. But we knew that we needed to combine the best of both worlds, taking the positives of each system and limiting the ‘negatives’. We wanted you the gamer to still feel like you were in control, but also wanted much better visual quality and realism. We knew that implementing much longer animations was key, but we also knew that the players in those animations had to be ‘informed’ to what was going on around them. We came up with two new solutions to solve these issues:

1. Branch Windows
A quick explanation of a branch window: a specific duration of time during the playback of an animation when another animation can be triggered. In Madden NFL 09, we added branch windows to all of our tackles - as something that has been referred to the “Breakout Engine” (by our marketing partners) to our tackling. These branch windows allowed you to dynamically break out of tackle animations after they had already started. IMO this has been one of those subtle forever-game-changing features, mainly because I find myself trying it when I play other games, and I miss it if it’s not there. To me that’s usually the signal of a gameplay mechanic being a real success...something like the hit stick is also in that same category…you don’t know how you lived without it once you play with it. Anyways, we brought this same technology over to our blocking animations for Madden NFL 10...so now for every single engaged blocking animation, you can use the right stick to pick a direction to try and break off of the block while it’s in progress. With us adding long animations for visual quality while still retaining the goal of keeping the animations ‘informed’, we had to make sure that they could be interrupted, whether it’s to put your hands up to knock down a pass or to spin inside off of a lineman after you’ve driven him outside.

Something different about blocks though that tackles don't have is that there are actually two branch windows. There is one branch window at the beginning before you get engaged…this was key to make sure that you could keep your hands out and get away from a guy before getting ‘engaged’. This is typically where the elite defensive linemen can cause havoc and put immediate pressure on the quarterback or running back by getting in really quickly. The second branch window is much longer (it lasts the duration of the main section of the block animation) and this is where you can perform your standard special moves. Using special moves in this branch window creates those moments you see every Sunday - examples like a defensive end looping around to form the pocket and then dynamically "branching" off of his block to get to the quarterback (so you don't have those situations where the defender doesn't seem aware of his surroundings). Here are some perfect examples of the branch windows in action - showcasing a defensive lineman being able to break out of his animation early to make a play:


http://vimeo.com/4599453



2. PRO-TAK Steering and Manipulation
The next piece in our puzzle was a big one, and that was applying the PRO-TAK technology to the blocking animations. Again looking back at those 2K examples, we didn’t want the case where defenders would go right past the ball without recognizing it. You can’t necessarily capture just a ton more animations for each situation either, because the movement of the QB or running back is totally dynamic, and obviously can change drastically after the blocking animation has already started. So the steering technology used in the PRO-TAK gang tackles was re-purposed for these animations…allowing us to procedurally manipulate these animations and move them to the target based on the ratings of the players involved. In layman’s terms, this means that a strong defender can push a blocker right into the face of the ball carrier, or a blocker can steer a defender wide of his target, and the exact same animation can be used. I showed this video last week but I’ll show it again as it showcases how the exact same animation can be dynamically manipulated based on the circumstances of the game:


http://vimeo.com/4478802

We are looking forward to showing more blocking improvements (especially in run blocking) in the coming weeks as it gets more finely tuned. Hopefully this shows a good start and the positive direction that our blocking is moving in. Creating real life blocking AI in a football game is obviously an extremely complex matter, but we think the system we have implemented is a great foundation for us to build on for the future. Feel free to post in the comments section below, or put your ideas or suggestions in the forums.

- Ian Cummings
Lead Designer, Madden NFL 10

[(D)oomsday MAX]

I'm glad they are making the 100-rating scale stretch out more. Everytime I play Madden 09, after a few seasons almost all of my players are 99 whether by simulation or play; 99 should only be the greatest players of all time and not just good players.

I hop the 60s become the standard for an adequate back-up.

[Da Bucs GM]

http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=4159044

check out the new pro-tak video looks good can't complain. finally they fixed those damn stupid jukes they used to have even tho I saw mcgahee(sp?) do it ,steven jackson did the right juke

[Da Bucs GM]

Just wanted to drop a note to you guys and let you know how the game is playing here in mid-May. I played two games yesterday, one against our development manager Ryan Ferwerda...and the other against lead franchise mode designer Josh Looman. Let me just say, the game is so much fun right now! This is no PR blah-blah deal here, we honestly had moments that were making us say wow. Plenty of things to keep us busy for the next month or so, but man this game is going to knock your socks off. OK, enough jibber jabber, on to the juicy details.

Game 1
Green Bay at Chicago - Franchise Mode (All Pro) - Week 1 - 5 min qtrs/no accl clock

Ryan is Green Bay. I am Chicago.

-1st quarter - screen pass to Forte, Packers blitzing hard, Cutler gets it off to Forte who has at least 2 OL ahead to block. 75 yards later, 7-0 CHI.
- Bears get a stop. Next drive, handoff to Matt Forte. Boom, he goes down and it doesn't look good folks. I'm not sure initially of the diagnosis, but I know it's bad because Kevin Jones just stepped onto the field for the Bears.
- Towards the end of the 1st quarter, the report comes in. Forte, compound leg fracture, out for season. Boom. Franchise year one roasted. It was a crazy moment for me (Ryan loved every minute of it - he's a diehard Packer nut). I go from planning on giving Matt Forte about 25-30 touches to having to scramble with Kevin Jones, Garett Wolfe, and the Other Adrian Peterson. Let me tell you, those guys are about 5 steps down from Matt Forte. Huge drop in terms of talent in the game and it is noticable in my opinion.
- It is a slug fest throughout, we head into the 4th quarter 10-3 Bears. Ryan ends up putting a really nice drive with Aaron Rodgers nickel and diming me with Donald Driver over the middle (the guy does not drop passes, his catch in traffic is one of best in game). He ends up pounding it in with Grant. 10-10. About 2:15 seconds left in game then boom. Crash game over. Already have this bug fixed, but man this was a damn fun game at 10-10 in the 4th!
- We both had less than 200 total yards offense at that point (we had just gone into pause menu to look at stats). I had no running game whatsoever, and the Bears have a rag-tag WR corp, so it's tough for Cutler to do much.

Game 2
- Seattle at Carolina - Exhibition (Pro) - 10 min qtrs/accl clock ON
Josh is Carolina. I am Seattle.

-First quarter is brutal defensive battle. DeAngelo is not doing much for Josh. We are deadlocked at 0-0 heading into the 2nd QTR. Overall, DeAngelo pretty quiet. Something like 70 total yards and 1 score. Most thru the air from what I remember.
- Then it gets exciting. T.J Duckett was my feature back dejour today with Seattle, they really have a thin crew back there at RB this year. Julius Jones was mixed in and had one big run for me (mainly due to Josh's infamous 'switch-n-ndive' technique). Back to Duckett, he and his 74 SPD break out for a 49 touchdown gallop. It was a thing of beauty. Couple of big power moves and a huge stiff arm at the end on Charles Godfrey sealed the deal. Duckett had 10 carries for 88yards and 2 scores on the day BTW.

- Delhomme was erratic all day, putting up some big yards but also throwing the INTs. Had over 300+ yds, and 2 scores, to go along with 3 picks.
- Julius Peppers had Josh and I in awe with this amazing leaping INT (he called a play that dropped Peppers back in coverage) and 60 yard return for touchdown.
-TJ Hoosh was effective but not dominant for me and Seattle with 5 catches for 60+ yds. Didn't drop much, but he never broke any big plays and can't get too far with his 82 speed (but 90+ Routes, CTH, CTH in Traffic).
- As for how the game ended. I am up with Seattle (had over 150+ yards with J Jones and Duckett), late in the 4th, score was 35-24. I kick a 53 yard FG with Mare to go up by 11 (game over right?). He then promptly takes it down the field with Dwayne Jarrett of all people making a real big play on 3rd and 15+. He gets in with DeAngelo short yardage...38-32 (after two point conv).. He tries to onsides but I get it....there is 1:30 remaining...he uses some timeouts, and forces me to punt back....i punt back and he has no timeouts and there is like 11 seconds left.

-Last play Steve Smith, gets open about twenty yards downfield on a corner to the left sideline...then he starts running almost sideways, not gaining yards, but distancing himself from all my guys (I was an idiot and was controlling Brian Russell who is no speed demon!) and Smith made it all the way to score TD with no time remaining. Kicks the extra point, Final score, 39-38. [Although, let me say, Brian Russell made some big plays in that game, he had one pick and a lot of tackles].

Both Phil and Ryan were working on something in Phil's office but had to come out and watch the end of this one!

-Steve Smith ended up with good overall numbers, but kept him quiet for most part with a 4 catch, 130, 1 TD day (he got like 60 yards on last play).
-Aaron Curry was a beast to control on defense for Seattle. He is going to be a lot of fun in franchise mode.
-Nate Burleson is baaaaaacck people! Ha, he got open for abig play here and there for me, and hearing real good things out of mini-camp about him in real life. He had 4 catches for 80 yards...
-Hasselbeck had a nice day, like 22-28 for 225 yards. West Coast offense, short passing all day long.

OK folks, hope you enjoy, thought you might like some "detailed" info about how the games are actually playing at this time of year. From someone who is actually playing Madden NFL 10 right now!! jealous!!?

-Donny

[Da Bucs GM]

http://i598.photobucket.com/albums/tt70/Derrville09/MADDEN.jpg?t=1242315923

main menu screenshot

[UMiamiBucFan]

http://i598.photobucket.com/albums/tt70/Derrville09/MADDEN.jpg?t=1242315923

main menu screenshot

Got deleted, happen to save a copy?

[Da Bucs GM]

damn. no I didn't. go on operationsports.com and go to the madden forum to find it. I'm on a different computer than my regular right now. otherwise I could post the pic directly like a usually do sorry.

[Floyd C]

Why didn't you pick the Bucs again?

[Da Bucs GM]

http://i598.photobucket.com/albums/tt70/Derrville09/MADDEM.jpg?t=1242315923

here we go guys see if this works

[TBbucsMC80]

I wonder if thats the only background of the main menu. Hopefully they still let you pick your favorite team, and the background image will change accordingly.

[Floyd C]

http://i598.photobucket.com/albums/tt70/Derrville09/MADDEM.jpg?t=1242315923

here we go guys see if this works

Curious on how defensive and offensive lineman interact, like how in other maddens you could have the best line against the worst o line and you would get a sack a game, or i do franchise and get Haynesworth and he gets pancaked to the ground half the time by no namers, if you have Mario Williams, Julius Peppers, Albert Haynesworth, and Kevin Williams, divine intervention shouldn't be able to stop you

[Da Bucs GM]

I wonder if thats the only background of the main menu. Hopefully they still let you pick your favorite team, and the background image will change accordingly.

hopefully it's rotating screenshots

[TBbucsMC80]

I just watched the trailer for the Wii version and all I could do was laugh. I don't have that console but come on it looks pitiful. Looks like a polished Nintendo 64 game at best!

[Jakopo]

Curious on how defensive and offensive lineman interact, like how in other maddens you could have the best line against the worst o line and you would get a sack a game, or i do franchise and get Haynesworth and he gets pancaked to the ground half the time by no namers, if you have Mario Williams, Julius Peppers, Albert Haynesworth, and Kevin Williams, divine intervention shouldn't be able to stop you

agreed....unless you actually took DE's and controlled them yourself, they would be silent for the entire game.

the other thing i would like to see fixed a bit is the blitzing -- i'll bet you could call all out blitz every single play for an entire game and only get about 3 sacks (if you just let the computer control the guys).

[Da Bucs GM]

Welcome back Madden faithful, it’s Monday and that means it’s time for another blog! This week we wanted to go into some depth about a new feature you can expect to see in Madden NFL 10: our revamped injury system. Hopefully this new addition is just one (of many) that continues to prove that we are focused on delivering an authentic NFL experience to our fans – and that while we are still ensuring to innovate in every single iteration, that innovation has to come inside of what’s core to NFL simulation football. As we said in our [mission statement] way back in January, we aren’t about gimmicks, we are here to create an authentic representation of the sport. “Everything You See On Sunday, See It In Madden NFL”…injuries are a major part of that.

Along with the obvious concern for the well-being of the athlete, there are also typically very major ramifications to the team when a player gets hurt. How serious is the injury? Can the player continue to play hurt even with the risk of re-injury? How well can his backup fill in if he is out? How will the team adjust to continue without him? Will their opponent exploit the loss of the starter? We wanted to emulate all of this strategy, suspense, and emotion behind injuries in Madden NFL 10.

A Look Back
As a design team, we had many different priorities to juggle this year, and countless features and additions that we wanted to add to the game. Overhauling our injury system however rose to the top of our list quite quickly because it was an area that was 100% core to what you see on Sundays, yet it hadn’t accurately been represented in Madden’s history (especially on 360/PS3).

At the start of next-gen, the injury system was changed to be more of a futuristic approach…a system that could immediately diagnose injuries in real-time including a stylized X-ray of the injury. There was a lot of flash and presentation value to this in the very first concept video, and that was also carried over into the product from Madden NFL 06-09. Below is a shot from the concept video:

http://insideblog.easports.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/550x0/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/inside_5F00_ea._5F00_IanBlog/06Concept.JPG

And here is a shot from Madden NFL 09:



http://insideblog.easports.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/550x0/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/inside_5F00_ea._5F00_IanBlog/09Injury.jpg


As we looked to overhaul the system, we all agreed this was the very first thing that we had to change. Though the x-ray concept was cool, the suspense on finding out how badly a player is hurt or not, and if he can return to play, is key to conveying some emotion in our game. So when designing the new system, we chose to notify the gamer via banners, player animations, and commentary. Trainers are brand new to Madden NFL 10, so you can see them run out to take care of a guy if he needs assistance in getting off the field. We also made sure to delay the real result for a couple of plays while the player is evaluated:

(sorry guys youtube vid: type in "madden nfl 10 injury + trainers")


Doing that was easy enough, but we weren’t quite satisfied. We wanted to really put some real NFL-level pressure on you the gamer by emulating the tough decision a coach has to make after a player is injured. Do you keep him in or replace him with the backup? Now, after an injury has been diagnosed, you are presented with a tough decision on who to keep in the game. To help you make the decision, we put the risk of re-injury on the screen as well as the ‘effective overall rating’ of the injured player based on him playing hurt so you can compare that to the backup that would replace him.

http://insideblog.easports.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/550x0/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/inside_5F00_ea._5F00_IanBlog/InjuryDecision.jpg
Yep, there is a known bug on this screen with the dual tickers...it's being fixed. :)




For every single injury type and severity in our game (of which there are nearly 100), we dynamically adjust the ratings after the injury occurs. So a shoulder injury can affect things like Throwing Power, Throwing Accuracy, or Stiff Arm ratings, an ankle injury can make it so a player’s juke animations are different and less effective, and a hamstring injury can even affect Speed and Acceleration. Each injury modifies these independently, so more severe injuries obviously negatively impact the ratings at a much larger rate – meaning a bruised shoulder won’t do as much damage to your player’s ratings as a separated shoulder. We also set the re-injury risk independently on each injury – meaning knee injuries have a much higher risk of more severe progression, moreso than something like a finger or rib…typically with those areas once you’re hurt, you’re hurt…it won’t get all that much worse.

Depending on all these factors, you have to make the tough call. Sometimes the decisions are easy – say Tomlinson tweaks an ankle or a knee or something, you can feel pretty confident putting Sproles in without having too much of a drop off. However if Manning takes a bad shot and ends up with an injured throwing shoulder, you might need him to get you the win because the disparity between him and Sorgi is so big. With our new stretched out ratings, this makes this decision that much more important, and also makes managing the depth of your team during Franchise mode a real strategic element that can’t be ignored.

So we have had the ability for players to play hurt in the past, but it was really a low risk proposition – there was just a minor chance of him getting re-injured. And if a re-injury occurred, it was still a pretty random selection to the next more severe injury. You could have a bruised knee and keep playing, and then get a broken rib as the re-injury that puts you out of the game. We wanted to build a more progressive system so players were re-injured in an intelligent manner. Injuries now will be progressive, something like: Bruised Knee -> Sprained Knee -> Partially Torn PCL -> Fully Torn PCL -> Fully Torn PCL and ACL. We also wanted to make sure that something would have to actually ‘trigger’ the re-injury. In the old systems, you could have your running back chip a lineman and look fine and then all of a sudden his ACL was blown out.

We really wanted to make sure that we did implement a true risk-reward system. If you are putting your guy out there on a bum knee, we want you to feel nervous in doing so. So we made sure that real-life actions that could cause an injury, were the true catalysts for a re-injury. For example, if you have kept your running back in the game with a sprained knee, you don’t want to be doing crazy jukes and spins all over the place because he could just plant wrong and get severely injured. You want to take care and use him sparingly - get the best out of him but not risk losing him for the long term. I wanted to show this in full, but it was just taking me a long time to trigger in game (due to the rarity). To show it off I just included the motion capture video of our actors doing their best "I just blew my knee out" impression that we can play if a guy ends up cutting too hard and re-injuring himself (we picked the guy on the right obviously):

Sorry guys youtube vid: type in "injury motion capture for madden nfl 10")


Some other details we added:
- Injuries occur more often on special teams plays
- Injury slider was added so anyone can tune to their liking
- Re-injury risk is increased for online and play now (since people won’t have to worry about long term injuries, we still wanted to add a risk to playing with someone that’s hurt)
- Recreated nearly every single injury type, replacing unrealistic legacy injuries like “bursitis” and “dehydration” with new ones.
- There’s finally an injury cart!

http://insideblog.easports.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/550x0/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/inside_5F00_ea._5F00_IanBlog/InjuryCart.jpg

Well that’s it for our new injury system. In summary:
1. Injury status / severity is delayed instead of immediate for more suspense and realism
2. All new animations with trainers and injury carts are shown
3. You are automatically prompted to let injured players play hurt (when applicable) or sub in the backup
4. Players playing hurt have their ratings negatively affected (based on the severity of the injury)
5. Players playing hurt have a (logical) risk of re-injury
6. Players show that they are hurt with in-game injury animations like limping
7. Re-injuries happen realistically instead of randomly.

We are really happy with this feature because it has added a whole new strategic element to Madden that hasn’t been there before. It also really helps convey the emotion and suspense of the NFL better in our game. If you have any feedback, please post away in the comments section or [here] in the forums.

- Ian Cummings
Lead Designer, Madden NFL 10

[TampaBayzAllDay]

Awesome

[Fooball]

Don't know if these were posted yet, some more screen shots including Bucs-Panthers.

Screen shots link (http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2009/05/18/madden-nfl-10-screens-show-qb-details/)

[Da Bucs GM]

Hey Madden fans – it’s Monday, and you guessed it, it’s time for another blog. We are coming down to the wire with finishing the game that we’ve put so much effort into so far this year. E3 is looming large only a week away, so this is a big week for us in terms of really putting a nice level of polish on the game before we put a version out for the show. I’ll be working the booth with Senior Producer Phil Frazier along with fellow designers Josh Looman (Franchise guy) and Audrey Delong (presentation & commentary gal)...so if you happen to be there make sure you stop by and say hi.

2 weeks back we took a look at some of the improvements we made to our pass blocking in order to make the game more realistic (and fun) overall. I encourage everyone to take a look at it here. This week I wanted to give everyone a deeper look at some of the improvements to run blocking as well. Run blocking is one of the trickiest areas to program and tune just because of the amount of variation that happens in the NFL. Pass blocking is definitely complicated as well, but at some level you’ve got some pretty common concepts that you can follow (i.e. the OL needs to stay between the defender and the QB, the defensive end needs to get up field if he’s not stunting, etc). With run blocking however, there are just so many variations of plays that it can take much more time to get every single concept down pat while still making it a) realistic, b) responsive, and c) fun. At the beginning of the year, when we sat down as a group and looked at some of the areas we wanted to address, we all unanimously agreed that there were a few major areas that we just hadn’t quite emulated as well as we would like to create an authentic NFL sim.

Getting Movement Back In Our Blocks!
In the past, run blocking animations followed a similar style to the legacy pass blocking systems that have existed in Madden for years. Two players typically get “engaged”, and from there they play quick successions of animations over and over again while checking to see who wins or loses based on ratings. In every single play that our designers create, there is a concept of a “run hole” that they set (just like real life) – the ideal spot where the running back should go after he gets the ball. All the linemen make their blocks based off of this spot, assuming that the ball carrier will run right to it. Unfortunately, though we had that logic in our AI systems, our animation systems never really supported it correctly. Since lineman can’t turn and seal off a defender to open this hole correctly, or get leverage and drive him right out of there, it was much more of a lucky scenario instead of a skillful scenario if a big run hole opened up. With that knowledge, we knew we had to capture and implement all new moves that had a blocker either turning and seal off a run hole (when applicable) or possibly even driving him out of there with some momentum. Here’s an example of some successful blocks that really help open up the run lane and get some movement into our blocks.


(youtube vid type in: Run blocking movement in madden nfl 10)

The lack of movement in our blocks also was a big limiter in really accurately creating the “flow” that is so obvious on outside run plays in the NFL. It’s not an untouched foot race to the outside…it’s a very controlled yet hectic “flow” of defenders and blockers all moving towards the ballcarrier (even while engaged). Defenders are still running but maintaining their gap assignments and doing their best not to over-run the play and leave themselves open for a big cutback. Here’s one play from a more zoomed out view that shows how the new blocking animations (and logic) for more blocking movement can make an outside run play look and feel much more realistic from previous iterations.


(youtube vid type in: madden nfl 10- run blocking on an outside run)


Putting You Back In Control!
Just like with pass blocking, we moved all of the “disengage / special move” controls to the right stick to make it easier to pull off. Based on the ratings of your player, he’ll choose either a finesse or a power move – it just didn’t seem to make sense to make you decide which one to choose if you don’t immediately know what he’s best at.

The big addition though was the implementation of the same branching technology as in pass blocks – with the goal of allowing you the gamer to break out of any block, at any time. Along with that, we knew that it has been a common complaint for years that you couldn’t do a move until you were engaged. We know that’s not how it works in the NFL - players obviously really want to stay free and keep their arms out so they don’t get all wrapped up by one of the big guys, but we didn’t really have the tech to emulate that well. So with our branching technology we made sure we had early branch points so that stronger or higher skilled guys could rip right past blockers even before they get “engaged”…example video:

(youtube vid type in: Run blocking- early branching in madden nfl 10)


Also in the same vein as the improvements to pass blocking...thanks to our new PRO-TAK™ steering technology, we were able to use much longer animations but allow them to be driven towards the ball carrier dynamically. As we touched on last time, this is absolutely vital to making sure the players feels like they are intelligent, and that you aren’t just sitting and watching a giant motion captured play without being able to control anything (anyone remember Dragon’s Lair in the arcade?). Here is a good example of DeMarcus Ware keeping the block moving towards the ball carrier, and then branching early out of what was a long block animation to make a big play in the backfield:



(youtube vid type in: run blocking in madden nfl 10


Well, that’s it for this week’s blog, detailing just some of the key enhancements we’ve done to our run blocking to make it more authentic, realistic, and fun. In summary:
- Added 50+ new blocking animations
- Added the ability for the blocker to turn and seal a run hole or a backside defender
- Added the ability for the blocker to drive a defender in a direction relative to the run hole
- Added the ability for long blocking animations to be procedurally steered via PRO-TAK™
- Added branching technology to break out of a block at ANY TIME (including before the blocker even gets there)
- Changed mechanics for block disengages / special moves to be all R-stick driven
- Tuned and tweaked tons of other stuff

As always, we love to hear your feedback. We know that blocking can always be improved on and added to, so post away in the comments section or feel free to discuss more in depth over in the EA Forums.

- Ian Cummings
Lead Designer, Madden NFL 10

Foot note:
It’s very likely that we won’t have an official dev-team blog next week due to E3 (I’ll be in the air throughout the day), but other information will obviously be pouring out so our community team will be doing their best to keep the blog updated with anything new as it comes out.
Seeing though that I likely won’t be able to post next week, I figured I’d do double service and show a quick video of one of our new “hit stick” animations in Madden NFL 10. We have seen feedback from quite a few folks that many of the big hits from past years’ games looked too over-the-top and more like WWE moves than NFL tackles, so we spent a lot of time this year really refreshing our library and re-capturing and replacing hundreds of animations that you may have gotten used to seeing over the years.

Enjoy (unless of course you are a Portis fan)!

(youtube vid type in:New hit stick animation in madden nfl 10)

[Da Bucs GM]

Not going to lie. I'm very impressed with ian and the team with their improvements. Funny how he can add/fix most of the problems these maddens have had in the past years in one cycle. That's dedication(sp?). At E3 they are releasing the presentaion info and more franchise info( which I want to read about). Everything sounds good, hopes it plays good when we see it

[Da Bucs GM]

Hey Madden fans - just wanted to drop in with a bit of good news and show an upgrade that we've added to Madden NFL 10 - and that is the addition of the USAF Thunderbirds!

These elite pilots make a guest appearance in our Super Bowl and Conference Championship games, buzzing over the stadium at speeds exceeding 300 mph, leaving a nice trail of smoke in their wake:

http://insideblog.easports.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/550x0/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/inside_5F00_ea._5F00_IanBlog/InGame_5F00_InFormation_5F00_Cropped.jpg

It's actually kind of a funny story how these guys ended up in Madden.

We're still maintaining a bit of secrecy on many of our presentation upgrades so far this year, but I can mention that we spent a really large amount of time creating a new scripted scene "system" - in essence a better toolset for us to build things with. We were focused on really fixing up our processes and pipelines to make sure that it was extremely easy to add any kind of prop (i.e. a jet), animation (i.e. a player with his hand over his heart), character (i.e.a coach), and visual effect (i.e. smoke) into the game, without requiring the work of an engineer. In Madden's history, we have never had a real easy time adding things like trophies or fans without a lot of engineering work - after all, we couldn't even take the helmets off the players until this year. :) I'll make sure we do a whole blog on the bonuses of this system and what all it's gotten us sometime after E3 (when we're closer to done with all the stuff we're still working on), but this week it seemed fitting to talk about the genesis of the Thunderbirds pre-game flyover and how we were able to get it all added to Madden NFL 10.



The week of this year's Super Bowl (Cards/Steelers), a few of us were feeling a little dangerous and wanted to see what all our new scripted scene system could handle as it was still in it's early stages. With a little experimentation, we were able to get a rudimentary version of a flyover into the game, only we didn't have any plane models at the time. So we had to improvise...we could have done players, but that would have been boring...so we chose injury carts. :)



This got a lot of laughs around the office, but it also got a lot of people fired up to do it the right way. When you're working on a game with really tight deadlines, it is often quite tricky to add new things that were never planned for or scheduled. In this case though, immediately a ton of people volunteered their own personal time to make this flyover perfect and make it into a big moment - animators, audio engineers, audio artists, VFX artists, etc. We even went out and got a license for the final notes of the Star Spangled Banner to play before they cruised over.

Oddly enough, right when this prototype went in, some folks with the USAF Thunderbirds actually contacted John Madden himself at the Super Bowl and expressed interest in being in the game! John forwarded them over to us to see how feasible it would be, and obviously we were extremely psyched to be able to add that extra level of authenticity (instead of plain grey generic jets, or worse, injury carts.) :)

Our artists went to work on creating the custom paint job for the F16's that the Thunderbirds fly, and easily enough we were able to swap out our lowly injury carts with the real thing. Below are some close-up shots of the custom model that our artists worked so hard on:

http://insideblog.easports.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/550x0/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/inside_5F00_ea._5F00_IanBlog/Thunderbirds_5F00_Bottom.jpg


So there you have it folks - a quick explanation of how the USAF Thunderbirds ended up in Madden NFL 10. Start getting your gameplan together - by August 14 you need to be ready to take your team to Super Bowl XLV in Miami so you can see them yourself.



- Ian Cummings
Lead Designer, Madden NFL 10

[Bahamian:bucfan]

This new Madden 10 seems to be really good.

I got Madden 9 last year when I was in Tampa to watch the game vs. The Seahawks....................................

And I have not even opened it up yet!:eek:

What the hell..........................I have been buying,plaing Madden from I was in University in 1995.

I would play this game in francise mode until the new year of Madden comes out and then I would start playing in francise in that one and so on.

THEN I GOT MARRIED! Don't get me wrong I was still playing my madden in francise but as usual I would play all nite into the WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE hours. The Mrs. made noise and all but I would always tell here; "At least I'm not out all nite at bars with my buddies"! Then she would relax. But Since I was married in 03 I was still playing madden.

Last year, however, when I got 09, I don't know what happed. I know I was busy with my business and all, but I ALWAYS HAD TIME FOR MADDEN! But like I said, I still have not even opened it up yet!

So, AM I GETTING MATURE, or is it something else!?

[noles1724]

This new Madden 10 seems to be really good.

I got Madden 9 last year when I was in Tampa to watch the game vs. The Seahawks....................................

And I have not even opened it up yet!:eek:

What the hell..........................I have been buying,plaing Madden from I was in University in 1995.

I would play this game in francise mode until the new year of Madden comes out and then I would start playing in francise in that one and so on.

THEN I GOT MARRIED! Don't get me wrong I was still playing my madden in francise but as usual I would play all nite into the WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE hours. The Mrs. made noise and all but I would always tell here; "At least I'm not out all nite at bars with my buddies"! Then she would relax. But Since I was married in 03 I was still playing madden.

Last year, however, when I got 09, I don't know what happed. I know I was busy with my business and all, but I ALWAYS HAD TIME FOR MADDEN! But like I said, I still have not even opened it up yet!

So, AM I GETTING MATURE, or is it something else!?

Are you me or am I you..... This is my story! I would play Madden until the next one came out. I would play it so much that I knew every passing route for every play and didn't even have to look at more then one side of the field to know exactly who would be open based on coverage. I mean I really played Madden! There were several years that I would play so many seasons that my team would be 99% drafted/traded players.

This year I bought a 360 (was always a PS guy) and I couldn't get out of the pre-season. I hated fact that they passing cone was taken away (wasn't manditory) and after a 2 or 3 year absence from the game the DB's would still do super jumps when a WR got behind them. Maybe the game just got old to me due to the fact that the main problems never seemed to get addressed.

[Bahamian:bucfan]

Are you me or am I you..... This is my story! I would play Madden until the next one came out. I would play it so much that I knew every passing route for every play and didn't even have to look at more then one side of the field to know exactly who would be open based on coverage. I mean I really played Madden! There were several years that I would play so many seasons that my team would be 99% drafted/traded players.
This year I bought a 360 (was always a PS guy) and I couldn't get out of the pre-season. I hated fact that they passing cone was taken away (wasn't manditory) and after a 2 or 3 year absence from the game the DB's would still do super jumps when a WR got behind them. Maybe the game just got old to me due to the fact that the main problems never seemed to get addressed.

WOW, I would paly so many years in francise mode that my entire team would be drafted/traded also!

But I WILL open my Madden 09 this week end a play it until my fingers are sore ( I am sure some of you know what I am talking about).

I still can not believe that I have not opened it yet and I had it since October 08!

[Floyd C]

Fix Dline interaction, Jacob Hester or w/e that white dudes name is from the Chargers blocked Peppers like a stud Olinemen, on like 10 plays! I'm running at full speed and he not only stops my momentum but blocks me then i roll and shazzam! you guess it, he had great hand movement and blocked me some more, over and over, PLEASE FIX it.

One of my biggest gripes, that and LB's doing 20 foot jumps and intercepting the ball.

[Fooball]

Madden 10: Five Things to Know

Link to ESPN article (http://sports.espn.go.com/videogames/news/story?id=4105808)

[Da Bucs GM]

yea I posted that here already

[Da Bucs GM]

http://xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/14270629/madden-nfl-2010/videos/madden10_trl_eaglescowboys552709.html

cowboys vs. eagles

[kickstand]

Don't see too much of a change. Definitely plays a little slower though. Linemen still don't get that natural pocket and the DB's still don't play with that physicality that they should.

[Da Bucs GM]

haven't watched it yet myself

[Da Bucs GM]

Don't see too much of a change. Definitely plays a little slower though. Linemen still don't get that natural pocket and the DB's still don't play with that physicality that they should.

gotta disagree there. the first pass play(where ware is user controlled) if mcnaab wouldn't have stepped back two step in that shotgun that pocket would have formed with him inside it. Instead mcnaab takes two steps back and the pocket forms with him outside of it. Not to mention that ware was trying to rush inside.

What I want to know is why number 73 just stood there and didn't block.


the second pass play was beauitful(besides the user controlled CB that completely missed the sack lol) that pocket was sweet and it looked how it suppose to look except for the C NOT BLOCKING NOBODY :mad: . Looked like he was going to help the LG but decided he's to cool to block or something. I mean they have double team blocks in this year so why didn't he do it

Run blocking looks good. O-line turning their man creating the running lane. looks good IMO

The DB's aren't as physical as you like because they aren't doing bump and run man coverage they're just in man coverage in those plays. So they are just reacting to the WR moves and not trying to disrupt the WR route.

Tho I think the physicality I think your looking for will be when the QB throws the long ball

[Da Bucs GM]

something funny I saw was the fight for the fumble when the announcer says the cowboys have the ball but the eagles are happy and the cowboy players are mad lol it's probably a minor problem that can be fixed tho.

[TornadoRex]

They still run like Quasimodo :(

[Dr Death]

They still run like Quasimodo :(

One word: Euphoria...

[Fooball]

yea I posted that here already

Oops! Didn't read back behind that page.....I guess that means Da GM is on top of things. :grinyes:

[Da Bucs GM]

hey for you madden online freaks guess what?






















online co-op has been confirmed for madden nfl 10. go to gametrailers.com to see the vid. There another BIG online feature to be announced at E3. I guess(and a whole lot of people guess) is online franchise.

[Da Bucs GM]

just some more screenshots

http://www.operationsports.com/images/u/media/1243626006-media.jpg

http://www.operationsports.com/images/u/media/1243626009-media.jpg

http://www.operationsports.com/images/u/media/1243626013-media.jpg

[K-DAWG]

[QUOTE=Da Bucs GM;3783099]just some more screenshots



http://www.operationsports.com/images/u/media/1243626009-media.jpg

Why is Sensabaugh's arm going through TO's leg?

[Da Bucs GM]

heard they are going to be talking about madden nfl 10 at 2pm so that means 5pm for us on the east side.

[Dr Death]

Why is Sensabaugh's arm going through TO's leg?

Ya know... after 3 years of Next-Gen, this is the type of thing that should be fixed permanently...

[Da Bucs GM]

lol noticed that too. why would they release a shot with that in it lol. But you wouldn't even notice it when the game is going full speed tho.

[ImAWalkingCorps]

Any significant changes to the PS2 version?

[Da Bucs GM]

From gamespot:

Online franchise is coming to Madden NFL 10...to a console, PC, and iPhone near you. Details inside.

Last week, EA Sports dropped the news that online co-op will be part of Madden NFL 10. The mode, which will allow two players to play on the same team against a CPU team, will feature headset support and allow either player to play as any position the field. In between plays, you'll be able to switch between players, which will be perfect for changing up between running and passing plays when on offense. When playing online, the game will focus on position-specific cameras that will follow each player's selected player throughout the entire play.



Apart from online co-op play, the big Madden NFL 10 news--which was announced seemingly accidentally last week in a video detailing Madden's online cooperative play--is the inclusion of an Online Franchise mode. This is a feature that Madden fans have wanted for a long time. While the online league feature in last year's Madden NFL 09 felt more than a bit tacked on, online franchise, by contrast, seems as if it will be remarkably well rounded--at least based on what EA Sports has said about it so far.

In addition to supporting real NFL schedules, online franchise will offer many of the same features you've come to expect from the Offline Franchise mode, including full stat tracking, the ability to set/save depth charts for your team, and trade support. It will also include both a fantasy draft and live draft option, the latter of which sounds like it will be a highlight for dedicated Madden franchise fans. While the best online franchise leagues will be those with a full slate of human players, you'll be able to fill in gaps with CPU control if you like.

For Madden fans who live and breathe their favorite game, you'll be able to follow your franchise, even when you're away from your game console. The Madden NFL 10 Web site will allow you to manage your online franchise team, and it seems that everything--from setting your depth charts to proposing trades--will be available to you via the Web site. There's even an iPhone application in the works that will let you handle your franchise business when you aren't near your PC. No price or release date for the app has been announced yet, but we'll be following up on that soon.

While online franchise sounds like it's off to a promising start, it likely won't be as in-depth as the Offline Franchise mode...at least at the start. For one thing, trade logic isn't as flexible as it is in real life; you won't be able to trade draft picks for a player, for example. That said, because the franchise information is server-based, it follows that the development folks at EA Tiburon will be able to add features (and, perhaps more importantly, fix bugs) throughout the life of the game. For example, when online franchise was introduced to the press last month, producers told us they were currently in the process of adding commissioner tools that would give a franchise commissioner more control over rosters (presumably for such things as moderating one-sided trades and the like).

Presentation looks to make a big jump in Madden NFL 10 as well. The fans have been asking for a proper Super Bowl ceremony for a while now, and this year, they'll get it. It will be complete with confetti and a trophy ceremony that will make it feel like you won something more than just another regular season game. In addition, there will be more elements of a pregame football atmosphere, such as camera shots of fans filing into the stands, USAF jets flying overhead after the National Anthem, and the occasional shots of players or referees doing their thing on the sidelines. When you add a postgame show called the "Extra Point," hosted by Fran Charles and Alex Flanagan from the NFL Network, it seems like Madden will feel more like a real broadcast event than it has ever since the game moved to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.



We're very curious to see how online franchise works--especially its implementation on the PC and iPhone--so we'll be keeping up with its development up until Madden NFL 10's release on August 14. Until then, stay tuned to the GameSpot sports blog for the very latest Madden 10 information.

[Da Bucs GM]

http://www.operationsports.com/images/u/media/1243914334-media.jpg

http://www.operationsports.com/images/u/media/1243914338-media.jpg

http://www.operationsports.com/images/u/media/1243914341-media.jpg

http://www.operationsports.com/images/u/media/1243914344-media.jpg

http://www.operationsports.com/images/u/media/1243914350-media.jpg

signature stance kicking

[Da Bucs GM]

http://www.operationsports.com/images/u/media/1243914354-media.jpg

http://www.operationsports.com/images/u/media/1243914358-media.jpg

http://www.operationsports.com/images/u/media/1243914363-media.jpg

http://www.operationsports.com/images/u/media/1243914368-media.jpg

http://www.operationsports.com/images/u/media/1243914372-media.jpg

Online franchise screenshots

[Da Bucs GM]

Guys Wed @ 11:30am madden will be displayed offically. SO that means 2:30pm for eastsiders

[Da Bucs GM]

youtube vid: EA sports at E3: Mandden nfl 10 look it up talks about franchise and the post game show "the extra point"


Not sure if it's pre-game and half-time tho:( hope it is)

EDIT: But there is a pregame show tho if you go full-screen and look at the top screen(above the main screen they are showing( at 1:08 you can see a split-screen of the two starting QB's)one being aaron rodgers) warming up then it shows how many years left he had left in his contract.

[Da Bucs GM]

more screen shots

http://www.operationsports.com/images/u/media/1244003527-media.jpg

http://www.operationsports.com/images/u/media/1244003542-media.jpg

http://www.operationsports.com/images/u/media/1244003549-media.jpg

http://www.operationsports.com/images/u/media/1244003560-media.jpg

http://www.operationsports.com/images/u/media/1244003572-media.jpg

[Da Bucs GM]

http://www.operationsports.com/images/u/media/1244003592-media.jpg

http://www.operationsports.com/images/u/media/1244003599-media.jpg

[Da Bucs GM]

ok here is what I've hear about pre-game/halftime/postgame.

They will be a "NFL total access style"broadcast showing big plays from your games.

Then there's a weekly wrap-up recap show called "the extra point". The "extra point will NOT be a highlight reel of games played around the league. It will be a recap, meaning scoreboard, stats, Off. player of the week, etc. the extra point is a 3D halographic(sp?) guy talking kinda like when you took the madden I.Q. take and the holographic madden appeared. Ian said it was a tough decision but they'd rather have something in there(the extra point) than nothing. He also said he has the framework for how the highlight show in the extra point was going to go. He was three options. Put it in a DLC, a patch, or Madden 11.(I expect madden 11) so that what I got.



.

[njdshady2001]

This game is starting to sound more and more like NFL 2k5...LOL

Pre/post-game shows....weekly highlight shows...Super Bowl celebration with presenting of trophies...in-depth online season mode...

Yea...had all that 5 years ago...

[Da Bucs GM]

new gameplay vid(about 1:16 long) at pastapadre.com can't link due to possible comments

There's nice little touch they made in there dealing with rainy games. probably not during a play but after and in between you see little rain drops on your screen like the camera's getting wet lol nice little touch

[Da Bucs GM]

This game is starting to sound more and more like NFL 2k5...LOL

Pre/post-game shows....weekly highlight shows...Super Bowl celebration with presenting of trophies...in-depth online season mode...

Yea...had all that 5 years ago...

yup and now it's in madden lol better late than never I guess.

[Bucs2theSB]

[QUOTE=Da Bucs GM;3788922]more screen shots



http://www.operationsports.com/images/u/media/1244003542-media.jpg


you guys like that advertisement?

[Da Bucs GM]

[QUOTE=Da Bucs GM;3788922]more screen shots



http://www.operationsports.com/images/u/media/1244003542-media.jpg


you guys like that advertisement?

I'd rather have that than the dreaded pounding "brought to you by EA sports" they did in 09 you couldn't go 3 madden minutes without EA Sports being mentioned.

[Da Bucs GM]

video out on youtube type in: madden 10 seahawks vs broncos

[skulldog06]

Are you sure that y-tube video was Madden 10, or was it 07, 08, or 09?

I couldn't tell the difference.

I won't be wasting my money on that trash. That's for sure. I'll stick with NCAA 09 and their logo importer. That's the innovation I'm looking for.

[Da Bucs GM]

one man's trash is another man treasure sir.

Tho I like how you can say the game is trash even tho you never played it. I mean I can see if you rented it or went to a friends house and played it and you say it's trash, but you never even had the box in your hands.

[skulldog06]

one man's trash is another man treasure sir.

Tho I like how you can say the game is trash even tho you never played it. I mean I can see if you rented it or went to a friends house and played it and you say it's trash, but you never even had the box in your hands.

Say what you will, but you know just as well as anybody that EA has done a **** poor job changing Madden. EA has no competition with the licensing rights and they have taken full advantage.

To me, and plenty of other folks agree, Madden 07, 08, and 09 were so similar as far as gameplay was concerned that it was simply infuriating that 60 bucks had to be wasted on those 3 pieces of polished up garbage.

I highly doubt 10 will be that much different.

Gang-tackling.........wow:rolleyes:

I'm sorry to insult your game, but I am NOT impressed with that y-tube clip. So, if that's not Madden 10 then I apologize. But, if it is, indeed, Madden 10 then I will not buy that crap. I'll just keep playing Madden 07 since it's pretty much the same.

[Da Bucs GM]

Say what you will, but you know just as well as anybody that EA has done a **** poor job changing Madden.

I'm definitely with you on that

EA has no competition with the licensing rights and they have taken full advantage.

Yes david ortiz did play with alot of people's cash and time mine included.

To me, and plenty of other folks agree, Madden 07, 08, and 09 were so similar as far as gameplay was concerned that it was simply infuriating that 60 bucks had to be wasted on those 3 pieces of polished up garbage.

Don't try to exclude me from that group I was right there with you

I highly doubt 10 will be that much different.

this is where we agree to disagree. I'm not going to try to change your opinon about the game because that's your opinon and I respect it but then again don't use your opinon as a fact.

Gang-tackling.........wow:rolleyes:

If you think gang-tackling is the only thing they added then you need to read this whole thread over not just the last page.

I'm sorry to insult your game,

It's not my game. I'm just as skepit(sp?) as you are but I not going to jump to a conclusion without playing it myself.


but I am NOT impressed with that y-tube clip.

hey to each his own

[Da Bucs GM]

gameplay trailer up on gametrailers.com it's colts vs texans

[Da Bucs GM]

http://www.operationsports.com/videoview.php?id=389

[UMiamiBucFan]

A bit too much arguing for a game that hasn't been released.

[kickstand]

Game hasn't been released yet but I'm definitely a skeptic after watching the gametrailers + IGN video. Sure there's new presentation but lets be honest, most of us quickly tap X so we can get back to playing. They also have this new Pro-Tak but honestly it's just an evolution of the branching technology they started last year. It's definitely not a new engine.

As long as Madden continues to use that same engine over and over again, they will be stuck in the rut they've been in for a while now. It's a shame they can't take a year off and just scratch the whole thing and try again.

[Da Bucs GM]

:cool: http://www.operationsports.com/videoview.php?id=391

[ImAWalkingCorps]

I assume all of the screen shots are for PS3?

[Da Bucs GM]

360/ps3 mostly 360

[Da Bucs GM]

:cool: http://www.operationsports.com/videoview.php?id=392

[kickstand]

^^^

That Miami vid is good. Shows the Wildcat isn't going to be some glitch-fest (yet) and the pass blocking formed a good pocket from the looks of it.

[TruBucsFan22]

I really don't care about all of the details...

I will buy it opening day, and play the crap put of it.

To the people that whine about how bad the game is... don't play it then, and play your 2007. Anything I say, or you say, or anybody says, will not be heard and not be considered when making the game.

Play it, love it or hate it, because thats the way the game is and your not going to change it by crying about it.

tbch, I don't care what is new or old about the game, I just wanna play some FOOTBALL!!

[Da Bucs GM]

ok new youtube vid for those who care.

type in:
E3 Madden 10- 060309 2

E3 Madden 10- 060209 3

E3 Madden 10- 060209 4

E3 Madden 10- 060209 5

E3 Madden 10- 060309 4

[skulldog06]

I'm definitely with you on that



Yes david ortiz did play with alot of people's cash and time mine included.



Don't try to exclude me from that group I was right there with you



this is where we agree to disagree. I'm not going to try to change your opinon about the game because that's your opinon and I respect it but then again don't use your opinon as a fact.



If you think gang-tackling is the only thing they added then you need to read this whole thread over not just the last page.



It's not my game. I'm just as skepit(sp?) as you are but I not going to jump to a conclusion without playing it myself.




hey to each his own

Classy reply.:)

[Da Bucs GM]

here we go what everyone been waiting for a 7-8 minute gameplay vid.

youtube: "Madden 10: redskins vs seahawks 3Q"(yes it's 3Q)

AND

youtube:"Madden 10:Redskins vs Seahawks 4Q and post game"

[Da Bucs GM]

http://www.operationsports.com/videoview.php?id=397

[Da Bucs GM]

http://www.operationsports.com/videoview.php?id=395

[Da Bucs GM]

http://www.operationsports.com/videoview.php?id=398

[Da Bucs GM]

http://web4.twitpic.com/img/11243500-c532fd2b8b75ffae68086ba29357bb62.4a29eb7f-scaled.jpg

[Da Bucs GM]

http://www.operationsports.com/videoview.php?id=396

[Da Bucs GM]

http://www.operationsports.com/videoview.php?id=399

[Da Bucs GM]

http://www.operationsports.com/videoview.php?id=401

[Da Bucs GM]

http://www.operationsports.com/videoview.php?id=400

[Da Bucs GM]

http://www.operationsports.com/videoview.php?id=402

[Da Bucs GM]

I was a bit concerned with the E3 build (like most of you probably were) that were a lot of times where defenders would just bounce off instead of wrapping up. I am happy to say it is much improved...just played a full game against Donny (I was Vikings, he was Cardinals - he killed me BTW), and it was WAY better ... much more predictable and reliable than the E3 build.

I dug deeper to see what happened and found out that before E3 there was some tuning being done to dictate when gang tackles could be triggered, and the primary criteria was the angle of the ballcarrier in relation to the ground. Meaning, if a player was about to fall / touch the ground, he shouldn't be able to be gang tackled (obviously because he would warp back to upright). Apparently there were a few bugs in this calculation though, so often times it would think he was leaned over when in fact he wasn't. Now it has been tuned much more appropriately, and the gang tackles are really looking great.

As a side note, the momentum in PRO-TAK is also much more pronounced as well (and also finally doesn't stop when the players engage...it keeps moving throughout the tackle) Both Beanie Wells and Peterson really felt like they were carrying those first 2 defenders when they had a head of steam...which looked and felt great. Unfortunately I don't have vids but I'll try to get some soon.

Thought you'd like the update...on to looking at everyone's other favorite issue - the pass rush!

Ian Cummings

[galloway123]

Also is Man coverage fixed, any skilled player will tell you that it was worthless and that zone coverage dominated the game. If I have a shutdown corner in Champ Bailey he better be able to shutdown almost anyone on that game.

[Da Bucs GM]

Also is Man coverage fixed, any skilled player will tell you that it was worthless and that zone coverage dominated the game. If I have a shutdown corner in Champ Bailey he better be able to shutdown almost anyone on that game.

Route Running and Man Coverage
We've really spent quite a bit of time on the 'game within the game' of WR/DB interaction. There are two improvements that I'd like to expand on first (as I feel they are the most important), and both are animation related.

First, we replaced nearly every single receiver route animation in the game, with the goal of more accurately recreating real life acceleration and momentum. We are also utilizing the route running rating much more now when selecting these animations. We totally re-tuned which cut moves play (and how 'open' the WR gets) based on an elite/agile/non-agile separation in regards to that rating. Check out the video below - it should really show you what kind of difference this makes from 09 to 10:


(youtube vid sorry)


We did basically the exact same thing for defensive reactions while in man coverage. This has allowed us to really re-work our man coverage AI to use animations as the true determination of how open the receiver gets. Before, there would typically be a time delay placed on the defender's reaction time based on his (and the receiver's) ratings. Now, we can specifically pick different animations to determine how fast he reacts, or whether he gets faked out or not. This creates a much more believable and realistic simuation of momentum. Here are two example cut moves for a defender backpedaling with the receiver in front of him:

(youtube vid sorry)


Second, we took a page from the FIFA team and added in the concept of 'jostling'. Personally I am extremely stoked to have this in the game because I've written a design for it for 5+ years in a row...unfortunately we just never had the technology to accomplish it. The 'jostling' concept is a set of looping 2-man animations that can play for the WR and DB as they run downfield. The main reason that I am so big on these animations is that it really helps alleviate a balance problem that has existed in Madden for years. I'm talking about the fact that traditionally you can send a player with a 99 speed rating (regardless of his other ratings like route running, catching, etc) on a streak and easily get behind a defender in man coverage. In real life, regardless of the difference in speed, a good defensive back can use his body to keep the receiver in check... a fly route is rarely an untouched foot-race sprint to the endzone. So here's a video example of just one of the many jostling animations you can expect to see in Madden NFL 10:


(youtube vid sorry)

Adding these animations also allowed us the ability to call more realistic pass interference penalties. We've added a lot of variety that ranges from minor hand-fighting to severe push-offs and holds, so now we can make sure that pass interference gets called in a much more accurate manner. We're using the man coverage rating of the defender to determine how well he keeps the WR in check and how often he gets penalized.

[Da Bucs GM]

I know coming out of E3 there were some concerns around the effectiveness of the pass rush. So tonight I wanted to run some tests and see where we stood (as some tuning took place over the week while we were gone).

In practice mode - on All-Pro - I took the Titans offense (the best offensive line in the league) and matched up against the Colts defense (relatively good pass rushing group). On offense, I called a spread formation with the back going out of the backfield leaving me with only the 5 OL to block. On the defensive side, I called a default 4-3 defense - 2 Man Press - which only has the 4 down linemen rushing straight ahead (with no stunts or anything).

I ran 20 straight plays and did nothing with the QB other than stand there. I then ran 20 more plays, but this time I used the QB avoidance stick to step up in the pocket and/or avoid the edge rushers. Sometimes I would break the sack, other times it wouldn't help me at all. Lastly, I moved the CPU pass rushing slider to 100 and ran 20 more plays just standing there waiting for the sack. On all of these plays, I sat here with a stopwatch and timed exactly how long from the snap it took me to get sacked on each play. Here are the results:

http://www.operationsports.com/forums/attachments/madden-nfl-football/17056d1244424840-post-e3-pass-rush-update-passrushnumbers.jpg

Overall, I am decently happy with these results. After all, I've got the best offensive line in the game, and the Colts are only bringing their 4 down linemen, and it still definitely didn't feel like I had all day back there by any stretch. There were definitely a few weird anomalies here and there that I am going to take in and get addressed by the gameplay guys tomorrow, but it seems that with the recent tuning that happened while we were away at E3 - this luckily doesn't seem to be any kind of "game killer" at the moment.

Just FYI - the two main issues that seemed worth tuning - 1) the set-up depth of the pocket (it goes more 'wide' than 'deep' often times), and 2) getting rid of these random animation anomalies where I'd end up with 6+ seconds.

I'll make sure to update everyone as we make any fixes to the 2 items above.

Ian Cummings

[Da Bucs GM]

Quick update...

Just took Vince Young (against the Giants) and tried to scramble outside the pocket on every play in my opening drive. The first play gashed them for 13 yards with a keeper, the 2nd play Tuck disengaged very early and ran me down for a 7 yard loss before I could even throw it. The 3rd play I got 3 yards scrambling before a LB got me. Every subsequent play after that ended up as a sack or at max a 4 yard gain.

Summary: the DL were definitely disengaging as quickly as they could (before I broke the edge of the tackle usually), but with a guy that has big-time speed like Vince the DL had some trouble catching me if I chose to keep it and run (as they would in real life). However, if I tried to set up and pass I was dead every time.

What was great though - the adaptive AI kicked on bigtime within that first drive, and the CPU all of a sudden set up all kinds of crazy spies and corner blitzes coming at me so I was basically screwed trying that same tactic. I must say...it was a VERY COOL feeling to get shut down like that. Not often you can be happy as you're offense is failing...and that's exactly what was happening.

Ian Cummings

[Bahamian:bucfan]

Quick update...

Just took Vince Young (against the Giants) and tried to scramble outside the pocket on every play in my opening drive. The first play gashed them for 13 yards with a keeper, the 2nd play Tuck disengaged very early and ran me down for a 7 yard loss before I could even throw it. The 3rd play I got 3 yards scrambling before a LB got me. Every subsequent play after that ended up as a sack or at max a 4 yard gain.

Summary: the DL were definitely disengaging as quickly as they could (before I broke the edge of the tackle usually), but with a guy that has big-time speed like Vince the DL had some trouble catching me if I chose to keep it and run (as they would in real life). However, if I tried to set up and pass I was dead every time.

What was great though - the adaptive AI kicked on bigtime within that first drive, and the CPU all of a sudden set up all kinds of crazy spies and corner blitzes coming at me so I was basically screwed trying that same tactic. I must say...it was a VERY COOL feeling to get shut down like that. Not often you can be happy as you're offense is failing...and that's exactly what was happening.

Ian Cummings


Hi,
Do you work with EA sports/ madden francise?

One more question, when I play madden; I play in Francise mode only. I would love to see where players ( especially the ones I scout and draft) make the hall of fame.

In a good year I can play as many as 15 + francise years. And I would like to see some of my players make the HOF.

Have you guys ever considered this?

Thank you.

[acmillis]

Hi,
Do you work with EA sports/ madden francise?

One more question, when I play madden; I play in Francise mode only. I would love to see where players ( especially the ones I scout and draft) make the hall of fame.

In a good year I can play as many as 15 + francise years. And I would like to see some of my players make the HOF.

Have you gays ever considered this?

Thank you.

So...what are you trying to say??

[Bahamian:bucfan]

So...what are you trying to say??

I apologize for that. It was a mistype.

I corrected it on my post.

Again, a mistake and I apologize!

[Da Bucs GM]

Hi,
Do you work with EA sports/ madden francise?

One more question, when I play madden; I play in Francise mode only. I would love to see where players ( especially the ones I scout and draft) make the hall of fame.

In a good year I can play as many as 15 + francise years. And I would like to see some of my players make the HOF.

Have you guys ever considered this?

Thank you.


No dude I'm not with EA. I just post their info here when released

[Da Bucs GM]

http://espn.go.com/videogames/features/madden/madden10?teamId=1

FULL BEARS PLAYERS RATINGS



they will be releasing full team rating by division first up NFC north starting with the bears

[h-town baller]

I think this year the player ratings are a bit more realistic.

[Da Bucs GM]

Team ratings

New England Patriots 93
Pittsburgh Steelers 92
New York Giants 89
Philadelphia Eagles 88
San Diego Chargers 88
Tennessee Titans 87
Indianapolis Colts 87
Arizona Cardinals 86
Dallas Cowboys 85
Carolina Panthers 83
Baltimore Ravens 82
Atlanta Falcons 81
Minnesota Vikings 80
Washington Redskins 79
Chicago Bears 79
Buffalo Bills 78
New York Jets 78
Green Bay Packers 78
Seattle Seahawks 77
Miami Dolphins 77
Houston Texans 75
New Orleans Saints 74
Tampa Bay Buccaneers 74
San Francisco 49ers 73
Jacksonville Jaguars 71
Oakland Raiders 71
Denver Broncos 70
Kansas City Chiefs 69
Cleveland Browns 68
Cincinnati Bengals 67
St. Louis Rams 66
Detroit Lions 65

[Da Bucs GM]

I think this year the player ratings are a bit more realistic.

yea there is definitely a different between superstars and average joes now

[Da Bucs GM]

Green bay packers team ratings

http://espn.go.com/videogames/features/madden/madden10?teamId=20

[Da Bucs GM]

A friendly Raider fan had his watchful eyes on the E3 footage and noticed a few plays where Asamougha (94 press rating) was getting burned by Ted Ginn (72 release rating). I sent this on to our gameplay guys and they found a pretty decent bug with the tuning of the press/release decision (which has now been fixed). Thought you guys would like to see the detail on what was actually going wrong - so here's the email he just sent me:



I looked at this in the debugger and saw what is causing this.

The defender first decides what direction he wants to push the receiver. In the case of a streak he wants to push the receiver inside since that's where his help is. The calculation of who wins looks like this:

Random Range = Defender Press rating (0 to 1) + Neutral buffer (1.0) + Receiver Release Rating (0 to 1)

Random number in range is picked:

Rand < Defender Press = defender win
Rand < Defender Press + Neutral Buffer = neutral
Rand > Defender Press + Neutral Buffer = Receiver win

The problem arises from the fact that if the receiver is on the opposite side of where the defender wants to push him, he gets a bonus that multiplies his release rating by up to 2 times. In the case of Ginn vs. Asamougha the final chances were a 1.0 for Asamougha and a 1.16 for Ginn because of the positional bonus.

Asamougha 1.0/3.16 ( 31% chance of win )
Neutral 1.0/3.16 chance of win (31% chance of neutral)
Ginn 1.16/3.16 chance of win (Ginn 36% chance of win)

I made the following changes:
1. Remove the positional bonus, users aren’t going to understand why a crappy guy consistently beats a good guy over a 1 and a half foot difference in x-position.
2. Increase the size of the neutral buffer to 2.0, since our wins and losses are super dramatic. A "neutral" in essence can count as a win for a defender since he stays right with him.

The end result is this:

Asamougha 1.0/3.67 ( 27% chance of win )
Neutral 2.0/3.67 chance of win (.54 chance of neutral)
Ginn .67/3.67 chance of win (Ginn 18% chance of win)

This now means that in the case of Asamougha vs. Ginn, Asamougha will stay right with Ginn step for step 82% of the time, with 1/4 of those times having him stopping Ginn right in his tracks with a good press. This felt like a really good balance but sliders will also effect this if the folks on the forums wanted to see them even more dominant. Pressing a guy is obviously a risky proposition in the NFL so you don't want someone to be able to hold a guy at the line every single time.

Ian Cummings

[Da Bucs GM]

Hello again Madden fans!

Donny Moore here, designer for Madden NFL 10. If you've been following me on Twitter (donny_moore) you've likely noticed that I have been working on player ratings for the game, but what I've had to remain pretty tight-lipped on so far this year has been my involvement with Online Franchise. EA SPORTS president Peter Moore just recently announced this feature last week at the E3 press conference, and we knew going in that there would be all kinds of speculation and discussion over the feature among our fans. So this week we wanted to take the opportunity to answer some of the most common questions that we've been seeing from the community and from the gaming media. Not everyone has a 100% clear idea of what all is included in the mode, and we have also noticed that some folks have expressed frustration over missing features. With that being the case, we felt it imperative to explain a.) why we made the decisions that we did and b.) our plan for the future developing on this new platform. This feature is extremely important to me, especially as a die-hard Franchise guy (for those that don't know I worked on NFL Head Coach 09 along with fellow designer Josh Looman), so it has been an incredible experience to be a part of building a brand new Online Franchise experience - something totally new and different for the millions of Madden fans out there.

Enough talk...on to the Q & A!





Q: How is Online Franchise different from the Online Leagues included in Madden NFL 09?
A: First and foremost, Online Franchise is an entirely new mode built from scratch (not an improved version of online leagues). We wanted to provide a real-world 17 week NFL regular season with playoffs instead of a flex-schedule tournament-style structure. The major difference between the two features is the fact that your franchise now persists from year to year, and your team evolves over time. You are now taking over as the owner of the Detroit Lions and trying to turn them into a winner (for example) over the course of multiple seasons. Online Franchise features player movement, retiring, yearly NFL drafts, progression/regression, and many other features that did not exist in Online Leagues. Above all else, the most important change is that Online Franchise is built around a server-based architecture. What that means is that very little support for the mode lives on the game disc itself…it lives online on our servers. The main reason we went that route was so we could add more features and do extra tweaks and tuning based on community feedback even after the game ships (so our fans don’t have to necessarily wait until Madden NFL 11 for something new to appear).

Along with all of that, thanks to our server-based approach, your Online Franchise can be accessed and changes can be made entirely from the web. If you want to change up your depth chart or propose a trade while you wait in line at the store, you now have the access to do so. If you can't get to your console when it's time for the rookie draft, you can now attend from a website (just like a fantasy football draft). This interconnectivity is what we are extremely excited about as we continue to work and develop this mode for the future.

Q: Why no flex-scheduling with online franchise?
A: In Online Franchise, you always play the real world NFL schedule. It is set up in a very similar fashion to NCAA Football’s Online Dynasty feature, where you play your current week’s games, and then wait until the commissioner advances to the next week. With us wanting to make a very realistic experience and include features like multi-week injuries, there was no way to make it possible for you to play your Week 16 game before your Week 3 game.

Q: Can I make my online franchise private?
A: Yes, you can easily password-protect your league so only people you invite to your franchise will join.

Q: How many years does online franchise go?
A: You can play 10 seasons in online franchise.

Q: Why did you limit the number of years to 10? Why not 30 years like offline franchise?
A: Couple of reasons…First off, we wanted to make sure the game was tuned as perfect as we could for the core experience. We felt it wasn’t a smart approach to support 30 years if the mode falls apart in year 11. We have also looked at the data from NCAA 09 Online Dynasty and our offline franchise modes, and the reality is that very few players actually made it to 10 years of dynasty/franchise. I myself participate in an NCAA 09 online dynasty, and we have advanced weeks very consistently (from the week the game came out) and we are only in Year 6 (we advance the current week 3 times a week!). That being said, we will continue to listen to the fans and give them what they want. As I mentioned above, with Online Franchise mode being server-driven, if we discover that 10 years just isn’t enough and a large amount of Franchises have pegged out at 10 years, we can make the necessary fixes without requiring a new disc or patch or anything like that.

Q: How many teams are there in the online franchise?
A: 32 teams. Just like in the NFL, there are always 32 teams. You can have every team in the league controlled by a human or you can play your online franchise against 31 CPU opponents to take advantage of the web team management. The choice is up to you.

Q: Do you have trades? If so, how do they work?
A: Yes, we have trades and they work almost identical to offline franchise mode. We support multi-player trades, 3 for 3 deals, 2 for 2, etc.

Q: Do you support 2 players for 1 player trades, i.e. unbalanced trades?
A: Yes, we support 3 for 1, 2 for 1 and 3 for 2 trades.

Q: Can I trade with CPU teams?
A: Yes, you are able to trade with CPU trades. You must choose turn the Trade Settings to “ON”. However, the CPU teams do not have logic as to whether or not they should accept/reject a trade.

Q: Why don’t CPU teams run logic for things like trade proposals?
A: That is something that we sorely wanted to squeeze in for Madden NFL 10, but simply could not pull it off in time. Because everything was built to be server-based for Online Franchise, things like CPU logic would have to be run on that server, so we were not able to make that a part of the online franchise experience by the time the game will hit the shelves. Based on usage once the game is released we will obviously look to update and change whatever the community feels is most important.

Q: OK, so can we trade ONLY with human teams so we don’t have to worry about CPU teams and their lack of trade logic?
A: Yes, you can play with the Trade Settings set to “ON – with no CPU trades”. This means, for all trade screens, only human teams will show up to trade with. This is the default setting for Madden NFL 10 online franchises.

Q: Do you have NFL Drafts in online franchise?
A: Yes, at the end of each season, the NFL Draft is there for you to re-stock your talent with brand new rookie classes.

Q: Do you have the option to start out the online franchise with a fantasy draft?
A: Yes, this is probably my favorite feature when it comes to the Madden NFL 10 online franchise. Instead of always having to load into an online franchise with the default, 2009 real-world rosters, you have the ability to do a fantasy draft and completely balance out the league in terms of talent. So if you are in one of those competitive Madden Leagues where everyone wants the ultimate challenge and everything to start out balanced, fantasy draft is the way to go.

Q: How many rounds is a fantasy draft?
A: Fantasy drafts pick an entire 54 man roster. So the draft lasts 54 rounds.

Q: 54 rounds!?! Man, that sounds like it could actually take an entire weekend to finish.
A: We’ve done some things to help you get around that. First, we give the commissioner the ability to change the time per round to draft. Once you get past the first rounds you can set the pick time to as low as 15 seconds per pick. Secondly, the CPU teams rapid fire pick. We realize nobody wants to sit around for the CPU to pick, so that takes up little to no time each pick. Finally, we actually give the Commissioner the ability to “pause” the draft at any time. This means you can pause it one day, and pick it back up at some later point to continue.

Q: What about if I cannot make the live draft…Is there any way to pre-rank my players?
A: Yes, we allow you to pre-rank your players in the event where you cannot attend the live draft. This is set up in a similar way to fantasy baseball or football leagues. You can pre-rank each position with the players you want; in the order you want to draft them. This applies for both NFL seasonal drafts and fantasy drafts.

Q: Can I draft from my PC?
A: Yes, you can draft from the web using our Madden NFL 10 online franchise application or from your console, and members of your draft can be mixed on either platform. I believe this represents the first time in EA Sports history that a player on a console can be directly interacting with a player on the web…which for us is a huge win. This is a great example of how a server-based architecture allows us to do features we never really were thought possible before.

Q: Does Online Franchise support the NCAA Import Draft Class feature?
A: No, unfortunately this did not make the final feature list this year. This is one of my absolute favorite features amongst all of our football games here at EA Sports, and we have some good ideas on how we can try to update this after the game launches based on community demand.

Q: Does online franchise have player contracts or the salary cap?
A: No, this was the hardest pill to swallow for the entire design and development team this year as far as cut features go. But the reality of this decision was that we were able to get all of the other features of online franchise, and we were able to make it all in time to get into the Madden NFL 10 box. Just like with CPU trade logic, we will balance what features are most important to the community and try to attack those first after the game comes out.

Q: So no free agency either then?
A: Actually, we do have a free agent wire. You have the ability to cut players in online franchise and then sign a free agent to replace him. That means when you release them to the free agent wire, they become available to the rest of the league. If you are in a Franchise with your friends, you could submit waiver claims to your commissioner and have him determine the order of who gets what free agent like a fantasy league (this is what we’ve been doing here at work). However if you are in a Franchise with strangers this will just be first-come first-serve.

Q: So how long does the player stay on your team?
A: Since we do not have contracts in online franchise, players stay on your team until they retire or until you trade them away.

Q: So no free agency, no contracts, and no salary cap…that stinks! Why didn’t you put them in?
A: Many have asked why we left these features out, and the simple answer is that there just wasn’t enough time to get it in before the game hits the shelves. Creating a 100% server-based Online Franchise mode with full stat tracking and numerous other features wasn’t a very quick task. :) It took a major effort from our team to get to what we were happy with in a 1st year feature. The good news here though is that we HAVE given you a way to simulate this important part of the NFL off-season. We have given you a way to handle all of your offseason player movement, player contracts, etc. with your own house rules. The commissioner will have the option to Add/Drop players at will during the offseason (this is a website exclusive feature). I can give you an example of what we are already doing here at the office in our online franchise…Each team in the league is forced to give up five 70+ OVR players to free agency (we all agreed on the CPU team players to release). We then took that list, and did a quick free agency draft with that list of players. The commish then went into the Commissioner Options screen and add/dropped the players to the new teams. While this is not exactly ideal, it does give those folks who are looking for a very realistic Franchise experience a way to have offseason player movement every year. We are actively looking at a robust, live bidding free agent type feature for the future, but a lot depends on the priority you all (the fans) give us on each feature once you get your hands on online franchise.

Q: Do you have multi-week and season ending injuries in online franchise?
A: Yes, we do. We also have career-enders as well (very rare).

Q: You mentioned retirements, so players retire in online franchise?
A: Yes, we have player retirements in online franchise. It uses basically the same logic as offline franchise here as well.

Q: Do players progress during the 10 year online franchise or do their ratings always stay the same?
A: Yes, we have the full player progression system as offline franchise mode does. Rookies like Mark Sanchez and Aaron Curry progress in their ratings while the old vets like Zach Thomas and eventually Peyton Manning will decline in skills as they edge closer to retirement.

Q: is Edit Player available in online franchise?
A: Unfortunately no, this feature was not implemented for year one. We felt it opened up too many doors for people to find exploits by messing with things like changing positions, ratings, etc. We would have had to spend extra, valuable time preventing ways for people to change Julius Peppers to a Punter for example, instead of getting features like Retirements or Progression in the game. Instead, we felt it was best to simply restrict what you could edit (at least for Madden 10). We do allow each owner to edit his player’s jersey number if he wants to (commish can edit any jersey number of any team – in case CPU teams need their numbers changed for whatever reason). If this becomes a large community demand we could look into opening this up on the web selectively (maybe for the commissioner only?).

Q: Is there complete stat tracking and league leaders in online franchise?
A: Yes, we have full team stats, box scores, and player stats for every game of the NFL Season. So you can go into League or Team Schedule and check out the box score of any game played. We also have Player Season Stats and League Leaders which show the Top 50 at each of the major stat categories like Passing Yards, Rushing TD, and Sacks for example. All this data can also be accessed from the web as well as the console, allowing you the freedom to check in on how things are going in your Franchise from work or while traveling.

Q: Do online franchise games have real weather?
A: Yes, you have a setting for weather. You can choose to always play in fair weather or you can elect to play with real-world, seasonal weather.

Q: How do I see what transactions are occurring in my online franchise?
A: We have a Transactions History screen for you to view any and all transactions from around the league, very similar to a fantasy football website.

Q: What kind of options does the Commissioner have at his fingertips?
A: The commissioner is integral to the success of your online franchise. Just like in Online Dynasties, if you have a commish that forgets to advance the week or doesn’t control his owners, the league might fail. To accomplish this, we give the commissioner several different options:
- Boot Player – The commish can boot any unruly owner at any time. Any CPU team can be replaced by a user team (or vice versa) at any time.
- Promote Player – The commish can promote any other owner in the league to commissioner in the event where the commish goes out of town or is unavailable.
- Settings changes: Skill Level, Quarter Length, Fatigue, Injuries, and Accelerated Clock.
- Post News – The commish can post news to the console so all owners can see what is going on around the league.
- Add/Drop – As explained above, the commish can manipulate rosters to more realistically create off-season player movement.



Well, that's it for today's Q&A. We fully expect there to be more suggestions, questions, and requests as we creep towards launch, but hopefully now we've given some good perspective as to why we had to make the decisions we made, the flexibility of future additions based on community feedback, and also the depth that this feature is offering in year 1. Online Franchise is easily the biggest technological investment that we've ever made here at Tiburon so we are really looking forward to continue to develop on this platform and create fun and immersive experiences in the months and years to come.

- Donny Moore
Designer, Madden NFL 10

[Da Bucs GM]

Lions player ratings

http://espn.go.com/videogames/features/madden/madden10?teamId=19

[Da Bucs GM]

vikings player ratings

http://espn.go.com/videogames/features/madden/madden10?teamId=31



next up the NFC South

[Dr Death]

vikings player ratings

http://espn.go.com/videogames/features/madden/madden10?teamId=31



next up the NFC South

# 4 - John David Booty... ??? What number is Favre going to wear? :rotf:

[Da Bucs GM]

Some Bucs overall and speed ratings(full ratings not out yet.)

Leftwich: ovr 74
Freeman: ovr 73
McCown: ovr 70, spd 75

Ward: ovr 84, spd 88, acc 91
graham: ovr 79, spd 82, acc 86
williams: ovr 72, spd 86, acc 90
smith: ovr 67, spd 88, acc 90

Bryant: ovr 86, spd 86, acc 91
clayton: ovr 70, spd 81, acc 82
stovall: ovr 62, spd 75, acc 77
stroughter: ovr 61, spd 84, acc 88
jackson: ovr 46, spd 90, acc 92

winslow: ovr 90, spd 83, acc 85
stevens: ovr 77, spd 77, acc 82
gilmore: ovr 70, spd 63, acc 74

joseph: ovr 93
faine: ovr 85
sears: over 83
penn: ovr 78
trueblood: ovr 78
zuttah: ovr 77
mahan: ovr 76
alabi: ovr 67
fulton: ovr 62
lee: ovr 61

adams: ovr 78
hovan: ovr 77
white: ovr 73
sims: ovr 72
wilkerson: ovr 64
miller: ovr 63
moore: ovr 62
peterson: ovr 61

ruud: ovr 87, spd 76, acc 86
crowell: ovr 79, spd 76, acc 84
phillips: ovr 73, spd 77, acc 83
hayes: ovr 65, spd 79, acc 86
koutouvides: ovr 63, spd 70, acc 85
black: ovr 61, spd 86, acc 88
hayward: ovr 49, spd 83, acc 88

barber: ovr 88, spd 79, acc 92
talib: ovr 82 spd 87, acc 93
cox: ovr 66, spd 85, acc 90
biggers: ovr 61, spd 94, acc 92
mack: ovr 60, spd 87, acc 88
arrington: ovr 55, spd 85, acc 86

jackson: ovr 81, spd 85, acc 89
allen: ovr 70, spd 79, acc 86
piscitelli: ovr 67, spd 87, acc 85
nicholson: ovr 62, spd 85, acc 86

bryant: ovr 78
nugent: ovr 68

bidwell: ovr 83

[FSUbuccaneer06]

ward, bryant, ruud, and talib should be higher. other than that i dont really have any arguements.

doesnt really matter because im getting NCAA this year. i switch off buying one or the other every year.

[Floyd C]

Ward, Bryant, Ruud, Talib, and Tanard should be higher. other than that i dont really have any arguements.


Fixed and Jermaines overall is pretty bad, imo they should give him more credit for switching.

[Kyle]

why is allen ranked higher than sabby?

[Da Bucs GM]

weird huh?

[FSUbuccaneer06]

wow, i didnt notice tanard or the sabby thing. maybe i have a few more dissagrements

[Da Bucs GM]

Saints team player ratings

http://espn.go.com/videogames/features/madden/madden10?teamId=27

[FSUbuccaneer06]

Saints team player ratings

http://espn.go.com/videogames/features/madden/madden10?teamId=27
its about freakin time reggie bush is ranked what he deserves

[Da Bucs GM]

here you go buccaneers player ratings

http://espn.go.com/videogames/features/madden/madden10?teamId=6

[mr.fusion]

why is allen ranked higher than sabby?

Prob because Sabby sucks

:D

[kickstand]

I chuckle at some of these ratings.

Josh Freeman more accurate than Luke McCown and just 2 points lower than Byron Leftwich?

Jimmy Wilkerson < Ryan Sims?

Ronde Barber > Aquib Talib AND Tanard Jackson? Laughable at best

Piscitelli < Will "I'm about to give up a TD" freakin' Allen?

[Da Bucs GM]

Hey Madden fans!
I’m Josh Looman, senior designer for Madden NFL 10 and the guy who had the privilege of tuning franchise mode this year. I thought I’d sit down and answer a lot of the questions I’ve received about franchise mode and the changes we made this cycle. As I’ve mentioned before (in this blog), my goal was to clean up the logic and get this mode back to where it needed to be. I’ll repeat my favorite analogy for those of you who haven’t heard it before: If you found out you had termites in your house, would you build on another addition or clean up the foundation so that you could build on the house in the future? That was exactly our attitude and my sole focus since I joined the Madden team halfway through the development cycle. I enlisted the help of one of my top programmers from NFL Head Coach ’09 (Jeff Keyek) and worked with the rest of the Madden team to address many of the core aspects of the mode that really needed fixing.



There have been a ton of questions posted out on the forums that I wanted to answer, but first off I wanted to talk about one key addition to Franchise mode, which was a total overhaul to the overall interface and flow of the mode. We learned on NFL Head Coach ’09 that a career mode is a lot more fun to play when you don’t force people to go dig for common information every week. Surfacing these key pieces of info streamlines the experience and allows you to get what you need at a glance and advance to next week. We felt that one major issue with the previous Franchise experiences was just that it didn't feel alive. The Franchise hub was designed primarily with the one-player experience in mind...a one-stop shop to play games, watch "The Extra Point" recap show, and jump to top news around the league (though it's important to note the multi-player experience is just as streamlined through new league & team schedule screens). Here is a quick look at the Franchise "hub" - the home screen of sorts for your entire Franchise:

http://insideblog.easports.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/550x0/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/inside_5F00_ea._5F00_IanBlog/FranchiseHub.jpg

Now we can compare that to Madden NFL 09:

http://insideblog.easports.com/resized-image.ashx/__size/550x0/__key/CommunityServer.Blogs.Components.WeblogFiles/inside_5F00_ea._5F00_IanBlog/Franchise09.jpg


Also, here's a demo of "the hub" in action in an interview I did at E3 with our very own Carlos Navarro from the EA Sports Live team. Forgive my voice breaking up...E3 consists of a lot of shouting. :)

(youtube vid)





So that's enough talk about the core improvements to the flow - on to the questions...

Q: Has trade logic been improved? Will I still be able to trade for Matthew Stafford even though the lions just drafted him 1st overall and made him their franchise player?
A: Trade logic has been improved. It’s much harder to trade for good players or very high draft picks now. In the case of Matthew Stafford, the logic assigns him a trade value which becomes his worth in the game. Since he’s young and he’s yet to reach his potential, they increase that worth and essentially inflate his overall rating in trade negotiations. I’m sure you could swing a trade for him if you offered Peyton Manning, a first round pick, Bob Sanders and a pineapple upside down cake, though. :)

Q: Do CPU teams value their Draft Picks more than before?
A: Yes, they do. In the past, you could trade for the #1 pick by offering up something like the 15th overall pick and a 3rd rounder. We tuned it so that you have to offer up much more to get high draft picks now.

Q: Has there been more focus put on where a player wants to play in free agency?
A: Yes. I spent a lot of time tuning this over the past few months. I wanted to make sure that it would be harder to convince marquee free agents to play for the Lions, for instance. In Free Agency or in the Re-Signing stage, players will expect more money to sign or re-sign with a struggling team. If you’re Detroit and you want to sign a 90 overall free agent, you will need to pay him much more. If you’re New England, he may play for his expected salary or slightly less.

Q: Will players be able to become coaches after their retirement?
A: Yes. We even tuned this so that there’s a greater chance that retired players come back as coaches sooner this year.

Q: Since two-back systems are in vogue, will running backs split carries a la Carolina, Tennessee, etc.?
A: Yes. This is all determined by the RB sliders in your coach options. We have logic that determines how carries will be split later on in franchise. If you have two 90 overall running backs, they will split carries.

Q: How often does progression take place and will season performance effect it? (yearly, quarterly, every game, etc.)
A: All of the tuning this year was done to make the progression system from ’09 playable. Last year, players rarely progressed and if they did, they didn’t go up much. We fixed those problems and I’m seeing what I expect when I get to the offseason after having good seasons with my players. In the future, we’ll look into using a progression system similar to the one we used in NFL Head Coach ’09. It allows for more flexibility than the system we’re working with now.
To answer your question:
Season performance has a huge impact and progression happens in the offseason.

Q: How much does potential matter vs. production for progressing players?
A: Potential matters because it ultimately decides if a player has reached their ceiling or not while production is important since it determines if your player’s attributes increase or decrease. So I’d say that they matter equally.

Q: Has anything been done to the logic to stop players from retiring too early?
A: Yes. The retirement logic has been tuned so that less 30-34 year old players with a higher overall rating retire. You’ll still see players retire, but if they’re any good, they’ll stay around a little longer.

Q: How many different draft classes are there and how many extra undrafted players will there be on average?
A: There are 32 different draft classes that contain around 250 players each. That means about 30 players will go undrafted in each class.

Q: How will the scouting process work for rookies pre-draft and how is it different from the last few iterations of Madden or similar to HC?
A: Scouting is different than it was in ’09. This year you pick the players you want to scout and each week a piece of information is unlocked about them. At first, the information will be a bit vague. You’ll see comments like, “His awareness is less than an 80.” Once you scout the player a few more weeks, you’ll clear up the vague comments and see something along the lines of, “Ok, we’re sure that his awareness is a 76.”
This will help you get a total picture of the player. Since you also have an idea of what his potential is, you can combine the information to determine if the player has high potential and if he’s able to be more than a project. Just because a player has high potential doesn’t mean that he’ll be a productive player for a while. You may draft players in the 7th round with high potential but they’ll come in at 59 overall. So it could take years for them to be ready to play significant roles. If you do your homework, you can find the Marques Colston’s of the Draft. Players with high potential and high overalls that can contribute right away. I spent a lot of time tuning the draft classes so that there are really busts and gems in the draft now. You may draft a LT who comes out at 80 overall but has a potential of 81. Or you may draft a QB in the 6th round who has a 99 potential and a 78 overall rating ala Tom Brady.

Q: Is there a noticeable difference between regular season and playoff games?
A: Yes. Ian and the presentation team did a lot of great things to make sure that the playoffs felt different than the regular season. I’m not going to spoil them for you, but I have a feeling your jaws are going to drop when you see some of the things we have in store.

Q: Has anything been done to fix the scheduling logic? Will we still see teams with 4 straight Monday night games or open the season with a 6-game road trip?
A: This has been fixed by the guy I mentioned above...Jeff Keyek. He fixed some weird logic issues that were causing scheduling anomalies.

Q: Will coaches effect progression? For example it seemed like the Ravens and Steelers could draft LBer after LBer and most of them would become at least solid players.
A: Coaches, especially elite coaches, do impact a player’s ratings in Franchise Mode. Coaches like D. LeBeau will give a constant increase to certain player ratings in-game and when games are simmed, effectively making players on their team better all the time. You can see the impact they make in the player management screen. You’ll notice a little plus sign and a number next to the ratings they are increasing.

[Da Bucs GM]

panthers team player ratings

http://espn.go.com/videogames/features/madden/madden10?teamId=21

[TruBucsFan22]

kinda funny that Jermaine is not the fastest LB... I think that is a big mistake... I'm sure he beefed up a bit but to be that slow is ridiculous. and I know he's not a burner but he is much faster than Rudd i would say. not just 1 point!!

[BUCFANfromSF]

Quincy Black is an 86 speed:eek: thats faster than Barber, Tanard, Allen, Cox, Nicholson, Arrington

[galloway123]

Quincy Black is an 86 speed:eek: thats faster than Barber, Tanard, Allen, Cox, Nicholson, Arrington

Let's just say he will be getting some playing time because all the other LB's are slow as ****.

[Da Bucs GM]

franchise mode will be very fun with the bucs this year trying to build your team up

[TampaBayzAllDay]

I play Madden for the Franchise mode and I'm very excited so far for all these changes.

[Da Bucs GM]

Falcons player ratings

http://espn.go.com/videogames/features/madden/madden10?teamId=14

[Da Bucs GM]

I play Madden for the Franchise mode and I'm very excited so far for all these changes.

you and me both

[Bahamian:bucfan]

I also play madden solely in francise mode.

I have a few questions for you who also play in francise:

1) How long does it take you to complete a full season (from game 1 of regular season until super bowl )?
It takes me about 1.5 to two weeks

2) What level do you (normally) play on?
Normally I play on all pro and all Madden ( I switch up)

3) Do you play with the Bucs only?
I am not a true Buc fan If I play with another team

4) At what age do you think is too old for a man to be playing Madden?:cool:

[Da Bucs GM]

1) How long does it take you to complete a full season (from game 1 of regular season until super bowl )?

When I first get the game I'm playing it when ever I get a chance but let's say like in June it takes me 2-3 weeks playing it on and off.

2) What level do you (normally) play on?

all pro(I can't run on all madden and it ****es me off)

3) Do you play with the Bucs only?

yup usually in like year 3-4 of franchise I change to a 3-4 D just to change pace.

4) At what age do you think is too old for a man to be playing Madden?:cool:

There is no age limit if you like playing video games. Do what you like to do. Shoot my pops is 50+ yr old and I catch him playing a game or two. And he still comes home with the big bucks. Don't make you any less of a man if you can put the joystick down when needed and handle your duties as a man/parent/husband e.t.c

[BUCFANfromSF]

Let's just say he will be getting some playing time because all the other LB's are slow as ****.
exactly.. he'll be in on all of my blizting :lol:

[Ruudude]

It takes me a few weeks to finish a season.
I do not necessarily only play Bucs as my only franchise, I actually like taking teams with bad coach staffs (like the lions f.e.) and turning them into an all-star Superbowl contending team. My last franchise was the Lions because Calvin J is my favorite wideout. But I always have a couple franchises with the Bucs each year.

I have put some questions together for Da Bucs Gm to answer. I have been keeping up with this thread for the past couple of weeks now so I am familiar with the biggest improvements.

First let me say that I play on All Madden and I got very frustrated last year with Madden 09. The passing game was aweful... I mean garbage. The o-line would just drop back and some would turn and look at the defenders as they make a simple move and sack the quaterback. Now I know that is being fixed but I had to let some steam out. Now for the questions -
1. What is being done to make streak routes more like the NFL? Of the 20+ hours spent on Madden 09, I only find a receiver alone going deep on all out blitzes. In the NFL you notice Steve Smith fake out a defender, a qualified one like Ronde Barber, and get a bomb to the endzone like the other top ten receivers.
2. In the NFL players use referees as a wedge between defenders for slant routes and the occasional post route. I noticed that referees have made it to Madden but it looks like they have no solidity (By solidity I mean the difference between the football players and the camera men.) Will this effect Madden 10 or will it be considered in an upcoming Madden?
3. Will players slip in the game now? I see on every Sunday a player slip either due to a double move, rain, or turf conditions. I never see a defensive player slip due to a WR route or a ball carier slip up for no reason.
4. When I have a receiver open making the turn on a post on cover 2 zone, I cant get it to the reciever cause when I hold his button down its picked off by the MLB. I get angry cause Im like "no one in their right mind would have thrown the ball that low!!!!!!" It seems like you either throwing a lob or a linedrive and nothing in between when that completion is being done every Sunday. What is being done about this?
5. I always get very frustrated when I release the ball down field and then everyone turns to go get it on defense. Even when DB's dont even have their head turned looking at the ball!!! In the NFL when someone bombs one out everyone is still covering their man until they realize what is going on. My brother calls Madden 09 - Interception 09. What is being done about DB reaction time?
6. In Madden 09 on a rare occasion I would get outside the line and still have one/two/three blockers in front of me. I am like yes! 70 yrd Touchdown! Then the blockers turn around and go block someone that I dont even need blocked. Then I am left alone to deal with one or two defenders and I get tackled with a 5 yrd gain!!! What is being done about blocking awareness and pulling blockers? It just seems like they are dumb.
7. Like above... Screen passes are just as aweful with the blocking awareness. I mean come on every lineman knows that on a screen you move up the field. Ill pick a screen at the perfect time, throw it to my back, and then set up for the run up the field with two or three blockers and then all the sudden I see the tackle and guard running back to block the D-linemen?!?!?! Blocking in 09 was a failure at best.
8. I never understood why in 09 the camera was not wide enough to see the wideouts first move. I mean... that is one of the most important factors in the passing game. If I could see the pusshing shoving between the CB and WR I would be unstoppable. If I see Antonio Bryant pushing shoving Atl Corners I know instantly to lob it to him cause he is gonna make a move and get open. But since I cant see the WR until I am about to get sacked I have to change up my play calling to posts and slants which is unrealistic and takes away from the game. I thought maybe being able use the R stick to turn the QB's head to see those areas would be a cool import into the game but a longshot. What is being done about being able to see the engagement of CBs and WRs at the snap?
Since you (Da Bucs Gm) already have answered the other 90 questions by posting your material on the last 7 pages I will leave you with the unanswered 8. I may have some more soon Ill try to remember some more angry times with madden 09... that usually helps ;)
Thanks - Ruudude

[Ruudude]

Oh yea forgot to mention... Is All Madden going to be realistic this year or is All Pro going to be realistic? Because last year All Pro was too easy and All Madden was just absolutely fake. I have never seen defenders react so quickly and without any mistakes.

[CanuckBuc40]

Anyone know anything about the soundtrack? I'm not big into it because most of the time it's garbage but there is the odd gem every now and then.

[Da Bucs GM]

yeah let me say again that I don't work for EA I just post the new info here but I'll try to answer some of the questions


1. What is being done to make streak routes more like the NFL? Of the 20+ hours spent on Madden 09, I only find a receiver alone going deep on all out blitzes. In the NFL you notice Steve Smith fake out a defender, a qualified one like Ronde Barber, and get a bomb to the endzone like the other top ten receivers.

well I believe with the new WR/DB jostling added(as long as there isn't a safety rolled over to that side) smith is going to get alot of TDs on that matchup. remember they not only slowed to gameplay down but every player also. smith speed is I think 97 in madden 10 and ronde is a 79 speed. smith is a top 5 WR(I think) in the game. I believe he will win a position battle down the field vs ronde alot THEN not only that but the speed and acceleration rating will kick in I don't think ronde would be even close to attempt a swat.But on the flip side just because a CB is slow won't mean they can't cover. ronde will be able to stick smith but just a small amount of time and not all the way down field

2. In the NFL players use referees as a wedge between defenders for slant routes and the occasional post route. I noticed that referees have made it to Madden but it looks like they have no solidity (By solidity I mean the difference between the football players and the camera men.) Will this effect Madden 10 or will it be considered in an upcoming Madden?

True I've seen game footage where a player ran through a refs meh it's not a game breaker for me tho

3. Will players slip in the game now? I see on every Sunday a player slip either due to a double move, rain, or turf conditions. I never see a defensive player slip due to a WR route or a ball carier slip up for no reason.

well don't quote me on this but ian said something about this I'm not sure though I hope it's in

4. When I have a receiver open making the turn on a post on cover 2 zone, I cant get it to the reciever cause when I hold his button down its picked off by the MLB. I get angry cause Im like "no one in their right mind would have thrown the ball that low!!!!!!" It seems like you either throwing a lob or a linedrive and nothing in between when that completion is being done every Sunday. What is being done about this?

well they have added new accuracy ratings now (short passes, medium passes, long passes) I'm guessing that will determine how good the pass will be to a receiver.

5. I always get very frustrated when I release the ball down field and then everyone turns to go get it on defense. Even when DB's dont even have their head turned looking at the ball!!! In the NFL when someone bombs one out everyone is still covering their man until they realize what is going on. My brother calls Madden 09 - Interception 09. What is being done about DB reaction time?

Ahh yes those "I have eyes in the back of my head" INTs lol hate them. Luckly this was one of the first problems Ian fixed with "procuderal awareness". It simply means if your head is not looking at the ball you can't make a play on the ball. point blank period. Now when they WR catches it the DB might try to knock it out really quick but those spidey sense INTs no more.


6. In Madden 09 on a rare occasion I would get outside the line and still have one/two/three blockers in front of me. I am like yes! 70 yrd Touchdown! Then the blockers turn around and go block someone that I dont even need blocked. Then I am left alone to deal with one or two defenders and I get tackled with a 5 yrd gain!!! What is being done about blocking awareness and pulling blockers? It just seems like they are dumb.

I pretty sure I posted one of their blog about the running game you might have to go back some pages but it's there. I think I had videos and all included

7. Like above... Screen passes are just as aweful with the blocking awareness. I mean come on every lineman knows that on a screen you move up the field. Ill pick a screen at the perfect time, throw it to my back, and then set up for the run up the field with two or three blockers and then all the sudden I see the tackle and guard running back to block the D-linemen?!?!?! Blocking in 09 was a failure at best.

see answer above

8. I never understood why in 09 the camera was not wide enough to see the wideouts first move. I mean... that is one of the most important factors in the passing game. If I could see the pusshing shoving between the CB and WR I would be unstoppable. If I see Antonio Bryant pushing shoving Atl Corners I know instantly to lob it to him cause he is gonna make a move and get open. But since I cant see the WR until I am about to get sacked I have to change up my play calling to posts and slants which is unrealistic and takes away from the game. I thought maybe being able use the R stick to turn the QB's head to see those areas would be a cool import into the game but a longshot. What is being done about being able to see the engagement of CBs and WRs at the snap?

Madden 10 will have the standard view, and the wide(where you see the your WR's pre-play)