Madden 10 Info Summary Thread

[Saluki]

ian_cummings: One hell of a trip to NY...at JFK about to head home. Back to the grind tomorrow...fixing run anims, pass anims, & shoulder pads...LOL

Thank god, those shoulder pads were horrible

[killgod]

assume nothing coming today cause we got draft stuff yesterday?

[Aso]

assume nothing coming today cause we got draft stuff yesterday?

Those fuckers better. We still should have blogs regarding the Wildcat and Franchise mode coming up.

[Aso]

I really hope the Franchise mode is greatly improved this year, makes a big difference if I am still playing it months after it is released.

The two things i need in franchise mode:

1. Fix IR. It's pointless, you put someone of there and they still count as part of your teams roster.
2. They should include the waiver wire. When a player gets released then so many teams put in claims for that player and the team with the worst record gets a chance to sign him.

[Aso]

http://www.operationsports.com/forums/2039489277-post1.html

Looks awesome! But it won't be in M '10. Disappointing.

[Point Blank]

-Ian

Now that we've weathered the bitterness storm and are now back to riding the wave of constructive-ness (I don't think that's a word), I thought I'd update everyone to the progress of our animation improvements after the feedback in the trailer.

Simon is going back through basically all of our locomotion to find the 'problem' run cycles and he'll be spending the next couple of days tweaking and replacing animations. We'll update everyone in a couple of days with progress.

The pass animations are also being swept through for the 'bent knee' issue. I sent these screencaps over to the gameplay/animation team this morning and they are running through the pass animations to fix them. I'll update progress on that as it happens as well.
passes.JPG


On a side note, I knew the changes we were making as a team would gbe cool (in regards to our community involvement), but I never dreamed it could be this awesome - fixing stuff on the fly right alongside the community. I've said it before and I'll say it again - we're basically all making this game together which is quite amazing when you sit back and think of it. I am loving it!

[killgod]

did adem die?

what's with this thread?

anything coming today?

what the fuck is with all these questions?

[Poundtherock]

Adem posted thia over at OS on 04.28:

Really sorry about the lack of updating. During the flood here in Fargo, my office transferred all of our servers down to Clovis, New Mexico, and it's really screwed with my connection to my home computer. Adding a single line to this thread takes a good 20 minutes now, and my roommate (who was supposed to have moved out by now ) is a computer hog at night. The first chance I generally get to update is 2am, and by that time I'm just not up to it.

I'm going to try to do some updating soon. If you guys can copy/paste info you find lying around that I haven't included yet into this thread, it would be a HUGE help.

Might still be having those same issues.

[Poundtherock]

BTW, Adem, when you get back up and running from the floods, I'm wodering if you have heard anything RE: "QB WR-specific pump fake" being developed for Madden 10? I checked the blogs but saw no mention of it in the QB blog by Ian.

I had mentioned it to Ian and Phil Frazier months back, but no news as yet. I got a current question in to Ian but no response as yet. Maybe Rac can help as well, if you happen to run across him somewhere. Or maybe "mum" on the subject is still on.

Thanks,

PTR.

[Poundtherock]

Credit[s] http://insideblog.easports.com/archi...n/default.aspx
May. 11, 2009 1:54 PM EST By: EA_IanCummings

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 [link]. 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:

Madden 09 blocking from easports on Vimeo.

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:

Blocking animations - APF2k8 from easports on Vimeo.

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:

Madden NFL 10 - Pass blocking & branch windows from easports on Vimeo.

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:

Blocking steering from easports on Vimeo.

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

Damn, '10 is looking to be the best ever if info so far translate to gameplay when the game drops. I would like to see more hands-on info as well.

[Poundtherock]

Ummmmm, I think I'm posting this in the wrong thread. N/P.

[Aso]

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.
More details coming soon!

• 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.
More details coming soon!

• 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. More details coming soon!

• 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.


Source: http://ps3.ign.com/articles/977/977970p1.html


The things underlined are the things that stood out most to me. It looks like their will be co-op online play and online franchise. Also presentation looks like it's being stepped up. Also for online it looks like we'll get options. Instead of a standard 5 minute All-Pro ranked game instead you can choose to have maybe All-Madden or even Pro instead, Accelerated clock. Maybe we'll be able to choose weather too. Hopefully we can play online ranked games with fair play turned on as well. I can't wait 'til E3 which is June 2-4 and is when these final features will be announced.

[Aso]

Donny Moore quote from Operation Sports.

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!!? :cool:

-Donny

[Aso]

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/982/982670p1.html

MOST IMPORTANT QUOTES:

What's more, if your running back is still churning his legs and the refs have yet to blow the play dead (another addition to this year's game) you can switch off of your struggling back, control an offensive lineman, and add him to the pile in an effort to push your man farther up-field.

Gone are the days of running full-steam ahead and then doing a hop-step to the left or right. Now it's a much more subtle and realistic looking movement with the same desired effect.

Secondly, quarterback animations have been greatly improved from last year. It's not something that I found to impact gameplay, but when I was shown screenshots of marquee quarterbacks hurling the pigskin the changes were very recognizable. Whether it's the position of their left hand on the ball when dropping back or how the ball is oriented in relation to their body when bringing it back to throw, every quarterback throws the ball differently. Just like in the real NFL. And yes, these authentic styles trickle down to the kickers as well.

Presentation, something that was seriously lacking in the first Madden iterations on current-gen systems, has seen a nice overhaul. Pre-game you'll notice camera angles that show concession stands handing hot dogs to fans and people making their way to their seats. During the action there will be detailed cutscenes (not the low-resolution models like in last year's game) showing players warming up on the sideline. If your quarterback is taking a licking on the field you'll see him trot over to the sideline and pick up a phone to talk to the coach's box. The chain gang is also present, as are all of the refs that should be on the field. And yes, you can truck into them.

Just don't run into them too hard or you might injure one of your star players. Do that, and you'll be greeted with a new injury mechanic. It won't happen immediately – depending on the severity of the injury your man might need to be helped off the field by other players – but once the problem is diagnosed you'll be shown a screen that tells you what's injured, how severe it is and then you'll be given the option to put him back in the game. You'll be given a rating that tells you how good he'll be once he's back on the field and you'll see the likelihood of him re-injuring himself. It's sort of like Blitz The League, but without the steroid use.

[Helicopter]

ROFL. He looks like an 11 year old girl.

Fitting...sometimes he acts like an 11 year old girl.