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[Shawnwhann]

Wouldn't it rely on you using the oline adjustments more? Since you are a higher level player you would be responsible for helping the blocking schemes I would guess.

Either way the bolded part is the way it should be Especially given the 2nd Dallas game last year, and that was before we had JT.


In all seriousness though I'm hoping the Olines aren't like how you described with a little oline adjusting, otherwise I guess I'll have to tank the madden IQ challenge like you mentioned.

Maybe... but the way my linemen were being ran over and demolished I'm doubtful using the adjustments will fix the issues there. Like I said, I'll test it more tonight.

 

[GQman2121]

This is making more and more sense now with this online league info coming out. This current setup is just easier on (E)veryone.

 

[sableholic]

Maybe... but the way my linemen were being ran over and demolished I'm doubtful using the adjustments will fix the issues there. Like I said, I'll test it more tonight.

K look forward to hearing how it goes.

 

[Wellington]

I know both the Redskins and the Bucs blitz quite often, but it sucks getting sacked right after I hike to ball or run a play action fake.

The Bucs don't really blitz, and neither team was any good at getting at the QB last year. I fear for Eli now.

About to take the Madden test. :-O

 

[FrenchMovieTheme]

i see you online wellie, hit me up when done so we can play!

 

[Wellington]

I sent you a message asking for a game foolio!

 

[FrenchMovieTheme]

west lobby friend!

 

[Zep]

Just for some background, when we all sat down to look at Online Leagues, all teams met as this was a feature that all games within EA Sports wanted. NBA, FIFA, NHL and Madden all sat down and began to identify what sort of league feature we’d all like… and one issue kept on coming up, scheduling and the social problem around it. By social problem, I simply mean how do we get people to play games, stay active in the league and actually finish leagues. As I said in a prior post, let’s say your friend needs to take off for two weeks. What happens to your league? Do you sim his/her game? Do you all wait? Do you remove him from the league? These sorts of issues plague the majority of leagues out there. This is why we created our flex scheduling. With an open schedule, games and leagues are much more apt to finish as they won’t get held up by unforeseen circumstances or scheduling problems. Additionally, it allows for smaller scale leagues in which all games will be head to head without having to play a dearth of CPU games.

This year, we created a quality online experience with trades, full player stat tracking, a draft, playoffs and a whole slew of administrative tools. For this year, our number one goal was to get this functionality in, and most importantly, stable and as bug free as possible, which we have done. We are always looking for feedback on what you all want to see and will most definitely consider your thoughts when deciding how to move forward with leagues, hence why we are on the boards interacting with our community.

There is a reason this thing isn’t called Online Franchise (and hasn’t been spoken or written of as such), and that’s because it doesn’t have certain elements that would make it a Franchise, such as a strict schedule, divisions/conferences and an off-season. These items aren’t in Madden NFL 09 and there isn’t a plan to add them this year.

Online leagues was meant to be a way for gamers to be able to play head to head against their friends or the public, track their stats and record and have a playoff system at the end to crown a champion. We have delivered on this.

Sounds like something straight from PR...:lol

 

[Ramirez]

I'm honestly not surprised that the league structure sucks...it's a shame that they can't even get it right after 2K did it like 7 years ago, pretty pathetic.

 

[DCX]

So....League Daddy it is?

DCX

 

[Wellington]

Just finished up a game with FMT online. Thoughts:

The game felt s-l-u-g-g-i-s-h. Not because of lag, actually it was pretty good for a cross country connection, but the game just felt so slow, even slower than the demo. I think some people will be put off by it.

Didn't have too much of a problem with protection. There were a couple of times that I held the ball too long and I paid for it. I actually thought that the OLine did a better job of protecting me this time than last year.

To that end, is there momentum with the line play? At first I came out and just beat up both of FMTs lines, and then it started going back and forth, at the end of the game Gore was just chewing up whatever yardage he wanted. I couldn't do anything to stop it.

On defense, blitzing is not the same kind of pressure as it was last year, again the OLine does a good job, and it seems like if you keep a back in to block that you'll be in good shape.

I was able to generate pressure in zone coverages with my front four after a bit of experimenting. I spent almost the entire second half in zone coverage working that out.

Nice to have total control passing back. Let me hit a long one to Boss.

This looks like it's more of a fundamental - X's and O's - kind of game as opposed to the arcadey feel of the last two years.

 

[LukeSmith]

Just finished up a game with FMT online. Thoughts:

The game felt s-l-u-g-g-i-s-h. Not because of lag, actually it was pretty good for a cross country connection, but the game just felt so slow, even slower than the demo. I think some people will be put off by it.

Your Luke Was Right T-shirt is in the mail. What size do you prefer?

 

[FrenchMovieTheme]

that was a great game wellington. it ended in a 10-7 giants win as i missed a 51 yard fg by about a yard with 5 seconds left. some thoughts:

* i love the speed of the game. as ck said some may be put off by it, but i like it a lot.
* the running game is vastly improved. correct me if i'm wrong ck, but i didn't see 1 of those "RB tackled as he gets the ball" plays that we saw a few times a game last year. the holes open and close in a realistic manner.
* passing game is DRASTICALLY improved. this is for 2 reasons. first you can lead your receivers again. secondly, spider senses are gone. this leads to some plays where you say "WTF why wasn't that a pick!" but in most instances its pretty realistic.

i had one play where i had a rb in the flats and my TE a level above. i threw to the TE in man coverage with the completion even though the ball wizzed by the LB's head (who was covering the RB in the flats). in years past this is a spider senses pick, and in most cases it shouldn't be. the LB is watching the RB in man coverage, no reason for him to see that ball!

* giants line destroyed me the entire first half. i switched it up to a lot of 3 step or 5 step drops in the 2nd with some success, then on my final drive i went back to the shotgun "let the play develop", and was sacked back to back times.

i'm extremely happy with the game so far. defensive AI is a lot better than NCAA and so games such as this (10-7) are possible. thumbs up.... friends!!

 

[LJ11]

Thanks for the impressions guys.

I'm too lazy to trek into the city and pick up a copy, I'll definitely do so tomorrow.

 

[FrenchMovieTheme]

ck can we put up some type of poll? we need to figure out what we're doing for the league. unless someone has another idea, i see league daddy as the only way to go. but i'm open to suggestions.

 

[Slo]

Is the game actually out or are you guys just circle jerking about your l337 hookups? >:|

 

[FrenchMovieTheme]

i don't have any "hookups". i went to a swapmeet and bought the game legally. if somewhere in minnesota is selling it (which they probably are!) then you can find it!

best buy, gamestop, target, etc. already have the game, they just can't sell it until tuesday.

 

[Wellington]

ck can we put up some type of poll? we need to figure out what we're doing for the league. unless someone has another idea, i see league daddy as the only way to go. but i'm open to suggestions.

Will do.

Thinking back to our game, some cool and not so cool things that happened:

Cool - I persistently ran left, away from P. Will. I ran a toss out to the right with Jacobs and Burress as the lead blocker which is usually money in the bank since he is good... not this time! Forgot about Nate Clements, who shed the blocker and got me with a nice open field tackle.

Not so cool - 3rd and 3, fourth quarter, I am in my red-zone. I hand off to Jacobs who gets the 2 yards thanks to a great hole opened up by Shaun O'Hara... out of nowhere one of FMTs LBs TOTALLY stuffs Jacobs who was in the trucking animation! Any other RB in the league, fine, but Jacobs is the size of a DE for fucks sake.

Cool - I sat in basic cover 2s and 3s for most of the second half just trying to adjust my DLine play. Like FMT mentioned, there was one play in particular where he hit Davis on what would have surely been either picked or swatted last year, but this year, realistically since the DB was out of position, the ball whizzed by the defenders head.

 

[LiveWire]

* passing game is DRASTICALLY improved. this is for 2 reasons. first you can lead your receivers again. secondly, spider senses are gone. this leads to some plays where you say "WTF why wasn't that a pick!" but in most instances its pretty realistic.

i had one play where i had a rb in the flats and my TE a level above. i threw to the TE in man coverage with the completion even though the ball wizzed by the LB's head (who was covering the RB in the flats). in years past this is a spider senses pick, and in most cases it shouldn't be. the LB is watching the RB in man coverage, no reason for him to see that ball

About goddamn time. This is how NCAA feels, glad to see Madden has followed.

 

[Shawnwhann]

that was a great game wellington. it ended in a 10-7 giants win as i missed a 51 yard fg by about a yard with 5 seconds left. some thoughts:

* i love the speed of the game. as ck said some may be put off by it, but i like it a lot.
* the running game is vastly improved. correct me if i'm wrong ck, but i didn't see 1 of those "RB tackled as he gets the ball" plays that we saw a few times a game last year. the holes open and close in a realistic manner.
* passing game is DRASTICALLY improved. this is for 2 reasons. first you can lead your receivers again. secondly, spider senses are gone. this leads to some plays where you say "WTF why wasn't that a pick!" but in most instances its pretty realistic.

i had one play where i had a rb in the flats and my TE a level above. i threw to the TE in man coverage with the completion even though the ball wizzed by the LB's head (who was covering the RB in the flats). in years past this is a spider senses pick, and in most cases it shouldn't be. the LB is watching the RB in man coverage, no reason for him to see that ball!

* giants line destroyed me the entire first half. i switched it up to a lot of 3 step or 5 step drops in the 2nd with some success, then on my final drive i went back to the shotgun "let the play develop", and was sacked back to back times.

i'm extremely happy with the game so far. defensive AI is a lot better than NCAA and so games such as this (10-7) are possible. thumbs up.... friends!!

I can't wait to get home and try the game on "All Pro" vs. the custom IQ settings. Reads like we are playing two different games...

 

[Zep]

so...who voted for EA service?

 

[Slo]

so...who voted for EA service?

Don't worry, it won't make a damned bit of difference how the poll ends!

 

[DenogginizerOS]

so...who voted for EA service?

I did simply because I make it a policy to at least try something once before I destroy it.

 

[Shawnwhann]

I voted for the EA service too as I'm over the days of inputting stats manually...

Nothing twists the knife more than inputting stats in a game you lost...

 

[DenogginizerOS]

Since we all know we will play more than one season, I think we should at least try the EA service. We could do two sixteen-team leagues and just have the winners of those two leagues play each other. Just give it a try and see how it goes.

 

[Zep]

Just seems incomplete to me...And I can't go along with it.

 

[DenogginizerOS]

Just seems incomplete to me...And I can't go along with it.

I think we should at least give FMT the option since he puts up the money for LD.

 

[LiveWire]

I think we should at least give FMT the option since he puts up the money for LD.

I'm happy to PayPal FMT $1,2,5 whatever to help pay for LD if that's a concern.

 

[Zep]

I think the first league should at least be properly done...

 

[DenogginizerOS]

I guess I fail to see how everyone playing each other and the best teams advancing is that much different than having league schedules and manual stat entering on LD. The teams that win these divisions don't match what happens in real life and some people never get to play against each other in this league. I know it is not ideal, but is having a chance to measure up against everyone in the league with stat tracking and flex scheduling worse than having league daddy and waiting on one guy who is on a business trip for three days to play his game before any of us get to play again?

 

[Zep]

but is having a chance to measure up against everyone in the league with stat tracking and flex scheduling worse than having league daddy and waiting on one guy who is on a business trip for three days to play his game before any of us get to play again?

Yes.

 

[DenogginizerOS]

Yes.

I can only imagine how much better our first attempt at an MLB league would have been if we didn't have to restart the whole league after people bailed versus this flex scheduling thing that automatically adjusts for bailers.

 

[Zep]

If I didn't get sick, I would have made it work. The restrictions SONY put on there didn't help either. They were sloppy.

But for Madden, I just can't settle for,"Hey....whos online to play now?" I need something to build up. I hate having this guessing game of who I'm playing. Terrible.

 

[DenogginizerOS]

If I didn't get sick, I would have made it work. The restrictions SONY put on there didn't help either. They were sloppy.

But for Madden, I just can't settle for,"Hey....whos online to play now?" I need something to build up. I hate having this guessing game of who I'm playing. Terrible.

See, I and others have the problem of trying to synch up with everyone's schedules (i.e "I can only play at night but I am on the West coast" or "I can only play on Tuesday and Thursday because of my shows" or "I can only play on weekends because I coach softball"; etc etc). I think we can plan on who we play next using this thread but if I am online and Shawn is online and he and I have a game to play, I would love to get it in while we both are free. Hell, some of us play 2-3 games in one night. Without having to enter stats, 2 games could be played in a little more time than it takes to play one game and have to enter your stats manually into LD.

 

[Zep]

I think you're overexaggerating stat input a bit. Everything always falls into place with the schedules in real life. The chances something comes up by your time in the schedule is pretty slim.

 

[LukeSmith]

The stats deepen the whole experience in awesome and meaningful ways. I love looking through the stats to cull information about people's playstyles in advance of playing them. I loved knowing that Malley threw X% of his passes to Tony Gonzalez and then spending some time in the defensive practice mode trying different coverage schemes and assigning different players to Gonzalez till I felt like I had an answer for it.

And playing out division scenarios and thinking about what needs to happen in order to make the Playoffs. It takes the whole shebang to a different level.

 

[FrenchMovieTheme]

CK i know the play you are talking about, but that was not my LB. it was my DT isaac sapoaga, and he is about 320-330 pounds (i actually saved the play and ill upload it later)

still, you should have gotten the first, but it is a bit more believeable that a DT stuffed him over a LB

 

[DenogginizerOS]

I think you're overexaggerating stat input a bit. Everything always falls into place with the schedules in real life. The chances something comes up by your time in the schedule is pretty slim.

Based on the 4 day delay we just had in our 12-MAN NCAA league because one person was out of town on a trip and a few others couldn't get it done, I'd say I personally am ready to try a league where if I can play three games in one week versus 1 because of one person's schedule. It takes the pressure off of them, it takes the pressure off of the commish, and I don't get stale sitting around playing the CPU while others take care of life.

 

[Shawnwhann]

Gentlemen...take a sec and breath!

There are two sides to the argument to go LD vs. EA's service.

As someone with a shrinking time allotment to do things such as playing games and such, I personally view the EA service as being a much more seemless way to ensure the season gets played as quickly as possible.

While viewing stats is fun and all, it's hard going back to the expectation that I have to put in stats now following full featured online leagues in both NBA2K8 and NCAA 09. As I've mentioned earlier, it's a pain in the ass putting in stats (especially following a loss) and I'm of the mind we actually give the EA option a shot before be shit all over it. The flex scheduling option is something I think folks will really enjoy vs. waiting to play every single week.

If we do LD again (Please dont..), I think this is the year we all need to contribute to the bill FMT pays year in and year out. It shouldn't be his responsibility to solely pay for it ever again considering nearly all of us have Paypal accounts....

 

[DenogginizerOS]

I will do what the commish decides and I definitely will contribute to an LD fund if that is what is decided.

 

[Zep]

Let me use a an old FMT quote...

"If you can't dedicate one night a week to playing Madden, this league isn't for you"

Pretty much sums it up. And when has anyone put stats in immediately after a loss? I know I don't. I usually wait till the next morning. It's not that big a deal.

 

[DMczaf]

We just need to make sure people don't start ignoring stats the closer we get to the end.

I know there were people who would just stop entering stats in the final 3 weeks + Playoffs

I KNOW WHO YOU ARE!

 

[Shawnwhann]

Let me use a an old FMT quote...

"If you can't dedicate one night a week to playing Madden, this league isn't for you"

Pretty much sums it up. And when has anyone put stats in immediately after a loss? I know I don't. I usually wait till the next morning. It's not that big a deal.

Don't mean to put you on blast bro, but I have to respond to this here.

An arbitrary declaration of "one game a week" is unfair and unrealistic.

We are all grown men with all kinds of responsibilities and commitments. We sign up with the intention of coming through and being a good league member, but stuff comes up all the time. I can't think of one season ever where everyone made it through the entire league without someone having to drop for whatever reason. The "quote" would absolutely rule out a lot of folks here as I can't unequivocally say I WILL be available to play a game a week. Shit comes up, as such; we need to be mindful of that with whatever decision/rules are made.

 

[Zep]

Theres no blasting, its good to hear both sides.

But my point is, this isn't the NBA, this isn't baseball where there's games every night. For me, it just takes away that "football feeling" you get when playing in madden leagues. There being no buildup to a game is the main draw, I don't want this to feel like an NBA or MLB league.

We should have never had this problem...Leave it to Tiburon.

 

[DenogginizerOS]

Not sure if everyone has viewed this but it sounds reasonable:
http://www.easports.com/madden09/fullsite/media.jsp?itemID=360onlineleagues

 

[CB3]

wait so are stats trackable if the unique teams option is on? thats what the developer makes it sound like in that interview

 

[DenogginizerOS]

wait so are stats trackable if the unique teams option is on? thats what the developer makes it sound like in that interview

YES. Stats are FULLY integrated into their system.

Plus, it has nice features like tracking who wins the championship from season to season. I like that.

 

[DMczaf]

wait so are stats trackable if the unique teams option is on? thats what the developer makes it sound like in that interview

Team and Player Stats are in, that was figured out.

It's just scheduling thats screwing us up. If we had realistic scheduling, this wouldn't even be a question of LD vs EA. But we don't! DAMN IT!

 

[Herpes Reasons]

quick question, how is that poll accomplished near the top of the page in this thread?
some kind of css style sheet in the opening OP? or is it done through a mod?

 

[CB3]

Im leaning towards just trying out EA's system the first time around. If we dont like it we can move to leaguedaddy after.