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Madden 09 News Post

Well as I post this it’s officially been exactly two weeks since Madden officially launched, and wow it sure has been a busy time for us. I truly hope everyone is enjoying the game, and I wanted to drop an update on some things we’ve been working on for our 2nd patch. We feel that without a doubt this encapsulates the top issues we’re hearing from the forums and community leaders, and hope that this list truly makes Madden NFL 09 the ultimate sports game for you.
  1. Kicking play disconnect: If two opponents play a game with two different camera angles, in any situation where a game winning or tying kick was to be made, a disconnect could occur. “ActionCam” forces the game to go into slow-motion to add drama to these late kicks, but unfortunately the Classic camera does not, thus forcing the “disconnect”. This has been fixed…and FYI all cameras will still be able to be used after the patch.
    Workaround until the patch: If possible, ensure that you and your opponent have the same camera type chosen before starting an online game.
  2. Stability issues in the play call / halftime highlights / postgame highlights screens (especially in Franchise mode after training games): This was a hard one to track down as not everyone was seeing it , we did find the issue however with some Instant Replay / cache corruption, and have a fix ready for patch 2.
    Workaround until the patch: Save and re-boot after any point where you have entered the game. We learned that the likelihood of this issue appearing is magnified after multiple loads into and out of the game engine. From what we’ve seen so far, people that have tried playing only one game at a time (or even one Franchise training session at a time), and saving/rebooting afterwards, have had zero crashes.
  3. Stability issues with Madden IQ end of game popup: This has been fixed.
    Workaround until the patch: Always choose “No” at the Madden IQ end of game popup.
  4. “WR direct snap” exploit: Cheesers found an exploit to direct snap to a WR for easy short yardage gain. Not only are we fixing this play (i.e. we aren’t removing it), we are also going to be re-setting records for anyone with a winning record that has been found to be using this play.
  5. Franchise Progression / Regression (or lack thereof): The lack of higher numbers was a tuning value that I think everyone agreed was just too low. This has been juiced up so you should see more realistic progression now.
  6. Edited players don’t progress: Players were not progressing after their jersey number (or pretty much any other attribute) was edited. This has been fixed.
  7. Stability issue when exiting Madden ’93 in CE version: This has been fixed.
  8. Deep ball glitch: Some enterprising gamers found a way to throw a deep ball while crossing the LOS and hit a receiver wide open at a decent rate. We addressed this by making sure the DB will no longer break on the ball when the QB crosses the line while throwing.
  9. CPU running out of bounds: This bug appears when the CPU tries to switch hands while running to the sidelines. This is fixed for patch 2.
  10. Penalty sliders ineffective: A common complaint from the hardcore community was the lack of effect from the penalty sliders. We increased these substantially for patch 2.
  11. Field degradation: Another common complaint was the lack of field degradation. Our effect was very subtle, which was also getting overshadowed by our lighting and post effects, so we increased this effect for the patch.
  12. Stability issue with the Eagles and a full ring meter: We found and fixed a rare issue where the gamer could run into stability issues while using the Eagles in mini-games with a ring meter that was completely full.
  13. Play call screen hitch: We found and fixed a bug that was causing a noticeable hitch when exiting the play call screen
  14. Prevent Defense issue: We found and fixed an issue where defenders sharing a deep zone/prevent assignment would loosen their coverage (because they thought the other guy was covering for them), which allowed the receiver to get behind them even though they were in Prevent.
  15. Brett Favre stats: With the late addition of Brett Favre, we were not able to get his Career and Season statistics into the game for the roster update. This has now been added for patch 2.
  16. Defensive Preplay Mis-cue: We found and fixed an issue where defenders would leave their man wide open in a Cover 3.
  17. CPU quick-snap: A very common complaint on the forums was the speed at which the CPU snapped the ball. We added a random length of time (no less than 5 seconds) for the CPU to wait and even make pre-play adjustments.
  18. Online playbook switch: We fixed a small annoying little issue where playbooks were re-setting to the defaults after the playbook select popup was closed.
I hope this makes everyone quite happy. :-)

The patch is being tested as I write this and will be sent off for verification in the morning, so we are targeting less than a 3 week turnaround from today for this to hit the general public. (Woohoo!) We will also make sure to provide updates as the patch progresses through the 3rd party approval process. As a side note, as of this moment there have been no changes to database schema, so you won’t have to re-start your Franchise or delete any files.

It makes us very stoked to be able to make this many changes for a patch, and do them based directly on community feedback. There are always going to be folks that are upset if what they felt was a top issue wasn’t addressed, but I’ll state again (as I have before) that we have to keep balancing this work against Madden NFL 2010. The longer we keep going on patches, the less we can add to the following year’s product. On a side note, there is also a Franchise stability issue that we have been investigating, and we are working feverishly to get this figured out. We will update on that issue as soon as we can. As for the items above, I personally feel that we have hit a very good balance of top items because many of these issues can actually detract from an enjoyable experience, which is obviously the last thing we want.

And now that this patch is nearly out the door, I figured I’d drop some more good news… We have officially started building the TOTALLY FREE “Sim Madden Gamer” DLC pack, which includes Accelerated Clock, a “Classic” Controller Configuration, CPU Sliders, and Community Gamerpics for 360. I’ll state again that there’s no promise that this goes through, but we have nearly every one of these features actually ‘done’ internally, so now we have to figure out how to get Microsoft and Sony to allow us to release them.

Thanks everyone – keep the feedback coming, and let's keep this train a-rollin'!

Ian Cummings
Senior Designer, Madden NFL 2010

Game: Madden NFL 09Reader Score: 7/10 - Vote Now
Platform: NDS / PS2 / PS3 / PSP / Wii / Xbox 360Votes for game: 88 - View All
Madden NFL 09 Videos
Member Comments
# 201 sram444 @ 08/26/08 08:42 PM
this is a dumb question but ill ask it anyway.. and sorry if it was already answered.

when the patch comes out we will have to restart our franchise in order for the fixes to work in franchise mode? i already know the answer but was hoping to be wrong....


thanks
 
# 202 edubbs @ 08/26/08 08:48 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by BIGROC
the fatigue was explained...and you could always up the auto sub % to have more frequent subs automatically, or do them yourself with the (Y) button in play calling screen.

I know it was explained.

However, defenders DO NOT fatigue in this game and I like to utilize the run game to wear down defenses. This strategy will not be possible this year because of the lack of fatigue.

Also, I really do not see the difference between poor defensive teams against the run vs. good defensive teams against the run because defenders do not tire.

It makes teams like the Bengals as tough as the Ravens or Vikings to run against, which should never be the case.

It's too tough to establish a consistent run game against the CPU since defenders do not tire as they should.

That's why it's dissapointing to see that a fix will not be added via patch.
 
# 203 whosgotcha @ 08/26/08 08:49 PM
Looking forward to the patch. Hope that the DLC will come through also. Audibles on the fly would make it complete.
 
# 204 xV3L0CiTY @ 08/26/08 08:50 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by countryboy
These things here, along with hopefully the inclusion of accelerated clock, have me so excited, as they were my biggest gripes with the game.
Huh...no...did? He did!!!

ATTN EVERYBODY: CB had/has gripes with Madden '09.

Only joking...just said that because I haven't seen anything negative from you about '09.

But seriously, if everything in the patch is fixed correctly and we get DLC...this will be the best Madden to date. Period. (My opinion of course).
 
# 205 adembroski @ 08/26/08 08:50 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gizmo777
Can someone explain to me why there are so many people thanking Ian and EA for fixing things that shouldn't have been broken to begin with.
Because Ian didn't break them.
 
# 206 boooey @ 08/26/08 09:00 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by adembroski
Because Ian didn't break them.
Just as people have the right to be happy and thank Ian.. there are others who paid $64 for a game that is not functioning for them, and in some extreme cases systems are getting bricked.

People have every right to be upset and vent a little bit, and present Ian with the tough questions they as consumers want answered.

Its totally justified and warranted in my opinion.
 
# 207 adembroski @ 08/26/08 09:04 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by ab2c4
Does EA have a different process that they are held to than the other game companies because you always see other companies going gold about two weeks before the street release date.
You have diarrhea of the mouth, man, and you could use a slap. Quit talking about what you know nothing about.

If you had been paying attention at the time (or if you'd honestly read Padre's statemnet that you keep using to back you up) you'd realize that the date on which Madden "Went Gold" was not the date on which most companies would have made that statement.

The term "going gold" has no actual meaning tied too it. At least, none agreed upon by different developers or industry insiders. It can mean "The game is locked", "the game is ready for certification", or even "The game is ready for print" or "The game is ready to be shipped"... each of these involve VASTLY different time frames.

Madden must be completed, must go through internal testing, then it must be shipped to MS and Sony for their testing (at which point it's at the back of the line, btw, so it doesn't get tested the moment Sony and MS get a hold of it... patches take 2 weeks, a game is much bigger than a patch), there has to be a window to fix anything MS and Sony come up with then resubmit, then there's the final built, printing, and shipping.

The "gold" announcement was made in June when the product was locked for internal testing... most companies proclaim gold at the post-MS/Sony test when they've got their final build ready for print. Madden goes through the certification process every year and can say, with reasonable confidence, that they'll pass, because they know what MS and Sony are looking for. So they can say "gold" at a sooner time than other companies can.

So no, there was no more time to work, they worked until the last possible moment, but at some point, you have to start the process of getting it too the consumer.

Now, you've been educated. Stop making yourself look so damned ignorant.
 
# 208 destroyer @ 08/26/08 09:21 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by adembroski
You have diarrhea of the mouth, man, and you could use a slap. Quit talking about what you know nothing about.

If you had been paying attention at the time (or if you'd honestly read Padre's statemnet that you keep using to back you up) you'd realize that the date on which Madden "Went Gold" was not the date on which most companies would have made that statement.

The term "going gold" has no actual meaning tied too it. At least, none agreed upon by different developers or industry insiders. It can mean "The game is locked", "the game is ready for certification", or even "The game is ready for print" or "The game is ready to be shipped"... each of these involve VASTLY different time frames.

Madden must be completed, must go through internal testing, then it must be shipped to MS and Sony for their testing (at which point it's at the back of the line, btw, so it doesn't get tested the moment Sony and MS get a hold of it... patches take 2 weeks, a game is much bigger than a patch), there has to be a window to fix anything MS and Sony come up with then resubmit, then there's the final built, printing, and shipping.

The "gold" announcement was made in June when the product was locked for internal testing... most companies proclaim gold at the post-MS/Sony test when they've got their final build ready for print. Madden goes through the certification process every year and can say, with reasonable confidence, that they'll pass, because they know what MS and Sony are looking for. So they can say "gold" at a sooner time than other companies can.

So no, there was no more time to work, they worked until the last possible moment, but at some point, you have to start the process of getting it too the consumer.

Now, you've been educated. Stop making yourself look so damned ignorant.

Dang, there must not be much to do in FARGO huh? lol
 
# 209 adembroski @ 08/26/08 09:27 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by boooey
Just as people have the right to be happy and thank Ian.. there are others who paid $64 for a game that is not functioning for them, and in some extreme cases systems are getting bricked.

People have every right to be upset and vent a little bit, and present Ian with the tough questions they as consumers want answered.

Its totally justified and warranted in my opinion.
I don't disagree. I was answering his question. Ian didn't break it. He wasn't on the team. We have a new lead designer, and a new producer... the two top spots... and they're working to correct mistakes of the previous regime. Personally, I'm a lot quicker to thank the new guys than blame them for the old groups problems.
 
# 210 03MstGT290 @ 08/26/08 09:28 PM
If MS and Sony do not approve FREE DLC, I wouldn't mind paying for it.
 
# 211 BleacherCreature @ 08/26/08 09:34 PM
Excuse my ignorance but what does "DLC" mean?
I'm a NY sports fan so I'm a tad slow.
 
# 212 boooey @ 08/26/08 09:38 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by BleacherCreature
Excuse my ignorance but what does "DLC" mean?
I'm a NY sports fan so I'm a tad slow.
Downloadable Content
 
# 213 BleacherCreature @ 08/26/08 09:40 PM
Thanks. But how does this differ from a patch? You need to download either way. Unless you have the option for DLC?
Can you tell I'm new to the online game thing?
 
# 214 boooey @ 08/26/08 09:55 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by adembroski
I don't disagree. I was answering his question. Ian didn't break it. He wasn't on the team. We have a new lead designer, and a new producer... the two top spots... and they're working to correct mistakes of the previous regime. Personally, I'm a lot quicker to thank the new guys than blame them for the old groups problems.
now this is news to me.. I did not know they recently released the lead designer and producer of Madden 09.
That certainly fills in some missing gaps for me, and does show EA may in fact be moving in the right direction.

But until Madden 2010 (i still cant believe its going to be the year 2010 already ) is released, we are still talking about Madden 2009, and there are issues that needed to be addressed.

I don't think anyone is "Blaming" Ian for anything. Its just that Ian is that guy with the power to address this. This is what he signed up for by accepting the Madden lead designer position.

It was a bold move for him to come on this forum for feedback. He really needs to be commended for that.

I must say that I am impressed with Ian so far, and he seems to be up for the challenge of righting this ship.
It won't be an easy task.
 
# 215 03MstGT290 @ 08/26/08 10:10 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by BleacherCreature
Thanks. But how does this differ from a patch? You need to download either way. Unless you have the option for DLC?
Can you tell I'm new to the online game thing?
A patch fixes any kind of glitches in the game and it also adds some game contents automatically. When you pop a game in, an "Do you want to update it?" screen will be prompted for you to select yes or no to update it with a patch.

DLC, downloadable content, is like optional and it doesn't act like a patch where it fixes the glitches. For example, last year in Madden 08 additional throwback uniforms were included in the DLC that you could download for each division.
 
# 216 SoMiss2000 @ 08/26/08 11:07 PM
good deal EA.
 
# 217 tcbeo1hr @ 08/26/08 11:26 PM
yeah great...now only if someone could tell me why me and my friend cannot connect to play online!!! we have even gone so far as to diable firewalls..disable our wireless router features AND open the UDP port that the Madden book tells you to...
BUT the only people we can play is EVERYONE else?!?!?!??!?!!!!!!
 
# 218 BleacherCreature @ 08/26/08 11:26 PM
Gotcha! Thanks for the explanations guys!
 
# 219 rock85 @ 08/26/08 11:37 PM
Thanks guys Listen up MS/Sony we need this DLC
 
# 220 Ankido @ 08/26/08 11:57 PM
Hey listen up guys, no matter what happens they are trying to fix 09 so guys like me are not so bored with madden everyday. The patch sounds promising and the DLC is great as well especially the CPU sliders. Let's be real here, no matter how hard Ian tries it won't come down to him to make the decisions. I know how EA works, they only do stuff that benifits themselves and the work of time. No more 2010 talk, that's another thread you can go to. So read this thread and give a positive comment like "great work Ian, can't wait for the patch" and move on to another thread. Nobody knows the future, we'll have to wait and see what happens.
 


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