Madden NFL 18 News Post

Madden NFL 18 Gameplay Changes - What Do You Want to See?

06:05 PM - April 6, 2017 by Millennium

There have been a few community members that are prominent in the Madden Ultimate Team world asking their Twitter followers for constructive feedback on what they would like to see changed gameplay wise in Madden NFL 18. I'm here asking the same thing, but to the OS crowd.

Two rules - keep it constructive (and in a positive nature) and respect other's feedback (even if they differ from your own).

Other than that no opinion or idea is too big or too small.

Have at it.

Game: Madden NFL 18Hype Score: 6/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PS3 / PS4 / Xbox 360 / Xbox OneVotes for game: 9 - View All

Member Comments

# 61 TombSong @ 04/08/17 10:52 AM

1. Seperate the defensive line stunts/gap assignments from the play call.
2. Be able to tell LB/DBs which gaps you want them to blitz.
3. Better man coverage technique by DBs.
4. A defender SHOULD be able to run AWAY from the side he is being blocked from. I have seen TOO MANY instances of defenders playing patty cake with offensive linemen when all they have to simply do(like they do in real life) is run away from the block to where the ball carrier is going.

5. DB's need a way to stay with WR's that run away from them after the offensive play has broke down. The offense has TOO much advantage with this. The WR's continue on to another route while the DB/LB just sits there and watches the WR run away from them.

6. I should not have to pick a certain formation in a certain playbook to get a coverage i want to have. Why is there no cover 6 from the 46 ?
With that on offense some of the 4 wide formations need more run plays.

7. Fatigue needs to be looked at. I cant believe NFL players get winded after one drive. There also needs to be a way to let you know what ratings are getting affected by fatigue during the game so you can make appropriate adjustments.

8. Excel ratings spreadsheets for each team should be released online with the game. You cheaped out on the instruction booklet that used to come with the games and had all the player ratings. Heck you make millions of dollars off the game give us a dang excel book with all the teams ratings.

9. Let us adjust the HB/FB blitz pickup assignments. What you have now does not work. We need more pass block schemes for the oline also.

10.Player movement/animations, suction blocking/tackling all need to be addressed BADLY.

OH, and have a DETAILED explanation of the player ratings and DEMO them working in a video.
25+ years of Madden and NOBODY knows what known of the ratings really mean, especially how they are suppose to counter each other.

# 62 LBzrule @ 04/08/17 11:17 AM

I'm not going to post too much here but what I would like to see more than anything else:

1. Players who act like they know what they are doing and they are on a mission to do it.
- Just thinking about run blocking. I need to see OL that are mean and nasty getting to the second level with ill intentions. Currently guys are just jogging around acting like they don't know who they are going to block, but if someone bumps into them then they'll block them.

2. Ratings that are very clear and allow you to build a offense or defense around it. Let me explain. If I have a Center, RG, LG all with 95 run blocking, my offense should be an interior nightmare for teams that do not have high block shed personnel. If you are not going to stunt your linebackers and bring secondary personnel into that GCG area I should be able to pound you into submission until you do that. Currently, the game allows guys get away with bad decisions and not adjusting to what the strength of another team SHOULD be. So if I have 95 run blocking across the GCG area and your best is let's say an 87 and the rest of your guys are in the 70's you should be forced to stunt the linebackers tohelp yourself there or get gashed.

3. ONe more big one. OL that do a much better job of picking up the user defender especially on outside run plays. Currently guys can easily play over the top of just about all the outside run plays and get away from the blocker and make the play.

4. Remove the drag route from the at the line hot routes. People can call Drive, Under and other plays if they want drags, but remove it from the hot routes. It has become a crutch and your flat and hook defenders in buzz coverage do not respond to that route fast enough. As soon as the hook safety sees that guy coming across the formation and sees the QB eyeing him, he should be a missle and into that WR's earhole as soon as he catches the football.

# 63 warrave58 @ 04/08/17 02:34 PM

I would love to see man to man react way better, it's to a point that once your opponent know that' your in man coverage he draws up is premeditated routes (come back route, ten yard or more in or out route, c route, and chair route destroys man coverage) it leaves you nothing on defense because that's pretty much all the routes. This has to be fix so we can get back to x and o of football. This also cause people to get bored with the games and for that reason it's hard to go all year around football with madden...

Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

# 64 mjd113 @ 04/08/17 02:50 PM

I would like to be able to tell my defense to stop the run, without it meaning everyone running a route is wide open if it happens to be a pass.

It doesn't have to be an all out blitz.

# 65 PVarck31 @ 04/08/17 03:31 PM

This probably something that is already set for 18, but I want to see more body types. Seems like there are like three right now.

I know this can also be a graphical thing, but I think it relates to gameplay as well if its done right.

For example, short stocky running backs who can use their size to their advantedge. Tall skinny WR's, buff LB's and safety's, linemen who are fat, just have a gut, and are just big dudes.

I think there needs to be about 6-8 different body types. I know there is a differentiation in height already in the game, but it just seems like the taller and shorter guys are just stretched or shortened and not taking into account their actual body shape.

It seems everyone looks the same in their shoulder pads. Would be nice to see more sizes. I think they are too big for most players.

# 66 cree ross @ 04/08/17 04:32 PM

Add more animations. Madden 17 used 25 GB out of a 50gb bluray. At least another 10gb should be dedicated to different throwing styles ,running styles ,etc.

# 67 Fist Of Kings @ 04/08/17 09:57 PM

It needs much better ai in all situations. Tried of seeing players with high awareness/play recognition ratings all play poorly. I want players to double team threats appropriately, instead of seeing my lineman double team some scrub as they do now.

Madden needs a lot more of everything. I would like to see various skill packages(similar to the nba 2k games) that can be unlocked depending on a player's rating. Low rated players wouldn't have access to skills/packages that higher rated players would have. That I feel is a much better way to make players different from each other instead of the gimmicky rac/aggressive catch system.

Put in player/position ratings/options so that we can adjust how players perform. That would hopefully eliminate all players playing the same regardless of rating, and rid us of robo qbs.

# 68 kingsofthevalley @ 04/08/17 11:26 PM

The one thing that I would like to see implemented is the connection of MUT to Franchise mode. This would most definitely draw the crowd who plays franchise mode but not MUT, into MUT. I like the idea and the presentation of MUT but I've NEVER touched it.

However, I would absolutely LOVE to integrate the legend players into my connected franchise draft. At the present moment, I just go in and edit draft class names to pepper the league with random legends and old school players, but it would be great to have that naturally in game.

Just sync it all into one huge game mode. I can't come up with any negative angles to give reasons why they shouldn't be linked.

# 69 Jvalachovic @ 04/09/17 12:59 AM

I'm seeing a lot of people posting about the passing. Wouldn't a great way to effect throws be to add a release meter somewhat like a shot meter in 2k or throwing meter from the show? It could have a sweet spot almost at the end of the bar. With red at the bottom and top yellow surrounding the small green portion. You would press and hold the button of the receiver and let it go once you get it in the sweet spot. Green would throw to the best of the qb ability. Yellow with a slight risk of inaccuracy. And red with a high risk of inaccuracy. This now solves the issue of qb having easy perfect accuracy every play. It also gives the user a sense of personal investment in the qb they're using because they would have to learn the qb release timing for different quarterbacks. The sweet spot would be bigger depending on the attributes of the qb during that throw. Good deep accuracy bigger sweet spot on that deep throw. Low short accuracy, smaller green area for short throws. I think this would help solve many of the qb issues on madden.

# 70 lilrosati56 @ 04/09/17 08:42 AM

I know this won't be popular, but the first thing I'd ditch is XP....not just how it's applied, but get rid of it all together. Have player progression tied back to age and performance and have it happen behind the scense, like it used to be years ago. This has added clutter nothing but clutter to the game. Second, change how the in season re-signings go.....why are some players locked until certain weeks? That makes no sense......Finally, just try and bring some character to the game....My favorite gaming experiences were back on NCAA taking over a small, crappy school and trying to build them up, each team actually felt different in terms of talent...if you took a UMass and played against a LSU, there was a definite difference in talent, half your playbook wouldn't work, you had to have an actual gameplan to compete and have a chance in that game...that doesn't exist in Madden, these teams and players have NO personality....Every game I play feels the same. Make it so eking out 9 wins with a rookie QB is an actual accomplishment.....starting two rookies on the right side of the OL against the Texans is a choice with consequences. Also, and this is said every year, keep us up to date with the rest of the league (drop that ridiculously terrible Twitter news screen, that thing is a mess). Again, NCAA did this well years ago, with the magazine pages (Madden once had the newspapers, same thing. In game updates from around the league would be nice (Again, NCAA had this). As it stands now, If I'm playing a 4:30pm game with the Steelers at no point do i know what else has happened around the league besides with the ticker.....seriously though, drop that twitter screen, that thing offers nothing of substance.....how many weeks would Jesse James being a trade target really be tweeted about?

# 71 Mattanite @ 04/09/17 12:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Millennium


	Be more specific with your gameplay requests. What do you want to see in better team differentiation? Define improved man coverage as it compares to Madden 17. Sent from my Pixel XL using Operation Sports mobile app

Players:

Unique running styles and different running styles for rookies coming into the league.
Unique cadences for rookie QBs coming into the leagues.
They scrapped unique throwing styles for a list of generic throw styles, so bring back named throw styles and more unique looking ones.
More archetypes like NBA2k17 that actually name right. If I am swapping a 300lb RE to LE it shouldn't make them a speed rusher.
Players playing like their archetypes as oppose to just matching them. A speed rusher uses more outside speed runs and finesse moves. Pass blockers getting a slight boost to pass situations. An archetype of "star" or "superstar" or "balanced" wouldn't have an archetype to follow.
Further split attributes for better player differentiation
Greater scaling of attributes rather than all players having 50+ for their position skills
Players to "feel" different when playing

Teams:

For there to be a difference in "feel" of coaches. Some are wizards with the clock, some a great half time adjusters, they're not all the same but in Madden, besides playbooks there is little difference.
Scheme archetype adjustments - either a team changes D-coordinator from 4-3 to 3-4, the scheme archetype shouldn't be fixed. Also a scheme might change over time to suit the players "make the scheme fit the players".
Proper succession planning for players at positions, i.e. not resigning a 32 year old veteran to a huge 2 year contract when there is a semi decent backup in place (especially with QBs).
CPU movement of players - 2 decent ROLBS on a team, one should be moved by the CPU.
Have a different style of acquiring players for each team, the packers draft and retain and have great succession plans and only pick up a star piece on occasion.
Team profiles - like NBA2k17, based on roster, coach and current W/L a team should have a profile of rebuilding/building/contending/out of contention(playing future starters more).

Man coverage - Whilst obviously there should be a difference between man and zone, in recent Maddens past, the emphasis was on man coverage as it generally worked better than zone. This year zone works better. Balancing the defence so there isn't a preference would add variety to play calling.

Edit: Also, more rookie models and rookie faces that actually match the portrait!!!! Less surfer dudes especially when the pic doesn't match!

Also, dynamic weather in game. It could get better, or worse and you need to game plan for it. Live weather report of the US showing each teams location, therefore, if its snowing in Minnesota, it's likely snowing in Chicago, Detroit and Wisconsin.

# 72 dsk1317 @ 04/09/17 03:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lilrosati56


	I know this won't be popular, but the first thing I'd ditch is XP....not just how it's applied, but get rid of it all together. Have player progression tied back to age and performance and have it happen behind the scense, like it used to be years ago. This has added clutter nothing but clutter to the game. Second, change how the in season re-signings go.....why are some players locked until certain weeks? That makes no sense......Finally, just try and bring some character to the game....My favorite gaming experiences were back on NCAA taking over a small, crappy school and trying to build them up, each team actually felt different in terms of talent...if you took a UMass and played against a LSU, there was a definite difference in talent, half your playbook wouldn't work, you had to have an actual gameplan to compete and have a chance in that game...that doesn't exist in Madden, these teams and players have NO personality....Every game I play feels the same. Make it so eking out 9 wins with a rookie QB is an actual accomplishment.....starting two rookies on the right side of the OL against the Texans is a choice with consequences. Also, and this is said every year, keep us up to date with the rest of the league (drop that ridiculously terrible Twitter news screen, that thing is a mess). Again, NCAA did this well years ago, with the magazine pages (Madden once had the newspapers, same thing. In game updates from around the league would be nice (Again, NCAA had this). As it stands now, If I'm playing a 4:30pm game with the Steelers at no point do i know what else has happened around the league besides with the ticker.....seriously though, drop that twitter screen, that thing offers nothing of substance.....how many weeks would Jesse James being a trade target really be tweeted about?

I just had this exact XP conversation with a friend, and he and I couldn't agree more. In fact, the XP system is as unrealistic as freestyle/tournament play.

Sent from my XT1080 using Operation Sports mobile app

# 73 DeuceDouglas @ 04/09/17 03:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jvalachovic


	I'm seeing a lot of people posting about the passing. Wouldn't a great way to effect throws be to add a release meter somewhat like a shot meter in 2k or throwing meter from the show? It could have a sweet spot almost at the end of the bar. With red at the bottom and top yellow surrounding the small green portion. You would press and hold the button of the receiver and let it go once you get it in the sweet spot. Green would throw to the best of the qb ability. Yellow with a slight risk of inaccuracy. And red with a high risk of inaccuracy. This now solves the issue of qb having easy perfect accuracy every play. It also gives the user a sense of personal investment in the qb they're using because they would have to learn the qb release timing for different quarterbacks. The sweet spot would be bigger depending on the attributes of the qb during that throw. Good deep accuracy bigger sweet spot on that deep throw. Low short accuracy, smaller green area for short throws. I think this would help solve many of the qb issues on madden.

I think this would really cool to see implemented and could possibly open up a lot in the passing game. Expanding from simply touch or bullet passing would be nice especially if they tuned THP so you could really feel the difference between QB's with strong arms. It could also emulate QB's with quicker releases as well and get rid of the ability for QB's to throw 60-yard bombs with the same release as a quick slant.

I do think though it would be something that, if implemented, would end up like the vision cone. It'd be a completely new and probably somewhat steep learning curve in a part of Madden that's largely been the same since the SNES days so I'm sure based on that alone, a large number of people would hate it and denounce it immediately without giving much of a shot.

# 74 LBzrule @ 04/09/17 03:38 PM

Man coverage:

All Cover 0 plays: CB should be playing with inside leverage. Their man coverage rating vs the WR's route running should determine how well they maintain that leverage.

More Cover 0 Notes: Off Coverage vs deep routes. Maintain a proper cushion unless playing pressing. However, don't overplay the route. Again, the man coverage rating should determine how well he maintains the cushion. If the WR is running a go route for instance, When the WR is 10 yards down the field a good CB should be 15 yards down the field. When the WR is 15 the CB should be 18.

Man coverage in general notes: Anticipate 3 step drop routes. Play Recognition and Man coverage together should determine this. If the QB drops three steps then the CB has to anticipate a short route between 5 to 7 yards. If the QB takes a 5 step drop then the CB should be anticipating routes between 8 and 15 yards. 7 step drops and PA Shots are 18+. Play recognition, Awr, man coverage should all come into play vs route running, release. These should all come into play to determine how well that CB mirrors the WR and breaks/anticipates the pass.

Cover 1 Notes: Inside/Outside Leverage should be built into the play. Field Corner/Boundary Corner.

Field Corner is the wide side of the field CB. He can receive FS help. The boundary Corner doesn't get Free Safety help, the sideline is his help. So Field Corner should always play outside leverage with the knowledge of receiving inside help from the Free Safety. The Boundary Corner should be playing inside leverage with the knowledge that the Free Safety is not helping him and he has to use the sideline. What this should do is make post routes on the field very dangerous passes. IT should also take away a post from the boundary because the boundary CB is playing inside leverage. It should also make the slant and dig from the boundary very difficult, pending man coverage ratings of course. What it should open up on the Boundary is the fade, out, out and up, comeback. Again how well it is played will vary from CB to CB based on their man coverage ratings but the attempt at positioning should be universal.

Middle of the field - there is no field/boundary CB so we need to add some caveats.
Wide Splits by the WR's, both CB's should play inside leverage because the safety can't help both of them.

Middle of the field vs Tight Splits - Corners can expect help from the Free Safety so they should play outside leverage.

Press Coverage - should be based on funnel to help or not. Cover 1 press coverage, Field Corner should never allow the WR an outside release as he has inside help from the FS. Boundary Corner should never allow the WR an inside release as he has no help inside. Again the success of this should be based on press vs release rating. If my boundary CB in Cover 1 has a 90 press and the WR has an 80 release I don't want to look back at the tape and see this corner giving up any inside release. 90 vs 80 that WR should not be getting an inside release. He should get rerouted and the timing between him and the QB should be way off. 90 vs 90 ok, toss up, sometimes the WR gets the inside release, sometimes he doesn't. But if you are going to make it a numbers game then we need the numbers to mean what they say so we can properly evaluate the team and build around who we have.

Take these rules for man coverage and I think the game is a bit more enjoyable when calling man coverage so long as one knows the rules and knows their personnel. If they don't know the rules and their own personnel then that's on them. That said, I do think guys need to get over running man coverage every play and against every offensive formation. That's just not how defensive coordinators call a defense.

In any case, since the shading doesn't do this for us can we just have the leverage built into the Cover 0 and Cover 1 plays?

# 75 smack23011 @ 04/09/17 10:27 PM

Better OL/DL play. I get it when there is a top notch DL players like Suh or JJ Watt that is beating my young OL constantly. But not in year 2 when joe blow rookie is doing it constantly. Also fix how they block. Its 2017 and that hasn't been fixed. Pass blocking you often see the LT/RT push the DE far out creating a bubble around the QB. The OL tries to stay in a straight line and it is super annoying, its not realistic.

Add or change the way the ball is thrown. Instead of just pressing the button or tapping it for a different throw put a meter on it or create something completely new.

If my RB is hitting a whole he shouldn't get arm tackled and warped into a tackle because he ran to close to the OL/DL players.

Please fix the CPU AI defensively. Defense's change before the play starts to adjust to what sets the O is running. Doesn't matter if a I run the same play 10 times in a row the defense never catches on and stays with their picked defensive play. I also don't understand how super LBs are back in the game when they're making super jumps when I'm throwing TE Post routes and floating the ball and they seem to catch it. Outside of DB/WRs just about everyone else stays grounded on those.

GET RID OF WARPING COMPLETELY.

# 76 Rhudey @ 04/09/17 10:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dsk1317


	I just had this exact XP conversation with a friend, and he and I couldn't agree more. In fact, the XP system is as unrealistic as freestyle/tournament play. Sent from my XT1080 using Operation Sports mobile app

YES!!!! The entire XP system is horrible! The news page is equally terrible.

# 77 Kanobi @ 04/10/17 03:22 AM

More suddenness and sense of explosive impact on tackles and collisions in general. There's a very subtle, floaty, underwater type of feel to player contact in Madden that detracts from the realism. It's as if the players have no weight.

I don't know how Visual Concepts was able to pull it off from a technical standpoint but their 2k football games nailed the sense of explosive tackling and impact on collisions. I'd like to see the Madden team prioritize that as it would add an immense sense of immersion and realism while playing.

# 78 Mattanite @ 04/10/17 04:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kanobi


	More suddenness and sense of explosive impact on tackles and collisions in general. There's a very subtle, floaty, underwater type of feel to player contact in Madden that detracts from the realism. It's as if the players have no weight. I don't know how Visual Concepts was able to pull it off from a technical standpoint but their 2k football games nailed the sense of explosive tackling and impact on collisions. I'd like to see the Madden team prioritize that as it would add an immense sense of immersion and realism while playing.

What, you don't like the absence of any smack and the annoying player grunt on every tackle this year? :P

But, to actually add to this discussion. Could there even be a kid friendly and uncensored switch in the menus? :P :P Turn off the censorship and you get the M09 shaky cam on big hits, with a huge thud and helmets flying off like in Madden's old (dare I say the ambulance...)

Edit: p.s. I know this would never happen, was having fun :P There is another thread which discusses the rumour that tackles were tuned down amid the CTE and player safety issues in the league right now.

# 79 Ueauvan @ 04/10/17 07:13 AM

i dont know how feasible it is but if i discover their C and RG are not very agile then i want to be able to nominate one or more positions/gaps to apply pressure vs pass for example. at the moment i change my DEs over if the offense is weak one side (assuming one DE is better vs pass than the other) and shift/adjust dline to try and take advantage of the match up, and possibly switching lbers around to get the better rusher to exploit the gap i may create

get rid of goals for 2nd string like olbers 2/3 on each side and mlb 3/4 and te 3 or hb 4. given there are reasons why they are not starters why should they have similar goals, 10 sacks for LOLBer #3, or 40 tackles for MLBer #4. just getting plays should be a win for them, and if they take over for an injured player for multiple games then a prorated target for those games but not expecting the same production as the injured player

some are just STs so a few ST tackles as a target makes sense

# 80 Thunderhorse @ 04/10/17 08:50 AM

Please add animations for failed blocks.

I'm so tired of watching my fullback, pulling guards, and tight ends not even attempt to block defenders who are defending the run, but run right past them to pick up a safety 10 yards down the field.

Visually, the game is lying to your eyes. If there is an animation where my fullback clearly "fails" to make the block, perhaps I'll have a split second window to react.

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