Catch mode:
What is it like to be a defensive back or a wide receiver? It’s really a game of risk. You are gambling with every move you make. How can we capture this thrill in the game? I propose Catch mode, or fly catcher/fly swatter.
A defensive back is either a fly catcher or a fly swatter. He’s either going to intercept the ball or swat either the ball or the receiver. A receiver is primarily a fly catcher, although he could in theory be a fly swatter if the defensive back has a high probability of catching the ball before him.
This specific mode is initiated when you, as the defender, are in close proximity to the offensive player and the ball. This is a jump ball situation. The screen is now focused on you as the defender and the receiver as the actors. The object is the football. The ball is coming close to you and the defender. You and the defender both use an analog stick to aim at the moving ball. You don’t press the button until the ball is close to you. You and the defender have the option of pressing buttons. You only have one option and it is to catch the ball. The defender has the option to catch or swat. If you aim for the football and the football is within catching proximity, and press the button before the other player … you will catch the football (same with intercepting the ball). This gives you total control of catching the ball.
Crowd Emotion:
I remember back in the Genesis days when the in-game crowds were little blobs of pixels. There was no form or animation but they were just statically there. Those were the days! What about today? In Madden 2007, the crowds are their own polygons. A very cool thing indeed! Imagine a stadium with 90,000 crowd models. That’s essentially what you see in Madden 2007.
What is crowd emotion? Well, let’s take a look at this situation. There are 2 minutes remaining in the 4th quarter and the home team is down 3 points. They are on their own 35 yard line and must march at most 65 yards for a winning touchdown or a field goal. What is the crowd doing at this point? If you were at a real game, the crowd would be going nuts. What is nuts? ‘Nuts is characterized by endless noise generated by the crowd until the game ends. It’s the shout of ‘Let’s go Giants! Let’s go’ or ‘Go Eagles Go!’ There is not one fan sitting down, unless he is 80 ‘years old and can’t stand up. It feels like the stadium is shaking and sounds like it too! No one is going for a bathroom break and hold it in for those 2+ minutes. This is the environment in which the winning team is put in and the opposing team has to struggle with.
The reaction of the crowd is situational. Would the crowd have this same reaction if their team were loosing by 21? Probably not! Would they react this way if in the third quarter, a football caused your team who is down by 21 to get the ball back on the opposing teams’ 25 yard line? Probably! It’s all about the situations. There aren’t any complex formulas involved. It’s all about situation and generating plays the drive the emotion of the crowd. You don’t initiative a positive response from the crowd when throwing an interception or fumbling the ball.
I think Madden 07 has started out well with introducing a plethora of polygon based crowds. All we need to give them are emotions and maybe some signs ?
To hear or not to hear:
With crowd emotion, you can generate more noise from the crowd if you are a home team. Imagine being Peyton Manning and calling an audible at the line with 70,000 fans screaming? Does it happen, of course it does! Does Peyton Manning call an audible twice? Well, if you look at NFL video, he does if his players can not hear it the first time. Imagine this scenario
Scene 1: The momentum of the game has shifted the home team playing defense. The linebacker calls the crowd to make more noise.
Scene 2: QB sees a hole in the defense and calls for a quick audible
Scene 3: The noise of the crowd is too much for the other players to respond to the audible so the QB calls it again
Scene 4: The second call is now heard and offensive players shift to the formation of the audible
Isn’t this a real-time occurrence? Imagine if I factored the play clock into this. What happens when the QB calls an audible with 10 seconds remaining on the play clock? The first call is not heard by the players because of the crowd noise. The second is heard with 5 seconds left on the play clock. It takes 6 seconds for the offense to set in their formation.
Now you are adding time management into the football game. The QB has three choices. Choice A is to take a delay of game. Choice B is to call time-out. Choice C is to hike the ball without the players set in their formation.
What if the QB calls time-out? If he has a time-out remaining all is fine. If he does not have a time-out then he gets a delay of game. What if he takes a delay of game? Well, he just takes a delay of game and gets a 5 yard penalty. What if he hikes the ball without his players set in formation. Well, it could work for him or against him. Either the semi-shift of formation causes a player to get open after the hike or it confuses the offensive line and allows a linebacker to blitz and behead your QB.
To hear or not to hear can really affect the game. It does in real life and it can in virtual football.
Clogging the Hole (Total Control Defense):
In the game of football there is such a thing called a nose-tackle. What is the job of a nose tackle? It’s quite simple; to clog the hole. If you have a formation that calls for a nose tackle presence, you are thinking run. What does clogging the hole do for you? Imagine that the offensive choose I-Formation->HB Dive to the right of the guard. You choose a defensive scheme that calls for a nose tackle clog the hole. Where do you clog? If you feel that the play is going to the right, you will clog to the right. This allows for the RB to slow down his progression, allowing for your defenders to make the tackle.
Now the game turns into a chess match. You see the formation that calls for a nose tackle and have two options. You can either gamble by keeping with the play and hope that the nose tackle clogs to the left or call an audible.
Clogging the hole adds another dimension to the chess match that is football.
Control Stunts (Total Control Defense):
What is a stunt? A stunt is something that the defensive line uses to trickle offensive linemen. A stunt could be a cross between a defensive tackle and end. A stunt could be for the defensive end to not bull rush but rather stay in his zone (great for plays where you feel that the offense will call a HB screen).
There are a preset number of standard stunts used in football. This will need to be programmed in as animation. The user has the ability to control a stunt.
When choosing a stunt, the player must be aware that it can backfire. Imagine a defensive end and tackle doing a cross stunt. The offensive guards blocking assignment is to block the tackle to the right. The offensive tackles responsibility is to block the end to the left. This blocking assignment is designed to make a hole for lead blocking full back. The stunt is initiated to confuse the offensive lineman but it actually makes the blocks much easier for them as the defensive lineman are already in a position to get shoved by the offensive lineman, thus making a large gaping hole.
When two sets of lineman are setup to do a stunt, the stunt can contradict each other or confuse the d-lineman.
What is it like to be a defensive back or a wide receiver? It’s really a game of risk. You are gambling with every move you make. How can we capture this thrill in the game? I propose Catch mode, or fly catcher/fly swatter.
A defensive back is either a fly catcher or a fly swatter. He’s either going to intercept the ball or swat either the ball or the receiver. A receiver is primarily a fly catcher, although he could in theory be a fly swatter if the defensive back has a high probability of catching the ball before him.
This specific mode is initiated when you, as the defender, are in close proximity to the offensive player and the ball. This is a jump ball situation. The screen is now focused on you as the defender and the receiver as the actors. The object is the football. The ball is coming close to you and the defender. You and the defender both use an analog stick to aim at the moving ball. You don’t press the button until the ball is close to you. You and the defender have the option of pressing buttons. You only have one option and it is to catch the ball. The defender has the option to catch or swat. If you aim for the football and the football is within catching proximity, and press the button before the other player … you will catch the football (same with intercepting the ball). This gives you total control of catching the ball.
Crowd Emotion:
I remember back in the Genesis days when the in-game crowds were little blobs of pixels. There was no form or animation but they were just statically there. Those were the days! What about today? In Madden 2007, the crowds are their own polygons. A very cool thing indeed! Imagine a stadium with 90,000 crowd models. That’s essentially what you see in Madden 2007.
What is crowd emotion? Well, let’s take a look at this situation. There are 2 minutes remaining in the 4th quarter and the home team is down 3 points. They are on their own 35 yard line and must march at most 65 yards for a winning touchdown or a field goal. What is the crowd doing at this point? If you were at a real game, the crowd would be going nuts. What is nuts? ‘Nuts is characterized by endless noise generated by the crowd until the game ends. It’s the shout of ‘Let’s go Giants! Let’s go’ or ‘Go Eagles Go!’ There is not one fan sitting down, unless he is 80 ‘years old and can’t stand up. It feels like the stadium is shaking and sounds like it too! No one is going for a bathroom break and hold it in for those 2+ minutes. This is the environment in which the winning team is put in and the opposing team has to struggle with.
The reaction of the crowd is situational. Would the crowd have this same reaction if their team were loosing by 21? Probably not! Would they react this way if in the third quarter, a football caused your team who is down by 21 to get the ball back on the opposing teams’ 25 yard line? Probably! It’s all about the situations. There aren’t any complex formulas involved. It’s all about situation and generating plays the drive the emotion of the crowd. You don’t initiative a positive response from the crowd when throwing an interception or fumbling the ball.
I think Madden 07 has started out well with introducing a plethora of polygon based crowds. All we need to give them are emotions and maybe some signs ?
To hear or not to hear:
With crowd emotion, you can generate more noise from the crowd if you are a home team. Imagine being Peyton Manning and calling an audible at the line with 70,000 fans screaming? Does it happen, of course it does! Does Peyton Manning call an audible twice? Well, if you look at NFL video, he does if his players can not hear it the first time. Imagine this scenario
Scene 1: The momentum of the game has shifted the home team playing defense. The linebacker calls the crowd to make more noise.
Scene 2: QB sees a hole in the defense and calls for a quick audible
Scene 3: The noise of the crowd is too much for the other players to respond to the audible so the QB calls it again
Scene 4: The second call is now heard and offensive players shift to the formation of the audible
Isn’t this a real-time occurrence? Imagine if I factored the play clock into this. What happens when the QB calls an audible with 10 seconds remaining on the play clock? The first call is not heard by the players because of the crowd noise. The second is heard with 5 seconds left on the play clock. It takes 6 seconds for the offense to set in their formation.
Now you are adding time management into the football game. The QB has three choices. Choice A is to take a delay of game. Choice B is to call time-out. Choice C is to hike the ball without the players set in their formation.
What if the QB calls time-out? If he has a time-out remaining all is fine. If he does not have a time-out then he gets a delay of game. What if he takes a delay of game? Well, he just takes a delay of game and gets a 5 yard penalty. What if he hikes the ball without his players set in formation. Well, it could work for him or against him. Either the semi-shift of formation causes a player to get open after the hike or it confuses the offensive line and allows a linebacker to blitz and behead your QB.
To hear or not to hear can really affect the game. It does in real life and it can in virtual football.
Clogging the Hole (Total Control Defense):
In the game of football there is such a thing called a nose-tackle. What is the job of a nose tackle? It’s quite simple; to clog the hole. If you have a formation that calls for a nose tackle presence, you are thinking run. What does clogging the hole do for you? Imagine that the offensive choose I-Formation->HB Dive to the right of the guard. You choose a defensive scheme that calls for a nose tackle clog the hole. Where do you clog? If you feel that the play is going to the right, you will clog to the right. This allows for the RB to slow down his progression, allowing for your defenders to make the tackle.
Now the game turns into a chess match. You see the formation that calls for a nose tackle and have two options. You can either gamble by keeping with the play and hope that the nose tackle clogs to the left or call an audible.
Clogging the hole adds another dimension to the chess match that is football.
Control Stunts (Total Control Defense):
What is a stunt? A stunt is something that the defensive line uses to trickle offensive linemen. A stunt could be a cross between a defensive tackle and end. A stunt could be for the defensive end to not bull rush but rather stay in his zone (great for plays where you feel that the offense will call a HB screen).
There are a preset number of standard stunts used in football. This will need to be programmed in as animation. The user has the ability to control a stunt.
When choosing a stunt, the player must be aware that it can backfire. Imagine a defensive end and tackle doing a cross stunt. The offensive guards blocking assignment is to block the tackle to the right. The offensive tackles responsibility is to block the end to the left. This blocking assignment is designed to make a hole for lead blocking full back. The stunt is initiated to confuse the offensive lineman but it actually makes the blocks much easier for them as the defensive lineman are already in a position to get shoved by the offensive lineman, thus making a large gaping hole.
When two sets of lineman are setup to do a stunt, the stunt can contradict each other or confuse the d-lineman.
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