Madden 11 - Strategy Pad IS Optional - Patch around Week 1 of NFL season!

http://maddennfl.easports.com/blog.action?blogId=GameFlowandStrategyPad


We do believe that this change is for the better, and that in the long run it delivers a much more positive experience to the gamers that are willing to try and adapt. Due to the overwhelming feedback however, we will be providing the old-style button commands as an option that can be enabled. We are currently targeting this change to be released around the first week of the NFL season as it will take some time to get through third party approvals. So now that it's out of the way, let's all try to sit back and have some fun with Madden NFL 11...after all, football season is almost here!

- Ian Cummings
Creative Director
www.twitter.com/ian_cummings


Thanks to WestFo3 for pointing this out!!


Week 1 of Pre-Season is August 12-16
Week 1 of Regular Season is September 9-13











By the way, he says that there were 2 billion "defensive hot route context states." Nearly 50% of them never entered a hot route.
I'm guessing a defensive hot route context state could be pressing R2 to view your play.. I bet it could be put into the game incorrectly & they actually count how many times you view your play with R2 because 50% just press a button and do nothing else? It doesn't account for quick snapping either.. I would bet a majority of those were people trying to set an audible then get quick snapped..

yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

thank god

what about online will it be old style or the new one

probably optional as well

JayNizz wrote:

probably optional as well

I guess if enough people cry things change lol. Why cant people take what there given and adapt accordingly the strat pad just needed some getting used to, but most tgl of askmadden guys cant stand change if u ask me its down right pathetic. If your child wants a toy and u say "NO" and they cry and cry are you just going to give in? No BECAUSE YOUR THE PARENT AND THEY ARE THE KID.If you let the inmates begin to run the assilum in my opinion your just asking for trouble. Ian why did you buckle man? -HH

i guess im not going to be playing online or in any local tourneys til this thang is patched....

a month long lab session YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

are they gonna be able to patch this offline?

You'll need to connect to the internet to get the patch, but it should work for both offline and online.



Bronco, the new layout isn't set up for people that make a lot of adjustments.. aka most "hardcore" madden players. Specifically people that use nanos.
The new layout requires you to move your thumb off of the left stick to the D-pad for every adjustment.. You have to activate and select if you want to hot route or move the DL.. I make about 3 or 4 adjustments per a play, and definitely more than that on setups like the GL D. So you are moving your thumb off of the left stick to the D-pad every hot route.. That is BAD.

Moving your thumb off of the LS to the D-pad takes more time than pressing X and moving the left stick to the right.


I don't really buy the argument that it is actually hazardous to your health.. ala https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=thAw2u9Y85k

WFColonel56 wrote:

i guess im not going to be playing online or in any local tourneys til this thang is patched....

a month long lab session YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'll be playin unranked games until the patch is out....

xhhxbronco wrote:

JayNizz wrote:

probably optional as well

I guess if enough people cry things change lol. Why cant people take what there given and adapt accordingly the strat pad just needed some getting used to, but most tgl of askmadden guys cant stand change if u ask me its down right pathetic. If your child wants a toy and u say "NO" and they cry and cry are you just going to give in? No BECAUSE YOUR THE PARENT AND THEY ARE THE KID.If you let the inmates begin to run the assilum in my opinion your just asking for trouble. Ian why did you buckle man? -HH

yeah i agree with you in a sense that people need to get over things and adjust, the strategy pad would be helpful to seperate good players from not so good players. But i think Ian had no choice but to concede because of the big upset that it brought to everyone. If he wants to make his money he has to give the people what they want. I really didn't like the strat pad but i wasn't going to complain about it, its not like it was unfair everyone else had to deal with the same type of style to make adjustments.

personally i really didnt complain, but im so glad others did

It should have been optional from the start. Ian said himself the main reason for the change was people getting "stuck" in the menu... which personally has never ONCE happened to me... probably none of you either.

There was no good reason to not make it optional, and that is why the big uproar. EA making the change was not "buckling" as you say bronco, its listening to your customers, and that's smart business.

great now ppl can set up nanos quickly again

Heh datno, most people on this site set up nanos. It's honestly the only way to keep up with other top players. You have to nano.

wangtangkiki wrote:

Heh datno, most people on this site set up nanos. It's honestly the only way to keep up with other top players. You have to nano.

nano's wont be effective this year...the oline got an upgrade...even in the demo, 4 man nano's up the middle dont work, not even in ncaa...its best to bring outside heat...this year the minimal people u gotta bring for good pressure is 5 with one guy comin off the edge...personally i think its gonna be easy to beat the blitz this year for me...im gonna exploit 1-1 matchups with receivers with the deep bomb against man-cov and rc/ spec catching against zone-cov.... not to mention that if u could dissect blitzes or defenses madden 10 (without throwing to flats, screens, offtackle, postcorners...those people wont do so good this year) then ur stuff is gonna be transferable...

i dont like the d-pad, but i really dont care because i dont really blitz alot and only make few adjustments...i dont like how u caint get the d-ends to crash out..i dont use contains much, but i guess i will have to this year

Megatron_81 wrote:

wangtangkiki wrote:

Heh datno, most people on this site set up nanos. It's honestly the only way to keep up with other top players. You have to nano.

nano's wont be effective this year...the oline got an upgrade...even in the demo, 4 man nano's up the middle dont work, not even in ncaa...its best to bring outside heat...this year the minimal people u gotta bring for good pressure is 5 with one guy comin off the edge...personally i think its gonna be easy to beat the blitz this year for me...im gonna exploit 1-1 matchups with receivers with the deep bomb against man-cov and rc/ spec catching against zone-cov.... not to mention that if u could dissect blitzes or defenses madden 10 (without throwing to flats, screens, offtackle, postcorners...those people wont do so good this year) then ur stuff is gonna be transferable...

i dont like the d-pad, but i really dont care because i dont really blitz alot and only make few adjustments...i dont like how u caint get the d-ends to crash out..i dont use contains much, but i guess i will have to this year

Stopped reading there.



Okay, I didn't really stop reading. I don't agree.
Nanos will still be effective. We don't have practice mode to test it out, but a lot of people that do have the game early have found good nanos. I believe that C-gap pressure will be the best; I haven't really tried, but I bet 3-4 Solid would be good to send 4 defenders.. I haven't tried though.

It's almost a guarantee that there will be nanos :] Unless you go by the "old school" definition which is basically any blitz that takes a "nanosecond" to complete.. Even if you send 7 players, it's still considered a nano.. I don't agree with that definition lol. [I got off topic there, but yeah. I just wanted to get that out.]

nano's and other blitzs wont be as effective because of acceleration...Lb's wont start their blitz at 100% speed like in M-10...that will a difference because u have that extra .05 seconds or whatever..

most people will call everyblitz a nano..but a nano is where u can send as few guys as possible and sack the quarterback quickly...i know if u sack the quarterback fast regardless of how many people u send, everyone is gonna call it a nano...lol....

By definition i thought a nano was typically classified by only sending 3 - 4 players while bring more than can be blocked is considered an overload. Both can get to the qb, but a true nano brings as little people on a blitz as possible.

Well some "Madden vets" said that it didn't matter how many you sent, just how fast. Doesn't make sense to me since you can just put a defensive lineman over every offensive lineman [so 5 DL] then put a LB in any game for a nano.. I don't like that. It's not creative.. doesn't require any planning.. 4 man and 3 man nanos are awesome.. You get more players back in coverage.

lol

I practiced running some 4 man nanos & it was difficult. I don't think that the acceleration factor of your LB is exactly why nanos aren't working. I believe it's contributing. It looks like the offensive line chooses it's assignments very quickly, and you can see this as soon as the ball snaps. I sent two LBs blitzing on the left side, and as soon as the ball snapped, the LT & LG snapped onto their target and blocked perfectly. If you want to send 4 men, you'll probably have to do some actual 3-4 like strategy.


Last year, you couldn't run an effective '3-4'-like defense because the offensive lineman couldn't be fooled. The lineman in this year's version seem very more reactive.. If you choose the play SS Blitz [not exact name, but it's a SS blitz] from Nickel Normal, put the SS even with both LBs but aligned with the center. Now move the blitzing left of screen LB even with the SS and align him with the LT. Put the NB into any zone. ; If you've done this correctly, the lone DLman that blitzes & the SS will pull apart the center & RG; This will open a hole in the right A-gap. The two blitzing LBs angles are directly into that A-gap, but they take unique angles. The unique angle will allow the defender to go right through the A-gap because LG is too slow & will have to go around the center that is engaged.


This sounds really confusing, but if you draw a picture of this, you will understand what I mean lol... I may make a video of the play.. It may not work every time, but I'm trying to find a better way to set this play up. This year if you want A-gap pressure, you are better off using real 3-4 techniques to trick the offensive line. It could possibly be faster than C-gap pressure but I haven't tested it.

xhhxbronco wrote:

JayNizz wrote:

probably optional as well

I guess if enough people cry things change lol. Why cant people take what there given and adapt accordingly the strat pad just needed some getting used to, but most tgl of askmadden guys cant stand change if u ask me its down right pathetic. If your child wants a toy and u say "NO" and they cry and cry are you just going to give in? No BECAUSE YOUR THE PARENT AND THEY ARE THE KID.If you let the inmates begin to run the assilum in my opinion your just asking for trouble. Ian why did you buckle man? -HH

No offense, but that's a poor analogy IMO.

I'm not EA's child, I'm their customer. d@mn straight they better listen, especially when it comes to seemingly arbitrary control modifications that serve no purpose other than to change things for the sake of change. If your preferred auto manufacturer suddenly decided to swap the brake and gas pedals and add a big joystick in lieu of the steering wheel, you would just acept it? Sure, we might eventually get used to it, but why fix what isn't broken?

We're not inmates bro, we're the means for Ian to feed his family. The fact that he heard the complaints and acted appropriately isn't a sign of weakness.

Limb Reaper wrote:

xhhxbronco wrote:

JayNizz wrote:

probably optional as well

I guess if enough people cry things change lol. Why cant people take what there given and adapt accordingly the strat pad just needed some getting used to, but most tgl of askmadden guys cant stand change if u ask me its down right pathetic. If your child wants a toy and u say "NO" and they cry and cry are you just going to give in? No BECAUSE YOUR THE PARENT AND THEY ARE THE KID.If you let the inmates begin to run the assilum in my opinion your just asking for trouble. Ian why did you buckle man? -HH

No offense, but that's a poor analogy IMO.

I'm not EA's child, I'm their customer. d@mn straight they better listen, especially when it comes to seemingly arbitrary control modifications that serve no purpose other than to change things for the sake of change. If your preferred auto manufacturer suddenly decided to swap the brake and gas pedals and add a big joystick in lieu of the steering wheel, you would just acept it? Sure, we might eventually get used to it, but why fix what isn't broken?

We're not inmates bro, we're the means for Ian to feed his family. The fact that he heard the complaints and acted appropriately isn't a sign of weakness.

yeap very true, caint argue with that...LOL if the car was nice enough, i could drive with a big joystick as a steering wheel along with the swapping of the gas and brake pedal...just might take some time getting use to...

thank god it is optional