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Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

The Heroes the Vikings Deserve
Lipstick Apathy


Madden NFL 17
Release Date - August 23rd, 2016
Platforms - PS4, Xbox One, PS3, Xbox 360

Pricing and Preorder Bonuses

All Retailers, Physical and Digital
$59.99 USD Standard Edition - Pre-order copy will recieve up to $15 in bonus content including nine Madden NFL 17 Ranked tickets, and up to seven Madden NFL 17 Ultimate Team Pro Packs.
$79.99 USD Deluxe Edition - Get up to $50 in additional value bonus content including 30 Madden NFL Ranked tickets, and up to 10 Madden NFL Ultimate Team All Pro Packs.

Online Stores only - :siren: YOU WILL ONLY GET A COUPLE PACKS PER WEEK:siren:
PSN - $99.99 Super Deluxe Edition - You a Madden NFL 17 theme as well as additional value including 30 Madden NFL Ranked tickets and up to 30 Madden NFL Ultimate Team All Pro Packs.
Xbox Games - $99.99 - Super Deluxe Edition - Get a one month EA Access trial as well as additional value including 30 Madden NFL Ranked tickets and up to 30 Madden NFL Ultimate Team All Pro Packs.


The prelaunch advertising blitz is in full effect for Madden 17, and enough information is out to make a new thread to condense it all, and give us all a place to shitpost about the new game.




We'll kick this off going over the meat of the game, the mechanics. Since that's what most of us care about, aside from Franchise improvements.

New Features

:siren: New features are exclusive to PS4 and Xbox One. Last gen likely just gets a shined up version of M15 with new rosters and MUT. EA didn't bring any of last year's improvents to last gen, either. :siren:


:killdozer: Defense :zerg:



EA is touting a few improvements on defense this year - specifically, looking to work on improving gap play, and reducing the effectiveness of all those cheap rear end nano and turbo blitzes that powergamers will eventually find and exploit anyway.

Gap Play - Defenders can be assigned different gap assignments to better attempt run containment, allowing inner gap shots, outside run coverages, etc. In theory, this will help reduce the insane effectiveness of Inside/Outside Zone run plays, but we'll need to get our hands on the game to better determine that. Early game play videos don't look all that much different, but nobody has had much time to dig in yet

Improved Zone Coverage - EA is touting an overhaul of Zone Coverage this year. There is apparently 8 new types of zone coverage being introduced, with the ability to set defenders to better match up in the zones receivers will be running their routes in. Hopefully, this means the nearly uncoverable slants and drags will see some opposition this year, as a West Coast offense was incredibly to hard to stop and get turnovers on.

:derp:Special Teams:derp: - New kick meter coming this year, which is reminiscent of older kick meters! An Ice the Kicker mechanic is coming on (likely similar to NCAA 14's ITK mechanic, which effectiveness is questonable, as in real life). EA is promising a new mechanic to block kicks, and is saying we'll see a greater variety of trick plays. Hopefully this year running kicks back isn't as impossible as it was in the last two generations on PS4 - Xbox One.


:histdowns:Offense:histdowns:



Ball Carrier Controls - We are supposedly seeing an improved run game this year. The last couple years, most running backs all felt very similar in performance whether they were a power back or a speed back. The intention this year is that power backs will feel much more like Power Backs, as will Speed backs be more elusive and nimble. Todd Gurley should be more of a trucking machine than LeSean McCoy is, and the last few years not much difference was felt (anecdote - I run the ball a poo poo ton, and was putting up 2700 yard seasons with Bishop loving Sankey in goon leagues). EA is promising better prompts to make cuts, as well as guidance on running lanes during trainings (not sure if this applies to games.) For the lesser skilled folks on lower difficult, just handing off lets the CPU do the work for you.

Passing Game Refinement - Last year dramatically overhauled the passing system, and Aggressive Catch was the bane of online games everywhere. You could send out 5'10" Desean Jackson on streaks and holding Triangle/Y would let him Moss defenders just as well as 6'5" Calvin Johnson could. EA is promising this year to improve on this, by taking into account receiver stats for Spectacular Catching and Jumping, to have more influence on this to help dial down some of the crazy. This one will remain to be seen.


Now, to what a lot of us care about here JOIN SASFL

Franchise

EA has released a few bits of info for franchise improvements, which seem focused so far around a few key areas.

Game Prep - Game prep will continue to be the mechanic to earn XP and confidence for your players. This year, a new feature is added that can help you prepare for your upcoming oppenents (CPU or Human) based on their playcalling tendencies! Does your opponent love to sit in Cover 3? The mode will provide drills to work with your defense on stopping Cover 3. This is actually a pretty nice evolution of the system.

A benefit of executing the drills that can contribute to gameplanning your opponent, is that you may get a small boost to execution of certain plays you practiced that counter opponent tendencies. I am worried this may be kind of broken, but it's unclear what kind of boost is available at this time. If they pull it off though, it's definitely a welcome addition.





Play the Moments - This feature is one I am actually very excited for. In the past, simming through CPU games often felt like the worst, but predetermined RNG ever. Multiple 15 yard penalties, 80+ yard runs, constant 3 and outs - it was truly awful. This year, Key Moments helps to alleviate some of this, and make the slog of CPU games during online seasons, or solo play, much more enjoyable! The game will sim to Key Moments of the game that can have a huge impact either way (stop your opponent on a goal line. Convert a key 3rd and long. Go for it on 4th while down by a FG. Play a crucial half down by 2 scores. It can probably go on and on.) The game will stop the sim, and give you the option to play the Moment, or just the sim keep going. Once you complete (or fail, you scrub) the scenario, the sim will pick right back up.




Player Development

Dynamic Development - EA is promising more benefits to development levels this year. In the past, Superstars just got more XP than a Slow developer. This year, Superstars will be able to last longer in the league, whereas Slow developers may actually have a chance to bust out and leave early. If a player who is not a superstar has a breakout season, there's a very good chance they can increase their development the next season, instead of spending XP for it. Good news for the SASFL tendency to feature UDFAs :haw:

My only hope is that EA gets a better balancing for XP gains right off the bat this year. Last year, XP gain was nonexistent for the first few months of the year, and wasn't reconsidered until December. Developing depth was difficult. I would really like to see an XP gain that allows Depth development without the whole team becoming superstars, which their update was able to provide.

They are indicating you can focus up to 3 players for XP per week, in additional to regular Game Prep XP, so this may help alleviate some of that concern, depending on tuning.


Big Decisions - Another new feature this year is the implementation of Big Decisions, and to be frank, it's a pretty big overhaul. There's quite a few aspects to it.

Coach goals - In previous CFMs, your season goals were automatically assigned by the CPU, and were quite honestly, pretty arbitrary and seemingly only based on the OVR of your team. This year, you get to set those goals for your coach yourself. Feeling like a juggernaut? Set you sights on the Super Bowl. Suck horribly? Shoot for 7 wins. If you miss goals, as always you increase the chance to get fired, but will get more XP back if you meet and exceed them.



:romo:Injuries:romo: - While injuries will remain random as ever this year, and I haven't heard anything if offensive lineman will stop being invincible,(Scud? can you confirm/deny?) but a new feature this year is the ability to bring a player back before the full duration of their recovery time. Need your star QB 2 weeks before he's ready? You can make the decision to start him ahead of recovery, at the risk of further injury. The game will show you the performance with and without an injured player to help make that decision.




Getting New Players - The Free Agency and Trade menus have been replaced with an Acquisitions menu (no word if the old menus remain. Probably a dev question). This menu allows you to easier browse available FAs and the Trade Block, and quickly compare them from the vital stats without diving into depth charts or scrolling through stats.

Resigning - Unfortunately, not much has really changed here other than the promise of a new UI, and different timelines to resign players on last year deals based on their prominence. The code for this is probably so spaghettified that we won't see anything change until whenever EA invents the newest iteration of Franchise, unless they can pull some voodoo off. This will greatly upset :haw:Volkerball and Eifert Posting :haw: (Not a dig, just taking the low hanging fruit guys <3)

At least a benefit of the new commentary (I'll touch on that later) is the commentators will make remarks in games about players in contract stalemates, or FA pickups.

Practice Squad! - New this year is a more streamlined approach to cutting players in the preseason to make the roster cap of 53, but there's on very important new addition - We get a loving Practice Squad this year! In past franchise years, 53 was the hard roster cap. As in the real NFL, we now get a practice squad that you can stash players with less than 2 years of service time onto (no veterans, obviously). They can be called up anytime to contribute, and will earn XP from game prepping. However, just as in the real NFL, other teams can poach from it. I am very interested to see how this exploitable this is, and which goon will be the first one to kill someone IRL for poaching from it. :v:



Regression Feedback - We all very much know that players over 30 start losing their juice in this game. Sometimes realistically, sometimes not so much (lol Eli retiring at 34, 32 year old Larry Fitz having 71 speed).In past games, you had to manually figure out where your guys were regressing, which was cumbersome at best, and easy to miss key stats. This year, we get a menu showing the exact nature of regression, which will be helpful managing veterans.



Player Cards - New last year was player cards, but they weren't very useful other than showing their stats in a window instead of the standard depth chart style. This year, they add quite a bit - the players comparative NFL ranking, and where their XP upgrades are going.




Lastly, since this is all we have until they do another deep dive, we'll go over the most exciting part of this year's game, and one we've wanted for a while.


:getout: PHIL SIMMS IS loving GONE :getout:

Commentary - EA went in-house for commentary this year, hiring as actual EA Tiburon employees Brandon Gaudin and Charles Davis. As a result of the heavily increased access to their commentators through the lifecycle of the game, the promise is that commentary will be evolving through the season. If players heat up or break out, lines will be added in. They'll have more color and interactions than ever before, as they won't just have access to the commentary team for a couple of quick phoned in sessions. Very hopeful it remains much more fresh and we aren't shutting them off after one game.


:shepspends: Madden Ultimate Team :shepspends: - We all know what MUT is. Some of us spend way too much disposable income on it. Others do not! EA hasn't released any details on MUT for 17 yet, but when they do I'll add them in. It will probably be one of their last blog posts.


Additional Media - Credit to Afterfather for digging some of these up.

Madden 17 Gameplay Trailer

Commentary and Presentation Videos
Defense and Running Gameplay
EA Highlight Reel

Offical Twitters - EA is actually pretty good about being active on these.
Madden Twitter
MUT Twitter

Rex and Clint, Creative Director and Developer respectively, are pretty active on their twitters as well. @RexDEAFootball, and @ClintOldenburg

I'll update the OP with anything that gets released between now and release, as well as maintain it.

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Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

The Heroes the Vikings Deserve
Lipstick Apathy
Reserved for League info.

Really would like to see the Xbox One people start one up.

We have an extremely active playerbase on PS4, and SASFL will be commished by yours truly again this year.

Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

The Heroes the Vikings Deserve
Lipstick Apathy
New thread is made, shitpost away you fuckers.

Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

The Heroes the Vikings Deserve
Lipstick Apathy

real_scud posted:



Dunno why we haven't mentioned it, or maybe it has but none of you sperglord powerusers care about it, but we've added the ability to do a defensive playcall that counters a specific area of field you've been getting burned on. So if you see a guy always running short inside passes you can choose that playcall mode after they've chosen their play and it will give you some better counters.



I did my writeup by reading through all of the blog posts, and summarizing while adding in my own thoughts and commentary (it's bad, but it's not Madden School level of effort where everything is straight up copy-pasta spammed on reddit for CLIX). I didn't quite catch in the defense overview this was actually a thing. If it is, that's really nice to see.

Also congratz on the move!

Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

The Heroes the Vikings Deserve
Lipstick Apathy
had a bit of leftover cash and said what the heck, grab one last bundle in M16




:allbuttons:

Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

The Heroes the Vikings Deserve
Lipstick Apathy

davecrazy posted:

That three bosses you pulled this year?

two bosses and a GT.

Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

The Heroes the Vikings Deserve
Lipstick Apathy
Oh, Madden.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nc-u5S2NCiY

Watch Tebow dropback after the incompletion. It's magical.

Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

The Heroes the Vikings Deserve
Lipstick Apathy
:salt: :qq: :salt:

come on new game, we need to get some league drama in full swing :v:

Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

The Heroes the Vikings Deserve
Lipstick Apathy

davecrazy posted:

Dubs, might need some help unlocking Lawyer for 17 depending what the requirements are. Got my back?

I've got 1.5 million in coins, my team is set, and am not going to grind that card out. let me know what you need.

E: I've also got 2 40J cards you can have to go towards the set.

Dubious fucked around with this message at 16:41 on Jul 4, 2016

Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

The Heroes the Vikings Deserve
Lipstick Apathy
i may as well do it myself then.

i won't complete any other master sets, so at least having that safety will be nice.

Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

The Heroes the Vikings Deserve
Lipstick Apathy

AfterFather posted:

Yup, goon leagues are still around.. I hope we can get 3 up this year.

Afterfather, I choose you to run the Fantasy Draft league. Because reasons.

I'll do SASFL as usual.

SASFL, the forum's premiere saltmine.

Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

The Heroes the Vikings Deserve
Lipstick Apathy

AfterFather posted:

Aw yeah, time to bring in NCAA rules.

every team required to run college spread offenses, no i formations allowed

Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

The Heroes the Vikings Deserve
Lipstick Apathy

BiggerBoat posted:



Seriously, and sorry, but what do people like about this game?

giving each other meltdowns in goon leagues

Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

The Heroes the Vikings Deserve
Lipstick Apathy

real_scud posted:

Saw there were a bunch of posts and figured people weren't that excited over the post marketing did about new equipment in the game...


I didn't know that post came out, and i just went to read it. It's actually something that is going to calm alot of angry nerds wanting new helmets and equipment.

Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

The Heroes the Vikings Deserve
Lipstick Apathy

davecrazy posted:

Same reason I play 2k MMR dota2. I hate myself and love punishment.

do you make yourself eat rocks too?


Yeesh, MOBAs are like the next most toxic community compared to Madden Pubbies (tm)

E: For content, as dave said, we have had quite a few UK players in the past, and lag wasn't ever really an issue. We all play at weird times of the day and scheduling actually wouldn't be that difficult.

Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

The Heroes the Vikings Deserve
Lipstick Apathy

AfterFather posted:

I must be the only person who can make draws work :/

:respek: fellow successful draw play user

Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

The Heroes the Vikings Deserve
Lipstick Apathy
works against goons and the cpu though, i avoid mut and random pubbie H2H like the goddamn plague

Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

The Heroes the Vikings Deserve
Lipstick Apathy

davecrazy posted:

Look at this chump who didn't complete one master set.

I enjoy sanity

Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

The Heroes the Vikings Deserve
Lipstick Apathy

davecrazy posted:

Can't wait to play you release week and drop Brady to Odell bombs backed up by a little Marcus Allen out of the backfield. Whats this? Gronk is motioning out wide to the slot! Then on defense dropping some hit sticks with Laywer Milloy.

Day one.

bring it :getin:

Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

The Heroes the Vikings Deserve
Lipstick Apathy
anyone still playing MUT want a few cards? I've given enough of them away to reddit folks

Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

The Heroes the Vikings Deserve
Lipstick Apathy

davecrazy posted:

Anybody want Boss UL LT?

did you pull that?

or just spend all of the coins for it

Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

The Heroes the Vikings Deserve
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Bonham posted:


Oh man I didn't expect to get mad it must be almost Madden time

:getin:

Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

The Heroes the Vikings Deserve
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I see PS4 league hype is in full swing.

Are you fuckers already clamoring for the thread?

Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

The Heroes the Vikings Deserve
Lipstick Apathy

davecrazy posted:

I need coins to do these last few sets in 16 to get the 17 MUT player. :(

I'll take the Giants in the leauge. I doubt they fixed O-line/D-line interaction, but we'll see.

i spent my coins on the rookies i wanted last night, how many do you need? I've got about a million left

Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

The Heroes the Vikings Deserve
Lipstick Apathy
i can hook you up. go put some piece of crap card on the AH

Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

The Heroes the Vikings Deserve
Lipstick Apathy

davecrazy posted:

Dubs, how much you want to spot me? I'll kick you over some MHC for the trouble.

i've got 900k and i'm done with the game and ready for M17, so don't worry about sending anything over my way.

Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

The Heroes the Vikings Deserve
Lipstick Apathy

davecrazy posted:



That ones mine. Bruce Smith UL Rookie edition, 81 OVR

i just snagged it. let me know what rookies you end up with!

Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

The Heroes the Vikings Deserve
Lipstick Apathy

davecrazy posted:

I finished Tunsil and the Brows WR. I had a few pieces for both. I'm going to try and sell some MHC and get that other o linemen and the 3-4 DE.

lol you already have like 3/4 of a team in MUT 17 already :v:

Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

The Heroes the Vikings Deserve
Lipstick Apathy
ps4 main league thread - http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3785306

Afterfather will be hosting the fantasy draft thread this year

Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

The Heroes the Vikings Deserve
Lipstick Apathy
None of that silliness is kosher in league play. We specifically have league games to avoid gimmicky stuff like that, that's what we play MUT for. If we're talking ~league sanctity~ we should keep that to the league thread anyway :v:

Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

The Heroes the Vikings Deserve
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Oberst posted:

Sorry this was a stupid meta post and not about madden

He's heating up!

Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

The Heroes the Vikings Deserve
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45-42 draft champs game ayyy lmao

Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

The Heroes the Vikings Deserve
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jabro posted:

I'm torn on getting it for PS4 or xbone. The 10% off the game and packs for the year is pretty tempting.

plz don't troll

Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

The Heroes the Vikings Deserve
Lipstick Apathy
trip report - game fuckin owns


I pulled tom brady

Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

The Heroes the Vikings Deserve
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I'll be doing some franchise simming this afternoon and will trip report

Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

The Heroes the Vikings Deserve
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89 posted:


I wonder if Ultimate Team challenges have a restart button..

they do

Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

The Heroes the Vikings Deserve
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The CPU likes2pass when simming I see

Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

The Heroes the Vikings Deserve
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Epi Lepi posted:

So what's the verdict on future rosters being dumb as hell?

i went through one season simming, and im playing through the second every game to see the progression rates. So far playing your games, even if just doing play the moment, is significantly more XP, but nothing gamebreaking so far as upgrade costs for older guys is heavy (as it should be)

There weren't any obvious dumb roster moves after season one, but hopefully tonight ill wrap out the season im playing and then ill sim it 3 more years.

Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

The Heroes the Vikings Deserve
Lipstick Apathy

AfterFather posted:

The CPU throws the ball alot

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Dubious
Mar 7, 2006

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Volkerball posted:

lobatos stats don't look too crazy and i would be ok with rodgers putting up those numbers if that's on the very high side for him, and the packers coach has like 80/20 in favor of passing on that slider.

not pictured - Matt Ryan throwing 615 yards and 3 TDs against the packers secondary in that game

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