[Hammock Parties]

HUGE list of improvements

https://www.ea.com/games/madden-nfl/...eep-dive-06-25

RUN DEFENSE

Simply put, stopping the running game in Madden 20 was too difficult for most. For Madden 21, we aim for a more balanced run/pass ratio, so we’ve made some improvements to our Run Fits and Defensive Gaps system, with a strong emphasis on the Force defender, who is the defender responsible for setting the edge vs. the run. Here’s some specific improvements we’ve made towards that goal:

Force Defenders aligned on the line of scrimmage at the snap will use wider angles at the start of the play to show more anticipation and better pursuit prediction to set the edge vs. outside running plays.

Force Defenders will show more anticipation in their pursuit angles at the start of the play when facing quick hitting outside running plays, such as Jet Sweep and Touch Pass so that they’ll get in better position to set the edge.

Hammer and Fill players, who are the defenders in the run fit responsible for the open gaps inside of the Force player, will take wider initial pursuit angles vs. outside running plays, that will help them get over the top towards the outside of the formation quicker, and prevent them from getting mired up inside by blockers and other traffic.

Force Defenders will have wider formation alignments in many base defensive formations, such as 3-4 and more plays within those base formations will have the Force player aligned on the line of scrimmage instead of off the ball.
Edge and Force defenders will have wider Gap integrity vs Heavy/Wing TE Sets.

New/improved blocking interactions with defenders disrupting running lanes by pushing blockers further into the backfield during engagements vs. all run types.

Defenders will have better anticipation of the ball carrier’s movement by taking smarter angles while/after shedding blocks.

QB & PASSING IMPROVEMENTS

With a more balanced run game comes more reliance on the air attack. To ensure that players will have the tools they need to run more balanced offenses in Madden 21, we’ve made some significant improvements to throwing the football:

Throwing out of Sacks - All QB’s will have the ability to throw the ball while being tackled. The accuracy and power of the pass are dictated largely by physics - the further into the passing animation the QB is at the point of contact, the more likely the pass will be accurate. However, if at any point the QB’s arm or shoulder are hit during the pass, that too can impact the accuracy. Throwing out of sacks does carry some risk as well. The earlier in the throwing animation the QB is hit in combination with the QB’s Strength (STR) rating, the more likely he will be to fumble.

Deep Passes Under Pressure - New to Madden 21 are ‘Under Pressure’ throwing animations, which allow QB’s to contextually speed up their throwing motions when feeling pressure on deep passes (throws of 40 or more yards from the spot of the pass to the landing spot). These animations are dictated by ‘threat-to-impact’ prediction, meaning that at the time the pass has been initiated, if the QB thinks he will get hit by an oncoming defender before the release of the pass, he’ll use an under-pressure animation. And then the QB’s Throw Under Pressure (TUP) rating will modify both the power and accuracy of the pass.

QB Branch-Outs - QB’s can now quickly branch out of the drop back to throw the ball at any time. As soon as the QB has received the snap, if a receiver button input is given, the QB will immediately branch out of his existing behavior and throw the ball to the intended receiver, which also includes branching out of play-action fakes. QB’s will also have more control to branch out of the drop back to scramble by moving the stick toward either 45 degree angle away from the line of scrimmage, while also re-enabling the controlled ‘Rollout’ movement, which you can toggle by tapping the RT/R2 button. Along with this change, the ‘Quick Throw Inaccurate’ from Madden 20 has been turned off.

Accuracy/Power Tuning - With the variety of improvements done to passing, we also did some tuning to improve ‘Under Pressure’ and ‘Cross Body’ passing accuracy to bring more balance for both by making the inaccurate penalties more contextually appropriate to the situation.

We’ve added a new ‘Max Distance’ passing power penalty, which will activate when targeting a receiver who is deeper than the QB’s max passing distance. The max passing distance for each QB is dictated by his Throw Power (THP) rating. This penalty also decreases the strength of the pass when throwing deep passes on the run, with more severe penalties to throw-power for ‘Cross Body’ throws.

Enhanced the in-game Passing Feedback text so that players will have a more transparent understanding about the result of the each type of throw.

Parity for Handoff Animations - All handoff animations have been tuned so that all respective handoffs are the same speed going either direction.

Pass Interference and Illegal Contact – We’ve added support for a more robust management of user-controlled Pass Interference, and also for the first time, the Illegal Contact penalty. The goal with these is preventing users from intentionally obstructing receivers from getting to their routes and/or the catch-spot, while trying to overlook incidental and unintentional contact. These penalties will be used in both Competitive and Simulation game styles and will be called primarily on user-controlled defenders. For Franchise players, these penalties can be adjusted by the Penalties settings menu.

KICKING GAME TUNING

We received feedback from players that some aspects of the kicking game were in need of some improvement, so here’s a quick list of some changes there:

Kick Meter on Competitive Game Style has been tuned to be more skill-based, meaning it will be more difficult to get accurate kicks for Competitive play and missing the accuracy window will be slightly more punitive.

Kick Power/Wind Impact has been tuned on Simulation Game Style so that kickers and punters don’t always launch unrealistically deep kicks, while the wind impact on the kicking game will be less significant.

We tuned ball physics to bring more ‘skid’ to the ball on kicks bouncing on the turf to make the coffin-corner kickoff exploits (known in the community as the ‘Scum Kick’) much more difficult to execute.

WHAT’S NEXT?

Our next Gridiron Notes will be Tuesday, June 30th and focuses on Face of the Franchise and Classic Franchise.