Pass Coverage
We received lots of feedback from players at the beginning of last year on coverage for passes. We continued to act on specific coverage-related call-outs during Title Updates post-launch. As with the previous Madden season, we're aware that players are incredibly confident about defense, especially pass coverage, and this season is not any different. This year, we're building our fundamental coverage concepts by focusing on zone coverage as well as defending against the long pass.
Spot Drop Zones
Spot-drop zones as our main zone coverage idea within our defensive playbooks as well as AI. This means that, by default, all zone coverages we have in the playbooks we provide will based on spot-drop zone logic, and covering a specific portion of the field instead of a mix of spots-drops as well as match coverages as we did in the past. The primary reason for this change was to make play-call screen to be the main source of the truth for players, so that they can better anticipate the way their zones react during play.Match Zone coverage concepts are available via our coach Adjustments menu in the play choice. By flipping the Zone Coverage coach Adjustment to Match brings back our in-depth guidelines for match coverages. ones that change between man and zone during play, if you are specifically calling matches.
Drift Logic for Deep Zone Defenders
Drift Logic is all new coverage strategy to Deep Zone defenders. This feature prevents the deep zone defense from drifting to the top of the field without an immediate threat from the vertical zone. This can prevent throwing 'Third Window' for deep crossing routes. Drift Logic lets the defensive player detect a player who is approaching his zone earlier, and then encase him with coverage as he crosses his face and to not be beaten underneath. We heard from players that third-window crossers were not completed frequently, and this new "drift logic is designed to counter this feedback.
Zone Defender Locomotion
We've captured a brand new collection of defensive back-specific motion animations. Along with AI support players are in Madden NFL 23 will back-pedal and flip their hips. They will also glance back and strafe the ball faster and more athletically and more realistically. In addition, defensive backs will appear like they belong however, these new motion animations will also help them get to the place they'd like to be faster and will give passes against zone coverage more secure.
Route Specific Break-on-Throw Logic
We've also included the ability to dynamically break time for every type of zone defender facing particular routes. Zones designed to eliminate specific routes or portions of the field will break faster when throwing against the routes they are supposed to take away than against routes that their zones are not specifically designed to eliminate. An example is a hard flat area with a shrewd break on a route that is flat, rather than leveraging the more difficult routes first. Another is the deep outside third defenders inside Cover 3 breaking faster when the corner route is in their zone.
New End Zone Coverage Logic
Prior to that our deep zone defenders had made small rational adjustments when they were covering the endzone. The result was that defenders squeezed down on routes that were breaking into the inside, while ignoring the under zone defenders, leading to the sidelines and corners of the zone remaining wide and wide. This year, the out-of-the-way deep zone defenders stayed out and stand on out-breaking, or third window crossing routes. They allow the route to be taken to them, and then they rip the throw.
DB Catch vs Swat
With our zone coverage , defenders are playing more fundamental football, we've rebalanced the mix between 'play ball and 'play receiver and'swat' to ensure that defenders can use more of a variety of actions while the ball's in the air instead of always trying to make the interception. This is in line with the tuning of the amount of distance defenders have to look at the ball even when they are not facing it, and encourages more natural mid-air interactions when the ball is caught using fieldSENSE's branching technologies as well as mechanics.
Pass Rush & QB Contain
Although we've invested in our coverage basics Our players are aware that pass defense is only as efficient as the rush that is in front of it. What we've really made this season is a more extensive passing defense strategy in preparation for Madden NFL 23 by fine-tuning our pass rush to improve pressure and improving disengage attempts by defenders in order to tackle moving quarterbacks.
Quicker Get Offs for All Pass Rushers
Pass rushers will be able to move off the ball faster during Madden NFL 23. Anyone who blitzes will experience significantly shorter delays when reacting to snaps which allows for more QB pressures in calling standard blitz plays. Additionally, the new animations for blockers as well as pass rushers in their fights create pockets more naturally and collapsing more quickly. QB's must increase their presence in the pocket, and also make use of check-downs more frequently to get the ball in before the passing rush can get to the goal.
Rush Lane Integrity
Pass Rushers have been given new playbook and logic which will increase the security in their rush lanes (i.e. gaps) when they rush the passer. This means that every space will be filled by the rusher, while avoiding more than one rusher in one gap. This allows the defensive players to put themselves in a position to block them and thus take off from the game.
Disengage Improvements
It's always been a challenging task for defenses, both in Madden NFL and also in Madden NFL. To combat this, for Madden NFL 23, we've developed a new AI and tuned certain defensive actions to provide defenses with better tools to tackle mobile quarterbacks.We've enhanced the animations that disengage passers-by to move away from blockers quicker and more efficiently, both for single-team blocks as well as double-team blocks and to chase the quarterback as they move out. We've also upgraded the prediction AI of players who are contained so that they're more effective in anticipating the moment when the quarterback is about to run off, and react more quickly and be in the right place to make a move.
Blocking
To provide balance and authenticity, we've added new animations for pass blocks which work with Our passing rush AI. The new animations you'll see are ones that have more depth within and around the pocket , so it can be collapsed without having to let go of the block. These include edge animations that create pressure as well as define the edge that define the pockets. Also, you can add on blocks, which were discussed during the FieldSENSE notes, but we decided to bring them again due to the capability for the open field blocking and route runners to easily be able to enter and exit blocks is something that players have been begging to see.Also should you decide to simply "ctrl + F" for Escape Artist, we got you. Escape Artist was removed from the Superstar Ability pool and has been made an X-Factor in Madden NFL 23. After you've fulfilled the game's X-Factor requirements for activation, the benefit that comes with Escape Artist when activated will be less than prior years. We'll continue to provide the explosive ability to play for quarterbacks with mobility, but we believe that this is a more well-balanced approach. We'll be providing more information about Superstar X-Factor abilities in a forthcoming Gridiron Notes article to Madden NFL 23 but we are aware of the fact that this was a crucial feature for our most loyal players.
Additional Foundational Football Improvements
This isn't all it is! Foundational Football improvements to Madden NFL 23 but just those we'd like to highlight first! There's more to discuss in various areas of our game.
Catching
New catch animations that are context sensitive were added to ensure that regardless of where you put the ball using the new FieldSENSE Skill-Based passing mechanic The appropriate catch will be made.
Throwing to the farthest lead point of a streak with Skill-Based passing will allow players to take the ball as he reaches out to his shoulders. If you throw it to the back of a receiver's shoulder during an unison streak, you'll be able to see an animation of the back shoulder that catches it. We've also included brand new fade catch animations while throwing fade routes and corner routes to the sides or corners in the zone of end.
Playbooks
For Madden NFL 23, our main goals for our playbooks revolve on streamlining and diversifying our content so that it is more compatible with our gameplay features as well as adding enough that's brand new to provide worth to both veteran and new players.
Defense
In order to better integrate to our coverage for passes and defense alignment enhancements We have made the plays we have for our defense sets to ensure that they function correctly when paired with standard offensive styles. In the NFL defensive coordinators work to bring the shell of coverage and the front's alignment together in a way that they can function without need for a lot of special adjustments.What is this in Madden NFL 23 is lower plays per defensive set than prior years, but we think players will be pleased with the options that are available in each set are more likely to perform in terms of alignment, pass coverage and running defense perspective.An example of thisis the 3-4 sets and our 4-3 sets, players will notice that the majority of games available will display only a single high-safety center of field appearance. We have added new plays like Cover 2 Invert, Cover 2 Invert and Trap Blitzes that look similar to Cover 1 or Cover 3 to the offensive. These new play options will compliment the improvement in our deep zone coverage of passes.
Offense
On the offensive end the goal is to focus on the things teams perform in relation to their actual counterparts. We've witnessed teams employ the same formation on a regular basis, but they only played just a handful of plays which meant that the formation would be filled with similar routines that would be shared across multiple playbooks. In Madden NFL 23 we focused on incorporating the most important elements and plays that every NFL team was most likely to use and created less cluttered and somewhat less sized playbooks which were particular to the team and distinct. We'll go into more detail into a forthcoming Gridiron Notes article on specific plays and other modifications we've made to playbooks for Madden NFL 23.
AI-Quarterbacks
AI-quarterbacks are tuned to offer better differentiation in the way they perceive the field under pressure based the ratings they have received. Quarterbacks who have a lower awareness rating are more likely to struggle to find wide receivers and will are more likely to be throwing towards a target that is not fully covered and allowing you to defend an important play.
Injuries
New animations for injuries are now available to players standing and running. We've also added brand new injury animations while fighting in the trenches. This is primarily to ensure that, when injuries do occur there is no disruption to the experience when a player is injured immediately running towards the group. If a player becomes injured during the game it will be evident in the behaviour as he falls to the floor and remain on the ground until taken off by the team's trainers.
Signature Content
We've created new signature animations that are suited to some of the best athletes in the NFL to include some of the latest and most exciting big games and touchdown celebrations that you can see during game days. Furthermore we've added even more special animations for celebration locomotion to allow players to be able to run through the goal line much more like their real counterparts.