I know the kicking/punting games are pretty irrelevant in madden, but I have a few issues with it
Too much lag on field goals without focused kicker. I didnt even attempt field goals in h2h until focused kicker was available
You do realize 4 is exactly what the rule is in the NFL. The ball is downed where and once a player has “gained possession” of it
Edited by Lukestrot
In the NFL players have to jump outside the EZ and tip the ball back to avoid a touchback. If either the ball touches the EZ or the player touches it while touching the ball then it's a touchback. In madden, players can catch the ball on the 1 and have their momentum carry them into the EZ. In madden the ball will be placed on the 1 when that should result in the ball going to the 20.
I disagree with your statement about the kicking game being irrelevant. I got 19 wins in WL this past weekend and I’m sure jack fox continuing to coffin corner people was a huge part of that.
If you want to struggle with kicking then you shouldn’t get a good kicker...good kickers hardly ever struggled with kicks🤷🏽♂️
I missed the field goal kick where you had to flick your Ana log stick
I remember doing that but I'm not sure how difficult it was back then. I would be ok with either method if they could get it right. The best things they could do in that regard would be to get rid of focused kicker (or at least roll it into offensive or defensive AP so it's not a no brainer to use) and punish more for missing the accurate zone on the meter. You don't need to miss an XP by barely missing the accurate zone but on a 45+ yard kick you should need to hit it to make the kick
the trajectory of a low aimed FG kick is too high when the ball goes over the LOS. If your going kick a 60 yard FG IRL there is a chance it could be blocked at the LOS. No chance in Madden. This is also slight issue if your kicker's kick power is week. ( EA would then need to give the player an option to delay the kicker motion for a fraction of second to throw off the jumpers behind the LOS. Trade off it risk the guys coming off the edge getting home)
a player option for the amount of steps a punter can take before kicking the ball. like no step, 1 step or 2 steps. More steps = more distance = more chance of it be blocked.
I like #7. I do think it'may be slightly easier to block a long FG, but not by as much as it should, especially if you lower the kick trajectory to get extra distance.
#8 is interesting too. You see blocked punts just about every Sunday, but the only blocked punts uve seen this year are inside the 5 when the punter just punts into his linemen. Blocked punts when you're backed up would be fine if they happened by sending a rush to block it, but from what I've seen it has nothing to do with rushers so I would say those blocked punts are more of a bug than a feature. I'm not sure exactly how your suggestion would work but it does sound interesting and could make sense
Kicking is a lot harder on all madden. And if you don’t have clutch kicker, I think iced kicks are pretty tough buddy. I had to use the clutch kicker ability the last 2 years cause I hate the iced kicks
Draft mode is on all madden right? It's harder than all pro but it's still too easy from what I've seen. Icing the kicker is annoying but it only comes onto effect in some situations and there are ways of getting around it. I thought about putting it on the list given that studies on its effectiveness aren't so sure that it works, but I decided to not put it on
These range from minor to pretty serious and are listed in no particular order other than the order I think of them.
Kicking is way too easy. Whether it's a FG or a punt, it's far too easy to get a perfect or near perfect kick. In the NFL, a 20 yard FG is easier than 40, and 40 is easier than 60 even if a kicker can reach from 60. In madden, FGs are virtually all the same difficulty as long as you're in range. Ideally I would like them to bump the max FG range up to 60-65 depending on kick power and field conditions but make accuracy way harder, especially on longer kicks.
The focused kicker ability. Kicking is already easy enough, why give an ability out that everyone gets making it easier? They should either get rid of the ability outright or roll its AP into offense or defense so there's at least a choice to make in that regard.
The clock should not run on safety punts until the ball is touched. This issue has been there for years, the clock starts when the ball is kicked. This is a minor issue but it's easy enough to fix.
If you down a punt near the end zone and carry the ball into the end zone, it should be a touchback, not dowm where the player first touched the ball. Again, a small issue given the lack of punts but it shouldn't be too hard to fix.
The default on punts near the end zone should be that the returner is under the ball and you need to press O to run away and let it bounce, not the other way around. This is a personal preference but I don't want the game not to field the ball for me, the returner should be under the ball until the player decides it's not a good idea to field the ball and runs away from it.
There should be way more variability in punt distance. This one is less important and might be tougher to accomplish than the others but punts in madden are almost always pretty much tbe same distance. If you remember the punt by KC in the SB that was boomed but called back due to a hold and then the re-kicl was shanked, you can have an idea of what I mean. This goes along with #1 but punters should have the ability to boom it 70 yards if you hit it perfectly but that should be very difficult to do and 40-50 yards should be way more common, with a chance at a shanked of punt under 30 yards.
There may be more things that I can't remember but this is plenty for now. As for concerns about lag messing with the meter, MLB the show online has historically had much worse servers than EA and they're able to handle hitting pretty well which is much more time sensitive than kicking would be so it shouldn't be too difficult.