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cdj
05-27-2011, 12:50 PM
Courtesy: EA SPORTS (http://www.ea.com/ncaa-football/blog/dynasty-tuning)


http://thegamingtailgate.com/images/NCAA12/USCCoach.jpg

Hi NCAA Football fans, NCAA Football 12 designer Jordan Peterson here once again, this time to discuss some of the other improvements that have been made to Dynasty mode this year. This blog is going to focus on some of the tuning that was done this year to improve your overall Dynasty experience as well as answer some of the questions that have come up after the other Dynasty blogs were released this week. As you are about to see, based on your feedback we've made a lot of great improvements to the Dynasty mode experience in NCAA Football 12. Let's get on to the updates.

Sway Pitch

One complaint we heard last year was that Sway Pitch felt like too much risk without enough reward and because of this, a lot of fans avoided using Sway Pitch all together which is something I never want to hear as a developer. This year, Sway Pitch has been tuned to provide more of a bonus when you are successful, and less of a penalty when you fail. Additionally, we've adjusted the percent chance that a Sway will be successful to help make Sway Pitch a more effective recruiting tactic, I believe you will now find the Sway Pitch option to have a greater impact during recruiting.

CPU Scholarship Offers

In addition to Sway Pitch, another significant improvement to recruiting is how efficiently the CPU will offer scholarships. Previously, the CPU would occasionally have a recruit that, even though he was ranked first on their board they would not offer a scholarship in order to close the deal and sign the prospect. The CPU will now offer scholarships more intelligently, and as a result, causes some much closer recruiting battles with the CPU against other CPU controlled teams and the user.

CPU Recruiting Based on Play Style

We have heard feedback regarding CPU not recruiting based on their play style, so this was one of our earliest adjustments for NCAA Football 12. Previously, if you were running an option offense, the CPU would simply take the best quarterback that was available, or possibly one just interested in the school. Now, you will find that the CPU will focus upon players that fit their particular play style. That means scrambling QBs will be targeted by option teams, while air raid teams will look for pocket passing quarterbacks.

Another community concern that we addressed for NCAA Football 12 is the balancing of the top 150 recruits. There was some discussion that there were not enough highly rated defensive prospects appearing in the ESPNU Top 150. Based on that feedback we have increased each defensive position's chance of having a prospect worthy enough of being considered one of the top 150 prospects in the recruiting class.

Sim Running Stats

The sim stats for the running backs, backup running backs and quarterbacks were also tuned. Meaning when you sim in Dynasty, the backup HB will get more touches and, in turn, more rushing yards. Quarterback sim stats were adjusted to be more in line with actual NCAA results. The added benefit of tuning these stats is that it facilitated tuning Heisman. Throughout Dynasty you should now see a much better balance of several different position types winning the Heisman.

Incoming Prospect Ratings

Finally, we've updated the incoming ratings for all generated prospects with a focus on ensuring they are consistent with the recruits on the default roster. Now you won't notice a drop off in overall player talent in future years of the Dynasty when the players on the default roster have graduated. I think you will find that some positions, in particular Kickers and Punters, will be far more accurate this year.

Answers to Previous Blog Questions

Earlier this week, we released the blog for Coach Carousel and two Quick Clip videos. I would like to take this opportunity to address some additional questions that I've seen on the forums.

Coach Carousel – Who was that mystery man?

In part 2 of the Quick Clips video, NC State hired their Offensive Coordinator, but he was not one of the top 3 candidates. Good catch! This is an example of the bonus that is provided to hiring within the current school. The Offensive Coordinator was not initially one of NC State's top candidates, but when it came time to hire a coach they decided to stay in-house. Also, you may have noticed that as an A rated coach, he had a lower rating than some of the other Offensive Coordinators that were available.

Coaching Carousel – How fast can you climb the ladder?

Can you become a Head Coach at a 6 star school from a 1 star Offensive/Defensive Coordinator within 2-4 seasons? Yes, it is possible. However, it will require some exceptional skill on the player's part to pass most, if not all, of their goals and some luck on the carousel. The right jobs need to open up at the right time to progress that quickly. This is certainly possible, but by no means easy to do.

Coaching Carousel – Prestige and Progression

How much does Coach Prestige impact progression? Coach Prestige is now a significant factor in the progression formula. It can also be tuned via Live Tuning Packs, so if at some point we feel it needs to play more or less of a part of progression, we can adjust it accordingly. However, we have kept the importance of Coach Prestige in mind when tuning and are very comfortable with its current impact upon progression.

Coaching Carousel – Is Coach Prestige your only rating?

As mentioned above, there have been a lot of questions on coach ratings and how the addition of the Coach Carousel will alter the course of a Dynasty in future years. We've talked a lot about how play styles move with the coach from one school to another and the impact that Coach Prestige has on the game, but I also wanted to point out that the Coach Loyalty rating is dynamic as well. If you are the type of coach that looks to hop from job to job every year, expect to have some struggles on the recruiting trail when a prospect wants to know if you will be there all four years to coach him. At the same time, there will be 119 other coaches out there just waiting to use that pitch against you when they get the chance.

Coaching Carousel – Default coach ratings

There seem to be quite a few A+ coaches? Keep in mind that default Coach Ratings can be edited, customized, and shared via Roster Share. If you want more of a challenge in your Dynasty, dropping their initial ratings will cause them to progress slower. Having said that, during the Carousel, schools will always look at A+ rated coaches that are out of a job.

Furthermore, each player in the Dynasty will start out with a Coach Prestige of D+. The contracts were designed with a slow progression to A+ in mind.

Coaching Carousel – Job Security and Wins/Losses

As an Offensive/Defensive Coordinator, will Job Security go up if we fail the objective based goals but win a lot of games? These contracts were implemented so that Wins and Losses have a significant impact upon job security. However, it is largely dependent upon the team prestige and the caliber of the contract.

Custom Playbooks – Formation Audibles

How are formation audibles set? Formation audibles are set automatically by the CPU for each formation in a custom playbook. The CPU will pick the play out of those in the custom playbook's formation that most closely matches that particular formation audible.

Thanks once again for checking out our blogs this week and I'll see you online when NCAA Football 12 releases on July 12th.

souljahbill
05-27-2011, 12:57 PM
Easily the best blog of the week.


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JBHuskers
05-27-2011, 01:04 PM
Custom Playbooks – Formation Audibles

How are formation audibles set? Formation audibles are set automatically by the CPU for each formation in a custom playbook. The CPU will pick the play out of those in the custom playbook's formation that most closely matches that particular formation audible.



So basically if you remove a play that was in a formation audible, a play from your playbook will automatically replace it. (as this was a huge question this week)

Deuce
05-27-2011, 01:06 PM
CPU recruiting to their style and better ratings for new recruits. Boom goes the dynamite!! Ah yeah!

Any word on the CPU recruiting too many players at one position? I don't feel like this was addressed but maybe the other fixes have corrected this?

Jcoop9
05-27-2011, 01:09 PM
CPU recruiting to their style makes the coaching carousel a lot better! Ready for 7/12 now.

Kwizzy
05-27-2011, 01:11 PM
Really good info in this blog. :nod::up:

JBHuskers
05-27-2011, 01:13 PM
Really good info in this blog. :nod::up:

Agreed :up:

psusnoop
05-27-2011, 01:15 PM
CPU recruiting to their style and better ratings for new recruits. Boom goes the dynamite!! Ah yeah!

Any word on the CPU recruiting too many players at one position? I don't feel like this was addressed but maybe the other fixes have corrected this?

This is a big one, I really hope this is really looked into hard.

psusnoop
05-27-2011, 01:16 PM
I like the fact that CPU will now offer a scholarship to a recruit when they should. This is a much needed addition as well as recruiting to their style as well. Good stuff!!

morsdraconis
05-27-2011, 01:31 PM
I like the fact that CPU will now offer a scholarship to a recruit when they should. This is a much needed addition as well as recruiting to their style as well. Good stuff!!

I would venture to guess that between them fixing that issue and having CPU teams recruit to their style of play, that the issue of grabbing too many players of certain positions should be fixed.

It was my understanding that part of the reason why some teams were getting too many players of certain positions was because they'd have 3 QBs rated highly and going after all three of them without ever offering any of them a scholarship to close the deal, therefore, once the end of recruiting happened, those 3 QBs would all go to the highest team on their list and thus that team signing all 3 QBs when they only needed one.

psusnoop
05-27-2011, 01:32 PM
The sway pitch is a welcomed addition, I use/used it in 11 but not all that much. As it said it did feel as though it was hurting more then helping in most instances. Glad they looked into that one.

hillbill
05-27-2011, 01:33 PM
Excellent news!!

psusnoop
05-27-2011, 01:33 PM
I would venture to guess that between them fixing that issue and having CPU teams recruit to their style of play, that the issue of grabbing too many players of certain positions should be fixed.

It was my understanding that part of the reason why some teams were getting too many players of certain positions was because they'd have 3 QBs rated highly and going after all three of them without ever offering any of them a scholarship to close the deal, therefore, once the end of recruiting happened, those 3 QBs would all go to the highest team on their list and thus that team signing all 3 QBs when they only needed one.

Which makes sense, lets hope that this is the case and it clears itself up with the adjustments that were made.

Pig Bomb
05-27-2011, 01:37 PM
boom shakalaka .... great news on dynasty tuning!!

souljahbill
05-27-2011, 01:38 PM
I didn't realize that people didn't use Sway Pitch. I used it for everything that wasn't locked or rated as High for everything B and above.


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Sinister
05-27-2011, 01:40 PM
I still have questions though

1. During recruiting a team winning the National Championship the previous year, does that have any impact for being a Championship Contender. The coach response to that should circle around the fact that they won it the previous year. The same goes for Conference prestige if you won your conference the coaches responses should reflect that.

2.With the change on how teams recruit will that give other teams and users better chance at getting good players, because the cpu isn't trying to grab all the good players in one position.

3. Was pipeline fixed I didn't understand why my created school was based in PA, but my main pipeline was in California. It was very hard to get good players in surrounding states, but I could easily get guys from Florida and Texas

JBHuskers
05-27-2011, 01:40 PM
I didn't realize that people didn't use Sway Pitch. I used it for everything that wasn't locked or rated as High for everything B and above.


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I usually would use it on a low rating to try to get it to average.

gschwendt
05-27-2011, 01:46 PM
I didn't realize that people didn't use Sway Pitch. I used it for everything that wasn't locked or rated as High for everything B and above.

I usually would use it on a low rating to try to get it to average.
The big problem with it last year was that even if you were successful and moved from a low to an average, the pitch differential was negligible (ex. get 20 for low, 25 for average) so that when you failed, you completely wasted that pitch and when you were successful, it didn't garner enough benefit to be worth it. That combined with the fact that you're actually helping your opponent by swaying because obviously he'll express that same new interest in that pitch.

ram29jackson
05-27-2011, 01:50 PM
So basically if you remove a play that was in a formation audible, a play from your playbook will automatically replace it. (as this was a huge question this week)

I wonder how Rhombic will take that ?

JBHuskers
05-27-2011, 01:50 PM
Yeah I didn't use it all the time....maybe once every two weeks if that.

Kwizzy
05-27-2011, 01:51 PM
I still have questions though
3. Was pipeline fixed I didn't understand why my created school was based in PA, but my main pipeline was in California. It was very hard to get good players in surrounding states, but I could easily get guys from Florida and Texas

Pipeline is based on where the players on your roster come from. I would say that if your main pipeline was in CA then that is more an issue with where the teambuilder rosters generate your players from.

Deuce
05-27-2011, 02:14 PM
I would venture to guess that between them fixing that issue and having CPU teams recruit to their style of play, that the issue of grabbing too many players of certain positions should be fixed.

It was my understanding that part of the reason why some teams were getting too many players of certain positions was because they'd have 3 QBs rated highly and going after all three of them without ever offering any of them a scholarship to close the deal, therefore, once the end of recruiting happened, those 3 QBs would all go to the highest team on their list and thus that team signing all 3 QBs when they only needed one.

That makes sense...I hope you are right.

morsdraconis
05-27-2011, 02:16 PM
The big problem with it last year was that even if you were successful and moved from a low to an average, the pitch differential was negligible (ex. get 20 for low, 25 for average) so that when you failed, you completely wasted that pitch and when you were successful, it didn't garner enough benefit to be worth it. That combined with the fact that you're actually helping your opponent by swaying because obviously he'll express that same new interest in that pitch.

But it worked VERY well with the glitch that made every pitch increase by one on the week of a visit. :)

Pantera1968
05-27-2011, 02:16 PM
I would venture to guess that between them fixing that issue and having CPU teams recruit to their style of play, that the issue of grabbing too many players of certain positions should be fixed.

It was my understanding that part of the reason why some teams were getting too many players of certain positions was because they'd have 3 QBs rated highly and going after all three of them without ever offering any of them a scholarship to close the deal, therefore, once the end of recruiting happened, those 3 QBs would all go to the highest team on their list and thus that team signing all 3 QBs when they only needed one.

I agree with this somewhat but I still think that maybe they need to add in some type of logic from the perspective of the recruit. If there is a 4 or 5 star recruit at a position where only one player is usually on the field at any particular time, if one of his favorite schools has already signed one or especially two at his position it should have an impact on him signing there (even if early playing time is not that important to him).

I think this is what also leads to a handful of great teams and the rest crap a few seasons into the dynasty. In '11 it seemed that after the first few years 90% of the 5 stars went to 3 or 4 teams.

morsdraconis
05-27-2011, 02:26 PM
I agree with this somewhat but I still think that maybe they need to add in some type of logic from the perspective of the recruit. If there is a 4 or 5 star recruit at a position where only one player is usually on the field at any particular time, if one of his favorite schools has already signed one or especially two at his position it should have an impact on him signing there (even if early playing time is not that important to him).

I think this is what also leads to a handful of great teams and the rest crap a few seasons into the dynasty. In '11 it seemed that after the first few years 90% of the 5 stars went to 3 or 4 teams.

That doesn't make sense though. Ohio State, USC, Notre Dame, Texas, etc regularly are at least 1 deep at any position with 3 star or more players at their positions sometimes having 2 backups being 5 star rated players out of high school.

It's a fact of college football. Most of the 5 star players go to a handful of teams and the rest are spattered between other schools. It's the 3 star and 4 star players that make up MOST of the real star power in college football.

Pantera1968
05-27-2011, 02:35 PM
I agree but not ALL in the same recruiting class. I've seen some examples in '11 of 3 five star rbs going to the same school in the same recruiting class. I'm not saying that's impossible but VERY unlikely.

I also think part of the problem is with the ratings of the 3 and 4 star players. As you mention correctly I think many really good teams are made up almost entirely of 3 and 4 star recruits. I think there are too few 3 and 4 star recruits who end up being nothing more than mediocre in '11.

Maybe when '12 comes out I will take a look at all of the players on the initial rosters who are rated 90 and above and see how many were 3 star recruits coming out of high school. Then compare that to a few years down the road in the dynasty . . I don't think I have personally EVER had a 3 star recruit end up being rated higher than 90.

Maybe my playing skills are keeping my guys from advancing that much! :)

WolverineJay
05-27-2011, 03:24 PM
The big problem with it last year was that even if you were successful and moved from a low to an average, the pitch differential was negligible (ex. get 20 for low, 25 for average) so that when you failed, you completely wasted that pitch and when you were successful, it didn't garner enough benefit to be worth it. That combined with the fact that you're actually helping your opponent by swaying because obviously he'll express that same new interest in that pitch.

My brother used this to his advantage and it pissed me off lol. I would always unlock pitches and he rarely did, and I would use the sway pitch a lot as well. He would wait to unlock pitches on the recruits we were competing for until I swayed them up higher like from avg to high thereby reaping all the benefits of my work when he unlocked the pitch even though initially it would say his interest was avg, but the next week after he unlocked the pitch it would automatically jump to whatever I swayed it too. Needless to say I started saying he couldn't be in the room when I was on my recruitng board, but he still knew my recruiting strategy and would unlock more pitches as our Dynasty went on.

CLW
05-27-2011, 03:36 PM
Personally, I think sway pitch is too affective. That's right too affective. I use it frequently b/c I have noticed that several times when you are successful it also bumps up SEVERAL other pitches as well. This has led to multiple MOSTs and VERY HIGHs (more than the 1 and 2 respectively) which allows you to accumulate a ton of points in a hurry.

If that "glitch" isn't fixed/patched swaying will be an even better strategy to employ on the trail.

I noticed no mentioning of whether you could edit cost prestige once the dynasty/OD has started. I presume that means once you start you are stuck and there will be 30-60 A+ prestige coaches running around the college football ranks in fairly short order on all dynasties.

steelerfan
05-27-2011, 04:12 PM
I noticed no mentioning of whether you could edit cost prestige once the dynasty/OD has started. I presume that means once you start you are stuck and there will be 30-60 A+ prestige coaches running around the college football ranks in fairly short order on all dynasties.

I don't know the answer, but I'm assuming/hoping that if you reach a point where there are too many highly rated coaches, many of them will drop quickly. Afterall, they can't all continue meeting their goals.

Cipher 8
05-27-2011, 04:36 PM
I would venture to guess that between them fixing that issue and having CPU teams recruit to their style of play, that the issue of grabbing too many players of certain positions should be fixed.


Agreed. I don't care if I see multiple players going to one school but when it gets to be like 4+ of same position then it's a little flawed. Plus really two top QB's would not go to the same school but if they did I'de like to see one transfer.

Jayrah
05-27-2011, 05:19 PM
I don't know the answer, but I'm assuming/hoping that if you reach a point where there are too many highly rated coaches, many of them will drop quickly. Afterall, they can't all continue meeting their goals.

This is a great point. Great coaches (as rated where they are) will be woo'd and offered to bigger, but not necessarily better jobs. The upper echelon teams looking for coaches will be schools that struggled (for the most part with the exception of surprise vacancies via alma maters) to meet their previous goals, which means the bigger schools will be/are a bit "down" at the time of hire. Theoretically a coach will decrease at least a little bit with dynamic prestige ratings because while he is "rebuilding the program", as we know, it takes talent and because he is now coaching a "down" team, he will take 2-3-4 years to pull it in and start winning consistently. During that time prestige will have to decrease while goals are not being met and exceeded. The smaller schools won't often get those super highly rated coaches off of a hire unless they have alma maters, and even if they do, recruiting is tough to come by with those smaller schools against the big boys, so the same plateauing prestige will affect the small schools as well.

I think we are reading too far into the "coach prestige" piece of this though. A school has many other recruiting pitches/issues that will factor into the overall success of the program. And there are only so many teams that can be consistent winners. Everybody plays the same amount (generally) of games and there are still winners, and still losers to those games. Not everyone can have a winning season with an A rated coach, so coaches will move up and down accordingly (theoretically) with dynamic prestige.

Jayrah
05-27-2011, 05:30 PM
Agreed. I don't care if I see multiple players going to one school but when it gets to be like 4+ of same position then it's a little flawed. Plus really two top QB's would not go to the same school but if they did I'de like to see one transfer.

Yes it's fine if multiples end up going if they are recruited and commit within a 2 weeks buffer. But the winner of the position battle as far as your depth chart decision goes should be the prime candidate for your "position in waiting" player, which would in turn leave the other player with a better "likelihood" of transferring, especially after 2nd year of riding in 3rd position string. Top 2 position would stay imo to see if he could overtake the starting job or at least earn meaningful playing time, unless his transfer to another school would clearly put him in a starting role with that school according to his skill set vs the offensive style of that school.

Rudy
05-27-2011, 08:54 PM
I like the fact that CPU will now offer a scholarship to a recruit when they should. This is a much needed addition as well as recruiting to their style as well. Good stuff!!


CPU recruiting to their style and better ratings for new recruits. Boom goes the dynamite!! Ah yeah!

Any word on the CPU recruiting too many players at one position? I don't feel like this was addressed but maybe the other fixes have corrected this?

Yes. This is great news. I've never understood why a top prospect would be #1 on a team's board and the team just wouldn't offer a scholarship. The kid is dying to play there and the team didn't offer. That was probably the weakest part of cpu recruiting. On Heisman if I went head to head with Texas for a Texas kid, I would lose 95% of the time unless I had Texas as a pipeline state. Even then it was tough. When the cpu wants someone they did a good job of getting them. Their biggest problem was not recruiting the right talent and seemingly ignoring the talent that would be a good fit.

Rudy
05-28-2011, 05:10 AM
Personally, I think sway pitch is too affective. That's right too affective. I use it frequently b/c I have noticed that several times when you are successful it also bumps up SEVERAL other pitches as well. This has led to multiple MOSTs and VERY HIGHs (more than the 1 and 2 respectively) which allows you to accumulate a ton of points in a hurry.

If that "glitch" isn't fixed/patched swaying will be an even better strategy to employ on the trail.

This is a very good point. Was this fixed?

Also, can you choose to sway a recruit's interest DOWN? If I'm at Michigan and a kid has high interest in being close to home and he's from Washington, I'd like to point out some benefits for leaving the nest.

souljahbill
05-28-2011, 07:10 AM
This is a very good point. Was this fixed?

Also, can you choose to sway a recruit's interest DOWN? If I'm at Michigan and a kid has high interest in being close to home and he's from Washington, I'd like to point out some benefits for leaving the nest.

You know what, you're right. If I'm at Hawaii and I'm recruiting a kid from Maine, Proximity to Home should be a D and if the kid says that's he doesn't care about that, you should actually get MORE points for that (right now, you'd get like 5 points or something). If a kid has a high interest in academic prestige but my academic prestige is a C, I should be able to downplay the pitch in order to gain points (like telling the recruit that he can get a good education anywhere he goes, not just at Stanford).


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morsdraconis
05-28-2011, 07:20 AM
That's an excellent idea, but it would need to be balanced somehow. Plus, most of the time, recruits only really have 3 or 4 big topics that work for them. Kinda hard to downgrade those when they are locked in at Very High or Most.

souljahbill
05-28-2011, 08:06 AM
That's an excellent idea, but it would need to be balanced somehow. Plus, most of the time, recruits only really have 3 or 4 big topics that work for them. Kinda hard to downgrade those when they are locked in at Very High or Most.

Unless you're Alabama, ND, Texas, Ohio St. or USC. Then EVERYTHING works because you have an A+ on every pitch.


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morsdraconis
05-28-2011, 06:38 PM
Unless you're Alabama, ND, Texas, Ohio St. or USC. Then EVERYTHING works because you have an A+ on every pitch.

Which I think is crap. There's no way the campuses (aka beautiful women) for Alabama, ND, Texas, or Ohio St are as good lookin' as USC, Arizona St, San Diego State, etc.

Pig Bomb
05-28-2011, 07:51 PM
Texas is for sure. I've been all over the country and University of Texas girls are amazing.

JeffHCross
05-28-2011, 10:17 PM
I also believe the term is "Campus Lifestyle", which would include a lot more than just beautiful women. Sure, that's the main hook for your average football playing male ... but even a beautiful campus (and women) mean little when it's in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do.

Jayrah
05-29-2011, 03:32 AM
I also believe the term is "Campus Lifestyle", which would include a lot more than just beautiful women. Sure, that's the main hook for your average football playing male ... but even a beautiful campus (and women) mean little when it's in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do.

With some nice women there's always somethin to do! ;)

Rudy
05-29-2011, 06:12 AM
Since the title thread mentions "tuning", are we going to hear more about how the dev team plans on using tuning files this year? I hope they fix dynasty progression in the patch and leave the tuning files for specific gameplay stuff that we can turn on/off or combine with other tuning packs. Or have separate tuners for dynasty progression. It seemed to me that too many resources were used last year to fix that stuff.

Pig Bomb
05-29-2011, 09:49 AM
at least they did give incoming recruits a fix so that after 5 or 6 years everyone is not crap...now they will mirror the current freshman in the game...i'm excited about that

JeffHCross
05-29-2011, 11:33 AM
I hope they fix dynasty progression in the patch and leave the tuning files for specific gameplay stuff that we can turn on/off or combine with other tuning packs.100% my opinion and not based on anything I heard in Orlando: You aren't likely to see this happen. The entire point of tuning sets is to change stuff outside of the patch cycle. So everything they can tune, if they feel it needs tuning, will be tuned. They're not likely to purposefully choose to not tune something because they want to leave it for the patch instead.

My personal hope is that we see tuner sets outside of the patch cycle. I think that ruined it last year, because it was difficult to tell what the tuners had changed and what the patch had changed.

jaymo76
05-29-2011, 12:42 PM
Before the first tuner set NCAA 11 was a thing of beauty. After that it dropped to a solid game with issues (eg cpu running) that have plagued the series since ps2 days.

souljahbill
05-29-2011, 01:44 PM
Before the first tuner set NCAA 11 was a thing of beauty. After that it dropped to a solid game with issues (eg cpu running) that have plagued the series since ps2 days.

It was SO fun to run before the changes went into effect.


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fsuprime
05-29-2011, 01:48 PM
yes

jaymo76
05-29-2011, 03:56 PM
official request... podcast!!!! please, please, please... I would love to hear more from you guys on the state of the game.:up:

Jayrah
05-29-2011, 04:56 PM
official request... podcast!!!! please, please, please... I would love to hear more from you guys on the state of the game.:up:

Same here.

Ncaa 11 WAS definitely a solid game before the tuner set. I wish they would not let a week's worth of playing the game and commenting determine what the "community" wants as far as a tuner pack goes (unless there is a huge glitch that must be fixed for playability). Instead, wait 6 weeks, and put out a solid set of tuned (not overhauled but slightly tuned) items of continuing concern. It's my belief that the community jumps on things out of the box that they don't immediately see and complain that "OMG where is this I've played 2 games and haven't seen it in play OMG I'm gonna freak out".

How bout we take some REAL time with the game (along the way putting out some concerns and or ideas for tuning), and give it some time to sink in. Give it time to really become an issue instead of fidgeting with it before you've seen the real problem. Take some time to mess with sliders and actually SEE that they don't work before having EA tune it because you didn't see a difference in the first 2 days. The 3 tuning packs last year each had their own set of issues because they tweaked things that didn't need to be tweaked, and messed with stuff that originally was better than ppl gave it credit for in their 6 hours of playing the game.

Rudy
05-29-2011, 05:10 PM
It would be nice to know exactly what the tuning set does vs. the patch.

JeffHCross
05-29-2011, 06:24 PM
They did post what the tuners did versus the patches ... it just made it difficult to gauge the effect, from a user standpoint, because they were released on the same day.

Rudy
05-30-2011, 04:34 AM
They did post what the tuners did versus the patches ... it just made it difficult to gauge the effect, from a user standpoint, because they were released on the same day.

That's the part that made no sense to me. Tuning files were supposed to be so you didn't have to release a patch to fix minor things. Why didn't they just throw the tuning stuff in the patch if they release them at the same time? I don't get it.

JBHuskers
05-30-2011, 07:10 AM
That's the part that made no sense to me. Tuning files were supposed to be so you didn't have to release a patch to fix minor things. Why didn't they just throw the tuning stuff in the patch if they release them at the same time? I don't get it.

Because a patch goes through a couple of weeks of certification before it can be live. Tuning updates are live as soon as they push them.

Solidice
05-30-2011, 09:58 AM
plus patches are limited on how big they can be, at least I believe Microsoft limits it. I don't really think NCAA's patches are hitting that limit though. but it's more likely that it's just easier to make the changes with a tuner instead of a patch, but if something went wrong with the tuner, they could quickly fix/change it without having to wait on Microsoft/Sony to certify it.

JBHuskers
05-30-2011, 10:28 AM
Yeah, when EA says it's "live tuning" they mean live :) it's cool to see other games like Mortal Kombat jump on board for this too.

brza37
05-31-2011, 02:58 AM
CPU recruiting to their style and better ratings for new recruits. Boom goes the dynamite!! Ah yeah!

Any word on the CPU recruiting too many players at one position? I don't feel like this was addressed but maybe the other fixes have corrected this?

Could somebody get confirmation on this? IMO that was the biggest problem with recruiting last year.

Also, have they put any logic in that would decrease recruit interest for schools too when a 5 or 4 star prospect at the same position gets signed (For positions like QB, HB, K/P for other positions it should only kick in after 2 guys get signed). I was in an OD last year where a user signed 2 5* QBs and a 4*. There was no rule against that cuz he stayed under the total number of recruits but it still isn't realistic. I think CH2k8 had this sort of logic in. I know with basketball its gotta be easier with the fewer positions but it should be possible to do in football too.

Rudy
05-31-2011, 05:02 AM
I think Jason French tweeted he had to bring a few guys back to the office due to an issue in certification. That means the game has gone gold or will very soon. No more changes unless they plan a day one patch.

steelerfan
05-31-2011, 05:12 AM
Could somebody get confirmation on this? IMO that was the biggest problem with recruiting last year.

I, for one, can tell you that things like this are hard to gauge in a couple of days. When I was at Tiburon in January, the game was a shell of what the finished product will be. Several new features weren't in the game yet, they were merely represented by "placeholders", there wasn't much sense in testing minute details. In April, I saw BIG improvements across the board. But, much of our time was spent playing specific areas of the game that the development team was needing feedback on. All of the features were there, but they needed tuning (in some cases, serious tuning). Two weeks ago, I saw what resembled a near-finished product, and that was exciting. However, I only spent 1 day simming and I was looking at specic information, so I can't give you a clear picture of what it is you're wanting to know. I did give feedback on what I did see, and I'm hopeful that the finished product will represent what we'd all like to see.

All of this being said, I'm doubtful any of us can give you a clear picture of what you're asking. It's a tough thing to gauge in a short amount of time. It takes quite a bit of time to sim a handful of seasons and if you're letting the CPU recruit for you (which I did to get in as many seasons as I could), it's really tough to get a feel for how recruiting is being handled.

I know all of this is not much of an answer, but I wanted to explain it so you can understand if none of us has a straight answer about recruiting.

brza37
05-31-2011, 06:33 AM
@steelerfan - I understand what you mean. Thanks for the answer.

fsuprime
05-31-2011, 09:48 AM
I think Jason French tweeted he had to bring a few guys back to the office due to an issue in certification. That means the game has gone gold or will very soon. No more changes unless they plan a day one patch.

they wouldn't being going gold this far out from release date would they? Unless early release ;)

SmoothPancakes
05-31-2011, 10:06 AM
they wouldn't being going gold this far out from release date would they? Unless early release ;)

Not necessarily. It might just mean that the development/programming is finished and there is nothing more that needs worked on before release (or nothing that CAN be worked on in regards to on disc data before release) and it has gone gold. But it'll still ship the same release date that has been announced. They won't move it up just because the game went gold already.

cdj
05-31-2011, 11:48 AM
Games 'wrap up' earlier than you would expect. They go through in-house testing & certification and then get sent off to MS & Sony for certification. After that, it's off to production, shipment, and then release. I believe that's standard operating procedure at pretty much every company.

fsuprime
05-31-2011, 01:05 PM
ah I only followed one game very closely and it was tribes for PC back in 97/98, i am way out of date on that process I guess :), once they said it went gold it meant we could have it at our doors in ~8 days or so :)

Jayrah
05-31-2011, 01:17 PM
The EA red tape puts the Gold stage way out there. And there's still the possibility that ea does the member online thing and releases a download a week early to subscribers. If we were to see that it might expect an announcement at E3

Sent from my Nexus S 4G using Tapatalk

fsuprime
05-31-2011, 05:24 PM
ugh :/ so the download would only be for 360 people?

if you can download it for ps3, can you play it from the HDD even after you purchase the game?

Paakaa10
05-31-2011, 05:32 PM
And there's still the possibility that ea does the member online thing and releases a download a week early to subscribers. If we were to see that it might expect an announcement at E3

It would be a real quick turnaround for EA to formally announce and detail the subscription service next week at E3 and have people signing up and paying for it so that it is in place the week before NCAA Football 12 comes out. I would imagine the possibility of this happening is slim-to-none, especially with PlayStation Network only set to come back by the end of this week.


ugh :/ so the download would only be for 360 people?

if you can download it for ps3, can you play it from the HDD even after you purchase the game?

From what I've heard of the sketchy details of the subscription service so far, the pre-release download file would only work until the physical game was released. Regardless of which system you own, the downloaded copy would cease to work once the disc was released.

Once/if the subscription system does get put into place, there's no reason to believe it'll be exclusive to either console; it should be available to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 gamers.

fsuprime
05-31-2011, 05:33 PM
just wishing I could have ncaa game permanently on my HDD, would probably speed up alot of the crappy stutters.

Paakaa10
05-31-2011, 05:39 PM
just wishing I could have ncaa game permanently on my HDD, would probably speed up alot of the crappy stutters.

It might; I'm not entirely sure how much performance would be affected if the game could be fully installed to the HDD. That's a question better answered by the more tech-savvy among us here.

There's also the issue of HDD space; I still only own the 60GB PS3, so I'm not going to be at the front lines of the cause to get fully-downloadable retail games in place. Reminds me that I need to start looking into getting a laptop HDD to switch into my console at some point here.

Solidice
05-31-2011, 06:17 PM
It might; I'm not entirely sure how much performance would be affected if the game could be fully installed to the HDD. That's a question better answered by the more tech-savvy among us here.

There's also the issue of HDD space; I still only own the 60GB PS3, so I'm not going to be at the front lines of the cause to get fully-downloadable retail games in place. Reminds me that I need to start looking into getting a laptop HDD to switch into my console at some point here.

on 360, when games are installed on the hard drive, loading times are usually faster. I like it because it's less strain and heat for the console since it no longer reads from the disc(you still need the disc in the system for it to run though)

steelerfan
05-31-2011, 07:42 PM
@steelerfan - I understand what you mean. Thanks for the answer.

No problem, buddy. :easy: :nod:

jaymo76
05-31-2011, 08:39 PM
Does anyone know if GLOBAL EDITING POWERS is something that could be downloaded via a patch???

gschwendt
05-31-2011, 09:53 PM
Does anyone know if GLOBAL EDITING POWERS is something that could be downloaded via a patch???
What do you mean? You mean give the ability for users to create their own tuners or something? If so, very unlikely just because an interface would have to be created and then the ability for the game to read each saved tuner pack separately instead of concurrently.

illwill10
05-31-2011, 09:58 PM
What do you mean? You mean give the ability for users to create their own tuners or something? If so, very unlikely just because an interface would have to be created and then the ability for the game to read each saved tuner pack separately instead of concurrently.

Ithink(not sure) he is talking about ratings like NBA Live did it. Where you could edit multiple players rating at the same time.

JBHuskers
06-01-2011, 09:03 AM
Does anyone know if GLOBAL EDITING POWERS is something that could be downloaded via a patch???

If you're referencing live tuning, that would be no because it's a whole separate program that they use (and I believe developed in-house) for live tuning.

Pig Bomb
06-01-2011, 09:17 AM
Does anyone know if GLOBAL EDITING POWERS is something that could be downloaded via a patch???

or if you mean the ability to edit anything and everything like in PRO EVO Soccer...I don't think they can do that in a patch nor do I think it's something they will ever have... as much as I would love it.
IMO It devalues the licensing agreement with the NCAA by allowing the user to edit or change schools stadiums/logos etc.
[Pro Evo lacks startegic license agreements, thus full edit to allow people to put their favorite teams in the game makes sense.]

jaymo76
06-01-2011, 07:21 PM
Sorry should have been clearer... I meant like what they have in 2k and this year's Madden... the ability to edit ratings for ALL TEAMS/PLAYERS, edit depth charts, edit height/weight, etc.

JeffHCross
06-01-2011, 10:34 PM
You mean in Dynasty, right?

In my opinion (purely opinion, not based on anything other than perception of complexity), that is not the type of thing that could be added in via a patch. Extra interface, extra testing, etc. Unlikely candidate for a patch.

jaymo76
06-01-2011, 11:16 PM
You mean in Dynasty, right?

In my opinion (purely opinion, not based on anything other than perception of complexity), that is not the type of thing that could be added in via a patch. Extra interface, extra testing, etc. Unlikely candidate for a patch.

It's just frustrating to hear that madden 12 took ABOUT ten minutes of development time to unlock global editing. Hey I don't want to turn players to 99 but if I think certain stats are off, or not enough height/weight has been gained, or there are depth chart glitches with cpu teams, I should be able to change them. I don't know why NCAA is so afraid of this???

gschwendt
06-01-2011, 11:43 PM
You mean in Dynasty, right?

In my opinion (purely opinion, not based on anything other than perception of complexity), that is not the type of thing that could be added in via a patch. Extra interface, extra testing, etc. Unlikely candidate for a patch.
Actually, I would lean on the side that it wouldn't be that difficult to open just because the interface is already there (use the same player editor that is in the roster edit section)... either way though, it would come with difficulties that if they were to do it, I wouldn't expect it as part of a very early patch (unless of course they've already been working on it).

PeteyKirch
06-02-2011, 06:09 AM
Actually, I would lean on the side that it wouldn't be that difficult to open just because the interface is already there (use the same player editor that is in the roster edit section)... either way though, it would come with difficulties that if they were to do it, I wouldn't expect it as part of a very early patch (unless of course they've already been working on it).

But I swore the Madden Devs said to unlock Global Editing was a simple step that took 10-15 minutes of designing and coding.

steelerfan
06-02-2011, 07:21 AM
I talked to Ben on my last visit about the ability to edit recruits. He was asking us why we would want it. I told him that I didn't, but gave him Kwizzy's explanation for why he wants it. Kwizzy had told me before that he wanted the ability to make in-game recruits mirror real world Nebraska recruits. Ben seemed to indicate that it shouldn't be too tough to add, much in the way G described. Whether or not there is/was time for 12, it will be added to 13, or it will ever get in, is anyone's guess though. Just know it's "on their desk" now.

Kwizzy
06-02-2011, 08:19 AM
I talked to Ben on my last visit about the ability to edit recruits. He was asking us why we would want it. I told him that I didn't, but gave him Kwizzy's explanation for why he wants it. Kwizzy had told me before that he wanted the ability to make in-game recruits mirror real world Nebraska recruits. Ben seemed to indicate that it shouldn't be too tough to add, much in the way G described. Whether or not there is/was time for 12, it will be added to 13, or it will ever get in, is anyone's guess though. Just know it's "on their desk" now.

Yeah, I brought this up to several people while I was there but never really got the impression that anyone agreed with me. My feeling on it is that, in offline dynasty, it's MY game. If I want to make everyone 5'-8" 120 lbs I should be able to do that. Of course that's not what I want to use it for but you get my point. You actually used to be able to do this (within the past couple years, can't remember exactly which year) but for some reason you can't now. I would bet it stopped with the addition of online dynasty, if I had to guess.

steelerfan
06-02-2011, 08:24 AM
Yeah, I brought this up to several people while I was there but never really got the impression that anyone agreed with me. My feeling on it is that, in offline dynasty, it's MY game. If I want to make everyone 5'-8" 120 lbs I should be able to do that. Of course that's not what I want to use it for but you get my point. You actually used to be able to do this (within the past couple years, can't remember exactly which year) but for some reason you can't now. I would bet it stopped with the addition of online dynasty, if I had to guess.

Did you ever talk to Ben about it? He seemed very open to the idea after getting a couple of explanations of why it's wanted.

Kwizzy
06-02-2011, 08:25 AM
Did you ever talk to Ben about it? He seemed very open to the idea after getting a couple of explanations of why it's wanted.

Nope, I think I probably hit everyone but him. :D

steelerfan
06-02-2011, 08:26 AM
Nope, I think I probably hit everyone but him. :D

:D

Well, he knows your point of view now. ;)

Kwizzy
06-02-2011, 08:39 AM
:D

Well, he knows your point of view now. ;)

Much appreciated :up:

steelerfan
06-02-2011, 12:01 PM
Much appreciated :up:

No worries. You were the first to give me an explanation that made sense and didn't come across as "I want to win every game, every year."

Pig Bomb
06-02-2011, 12:30 PM
No worries. You were the first to give me an explanation that made sense and didn't come across as "I want to win every game, every year."

For sure... I would use global editing to make the game more challenging and/or more realistic for me.
Editing incoming recruits to resemble their real life counterparts would be awesome.
Editing lower rated players that turn out to be gems or high rated busts would also add realism.

I'm all for full access editing!

WolverineJay
06-02-2011, 02:39 PM
For sure... I would use global editing to make the game more challenging and/or more realistic for me.
Editing incoming recruits to resemble their real life counterparts would be awesome.
Editing lower rated players that turn out to be gems or high rated busts would also add realism.

I'm all for full access editing!

Exactly. Everytime I seen full editing as either a specific request by somebody or as a part of a long wish list it has always been to correct the mistakes with the game not as a means to cheat, lol. The ability to edit height and weight was always allowed last gen and it doesn't really impact the game at all it is just cosmetic so why that is not allowed is a real head scratcher. If EA Tiburon isn't even aware why the community wants the ability to edit everything in a Dynasty then that's really sad since It has been requested for many years now and in an intelligent manner(not for cheating, lol).

edit*** If EA Tiburon is that worried about cheating just give the commisioner the ability to turn full editing on or off. I imagine it would be turned off in almost all OD's but many would choose to have it on for their offline Dynasty.

steelerfan
06-02-2011, 03:48 PM
Calm down, cowboy. No one said EA was oblivious to anything, nor that they were concerned about it being used as a cheat.

I said they asked me about it, and that, prior to talking to Kwizzy, it was my opinion that it was for kiddies wanting a 99 OVR team. If you really think, after the last 2 years of feature adds, that EA doesn't know what's wanted then you haven't been paying attention, lol.

JBHuskers
06-02-2011, 03:59 PM
Calm down, cowboy.

http://www.thegoldencloset.com/merchant/graphics/00000001/S0019d.jpg

steelerfan
06-02-2011, 04:01 PM
:nod:

WolverineJay
06-02-2011, 04:03 PM
Lol. Who is jumping to conclusions now. Kwizzy said he talked to a bunch of people and they weren't very receptive of the idea which has been around for quite awhile. Then you said you talked to Ben and he asked why someone would want it that implies to me that he doesn't know what the community wants in terms of full editing ability despite it being on many intelligent wishlist's over the years to which I said was sad. Ok I did infer that they thought cheating would be the reason, lol.

SmoothPancakes
06-02-2011, 04:04 PM
http://www.thegoldencloset.com/merchant/graphics/00000001/S0019d.jpg

Just make sure your horse doesn't get a flat and that a bear doesn't eat your boots.

steelerfan
06-02-2011, 04:12 PM
Lol. Who is jumping to conclusions now. Kwizzy said he talked to a bunch of people and they weren't very receptive of the idea which has been around for quite awhile. Then you said you talked to Ben and he asked why someone would want it that implies to me that he doesn't know what the community wants in terms of full editing ability despite it being on many intelligent wishlist's over the years to which I said was sad (nothing else was inferred).

To be perfectly honest, I don't remember if this was even in the TGT Wishlist Tourney this year. If it wasn't, it means it wasn't even mildly requested here. If it was, I'm sure it didn't make it very far.

I understand the desire to have such an ability, and I see the merit in it. I don't agree, however, that it is high on the community's priority list.

I honestly don't know why Ben asked why we would want it. He may not have known why, he may have thought he'd get the lame answers that would render it even lower on the list of priorities. EA is well aware of what the community wants, but it's unrealistic to think that they sit around reading every post on every site. That's part of why the community is invited to attend these events and to interact with the devs. To let them know what the community is wanting/thinking. In this case, we did just that.

WolverineJay
06-02-2011, 04:36 PM
Fair enough. Yeah that wishlist item has been around for a long time just like a play editor or create-a-play as it was called on the PS1 and my guess is that it just got lost in the shuffle over the years because it was neglected for so long.

brza37
06-03-2011, 05:24 AM
Global rating editing so that we can upgrade or downgrade all player ratings or ratings for certain positions by a certain percentage all at once would be a huge addition IMO. This feature could have negated the problem that many users had with the overall low break tackle, spin, juke move for recruits last year or the generally low KPW & KAC for kickers and punters recruits or lower Play Recognition for all existing players and recruits to bring back Playaction and scrambling CPU QBs etc.
I'd probably never change recruit ratings if I had to do them each individually but if I could change them globally in a matter of minutes this could be a great feature to get the game playing the way that I like it through ratings.

gschwendt
06-03-2011, 08:58 AM
To adjust my statement a "global" adjustment that says "bump everyone's spin rating up 10 points" or something like that, THAT we almost certainly won't be able to get with a patch. The editor that I was talking about was meaning the ability to edit each individual player. Again though, there still would be hurdles for them to jump in order to achieve that... namely would it be an issue with offline vs online dynasties (ie do they use the same exact asset).

Kwizzy
06-03-2011, 09:28 AM
To adjust my statement a "global" adjustment that says "bump everyone's spin rating up 10 points" or something like that, THAT we almost certainly won't be able to get with a patch. The editor that I was talking about was meaning the ability to edit each individual player. Again though, there still would be hurdles for them to jump in order to achieve that... namely would it be an issue with offline vs online dynasties (ie do they use the same exact asset).

That I think is the key G, at some point in the last couple years on Next-Gen you were able to edit everything in dynasty. I think that when they added online dynasties they turned that ability off & it carried over to offline dynasty. Just a guess but that's what I think happened.

gschwendt
06-03-2011, 09:30 AM
That I think is the key G, at some point in the last couple years on Next-Gen you were able to edit everything in dynasty. I think that when they added online dynasties they turned that ability off & it carried over to offline dynasty. Just a guess but that's what I think happened.Yep... and since Madden's Online Franchise almost a completely different game mode than offline Franchise, it would be much easier for them in that regard.

JBHuskers
06-03-2011, 09:32 AM
Yep... and since Madden's Online Franchise almost a completely different game mode than offline Franchise, it would be much easier for them in that regard.

...and the damn mode doesn't have a salary cap among other things :fp:

Pig Bomb
06-03-2011, 09:43 AM
just a note for my posts.....by "global" i meant the ability to edit EVERYTHING ...not the ability to edit all players at once

i want the ability to get in there and edit any player i want whenever i want in my dynasty - puerly for realism
if jokers wanna cheat and make all 99 teams, have at it i dont care....just make all the editing for offline only to avoid problems online in OD and ranked etc

souljahbill
06-03-2011, 10:11 AM
Yeah, recruits need better acceleration and less speed. How can you run some of these times with C acceleration? How can a scrambling quarterback have a D in acceleration? It doesn't make sense.

The game definitely needs a global equipment editor. I don't want to go through the entire team to put a particular helmet on all my players.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

illwill10
06-03-2011, 10:11 AM
just a note for my posts.....by "global" i meant the ability to edit EVERYTHING ...not the ability to edit all players at once

i want the ability to get in there and edit any player i want whenever i want in my dynasty - puerly for realism
if jokers wanna cheat and make all 99 teams, have at it i dont care....just make all the editing for offline only to avoid problems online in OD and ranked etc

Exactly. Currently the schools that are able to sign 4* & 5* are the schools that say good. THe schools that sign 1-3* stay bad. I want teams like Virginia to become good because they signed a 3* who became great. But mostly I want editing for Height & weight

gschwendt
06-03-2011, 10:18 AM
The game definitely needs a global equipment editor. I don't want to go through the entire team to put a particular helmet on all my players.
Is that to set them all with the same helmet or is it more to remove the Standard helmet from everyone? If the latter, recruits no longer are generated with the Standard helmet... it's still there as an option but you should rarely if ever see it.

souljahbill
06-03-2011, 10:42 AM
Is that to set them all with the same helmet or is it more to remove the Standard helmet from everyone? If the latter, recruits no longer are generated with the Standard helmet... it's still there as an option but you should rarely if ever see it.

I'm talking about if I want my entire team to wear a particular type of helmet or the whole team to wear ankle braces or everyone to wear a sweatband on their right elbow, I don't want to go through 70 players to do that. I'd like a a way to set it up for everybody at once.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Pig Bomb
06-03-2011, 12:51 PM
I'm talking about if I want my entire team to wear a particular type of helmet or the whole team to wear ankle braces or everyone to wear a sweatband on their right elbow, I don't want to go through 70 players to do that. I'd like a a way to set it up for everybody at once.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

that makes sense...i would use that ability for sure... helmets etc

baseballplyrmvp
06-04-2011, 08:59 PM
I'm talking about if I want my entire team to wear a particular type of helmet or the whole team to wear ankle braces or everyone to wear a sweatband on their right elbow, I don't want to go through 70 players to do that. I'd like a a way to set it up for everybody at once.

i've never really cared for equipment type of stuff....but i can definitely see where this would come in handy. its a pain in the ass having to go through every wr/qb/db to add towels to them.

JeffHCross
06-05-2011, 12:58 PM
It's just frustrating to hear that madden 12 took ABOUT ten minutes of development time to unlock global editing.

But I swore the Madden Devs said to unlock Global Editing was a simple step that took 10-15 minutes of designing and coding.
I hadn't heard that information. Like I said, it was totally my opinion that it wouldn't be patchable.

As other posts like Pig Bomb's have illustrated, there are also multiple interpretations of "global editing". I'm not sure, at the time of my post, which one I was thinking of. Personally, I lean more towards souljahbill's "I don't want to go through 70 players" idea. Was a massive, massive pain for me with my Teambuilder team.