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View Full Version : Examiner.com Interview with NCAA Football Designer Ben Haumiller



gschwendt
07-16-2010, 03:11 PM
You can view the page at http://www.thegamingtailgate.com/forums/content.php?252-Examiner.com-Interview-with-NCAA-Football-Designer-Ben-Haumiller


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Examiner.com NCAA 11 Exclusive Interview With Designer Ben Haumiller (http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-54227-Reno-Console-Games-Examiner~y2010m7d16-NCAA-11-Exclusive-Interview-With-Designer-Ben-Haumiller)

I recently had an opportunity to have a Q & A with Ben Haumiller, NCAA 11 designer for EA Sports. Ben was gracious enough to answer some important questions the community has had for this year's game as well as some long standing questions that have come up over the years:

Q - A lot of people are saying, in a good way, that this year's game "feels" like the old PlayStation 2 days. Is that a feel you were looking to recapture or is that just a positive by-product of Locomotion?
A - Obviously the goal every year is to capture the gameplay magic we had on the early 2000’s versions of the game. Our plan wasn’t to specifically recreate that gameplay, but instead do our best job to create the most realistic and fun gameplay on this generation of consoles. Locomotion had a huge impact on the success we’ve had this year both in the feel of the game but also in the look of the game since locomotion has changed the way the players move giving them a more natural appearance.

Q - There's been a lot of debate about the offensive line's Slide Protect and its role in the Running game. Does Slide Protect provide any advantages for run plays?
A - Any affect that slide protect has on running plays is purely cosmetic. Slide Protection is intended to help handle the pass rush on passing plays.

Q - Another item that needs clarification for many people is the Pump Fake. During a game load, the Power Tips say to move the right stick in any direction. Some people believe that the actual "fake" is to the Primary receiver (orange route) only. Is this true or is the fake towards the receiver on the direction of the stick?
A - The fake is towards the receiver in the direction of the stick. While there is a chance a DB with low play recognition might fall for a pump fake towards the opposite side of the field, you should find your biggest success by pump faking to the side you intend to throw it to.

Q - There's some speculation that the AI defense "knows" what type of offensive play the user called, run or pass, regardless of the offensive formation called. Can you shed some light on how the AI calls its defense when we are playing against the CPU? Is it logging user tendencies for the personnel in the huddle or is it more random than that?
A - The AI doesn’t “know” the exact play you have called, but through the course of the game the AI will learn and adapt to what you have had success with so that it can become more effective at shutting you down. An example of this is if you have success running a specific route during a game, through the course of the game the AI will adjust to look to shut that route down, not only from the play you’ve called, but from any formation (even if you hot route to that route), or in the running game, if you are having success running up the middle you will notice the defensive tackles start to pinch down and linebackers start walking up to try and take away runs up the middle from your offensive attack.

Q - How much difference is there in the AI play calling from, say, All-American and Heisman levels?
A - The difference between All-American and Heisman isn’t so much in the play calling, but instead it’s in the execution of those plays. The higher the difficulty level the less mistakes the AI will make, which increases the necessity for you to limit your mistakes in order to have success.

Q - There's always been this two-sided argument in recent years among the fanbase that on one hand, defensive linemen are getting "suctioned" in by the offensive line but then they also say they can't run the ball because they aren't getting the proper blocking. This seems to be much improved on both sides of the ball this year. What went into finding better balance for blocking schemes?
A - One word, Locomotion. It can’t be said enough how much of an impact locomotion had on the gameplay this year. Before locomotion defensive linemen could turn on a dime so the “suction” effect was a byproduct of having to find a way to keep defensive linemen engaged with an offensive linemen as the ball carrier passes them. The second part of that was because the linemen could turn on a dime, if the defender was unblocked or got off their block, they could go into a tackle animation immediately which cause a lot of possible big plays to be stopped for a 1-2 yard game. Now with locomotion the defensive lineman’s ability to change direction is all based on their agility rating, which leads them to have a more natural turn radius which killed the “suction” effect and also allowed for a RB to get past the line of scrimmage more easily since the linemen weren’t immediately wrapping them up.

Q - The infamous QB Walk glitch. Is it fixed for this year?
A - This was fixed in the day one patch.

Q - When setting up an Online Dynasty, there's an option that says "Time Savers - Allows usage of shortcuts in dynasty mode" - what exactly does that mean for those who might be new tot eh game or coming back from a long hiatus?
Time Savers are DLC components we offer to help speed up some of the aspects of dynasty mode. If you are taking over a smaller school, but don’t want to build up their recruiting pitches you can purchase an upgrade to give you’re school all A+ grades. If you are in need of a little assistance in recruiting purchasing the recruit advisor will give you some helpful hints each week. There are a number of options that you can choose from based on how you want your dynasty experience to play out.

Q - One of the new features for this year is the Team Builder Quick Match for online play. How are the early results looking as far as people using this?
A - This was a big request from last year and we were happy to add the ability for gamers to go in and match up two TeamBuilder teams head to head. While not as popular as the traditional quick match, this is proving to also be a popular way to play head to head online games.

Q - Sticking with online play for a minute. Let's talk about the biggest gripe people always seem to have every year, the "D" word, "disconnects". People seem to always blame "the EA servers". I've always understood that the online games were direct peer-to-peer connections and not a server-hosted game, therefore EA servers couldn't be the cause of disconnects. Care to elaborate a little bit more on that so people have a better understanding of what's going on?
A – While the games are direct peer-to-peer connections we do maintain a connection to the EA Servers so that we can do things like report stats/results, etc. There are a number of reasons that can cause a disconnect, from a server hiccup to your opponent pulling their connection disconnects are an unfortunate part of online gaming and since we don’t have a way of determining an Ethernet pull from a really bad connection the catch-all message is that you have lost connection to the EA servers. Basically, our servers play the role of “bad guy” for any bit of randomness that can happen through online play.

Q - The Pistol offense seems to be featured by EA at times for this year's game. Did anyone contact Coach Chris Ault from Nevada to get some insight from him?
A - Unfortunately we do not have direct access to college coaches. However the guys that create our playbooks do a tremendous amount of research into each team. Anthony White and Larry Richart have been all over the advancements in college football over the years from the Wildcat to the Pistol whenever there is innovation in college football these guys make sure it’s recreated and in our game as soon as possible.

Q - I'd like to look into the future of the NCAA franchise. Many fans want to be able to build custom playbooks and playbook editors, even if it's just for offline play. Is this something we may see at some point?
A - The desire for custom playbooks has definitely moved to the top of the community request list, and it’s something we are definitely discussing for NCAA12. At this point it’s way too early for me to confirm anything for next year’s game, but this is something that is definitely a part of the discussion.

Q - There's a lot of DLC for purchase already. Can we expect some more in the future?
A - DLC is still in its infancy in the industry and there are some games that have found exactly what works for them and others that are still looking for DLC that makes the most sense for their game. I think we have offerings that can help enhance your game experience, but I think there are still areas where we can look to enhance DLC options in the future.

Q - Thanks you so much for your time, we all appreciate it. Is there anything else you'd like the fanbase to know now that the game is out? Any surprises coming for online play?
A feature for this year that hasn’t been talked about much, but now that we have launched is the ability to tune aspects about the game on the fly without the need of a patch. This year is our first attempt at this, so we are limited in what we can tune, but if the community feels that things like dynasty progression is causing players to get too good too fast, if there are too many fumbles, or that there are too many missed field goals in super sim we can tune them and push out an update at any point.
I'd like to thank Ben for taking time out his day to answer these questions. It's always a busy time for a staff immediately following a game release. Also, I want to extend a special thanks to Julie Foster, Sr. Publicist for EA Sports.

ram29jackson
07-16-2010, 03:48 PM
thats the first time i've seen somewhat real questions asked and answered as opposed to fluff.

jaymo76
07-16-2010, 08:44 PM
Custom playbooks!!!!

morsdraconis
07-16-2010, 11:46 PM
Custom playbooks!!!!

Don't hold your breathe on that one...

Jayrah
07-17-2010, 03:09 AM
Don't hold your breathe on that one...

:D Always the antagonist :P

That's not only the first time I've seen real questions. That's the first time I've seen some real answers too. Very nice read. Wonder if they could tune post pattern zones or coverages. That seems to be an issue right now. I love that they're trying something to be able to tune things on the fly. That's some innovation there.

morsdraconis
07-17-2010, 06:01 AM
:D Always the antagonist :P

That's not only the first time I've seen real questions. That's the first time I've seen some real answers too. Very nice read. Wonder if they could tune post pattern zones or coverages. That seems to be an issue right now. I love that they're trying something to be able to tune things on the fly. That's some innovation there.

The thing is, those post patterns aren't ALWAYS open. I don't get people bitching about that. Sure, sometimes, they are definitely open, just like in real life, but they aren't 100% money unless you play random stupid people online with default AA sliders. Just stop playing non-OD games people. Christ.

mundo
07-17-2010, 10:03 AM
thats the first time i've seen somewhat real questions asked and answered as opposed to fluff.

exact same thing I said

jaymo76
07-17-2010, 05:28 PM
Don't hold your breathe on that one...

Normally I would agree with you but this NCAA team seems to be different this year. Maybe after the awful reviews the last few years the team has taken a new approach??? In years past they would never be so open in an interview. If I had to go on record I would say : custom playbooks, coaches on the field, and dreads (lol) will be the big ticket items for next year... based on community feedback anyways.