The Gaming Tailgate - Changes to the Quarterback in NCAA Football 11

NCAA Football Associate Designer Larry Richart has just posted a blog discussing some of the changes associated around the Quarterback in NCAA Football 11. These changes include a Gameplanning setting to allow you to set your defenders to aggressively attack a scrambling QB as well as changes to the throwing motion during a sack animation.

Hey there NCAA Football fans, Larry Richart here, Associate Designer on NCAA® Football 11, to fill you in on some more gameplay improvements. As you know, the spring football season has come and gone and the fall season will be here before you know it! In our previous blogs we have talked about the new locomotion system and the all-new Real Assignment AI. We haven't stopped there as we are continuing to work hard on making this the best NCAA Football title yet.

Today's blog is going to be all about the quarterback. As a former QB myself, I am always excited to talk about the most important position on the field, so let's get started! (Somewhere my former offensive lineman teammates want to slap me!) There are many different styles of QB's in the college game today that fit into a variety of unique offensive styles. You have your prototypical passing type QB's such as Sam Bradford and Jimmy Clausen, your option, running style QB's that you see at Georgia Tech/Navy/Army/Air Force and then you have the dual-threat QB's that do both like our cover athlete Tim Tebow.

Defending the Dual-Threat QB

The dual threat QB's are often times the hardest to stop. A defense must be able to account for the QB running the ball while also playing enough pass defense to not allow big plays through the air. Dual-threat QB's, just like in real life, have always been tough to handle in our NCAA Football titles. So this year we decided that we needed to give the user more options to help defend against them. The first step we took to help the user was to add a new defensive line audible that quickly puts both your defensive ends in contain assignments. If you are worried that your opponent might want to take off with his QB you can simply bring up your defensive line audibles before the snap and flick the R-Stick up. In the screenshots below you can see this in action and how the DE's assignments change from pass rush to contain.

a. Contain QB assignment in UI

b. Defensive Ends are shown with contain assignments (white play art)

The second addition to helping the defense slow down scrambling QB's is a new option in the gameplan called "QB Contain." This option, if you set it to 'Aggressive', will cause your defenders to react quicker to a scrambling QB by leaving their zones sooner to try and contain the QB. This will affect defenders in short zone assignments such as hook, curl/flat, and flat zones. Defenders in deep zones will not be affected by this. Another thing to keep in mind when using this option is that only the best blitzer will actually rush. There are many factors that determine who that is, including which defender can break out of their zones, when they should break out of their zone, where the QB is currently scrambling to, how many receivers are in the defender's zone, is another defender already in a spy assignment, and how many defenders can actually have a chance to make the play.

Choosing an aggressive QB contain can definitely help stop a scrambling QB, but will also have a greater chance of leaving receivers open as the defenders in short zones will view the QB as the bigger threat. If you want to play it safe and are not worried about the QB scrambling, you can set this option to 'Conservative'. In this gameplan, the defenders will stay on the receivers longer and give up the QB Scramble by not attacking him until he is right near the line of scrimmage.
Another extra area of focus that we have done for NCAA Football 11 is to have defenders play more aggressive if their opponent is near the goal line. Defenders will no longer sit back and allow the QB to walk in for an easy touchdown as they will react and attack much sooner than they have in previous versions of the game

Getting all 11 defenders to react appropriately is a difficult challenge, just ask any Defensive Coordinator, but we feel like we have found a good balance for these types of situations.

Throw Out of Sacks

The next big area that we wanted to address for NCAA Football 11 was to improve our 'throw out of sacks' feature. In previous versions of NCAA Football, we haven't been satisfied with our results on how this looks and feels in game. With that in mind we decided to redesign this feature and make it much more animation and ratings driven that it has ever been in the past. The first thing we did was to sit down as a team and determine what actually factors in to being able to throw out of a sack effectively and not so effectively. We came up with the idea that number one, Strength, is an important factor as well as the QB's Awareness. You don't often see the smaller, inexperienced QB's make great decisions when they are getting hit. Often times you see an ill-advised throw go up in the air and go the other way for a defensive touchdown. However, after watching a bunch of different games we noticed that players that were stronger and more aware (again Tim Tebow fits this description) and were able to still make decent throws and decisions while getting tackled by a defender.

To accomplish a more animation driven result, our terrific gameplay animation team went through and added new branch windows for every sack animation. The branch windows include accurate, inaccurate and uncontrolled. These windows are placed throughout the animation and can overlap in certain parts. So for example, say you are starting a pass and you get hit by a defender and you are in between the accurate and inaccurate window, the QB's ratings will determine which pass will trigger. If the QB has higher strength and awareness ratings he will more than likely still be able to get off an accurate pass. However, a less aware, smaller type QB will more than likely throw the inaccurate pass. The same calculation happens when the window is between inaccurate and uncontrolled.

We have also spent some time tuning the passes in general when throwing out of sacks. Obviously when a QB his hit during his throw he won't have the same zip as if he was standing upright in the pocket with nobody around him. Therefore, even on accurate passes, the QB will not be able to throw the ball as far or on the same trajectory as a regular bullet pass. You will also see the ball flutter a bit more as it's hard to get off a perfect spiral when a defender is all over you. We've tuned back the trajectory of the uncontrolled floaters that often times were turned into pick sixes. These passes will more often than not fall harmlessly to the ground.

Another factor in determining where the pass will go when you attempt to throw out of a sack is the angle of your wrist at the point of your release. It's completely unrealistic to be able to throw a pass to a target at an extreme angle from where you are facing under normal situations yet alone when you are getting hit! So therefore, if you are trying to throw a pass back across your body while being hit, you will automatically throw an uncontrolled pass. So make sure you are aware of your QB's strength and awareness ratings the next time you are playing and try and throw a pass with a defender bearing down on you!

Well that's it for this update, hope you enjoyed it and thanks for checking it out. Take care and we'll be back for some more gameplay updates soon.

Source

42 Comments

AustinWolv - 05-17-2010, 10:42 AM
- Reply
We could ALREADY use the contain assignments, and realistically, they could have very easily designed a system that both kept the rush out assignment and simultaneously made it easier to set DEs to contain.

Yeah, don't disagree with that at all.

Of course it is untested. However, it was discussed. Didn't say it was fixed, but they went into some detail on how individual ratings, individual positions, individual zone/man responsibilities.....how those would play into it, so it means they at least LOOKED at it compared to years past where a QB would clearly just take off with the LOS at the 5 yard line and yet the LB is just dropping into his zone 1/2-way deep into the endzone.

I'm going to have to check out all the new running plays. I never called a draw play in the past since they were so unsuccessful. I'm going to have to open my options up again and re-adjust to what the game can do now.

Agreed, those plays were a waste of screen space previously.

Rudy - 05-17-2010, 10:46 AM
- Reply
Originally Posted by texacotea

Also why not have the QBs acc rating drop when they start scrambling? This would make more sense IMO, you see more balls overthrown of thrown into the ground when someone is flushed out. Now I know there is the QBs who can throw just as good on the run as the can standing in the pocket. But somehow incoporate that into the ratings this way when a QB who is not custom to scrambling throw the ball worse when they are scrambling.

I guess this depends on whether the extra QB ratings from Madden 10 found their way in NCAA 11. I'd love to see ratings for throwing on the run, deep ball, play action, etc. It would also be cool if they had different throwing animations (over the top, 3/4, slow, fast).