NCAA Football 11 Dynasty Blog - Recruiting Logic and Extras

[cdj]

Wow! Can we say "major overreaction!" I guess that's what I get for asking a question... aka are there any additonal features for offline or is the last announcement going to be for online only? As to the cut scenes comment, a lot of people love them and never skip over them as it adds to the immersion of the experience. To each his own. On this I guess we will cordially agree to dissagree.

The feature Russ is referring to will be marketed and talk mainly (solely?) about the Online Dynasty aspect, but will apply to offline as well as far as I know (or it did at the CE, at least). Once the snake in the mailbox is revealed, it'll make sense and we can talk about it.

The three blogs may not have been flashy (as in no back of the box feature), but the changes were needed to improve the quality of Dynasty Mode and some of it had to be very time-consuming if not also very difficult. (Rebuilding thousands of recruits in the Dynasty recruit pool? Yikes, no thanks. Not to mention reconfiguring the CPU logic, etc.)

[Deuce]

Maybe I missed this but has there been any mention of the CPU recruiting to the style of their team? ...will option teams recruit option QB's and so on?

[morsdraconis]

Knowing how EA tries to make Freshman mode very easy and accommodating for new users, Freshman and maybe Varsity difficulty probably will be very manageable.

Yeah, there's no doubt in that. I just think it might end up being ridiculously difficult with All American and impossible cheat mode with Heisman (CPU teams know exactly what players you are going after and snatch them all up without you have a prayer of getting them).

Wow! Can we say "major overreaction!" I guess that's what I get for asking a question... aka are there any additonal features for offline or is the last announcement going to be for online only? As to the cut scenes comment, a lot of people love them and never skip over them as it adds to the immersion of the experience. To each his own. On this I guess we will cordially agree to dissagree.

My bad man. I get so used to people saying things like "What?! No more additions to offline dynasty!?! Well EA really dropped the ball on this one! No coaching carousel!!! rabble rabble rabble" that I thought your comment was one of those.

From what I gather from what they've said and the hints from various CD people, the two wow announcements are something to do with online dynasty and something that affects the game in general most likely that's the only major improvement that specifically targets offline dynasty.

Maybe I missed this but has there been any mention of the CPU recruiting to the style of their team? ...will option teams recruit option QB's and so on?

Only thing I've seen at all about style of players was when they talked about recreating the entire recruit database and basing them more on their style of player. There were thoughts that that might coincide with the CPU recruiting players that fit their schemes, but there hasn't been anything that solidly points to that.

[Solidice]

The feature Russ is referring to will be marketed and talk mainly (solely?) about the Online Dynasty aspect, but will apply to offline as well as far as I know (or it did at the CE, at least). Once the snake in the mailbox is revealed, it'll make sense and we can talk about it.

The three blogs may not have been flashy (as in no back of the box feature), but the changes were needed to improve the quality of Dynasty Mode and some of it had to be very time-consuming if not also very difficult. (Rebuilding thousands of recruits in the Dynasty recruit pool? Yikes, no thanks. Not to mention reconfiguring the CPU logic, etc.)

yea, I think they referred to most of the dynasty changes from last year as online dynasty changes(like the competitive recruiting), but it still applied to offline dynasty as well.

[Rudy]

I personally love halftime and postgame shows. With 2K5 I used to always watch the Berman recap show. I thought it was great. I got an HD for the PS2 just to watch the video highlights (even though 2K5 disappointed me in general). I'd love to see an expanded show with commentary and a weekly wrap up show if possible.

I wonder if accessing an online stats database for records, stats, achievements for online dynasties is something they will add. It would also apply potentially to offline dynasties. That's something that EA could also do DLC stuff in order to pay for server space, etc.

[JeffHCross]

I actually wasn't even aware that they had been working on the recruiting difficulty slider. Very nice addition.

I hate being a conspiracy theorist. Hate, hate, hate it. Yet, I can't help it.

G doesn't know a Recruiting Difficulty slider is being worked on.
I, that I can recall, have never seen it be a requested feature before this year.
Suddenly Utopia gets several threads asking for/about a recruiting difficulty slider.
Then the "chat with the people that make the game" ESPN chat mentions, out of the blue, a CPU recruiting difficulty slider.
Now it's legit.

Someone burst my bubble here. I can't help but think that some of those 'requests' were plants. It's too convenient otherwise.

Maybe I missed this but has there been any mention of the CPU recruiting to the style of their team? ...will option teams recruit option QB's and so on?

Not specifically, but I don't think we have to worry about this, at least not too much. The CPU already recruits to their base offensive style. They did say they overhauled how the CPU looks at their board, so what was already a decent logic (in terms of recruiting players to base style) will only get better.

The real issue isn't whether an Option QB will be recruited by Georgia Tech or Air Force ... we're already safe on that one. The real question is whether the AI will recognize a difference in Florida's Spread and Oregon's. I think ... hope ... yes.

[Jayrah]

Jeff I was thinking along those lines for a time as well

I know I've seen it mentioned before, but nothing to the extent of the Utopia thread just after the first 'dynasty' blog came out. So my first inclination is with you, but the other part of me just says that maybe it was the next logical step in harder recruiting, and someone just latched on. Actually, when looking at it, if it hadn't been leaked and suspected by so long by us, it may have been a semi-wow feature by itself. By now though, we've picked apart the possibilities, and it's really just a relief that it wasn't all a hoax.

[Jayrah]

I was wondering when they were going to add half sacks and assisted tackles some time ago. Glad to see those made it in. And I love the extra trophies. Something else to shoot for throughout the dynasty.

All 3 of these blogs put together are the meat and potatoes of dynasties now for years to come. I don't know if it works or not yet obviously, but I really appreciate the effort this year from these guys to grind out the important stuff. Could have half baked it, like in the past, but no. Not this year. Decided that laying the BASE groundwork for what will have an opportunity to be a GREAT GAME, was the most important thing. And I couldn't agree more with the approach.

We've been on this for 5 years now, trying to figure out why the base was never placed on the ground correctly. Well, it seems they have done it finally. Even if there are issues, there is now a logical solution to the problem, because we finally will have a logical problem to deal with. They ignored the unnecessary bells and whistles, and ignored extra fluff that would take away from what was most important to the core of the game. EA was on a workout program, and ignored the junk candy. But somehow managed to find some health kick, protein candy along the way.

APPLAUSE: AND WELL DESERVED EA. Now in the future we can get some of these glitzy features that for some reason everyone's suddenly clamoring for into the game, and it won't add unnecessary hot air, to make the balloon fly even further from it's destination. I think I'm finally ready to sit down and enjoy this edition for more than what it's worth, and for what it is: A great football game. At least in principle .