NCAA Football 13 - Dynasty Mode Improvements

[drlw322]

Since most of the conversation so far has trended towards the nuts-and-bolts of recruiting and Dynasty/Online Dynasty workings, I figured I would begin my impressions of the NCAA Football 13 Dynasty Improvements on the presentation (ooh, dirty word!) side of things, since--as many of you who have been here a while know--I do spend a lot of time thinking about and working with that side of the game when I'm given the opportunity to head down to EA Tiburon for the Community Events.

Playing in Dynasty/Online Dynasty with the true, full-featured ESPN BottomLine seems like such a simple addition but it adds so much to the atmosphere. I'm sure that everybody here spends Saturdays glued to ESPN during the college football season, and now that experience of watching one game but being able to keep tabs on the other action is going to be available in NCAA Football 13. During my time with the game at the latest Community Event, I was able to see numerous "Upset Alerts" trigger in the BottomLine, and all the logic seemed to be sound as far as that was concerned. I found that when an "Upset Alert" was triggering, very often the "Studio Update" would focus on that game over the course of my play time as well.

At first I wondered whether or not having that persistent BottomLine would end up distracting me from playing the game I was actually a part of, but--as mentioned in the paragraph above--I've become so conditioned to experiencing the broadcast that way, so it really doesn't distract from the game I was playing. Time will tell whether this becomes an issue for some people, but I really do believe that most of us are so used to it that it doesn't become a distraction. After all, players are trained not to watch the out-of-town scoreboard, right?

On the subject of "Studio Updates," which are going to be a cool addition to the game this year, it's great to have the broadcast presentation using even more of the ESPN design package and incorporating Rece Davis from the commentary side of it. During the time I spent with the build at the last Community Event, I would say that on average I saw 4 or 5 "Studio Updates" trigger per game in the Dynasty/Online Dynasty games; no idea whether or not that is the frequency that they'll occur in the final game or if it'll be more or less frequent than that. The logic was pretty good about following up on the same game multiple times as well, so if there was a real shoot-out or an "Upset Alert" then there was a good amount of attention spent on it over the course of the game. As Tommy mentioned previously in this thread, it would also appear that the "button through" timing has been tweaked on the back end so that it is more difficult to "cancel" out of a "Studio Update" than it was to get out of a "Game Track" last year; I think this piece of feedback/criticism was one thing that every Community Event guy brought up regarding presentation when we were at the studio for the first event in January, so the team knew that something had to be done about it.

One thing that was still being tweaked with "Studio Updates" at the last Community Event was how games are selected for feature during the game you're playing. Oftentimes the "Studio Updates" would track rivalry games, conference games, or Top 25 clashes, but there was an oddball as well; I was playing a game as Oklahoma State against Kansas State and I got multiple "Studio Updates" from a game between Tulsa and UTEP. From a geographical standpoint, that makes sense--Tulsa and Stillwater being only about an hour away from each other--but it was hard for me to believe that if Oklahoma State was on ESPN, the real-life "Studio Updates" would be so focused on a C-USA clash during a Big XII game. I did note it in my feedback to the developers and was told that it was still very much a process that they were working on. That was really the only "head-scratcher" I encountered during my time with the game, so it didn't sound like something that will be an issue come launch.

That's what I have for "story time" this morning, since I'm off to work. I'll hit the thread again tonight to see if anybody has any questions and to try and contribute some of my thoughts on the more "nuts-and-bolts" pieces of Dynasty/Online Dynasty for NCAA Football 13.

Very cool, just a quick question is game track still done by brad or does rece Davis take over for that. Also do they have any plans to implement actual highlights in to the studio updates in the future.
Thank you

[souljahbill]

I'm guessing GameTrack is still Brad and Kirk as it wouldn't make sense to cut out to Rece Davis talk about the game Brad and Kirk are covering.

[baseballplyrmvp]

There is no way you guys did that on Heisman recruiting. I've read a few guys now post that recruiting was too easy and didn't require strategy. The only way those complaints are legitimate are if you were on the highest recruiting difficulty imo. It's like complaining it's too easy to beat the cpu when you are playing on Varsity. When the difficulty is high for recruiting you really had to pick your spots and be careful with your time.

The default difficulty in recruiting was Varsity and it's always been too easy and unrealistic to recruit at that level (which was default before NCAA 11). If people wanted more difficulty and strategy in recruiting you just had to boost this up to at least All-American. I found Heisman recruiting with the top schools to be near perfect and even then it was a tiny bit too easy.

it was on all american recruiting difficulty.

[Deuce]

Deuce, directly from EA....



So make sure you catch the podcast tomorrow.

Cool man. Thanks Kwizzy!

Not a big deal in the grand scheme of things but if for some reason the presentation doesn't work for TB I'd rather know now vs. being excited to see it in my TB dynasty and getting let down. Thanks again!


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[psusnoop]

My bad. Your next point was on Scouting, so I was trying to connect the two points. The Davis stuff is pretty interesting. At each event you could see/hear more being added, so we're just as anxious as everyone else to hear the final version on July 10.

LOL no problem I could have separated the two points

Deuce, I just sent off your question with regards to Teambuilder teams so don't worry you aren't being ignored, I just don't have the slightest clue what the answer is to your question is so I have to check.

Some other info I just received back:
-Now, when you search for a QB, you will only see recruits that are specifically QBs. You will no longer have to sort through tons of ATH prospects as well. ATHs have their own seperate query now. Obviously it'd be nice if ATHs that could play QB were included too but I personally think this is preffered to the clutter of having every ATH in the results.

-Also I inquired as to the different types of "double/triple threat ATHs" and the response was: There are several different types of Triple Threat ATH combinations, DE/LB, SS/WR/LB, etc

Kwizzy good bit about the clutter and I fully agree. I think this will make things much better on that front that is for sure!

[Kwizzy]

Also, just got confirmation that all Gametracks from last year are back this year so I assume they are the same from last year. I'm pretty sure they recieved the same treatment as far as not being able to accidentally skip them this year. If that's the case then those should feel like a brand new addition as well seeing as how I NEVER got to watch even ONE last year!

[Jayrah]

So no Erin Andrews?

[gschwendt]

So no Erin Andrews?

No, she's back in the same role. Not sure whether or not she has any new lines but she's still there doing the same thing she was before.

[gschwendt]

A couple of screencaps from the Dynasty trailer:

Coaching Carousel on Dynasty Wire


Scouting on Dynasty Wire:

[JBHuskers]

There was an issue with the YouTube and LiveStream archives of the show. I expect we'll have full replays available later today and we will post a link at that point.



Me too! (Who or what is "R. Davis?")

ANN #3

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[JerzeyReign]

No, she's back in the same role. Not sure whether or not she has any new lines but she's still there doing the same thing she was before.

Uh, what did she do before? lol

Going to link this thread on OS.

[souljahbill]

Uh, what did she do before? lol

Going to link this thread on OS.

If joking: Good one.
If not joking: She was suppose to give injury updates and after halftime, give you a "Coming out of the locker room at halftime, the coaches said this....." speech.

[psusnoop]

Soul

[volstopfan14]

Was coaching carousel changed at all? I konw there isn't anything big, but did they tune it for better coaching progression and better hire/fire logic? Can we hire our OC/DC now?

[gschwendt]

Was coaching carousel changed at all? I konw there isn't anything big, but did they tune it for better coaching progression and better hire/fire logic? Can we hire our OC/DC now?

They did do some tuning, though I don't know any specifics. You cannot hire/fire coordinators.

[CLW]

Missed the stream yesterday and the video from this morning was very short due to the apparent technical difficulties. From what I have read I like the in game updates from around the NCAA. Maybe I missed this but was there any word on how a game will impact a Conference Championship game for example.

Let's say I'm cruising along to an SEC East title but the SEC West is going to come down to the Alabama v. LSU game that week. Will Davis/the game "know" things like that and note that the teams are playing for a shot at the conference championship; regular season championship (in conferences that do not have a conference title game); etc....?


EDIT: Also they mentioned they would update scores. Where there be actual highlights from other games being played.

Let's say there is a #1 v. #2 showdown and #2 scores on a hail marry to end the game. Will I actually SEE the play as it unfolded or will Davis just tell me about it?

[psuexv]

Absolutely love the fact that you can pitch playing style and that the pro potential grade is based off of your actual kids that went to the draft. Would definitely be cool if they could expand on the pro potential even further in future releases to even down to putting certain positions in the pro draft. Say in the past 4 years I've put 5 WRs in the NFL but 0 LBs then my grade would be slightly higher for a WR that I'm talking to.

[oweb26]

Missed the stream yesterday and the video from this morning was very short due to the apparent technical difficulties. From what I have read I like the in game updates from around the NCAA. Maybe I missed this but was there any word on how a game will impact a Conference Championship game for example.

Let's say I'm cruising along to an SEC East title but the SEC West is going to come down to the Alabama v. LSU game that week. Will Davis/the game "know" things like that and note that the teams are playing for a shot at the conference championship; regular season championship (in conferences that do not have a conference title game); etc....?


EDIT: Also they mentioned they would update scores. Where there be actual highlights from other games being played.

Let's say there is a #1 v. #2 showdown and #2 scores on a hail marry to end the game. Will I actually SEE the play as it unfolded or will Davis just tell me about it?

As cool as that would be I doubt it!

[gschwendt]

Missed the stream yesterday and the video from this morning was very short due to the apparent technical difficulties. From what I have read I like the in game updates from around the NCAA. Maybe I missed this but was there any word on how a game will impact a Conference Championship game for example.

Let's say I'm cruising along to an SEC East title but the SEC West is going to come down to the Alabama v. LSU game that week. Will Davis/the game "know" things like that and note that the teams are playing for a shot at the conference championship; regular season championship (in conferences that do not have a conference title game); etc....?

Yes, from my understanding, the break-ins will indeed know about that sort of thing specifically. One thing to keep in mind though, if your game kicks off at noon and the other game kicks off at 6pm, then you won't receive notifications about it.

EDIT: Also they mentioned they would update scores. Where there be actual highlights from other games being played.

Let's say there is a #1 v. #2 showdown and #2 scores on a hail marry to end the game. Will I actually SEE the play as it unfolded or will Davis just tell me about it?

No, you won't see highlights. It has to do with building those and essentially to build it, they'd have to load all of the other game's assets (stadium, uniforms, rosters, etc.) in order to generate those. Currently, something like that would either require a huge load time during your game or would really slow down advancing week to week to generate that media.

[psuexv]

One big disappointment for me - JB mentioned that if a recruit has something as low and my grade is low, I get no points or negative. but this bothers me. If a kid has proximity to home as low and I'm far enough away that my proximity to home grade for him is low then I shouldn't get hit with negative points. We actually match up with that pitch so I should be able to pitch it to him and get points.