Share Your Impressions of NCAA Football 11 (Post-patch #2, LTP #2)

So, I played about a half with the default rosters and, while it may be mental, it sure seemed like the game was playing faster (than my season 4 dynasty). I was using the exact same sliders I have in my Dynasty. Same game speed, everything. I'm beginning to think that the only solution is to start a new Dynasty (after some slider work). I'm reasonably certain, at this point, that recruiting and progression issues are my biggest problem and there's nothing I can do about that. I can only hope the fixes have cleared eveything up or I'll be in the same spot after another few years on a new Dynasty.

I'm thinking that it's definitely progression causing the issue and instead of fretting over it, I think I'm going to just sim a few seasons forward (still recruiting and everything) and then see if it's still an issue. It's not a very fun alternative, but it's definitely better than completely starting over.

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Originally Posted by morsdraconis

I'm thinking that it's definitely progression causing the issue and instead of fretting over it, I think I'm going to just sim a few seasons forward (still recruiting and everything) and then see if it's still an issue. It's not a very fun alternative, but it's definitely better than completely starting over.

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I thought about that too. I don't see myself picking up a few seasons down the line though. When I say "start over", I mean a new team and everything. I think I need to just digest it all for a few days and see what a clear mind tells me.

I've only played one game post patch, and other than my HUM QB Accuracy being a little higher than I expected, nothing seemed off. CPU running game was decent but not spectacular, my running game was the same.

Well, lets just say, year 4 with my B across the table team, against an A offense B defense team, I blow them out and run for 250+ yards.

Two games later, same team Bs across against an A- offense B+ defense, I get massacred 60-15, my QB throws multiple absolutely RETARDED interceptions, my offensive line can't block worth shit, my RBs won't break tackles, my corners won't cover anyone, no one will make a damn tackle, etc.

It felt like I changed the sliders significantly when I didn't change a thing at all.

Same offense, same gameplan, same everything (besides playing at their place instead of mine). I mean, that's just fuckin' crazy the incredible inconsistencies put forth by two games. Granted, I was so pissed about that absolute bullshit game, I haven't tried to play it again to see if it was just a fluke or what, but to have such drastic differences in score just blows me away, especially since opponent two had a "worse" offense.

I think some of the issues mors and steelerfan are having are due to poor recruiting classes before the patch. I have only had one recruiting class and it was after the first tuning set. Nebraska had a terrible kicker last night but I won't be seeing the progression issues like you guys are and hopefully won't have the same depth chart issues.

I actually think the new patch made running the ball harder. I know I've had a lot less success. I think the human pass rush has gotten a boost and I will tone that down. I think the cpu run block might need some more boosting. I don't see much difference in QB accuracy. One thing I do see is they made all the kickers legs and accuracy better. This might be better for bad kickers down the road but it's not good for the default kickers. I am knocking down every single kicking slider by one notch.

I do notice some glitches. I'm getting audio skips at times when it switches to my custom sounds on 4th down. And I had a game freeze just before halftime of my Nebraska game. I was pretty annoyed to have to play the game 1.5 times last night. Furthermore, replays during the coach's challenge appear to have gone missing. Not a big deal but I don't think it was like that before.

I did see the cpu QB throw the ball downfield on a screen pass. That was nice. Overall I'm happy with the patch but some sliders are going to have to be tweaked. I don't think wholesale changes are necessary based on the initial rosters though.

I've played several games post Patch #2 now and I'm going to have to adjust my sliders. In my Duke Dynasty I'm in Year 2 now and in the Previous year I got DESTROYED by Va Tech. I adjusted the sliders even more in favor of the CPU to start the 2011 season and I beat Va Tech 34-24 throwing for like 380 something yards with 3 TDs and 0 INTs.

two major things i've noticed post patch... cpu qb accuracy increased significantly...
the game glitches at certain points .. happened to me right before a fg...

could be just me but i also noticed a couple times where the WRs caught the ball in a weird animation with their hands...

theres def a diff feel to the game post patch.. i've only played two games since though both on AA... with Louisville (my offline dynasty) first one i beat WV second one got blown out by Pitt...

Rudy, you are correct about recruiting and progression but I would guess that your first class is bad if you started the dynasty before the first tuner. My understanding of the game is that once you start a season and the CPU generates a class, those player's ratings as freshman are set. in other words, just because we can't see that a guy will be an 80 OVR, it's already set in stone. A tuner added in week 11, for example, will not suddenly make that guy an 83. It's too late for that class. The next class (2nd in your case) would be better.

If that's not the way it works, then I only have 1 bad class too.

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Originally Posted by steelerfan

My understanding of the game is that once you start a season and the CPU generates a class, those player's ratings as freshman are set.

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I'm almost 100% positive this is correct.

It's a bit annoying to have to tweak sliders a little more but I think human pass rush (-2 clicks?) and rush defense (-2 clicks?) will need to be toned down. I think the kickers got a big boost in the patch and every one of them needs to be bumped down 1-2 clicks (power and accuracy for human, cpu power although cpu accuracy I'm undecided on). I'm not touching the QB accuracy slider. Still seeing misfires and I like the improvement in the passing game.

The more I play post patch the more frustrated I get with the horrible cpu running game. It's just awful right now. I think this area will require a lot more adjusting than I thought. Right now I've got cpu run block at 100 and human run defense at 30. Maybe I should just try human run defense at 0 and see how it plays. The sliders in the run blocking and defense areas are very weak. Reminds me of NCAA 09 in this area and that's not a good thing. I like that the patch made my running game tougher but it's too tough on the cpu right now.

Hook zones are now completely useless when the ball is on the hashmark. I'm not sure if it was always like this or not. For some reason I thought that before the patch you could manually reposition a player and re-hot route him to a hook zone, and he would stay and guard the desired area.

Agreed on hook zones. I found one way they end up being useful, but that is ... well, not a very useful technique. But without any adjustments, they're absolutely useless from the hash.

Which basically means that zone defense is worthless from the hash. Which then means that pass defense is essentially broken, since the ball is on or near the hash a majority of the time.

So, in other words, not much has changed from last year on that front. They were broken last year, they're broken this year.

Yes, but this year it's probably a bigger problem because of the running game and also the slightly toned down man coverage (post-patch).

The basic problem is that defenders are too concerned with getting to a predetermined drop point and do not adjust to routes that develop in front of them before they get to that drop point. In the middle of the field this isn't a HUGE issue, since the drop points generally position the defenders so as to remain between the WR and the ball for most of the route anyways, but when the ball is on the hashmark all of the angles change, and so it opens up huge gaping holes in the defense. By the time the defenders hit their drop point and then begin to adjust to the routes, receivers are often running completely free in the secondary.

Because this impacts ALL underneath defenders, there's no real workable way to cover it with manual defense, as there will always be a huge hole somewhere that there shouldn't be. Additionally, the deep zones are just awful at picking up anything other than deep lobs, so if you concentrate on covering the shorter stuff manually then the intermediate to deep stuff will not be covered very well.

Strange thing ... I was on the hash and called one of the zone defenses ... and then hot routed my two DEs to hook zones. The two LBs in the middle were already in hooks. All four players dropped almost straight back. I almost want to chalk it up to a fluke, but ... I swear I saw it.

After a few days I can now say I have some major issues with this game post patch 2.

1. The game has become to easy... games just aren't as challenging~ I haven't lost a game yet on AA
2. What happened to the cpu rush game? Post patch two not one team has over 100 yards ruhsing.... (the closest was 71)
3. I think zones are even worse than before???

However, the BIGGEST ISSUE that still remains is the CPU DEPTH CHART GLITCH. In year five of my dynasty it is absolutely brutal!!! The strong teams don't have as many issues, but the small programmes are in complete dissaray.

Eg.

Bowling Green:

QB #2 SS
QB#3 FS
RG#1 TE
RT#1 TE
C#1 DT
WR#2 SS
WR#3 CB

DE#1 FS
DE#2 SS
DT#1 TE
DT#3 FS
MLB#1 SS

** notice a trend here? After the game I go and check out BG's roster. They are short in most positions. However, the worst part... no word of a lie...they have 7 Strong safties and 5 Full safties. Once fatigue kicks in it's just a joke. This needs to be fixed. A lot of you who are only in season one/two may not notice this yet but at this point for me it's really impacting a game that just a week ago I was loving. This needs to be fixed ASAP or else a great game will hit the shelf far before its time.

Jaymo, they said they fixed the problem of teams stockpiling certain positions. Your Dynasty (like mine) would take years to correct itself. A patch isn't going to instantly correct a roster that has 7 Free Safeties and such. That would take a few years for that team to turnover their roster.

That being said, I don't know if it's fixed now. The only way to find out would be to start a new Dynasty and get back to year 5 or so.