Bring Back the Impact Players!

[Rudy]

I think everyone as kids loved Tecmo Bowl. What made that a lot of fun was how the great players were unbelievably great. Bo Jackson would just run over a ton of people (for you or against you). It was a completely arcade experience but still fun.

NCAA 06 introduced impact players and most people thought they went too far. I actually loved it. I'd fear going up against that run stuffing MLB or the ball hawking FS. You really had to gameplan for those guys.

I'm going to be contradictory and a little hypocritical here. I like a lot of sim aspects in sports games but I also love a game that's just fun to play. Having great players stand out, even if it skews to the arcade side, is more fun for me. Often when I play a game against the cpu I don't really notice who their great players are. I'd like to see a bigger separation there. In many ways I think the dev team did a great job of getting ratings right - better teams usually win and I find the outcomes pretty realistic. But I kind of want that over the top fun factor of great players to return.

Maybe they could implement a "Player Ratings Threshold" slider. Boost it to 100 and stud RBs turn into Bo Jackson on Tecmo. Drop it down to 0 and it's like a fair play option that makes both teams practically even regardless of their ratings.

[steelerfan]

NHL has an Attributes Effects slider or something along those lines. It's not that extreme though.

I voted "no". I don't want to play NCAA Street just as I never played NFL Street. I know that's an extreme example, but I think you understand what I'm saying.

[oweb26]

Already on this game impact players have a really big advantage, maybe not on every down situations (which I like), but give the ball to your stud RB when you need a first down and watch when 90% he will get it. Blitz your OLB when you need a bigtime stop, he will break through everytime. In certain key situations they will rise up to their impact status just not all the time. I dont want them to be extremely dominant no one player should be able to win you the ball game.

[CLW]

No I do not want the impact players to be other worldly. It's already too easy to put up ungodly #s (particularly on offense) if we made impact players ridiculous it might as well be NCAA Blitz.

[gschwendt]

Already on this game impact players have a really big advantage, maybe not on every down situations (which I like), but give the ball to your stud RB when you need a first down and watch when 90% he will get it. Blitz your OLB when you need a bigtime stop, he will break through everytime. In certain key situations they will rise up to their impact status just not all the time. I dont want them to be extremely dominant no one player should be able to win you the ball game.

I agree with oweb... they work about like they should in their current form.

[ram29jackson]

I agree with oweb... they work about like they should in their current form.

yeah, I notice players still get hot so to speak. So, its in there, just not showcased

[Rudy]

NHL has an Attributes Effects slider or something along those lines. It's not that extreme though.

This would be cool.

I do see someone else voted my way! Unfortunately they remain incognito. C'mon and join the dark side openly!

[ram29jackson]

This would be cool.

I do see someone else voted my way! Unfortunately they remain incognito. C'mon and join the dark side openly!

Sorry, couldnt help it

[JeffHCross]

NCAA ... is not ... Tecmo Bowl.

Impact Players nearly ruined NCAA 06, and would be especially bad with the prevalence of Online Dynasties and Online play, which wasn't as much of a factor then.

Maybe they could implement a "Player Ratings Threshold" slider. Boost it to 100 and stud RBs turn into Bo Jackson on Tecmo. Drop it down to 0 and it's like a fair play option that makes both teams practically even regardless of their ratings.

This is what the sliders already do, imo. Bump up RB Ability and more running backs play like Bo. Bump up WR Catching and it's like guys have sticky stuff. No reason to add another slider to do exactly what the existing ones do.

[baseballplyrmvp]

i think that most people dont see any big difference between average players and impact players because the ratings of all of the players arent spread out enough. there's not enough diversity (idk if thats the word i'm looking for) to really show where some players excel at.

[Rudy]

NCAA ... is not ... Tecmo Bowl.

Impact Players nearly ruined NCAA 06, and would be especially bad with the prevalence of Online Dynasties and Online play, which wasn't as much of a factor then.

This is what the sliders already do, imo. Bump up RB Ability and more running backs play like Bo. Bump up WR Catching and it's like guys have sticky stuff. No reason to add another slider to do exactly what the existing ones do.

This isn't true at all. I don't want ALL RBs to play like Bo. I don't want all WRs to make great catches. I'm not asking for everyone to become great. I just want the great players to stand out more. If anything I'd like to see the great players get a boost and the crappy players to get bumped down. We have no control over this other than massive roster editing. The current sliders can't solve this. And I want this for ALL positions. DL, LB, DBs. I'm not asking for Tecmo Bowl but I did LOVE the way impact players were done in NCAA 06. I know I'm in the minority on that one but I did.

Why does everyone always think offense when they talk about football video games? I could care less how this affects online dynasties either. I only care about my offline dynasty and a player separation slider would make this possible so we could all be happy. So much of what this game needs fixing relates to how the game plays when you are on defense. I loved NCAA 06 because of how it affected the way I attacked the cpu and also the way I had to defend people. Whether the cpu had a stud QB, RB or WR on offense made me adjust the way I played. Whether it was having to go up against a stud DL, LB or FS my offensive play calling also changed a lot. They really forced me to change my gameplan. I don't find I have to do that enough in the current game.

I think the NCAA team could also appeal to the casual crowd or young crowd with an arcade vs. sim setting where it might affect some of this. Arcade would mean a bigger gap between players, more big plays, bigger jukes, etc. There are definitely a variety of desires out there. Rather than just targeting the largest group to make them happy, the dev teams should try to accomodate more groups which would make more people happy and boost sagging sales.

[JeffHCross]

This isn't true at all. I don't want ALL RBs to play like Bo. I don't want all WRs to make great catches. I'm not asking for everyone to become great.

Ah, so you were talking like the minimum speed threshold. Got it. Wasn't clear from your first post. If that was implemented, then I can see what you're outlining here happening. But just a general boost to Impact Players? Wouldn't want that.

Why does everyone always think offense when they talk about football video games?

Personally, I don't. But you used Bo Jackson as an example, so I ran with that. Plus, I don't remember defensive players in NCAA 06 being that dominant ... mainly the QBs, RBs, and WRs.

I could care less how this affects online dynasties either.

Good for you? Seriously, though, you've got to think about the ramifications of stuff and how it affects all modes ... not just how it affects you. The NCAA 06 Impact Players could be fun, depending on your obsession with realism, because, like you said, it was sometimes like having a Bo Jackson in the backfield. Well, it wouldn't be so fun if you were playing 11 other guys in your Online Dynasty that had Bo Jackson in their backfield too. Or if you were playing a team that has two impact RBs (like my team does in Dynasty). It just creates all kinds of balance issues that could create a lot of havoc in an OD or with Online Play.

So much of what this game needs fixing relates to how the game plays when you are on defense.

Right, but having 3 dominant players on the field only fixes those three players ... not the actual issues.

I think the NCAA team could also appeal to the casual crowd or young crowd with an arcade vs. sim setting where it might affect some of this.

An arcade mode isn't going to bring in the casual fans, honestly, but it also couldn't hurt to have an adjustment like this. In that case, I can see something like a return to the Impact Players of 2006.

[Rudy]

For me it's not about the actual impact player designation. I used NCAA 06 and how those impact players really impacted the game but what I really want is a bigger separation for ALL players. I wasn't clear on that. I don't want a player to be great just because he's an impact player. I want the great players (rated 90+) to simply stand out more and affect my game planning more. For NCAA 06, I do think defensive players were huge. If I ever saw an impact safety I tried to avoid that side of the field. Impact MLBs wrecked havoc on my running game as well.

As for online dynasties, I shouldn't have said that lol. I really don't care about them but I'm simply big on options. Give everyone options and everyone wins. I don't believe one segment has to lose on something for the other to win. Unfortunately that is often the case for things like player momentum.

I do think an arcade mode would boost casual sales. I had a cousin that liked NFL Street or one of those 3 on 3 games with crazy moves. I've never liked those games personally but he did and he wasn't a big fan of the sport. Did he like it more because it was 3 on 3 and NFL Blitz like or did they just like the ease of play and over the top moves you could pull off? I don't know how much it could help but it might.

[morsdraconis]

For me it's not about the actual impact player designation. I used NCAA 06 and how those impact players really impacted the game but what I really want is a bigger separation for ALL players. I wasn't clear on that. I don't want a player to be great just because he's an impact player. I want the great players (rated 90+) to simply stand out more and affect my game planning more.

That is how I took your meaning and thus why I voted for it.

I completely agree with your assessment. 90 overall rated players would need to be less common than they are now. Kinda like how NBA 2k11 has handled their player rating system where you can have guys that are incredibly talented 3 point specialists but terrible at everything else and thus have a rating of like 69ish overall but still be very talented at their specialized talent.

That type of rating system is why they need to bring short, medium, and deep passing stats and other things to the rating system for NCAA so that they can have more specialized players and thus have a truly better rating system in the game. Right now, a QB with an arm strength of 85 is truthfully no different than a QB with an arm strength of 95 or even 99, when, in real life, the QB with the stronger arm may have better deep passing abilities and the 85 strength QB may have better overall passing abilities (or just short and medium range routes).

[jaymo76]

For me it's not about the actual impact player designation. I used NCAA 06 and how those impact players really impacted the game but what I really want is a bigger separation for ALL players. I wasn't clear on that. I don't want a player to be great just because he's an impact player. I want the great players (rated 90+) to simply stand out more and affect my game planning more. For NCAA 06, I do think defensive players were huge. If I ever saw an impact safety I tried to avoid that side of the field. Impact MLBs wrecked havoc on my running game as well.

As for online dynasties, I shouldn't have said that lol. I really don't care about them but I'm simply big on options. Give everyone options and everyone wins. I don't believe one segment has to lose on something for the other to win. Unfortunately that is often the case for things like player momentum.

I do think an arcade mode would boost casual sales. I had a cousin that liked NFL Street or one of those 3 on 3 games with crazy moves. I've never liked those games personally but he did and he wasn't a big fan of the sport. Did he like it more because it was 3 on 3 and NFL Blitz like or did they just like the ease of play and over the top moves you could pull off? I don't know how much it could help but it might.

Well stated Rudy. I fully agree. I vote for anything that brings back a similar feel to 06.... speaking of the dark side... MATCHUP STICK 2.0 REVENGE OF THE SITH...

[steelerfan]

and it's like guys have sticky stuff

[JeffHCross]

You would point that one out.