NCAA Football 11 Q&A Thread

[gschwendt]

Here are the questions from the early copies thread. If your question is not listed below, please repost it. However, if it's not answered below, we will do our best to answer it over the next couple of days.

Well if you guys do have access to online can you check to see if you can change stadiums in unranked games.

Cannot change stadiums nor weather in online games.

Also can someone post if there is any new plays in the 3-3-5 and 4-2-5.Thanks

Unfortunately no, at least not the actual 3-3-5 & 4-2-5 formations. The playbooks did get the changes that they added in the Nickel & Dime but that's about it. Largely it seems there weren't a lot of changes made to the defensive playbooks. Certainly not the extent that the offensive playbooks saw.

Additionally, I'm sad to report that the SS2 Man Coverage bug is still in (where SS2 moves to middle of formation but assigned Slot WR). I mentioned this to them at Community Day but possibly there wasn't enough time to fix it. I've mentioned it to them again in my notes for the retail version.

Couple quick questions JB. Does Illinois' playbook reflect the hiring of Paul Petrino, ie. is it the Arkansas playbook? Also, if one of you gets the chance, can you take a gander at the Arkansas playbook and let me know if they added a Pistol formation. If they did that then I will be the happiest guy on the internet!

Just going off of formation listings, they're identical except Arkansas has Shotgun - Ace and Illinois has Shotgun - Split Slot. Both the Arkansas and Illinois playbooks the Pistol - Slot formation.

I wonder if we will be able to receive conference invites as well as being hired and fired in Online Dynasties? That's my question lol.

No. You cannot receive conference invites nor job offers or firings from online dynasty. The coaching contracts that were mentioned before are the same as they were in past versions.

Can you guys check something fairly quickly? Do TB teams still have gray undershirts or are they team colored now?

Another thing, can you say if the stats are numbered like in years past or do we still have to count downward to see what our stat ranking is?

Looks like it's the same as previous iterations... you'll have to count down. However, one nice little addition for player stats is that straight from the Dynasty menu, they show a run down of top performers at certain stats: passing yards, rushing yards, receiving yards, tackles, sacks, & interceptions. It shows the top 5 at the position plus your player's ranking.

How is crowd noise in the retail version? This is a problem that has always persisted in the next-gen games. Does it sound like a real stadium or does it sound like a high school game?

Any idea if Stadium Sounds have been added to TeamBuilder teams for more than just one condition?

My understanding is that Stadium Sounds were not touched this year so I would assume this is the same as last year.

Another question, is there any difference in the Pistol playbooks of Ohio and Indiana from Nevada? Thanks!

They are different. Here's a link to the NCAA Football 11 Playbooks Spreadsheet that I put together so that you can see which formations each includes.

#4 - is there any "penalty" for setting your hum DL to "aggressive". i haven't seen my d-line jump offsides yet in the demo and they always "jump the snap"

#5 - is is still nearly impossible to get a user "big hit" with the "hit stick"? - i'm actually hoping this is the case

Once you get used to the timing, the big hits are easier, however it's still easy to miss them.

#6 - for me there were far too many fumbles in the demo - have you seen allot of fumbles in the retail?

Fumbles seem to be heavily dependent on momentum. If you start having too many fumbles then the gameplan running setting can definitely help.

It was brought up in another thread, but is dynamic attendance better this year?

They're about the same this year as last. Adam Thompson had this to say previously on the subject:

The problem with emptying the stadiums too much is that the empty stands look really bad and will give you a headache.

I would like to know this as well. I would also like to know if EA fixed the promise "win verses rivals" for teambuilder teams this year. Last year you could make the promise, but it always failed.

Is the CPU's punting any different/better?

The CPU always punts horribly and gives away a ton of yardage because it has no "coffin corner" logic and it generally shanks too many punts.

Has this changed at all?

Unfortunately no. CPU punting seems to be about the same as last year. I've seen the similar shanked punts from previous years.

Here's a question

If you use a bowl stadium from a TB team, is it still split 50/50?

Another question I just thought of. Could you just recruit several seasons at all of the different difficulties with a Powerhouse; "Middle of the Road" and a "Cupcake" and see what difficulties you feel get the most realistic results?

That's going to take some time. Honestly we may not be able to get to that until after release simply because of the variables that you're requesting. I'll try to see if I can test it some but no promises. I will say though that using Arkansas State on the default (Varsity) recruiting level, I was able to sign some 3-star players that came in at 64OVR. I also signed a 1-star just to take a shot at a kid and he came in at 40OVR. I honestly didn't attempt any 4-star players but I noticed that the CPU competed more for the 3-stars than they seemed to in the past.

Dreads?

There's a $60 DLC that will be available in 365 days that is expected to have it but no promises. Honestly though, no, they're not in NCAA11. However, with the stink some of those guys are making, it might end up being next year's Formation Subs.

Is the game an INT fest? I'm playing the demo of FSU - Florida and the game has seen 9 INTs. What's amazing is I've thrown 6 and I almost never get picked off on Heisman.

As I mentioned with fumbles, INTs seem to come a lot based on momentum. If you force a few passes, then yeah you'll get picked. If you force it some more, you'll continue to get picked. Related to this, there's no QB Quiz at all this year so in order to build your QBs confidence back up you'll either need to start completing a lot of safe passes or sub him out.

I definitely am curious on how the cpu will run the ball and the type of plays they call. Sick of sack fests because the cpu can't run a proper screen pass.

In most of my games versus lower-level teams, the CPU definitely can run the ball on you. I haven't played a whole lot of high-level teams so I haven't formed a complete opinion on those.
As for the screens, I've still seen the QB hold onto the ball too long on screen plays but for the most part, they do seem to make a better effort to get rid of the ball.

Another question - did choice and/or read routes make it into the Run and Shoot playbook?

In the generic Run and Shoot playbook, I only see a handful of choice/read/option routes. They are there, but they're sparsely scattered.

Oh here's my question: Have they FINALLY fixed the pride stickers on Georgia's helmets? They touted this years ago as something cool but they haven't worked right on Georgia since the jump to next-gen basically, that or they broke it along the way... I forgot. Just curious if the dog bones show up on the helmets similar to the buckeye logo on Ohio State's helmets...

This just if any of you guys happen to play as or against Georgia before I get the game. Not a huge deal I'm just curious.

Spoiler: show

I'm curious what is done with Teambuilder teams in regards to Team Entrances. Namely, do they use the Team Entrance for the stadium? For their Playbook? Or just a generic entrance that happens to be in that stadium? Or is it altogether skipped?

JB was one step ahead of you

Spoiler: show

please tell me the usc bowl ban is in the game.

They didn't announce the bowl ban until after the game had already gone gold. Either way, I don't think it would have made it in though.