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NCAA Football 12 News Post


Jordan Peterson, Designer at EA Tiburon, released a blog detailing the tuning of Dynasty Mode in NCAA Football 12.

Hi NCAA Football fans, NCAA Football 12 designer Jordan Peterson here once again, this time to discuss some of the other improvements that have been made to Dynasty mode this year. This blog is going to focus on some of the tuning that was done this year to improve your overall Dynasty experience as well as answer some of the questions that have come up after the other Dynasty blogs were released this week. As you are about to see, based on your feedback we've made a lot of great improvements to the Dynasty mode experience in NCAA Football 12. Let's get on to the updates.

Sway Pitch

One complaint we heard last year was that Sway Pitch felt like too much risk without enough reward and because of this, a lot of fans avoided using Sway Pitch all together which is something I never want to hear as a developer. This year, Sway Pitch has been tuned to provide more of a bonus when you are successful, and less of a penalty when you fail. Additionally, we've adjusted the percent chance that a Sway will be successful to help make Sway Pitch a more effective recruiting tactic, I believe you will now find the Sway Pitch option to have a greater impact during recruiting.

CPU Scholarship Offers

In addition to Sway Pitch, another significant improvement to recruiting is how efficiently the CPU will offer scholarships. Previously, the CPU would occasionally have a recruit that, even though he was ranked first on their board they would not offer a scholarship in order to close the deal and sign the prospect. The CPU will now offer scholarships more intelligently, and as a result, causes some much closer recruiting battles with the CPU against other CPU controlled teams and the user.

CPU Recruiting Based on Play Style

We have heard feedback regarding CPU not recruiting based on their play style, so this was one of our earliest adjustments for NCAA Football 12. Previously, if you were running an option offense, the CPU would simply take the best quarterback that was available, or possibly one just interested in the school. Now, you will find that the CPU will focus upon players that fit their particular play style. That means scrambling QBs will be targeted by option teams, while air raid teams will look for pocket passing quarterbacks.

Another community concern that we addressed for NCAA Football 12 is the balancing of the top 150 recruits. There was some discussion that there were not enough highly rated defensive prospects appearing in the ESPNU Top 150. Based on that feedback we have increased each defensive position's chance of having a prospect worthy enough of being considered one of the top 150 prospects in the recruiting class.

Sim Running Stats

The sim stats for the running backs, backup running backs and quarterbacks were also tuned. Meaning when you sim in Dynasty, the backup HB will get more touches and, in turn, more rushing yards. Quarterback sim stats were adjusted to be more in line with actual NCAA results. The added benefit of tuning these stats is that it facilitated tuning Heisman. Throughout Dynasty you should now see a much better balance of several different position types winning the Heisman.

Incoming Prospect Ratings

Finally, we've updated the incoming ratings for all generated prospects with a focus on ensuring they are consistent with the recruits on the default roster. Now you won't notice a drop off in overall player talent in future years of the Dynasty when the players on the default roster have graduated. I think you will find that some positions, in particular Kickers and Punters, will be far more accurate this year.

Answers to Previous Blog Questions

Earlier this week, we released the blog for Coach Carousel and two Quick Clip videos. I would like to take this opportunity to address some additional questions that I've seen on the forums.

Coach Carousel – Who was that mystery man?

In part 2 of the Quick Clips video, NC State hired their Offensive Coordinator, but he was not one of the top 3 candidates. Good catch! This is an example of the bonus that is provided to hiring within the current school. The Offensive Coordinator was not initially one of NC State's top candidates, but when it came time to hire a coach they decided to stay in-house. Also, you may have noticed that as an A rated coach, he had a lower rating than some of the other Offensive Coordinators that were available.

Coaching Carousel – How fast can you climb the ladder?

Can you become a Head Coach at a 6 star school from a 1 star Offensive/Defensive Coordinator within 2-4 seasons? Yes, it is possible. However, it will require some exceptional skill on the player's part to pass most, if not all, of their goals and some luck on the carousel. The right jobs need to open up at the right time to progress that quickly. This is certainly possible, but by no means easy to do.

Coaching Carousel – Prestige and Progression

How much does Coach Prestige impact progression? Coach Prestige is now a significant factor in the progression formula. It can also be tuned via Live Tuning Packs, so if at some point we feel it needs to play more or less of a part of progression, we can adjust it accordingly. However, we have kept the importance of Coach Prestige in mind when tuning and are very comfortable with its current impact upon progression.

Coaching Carousel – Is Coach Prestige your only rating?

As mentioned above, there have been a lot of questions on coach ratings and how the addition of the Coach Carousel will alter the course of a Dynasty in future years. We've talked a lot about how play styles move with the coach from one school to another and the impact that Coach Prestige has on the game, but I also wanted to point out that the Coach Loyalty rating is dynamic as well. If you are the type of coach that looks to hop from job to job every year, expect to have some struggles on the recruiting trail when a prospect wants to know if you will be there all four years to coach him. At the same time, there will be 119 other coaches out there just waiting to use that pitch against you when they get the chance.

Coaching Carousel – Default coach ratings

There seem to be quite a few A+ coaches? Keep in mind that default Coach Ratings can be edited, customized, and shared via Roster Share. If you want more of a challenge in your Dynasty, dropping their initial ratings will cause them to progress slower. Having said that, during the Carousel, schools will always look at A+ rated coaches that are out of a job.

Furthermore, each player in the Dynasty will start out with a Coach Prestige of D+. The contracts were designed with a slow progression to A+ in mind.

Coaching Carousel – Job Security and Wins/Losses

As an Offensive/Defensive Coordinator, will Job Security go up if we fail the objective based goals but win a lot of games? These contracts were implemented so that Wins and Losses have a significant impact upon job security. However, it is largely dependent upon the team prestige and the caliber of the contract.

Custom Playbooks – Formation Audibles

How are formation audibles set? Formation audibles are set automatically by the CPU for each formation in a custom playbook. The CPU will pick the play out of those in the custom playbook's formation that most closely matches that particular formation audible.

Thanks once again for checking out our blogs this week and I'll see you online when NCAA Football 12 releases on July 12th.


Source: http://www.ea.com/ncaa-football/blog/dynasty-tuning

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Member Comments
# 21 JalenTigh @ 05/27/11 02:30 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Microsoft_Works
Still no word on weight mattering though, so moot point.
They said a couple weeks ago that weight would matter in tackling and such, just no word on if it will matter in the trenches.
 
# 22 huntt26 @ 05/27/11 02:32 PM
Looks good!

The only "complaint" I have is that he mentioned it's possible you can move from a 1 star defensive coordinator to a 6 star head coaching job in 2-4 years if you do well. It should take a LOOOONG time to move up that much.
 
# 23 Bullet Sponge @ 05/27/11 02:33 PM
Quote:
I think you will find that some positions, in particular Kickers and Punters, will be far more accurate this year.
Yay! No more CPU teams missing 75% of their extra points...
 
# 24 jeremym480 @ 05/27/11 02:38 PM
Awesome blog
 
# 25 usc50 @ 05/27/11 02:41 PM
The only problem I had with the blog is the fact that about half of it is talking about other blogs previously released. Kind of short considering that dynasty is the most important feature to 95% of the customers.
 
# 26 Miden @ 05/27/11 02:44 PM
Some nice tweaks. Nothing I'm going to get overly excited about until we get the game and can confirm that they actually work as intended, but not a bad blog overall.
 
# 27 theharbinater @ 05/27/11 02:45 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by huntt26
Looks good!

The only "complaint" I have is that he mentioned it's possible you can move from a 1 star defensive coordinator to a 6 star head coaching job in 2-4 years if you do well. It should take a LOOOONG time to move up that much.

not a 6* program, but malzahn could have gone from a hs hc to sec oc to decent hc in about 3-4 years. he was offered at least 1 hc job in a bcs conf, but turned it down.

to get to a destination job (6* school) it should take longer, but to get to a decent hc job it should be possible, but not the norm by any means.

but yes, 1* oc/dc to 6* hc should be 7-10 years min, and that's if you killed it all the way through, plus luck on job openings.

EDIT: maybe urban meyer is the best example of climbing up to 6* hc from nowhere so fast. he never was a coord, but he went from hc at bowling green to hc at uf in 5 years. you could, i guess, consider his wr coach years at nd as his coord position, which was for 5 years also.

so from nd assistant caoch to hc at uf in 10 years. highly unusual, but doable.
 
# 28 K0ZZ @ 05/27/11 02:59 PM
Now I'm buying this for sure. They said they fixed recruit ratings and hopefully that includes weights / height.

The heisman fix seems nice too but that doesn't say if they fixed the Championship logic that always favored players / teams playing in a championship game.

Oh well, time to go put in my preorder.
 
# 29 K0ZZ @ 05/27/11 03:03 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by theharbinater
not a 6* program, but malzahn could have gone from a hs hc to sec oc to decent hc in about 3-4 years. he was offered at least 1 hc job in a bcs conf, but turned it down.

to get to a destination job (6* school) it should take longer, but to get to a decent hc job it should be possible, but not the norm by any means.

but yes, 1* oc/dc to 6* hc should be 7-10 years min, and that's if you killed it all the way through, plus luck on job openings.

EDIT: maybe urban meyer is the best example of climbing up to 6* hc from nowhere so fast. he never was a coord, but he went from hc at bowling green to hc at uf in 5 years. you could, i guess, consider his wr coach years at nd as his coord position, which was for 5 years also.

so from nd assistant caoch to hc at uf in 10 years. highly unusual, but doable.
The issue is balancing realism with generally being fun. For the majority taking 10 years to be even considered for a AQ - Job is ridiculous. Might take needing some house rules to prevent yourself from leaping too fast, but the coach loyalty rating also will tune down and make it harder to be a fast success since your loyalty would be terrible.

We do wan't realism but there is an extent to that. A completely realistic game doesn't mean it's always fun.
 
# 30 mcpheje @ 05/27/11 03:16 PM
Personally, I'm still a little worried about the CPU hoarding problem. Sure they'll recruit to their style but that does that just mean that an option school will end up with 7 scrambling QBs.
 
# 31 Armor and Sword @ 05/27/11 03:22 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by chicagopax
The issue is balancing realism with generally being fun. For the majority taking 10 years to be even considered for a AQ - Job is ridiculous. Might take needing some house rules to prevent yourself from leaping too fast, but the coach loyalty rating also will tune down and make it harder to be a fast success since your loyalty would be terrible.

We do wan't realism but there is an extent to that. A completely realistic game doesn't mean it's always fun.
That is so true man. I want to have ton's of fun when I play video games.

Bottom line for me first and foremost. I will always give up a little realisim to jump up out of my chair in joy.

We are going to be in for treat this year with NCAA 12 and Madden 12!

I was pumped about reading the recruiting tuning for CPU teams. Option teams not grabbing pocket passers etc. Good stuff.
 
# 32 boritter @ 05/27/11 03:52 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by MattUMD224
the blog i waited for the most left me underwhelmed

Understatement of the day. I was hoping for exciting news about dynasty mode but it is appears that the real improvements were either CC or web-based content.

I spend 99% of my time in dynasty. It sounds like EA spent 1% of their development cycle time & resources on dynasty.
 
# 33 splff3000 @ 05/27/11 03:57 PM
I'm gonna be honest here. This whole week has been nothing but disappointment for me. IMO, they could have put out all the information they needed in 2 blogs instead of spreading it out over a whole week. Aren't we supposed to be talking about tuning here? So why are we talking about Coaching Carousel......again. Oh I see, if you throw in some FAQ's about coaching carousel, it makes your tuning blog look a lot longer than it is, but I digress.

I would have really liked to see some more tuning on recruiting in general. How about:

- Tuning recruits top schools list. In 11, if you looked at a recruits schools lists, sometimes it made no sense at all ie a recruit from Colorado with proximity to home as MOST important to him, yet his top 3 schools are Florida, Ohio State, and Alabama. Huh? Or a recruit with conference prestige as MOST important and his top 3 schools are USC, Boise St., and TCU. Huh? I remember on 10, sometimes without even making a pitch you had an idea of what the recruit wanted. He's got a team full of SEC schools? You can prolly bet that Conference Prestige or Proximity to Home(if he leaved in the southeast) was HIGH, VERY HIGH, or MOST important to him, not in 11 though. Sometimes in 11, it seemed like the list of schools were created randomly, of course with a lil favor to Texas, Florida, Alabama, and Ohio State.

That leads me to the second thing I would have like to see tuned:

- The advantage 6* schools had with recruiting was ridiculous. In my OD, we had guys getting 10-12 5* players a year....and this was on Heisman recruiting. It didn't hurt that they averaged 5-8 instant commits in week 1, with half of them being 5*. It got so bad that we had to put a limit on the amount of 5* recruits these teams could sign. Yeah EA wouldn't tune that.

or

- Tuning phone calls so I don't get the same pitch 3x in a 50 minute phone call(yes that actually happened to me before).

I could go on and on about tuning that could have been done to recruiting to make it better.

I know some of you are excited about this blog, but honestly, I'm still down on this years game. When I saw that they were gonna have a tuning blog today, I knew they were gonna say something about tuning sim stats. You know why? Because they say that every year lol. Anyway, the only thing that got a slight rise out of me was the "teams actually recruiting to their style" part.

Also what is this:

Quote:
Custom Playbooks – Formation Audibles

How are formation audibles set? Formation audibles are set automatically by the CPU for each formation in a custom playbook. The CPU will pick the play out of those in the custom playbook's formation that most closely matches that particular formation audible.
I thought this was OUR custom playbook? Why is the CPU setting my formation audibles? So if I like to have rollouts on my playaction passes, I have to have either nothing but rollouts in my custom playbook or hope that the cpu decides to pick a rollout for my formation audible. **sigh**
 
# 34 canes21 @ 05/27/11 04:03 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by boritter
Understatement of the day. I was hoping for exciting news about dynasty mode but it is appears that the real improvements were either CC or web-based content.

I spend 99% of my time in dynasty. It sounds like EA spent 1% of their development cycle time & resources on dynasty.
Yea, because adding in a completely new feature in the Coach Carousel which involves making the CPU hire and fire coaches and coordinators, which they have never had to do before, tuning the recruits to have more defensive players in the top 150, also making recruits have ratings that are consistent with the teams already on the game, having teams finally recruit to their playbook style, and adding more online features to the OD is not a lot, just 1% of the work they've done all year.

Yea, I agree with you...
 
# 35 Knight9299 @ 05/27/11 04:08 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by mcpheje
Personally, I'm still a little worried about the CPU hoarding problem. Sure they'll recruit to their style but that does that just mean that an option school will end up with 7 scrambling QBs.
That's what I'm worried about too. Hopefully the recruiting to style addresses that. BUT if EA didn't mention it, I think it's safe to say it doesn't address the hoarding problem.

I'm sure the little improvements will make the game a little more enjoyable over last year, but the little annoyances I have had with NCAA are still there. And they all could and should be addressed.
 
# 36 Watson @ 05/27/11 04:12 PM
lot of butthurt in this forum
 
# 37 theharbinater @ 05/27/11 04:16 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by chicagopax
The issue is balancing realism with generally being fun. For the majority taking 10 years to be even considered for a AQ - Job is ridiculous. Might take needing some house rules to prevent yourself from leaping too fast, but the coach loyalty rating also will tune down and make it harder to be a fast success since your loyalty would be terrible.

We do wan't realism but there is an extent to that. A completely realistic game doesn't mean it's always fun.
that's very true, and well said.

and, as you said, we can always self restrict to something like no moving for 3 years or until at least 1 contract term is fulfilled or something.
 
# 38 thelasthurtknee @ 05/27/11 04:17 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by canes21
Yea, because adding in a completely new feature in the Coach Carousel which involves making the CPU hire and fire coaches and coordinators, which they have never had to do before, tuning the recruits to have more defensive players in the top 150, also making recruits have ratings that are consistent with the teams already on the game, having teams finally recruit to their playbook style, and adding more online features to the OD is not a lot, just 1% of the work they've done all year.

Yea, I agree with you...
haha. and to splff, how many 6 star teams did you have getting that many recruits? and what was there records? are your sliders weak sauce? because if your winning every game you gonnna get everyone you want. i saw nothing like that in our dynasty only because we were all 5 and 6 star teams so not enough players to go around to give someone a big 5 star class. so other factors play into that. you just cant say change this if you playing a all amercian level dyansty and get no competition from cpu. or if you have one 6 star team and everyone else is 3 star or less. then there is no competition. in 09 (before they reduced the number of 5 stars) the best class in our 6 year was a 9 5 star class by me and i was miami so i was in a great state. thats also a factor. i think if everyone knows how to recruit or you use some house rules like no cutting players(realistic) that way you cant give more scholarships than open spots it resolves this. some people like to cut players so they have needs at positions which gives them a upper hand in recruiting. thats why i wont play in dyanstys that let you cut players. but i think EA is pretty good on these things.
 
# 39 splff3000 @ 05/27/11 04:21 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by canes21
(1)Yea, because adding in a completely new feature in the Coach Carousel which involves making the CPU hire and fire coaches and coordinators, which they have never had to do before, (2)tuning the recruits to have more defensive players in the top 150, (3)also making recruits have ratings that are consistent with the teams already on the game, (4)having teams finally recruit to their playbook style, (5)and adding more online features to the OD is not a lot, just 1% of the work they've done all year.

Yea, I agree with you...
(1)I agree with you that coach carousel is a big feature, but IMO, that and custom conferences are the only thing that can be called features. And custom conferences were in last year in a different form so I don't even know if you can call that a feature. It's more like it's updated.

(2)They didn't say they tuned it for more defensive players in the top 150, they said they tuned it so the defensive players in the top 150 have a better chance of being highly rated. There's a difference there.

(3)As for making recruits ratings more consistent with the default ratings on the game, they did that last year with the tuner packs. They weren't spot on, but they were pretty close after all the updates.

(4)I'll give it to you that the teams recruiting to their playing style sounds nice. I have nothing to say about that.

(5)What online features have they added? I saw that they added some online DLC, but I didn't see any online features.

So yeah, I'll agree they spent more than 1% of the work on Dynasty this year, but IMO they only added 1 significant feature(coaching carousel) and refined a past feature(custom conference) for dynasty this year. They threw in a lil tuning and called it a day. So I'll say they spent 10% of the work on dynasty.
 
# 40 jfsolo @ 05/27/11 04:23 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by WatsonTiger
lot of butthurt in this forum
I've got seven people in this thread on Ignore, so its a matter of the Usual Suspects, bitching and moaning.
 


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