FN: Champion Blog #3 - Community Questions

[Phobia]

Community Questions

I also love hearing that there's more punches. I really hope that means there's different ratings for each punch.I want to be able to scout my future opponents and know if I have to watch out for a particular shot

Yea Money this is in my man. Each punch AND location has a ratings. So you might have a power left hook to the head but a medium strength hook to the body. So you truly can game plan for what punch to watch from a opponent.

Punching in the clinch?

No it is the same clinch system as last year. They implemented punching in the clinch and having different degrees of grasps similar to EA MMA's underhooks, over/under, etc. But could not get it implemented correctly this year to warrant putting it in. So unfortunately they had to make a decision to leave it out since they could not get it working how they would of liked.

Prays there's a stationary camera

There is multiple camera options. I did not notice a stationary camera, My favorite camera was the "wide camera". Wide camera, combo-ed with the simulation presentation equals a much better "look" to me.

Every yr I whine about Stamina.. & every yr a person who plays the game at EA events says Stamina is there.. It's still broken.. Throwing 600 punches in 3 rounds with Hatton.

In the build we played Stamina was PERFECT. We threw a average of 50 to 70 punches in a round. Now we all know that can change come full product release day, but the community day build stamina was perfect.

Don't forget the most important thing: Fighter Strategy, and Fighter Tendencies.

This is in I am pretty sure. Cash reported to me during our testing that tendencies sliders are in. I did not get very far in career mode so I can't comment with 100% certainty.

I need Floyd in this game man. Mayweather would make this game much more interesting but I guess he asked for too much cash.

This is exactly right. he demanded to much money, wanted the name of the game to be changed to his name, and basically was making it difficult on purpose. They fought hard to get him but he would not budge.

Sparring, watching tape, diet, training all need to be incorporated for Rd5.
Getting a fighter in peak condition or hitting that 'sweet spot' just before a fight is crucial in pro boxing

Not this year man. The system is not that deep. It is much better than last year though. In FNC it is much similar to EA MMA's system. You pick a training camp which allows you to train certain areas of your game, with certain training games. Then you apply that to your ratings, these ratings then are similar to Mass Effects level up system. Where hitting certain "rating ranges" on certain punches to unlock "abilities". So you can focus on level up and making a dominate jab that could stun the opponent or lean more towards a dominate hook that could put the opponent in a "bell rung state". It is improved but not as deep as VB yet unfortunately!! I want the same thing.

I'm a little concerned about the last portion of the article where they reference the 'Champions' mode.
It says it's story driven which makes me wonder if it's similar to Prizefighter's documentary style career mode

Don't worry this is a completely different mode to Legacy Mode. So while I can't talk about the details of this mode, we will get into this at a later date. Trust me it looks bad ***!!!

I want to have multiple user controlled boxers in the same rankings

This is a great question and something I wish was in the game. But I think Legacy mode is limited to one player.

I hope every fight isn't a bloody mess

I relayed this very concern to EA the moment they showed me the Pac screen shot with the blood dripping down his chest. During our time at the studio it was not a issue, they also said much more tuning was going to take place so it won't become a blood battle every fight.

I also hope that cuts have affect on the fighter that is cut. If it's a bad cut above the brow and is bleeding in his eye, I hope his accuracy and blocking ability takes a hit. Since the fighter would have trouble seeing his opponent and punches coming at him.

I hope so myself. I was under the impression this was in FN4. I thought the more punishment you took on one side of your face your blocking suffered. We never got into this at community day, so unaware if this is implemented in the code. Will e-mail them and try to find out.

Yes, footwork was a glaring issue in FN4. I look back on it now and get frustrated thinking about how sluggish it was.

I sent along my very concern to this also. In the community build the foot speed of still to slow for my liking.

1. Different animations for punches for each fighter. Ali's jab should look a lot different than Foreman's.

Yes this was in the build we got to play. Ali's Jabs look entirely different than other boxers. Also certain boxers will have signature punches that can only be preformed with the FSP.

Do the punches look like they have some weight behind them?

Yea the punches look much better and have good power to them. But this also depends on the connection. If it is a glancing blow then of course it will look weak, but if it lands flush as they are moving into it then you would see much more POP with sweat flying off.

Could you really feel the difference in Ratings.....like will Ali get his butt whooped quickly if he tries to lay on and body blow with Big George?????

Yea this was one of my favorite areas. Fighters fought to their strengths and also you could tell just by fighting them where their strengths lie. I think this area is covered nicely.

One thing I would like cleared up is the reach factor... When me and my friends would play we had to ban Lennox Lewis and fighters with huge reach because it was terribly easy to keep people on the outside punching. Inside fighters have a terrible disadvantage. It's great they focused on the inside, but if you make it to where someone can't get there, shouldn't that be the first focus?

I completely disagree with you are your take of FN4. It was ENTIRELY to easy to get inside on any fighter. The swooping head rolls in would walk you into any ones phone booth. I thought this was a area I wanted to see much harder to get inside on a dominate "boxer" in FNC. In the build we played. It was AMAZING!!! I took a few good "boxers" who had great jabs, such as De La Hoya and I danced around the ring popping my opponents head back as he tried to close the distance on me. My opponent, was a brawler and struggled to corner me and put the hurt on. He ate stiff jabs and straights over and over. But he did manage to put my back to the ropes and land some huge blows that you could see De La Hoya had no business taking. In the end I managed a flash knockdown on a stiff jab(which shocked me and was sooo great to see). Then I finished the fight late in the 7th or 8th with a one punch KO that landed flush on the temple. You might not like the improved emphasis on reach, but we all the community day guys LOVED to see it finally.

1. Is there "tale of the tape" type presentation at the beginning?
2. When the fight goes the distance is there more suspense and do they announce the final score cards?
3. Are cuts more random and bleed in real time? Can a bad cut happen early in the fight?

1) Yes, but I found it to be to short and needed longer commentary.
2) We discussed this with the devs and they had some plans to change up the intros some. I can get into it in depth but yes it should.
3) Cuts looked good, but being that this area was being tweaked to get a realistic result. It is hard to say from our time there. Our build had cuts turned up higher than it will be in release to show off the damage system.

Can you describe the stun state graphically? Is it something you can see in your boxer's animations or is it a slo-mo, hazy thing on the screen?

Color saturation is lower and animations also relay same message. It is harder to block, harder to move, and just does a good job of appearing hurt. But these states of being hurt are different on how hurt you are.

One thing I hope we see more of is the amount of wrestling that takes place during inside fighting, especially among the bigger weight classes. There's a bunch of tugging, holding, pushing, leaning & bumping that takes place on the inside, and no boxing game to date has approximated it very closely.

No it won't have any of this. Same ol clinch system, they wanted to fix this but could not get it in this year.

Also, knock downs...has the control scheme changed for getting back up, or is it the same from FN4? If it is the same, any improvements to the current system? It was extremely hard to get up a 3rd time, sometimes even a 2nd in FN4.

It is the same system but has been tweaked.

How does this game compare to EA MMA in terms of footwork and punching and stamina?

Stamina it felt very similar. Stamina system in general was top notch. Footwork felt nothing like EA MMA. The footwork on EA MMA is much much faster, which it should be. But FNC footwork was a few clicks to slow for me.

Phobia, one question I haven't seen mentioned anywhere: Are punch feigns in the game?

I don't believe bro. I could be wrong and I am not remembering it. But I honestly don't remember seeing it on the control scheme. That is a excellent question and one I would like to know myself, if the inclusion is possible.

But how are the cross punches represented?

For example, a fighter like Wlad Klitschko or Pacquiao's most powerful punch are their crosses. But in FNR4, their hooks and uppercuts were the strongest . Will the crosses have more oomph this year round and is is possible to have a cross be a fighters MOST powerful punch like in real life? Or is it like FNR4 or EA MMA...where EVERY fighters most powerful punch is their hooks/upercuts?

AN punch ratings? like for jabs, UC, hooks, straights? or is it like before where their is just a power rating?

I think you should be really happy with the amount of ratings they went into for punches. Plus it also translates into the game very nice.

this will prove who knows boxing and who don't nothing worse than playing some one who has a lefty and they go the wrong direction and spam punches with the wrong hand

To a degree you are right Hova. Someone who throws a ton of punches that are not their boxers top punch will be doing themselves no favors for trying to win the fight. They are still dangerous in the fact that getting punched by any type of punch still hurts and can still KO you. But if you want to take full advantage of your fighter, using their "strong" punches and fight style will greatly improve win chances.

Thanks bro for the Q&A...Did you experience any 1 punch KOs @ community day, & did Marciano make it in this year or was it the same issues w/ Mayweather? thanks

Yes I experienced around 3 of them. It is such a great feeling. Entire room at EA was jumping up and down when it happened here an there. Devs and everyone it was great to see.

Also experienced a huge 10 round fight with one of the testers that ended in a flat out draw. This was in the tournament we had and we fought another 3 rounds to determine winner. He won on the cards by Split ;( .........E.P.I.C. Fight!!

I don't want to get into the fighters because I don't think I can talk about that.

- In FNR4 I felt that the counters were almost the only way to stun someone. If the other fighter even had comparable toughness trying to put him out with just combinations proved very difficult, with the other guy taking a ridiculous amount of clean shots that would KO anyone in real life. Even if you landed a ton of them and were measured in your approach you were more likely to run out of stamina before hurting them than not. Would you say combos do more realistic damage this time?
I would say power of shots was excellent. BUT there is so many elements to the damage system that it is hard to answer your question with FACTS. I know what you mean about FN4 and agree with it. I felt in FNC if you ate a shot as the wrong angle, even just one single punch you could be rocked heavy and go down with just a couple punches. In the same situation you could eat a similar punch but only get stunned for a quick second and could eat much more blows before possibly going down. It is similar to EA MMA system where you don't see a head rating until you are hurt badly, then the head bar will appear. But to answer your question as best I can. I felt dropping a "Human User" to be much easier if they are hurt. But dropping the "CPU" was much tougher. They were to good at covering up and retreating to save themselves.

-Are fighters hurt when they get up from a knockdown? In R4, you'd see a guy BARELY get up, wobbling to his feet, but when you get back to gameplay he's just as quick and sharp as ever, and you basically have to go about wearing him down all over again, unless it was late in the fight and you'd already taken all his health away.
I don't remember 100% but I believe they got up with health low, but the "look" of the animation was as if they are healthy and had their feet. Great point!!

-Since the cuts are so much worse(potentially) this time around, are they(potentially) more likely to stop the fight? I mean this mostly for the one player modes, I don't think I have ever stopped a CPU on cuts in my hundreds of fights against them.
Yes it should be possible. I think one of the community day guys had a fight stopped due to a cut.

-What determines the difficulty of getting up from a knockdown, and do progressive knockdowns ALWAYS mean it's harder each time? In R4 it annoyed me that I could NEVER get up more than 4 times, but I could indeed get up those 4 times, every time.
This we both will have to determine once we get the game. I will have the game early and can report to you my findings on this. This was a area they were still tweaking.

-Did you see many instances of punches visually barely connecting or not hitting at all but still doing full damage? That really annoyed me in R4.
Not at all. The glancing blows, misses, deflections, etc all animated to the receiver as if it was a weak blow. But because the health bar is hidden till you are rocked, it is hard to say if it is just visual and if behind the scenes it is registering as a full connection.

-Are the CPU styles distinct? I hated that Tyson and Foreman would basically box with you like any other AI fighter.
They had only a handful of guys complete but the guys they did really felt different in their fight styles.

-Knocking someone out of the ring. Possible?
Don't believe, but I thought this happened in FN4. I could swear I saw a video of this happening on youtube.

LMAO
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-What can you say about the commentary? I think it was awesome last time and would be happy if they brought back Teddy especially.
If you thought last years was good then you should be happy. I can't talk about it yet, but I will cover this in another blog

-Is the soundtrack as kickass as last time?
Sounded fine to me

-Do the knockdown animations make more sense, and is there still the knockdown replay in two player matches?
Two player replay is still there I believe. KD animations are improved, but still could use some work to look more realistic.

-David Haye is the only good HW out there right now, and I'm really excited to see how he plays. Could you elaborate on your time using him? I will at a later date lol


Thanks so much for taking the time to do this Phobia, and again, feel free to not answer all of these. I know. I'm obsessed.

Answers in bold to make it easier to read.

Great Read Phobia, awesome job too bad we going to get to the point we have to wait for dev info.

can you hurt other boxers with body punches just like you would with head punches. I love watching boxing matches where the guy would just take the gut then bamm the guy falls to the floor with a good body shot. I haven't played a boxing game since evander that show the effect of good body punches
Yes this happens and it is amazing to finally see. I also saw a 1 punch body KD. Guy was full health and ate a well timing body blow that dropped him to one knee and ref can in with the count. Great addition.

Will they have the equipment make a difference for the boxer giving attribute boost? I'm really not that big of a fan of that i rather see the results of training matter than equipment
Not sure on this, did not get far enough into Legacy to find this information.

Did the Dev seem interested in working on footwork and ring presence? was it work in progress in the build you played?
The guys were more amazing than you can understand. They stay in the room with us almost entirely for the 2 days of 14-15 hour days. Taking notes, asking questions, adjusting things on the fly. Just big passion from Mike and Brian!!

Will your cornerman have different specialties?ie trainer who are good hand speed trainers, or defensive gurus.
Negative I believe, but again I could be wrong. Did not get far enough for this information.

Did they say they will interact with us on OS when it gets closer to release?
Me and Mike had couple talks about OS. Mike is a big fan of OS and is more of a lurker. Outside of that I believe I will be doing most of the communication with you guys. They send me the e-mails and I relay what I can speak on.

Answers in bold

Thanks for the answers, phobia.

I know there are flash ko's but can we win a fight by progressivly wearing down our opponent say, in like 8 rounds of work, and then just knock him down once to end it? In the past it took so many knockdowns.
Yes I was never talking about flash knockdowns. I was talking about flash KNOCK OUTS!! So yes is the answer

How much did you feel the graphics\lighting improved? Nice improvement

Can we take out all the arcade presentation features like the shaking camera and flashes?
Yes you can, its called "simulation" in one of the setting

As far as gameplay goes......theres another bummer, with the no Fight in the Clinch Mechanics.............How are bigger guys supposed to use their size and drive their opponents into the ropes

You can now push your opponent just by walking into them. Use to in FN4 holding the left stick towards a opponent was just a invisible wall. In FNC you can now use your body weight to push a opponent back by holding the left stick towards them..

Do counter punches exist even without dodging a punch? What I mean is that say both fighters happen to throw a punch at the same time. If fighter A started his slightly earlier therefore landing clean will it register with the same strength as a counter punch in which you dodge and then counter. In reality lots of knockouts occur in that situation so I'm wondering if that's represented in the game.

Counters happen on their own at times, just by the punch accuracy being reduced. You don't have to "evade" every punch. Some punches just flat out miss even with the opponent doing little head movement, this can result in counters yes.

**I will include more questions/answers as they get asked in this post.**

[Motown]

Re: FN: Champion Blog #3 - Community Questions

Thanks bro for the Q&A...Did you experience any 1 punch KOs @ community day, & did Marciano make it in this year or was it the same issues w/ Mayweather? thanks

[Phobia]

Re: FN: Champion Blog #3 - Community Questions

Thanks bro for the Q&A...Did you experience any 1 punch KOs @ community day, & did Marciano make it in this year or was it the same issues w/ Mayweather? thanks

Answered.......

[Money99]

Re: FN: Champion Blog #3 - Community Questions

Great info Phobia. I love hearing how fighters punches look different and that a good jab can keep guys at bay. Music to my ears.

P.S. I'm glad you were able to go the community event. You did a terrific job taking notes and getting a lot of the details down. Well done sir!

[Pun1sher]

Re: FN: Champion Blog #3 - Community Questions

I've got a bunch of questions so feel free to answer as few or as many as you see fit, I know you're gonna be swamped in a matter of minutes here, heh.

- In FNR4 I felt that the counters were almost the only way to stun someone. If the other fighter even had comparable toughness trying to put him out with just combinations proved very difficult, with the other guy taking a ridiculous amount of clean shots that would KO anyone in real life. Even if you landed a ton of them and were measured in your approach you were more likely to run out of stamina before hurting them than not. Would you say combos do more realistic damage this time?

-Are fighters hurt when they get up from a knockdown? In R4, you'd see a guy BARELY get up, wobbling to his feet, but when you get back to gameplay he's just as quick and sharp as ever, and you basically have to go about wearing him down all over again, unless it was late in the fight and you'd already taken all his health away.

-Since the cuts are so much worse(potentially) this time around, are they(potentially) more likely to stop the fight? I mean this mostly for the one player modes, I don't think I have ever stopped a CPU on cuts in my hundreds of fights against them.

-What determines the difficulty of getting up from a knockdown, and do progressive knockdowns ALWAYS mean it's harder each time? In R4 it annoyed me that I could NEVER get up more than 4 times, but I could indeed get up those 4 times, every time.

-Did you see many instances of punches visually barely connecting or not hitting at all but still doing full damage? That really annoyed me in R4.

-Are the CPU styles distinct? I hated that Tyson and Foreman would basically box with you like any other AI fighter.

-Knocking someone out of the ring. Possible?

-What can you say about the commentary? I think it was awesome last time and would be happy if they brought back Teddy especially.

-Is the soundtrack as kickass as last time?

-Do the knockdown animations make more sense, and is there still the knockdown replay in two player matches?

-David Haye is the only good HW out there right now, and I'm really excited to see how he plays. Could you elaborate on your time using him?


Thanks so much for taking the time to do this Phobia, and again, feel free to not answer all of these. I know. I'm obsessed.

[Phobia]

Re: FN: Champion Blog #3 - Community Questions

Great info Phobia. I love hearing how fighters punches look different and that a good jab can keep guys at bay. Music to my ears.

P.S. I'm glad you were able to go the community event. You did a terrific job taking notes and getting a lot of the details down. Well done sir!

Thanks a lot Money, means a lot to see people appreciate the effort. You know just as well as anyone it is not just fun and games. It is a good bit of time, work and research to get these laid out correctly to cover all the community wants. I did not take it lightly!

@ Pun1sher - Answered man

[Hova57]

Re: FN: Champion Blog #3 - Community Questions

Great Read Phobia, awesome job too bad we going to get to the point we have to wait for dev info.

can you hurt other boxers with body punches just like you would with head punches. I love watching boxing matches where the guy would just take the gut then bamm the guy falls to the floor with a good body shot. I haven't played a boxing game since evander that show the effect of good body punches

Will they have the equipment make a difference for the boxer giving attribute boost? I'm really not that big of a fan of that i rather see the results of training matter than equipment

Did the Dev seem interested in working on footwork and ring presence? was it work in progress in the build you played?

Will your cornerman have different specialties?ie trainer who are good hand speed trainers, or defensive gurus.

Did they say they will interact with us on OS when it gets closer to release?

[threattonature]

Re: FN: Champion Blog #3 - Community Questions

Great work Phobia and thanks for the detailed answers. You've got me extra excited for this game.

[Phobia]

Re: FN: Champion Blog #3 - Community Questions

Answers in bold Hova

[Phobia]

Re: FN: Champion Blog #3 - Community Questions

Great work Phobia and thanks for the detailed answers. You've got me extra excited for this game.

Well don't take me as if I am trying to "SELL" the game. I am just relaying my experience with it and what I saw. Just like any game my take could be different than your take on the game. So renting a product before you purchase is still always best route. Last thing I would want is people coming back to me as if I "lied" to them. I LOVED the build we played and truly can't wait to play it again, but I might feel differently about it than you will when you get your hands on it.

Just a honest assessment.

[Money99]

Re: FN: Champion Blog #3 - Community Questions

Phobia, not sure if you're allowed to answer this, but I had a question about Legacy Mode.

In Rd4, if you unified the belts and lost, the belts got spread out automatically.
Has this been fixed? Are there more dynamics when it comes to owning more than one belt and meeting your mandatory challengers? ie, can you be stripped of a belt if you refuse to defend against that sanctioning body's #1?

Thanks!

[Bronk_Bonin]

Re: FN: Champion Blog #3 - Community Questions

Phobia.....great work man. You're a true asset to the community and did a great job covering this event.

[Phobia]

Re: FN: Champion Blog #3 - Community Questions

Phobia, not sure if you're allowed to answer this, but I had a question about Legacy Mode.

In Rd4, if you unified the belts and lost, the belts got spread out automatically.
Has this been fixed? Are there more dynamics when it comes to owning more than one belt and meeting your mandatory challengers? ie, can you be stripped of a belt if you refuse to defend against that sanctioning body's #1?

Thanks!

Wish I could answer it Money. Like I said, I spent far less time on the legacy (about a hour). Where I spent roughly 20 hours on the gameplay. I could answer it if I knew, I just honestly don't know. Maybe Cash or Reignmaka might know. Might wanna check with them buddy...sorry my man

@Bronk - Thanks a ton man!!!! Makes me real happy to hear that!! Take care my friend.

[Motown]

Re: FN: Champion Blog #3 - Community Questions

Will they have multiple professional ring announcers & referees i.e. Mills Lane or Richard Steele? thanks again bro

Regarding cuts & damage, can the fighters damage their hands, ribs,etc...other than their faces

Will the fighters have their style idle animations, i.e. Ali shuffling or fighting from the toes, Tyson bob & weave in peek-a-boo style,etc...thanks

Can you talk about their ring walks...are they different from FN4 & can we add our own music?

[Pun1sher]

Re: FN: Champion Blog #3 - Community Questions

@ Pun1sher - Answered man

Wow that was<qtlend></qtlend> fast! Thanks again man, you're officially my hero!<qtlbar id="qtlbar" dir="ltr" style="display: inline; text-align: left; line-height: 100%; padding: 0pt; background-color: rgb(236, 236, 236); -moz-border-radius: 3px 3px 3px 3px; cursor: pointer; z-index: 999; left: 86px; top: 95px; opacity: 0.9;"><iframe id="qtlframe" src="" style="display: none; border: 1px solid rgb(236, 236, 236); background-color: white;"></iframe></qtlbar>