NCAA 2004: I know it's been said before...

[rudyjuly2]

Quote: Originally Posted by theaub

I've played 15 years of a dynasty in NCAA '07, and I still haven't found a way to keep yardage at a realistic level but reduce scoring.

That is an issue with the game. The biggest culprit is the inflated yards per completion. They could loosen up the short zone coverage a bit more and tighten the deeper stuff but most importantly they need to reduce QB accuracy (particularly on deep throws). The game has a lot of all or nothing to it. You really have to drop QB accuracy to get them to miss some throws but misses in the game are often by a wide margin that lead to INTs.

If they simply had more subtle incompletions like passes underthrown and hitting the ground, passes just off the WR finger tips, etc. the scoring would come way down. If they made it a bit harder to complete passes without leading to many INTs at the same time (for both user and cpu), you would see more three an outs and stalled drives that would lead to lower scores.

[Spectre]

Quote: Originally Posted by theaub

If you were just going to pick up a game and play it, NCAA '04 may be the best football game ever. If you wanted to play a dynasty, with the recruiting and mid-major bugs, its not really close. However, the gameplay was magnificant. Before NCAA '07 came out, I decided to go back to '04, since I really hated '06. I just started playing random games: Auburn vs Alabama, Texas vs Oklahoma, Ohio State vs Texas Tech (Klifffffffff Kingsbury FTW), and I was shocked at how much worse the gameplay had gotten in '06 (I didn't play '05). I could play 10 minute quarters and have a 17-7 slugfest where each team still had 300+ yards, but couldn't capitalize. I don't want to think about how many games of '07 I've played (I'm sure I've gone north of 200 just in my dynasty), and I've had exactly ONE low-scoring battle, and that's with only 7 minute quarters. The one thing I also really liked about '04 was the commentary. I harped about this in a couple topics last year, but the commentary for me made NCAA '04 that much more enjoyable. I liked hearing how the Iron Bowl "divided the entire state of Alabama for three hours," or how Jordan-Hare Stadium was "the fifth largest Alabama city on gameday." It made the game feel that much more...well..."real-er." Now, we just get some half-baked "Its a rainy day as *Team 1* takes on *Team 2*...this game should be fun." I'd love to see a true pregame implemented next year. The other thing I liked about '04 was the realism. Its come to the point in '07 where I sort of have to force myself to make bad throws in order to punt, since I can run any slant/out/deep route and the quarterback always puts the ball on the money, regardless of what the QB Accuracy slider is at. In '04, I'd get to a 3rd and 10 and make the 3-5 yard dumpoff for field position. In '07, I'd never do that, as it would just be a waste. So yeah, in conclusion, '04 was one AWESOME game...I don't think it was the best in the series overall (since I'm a dynasty guy), but gameplay wise it just destroyed every game in the series, and its not even close. EDIT: Also, someone on ncaastrategies.com (even though I hate that site with a passion) brought up a very good point: has NCAA come to the point where people want features taken OUT of the game? I mean, everyone here has said how momentum sucks (which it does), and how the new punt return camera sucks (which it does), and it gets to the point where I wish they'd just take those out, or at least give us the option to turn them off. I don't think I've ever played a game where I want stuff taken out to make the game better. It makes me wonder how this leadership thing is going to turn out. Heck, HFA was horribly done in the first year, and impact players was poorly implemented in '06. Ironic for a company like EA that does little, I actually wish they did NOTHING this year except tone down momentum, and fix a couple bugs in the game (hello field goals) instead of creating some new feature that will probably screw up the game more.

Well said- the gameplay for 04 (and 03 for that matter) was leaps and bounds better than anything we've seen since then. I played the hell out of those games, far more than 06 and 07.

[Mr. JimmyFly]

Quote: Originally Posted by sl8b

Where can I find some '04 rosters? This thread has me playing AGAIN, lol. Just an awesome, awesome game!

ps2rosters.com

[Mr. JimmyFly]

These are Bill Abner's Sliders, Gameplay and Dynasty tips for 2004...this thread on NCAA 2004 in December made me buy the game and print the following for future use...I'm in Hoops mode right now, but I'll be firing this title up for the first time this summer and from all accounts, I'm going to have some serious football gaming fun!!!



Join Date: May 2005
Location: Iowa
Posts: 136
Re: Sliders for NCAA 04

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I found these while doing a search or two, so far they are working excellent, looks like I found something to stick with.


Originally Posted by Bill_Abner
OK this is it. This is what I am sticking with for the rest of my NCAA 2004 days.

I'll post sliders at the end of the post but the important part is the house rule system I am using. I'm having more fun with NCAA 2004 than ever before because of this and I still feel it blows the current NFL games out of the water. (ESPN not withstanding)

Anyway here's what I'm using:

Pre-Game:

-Before playing a game add a new coach in the coach options page. This new coach should be assigned to the team you are about to play. Takes about 30 secs to do this. Then go into coach strategy and alter the team's offensive playcalling to at least 70% running (I go as high as 80 sometimes unless the team is pass crazy ala Washington. Also, and this seems to be important, move the Conservative playcalling slider as far left as possible. Now, this does not make the team never throw deep it just makes most teams look underneath first before throwing it 30 yards downfield. As a result, CPU completion % is better and the game has a much better flow to it. You can also play with the defensive settings too; I usually make the CPU teams play run D more often than not. Also make sure to use the correct team playbook for your new coach. After you play the game make sure to delete this coach so you can make a new one for the next game. All of this takes less than a minute to do.

-Make sure the team you are playing (your Dynasty team) has its coach defensive slider at 80% pass. No idea if this helps the CPU run game, but it doesn't hurt to do this just in case.

Before Kickoff:

I'll add sliders later but play on AA. Seriously. As much as I think Heisman is better this year, you can certainly get great games on this level and in some respects get a much more exciting game than you can on Heisman.

Before kickoff, change the controller settings and take control of the CPU team *if* they have their starting HB as a kickoff and punt returner which seem to happen a lot. All this does is tire the starting CPU HB. Change this to another player and then set the controller back to your team.

Game Time:

Here are the rules I use during play and it makes AA a very playble and enjoyable lvl.

-No speed rushing (sprtinting) with defensive ends or outside linebackers. If you have a fast DE you can still get great pressure off the corner without sprinting, but speed bursting just makes it too easy to get a sack. You CAN sprint if rushing or blizting between the tackles, though. You may use all the swim moves and rip moves you want. I still get sacks doing this but rarely do I get the 8+ sacks per game I get when sprinting.

-No using motion on running plays. It's too easy to use motion to secure a great running scheme in this game. You'll still get good blocking but you just cannot take advantage of a game quirk if you don't use motion. You can use all the hot routes and audibles and motion you want on passing plays.

-Do not switch players on defense EXCEPT during pass plays. I still take control of a DB from time to time but to help the CPU run game, don't switch like crazy to the nearest guy and dive to stop the HB. Stick with the guy you started with and it helps a lot.

-Before you kick a FG (not the CPU, just you)--set the game level to Heisman. If you miss a FG on All American you suck. Just make sure to set it back to AA after the kick.

-Punt returns. Another issue with the game is the ease of which you can return kicks. Therefore I fair catch the ball every other punt return. Sucks that I have to do this but I like it better than returning every kick 20 yards.

-Play on 11 min quarters. This has been proven to help the CPU playcalling as well as it doesn't feel rushed. Work the clock and try not to snap the ball until 5-7 secs are left and you'll get a very accurate number of plays. (130-150 total)

-In using this system I am in year 3 of my OSY Dynasty and we're 3 games into the season and OSU is 2-1 after beating North Texas 45-41 in a thriller (they scored off 4 OSU turnovers). We then whipped #1 Oklahoma 34-17 and lost a heartbreaker to #9 Arkansas 29-24. The Ark game was the best NCAA 2004 game I have ever played against the CPU. They scored on a 98 yard pass and OSU answered with a 93 yd kickoff return to make it 29-24 with 2 mins to play. I shut down Ark on 3 plays and got the ball back but failed to score from the Ark 35. What a game. Arkansas also ran for 145 yards which was nice.

-Recruiting:

Use OSUMike's recruiting rules. See the sticky above. Makes the off season stuff so much more enjoyable from a realism POV.

Sliders:

AA

OFF (HUM/CPU)
QB Acc - 10/18
Pass BLK- 5/17
WR CAT- 13/13
Run ABL- 10/20
Run BLK- 5/20

DEF (HUM/CPU)
AWR- 5/18
KNOCK- 8/18
INT- 5/10
Break BLK- 5/18
TAK- 5/15

Special Teams:

MAX Human FG accuracy (remember this will be on Heisman)

MIN CPU FG Accuracy

Penalty Sliders:

False Start: Max right
Holding: +7 from left
Face Mask: +4
OFF PI: Max right
DEF PI: Max right

The rest are in the middle.

You WILL see more holding calls but this has given me a very good and fair # of penalties.

Anyway that's all for now. Hope they help.


Here are the recruiting rules I also found...


All credit goes out to MikeOSU for these:

"Anyone who is not a complete idiot and/or not lazy can do an unrealistically good job at recruiting in this game.

So, without further ado, here are the rules I am going to use in my dynasties for recruiting.

These numbers indicate the maximum number of recruits you are able to have in a class from a certain area, AS WELL AS the maximum number of recruits you can target from a given area in a given week. Also, any commitments you get from one of the areas reduces the number you are allowed to recruit in following weeks (basically, at any given time you cannot exceed the specified number of targets + commitments in a region)

Limits:

In-state: Unlimited
Region:*++ 5 total (Your region is the five closest states to your home state. If more than five are adjacent, pick a specific five to stick with for your entire dynasty.)
Florida, California, Texas:* The total limit is equal to your team's prestige (obviously if you are a school in one of these states the unlimited rule applies for your state)
All other states: Limit is equal to half of your prestige, rounded up. (1-2 stars = 1, 3-4 stars = 2, 5-6 stars = 3)

* - Teams in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, and Arizona may NOT include California as a regional state, and can have only 4 regional states instead of 5. However, they can recruit up to 7 players from California IN ADDITION to whatever they are allowed according to their FL,CA,TX limit and other state limit. So, a 3 star team from Utah could recruit a maxiumum of 12 players from California (7 for the rule, 3 for their prestige, and 2 for their "other states" limit)

++ - All of the states in New England (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont) count as one state. Thus, any school from any of those states gets unlimited recruiting from all of those states, and the New England region is only counted as one of the five total states when included in a school's region.

Note that the limits for regional and FL/CA/TX recruiting are combined limits for all states in the region. So, if your limit for FL/CA/TX is 4 players, you can recruit a total of four from FL, CA, and TX combined, not 4 players from each.

Also, limits can be combined if they overlap: If for example you are a 4-star program in Georgia, you could recruit up to 11 players from Florida: 4 for your FL, CA, TX limit, plus 5 from your region limit (Florida is in the region), plus 2 from your other states limit."

[Cardot]

Quote: Originally Posted by rudyjuly2

They could loosen up the short zone coverage a bit more and tighten the deeper stuff but most importantly they need to reduce QB accuracy (particularly on deep throws). If they simply had more subtle incompletions like passes underthrown and hitting the ground, passes just off the WR finger tips, etc. the scoring would come way down.

I agree 100% Rudy. QB's rarely throw off target. That gets at one of my frustrations which is the high rate of deep passes into triple coverage at crunch time. It gives the impression of comeback code, but it may just the fact that it is just too easy for the QB to lob that 40 yard pass just inches over the defender and hit the receiver perfectly in stride.

[wepr3]

Quote: Originally Posted by theaub

a) Better dynasty management (e.g mid-majors, rotating schedules, etc) b) Expanded playbooks (play against Oklahoma in '04 and see how many times Jason White runs the option) d) Quick-subs (this is by far the best feature in the new NCAA games) I leave out things like HFA, momentum and impact players. HFA is already in NCAA '04, there just isn't a meter or a camera shake. Its quite obvious that certain players are better on the road than others. Momentum is a good idea, but it was overdone. Impact players just makes good players even better.

I broke down and bought the game again because of this thread. I had a lot of fun, and am still debating whether to dump 07 and return full time to 04. What I miss is being able to flip the running backs direction without flipping the whole play for a run (those "psychic" linebackers are still there). I also miss being able to adjust hot routes to get past the first down marker. Other than that, I'd say 04 is close to perfect.

[OSUPiper]

Funny, I have been playing 2004 again for months now, and I opened this thread to see if I should try and buy 2007 cheap. I'm a dynasty guy, and a 'coach mode' guy as much as possible. Now I know just to stick with 2004.

For you guys that can't stand the mid-majors (NT, Fresno, CSU in my dynasties) becoming powerhouses, my fix for that is basically go in and sim some losses into their schedule or cut some of their players to bring their talent to a reasonable level. I wish I didn't have to do it, but it works. I would rather those top Texas kids were going to UT, A&M, etc.

[spit_bubble]

Quote: Originally Posted by Cardot

2003 was a great game, and 2004 was a nice incremental improvement. It seems that with 2005, rather than continue to tweak and add things, they got carried away with the features that messed with the foundation...

Sadly, they went past the point of no return. Since 2005 they tried to regain the glory of 2004 while continuing to add things, and have only gotten mixed results. 06 and 07 had their strengths, but were dragged down by too many weaknesses.

I just don't see them ever regaining the heights of 2004. I really tried to like 06, because it had so many cool things in it... And then 07 left me with no hope, because the game seems to be a lost cause now, and I know 08 won't be much but 07 plus...

That's plus vellocet or synthemesc or drencrom, which is what I'm drinking tonight...