Ten Essentials for NCAA 12

[poopoop]

The defense in this game needs to be revamped. Right now the playbooks are too thin, and no one seems to actually play assignment football. It's more just psychic playcalling and reactions. It makes no sense how you can bounce every run to the outside all day because no one contains, but the read option doesn't work at all. Or how there's psychic route jumping in man-to-man coverage, but defenders do a terrible job in zone.

I'm not saying playing D and getting stops on this game is impossible, it's very easy to stop the CPU (but for the wrong reasons) and humans can be stopped too. I'm tired of having to avoid money plays and make a bunch of house rules because the defense in this game is underdeveloped. Also tired of seeing boxscores in ODs where there's only 1-2 punts per game.

[CuseGirl]

Quote: Originally Posted by poopoop

The defense in this game needs to be revamped. Right now the playbooks are too thin, and no one seems to actually play assignment football. It's more just psychic playcalling and reactions. It makes no sense how you can bounce every run to the outside all day because no one contains, but the read option doesn't work at all. Or how there's psychic route jumping in man-to-man coverage, but defenders do a terrible job in zone. I'm not saying playing D and getting stops on this game is impossible, it's very easy to stop the CPU (but for the wrong reasons) and humans can be stopped too. I'm tired of having to avoid money plays and make a bunch of house rules because the defense in this game is underdeveloped. Also tired of seeing boxscores in ODs where there's only 1-2 punts per game.

I feel like it's the exact opposite. I feel like I have no ability to call the right defense, because my man-to-man gets beat (press or no press) and when I play zone, passes 15 yards downfield are considered "underneath".

And of course, the overblitzing by the computer and the uber awareness by the CPU is ridiculous.

[xBaBaBooeyx]

CUSTOMIZABLE PLAYBOOKS and IMPROVED COMMENTARY.

It's almost like they want the playbooks to be so realistic to the real team that they don't want to let us customize. But with a created team or a created coach you need to be able to create your own playbook. They've had it in the past versions, BRING IT BACK!

If I have to hear Brad Nessler say the same things in '12 I'm gonna rip out my ear drums. Herbie and Nessler were good 3 years ago, now it's stale. I always thought it would be cool to have two announcers call the higher ranked games i.e. Musberger and Herbie, and have two separate announcers for lower ranked games i.e. Pasch and Spielman. Even two no-name announcers would be better at this point.

[stcloudgopher]

Quote: Originally Posted by GGGswim

Fix the reoccurance of the recruit's Least, Low and Very Low Interests continually coming up in phone calls. My solution: revamp the odds of a topic coming up based on both sides of the call - the recruit's interests and 'my' A+ areas.

Yup.

Here is my list, broken down into their respective categories:
Game play
1. As mentioned by everyone, fix the option offenses, PA passes and general AI defensive super powers. This should be A1A for the devs. I don't care if they left everything else the same, fix this.
2. Better momentum. I shouldn't lose all of my speed when making a cut, or, at the least, I should get back to speed according to my accel rating. It seems that only matters immediately on handoff/reception and not after a move.
3. Better AI play calling. Fake some blitzes. Bring a safety and drop a DL. Don't throw 2 passes from the gun, then run a dive with :50 to go in the half from your own 10, giving me the ball with 2 timeouts and good field position.
4. Fix FG kicks. 55 is a chip shot if I have the leg. Shrink the accuracy cone for every 10 yards. Add a composure rating to all players, but make it especially important for K, QB, WR, CB and S.
5. ST play in general. More blocked kicks, or just the possibility to do so.
6. Penalties. Called better/more often, reducing clips and holds. Also, late hits on QBs and players out of bound needs to happen. I lost M. Gray (Minn.) on a late hit and no call. Irritating.

Dynasty
1. Coaching carousel. This MUST be done. If I start at Ball State and leave for UCLA, there needs to be some other movement. Having PSU Coach still roaming the sidelines in 2025 is craziness. Each coach should bring their own style and would have to bring...
2. Coordinators. They impact your Off and Def, recruiting and can be hired away. This would bring in another option that would make Dynasty go a long way: Money. If Ball State is offering a 3-year extension at $1 mil per year, and UCLA counters with 3-years at $1.75/yr., I need to decide what I want to do. Why a decision? Because this would affect your OC/DC pay as well. Stay at Ball State and maybe they jump to that vacant NIU job. Go to UCLA and their pay increases as well and maybe you can hang onto them for another 2 years.
3. Less undefeated teams later on. It seems once I get to 2015 there are anywhere from 3-7 unbeaten teams every year. I love the fact I can go 13-0 as Texas but get left out when Bama and Miami also run the table; but that can't happen every year. I quit my Texas dynasty after going 14-0, 14-0, 13-1 (bowl loss) and never getting the BCS Champ invite.
4. Fix the players. Small DEs are annoying. Size is irrelevant. Speed can't kill because no one gets up to speed until they hit 40 yards.
5. If you insist on the hidden gem/player all of a sudden interested, make him interested. There is no use n telling me that a 4* OLB has interest when I am #9, 900 points behind and both top teams have offered -- and it's week 3 of offseason recruiting.
6. Make pitches matter. It seems that a recruit has Academics, facilities and TV as his priorities. I am B, B+, B+ in those categories and my main opponent is C+, B, B but I can't catch up in points.

Presentation
1. Make it matter. A rivalry game should matter. Winning on a last second field goal should trigger a frenzy. Bowl games (especially BCS games) should have some pageantry. Winning the Axe is bigger than beating Northwestern. Etc...
2. Star RB broke his leg? Show him on crutches, with a stats overlay, when your running game struggles. QB threw 4 pics in 1st half. Show him sitting on bench, head in hands, as RS Frosh gets some 3rd quarter PT.

[CuseGirl]

Quote:

4. Fix FG kicks. 55 is a chip shot if I have the leg.

I stopped reading after this....55 yard field goals, especially in college are not chip shots.

[Clonefan84]

After reviewing this thread, I decided to give my take on what needs to be improved for next year. Now this list is certainly gonna be long, but I just want to state the fact right now that I really did enjoy this game a lot, and might have been the best NCAA football to date, certainly the best next gen one, but there's still a lot of room for improvement. So here goes nothing:

Gameplay:
-Obviously gameplay is the most important aspect that needs to be tuned up so my first point is going to be the most important part of gameplay that needs improvement, and that's BLOCKING. In all honesty, I think an improvement in this area will get rid of a lot of flaws mentioned in this thread. Most importantly the battle between the o-line and d-line. Blocking assignments, guard pulling, screens even, there definitely is a video game feel to it and needs to be more realistic. How many times in football do you see a DE just blow right by a tackle untouched? Not in this game though, as all blocksheds are done by the swim move. I want stunt plays to look like stunt plays instead of a big pile of bodies with one guy magically appearing from the pile to sack you. And also, if an o-line has great awareness, make it so the right side is aware of a stunt on the left and slide on over to help protect. FBs need to stop coming off their regular assignment to block a CB or safety that won't be a factor in the play just because he's closer. Blocking on special teams would also make a difference. The big one would be defensive line strenth vs offensive line strength. If a more powerful D-line is takin on a weaker o-line, they can be pushed back on a FG and make for more chance of a block. This strength difference could also effect the run game, and effect how long you'll have to pass. This here will make you handle the weak teams easier and struggle with the hard ones. Fixing this will make playactions work better, will make kick/punt returns more realistic, and most importantly will make the game feel more realistic. This change is the biggest must, as no football title in the history of video game football has ever got it right. Even though the casual fan doesn't pay attention to the non-glammar positions like the linemen, truth is line play is the most important part of football and 95% of the time if you get beat in the trenches you're gonna get beat, period.

-Now that the big one's out of the way, we now need to address defensive play. This is evident on both my defense and cpu defense, but truth is, DBs should not be running my routes for me UNLESS I've been running the same play over and over again. Awareness should cover for how often a play needs to be run before they start running the route. And if you're gonna have an aggressive DB that likes to jump routes like that, make him miss once and a while. He jumps the slant you just ran 4 times, but uh oh, I"m doing an out this time, and he's wide open. DB play, especially in man, is horrid at times. With the right sliders, it can produce realistic results, but as much as I like realistic results, it still doesn't feel right unless it's realistic play. Also, since I'm covering pass coverage here, under no circumstances should a LB jump 10 feet for a pass to deflect/intercept a pass that's supposed to go 20 yards over his head. Even Urlacher can't do that.

-I've covered special teams, all defense, and running (via o-line, that gets better, running gets better), so now all that's left is passing. As far as time to throw, the o-line should cover that so I won't go into detail on that, but my biggest pet pieve in the game probably is the fact that there's only two options of a pass. You either get a Brett Favre rocket pass, or you get a lob pass that would hit the big screen at Cowboy stadium. This definitely needs changed, and I have the PERFECT solution. We need a passing meter. Yes a meter, much like the one used in MLB 10 the show when fielding the ball and throwing. Just a simple meter, the longer you hold it, the more rocket there is to it. Also have a "green area" where if you go over, the accuracy will be effected by it, the worse the QB is, the more it gets effected. Too early, and it'll be dramatically lobbed where the defense will most likely catch up to it unless the WR is WIDE open. That could probably fix the LB leaping for passes by 10 ft too.

-Fixing the above issues should make this game much more real and sim-like, but for those who want 15 min qtrs and real stats, we need to have a good time system. Well, accelerated clock could be pointless, since there's already chew clock anyway, so I propse this: First off, why slow the clock up for playcalling? College QBs have 40 seconds to decide, we should too. if someone wants to be cheap and take more time, they can pause it (of course, I think they should make it so you can't pause unless you're on defense. Offenses always have the tough decisions, make them have to decide in 40 secs or take a timeout). Second, make the players have to get into the huddle after selecting formation (a change of formation means a change of players into the huddle), and you can't pick the play until all 11 players are in the huddle. Then you pick the play, then they have to break the huddle. This could make a risk of 12 players in the huddle if someone's awareness is too low. Yes, the complaint would be "but that would slow down the game blah blah blah." Hey, if you wanna play fast tempo, you can still set gameplan to agressive, or even run no huddle (but if you change personell make them have to sub out), but just be prepared for a higher risk of mixup and penalties (illegal formation, illegal shift, etc.)

Dynasy
-Now that we can move on to a new category, I want to focus on my favorite tool in this game, or quite frankly any game. Also for simplicity I'm going to talk about dynasty mode overall (as in both offline and online) unless otherwise specified. And while they dynasty mode is really good this year, there are definitely a couple of big flaws in it, and I find them both eaually important, so in no particular order, I'm gonna start with overall customization. This game definitely lacked in that for dynsaty mode. While it's nice to be able to move teams to other conferences, it's not fully customizable. There should be an allowance for as many teams as you want per conferece, so if you need to move Nebraska into the Big 10 (using this years game as an example), I shouldn't have to move Northwestern to the Big 12 to fill the hole. Every conference should also be complete with the option of number of games within the conference, and whether the conference should have split divisions and a title game (must have 10 teams minium for the option to be available.) Also the scheduling could use a tune-up as well. I love the idea of contracts (home-away-home, or two year home-away, etc.) and I also think something that's VERY overdue is neurtal field games. Oklahoma vs. Texas should ALWAYS be played at Dallas. Not sure what other rivalries do that, but they need to do it for those as well. (Sorry, pay attention to Big 10 and Big XII more than anything). Also, if there's a stadium not in use for a neutral game, make it available to get a game there (i.e. Iowa State agreed to play Kansas State the last three years at Arrowhead Stadium). And lastly, the other thing needed for customization is the option to have a playoff. It was done once in a game a long while back (NCAA 2000 maybe?) and hasn't been seen since. There's really no reason for that. And personally, I prefer the bowl system, simply because I like to keep things true to life (if NCAA goes to playoffs, I would prefer playoffs), but I think I would do two dynasties just to use the playoff function as sort of my "fictional" dynasty. It was a great feature once before and it would still be great, as long as it's an option. Wouldn't be terrible to be able to customize the playoffs either, but hey, even if you make it a simple playoffs with the top 16 BCS teams, it's something to determine a championship besides the BS BCS!

-Another vitally important aspect of dynasty that needs to be changed is recruiting. While recruiting is very important, I didn't feel it was as important of a change needed just because the way it is now is pretty decent. But, there's some things that just make this a bit frustrating. First off, let's do away with recruiting difficulty. I just don't think it's necessary. I honestly feel that difficulty determines how good your class is instead of how well you recruit anyway. Also, let's get rid of random generators. Coaches don't randomly pitch things to recruits, they try to focus on the school's strengths. I don't think Eastern Michigan is going to pitch national championship contender because some magic 8-ball told the coach to pitch it. EMU will focus on playing time, academics......campus layout maybe?? Anyway, let us decide what to pitch, maybe then we won't want to use quick call so much. Also people should be interested in certain schools no matter what (especially from the area). I know one thing, if I was a football star, I would pledge my football alligence to Iowa State regardless of who sent me a scholarship or who tried to offer me $200,000. People should also be drawn to certain pitches, and it should MATTER to interest in the school. Just because Texas is better doesn't mean their interest bar should keep growing farther past mine even though I have more playing time and better academics to offer than Texas and that's what the recruit wants. If I have A+ in a category and the recruit feels it's very important or if he doesn't I talk him into it, I should be rewarded for that. I also think that team prestige should not define your recruting prestige...unless that's what team prestige is supposed to do, in that case you might wanna rethink the way you assign team prestiges. I should not be able to turn Iowa State (a two star program) into a six star program in 4 years. And finally for this category, I want to see a couple of 1*s or even walk-ons turn out to be solid players, maybe even superstars, and I'd also like to see a couple 5*s be complete 1* like busts.

-I'd also like to see just about everything you'll find in NBA 2K11's association mode when it comes to team chemistry. I want to see assigned practices to boost certain attributes to the next game. Playing against a good secondary? Maybe try to improve WRs route running and catching. That same team a pro-style running conservative team? beef up the strength and blockshedding of your d-line. Maybe even assign player roles (stars, starters, critical backups, practice squad?), and make chemistry boost/hurt ratings. Also if some players get too unhappy, let that run the risk for transfers. If a player get's too low, make him a promise (more playing time next year, start next year, gonna win x games or conference next year), and see if that helps. These could also help your coach become more reputable. Also, if nothing else, at least make the rating change more during the season. If I have a 67 QB come to my school and win the heisman 3 years with him (which if gameplay was real that shouldn't happen, but hypothetically...) he should not be leaving rated 79 and not going into the NFL draft. That to me is absurd. That's like not drafting Peyton manning because he was only a 2* recruit (if he was, not saying he was). Make it more than "oh, you had 5 great games in a row, here's +1 to your awareness."

Presentation:
Last and certainly the least of these three is the presentation. If they spend the entire year working on the other two areas of the game and leave presentation as is, that's fine with me. I can deal with Kirk's repetitive phrases, bad crowd interaction, no higlight shows, bad sidelines, if they fix all the other issues and make this the most realistic game ever. Then if they do that they can work on presentation more in NCAA 13. But just to entertain some ideas, here's what I'd like to see as far as presentation.

-I'll start with the stadium in general. First crowd noise. I'd like to here a little emotion out of the crowd, especially on big plays. Running back hits a whole, 5 yards down the field the crowd will start to get loud. If he then gets tackled, then the crowd silences (this is of course the home team running), but if he breaks a big run the crowd gets loud. I want to see more of that. Also, I want the size of the crowd to matter. A TD scored by Western Kentucky late in the 4th quarter down 70-0 should not be as loud as Ohio State scoring the game winning TD against Michigan with both teams 11-0 and competing for a shot at the national title. Crowd noise has a huge impact in the feel of college football, and that needs to be the first thing to be improved. Next would be announcers. With stale announcing (which is what we have had for 2 years now) you get no excitement out of it. Fortunately there's the option to turn it off, but getting fresh announcers...or at least fresh dialogue might add a little bit too the big plays and the excitement. Finally, as far as stadium goes (yeah I know, the announcers aren't part of the stadium, I know, but hey, they sit in the press box, so I count it), I'd like to see the sidelines be a LOT better. The player models just flat out suck, no noticable coaches, and no running down the field cheering your player on while running down the sidelines for a big TD in the 4th (wouldn't that be neat to see a replay of in broadcast angle, then save it for your online dynasty for people to see). Also, now that I think of it, the crowd itself could use a tune-up as well. Let's see those fans going crazy after the game winning FG. What about that white-out in Penn State, or the black-out in Iowa. Basically, I want to see better models for the secondary figures of the game. (and no, I don't mean secondary as in D-backs.

-Now, what about TV-style presentation? I'd love to see that. How about an ESPN ticker at the bottom? ESPN style scoreboard popping up after every change of possession with the gameday theme playing like it's going to commercial but it doesn't (obviously should have the option to turn it off for the impatient gamers lol). What about half-time show? post-game show? Weekly BCS show (after week 8)? Even a weekly College gameday show to recap the weeks action? And I would really REALLY love to see highlights of OTHER games in those shows. I know, that's asking a hell of a lot, but at least show highlights of user games. Again, everything under the presentation section is just wants, and the other two categories, especially gameplay, should be addressed first before even coming over to presentation. I'm just entertaining ideas.

Anyway, that's my thoughts. I think NCAA would be close to perfect with everything here. Yeah I know I left out a few things that people have mentioned before, but I just don't think that's that important right now. Just focus on these things here, and we'd have a spectacular game, then we can nit-pick the other stuff. And yes, I know I left out coaching carousel. I do think that would be huge too, and I was gonna talk about it a bit but forgot. Something like that one guy said about the assistant coaches and coordinators rotating around. Wouldn't hurt to see coach models either. Something like that to where you have the option to do a "career mode" where you take over a 1* team and work your way up. That would be good too. While that's a pretty nice thing to have though, I think everything else I mentioned needs to be taken care of first though (outside of presentation.)

-Sorry for the book here. I really did go overboard with this, but regardless those are my thoughts on what would make a good NCAA 12. Have fun with them.

[Clonefan84]

Quote: Originally Posted by CuseGirl

I stopped reading after this....55 yard field goals, especially in college are not chip shots.

I think he was referring to in the game they are chip shots. I can make 60 yard FGs with ease with my Iowa State kicker his senior year. He's saying they need to not make it that way.

[jfsolo]

Quote: Originally Posted by stcloudgopher

Yup. Here is my list, broken down into their respective categories: Game play 1. As mentioned by everyone, fix the option offenses, PA passes and general AI defensive super powers. This should be A1A for the devs. I don't care if they left everything else the same, fix this. 2. Better momentum. I shouldn't lose all of my speed when making a cut, or, at the least, I should get back to speed according to my accel rating. It seems that only matters immediately on handoff/reception and not after a move. 3. Better AI play calling. Fake some blitzes. Bring a safety and drop a DL. Don't throw 2 passes from the gun, then run a dive with :50 to go in the half from your own 10, giving me the ball with 2 timeouts and good field position. 4. Fix FG kicks. 55 is a chip shot if I have the leg. Shrink the accuracy cone for every 10 yards. Add a composure rating to all players, but make it especially important for K, QB, WR, CB and S. 5. ST play in general. More blocked kicks, or just the possibility to do so. 6. Penalties. Called better/more often, reducing clips and holds. Also, late hits on QBs and players out of bound needs to happen. I lost M. Gray (Minn.) on a late hit and no call. Irritating. Dynasty 1. Coaching carousel. This MUST be done. If I start at Ball State and leave for UCLA, there needs to be some other movement. Having PSU Coach still roaming the sidelines in 2025 is craziness. Each coach should bring their own style and would have to bring... 2. Coordinators. They impact your Off and Def, recruiting and can be hired away. This would bring in another option that would make Dynasty go a long way: Money. If Ball State is offering a 3-year extension at $1 mil per year, and UCLA counters with 3-years at $1.75/yr., I need to decide what I want to do. Why a decision? Because this would affect your OC/DC pay as well. Stay at Ball State and maybe they jump to that vacant NIU job. Go to UCLA and their pay increases as well and maybe you can hang onto them for another 2 years. 3. Less undefeated teams later on. It seems once I get to 2015 there are anywhere from 3-7 unbeaten teams every year. I love the fact I can go 13-0 as Texas but get left out when Bama and Miami also run the table; but that can't happen every year. I quit my Texas dynasty after going 14-0, 14-0, 13-1 (bowl loss) and never getting the BCS Champ invite. 4. Fix the players. Small DEs are annoying. Size is irrelevant. Speed can't kill because no one gets up to speed until they hit 40 yards. 5. If you insist on the hidden gem/player all of a sudden interested, make him interested. There is no use n telling me that a 4* OLB has interest when I am #9, 900 points behind and both top teams have offered -- and it's week 3 of offseason recruiting. 6. Make pitches matter. It seems that a recruit has Academics, facilities and TV as his priorities. I am B, B+, B+ in those categories and my main opponent is C+, B, B but I can't catch up in points. Presentation 1. Make it matter. A rivalry game should matter. Winning on a last second field goal should trigger a frenzy. Bowl games (especially BCS games) should have some pageantry. Winning the Axe is bigger than beating Northwestern. Etc... 2. Star RB broke his leg? Show him on crutches, with a stats overlay, when your running game struggles. QB threw 4 pics in 1st half. Show him sitting on bench, head in hands, as RS Frosh gets some 3rd quarter PT.

Strong Post, This is pretty much my hierarchy too.

Quote: Originally Posted by CuseGirl

I stopped reading after this....55 yard field goals, especially in college are not chip shots.

You misinterpreted his point completely. He is saying that in the game right now its a chip shot for a User to make a 55 yarder, and that it shouldn't be. He is advocating making the accuracy much harder, so that User's can't bomb 50 plus yarders with any kicker with a big leg.