EA Sports UFC 2 GameChanger Event 2 - Things I Should Look For

[aholbert32]

So I'm headed back to Vancouver next week to check out UFC 2 again. I wont be there as long as I was last time (heading to Vegas on Friday) but I think we will have significantly more time to play the game since the dev team wont have to introduce new modes to us this time.

So I wanted to use this thread to identify the specific things you want me to look for. Alot of the things you guys may say I already know the answer to (just cant comment on it yet) but I'm sure you guys have a bunch of new questions based off of the information that has been released.

[Pappy Knuckles]

Re: GameChanger Event 2 - Things I Should Look For

I'll be good with whatever general impressions you can give us about the gameplay improvements.

As far as a specific request, one thing that I didn't like about the cpu is that they'd always try to touch gloves every round. It would be cool to see some fighters who never do it, or at least not attempt it again if you don't in the first round. Not a big thing at all, but I'm curious about that.

[aholbert32]

Re: GameChanger Event 2 - Things I Should Look For

I'll be good with whatever general impressions you can give us about the gameplay improvements.

As far as a specific request, one thing that I didn't like about the cpu is that they'd always try to touch gloves every round. It would be cool to see some fighters who never do it, or at least not attempt it again if you don't in the first round. Not a big thing at all, but I'm curious about that.

I think thats still the case in UFC 2. Thats something I'll mention to the devs.

[fballturkey]

Re: GameChanger Event 2 - Things I Should Look For

I'd like to know if there are still unrealistically long parry chains on the higher difficulty. I'd sometimes have a back and forth of three strikes each with everything getting parried by the AI and me.

Also, does the AI still go into 'can't touch this' mode against the cage late in the fight if it probably has a point victory? It'll be hard for you to check since it didn't always happen, but I'd see it where the AI would be pretty much untouchable, parrying every strike (even when I mixed them up) and stuffed every takedown.

Basically I guess I'm asking if parries are as prevalent on the highest difficulty settings.

[allBthere]

Re: GameChanger Event 2 - Things I Should Look For

Remember in THQ's game you could 'rush' or sprint? we need that. Moving north/south or up and down should be just as fluid as back and forth so we should have to rely on dashes all the time. Basically I want them to pretend they are making a realistic K-1 game for the standup with all the nuances/stamina fatigue, messiness and timing. There should be strike interruptions, stumbles not because hurt but just off balance - balance should be a 'thing' so that if you do spam spin kicks and get push kicked in the hip or butt incidentally you should stumble and lose balance varying degrees using your arms to regain a proper fight stance and in the process of all that you're more open to get tagged. This should also apply to hitting someone square while they're on their way to the inside and get stunn'd or stammered.

Organic clinches, what happens when 2 fighters push towards each other with or without punching and are at maximum closeness? do they just look silly shuffling towards eachother, maybe they should get tied up a bit? maybe lose balance like I was saying above?

To me the striking needs so much work, last game I constantly felt like I had to be a machida style or just go balls out aggressive hay-maker and end it in 20 seconds, there wasn't an in-between or a method to shift the CPU's tactics and have them adjust... that goes for pvp too, because it's not fun when the best strategy to win is to have the technique button constantly pushed down.

Striking accuracy - please, tone that down, auto head movemet helps and defence should be easier, but with less super-powered counter windows. In real life if 2 guys are sitting just outside the 'pocket' it's not easy for them to hit each other with 1 punch, in a way it is kind of easy to avoid just 1 shot too. This reminds me of baseball videogames where an OS'er described it best when talking about aim hitting vs timing hitting. I paraphrase "As a hitter you see the ball and swing and your arms just kind of go to the right place, it's not aiming, because if you did aim you'd usually miss"
So with that in mind, as a fighter, I don't need to see a punch coming and consciously decide to move my left arm up and body to the right to defend the shot - I just see it and move as I've drilled a million times. So the thought of parrying a left high attack by inputting that opposite seems kind of 'gamey' to me. Same with the idea that if I guess that correctly I get a huge damage bonus to my strike after the fact. It would be fine if it was a very rare event, but it's the most common way to win and 'take advantage of the system' ... the whole thing should be messier and have a bit more automation involved.

I could go on and on and on, but in the end nobody's looking to pay me to design the game lol

[jeremym480]

Re: GameChanger Event 2 - Things I Should Look For

Gameplay
I know you will already pay attention to this stuff, but for gameplay I'd keep an eye on the AI and how the game is balanced. Just make sure that each fighter fights realistically and that they don't use the same patterns (which was flurry, back off, another flurry for the most part) that they seemed to fall into in the last game. In the last game I thought that submissions were too easy on Normal, but striking was perfect for my skill. If I went up a level subs where much better, but the AI became a parrying machine and it wasn't very fun.

Presentation
Make sure to let it be know that we want so suspense to decisions.

Also stuff like when you go to different arenas like Brazil, Mexico and Ireland (assuming those last two are in the game) does the crowd get behind the "home fighter"?

Event Mode
Can you set up events to be different from one another (PPV's, Fox/FS1 cards, Fight Pass). if so, do they feel authentic?

CAF
Think about the most difficult CAF to make for in the past and see if you can create them in the game. Examples someone tall for the weight-class like Stefan Struve or George Roop, or someone flabby like Mike Russo. Also check out things like ages and more importantly the name database (although I'm not sure if there is anything they could do about that at this point).

That's about all I have, but I'll let you know if I think of anything else.

[Skynet]

Re: GameChanger Event 2 - Things I Should Look For

I'll be good with whatever general impressions you can give us about the gameplay improvements.

As far as a specific request, one thing that I didn't like about the cpu is that they'd always try to touch gloves every round. It would be cool to see some fighters who never do it, or at least not attempt it again if you don't in the first round. Not a big thing at all, but I'm curious about that.

I think thats still the case in UFC 2. Thats something I'll mention to the devs.

Consider it mentioned Also, to actually answer the question, not all fighters will touch gloves 100% of the time.

[Skynet]

Re: GameChanger Event 2 - Things I Should Look For

I'd like to know if there are still unrealistically long parry chains on the higher difficulty. I'd sometimes have a back and forth of three strikes each with everything getting parried by the AI and me.

Also, does the AI still go into 'can't touch this' mode against the cage late in the fight if it probably has a point victory? It'll be hard for you to check since it didn't always happen, but I'd see it where the AI would be pretty much untouchable, parrying every strike (even when I mixed them up) and stuffed every takedown.

Basically I guess I'm asking if parries are as prevalent on the highest difficulty settings.

I can happily answer that this is not the case. Due to certain time restrictions and priorities last year, along with our then AI lead being absent during most of the patches, this issue was a sore point for the high difficulty AIs. In UFC 2, there has been a lot of work done to differentiate various styles and difficulties. While one fighter might be very good in standup, or specifically in defense lets say, another might have strengths in grappling.

A fighter will certainly grow in competency as the difficulty rises, however their growth will be focused on the areas they are already adept in, leaving their weaknesses in tact, comparatively speaking.

[fballturkey]

Re: GameChanger Event 2 - Things I Should Look For

That is fantastic news that will increase the replayability of the game exponentially.

[pdandy]

Re: GameChanger Event 2 - Things I Should Look For

I've been following what SkyNet has written over in the official forums so everything regarding the AI is sounding great.

I guess my only request is whether you can see the improvements in practice. Are they as good as they read on paper?

Edit: Actually I do have a very specific question. Does a submission chain have limits. I recall in EA MMA that high difficulty AI would just switch back an forth endlessly.

[fballturkey]

Re: GameChanger Event 2 - Things I Should Look For

I'd also be interested to see if the AI is better at managing distance than in 1. You could pretty reliably pick it apart from the outside, especially if you had the right moves.

And, this might be hard to check, but do some fighters use distance better than others? Does Hendo try to stay in the pocket as much as possible and Holm (just for example) stay outside? Do lower tier fighters fight less intelligently when it comes to distance?

Edit: Oh, and catching head kicks. It happened way too often in the later rounds in 1. Is it less automatic now?

[Paletero]

Re: GameChanger Event 2 - Things I Should Look For

First, I would like to say thanks for even taking these questions back to the devs. Having the chance now a days to actually be heard by the actual people making the game is awesome. With that said, sorry if these questions have been asked already.

1. Will fighter walk-outs be available for all fights? or will they only be shown for championship fights?

2. How do you feel the commentary holds out in comparison to last year? There were times in UFC1 when I felt as if Joe Rogan was just saying the same lines that really had no substance or impact within a few hours of first playing the game.

[aholbert32]

Re: GameChanger Event 2 - Things I Should Look For

First, I would like to say thanks for even taking these questions back to the devs. Having the chance now a days to actually be heard by the actual people making the game is awesome. With that said, sorry if these questions have been asked already.

1. Will fighter walk-outs be available for all fights? or will they only be shown for championship fights?

2. How do you feel the commentary holds out in comparison to last year? There were times in UFC1 when I felt as if Joe Rogan was just saying the same lines that really had no substance or impact within a few hours of first playing the game.

1) I know they are available for all fights in Event Mode but I cant remember if that is the case in Play Now.

2) Too early to talk about the commentary because the version I was playing was an early Alpha version.

[fballturkey]

Re: GameChanger Event 2 - Things I Should Look For

For the walk outs is there any difference between the main event and the other fights? Do they drop the lights for the champions, etc? Not a dealbreaker of course but it'd be a nice touch.

Also, in event mode we can set who the champion is, right? So if I want to do a classic card with Rousey as the champ against Holm I can set it that way and it'll present correctly?

[aholbert32]

Re: GameChanger Event 2 - Things I Should Look For

For the walk outs is there any difference between the main event and the other fights? Do they drop the lights for the champions, etc? Not a dealbreaker of course but it'd be a nice touch.



Also, in event mode we can set who the champion is, right? So if I want to do a classic card with Rousey as the champ against Holm I can set it that way and it'll present correctly?

They do the full presentation for Championship fights. They actually show some of it in the trailer that was released yesterday. They drop the lights and use the spotlights and everything.

Yes to your event mode question. You can select the Champion.