My suggestions on making Elite 11 better and pleasing the fans.

[Anakin19732001]

Before I start with my thoughts I want to briefly give my background. I am 36 years old, and consider myself to be an avid gamer. I remember playing my Atari 2600, and old NES... and then the Genesis.. and I can honestly say I have been an EA supporter since the days of John Madden Football, and Lakers vs. Bulls. I have seen (as most of you have) a ton of change as old systems die, and new ones come out...

with that being said...

I want to send my gratitude to the devs. from EA for coming to these forums and taking some of the harsh criticism that has been handed to them. I am quickly realizing that the gaming industry is a love/hate relationship... and no matter how hard you try... you can never please everybody... but I want to focus on what it will take to make this game what it should be, and how to "right the ship" so to speak.

1) Once EA finalizes some sort of time line we need to know about it. ASAP... don't leave us in the dark. I know either way will bring criticism.. but the fans need to know.

2) Since Jams is being released seperatly.. we need a date. I was going to buy Elite not only for the game.. but also for Jams. If Jams is not coming out for a month or so... I think it would be in your best interest to drop a demo and save some grace... (Just my 2 cents)

3) Now lets improve elite... what does it need???

- Graphics need upgrading (1080P) would be nice.. but overall graphics upgrade.
- I dig the controls for offense, except for passing. It is just odd to pass with the right trigger. Maybe look to mapping the non dribble controls to different buttons.
- I would love to see signature tendacies. EA wrote the book on signature animations back in the Genesis days... so lets look at that again.
- I feel the court is too short.. (sounds silly I know), but when you inbound the ball your at half court before you blink...
- Fix animations outside the paint. I would love to see different animations at different areas on the court.
- This game has the crowd done right, but lets work on the other parts... I want to see details from the arena floors done better...
- The menu system needs to be overhauled. Its just too blahh... I like the simplistic approach, but its too much in terms of numbers. It should be simplified, and then you can give us those spreadsheet stats if we choose to look at them in the menu.
- Defense needs to be looked at... Either slow the game down a tad, or give the defense a chance. I really feel like guarding is too hard.
- Too many CPU blocked shots... and the interior game seems a bit jumbled. Again this goes back to the court size... maybe a inch added here or there would make a world of difference.

any other ideas??? Please feel free to list.

[champsbasketball]

Re: My suggestions on making Elite 11 better and pleasing the fans.

i think they defintely know the graphics needs a ton of work cause they said it would be taking a hit, so i just hope they fix the core of the game user vs cpu and user vs user. then i hope they dont for get about all the modes in the game they all need some help cause the become legendary mode from the blogs and playing the demo just doesnt look finished. i just hope that they let us help them addd the right things in the game to make it next gen cause we know they can do it, and im hoping this delay is letting us the fans of Live know that they care about are thoughts and really do want us to help them make the best basketball sim game, and put some of are ideas in this game thats not in there now. And take as long as you guys at EA need we can wait for a great basketball sim game.lol

[FreshPrince22]

Re: My suggestions on making Elite 11 better and pleasing the fans.

i'm really not expecting much. i think EA just realized that people arent as stupid as they think, and now they're gonna have to retool and make a game barely decent enough to scam everybody.


but anyway, i'd like to see the graphics/animations improved, those awful controls scrapped, and physics redone to be the Backbreaker-like experience a lot of people were probably expecting (as opposed to the crap they created and slapped the "physics" buzzword on). not to mention a host of other little things they need to do just to compete

[Zen_Master07]

Re: My suggestions on making Elite 11 better and pleasing the fans.

Hoping that one of the devs will actually read this, i'm gonna post:

A graphical upgrade is needed badly, the player models all look the same and skin textures are horrible. ALL Player models (body's to be exact), need to be re-done.

Changing the name back to Live may help bring back what little long-time fans remain of the franchise.

Take the emphasis away from 1 on 1 gameplay. I have said repeatedly that the major flaw in this game is this: It's a 1-on-1 game in a 5-on-5 sport.

Take this opportunity to start over with your customers (the people who keep you in business). Forge an open relationship with us, right here on OS if you will, and keep us in the light about what you are doing. Gone are the days of making the game (what we think works/sells) and enter the days where the game is made FOR the consumer, who drives those sale ratings and value our input.

[rEAnimator]

Re: My suggestions on making Elite 11 better and pleasing the fans.

Take the emphasis away from 1 on 1 gameplay. I have said repeatedly that the major flaw in this game is this: It's a 1-on-1 game in a 5-on-5 sport.

I still haven't got a good answer as to why people feel this way.

Can you elaborate a little?

Why do you feel it is a one on one game?

What aspects of 5 on 5 do you feel are missing?

Thanks.

[GHUGHES]

Re: My suggestions on making Elite 11 better and pleasing the fans.

Bringing back ranked club matches would help also with real NBA teams and players not dude we create

[Zen_Master07]

Re: My suggestions on making Elite 11 better and pleasing the fans.

I still haven't got a good answer as to why people feel this way.

Can you elaborate a little?

Why do you feel it is a one on one game?

What aspects of 5 on 5 do you feel are missing?

Thanks.

Reanimator, because i want to give you an honest and precise answer, i'm gonna play the demo a couple times and refresh my memory and give you some specifics. Check back a little later and hopefully i can give you a better answer

[CX1329]

Re: My suggestions on making Elite 11 better and pleasing the fans.

- Defense needs to be looked at... Either slow the game down a tad, or give the defense a chance. I really feel like guarding is too hard.

Really? I thought playing defense was far too easy. I could guard Rondo with Bynum everytime by putting a body on him and guarding him as if it was a soccer game. I'm not joking, either. The lack of momentum and the absence of blocking fouls makes it all too easy.

Ideally, a good momentum system would allow Rondo to kill Bynum off the dribble, and blocking fouls would force the player to play careful position D with anybody other than elite defenders like Artest, who can anticipate and be aggressive.

[Zen_Master07]

Re: My suggestions on making Elite 11 better and pleasing the fans.

I still haven't got a good answer as to why people feel this way.

Can you elaborate a little?

Why do you feel it is a one on one game?

What aspects of 5 on 5 do you feel are missing?

Thanks.

First off i wanna comment on the controls. The controls aren't that bad, but i don't see why a couple of the moves that make sense with the direction, couldn't have just been re-mapped. For example, going diagonal on the sticks to produce a between the legs makes sense, as does the behind the backs and spins. Why couldn't they have just been re-mapped using last years control scheme (the best controls in a bball game ever)?

Using RT to pass seems very awkward, and i have noticed some serious lag with the passing. My recommendation would be to assign the gathers to "Y", move passing control back to "LT" and assign a turbo button to "RT". As the other game has shown, the turbo button doesn't just have to be served as a sprint. You could use it as a contact creator on defense which could help try and stop penetration or shade your offensive player to either side in the post. Of course you would have to have your body in the right spot, because using it as a suction machine is what hurt previous games. I'd also recommend using LT as an exclusive pass button, meaning you can still use the total passing control from last year if you have the LT held. The passing control was the single best gameplay part of the game to me, it really helped you maintain and create court spacing for other guys.

Verticals need to be toned down dramatically, and some new rebounding animations are definitely in order. If you make sure the players extend their arms like real players do, then there goes the need for your ridiculous verticals. I've noticed that a lot of the rebounding animations involve the player jumping with with knees bent and the ball warping into their hands. This can be corrected by capturing some new takeoffs or starts of jumps. These guys need to bend their knees and explode for the ball, and then extend their arms to go get it, not let it come to them

The footplanting in this game is non-existant. You need a new system, as the skating really looks bad visually and at times really feels like you are slipping on the court. I've seen Ray Allen get into a spin move animation and halfway jump out and do a hopstep the opposite direction right through the defender. While interruptible animations are nice and needed after last year, there has to be a certain point where you are committed, again...just base it off what is possible to break into from real life

Next point, players don't seem to be playing on the same court. The jumpshot were you are leaning forward just allows your man to jump right through the defender with no consequence. Again, in real life...you would either lose the ball or some sort of call would be made. Perfect example of that at 1:40 in this video:

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At 2:55 is an example of the rebounding, it just looks like the takeoff animation is missing. KG warps up with his knees never bending. Guys like KG tend to go up and grab the ball, pound it and bring it to their chest. This is basketball fundamentals 101. Also notice in the video that Rondo is constantly hunched over, he'd be in a wheelchair if he were like that in real life

Players are constantly travelling, again...probably in large part to the footplanting technology not taking each step into consideration. Fadeaway jump shots are completely off too, the offensive player gets no air and gets blocked every time

As far as my comments on the 1-on-1 game, it just seems as if the other 8 players on the court are totally irrelevant. Guys aren't moving to get to the ball or to help the teammate out who has picked up his dribble. Derek Fisher doesn't take into account that he has Kobe Bryant on his team and never tries to set him up. Rondo didn't even seem to make any nice dishes, weird considering his role is to set up other guys through penetration (especially with Fish guarding him).

Last but not least, but the signature in this game just may be mine and the rest of the community's biggest gripe. This comes back to an emphasis on who should be taking majority of the shots, and just signature ways of playing in general. Rondo didn't run the offense and i just didn't see anything that was specific to these players. This is where the competition is trumping you, the player specific animations or way of carrying out those animations that you guys had a little of last year.

I won't mention graphics, you already know there is problems there. Everything from player models all looking the same to jersey colors being dull to the skin textures.

Last thing, most people hate the default camera. In your next release, please give a relative and absolute setting to the total control moves. I know a lot of people have had trouble with this

[PRAY IV M3RCY]

Re: My suggestions on making Elite 11 better and pleasing the fans.

i dont know where to start with Elite. I think they have to just scrap everything start over, and make the game LOOK like basketball. That means making better looking animations.