Animations & Ratings, how they go hand in hand

[Sundown2600]

Issue #1: Americans are obsesed with American football. We love it to death.

Issue #2. EA has exclusive rights to the only football leagues that matter to us gamers.

Issue #3. EA takes full advantage of issue 1 and 2 and has no incentive to make a kick *** game.

Conclusion. Nothing is likely to change.

[Art01]

Regarding animations and play results, consider the example of a DB closing on a RB: As they converge, the game's software computes the probable result, which can include a tackle, a missed tackle, a tackle with fumble, etc. Then add to that mix, a spin or juke move by the RB, which changes the probabilities of potential results. All of these actions and results must be computed and re-computed by the software in such a manner as to choose the animations to yield visually realistic results. Software limitations, hardware speed limitations, etc. are all involved in this activity.

Over the years, there has been signficant progress - remember the days of FB PRO, when a defender was closing on a ball carrier and the ball carrier would momentarily stop to allow the visual tackle image to be played. Every so often, there would be enough of a disconnect that the ball carrier would actually begin the fall without being touched by the defender. If you look closely enough at today's games, you can occasionally see the same sort of visual action, but it occurs much less often and is much less pronounced when it does occur.

Having more animations available would provide a wider range of available visual depictions of play results. However, the software would need to be able to cope with the larger animation database and be able to choose the correct animation sequence to accurately depict the computed play result.

Case in point: Yesterday I was playing a Coach game. The CPU QB scrambled and was at least 8 yards beyond the LOS, when he attempted a shovel pass. The ball went forward, bounced off a player, and fell to the turf. No player on either team attempted a recovery, the play result was an incomplete pass and no penalty was called for an illegal forward pass. This very unusual play clearly demonstrated a breakdown in the software's logic sequence as the play unfolded. The animations chosen depicted literal elements of the software's play determination, but the results were not correct and certainly were not visually satisfactory. Thankfully, this sort of play result is a rare occurrance.

My desire is to see continued progress in the game's software to provide tougher CPU play with more realistic and varied CPU play calling to provide a challenging game without the need for the game to dynamically alter player ratings, except to reflect player performance during the flow of the game. I would rather experience occasional unrealistic animations than have play results be determined by an always-limited number of available animations.

[ClemTiger]

Bravo, sir, bravo.

If we could only somehow ever get a game where the CPU is smart.

[SonOfEd]

Very good write up 'Skillz. As others have stated, sticky this bad boy.
As far as some of the ratings not working, I think they did something weird along the line. I don't know if it was them expanding the point range to 120 for the Heisman players or what, but something changed how some react. They really need to just label them correctly.
Consider the offensive special moves, Juke, Spin, Truck, and Stiff arm. These should now be labeled as "Tendencies." They don't seem to measure as rating, but how often they are utilized. I believe it was THP that touched on this a few months back. And, from what I have seem, they are then combined with other physical ratings to determine the effectiveness. (Higher STR=better Stiff Arm, etc.)
Also, it seems to be the same for defensive special moves. Fenesse and Power Moves are more of a tendancy rating, than actually a skill rating.
I don't know if this is the same for M13, as I stayed away from that one.

[capn_razzamataz]

I have posted this in the past: EA should do some mo-capping with groups of people instead of 1-on-1. For example, Have a full offensive line "pass block" against a three or four man front. Or have a group of receivers run route combos against a full secondary.

[kingsofthevalley]

I touched on this many moons ago actually. Reference the lack of joints in the players, if you go back to the PS2 generation of Madden/NCAA, the player models were like marionettes/puppets which is why the game moved more realistically than it does now. There were many more moving parts within the player models back then.

Current generations player models are more like mannequins, with the body parts all locked together with no real independent movement. For the life of me, I cant figure out what in the hell they did to mess up their player models so horrendously.

[Isura]

Get this man working for EA. I would contribute a portion of GMS's yearly salary if he worked for EA

[TarHeelPhenom]

Quote: Originally Posted by SonOfEd

Very good write up 'Skillz. As others have stated, sticky this bad boy. As far as some of the ratings not working, I think they did something weird along the line. I don't know if it was them expanding the point range to 120 for the Heisman players or what, but something changed how some react. They really need to just label them correctly. Consider the offensive special moves, Juke, Spin, Truck, and Stiff arm. These should now be labeled as "Tendencies." They don't seem to measure as rating, but how often they are utilized. I believe it was THP that touched on this a few months back. And, from what I have seem, they are then combined with other physical ratings to determine the effectiveness. (Higher STR=better Stiff Arm, etc.) Also, it seems to be the same for defensive special moves. Fenesse and Power Moves are more of a tendancy rating, than actually a skill rating. I don't know if this is the same for M13, as I stayed away from that one.

That's exactly what they represent..."Tendencies"...the lower the special move rating the lower the chance of a player utilizing that particular move. If you drop spin move to "0" you won't even see a player attempt a spin move. On the flipside, if you put juke at "100" and lower the rest, the player will juke all over the place. If EA would take a page from NBA 2k and categorize their ratings we would be better off. Under Tendencies for offensive players would be ratings such as Juke, Spin, Stiff Arm, Truck, Touches(timed into how off a play is called for the player). For defense it would be Spin Move, Swim Move, Bull Rush and just get rid of the Power and Finesse Ratings. I agree with GMS that they need to add the QB ratings that are already in Madden(short, medium, long, play-action, throw on the run).


But, for the ratings that have no effect on the game just take em out. Thay are taking up space and we're wasting time trying to make em work.



Matter of fact, the whole Player Tendency thing needs to be revamped and go the way of Madden. They now have several tendencies for different positions. For example:

LB

4-3 OLB
3-4 OLB
Playmaker
Cover 2 LB
Prototype LB


DT

4-3 DT
3-4 NT


These things need to be added to NCAA 14 and...


I pray the editor works for it b/c I know we'll need it off top lol!