Equipment heads, Help me understand whats more important to you, Football or Socks?

[JerseySuave4]

It's already a given that the game needs better blocking, better running motions, better this, better that in terms of gameplay. The people who talk about equipment also understand a completely separate team works on the art and equipment aspect of the game. The look is something they can get accurate and authentic, they will forever be looking for ways to improve the gameplay and make it feel more lifelike, or different, or harder. Gameplay can never be a finished product because there will always be something that can be tweaked or improved. But they can nail down accessories and equipment so that you can replicate the look you see on tv.

So if you watch a college football game on Saturday and see a player wearing something, you should be able to jump into your game and duplicate that look. There is no reason they should add new cleats one year and not touch them for 4 more years. They should be looking to update every year. They shouldn't add a couple facemasks one year and then add none the next when there are popular facemasks missing. They should be taking away things like eye black and mouthpieces that were on the ps2 version of games, they should be adding things, not taking them away. If a team wears purple socks and purple cleats with their uniforms we should be able to give them purple socks and purple cleats.

The look is something they can get right. There's no good excuse not to have accurate and updated equipment in there. Other games do it so it can be done.

[JerseySuave4]

Quote: Originally Posted by GGGswim

^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ This!!! I will admit to falling toward the side from where the original poster is standing on the issue. But I am also thankful for the "equipment heads" who are watch-dogs on what is missing, could be added, should be added, etc. However, I can't fathom not buying the game because the socks aren't right, the facemasks don't match, etc. For me, that's where I don't understand the ultimatums -- add helmets or you won't get my money. (in an attempt to be PC in this PC world: I'm not saying that group is wrong, stupid, misguided or anything, I just don't get championing the choice to spend resources on socks rather than fixing game-play glitches/issues. Not my call. Guess I'm still not PC, but I hope I get credit for trying.)

I think the problem a lot of you make are you assume we refuse to buy the game is the socks are wrong. There's no need to go that extreme. People can simply be disappointed something hasn't been changed in years, people can be pissed that their favorite team still has incorrect uniforms without going nuts and saying they will refuse to buy the game BECAUSE of that.

They have licenses with Nike, Adidas & Under Armour already. Nike isn't going to make them pay extra to add a nike swoosh on a wristband or pair of socks. Now if they wanted to go nuts with the cleats and add tons of styles, hey might have to pay a little more in the deal but Nike wouldn't make them pay more if they allowed us to edit to color of the cleats (like they already give us the option to do) so that the Team Color is the base and the white or black is the accent, like so many teams wear.

That stuff isn't not getting done because they need to acquire more licenses or deals to get that stuff done. It's not getting done because in their eyes it isn't that big of a deal. They clearly show that these things can be done if they choose to get them done because they added "base layer" undershirts like you've seen the past couple years and they added the new gloves with the logos on the hands like you've seen the past couple of years.

Those are things they thought were cool and chose to update and include. They had plain black & white cleats for years until the outcry got so loud and they saw the improvement it made to the Madden player models, so they splashed some color on it and made people happy. But since they did that, they don't feel it's something they need to update or improve until other stuff is updated or improved.

It doesn't take acquiring a new contract or more licenses for them to give us a secondary team color option for equipment like we used to have in past games on older consoles. So instead of only being able to give an Oregon player Green accessories and Green accents on the cleats, they can allow us to give them Yellow accessories and accents as well. You've now just doubled the cleat color options and to take that a step further, if they allowed us to use team colors as the cleat color base, you've now given us even more options to get an accurate look, without even changing the style of the cleats... just the colors.

We get stuck with these limited looks









when we should have these color combos all as options

[Gap Integrity]

Here's my whole take on this debate. I believe the leadership and direction at the dev team is lacking badly. IMO Gameplay and Aesthetics are the big two. So if you are making this game you have to at least have the approach that between those two big ticket parts of the game, you gotta have one of them absolutely nailed down pat. I think this current team is trying to fix gameplay but is failing up until this point. They have taken the approach of tweaking a little bit of everything each year instead of just nailing down one aspect to make a large group of their consumers happy, then focus exclusively on the other aspect. I don't care which one they do first, But execute one of them!!! EA leaves themselves open to a bunch of criticism because of this IMO. You don't have to make a perfect game, but there should be parts of the game that ARE perfect.

[BamBam_db]

As i agree with what most people said, here is my take.

First, it isnt about having correct socks in or i wont buy the game. Not even a little bit. Why equipment and aesthetic guys choose not to buy the game (in my opinion) is due to the laziness of EA. If i was a Washington fan, all my faith would be lost in EA. How many years have they not even has the correct uniform? It isnt about socks its about laziness in that aspect. Which might make me not buy the game, because at that point i wouldnt want to support a game developer like that. Which its unfortunate because we only get one producer of a college football game.

Second, I believe that equipment and visual elements might hide the broken part of the game. Even tho it is ridiculous that we have to do this, but sliders can make even the "broken" parts of the game at least playable. However there is no slider to add up to date equipment. EA has two separate teams working on the gameplay and art aspects of the game. What do you think takes longer? To make every aspect of gameplay work perfectly, or create pieces of art? Also visual aspects of the game dont usually interact with other items, so that would mean less bugs and glitches. Im not a game developer or visual arts wiz, but if i could create a complete 3D model of a house in a few days on the computer using AutoCAD in highschool, then these "professionals" should be able to do AT LEAST a few facemasks a week (WE'RE NOT EVEN TALKING COMPLETE HELMETS) ... Back to the laziness issue...

Third, to wrap this up i will buy NCAA no matter what. Much like everyone on these boards, I love college football. Do i think the game is good? Absolutely not. Am i disappointed that in the "Next Gen" era we dont have up to date equipment? Yes without question. Do i wish that i could pick up an NCAA game and have it play like an actual football game you see in person or on TV? Certainly. But since buying NCAA on release date since i was 12 in 2003 i have seen the ups and downs of EA Sports. I personally believe that implementing the visual side would be easier that making gameplay perfect. IN NO WAY DO I THINK IT SHOULD TAKE PRIORITY. But with 2 teams and EA's bank account it shouldnt be THAT difficult to make both vastly improved. Sure id like to walk into EAs NCAA offices and slap some sense into them, or even take it over, but i cant. And sadly, I cant not play and NCAA game...

[gutsdabeast]

This argument goes nowhere because everybody view different aspects of the game differently. Whether you prefer aesthetics as high priority or game play as very important. Right now this team is failing in every aspect.

The equipment & uniforms are years out of date. The game play has debilitating glitches such as the safety glitch. Road to glory hasn't been touched since this gen come into existence. Dynasty mode gets even less attention. They refuse to innovated that mode. All the while adding features no one cares about.

Why not complain about spending resources on licensing former players(legends) that nobody has any desire to play as? Especially when the game is released the big thing is getting real rosters. Not...can't wait to play as RG3. That seems more like a waste of time & money than correct cleats.

What's next for them to add only to lose interest in the following year like 8 year olds? More mascot nonsense? Real live cheer leading sim? Question EA's decision making not those looking for a authentic version of NCAA football. Whatever aspect you feel is most important.

[Tengo Juego]

Because it's too hard to look over the inaccuracy. Just as the running animations don't look right, and defensive ends don't attack the QB right, or run fits don't actually exist, or options not being blocked correctly. And so on.

Inaccuracies are inaccuracies. And the equipment has not been an exception. The development team will add new equipment and uniforms, but still not fix uniforms and/or equipment that are inaccurate or are years outdated.

There is a lot of bleed over, where you'll see someone complain about such things in topics here on OS that have nothing to do with equipment. There's a legitimate complaint there. But the vocal members who are always paying attention to these details know where they need to speak up. And I think do a good job of not derailing threads and discussion with it.