EA College Football News & Info

[illwill10]

Quote: Originally Posted by jwilphl

At the outset, I would hope they can get all the legit FBS schools and conferences, at the very least. I'm doubtful they bring back Teambuilder. The game being built off the Madden engine is also somewhat concerning, if for no other reason than to hope the two games would have a distinct feel like before, but I get it. Having the FCS schools included would be neat, like the old days, but I do not expect that at all.

The game being built on Madden's engine is my main concern, but it is expected. I'm just hoping Madden sees major changes to its engine within the next 2 games. Though you can see the improvements in the new gen, its foundation is built off the previous generations. But, the hope is the AI Playcalling and tendencies closely resembles the college game as opposed to NFL.

I do hope that Teambuilder comes back, but I don't see it coming back. I just hope that it has a good in game team builder. I just hope the game does a good job of capturing the college atmosphere and traditions. The positives of being built off of Madden, is that it should allow the devs to focus on the core game experience. I want an in-depth college experience. For me, NCAA 14 was a step back. NCAA 14 felt so streamlined and simplified compared to the past games. From Presentation to Recruiting to modes being made simple. It might be niche, but it being complicated makes it worthwhile.

I always preferred the college games to the pro counterparts. Team building in college games is a completely different experience than pro games. It's always a revolving building process compared to the pro games. Recruiting and team building just hits different. You never fill settled when you know you have to replace a player. It would be nice if they added the Transfer Portal. Where you can fill immediate holes and at the same time, it would be nice to have to be aware of a player wanting to transfer. It's a different experience building up a 1 star school from the bottom up compared to the worse team in Madden. In Madden, with a good draft and Free Agency, you c an be a playoff team by the second year and a contender by the third year and then you're just adding onto it and maintaining. In College, even if you're winning games as a 1 star school, it'll take many seasons to build that school into a powerhouse and add a couple more if you start as a coordinator at that school. That's what I want. I want to start as a coordinator at a 1 star school where after a couple good seasons, the HC moves onto a better job and I get the promotion and build that team into a powerhouse in 4-6 seasons. That's a good 7-10 seasons before you start dominating and getting tired of the mode compared to 2-3 seasons in Madden.

[canes21]

I agree with basically all you said. NCAA 14 had a very bare bones Dynasty Mode, but the college game naturally makes for better team building modes because of the natural turnover. Even with the streamlined recruiting it is more interesting to fight doe 20 players all season long that it is to go bid for free agents for a couple of weeks in Madden.

The roster turning over annually also keeps it interesting naturally. You can't draft a superstar and have them under a longterm contract. You have to replace any star player you get within 3 years basically.

I do agree that complexity is better. I hated how they streamlined recruiting. I will always stand by my belief that these features should always be built to have depth to them, but have options that streamline them for the players who want less time between games. They shouldn't be forcing all players to have a streamlined experience. EA is notorious for dumbing down games, though, so it wasn't surprising even back then.

I would much rather have a recruiting system that at it's most hardcore took a lot of effort to find interested players and it felt like a real battle to land guys. I want to have to call and gauge interest, be told if I have a chance or not, fight all year for them, and not legitimately know with some guys if they are coming or not. Give us that depth and let other more casual players have something more streamlined like NCAA 14. Please don't force us all to have a simplified experience because many of us find that boring just like some casuals find the more hardcore experience boring.

I've recent begun playing DDS College Basketball 2022 and I truly wish this is the depth EA would go after. In Challenge Mode you're forced to start at a low level school, I have season goals the board of trustees give me, last year it was get double digit wins, this year it is double digit wins and don't be last in the conference. I had a meeting with the board of trustees after year 1 and could request they improve the facilities, the budget, or one other item I forget. I requested for facilities improvements and they actually declined my request stating they don't see it as a good investment to pump money into a program that is annually losing too many games. If I turn them into a winner, though, then money will start coming in.

Each school has different resources, too. At lowly Radford I have a recruiting budget of $70,000. This isn't much when you realize how expensive recruiting can get. To simply get just the recruiting package for my region it costs $30,000. There are 5 regions, each costing that much. To go out of state and scout a player it can be thousands of bucks depending on the distance. To fly in an international student for a campus visit it can be $4,000.

To go to big name camps over the summer it can be up to $5,000 to spend 3 days in New York watching the top 200 kids from the east coast.

The point is, my budget forces me to basically recruit locally because even then it's hundreds of bucks to go scout somebody live, to do an in house visit, etc.

However, a Duke can go out and basically have what is my annual budget to spend weekly meaning they can fly all around the globe recruiting and they'll be fine.

And did I also mention you can illegally recruit? I got a top 800 kid last year because I offered him a few thousand in cash after a phone call revealed he lived in a single parent home with no money and college was only possible because of his basketball ability. He's still a 1 star player, hence why he didn't cost a lot, but relative to what is in my conference he will be worth the bill.

And when you call these kids, visit their schools, etc, you get told by them directly what your chances are, and it isn't omniscient like in NCAA 14. I don't see I'm 200 points behind the top school. The kid tells me he enjoyed my visit and I am in his top list of schools. That's it. Or they say they didn't enjoy the visit and thank me, but essentially say let's both move on, and there are other ambiguous things they say that keep you hanging on. Some kids straight up say you're my top school, others say no chance, some say I've not ruled you out yet, but won't let you know how much they like you.

This makes you have to make tough decisions on who to continue pursuing and who to drop because pursuing them may lead to you losing out on another more concrete option.

This is the depth that recruiting alone has. The whole game has this depth all over it and it's what I wish EA would strive for in their games. Do you know how much money I would spend on a college football game with this kind of depth and gameplay on the field? Even if it had gameplay of the same quality as Madden has now, if it had the dynasty mode that matched DDS College Basketball 22, I'd pay hundreds for it happily and I'd put over a thousand hours into it annually. I know I would.

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[illwill10]

It's like what Rex Dickson said after he left EA, "they said why invest in something a 12 year old can't pick up and play". Looking at their perspective, I can understand why you don't want to invest in something that the casual person would just skip over like presentation. Or trying to gear an modes around what their analytics dictates like the average person only completing 1 season of a single player career mode. That's where they have to do a better job of balancing the analytical approach and recognizing who the mode actually caters to. If you gear niche modes towards attracting casuals, it usually doesn't work out because unless it interests casuals, it doesn't retain them. And it isn't as in depth to retain hardcore fans who actually like the mode. That's why I believe in gearing modes for the hardcore crowd and having options/toggles/auto for the casuals to make it simple. So if a casual doesn't want to deal with in depth recruiting, either have a simplified version or just simplify have an Auto option to have CPU do it for them. Those casuals they are concerned with are just going to play as a powerhouse school and win a Chip and drop the mode within a season, if they even finish it.

[VoltSwoosh]

Quote: Originally Posted by BJNT

Hopefully they include Teambuilder if they don’t get FCS schools. I’d even take FCS schools as a separate DLC by conference.

Don’t give them ideas.


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[TripleCrown9]

Honestly I don't want FCS schools.

Just give me the FBS schools as close to completely accurate, with uniform updates throughout the season. Throw in the generic FCS schools from 14 for scheduling purposes.

[canes21]

Eventually it would be neat to have real FCS schools, but only once the game was full of content that worked properly and there wasn't much left significant to add. That's just me, but I don't know if they'll ever add the FCS schools. I'm not sure it would be worth the money.

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[gator3guy]

I know why people don't want the Madden engine (it sucks) but a company making two separate engines for the same sport makes no sense from a logistical standpoint.

[PVarck31]

Quote: Originally Posted by gator3guy

I know why people don't want the Madden engine (it sucks) but a company making two separate engines for the same sport makes no sense from a logistical standpoint.

I seem to remember that back when NCAA 14 came out it looked a little different, and had a different feel from Madden that same cycle.

So I hope we se something like that. I mean it's still Madden, and it's always gonna be Madden, but something about 14 didn't feel like Madden.