Gameplay Advice

[FSU_Animal]

Hey guys. I just received the PS3 for Christmas after having been playing Madden 2008 on the PC since, well, 2008. This is my first "next gen" as they used to say, I suppose.

Anyways, I received NCAA 2012 as well and need some help understanding this game as well as some advice.

1. While in the game, at the playcalling screen from the Formations sections, I notice some players are like bright orange or bright red, in particular my starting left tackle, Andrew Datko, for the Seminoles. Does the brighter red mean he's extremely tired? When EJ Manuel turns bright red, I can use the right-stick and sub in my backup QB but I don't have that quick option for my linemen. Is there a sub in/out setting that will sub more realistically for the offensive linemen?

2. When I bring up the Coach Cam with the R2 button and pull back on the right-stick, these circles pop up below all of my players. Every once in a while, I will see a player with sort of an light-orange glow instead of the white. What is this feature and what does it mean to me?

3. Recruiting: I had my first season recruiting set to Varsity level even though I play on Heisman. I ended up with four 5*, five 4*, fifteen 3*, and one 1* (myself as a FB). I had the top rated recruiting class but only had 12 recruits after the regular season. I landed the other 13 during the off-season (sweet feature, btw). Should I raise the recruiting level to All-American or Heisman? I don't want to land the top recruiting class every season but I'm not sure I will despite my first season.

4. Pancakes? My offensive linemen saw less than 5 each while the rest of the league saw good numbers. I'm afraid that none of my linemen will ever be eligible for any awards. I don't want them to accumulate the greatest about of pancakes consistently year-in and year-out like they did in Madden 2008, but I'd like to see more than 20 for my best lineman, right? What is a realistic amount of pancakes for the top lineman on a really good team, like Florida State? What slider setting should I mess with: RB Ability, Run Blocking? Should I mess with the CPU slider as well, for the defensive side? I run the ball decently with Chris Thompson, totaling less than 900 yards on the ground and I'm afraid that if I raise the slider on the Run Blocking that I will experience too good of a season on the ground next season. If I raise the Run Blocking, should I subsequently lower the RB Ability?

Thanks, I know the questions are lengthly, I just hope to receive some helpful answers.

[dymndheartkilla]

Ditto to 2 and 4

[Aranor]

Re: Gameplay Advice

Circles under player shows how well or bad he is doing. blue circle means hes not doing well in his position. Orange shows hes heating up. Red is when hes doing well. Flashing Red means hes in the zone an impact player.

Pancakes have been screwed up for years. Don't be surprised by this.

[Renard]

Re: Gameplay Advice

1. While in the game, at the playcalling screen from the Formations sections, I notice some players are like bright orange or bright red, in particular my starting left tackle, Andrew Datko, for the Seminoles. Does the brighter red mean he's extremely tired? When EJ Manuel turns bright red, I can use the right-stick and sub in my backup QB but I don't have that quick option for my linemen. Is there a sub in/out setting that will sub more realistically for the offensive linemen?

You can change your auto subs so that if a player gets tired, he will sub out automatically... Look in the sliders section of OS for good ones.

3. Recruiting: I had my first season recruiting set to Varsity level even though I play on Heisman. I ended up with four 5*, five 4*, fifteen 3*, and one 1* (myself as a FB). I had the top rated recruiting class but only had 12 recruits after the regular season. I landed the other 13 during the off-season (sweet feature, btw). Should I raise the recruiting level to All-American or Heisman? I don't want to land the top recruiting class every season but I'm not sure I will despite my first season.

I would raise them if I were you... The only noticeable difference will be you can only change topics twice (AA) or once (Heisman) and it seems as though its a bit tougher to grab players you don't spend much time on..

[DJ]

Re: Gameplay Advice

I would definitely bump up the Recruiting difficulty. You're at FSU, so you'll do well on AA, and even Heisman.

[Armor and Sword]

Re: Gameplay Advice

Welcome to next gen football.

Although it get's way too much flack, NCAA 12 is a great game.

Enjoy it.

Another thing you may want to try eventually is taking on a one or two star school. It is a load of fun and a nice challenge. With the Coaching Carousel it makes it even more rewarding to take a school to a great bowl game, win a conference or even a BCS bowl if your really good.

[Pielet]

Re: Gameplay Advice

1. While in the game, at the playcalling screen from the Formations sections, I notice some players are like bright orange or bright red, in particular my starting left tackle, Andrew Datko, for the Seminoles. Does the brighter red mean he's extremely tired? When EJ Manuel turns bright red, I can use the right-stick and sub in my backup QB but I don't have that quick option for my linemen. Is there a sub in/out setting that will sub more realistically for the offensive linemen?

Yes its fatigue related. Use the auto subs feature. Most slider sets post this as well.

2. When I bring up the Coach Cam with the R2 button and pull back on the right-stick, these circles pop up below all of my players. Every once in a while, I will see a player with sort of an light-orange glow instead of the white. What is this feature and what does it mean to me?

Red and Flashing = Super Hot
Red = Hot
Yellow = Heating Up
White = Nothing
Blue = Cold

Basically consider this a momentum gauge for that player. Sometimes one sack will blue your QB.

3. Recruiting: I had my first season recruiting set to Varsity level even though I play on Heisman. I ended up with four 5*, five 4*, fifteen 3*, and one 1* (myself as a FB). I had the top rated recruiting class but only had 12 recruits after the regular season. I landed the other 13 during the off-season (sweet feature, btw). Should I raise the recruiting level to All-American or Heisman? I don't want to land the top recruiting class every season but I'm not sure I will despite my first season.

Varsity you get 3 passes on a subject
AA 2
Heisman 1

On Heisman the CPU is more aggressive going after people they want, but as FSU you should be fine. Keep 10-15 on your board and avg at least 40min/recruit on Heisman.

4. Pancakes? My offensive linemen saw less than 5 each while the rest of the league saw good numbers. I'm afraid that none of my linemen will ever be eligible for any awards. I don't want them to accumulate the greatest about of pancakes consistently year-in and year-out like they did in Madden 2008, but I'd like to see more than 20 for my best lineman, right? What is a realistic amount of pancakes for the top lineman on a really good team, like Florida State? What slider setting should I mess with: RB Ability, Run Blocking? Should I mess with the CPU slider as well, for the defensive side? I run the ball decently with Chris Thompson, totaling less than 900 yards on the ground and I'm afraid that if I raise the slider on the Run Blocking that I will experience too good of a season on the ground next season. If I raise the Run Blocking, should I subsequently lower the RB Ability?

Pancakes have been jacked for user teams for awhile in NCAA. No slider set will get you the right number.

[jarato]

Wow I've been playing this game for a while and I've gotta say that I never #2 even existed until now. Explains a lot now.

[Juce734]

Re: Gameplay Advice

Wow I've been playing this game for a while and I've gotta say that I never #2 even existed until now. Explains a lot now.

I don't notice these types of things either really. Too busy looking at the other team and not my guys.

[FSU_Animal]

Re: Gameplay Advice

Alright, that explains a lot and is extremely helpful. I want a really good challenge to keep FSU competitive so I'm going to bump the Recruiting Difficulty up to Heisman. I landed 3x 5* receivers and 1x 4* receiver my first season. I only made one promise to one of the four guys (no redshirt) and I was so loaded at the receiver position this off-season that I had to cut 2 or 3 to help get down from 80, LOL.

I've adjusted the Fatigue numbers. I remember setting them before but when I went back and looked, the OL was set to 35/70. I would rather not have an OL needing to get a shot on the sideline in order to go back in. I mean, my LT is so fatigued, there is a wall of fog hugging him (noticeable in the colder games, lol). What sucks is there is a lack of injuries and no slider to adjust. I wonder if I lower the Sub Out lower on a lot of the players that it will force me to pay attention to fatigue levels or risk an injury. I cannot do the quick sub for OL but the key positions I could.

That tidbit about the hot/cold levels of a player is pretty sweet sounding. I remember something like that back in NCAA 2003 or 2004 but it's been too long (that was around the time I switched over to the computer).

Finally, as for pancakes, this sounds like the same damn crap we had to put up with for Madden for the longest time before they finally decided the fix was to give us too damn many pancakes on the next version. 2008 was horribly bad about that, especially when you could go several seasons in a row with a minimum of 3 offensive line starters in the pro bowl and a guarenteed 3 on the Best OL Awards list with one of them guarenteed to be the sole winner.