EA Needs to step up and take care of us!

[steelraccoon]

EA has really left a bad taste in my mouth with this game with the lack of support and updates (game and roster). I feel as if the only patch addressed some issues but the game is still not complete. I would say in it's current state, the game is at best 85% finished.

Here are the issues that i feel EA should fix so that they don't alienate those of us who have stood by them:

1) The Blocking Logic: This really needs to be tweaked (turn it up for run blocking/tune it down for pass blocking) I Hate the fact that my defensive linemen get knocked to the ground 75% of the time during a pass rush.... on what world is that even realistic?? And don't get me started on run blocking.... i have seen more offensive linemen missing assignments on plays that are Mastered than I want to admit. The CPU AI for the linebackers is completely off the chart and cause all kinds of problems.

2) Audibles : I have seen the CPU AI call em in almost every game I have played but not once have I ever seen my QB, regardless of how high is Intangables Rating is, call one on any play. If that is going to be the case, then the dev. staff should put in someway to call a coaches audible on a play, but make it linked to your strategy skill so u only get from 1 to 5 of them a game... that way the skills reflect the impact on the game.

3) Coach Hiring : This is by far the worst aspect of the game. We have no way of seeing who we are hiring, if they are a pro coach or an up and coming college coach nor does the "switch pl;aybook" feature work. We shold be able to view the coaches full abilities. I mean, U might get stuck for a full season with an OC who has Playcalling of 5 and Performance of 1, which if u do the play calling yourself, doesn't help your team at all, especially considering no one can get fired mid season, which is really not that realistic (i.e. Lane Kiffin)

4) Play Creator : We should be able to create run plays the same way we do pass plays. I am sooo tired of the HB/QB being stuck there and I can't make changed without going in and subbing players. And we should be able to modify routes on pass plays. Why can't we send our right side TE on a slant route towards the right sideline??? But as it is, he is stuck only running inside slants.

IF, and that is a big IF, EA decides to step up and take care of us faithful players, then I will surely buy more EA Sports products in the future. If no, I feel as if I will come to the end of my rope with EA Sports as they are more interested in quanity instead of quality with all of their sports games. So Devs, if u are reading this, get this game right.... hell, I'll even take 90 to 95% done if you at least work out some of the AI tweaks mentioned above.

[luqman]

Re: EA Needs to step up and take care of us!

I don't get "Devs, if u are reading this, get this game right". Read up on the topic! The developers have supported this game far beyond the normal expectation. Throwing out a threatening ultimatum is not going to do anyone any good. It just creates negativity around the game which leaves a bad taste in EAs mouth as well.

The game is not incomplete or unplayable. It has some bugs that should have been fixed and there are some features which should have been added. Both of these you can work around.

How many roster updates do you want? One per week? This game is a long term team management sim. I don't see any problem with them putting out less roster updates. I do like your idea on audibles, hopefully if there was anyone at EA reading they didn't miss it because you surrounded it with a full scale rant.

[chickenhed]

Re: EA Needs to step up and take care of us!

While I understand the intentions of OPs post, I do not agree with its direction.

The developers have been fantastic. This isn't the titanic megaship that is Madden, this is a game that has FAR fewer developers and programmers. They have done a sensational job of providing a fantastic game that I have found truly addicting and fun.

Of course it has issues. So does Madden for crying out loud! Look at the amount of money and development support that goes into that game, and it still has problems. No game is perfect. But when you consider the obvious effort the devs went into to support and develop Head Coach, they have done an INCREDIBLE job.

I do not like posts that imply that this game has not been supported. The devs did the best they could, and I for one greatly appreciate the hard work and effort put into this game by everyone involved.

I hope Head Coach 2010 gets the green light, because if it doesnt, I wont even bother playing a football game next year. I am done with Madden after playing a gem like this.

[GGKoul]

Re: EA Needs to step up and take care of us!

Every game has there issues. Regardless, I'm still playing this game while Madden is collecting dust and has been since Aug.

[steelraccoon]

Re: EA Needs to step up and take care of us!

I can see that people are taking my post in the incorrect manner so let me clarify.

In the beginning, Yes, Josh and the staff did a relatively good job supporting the game but for well over a month now, if not longer, it has felt like it has been abandoned and we are left here holding a game which, in all truth, still has bugs.

Now, No one can deny that the boards have been quite silent with hardly a peep from the Devs and that bothers me. I am not suggesting that they re-write the code for just a few bugs but they could at least give us a small patch that could tweak the AI a bit and make us feel like we are important as customers.

I am not asking for them to build Rome in a day for us, I am merely asking that they at least build us a shanty so that we don't continue to get rained on by the faulty AI.

The audibles should be an easy enough fix too and We have all seen complaints about the Coach Hiring screens so none of this should come as a surprise that I am posting this topic.

[Josh_Looman]

Re: EA Needs to step up and take care of us!

I can see that people are taking my post in the incorrect manner so let me clarify.

In the beginning, Yes, Josh and the staff did a relatively good job supporting the game but for well over a month now, if not longer, it has felt like it has been abandoned and we are left here holding a game which, in all truth, still has bugs.

Now, No one can deny that the boards have been quite silent with hardly a peep from the Devs and that bothers me. I am not suggesting that they re-write the code for just a few bugs but they could at least give us a small patch that could tweak the AI a bit and make us feel like we are important as customers.

I am not asking for them to build Rome in a day for us, I am merely asking that they at least build us a shanty so that we don't continue to get rained on by the faulty AI.

The audibles should be an easy enough fix too and We have all seen complaints about the Coach Hiring screens so none of this should come as a surprise that I am posting this topic.

Tweaking the AI is not a small patch. It would require months of work, from the work to the testing to the approvals. Especially blocking. The amount of work that went into that took all year.

I hope you don't feel like we're abandoning you. We're still around, but we're all pretty slammed working on other things right now.

[chickenhed]

Re: EA Needs to step up and take care of us!

Tweaking the AI is not a small patch. It would require months of work, from the work to the testing to the approvals. Especially blocking. The amount of work that went into that took all year.

I hope you don't feel like we're abandoning you. We're still around, but we're all pretty slammed working on other things right now.

Thanks for taking the time to reply, Josh. Hope things are going well for you guys, and that youre keeping busy. We are still fully enjoying your game!

[Americas Team1]

Re: EA Needs to step up and take care of us!

The biggest thing for me if they made Head Coach 2010 would be to have more then just 15 seasons.Other then that the game is great.

[BocephusTyrant]

Re: EA Needs to step up and take care of us!

Tweaking the AI is not a small patch. It would require months of work, from the work to the testing to the approvals. Especially blocking. The amount of work that went into that took all year.

I hope you don't feel like we're abandoning you. We're still around, but we're all pretty slammed working on other things right now.

I hope you can use many of these suggestion for improvement in NFL Head Coach '10 Fingers Crossed

[Lieutenant Dan]

Re: EA Needs to step up and take care of us!

I do not feel abondoned in any way....Josh and the team spent days on the boards here, listening to feedback and testing the game and provided a solid patch that addressed many points and made the game much better as a whole. Still issues? Yes, but they are generally minor....show me any game with no issues.

Best sports game ever and hoping for a Josh-led followup within the next two years! I know it's niche, but the foundation for the game is in place already so the dev cycle should not be as long or expensive, EA. Pony up, and let them make it for us.

[x1Blumpkin1x]

Re: EA Needs to step up and take care of us!

I think the devs were great prior to the release and even after the release. There are always going to be bugs as well as features that aren't as complete as anyone would like (devs and players). But it can't be said they didn't work their tails off to make a great game and also address big gameplay issues with the first patch.

I would love to see another version, and if you look at 2k making the front office baseball manager title I think more and more sports management sims will start to surface. My money is on no Head Coach next year. Theyy will wait and see how much of the HC features fit into Madden 2010's franchise mode and then work from there.

As Lt. Dan said above, the foundation is in place so the dev cycle will be a bit less painless. Although there will be work incorporating the gameplay engine from '09, 2010.

[swatter555]

Re: EA Needs to step up and take care of us!

Tweaking the AI is not a small patch. It would require months of work, from the work to the testing to the approvals. Especially blocking. The amount of work that went into that took all year.

I hope you don't feel like we're abandoning you. We're still around, but we're all pretty slammed working on other things right now.

I don't feel as if the individual developers abandoned us, but EA has. In truth, many issues were solved with the new XBox Live patch. Unfortunately, some issues do remain. I agree that overhauling parts of the AI would take alot of work, I can accept that. My suggestion has always been, make the sliders have more impact. Some sliders work fairly well, but others seem to have no affect. Sliders cannot fix the flaws, but sliders can make the flaws more bearable.

What are arguments against making the sliders more effective? I would think this would no be too hard to implement. Maybe add a setting that can be toggled called "enhanced sliders". This way it is optional, letting individual players experiment.

I would love to have more functional pass blocking, run blocking, and QB accuracy sliders. Also, tell us if Human and CPU settings actually work as stated. In other words, changing the CPU sliders only affect CPU teams.

I don't hold a grudge against you or the HC09 team. I do think that EA is borderline unethical the way it supports products.

[Lieutenant Dan]

Re: EA Needs to step up and take care of us!

I don't hold a grudge against you or the HC09 team. I do think that EA is borderline unethical the way it supports products.

All right, I certainly won't dispute that.

[cynic_13]

Re: EA Needs to step up and take care of us!

What are arguments against making the sliders more effective? I would think this would no be too hard to implement.

No offense, but it seems pretty clear you are not a developer, nor familiar with the software life-cycle. I am not a developer either, but I am in Software QA and am very familiar with what it takes in finding and fixing defects. If EA is anything like my company, very few things in the software world are “not too hard to implement.” While the coding could possibly be easy (though I doubt it) it’s not just a matter of the coding, there is an entire process that must be followed in order to release any kind of code change.

First it has to be approved and budgeted for, this is not up to the developers. This usually involves weighing the cost of the effort vs. the benefits of the fix and while some of your complaints are legit they are hardly show stoppers. If it does get approved, they start to analyze the issue and identify what code needs to be changed and what other pieces of code this could impact. Once these changes are approved, then the software requirements documents have to be updated reflect what will be changing.

Finally the coding can start, but we are far from done. The developer has to code the fix, then he has to unit test it (test his code alone) then integration test it (test his code with all the surrounding code). If any issues are found the code must be fixed and the unit/integration testing started all over again. Then it has to go to QA for testers to validate not only the small code change works but also that they did not break other code in the process (regression testing), Depending on the fix this could involve testing most of the game as well as the update process itself. If any defects/bugs are found you have to go through all the same process to fix them and implement them. Then QA approves the release and it can go through another round of test called UAT (User Acceptance Testing). Then I am sure they have to get with Sony/Microsoft to get it approved and work through releasing the fix on the PSN/Xbox Live.

There is probably even more to the process for EA/Sony/Microsoft, but as you can see nothing is “easy” as it all takes a tremendous amount of money, time and resources for to add/fix features, resources that have been focused on other projects which will actually bring the company profit.

I, like many people on this forum, am utterly addicted, enough so that I can over look the small short-comings of the game.

[TCF]

Re: EA Needs to step up and take care of us!

Tweaking the AI is not a small patch. It would require months of work, from the work to the testing to the approvals. Especially blocking. The amount of work that went into that took all year.

I hope you don't feel like we're abandoning you. We're still around, but we're all pretty slammed working on other things right now.

josh thanks for stopping by. please don't let this game die.. its by far better than madden