NCAA Football 11 Blog: A New Game Plan

[coogrfan]

Re: NCAA Football 11 Blog: A New Game Plan

Sting - I agree, it's BS LAZINESS. If they say they can't do it because they don't use the same player models as Madden then here's an idea - CHANGE THE DA**** PLAYER MODELS TO BE LIKE MADDEN!

The problem with doing that is that would likely affect other areas as well:

• We have been told that new player models means new uniform skins, so Adam and co would be forced to start from scratch for the 3rd or 4th time this gen. That would mean saying goodbye to almost all of the alternates we saw in NCAA 10. Imo that alone is reason enough not to make any player model changes from here on out.

• Just a guess here, but I'll bet that it's also necessary to keep the same player models as last years game in order to let people use NCAA 10 Teambuilder squads in NCAA 11.

I'm SICK AND TIRED of hearing excuses on how we can't do something we did 10 years ago on hardware 1/10th as powerful. Not to mention it's not like we're asking for the moon here. One look at a game like Heavy Rain, Mass Effect 2 or the like and it's just PITIFUL...ABSOLUTELY PITIFUL that we are hearing that EA can't figure out to have a little bit of hair hanging out the back of someone's helmet.

There's no question in my mind that they could do it, but I don't think that's the issue here. As I stated earlier the real question is how doing so might affect other parts of the game.

Put yourself in their shoes for a second, and ask yourself a question:

What would you say is more important to the majority of NCAA gamers: having as many uniform options as possible, or long hair for maybe 1-2% of the players in the game? How about TB squads vs long hair?

When you look at it from that pov it becomes something of a no-brainer. I would be willing to bet that 95% of the NCAA community would agree.

[Sting]

Re: NCAA Football 11 Blog: A New Game Plan

The problem with doing that is that would likely affect other areas as well:

• We have been told that new player models means new uniform skins, so Adam and co would be forced to start from scratch for the 3rd or 4th time this gen. That would mean saying goodbye to almost all of the alternates we saw in NCAA 10. Imo that alone is reason enough not to make any player model changes from here on out.

• Just a guess here, but I'll bet that it's also necessary to keep the same player models as last years game in order to let people use NCAA 10 Teambuilder squads in NCAA 11.

There's no question in my mind that they could do it, but I don't think that's the issue here. As I stated earlier the real question is how doing so might affect other parts of the game.

Put yourself in their shoes for a second, and ask yourself a question:

What would you say is more important to the majority of NCAA gamers: having as many uniform options as possible, or long hair for maybe 1-2% of the players in the game? How about TB squads vs long hair?

When you look at it from that pov it becomes something of a no-brainer. I would be willing to bet that 95% of the NCAA community would agree.

But why look at it like that? They should be able to implement that small detail without losing other things. The analogy of losing TeamBuilder or something is a bit dramatic. They just need to get a team that can implement it, that is all.

[coogrfan]

Re: NCAA Football 11 Blog: A New Game Plan

But why look at it like that? They should be able to implement that small detail without losing other things. The analogy of losing TeamBuilder or something is a bit dramatic. They just need to get a team that can implement it, that is all.

I just don't know if it's that simple. After all this isn't like adding new facemasks or gloves--i.e. new options for existing variables. We're talking about adding an entirely new type of variable to existing player models. That could well be far more difficult than we know.

I also don't think the TB example is in any way "dramatic". Based on what we have been told in the past it is an undeniable fact that "new player models = uniform skins have to be redone from scratch". That would seem to imply that the TB uniform creator had to tailored specifically for use w/NCAA 10's player models. If that is so, it's possible that the only way to make existing TB teams work with NCAA 11 is to keep the player models the same.

[dmick4324]

Re: NCAA Football 11 Blog: A New Game Plan

I have to agree that if jerseys were taken out in favor of a couple inches of hair sprouting from the back of a helmet the majority of people would be up in arms. If what they say about changing player models is true that would mean a ton of work to redo the jerseys. And I personally would be more than upset if I didn't have all my Oregon jerseys .

Not to mention if they redid jerseys (120x2 and more for other combinations) that's time taken away from gameplay regardless of if it's 2 hours or 2 days worth of time.

[ODogg]

Re: NCAA Football 11 Blog: A New Game Plan

So a stupid design decision made when the game went to next-gen must be suffered for the life of the console? That's nonsense. Yes it probably would require some extra work, maybe even a lot of extra work, but not having long hair is just silly. Allowing EA to hide behind the "it would take too much re-work" excuse is not going to fly with me.

If that is the case though, as you guys have said, I hope for the next-gen of systems no other things like this are left out for PS4/Xbox-next because I guess it's another 7 or 8 years of not having that feature. What a crock of sh**.

[Hova57]

Re: NCAA Football 11 Blog: A New Game Plan

wow all the upset people because of hair.

[coogrfan]

Re: NCAA Football 11 Blog: A New Game Plan

So a stupid design decision made when the game went to next-gen must be suffered for the life of the console?

Sadly, I'm guessing the answer here is "probably". Last year's game showed that they can make radical changes (allowing mix and match uni's), but it probably has to undergo some sort of cost effectivness analysis first (i.e. difficulty of implementing said change vs the number of gamers likely to care). Imo the hair thing would be a very tough sell in that regard.

That's nonsense. Yes it probably would require some extra work, maybe even a lot of extra work, but not having long hair is just silly. Allowing EA to hide behind the "it would take too much re-work" excuse is not going to fly with me.

Did I say that?

What I said was that it might involve tradeoffs in other areas that the majority of gamers feel are far more important.

This is all just speculation on my part, I could well be 100% wrong.

If that is the case though, as you guys have said, I hope for the next-gen of systems no other things like this are left out for PS4/Xbox-next because I guess it's another 7 or 8 years of not having that feature. What a crock of sh**.

With regard to both Madden and NCAA, we are definitely still paying the price for design decisions made 5-6 years ago. Sucks, but that does seem to be the case.

[Sting]

Re: NCAA Football 11 Blog: A New Game Plan

So a stupid design decision made when the game went to next-gen must be suffered for the life of the console? That's nonsense. Yes it probably would require some extra work, maybe even a lot of extra work, but not having long hair is just silly. Allowing EA to hide behind the "it would take too much re-work" excuse is not going to fly with me.

If that is the case though, as you guys have said, I hope for the next-gen of systems no other things like this are left out for PS4/Xbox-next because I guess it's another 7 or 8 years of not having that feature. What a crock of sh**.

co-sign

[Sting]

Re: NCAA Football 11 Blog: A New Game Plan

With regard to both Madden and NCAA, we are definitely still paying the price for design decisions made 5-6 years ago. Sucks, but that does seem to be the case.

You are correct. We just need to keep pushing for advancements.

[SOBAY310]

Re: NCAA Football 11 Blog: A New Game Plan

What do you think the odds are of them implementing a spectator mode? It'd be sweet to be able to watch another game going on in your online dynasty. Or if you see a top ranked player online, to be able to watch 'em play.

[coogrfan]

Re: NCAA Football 11 Blog: A New Game Plan

I can't remember the exact quote now, but I seem to recall Ian saying something to the effect that if he had it to do over again he probably wouldn't have taken the "build from the ground up" approach that EA took w/the next gen versions of Madden/NCAA. Instead he would have advocated the NBA 2k approach of taking the last gen version, giving it an HD makeover, and building on that foundation each year.

Of course it's just useless speculation at this point, but can you imagine what NCAA would be today if EA had done things the NBA 2k way?

[ODogg]

Re: NCAA Football 11 Blog: A New Game Plan

SOBAY310 - i'd say the odds are a million to one. That would be far more technically challenging than adding some hair to the player models and as we've discussed in this thread, that would be fair too challenging for the dev team apparently.

[ODogg]

Re: NCAA Football 11 Blog: A New Game Plan

Hova57 - it's not just the hair, it's the fact that having no hair makes everyone look the same. It really serves to give the game a very generic, everyone is interchangeable, robot look. Go look at Madden and see how much hair can add to how unique it makes a team look. I'm sick of hearing folks saying "it's just hair". Hair is part of what makes people individuals in real life and dismissing it as such is part of the problem with this game and it's overall philosophy.

[RynoAid]

Re: NCAA Football 11 Blog: A New Game Plan

Hova57 - it's not just the hair, it's the fact that having no hair makes everyone look the same. It really serves to give the game a very generic, everyone is interchangeable, robot look. Go look at Madden and see how much hair can add to how unique it makes a team look. I'm sick of hearing folks saying "it's just hair". Hair is part of what makes people individuals in real life and dismissing it as such is part of the problem with this game and it's overall philosophy.

call me crazy, but hair is way down on my list of priorities... though obviously a touchy subject in the community.

If it's not something that can be done easily i would rather them focus their efforts towards expanding online dynasty functionality.

[ODogg]

Re: NCAA Football 11 Blog: A New Game Plan

You know it's pretty scary when I read some of the posts in this thread as to how daunting EA has managed to convince the community that adding hair must be. It's almost as if we are asking for something pretty much of the highest technical complexity at this point, like adding hair would take 3 months of development time of programmers working around the clock on it exclusively.

Wishing for the moon I say, the MOON! LOL...don't know whether to laugh or cry at this point. Mission accomplished EA.