Adam Thompson (NCAA Designer) Q&A Thread

[Adam_Thompson_EA]

Quote: Originally Posted by Solidice

come on, you know they'll show the mascots crip-walking in front of a Coke Zero machine for the pre-game show. **oh man, i shouldn't have suggested that**

$$$$$

As far as live mascots... probably not. The costumed mascots are easy to animate because they share the same skeleton as the players (this is why we can do mascot mode). We could have a player crip walking just as easy as a mascot. When you bring in real animals, we have to make a new rig and new animations for them. It would be a big task, and we'd certainly have stuff we want to do more. Cut time is very difficult because we see stuff that we spent a lot of time on and got really excited about go bye-bye in the time it takes someone to type "cut".

[Adam_Thompson_EA]

Quote: Originally Posted by stewaat

Thanks for the reply. I know I'm beating a dead horse but presentation prior to the game is something I view as important. I get the feeling that many would be appreciative of introductions pre-game. It just adds life to the game and gives a little background for the players. Let's say you're in week 7 of year 3 and you're facing a Texas squad you know nothing about. Seeing their key players and hearing a little bit about them would key you in to who you need to stop...who's hot and whatnot. (You COULD look at stats but seeing players and hearing a few words about them is much better IMO) I just believe it would be a nice touch. Also I'm assuming the resources that would be allocated to this task would be far less than team specific entrances. With this idea you would have to make a template and then have it consistent for all teams. I'm speaking out of my *** but this is my best guess!

This already happens though. The start player for the opposing team is highlighted and talked about. The only thing missing is seeing the guy warming up.

[bad_philanthropy]

I know that a lot of people are clamoring for 1-AA teams, and it's clear that would take a ton of work. Would it be possible though to implement a robust create a team feature that could be expanded to allow the user to create a number of conferences with their created teams and be able to play a season amongst the conferences with the whole thing culminating in a playoff? Additionally there being a recruiting database to allow for a dynasty mode. So basically a separate dynasty mode with custom teams, and if the create a team was powerful enough I'm sure most people could do a pretty good job creating something resembling the schools they are trying to represent.

It would also be sort of neat if there was a concurrent simulation of the dynasty mode for 1-A teams and 1-A opponents could be scheduled and the recruit db was shared. I can only imagine the database headache with that though and you have already alluded to in a previous post about 1-AA teams. That idea is just based off the old PS1 games used to have a 1-AA top 25 during dynasty mode and the 1-AA teams also recruited against you. I remember using UGA and having Harvard steal a 5 star recruit from right out of my backyard.

[Geauxldenboy]

Quote: Originally Posted by OMT

Both. With all my submissions this year I asked two questions... 1) What is the most recognizable campus landmark and 2) what are the chants/sounds that are heard at games.... 120 teams I asked this. How many you think gave me either one, let alone both? I really want to hear some guesses from you guys here!

I'm guessing 20 schools gave you one response and only 5 gave you both responses.

[Adam_Thompson_EA]

Quote: Originally Posted by Gamecock

No, actually i'm serious. Seeing a player run down the field with the towel as well as his dreads flailing about just makes them seem much quicker. and I said Stevie because he's one of those players.

Sorry about that. I was thinking like these guys that put stickers on their cars to make them look faster than they really are. It isn't about how fast you are if you LOOK fast, ya know?

Ok guys... I better go to bed. 1:30 and have to eventually get to the office! I'll try to remember to post my swappable parts list and look up a couple bugs from the demo thread tomorrow.

I've seen 40 from a couple guys about the "how many schools replied" and it is lower than that as was speculated. Keep guessing! The correct guess (and this is either or both total) will win a prize!*






* prize is fictional

[stewaat]

Quote: Originally Posted by OMT

This already happens though. The start player for the opposing team is highlighted and talked about. The only thing missing is seeing the guy warming up.

Very true. I will just ask that in future versions you guys keep it this way or stick to your mantra of "Go big or go home".

If I recall correctly you guys don't want to implement something without taking it to the next level. I commend you all for that and hope it is something you all stick to.

Finally, let me say the # of hours you're throwing out for all these features is crazy. Crazy in the sense that I had no idea for how much time & energy actually went into making these "little" things work.

Puts things in perspective...now hopefully the rest of OS gets the message so you can interact intelligently with everyone.

I'm done bugging you...for now haha

[Adam_Thompson_EA]

Quote: Originally Posted by bad_philanthropy

I know that a lot of people are clamoring for 1-AA teams, and it's clear that would take a ton of work. Would it be possible though to implement a robust create a team feature that could be expanded to allow the user to create a number of conferences with their created teams and be able to play a season amongst the conferences with the whole thing culminating in a playoff? Additionally there being a recruiting database to allow for a dynasty mode. So basically a separate dynasty mode with custom teams, and if the create a team was powerful enough I'm sure most people could do a pretty good job creating something resembling the schools they are trying to represent. It would also be sort of neat if there was a concurrent simulation of the dynasty mode for 1-A teams and 1-A opponents could be scheduled and the recruit db was shared. I can only imagine the database headache with that though and you have already alluded to in a previous post about 1-AA teams. That idea is just based off the old PS1 games used to have a 1-AA top 25 during dynasty mode and the 1-AA teams also recruited against you. I remember using UGA and having Harvard steal a 5 star recruit from right out of my backyard.

Stop keeping me up! lol

Yeah, this is what I personally would rather do. Instead of having FCS teams (c'mon guys... this is like 2 years they have been called this!!), just a create a school feature that would allow you to create any non FBS team you want. Then you would be able to upload the team to EA Sports World and then other guys could simply download them. They did a great job with content sharing for the Sims 2 so the precedent is there.

120 teams is a lot to deal with (I deal with 198 teams total because of the ones on PS2, also like 15 conferences and 35 bowl games). It they were just creatable and shareable, it would free up a lot of time. The next step would be a utility that allowed us (or you) to convert them to the next year's addition of the game.

[bad_philanthropy]

Quote: Originally Posted by OMT

Stop keeping me up! lol Yeah, this is what I personally would rather do. Instead of having FCS teams (c'mon guys... this is like 2 years they have been called this!!), just a create a school feature that would allow you to create any non FBS team you want. Then you would be able to upload the team to EA Sports World and then other guys could simply download them. They did a great job with content sharing for the Sims 2 so the precedent is there. 120 teams is a lot to deal with (I deal with 198 teams total because of the ones on PS2, also like 15 conferences and 35 bowl games). It they were just creatable and shareable, it would free up a lot of time. The next step would be a utility that allowed us (or you) to convert them to the next year's addition of the game.

I wasn't trying to keep you up! But everything you said sounds excellent! I'm not really a create a team guy or 1-AA guy but even for me something like what you mentioned would get a lot of use from me.

I know there is also a precedent for importing art from outside onto a console game in form of the PES series. I'm not sure how realistic or possible something like that would be in a create a school feature in NCAA, and I'm not sure what EA's internal policies on having something like that in a console game are.

The ability to import art and have a powerful in-game utility to turn said art into helmet logos, conference logos for menus, etc... would be a phenomenal leap in a customization options in a sports game.

[a4reak]

no offense but its quite irritating to keep hearing how everything will take so much time etc. Im not trying to come off as a whiney brat but there some things that I think there should be no excuse if not in next years game There blatantly needs to be something done before the kick off then just the crew talking while looking at an empty field. Bowl games can we please have decals on the jersey and if not that please find a way to get logo's in the endzones. You guys have done a solid job on 09 from what I have seen, I just really want this game to take that step to the next level where the game lives and smells like football. Things such as weather impacting throws, as mentioned a million times, ol/dl interaction WR/DB interaction. I have no clue about this but are there any coaches on the sideline? One of the EA members said they thought cheerleaders were more important then animated sidelines, things like that makes me get a headache.

[thatruth22]

Quote: Originally Posted by OMT

Both. With all my submissions this year I asked two questions... 1) What is the most recognizable campus landmark and 2) what are the chants/sounds that are heard at games.... 120 teams I asked this. How many you think gave me either one, let alone both? I really want to hear some guesses from you guys here!

1) 25 gave you one or the other
2) i will say 21 gave you both