Adam Thompson (NCAA Designer) Q&A Thread

[DookieMowf]

Yeah I agree about being fired for online dynasty, that would be kind of weird. I do hope other schools offer you contracts and I wonder if you can make to different conferences?

[DookieMowf]

Quote: Originally Posted by J-Unit40

Adam, after watching the Oregon vs. Illinois videos, I remember something - the onside kick camera angle. I think it needs to be reworked. The angle is an overhead one that doesn't capture the onside kick like it should. Granted, onside kicks don't happen that often (unless you are playing a cheeser extraordinaire), but I would love to see this camera angle scrapped. I know you said earlier that the camera system was getting some really nice tweaks, so it may already be in the works. Thanks!

And can we get squib kicks back in.

[Skyboxer]

Quote: Originally Posted by ODogg

Yes but look at it from a commish's point of view, they will just be asked to reassign the user his old team each time or else the coach won't have a team and you will lose a user.

Rule 121.233 sec 5:
No User getting fired can assume the same job

Rule 135.65.111 sec 14:
After getting fire a total of 2 times you in affectively verify you suck and thus will be banned from the league. Have a nice day.

I'm fine either way but prefer having the fear you can lose your team.

[ODogg]

Quote: Originally Posted by Skyboxer

Rule 121.233 sec 5: No User getting fired can assume the same job Rule 135.65.111 sec 14: After getting fire a total of 2 times you in affectively verify you suck and thus will be banned from the league. Have a nice day. I'm fine either way but prefer having the fear you can lose your team.

Haha, yeah but what you'll have is a guy getting fired from....let's say Baylor.....and you tell him he can't go back to Baylor right? So then he'll say, ok, well give me Texas, they are open. So then he's going from getting fired from one school to actually coaching a better school and how is that right??!! It's not of course. So then you have to go into a rule about taking a lesser team than your last one each time you get fired and then you realize it's getting more and more complicated and more of a headache.

[santeria49]

Adam,

Thanks for doing this! It's great to see EA reaching out to the community in this way. I think it will make gamers feel more involved and get more excited about NCAA 09, and it will help you guys make an even better game! I think you guys are making a smart move here.

Anyway, I have read through the entire thread and have a few questions. I didn't see these questions asked, but, if I missed the answer, then I apologize in advance.

1. Does the depth chart still get reset every time you edit a player?

2. Did the "Create-A-Recruit" bug get fixed? In '08, if you created a prospect, some ratings didn't map properly. For example, no matter what you set Catch in Traffic as, the player would have a 0 in this. And some other attributes, such as Stamina I think, seemed to be determined by an average of other attributes rather than being set properly in the "Create" screen. Also, several attributes seemed to be simply mapped to wrong attribute.

It seems like someone just made some simple database mapping errors in creating the feature. For a recruiting dork like me, this was annoying as it made creating a recruit an exercise in frustration. At one point, I tried to figure out all the mismappings so that I could still create players, but, quickly figured out there was simply no workaround for some of the errors.

3. Also, in NCAA 08, there seemed to be a limit to the amount of recruits that could be created. This is understandable and fine, but, when you created too many recruits, you wouldn't get an error or anything, the game would just let you continue to make prospects. Then the created prospects after the invisible "cut-off" would just go into limbo and never appear in the recruit pool. Do you have any idea how many recruits can actually be created in NCAA 09 and if any kind of "cut-off" has been put in?

4. Has there ever been any internal discussion about reaching out to the community for support with putting team rosters together? I know you guys do the best that you can do with 100+ teams of 70 players each, but, it seems that roster makeup could still be improved. There are a lot of roster dorks for particular teams (like myself with Alabama) that can tell you every player, their height/weight, number, their projected position for the 2008 season, what recruits are most likely to actually make an impact, what their strengths/weaknesses are, etc.

This isn't really a huge deal since a lot of people that care just use rosters put together after the fact anyway. But, I also know that when the rosters were posted to an Alabama message board that I frequent recently, there was a lot of "EA screwed up the rosters again!" talk. I figure that this goes on everywhere, as most people don't realize the amount of work involved with 100+ NCAA teams and the difficulty in getting quality news about some of them.

I think improving the default rosters somewhat would improve the EA rep with hardcore college football fans. You guys could use a "superfan" from each team to help you put together super accurate rosters. They could also have some input into helping you guys put better ratings together for certain players, but, clearly you guys would have to keep this in check to keep an overzealous fan from rating his favorite team way too favorably. Anyway, just an idea, and I have no idea how you would select the people in question or the exact system that could be in place, I just know that there are a lot of knowledgeable fans out there who would gladly help you guys put together better default rosters for free.

Well, thanks again for taking the time to do this from a longtime NCAA fan!

[callmetaternuts]

Id like to see you get offers from other schools, but maybe not get fired. Some guys like to work their way up, but i can see the downside in getting fired.

[MillerTime89]

Quote: Originally Posted by ODogg

Heh, so you mean like what really happened in real life last year???

darn right

[Skyboxer]

Quote: Originally Posted by ODogg

Haha, yeah but what you'll have is a guy getting fired from....let's say Baylor.....and you tell him he can't go back to Baylor right? So then he'll say, ok, well give me Texas, they are open. So then he's going from getting fired from one school to actually coaching a better school and how is that right??!! It's not of course. So then you have to go into a rule about taking a lesser team than your last one each time you get fired and then you realize it's getting more and more complicated and more of a headache.

Rule 342.123.4 section D:
In the event a user is fired he may choose to take over a new team The new team must be rated 1 grade lower or less than previous team.


I understand it would be less complicated without the firings but I'm not the commish so I'm fine with it.....

I can see the point though. lets just hope there are job offers though.

[ODogg]

Quote: Originally Posted by Skyboxer

Rule 342.123.4 section D: In the event a user is fired he may choose to take over a new team The new team must be rated 1 grade lower or less than previous team. I understand it would be less complicated without the firings but I'm not the commish so I'm fine with it..... I can see the point though. lets just hope there are job offers though.

Here's the thing though about that. If we have John Smith in our league and he gets fired, that must mean he's not doing all that great. Now if you make John go to a lesser team chances are he's going to do even worse. Then you have lost John Smith. Now I suppose one can say, oh well he sucked anyways, but the guy could be a great coach who will get better in time.

I'm not really 100% disagreeing with you on this, I just see the reasoning behind the fact that they left that feature out. Most people in dynasties online are going to want to stick with their favorite team and not have to get fired/reinstated, etc.

[Skyboxer]

Quote: Originally Posted by ODogg

Here's the thing though about that. If we have John Smith in our league and he gets fired, that must mean he's not doing all that great. Now if you make John go to a lesser team chances are he's going to do even worse. Then you have lost John Smith. Now I suppose one can say, oh well he sucked anyways, but the guy could be a great coach who will get better in time. I'm not really 100% disagreeing with you on this, I just see the reasoning behind the fact that they left that feature out. Most people in dynasties online are going to want to stick with their favorite team and not have to get fired/reinstated, etc.

Yep I agree. Plus we can dog the person(Even when/if it's me) pretty good. Then they'll turn right around and knock one of the users out of BCS and have thier revenge...