EA Conference Call With Sean Bailey, Lead Designer - Gamplay

[jfsolo]

Quote: Originally Posted by muggins

These make me sad NO ADAPTIVE DEFENSIVE AI This is pretty sad. CPU DEFENSE PLAY CALLING The CPU pretty much calls plays based on down and distance, not really based on formation. This is an area EA wants to work on in the future. Are you kidding me? CPU PLAY CALLING In terms of playbooks, the team will execute the same playbook tendancies regardless of how the team personnel changes over time. Disappointing.

Yes, this is very disappointing to read. It shows a serious disconnect between the sim oriented dynasty players and the lead producers in terms of what is absolutely critical to enhancing one-player games.

[BSanders]

Quote: Originally Posted by muggins

These make me sad NO ADAPTIVE DEFENSIVE AI This is pretty sad. CPU DEFENSE PLAY CALLING The CPU pretty much calls plays based on down and distance, not really based on formation. This is an area EA wants to work on in the future. Are you kidding me? CPU PLAY CALLING In terms of playbooks, the team will execute the same playbook tendancies regardless of how the team personnel changes over time. Disappointing.

I'm with you on this, I can't believe it seems like we lose more stuff each version.

[rudyjuly2]

I think you guys are focusing on the negative too much. Sure there are a lot of things that we would like to have in the game (myself included) but that doesn't mean it won't be improved or fun at the same time. Most guys that have played it really liked the game this year with some saying its the best title since '04. Just take a deep breath and in less than a week we will all see for ourselves. I was underwhelmed by the demo but really want to play the retail version where I can get rid of the lousy controller mapping, change the difficulty and sliders as well as play longer than 2 minutes a quarter.

[mike1409]

Quote: Originally Posted by muggins

These make me sad NO ADAPTIVE DEFENSIVE AI This is pretty sad. CPU DEFENSE PLAY CALLING The CPU pretty much calls plays based on down and distance, not really based on formation. This is an area EA wants to work on in the future. Are you kidding me? CPU PLAY CALLING In terms of playbooks, the team will execute the same playbook tendancies regardless of how the team personnel changes over time. Disappointing.

I will take heat from people on this but from a company standard this makes perfect sense.

Only 5% of the people who play this game are hardcore SIM dynasty players.

The rest want to win 110-0 win 9 Heismans in a row and 50 game winning streaks. ( the features above don't matter) and will buy the next years game without hesitation.

Other players only play online ( the features above don't matter) these people have to buy the game each year as the old one can't be played anymore.


Obviously the adaptive AI is the hardest to program and would take countless hours to fix and adjust.

They have an exclusive market an it really is not worth the cost to make the game signifigantly better.

[hellbent]

Quote: Originally Posted by mike1409

I will take heat from people on this but from a company standard this makes perfect sense. Only 5% of the people who play this game are hardcore SIM dynasty players. The rest want to win 110-0 win 9 Heismans in a row and 50 game winning streaks. ( the features above don't matter) and will buy the next years game without hesitation. Other players only play online ( the features above don't matter) these people have to buy the game each year as the old one can't be played anymore. Obviously the adaptive AI is the hardest to program and would take countless hours to fix and adjust. They have an exclusive market an it really is not worth the cost to make the game signifigantly better.

Unfortunately, you are absolutely correct. I don't think anyone would argue the business sense of EA improving the graphics, multi-player experience and updating the rosters annually. There is simply no reason for them to work on making a more challenging, intelligent and realistic CPU opponent when 90+% of gamers want to turn Duke into national champs in a year and win Heismans annually or just want to go play human opponents head to head (some may play online, many not).

It simply just does not make business sense when the small portion of the market that wants a better, more realistic single player experience have no where else to go but to text sims like Bowl Bound, Second and Ten, etc...

[ForeseenBurrito]

I wonder how much the sliders could play in to some of these features. Obviously some of the missing features couldn't be remedied with changing the sliders, but some could...

[Russell_SCEA]

Quote:

Yes, this is very disappointing to read. It shows a serious disconnect between the sim oriented dynasty players and the lead producers in terms of what is absolutely critical to enhancing one-player games.

I disagree 150% Sean Bailey is about as hardcore as it gets. But cats like him don't get to make the last call.

When we talked about the lack of pass rush in human vs. human games agaisnt spread offenses. He gave us those answers with a frown on his face. "Yeah its part of the wide open game play theme this year" You could tell he wasn't to happy about it at all just ask Rhombic or CDJ they where standing right next to me when we had that conversation.

This was for NCAA though for Madden is was different if we found something wrong with the game he was more than willing to fix it. (Case in point they fixed the yellow zones in Madden )Had we been able to make that trip to Tiburon about two weeks earlier who things may be different.

We continue to forget that guys like Sean, OMT, Ben, Phil and Ian have someone looking over their shoulder wearing a suit every year.

[Village Idiot]

Defense calling their plays based on down and distance isn't a bad strategy. I tend to do the same thing. What's the complaint, exactly? And if anything, I seem to remember countless times in which the CPU's defense was more appropriate than not. Does anyone truly remember seeing a 4-4 or something against your five-wide just because it was a 3rd and 1? I don't.

No adaptive AI pretty much blows, but only because we're all hoping to see it. It's not like it was there before and now it's gone.

All in all there's some disappointing stuff here, but is any of it really anything we didn't already know or at least suspect? It's much more of an "oh well" kind of thing than it is a "OMFG this sucks!" kind of thing.

[Dbrentonbuck]

Quote: Originally Posted by Undefeated

No adaptive AI pretty much blows, but only because we're all hoping to see it. It's not like it was there before and now it's gone. All in all there's some disappointing stuff here, but is any of it really anything we didn't already know or at least suspect? It's much more of an "oh well" kind of thing than it is a "OMFG this sucks!" kind of thing.

Not true, last gen had adaptive AI to a point. If you kept calling the same play over and over the Defense would get a ratings boost and a lot of times your play would get blown up. I wish they had the smart players like in Madden where if you didn't mix up your plays a highly rated D player would know your play. Oh well, what are you going to do, buy the other NCAA football game instead? Oh wait . . . there isn't one.

[Village Idiot]

Quote: Originally Posted by Dbrentonbuck

Not true, last gen had adaptive AI to a point. If you kept calling the same play over and over the Defense would get a ratings boost and a lot of times your play would get blown up.

Oh that's right.

Still, though, that's not what we're looking for either. Adaptive AI, to me, means that the CPU should be "searching" for ways to stop what you're trying to do, strategically, more generally. Getting a ratings boost isn't exactly "adaptive" either in the sense we mean.