NCAA Football 09 Patch 2 Info (Pasta Padre)

[The Chef]

Quote: Originally Posted by Chad473

I'm not defending EA at all, they have some major issues to fix, but I find it incredibly funny that some of you guys are saying that September is too late and you will have moved on. The damn season doesn't even start till sept. Are your attention spans really that short? It is possible to play more than one game at a time.

It has nothing to do with attention spans but Im working finally, I have other games Im already neglecting, ie. Lego Indiana Jones, Hot Shots Golf, MGS 4 and MLB The Show and then you have other games coming out like Madden and NFL Head Coach, so yes, time is going to be at a premium and unfortunatly I will probably have moved on by then, but that might have been the case even if it didnt need the patch in the first place. I struggle to juggle a job, commitments at the house, television shows everyone wants to watch and the multiple games I want to play, so for me, its pointless to hold onto something while its value decreases further on the hopes that what is driving me to not play it currently will be fixed in 1-2 months. Now what I said is somewhat hypothetical since Im not doing too bad playing the game currently but it is a scenerio for those that are frusterated and dont want to play it in its current form and dont feel like waiting 1-2 months for a fix.

[Adam_Thompson_EA]

Quote: Originally Posted by countryboy

before we completely throw them under the bus, if that hasn't been done already, could it be that they have been working on the patch before the game released and its taking this long to fix the issues? Also, I believe I remember Adam saying that they were working on what is now the 2nd patch but had to stop in order to try and fix the roster issue. Again, just an observation/thought on my part.

Yeah, you're right. When we finaled the game there was already a list of stuff we wanted to patch. But when we heard about the roster bug, that was put on hold. Then we heard about the online dynasty bug. .... yeah, it has been a very rough 2 weeks since release.

But we are back to the 2nd patch now. It seems most of the problems people are having fall on the gameplay team's plate. They will be deciding, with input from the game team's lead, on what to patch. This is all based on how complex a fix would be and even more so how RISKY it would be. You change the slightest thing and the game blows up in your face. Seriously. I have have seen this over and over and over (I think Kirk has that line in the game!).

I think we have worked out what to do since Pasta Padre scooped me! We wouldn't have told him anything unless we had a final list. So we are probably finishing up (I have seen the patch list and not everything is marked done). I think by the end of the week we will have it wrapped up to test. If everything goes ok, then submission and about 2 weeks for that... That puts us at between Aug 20 and Sep 20 for 2nd patch release. I know that is a big window, but that is probably a pretty good guess on my part (uh oh).

[Adam_Thompson_EA]

Quote: Originally Posted by fistofrage

The pass rush is becoming the biggest glaring issue for me. The question is, do they know how to fix the pass rush and have the AI hurriy its throws without it being a pick 6 fest? What happened to the programmers from the PS2 version, are these the same guys? The code may be different but the logic should be the same. They had it right on the PS2.

It is not just programmers. There are so many people involved... so much technology changes since then.... There really is no comparison with stuff like that. The only thing that transfers from PS2 to next gen was basic logic stuff like, I don't know, bowl logic... or maybe picking your favorite team at boot and having all the settings that are effected by that.

[Cardot]

Since an inflexible release date may have caused some of these problems, seems like it would be better if they took a few extra weeks to make sure the patch works correctly....and doesn't break anything else.

[Adam_Thompson_EA]

Quote: Originally Posted by callmetaternuts

Adam, any word on the incorrect scoring drive summary is being fixed (not a major issue, thought id ask)

Can you be more specific?

[Adam_Thompson_EA]

Quote: Originally Posted by Cardot

Since an inflexible release date may have caused some of these problems, seems like it would be better if they took a few extra weeks to make sure the patch works correctly....and doesn't break anything else.

While this is true.. that we need to be sure that the patch doesn't break something else, at the same time the inflexible release date is no excuse.

The problem with bugs surfacing in retail copies (I know.... no matter how obvious they are), is that we only hear about the bugs we didn't find/fix. Nobody cares about the 10k bugs we DID find/fix! lol

[Marino]

Quote: Originally Posted by OMT

Can you be more specific?

i think he means that when you score on a field goal not only does it add the yards you gained but also the yards from the field goal...ive had 100+ yard drives

[rhombic21]

Quote: Originally Posted by OMT

Yeah, you're right. When we finaled the game there was already a list of stuff we wanted to patch. But when we heard about the roster bug, that was put on hold. Then we heard about the online dynasty bug. .... yeah, it has been a very rough 2 weeks since release.

There was a month and a half window between the time when I know we identified at least 75% of the gameplay issues at community day and when you guys found out about the roster glitch. What happened there? Why is Madden addressing gameplay issues in a patch that comes out release day, and NCAA isn't addressing them until a month and a half after release?

[Adam_Thompson_EA]

Quote: Originally Posted by rhombic21

There was a month and a half window between the time when I know we identified at least 75% of the gameplay issues at community day and when you guys found out about the roster glitch. What happened there? Why is Madden addressing gameplay issues in a patch that comes out release day, and NCAA isn't addressing them until a month and a half after release?

Because the patch process has a different starting point than a game already in Alpha. For Madden, they could just enter those as new bugs and fix them. But for us, we had to final the game at the time and wouldn't dare take on anything but a crash.

Once we finaled, we created a patch branch in the code and started implementing the Madden fixes from central gameplay. We also had our own NCAA specific fixes.

[rhombic21]

I'm confused. Why does that take 3 months? I'm not asking why they weren't fixed in the ship version. I'm asking why the patch for NCAA that addresses gameplay issues comes out a month and a half to two months after release, while Madden has a gameplay patch, which apparently addresses a very similar set of issues, that comes out on the day of release? How does Madden get gameplay issues patched so quickly?