**NFL Head Coach 09 Developer Q&A Thread**

[vsoul86]

Quote: Originally Posted by thesimulator

Chris, if you want to blow people away implement a weather system that totally changes the game. Muggy Miami: In sunny San Diego, its going to be vanilla no big deal. However in September, if your playing in Muggy Miami, we should see players dehydrating or at least nearly dehydrating forcing exhaustion and just plain sapping out in the 4th quarter with extremely sloppy game play. -Visiting team not wrapping up, and arm tackling in the 4th. -Visting Starters that would normally be in having to sub slightly more then the Dolphins, simply because their fatigue cant stay on par with the Dolphins. -Visting teams cramping up, with vistors forced to use backups, the momentum would then totally be on the Dolphins side. The Dolphins of course would not be effected by this or at least not to the degree of the vistors. This should only effect the visiting team. No matter how much Gatorade is on the sideline, the vistiting teams bodies simply will tire faster then the Dolphins. The Miami example is an extreme example. Like temp 80+ Humidity 64+. Blowy Winds Buffalo: Another example of extreme weather would be a place like Buffalo NY. December will normally bring gusty swirling winds. There are four aspects to this, the home team against and with the wind. The visitors against, and with the wind. Suppose the Saints play at Buffalo, with 40 mile an hour winds. Obviously, whenever Brees attempts a 10 yard + pass the ball will fizz out or even curve while flying, if he is against the wind. To do this right the physics of the football would have to be changed for the realism. Now even if Brees is playing with the wind, it will take him time to adjust, which is lost offensive opportunites. The Saint coaching staff my choose to simply run all day long and pass when desperate. With Buffalo things are a little different. Because they practice in winds, they wont nearly take as long for the adjustment, they would have a plan B already in place for "wind plays" screen passes, short routes etc. Conversely, when Buffalo throws with the wind, the timing of the passes will be much better then the Saints. Now enter special teams. The Buffalo punter should have a slight edge, basically because his long snapper, puts the right amount of juice on the ball to get a clean delivery. The Saint long snapper would have a lower % of getting of a clean snap. In the punt return game, the Buffalo PR, would have a lower % chance of muffing the catch vs the Saints. Basically Buffalo gets the advantage in these categories because they have better adaptation in the wind vs the Saints. Despite what the ratings say. So you would need the following to make it work: -Built in engine to calculate weather based on time of year (which you guys have now) The odds of extreme conditions should be very low, and only at appropiate times of the year. -Physics to support the projectory of the football in extreme wind. -Animations to support the conditions: guys looking up in the air scrambling to retreive the ball. Receivers and defenders stretching/reaching for the short/long ball, based on unusual flight by the football. Alot more incomplete passes then nomal. Players occasionly slipping in the rain/mud. Coaches/Players getting more frustrated then normal because they cant control the environment. -Coaching staff forced to strategize based on the conditions: The home coach always has the advantage, but a well prepared visiting coach will just take slightly longer to catch up. Despite the visiting coach, making adjustments, his players may not. Which gives the home coach a huge advantage. -Momentum meter for the home teams: Morale, confidence and ratings boost for the home team when they see the visiting team falling apart on the field. Especially if the visiting team throws a pick for a TD, or muffs a punt because of mistiming. Coupled with the roar of the crowd, this a true home field advantage. When the weather does happen to hit right on gameday. We would have a totally seperate game. Winds, below zero temp, muggy, extreme heat, rain, muddy field, blizzards. Each extreme would carry its own degree of categories of effectiveness for the players. In the exteme basically all bets are off. At some point I am sure we will have online leagues. Now imagine your the user from San Diego, and your team is awesome. You have a playoff game @ the Giants and your team just totally sucks. Where as the Giant user would be like "yeah baby" because he has played in those conditions for years and his players know the deal. Granted its a lot of work for a game you may never even play in, but when it happens it would be fantastic!

Great Idea. I remember our announcers always use to make a big deal out of the fact that the fins would wear their whites on hot days to force the other teams to play in th e heat with darker jerseys, plus they were more use tosaid heat already, remember ricky williams in the 4th quarter of games?

[thesimulator]

Quote: Originally Posted by vsoul86

Great Idea. I remember our announcers always use to make a big deal out of the fact that the fins would wear their whites on hot days to force the other teams to play in th e heat with darker jerseys, plus they were more use tosaid heat already, remember ricky williams in the 4th quarter of games?

LOL, now that you say that I do recall it. I'd make the vistor wear dark jersey's too. Anything to get an edge.

[unisol_us]

Not sure if this has been talked about yet... but is there any type of ownership issues that may arise during a coach's tenure? I am a Steelers fan and the real life Rooney situation made me think that adding this into the game if not already there would add just that much more depth.

[Chris_Staymates]

While I agree there are probably a lot *more important* issues to address in the games first, I'm not here to discourage brainstorming about anything you guys think *might* be cool. You won't see me say "that's a dumb idea" on this board.

[Chris_Staymates]

Quote: Originally Posted by zippity

With the news of the Madden Demo coming out August 1st, is there any plans for a NFL Head Coach Demo? I could care less about a Madden Demo but I can't wait to get my hands on NFLHC!!!!

zippity, sorry I'm so late on the response. We are working on a demo for NFL Head Coach 09, though I have no information on when it will be put out for consumption. I'll try to find out and get back to everyone.

[newper77]

Quote: Originally Posted by thesimulator

LOL, now that you say that I do recall it. I'd make the vistor wear dark jersey's too. Anything to get an edge.

I believe the Cowboys do something similar in the warmer months when they choose which sideline to be on. The rooftop shades one of the sidelines, and keeps the other sideline constantly exposed to the sun. The temp differences were something on the order of 20-25 degrees on hot days!

[Josh_Looman]

Quote: Originally Posted by unisol_us

Not sure if this has been talked about yet... but is there any type of ownership issues that may arise during a coach's tenure? I am a Steelers fan and the real life Rooney situation made me think that adding this into the game if not already there would add just that much more depth.

I wish but not this year. Maybe something we could look at in the future.

[Josh_Looman]

Quote: Originally Posted by GridironGamer

Does the stat package track players on defense that are giving up big plays or missing tackles so as to scout these factors weekly. Or do we just go by ratings.

Actually, that's one of the things we haven't talked about at all but we added some new stats we are tracking this year. On defense, we track hurries, blocks defeated, missed tackles, big hits, thrown at, catches allowed, rec. yards allowed, rec. tds allowed and yards per catch allowed.

On offense we added a ton, including wins (for Qbs), touches, attempts and avg per run type and missed assignments (how many mistakes they make per game).

[thudias]

Quote: Originally Posted by Josh_Looman

Actually, that's one of the things we haven't talked about at all but we added some new stats we are tracking this year. On defense, we track hurries, blocks defeated, missed tackles, big hits, thrown at, catches allowed, rec. yards allowed, rec. tds allowed and yards per catch allowed. On offense we added a ton, including wins (for Qbs), touches, attempts and avg per run type and missed assignments (how many mistakes they make per game).

OMG this game is gonna be awesome.

Only thing missing is actually playing the games.

[stormfront]

Quote: Originally Posted by Josh_Looman

Actually, that's one of the things we haven't talked about at all but we added some new stats we are tracking this year. On defense, we track hurries, blocks defeated, missed tackles, big hits, thrown at, catches allowed, rec. yards allowed, rec. tds allowed and yards per catch allowed. On offense we added a ton, including wins (for Qbs), touches, attempts and avg per run type and missed assignments (how many mistakes they make per game).

Sweet...it's like Moneyball for football.

Seriously, that sounds excellent, as do all the other features you've included in this title. Last year I swore off purchasing anything new from EA Sports due to the huge disappointments in both NCAA and Madden. But after reading through all of these threads, I went down to Gamestop yesterday and plunked down my deposit on the Madden/Head Coach combo --- solely to get Head Coach early. I'm that excited after hearing you guys talk about this game.

This is an extremely minor aspect of the game (and very unimportant --- I'm far more concerned with the actual gameplay mechanics), but I was wondering if we'd be able to use alternate jerseys with the teams that have them? I'd love to coach the Broncos and have them sporting the baby blue helmets again.

Thanks for taking the time to answer questions.