Bill Abner's first Head Coach Impressions

[x1Blumpkin1x]

Quote: Originally Posted by Alabama_Slim

hey Bill, just to let you know I HATE PUMPKINS TOO

How funny was that?

[bigwill]

Hey Bill! The way I understand it, all 32 teams in the game will resemble there real life counterpart, as far as run/pass ratio when starting a coaching career. With that said, I was wondering if the AI would become passing heavy in the later years of the game. Giving the AI so many great nuances to take advantage of ( downloading plays, stealling plays, and new college coaches PB) I'm concerned that passing plays could be concidered more successfull by the AI, given that the avg success of a pass play 7+ ypp against avg success of a run is 4ypp. Will that become an issue later in the game,or am I just going crazy thinking about this amazingly deep game you guys have created.

[swaldo]

I can certainly live with the negatives Bill has seen thus far. My biggest concern is the CPU not throwing deep but it's too early to tell if that's going to be an issue. I think Romo was just padding his stats

You can't click a button to see that player's contract.

Frustrating but at least there's a workaround.

The game handles injuries in a strange way.

At least you can use players that aren't 100% for "non serious injuries." In real life there are some injuries where you'd want to wait for a player to be 100% so it's somewhat realistic.

Field goal kickers are woeful.

Sounds like it's already fixed.


There is way too much falling down by the D Line on pass plays.

As long as there are a normal amount of sacks in the game I can live with this until the next version.


There are no defensive audibles.

This is bad - hopefully a patch can address or offer a workaround.


You will see things in the game that look odd at times. The DB that stands in place and spins for no reason. Physics that look -- creative.


Again, as long as realistic stats are achieved it's all good. Maddenites care more about that stuff.

It should never snow in Cleveland in early September.

No problem - simple fix.

[miamikris]

Quote: Originally Posted by Bill_Abner

BTW I am starting the petition right now for NCAA: Head Coach.

i'll second that!

[vsoul86]

How does the game handle scrambling QB's?

[Josh_Looman]

Quote: Originally Posted by Bill_Abner

I've always been the type of gamer, and critic for that matter, who wants the fundamentals covered. It's why I sometimes get frustrated with games that keep trying to add feature upon feature when a very basic gameplay component is broken. You have to have walks in baseball, foul shots in basketball, powerplay advantages in hockey, and so on. If you don't your missing out on what the sport in question is all about. I am much more concerned about the lack of down the line doubles in MLB 08 The Show or the lack of pass rush (and defense in general) in NCAA 09 than I am about whether or not I can call defensive audibles in Head Coach. I'd like to be able to do all of it, but to me, the lack of doubles and defense are more crucial gameplay issues. So yeah, the positives clearly are outweighing the negatives. Unless I run into something I haven't seen yet, I'll be playing this game all football season long.

I really appreciate your honesty, Bill. As I mentioned before, there will obviously be some issues but I'm glad that the positives outweigh the negatives for you. I'm also pretty excited that you haven't even seen 90% of the cool stuff we added into the game. I can't wait until you get a little bit further.

The weather thing is weird. It uses this system that maps out the average temp, precipitation and highs and lows for the city each week and then randomly picks from a range. It's usually accurate but I'm still damned if I don't see it snowing in Houston once a year. ugh.

As for the throwing deep stuff, they should go into attack mode at the end of the game and use plays designed to go down field. That may be an issue with teams that don't go vertical a lot. I know we built a lot of vertical routes into the Browns playbook, but I don't think there were a ton in the Cowboys playbook.

The lack of an audibles system was a design mistake that I take full responsibility for. We had an idea early on to let your captains call audibles but when we prototyped it, Peyton Manning would audible into another play every down it seemed so we took that out. The hurry up issue was always a sore point that we never really figured out how to handle well. That frustrates me to no end.

The contract thing is annoying, too...I agree. That's my fault. I designed that screen personally.

I look forward to hearing more about your experience and as I've mentioned before...we'll be here on the boards for as long as you guys want us to be...addressing issues and helping you guys with any problems you're having.

As I said before...It's great to get the praise by you guys but it's critical that we're here to provide support for you guys and be accountable for any issues you have. My job above all is to be responsible for the quality of this game. And that includes hiccups!

[Josh_Looman]

Quote: Originally Posted by vsoul86

How does the game handle scrambling QB's?

Let me put it this way...the Head Coach virtual Vince Young has no illusions of becoming a 'better passing QB'. He'll throw the ball some but I almost threw my controller down when he busted a 76 yard run on me running the OPTION.

[vsoul86]

Quote: Originally Posted by Josh_Looman

Let me put it this way...the Head Coach virtual Vince Young has no illusions of becoming a 'better passing QB'. He'll throw the ball some but I almost threw my controller down when he busted a 76 yard run on me running the OPTION.

Thanx, what kind of system did you guys use to determine when and or how often a guy takes off as a QB and in what situations?

[Alabama_Slim]

Josh,

just a suggestion on the hurry up issue. I can't believe i'm about to say this but maybe you should check out what the original HC did. When the opposing team went into hurry up a drop down menu popped up giving you 5 or 6 basic defenses plays to choose from. It was one of the few things the original head coach did really well.

[ahunter5]

Quote: Originally Posted by Josh_Looman

As I said before...It's great to get the praise by you guys but it's critical that we're here to provide support for you guys and be accountable for any issues you have. My job above all is to be responsible for the quality of this game. And that includes hiccups!

Again, thanks Josh. It's awesome that you're sticking around to help with all the concerns. I can't wait to discover the suprises you've put into the game.