NCAA Football 2008

[CraigSca]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

Hmm, I'm happy with the high knockdown, low interception settings as the QB's have generally been throwing only a few per game and if I'm careful I can avoid too many picks, but I've heard enough people say that this setting works better that I should give it a try tonight. Did you lower defensive awareness or make any other changes?

I'd love to hear your experience with this, EF - give it a go and report back!

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by CraigSca

I'd love to hear your experience with this, EF - give it a go and report back!

I'm about to go play a game now, but I'm going to go with low INT and low knockdown settings. I never really gave that enough of a chance.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by CraigSca

I'd love to hear your experience with this, EF - give it a go and report back!

2 games were a mixed bag. CPU only threw 2 picks the first game, but Cal's QB threw 4 in the 2nd game. Yet, Cal beat me and I love that the middle of the field feels like more of a viable option than before I lowered the knockdown slider. I'm going to keep it at 5 which is what I used these 2 games.

[gstelmack]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

Hmm, I'm happy with the high knockdown, low interception settings as the QB's have generally been throwing only a few per game and if I'm careful I can avoid too many picks, but I've heard enough people say that this setting works better that I should give it a try tonight. Did you lower defensive awareness or make any other changes?

I had defensive awareness down to 25. Just too many guys reacting too quickly to the ball. With awareness at 25, INT at 0, and Knockdowns up a bit (60 I think), I still had too many defenders breaking on the ball way too fast and picking it off. Way too many throws where my guy was wide open (I thought, even after reviewing the play) but a defender made an inhuman break to get to the ball.

With INT at 100 and Knockdowns at 0 (and defensive awareness still at 25), I am seeing far more realistic coverages and reactions to passes. Balls thrown into coverage still get knocked down and are incomplete, safeties staring at you still make great breaks on the ball, but LBs no longer super-leap, beat CBs no longer speed boost to get ahead of the receiver to pick the ball off, etc. I've played 3 games with this, thrown 2 picks, still hovering around 60% completions, and generally have a much more fun and realistic passing game.

Basically, the theory proposed in the Madden thread is holding true for me. It appears that the Knockdown setting gives defenders super-human abilities that ruin the passing game.

[Pumpy Tudors]

My concern about the defensive awareness being low is that I think it made the running game too easy for me. Linebackers and cornerbacks would generally not step up to make a tackle until my RB had already crossed the line of scrimmage. That's fine on an inside run, but on a sweep play or a QB scramble, it's a little too easy to gain yardage.

I haven't played the game for a couple of weeks, but I'm thinking of bumping awareness up to 50 or maybe even higher, and I'll see if that affects the passing game much.

[Ironhead]

This is how I have everything setup right now.

When I am offense I have the difficulty level on All-American to give the game more of an "open" feeling.

                  All-American Diff.
 
	       HUM OFF                 CPU DEF
  QB Accuracy  50           Awareness  50
Pass Blocking  60          Knockdowns  30
  WR Catching  50       Interceptions  25
   RB Ability  50         Break Block  50
 Run Blocking  50            Tackling  50

Whenever the CPU goes on offense I bump the difficulty level up to Heisman. I find that there really is no comparision between the Heisman AI and the All-American AI as far as the CPU's offensive playcalling and decision making is concerned.

		  Heisman Diff. 	 
	
               CPU OFF                 HUM DEF
  QB Accuracy  35           Awareness  5
Pass Blocking  20          Knockdowns  0
  WR Catching  20       Interceptions  0
   RB Ability  60         Break Block  50
 Run Blocking  55            Tackling  65

I have yet to have anyone take me up on trying the game this way. Pausing the game to change the difficulty level only takes about 6 seconds but I guess it is too irritating for people.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by Pumpy Tudors

My concern about the defensive awareness being low is that I think it made the running game too easy for me. Linebackers and cornerbacks would generally not step up to make a tackle until my RB had already crossed the line of scrimmage. That's fine on an inside run, but on a sweep play or a QB scramble, it's a little too easy to gain yardage.

I haven't played the game for a couple of weeks, but I'm thinking of bumping awareness up to 50 or maybe even higher, and I'll see if that affects the passing game much.

That is my main concern as well. With D Awareness at 50, I think the run defense is just right. I might give 40 a try just to see how it works out with knockdowns and int's both low.

[GoldenEagle]

I got the game on Friday and have been having a blast with it. My friend and I played online and I managed to beat him with a last second field goal, 24-21. We both only threw 1 pick each, so I have not been having a huge problem with that. My passing game improved when i start making smarter reads and not forcing the ball in. I also kept it short and simple. I will call a play that always has one deep option, and if that is not there, I will hit a guy running on an under for a 5-6 yard pick up.

When I start my dynasty, I want the game to be as realistic as possible. What are my options in that regard?

[gstelmack]

I'm not having problems with run defense with awareness at 25. Mostly because my O-Line is a sieve. I've got a stud RB on the team who gets his yards, but much of it (especially this season) is very Barry Sanders-like with lots of 2 and 3 yard losses, a few 10-12 yard gains (usually when the defense is sitting back in a nickel zone), and the occasional bust-a-big-one. It feels like a college running game.

Much of the reason he makes good yardage is breaking tackles, not because someone wasn't there to get him. The dude is elusive as all get out.

[gstelmack]

I've stopped paying any attention to the "player to watch" bit of the pregame. They keep making stupid decisions, like picking the former starting QB that I passed on the depth chart and so is no longer starting, or the RB that is out for several weeks, or other decisions that make no sense at all.

[MizzouRah]

Well, I gave it a chance.. but I'm just not feeling it. Oh well, plenty of good games out there.

[dawgfan]

For those that have been playing in dynasty mode for a while, any recruiting tips? Or can you point me to any tips you've seen online (other than liberal use of the save feature to re-do a week after figuring out exactly what pitches to use on a prospect )?

For a game with as detailed a dynasty mode as this has, it floors me that their game manual is so ridiculously small and lacking in info.

I've played something like 8 seasons now in a strictly simmed dynasty, starting with Idaho and after getting them respectable accepting an offer from Nebraska. I thought I was doing a reasonable job of recruiting for Idaho, and was excited taking over Nebraska since the strength of most of my pitches was so much higher (some "Elite" ratings, some "Excellent" ratings, lots of "Great" and "Very Good"). My first full season with Nebraska, I had a number of 5 and 4 star recruits very interested, and got nearly all of them to take visits (all of which were rated B or higher - all Nebraska wins) but couldn't get any of them to commit in-season. Then I watched in horror as several of them committed elsewhere in-season before I could use Promises on them (my integrity rating is maxed-out, so it carries significant weight I found).

My strategy has been to find the pitches that a recruit values "Most" and the two "Very High" and hard sell them, matching up my highest pitch rating with the top pitch factor for the recruit. I figured out quickly that sometimes the recruit will just let you pitch for many minutes and start to get pissed-off and not get to the "Pitch sold" (or whatever it's called) stage, so if a pitch is running long I try to end it before he goes from the toothy smile to the grin. Then, if a recruit is "ready" for a visit, as soon as I have his top 3 pitches identified I'll schedule a visit (unless it's a home game I don't think I'll win). I also fill up my recruiting board and have all 35 spots filled with prospects, and have them ordered generally in my order of preference.

I obviously can't contact all 35 prospects every week in my 10 minute allotment (at least the way I go about recruiting, maybe I'm doing something wrong), so I focus on the top of my list. Then, when recruits are ready for visits, I focus on those guys to make sure I've identified their "Most" and 2 "Very High" pitches before I schedule their visit.

My questions are:
- Does the order of your listed recruits matter? Will I have a better chance, all things being equal, of landing a guy if he's #1 on the list as opposed to #35?
- In my searching online to find some recruiting strategy help (mostly a failure) I did see a comment claiming that once you have a recruit at full toothy smile you don't need to hard pitch him anymore - true? I tend to find this unlikely...
- How do I maximize my chances of in-season commitments? Should I be holding off on scheduling visits until my recruits have a full or near-full interest meter bar? Do I risk seeing them commit elsewhere if I'm not the first visit on their list?
- Should I spend more time each week on my highest rated prospects? I usually try to do no more than 2 identify pitches per player in the early weeks so I can contact as many of them as possible early on. I'm obviously looking to find good pitch matches and hard sell them on those until they are at full toothy smile happiness. Once I have them at that point and have one or more good pitch matches, I'll hard sell them on one pitch each week. Is this helping fill up their interest level meter for my school?
- How do you move your school past the other schools they are interested in? Obviously the recruiting visits give you a boost if they are good visits, but maybe I'm having those visits too early in the season because I'm not getting in-season commitments. Should I be spending a lot of time each week on a few recruits, will that significantly bump up my standing with them?

Thanks for any help you guys might have. I'm enjoying NCAA '08 as a stand-in fix for my need for an NCAA football sim until Jim puts out TCY2, but there's not a lot of information out there that I can find on how to improve your chances in dynasty mode.

[Eaglesfan27]

First answers to your questions:

I've heard it confirmed, and I have seen evidence that the order of recruits definitely matters. If you put a guy #1, you are much more likely to land him then if he is 35th on your list.

- Not true. You need to hard pitch recruits every week. If you stop recruiting a player before he is a hard verbal, you can lose him. I've lost some very good recruits, because I got sloppy late in the season. If I want a guy, I make sure to hard pitch him at least one pitch every single week until he signs. Also, if you cancel the pitch before it finishes, it doesn't count. I only cancel if a guy is about to hang up on me.

- I think the question of when to have them visit is tricky. You get the best results from the biggest rivalry games, but if you wait until the end of the season to have a guy visit, you risk a chance of having him sign with another school. Therefore, I don't think there is a hard and fast rule. I generally have guys visit as soon as they are ready to visit, and once I've revealed their top 3 priorities.

- For recruits that I really want, the best recruits, I hard pitch them 2 or 3 times each week. Of course, this uses up an hour or so on them. Therefore, I only recruit the top 10 or so guys on my list most of the year. I go for quality over quantity, but since I'm using USC, I can usually get some decent guys late even coming in late once my top 10 sign. This probably isn't the best way to do things, but it generally works for me. If I'm top on a guy's list, then I'll usually drop to just 1 hard pitch that week.

Those are a few of my tips. Of course, using USC helps since they are great in everything (Except for early playing time usually), but I think that they will work for most schools if you can get guys who value the things that your school is good at.

[CamEdwards]

I just bought this game today (the kids have Halo 3, I have NCAA '08)... just wondering if any of you who might still be playing this game regularly are still using the sliders mentioned above.

After reading through this thread, is the consensus to play on AA, with INT at 100 and knockdowns at 0? I'll experiment with the defensive awareness, but are y'all leaving the other options (QB Accuracy, Pass Blocking, etc.) alone?

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by CamEdwards

I just bought this game today (the kids have Halo 3, I have NCAA '08)... just wondering if any of you who might still be playing this game regularly are still using the sliders mentioned above.

After reading through this thread, is the consensus to play on AA, with INT at 100 and knockdowns at 0? I'll experiment with the defensive awareness, but are y'all leaving the other options (QB Accuracy, Pass Blocking, etc.) alone?

I don't think there is a consensus. I'm playing with Interceptions at 0, Knockdowns at 5 and with CPU QB Accuracy up to 55. Some games, I get 3-5 interceptions with USC's secondary. other games against better QB's it is 1-3. Although, I had a game last night where a good CPU QB only threw 1 pick at the very end of the game.

[CamEdwards]

Thanks, EF. I managed to play the high school playoffs in my CL career while the twins were napping today. I haven't messed with any of the settings so far, and haven't noticed any real problems, but then again I haven't actually played a college game yet.

[Grammaticus]

It's a fumble fest if you sprint all of the time.

[CamEdwards]

I did have three fumbles in one of my high school games, but I'm not sure if it was because I was trying to sprint through a crowd of tacklers or because I kept trying to hand off the ball to a non-existant teammate. :P

I'm still trying to get used to the 360 controller.

[Mike1409]

Interesting article on a conferece call with EA Sports and their vision.

http://www.pastapadre.com/1758/recap...e#comment-5091

[gstelmack]

You know what's cool? Having your freshman running back play an integral role in taking Wisconsin to 12-0, including an OT win over #17 Ohio State and a blowout win over #2 Michigan (for some reason my defense decided to show up for that game).

You know what's frustrating? Getting #3 in the BCS to 13-0 Virginia Tech when you both end up with a 0.922 rating. Either it went beyond that many decimal places, or they won a tiebreaker somewhere. We were #2 in the coach's poll with lots of first-place votes, while they were #2 in the media poll with lots of first-place votes. They got to play USC for the national title.

You know what's cool? Eeking out an OT win over #5 Hawaii in the Rose Bowl.

You know what's frustrating? Having your starting Center graduate after that season, and the best replacement they can land is a 55-rated freshman that can single-handedly derail your Heisman hopes, especially when you start your sophomore season as a pre-season All-American and on the Heisman watch list.

I'm having a ton of fun still with Campus Legend. My QB is ready for Madden Superstar mode, now I'm working up a RB.

[Eaglesfan27]

Apparently a patch is out for NCAA Football 08 for the PS3 and one will be released on the 360 as soon as Microsoft finishes approving it (probably within 2 weeks.) Most sites have no idea what it does, but according to pasta padre's site it addresses 3 big gameplay issues:

- Fumble Chance has been tuned to more realistic values and logic. Fumbling has been tuned to occur during more realistic scenarios such as big hits and collisions.

- Defense Secondary aggressive coverage has been addressed. Defensive players AI has been better tuned for only certain percentile of defensive backs have the ability to make aggressive moves that are effective.

- Pass Lead Tuning on Lob passes has been improved. The user has the ability to lead receivers with lob passes now.


No fix for the depth chart bug, but if these 3 changes are significant, I'll be thrilled with NCAA's gameplay. I'm looking forward to playing this game more after the patch is released on the 360 to see if the changes are really noticable.

[MizzouRah]

A ps3 patch released before one on the 360? What is this world coming to?

[bhlloy]

I'm still having a ton of fun in dynasty mode with this game, but it's getting too easy with all the CPU drive killing interceptions. I'm reluctant to jack the difficulty level up to the hardest because then it just becomes a turnover fest. My scrub free safeties keep winning the defensive player of the year award as well.

If this patch does what it advertises, I'll be ecstatic. Probably start over with a team that isn't in California (too easy to get recruits - 4 years in I have SDSU competing for a national title)

[Groundhog]

If fixed as advertised I'll drop the cash for this title.

[CraigSca]

Oh baby - after seeing the patch for Madden, I've been waiting for this!

[Icy]

If it's true, i'll be in dreams as the game is realy fun, my only problems are the computer ints and the super DB's that the patch seems to fix.
Downloading it right now from the PS Network.

[Groundhog]

Icy, please let us know your thoughts after a couple of games.

[Icy]

Originally Posted by Groundhog

Icy, please let us know your thoughts after a couple of games.

Sorry, it said downloading 2 patches when i connected to the PSN, but i have not been able to try the game after that. My 7 days old baby is eating all my time right now. Slowly we are being more and more organized so probably will be able to try it during the weekend.

[Kodos]

I wouldn't get my hopes up too much until we start getting some positive opinions of the patch. EA saying they fixed things just doesn't hold much water right now.

[Eaglesfan27]

Hmm.. on pastapadre's website he says that he has been told today that the patch that was recently released for the PS3 will not be coming out on the 360 at any point. Apparently, this is due to "technical conflicts"

http://www.pastapadre.com/1828/ncaa-...tch-of-its-own

[CraigSca]

Wow, that absolutely stinks and is completely non-sensical to me.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by CraigSca

Wow, that absolutely stinks and is completely non-sensical to me.

I agree on both points. I'm hoping he is mistaken, but his information is usually accurate.

[Raiders Army]

meh. I'm liking NCAA and it doesn't seem that broken to me.

[CamEdwards]

I am too, but what's the deal with some schools having generic stadiums? I've seen at least Duke and Idaho use the same generic bowl.

[Grammaticus]

The fumbles are atrocious

[Eaglesfan27]

Multiple people on OS are saying that the PS3 version has toned down interceptions (including CPU thrown interceptions) and that part of the patch is very noticable. That is all I wanted for the 360 version. With that, I think this would have been a great game. I can tone down interceptions with sliders, but I have to make such drastic changes that it hampers all aspects of our defense.

[Kodos]

So basically there is no version with reasonable fumbles/ints AND that runs at 60 fps? Nice.

[Eaglesfan27]

About a half hour ago, I posted my first thread on the official EA Sports forum ever. I asked about why the patch was being released on the PS3 and not the 360. I'm guessing my thread is going to be deleted, but we'll see what happens. So far, it has been up for a half hour and only 6 other people have viewed it.

[Ironhead]

I sold this a couple of weeks ago. I had some fun in my Colorado State dynasty but to be frank after playing a few other games on the 360 I quickly realized how much time I was spending convincing myself that I like NCAA. Again, it's not a bad game but not as fun as many of the other sports and non-sports options on the system.

[Mike Lowe]

Thanks for the info everyone.

What is the deal with the Madden patch? I didn't even hear about it until patch talk started in this thread but I can't really find any info on the Madden patch success rate.

I have PS3 FYI, so I'd be interested to here about a Madden patch for PS3. Thanks!

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by Mike Lowe

Thanks for the info everyone.

What is the deal with the Madden patch? I didn't even hear about it until patch talk started in this thread but I can't really find any info on the Madden patch success rate.

I have PS3 FYI, so I'd be interested to here about a Madden patch for PS3. Thanks!

http://forums.operationsports.com/vB...d.php?t=226680

[Mike Lowe]

That's a long thread! Anyone have the latest? I'm dying for a football gaming fix to go along with FOF (NCAA or Madden).

What's been done with these 2 titles?

[Pumpy Tudors]

Originally Posted by Mike Lowe

What's been done with these 2 titles?

Probably not enough for somebody with a "Down With EA" signature.

[Mike Lowe]

ha, forgot about that. I just wish there was a good console football game with a franchise mode (aka not NFL2k8).

[MizzouRah]

No competition = no good

[Eaglesfan27]

FWIW, Shawn Drotar, who also reportedly has some EA contacts just posted on OS that there is still a chance that a patch will be released for the 360 version. Yesterday, it looked like there was no chance, but today this has changed. He also said we would probably know within the week whether or not a 360 patch will be released.



http://forums.operationsports.com/vB...=227048&page=5

[Mike Lowe]

I agree competition is good Miz. 2k8 has no franchise mode which does not interest me.

[Kodos]

Yep. The exclusive license has been terrible for console football players. Please, NFL, go back to the multiple licenses model.

[Icy]

The deep pass works now after the PS3 patch, i just burned the defense in a new legend mode i started as QB:

[Eaglesfan27]

Icy, does it seem like the CPU is throwing less interceptions?