NCAA 2011 thread

[Logan]

Originally Posted by Scoobz0202

I do believe the OS guys create a "Community" roster where they tackle players at wrong positions, wrong teams, and change ratings. I can't vouch for the accuracy of the ratings change but I'm kind of excited to see how it turns out.

Just as a follow up...the "Petey Kirch" roster is a community roster, it's completed and can be grabbed from his gamertag.

360 version.

[Scoobz0202]

This is what I was referring to earlier.

[bhlloy]

Super catching/jumping linebackers has been an issue in Madden and NCAA since at least 2005. Obviously they don't feel like it's an issue or this would have been fixed a long time ago.

[rowech]

The middle LBers have always been my biggest problem with any EA football game.

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by Balldog

If you lower CPU pass coverage to about 35 it seems to help

Originally Posted by Raiders Army

Agreed. Matt10's Heisman sliders are pretty good. I played a game last night on them and it seemed to play well.

Matt10's Heisman Sliders (PS3) - Operation Sports Forums

I'll definitely try out those sliders. I was hoping slider changes would fix this. We'll see.

EDIT: Played a game with these sliders and they make the game much better.

[Terps]

Haven't had a chance to play it, but should be on after midnight eastern tonight if anyone wants to play on 360.

Also, shouldn't this be changed to an Alright boyz... thread by now?

[k0ruptr]

I've played a couple games now , and I really do feel like its finally an improvement gameplay and presentation wise. Also recruiting is awesome this year and I hope they keep it like this for a while, definitely gets me more interested in recruiting.

[rowech]

Starting to sound like this one might be worth buying.

[k0ruptr]

The only thing that pisses me off is one NCAA rule that EA can never ever get right. It cant be that hard to implement? Hawaii gets the 13 games exception, and yet I still cannot schedule more than 12 games for Hawaii. fml...

[RainMaker]

Withough supercatching/speed bursts from defenders, you'd be able to throw for 600 yards a game. The passing game has been flawed for a decade and instead of fixing it, they just do fixes like that.

[Tigercat]

MLBs have to be supermen in coverage because EA refuses to try and properly implement incomplete passes into the dirt or over the WRs and DBs heads. The poorly thrown ball that no one can really catch makes up a huge percentage of incomplete passes in real life. But it doesn't happen that often in NCAA and Madden, and seemingly to balance out QB accuracy in their games EA keeps all LBs behaving like ballhawking FSs with Godly verticals.

[cartman]

Originally Posted by Tigercat

MLBs have to be supermen in coverage because EA refuses to try and properly implement incomplete passes into the dirt or over the WRs and DBs heads. The poorly thrown ball that no one can really catch makes up a huge percentage of incomplete passes in real life. But it doesn't happen that often in NCAA and Madden, and seemingly to balance out QB accuracy in their games EA keeps all LBs behaving like ballhawking FSs with Godly verticals.

I'm seeing the misthrown passes a lot more often in this version.

[bhlloy]

Right, and if you tone QB accuracy all you get are more balls thrown weakly towards super linebackers/db's, leading to more picks but not necessarily more interceptions. Do you want a game with the QB going 15/18 with 2 picks or 10/18 with 5 picks?

Until there is a viable second football game, there's absolutely no incentive for EA to do anything but make a few "tweaks" to the game engine every year, call it something impressive (LOCOMOTION), add some more graphics and a roster management/recruiting improvement and watch people buy it anyway. This board is probably a cross segment of the people who want a "realistic" game the most and most of us buy it every year.

[Tigercat]

Originally Posted by cartman

I'm seeing the misthrown passes a lot more often in this version.

They seem to make some steps each year to increase incompletions, but the problem is that they are often complete and obvious misthrows instead of throws just at the knees, or throws just over the head. For that sorta thing to be implemented like it should though, they need to properly implement pass accuracy and things like WR jumping. I really don't understand how well jumping works as an attribute, because it seems like if a WR with 99 jump can get his hands on the ball, so could a WR with a horrible jump. Has anyone seen an AI WR jump for a high ball along the sidelines or back of the endzone and not get a hand on it? I haven't.

[Scoobz0202]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

Withough supercatching/speed bursts from defenders, you'd be able to throw for 600 yards a game. The passing game has been flawed for a decade and instead of fixing it, they just do fixes like that.

That was just a video I saw posted at OS. I notice my WR's do it more then the defense does.

[Raiders Army]

Matt10's Heisman sliders are really good. I've played a couple of other games on them and the games feel like a great challenge. YMMV though.

Also, I saw the RROD thread got bumped again. Last year I converted playing NCAA and Madden on the PS3 instead of the 360 and I'm glad I did. No more dirty disc errors or crashes.

[Balldog]

Originally Posted by Raiders Army

Matt10's Heisman sliders are really good. I've played a couple of other games on them and the games feel like a great challenge. YMMV though.

I like the feel of them too, might need to bump up the CPU offense a bit though. tbd

[whomario]

Got my game this morning and after a couple quick games rather quickly abandoned any plan of playing on AA or even Heisman, Playmakers over at the OS forums has vasity sliders if anyone else is interested : Playmakers Slow Speed Varsity Level Custom Skill Sliders - Operation Sports Forums

Heck, using Ohio State i lost to Eastern Michigan on AA and it wasn´t even all that close

seriously, my complete lack of knowledge is showing big time, most of the time i´ll just call a play because it looks kinda good on the preview and many times it´s less than an educated guess on wether it will work or not. Try to balance pass and run plays but that´s about it, option plays end up a disaster most of the time.

Instead of playing, the last hour i´ve been browsing through wikipedia and a couple strategy threads on OS ...

[whomario]

stupid question : How do i get back those graphics showing me what hot route i´m actually changing to ?
When i push the button to hot route (or adjust the line) it doesn´t who me what direction of the right stick corresponds with what adjustment like it did in the demo or last years madden

oh and how do i install a game on the PS3 ?

[Grammaticus]

Try clicking down on the right joy stick (xbox 360). That is supposed to toggle the play art on and off.

[whomario]

Originally Posted by Grammaticus

Try clicking down on the right joy stick (xbox 360). That is supposed to toggle the play art on and off.

playart isn´t the problem.

I press the button to change the routes (triangle on the PS3) and then all that pops up is "choose hot route" (and the circle sign for cancel) whereas in the demo it would show you what direction on the right stick or "normal direction device" (...) you had to press for which type of route ...

same on line pressure (ok, i can memorize that ). On the defensive end it works fine, but not on offense.

[k0ruptr]

Originally Posted by whomario

Got my game this morning and after a couple quick games rather quickly abandoned any plan of playing on AA or even Heisman, Playmakers over at the OS forums has vasity sliders if anyone else is interested : Playmakers Slow Speed Varsity Level Custom Skill Sliders - Operation Sports Forums

Heck, using Ohio State i lost to Eastern Michigan on AA and it wasn´t even all that close

seriously, my complete lack of knowledge is showing big time, most of the time i´ll just call a play because it looks kinda good on the preview and many times it´s less than an educated guess on wether it will work or not. Try to balance pass and run plays but that´s about it, option plays end up a disaster most of the time.

Instead of playing, the last hour i´ve been browsing through wikipedia and a couple strategy threads on OS ...

hmm i went to check this out as good varsity sliders intrigues me quite a bit, but I got a message saying I have been banned for multiple user names? permaban. weird I don't remember the last time I posted at OS. Maybe 3-4 years ago? and I def haven't ever signed up for another user name. Anyone in the know over there have any idea what I can do?

[k0ruptr]

Dola, well the good news is I can log out and view the thread, bad news is I guess I'll never be able to post again ? its not like I ever do, but it sure is weird I'd be banned for browsing and I've only ever used k0ruptr anywhere...

[heybrad]

It's been a while since I've bought an NCAA game so I have a question...

Can you save in the middle of a game and come back to play it later?

[Sun Tzu]

Hey Brad.

Not that I know of. I don't think any EA console game has ever had that feature.

[PurdueBrad]

Just finished my first NCAA season dynasty as Purdue. We went 9-3 and ended up unranked despite all three of our losses coming to top 11 teams. I was invited to play in the Gator Bowl vs. the Vols on New Year's Day. Here's the season breakdown:

Heisman went to Mark Ingram, #2 was Case Keenum, and #3 was Kellen Moore

Keenum led the nation in pass yards with 4371
Bernard Pierce from Temple ran for 1944 yards
Ryan Kerrigan (from Purdue, although I never controlled him) led the nation with 14.0 sacks
The season pick leader had 8

Robert Marve threw for 3013 yards, 20 TDs, 15 ints, and a 145.8 rating
Al-Terek McBurse ran for 1416 yards and 15 TDs in place of Ralph Bolden


Boise State is to play West Virginia for the National Title
FSU plays Bama in the Orange Bowl
Georgia plays Oklahoma in the Sugar Bowl
Texas A&M plays Utah in the Fiesta Bowl
Ohio State plays Washington in the Rose Bowl

I'll post National Championship results when I get there...

[sabotai]

Originally Posted by heybrad

It's been a while since I've bought an NCAA game so I have a question...

Can you save in the middle of a game and come back to play it later?

No, you can't. You can sim parts of the game, though.

[MizzouRah]

I used 9 minutes last year, but this year, that's too much.

What is everyone using 7 or 8?

[Eaglesfan27]

I'm using 8 and it feels pretty good for my pace of play.

[Terps]

I'm still using 9.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by Terps

I'm still using 9.

I've thought about 9. I'm a bit short on number of plays.

[Mantle2600]

On PS3 you can get updated rosters with the user buckeye02

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by Mantle2600

On PS3 you can get updated rosters with the user buckeye02

Sorry if I sound stupid, but exactly how do I go about getting those?

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by Izulde

Sorry if I sound stupid, but exactly how do I go about getting those?

Start the game, then go to team management and download/upload rosters. Search for Buckeye02, they will download and populate automatically. They are pretty good, only needed to a few small tweaks to BYU's roster.

[CleBrownsfan]

So stupid me picked up my Xbox and now the copy of NCAA has a circular scratch around the disk. If I bought one of those scratch deals for disk will it solve the problem? Reason why I'm asking is because I get an unreadable disk when I get into the game.

[BYU 14]

I am enjoying this version more than any since probably 2006. The recruiting is immensely better IMO and is actually fun. The last two versions it was a complete chore that just sapped my enjoyment of the game. Big thumbs up to EA for revamping this part.

I am playing AA with SN's sliders, tweaked to fit my skill level as I don't log tons of hours so I am not a great player by any means. So far pretty pleased with the results

BYU is young this year and is breaking in (at least in my game) a true freshman QB, so I expected to struggle.

Game 1 VS Washington - Lost 23-7, not a surprise as I didn't match up in the speed department and Polk ran for 134 yards against me, plus threw 4 picks. Would have been worse but I had two goal line stands.

Game 2 @ Air Force - Won 19-18, they missed a FG and 2 PAT's, realized after I had the CPU kicking slider too low. Trailed the entire game and rallied at the end with Jake Heaps hitting Joshua Quezada in the back of the end zone with 21 seconds left. JJ DiLuigi (starting HB) was injured and Q stepped in and looks to be the much better option.

Game 3 @ Buffalo - Won 34-20, their no huddle gave me some problems early (Love how the game mirrors RL offensive schemes so accurately) Had a big advantage up front and it showed as the running game finally got untracked with Quezada gaining 140 yards and Heaps throwing for 289. I replaced FSU for this game, just didn't feel like I was ready for them.

Game 4 VS Nevada - Won 21-10, Heaps had another bad day with 3 picks, two of which were me forcing balls into double coverage. The defense bent but did not break and Quezada ran for 94 yards and 2 TD's. Colin Kaepernick was out injured and that helped contain the pistol. The Wolfpack TB Vai Taua is a load in RL and the game is no different as he ran for 100+ and broke numerous tackles. The difference maker was the fact I could key on him without the dual threat Kaepernick presents.

After 2 games I added my tweaks to SN's sliders and have to say I am happy with the results, as the games have all been challenging and fun. I swore off the series last year, but the reviews broke me down and I am glad I bought it.

SN's original sliders are below for those interested with my tweaks in parenthesis and the reason why.

Game Rules
Offsides........................95
False Start....................95
Holding.........................50
Facemask......................50
O Pass Interference........80
D Pass Interference........80
KR/PR Interference..........100
Clipping.........................55
Intentional Grounding.......100
Roughing the Passer.........90
Roughing the Kicker.........100

Custom AI................ (HUM/CPU)

QB Accuracy...................15-25 (Went with 25/25, 15 was causing way too many errant balls at the slightest sign of pressure, now completing 55 - 65% each game with an accurate QB)
Pass Blocking..................50-60
WR Catching...................60-60
RB Ability.......................45-55
Run Blocking...................25-80 (Changed to Hum 30 / CPU 60 - Still give up 100 yards games after the change)
Pass Coverage................45-65 (changed CPU to 50, too many DB's breaking on the routes before my receivers at 65)
Pass Rush......................45-25
Interceptions..................20-40 (Still out of whack, went with Hum 15 / CPU 10)
Rush Defense..................30-65 (Changed CPU to 55, my line is better than was showing at 65)
Tackling.........................25-45 (Changed HUM to 30, too many broken tackles)
FG Power........................5-20 (Changed HUM to 15, 5 was just too low)
FG Accuracy...................15-55
Punt Power......................5-45 (Changed HUM to 15 - avg punts now 36 - 44 yards)
Punt Accuracy.................25-75
KO Power........................25-45

[PurdueBrad]

Finally got around to playing my bowl game (I'm solo-parenting our 16 month old for the week so time to play is a bit scattered). Purdue vs. Tennessee in the Gator Bowl.

I dominated the game everywhere but on the scoreboard. With the score tied 24-24 and 37 seconds left I throw a pick on their 6 yard line (guh!). So we go to overtime. At this point, senior receiver Keith Smith is lighting them up and I'm down to my third string running back, a slower white runner named George Brigandi who has the potential for some sweet inside runs.

I play D first and give up a field goal from my 5. Glad to get the stop. We get stopped on their 9, kick our own. I have two quick hit passes go for 23 yards so we plunge it in. On fourth and six from my 6, Tennessee posts another TD, damn. I get them to go three and out but they get the field goal in the third overtime. Robert Marve starts by finding Keith Smith for 14 yards, finishing his day at 12 catches, 218 yards. The next pass is a curl to Chevin Davis, who picks up nine yards, he finishes his day with 12 catches, 128 yards. George Brigandi plows it in, TD, Gator Bowl victory 40-37, and new #1 Instant Classic.

Marve went 30-47 for 418, 4 TDs and 3 INTs. Brigandi ran for 77 on 20 carries off the bench. My starter, Al-Terek McBurse (broke Alstott's rushing record by 28 yards for the season) had 58 yards on just 11 carries before the injury. Ryan Kerrigan, the Lombardi winner in my dynasty, had 3.0 sacks to close out his Purdue career and getting the team season record with 17.0 sacks.

Good season, finishing 10-3. I was offered a three year extension or a job at Cincinnati...I took the extension. Team prestige went up by one star to 4.

Ohio State beat Washington 20-6 in a low scoring Rose Bowl. A&M beat Utah 28-14 in the Fiesta Bowl. Georgia slipped by Oklahoma 32-27 in the Sugar Bowl. Alabama destroyed Florida State 37-7 in the Orange Bowl. And West Virginia finishes the year undefeated by beating Boise State 29-10 in the BCS National Championship Game.

[BYU 14]

What slider set are you using Brad?

[cougarfreak]

Anybody play in coach mode (cpu vs. cpu)?

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

I'm using 8 and it feels pretty good for my pace of play.

Sent you a demo invite so I could get the rest of my pro combat jerseys.



8 seems spot on for me thus far...

[PurdueBrad]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

What slider set are you using Brad?

I'm on Heisman and using a slight variation of the ones that were posted in the thread earlier (I think they were called something like Matt's Heisman sliders or something like that). I'm playing 8 minute quarters but feel that I'm a touch low on plays but a touch high on score so it's kind of a trade-off. The only adjustment is that I forgot to crank up the penalties so I'm doing that this season and then I'll match that slider set exactly I believe.

[kcchief19]

I'm going to have to give some sliders a whirl. Played my first game out of the box with Missouri vs. Nebraska on AA and won 24-0, although the game wasn't that much of a blow out -- NU missed a couple of field goals and I got a ton of sacks.

So I started my dynasty on Heisman and I'm getting my ass beaten in. Can't pass worth a lick and can't seem to get any pressure on the CPU. Is anyone playing Heisman out of the box without sliders? It seems awfully difficult, but then maybe the game has finally passed me by.

[PurdueBrad]

Originally Posted by kcchief19

I'm going to have to give some sliders a whirl. Played my first game out of the box with Missouri vs. Nebraska on AA and won 24-0, although the game wasn't that much of a blow out -- NU missed a couple of field goals and I got a ton of sacks.

So I started my dynasty on Heisman and I'm getting my ass beaten in. Can't pass worth a lick and can't seem to get any pressure on the CPU. Is anyone playing Heisman out of the box without sliders? It seems awfully difficult, but then maybe the game has finally passed me by.

I did play it out of the box and the biggest challenges I faced were stopping the pass and throwing a pass. The sliders did balance things some, made it feel at least both fair and realistic.

[whomario]

gonna ask it here as well in hope of someone shedding some light on it :

Does the awareness improve like every other rating (+3 to +6) or does it improve more ? Because the new recruits sure are coming in at a low rating here around 40 a ton, also a lot of time the developmental Freshmen or Sophomores on a team will have similar ratings to the stars or JUs and SRs.

How is that handles as a dynasty goes on ? Will it mean you´ll have starters on big teams with 50 awareness in year 3 ?

And what positions on the field does the awareness rating play a role for anyway ? And what situations within the position on the field ?

highly irritated by the super low awareness rating on almost all non-starting freshmen and sophomores and almost all incoming recruits.

[whomario]

also, what exactly does influence the calibre of recruits initially (!) interested in you ? Just prestige ? The program qualities (academics, campus lifestyle etc) ?
How fluent is the prestige rating (and also the program indicators) ?

Kind of irritating tha´t there´s no way to look for (as an example) players with high GPAs to find players interested in academics.

Also very irritating that there´s no scouting involved in recruiting ...

the games itself are amazing with Playmakers vasity sliders, but i am still having a hard time figuring out what sort of dynasty to do.
The programs aren´t distinguished enough for me (every program is awesome at everything, the lesser programs are sucky at everything ...), playing in a powerhouse conference seems to tough yet in a weaker conference the stakes are low, teambuilder teams don´t have rivals other than the main rival from the team you replace.

Also, can someone explain to me how visits by recruits should be planned ? Read a lot about rivalry games being good for those, but also that loosing is bad and/or winning by a lot is great.
Is the game and result actually affecting the visit or not ?

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by whomario

also, what exactly does influence the calibre of recruits initially (!) interested in you ? Just prestige ? The program qualities (academics, campus lifestyle etc) ?
How fluent is the prestige rating (and also the program indicators) ?

Kind of irritating tha´t there´s no way to look for (as an example) players with high GPAs to find players interested in academics.

Also very irritating that there´s no scouting involved in recruiting ...

the games itself are amazing with Playmakers vasity sliders, but i am still having a hard time figuring out what sort of dynasty to do.
The programs aren´t distinguished enough for me (every program is awesome at everything, the lesser programs are sucky at everything ...), playing in a powerhouse conference seems to tough yet in a weaker conference the stakes are low, teambuilder teams don´t have rivals other than the main rival from the team you replace.

Also, can someone explain to me how visits by recruits should be planned ? Read a lot about rivalry games being good for those, but also that loosing is bad and/or winning by a lot is great.
Is the game and result actually affecting the visit or not ?

I'll take a stab at these questions.

The caliber of recruits interested in you seems to be a combination of prestige, location, and your ratings in the categories they are most interested in.

The prestige rating is highly fluid and will change from season to season based on how you do. Although, it is going to take a while to raise from a 1 star to 6 star program or vice versa. The other ratings seem to take longer to change if they do.

There is scouting involved in recruiting. You can press "y" (on the 360) while hovering over a recruit's name to get more information on them including their top 10, their pitch interests (that you have unlocked), and ratings in a variety of categories specific to their position.

The results definitely affect a visit. I like to get recruits in for rivalry games, but it is more important for me to get the ones I like in early. If I get a guy in early and I've been working him for a few weeks, I could get him to commit before anyone else even gets a visit out of him. Winning is the most important thing for recruit visits, but it also matters which 3 options you pitch them, so you shouldn't bring them in for a visit until you have 3 unlocked that you are reasonably strong in if possible.

[CleBrownsfan]

Originally Posted by CleBrownsfan

So stupid me picked up my Xbox and now the copy of NCAA has a circular scratch around the disk. If I bought one of those scratch deals for disk will it solve the problem? Reason why I'm asking is because I get an unreadable disk when I get into the game.

Well, to much surprise Best Buy is exchanging the game for me. Sweet....

[Ksyrup]

Generally speaking, in year's past, your prestige rating went up 1 star for every really good season you had. So if you rattled off 5 straight 9-12 win seasons, you'd take a 1 star program to 6 stars.

[whomario]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

I'll take a stab at these questions.

cheers

The caliber of recruits interested in you seems to be a combination of prestige, location, and your ratings in the categories they are most interested in.

The prestige rating is highly fluid and will change from season to season based on how you do. Although, it is going to take a while to raise from a 1 star to 6 star program or vice versa. The other ratings seem to take longer to change if they do.

ok, that´s about what i figured as well.

Still would like to know more on the bolded part

There is scouting involved in recruiting. You can press "y" (on the 360) while hovering over a recruit's name to get more information on them including their top 10, their pitch interests (that you have unlocked), and ratings in a variety of categories specific to their position.

i am aware of those (although i missed other truly obvious stuff, so never asume i know anything please ) but to me that´s not scouting, that´s just looking up things (as far as the ratings i mean, not the pitches).
I just expected to have to actually scout players and get scouted ratings for them and not be able to look up ratings for every prospect in the country.

Related Questions : When i look up a prospects rating, it´s showing a bar and a letter on the bar. Sometimes a guy with a bar further to the right will show a worse letter than a guy with a shorter bar ? (same rating like Throw Power or Catching)
Or am i just imagining things now ? (will check later and post pictures maybe)

How accurate are those ?

The results definitely affect a visit. I like to get recruits in for rivalry games, but it is more important for me to get the ones I like in early. If I get a guy in early and I've been working him for a few weeks, I could get him to commit before anyone else even gets a visit out of him. Winning is the most important thing for recruit visits, but it also matters which 3 options you pitch them, so you shouldn't bring them in for a visit until you have 3 unlocked that you are reasonably strong in if possible.

thanks !

what´s better as an activity ? Let them see what they like (and where you might lack quality) or show them stuff you excel in even if they don´t find it important ?

(Very) High Interest + Average/Low Program Rating

or

Average/Low Interest + (Very) High Program Rating

[Izulde]

You can try and convince players to be more interested in areas you're strong in, too, I believe.