Dynasty Musings: NCAA 11 Dynasty Review

[Dave Pearson]

Also, Smooth Pancakes. How about a potential rating for recruits, or at least they tell you if the recruit has great upside or not? That's sort of in the middle for what you and I are talking about. So, your assistant coaches (Entire article planned on how NCAA needs to implement assistants more, btw) tell you how good the kid currently is at a rating, or close to it (maybe a range), and then there is some sort of potential rating for the kid. One thing that has always bothered me is the lack of physical growth with the recruits.. how many of you have gotten a 5-star at 6'2 166 lbs and never seen him gain a pound? Potential could have something to do with this, as well.

[Dbene66]

so is there any official word from developers on why the dynasty progression is so bad? why do all the teams just begin to suck?

[thbends]

Quote: Originally Posted by Djwlfpack

I agree about the Soft Commit; there needs to be an opportunity for another team to swoop in and steal that recruit. As it stands now, a Soft Commit is basically the same as a Hard Commit, just that you have to spend another week or two talking with the player before he officially decides where he is going. I do like that there is adjustable difficulty for recruiting. It was much-needed. I'm on All-American and feel that's a good level for me, as I don't like to spend hours pouring over recruits, but do enjoy the recruiting process. You don't get all the players you want like you used to in the past, and with the 10-hour limit, you really have to pick your spots in terms of what players you will target.

Not true I got a guy to change to me before. I got an achievement for it too.

[Smooth Pancakes]

Quote: Originally Posted by Dave Pearson

Smooth Pancakes - You're right in the context of the game. I should have been more specific. I'm talking about a guy that "hard" commits very early and then will not speak to another coach for the duration that he remains a recruit and not on that team's roster. I understand that a "soft" commit in the game doesn't really mean anything except for the fact that he is extremely close to becoming a "hard" commit.

Dave - That makes more sense now. I could see something like that being changed to occur in the future, as long as EA implemented it correctly to not be abused. I don't want the CPU suddenly going all gung ho and all out on my hard commits to try and make them leave me after I've claimed them. If it could be implemented smartly, it would definitely add an interesting new levels to recruiting.

As for the ratings, I could agree on a middle ground like that. I absolutely loved NCAA Basketball. It was a must buy every year along with NCAA Football, but I always hated having the ratings revealed to you with scouting. It takes away the guessing game and unknown factor. Now maybe, if like you mention, there was a range in terms of potential, that could work. Granted I personally would want large ranges. Seeing a range as 80-89, you may as well stick with the grades. Now if the range was 65-85 or something, where there is a large range that the kid could fall anywhere in there, it'd give you the ability to see what you might be looking at in terms of skill, as well as keeping the unknown factor and the guessing game in there in terms of choosing between DE A or DE B.

And I look forward to that article on the assistants! Two things that I have wanted to see for years now in this game, assistant coaches and coaching carousel. So I can't wait to read that article about assistants!

And I agree completely with the physical growth. Granted at that age and that point, you really wouldn't see much, if anything, in terms of growth in height, but it would be nice to see the player's weight fluctuate, and potentially seeing ratings change because of that. if you had a halfback come in at 200 pounds and a high speed rating, if he ends up bulking up to say 245 (in an extreme case), then you should see his speed rating drop a good bit, as he has gone from being a speed halfback, to being a power halfback. To have certain, specific ratings change in relations to a changing weight, would be great to see.

[Brandwin]

Pretty spot on, but you can change a soft commits mind.

There was a soft commit I was going after and I was #3 behind Florida and Texas... I jumped to #2 and next thing I know I am number one, a few weeks later he signed with Florida.

[Skull]

i find that guys who soft commit to schools that have NOT offered them a scholarship are easy to steal, but the guys who soft commit to a school w/ an offer is next to impossible

i'm not really sure why the point totals mean anything since i've gotten like 770+ pts in a call and seen my team drop in the standings, there's a feeling of a disconnect between the call points and the total progress IMO

A 0
B -1
C -1

i just don't get what -1 means

[cb35]

first let me say this game is so fun its out of control my friends and I are in our 30s and online dynasty is fantastic. if I were to nit pick put in the custom schedule control for the commissioner not sure why they took that out. as the reviewer said fix the CPU recruiting balance glitch. we play every game and didn't get past season 4 but that is good to know. how about in game updates if another online user is playing at the same time or their highlights at halftime. more stats in game. vary announcing crews like hoops had. just a few suggestions and make sure your servers are stable

[khaliib]

They need to move mascot games and the other fluff, and make it DLC and use the disk space to really go all out. Video Games will always have flaws, so those waiting for the perfect game, is just nieve.

The ratings issue is up for debate, because I have no problem with the so called low ratings because these are fictional values that depend on individual interpretation of what is "Real" or right. I've always said they should include a Ratings Threshold Slider per position, this would eleminate the ratings issue.

For presentation:
When I see the animated crowds/sidelines in other sports games (hockey, baseball, basketball) I can't understand why football can't have that. The argument that trying to implement into a football game is too hard, is a lame excuse.

Dynamic crowds that fluctuate would go a long way in this department.

What happend to the "Blimp" that use to be in some the older FB games? Add camera shots during play breaks etc...., adds immersion to the game.
Not going to say anything about the camera. This one blows my mind why it's not part of the presentation.

**Don't be affraid to steal ideas from other game makers. Stop tying to create a "NEW" wheel!!! Use and improve what's already out.

Like basketball/baseball, have different throwing/running animations that make it seem like your getting a different/unique player.

Coaching Carousel, with playbooks tied to the fictional coaches, instead of schools.

If you want Dynasty get really deep and crazy, allow the gamer the ability to go and what game generated highlight tape of selected recruits.

Find a way to include fictional TV stations covering local games with fictional TV broadcasters calling the game.

Show players running off/on field holding up package/formation changes.

Talk about possible recruits at games (major schools) during telecast broadcast.

Get rid of the OVR and just have regular measurables and positional attributes.

Allow gamers the ability to practice (throws, catching, running,kicking/punting), during Pre-Game routines like in College Hoops 2k8.

I could go on, but just utilize gamer suggestions to make Dynasty deeper.