NCAA Football 11 News Post

NCAA Football 11 Blog: A New Game Plan

06:15 PM - March 9, 2010 by Lava

Check out the NCAA Football 11 blog with the Executive Producer of the game.

Quote:


	"As a Michigan Wolverine fan, I want an NCAA Football that resembles the Saturday afternoon experience at the Big House. The sights, the sounds, and the traditions. (And of course, the return of a winning season. ;-) But it's not just about visual presentation. It's also making sure that my team - and all 120 FBS teams that we include in the game - look, feel, and play like my team. There are style variations across teams in the NFL but if you want to see true variety, it's all about College. We recognize that NCAA Football needs to more closely model and reflect those differences as part of gameplay. Innovation We've always had a history of innovation on the franchise. It was the first EA SPORTS game on Xbox Live back in 2004. In 2009 it was Online Dynasty, giving you the ability to compete with your friends across the country. Or last year's web-based team creator, TeamBuilder, where (amazingly) you guys have already created more than half-a-million custom teams! By the way, these teams will all work in NCAA Football 11 as well... Before I came onboard the NCAA franchise, I worked on a number of online games and technologies across EA SPORTS and also led the team that helped bring EA SPORTS games to Xbox Live and Sony PSN. Without giving too much away, you can probably guess that online will be a big component of some of the new areas we're exploring this year."

Game: NCAA Football 11Reader Score: 8/10 - Vote Now
Platform: iPhone / PS2 / PS3 / Xbox 360Votes for game: 83 - View All

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Member Comments

# 61 coogrfan @ 03/17/10 01:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sting


	But why look at it like that? They should be able to implement that small detail without losing other things. The analogy of losing TeamBuilder or something is a bit dramatic. They just need to get a team that can implement it, that is all.

I just don't know if it's that simple. After all this isn't like adding new facemasks or gloves--i.e. new options for existing variables. We're talking about adding an entirely new type of variable to existing player models. That could well be far more difficult than we know.

I also don't think the TB example is in any way "dramatic". Based on what we have been told in the past it is an undeniable fact that "new player models = uniform skins have to be redone from scratch". That would seem to imply that the TB uniform creator had to tailored specifically for use w/NCAA 10's player models. If that is so, it's possible that the only way to make existing TB teams work with NCAA 11 is to keep the player models the same.

# 62 dmick4324 @ 03/17/10 01:14 PM

I have to agree that if jerseys were taken out in favor of a couple inches of hair sprouting from the back of a helmet the majority of people would be up in arms. If what they say about changing player models is true that would mean a ton of work to redo the jerseys. And I personally would be more than upset if I didn't have all my Oregon jerseys

.

Not to mention if they redid jerseys (120x2 and more for other combinations) that's time taken away from gameplay regardless of if it's 2 hours or 2 days worth of time.

# 63 Critical Kills @ 03/17/10 01:22 PM

So a stupid design decision made when the game went to next-gen must be suffered for the life of the console? That's nonsense. Yes it probably would require some extra work, maybe even a lot of extra work, but not having long hair is just silly. Allowing EA to hide behind the "it would take too much re-work" excuse is not going to fly with me.

If that is the case though, as you guys have said, I hope for the next-gen of systems no other things like this are left out for PS4/Xbox-next because I guess it's another 7 or 8 years of not having that feature. What a crock of sh**.

# 64 Hova57 @ 03/17/10 01:30 PM

wow all the upset people because of hair.

# 65 coogrfan @ 03/17/10 01:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ODogg


	So a stupid design decision made when the game went to next-gen must be suffered for the life of the console?

Sadly, I'm guessing the answer here is "probably". Last year's game showed that they can make radical changes (allowing mix and match uni's), but it probably has to undergo some sort of cost effectivness analysis first (i.e. difficulty of implementing said change vs the number of gamers likely to care). Imo the hair thing would be a very tough sell in that regard.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ODogg


	That's nonsense. Yes it probably would require some extra work, maybe even a lot of extra work, but not having long hair is just silly. Allowing EA to hide behind the "it would take too much re-work" excuse is not going to fly with me.

Did I say that?

What I said was that it might involve tradeoffs in other areas that the majority of gamers feel are far more important.

This is all just speculation on my part, I could well be 100% wrong.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ODogg


	If that is the case though, as you guys have said, I hope for the next-gen of systems no other things like this are left out for PS4/Xbox-next because I guess it's another 7 or 8 years of not having that feature. What a crock of sh**.

With regard to both Madden and NCAA, we are definitely still paying the price for design decisions made 5-6 years ago. Sucks, but that does seem to be the case.

# 66 SOBAY310 @ 03/17/10 01:57 PM

What do you think the odds are of them implementing a spectator mode? It'd be sweet to be able to watch another game going on in your online dynasty. Or if you see a top ranked player online, to be able to watch 'em play.

# 67 coogrfan @ 03/17/10 02:06 PM

I can't remember the exact quote now, but I seem to recall Ian saying something to the effect that if he had it to do over again he probably wouldn't have taken the "build from the ground up" approach that EA took w/the next gen versions of Madden/NCAA. Instead he would have advocated the NBA 2k approach of taking the last gen version, giving it an HD makeover, and building on that foundation each year.

Of course it's just useless speculation at this point, but can you imagine what NCAA would be today if EA had done things the NBA 2k way?

# 68 Critical Kills @ 03/17/10 02:09 PM

SOBAY310 - i'd say the odds are a million to one. That would be far more technically challenging than adding some hair to the player models and as we've discussed in this thread, that would be fair too challenging for the dev team apparently.

# 69 Critical Kills @ 03/17/10 02:12 PM

Hova57 - it's not just the hair, it's the fact that having no hair makes everyone look the same. It really serves to give the game a very generic, everyone is interchangeable, robot look. Go look at Madden and see how much hair can add to how unique it makes a team look. I'm sick of hearing folks saying "it's just hair". Hair is part of what makes people individuals in real life and dismissing it as such is part of the problem with this game and it's overall philosophy.

# 70 RynoAid @ 03/17/10 02:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ODogg


	Hova57 - it's not just the hair, it's the fact that having no hair makes everyone look the same. It really serves to give the game a very generic, everyone is interchangeable, robot look. Go look at Madden and see how much hair can add to how unique it makes a team look. I'm sick of hearing folks saying "it's just hair". Hair is part of what makes people individuals in real life and dismissing it as such is part of the problem with this game and it's overall philosophy.

call me crazy, but hair is way down on my list of priorities... though obviously a touchy subject in the community.

If it's not something that can be done easily i would rather them focus their efforts towards expanding online dynasty functionality.

# 71 Critical Kills @ 03/17/10 02:46 PM

You know it's pretty scary when I read some of the posts in this thread as to how daunting EA has managed to convince the community that adding hair must be. It's almost as if we are asking for something pretty much of the highest technical complexity at this point, like adding hair would take 3 months of development time of programmers working around the clock on it exclusively.

Wishing for the moon I say, the MOON! LOL...don't know whether to laugh or cry at this point. Mission accomplished EA.

# 72 Critical Kills @ 03/17/10 03:43 PM

Yeah Sting, god forbid EA would have to be tasked to come up with a game like God of War III, the opening act would take them 17 years and they'd eventually just throw up their hands in disgust and say it was impossible, LOL!

# 73 doctorhay53 @ 03/17/10 03:57 PM

It's not that it's too hard, it's that it's hard enough that they would have to spend a ton of man-hours completely re-coding their player models. Call me crazy, but I just don't see how it's worth it. Would you guys complain if they re-did the players models to give you hair but they looked like the models from '06? yes. Every hour spent completely re-building the player models to allow long hair is taken away from updating stadiums, uniforms, conference logo issues, etc. Is that a worthy trade-off from a time point of view? No. I think this is really EA's point. Not that it's 'too hard', but that it's hard enough that it isn't worth the effort at this point. Note that it isn't necessarily even the fault of the people in charge right now.

I'm with others when they say 'really, you all are this ticked off about HAIR?' Especially when there are just so many more things wrong with the game.

# 74 fcboiler87 @ 03/17/10 04:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by doctorhay53


	It's not that it's too hard, it's that it's hard enough that they would have to spend a ton of man-hours completely re-coding their player models. Call me crazy, but I just don't see how it's worth it. Would you guys complain if they re-did the players models to give you hair but they looked like the models from '06? yes. Every hour spent completely re-building the player models to allow long hair is taken away from updating stadiums, uniforms, conference logo issues, etc. Is that a worthy trade-off from a time point of view? No. I think this is really EA's point. Not that it's 'too hard', but that it's hard enough that it isn't worth the effort at this point. Note that it isn't necessarily even the fault of the people in charge right now. I'm with others when they say 'really, you all are this ticked off about HAIR?' Especially when there are just so many more things wrong with the game.

The thing is, they completely redo the player models every year anyway. Why? I have no idea. It seems pretty ridiculous, because as you say, it could be time much better spent. But if you go back and look at the past few games, player models are always different. For whatever reason, they feel they must make guys look new and different every year. So since we know they are already going to recreate the models, they might as well incorporate the long hair for those who are wanting it!

# 75 coogrfan @ 03/17/10 04:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fcboiler87


	The thing is, they completely redo the player models every year anyway. Why? I have no idea. It seems pretty ridiculous, because as you say, it could be time much better spent. But if you go back and look at the past few games, player models are always different. For whatever reason, they feel they must make guys look new and different every year. So since we know they are already going to recreate the models, they might as well incorporate the long hair for those who are wanting it!

I don't believe this is correct. They may well make subtle tweaks here and there, but if memory serves the current player models debuted in NCAA 09. The fact that the player models were unchanged enabled EA to add a large number of additional alternate uni's to NCAA 10.

EDIT: straight from the horses mouth (no offense, Adam )

Quote:

Originally Posted by Adam_Thompson_EA


	07 were the player models from Madden 06. They were exagerated and very large. On 08, our Art Director had the models changed to more represent college football players. On 09, we used body scan technology for the player models to make them as realistic as possible. The player models on 10 are unchanged.

# 76 moylan1234 @ 03/17/10 04:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by coogrfan


	I don't believe this is correct. They may well make subtle tweaks here and there, but if memory serves the current player models debuted in NCAA 09. The fact that the player models were unchanged enabled EA to add a large number of additional alternate uni's to NCAA 10.

That kind of begs the question then why didn't they add different hair options in '09 since they were changing player models anyway?

# 77 coogrfan @ 03/17/10 04:33 PM

If I had to guess I would say long hair didn't make the cut due to the cost effectivness test I spoke of previously (amount of time and effort required vs the number of gamers likely to care, or some other variation on that theme).

The fact that there are basically two people beating the drum for this here at OS tells me that hair just ain't a major concern for most NCAA fans.

# 78 dmick4324 @ 03/17/10 04:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ODogg


	You know it's pretty scary when I read some of the posts in this thread as to how daunting EA has managed to convince the community that adding hair must be. It's almost as if we are asking for something pretty much of the highest technical complexity at this point, like adding hair would take 3 months of development time of programmers working around the clock on it exclusively. Wishing for the moon I say, the MOON! LOL...don't know whether to laugh or cry at this point. Mission accomplished EA.

It's not that EA has convinced us, the truth of the matter is having long hair doesn't compare to most of the problems in the game. Maybe after they fix the invisible wall Shonn Greene runs into when trying to hit the hole I'll jump on the long hair bandwagon.

# 79 Hova57 @ 03/17/10 04:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ODogg


	Hova57 - it's not just the hair, it's the fact that having no hair makes everyone look the same. It really serves to give the game a very generic, everyone is interchangeable, robot look. Go look at Madden and see how much hair can add to how unique it makes a team look. I'm sick of hearing folks saying "it's just hair". Hair is part of what makes people individuals in real life and dismissing it as such is part of the problem with this game and it's overall philosophy.

First off i think the hair hanging out of the helmets have gone way too far in real life. secondly I have none lol so its real life for me. and Lastly i think the physics , presentation of stats and team. and overall gameplay is way better than the look of hair flowing out the back of the helmet. I get what your saying but its just not something i saw in the game i would be like now we are playing football

# 80 Critical Kills @ 03/17/10 04:46 PM

It's not just two people, it's two people that you see in this thread. Everytime I have buddies over to play the game they always notice it. And yes I agree that there are major issues that need fixed but that doesn't excuse everything else.

And again, the common theme I hear about this game is how the players look so generic and the game just looks so awful, this and other details like it would go a long ways towards fixing that. Just take one look at Madden and then look at NCAA and that is apparent.

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