NCAA Football 11 Catch-All

I also had concerns about how well this fixed things, although it does seem to be significantly better than it was. In their blog, they note that these are the things they can fix using the tuners, and that some aspects of the issues will have to be adjusted through the title update in a few weeks. It still seems like their distribution is a bit skewed from where they start, both in terms of the grades of schools and the distribution of overall player scores. On the other hand, their average school is probably now a C, which means not as much grade inflation!

With regards to the overall player scores shown here:
IMAGE(http://ll-100.ea.com/cem/u/f/GPO/easports.com/NCAA_Football_11/LiveTune/1.jpg)

Top panel is yearly OVR distribution for a bunch of years compared with the hardcoded numbers for the first year (red) from the launch-day game. Bottom is after applying the tuner sets. They're doing better. Still, they've shifted a bunch from the >75 category into the <60 category (red versus other colors). Their average hasn't shifted downward by as much as it used to, but you're still getting a lot of worse players at the expense of decent ones.

Eh, we may not notice it much, though. I'm happy they've at least fixed it somewhat. I'm looking forward to seeing the impact their adjustments to the lineman athletic scores on my passing game!

New topic: I've actually not found the number of sacks/pressures to be that big an issue, but I'm only playing AA right now with default sliders. Fixing to move up to Heisman and take my lumps now that the new tuner set is out.

Jayhawker wrote:

What exactly does Awareness affect, then? It would have been nice to finish this thought. In fact, I wish more developers would put more time into explaining how ratings work and interact with other players for all games.

At this point, i'm beginning to suspect one of two things.

1.) It's total bullsh*t.
2.) Even EA doesn't know what it does anymore, but they can't get rid of the code.

IMAGE(http://lh4.ggpht.com/sS6jwsVef4LX-8O786oKThDFJlhxvHpY_XvsF3rzAGM5KECrHzM-AYVfxq9hGHOD-k0L3XDwADA8j2-ewyRNaEChvg=s512)

"Maybe your right"

Hmmmmm, maybe that's why Academics is LOW for this prospect.......................maybe EA Sport should look into correct grammar, lol. Obviously not a huge deal, Gameplay is more important, but this made me laugh.

I just played the Madden demo, which ran a bottom crawl about my knowing my "players ratings." Also, Garth's quote has two additional grammatical mistakes.

CptGlanton wrote:

I just played the Madden demo, which ran a bottom crawl about my knowing my "players ratings." Also, Garth's quote has two additional grammatical mistakes.

Wow. That's incredible.

Hmmm...well, player names can't have apostrophes evidently, so perhaps they're other quotes can't either. [sic]

OK, so I'm not sure why this also is bothering me (I guess it's the little things that bother me more I guess, things that shouldn't happen). My RB just ran the ball in the endzone for a TD to make the score 13-0. They announcer said that was his 3rd rushing TD on the night......................................incredulous

**EDIT**
OK, so here's the worst part, they actually gave him 3 TDs. Note the score on the bottom, lol. How much are TDs worth in this game?

IMAGE(http://lh5.ggpht.com/NmeYRkxNJ9e--z5tn65OGn4hQhyAy7jIKNzDdN1wo04p3fQ7dbYWwfWEYYQPaHIOXwrDwwA7ne-DGuxW-_NDB0hs7Q=s512)

Wow and yuck. One of the things I love about sports video games are the stats. Check that, that's like my favorite aspect of sports games. I played Tecmo Super Bowl endlessly in late high school and early college simply to create fun statistical anomalies. I've done the same thing with NCAA as well. So when the stats aren't right that's almost the worst kind of bug you can have in a sports game to me.

If he wins the Heisman, I'm going to protest!

Maybe they think he scored three Rugby League Tries?

Played a couple IRL games with my nephew this weekend and, aside from the stuff already mentioned, we had a punt return that he returned for a touchdown... except it was called back for holding somewhere way back on his side of the field. He got the ball on my 1 (i.e. 1st and goal).

Wow. Glad I went with Madden this year.

firesloth wrote:

If he wins the Heisman, I'm going to protest!

That's the thing, he is leading in rushing yards and TDs (7 TDs ahead of the next best RB), Rutgers is (8-0) (mostly because of him) and he's not even in the Top 5 for the Heisman. I need all the phantom TDs I can get, lol.

Kush15 wrote:
firesloth wrote:

If he wins the Heisman, I'm going to protest!

That's the thing, he is leading in rushing yards and TDs (7 TDs ahead of the next best RB), Rutgers is (8-0) (mostly because of him) and he's not even in the Top 5 for the Heisman. I need all the phantom TDs I can get, lol.

I played 3 seasons in SP dynasty and I never won the Heisman even though for the first two years I had a running back that went over 1,700 yards and led the NCAA in TDs and yards per carry on teams that went undefeated, one of which won the national championship. When that running back graduated I started a freshman (RS) at RB and a freshman QB. Both were very fast and because I was annoyed with stuff like that, for giggles I ran the option a lot. The RB tallied 2,000 yards and the QB tallied around 1,800 yards. Neither were even in the top 5 for the Heisman.

DSGamer wrote:
Kush15 wrote:
firesloth wrote:

If he wins the Heisman, I'm going to protest!

That's the thing, he is leading in rushing yards and TDs (7 TDs ahead of the next best RB), Rutgers is (8-0) (mostly because of him) and he's not even in the Top 5 for the Heisman. I need all the phantom TDs I can get, lol.

I played 3 seasons in SP dynasty and I never won the Heisman even though for the first two years I had a running back that went over 1,700 yards and led the NCAA in TDs and yards per carry on teams that went undefeated, one of which won the national championship. When that running back graduated I started a freshman (RS) at RB and a freshman QB. Both were very fast and because I was annoyed with stuff like that, for giggles I ran the option a lot. The RB tallied 2,000 yards and the QB tallied around 1,800 yards. Neither were even in the top 5 for the Heisman.

Horrible. And then you look at the players that ARE in the Heisman running, and you wonder why they are in there.

Media bias. Players at Alabama, Florida, etc.

Kush15 wrote:
DSGamer wrote:
Kush15 wrote:
firesloth wrote:

If he wins the Heisman, I'm going to protest!

That's the thing, he is leading in rushing yards and TDs (7 TDs ahead of the next best RB), Rutgers is (8-0) (mostly because of him) and he's not even in the Top 5 for the Heisman. I need all the phantom TDs I can get, lol.

I played 3 seasons in SP dynasty and I never won the Heisman even though for the first two years I had a running back that went over 1,700 yards and led the NCAA in TDs and yards per carry on teams that went undefeated, one of which won the national championship. When that running back graduated I started a freshman (RS) at RB and a freshman QB. Both were very fast and because I was annoyed with stuff like that, for giggles I ran the option a lot. The RB tallied 2,000 yards and the QB tallied around 1,800 yards. Neither were even in the top 5 for the Heisman.

Horrible. And then you look at the players that ARE in the Heisman running, and you wonder why they are in there.

In SP Dynasty my RB rushed for 2500-2700 yards and led the NCAA in rushing TDs by a large margin. He got injured in the first half of the SEC championship after only gaining 80 yards and only scoring 1 TD. He wasn't even in the top 5 in the voting after being number 2 most of the year.

firesloth wrote:

Media bias. Players at Alabama, Florida, etc.

And since I was playing with UF I will disagree with that.

2700 yards?? Wow. How did he not win?!?

Wow, well I guess I feel better for not being alone in this. It's broken for everyone.

I think it's a bit much to say this game is broken. It certainly has some issues they should have fixed before shipping, but it's a very fun on-the-field game with lots of excitement, and the stats are, largely, not too bad. The Heisman thing is as fickle as real life.

I think the stats being broken is more of an issue than others, I imagine. I might return to this game when I'm done with my 360 sabbatical, but I'll be keeping an eye on that issue as largely I play SP.

Coverage is broken though. Anytime DBs react to a route BEFORE the WR runs it, that qualifies, in this day and age, as burrrr-oken.

Prederick wrote:

Coverage is broken though. Anytime DBs react to a route BEFORE the WR runs it, that qualifies, in this day and age, as burrrr-oken.

Well, there is some truth in this. It is hard to throw to outside receivers with man coverage on for this reason.

Honestly, fix that and i'm much more pleased with the game. I simply cannot stand coverage in this game, and when I tweak it with sliders, I end up going 20-22 for 451 yards and 6 TDs.

Second client update is live, also a new tuning file.

EA Sports wrote:

Graphics

- Uniform degradation has been fixed.
- Fixed a graphical issue with TeamBuilder sideline home uniforms.
- Fixed several camera bugs (pulled back on field goals, blurry cameras, and replays after a change of possession)
- Fixed helmet numbers for Rice and Wake Forest

Online
- Resolved an issue with Season Showdown, allowing us to turn it back on, so you're upload failure message every time you go in/out of game is gone!
- Fixed a couple freezes related to lobbies
- Fixed voice communication in Online Dynasty Hub on PS3
- Fixed an issue that could lead to a disconnect in online play during play calling

Offense
- Fixed an issue on a couple plays where the QB would miss a hand off and run backward
- Reduced the chance that the ball will be knocked out when a receiver is hit at the time of the catch
- Tuned the CPU ball carrier so that they will break to the outside more often when appropriate
- Tuned how the CPU ball carriers utilize leans and special moves so that they won't be used in situations when they shouldn't (e.g. a HB in the open field will not put his shoulders down when running forward)
- Tuned pass accuracy and the ability to lead a receiver
- Tweaked sideline catch animations in the end zone so that they have a bit more room to play
- Fixed an exploit where backwards passes could be overly effective

Defense - Fixed defensive reaction to pump fake to be more balanced. Skilled defensive backs will not be as easily fooled by pump fakes.
- Tuned the Aggressive Defensive Line Gameplan to have more risk of jumping offsides
- Removed a hesitation from defensive lineman pass rush on screen plays
- Improved flat zone and deep zone coverage
- Tuned man coverage reaction to the run
- Adjusted CPU pursuit angles in some specific cases where they weren't being aggressive enough

Special Teams
- Tuned onside kicks to be less predictable
- Fixed an issue where catching a kicked ball after hitting the goalpost would result in kicking team getting the ball back
- Fixed an issue where the punter could line up out of place
- Adjusted cross bar collision on field goals and extra points

Other
- Tuned CPU clock management where they would let the clock run out in some cases they shouldn't
- Fixed a bug with time of possession tracking
- Adjusted substitutions to be more intelligent (previously would see some weird players in the game with lots of aggressive no huddle)
- Fixed a couple places where the wrong custom stadium sounds would play
- Fixed a bug that caused Road To Glory to be simulated day by day near the end of the season
- Tuned Kick Power and Kick Accuracy of progression of kickers and punters in Dynasty Mode
- Fixed a couple infrequent game lock-ups

I'm definitely liking the dirty uniforms they were sorely needed. I think this also fixed my only graphic complaint that the players were to shiny especially their arms.

I was playing against Tulsa and they run a lot out of shotgun. I thought I saw a couple of QB read plays where the QB just froze, I dunno could be that my DLine guys were just getting to him to quickly.

- Reduced the chance that the ball will be knocked out when a receiver is hit at the time of the catch

Really? Because i've had some of my safeties lay Hit Stick hits on WRs just as the AI catches it, with no discernible effect other than a cool tackle animation.

Wow. The online Madden/NCAA gamer is predictably crappy. I played my first online game tonight. I'd stashed the game as I was playing it a bit too much. I decided before selling it that I'd pull it out and at least try an online ranked match. Fail. The guy I played against chose Florida. He never punted. He kicked onsides in the middle of the game while up by 21. He called timeouts at the end of the game with 40 seconds left, up by 21. He blitzed constantly. In short, he's everything I expect out of an XBox Live sports gamer. So off it goes to be sold. I think next time, knowing my weakness for going crazy on the SP, I'll wait for quality matchmaking / douche filtering to buy another EA sports game.

So sometime in 2020, I guess.

Silly rabbit -- that's why you should play with us!

Yeah, seriously. The only sports game i've played online in years is FIFA, and that was only when they introduced the 10-on-10 teamplay chaos.