Q&A with NCAA Football 10 Designer Greg Heddlesten

Hey Greg,

Might be a stupid question but here it goes. All I do is play online dynasty, have you patched or do you plan to address the "Players Leaving Early" glitch from 2009 version?

Also, what is the criteria for increasing your programs prestige, this isn't very clear to the user's? What is needed for a program to lose a star?

Hey Greg, welcome to our Forums!

One question for you:

Will we ever be able to play Campus Legend as if it were just a regular dynasty like we used to be able to do with Race for the Heisman? The camera angles are so foolish at times and I like controlling everyone and playing the whole game. It'd be nice to be able to control my QB and have the ability to decide how often I wanted to throw my WR's way or how often I'd like to hand off.

I just think it would be cool to have the option to choose how you'd like to run the mode.

Thanks

The chant creator in NCAA Basketball 2k8 was genius/hilarious - any chance of that getting implemented?

If it is, don't be stingy with euphemisms and/or totally uncensored profanities. That was the only problem with theirs.

ps3.Tovarich999 wrote:There definitely were mistakes in online dynasty games by the refs. I never played regular online games, but in dyansty, they definitely reviewed things on their own and changed them. Though, it never showed us the replay, it just said it was reviewing, went to some stadium overview type view, and then told us the result of the review.

Ok, that makes sense. We can't do replays online because it can cause the game to desync and drop one or both users. I'll have to see if there is a reason to why we made it different for online dynasty games.

ps3.dsqrd44 wrote:Hey Greg,

Might be a stupid question but here it goes. All I do is play online dynasty, have you patched or do you plan to address the "Players Leaving Early" glitch from 2009 version?

Also, what is the criteria for increasing your programs prestige, this isn't very clear to the user's? What is needed for a program to lose a star?

The "Players Leaving Early" glitch will not be seen in NCAA Football 10. It has been fixed.

I'm not totally sure on what drops your prestige, I believe it is related to win/loss record and some other factors. I'd ask this in Ben's thread as he is our main Dynasty designer.

xbox.NationofVols wrote:Hey Greg, welcome to our Forums!

One question for you:

Will we ever be able to play Campus Legend as if it were just a regular dynasty like we used to be able to do with Race for the Heisman? The camera angles are so foolish at times and I like controlling everyone and playing the whole game. It'd be nice to be able to control my QB and have the ability to decide how often I wanted to throw my WR's way or how often I'd like to hand off.

I just think it would be cool to have the option to choose how you'd like to run the mode.

Thanks

I'm not sure if we'll ever return to the previous style of Legend as we're always looking to refresh our modes when possible. But on a side note, since I can control the cameras in legend, what situations would cause the camera angles to be "foolish?"

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 03/24/2009 07:55:51

MAIN.UofFgator2 wrote:The chant creator in NCAA Basketball 2k8 was genius/hilarious - any chance of that getting implemented?

If it is, don't be stingy with euphemisms and/or totally uncensored profanities. That was the only problem with theirs.

At some point, yes. It's been discussed a few times in my few years of being here. Unfortunately, we'll have to be pretty careful with what we allow to be uncensored as we are an "E for everyone" rated game. We will not do anything that will cause that rating to be raised any higher.

Also, you have to be mindful of any profanity filter requests by Sony/Microsoft. They have guidelines as well that we must follow.

Yeah, I think the last thing some unsuspecting parent wants to hear out of their kids video game is "First Down....***!", everytime junior gets a first down. Among other things, of course.

Greg,

Thanks for ya time. Has the Hire and Firing of coaches been fixed in the OD for this year? Also, what about contracts and changing jobs?

what exactly is the greatness score based upon exactly

Greg,

May I first say, I think your interaction on here is just awesome! Anyway, I just have three quick questions and you can give a yes or no answer.

1. Will there be refs on the field this year?
2. Will the running animations be different (I'm hoping yes, running is choppy and doesn't feel or look right)?
3. Will the QB throw the ball correctly (If you watch replays, sometimes the ball is on top or the outside of the hand)? And will the ball rotate properly? Sorry that makes four, but I'm greedy.

One last question and you don't have to answer. I have always said the '05 was the best version out there. Did the design team change after '05? Just wondering????? Anyway, thanks again for the interaction and look forward to hearing your response.

MAIN.kindella2 wrote:Greg,

Thanks for ya time. Has the Hire and Firing of coaches been fixed in the OD for this year? Also, what about contracts and changing jobs?

We did not implement coaching hire/fires into Online Dynasty because the commish can change which team you control.

xbox.bettencourt21 wrote:what exactly is the greatness score based upon exactly

Many, many things... This year we now show the "grade" (the score is still calculated in the background) for each team. The scores calculate differently based on the play type, but overall the formulas involve:

1) Yards gained/lost
2) CPU/User catches, INTs, Big Hits, Sacks, Special Moves, Broken Tackles, Fumbles caused/recovered
3) Touchdown, Safety, FG/PAT Make/Miss
a) if the score is for a tie, lead, game winner
4) If you are on 3rd/4th down and yards till a 1st down
5) The quarter and time left on the game clock

There are probably some more I'm forgetting, but in essence we try to look at the entire play and determine what events happened and score each side of the ball based on those events. I wanted to get away from a score and move into a "grade" (like A++, A+, B, C, D, etc.) so that we have more of a global view of the game. If you have an awesome play you should be at B+ or higher and if you have a horrible down you can see grades as low as D, F, and F-.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 03/24/2009 21:28:48

ps3.joedrews wrote:Greg,

May I first say, I think your interaction on here is just awesome! Anyway, I just have three quick questions and you can give a yes or no answer.

1. Will there be refs on the field this year?
2. Will the running animations be different (I'm hoping yes, running is choppy and doesn't feel or look right)?
3. Will the QB throw the ball correctly (If you watch replays, sometimes the ball is on top or the outside of the hand)? And will the ball rotate properly? Sorry that makes four, but I'm greedy.

One last question and you don't have to answer. I have always said the '05 was the best version out there. Did the design team change after '05? Just wondering????? Anyway, thanks again for the interaction and look forward to hearing your response.

1) Unfortunately, they will not.
2) We've had many new animations added or replaced in the game this year. The running animation has been slightly updated, but is still in the process of being tuned.
3) Hopefully. There are some new throw animations this year, but they are still being worked on like the run animation.

We're still in alpha, so all of these bugs/glitches are being looked at as we march towards our ship date.

4) It changed somewhat, but I couldn't tell you the scope. All I know is I had the opportunity to join the team at the end of the 08 product cycle and here I am (my first job in the industry, woohoo!).

Greg, speaking of the refs. Not that it really matters to me, but why is it that the refs aren't in the game, anyway?

Again, to me it's not a big deal, but I don't know if I've seen an official statement, for lack of a better term, as to why.

Electronic Arts

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