NCAA Football 2011 Wishlist (EA read and apply please)

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 11/09/2009 19:23:31

The following additions/changes would make the game a lot better to me:

1. Allow for more than 12 TeamBuilder teams in a dynasty. Why is there a limit in the first place? It's very frustrating when you have a large dynasty planned out, but you can't put all of the teams in at once. I know on PS2, you could put in as many created/FCS teams that you wanted.

2. Improve the presentation. This has been mentioned a number of times already, but put in a lot of the little things that Madden 2010 includes.

3. Bring back custom playbooks and formation subs.

4. Include field degradation, especially during poor weather conditions. Speaking of the atmosphere, perhaps you could change the daylight every quarter instead of each half. It shouldn't be dusk for an entire half of football during an afternoon game... the sun will be down before the end of the game.

5. Give us the option of playoffs, if possible, at the end of the year (obviously, this might be an issue with the NCAA).

6. This goes along with presentation, but add more animations to the crowd! I hate seeing approximately 100 people in the crowd moving the exact same way all the time. Also, make them react accordingly to what's going on in the game. If the home team is down by 20 at the end of the 4th quarter, the crowd won't be chanting "DEFENSE! DEFENSE!" as the offense lines up to take a knee. Furthermore, how often do you actually hear the crowd chanting something before a 3rd down in a big stadium? The crowd is just loud... yelling, clapping as loud as possible. The crowd needs a HUGE makeover for 2011. They never react appropriately, and it just feels like they're completely separated from the game. It really takes away from the enjoyment of playing a college football game when that emotion is lacking.

Edit: 7. Add a Create-a-Stadium feature for TeamBuilder.

This is the first time I have posted on here and I have my doubts as to where it will be read.

Some changes I would like to see in the game are as follows:

1. Coach's challenges to have more options. Currently it has an idea of what it is you are trying to challenge but doesn't always get it right. I.E. challege a fumble and it asks if you want to challenge the spot of the ball. Example 2. When you try to challenge the spot of the ball it fails to use the end of forward progress and spots the ball in the wrong place.

2. The second change to the game would be to allow stadiums to modify and expand in far out ways. This is a game for adults as well as children. Let's allow people to either get creative or make the changes that are actually taking place at their stadiums.

3. Where are career ending injuries.

4. In online dynasties allow conference to make bids for teams from other conferences.

5. Allow online and user colleges to make bids for coaches in online dynsaty.

6. Allow users to decide if they want bowl games at the end of the season or a certain number of team playoff. You could allow the user to pick the number of teams at end of year playoffs. Top 64, top 32, top 16, top 8, or top 4 playoff.

7. Put in a cover two package.

8. Allow users to create plays.

Thank you for your time and I hope somebody reads these.

I am really enjoying this game. I love the teambuilder concept. Custom plays and playbooks would be a great addition. It could work similar to teambuilder. Create plays and playbooks on the website and then download to the game. I wouldn't think it would be that difficult. As a former HS coach I would love the ability to create my own plays.

With teambuilder, we should also be able to update the uniforms and field each year of a dynasty. If playbuilder ever is developed it would be nice to be able to update the playbook with new plays each year as well.

Graphics on par with Madden would also be great. 1080 is a must.

I know that presentation and atmosphere is important, but I would hope EA would work on the football end first. But they have an extremely difficult task in creating a product that appeals to such a large group of fans that each prefer different things.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 11/11/2009 12:14:27

Simple Additions for 2011

@ White Towels, Dreadlocks - Regular and Short, and all new style helmets! One arm sleeve option too.

Teambuilder Additions for 2011

@ Allow the user to edit the players equipment and appearance on the web. Depth Chart control too.

@ Three different pant colors. Home, Away and Alternate.

Gameplay Additions for 2011

@ While Calling Plays. Individual Subs

The ability to edit players whenever we want. We shouldn't be able to edit players only before the season starts because sometimes walk ons turn out to be amazing college players (Andre Wadsworth, Russell Maryland) and sometimes incredible recruits amount to nothing (Whitney Lewis, Robert Hammond-FSU safety, Mitch Mustain?).
Also some players flop or stagnate as seniors (Quentin Moses, Mitchell Freedman, Brock Huard, Ron Powlus). Some guys dominate after average play for a few years (Vernon Davis, JaMarcus Russell). We need the ability to change all attributes whenever we want because of the fluidity of the players involved. This shouldn't be a problem because EA has done this before with the MVP series and the 2K's offer this option as well, let us truly control the game. One reason I heard this may never be an option is that if the gameplay and presentation is so good, then there would be no reason to buy a new game with the ability to edit this way but I'm not sure I buy this theory.

I know that both of these have been mentioned, but these are my two biggest wishes...

I think it would be great to have the option to have a playoff at the end of your seasons. Just because the NCAA can't get it right doesn't mean we cant!!

And please, for the love of all that is holy, FCS teams!!!!!

This is not actually ne thing i wrote saw this on operation sports add thought it had good things to add in ncaa football11

Five Essential Fixes for NCAA Football 11

Submitted on: 11/11/2009 by Christian McLeod
NCAA Football 10 was a disappointment. While new additions like Team Builder and Season Showdown initially impressed gamers, faulty gameplay mechanics coupled with a lack of collegiate presentation and atmosphere, ultimately doomed the game in many consumers' eyes (myself included). So as college football gears up for its final month before the beginning of bowl season, I thought it would be a good time to look at some things I want to see included in NCAA Football 11.

As a start, I will be outlining the five most important changes that the series needs to make if it is to ever going to become as relevant as it once was on the Playstation 2 and Xbox gaming consoles.

1. Improved presentation off the field

The Madden 10 team took the mantra “if you see it on Sunday’s, you will see it in our game,” and gave sports gamers some of the best presentation we have seen this side of NFL 2K5. It’s time for the NCAA development team to step up and establish its own mantra because the NCAA Football games on- and off-field presentation can be summed up with one word: boring.

Off the field, gamers are expecting some sort of College Gameday-like presentation. We want a pregame show, a post-game show, a weekly wrap-up and a season preview. It still boggles my mind that a game like College Hoops 2K8 was able to accomplish all of these presentation aspects three years ago, yet the NCAA Football team is still struggling to figure it out.

The generic magazine covers in dynasty mode are just not going to cut it anymore. It’s time to elevate weekly in-game presentation to a whole new level.

In addition to weekly recap shows, it’s time to take full advantage of EA having the ESPN license. As evidenced by the outstanding looking presentation in NCAA Basketball 10, EA has the ability to integrate ESPN’s graphical overlays and presentation aspects into its games -- this is a must for NCAA Football 11.

To take the presentation one step further, why not integrate three or four different ESPN announcing crews who could be assigned to different games depending on their importance? (I know this is unrealistic because of time constraints, but it sure would be fantastic.)

Finally, it’s time for EA to add college-applicable cut scenes to the NCAA Football series, much like what is seen in Madden 10. Bring back the team-specific entrances, players warming up before the game, fans in the stands with their various signs, coaches barking at players, post-game Gatorade baths -- basically take everything about off-field presentation that was already in NCAA Football 06, and have it return in NCAA Football 11.
2. Improved on-field presentation

On-field presentation is another area where the NCAA Football team needs to summon the spirits of past NCAA Football games. Just as in Madden, it is important for the NCAA team to understand that every team out there is somebody’s favorite team. There is no reason not include every team's alternate or throwback jerseys or to leave out a team's stadium.

NCAA Football 11 will mark the series’ fifth year of development on this generation of consoles, yet gamers are still missing out on many little details that they were spoiled by during the last generation of consoles. Those details include bowl patches and bowl-specific presentation. As it stands now, dynasty bowl games, both online and off, are soulless abominations that provide players with no sense of bowl immersion whatsoever. When I invest countless hours of gameplay in a 13-game season and earn a bowl bid, is bowl presentation that is complete with patches, rabid fans and an on-field trophy ceremony that much to ask for?

Along with the bowl patches and presentation, I’d like to see the return of the "dynamic" pride sticker. By dynamic I mean pride stickers that are earned based on actual player performance on the field. This is yet another last-gen feature that has not found its way over to the current console generation. It is sorely missed.

Add the previously mentioned features to some additional on-field equipment, like towels and hand warmers, and you would have a visually rewarding college football title on your hands.

3. Slow the game down

The NCAA Football gameplay speed needs to be slowed down. While adding variable speed settings like in Madden 10 would make a huge difference, the underlying problem with NCAA Football 10’s speed has to do with player momentum and locomotion -- there is none. Players move and cut on a dime, which makes it feel like they are made of paper or sliding across a field made of ice.

Because there is a lack of momentum and player locomotion, many of the animations in NCAA Football 10 ended up looking awkward and unnatural. I can’t even express how many games of NCAA 10 I have played where it actually felt more like I was playing NFL Blitz -- chalk it up to the ridiculous power tackles and overpowered offensive moves. The overall feel of the game screams arcade and takes away from the college football experience that is trying to be conveyed.

NCAA 11 needs to take a cue from Madden 10 and add in the same options for game speed. Give players the ability to choose how fast they want the game to play. On top of this, player acceleration, agility ratings and rating effectiveness need to be reworked from the ground up to prevent players from cutting on a dime.

While not perfect, Madden 10’s player-locomotion system was solid. It was also a reason why there were more realistic on-field conclusions in the game. Now I have generally never been a big fan of copying aspects of the Madden series over to the NCAA series, but Madden 10’s player movement and speed felt right in this year's iteration. So with that in mind, I think it should be the standard for EA football games moving forward.

4. Give us Pro-Tak (or Collegiate-Tak)

I know I just said I have not been a big fan of bringing ideas over from Madden, but Pro-Tak has to be one of the best innovations in football games since the multi-button passing layout.

Pro-Tak added a strategic layer to both offense and defense in Madden 10, and it also changed the way I would approach my game plans. It was extremely rewarding to feverishly work the sticks to gain an extra 2-3 yards on offense or break through the line on defense to slow down a ball carrier until your teammates could help you out. Best of all, Pro-Tak felt incredibly balanced offensively. It forced smaller speed-style players to shy away from contact because they might turn the ball over or get injured, while at the same time it forced larger power players into contact because they might pick up a few extra yards.

On the defensive end, I was actually worried about facing players like Brandon Jacobs and Adrian Peterson, especially if I had an undersized defensive line and linebacking corps (see: the Lions). This led to several defensive adjustments and hot routes at the line of scrimmage that I had never thought about before in an NFL video game.

NCAA 10’s current system of two-man gang tackles leaves a lot to be desired. Worse yet is that there is absolutely no reward for recruiting power players, both on offense and defense. Unfortunately, speed is still king in NCAA Football, and this is something that the addition of Pro-Tak could help change.

A Pro-Tak system in NCAA 11 would create an effective speed/power balance, allowing for more flexibility when it comes to recruiting and building a team. Imagine being able to finally create a smash-mouth Woody Hayes-style offensive team that could punish opponents every Saturday afternoon. Imagine an NCAA Football game where having a fundamentally sound defense, not just a fast defense, actually means something. Better yet, imagine playing a team like Alabama and actually having to game plan around Mark Ingram and his punishing running style. Now those are three possibilities that have me excited to play an NCAA game again.

Pro-Tak in NCAA 11 is a must. Its addition alone would give this college football lover some hope that the series is on the rebound.

5. Rework recruiting

Recruiting is in dire need of a facelift in the NCAA Football series. The mode, as it currently stands, is tedious (especially in online dynasties), bland and offers no long-term value outside of your initial recruiting-board setup. How am I supposed to build a program when I can’t even enjoy the process of putting my team together?

EA needs to do something to spice recruiting up and streamline the entire season-long process at the same time. I understand the development team was aiming for realism with the addition of the "hourly" allocation system, but something just seems to be missing when compared to the last-gen "points" system. It's something I can't quite put my finger on.

Call me old school, but I wouldn’t mind if EA scrapped the current system altogether in favor of a simpler, more hands-off approach that integrates better AI recruiting logic. Or why not give users the ability to choose between a "simple" or "complex" recruiting system for NCAA Football 11? That way I do not have to spend an entire week coordinating with my old college buddies just to advance our online dynasty to the next season.

Much like Notre Dame, EA's once great NCAA Football franchise has faded into mediocrity over the last five years. The NCAA series is in dire need of a new direction, and as a long-time fan of the franchise, I can only hope changes are made before it’s too late.

I think there should be an option under the dynasty mode for an extensive coach function, where you can hire assitants (this would work out much like a Road to Glory, except for you're the coach and not the player), and coaches from other schools can be hired, fired, and retire, just like in real life. This would greatly enhance the game IMO. Also, within that function, you should have to operate under a budget, and you can use excess money to upgrade your stadium and facilities. Since those are pitches on the recruiting, if you start at a school that doesn't have great facilities, the facilities are always the same (or slightly change on their own), but it would be more of a challenge to "build" a program if you actually had to build it.

The crowd needs to be louder. I've been to football games at Lane Stadium and even in the nose bleed seats it is still deafening. I can only imagine what it sounds like to the players on the field. I want the sound of the crowd to be roaring from the speakers on my TV! And better crowd reaction! When our team's RB breaks one down the field the crowd erupts before he even reaches the endzone! You hear people screaming! HE'S GONE HE'S GONE! THERE HE GOES! Or when the QB throws a pass down the field and the receiver is wide open. As the ball get's closer to him, the crowd slowly get's louder, and then when the pass is either complete or not, the crowd still reacts. If it is overthrown or dropped the crowd lets out a loud sigh. AAWWWW, Sorry, I can't replicate it. But if he catches it, the reaction is about the same as the RB's play I mentioned before.

How about fireworks for touchdowns scored in night games.

Also regarding custom stadium sounds. You're playing in a stadium! The custom stadium sounds should sound like they are echoing from the stadium's sound system, not like your listening to an mp3 player.Also if your not going to include team specific entrances, at least let us select a custom stadium sound for the team introduction or start of the game.

And as mentioned before, the game speed is not realistic. When a RB jukes a defender around the line of scrimmage, he's able to put all of his effort into to juking because he hasn't built up to much momentum. When a RB that runs a 4.35 40 is running full speed down the sideline, he can't just completely juke a defender.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 11/12/2009 15:48:24

i just thought of this today does everyone remember how in ncaa baseball you had to earn equiptment to make your team better and you can get season goals to make your stadium bigger and expand your fan base i think that they should have something like that in the next ncaa football
Like better name brand shoes make you go faster
better name brand gloves bump up your catch rating
better pads make tackling attributes go up and stuff
and i think that will make it better for the people who like to make bad teams a power house
but that was one thing that just came to me
but the big teams like florida shouldnt start with every thing up all the way
put all of the mascots in there western has buster bronco and he isnt in the game he has been to every western home game for years so i think that he deserves to be in the game

I wish they would let you make formation subs again!

Also, being able to actually set a Kick Return formation. The way it is now, they might as well not even have any plays set, just pick it for u, sheesh!

And not sure how feasible this is, but when i export my Draft Class to Madden, i want to be able to draft more / any of the players! I'm sick of winning four Heismans with one guy, then his name magically disappears from the draft board b/c he is "only" rated a 90 when he graduates!

But that may be more of a Madden thing, i dunno!

And please bring back FCS / I-AA teams!!!

I'm kind of tired of a lot of these suggestions that don't really help gameplay. I think the biggest problem isn't that there aren't towels swishing around or dreadlocks on players. The biggest problem is that you can play the game by finding 1 or 2 plays on each side of the ball that are extremely hard to defend, and there is very little ability to stop them. Yes, it can be done, but you end up calling the same plays to counteract what you know is going to be the same play every time. This leads to the player vs. CPU experience being far superior to player versus player. These kind of problems need to be fixed by people who understand football a lot better than I imagine a lot of the programmers, or even more so many people here on the forums. But I have a few ideas that would help. First, total formation switches. It is rare in college or pro football today that an offense comes out and lines up in the same formation that it will actually run the play out of. The days of putting a single receiver into motion are long gone. This is basically what the football world has done to counteract the fairly revolutionary idea of having defensive packages. So I suggest that you be able to choose a "show formation" . This would be the formation that is told to the defense while in huddle, and will be the initial formation presented. Then there would be a "run formation" or something like that, I think there could be a better name out there for it. Which would be the formation you are actually running. The personnel wouldn't change, but it would be so much better than having to call an audible. Like say I "show" ace big, then "run" out of ace y-trips. It would be the same as setting an audible as far as the advantages sort of lost by not having that specific personnel out there, but if I had my whole playbook to choose from in the "run formation" package, then maybe it wouldn't be bad to run, say a WR screen when my two slot recievers are TEs. Plus you have show to the defense that you have 1RB 2WR and 2TE in your package, but are now running out of a 3 WR formation, so there is the potential for a mismatch with an OLB covering your TE, you could also use a WR TE package if you know that you are going to be using a certain "run formation" It just seems like that if this is the way that modern offenses operate we should be able to. Another big deal though, and one that would counteract a lot of what I just suggested, would be altering the way this package information is reported to the defense. If there are people up in the box dedicated to tracking what offensive package is in, do they really catagorize them based on where they will be lining up? Of course not. The formation should be reported based on WHO, not WHAT is in the huddle. That way, and this happened in NCAA 09 to me, if I am playing Clemson who has CJ Spiller AND James Davis, and they put them both on the field at the same time, but one out as a receiver, I am not simply told that they have 3WR, 1TE, 1RB. That information is useless, because they actually have a receiver that I can't expect my 3rd CB or 3rd Safety to tackle. I want to know Where Spiller and Davis are. So it should tell me personnel like RB#1, RB#28, WR#8, WR#88. Then at least it's on me to do some degree of scouting to know who is on the other team that I need to worry about. I mean all you really know by looking at a huddle is who is in the game, not where they will line up. Realistically I'd like to have my fastest OLB, or maybe even a Safety playing OLB covering Davis, with a safety coming over top in case he goes deep. I think these sort of mental games, the intricate strategies that make football the most interesting and constantly evolving game on the planet so much fun to watch. What often gets translated into this game is an arcade-like skills vs. skills situation. I am on board with a lot of other changes listed (especially formation subs that you can set, instead of having to scroll through, and possibly never finding, which would have been helpful in the Davis example) But I think these would be most helpful for increasing the realism on the field. And one Last thing DE Speed Yes there are a few QBs that can outrun any DEs. But if you watch most games, when your average QB goes around the end (unless the DE has stunted inside) he is caught by a D-1 DE. That's because your 40 time doesn't have much to do with whether or not I can beat your for the five yard window I'd need to get into space. Make Short Distance speed (Explosiveness?) an attribute. If you look at a lot of interior linemen's 20yard or 10yard splits in the 40 (overall speed) you'd see that they are very close. I think that would be a huge boost to forcing proper quarterbacking play. Then ratchet back what seems to be a very disproportionate playmaking ability on behalf of linebackers and corners. At least on Heisman. A stop route is essentially useless. The corner will break far faster and (often through) my Wideouts, of course that's another issue. Body Positioning just like in basketball, receivers and tight ends should be able to essentially box out defenders. I don't think I need to explain that much. But the receiving animations and general need a lot of help. Wideouts often jump towards a deep ball (engaging in sort of mid air battle) They usually don't just go for an over the shoulder pass animation as the corner easily leaps four feet into the air and swats the ball away with a hand. Not saying that the success rate isn't low. But there should be some sort of fight for balls. I think that just about covers my problems with the in game stuff, which is all i really mind. The presentation (especially pregame) needs a serious update. It's pretty weak as of now. Oh One More thing Weight Increase If I convert a MLB to DT, then shouldn't he start packing on pounds. And just like with Speed this year, it really shouldn't be a constant. Especially if i convert him to DT, then redshirt him. He should gain like 40lbs that year, maybe lose 5 speed points but he should also have huge gains in strength. And I have several friends who gained at least 40lbs in muscle after joining a dietary and weight training program at the D-1 level. It is without a doubt possible. Then it would be more fun to go to a 1 or 2 star roster, and be able to tweak positions with more benefit to make the team viable. That is all.

I think there should be a 2 player road to glory and on the dynasty talk money to the coaches. Also the optional playoff/BCS system and bring back showboating.

DO NOT slow down the gameplay. thats my only request. madden is unplayable for me online now because of the slight lag and incredibly slow gameplay. i love the passing game. guys are open/covered/open between pressing the button and the ball getting there. it's ridiculous. if you want to slow down the gameplay for "realism" there has to be stats like lateral movement, backpeddling, release (qb), BLITZ PICKUP, and things similar to that which would make each player completely unique and exploitable. as far as i'm concerned madden is ruined for any competitive play. hopefully ncaa wont be next year as well.

What i really would enjoy is..

1.tournament mode

2.have special teams in road to glory

3.kick return trick plays..squib kick and reverse returns

4.have fight songs u can chose or upload for team builder

Electronic Arts

Highlighted Game

NCAA® Football 10