Happy New Year and welcome to 2010 (yeah I'm almost 2 weeks late). Time for another topic on NCAA Football 10, one that I think we are going to get a lot of opinions on: Game-play. There are some specific things we'd like to hear about, but really this forum is going to be for any feedback pertaining to game-play you'd like to provide.

First off I'm really interested in what you think of the differences in Madden and NCAA; mainly the changes to Game Speed and PRO-TAK.

• Do you like the game speed in Madden, NCAA, or both?
• Should PRO-TAK be something we look at for NCAA?

Secondly what about our new game-play features?

• Set-up Plays
  • How often do you try and set up a play?
  • Are the set-up plays effective enough?

• Game Planning
  • Which do you use the most?
  • Do some work too well? Or not well enough?

• Defensive Keys
  • How often do you Key in on the offensive play?
  • How well do you think the keys work?

I've seen a lot of the feedback about Run Middle, but please leave any comments you have.

And then just anything else you would like to add.

Keep an eye out for a Live Chat on game-play in the next week or so, and make sure you keep checking this forum to add your opinions.

Thanks everyone!

-Russell Kiniry

Designer NCAA Football

Hey NCAA Football Fans! Like I've said multiple times, fantastic chat about Progression. The amount of passion and detail was really nice to see that said; this next chat should be a great one: Recruiting. There is a lot that goes into recruiting players in our game, and I'm curious as to what you think on some pretty key topics:

Recruit ratings:

• Where do you think they should be rated?
• What types of recruits do you want to see? Any types? For example, power running backs vs. elusive running backs.

Recruiting Difficulty:

• Do you find recruiting to be hard? Or easy?
• Do you feel signing players is harder with a lower caliber school?
• Should players wait longer to sign?

Recruits:

• Do you like the topics recruits care about?
• What should be weighted as the "most important" pitches for recruits? Like should more recruits care about Proximity to Home (or other pitches)?

Recruiting Players

• How often do you use Quick Call?
• How often do you move players around on your Recruiting Board?
• What do you think of the Phone Call?

And then just anything you have an opinion about with recruiting.

So like I said a huge chat going into the Holidays. Also make sure you keep looking back here on the forums for news on the next Live Chat, the first one was great in my opinion.

Thanks again guys!

-Russell Kiniry

Designer NCAA Football

First of I'd like to Thank everyone for taking the time to provide some direct feedback for NCAA Football 10 it really helps us in keeping things together instead of filtering through 100's of wish list/feedback posts on the entire game across multiple forums .

With that said I'm very interested in starting with Progression, given the initial feedback from the game and the released patch which changed it. I'm curious about what are your thoughts about the current state of progression in NCAA 10 and was the patch a step in the right direction in your opinion or not? Secondly I'd like to know what you feel is the most important aspect of a player progression both in our game and in reality (personally I feel they should be the same if not similar).

Some examples include:

• A players Potential - Some guys are just going to get good as they get older; sure playing time and coaches might help... but the kid is going to have All American talent
• The Team - Coaches and Facilities build great players; while a recruit has some ability he really can't get much better unless someone helps him along the way
• On the Field - The only thing that matters is what you do on Saturday (or any other day the Sun Belt schedules a game ); meaning that his stats drive how good he can be.

I'll be reading through every post here in my new NCAA Football sub forum and we will have a Live Chat in the near future on this topic, so if you have questions put them in your post. I'll try and get some free time to post as well, but we are working hard on the game right now.

Sit down with Environment Modeler Eric Sherwood and get an inside look at how he takes the University of Minnesota stadium and recreates it...in the game!

The process of creating a stadium is a long task, it takes almost 2 months, to build a NCAA stadium (not counting all the debugging and testing time) and get a polished, shippable stadium.  First we gather reference and information on the stadium; in the case of Minnesota, as with most stadiums, we did a photo shoot of the new stadium and got schematics breaking down the layout and giving us measurements of the facility.  In the photo shoot we try and capture as much information as possible, from taking pictures at the field level to up in the press box.  After that we start modeling the stadium based off of camera matches inside Maya so that we know the scale and relative size is correct.  The images for the camera match are taken from photos during our photo shoot.

        Above is a "wireframe" of the camera match inside Maya.

        Above is a schematic of the stadium layout

Once we have the stadium blocked in and know our layout is correct we start adding in all the details to the scene.  We model out as much information as possible within our budgets for the scene, from edge wall tunnels, to the interior of the press boxes, and everything in between.

After the modeling is finished we move onto texturing the stadium.  For texturing we will try and use information from the photo shoot when applicable, during the photo shoot we will take close up pictures of just the brick or concrete to then use those images in our scene so they match the real life reference as much as possible.  This process is usually as time consuming as the modeling, both being around 3-4 weeks.  In the end of the texturing process we will have all the materials in the stadium, from the base color, dirt on walls, and self shadowing of the objects.  The last step is for lighting to light the stadium, where we apply shadow information, illuminate scoreboards, and assign light intensities.  After all of these steps, the end result is a polished stadium similar to the others you have seen in NCAA.

After losing my first game of the NCAA Football 10 Community Playdate to BiH Patriot and his UFC Trojans by a final score of 38-21, I came out looking to avenge my loss, but suffered the same fate with Ohio State. This time it was against Texas and their high powered offense. Check out the screens below for highlights of the matchup.

The game started out very good for me and seemed well on its way to being a defensive battle which usually favors me. I received the ball to begin the game, drove down the field and fumbed the ball inside the red zone. steveadler76 capitalized on my turnovers and took an early 7-0 lead.

Trailing 7-0 in the first quarter, I came out running with the intention of setting up the deep ball. About 7 plays into the drive, I was able to hit my receiver for a huge gain to move my team into his territory. A few plays later, I was able to close out a 12 play drive to tie the game at 7-7 to end the first quarter.

The second quarter featured more of the same as steveadler76 continued to pass the ball on my defense with little success, but he was able to control the game with his defense and made a key interception to again take the lead at 14-7.

Again, I was able to move the ball down field and score to tie the game at 14 right before the half, but without luck. stevadler76 drove down and kicked a late half field goal to take a 17-14 halftime lead. As the second half began, I moved the ball again to tie the game at 17-17. Little did I know that this would be the high point of the night. stevadler76 comes back and takes the lead at 20-17 with :47 seconds left in the game.

Finally my defense holds up and returns the favor, giving me a chance to win the game. I take the kickoff, head left, and fumble the ball. steveadler76 picks the ball up and runs it in for the game clinching TD, leaving me speachless and winless for the evening.

What a way to lose the game right? Regardless, it was a great game and stevealder76 is a great gamer to compete against!