NCAA Football 10 - July 14 - Custom Conferences and Season Showdown

Speaking of Super Sim here's a little scoop of what's to come for NCAA Football 10...

• On-the-Field presentation: This helps keep you "in the game" by drawing the simmed play bars directly on top of the field. Once you are ready to go back into the game, the lines are erased and the players are thrown back onto the gridiron.
• Updated CPU Clock Management: We've been able to update our CPU Clock Management logic, which now causes our CPU coaches to call time outs when needed late in the half or game. Also, the team that is up will attempt to burn out the clock by running the ball late in the game, or by having the QB kneel the ball (once their opponent has exhausted all three timeouts).
• Skip Play in Campus Legend: Everyone is already used to seeing Super Sim when their Legend is on the bench, but we have found another way to leverage this feature. Skip Play is new to NCAA Football 10, and it does exactly what you think it should. Tired of having to block on offense as a WR or HB? No problem, hit Skip Play from the Legend Play Call screen, Super Sim will simulate that down and return you to the huddle the next play call. And it's all at the press of a button.

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Camera Flashes, Field Goal Nets, and Windsocks

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One small detail we added this year is camera flashes going off in the stands. The bigger the game, the more flashes will be going off. This will help give the bigger games that "big game" feel. We were able to borrow this from Madden NFL and are tuning the intensity of these now.

Field goal nets have been missing for too long, so we were sure to bring these to the current gen consoles this year. Nothing too exciting, but it brings a little more realism to the game. Another small detail you'll notice are the wind socks on top of the goal posts. Want to add a challenge to the kicking game? Don't look at the meter for the wind factor and use the socks instead.

Swappable Bowl Endzones

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Ok, enough of the little things. Here's the addition I'm very pleased to FINALLY get in the game. Team specific bowl endzones! We call these "swappable endzones" as we can swap them around dynamically when we please.

Unlike the previous generation of consoles, the high definition consoles we have today require much more detail for the fields. The technology for having team specific endzones on the PS2 wouldn't get the job done, so we had to come up with a new solution for the current generation.

Fortunately, our brilliant graphics engineers created what is called the Texture Compositor. This was originally developed for handling created stadiums and uniforms for Madden. It allows the game to take multiple pieces of art and combine them into one as the game loads. Before we had to use a single piece of art for every field. With 120 teams and 38 bowl and championship games there was no way to create a field for every game with every possible team matchup and fit it on the disk (I was going to do the math but gave up quickly!). Instead we have 38 bowl and championship fields with blank endzones, and 120 custom endzones (one for each team). When you load into a bowl or championship game, the Texture Compositor takes the three pieces of art and combines them into one field.

One of the nice things about this system is that instead of getting an endzone from your home field and throwing it on the bowl field (like on PS2), we have a bowl game specific endzone for each school (though for many schools we went with the design of an endzone used on their home field). This addition is long overdue, but we finally have it on NCAA Football 10.

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On NCAA Football 09 I was the designer for what had been long considered the "Holy Grail of NCAA features", Online Dynasty.

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I couldn't have been more excited to get this feature into the game. Dynasty is without a doubt my favorite feature in any sports game, and bringing that experience online brought a tremendous amount of life into an already great game mode. Based on the feedback from the community I was not the only one that was able to resurrect gaming rivalries with old college roommates that now live on the other side of the country, increase my desire to sign the recruits in the nation for no other reason than to force the other dynasty members to settle for a 3 star prospect, and feeling the pressure of knowing the result of your head to head game will mean the difference between a BCS berth or finishing your season in December.

When it comes to any Dynasty (online of offline) it all starts with which team(s) will be human controlled. One of the most difficult decisions to make is which conference will be used. If you are all about the head to head games and want that BCS tie-in then the PAC-10 and Big East are great options since you know for sure you will play everyone each year. If you have a full 12 members and want to decide the conference title in a championship game, or if you want the challenge of taking a "mid major" and turning them into the next powerhouse you have a number of options.

However, sometimes it's not that easy, sometimes it can be next to impossible to find a conference with the right mix of teams to make everyone happy. Well in NCAA Football 10 we have made life easier on commissioners across the nation with the addition of Custom Conferences. Now you will be able to swap any school in or out of your conference and replace them with another FBS school. Each conference will keep their current number of members, so if you feel it's about time that Notre Dame joins the Big Ten you've got to decide which school will become an Independent. Since there are 120 FBS schools in real life, you will need to keep 120 FBS schools in your dynasty. While Michigan fans won't be able to prevent Ohio State from ever playing football again, they can take pride in relegating them to the MAC.

Custom Conferences will allow for increased flexibility in your dynasties. Now it's entirely up to you how the college football landscape will look in your dynasty. If you can't play with anyone but your Cornhuskers, and your friend feels the same way about Clemson don't just duke it out in a non-conference game, put a conference title on the line.

Wanna create a super conference with the top schools in the nation? Go right ahead. Do you miss the days of the old Southwest Conference, dust off the old wishbone playbook and put them all in the WAC, Mountain West, or Sun Belt. In NCAA Football 10 it's up to you how you want to set it up.

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True to the tradition of the award-winning franchise, NCAA Football 10 continues to push the bar on innovation with new online modes. NCAA Football 10 brings the excitement of college football to fans across the nation like never before with its newest feature, Season Showdown. In this new mode, every game counts as fans declare their loyalty to a favorite school and give the ultimate show of support in a nationwide competition. All college football fans will have an opportunity to participate in Season Showdown, as credits not only accumulate in-game but players can also earn credits for their school via new web-based games. Millions of college football fans around the country will be on a mission to prove their school is number one with NCAA Football 10’s Season Showdown.

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Today we are going to reveal another two features brand new to the game: Player Lock and Defensive Assist

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While playing defense in Dynasty or Play Now are you the type of person who likes to just take the DE and try and make a play? What about only choosing the FS? Or have you wanted to be the WR on a big third down because you think you can run his route better?
How would you like to be able to do this? CLICK HERE TO SEE THE VIDEO


With Player Lock you can select a player on the field and choose to stay him the entire play, this gives you a new perspective depending on the position you choose. In the above example you can see the transition from going from our normal game-play camera to a view behind the middle line backer we locked on too.


You can take any player on defense and any skill position on offense (sorry offensive linemen) to Player Lock onto. I've found it the most fun to use on defense, it brings a new way to look at the field and play the game. It is really fun and rewarding to know you were locked on to one player for the whole play and got the pick or the sack.


Here is a random screen shot we got last night of an attempt to block a field goal:

Makes for a nice break for our next feature...
In an effort to help players on defense we'd also like to introduce Defensive Assist. By pressing the A button on Xbox 360 (or the X button on PlayStation 3) your player will move to his correct position at any given time. For example say you are not exactly sure where the corner you are controlling should be playing his zone; all you have to do is press the A button and the player under you control will move to his assignment on the field.

Not only does this apply to zone coverage it applies to all movement on the defensive side of the ball; pursuit angles, man coverage, and ball landing spots. It can also help you swat down a pass, but it will not try and go for an interception or attempt a hit stick tackle (it is an assist after all).



Personally I've used the Defensive Assist to be able to focus on reading what play the offense is doing and not have to worry about if I moved that linebacker I was controlling too far out of his zone. It's also nice to get a player moving in the right direction as soon as the ball is thrown, then I like to take over and go for the tackle or pick myself.


And there we have it, another week done in the countdown to July14th and the release of NCAA Football 10. It's going to be a fun time as we get to release more and more information about the game between now and when you have it in your hands.

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Hey NCAA Football Fans I wanted to jump in and show some work being done with the Offensive/Defensive Line play. Rather than just a bunch of stuff I read, figured it would be better to post some shots and comment a little on each one.

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Well there you have it, a full pocket. You can see that both Offensive Tackles (OT) were able to ride the Defensive Ends (DE) or Linebackers (LB) out wide behind the Quarterback (QB) instead of just standing them straight up. This year we are giving the Tackles the ability to take a Defensive End wide around the QB in a realistic fashion.
First look at the right side of the line:

Here is a close up view of the LB being strung out wide by an OT; you can see the body lean as the LB is trying to get around the OT using a speed rush. Instead of being pushed once or twice and standing still you'll notice the interaction between the OT and DE (or LB) play out in a more natural sequence.
Now let's take a look at the other side of the line and the different rush style:

This example is showing an attempt to use a bull rush and muscle his way to the QB; however the OT is able to keep the DE at bay. And like on the other side of the line push him out wide to help create that pocket from the first screen shot.
All the above shots are from the same play to give an example of how things are progressing on the NCAA Football 10 game-play front. And before you ask this does mean we are working on the ability of the Defensive Line to get to the QB as well:

The edge rusher in this case was able to make a move back inside. Sorry to ruin the suspense... it ended in a sack.
We are still in the process of working how often the defender vs. the offensive line will win. Like how much does Finesse Moves factor against Pass Block Footwork? Or how often will AI defenders attempt special moves? And a number of other tuning issues. It is a high priority to the team right now to ensure our line play is balanced on both sides of the ball.

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Gameplay Camera Presentation Updates:

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This year we were able to convert our gameplay cameras to a new system that can be tuned by the designers on the team while playing the game. The benefit to this is we now have the ability to prototype new camera angles quickly and see how we can make your view of the game even better and more dynamic.


One aspect of the new tech is the camera's ability to frame all of your receiver options on-screen as much as possible. What we do is have the camera behave like a turret on your head and as you and the receivers move on the field the camera will focus at a calculated point on the field (called a proxy target) that will give you the best vantage point. We are able to add weights on the calculation that can force the camera to pay more attention to the QB's location, the receivers, or even the player going out for the screen pass. In addition, we can lock this point to be a set distance from the line of scrimmage so that its location keeps a steady position instead of flying up, down, and all over the field as your receivers move in real time.

Using this proxy target can really open up your ability to read the coverage on the play and make an educated decision on which player to pass the ball. And if there are no options available, you'll be able to determine if you should tuck the ball and scramble. Also, we'll be paying attention to how this benefits/burdens the defense's perspective as well and update the camera's placement and proxy target weights accordingly. The camera is a work in progress at this point, but you can see some examples of things we've can do with this new system.

In addition, we are also able to create dramatic camera angles for some of the areas of the game. One example of this would be during kickoffs. With the new system we are able to cut from one camera to another and create some really interesting transitions. For instance, we can fly down to the ball on the kick off and create some great shots that weren't necessarily easy to do on the old system. Also, when the ball is in the air we can give you a better view of it coming into your return man as well as show if someone is flying down a lane untouched.

Lastly, this new system has given us the ability to implement another feature that has been requested by the community a number of times. However, we're not quite ready to announce what it is, so stay tuned...
-Greg Heddlesten


P.S.: You've probably noticed the passing icons are somewhat transparent in the images. New to NCAA Football 10 is the hiding of the passing icons as you run further from the line of scrimmage. If you are looking to run 20 yards backwards and launch a crazy arcade-like pass, we hope you memorized the routes your receivers are running and their assigned button on the controller. Otherwise, you could end up throwing into double/triple coverage and giving the ball away.

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Makay Stadium - Watch the Video HERE
Forty-four year old Mackay Stadium sits on the campus of the University of Nevada in Reno, Nevada and seats 30,000.
Skelly Field at H.A. Chapman Stadium - Watch the Video HERE
Located on the campus of the University of Tulsa in Tulsa Oklahoma, this 69 year old stadium seats around 30,000.
UB Stadium - Watch the Video HERE
Home of the MAC champion Buffalo Bulls, "The Bullpen" was built in 1993 and seats 29,000.
Kelly/Shorts Stadium - Watch the Video HERE
Sitting on the campus of Central Michigan University, the Chippewas play their home football games at this 37 year old stadium with a capacity of just over 30,000.
Peden Stadium - Watch the Video HERE
The oldest stadium in the MAC conference, Peden Stadium has been located on the banks of the Hocking River in Athens, Ohio for 70 years. Seating 24,000, an over-capacity crowd was on hand when the Ohio Bobcats beat the Pittsburgh Panthers here in 2005.
Doyt Perry Stadium - Watch the Video HERE
Opened in 1966, the home of the Bowling Green Falcons seats around 24,000 spectators. This stadium was named after the Falcon's coach between 1955 and 1964.
Romney Stadium - Watch the Video HERE
Named after Utah State's all time winningest football coach, Romney Stadium opened in 1968 and seats 25,500.
Movie Gallery Stadium - Watch the Video HERE
Previously known as Veterans Memorial Stadium, the home of the Troy Trojans opened in 1950. The stadium was expanded in 2003 and now seats 30,000.
Alamodome
The City of San Antonio owns the Alamodome, a multipurpose stadium and convention center that has hosted college bowl games as well as professional basketball and football teams. It was built in 1993 and can seat up to 72,000. There is no basement in the Alamodome.
Stadium Updates
Along with the new, there were many renovations and updates needed to be done. With over 150 stadiums in the game, we are constantly making art updates.
Memorial Stadium (Illinois)
For the last 3 years or so, the University of Illinois has been giving this stadium what they call the "Illinois Renaissance."

BB&T Field
The Deacon Tower is the centerpiece of Wake Forest's ongoing six phase stadium renovation.

Gaylord Family - Oklahoma Memorial Stadium
More and more stadiums are installing LED video scoreboards these days.

Bronco Stadium
Famous for the blue turf, Bronco Stadium now has a state of the art pressbox.

Bobby Bowden Field at Doak Campbell Stadium
Another member of the LED scoreboard club is the home stadium for the FSU Seminoles.

California Memorial Stadium
Berkley already has one of the most scenic campuses in the country, so we touched up the backgrounds in addition to removing the stadium tarps and adding flags.

Autzen Stadium
DuckVision is the largest video board in the PAC-10.

Papa John's Cardinal Stadium
Another stadium debuts their new LED video board.

Other Updates
Davis Wade Stadium - New scoreboard
Carter-Finley Stadium - New scoreboard, player entrance
Nebraska Memorial Stadium - Additional video boards. How many they have now?!
Boone Pickens Stadium - New video board
Vaught-Hemingway Stadium - New video board and player entrance area
Reser Stadium - New endzone seating, new scoreboard
Ross-Ade Stadium - Updated edgewalls
Amon G. Carter Stadium - Added athletic center to the endzone
Neyland Stadium - Update edgewalls
Darrell K Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium - New endzone seatings
Legion Field - Removed upper deck from East side
Malone Stadium - Added tarps to seating sections
Mountaineer Field - Updated endzone seating

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