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Intro to NCAA 14

NML

Well-Known Member
Alright so I bought an NCAA game for the first time since 2011, and I’m almost completely lost. I’m pretty sure I had 2012 for PS3, but that’s probably the only new gen version I played. And the only NCAA I’ve played in the past eight years is 06/07 on an emulator, so I’m way behind. I’ve got several questions

1) is there some sort of database for all the plays/formations? I love the idea of creating a custom PB but I feel a little overwhelmed on where to start.

2) are the sliders in the sticky still the generally accepted version? I played one half as WVU vs Marshall and found it... okay. They pretty much moved the ball at will, but that could’ve been me. It was like 70 plays, which is good considering how slow I was.

3) what were the new pre snap features that were added? I’m pretty sure there’s some Oline adjustments you can make, but I didn’t see anything in the game controls. Is there a guide somewhere on hot routes? Also the old buttons for quick audibles from the playcall screen don’t seem to work.

4) for dynasty, is starting as a coordinator any good? I like the idea, and I think it would be a nice slow intro to the game, but I’m assuming you don’t do any recruiting and ur only thing to do is play half the actual game? I saw the tree thing, which seems simple enough. Does the teambuilder still work? I found a recruiting guide so hopefully this mode is mostly similar to older versions

That’s all I can think of for now. If there’s something else major that’s changed and I’m missing, let me know
 

Bmack

IRREGULAR HUMAN USER
Mod Alumni
Alright so I bought an NCAA game for the first time since 2011, and I’m almost completely lost. I’m pretty sure I had 2012 for PS3, but that’s probably the only new gen version I played. And the only NCAA I’ve played in the past eight years is 06/07 on an emulator, so I’m way behind. I’ve got several questions

1) is there some sort of database for all the plays/formations? I love the idea of creating a custom PB but I feel a little overwhelmed on where to start.

2) are the sliders in the sticky still the generally accepted version? I played one half as WVU vs Marshall and found it... okay. They pretty much moved the ball at will, but that could’ve been me. It was like 70 plays, which is good considering how slow I was.

3) what were the new pre snap features that were added? I’m pretty sure there’s some Oline adjustments you can make, but I didn’t see anything in the game controls. Is there a guide somewhere on hot routes? Also the old buttons for quick audibles from the playcall screen don’t seem to work.

4) for dynasty, is starting as a coordinator any good? I like the idea, and I think it would be a nice slow intro to the game, but I’m assuming you don’t do any recruiting and ur only thing to do is play half the actual game? I saw the tree thing, which seems simple enough. Does the teambuilder still work? I found a recruiting guide so hopefully this mode is mostly similar to older versions

That’s all I can think of for now. If there’s something else major that’s changed and I’m missing, let me know

You can still download Astronaut HIgh School from team builder. make sure the author is me. It will be the 1972 team. That is all i'm sharing though. U have to research ur own articles.
 

Soonerfan09

Well-Known Member
Alright so I bought an NCAA game for the first time since 2011, and I’m almost completely lost. I’m pretty sure I had 2012 for PS3, but that’s probably the only new gen version I played. And the only NCAA I’ve played in the past eight years is 06/07 on an emulator, so I’m way behind. I’ve got several questions

1) is there some sort of database for all the plays/formations? I love the idea of creating a custom PB but I feel a little overwhelmed on where to start.

2) are the sliders in the sticky still the generally accepted version? I played one half as WVU vs Marshall and found it... okay. They pretty much moved the ball at will, but that could’ve been me. It was like 70 plays, which is good considering how slow I was.

3) what were the new pre snap features that were added? I’m pretty sure there’s some Oline adjustments you can make, but I didn’t see anything in the game controls. Is there a guide somewhere on hot routes? Also the old buttons for quick audibles from the playcall screen don’t seem to work.

4) for dynasty, is starting as a coordinator any good? I like the idea, and I think it would be a nice slow intro to the game, but I’m assuming you don’t do any recruiting and ur only thing to do is play half the actual game? I saw the tree thing, which seems simple enough. Does the teambuilder still work? I found a recruiting guide so hopefully this mode is mostly similar to older versions

That’s all I can think of for now. If there’s something else major that’s changed and I’m missing, let me know
1. I believe there used to be one that the community complied. Try OS.
2. I would also go to OS for sliders and poke around over there.
3. I think there is a matchup stick (shows WR/CB ratings) if you have that skill unlocked as a head coach. Not sure about the oline.
4. If you start as a coordinator, you only play your side of the ball and the other side is super simmed. You can still recruit or put it on auto and let the cpu do it.
 
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bruin228

Well-Known Member
NCAA Moderator
Alright so I bought an NCAA game for the first time since 2011, and I’m almost completely lost. I’m pretty sure I had 2012 for PS3, but that’s probably the only new gen version I played. And the only NCAA I’ve played in the past eight years is 06/07 on an emulator, so I’m way behind. I’ve got several questions

1) is there some sort of database for all the plays/formations? I love the idea of creating a custom PB but I feel a little overwhelmed on where to start.

2) are the sliders in the sticky still the generally accepted version? I played one half as WVU vs Marshall and found it... okay. They pretty much moved the ball at will, but that could’ve been me. It was like 70 plays, which is good considering how slow I was.

3) what were the new pre snap features that were added? I’m pretty sure there’s some Oline adjustments you can make, but I didn’t see anything in the game controls. Is there a guide somewhere on hot routes? Also the old buttons for quick audibles from the playcall screen don’t seem to work.

4) for dynasty, is starting as a coordinator any good? I like the idea, and I think it would be a nice slow intro to the game, but I’m assuming you don’t do any recruiting and ur only thing to do is play half the actual game? I saw the tree thing, which seems simple enough. Does the teambuilder still work? I found a recruiting guide so hopefully this mode is mostly similar to older versions

That’s all I can think of for now. If there’s something else major that’s changed and I’m missing, let me know

1. I’ve got a PDF I can send you. It’s not ideal (someone went through and just screenshotted every page from that old NCAA playbooks site so it’s not searchable or anything), but it’s still helpful.

2. No idea, but there are tons of sliders on OS you can play with to see what works.

3. Yeah, there’s slide protection and stuff like that. It’s honestly all muscle memory at this point, so I don’t even know the buttons off the top of my head. Just press R3 pre-snap and you should be able to see all the options until you get used to them.

4. I always start as an OC and enjoy it for the “realism.” This could just be my imagination, but sometimes it seems like the sim defense is worse than as an HC - worse meaning less realistic, because it seems like your defense will either be completely horrendous, forcing you to score every drive, or top tier Michigan State, allowing to blow out opponents you should struggle with. I don’t really have the same issues when simming D as an HC. Don’t start as a DC unless you want to get fired and eat at the 9MM CAFE. I tried this for shits and giggles once and my offense could barely score 10 points a game. You can still download Teambuilder teams, but you can’t save any new ones. It’s been like that for a year or something, but don’t worry, everyone is convinced EA will get right on fixing a feature from a six year old game. So yes and no, Teambuilder still works.
 

Travis7401

Douglass Tagg
Community Liaison
I have been considering starting a SIM of 2014, but I'll pretend it is 2080 and the sport of Gridiron has been banned for 50 years. On this anniversary, Mr. Manager decides to play a digital version of the game and finds that NCAA14 is still the definitive gridiron experience, Far surpassing Madden 81.

I played NCAA14 a bit last year, and I think you can do pretty well with sliders, but you're going to have to introduce additional house rule gimmicks to make the game fun/interesting. The AI is still very exploitable and you have to just stop urself from doing that if you play the CPU or you won't have fun. If you find urself calling the same play every 3rd and 10, and it works really often, then just remove it from your playbook. I also like adding RPG elements to the house rule gimmicks. As you become more experienced you can allow yourself to exert more influence on the game (and therefore win more)

Some gimmicks I have either tried or considered.
1. Riding our stationary bike during the game at difficulty level tied to the matchup. When CSU played Bama I about died and lost the game, lol. This was kinda fun, but not really suited to running through a dynasty in a timely manner because I hate riding the stationary bike.

2. I think playing one side of the ball is a good idea, but have generally seen it recommended to just be HC if you want to play defense. This seems to be confirmed by bruin above. Plus, signing up as HC would let you switch off roles from game to game. Either way, playing only one side adds some uncertainty and lack of control that is more realistic.

3. Play both sides but limit your number of series and super sim the rest. I like this idea even better, because you can set the games long enough to get realistic play numbers, but it takes a lot less time. You also have less impact on the game, which puts more stress on each drive you do control. You could make this into a house rule RPG thing where the number of drives you can play changes as you improve. You could dice roll for it, etc.

4. QB play is always going to be the part that is most unrealistic. We're just too good at making decisions for our QBs (as you get better at the game) and they'll all end up putting up Tom Brady numbers even if you dick with the sliders (which you should). I think you could take the QB AWR rating and add an RPG element to limit the amount of reads you get to contribute. For a bad QB you might even make a decision to lock onto a receiver pre snap. For normal QBs you should house rule a vision cone to limit yourself to one read (ie read one side of the passing concept only), then you have to scramble out of the pocket and throw it away (no abusing the AI with scrambling throws). If you have an amazing QB you can have full user control. You can add an additional pre-snap RPG element by tying some of the decisions to a D6 dice roll.

5. This is important in the read option game as well, if you're making every read correctly then you'll shred the CPU. I've messed around with rolling a D6 before the play and letting the outcome pick give/keep/my decision. If you have a good QB you could make it so that the middle 4 numbers are all your decision and only 1/6 are predetermined. If you have a bad QB you could make it so 1-3 are give, 4 is my decision, and 5-6 are mandatory keep.

6. I've also considered just full coarch mode, but I'd need different sliders.
 

Yankee151

Hot Girl Summer
I want to do a CROOTIN challenge where I can only CROOT from a pool of like 5 states, none of them California, Florida, or Texas.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk
 

kella

Low IQ fat ass with depression and anxiety
Staff member
Administrator
Operations
I used to limit my PES Master League signings to all white guys from Europe to avoid just stacking the team with fast African guys (this is back before soccer games nerfed speed when MARTINS was the defacto best player because he was the fastest). I still won the super league I set up as Derby with like 118 points.
 

NML

Well-Known Member
It was fine - the playbooks were really cool, I felt like I could do a ton of cool things offensively. But I put the difficulty at heisman, put run blocking at 0, adjusted sliders as much as I could, but was still able to run the option all over anyone regardless of my talent level (somebody had mentioned that might be the case). The recruiting is kinda broken - I was able to pull in the 55th best class with old dominion on my first try with the new system. It was also brutal going back to disc gaming, the 360 is so loud while I played and it had a small scratch and like four times it would crash mid-game.

So I could probably put a ton of house rules in place to make it work, but I can do that with the PS2 versions. It was also $70 for a six year old, used game, plus the $60 for the system and it’s just not worth it (especially with FIFA and 2K coming out so soon). If I watched more CFB and cared about recent rosters, that would also be a sell, but I don’t.

It worked while I was stuck inside for the past five days with the hurricane, but that’s about it. 50/80, would not play again
 

hayvis

Will-Gnome Member
It was fine - the playbooks were really cool, I felt like I could do a ton of cool things offensively. But I put the difficulty at heisman, put run blocking at 0, adjusted sliders as much as I could, but was still able to run the option all over anyone regardless of my talent level (somebody had mentioned that might be the case). The recruiting is kinda broken - I was able to pull in the 55th best class with old dominion on my first try with the new system. It was also brutal going back to disc gaming, the 360 is so loud while I played and it had a small scratch and like four times it would crash mid-game.

So I could probably put a ton of house rules in place to make it work, but I can do that with the PS2 versions. It was also $70 for a six year old, used game, plus the $60 for the system and it’s just not worth it (especially with FIFA and 2K coming out so soon). If I watched more CFB and cared about recent rosters, that would also be a sell, but I don’t.

It worked while I was stuck inside for the past five days with the hurricane, but that’s about it. 50/80, would not play again

If you have a PS3, I'm pretty sure that version had the option to install on the hard drive, which at least stop it crashing and being noisy.I couldn't stand the 360 for the exact reasons you mentioned.
 

Wolfman21

Well-Known Member
I still enjoy going back during football season and doing dynasties. Ive found a good set of sliders from OS that makes the game "feel" as realistic as ive ever felt it. I can still win just about every game against equally and less talented teams pretty easily. Games against more talented teams are tough though. Just got beat 42-24 by FSU in the 2nd season of an nc state dynasty. While theyre not good in real life, theyre still rated like 93+ on O and D in the games OS updated rosters. I have clemson up next so im likely facing a 2 game losing streak.

As for recruiting, once you get your coaches recruiting tree leveled up, its very easy. Its definitely broken. There are always a handful of top 100 players that you can get in on mid season and sign with zero resistance if you want. I usually set geographical rules on myself limiting me to areas that the school im playing as recruits on a year to year basis. So for nc state, ill recruit NC, SC, VA, GA, FL, NJ and some other various states on the eastern seaboard. Ill only venture out of this area for QBs that show interest and fit what i want.

I also only allow myself to add two extra recruits once the season has started that are 4*s or higher and they must lie within those geographical boundaries ive set.

I still recruit better than i should...but its a video game...not a real life simulator. If i was gonna go 6-8 wins with mediocre talent every season to replicate real life...i wouldnt play the game.
 

Wolfman21

Well-Known Member
Recruiting really is busted though, lol. #1 Prospect in NC, 5* athlete, 79 overall...and I'm battling Buffalo and Iowa for him? Dafuq? lol #2 prospect in the state is a 4* TE, 79 OVR as well and i'm battling GA State and ECU. My word.

#2 DE in the nation out of GA is choosing between UNC and Marshall, lol
 

Wolfman21

Well-Known Member
#4 overall player, #1 Athlete out of Dade City, FL signed with Miami.....of Ohio. LOL
#5 halfback signed with Navy.

The only other signing at week 10 that looks questionable though is the #11 halfback who signed with Middle Tennessee State...but atleast he was a Tennessee born recruit
 

Yankee151

Hot Girl Summer
This dynasty really has the names on point. Slot WR for WSU: Dennis MILES Safety for OSU: RUSSell West
 

Travis7401

Douglass Tagg
Community Liaison
CSU started the season 0-4, losing 3 close games in excruciating fashion as the CPU allowed game winning drives when MR. Manager was out of drives to control. The latest loss against UTEP was the most excruciating. Mr. Manager rolled a 7 and had to save his 7th drive for the end of the game when the CPU graciously left him only down by 7. Mr. Manager drove down the field and scored with a masterful drive to leave only 30 seconds on the clock. Not wanting to chance overtime to the CPU, Mr. Manager went for 2 and scored to take a 1 point lead. The CPU allowed the other team to move the ball down the field and kick a winning field goal with less than 30 seconds lol.
 

Bmack

IRREGULAR HUMAN USER
Mod Alumni
CSU started the season 0-4, losing 3 close games in excruciating fashion as the CPU allowed game winning drives when MR. Manager was out of drives to control. The latest loss against UTEP was the most excruciating. Mr. Manager rolled a 7 and had to save his 7th drive for the end of the game when the CPU graciously left him only down by 7. Mr. Manager drove down the field and scored with a masterful drive to leave only 30 seconds on the clock. Not wanting to chance overtime to the CPU, Mr. Manager went for 2 and scored to take a 1 point lead. The CPU allowed the other team to move the ball down the field and kick a winning field goal with less than 30 seconds lol.

1972 war eagles are 5-2 in the test season. Reel life would be 3-3-1. Not happy about the amount of face mask penalties (set at 75) and lack of fumbles (set break tackles to aggressive) or the wide receiver drops (big catch to agrresive)

Set kicking attributes to 25 and cpu cant make Fgs (sad!) and has even missed one extra point (happy because never happens on 50). I think I will have to move to game by game kicking sliders based on how the opponent did in reel life.
 

Bmack

IRREGULAR HUMAN USER
Mod Alumni
Also not happy that my aunt never returned my moms 1975 and 1976 astronaut high year books because “the trailer has been foreclosed on and they’ve locked us out.” This was a few years ago so I’m not sure if she’s been able to obtain her personal property or not. And I don’t want to ask since since I’m ignoring her son (my cousin with the dirty finger nails) multiple Facebook requests of me because I’m sure he will ask for opioid money.
 

Renegade

Charge on!
4. I always start as an OC and enjoy it for the “realism.” This could just be my imagination, but sometimes it seems like the sim defense is worse than as an HC - worse meaning less realistic, because it seems like your defense will either be completely horrendous, forcing you to score every drive, or top tier Michigan State, allowing to blow out opponents you should struggle with. I don’t really have the same issues when simming D as an HC.

Completely agree with you. It's like the game is setting up scenarios for you. The defense never makes a key stop in the 4th during a close game. It's always you getting the ball back with a minute to go and having to drive the field. Simulated FG kicker always misses too.

I have been considering starting a SIM of 2014, but I'll pretend it is 2080 and the sport of Gridiron has been banned for 50 years. On this anniversary, Mr. Manager decides to play a digital version of the game and finds that NCAA14 is still the definitive gridiron experience, Far surpassing Madden 81.

I played NCAA14 a bit last year, and I think you can do pretty well with sliders, but you're going to have to introduce additional house rule gimmicks to make the game fun/interesting. The AI is still very exploitable and you have to just stop urself from doing that if you play the CPU or you won't have fun. If you find urself calling the same play every 3rd and 10, and it works really often, then just remove it from your playbook. I also like adding RPG elements to the house rule gimmicks. As you become more experienced you can allow yourself to exert more influence on the game (and therefore win more)

Some gimmicks I have either tried or considered.
1. Riding our stationary bike during the game at difficulty level tied to the matchup. When CSU played Bama I about died and lost the game, lol. This was kinda fun, but not really suited to running through a dynasty in a timely manner because I hate riding the stationary bike.

2. I think playing one side of the ball is a good idea, but have generally seen it recommended to just be HC if you want to play defense. This seems to be confirmed by bruin above. Plus, signing up as HC would let you switch off roles from game to game. Either way, playing only one side adds some uncertainty and lack of control that is more realistic.

3. Play both sides but limit your number of series and super sim the rest. I like this idea even better, because you can set the games long enough to get realistic play numbers, but it takes a lot less time. You also have less impact on the game, which puts more stress on each drive you do control. You could make this into a house rule RPG thing where the number of drives you can play changes as you improve. You could dice roll for it, etc.

4. QB play is always going to be the part that is most unrealistic. We're just too good at making decisions for our QBs (as you get better at the game) and they'll all end up putting up Tom Brady numbers even if you dick with the sliders (which you should). I think you could take the QB AWR rating and add an RPG element to limit the amount of reads you get to contribute. For a bad QB you might even make a decision to lock onto a receiver pre snap. For normal QBs you should house rule a vision cone to limit yourself to one read (ie read one side of the passing concept only), then you have to scramble out of the pocket and throw it away (no abusing the AI with scrambling throws). If you have an amazing QB you can have full user control. You can add an additional pre-snap RPG element by tying some of the decisions to a D6 dice roll.

5. This is important in the read option game as well, if you're making every read correctly then you'll shred the CPU. I've messed around with rolling a D6 before the play and letting the outcome pick give/keep/my decision. If you have a good QB you could make it so that the middle 4 numbers are all your decision and only 1/6 are predetermined. If you have a bad QB you could make it so 1-3 are give, 4 is my decision, and 5-6 are mandatory keep.

6. I've also considered just full coarch mode, but I'd need different sliders.

I've pretty much gone to coach mode because of the ability to dominate on the option. That said, I have seen the computer adjust and blitz the ever living shit out of the read option and when you audible out of it, naturally the computer does too.

I'd love to see the fucked up way EA would try to implement the RPO for college.

I still enjoy going back during football season and doing dynasties. Ive found a good set of sliders from OS that makes the game "feel" as realistic as ive ever felt it. I can still win just about every game against equally and less talented teams pretty easily. Games against more talented teams are tough though. Just got beat 42-24 by FSU in the 2nd season of an nc state dynasty. While theyre not good in real life, theyre still rated like 93+ on O and D in the games OS updated rosters. I have clemson up next so im likely facing a 2 game losing streak.

As for recruiting, once you get your coaches recruiting tree leveled up, its very easy. Its definitely broken. There are always a handful of top 100 players that you can get in on mid season and sign with zero resistance if you want. I usually set geographical rules on myself limiting me to areas that the school im playing as recruits on a year to year basis. So for nc state, ill recruit NC, SC, VA, GA, FL, NJ and some other various states on the eastern seaboard. Ill only venture out of this area for QBs that show interest and fit what i want.

I also only allow myself to add two extra recruits once the season has started that are 4*s or higher and they must lie within those geographical boundaries ive set.

I still recruit better than i should...but its a video game...not a real life simulator. If i was gonna go 6-8 wins with mediocre talent every season to replicate real life...i wouldnt play the game.

I pretty much limit myself to only recruiting guys who have me in their Top 5 to start with excepting QB targets as you say.
 
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