Hey there NCAA Football fans, I am very excited to talk to you today about one of the big changes coming to NCAA Football 11. Over the past several months, we've been working hard on a new momentum-based locomotion engine that will significantly change core gameplay. Locomotion includes running, turning and cutting; basically what any player is doing for the majority of a play. The goal of this new locomotion technology is to create more realistic movements, while also maintaining responsiveness for the user.
One of the first areas we concentrated on for NCAA Football 11 was to create more realistic player acceleration. In previous versions, there wasn't a noticeable difference between players with a high acceleration rating versus players with a lower one, as speed was the only thing that seemed to matter. For the first time in NCAA Football 11, acceleration will be a huge factor into how quickly a player can reach their top speed. This new acceleration will also help differentiate the styles of players across the various positions on the field. For example, a "Possession" type receiver may have a high acceleration rating but not have that breakaway speed that a "Speed" receiver possesses in the open field. However, this possession receiver will have the ability to get in and out of his cuts, and back to full speed on his routes quicker. Another area where acceleration is a big factor is differentiating speed type rushers versus the more conventional run-stopping defensive lineman. Defensive ends that have a high acceleration rating will be able to get off the ball and to the quarterback quicker, due to their top end speed. The bigger interior type defensive lineman will have a harder time trying to speed rush, as it will take them longer to accelerate to top speed.
Momentum is another piece of our new locomotion technology that improves the NCAA Football 11 experience. Momentum will be even more noticeable than ever by requiring players to realistically slow down before making a drastic direction change or turn. When going full speed in one direction, it's nearly impossible to stop and turn without momentum carrying you a few more steps in the original direction. A huge goal of ours is to keep the responsiveness in these situations so that users have full control throughout the play. We also now layer in a dynamic leaning system that is based on how much a player is accelerating or turning. Our ball carriers will keep their shoulders square up field, for the first couple of steps after a cut. This allows them to quickly get moving back up field again. Agility ratings will determine how much speed a player can maintain while attempting to turn.
Locomotion also plays an important role during longer runs. In previous years, when a ball carrier hit the open field for a long breakaway run, his steps would look somewhat choppy. In NCAA Football 11, we were able to implement a longer run cycle for the first time in franchise history, through a new approach in motion capture. By setting up a special field (consisting of 40 yards), this allowed us to capture a full sprint, whereas in years past we had much more limited space. Can't wait to see some of the new highlights on EASPORTS.com! You can see some clips, from our latest mocap shoot, in the video.
These new locomotion changes help make NCAA Football 11 much more realistic; it's just like watching a game in your favorite college stadium on a Saturday afternoon. Thanks for reading and expect more gameplay info for NCAA Football 11 in a few weeks...
