GameShark Developer Q&A

Hey guys, GameShark had a Q&A with EA game produce Connor Dougan.

http://www.gameshark.com/features/643/p ... er-Q&A.htm

There is actually some pretty good insight into some pressing dynasty questions, such as:

What can we expect from the sim engine in both the Top 25 ranking AI, the NCAA tourney selection AI, as well as the believability of the simmed games? I think this is always a tough part to nail down as you don't want too many shocking upsets but at the same time they still need to happen. How do you balance that?

We invested a lot of time into tuning the sim engine this year. It's really a matter of keeping all the ratings working together in the right way. As the game changes each year, the simulation engine needs to grow to keep up with how the game works. We made up a lot of ground from last year and the results in rankings and NCAA Tournament results are much more reflective of how these games would play out in real life given the personnel we have in the game.

Has the recruiting model been tweaked at all? If so, in what way? Will we see diamond in the rough freshmen, one and done freshmen, will the top schools lure more 5-star players than mid majors?

The biggest change to recruiting this year was the increased difficulty in landing 5 star recruits. There are less to scout and pursue and means recruiting will play a bigger role than last year in keeping your program consistently competitive in future years.

I know for myself & most a lot of other dynasty heads, at the very least the sim engine has to be somewhat realistic. Sounds like they're moving towards this. Secondly, in college hoops games recruiting AI is also very important. You don't want crap schools getting 5-star prospects, so there's a lot of balance involved. It shouldn't be that easy, but it should also be rewarding.

If the developers have successfully pull off these two aspects then it can not be understated & the game might have a "playable" dynasty mode, even if it won't be anywhere near the depth of College Hoops 2k8.

Thanks for the heads up.