TapOrSnap AMA

[FightMikes]

Gonna cover a few questions/feedback here.

First THANK you on the AI this year. As someone who mostly does AI Vs AI and interacts with a small portion of the community, the AI being much more responsive this year when it comes to fighting styles is a HUGE plus.

Question on Fight Kits, I know for CAFs it is organized by Fight Kit and Apex Kit. Is it possible that CAFs will be able to use Fight Kits(Where the other kit options outside of the black/white UFC kits are) when being selected in Fight Now or Event mode? It's nice that the kits are fully selectable, but it looks like it is attached to the Career modes only.

This one is just some feedback on a CAF body type, specifically Body type 11. It looks it may be glitched, the proportions of the body look off. It also doesn't match the preview of said body type. I attached a screenshot to go along with it.

[TapOrSnap]

Quote: Originally Posted by dkholla

Thank you for doing this. It's rare to be able to interact with a developer on a game, and you genuinely seem to be mining for constructive feedback which is greatly appreciated. Many of my gripes have already been addressed on here (archetypes, Caf shorts, champ shorts, entrances, Bruce Buffer intros etc) so I'll keep my comment more general.

It's rare that a game team is willing to allow this sort of interaction. I am lucky to be on such an open team. I will try to address each of your points in turn.

Quote: Originally Posted by dkholla

My biggest overall complaint about the last two games has been a perceived move away from optionality towards catering to one section of the fanbase over another.

When we don't feel we have the ability to provide exactly what two different groups want either because of limited resources or contradictory the contradictory desires of those groups we have to make a choice and we typically look for a compromise rather than completely alienating anyone.

Quote: Originally Posted by dkholla

One part of the fanbase doesn't like to spend time customizing intricate details on a CAF therefore everyone else is forced to use archetypes.

You are misrepresenting my answer regarding this specific topic. This decision was made to ensure gameplay remained balanced. It was not to appease one group or another. There are arguments to be made that balance is less important or that there are other ways to ensure balance with CAFs but this wasn't about appeasing one group. It was about limiting the ability of a certain subset of the player base to capitalize on exploits.

Quote: Originally Posted by dkholla

One part of the fanbase wants to get straight into the fight, therefore Bruce Buffer intros are truncated for everyone.

This is an example of one of those compromises. Otherwise we would have removed Buffer intros entirely. It would have been a lot less work. This seemed like a better compromise which as I answered previously also gives us the opportunity to ramp up the pageantry to highlight career progression.

Quote: Originally Posted by dkholla

If I'm reading your comment to another poster correctly, you've essentially said that just because something was in a previous game doesn't necessarily mean it should be in this one. That's fine if that is the position the team is taking.

You are taking my response out of context. I was addressing the fact that the poster implied that if something was in another game it should be easy to include it in future titles. That's untrue because as our tech and features evolve the assets we have created and the work we have done does not always carry over. For example almost every animation you see when you do a submission in UFC 5 is brand new content. Most of the content we had in previous UFC titles was built to work with the old submission system and had to be removed. Whether it should be in the next title is another question. For example the new submission system has less submissions that UFC 4 but if we had put the requirement that all previous subs had to be represented the feature wouldn't have been doable with the resources we had and would have ended up on the cutting room floor.

Quote: Originally Posted by dkholla

I guess my point is that for the group of fans that care about immersion and presentation, it truly does feel like UFC 4 and 5 are moving backwards from UFC 1-3. I'm sure that is not EA's intent, but again it feels like our needs are ignored while the more casual fan's needs are elevated.

We are doing our best to always move forward for everyone. In order to progress we have to make changes and try new things. Sometimes those changes resonate, sometimes they don't. Hopefully we hit more often than we miss.

TOS

[TheUFCVeteran]

Hey, TOS, thanks for doing this AMA. I am a bit of a presentation nerd and I understand I'm not the main audience with regards to decisions in this area, but I do have a few questions regarding this, as well as CAFs.

1: Regarding announcements being condensed, would it be possible to allow an option to full announcements, or make them the default, however, provide the skip option as usual? For folks who like to get immersed in the broadcast presentation or do universe modes, the presentation is important, and having lost some of it is unfortunate.

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2: The CAF issue. Now, I am no dev, so this could be much harder than I assume, but I have always figured that the solution is quite simple - at least in concept.

A toggle. If you want to use your CAF offline and in invite only online quick matches, you can have full customisation of stats and moves.

If you want to use your CAF in ranked or public quick match, you can only use archetypes as is the case now.

This would alleviate the issue of 5 star maxed CAFs in public online spaces where they would be unfair, but would allow us to have custom stats and moves for offline and for playing against friends.

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3: I don't have the game, but have been share playing it with a friend - are there no custom sliders for invite quick matches? If not, why would that be? I know syncing custom gameplay parameters must be no easy task, but as you can already play multiple different game styles, would it require a significant investment to allow for full custom sliders for invite quick matches?

By "full custom sliders", I mean the ones you can use offline in the "custom" setting, and adjust in the "Gameplay" tab in the settings.

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4: This is not a big issue, but as a presentation geek, would it be possible to include the tale of the tape theme for three round/non-main events as well? Currently, only the five round/main event tale of the tape theme is used in-game for all fights.

Also, I'm not sure if this is in as I haven't seen any Contender Series gameplay, but is the Contender Series tale of the tape theme in the game? If not, would it be possible to add in an update?

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5: This is probably not worth the investment from a dev perspective but would it at all be possible to add the UFC's PPV intro clip to the beginning of event mode broadcasts? I am referring to this:

https://youtu.be/HtAuf8_CdCs?t=34

From the timestamped moment, 0:34, to 0:50.

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Thanks again for doing the AMA! Game feels fun, even through the little delay with Share Play. Would like the full gamut of grappling and clinch positions, and revamped GnP, but I understand what I want isn't the focus of the game/franchise. It is a nice evolution of UFC 4, I like the new striking animations as well.

That said, custom sliders for online - perhaps a new slider to adjust the rate that health recovers, maybe or/also the health recovery rate after a knockdown? - would bring the game more in line with how I enjoy playing, so if they're not available online, if it were possible for them to be added in an update, it'd be really good.

Appreciate it for hanging around the forums doing the AMA, TOS!

[Blackman316]

Quote: Originally Posted by TapOrSnap

This is an example of one of those compromises. Otherwise we would have removed Buffer intros entirely. It would have been a lot less work. This seemed like a better compromise which as I answered previously also gives us the opportunity to ramp up the pageantry to highlight career progression.

I appreciate you taking time to answer, but please talk sense. How is this a compromise? People willing to go to the fight directly could already skip through everything. You even annoy this segment of the audience by adding a "hold" prompt which takes a while longer to skip through the various movies. I'm sure they're not happy. People that want full immersion (like me) don't want half the thing. You might as well skip through it, which is what I'm doing now. But hey, I'll get more fights in this way before the trial ends.


As for the trial: I've heard EA has suddenly limited the duration to 5 hours instead of the announced 10, probably in an effort to score some extra sales. If this is true, that's a new low. If it's not true, well... than it's a bug and a new low in terms of competence. Not sure which is worse.



Career mode so far has been a letdown. I'm encountering weird though generally unimpactful bugs but they damage immersion a lot. Someone already gave an example. Some tasks in career training just plain don't work ("do a hip toss"). It's clear this hasn't been tested by someone. Why is this the case? The mode has barely evolved apart from some movies. The engine might be different, but these are menus and text.



Pertaining to the "assets not carrying over", you're right about the submission animations. Note that nobody is complaining about the submission mechanic, and I'm sure people will accept the lack of some submissions (some are new). But you seem to use this defense to explain the lack of champion trunks, but I'd like to - again - point out that this is not valid. Maybe it did take some work to convert, but it's been done. It's there. We just can't select it for anyone but the "live" champion. So I'd like to know why that is, though I understand it's not your department and you might simply not know. Based on my limited exploration on facebook comments I don't seem to be the only one (though I might be the only one for who this was in fact a dealbreaker).

[TapOrSnap]

Quote: Originally Posted by Blackman316

I appreciate you taking time to answer, but please talk sense. How is this a compromise? People willing to go to the fight directly could already skip through everything. You even annoy this segment of the audience by adding a "hold" prompt which takes a while longer to skip through the various movies. I'm sure they're not happy. People that want full immersion (like me) don't want half the thing. You might as well skip through it, which is what I'm doing now. But hey, I'll get more fights in this way before the trial ends.

At this point I have already responded regarding the rationale behind this change and there isn't anything more I can add. Whether you agree with it or not, I have communicated the feedback within my team and it is outside of the areas I have control over. Regarding whether my responses have made sense or not I have tried to be as clear as possible in my responses so far but will redouble my efforts to snarble fleeble blat.

Quote: Originally Posted by Blackman316

As for the trial: I've heard EA has suddenly limited the duration to 5 hours instead of the announced 10, probably in an effort to score some extra sales. If this is true, that's a new low. If it's not true, well... than it's a bug and a new low in terms of competence. Not sure which is worse.

You're a little late on this feedback. This was already detected and fixed yesterday. There are a lot of moving parts with multiple parties involved in setting up a Trial build of a game. The possibility of a misconfiguration always exists. This particular issue was resolved within a couple hours of detection.

Quote: Originally Posted by Blackman316

Career mode so far has been a letdown. I'm encountering weird though generally unimpactful bugs but they damage immersion a lot. Someone already gave an example. Some tasks in career training just plain don't work ("do a hip toss"). It's clear this hasn't been tested by someone. Why is this the case? The mode has barely evolved apart from some movies. The engine might be different, but these are menus and text.

I will pass on your bug report regarding the "do a hip toss" challenge. Thank you for that.

Quote: Originally Posted by Blackman316

Pertaining to the "assets not carrying over", you're right about the submission animations. Note that nobody is complaining about the submission mechanic, and I'm sure people will accept the lack of some submissions (some are new). But you seem to use this defense to explain the lack of champion trunks, but I'd like to - again - point out that this is not valid. Maybe it did take some work to convert, but it's been done. It's there. We just can't select it for anyone but the "live" champion. So I'd like to know why that is, though I understand it's not your department and you might simply not know. Based on my limited exploration on facebook comments I don't seem to be the only one (though I might be the only one for who this was in fact a dealbreaker).

Again I am not in the position to comment further regarding the Champ Shorts. I have passed the feedback to the members of the team who own that feature.

TOS

[TapOrSnap]

Quote: Originally Posted by FightMikes

Gonna cover a few questions/feedback here. First THANK you on the AI this year. As someone who mostly does AI Vs AI and interacts with a small portion of the community, the AI being much more responsive this year when it comes to fighting styles is a HUGE plus.

I passed your feedback on to Skynet who is sitting right next to me. Their fragile ego needs some stroking now and then and the feedback was appreciated.

Quote: Originally Posted by FightMikes

Question on Fight Kits, I know for CAFs it is organized by Fight Kit and Apex Kit. Is it possible that CAFs will be able to use Fight Kits(Where the other kit options outside of the black/white UFC kits are) when being selected in Fight Now or Event mode? It's nice that the kits are fully selectable, but it looks like it is attached to the Career modes only.

I can't speak to the reasons for how the CAF kits are surfaced in different modes as I really don't know and hadn't even thought about it until you asked but I will pass your suggestion onto those individuals.

Quote: Originally Posted by FightMikes

This one is just some feedback on a CAF body type, specifically Body type 11. It looks it may be glitched, the proportions of the body look off. It also doesn't match the preview of said body type. I attached a screenshot to go along with it.

Thank you for reporting this I will pass it on to the CAF folks as well.

TOS

[EarvGotti]

Question: what determines how fast the Submission meter drains for the defender? Is it like a combination of ratings and stamina?

I'm asking because i'm wondering how random the submission finishes are or is it pretty consistent if certain stamina/rating parameters are met?

[bmlimo]

Quote: Originally Posted by TapOrSnap

Using controller vibration for a game mechanic comes up often both internally during design and as external feedback on forums. That sounds good on the surface except that there is always a requirement that vibration can be turned off. This is for very good reason as many people need to be able to turn it off for accessibility reasons. However the ability to play without vibration means that we can't base any game mechanic purely on controller vibration as it would exclude those individuals who turn it off out of preference or necessity. TOS

why in ea ufc 5 we have less vibration in strikes landed than ea ufc 4? game has a feel sometimes that we have a little problem with hit detection