ncaaStrategies: First Look at TeamBuilder - NCAA Football 10 & NCAA Basketball 10 at ncaaStrategies

**cdj** · 04-27-2009, 09:07 AM

One of the most requested features by the NCAA Football community has been Create-a-School. In NCAA Football 10, this feature returns virtually reborn as ‘TeamBuilder.’

With TeamBuilder, gamers have more options than they could have hoped for – especially when compared to Create-a-School from the PS2/X-Box versions of NCAA Football.

The TeamBuilder process begins with a web-site that allows users to create and modify their team. The site will go live weeks before the game is released on July 14, giving gamers ample time to create their teams and surf for teams made by other users that they wish to download when the game is available. As of April 23, the TeamBuilder website was still a work-in-progress and only 75-80% complete, according to an IGN interview with designer Russell Kiniry.

Producer Ben Haumiller talks TeamBuilder.

On the site, there are 10 areas (or sections) for gamers to enter in & modify their team info. These areas include:

Create Your Own School – City, team name, prestige, coach name, team colors. This is the bare minimum category that needs to be completed in order to create a school.

Logo – Primary & secondary logo. FBS & selected FCS logos are already available to pick. Can also upload your own primary & secondary logos which can be placed on helmets, uniforms, & field. On this screen, you can alter your team colors to match those of your uploaded logo(s). (Select & point at any spot on the logo and use that primary, secondary, or tertiary colors.) From Ben Haumiller: "For the logos, there is no format requirement, on the backend we convert the file to the format we need for the game. The app you saw said .png format, but that restriction has been changed to make the site even easier to use. As for the size, the primary logo will be 256x256, and secondary 128x128, if you use a logo that is larger/smaller than this the image will be scaled to fit this size."

Your Stadium – Pick from all of the School, Bowl, & Generic stadiums in the game and they can be renamed.

Your Field – Gamers can pick type of field (grass, turf, multi, blue turf), endzone color(s), & on-field logos (size & placement, if any). End zone text & font also gets entered on this screen.

Your Team Uniform - Can create home, away & home/away alternates.

Helmet – Select facemask color, stripe(s), style, logo (left and/or right, if any), helmet numbers, etc. Primary or secondary logos can be placed on helmet.

Jersey – Style (70* types), logos (with many placement spots), fonts, collar, cuff. Can edit number trim as well.

Pants – Styles (45*)

Socks & Shoes – White or black.

Program Info – Edit team info & factors here.

Mascots – Can pick from existing in-game mascots.

Your School Roster – Can start with existing roster of any school or pick one of eight generic rosters (Air It Out, Balanced, etc.).

With TeamBuilder, there are almost an infinite amount of possibilities – gamers can create their high school team, an FCS school, or resurrect a defunct football program like Pacific or Wichita State.

Users can keep their team ‘as is’ and only edit uniforms to throwbacks or utilize their own design. Online Dynasties can now allow gamers to use their favorite team and edit them down to a lowly one-star program with a poor roster and begin a rebuilding process. Diehard fans of their team can keep their team ‘as-is’ and simply update their teams roster online throughout the season and share it with people around the country, or create a Classic Team roster with throwback uniforms. Basically, as little or as much about each team can be edited. You can make an entirely new team or simply make updates to an existing one.

Any time a game allows user created content, there is a concern over the possibility of graphic or inappropriate content being made and shared. All teams shared publicly will be monitored. If a gamer wants to create a risqué team, they can set it to ‘private’ or ‘share only with friends’ to avoid the team being removed.

Teams created with TeamBuilder can be used in Online Dynasties, but not in basic online games. With the new Custom Conferences feature, teams can be placed and realigned anywhere. Unfortunately, due to some technical issues created teams cannot be subbed in for the generic FCS teams in-game.

Out of the box, gamers can use/download 12 created teams, however they can create an infinite amount of teams online which is where they will ‘live’ and be available for download. It is possible to insert created teams for all 120 slots, but information has not been made public on that yet. Gamestop/EB Games have confirmed that if you preorder the game from them, you will receive an extra 13 slots, allowing gamers to download and import 25 created teams.

To find teams, players can browse through their created teams, a list of the most recently added teams, and also a basic search capability (by author, name, location, etc).

To help make the in-game experience with a created team more authentic, Brad Nessler came in and recorded over 2,400 team names.

X-Box 360 users: Silver account users will be able to search for and download schools onto their console and will also be able to sign up for Season Showdown and compete for their schools in games vs. the CPU and the two web apps.

* - Number taken from NCAA Football 10 Community Event. May not be accurate as of April 27.

(This report written by JBHuskers, gschwendt, & cdj.)

ShaneHaughey · 04-27-2009, 09:12 AM

Stupid question incoming, watch out(I am very tired.)

If my internet dies, can I still use the mode? I assume that i would still have all the basics, I just wouldn't be able to download or share anything. (IE: I could recreate the University of Northern Colorado, but not the University of The Many Reasons I'm Awesome.)

**cdj** · 04-27-2009, 09:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ShaneHaughey

Stupid question incoming, watch out(I am very tired.)

If my internet dies, can I still use the mode? I assume that i would still have all the basics, I just wouldn't be able to download or share anything. (IE: I could recreate the University of Northern Colorado, but not the University of The Many Reasons I'm Awesome.)

If you already have the team downloaded to your system, you are fine. Once downloaded to your console, they stay there in the slots you have allotted.

People will need internet access to create teams and then to download them. After downloading them, they stay on the console.

Mr. Rad · 04-27-2009, 09:25 AM

Great article, cdj! Thanks for all the info.

This sounds like a blast. Great to know they put a lot of thought and work into CAS.

scdb12 · 04-27-2009, 09:45 AM

CDJ-Ben made it seem like teambuilder wasnt for offline dynasty, I thought it was. Also will we be able to put names of our school across the front of our Jersey's. Lastly it sounds like you can just edit a teams jersey if you wanted to. Is this correct.

**cdj** · 04-27-2009, 09:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by scdb12

CDJ-Ben made it seem like teambuilder wasnt for offline dynasty, I thought it was. Also will we be able to put names of our school across the front of our Jersey's. Lastly it sounds like you can just edit a teams jersey if you wanted to. Is this correct.

We didn't get to go too hands-on with it, but I'm VERY certain it's for offline dynasties as well. You can use created teams in offline Play Now games as well.

You can put the name of your school across the front of your jersey. You may have to make your 'secondary logo' an image with your team name, but it can be done. That was one example they showed us, using the high school team of one producer.

Yes - you can keep everything as is and only edit your team's jersey(s).

MtneerManiac · 04-27-2009, 10:16 AM

Hm ... I'm not sure if you can say anything ...

But, will there be any ... "additional" aspects of Teambuilder (which would actually be a feature of the entire game) that will be announced at a later date?

**gschwendt** · 04-27-2009, 10:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MtneerManiac

Hm ... I'm not sure if you can say anything ...

But, will there be any ... "additional" aspects of Teambuilder (which would actually be a feature of the entire game) that will be announced at a later date?

Just ask your question. As far as we're aware, the entire embargo on Team Builder has been lifted. Not sure what you're winking about so just ask away.

Simo77 · 04-27-2009, 10:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cdj

Out of the box, gamers can use/download 12 created teams, however they can create an infinite amount of teams online which is where they will ‘live’ and be available for download. It is possible to insert created teams for all 120 slots, but information has not been made public on that yet.
(This report written by JBHuskers, gschwendt, & cdj.)

So in theory this will be huge for Roster editors, right? Or can it not work that way. If you can sub all 120 teams, could you not just "edit" every existing team and sub them in for the default team? It wouldn't work for regular online games but it would work for dynasty and online dynasty players.

**cdj** · 04-27-2009, 10:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MtneerManiac

Hm ... I'm not sure if you can say anything ...

But, will there be any ... "additional" aspects of Teambuilder (which would actually be a feature of the entire game) that will be announced at a later date?

Everything typed up is what we know. I thought someone posted that OMT stated at OS that they could make some changes to the website throughout the year, so maybe some small additions could be made? I wouldn't expect anything major, however.

MtneerManiac · 04-27-2009, 10:21 AM

Well, we saw a band on the field that Haumiller quickly skipped past during the gameplay presentation; along with players not being on the field yet. I'm just wondering if there will be a band option there or some entrance option - though I'd assume it'd both be just generic.

Also, here's on you can answer directly. Will Create-A-Team feature text on the chest? Such as how Oklahoma has?

**cdj** · 04-27-2009, 10:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Simo77

So in theory this will be huge for Roster editors, right? Or can it not work that way. If you can sub all 120 teams, could you not just "edit" every existing team and sub them in for the default team? It wouldn't work for regular online games but it would work for dynasty and online dynasty players.

You could do that, exactly right. Wouldn't work for online play, but would for other game modes.

Simo77 · 04-27-2009, 10:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by cdj

You could do that, exactly right. Wouldn't work for online play, but would for other game modes.

Awesome!

**cdj** · 04-27-2009, 10:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MtneerManiac

Well, we saw a band on the field that Haumiller quickly skipped past during the gameplay presentation; along with players not being on the field yet. I'm just wondering if there will be a band option there or some entrance option - though I'd assume it'd both be just generic.

Also, here's on you can answer directly. Will Create-A-Team feature text on the chest? Such as how Oklahoma has?

Well, I don't think we can talk too much about the band aspect yet, but looking at the menus on the TB screens in the IGN vid and in person, I didn't see a way to edit them, so they must use a generic formation for created teams.

MtneerManiac · 04-27-2009, 10:26 AM

Well, that's good to know. I figured they'd use a generic formation. But I'll be eager to see which bands made it in and which didn't. Ideally all will have, but I'll assume it's like stadiums as more get added each year.

JBHuskers · 04-27-2009, 10:27 AM

Yeah I'm almost certain the embargo was lifted this morning for Teambuilder.

**gschwendt** · 04-27-2009, 10:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Simo77

So in theory this will be huge for Roster editors, right? Or can it not work that way. If you can sub all 120 teams, could you not just "edit" every existing team and sub them in for the default team? It wouldn't work for regular online games but it would work for dynasty and online dynasty players.

Unfortunately not... yeah you could potentially download all 120 teams with their proper rosters, but it doesn't impact a roster save file. Then as well you wouldn't be able to download and truly created teams.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MtneerManiac

Well, we saw a band on the field that Haumiller quickly skipped past during the gameplay presentation; along with players not being on the field yet. I'm just wondering if there will be a band option there or some entrance option - though I'd assume it'd both be just generic.

Also, here's on you can answer directly. Will Create-A-Team feature text on the chest? Such as how Oklahoma has?

We didn't see anything about a band in Team Builder so can't touch on that.

Currently you would have to use one of your two logos as the text... not quite sure how that will work. However, OMT did say that he was still working on that option and hopes to be able to add text without using a logo but just have to wait and see.

**cdj** · 04-27-2009, 10:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MtneerManiac

Well, that's good to know. I figured they'd use a generic formation. But I'll be eager to see which bands made it in and which didn't. Ideally all will have, but I'll assume it's like stadiums as more get added each year.

Remind me to revisit this when Greg breaks this feature down or ask him for info on it.

MtneerManiac · 04-27-2009, 10:31 AM

Will do.

Did anyone ask if there were any plans to remove the pre-existing stadiums old team's logos on it? Such as the screen with Cal's logos all over IGN's stadium? I'm not looking for anything extreme like your CAT logo there, but perhaps just cover it with a generic color fill?

kwizzy · 04-27-2009, 10:31 AM

ok so i wasn't really sure if this is what you were getting at but, do we have the ability to input and alter the teams that are already in the game's rosters online using this system.

What I mean is, can I change Nebraska's roster and save it using this method or would I have to recreate everything about Nebraska in order to do that? (Not that it would seem to be all that difficult with all the options we seem to have)

* sorry I was typing when the post above was made & answered *