A Real Gentleman
Conference
- 6 September 2013
One of the devs has done a Q&A on reddit, there are some interesting points.
http://www.reddit.com/r/EASportsUFC/comments/27eszs/ufc_gameplay_engineer_dropping_in_to_say_hi/
Q : It should be easier to stuff the big slam takedowns. Perhaps allowing a slightly longer window of opportunity to defend them in order to make the risk greater.
A : The moves are actually the same during the window where the stuff can happen. What I think we should have done is allowed for a second denial window as the fighter adjusts for the slam. Hindsight is 20/20...but again, the key for learning the game is that the takedown denail window is from the time the takedown starts to when they get a hold of you and that "idle" finishes. The window is affected by stamina, rating etc, but it will always fall within that range.
Q : Will there be any noticeable changes from the demo gameplay to the actual gameplay, given the short period until its full release?
A : There was a lot of tuning and bug fixing that happened between the time the demo was released and the time we shipped the retail version of the game.
So to answer your question, yes the gameplay will change. Will it be noticeable? I certainly hope so.
Q : Thanks a ton for coming in and answering some questions! I was wondering if switching between the accelerated clock and using real time will have any impact on the gameplay. Are there any differences in stamina and damage of strikes (ie a "arcade" vs. "simulation" mode)?
A : The stamina drain and damage are based on actions performed and are not a function of round length or number of rounds. As a result, I believe you'll have to work harder to conserve stamina in a real time clock fight as you'll be much more gassed at the end of the round than if you don't. You'll also have to play more defensively as there will be more time for damage to accumulate. Or you can spam strikes, gas out and get KO'd
Q : Thanks for doing this, /u/gameplaydevufc[1] .
I have one question; With 2 strike modifiers now, will fighters still have accurate movesets? I mean, will guys like Lawler and Nelson be throwing backfists and tornado kicks?
I'm really enjoying the demo, and I feel like these 2 fighters chosen have a huge variety in strikes, but will punchers feel like punchers?
A : So I just picked up the game with Lawler, he has no tornado kick but does have a spinning back fist. I know for sure he plays different as an AI opponent from what you're seeing in the demo though.
It's an interesting discussion though, what is an accurate moveset for fighters? The moves they have performed in UFC fights in the past, or the moves they are capable of performing physically. Because there are many examples of fighters surprising us with techniques they've never used before in fights. We fell more on the side of what they are capable of performing physically.
You will not see Roy Nelson doing cage kicks.
Q : Look at it from a different perspective, say in UFC 2010 Anderson Silva does not have a front kick to the face (i'm unsure if he did not not) then he goes and KO's Vitor Belfort with it, people are then up in arms that he can't do this move he has rekt someone IRL with. Obviously it's not a perfect system but it has it's advantages. personally i'd have preferred it to be the other way, but w.e
A : Great example and that's the approach we're taking. I can understand if you don't agree, but that's the reasoning behind it.
Q : What differences will changing the difficulty make? Would there be any changes if you are playing against a friend? The demo is set to easy.
A : Difficulty only impacts the CPU play, not the core mechanics of the game.
Q : Why did you guys leave out standing submissions?
A : Time. I know it's not a great answer, but that's the reason. The guy who was working on submissions really wanted to do it, but we just couldn't fit it in. Sorry.
Q : 2 Questions:
1)Could you guys look into making the replays for submissions longer (not just the final part, but the whole submission)? We always concentrate on the minigame and dont get to watch the whole submission from the beginning
2) Is it just me or is the north south position useless? I can't get any submission going, and I can never counter the reversal from the cpu
Thanks in advance
A :
1. Good feedback
2. There is one submission from north south, RB + Left on the right stick. It may be one of the easier ones to complete, but I'm not sure. I don't end up there much myself to be honest.
Q : In the Demo, both Jones and Gus are constantly going forward without a second thought, forcing you to either slug things out Diego Sanchez Gilbert Melendez style, or backpeddle. Where is that " MMAI " we were hearing about?
Is this caused by the easy difficulty making it easy to catch the opponent after a few secs of blocking while they're spinning around wasting stamina? or has this been worked on after the Demo release?
A : Honestly I would say both. The difficulty setting is definitely a factor, tuning was done between the time the demo shipped and the retail version was complete, and of course the different fighters will behave differently.
I don't want to promise anything because everyone's idea of what a good CPU AI should look like is different, but I certainly wouldn't write off the CPU AI based off the small fraction of the game you've experienced.
Check out reviews and videos once the retail version comes out and make your judgement then.
Q : Hi man, thanks a lot for taking your time. I'm very positive about the game and will be getting it on PS4 when its out! A quick question, is the easy difficulty the main reason you can do things like these ? -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3Ri1ceF0Es
A : Was that a user/user fight? I replied elsewhere that difficulty has only impacts the AI, so if that's user/user then no, difficulty won't change anything there.
However, fighting against someone who's good that the game will definitely shut down an attack like that pretty quickly.
There are a lot of ways to make the game look stupid, but our hope is that competitive matches will gravitate to more realistic fights once people master the mechanics and strategies.
We'll find out soon enough.
Q : I'm loving the game so far. Of course there are some issues, but it is definitely a very fun game. My main question is, are the move sets given to Jones and Gus going to be the same as their ones in the game, or were there techniques added just to show off in the demo that won't be in the final game?
A : I'm glad to hear you're enjoying the game. I'd have to talk to the guy who assigned move sets to be 100% sure, but for the most part I believe they are the same.
Q : I'm apart of a competitive league (http://www.ultimatefightingfederation.net/forum/) and have been grinding this demo more than you could believe, i have so many questions haha but i will start with this, how does this happen and will it happen in the full game or is it a demo bug? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsuQPTVyJyo
A : I'm glad you posted this. I remember seeing someone mention this bug somewhere, and it was one of the reasons I wanted to get permission to start posting, but I couldn't find the thread.
I'm quite confident that bug is fixed in the retail version of the game.
There were a couple of ways it could manifest, the one I remember most clearly was a bug where the ref would stand up the fighters on the same frame that a KO punch landed. Because of a timing error, the fighters would be allowed to stand up, but the KO was queued up and played as soon as the fight resumed.
We fixed it in two ways, by both modifying the ref standup logic to respect the KO possibility of the strikes being thrown in the various positions and not stand up the fighters in those cases, and also not allow the queuing up of the KO state in case we missed other cases where this could happen.
Probably more info than you wanted, but yeah, it's fixed.
Q : A few more points on "glitches/bugs" from SC, After you block a transition from side control, the next body knee is super fast, almost like it skips the animation, you should probably look into fixing that. Also, the ingame timer for holding a position is 15 in game seconds (if i am not mistaken) but if you fail the first stage of a submission (sometimes it's 2 or 3 stages), you hold/maintain position and do not get swept, this resets the refs "clock" and could be abused. Ofcourse they could always block the submission, but it's still a small flaw that could be abused if it falls into the wrong hands.
A : To the first point, there are a bunch of bugs that sound similar to what you're talking about that are fixed. We called them T-Rex punches, where the fighter appears to only punch with his arm and not the rest of the body. This was a flaw in the system that allows strikes and transitions to play simultaneously , and it was fixed. May also contribute to why some people feel the gnp feels feeble or weak at times.
As to the second point, we did fix some timing exploits that sound similar to what you're describing, but I'll have to read it a few more times to make sure I understand, and run it by a few guys. Always interested in hearing about potential exploits.
Q : I have a load of questions, but i don't want to hold you up much longer so i will only ask this last one, i promise .
1. In the video tutorials Brizzo explains that blocking a strike opens up an opportunity to transition/escape
What factors go into how big this window is, is there anything like a perfect block, like in FNC?
2. Is it possible to be good enough to never be passed, if you do not gas yourself? In EA MMA you could get to a level where you could never be moved from full mount.
There will probably need to be away to cause an "unstoppable" transition, otherwise players will get good enough to hold positions until the end of the round.
A :
1. Mostly stamina and attributes I think. The timing of the block is irrelevant, it's a yes/no thing.
2. I haven't seen it, but we'll have to wait until the game hits the masses to find out for sure. Don't forget the ref will stand you up if you don't stay active, so it will be hard to not lose stamina as you can't just spend the whole round denying transitions. The ref stand up logic was changed after the demo shipped I believe so it's not something you can fully evaluate right now.
Q : For denying transitions on the ground and holding RT, are you supposed to flick or hold the RS to the side?
If transitions from the bottom look the same, for example SC bottom to HG bottom transition can be done 9 to 12 or 3 to 12 and are the same transition, do they have to be blocked in the correct direction? Cause there would be no way which way they would go as the top fighter since the animation looks the same.
If you have a chance check out the UFFs latest podcast. I'm on it and we dive into some in-depth gameplay /balance discussion which you may be interested in. Lots of top fighters on the site. Thanks.
A : No need to flick, press and hold is fine. I had to try it out in the game to make sure I got the answer right, but the way the side control example you posted works is as follows:
The guy on the bottom can only hip out in one direction (left or right depending on the side, but let's go with right for this example). If you press right, you'll hip out right. If you press left, the game converts your input to right and you hip out right. We did this because we thought the casual fans may not understand the techniques and may get confused that basic transitions don't work in all directions.
Anyway, because we're converting the input from left to right, to defend the transition as the top fighter you have to defend to the right. So it should reflect the visuals of what's on screen, not what your opponent did with the stick.
I agree it's confusing but I think the way we did it is probably the right way to handle it. The alternative would have been to allow denials in both directions, which may be good for ambiguous moves, but the hip out from side control is pretty obvious direction wise.
Hope that helps.
Q : The only 2 issues I had was I felt there was a lack of feedback when transitioning on the ground. I felt I was moving the sticks but there no attempt from my character until the 2nd or 3rd try. Same with my submission attempts. This might tie into the lag issues people are having. Is there fixes for these examples?
A : I'd be better able to answer your question if I understood more about when you're getting the lack of response?
For example, if your opponent is doing nothing on the stick, and you attempt a transition, does it respond correctly? I would assume so because that's what I'm seeing.
If your opponent is in the beginning or tail end of a transition animation himself, you have to wait for that animation to finish before your transition attempt will start. That could be the source of the lag you're feeling, and no that is the same in the retail version of the game. I was quite proud of the fact that we got striking and transitions on the ground to overlap and play simultaneously (don't think any game has done that before) but we didn't manage to get the same for competing transition attempts.
One other mechanic that isn't entirely obvious, if your opponent is postured up and striking, you will not be able to succeed in a transition attempt until you first block a strike. But the attempt does play out so I don't think this is the lag you're talking about.
Hope that answers your question.
Q : I worded that kind of strangely. But yeah that answers my question. So basically you cant transition or submit when the other player is trying so himself. Thanks.
A : Correct. You can input the command, but you won't get the visual feedback until your opponents move finishes.
Q : I just wanted to personally tell you that you guys have done a phenomenal job on this game, making an MMA game must be the most difficult project to undertake. I'm enjoying the demo, I love the challenge of learning a new game and can't wait for the full game. My question is this; after watching the Aldo Pettis video 10 thousand times, it just seems like everything is a slight bit smoother (all the animations, mainly the striking and cage navigation) I'm just wanting to know in the finished game, will the game run noticeably smoother than the demo? The demo looks amazing, just doesn't seem to quite match the level of polish in the video.
A : Thanks for the kind words.
As for the smoothness for the game...I think it will be better. Like I said somewhere else there are a lot of bug fixes that went in after the demo was complete. But it's such a subjective thing it's hard to know what you're seeing that's contributing to it. I know I cringe when I watch the demo videos a bit because I see things I know we fixed. Are they the same things you're seeing? Not sure. I hope so.
Q : Please don't be scared by our passionate outpourings. We really care about this game. How many of these suggestions would you conceivably be able to implement within a release day patch or first week patch? Will you be paying attention to the fans concerns about controller configuration, move sets, and strike damage/outcomes and attempting to edit/rectify the game to placate them?
Thanks for your time and consideration.
A : Not scared at all, I'm glad to see the passion to be honest. Unfortunately I cannot talk about any future plans regarding the title, but know that I am taking notes while I'm going through this thread. It's been a really good exercise for me, getting a lot more info than I was before.
These may also be of use.
http://www.easports.com/ufc/tipsandtricks
http://www.easports.com/ufc/news-up...ea-sports-ufc-tips-and-tricks-video-tutorials
http://www.reddit.com/r/EASportsUFC/comments/27eszs/ufc_gameplay_engineer_dropping_in_to_say_hi/
Q : It should be easier to stuff the big slam takedowns. Perhaps allowing a slightly longer window of opportunity to defend them in order to make the risk greater.
A : The moves are actually the same during the window where the stuff can happen. What I think we should have done is allowed for a second denial window as the fighter adjusts for the slam. Hindsight is 20/20...but again, the key for learning the game is that the takedown denail window is from the time the takedown starts to when they get a hold of you and that "idle" finishes. The window is affected by stamina, rating etc, but it will always fall within that range.
Q : Will there be any noticeable changes from the demo gameplay to the actual gameplay, given the short period until its full release?
A : There was a lot of tuning and bug fixing that happened between the time the demo was released and the time we shipped the retail version of the game.
So to answer your question, yes the gameplay will change. Will it be noticeable? I certainly hope so.
Q : Thanks a ton for coming in and answering some questions! I was wondering if switching between the accelerated clock and using real time will have any impact on the gameplay. Are there any differences in stamina and damage of strikes (ie a "arcade" vs. "simulation" mode)?
A : The stamina drain and damage are based on actions performed and are not a function of round length or number of rounds. As a result, I believe you'll have to work harder to conserve stamina in a real time clock fight as you'll be much more gassed at the end of the round than if you don't. You'll also have to play more defensively as there will be more time for damage to accumulate. Or you can spam strikes, gas out and get KO'd
Q : Thanks for doing this, /u/gameplaydevufc[1] .
I have one question; With 2 strike modifiers now, will fighters still have accurate movesets? I mean, will guys like Lawler and Nelson be throwing backfists and tornado kicks?
I'm really enjoying the demo, and I feel like these 2 fighters chosen have a huge variety in strikes, but will punchers feel like punchers?
A : So I just picked up the game with Lawler, he has no tornado kick but does have a spinning back fist. I know for sure he plays different as an AI opponent from what you're seeing in the demo though.
It's an interesting discussion though, what is an accurate moveset for fighters? The moves they have performed in UFC fights in the past, or the moves they are capable of performing physically. Because there are many examples of fighters surprising us with techniques they've never used before in fights. We fell more on the side of what they are capable of performing physically.
You will not see Roy Nelson doing cage kicks.
Q : Look at it from a different perspective, say in UFC 2010 Anderson Silva does not have a front kick to the face (i'm unsure if he did not not) then he goes and KO's Vitor Belfort with it, people are then up in arms that he can't do this move he has rekt someone IRL with. Obviously it's not a perfect system but it has it's advantages. personally i'd have preferred it to be the other way, but w.e
A : Great example and that's the approach we're taking. I can understand if you don't agree, but that's the reasoning behind it.
Q : What differences will changing the difficulty make? Would there be any changes if you are playing against a friend? The demo is set to easy.
A : Difficulty only impacts the CPU play, not the core mechanics of the game.
Q : Why did you guys leave out standing submissions?
A : Time. I know it's not a great answer, but that's the reason. The guy who was working on submissions really wanted to do it, but we just couldn't fit it in. Sorry.
Q : 2 Questions:
1)Could you guys look into making the replays for submissions longer (not just the final part, but the whole submission)? We always concentrate on the minigame and dont get to watch the whole submission from the beginning
2) Is it just me or is the north south position useless? I can't get any submission going, and I can never counter the reversal from the cpu
Thanks in advance
A :
1. Good feedback
2. There is one submission from north south, RB + Left on the right stick. It may be one of the easier ones to complete, but I'm not sure. I don't end up there much myself to be honest.
Q : In the Demo, both Jones and Gus are constantly going forward without a second thought, forcing you to either slug things out Diego Sanchez Gilbert Melendez style, or backpeddle. Where is that " MMAI " we were hearing about?
Is this caused by the easy difficulty making it easy to catch the opponent after a few secs of blocking while they're spinning around wasting stamina? or has this been worked on after the Demo release?
A : Honestly I would say both. The difficulty setting is definitely a factor, tuning was done between the time the demo shipped and the retail version was complete, and of course the different fighters will behave differently.
I don't want to promise anything because everyone's idea of what a good CPU AI should look like is different, but I certainly wouldn't write off the CPU AI based off the small fraction of the game you've experienced.
Check out reviews and videos once the retail version comes out and make your judgement then.
Q : Hi man, thanks a lot for taking your time. I'm very positive about the game and will be getting it on PS4 when its out! A quick question, is the easy difficulty the main reason you can do things like these ? -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3Ri1ceF0Es
A : Was that a user/user fight? I replied elsewhere that difficulty has only impacts the AI, so if that's user/user then no, difficulty won't change anything there.
However, fighting against someone who's good that the game will definitely shut down an attack like that pretty quickly.
There are a lot of ways to make the game look stupid, but our hope is that competitive matches will gravitate to more realistic fights once people master the mechanics and strategies.
We'll find out soon enough.
Q : I'm loving the game so far. Of course there are some issues, but it is definitely a very fun game. My main question is, are the move sets given to Jones and Gus going to be the same as their ones in the game, or were there techniques added just to show off in the demo that won't be in the final game?
A : I'm glad to hear you're enjoying the game. I'd have to talk to the guy who assigned move sets to be 100% sure, but for the most part I believe they are the same.
Q : I'm apart of a competitive league (http://www.ultimatefightingfederation.net/forum/) and have been grinding this demo more than you could believe, i have so many questions haha but i will start with this, how does this happen and will it happen in the full game or is it a demo bug? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsuQPTVyJyo
A : I'm glad you posted this. I remember seeing someone mention this bug somewhere, and it was one of the reasons I wanted to get permission to start posting, but I couldn't find the thread.
I'm quite confident that bug is fixed in the retail version of the game.
There were a couple of ways it could manifest, the one I remember most clearly was a bug where the ref would stand up the fighters on the same frame that a KO punch landed. Because of a timing error, the fighters would be allowed to stand up, but the KO was queued up and played as soon as the fight resumed.
We fixed it in two ways, by both modifying the ref standup logic to respect the KO possibility of the strikes being thrown in the various positions and not stand up the fighters in those cases, and also not allow the queuing up of the KO state in case we missed other cases where this could happen.
Probably more info than you wanted, but yeah, it's fixed.
Q : A few more points on "glitches/bugs" from SC, After you block a transition from side control, the next body knee is super fast, almost like it skips the animation, you should probably look into fixing that. Also, the ingame timer for holding a position is 15 in game seconds (if i am not mistaken) but if you fail the first stage of a submission (sometimes it's 2 or 3 stages), you hold/maintain position and do not get swept, this resets the refs "clock" and could be abused. Ofcourse they could always block the submission, but it's still a small flaw that could be abused if it falls into the wrong hands.
A : To the first point, there are a bunch of bugs that sound similar to what you're talking about that are fixed. We called them T-Rex punches, where the fighter appears to only punch with his arm and not the rest of the body. This was a flaw in the system that allows strikes and transitions to play simultaneously , and it was fixed. May also contribute to why some people feel the gnp feels feeble or weak at times.
As to the second point, we did fix some timing exploits that sound similar to what you're describing, but I'll have to read it a few more times to make sure I understand, and run it by a few guys. Always interested in hearing about potential exploits.
Q : I have a load of questions, but i don't want to hold you up much longer so i will only ask this last one, i promise .
1. In the video tutorials Brizzo explains that blocking a strike opens up an opportunity to transition/escape
What factors go into how big this window is, is there anything like a perfect block, like in FNC?
2. Is it possible to be good enough to never be passed, if you do not gas yourself? In EA MMA you could get to a level where you could never be moved from full mount.
There will probably need to be away to cause an "unstoppable" transition, otherwise players will get good enough to hold positions until the end of the round.
A :
1. Mostly stamina and attributes I think. The timing of the block is irrelevant, it's a yes/no thing.
2. I haven't seen it, but we'll have to wait until the game hits the masses to find out for sure. Don't forget the ref will stand you up if you don't stay active, so it will be hard to not lose stamina as you can't just spend the whole round denying transitions. The ref stand up logic was changed after the demo shipped I believe so it's not something you can fully evaluate right now.
Q : For denying transitions on the ground and holding RT, are you supposed to flick or hold the RS to the side?
If transitions from the bottom look the same, for example SC bottom to HG bottom transition can be done 9 to 12 or 3 to 12 and are the same transition, do they have to be blocked in the correct direction? Cause there would be no way which way they would go as the top fighter since the animation looks the same.
If you have a chance check out the UFFs latest podcast. I'm on it and we dive into some in-depth gameplay /balance discussion which you may be interested in. Lots of top fighters on the site. Thanks.
A : No need to flick, press and hold is fine. I had to try it out in the game to make sure I got the answer right, but the way the side control example you posted works is as follows:
The guy on the bottom can only hip out in one direction (left or right depending on the side, but let's go with right for this example). If you press right, you'll hip out right. If you press left, the game converts your input to right and you hip out right. We did this because we thought the casual fans may not understand the techniques and may get confused that basic transitions don't work in all directions.
Anyway, because we're converting the input from left to right, to defend the transition as the top fighter you have to defend to the right. So it should reflect the visuals of what's on screen, not what your opponent did with the stick.
I agree it's confusing but I think the way we did it is probably the right way to handle it. The alternative would have been to allow denials in both directions, which may be good for ambiguous moves, but the hip out from side control is pretty obvious direction wise.
Hope that helps.
Q : The only 2 issues I had was I felt there was a lack of feedback when transitioning on the ground. I felt I was moving the sticks but there no attempt from my character until the 2nd or 3rd try. Same with my submission attempts. This might tie into the lag issues people are having. Is there fixes for these examples?
A : I'd be better able to answer your question if I understood more about when you're getting the lack of response?
For example, if your opponent is doing nothing on the stick, and you attempt a transition, does it respond correctly? I would assume so because that's what I'm seeing.
If your opponent is in the beginning or tail end of a transition animation himself, you have to wait for that animation to finish before your transition attempt will start. That could be the source of the lag you're feeling, and no that is the same in the retail version of the game. I was quite proud of the fact that we got striking and transitions on the ground to overlap and play simultaneously (don't think any game has done that before) but we didn't manage to get the same for competing transition attempts.
One other mechanic that isn't entirely obvious, if your opponent is postured up and striking, you will not be able to succeed in a transition attempt until you first block a strike. But the attempt does play out so I don't think this is the lag you're talking about.
Hope that answers your question.
Q : I worded that kind of strangely. But yeah that answers my question. So basically you cant transition or submit when the other player is trying so himself. Thanks.
A : Correct. You can input the command, but you won't get the visual feedback until your opponents move finishes.
Q : I just wanted to personally tell you that you guys have done a phenomenal job on this game, making an MMA game must be the most difficult project to undertake. I'm enjoying the demo, I love the challenge of learning a new game and can't wait for the full game. My question is this; after watching the Aldo Pettis video 10 thousand times, it just seems like everything is a slight bit smoother (all the animations, mainly the striking and cage navigation) I'm just wanting to know in the finished game, will the game run noticeably smoother than the demo? The demo looks amazing, just doesn't seem to quite match the level of polish in the video.
A : Thanks for the kind words.
As for the smoothness for the game...I think it will be better. Like I said somewhere else there are a lot of bug fixes that went in after the demo was complete. But it's such a subjective thing it's hard to know what you're seeing that's contributing to it. I know I cringe when I watch the demo videos a bit because I see things I know we fixed. Are they the same things you're seeing? Not sure. I hope so.
Q : Please don't be scared by our passionate outpourings. We really care about this game. How many of these suggestions would you conceivably be able to implement within a release day patch or first week patch? Will you be paying attention to the fans concerns about controller configuration, move sets, and strike damage/outcomes and attempting to edit/rectify the game to placate them?
Thanks for your time and consideration.
A : Not scared at all, I'm glad to see the passion to be honest. Unfortunately I cannot talk about any future plans regarding the title, but know that I am taking notes while I'm going through this thread. It's been a really good exercise for me, getting a lot more info than I was before.
These may also be of use.
http://www.easports.com/ufc/tipsandtricks
http://www.easports.com/ufc/news-up...ea-sports-ufc-tips-and-tricks-video-tutorials
