Finding balance using sliders

[akita7334]

Revised 9-26

Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to give me some feedback. This really helps in trying to understand how sliders are affecting the game. Since EA never comments on sliders it's always difficult to understand what the sliders do and if they are even working correctly, if we only knew what correctly was lol.

Based on the feedback I have revamped the sliders. I think you will really like these. I am seeing quick decision making by the CPU QB, and much better running game for CPU and USER. Two issues that make the CPU much improved.

STAMINA & TOUGHNESS
Fatigue & Auto Subs play a huge role in the game depending on how you use them in your slider set. As a player Fatigues's in the game for both teams it appears to affect the over all attributes in game. As a player becomes fatigued they will not play as well, or worse yet, be so tired they get subbed out of the game all together.

Making sure that you address these attributes is important to your over all teams success. The CPU progresses Stamina and Toughness and some people don't understand why. But when you think about it, they are very important. It doesn't really matter how high a players skill position attributes are if they have low Stamina and Toughness. If they are fatigued or worse subbed out of the game his skill will be useless to you.

My Madden
Change Settings
Settings
Coaching Settings-Assign Auto-Subs set to default.
Game Options-Skill Level All Madden, set everything to default

This may make a difference. No way of telling for sure. I am just letting the results speak for themselves on this one.

League Settings
Salary Cap-ON
Skill Level-All-Pro Set your difficulty in My Madden Settings-All Madden
Quarter Length-15 Min.
Accelerated Clock-ON
Minumum Play Clock Time-15
Game Speed-Fast
Player Progression Frequency-Weekly
Coach Firing-OFF
Game Play Tuning -Yes
Injury-ON
Pre Existing Injury -ON
Trade Deadline-ON
Trade Type-ALL

My Madden Settings-All Madden Cant prove this but setting this to All Madden in Play Now may have an affect on CPU AI in Online CCM. Tell me what you think.

Game Speed
Set game speed to Fast. This is the most realistic speed without the game looking like an arcade game, and is the best representation of NFL game speed.

League Sliders
PLAYER SKILL/CPU SKILL
QB Accuracy-25/75
Pass Blocking-25/75
WR Catching-50/50
Broken Tackles-25/75
Run Blocking-25/75
Fumbles-50/50
P D React Time-25/75
Interceptions-50/50
Pass Rushing-25/75
R D React Time-25/75
Block Sheding-25/75
Tackling-25/75

I am still using balance with a different interpretation applied. The sliders must remain balanced directly. For example QB accuracy 25/75=100 etc. Leave WR Catch, Fumbles, and Int at 50/50. With this slider set the CPU is AI is better than I have ever seen it. They appear to be using strategy and are good at keeping you on your heels. When you win you feel you earned it, when you lose you feel you got out played. You don't feel like your cheating and you don't feel cheated.

Running Game
CPU and USER is able is able to run the outside when they should be able to. The HB ability and play calling dictates how affective this is of course as it should be.

Passing Game
CPU makes much quicker decisions and sees the open receiver much quicker. Still not perfect but overall much improved. With the USER passing game you have to match the CPU quick decision making and get the ball out your hand on time. If you do, you will have great success, if you don't it will be a long game.

Pass Offense/Defense
CPU and USER is much improved. Zone coverage is much more affective and man coverage isn't nearly as tight, causing the CPU QB to hold the ball. You will have a short window to hit the open WR as it should be. The CPU QB appears to audible more, and it feels like strategy from the CPU is being used in the play calling. O-Line blocking is much better as well, they pick up the blitz pretty well. You will need to adjust your defense on every play. The DB play is really good, you will notice lower end CB's get burned and the better ones are more consistent.

Run Offense/Defense
CPU and USER is much improved. Both have success running with 2 safeties high. The CPU is affective running to the outside and they can pound you up the middle. With the improved passing game you will really have to weigh bringing a safety into the box or blitzing, but if you do the CPU is capable of taking advantage of you.

Special Teams
FG Power-53
FG Accuracy-48
Punt Power-52
Punt Accuracy-52
Kickoff Power-53

These settings give a realistic performance.

Game Options
Injuries-53
Fatigue-55
Min Player Speed Threshold-70

Injuries & Fatigue
There will be more in game injuries but not so many long term injuries. Turning the injuries up much higher seem to only affect the USER. Players are more likely to get injured, fumble or blow a coverage when they are fatigued. This why Stamina & toughness are important.

Min Player Speed Threshold
Threshold relates to game speed. The threshold should be set at 100 for Very fast, 70-75 for Fast, 50 for Normal, 25-30 for Slow & 0-10 for Very Slow.

The reason is threshold balances out the difference between the 5 different game speeds. As you increase or decrease game speed the players get faster or slower equally.

For example:
A player with a 99 speed rating will always be the fastest no matter what your settings are at. So any player with less than a 99 speed rating will of course be slower. As you adjust the game speed the speed difference between player does not adjust. So when you increase game speed the speed difference between players increases, as you decrease game speed the speed difference between players does too. The threshold setting is used to maintain a realistic difference between players speed.

Penalty
Offside-50
False Start-75
Holding-54
Face Mask-55
Defensive Pass Interference-50
Offensive Pass Interference-50
Punt Catch Interference-50
Clipping-50
Intentional Grounding-50
Roughing Passer-54
Roughing Kicker-50

This setting will give you between +/-3 and +/-6 penalties a game per team, this is acceptable and this is about the NFL average per game. I found no evidence the sliders have any real impact on the game play sliders, as a matter of fact I don't think many of the sliders do anything at all, the only ones that work are False Start, Holding, Face Mask, Roughing Passer.

Auto Subs
Offense-In/Out
QB-51/49
HB-51/49
WR-51/49
FB/TE -51/49
OL-51/49

Defense-In/Out
DT-51/49
DE-51/49
LB-51 /49
CB-51/49
S-51/49

QB
Never comes out.

WR
Subs out occasionally

HB
Subs out giving backup a few carries. This will depend on the Stamina of both HB's.

O-Line
So far I have not noticed starters subbing out.

D-Line
CPU doesn't sub as well as USER but there is some.

Secondary
You might see a safety sub out on occasion.

Try it out. Let me know what you think. My goal as always is to have a realistic challenging game from the CPU.

[Carlboy82]

I went ahead and gave this a try. I made changes to your base sliders but kept the 100 total in tact. I had a fantastic game with these. What I mean by fantastic, is an excellent sim style game. Seahawks vs Bengals in heavy rain. Bengals win 10 to 7. The passing game was what I expected in a heavy rain game. Thumbs definitely up to these.

[akita7334]

Quote: Originally Posted by Carlboy82

I went ahead and gave this a try. I made changes to your base sliders but kept the 100 total in tact. I had a fantastic game with these. What I mean by fantastic, is an excellent sim style game. Seahawks vs Bengals in heavy rain. Bengals win 10 to 7. The passing game was what I expected in a heavy rain game. Thumbs definitely up to these.

That's what I have been seeing too. Seems like every phase of the game works well keeping balance. I have won and lost close games, I have blown out teams as well as been blown out. You really don't know what to expect.

I just tweek the slicers here and there but always keep the balance between them.

Been seeing realistic injuries too with the slider at 65.

[nygmen2012]

does this work both on and offline? I will defiantly try it today after work.... Sounds very basic but unlike most people that i've seen making slider sets, you seem to have a theory as opposed to just picking numbers based on how the game feels.

Carlboy and akita what adjustments did you make, did you bring numbers down or up, just out of curiosity...

[akita7334]

Quote: Originally Posted by nygmen2012

does this work both on and offline? I will defiantly try it today after work.... Sounds very basic but unlike most people that i've seen making slider sets, you seem to have a theory as opposed to just picking numbers based on how the game feels. Carlboy and akita what adjustments did you make, did you bring numbers down or up, just out of curiosity...

Depending on what I see in, and I play online ccm, the game I adjust according to what I see on the field.

For example if I want the CPU run game to be better I would increase CPU run blocking and lower human block shed always maintaining the 100 balance:

CPU RBLK say at 60-HUM BLK SHED 40 or any combination that works for your style of play.

Just remember balance is key. I believe a lot of the "broken" issues in the game arise from sliders that are way out of balance.

The CPU runs the ball very well with the sliders I use, and that has been a complaint that the CPU can't run. And I see a big difference between running backs as well, both HUM and CPU.

CPU AI seems much better as well.

Lets work together and determine if we really are on to something with the sliders and "balance" between them.

[RajonRondo]

what game speed do you use?

[nygmen2012]

the only issue i see with playing and adjusting based on feel is that you'll always be adjusting.. games should be different, example last year the packers (Amazing passing team) played their worst game ever to my giants. It happens on any given sunday, also if u do adjust based on feel you need to use the same teams, because some teams run better than others, some RB's run better than others, some defenses are better and so on... do you see what I mean? you will end up adjusting for the team and not reality...

[nygmen2012]

also ive been reading alot of different threads and I've seen alot of people mention a "No Switch Rule" What is this? im unfamiliar!!