September 10, 2024: CHANGES IN BLUE
I finished an entire 17 game regular season test franchise with the Raiders (9-8) and I had a blast. With about a third of the regular season left, I knew there were some changes I wanted to make that would make the gameplay more PUNISHING and more BRUTAL. I've already tested the changes in four different franchises and their week 1 games. Patriots, Giants, Cowboys, and Bills. I'm loving what I'm seeing and how difficult the game is now. I must be nearly perfect on every play and every drive to score points. With that said, the same goes for the CPU and their ability to move the ball. My pass coverage is so much better and my usering ability of the green zones primary objective is to take away what is usually the CPU QBs first read so they are forced to look elsewhere. I've even started calling a ton more man coverage than I ever have in Madden. Again, I'll user whoever is assigned to the RB and treat it as a green zone or follow the RB if they run a route. The CPU will still punish mistakes and move the ball if I'm out of position or call a bad play. However, they are much less methodical and robotic marching down the field. I just forced the Cardinals to punt 7 times last night Week 1 against the Bills. A 17-14 victory that should've never been so close if I hadn't fumbled in the red zone twice...
Things I'd love some help testing:
Turnovers (Fumbles and INTs), Catching (User) (no longer testing IG off. I’ve turned it back on).
If I had to guess, raising the user catching slider one point back up to 40 will help a smidge, and lowering the CPU INT slider a click each time out til I see some dropped animations are my next tests.
Seems like, since the patch, the CPU is finally intercepting the ball more. However, I'm worried about going lower on this CPU INT slider because the difficulty is great right now.
User AI catching is also in a really good spot in terms of adding to the difficulty, so I don't know if going higher is the right choice or not. I've probably had about an average of three or four total drops per game so maybe just the one click back to 40 will be the cure. TEs seem to be the biggest culprits of a drop on third down and stalling out a drive currently.
August 26, 2024: CHANGES IN RED
August 21, 2024: ORIGINAL POST & ORIGINAL THOUGHTS/VALUES
How I will do this: If there is any important explanation about what I have chosen that needs to be said, I will put it right by that option's value. This way it does not get confusing looking up and down the thread as to why I've set a value to where it is. I will go through the order they are listed in the main menu as that seems the simplest to look through and for sliders, once you set them there, you can just import them with one button in your franchise. If it is not listed, it’s user preference. If I ever make an edit, I will always edit this first post and leave the old values and put the new values in a new color with an explanation of the change.
HOUSE RULES
Play the game. I adjust my safeties. I pinch my defense. I shift my defense left and right. I press. I drop back. I pass predict. I adjust underneath, or inside, or outside, or over the top. I user a LB or Safety. I switch fairly rarely but not never. I audible. I hot route, again rarely, but not never. I fake snaps to try and get a free play or first down. Sometimes that burns me and someone false starts. I'll go for it on 4th down in plus territory if it's a realistic time a coach would do so in real life. So on and so forth.
Things I don't do include intentionally cheesing the CPU. First off, I'm not even sure I'd know how to cheese the CPU. Second off, I'm looking for realistic gameplay so I couldn't care less if I win or lose. I limit my playcalling with the options for cooldown and max amount for one play, and 99% of the time, take a coach suggestion from the first 3 options on the first page. I do this because I want to use as much of my playbook as possible in my 55~ plays per game.
GAME OPTIONS
Favorite Team: Bills - Your game and sliders will suck all year unless this one option is set this way…
SARCASM
Skill Level: All-Madden
Game Style: Simulation (Need for AI penalties, injuries, and regular fatigue)
Quarter Length: 10 Minutes (If you want correct number of NFL plays, you'll probably need to go to 11-12 minutes with the same accelerated clock as below. I want my number of plays in game to be in line with sim stats, and until (IF) we get a fix I'll be leaving this at 10 minutes)
Quarter Length: 12 Minutes (With the accelerated clock below, there's anywhere from 100-115 plays per game. Penalties/injuries/incompletions will be the reason for more or less.
Play Clock: On
Accelerated Clock: On
Minimum Play Clock Time: 20 Seconds (I was running 6 minutes, no accel clock and the CPU possession time was god awful low because they pass too much. Going to 10-minute quarters and 20 accel clock has made possession time better for CPU)
Minimum Play Clock Time: 12 Seconds.
Reason I did this: Going to 12 minute quarters and 12 second accel clock seems to help the CPU playcalling as I'm not doing the playbook workaround anymore. This is keeping the CPU from constantly audibling out of run plays. Much better pass/run ratios than before outside of the egregious pass heavy team playbooks like Cinci who were 38/12 pass/run against me the other night which is at least somewhat better than they were before.
Coin Toss 1st Choice: Receive
(Matches CPU)(Pretty sure the legacy issue still exists that if you choose kick or one of the wind options, you’ll kick the ball to start the game because the CPUs first choice is always set to receive)
Coin Toss 2nd Choice: Against Wind (I believe this is the one that gives you the wind at your back in the 4th quarter)
Coin Toss 2nd Choice: With Wind (Matches CPU)
Kick Meter Style: Multi-Meter (I like that they’ve finally added an option to kicking that takes a little bit of skill rather than the old system of being 100% on FGs every season)
Passing Type: Placement (This one leaves accuracy to be determined by player ratings and that’s how I want to play my game)
Pass Lead Increase: SMALL
Reticle Speed: 1
Defensive Ball Hawk: Depends, do you switch on defense or play no switch? If you switch and want to intercept passes more aggressively and more accurately, you’ll want this on. If you do switch and it’s too easy to intercept passes, turn this off and make interceptions more timing and skill based.
Heat Seeker Assist: Off (I had this on for quite a while and realized it was really helping me shut down the CPU run game so I've turned it off to make my tackling more user dependent)
Heat Seeker Assist: On (CPU is better at running the ball when they actually stick with it. I wanted this back on to help run the CPU down or fill a gap without my user defenders acting like they couldn't see the ballcarrier)
Switch Assist: Off (Most past Madden's I played as a pass rusher. This year, I've started usering my green zones, usually a LB, to take away the middle of the field and I don't typically switch off of them anyway to make a tackle so I don't need this on)
Coach Mode: Off (I don’t want the AI passing for me if I don’t make an input right away)
Injuries: 25 (Having a good amount of in-game injuries. Some multi-week, some just stingers. I like it that way)
Injuries: 20
Fatigue: 65 (Still messing around with this and progressive fatigue in a test franchise)
Fatigue: 60 (Going to lower this just as a test. 65 seemed fine but I got more and more worried later into that Buccs franchise that this was a little high while also having progressive fatigue on)
Fatigue: 90 (I turned off Progressive Fatigue in Franchise and left auto subs default. Players haven't disappeared yet and there's some rotations so... *fingers crossed*
Player Speed Parity Scale: 100 (Everyone is fast in the NFL. This doesn't make everyone the same speed, there's still separation for the fast guys, this just makes the game way more enjoyable and way more realistic in terms of speed around the field and tightens up the defenses a ton)
Physics Based Tackling Results: 50 (Idk what I want to do with this yet. Feel like maybe changing it will negatively affect everything else so I’m worried about adjusting it. There are a ton of big hits though in this years game and I know upping this could lower that, just worried about that though cause I’m liking the amount of fumbles)
Physics Based Tackling Results: TESTING 58!!! — 55 (Too much boom tech for me this year. Tried 60 and it was okay also, but settled on 55. Realized after the 17 games with the Raiders, I was the one always fumbling and not the CPU so I adjusted this and the ball security sliders to try and even it out.
PENALTIES
These have a tremendous impact on the gameplay and animations. They always have. Now, most of them actually seem to be working in terms of penalties actually being called. First Madden in forever I can actually say that we're finally getting penalties in games and most of the sliders will actually affect the number of calls. I'm going to copy and paste what I posted in another thread in a reply below instead of typing it all here again to explain these.
Offside: 70
False Start: 70
Offensive Holding: 55
Offensive Holding: 65
Facemask: 35
Facemask: 40
Illegal Block in the Back: 55
Illegal Block in the Back: 65
Roughing the Passer: 50
Defensive Pass Interference: 25
Defensive Pass Interference: 30
Everything else toggled: On
PLAYER SKILL
QB Accuracy: 10
QB Accuracy: 0
Pass Blocking: 45
WR Catching: 45
WR Catching: 39
Run Blocking: 0 (Run game is way too easy)
Ball Security: 50
Ball Security: 60
Reaction Time: 75
Interceptions: 25 (I want stats to be good and that's it. I don’t want to throw 25 interceptions per season and I don’t want to intercept the CPU 25 times either. I can live with an ugly drop or animation from time to time if my stats look good at the end of a season. At 25, there have been some defenders with brick hands and that's fine with me. I'm just treating them as swats and it's good to see an incomplete pass for the CPU instead of them completing 85% every game. Through 5 games in the test franchise, the CPU is completing about 63% against me.)
Pass Coverage: 75
Pass Coverage: 100
Tackling: 25 (Trying to help the CPU run game as it’s way too easy to stop currently)
Tackling: Testing 40-50 (Have to up this if the CPU is going to run more. Derrick Henry broke 13 tackles in my new franchise even with this at 35 so it may even need to go higher. He ran 18 times for 146 yards with a long of 65 that had a few guys bounce right off of him)
Tackling: 45
FG Power: 50 (The new kick meter can be difficult to time just right for max power but I enjoy the challenge as kicks aren't automatic anymore. I don't want to up the power to compensate for not getting to hit perfect full power sometimes as I want the longer kicks to be difficult to make accurately and power-wise.)
FG Power: 55
FG Accuracy: 50
FG Accuracy: 40
Punt Power: 55 (The new kick meter sucks for punting but I love it for kicking difficulty. Punts were traveling like 35-40 yards with almost full or full power punts. Punts should be traveling 50~ yards with the occasional 45-65 yarder and this helps that. Punt coverage is still okay with the longer punts as well.)
Punt Accuracy: 50
Kickoff Power: 50 (If you're using the new kick meter, you have to hold the power til the arrow shakes just a tad to get a touchback. Full power without the shake will not give you a touchback. This was done intentionally by EA so the ball would land in the landing zone more often than landing in the end zone for touchbacks.)
CPU SKILL
QB Accuracy: 10
QB Accuracy: 0 (I know some are claiming putting this at zero is causing dinking and dunking, but I haven't seen it correlate to QBA. In my testing, that's felt like it correlated to Intentional Grounding as I mentioned above, but even that doesn't necessarily feel always true either. I will say this: The average air yards per attempt last year was 7-7.5 anyway so dinking and dunking isn't some unheard of concept in the NFL. Short passing and running are what setup the big plays and if the CPU will take 3-4 shots deep per game, (mixed in with some medium attempts too) I'm fine with that. The halftime adjustment screen that shows Short, Medium, and Deep passing for the CPU is still within good percentages for me. That's a great indicator of whether or not sliders are affecting CPU passing depth and there is no indication in my testing that QBA at 0 is causing absurd Short passing game attempts. The CPU is still around 60-70% and the remaining 30-40% in medium and deep attempts.
Pass Blocking: 50 (I'm leading the league in sacks through 5 games with a Buccs test franchise, but in my first game of the season I had this matched with user skill at 45 and had 8 sacks on Jayden Daniels. So, I bumped it up to 50 and have had 10 through the next 4 games. It's the only slider adjustment I've made in this franchise so far.) (I'd say most of my sacks are coverage sacks. CPU is throwing the ball away plenty, sometimes they just hang onto it a little too long in the pocket and my line gets there eventually)
WR Catching: 45
WR Catching: 39
Run Blocking: 100 (I was absolutely shutting down and blowing up the run game on 50. And not even necessarily me as the user. The AI controlled defenders were the ones making the stops most of the time. I bumped this to 100 to hopefully encourage the CPU to keep running when they're successful and it worked against the Eagles. They ran 25+ times for 180ish yards on me. Most games though, unfortunately, the CPU playbooks are set up awfully and they're only running 10~ times if they're unsuccessful early on. I'll post my game stats below to show)
Ball Security: 50
Ball Security: 40 (I only had 4 FMBREC in the 17 games with the Raiders and didn't force many more than those 4)
Reaction Time: 75
Interceptions: 25 (I'm not throwing very many INTs and truthfully, I'm not sure it's because of this at 25 or not because I'm getting plenty of my AI controlled defenders to intercept the CPU. I think I'm just making much better reads than I ever have in years past and not throwing the ball into bad spots as much. So, I don't know if I want to up this honestly. Early testing I had it at 35 and 30 and I still wasn't throwing it to the CPU. I was getting plenty (too many at times) of interceptions for my defense but still not throwing many on offense. I can live with that for now. If I continue to not throw too many picks throughout a season, I may up this just to guarantee those ones that the CPU is dropping to be caught. We'll see.)
Interceptions: 35 (I needed the CPU to intercept me more often. It was week 10 in my Buccs franchise and I only threw 4 with Baker. Two weeks through a Raiders test franchise with this at 35 and Minshew has thrown 1, so we'll see how it goes)
Interceptions: 25
Pass Coverage: 75
Pass Coverage: 100
Tackling: 75 (Trying to make the run game more difficult for myself)
Tackling: 70
FG Power: 50
FG Power: 55
FG Accuracy: 50
FG Accuracy: 40
Punt Power: 55
Punt Accuracy: 50
Kickoff Power: 50
VISUAL FEEDBACK
However you want this stuff set truly shouldn’t matter so I won’t even waste time on it. We all probably run about 80%+ the same throughout that menu anyway.
AUTO-SUBS
Default 60/80
I don't think I'm going to mess with these this year. I had them all setup in my Bills franchise and decided to just go with formation subs instead for offense and defense in my test Buccs franchise. I’m pretty sure our legacy issues of disappearing players still exist as it's an issue in CFB25 with auto subs set up there so I'm not going to deal with them here this year. It’s ESPECIALLY been in an issue in Madden with Progressive Fatigue. I'll adjust formation subs and fatigue instead and hope for the best. I haven't noticed gameplay changes because auto sub settings like some have stated.
Wanted to give the Auto Sub theories of impacting gameplay a fair shake so I played the same first half 3 separate times the other night. First game default auto subs, second game adjusted to some from the community, and third game back to default. I noticed no changes in gameplay and this is what ultimately led me to going from 90 fatigue to 100, some formation subs, and lowering the injuries a tad. I will continue to monitor if players are disappearing game to game, but so far, I have not lost anyone at the end of games so I will continue to keep fatigue at 100. I have seen a ton of WR rotations as I don't have formation subs for them setup. None have left the game and not returned yet with fatigue at 100, but they will sit out a few plays sometimes. If anything, I'll test fatigue between 90-100 before I mess with auto subs anymore.
FRANCHISE SETTINGS
Offensive PlayCall Cooldown: 10
Offensive PlayCall Limit: 2
Make yourself call more than just your trusty go-to plays. I used the coach suggested plays anyway, but… Your playbook has hundreds of plays in it. Use them. You’re only going to get about 50-60 plays with this 10-minute/20 second runoff setup. Don’t run the same 5 non-stop.
As for defense, I still only use my coach's suggested plays, but I don’t limit myself because many NFL defensive gameplans revolve around running the same man or zone/match defenses like cover 2, cover 3, cover 4, etc. I don’t want to lock myself out of basic cover 2 or cover 4 plays because I hit my limit on my basic defensive calls.
Dynamic Momentum / Home Field Advantage: On
I want my games to be difficult on the road and I want momentum to matter, so I leave this on. It seems like it affects the game way less than year’s past (thankfully) so I don’t have any issues leaving this on this year for now.
Practice Injury: On (I love these. It gives a good realistic feel of what happens in the real life game)
That's it. Below I'll copy and paste my comment from another thread about penalty sliders and show some box scores from games as well. I hope some of you who are still searching for the right set give these a shot and they work out for you. Good Luck to all you gamers out there in finding what makes this game like Sundays for you. I hope this helps. Most importantly, have fun!