Does Heisman have ratings boosts/nerfs?

[TON1C]

It was common knowledge in Madden for years (and confirmed via modding) that All-Madden had CPU ratings boosts and/or User ratings nerfs to add to the “difficulty”. However, there were some rumors and such that EA had removed these from CFB. Does anyone know for certain if that’s the case or has anyone proved this one way or another?

I feel like Heisman gives a better challenge and the CPU makes adjustments both better and quicker as well as just feeling more aggressive and competent across the board. But if this is due to ratings boosts/nerfs then I’m not sure if that’s worth the trade off as it makes recruiting and team building not as important.

[noarmsduck]

I would like to know this as well. It's why I always stayed away from Heisman and All Madden difficulty. If I get a guy on my team that has 90+ carry or 93+ catching/CIT then I don't want him fumbling every game or dropping 2+ passes every game. I wouldn't mind as much if all it did was boost CPU player awareness or play recognition or coverage. But CPU speed boosts, catching boosts, accuracy boosts, as well as any nerfs to user players is just not something I would play with.

IMO Heisman should be better CPU playcalling, better CPU AI reaction time and less mistakes, and as you said just more aggressive and competent across the board.

[TON1C]

I played a few games on Heisman last night and saw some good and some bad playing as low-tier WMU. CPU was more competent but I also felt absolutely helpless on defense most of the time unless I managed to get more than one sack, TFL, or penalty in the same drive, and/or poor CPU playcalling (draws, read options with slow QBs, deep passing concepts and holding the ball). Also saw a lot of the “dominant” blocking animations which I don’t love to see and feel like didn’t happen as much on AA.

I have heard from the person that I trust on the subject the most by far that they are still in there but just wanted to see if anyone else had any knowledge or sources on the subject as well.

[RogueHominid]

Unless someone can confirm otherwise, I don’t think either EA football game has a level that’s just the ratings playing out with no additional up/down modifiers for one or both teams.

It would be nice if that existed, but I don’t think it does. Khaliib would be able to weigh in authoritatively.

[Hooe]

Quote: Originally Posted by TON1C

However, there were some rumors and such that EA had removed these from CFB.

It wasn't a rumor, it was a direct quote from CFB25 creative director Scott O'Gallagher, which was repeated by Mills several times on pre-release Twitch streams. It should be taken as gospel that Heisman no longer artificially boosts CPU players' ratings given that this statement came from EA Sports themselves both first-hand from their employees in a position of knowledge and second-hand via their external partners.

Now, what probably does happen on Heisman difficulty is that reaction time windows are shorter (so that even players with lower PRC will have faster reaction times because the "worst" reaction time is faster), input timing windows are tighter (such as for successful ballcarrier skill moves and hit sticks), and tolerances on any gameplay mechanics tied to a meter are more strict (Revamped passing, field goal kicking). These changes will probably make the game feel like the CPU players are artificially stronger, but under the hood what is happening is that your stick skills are no longer on point enough for the lower input tolerance thresholds.

Additionally, I imagine the dynamic coaching features in CFB25 kick in on Heisman faster than they do on lower difficulties. My online dynasty doesn't play on Heisman because some of the users are not ready for that noise, but for example: in Madden 24 on All-Madden, the CPU's ability to key and trigger fast against repeated run plays from the exact same formation would kick in as soon as the second time you called a given run play.

[Detroit Tigers]

No clue what the code is actually doing, but having played on default Heisman since launch I’d opine the CPU OL is boosted and the CPU DBs are boosted. That’s what it feels like to me anyway.

Probably comparable to a 60/40 or 66/33 slider setup on AA.

[TON1C]

Quote: Originally Posted by Hooe

It wasn't a rumor, it was a direct quote from CFB25 creative director Scott O'Gallagher, which was repeated by Mills several times on pre-release Twitch streams. It should be taken as gospel that Heisman no longer artificially boosts CPU players' ratings given that this statement came from EA Sports themselves both first-hand from their employees in a position of knowledge and second-hand via their external partners. Now, what probably does happen on Heisman difficulty is that reaction time windows are shorter (so that even players with lower PRC will have faster reaction times because the "worst" reaction time is faster), input timing windows are tighter (such as for successful ballcarrier skill moves and hit sticks), and tolerances on any gameplay mechanics tied to a meter are more strict (Revamped passing, field goal kicking). These changes will probably make the game feel like the CPU players are artificially stronger, but under the hood what is happening is that your stick skills are no longer on point enough for the lower input tolerance thresholds. Additionally, I imagine the dynamic coaching features in CFB25 kick in on Heisman faster than they do on lower difficulties. My online dynasty doesn't play on Heisman because some of the users are not ready for that noise, but for example: in Madden 24 on All-Madden, the CPU's ability to key and trigger fast against repeated run plays from the exact same formation would kick in as soon as the second time you called a given run play.

Good to know on the official confirmation! I thought it was something along those lines but didn’t know the exact details. Do you have a link to that by chance? I’ve tried a lot of Googling and couldn’t find anything like that.

I definitely notice a lot more, quicker and better dynamic AI on Heisman. They do things like run different shells, show blitz, pinch lineman, guess run, etc that I either see way less or not at all on AA.

I’d love to know the exact details on what’s different between Heisman and AA instead of us just speculating all the time but maybe someday. Or if it comes to PC next year then hopefully we’ll be able to open everything up and take a look.

[RogueHominid]

That’s awesome to know re: Heisman. I wasn’t aware that they made that philosophical shift, and it’s great to have that answered!