A.J.'s Sliders v 1

[adembroski]

Let me reiterate what I said in the other thread: Do not edit these sliders in game or even in career. I'm not sure which breaks 'em, but one of them does. Edit them outside career mode from the Main Menu\My Coach\Settings\Game AI, then save the file, then enter career mode.

I will likely update these regularly. They're a solid starting point, but I plan on tweaking from this point often.

HUM and CPU settings are the same.

QBA 20
PBK 40
WRC 20
RBA 80
RBK 60

AWR 30
KND 90
INT 35
BRB 30
TAK 35

FGP 40
FGA 40
PTP 90
PTA 75
KOP 10

* NOTE: Never ever put a slider below 10. I'm not positive it does anything negative, but it sure seems to break things, so avoid it.

Quarter Length: 15 Minutes
Play Clock: On
CPU Play Calling: On
Offside 60
False Start 60
Holding 52
Facemask 52
Offensive PI 70
Defensive PI 70
KR/PR Interference 100
Clipping 52
Intentional Grounding 100
Roughing Passer 100
Roughing Kicker 100

I seem to remember getting the penalty sliders from elsewhere, don't know where, probably on these forums. I don't wanna take credit for something I didn't do... they seem to work pretty well though.

For the sake of keeping your career alive, save often. There are numerous glitches in this game that can lock things up. I keep 4 saves... a master save which I use each time I leave the game, a save 1 and a save 2 that I use every Tuesday alternating (that way if I save something that's gonna lock up, I can go back a week and continue), and a situational save I use for major events.

Little tip that helps a lot: Save immediately after exiting a game, and do nothing until the Tuesday autosave. It seems to be most susceptible to freezes immediately after games. Thankfully I seem to have been able to avoid most freezes, and the majority of them were fixed by the second patch, so it seems to be fairly stable now.

[adembroski]

Just had, by far, the best game of Head Coach I've ever had using these sliders. I'll post stats sometime tomorrow, I gotta get to bed, but it was one hell of a game.

Quarterbacks still underperforming a bit... but then, the problem before was they were perfect, so it's kind of a good problem to have.

[Brassman]

This is a monumental find. Thanks! Since I read your findings I too have had the best games of HC I've ever played. I do have a question about your findings regarding QB play.

You list the same slider settings for both User & CPU. Have you found that it's essential that they match in order to have the game play correctly? I ask because I'm now getting realistic QB play on my side of the ball but the CPU is still lighting me up at a 400 yd. + rate every game, even when I work on coverage in practice. I don't mind losing, I'm playing as the Lions, but I am looking for realism. Have you found any evidence to suggest that having seperate CPU & USER settings can have any effect on balancing the game? I'd like to find someway to keep things real until I can build up my coaching staffs attributes. Thanks.

[adembroski]

Quote: Originally Posted by Brassman

This is a monumental find. Thanks! Since I read your findings I too have had the best games of HC I've ever played. I do have a question about your findings regarding QB play. You list the same slider settings for both User & CPU. Have you found that it's essential that they match in order to have the game play correctly? I ask because I'm now getting realistic QB play on my side of the ball but the CPU is still lighting me up at a 400 yd. + rate every game, even when I work on coverage in practice. I don't mind losing, I'm playing as the Lions, but I am looking for realism. Have you found any evidence to suggest that having separate CPU & USER settings can have any effect on balancing the game? I'd like to find someway to keep things real until I can build up my coaching staffs attributes. Thanks.

I have started seeing differences which I'm going to explore further. I'll keep you updated.

It's mostly in the kicking game. The field goal accuracy slider is another one I'm going to be taking a very close look at as I'm seeing a ton of missed kicks lately.

Also, I'm not 100% sure on 20 for QBA. I'm going to be looking for a sweet spot between 15 and 20.

For the record, I positively dominated Philip Rivers in my last game, holding him to something like 15 completions on 35 attempts and picking him off 3 times... but I do have the best secondary in the league in my career mode, so that's a big part of it.

[Steeler99]

Quote: Originally Posted by adembroski

Let me reiterate what I said in the other thread: Do not edit these sliders in game or even in career. I'm not sure which breaks 'em, but one of them does. Edit them outside career mode from the Main Menu\My Coach\Settings\Game AI, then save the file, then enter career mode. I will likely update these regularly. They're a solid starting point, but I plan on tweaking from this point often. HUM and CPU settings are the same. QBA 20 PBK 40 WRC 20 RBA 80 RBK 60 AWR 30 KND 90 INT 35 BRB 30 TAK 35 FGP 40 FGA 40 PTP 90 PTA 75 KOP 10 * NOTE: Never ever put a slider below 10. I'm not positive it does anything negative, but it sure seems to break things, so avoid it. Quarter Length: 15 Minutes Play Clock: On CPU Play Calling: On Offside 60 False Start 60 Holding 52 Facemask 52 Offensive PI 70 Defensive PI 70 KR/PR Interference 100 Clipping 52 Intentional Grounding 100 Roughing Passer 100 Roughing Kicker 100 I seem to remember getting the penalty sliders from elsewhere, don't know where, probably on these forums. I don't wanna take credit for something I didn't do... they seem to work pretty well though. For the sake of keeping your career alive, save often. There are numerous glitches in this game that can lock things up. I keep 4 saves... a master save which I use each time I leave the game, a save 1 and a save 2 that I use every Tuesday alternating (that way if I save something that's gonna lock up, I can go back a week and continue), and a situational save I use for major events. Little tip that helps a lot: Save immediately after exiting a game, and do nothing until the Tuesday autosave. It seems to be most susceptible to freezes immediately after games. Thankfully I seem to have been able to avoid most freezes, and the majority of them were fixed by the second patch, so it seems to be fairly stable now.

I played for the first time last night. These weren't posted yet, so I just played on default. I gotta say I really didn't enjoy it at all, but it was just one half. Got really annoying listening to the coach call out every play I called, then give feedback. Can that be turned off?

You had mentioned it's a lot harder if you create a coach so I may just take your advice and try it with an existing coach. I assume you can still alter existing coaches attributes like playbooks, philosophy, etc ... probably not name though?

Being a Madden-only player I found it a bit confusing at first as far as what I was supposed to do before playing a game, so I think I simmed thru some stuff that I didn't complete during my brief career mode experience.

I'll give it another shot using these settings, but I really do prefer "playing" the game, and some of the stuff on the "to-do" list seems kind of tedious?

[adembroski]

Quote: Originally Posted by Steeler99

I played for the first time last night. These weren't posted yet, so I just played on default. I gotta say I really didn't enjoy it at all, but it was just one half. Got really annoying listening to the coach call out every play I called, then give feedback. Can that be turned off?

No, and you're right... the coach talking is annoying.

This game isn't for everyone... but keep in mind; this "game" isn't about the "game", it's the whole of the career mode. In most games, Franchise mode is more or less an extra bit of packaging to give your games context. In this game, franchise mode *is* the game.

Quote:

You had mentioned it's a lot harder if you create a coach so I may just take your advice and try it with an existing coach. I assume you can still alter existing coaches attributes like playbooks, philosophy, etc ... probably not name though?

You "take over" that coach from the start of the game forward. No, can't change names, but you select a playbook when you start (I believe) and can customize it from there. Philosophies can be changed anytime.

The playbooks are quite thin, that's by design I believe. I think Josh once mentioned that they specifically wanted to make them thin so that you'd build your own game. It has a very cool side effect- because the coaches are constantly stealing from each other, the game sort of evolves over time. In year 8 you might see the Option and Spread offenses dominating the league... and it's likely that a different system will come to dominate each career mode.

Quote:

Being a Madden-only player I found it a bit confusing at first as far as what I was supposed to do before playing a game, so I think I simmed thru some stuff that I didn't complete during my brief career mode experience.

You skipped practices, where you select the focus of your game. This is also where your team learns the playbook. If your team doesn't know a play well and you call it in game, you'll have guys running wrong routes, blocking the wrong guy, basically confused.

If you simply dismiss "Gameplan" events (that's the practices), your players don't skip them... your coordinators will handle it for you.

Quote:

I'll give it another shot using these settings, but I really do prefer "playing" the game, and some of the stuff on the "to-do" list seems kind of tedious?

Actually, depends on how you look at it. Try starting a career at the off-season instead of the preseason. It'll let you reply the 2007 off-season and draft. Get a feel for the management controls, and understand that this game is more about what happens between game days than the games themselves. If you go through the off-season and don't enjoy it, then nothing that happens on the field (which is, by far, the weakest aspect of the game) is going to change your mind.

A Front Office Football aficionado is going to be more likely to get into this game than a Madden player. This is really more about building a winning team than doing the winning yourself.

[Steeler99]

Quote: Originally Posted by adembroski

No, and you're right... the coach talking is annoying. This game isn't for everyone... but keep in mind; this "game" isn't about the "game", it's the whole of the career mode. In most games, Franchise mode is more or less an extra bit of packaging to give your games context. In this game, franchise mode *is* the game. You "take over" that coach from the start of the game forward. No, can't change names, but you select a playbook when you start (I believe) and can customize it from there. Philosophies can be changed anytime. The playbooks are quite thin, that's by design I believe. I think Josh once mentioned that they specifically wanted to make them thin so that you'd build your own game. It has a very cool side effect- because the coaches are constantly stealing from each other, the game sort of evolves over time. In year 8 you might see the Option and Spread offenses dominating the league... and it's likely that a different system will come to dominate each career mode. You skipped practices, where you select the focus of your game. This is also where your team learns the playbook. If your team doesn't know a play well and you call it in game, you'll have guys running wrong routes, blocking the wrong guy, basically confused. If you simply dismiss "Gameplan" events (that's the practices), your players don't skip them... your coordinators will handle it for you. Actually, depends on how you look at it. Try starting a career at the off-season instead of the preseason. It'll let you reply the 2007 off-season and draft. Get a feel for the management controls, and understand that this game is more about what happens between game days than the games themselves. If you go through the off-season and don't enjoy it, then nothing that happens on the field (which is, by far, the weakest aspect of the game) is going to change your mind. A Front Office Football aficionado is going to be more likely to get into this game than a Madden player. This is really more about building a winning team than doing the winning yourself.

Appreciate the feedback! Out of curiosity, what specifically is harder if I choose to create a coach?

So if I handle the practices myself, do I actually run plays, etc? I'll take a look for myself tonight, but what are the critical non-game issues that need to be manually controlled?

[adembroski]

Quote: Originally Posted by Steeler99

Appreciate the feedback! Out of curiosity, what specifically is harder if I choose to create a coach?

Ratings. You start at like a 12 overall if you create your coach. Those ratings have a huge influence on your team. Not enough to make a bad team good or a good team bad, but they have a noticeable affect on performance, and more than that, progression.

Quote:

So if I handle the practices myself, do I actually run plays, etc? I'll take a look for myself tonight, but what are the critical non-game issues that need to be manually controlled?

No, it's all background. You select a practice focus and your team runs the practice. You get a summary of what plays were worked on and how much you improved. It'll work your starters first, once they master a play, they'll be subbed for. That's on a position-by-position basis.

Basically, you want to control absolutely everything you don't trust your subordinates to do:P If you have bad coordinators, you wanna call the plays yourself. If you have a bad GM, you wanna make all the draft choices yourself.

Bad coordinators are really annoying. My offensive coordinator only likes one running play and he runs it over and over and over. Of course, that's the philosophical difference between he and I... I prefer West Coast style misdirection based running game, he prefers a zone/stretch running game. So he'll call the one stretch play in my playbook every chance he gets. I usually over ride him, but it gets annoying:P