Interesting discovery about difficulty level/sliders

[zocrates]

I started testing the game on CPU vs. CPU at all difficulty levels (with default sliders) and with all different difficulty combinations, and the only combination that looks to truly take ratings into account both on offense and defense is Heisman (offense) and Freshman (defense). And of course, it just happens to be the combination that makes absolutely no sense at all.

Almost every other combination (whether it be Varsity/Varsity, Heisman/All-American, Freshman/Heisman, etc) looked like there was no clear separation between the teams, no matter what the ratings on either side. The closest I saw was Varsity/Varsity, and with that, it just seemed like there was only a separation in offense, but with no difference with defense.

It's pretty odd that the separation takes place with Heisman/Freshman since you would expect that the offenses would just dominate with zero defense, but for some reason, the game just plays pretty true to ratings when you set all sliders to default on that difficulty. It just goes to show you that the programming of the game is just a little screwy that in order for the game to work on default, you have to set it to Heisman/Freshman.

The stats aren't perfect by any means, but they're the closest I've seen by far with any combination of difficulty on the default sliders. The only stat that looks to be way off are interceptions, where I haven't seen any in about the 5 games that I've run.

I'm going to tinker with the sliders a bit for CPU vs. CPU play, but I just wonder if anyone has any interest in using Heisman/Freshman for a HUM vs. CPU slider set to see if the game plays as true to the ratings as it does for CPU vs. CPU. I just wonder if anyone even thought to try this before, because I only tried it out of desperation since no other combination was working for me.

Here is a box score from the latest game I ran with the default sliders (except for FGA at 35 and 8 min quarters) on Heisman/Freshman:

New Mexico State Aggies at Texas Longhorns
Jan 1,	1ST	2ND	3RD	4TH	SCORE
New Mexico State Aggies ()	0	7	7	0	14
#15 Texas Longhorns ()	20	14	21	10	65

Team Stats Comparison
	NMSU	TEX
Total Offense	231	606
Rushing Yards	-4	411
Passing Yards	235	195
First Downs	14	30
Punt Return Yards	0	95
Kick Return Yards	265	80
Total Yards	496	781
Turnovers	0	0
3rd Down Converstion	3-12	7-11
4th Down Conversion	0-0	1-1
2-Point Conversion	0-0	0-0
Red Zone Touchdowns/Field Goals	3-2-0	10-7-3
Penalties	0-0	0-0
Posession Time	10:13	21:47

New Mexico State Aggies PASSING C/A YDS TD INT T. Colwell 19/34 235 0 0 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD G. Morrison 8 -1 -0.1 0 T. Colwell 12 -3 -0.2 2 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD A. Franklin 5 81 16.2 0 J. Matthews 3 50 16.6 0 P. Scoggins 3 44 14.6 0 J. Brown 3 27 9.0 0 G. Morrison 3 16 5.3 0 P. Morehead 1 15 15.0 0 M. Washington 1 2 2.0 0 KICKING FG XP PTS LONG M. Johnson 0/1 2/2 2 0 PUNTING NO YDS AVG IN20 C. Chapman Brown 8 287 35.8 0

Texas Longhorns PASSING C/A YDS TD INT D. Ash 19/22 188 2 0 C. McCoy 1/1 7 0 0 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD J. Gray 23 150 6.5 3 M. Brown 16 141 8.8 2 D. Ash 14 71 5.0 0 C. McCoy 2 42 21.0 1 C. Jones 1 10 10.0 0 J. Bergeron 1 -3 -3.0 0 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD C. Jones 5 58 11.6 0 M. McFarlane 2 37 18.5 0 M. Davis 6 36 6.0 0 J. Shipley 3 31 10.3 0 M. Brown 3 27 9.0 2 M. Johnson 1 6 6.0 0 KICKING FG XP PTS LONG A. Fera 3/3 8/8 23 22

NMS was sacked 5 times, and Texas only once.

Remember, this is on default sliders, and I have personally never seen stats this close to real life results with the default sliders. Typically, every CPU vs. CPU game with the default sliders on just about any difficulty level is a shootout with both QBs throwing 300-500 yards, regardless of the QB's rating.

I ran another game earlier with Lousiville/Ohio that I don't have the box for, but Teddy Bridgewater threw something like 25/35 for 460 yards and 6 TDs, which is actually really close to what he threw in real life. And they held the Ohio QB (who is like 86 OVR) to about 215 yards and no TDs.

But if anyone wants to give that settings a shot on HUM vs. CPU, I'd like to know if they work any better or worse than Heisman/Heisman. I'd imagine you could just compensate by drastically altering some of the sliders, but it just looks like at its base, this is the only combination of difficulty level that plays to ratings right out of the box.

[Von Dozier]

Tried this out (CPU vs CPU, me coaching Ball State)

Tweaks:
20 threshold, 9 minute quarters (137 plays)

Ball State Cardinals at North Texas Mean Green
Jan 1,	1ST	2ND	3RD	4TH	SCORE
Ball State Cardinals ()	14	3	7	6	30
North Texas Mean Green ()	0	10	14	3	27

Team Stats Comparison
	BALL	UNT
Total Offense	416	466
Rushing Yards	136	163
Passing Yards	280	303
First Downs	19	23
Punt Return Yards
Kick Return Yards
Total Yards	580	514
Turnovers	1	0
3rd Down Converstion	7-14	4-12
4th Down Conversion
2-Point Conversion
Red Zone Touchdowns/Field Goals	4-1-3	6-3-2
Penalties	1-15	1-15
Posession Time	21:02	14:58

Ball State Cardinals PASSING C/A YDS TD INT K. Wenning (90ovr) 27/33 280 2 1 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD J. Edwards 21 100 4.7 1 K. Wenning 9 12 1.3 H. Banks 4 24 6.0

North Texas Mean Green PASSING C/A YDS TD INT B. Berglund (70ovr) 19/28 303 2 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD R. Pegram 19 122 6.4 1 B. Berglund 12 3 0.2 B. Byrd 6 26 4.3 D. Miller 3 9 3.0 D. Terrell 1 0 0.0 C. Harris 1 3 3.0

First off are you still using the 20 threshold or did you default that too? (I tried your CPU sliders yesterday for the first time and kept it there)

I felt the 70ovr QB (60 awareness, 70 accuracy) was a bit too dominant for his rating, but besides that, it played really well. I'll get more games in, but besides the QB thing I can't complain about anything so far.

[zocrates]

I kept the threshold at 50, too. I did notice a pretty drastic change when I set the threshold to 20, so that might be what you're seeing.

I'm also trying to difficulty at Heisman/Varsity with good results, too. In some ways, they're actually better results, and possibly a better starting point for a slider set. I'm seeing interceptions (possible too many) on that setting, and a better running game, but the passing completion percentage is a little higher. The higher comp% might be due to the fact that the QBs don't throw down field much. It's weird how the defense is actually better on Heisman/Varsity than it is on Heisman/Heisman. Or maybe it's just the CPU playcalling that changes. Either way, it's good to see the game actually taking ratings into consideration for once.

To really test the ratings of a 70 OVR QB, I'd test it against a good defense, btw.

[zocrates]

Here is a game I ran using Heisman/Varsity on CPU vs. CPU (all defaults except 8 min quarters and HFA off):

New Mexico State Aggies at Texas Longhorns
Jan 1,	1ST	2ND	3RD	4TH	SCORE
New Mexico State Aggies (0-1)	7	3	3	0	13
#15 Texas Longhorns (1-0)	7	21	14	0	42

Team Stats Comparison
	NMSU	TEX
Total Offense	268	579
Rushing Yards	75	327
Passing Yards	193	252
First Downs	11	29
Punt Return Yards	30	56
Kick Return Yards	24	86
Total Yards	322	721
Turnovers	1	1
3rd Down Converstion	1-13	8-14
4th Down Conversion	2-4	1-1
2-Point Conversion	0-0	0-0
Red Zone Touchdowns/Field Goals	2-0-1	8-5-0
Penalties	0-0	4-42
Posession Time	13:38	18:22

New Mexico State Aggies PASSING C/A YDS TD INT T. Colwell 23/34 193 1 1 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD G. Morrison 12 44 3.6 0 T. Colwell 13 31 2.3 0 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD P. Morehead 5 61 12.2 0 M. Washington 4 46 11.5 1 G. Morrison 6 40 6.6 0 P. Scoggins 3 30 10.0 0 J. Matthews 1 9 9.0 0 A. Franklin 2 7 3.5 0 B. Betancourt 2 0 0.0 0 KICKING FG XP PTS LONG M. Johnson 2/2 1/1 7 38 PUNTING NO YDS AVG IN20 C. Chapman Brown 6 258 43.0 0

Texas Longhorns PASSING C/A YDS TD INT D. Ash 27/35 237 2 1 C. McCoy 3/6 15 0 0 RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD J. Gray 16 137 8.5 3 D. Ash 14 89 6.3 0 M. Brown 8 68 8.5 1 C. Jones 1 19 19.0 0 J. Bergeron 1 12 12.0 0 C. McCoy 1 2 2.0 0 RECEIVING REC YDS AVG TD C. Jones 5 67 13.4 0 M. Davis 2 35 17.5 0 M. Johnson 3 34 11.3 1 J. Shipley 5 34 6.8 0 M. Brown 4 24 6.0 0 J. Gray 3 16 5.3 0 K. Sanders 3 15 5.0 1 M. McFarland 3 14 4.6 0 A. De La Torre 2 13 6.5 0 KICKING FG XP PTS LONG A. Fera 0/2 6/6 6 PUNTING NO YDS AVG IN20 W. Russ 3 118 39.3 0

[jp18]

Well I am a human vs cpu guy and love the set I use but I am going to give this a try. I have tried several combinations in the past but never heisman/freshman seems odd but I am always down for more realism as long as its still a challenge. I'll start by playing as a low level group of 5 team against a far superior team and see how it goes. I hope you have found a little something!

[zocrates]

Quote: Originally Posted by jp18

Well I am a human vs cpu guy and love the set I use but I am going to give this a try. I have tried several combinations in the past but never heisman/freshman seems odd but I am always down for more realism as long as its still a challenge. I'll start by playing as a low level group of 5 team against a far superior team and see how it goes. I hope you have found a little something!

Definitely let me know how it goes. I would actually try Heisman/Varsity, which looks like it plays a little more to the ratings without changing too much. I've started tweaking a few sliders at Heisman/Varsity to try and get things working for CPU vs. CPU, but something tells me HUM vs. CPU will actually play as expected where offense will be a little out of wack. But what might work is if you overcompensate by drastically changing a lot of teh sliders around.

In other words, if Heisman/Varsity plays more to the ratings on the default settings than Heisman/Heisman, it might make sense to use Heisman/Varsity as the base and then just adjust the ratings accordingly.

[KushNstien]

Sounds intriguing testing now.

[wolverinemaniac]

anyone that has tried these have any input?