The Ladder - 2011-2025

[Julio Riddols]

Got my power brick today while I was asleep, should be back on track tomorrow once I plug it all in. Got part way through my recruiting but not done yet.

[Julio Riddols]

All set and the new brick seems solid, didn't even get luke warm and I had the xbox on for an hour at least. I'm feeling optimistic about being able to play going forward.

[Grammaticus]

Great news on your power brick. Also looks like Kodos can advance when he is ready!

[Kodos]

.

[Kodos]

This week's opponents get a little tougher. I'll be interested to see how things go.

#7 Notre Dame (1-0) at USC (2-0)
#13 Oklahoma State (1-0) at #21 Ole Miss (1-0)
Rapid City State (1-0) at LSU (0-2)

[Kodos]

Welp, Oklahoma State scored 52, which is good, but Ole Miss going over the century mark is not what I was hoping for.

[Grammaticus]

Originally Posted by Kodos

Welp, Oklahoma State scored 52, which is good, but Ole Miss going over the century mark is not what I was hoping for.

Probably due to the big play quick scores OK State made, which left plenty of time on the clock for me to operate offense. They had some crazy broken tackles and passes into heavy coverage where their guy just jumped up, pulled it down and ran to the house. You can see where their scoring sort of dropped off about halfway through the second quarter. Oh well, the offense is super easy with a QB and RB that never get tired.

[Kodos]

Alright, so the fatigue off thing seems to be unpopular, and hasn't really made games more competitive. Is everyone in favor of turning fatigue back on?

Maybe we can try to address the unrealistic scores by adopting a rule that you can't run no huddle against the computer if you have a lead?

[Julio Riddols]

I'm ok with whatever happens, does seem like fatigue being off hasn't fixed anything. Not sure how we would police the no huddle thing though. That's the real thing causing the offensive insanity IMO, because I can only score triple digits if I run the no huddle all game long.

[Kodos]

Yeah, I think the race to win the Heisman has an unfortunate side effect there.

[Julio Riddols]

Yeah, once the race for the Heisman became a thing I think we saw stats balloon immediately. That's also probably why I never get close, haha. I get too stressed trying to push the ball down the field as fast as possible.

[Grammaticus]

Is anyone having issues with the NCAA Dynasty website? I can't login, it just says bad credentials, but they are what I have always used. Then when I hit the cant login link, it just takes me to the EA Customer Portal, when I login there is not option to do anything with the NCAA Dynasty site??

[Kodos]

Yeah, it's been down for maybe a week so far.

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by Grammaticus

Is anyone having issues with the NCAA Dynasty website? I can't login, it just says bad credentials, but they are what I have always used. Then when I hit the cant login link, it just takes me to the EA Customer Portal, when I login there is not option to do anything with the NCAA Dynasty site??

EA Website gives error message "Failed to create new session!" - Operation Sports Forums

Originally Posted by ArcticKnight92

My chat with support just moments ago...

It looks like EA may have stopped supporting the website for good.

I hate recruiting from the console.

[Eaglesfan27]

I just hope this not an omen of things to come.

[Grammaticus]

It shouldn't take much to keep the servers going.

[Kodos]

EF - have you played yet? It's no longer easy for me to check now that the website is dead.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by Kodos

EF - have you played yet? It's no longer easy for me to check now that the website is dead.

No. My apologies but between Jack and work my schedule has been terrible for the last week or so. I'm actually off work early today and playing right now

[Eaglesfan27]

Notre Dame started off tough with a big touchdown. But, with the exception of a few big plays, our defense played very well. With the exception of 1 interception our offense played amazingly well. We crushed Notre Dame.

We are all set to advance.

[Grammaticus]

Well, I am still getting dynasty central emails. I got the notice the game was completed.

[Kodos]

Yeah, I just signed up for those too a few weeks ago.

[Kodos]

Okay, turning fatigue back on. Does anyone have some recommended sliders? I'm considering these AA sliders from Operation Sports.

https://forums.operationsports.com/f...a-sliders.html

Or do we want to bump to Heisman?

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by Kodos

Okay, turning fatigue back on. Does anyone have some recommended sliders? I'm considering these AA sliders from Operation Sports.

BYU's AA sliders - Operation Sports Forums

Or do we want to bump to Heisman?

I've used those sliders and found them fun but not necessarily too much more challenging. I'm good with these sliders or Heisman - whatever you decide.

[Kodos]

Okay. I'm going with a lightly-edited version of Heisman sliders. Most sliders are near default, although I adjusted some sliders a bit based on this set:

J-Kits: NCAA Football Sliders - OFFICIAL 2016/17' season update - Operation Sports Forums

I adjusted cpu rb ability up, ints and tackling down for both cpu and user, and user rush D up. I also used the penalty sliders from the set above.

We can adjust more after people get used to Heisman. I've never tried Heisman in '14, so should be interesting.

[Kodos]

.

[Kodos]

Week 4 Games

#17 Ole Miss (2-0) at Mississippi State (1-1)
Rapid City State (2-0) at Cincinnati (1-2)
Ball State (0-1) at Indiana (1-0)

Heisman sliders are now in effect.

[Grammaticus]

JR, it looks like your game was a street fight of sorts. Are the new settings that much different?

[Julio Riddols]

It was tough to stop their offense.. Our offense was pretty good but balls were getting batted down, drops on tight throws, stuff like that. We ran the ball well.

Also, our starting QB and RB were both out most of the second half which slowed us down a good amount. Our defense actually stepped up just enough to keep us in the lead.

I didn't know the sliders had changed, if so I applaud them. It was a good game.

[Julio Riddols]

Nothing felt cheap or wrong, I will say that. Felt like playing a human player almost, felt like the teams were represented well talent wise.

[Grammaticus]

Got my game in, ready to advance?

[Kodos]

.

[Kodos]

Week 5 Games

#13 South Carolina (2-2) at #12 Ole Miss (3-0)
#21 USC (3-0) at #16 UCLA (2-1)
Western Kentucky (2-1) at #25 Rapid City State (3-0)
Miami University (1-0) at Indiana (2-0)

[Julio Riddols]

I like the way the game is playing on Heisman so far. My week 5 actions are in the books.

[Kodos]

I'm liking what I'm seeing with the move to Heisman. The computer is suddenly an actual threat to humans. Miami of Ohio was right in our game going into the 4th before we pulled away (they'd overcome an early 21-3 lead to make it 21-13 at the half), WKU gave Rapid City a good game except for the third quarter, and #13 South Carolina vs. #12 Ole Miss ended up being a barnburner.

I'm very concerned about facing our first real opponent next week during conference play.

[Kodos]

I'm very curious to see how recruiting is going both for CPU teams and for humans. Any commits yet?

[Eaglesfan27]

No commits yet. I will get my game in this weekend... hopefully tomorrow.

[Julio Riddols]

No commits here yet, but I am very close on a few and just hosted my first set of visits this past week. I expect one or more signings from that, but should have 6 or 7 in the books in fairly short order. We managed to find guys the CPU wasn't looking at yet apparently, and now we have too big of a lead on most of them to be overtaken.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by Julio Riddols

I like the way the game is playing on Heisman so far. My week 5 actions are in the books.

Count me as a contrarian. I hated my game's first half. I had to quit because my son woke up from his nap but I was also having zero fun. UCLA's QB was breaking multiple tackles every single run. Ditto for their HB's and WR's. Jimmy Thomas got chased down from behind by a guy with 5 less speed and acceleration than him. It reminded me why I never played on Heisman level even though I found All-American too easy. I always wished for a level between the two. My guys were neutered and their guys were all super powered. I had 4 fumbles lost in the 1st half. Their DB's had super human breaks. No fun at all. My son woke up from his nap early (and my wife is busy at the gym working out) and I decided to just quit and spend time with him rather than keep up this slog fest.

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

Count me as a contrarian. I hated my game's first half. I had to quit because my son woke up from his nap but I was also having zero fun. UCLA's QB was breaking multiple tackles every single run. Ditto for their HB's and WR's. Jimmy Thomas got chased down from behind by a guy with 5 less speed and acceleration than him. It reminded me why I never played on Heisman level even though I found All-American too easy. I always wished for a level between the two. My guys were neutered and their guys were all super powered. I had 4 fumbles lost in the 1st half. Their DB's had super human breaks. No fun at all. My son woke up from his nap early (and my wife is busy at the gym working out) and I decided to just quit and spend time with him rather than keep up this slog fest.

I haven't played a powerful team yet with the new settings, so I haven't seen the kinds of things you are talking about above in the 2 games that I played. In my games, things have seemed fair. And the cpu has actually been able to hit passes downfield on me at times. But I don't see how beating the #7 team by 98 points is really much fun either. For me, no challenge = no fun. I dunno. Julio seems to like things so far. Gramm, what are your thoughts?

[Julio Riddols]

I'm waiting for my first blue chip opponent too I think. We'll see how it goes when that happens. I do feel like the computer gets some easy plays occasionally, but I expect a little fuckery on the higher level because it's not like the AI can just "be better". How would one even program that?

I guess ideally the cpu would just be less accurate in the passing game and easier to tackle or block on lower levels but other than that I don't know how you would actually increase the difficulty on harder levels. I've had about the same level of offensive success though, so whatever changes there are with the heisman defense, I don't feel much of a difference so far except with the effectiveness of their pass rush.

The whole CPU pass rush is a little faster to get to me now, but that's just a mental clock adjustment I am used to doing against you guys so it just sort of feels like I am playing against a human defense after getting the cobwebs shaken off in that first game.

The CPU offense does get some janky stuff though, like DB's just not covering their assignments occasionally. They do break a few more tackles, but it hasn't been ridiculous yet. I'm still getting a decent amount of sacks and interceptions and I'm still able to shut down the run if I need to.

[Eaglesfan27]

Originally Posted by Kodos

I haven't played a powerful team yet with the new settings, so I haven't seen the kinds of things you are talking about above in the 2 games that I played. In my games, things have seemed fair. And the cpu has actually been able to hit passes downfield on me at times. But I don't see how beating the #7 team by 98 points is really much fun either. For me, no challenge = no fun. I dunno. Julio seems to like things so far. Gramm, what are your thoughts?

Yeah, I agree. It's not great being able to beat up every team by a ton either. I really wish there was a level between the two. That was the thing that really bugged me, UCLA wasn't that powerful. They were about equal to me in ratings and were playing superhuman. Anyway, my "free" time is really down since my son was born, so that is the bigger issue for me. It is harder and harder to find time to play a full game in one sitting.

[Kodos]

So...

1. Do you think you want to give it a while to try to get used to the new sliders? (EF)

2. Do you think you can still find time to play a game each week? (EF & Julio)

Not trying to nudge anyone out. Just trying to get a gauge or where people are at right now.

[Eaglesfan27]

I think you should go ahead and go on without me for now and put me on auto pilot. I can't get any time today or tomorrow and I leave for a week vacation early Saturday morning. When I get back, I will give the sliders another try and see if I can adjust to them and find fun in the game or not.

[Kodos]

Okay. Advancing now. Details to come later.

[Kodos]

UCLA won 20-10. USC has a bye week.

Rapid City at Kansas
Indiana at Oregon State
Mid Tenn St at Ole Miss

[Julio Riddols]

I can still find time for sure, once we are moved in to the new house completely things will settle down considerably.

[Kodos]

Amazingly, the NCAA 14 website is running again.

[Julio Riddols]

I've got everything packed up and I will be putting things together at the new place over the next couple weeks - As soon as the internet folks get their heads out of their asses and figure out that I can get service through them if both my neighbors can, I'll be ready to roll.

I'll post some pics of our little piece of earth here in the next week or so once it's all settled in.

Side note, however - I wouldn't ever recommend that someone have a baby, work 3rd shift, and buy and move into a new home all at the same time unless you can afford a good daycare. Holy shit life can be exhausting, haha.

[Julio Riddols]

To the best of my knowledge, our game against Kansas was an impressive one defensively. I was in and out of sleep during the second half, but they seemed to play excellent, several sacks and a couple interceptions if I recall correctly. Offensively we ran the ball really well and Blaylock has been pretty efficient with things. His mobility is a huge help.

[Kodos]

Oregon State kicked our asses. We couldn't stop their passing game, and our backup QB was hitting about a third of his passes. Ugly game. Our defense wasn't able to cover anyone or get to the quarterback. They were only rated slightly better than us, but it sure didn't feel that way.