The Pyramid - 2014 season sliders

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

I've been playing since early this morning and I'm loving this version so far. Best version in a long time for me. I'm playing Offense on All-American, Defense on Heisman and the teams that should beat me are doing so. The teams I should crush are also happening. Oregon's offense was fun to mess around with for that test. I'm only adjusting a few sliders (QB accuracy to 15, Speed threshold to 20-25, WR catching to 45, and Interceptions down to 25-30) and leaving everything else at default and I'm getting great games. My offense line is really pushing around inferior teams but struggling with tougher teams. Marquise Lee is unbelievable in the open field and I love all of the moves you can make just using the lwft stick if you have an elite player. I'm also glad to see that the computer did a good job of playing off him deep, his best play of the day was a short underneath route where he made 2 guys miss and then took it to the house.

I decided we need to up the difficulty a bit. Not being a sliders guy, EF27's set here sounded good. Mostly default - Offense on AA, Defense on Heisman. A few tweaks to both user and cpu: QB Acc to 15, WR Catch to 45, Ints to 30. Everything else is default, including penalties. Game speed slow, min speed threshold is 25. Quarters are still 8 minutes. Home field advantage is on, Ice the kicker is off. All penalties are set to 50. We never seemed to be able to reach a consensus as a league, so I decided to just make a choice for us. I'm open to reevaluating at the end of the season.

[Kodos]

In light of the sliders change, I am going to hold off on advancing until tomorrow night, in case people want to rethink their OOC schedules.

[Kodos]

If anyone really hates this idea, I'm listening. It just seemed like an easy way to bump the difficulty up while also simplifying our slider set. Honestly, this is a part of the game I wish there was no need to mess with.

[CU Tiger]

Like it as long as we are committing to it for the season.
Hated the changes mid season, but understood it.

Whatever you decide Im cool with.

[vex]

I was fine with last seasons sliders other than needing more penalties.

[Kodos]

So a few games in, how are people feeling about these sliders? Better than last season? Worse?

[CU Tiger]

Just different.

Im adjusting.

For now I don't seem to be able to stop the other teams passing early. Until they start chunking it late Im seeing 12-13 and 14-15 despite playing nickel and expect the pass.

Not sure if thats the sliders, my talent, or my play style.
Passing is likewise nearly impossible for me now..but running seems ok.

[Radii]

Defense is just weird to me in 2014. I think it has to do with defensive players "getting hot". I think players get hot too easily and stay that way too easily on defense. Frequently in the second half of games like 8 players on my defense are getting some kind of boost as a result of this, and it takes a lot for it to go away. As a result of this early in games I'm just trying to contain the other team and stay close until a few plays go my way and then things will be fine. This is how I play defense anyway, make the opponent have a long drive if they're going to score and give them plenty of chances to screw up. So it doesn't change playstyle any but I think it explains the flow.

I don't think this is necessarily something that can be addressed in sliders?

[CU Tiger]

Originally Posted by Radii

Defense is just weird to me in 2014. I think it has to do with defensive players "getting hot". I think players get hot too easily and stay that way too easily on defense. Frequently in the second half of games like 8 players on my defense are getting some kind of boost as a result of this, and it takes a lot for it to go away. As a result of this early in games I'm just trying to contain the other team and stay close until a few plays go my way and then things will be fine. This is how I play defense anyway, make the opponent have a long drive if they're going to score and give them plenty of chances to screw up. So it doesn't change playstyle any but I think it explains the flow.

I don't think this is necessarily something that can be addressed in sliders?

Can you expand on players getting hot?
How can I tell if a player is hot?

[Radii]

Originally Posted by CU Tiger

Can you expand on players getting hot?
How can I tell if a player is hot?

pre-snap, RT + right analog down will show you. Here's an example on offense:



Notice the red and yellow under some players, yellow = warm/heating up, red = hot. There's a level past that too where the red will be pulsing, which I guess is "super hot" or something. Blue is "cold"


I don't know exactly how the mechanic works, or how much better my team performs when hot, etc. But I tend to briefly check before each play and it works pretty much like I'd expect on offense... a QB will be cold (blue) after an INT or a bunch of incompletions, a HB will heat up after some good carries, but some bad plays will slow him back down to normal. On defense, my impression is that its much more common for players to heat up and just stay that way literally the entire game, and it seems like the game flow of many of my games follow that. Struggle early, make a few good plays or get a stop here or there and slowly take control of the game.

[Kodos]

I've noticed that I do tend to rally in the second half. Interesting.

For me, passing is definitely harder than in The Ladder, but then my Indiana team is MUCH better offensively than the one I use in The Pyramid.

Not a lot of penalties being called, but that's to be expected with the default sliders. Do people care much about that? I don't mind the lack of penalties all that much, personally. But I could see where it would bother people looking for a sim experience.

Would you like to ride out the season with the current sliders, or try EF27's "realistic" sliders (rather than his "challenging" sliders)?

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

For 14, I've gone back and forth on a few slider sets for my solo career. I keep alternating between wanting realism and a tough challenge. I can share what I'm using later this week if you want for my solo 14 career.

Originally Posted by Eaglesfan27

Here are the sliders I'm currently using (for a tough challenge):

Offense: Heisman
Defense: All-American
User vs User: All-American
Injuries: On
Fatigue: On
Qtr Length: 9
Play Clock: On
Speed: Normal
Threshold: 20
HFA: On
Ice Kicker: On

Offsides: 90
False Start: 50
Holding: 90
Facemask: 54
OPI: 54
DPI: 25
KR/PR: 60
Clipping: 50
Intentional Grounding: 100
Roughing Passer: 50
Roughing Kicker: 5

Human/CPU
QB Accuracy:5/20
Pass Blocking: 45/70
WR Catching: 40/75
RB Ability: 45/75
Run Blocking: 5/50
Pass Coverage: 50/55
Interceptions:25/25
Rush Defense: 35/90
Tackling: 40/40
FG Power: 45/45
FG Accuracy: 5/45
Punt Power: 45/50
Punt Accuracy: 30/50
Kickoff Power: 45/45

[CU Tiger]

Penalites as are dont bother me.
I like the concept of penalties for realism but EA screws up the implementation. I wouldnt cry if they were turned off, tbh.

[Kodos]

I know I hate it when a random holding call screws up a drive for me.

[Kodos]

EF27 - Would you mind posting your "Realistic" sliders when you get the chance?

[CU Tiger]

Originally Posted by Kodos

I know I hate it when a random holding call screws up a drive for me.

What led to them being turned off in my other league was the commish videoing 3 TD passes being called back on 3 consecutive passes for penalties. He had it on youtube at one point I looked for it but couldnt find it.

[Radii]

I've never been happy with penalties in an NCAA game outside of offsides/false starts, a few others happen on occasion but I am really not looking for us to find ways to make penalties a major part of the game.

Any other sliders I remain indifferent on (and don't really have the knowledge to comment so I'll go along with whatever and learn to adjust).

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by heybrad

What a majorly disappointing season so far and I don't know if I should blame it on my own suckitude or sliders. My defense is God awful even though they are rated somewhat higher than last year. They just can't tackle. It's pretty routine now that it's about my 4th or 5th guy that can make the tackle. I've seen some super human plays by the offense this season. On one play, their QB threw into double coverage. My guys literally latched onto their WR while he was in the air almost like they were ready to carry him off the field on their shoulders for a parade. When all 3 landed, the WR basically super humanly dwarf tossed my two defenders and waltzed into the end zone. I'm well on my way to having the worst defense in the nation this season.

.

[Grammaticus]

Below is an interesting OS thread on sliders and what they do. It is based on some testing one guy did. It is not entirely scientific, but helpful and interesting all the same.

A methodical approach to understanding sliders. Tests & Resuls - Operation Sports Forums


Then here is another one from OS, based on the community sliders thread. Good stuff to look at as well when contemplating sliders.

NCAA 14 - OS Community + Playmakers Split Sliders - Operation Sports Forums

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by vex

I really think the defensive sliders need to be toned down.

Originally Posted by vex

Sorry. Either the defensive difficulty for Humans needs to be decreased or the ability of the AI offense needs to be decreased. This week is a good example. Through 6 games, we have allowed 49 points per game.

Originally Posted by CU Tiger

Ok. Thanks.

I agree.
I have a highly ranked team and still undefeated, but I also have a high 80s ranked team (Offense and Defense) and against 70 ranked Offenses I am getting zero stops per game. It is either an INT, Fumble or score. At best I am hoping for caths out of bounds, or the rare sck to put them in crazy down and distance positions.

I am not sure what the exact answer is but CPU offenses seem to score at will with laser accurate passing and tecmo bowl bo jackson rbs.

I wonder if everyone is seeing this? To this point Ive just assumed it was poor personnel I needed to improve.

Originally Posted by Kodos

My defense doesn't stop much, but I chalk a lot of it up to my suckiness.

We could try lowering CPU QB accuracy.

Just trying to capture pertinent discussions for this thread.

[CU Tiger]

Thanks.
Where are our current sliders posted?

[Kodos]

Originally Posted by Kodos

I decided we need to up the difficulty a bit. Not being a sliders guy, EF27's set here sounded good. Mostly default - Offense on AA, Defense on Heisman. A few tweaks to both user and cpu: QB Acc to 15, WR Catch to 45, Ints to 30. Everything else is default, including penalties. Game speed slow, min speed threshold is 25. Quarters are still 8 minutes. Home field advantage is on, Ice the kicker is off. All penalties are set to 50. We never seemed to be able to reach a consensus as a league, so I decided to just make a choice for us. I'm open to reevaluating at the end of the season.

I haven't typed them out anywhere, but this paragraph describes them.

[Grammaticus]

Generally, I think rushing the ball is way too easy and passing is more difficult for the human players from top to bottom. The 2014 game added some great blocking logic, but also appeared to give a huge boost to rushing the ball.

You can see how all of our teams have great rushing stats and not the greatest passing. Although, there is a little more passing this season over last. INTs are still higher than normal. A lot of the incentive to throw the ball is taken away when you can just rush 1 - 3 times for a first down 95% of the time.