Sknapple's NHL 16 SS Sliders, with CPU's 'Super Passing' hopefully removed...

[sknapple]

Hello Fellow OS'ers! Longtime lurker here, and like most of you on here (at least from what I have been reading), I have been frustrated with the perceived 'super abilities' of the CPU opponents, especially when it comes to passing. I have tried MANY different settings, on all the difficulty levels, and was getting pretty close to giving up on finding that balance between fun and realism that we are all striving for. I am no stat-head by any means, so I am not overly concerned with tweaking until I get dead accurate shot totals, hit totals, PK percentages and such, but I am a pretty avid hockey fan, and even though I want my hockey video game to 'feel' as 'real' as possible, I also realize that there are some concessions that need to be made to keep it on the fun side as well; it is a video game after all! All I am looking to do is get a game that is balanced to give me a challenge, but still let me feel that I can make a difference in the outcome by the way that I play, and not feel like the CPU has 'pre-determined' the outcome, or feels like making things exciting by popping in a couple of quick goals when it is convenient! I think I have achieved that with the settings I have been tweaking for a while now, and because it has salvaged the game for me, I thought I would share them to see if anyone else can benefit from them!

As any of the slider gurus on here I am sure will tell you, the NHL franchise's sliders are the most frustrating in all of sports games, with most seemingly not doing anything at all, others that seem to be 'backwards' in their effect, and then still others that seem to change stuff not even related to the name of the slider you are adjusting! But the one slider that seemed to make the most difference in my game was the Attribute Effects slider. By adjusting that slider to 0 (I know it seems crazy!), the CPU Boost effect seemed to go away, and I found that the effects of the other sliders seemed to be enhanced. There is no super boost in the third periods anymore. Pucks are now a little looser and unpredictable, and the CPU actually misses passes!! I am also finding on Superstar that my teammates are positioning themselves better to intercept passes, being more aggressive on the forecheck, initiating body checks on their own, and I can actually leave the defensemen uncontrolled and they will defend, lol! Are there mistakes, glitch goals, and oddities occasionally? Absolutely. The AI is far from perfect, but it is WAY more liveable for me than they were before.

With the settings I have below, I am now about halfway through my second Be A GM season with the Flames, and have a 23-16-6 record. Results are all over the map, with scores 2-1, 3-2, some 1-0 nail-biters, 5-2 wins AND losses, and some blowouts too. My shot totals per period are 20-30 per side for the game, passing percentages for both me AND the CPU are between 68-78%, where with the Attribute effects slider turned up the CPU were never below 80%!

Again, your results may vary, and I am not guaranteeing that you will like these for how you play. All sliders are personal to the individual's preferences, so tweak as you see fit, and don't let anyone tell you that it is wrong! But for me, the Attribute Effects one was the key ingredient to getting the rest of the pieces to slide into place! Enough of my rambling---

Rules
Difficulty Superstar
Game Style Hardcore (custom)
Penalties MAXED
Penalty time scaling 4
Period Length 5min
Post Whistle Rules Authentic


Gameplay Settings

General
Attribute Effects 0 (IMPORTANT)
Broken Stick Frequency 3
Game Speed 2
Gameplay Version Latest (yes, I download all tuners)
Fatigue Effect CPU/HUM 3/3
Fatigue Recovery CPU/HUM 3/3
Injury Occurrence CPU/HUM 3/3
Player Acceleration CPU/HUM 2/4
Puck Control CPU/HUM 5/3

Checking
Hitting Assistance 4
Aggression CPU/HUM 3/3
Hitting Power CPU/HUM 4/4
Poke Effectiveness CPU/HUM 5/5
Stick Lift Effectiveness CPU/HUM 5/5

Passing
Manual Passing On
Pass Assist 0
Pass Speed 5
Saucer Pass Speed 5
Pass Accuracy CPU/HUM 0/0
Pass Interceptions CPU/HUM 0/0
Pass Reception Ease CPU/HUM 0/0

Shooting
One Timer Accuracy CPU/HUM 2/4 (even though nerfed, CPU still seems to have no issues hitting the net!)
Shot Accuracy CPU/HUM 2/4
Shot Power CPU/HUM 4/4
Slap Shot Accuracy CPU/HUM 2/4
Slap Shot Power CPU/HUM 4/4

AI
AI Learning 0
CPU Difficulty Adjustment 0
CPU Faceoff Difficulty 4
CPU Penalties MAX
CPU Strategy Adjustment 2
CPU Teammate Penalties MAX
Fight Difficulty user preference
User Strategy Adjustment user preference

Goalies
Goalie Cover Frequency 5
Goalie Passing 2
Goalie Reaction Speed CPU/HUM 1/4 (user pref, I just find the CPU goalie has an edge on my team's goalie at defaults, so these settings seem to level the field a bit!)
Goalie Screen Effect CPU/HUM 6/3 (user pref, same reasons as the reaction speed)

Advanced Settings
Away Shot Aim AUTO
Home Shot Aim AUTO
Auto Backskate OFF
Line Changes Auto

Visual Settings
Auto Zoom Off
Camera Dynamic High (Camera setting DOES affect the feel of play, but adjust as you see fit)
Indicator Size Small
Puck Highlight Small
Puck Size Normal

Good Luck, and keep your stick on the ice!

[northmen24]

After reading your post I'm very interested in trying these. Just to confirm so I get the full effect of what you've done. These are with patch 1.04. I know you use latest tuner.

One suggestion I will make is something that has worked wonders for me that was brought up by PM. Lowering one timer and shot accuracy to 0/0. This makes for bigger and more realistic rebounds off of the goalies. Plus it cuts down on the goal mouth scrims that the CPU always seems the have the advantage in. You still get the odd one. But not every shot on net has 7 bodies on top of the crease anymore.

I look forward to trying what you've got here.

[sknapple]

You bet northmen; fully patched and tunered! I did find that whatever was tweaked in the patch seemed to help. Again, you may find these are not for you, depending on your skill level, but they are not set in stone by any means! I am not the quickest on the sticks, so that is why I kept the Game Speed at 0, helps an old fart like me keep up! It is also why I kept the one timer and shot accuracy up a few notches, I just need the extra aiming help, lol! I will certainly give your suggestion a try, though!

But I think most of the most frustrating issues for me with the CPU were with the Attribute slider, as anything above 1 and they just do that superhuman thing at times, rocket tape-to-tape passing and stuff, and the infuriating catchup goals! Also, if I adjust passing to zero, and pass reception to zero, I expect that there should be some missed passes, pucks bouncing off sticks and such, but with the attribute slider up, that never happened. Turn it off, and the pass sliders seemed to have more effect! CPU makes passing errors, pass percentages drop, and the puck seems to have more life and feel less robotic. It is as though the attribute effects replace the slider effects, I think.
Anyway, give it a try and let me know what you think! Try the slider at 0 and again up at default and see if you also notice a difference.

This game seems to always be a work in progress, but it is the only one we got so we gotta stick together! Thx!

[pm83]

How's the player seperation at 0? When decreasing this slider it makes attributes gap smaller. It should have impact on passing accuracy also because players will have decrease on their ratings.

Interesting to test this. I might do that also.

[Gbpackerowner]

Interesting...
I'll try these out tonight... I've been using northmen's as a base... Was very happy till latest patch....

[Fiddy]

Good to see another using attribute effect slider at 0. I haven't messed with it much this year, but check out my thread from NHL 14. Many posts talking about it combined with using the fatigue effect sliders to get a better game of hockey.

http://www.operationsports.com/forum...4-sliders.html

Check out Cycloniac's as well. Him and i were pretty much on the same page with the sliders/settings.

http://www.operationsports.com/forum...3-sliders.html

[sknapple]

Quote: Originally Posted by pm83

How's the player seperation at 0? When decreasing this slider it makes attributes gap smaller. It should have impact on passing accuracy also because players will have decrease on their ratings. Interesting to test this. I might do that also.

Gotta be honest, pm83, I never really have been able to see any differentiation between players, no matter what settings I have used! I know that there have been some discussions about this slider affecting things like accuracy and such, but it just seems to come at a cost of the super boosted CPU. I would rather have an even playing field with less separation, than having to play against a team of 'Super Passers' that play an impossible game of keep-away with the puck! I would hope that at some point we can have a way to edit the players stats within GM mode, as well as the team tendencies to create that separation more effectively than a 6-point slider ever could, but for now this is the best we got! Let me know what you find!

[sknapple]

Quote: Originally Posted by Fiddy

Good to see another using attribute effect slider at 0. I haven't messed with it much this year, but check out my thread from NHL 14. Many posts talking about it combined with using the fatigue effect sliders to get a better game of hockey. http://www.operationsports.com/forum...4-sliders.html Check out Cycloniac's as well. Him and i were pretty much on the same page with the sliders/settings. http://www.operationsports.com/forum...3-sliders.html

Thanks Fiddy! I knew I couldn't be the ONLY one who has played around with that setting, it just seemed that most of the other slider sets had the attribute setting higher, and even I was reluctant at first to bring it down because of what I THOUGHT it was supposed to do. I don't think I will ever know exactly what they all affect, but the settings I have now at least keep me from throwing my disc across the room, LOL! Maybe someday, together we can all find a cure for slideritis.....