This is a hardcore ruleset for anyone who wants to play offline AI career mode while waiting for EA UFC 4. I feel that at a certain level of experience the AI becomes pretty easy to beat, so these guidelines help balance and create challenge.
OUTSIDE OF FIGHT
- Play legendary mode (which means no resets, naturally)
Limited to three camps in career mode. It never made sense to keep switching between camps to learn the best punch and best submission. No fighter ever does this in real life and its just odd - it leads to OP characters. You are given three camps you can join, so pick wisely. You might want to stay in your initial cheap camp and wait till you have the funds for two expensive camps, or branch it out between cheap, medium and expensive. Maybe you stick strictly to striking camps or balance it between BJJ, wrestling and striking?
No min-max training. Training should be balanced realistically and naturally. This means not spamming the cheapest training option to max out an OP stat like Stamina off the bat, or avoiding training a camp's non-specialty while you wait to max it out in another camp. Train what you expect to need for the fight. I also suggest learning all the camp's moves and spar occasionally to build gameplans, get discounts, try to avoid in-camp fights if possible and promote yourself.
Pick the hardest challenge or highest marketed fight each time. Sometimes you're offered a top contender but can choose a low ranked opponent. Because of the way EA UFC 3 is designed, either will get you to the same place with only a small variation.
DURING THE FIGHT
There are some easy ways to beat the AI that would make any challenge a breeze...
- NO WHIFF BAITING: The AI has a huge tendency to whiff strikes if you walk in and out of striking range, leading to very easy fights where you have a huge stamina advantage. This is just an issue with the AI currently. Basically, if I step in and out of kicking range I can bait the AI to throw and gas out. You can do this in small extents, but excessive use of this is considered AI-exploiting and defeats the purpose. Circle out, pause in place. Pace yourself like a real fight and use feints. Don't fight the AI the way you would fight an online ranked opponent.
SUBMISSIONS: The AI is broken when it comes to submission offense and defense. When using a submission, you must intentionally tick in the wrong direction at the beginning of the submission. This gives your opponent's defense a boost and makes submissions slightly more challenging. Also do not spam submissions as this is also an easy way to beat the AI. In regards to defending submissions, there aren't any adjustments here since defending against the AI is a nightmare. This is unfair but hey, its hardcore.
STAY ACTIVE - NO LONG-TERM GRAPPLE DRAINING: The AI does use fakes now, but is still pretty easy to gas out on the ground because of their tendency to use high risk escapes. You can easily stay in half guard or side control and drain the opponent's stamina to death. In order to balance this out, stay active by attacking in various positions. Don't fight like you would an online ranked opponent. Posture up in guard. Throw some strikes in postured half and pass/go back to closed. Same applies for clinch.
Basically, if it feels super easy and cheesy, don't do it.
It might sound like a lot, but I've actually been really enjoying it, and it might be refreshing for those who retired from online ranked and want to have more of a sim career experience.