ESPN NFL 2K5 Sliders Discussion

[NoleFan]

After playing Madden, which I love, all last week I came to the realization that to get the realism that I seek I need to play coach mode. So, who has the good-good coach mode sliders for ESPN?

-NoleFan

[billharris44]

Okay guys, here's some kicking info, and I'm quite surprised. roonoc started me about thinking about the kicking slider--what do we actually know about it? Not much. So I went into situation mode and started testing, both in field goals and kickoffs. Here are my tentative conclusions, with supporting data following:
1. The kicking slider significantly affects FG accuracy.
2. It does NOT affect length, either on FG or kickoffs.

I know--that contradicts what I could have sworn I've seen during games. Here's the supporting data.

1. The initial test was Joe Nedney, a solid but not great kicker with ACC 82. Titans home field. No wind. Field goal attempt from the 47. With Kicking slider set to 0, he was 6-15 on 47 yard attemps (all had enough distance). His actual stats show 21-33 from 40-49 yards for the last three years listed on his player card.

I moved the slider up to 16 and he was 9-15. Not bad, and there were far fewer bad misses.

At this point, I decided to cut to the chase and use the best kicker (Mike Vanderjagt, who didn't miss all last year in the regular season) for calibration--99 power, 94 accuracy (why that's not 99 accuracy, I don't know). With the kicking slider at 32, he was 15-20 from 47 yards (in the dome, no wind, on artificial turf--perfect conditions). He's 53-66 for his career from that range. If I moved the slider up to 40, he was 9-10. That sounds too accurate, but Vanderjagt is an extremely accurate kicker, and the test was indoors, on artificial turf, with no wind.

At 47 yards, though, Cowboys kicker Billy Cundiff (accuracy 75), was only 3-10 with the slider at 40 (at Indy). So for accuracy, I think 40 is clearly the way to go. Even at 40, kickers are not going to be quite as accurate as they are in the real world.

The CPU will attempt field goals at the end of the game based solely on a kicker's power (and wind conditions), as far as I can tell. For Vanderjagt (power 99), the CPU would attempt a 59-yard field goal but not 60 (no wind). For John Carney (power 83), the CPU would not try a 55-yard FG but would try 54. For Billy Cundiff (power 77), yes to 53 but no to 54. That was all in a game with :05 left, the score tied, and fourth and ten.

With no wind, Vanderjagt can make a 59-yard field goal (barely). So his range would probably be in the 60-62 range with a tailwind. I think that's about right for a 99 power ratings.

I saw no difference in kicker power on field goals regardless of the slider setting. It seemed to affect accuracy only.

2. Here's what really surprised me. I did some kickoff testing, too (no wind). Here are Vanderjagt's numbers (a '-' means how far into the end zone, with -10 being out of the end zone, and a positive numbers means at what yard line the kickoff landed).
Vanderjagt (slider 32): -10,-10,-10,-10,-10,-10,-10, -5,-5 -4,
Vanderjagt (slider 0): -10,-10,-10,-10,-9,-7,-7,-5,-5,-4

It seems like 32 versus 0 might add a few yards of distance. But look at Cundiff (power 77):
Cundiff (slider 32): -2,-2,-1,-1,2,3,5,5,6,6
Cundiff (slider 0): -6,-6,-4,-3,-1,1,2,2,2,3

Zero correlation. Cundiff actually kicked off slightly farther with the slider at 0. I know this isn't a huge amount of data or anything, but based on what I've done I see the slider affecting accuracy only, not distance.

Now if you want to test this yourself, it's pretty easy. Just use situation mode. It's boring but not difficult.

So for now, I'm using 40 on the kicking slider until I see evidence to the contrary.

Sorry for the length of the post.

[DanSF49]

Quote: Originally Posted by duffman

definetly feelin these sliders dan, only managed to get in a half of a game this mornin cause i gotta go to work but the overall feel of em is real good. cpu got 3 picks off of me but they were all from my bad reads, and i havent seen any of the ******** cpu db animations happen yet. anyway, nice work

Thanks, Im hoping to have a finished version of them tonight.

[silverdisk93]

ill wait for that new version dan, because in my first game i beat the Colts 38-17 (It would have been 38-3 but i wasnt really trying after that) so i hope the new ones lower human offense, but then again i only played one game so ill play a couple other games

[Rickster101]

Quote: Originally Posted by FootballForever

rick what would it do if I raise the coverage slider from 5 to 10 for both me and the computer, will it hurt my settings, cause im really liking yours alot. Your sliders are the real deal, like you said don't make mistakes, the beauty of my mistakes is when I make one I sit back and say damn why did "I" do that, you really can feel you mistakes in this game thats why I love it. If you don't make many mistakes at all you will have a great chance to win, and I don't see that many INT's at all anymore, In 3 games using your sliders I've seen 3 picks wich I think is great.

OK lets look at it like this, the default level used to "fine" tune an adjust these sliders were derived from the "Legend" level so all or most of the gameplay aspects from that level are already there being played out in a more streamlined and smarter "AI" and last year it included those flag routes which were pretty easy to complete by the CPU because its pulling out all the componets of the game as far as it being smarter and more aggressive in its style of play hence you are at the optimum point for the games level.

The sliders are then streamlined by you the User to balance out the gameplay, now with it already set playing on the optimum level (Legend) it is now its a simple matter of choosing to increase the effect, intensity and AI intelligence...you'll see and experience things on this level that normally don't occure on the lower settings, to go frrom 5 to 10 should increase the odds and chances of causing or getting a turnover thru more aggressive play with better animations and smarter play from both sides if used and timed correctly...your use of the "Y" button for example will be more responsive and more of a liability if you miss time it, there is a "High Risk" factor to be considered here also and in kind a "High Benifit" if sucssesful so you still need to play smart and with an increase to said slider as you've asked about I'd be very careful because the CPU is not going to "lighten up" but "tighten up".

Holla Back ya'll

[NoleFan]

Rickster,

Are your sliders for Coach Mode?

[Rickster101]

Hey Bill I saw something thats really not all that strange but I still saw this, I set the game up to where I could actually see the kick meter appear and I swear at 0 the kick meter filled up sometimes at Max and this happened at that 0 setting I put in for the CPU so I concluded that the CPU's kicking was one of the sliders that really didn't need anything or not much because it MAXed out at 0 with nothing in it but this could have been from the fact I believe that I started my adjustments from the Legend level decreasing it down and hitting the 0 mark and it still kicks well and gives me that strange result from the CPU.

Holla Back ya'll

[Rickster101]

Quote: Originally Posted by NoleFan

Rickster, Are your sliders for Coach Mode?

Hey Nole old buddy whats sup, yes I have created sets for both User and Coach/Watch TV Style games, they're very versital.

Holla Back ya'll