How do I make franchise mode more challenging?

[KBLover]

Re: How do I make franchise mode more challenging?

Good hard sliders do it for me.

Yeah, but how much of that is better decision-making or just "bonuses" impacting higher chances of success for the CPU's actions?

To me, there's a difference between me putting my Passing sliders at 7/0/22 to try to lower my chances of success and the AI actually calling better pass defenses and executing true football strategic and tactical principles.

For some sliders, decision-making seems impacted (or, rather, maybe some decisions "become available")

But executing bad play calls so well to make them work doesn't change the fact it was a poor move to begin with. The sliders just let them get away with it more if they are hard. To stay with the chess analogy, hard sliders is like replacing a few pawns with queens and, yeah, that's going to make the AI tougher even if it has bad tactics.

[Jarodd21]

Re: How do I make franchise mode more challenging?

Yeah, but how much of that is better decision-making or just "bonuses" impacting higher chances of success for the CPU's actions?

To me, there's a difference between me putting my Passing sliders at 7/0/22 to try to lower my chances of success and the AI actually calling better pass defenses and executing true football strategic and tactical principles.

For some sliders, decision-making seems impacted (or, rather, maybe some decisions "become available")

But executing bad play calls so well to make them work doesn't change the fact it was a poor move to begin with. The sliders just let them get away with it more if they are hard. To stay with the chess analogy, hard sliders is like replacing a few pawns with queens and, yeah, that's going to make the AI tougher even if it has bad tactics.

But what do you call bad decision making? The difference I see with increasing the sliders is better and quicker decisions. Raising the CPUs accuracy and catching seems to make them get the ball off faster and on time. When its lower they hold on to the ball and float alot of passes. Raising the breaktackle slider seems to increase there vision to cut it back to an open lane instead of hesitating around in the backfield and getting stuffed for loss when its lower. Just like our discussion about the INT slider. When its lower they don't react to the ball in the air like they do when its higher. There overall coverage gets tighter too. Increasing the sliders makes there awareness better in certain areas and there offensive playcalling is that bad this year like it was on past Maddens and raising the sliders does help them execute playcall at a better rate when its raised.

[KBLover]

Re: How do I make franchise mode more challenging?

But what do you call bad decision making?

How about coming out in a 4-3 vs me in a 4-wide formation? Or the ridiculous constant blitzing of 6-7 men, even when I constantly beat it?

Or the QB attacking my elite CB instead of the TE crossing the middle wide open. Instead, the QB chooses a low percentage 45-yd pass against bracket coverage.

That's poor decision-making and I shouldn't have to boost their QB accuracy so the ball can be complete - the throw shouldn't be made. If that was a user, that's exactly what would be said, so I say the same of the CPU.

Why does the QB Accuracy slider even impact that? Hello - the TE is wide open for a free 6 yds because he found the hole between my MLB and OLB in a buzz zone. Why does the CPU need a high QB accuracy to see the obvious?

Increasing the sliders makes there awareness better in certain areas and there offensive playcalling is that bad this year like it was on past Maddens and raising the sliders does help them execute playcall at a better rate when its raised.

Except it does it for everyone, which, again, is just making a bad play call work more because the AI makes too many bad play calls.

If the AI was aware of my personnel, its personnel, and devise a gameplan against it, that would be different. Instead, I'm just making it easier for it to use bad ways to attack my team to have more success.

That's not good enough for me. I want to complete against an AI that has some clue about football and adapts much better to what's happening and can read the field...because that's just what football players do, not having to put them on all 100's to get basic football intelligence.

LB play is especially horrid. Weak awareness of windows, even by top tier LBs, no concept of staying home, honoring zone responsibilities, taking horrid routes to the ball carrier when trying to attack the line (again even by high PUR, PRC, AWR LBs), ugh. And the 3-4...yeah. No slider tweaking makes the DEs have true 3-4 awareness and intelligence. It just overpowers the DEs so they do more than they should.

[Kaiser Wilhelm]

Re: How do I make franchise mode more challenging?

Just want to clarify, an AI cannot learn. What it can do is use better formulas that take in more and more information leading to more accurate results.

I think people forget that we are playing a bunch of ones and zeros.

Can sliders adjust playcalling?

Again, my entire point was that unless we are playing a supercomputer with years of research and development for a specific cause, a human will always be a more exciting, rationally unpredictable (purposeful unpredictablity rather than unpredicatbility for the sake of unpredictability) opponent simply due to the nature of human beings vs machines.

[Jarodd21]

Re: How do I make franchise mode more challenging?

How about coming out in a 4-3 vs me in a 4-wide formation? Or the ridiculous constant blitzing of 6-7 men, even when I constantly beat it?

Or the QB attacking my elite CB instead of the TE crossing the middle wide open. Instead, the QB chooses a low percentage 45-yd pass against bracket coverage.

That's poor decision-making and I shouldn't have to boost their QB accuracy so the ball can be complete - the throw shouldn't be made. If that was a user, that's exactly what would be said, so I say the same of the CPU.

Why does the QB Accuracy slider even impact that? Hello - the TE is wide open for a free 6 yds because he found the hole between my MLB and OLB in a buzz zone. Why does the CPU need a high QB accuracy to see the obvious?



Except it does it for everyone, which, again, is just making a bad play call work more because the AI makes too many bad play calls.

If the AI was aware of my personnel, its personnel, and devise a gameplan against it, that would be different. Instead, I'm just making it easier for it to use bad ways to attack my team to have more success.

That's not good enough for me. I want to complete against an AI that has some clue about football and adapts much better to what's happening and can read the field...because that's just what football players do, not having to put them on all 100's to get basic football intelligence.

LB play is especially horrid. Weak awareness of windows, even by top tier LBs, no concept of staying home, honoring zone responsibilities, taking horrid routes to the ball carrier when trying to attack the line (again even by high PUR, PRC, AWR LBs), ugh. And the 3-4...yeah. No slider tweaking makes the DEs have true 3-4 awareness and intelligence. It just overpowers the DEs so they do more than they should.

I was mainly talking about offense. They do come out in some dumb defensive formations when they shouldn't.. It's better on 12 then it has been on past Maddens but it still needs to be tuned for 13.. I especially hate when the spread there Dline on short yardage situations when they should be expecting run so I agree with you somewhat on there defensive playcalling and that is why there defensive sliders is maxed out. But offensively I have no problem with the CPUs playcalling and decision making on most occassions..

Raising certain sliders increasing there awareness in certain areas once the play is snapped and IT DOES not do it for everyone. Low rated players(QBs mainly) Peform terrible regardless of how high you raise the sliders if you know what you are doing. That has been a BIG misconception about cranking up sliders. Some people think it makes everyone good when it doesn't. All it does is bring out that players natural abilities.. Low rated players will still stink.. Low rated teams will still get smashed by good madden players with basic football knowledge. High rated players and teams will be tough to stop and that's how I like it. But you can't go out there slacking because you will get smashed by a low rated teams.. You have to take every game serious and make the right calls and you will get the right results..

[Jarodd21]

Re: How do I make franchise mode more challenging?

Just want to clarify, an AI cannot learn. What it can do is use better formulas that take in more and more information leading to more accurate results.

I think people forget that we are playing a bunch of ones and zeros.

Can sliders adjust playcalling?

Again, my entire point was that unless we are playing a supercomputer with years of research and development for a specific cause, a human will always be a more exciting, rationally unpredictable (purposeful unpredictablity rather than unpredicatbility for the sake of unpredictability) opponent simply due to the nature of human beings vs machines.

Like I told you earliar that is your preference.. Some people rather play offline then online. I enjoy playing Online and offline. Online you pretty much see the same plays and formation against most USERs. At least against the CPU I get to see an expanded offensive playbook that makes me adjust my playcalling which makes things unpredicable against the CPU with how I have my sliders set up which is tough.. To each his own though. Everyone enjoys the game in there own way and there are many guys on this site that only play offline..

[KBLover]

Re: How do I make franchise mode more challenging?

All it does is bring out that players natural abilities.. Low rated players will still stink.. Low rated teams will still get smashed by good madden players with basic football knowledge.

I put QB acc at 100 - a 80 S/M/D QB with 70 AWR threw for 450 yds.

I put WR catching at 100 - a stone-handed WR that has "Makes Sideline Catches: No" was making...awesome sideline catches.

I put CPU run blocking on 100 - every one and their brother was destroying my front seven on run plays - and heaven help me if it's a draw.

I put CPU pass blocking on 100 - even crappy lines against my awesome pass rushing DEs were holding up. FBs and HBs were cutting every blitzer.

INTs on 100 - defenders with 40-50 CTH ratings were snatching balls like they were Ed Reed + Rod Woodson combined.

BSH on 100 - I couldn't tell who had high or low block shedding, because they were all getting through quickly.

I don't see deviations, I don't see crappy players still playing crappy. When a bad QB on a cold streak against top tier CB and S's can hang 400 yds up with 80% completion - I have a problem. To me, that's not respecting ratings.

[KBLover]

Re: How do I make franchise mode more challenging?

Just want to clarify, an AI cannot learn. What it can do is use better formulas that take in more and more information leading to more accurate results.

Sounds like learning to me.

I do something - hate the results - I stop doing it. A program using a formula to alter it behavior after getting results that are bad is doing the same thing.

We call it learning from experience in humans/animals. The program is doing the same thing - it just regards "experience" differently (i.e. it must be quantified and able to gather and interpret the data correctly).

From a behavioral standpoint, behavior is altered based on past results. Sounds a lot like what good users in any game do, imo.

[Jarodd21]

Re: How do I make franchise mode more challenging?

I put QB acc at 100 - a 80 S/M/D QB with 70 AWR threw for 450 yds.

I put WR catching at 100 - a stone-handed WR that has "Makes Sideline Catches: No" was making...awesome sideline catches.

I put CPU run blocking on 100 - every one and their brother was destroying my front seven on run plays - and heaven help me if it's a draw.

I put CPU pass blocking on 100 - even crappy lines against my awesome pass rushing DEs were holding up. FBs and HBs were cutting every blitzer.

INTs on 100 - defenders with 40-50 CTH ratings were snatching balls like they were Ed Reed + Rod Woodson combined.

BSH on 100 - I couldn't tell who had high or low block shedding, because they were all getting through quickly.

I don't see deviations, I don't see crappy players still playing crappy. When a bad QB on a cold streak against top tier CB and S's can hang 400 yds up with 80% completion - I have a problem. To me, that's not respecting ratings.

Not me.. I shut down crappy QBs everytime. Even looking at the guys who use my black set I don't see them having too much trouble with garbage QBs. Its all about the playcalling.. If you come with a soft approach you can get shredded by a low rated QB just like it can happen in real life..

I don't see low rated WRs making spectacluar catches like I see the big time WRs doing. They may hold on to more catches then they should but there not playing like C.Johnson.. I haven't had many games where a low rated WR just destroyed me all game.. Do they happen to make big plays sometimes? Sure they do. It happens in real life too so I don't mind it happening in my games sometimes.

Never tried the CPUs runblocking on 100.. 70 is the max I can go with that slider and get realistic results for my skill level..

True the INT slider being raised to 100 makes the CPU catch almost anything but once again if you put a low rated DB on my top WRs I burn them all game.. Doesn't happen when I play D.Reevis though..

The CPUs pass block is overpowered and broken on All-Madden anyway. Don't know why you bought that up.

Blockshedding on 100 don't mean nothing this year when I'm consistently getting a 1000 yards rushing with both of my RBs. I see my low rated lineman putting guys on there back on a regular giving me open lanes to cut through with the USER Runblocking on 0. The CPUs run defense is broken..

I wasn't talking about every slider being on 100.. Off course some of them will be overpowered if you max them out. I was just referring to the one's that I have on 100. The low rated CPU players in those areas still play like crap against me and most of the guys who use my black sliders..