Improving SimStats via Frosty

[British Bronco]

Been working for the last few weeks on improving the sim stats and some suggested value changes are listed below.

Once you get under the hood of the SimStat engine via Frosty you realise there is a very sophisticated engine sitting there. It's just a shame that EA did not make much effort to put in the right values.

I hope this provokes some discussion and the swapping of ideas. Even if you don't like my suggestions at the very least I hope that by giving you the suggested values that you can change that will help others build their own SimStat set.

Its still not perfect by any means. I will look at a second set once I get feedback on these.

To guide me I used the last three years of real life NFL stats from
https://www.pro-football-reference.com/

First of all a big shout out to SABO and his Revival Mod. Everything I have done is based on his mod. If you are using a PC to play Madden then you really need to be using his gameplay mod to improve your Madden experience.

It was also SABO's work that inspired me to start tinkering in the first place.
So thank you SABO for all your work.

If you use my suggestions make sure you use SABO's mod as well. Otherwise I can't promise any success. Also SABO's mod fixes the number of Field Goal Attempts per season.

OK here we go:

Number of plays per game

Madden gets this wrong by about 4 plays a game per team. This is significant over a season.

1.Under Supersim_Play_Time I changed Spotball Max to 24 and Spotball Min to 14.

Although this gets plays to the right level there is a problem in that the Sim Stat engine is calling more runs then the RL NFL average (2 a game approx.). This is the 2019 NFL not the 1989 NFL where run/pass was more balanced. I will see if I can change that via Franchise Editor but I have not had a chance to play with that yet. So for now you will see more rushes than is realistic.

NB All values below are changed under Supersim_Compound_Ability unless otherwise stated

Running

There are two basic problems with the default SimStat engine. Firstly it exaggerates the YPC of the elite RB's - especially Bell, Elliott and Gurley. Even elite backs in the real life NFL do not consistently break the 5.0 barrier. However the other problem is that the non elite RB's get too low YPC. Squaring that circle proved hard. I had to nerf the elites without damaging too much the average RB's. I think my suggestions make it better - but you may well still see one or more of the elite backs have a freak season. There is some wide ranging "dice rolls" which I can't control. TD's are still a little too high in my view despite my changes. And some lower rated RB's may struggle to get over 3.0 yards per carry over the season.

1.Supersim_Breaktdrun_rb_chance: max_P1 to 60 and min_P1 to 10 (reduces TD's)
2.Supersim_MaxAdditionalYardage: max_P1 to 1.6. Also change P1 Overall Rating to 0.(reduces YPC - more at the elite backs)
3.Supersim_MaxInitialYardage: Max_P1 to 50 and Min_P1 to 44. Max_P2 to 47 and keep Min_P2 at 34 (more tuning of the YPC)
4.Supersim_Run_MaxRunAfter_Yardage: Max_P1 to 18 and Min_P1 to 12. This helps boost the longest runs of the lower rated RB's.

Under Supersim_Fatigue - change RB to 3.1 - this reduces the number of backs with over 200 attempts. I may change this later once I have a better feel for supersim injuries.

Passing

Another difficult one to fix. The default stat engine gets a lot wrong. Ints and sacks are too low, completion % is too high, TD's too high and YPA too high. This means QBR is also too high. However there were also issues with longest pass being too low for a number of QB's by the end of the season. Pass TD's are still a bit too high now, but everything else I think looks much better thanks to these changes.


1.Supersim_Breaktdrun_WR_Chance: Max_P1 to -98 and Min_P1 to -99. Change Max_P2 to 99 and Min_P2 to 98. (Reduces TD's)
2.Supersim_Minrunaftercatch_yardage: Max_P2 to 40 and Min_P2 to 20
(brings down YPA)
3.Supersim_MaxRunAfterCatch_Yardage: Max_P1 to 99 and Min_P1 to 40. (increases longest pass)
4.Supersim_Pass_ReceiverOpen_Mancover_Chance: Max_P2 to 16 and Min_P2 to 11. (decreases Completion % and increases Ints).
5.Supersim_Pass_ReceiverOpen_Zonecover_Chance: Max_P2 to 16 and Min_P2 to 11. (decreases Completion % and increases Ints).
6.Supersim_Pass_Intercepted_Chance: Max_P1 to 67 (the changes above actually increased Ints too much)
7.Supersim_Pass_Scramble_Chance: Max_P1 to 40, NB this reduces QB scrambles and increases pass attempts a bit. However you are less likely to see Cam, Lamar, Mitch etc run over a 100 times a season so some may not like this change.
8.Supersim_Breaktackle_QB_Chance: Max P1 to 90.(increases QB Yards per run average.
9.Supersim_Avoidsack_Chance: Max_P2 to 60.(increases sacks).

Punts

Easy to fix apart from the total number of punts per team, which is still a bit low. That's not something I can easily fix.

1.Supersim_Punt_Minpunt_yardage: Max_P1 to 38 and Min_P1 to 28. Reduces punt average.
2.Supersim_Punt_Block_Chance: Max_P1 to 1.5
3.Supersim_Faircatch_Chance: Max_P1 to 6. Reduce number of fair catches and increases number of punt returns
4.Supersim_Breaktackle_PR_Chance: Max_P1 to 19. Increases PR averages and number of PR TD's

Kickoffs

1.Supersim_Kickoff_Maxkick_Yardage: Max_P1 to 83 and Min_P1 to 78. This increases the number of touchbacks and reduces number of kickoff returns
2.Supersim_Kickoff_MaxInitialReturn: Max_P1 to 26 and Min_P1 to 16. This reduces kickoff return average.
3.Supersim_Breaktdrun_KR_Chance: Max_P1 to 35. Increases KR TD's.

Extra Points

1.Supersim_PAT_MakeChance: Max_P1 to 96 and Min_P1 to 93. Reduces PAT accuracy.

Field Goals

My playtime changes + SABO's mod fixes the number of field goal attempts. Field goal accuracy is already correct. Just need to reduce FG blocks.

1.Supersim_Fieldgoal_block_chance: Max_P1 to 4.5

Fumbles

The number of fumbles per season needs to be nearly doubled. However the SimStat engine does not seem to try and calculate fumbles on QB sacks and special team returns. Which means that all the fumbles fall on the RB's and a few WR's. In RL NFL it's the QB's and returners that tend to fumble the ball. So if you want to see realistic FF and FR numbers for the defenders then use my change, but don't be surprised if the stats show the RB's as the lead fumblers. Your choice...

1.Supersim_Fumble_Forcefumble_chance: Max_P1 to 7.0

Conclusion

I still would like to fine tune this so feedback is encouraged. All testing was done using SABO's 1.2 Revival mod and with injuries off to encourage consistency. The week 3 NFL roster was used. Obviously my simstat suggestions may need to be adjusted if player ratings start to change over the course of a long term career franchise....

One thing I can't control is the rate at which the elite teams win - I think the simstat engine is a little too inclined to allow "On any given Sunday". I would like to see the elite teams win more each week. Might try and work on this later!

Thanks

Steve

Edit 7/10/19 - The folks over at Discord spotted some typos - so a couple of values have now been amended. Thanks

[tdawg3782]

Re: Improving SimStats via Frosty

Love it. Great job man.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Operation Sports mobile app

[TheGentlemanGhost]

Re: Improving SimStats via Frosty

Exactly what I was looking for. INTs and TDs have been a little too low and usually only see 2 or 3 RBs getting 100 yard games a week. Thanks!


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[xSABOx]

Re: Improving SimStats via Frosty

Exactly what I was looking for. INTs and TDs have been a little too low and usually only see 2 or 3 RBs getting 100 yard games a week. Thanks!


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

Huge breakthrough here with the work he's put in

We're doing more tinkering in the discord to narrow this thing once and for all

[tril]

Re: Improving SimStats via Frosty

"Under Supersim_Play_Time I changed Spotball Max to 24 and Spotball Min to 14."

so if this reduces the number of plays by 4. how much would you reduce this to get the number of plays down to 30. combined number of plays for both teams

I want to get the simmed stats to replicate 1 quarter of game play.

[British Bronco]

Re: Improving SimStats via Frosty

"Under Supersim_Play_Time I changed Spotball Max to 24 and Spotball Min to 14."

so if this reduces the number of plays by 4. how much would you reduce this to get the number of plays down to 30. combined number of plays for both teams

I want to get the simmed stats to replicate 1 quarter of game play.

Just to be clear those changes increase the number of plays. Out of the box Madden has about 58 plays per game per team. We need to get that to about 62.

Bunch of us over at Discord are in the process of revisting all my values to get the most accurate simstats possible so once that is finalized we can try and figure out what would work for your requirements.

I have to warn you though that these values are designed to work over the course of a season and they may not be suitable for single quarter sims.

[Ar4bAce]

Re: Improving SimStats via Frosty

Do you know what the quarter and clock times should be for user played games to match up with the amount of simmed plays?

[tril]

Re: Improving SimStats via Frosty

Just to be clear those changes increase the number of plays. Out of the box Madden has about 58 plays per game per team. We need to get that to about 62.

Bunch of us over at Discord are in the process of revisting all my values to get the most accurate simstats possible so once that is finalized we can try and figure out what would work for your requirements.

I have to warn you though that these values are designed to work over the course of a season and they may not be suitable for single quarter sims.

"Under Supersim_Play_Time I changed Spotball Max to 24 and Spotball Min to 14."

what were the original values?

im guessing this variable/value is the maximum number and minimum number of plays per quarter. for bot teams
so in 4 quarters the number of plays will be 152 at most.

now what would be the next variable/value for the number of games.
Im guessing that would give you the #of plays over the course of a season.

Im just guessing this is how thsi would work, and that's based on my limited coding experience.

please let me know if Im off, cause I want to start messing around with the mod as well.

edit: I lowered the numbers and most teams were averaging 50+ points. so this probably means I would have to raise it to get less plays.

[British Bronco]

Re: Improving SimStats via Frosty

Do you know what the quarter and clock times should be for user played games to match up with the amount of simmed plays?

Depends on whether you want to adjust the values via Frosty to get the right number of SimStat plays in the first place.

Default Madden Sim Engine generates about 58 plays per game per team in the SimStats. I would have thought 11 mins at 20 secs maybe would generate that in-game but you would need to play with that to get the right figure.

But given that the RL NFL is about 62-63 plays per game per team then I would have thought it better to amend the values in Frosty so the SimEngine reflects RL NFL. That way your in-game team is getting the same number of plays as the other 31 teams throughout the entire 17 week season.

I usually play 12 mins at 20 sec runoff to get correct number of rushes, passes and sacks in-game. However I might be adjusting that soon as I have been experimenting with upping the injuries, which of course stops the clock thus impacting on number of plays per game.

BTW We are still working over at Discord with the various values so the values given in my first post will be changing.

[British Bronco]

Re: Improving SimStats via Frosty

"Under Supersim_Play_Time I changed Spotball Max to 24 and Spotball Min to 14."

what were the original values?

im guessing this variable/value is the maximum number and minimum number of plays per quarter. for bot teams
so in 4 quarters the number of plays will be 152 at most.

now what would be the next variable/value for the number of games.
Im guessing that would give you the #of plays over the course of a season.

Im just guessing this is how thsi would work, and that's based on my limited coding experience.

please let me know if Im off, cause I want to start messing around with the mod as well.

edit: I lowered the numbers and most teams were averaging 50+ points. so this probably means I would have to raise it to get less plays.

The default Madden Sim Engine produces way too many TD's (especially rushing) even though the actual number of plays is less than the RL NFL. So unless a whole bunch of other values are amended then increasing the number of plays is going to make every team look like the Greatest Show on Turf.

Over at Discord we are working on trying to keep average yardage accurate while limiting the total number of TD's.

So stay tuned..

BTW the original values were 35/25. But I am now playing with changing Playcall Normal Max Time.

[xSABOx]

Re: Improving SimStats via Frosty

Little bit of an update for those not in the discord

I got this to pretty much the last step, all thats left is making overalls matter across the board and some minor tweaks along the way

[Cameron6897]

Re: Improving SimStats via Frosty

Is there any way to increase QB rushing yards in the sim stats? Even after the update from EA, I still feel like QBs should have more rushing yard on the season than what they do now. Also, sometimes the sacks are too high. You have guys like myles garrett getting 22+ sacks a season

[redwo1f]

Re: Improving SimStats via Frosty

I commend you guys for working on this - it certainly is worthy and helpful!

However, you are always going to get differences and inconsistencies regarding stats and stat comparisons simply because you have two completely different engines doing the calculations - on-field engine vs sim engine - and that will never be avoided, unfortunately. The old Sierra's Front Page Sports Football Pro series was genius in that the sim engine and the on-field engine were actually one in the same (the sim engine just not displaying the graphics to speed things up) - that way, things could be exactly comparable between played out games and simmed games throughout the league (which is fantastic!) - everything is fair, everything legit, every stat directly comparable. Wish Madden did this. Honestly, you pretty much have to play out each game on-field for the entire league to have this same ability - and I know some people do just that for that very reason - but that is extremely time consuming.

Anyway, here is a different take - thank you for working your hardest to try to remedy the sim engine somewhat - any improvement is a good thing! ...but I am wondering -- would it ever be perhaps possible to get in there and muck around with the Madden engine to have an ability to take the on-field game engine (slow sim) and have a super speed up option somehow where it still actually uses the identical slow sim on-field engine, but just increases the speed of everything so it ends much quicker? -- that way we could play or coach our specific game for the week and then used a speed up, but on-field engine to play out the cpu games (utilizing the same engine).

Would this be in the realm of possibility or am I just shooting for the stars?

[drj32]

Re: Improving SimStats via Frosty

this is great stuff!

[TON1C]

Re: Improving SimStats via Frosty

I'm looking into doing some light sim stats modding for M24 and had some questions. I know there's this thread on how the sim stats ranges works but I'm still a bit confused.

Take supersim_pass_ontarget_chance for example. I've set all of the attributes to 0 other than setting overall to 99 for both player1 and player2. Then I've been messing around with the min and max values for player1 and player2. The defaults are:

max_player1 = 75
max_player2 = 56
min_player1 = 1
min_player2 = 0

Interestingly enough, needs_two_players is checked but does_player2_oppose is not, which seems weird as based on the default values player1 is the QB and player2 is a defender.

Can anyone explain how these ranges work again? I was under the assumption from the thread linked below that decreasing the max_player1 value would cause more throws to be off target but that doesn't seem to be the case. Or does anyone have any other modding info for sim stats other than this thread and the one I linked above? Thanks!