RFF's M22 XP Sliders

[Aestis]

Updated the second post just below OP with our 'starting point' and what the 10Y sim distribution looks like on out of the box default settings.

As I mentioned up front, this won't be possible to fully "get right" with simply Xp slider settings. I will include my best fit for "fire & forget" XP sliders for those who don't want to do anything else and aren't super concerned about it.

For those looking for a BIT of effort (nothing like time-consuming widespread ratings adjustments), I'll include my recommendations.

Also worth noting that this year we have more scenario-related boosts than ever before, so I'm unclear how that affects the sim. My initial impression is these scenarios are not included in the sims, which means HUM players likely will see greater results than what you see in the CPU talent distribution.

Key settings I'm using to control as much as is possible:
- Salary Cap OFF... may sound strange but we don't want quality players sitting in FA not developing. Using this setting allows the CPU to keep all their franchise players and develop them into studs the way a HUM easily could. Thus it's a better look at overall talent distribution and how players progress/regress, even if you keep it ON for your CPU leagues.
- Dynamic Dev Regression ON... I personally advise running with this on, but personal choice of course. You can adjust your sliders off my baseline. If you run with Dynamic Dev Regression OFF (meaning, once a player earns a dev trait, they never lose it), then I'd recommend eyeballing my XP slider #s and turning them down a bit.
Coach Perk Cost - Slowest (highly recommended)


More to come over the next week or so.

[Steely McBeam]

I am plodding through a similar task and am curious as to how you get the OVR player ratings. With morale and co-ordinators at week 1 of the season a significant number of players will have +1 and +2 bumps to their base OVR.


O-line is again the most busted of everything and is exactly why I go through this process. After going throuhg several seasons, a 5 year and 10 year SIM I can clearly see that 80% XP is still much too high for me.

[Jogibaer1982]

Great work so far and I appreciate your effort for the community! Can't wait to have the results for a great experience in my franchises. But one thing: you have written Defensive End twice i guess the second group are the DT's

[Aestis]

Quote: Originally Posted by Jogibaer1982

Great work so far and I appreciate your effort for the community! Can't wait to have the results for a great experience in my franchises. But one thing: you have written Defensive End twice i guess the second group are the DT's

Fixed, thanks!

[Aestis]

Quote: Originally Posted by Steely McBeam

I am plodding through a similar task and am curious as to how you get the OVR player ratings. With morale and co-ordinators at week 1 of the season a significant number of players will have +1 and +2 bumps to their base OVR. O-line is again the most busted of everything and is exactly why I go through this process. After going throuhg several seasons, a 5 year and 10 year SIM I can clearly see that 80% XP is still much too high for me.

I export the roster file using the Madden companion tool, drop it in a folder on my PC, and hit "Refresh" in my BI tool. No plodding or manually counting. This also means my #s include hidden dev rookies.

[Steely McBeam]

Still in progress with my run throughs but here is some reasonable assumptions from a few 10 year sims and some gameplay and it shows the same problem children.

I would not bother changing sliders by 5 points as it doesn't have a great impact and due to variance you may not notice much at all.

I have included my XP sliders that are closest to what I might eventually be happy with but these are all still in progress. Also I play all the way through to 2050 so these sliders would be for the first 10 year period only. Anecdotally seeing how my players are progressing many positions will need some changing to help future draft classes develop into proper starters as the original players age out.

These in progress XP sliders are from 3x10 year sims.

QB 75 - Not finished. Still way too high. Worst starters are rated 78 which is similar to mid-level players in the initial roster. This is no good. I expect this may get below 50.

HB 95 - Reasonably happy with. Similar to the original roster but with a lot more players in the 78-83 range giving most teams a solid starter.

FB 100 - In year 5 the 16th FB OVR is 72 while in the original roster the 16th player is OVR 66. This is a product of the newer draft classes having much better players entering the league plus no real regression for existing players. Based on personal play the development speed is not out of whack with a rookie OVR 72 FB progressing a point a season for 2 seasons.

WR 80 - Reduction to make the slot receivers around the 64th a bit worse.

TE 100 - Leaving it as is. AI has a bit of a tendency to run a little often and use too many TE sets. It is therefore helpful from a game play perspective if there is a big pool of second TE in that 70-74 range so most franchises have a not too terrible second TE.

T 55 - Big drop from original. This is needed to keep the worst starters relatively low. Bad news is that morale, OC and HC bonuses provide virtually all o-line a bonus. At year 10 a significant number have a +3 to their OVR. Currently at 55% the worst starters have an OVR of 69 plus bonuses. This is exactly this same as 21 and will result in a very compressed group of players from 70-80. Not sure what to make of the bonuses and need more in-game playing to decide if having the worst players at OVR 69+3 is still to high.

G 55 - As above.

C 50 - As above.

DE 95 - XP sliders at this level result in a slight elevation of the worst players with the HC/DC bonuses increasing the gap further. This is helpful from a game play pass rush perspective but don't won't to increase the difference any more as it will impact new players entering via the draft.

DT 95 - As above.

MLB 95 - As above but increase is useful for pass coverage rather than pass rush.

OLB 100 - Similar for DE, DT and MLB but a slightly bigger increase to the floor of the worst players.

CB 105 - This is one position where the dearth of elite levels is useful. A slight lift is the slider results in lots of corners in the 78-81 range so most teams have a decent pair but getting truly good corners is hard and takes a lot of cap dollars.

FS 105 - The default spread is not too bad for both safety positions. There is a lack of elite players but the positive is there is a glut just below starter OVR giving AI teams a good chance of having OK players for game play. This is a lift for the worst starters players but is much more beneficial to the AI than myself.

SS 110 - As above

K 110 - Lack of elite players again but a bottom of 70 seems fine with new players able to enter the league via the draft.

P 110 - As above.

[Steely McBeam]

QB position is a bit messed up but interesting at the same time.

Here is a quick profile of a 10 year sim with the QB XP Slider at 50 and respective rankings compared to the original roster (I didn't have OVR for the lowest in the original roster).

Ranking	1st	8th	16th	32nd	48th	64th
Original	99	88	80	72
10 years	96	85	80	77	73	67

After 10 years progression at 50% XP mid-range BACKUPs will be playing similar to the worst starters.The spread of Dev Traits is incredible. Of the 64 players in 2031 you have:

• 8 X-Factor
• 8 Superstar
• 20 Star
• 2 Hidden
• 26 Normal players

I have run 10 year sims at QB XP 90, 80, 75 and 50. At QB XP 90 the worst starters are lifted to OVR 80. I am thinking this will be too high for me as my game play sliders won't be able to make these guys bad enough and I will be able to win too many guys with these guys myself.



Remarkably at QB XP Slider 80%, 75% and 50% the worst ranking 32 NFL starters OVR grounded out at 77, 78 and 77 respectively.


Interestingly (or surprisingly or correctly?) there was a big infusion of new talent into the NFL with the slider at 50%. Below is a profile of "drafted players" versus the original roster. Trevor Lawrence and that cohort counts as drafted players.

Ranking	1-7	8-15	16-32
Starting	2	3	1
Drafted	5	5	16

Mahomes (OVR 96, 14 years), Jackson (93, 13), Murray (84, 12), Allen (84, 13), Watson (83, 14) and Mayfield (77, 13) are the initial roster players still in the top 32 QBs with the XP Sliders at 50%.



I then checked good but youngish starters to see where they were. Prescott (out of league), Burrow (11 years, OVR 75, rank 41) and Herbert (11 years, OVR 75, rank 38). It seems that the XP sliders at 50% will dramatically reduce the number of QBs rated above 85 and age out players.

Looking at the same guys after 10 years with the XP Sliders at 80%, Prescott (out of league), Burrow (11 years, OVR 83, rank 18) and Herbert (11 years, OVR 84, rank 16).

SIDENOTE - I also saw something funny in the 80% sim. Roethlisberger never retired was still a Steeler earning 850K as OVR 45, 49 year old QB. SAC 63, MAC 56, DAC 60 and TUP 65 would limit his effectiveness.


Not sure where I am headed with this. 50% is too low as players the worst OVR 78 starters aren't that bad and thins out the elite players badly.
XP 80% might be a touch high but if I had to pick a QB slider for the first 10 years right now it would be 80. 16 players better than 85 is very useful but creates a mass of players around 77-78. Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert are still mid-level starters at 80% XP which isn't at all ridiculous and based on the previous regression they probably had OVRs touching 90 before their decline.

I am going to do some more sims but for the QB position it seems important for the game play sliders to be set-up so for human play to be supremely difficult with an OVR 78 QB and for the CPU QBs in the 79 to 80 range aren't unstoppable.

[Aestis]

One thing I would be careful of is running just one sim per setting. I would run a minimum of 3 per league setting, as I see meaningful variance from sim to sim at the same settings.

I've run about two dozen 10Y sims so far. Try to have a few running in the background each day I'm working from home then export when complete.

Am also testing different Star/SS/XF levels as that should be seen as a ratings lever now, similar to the XP slider, candidly.