The Confidence Mechanic

[Cardot]

Quote: Originally Posted by NDAlum

Last thought: just let me turn it OFF for the league so we don't have to deal with it.

Totally agree. Lots of good ideas in this thread, but I just want to play football, not make believe psycologist.

[Dynastyyy]

Quote: Originally Posted by therewillbechud

19/24 for 230 yards is not an "amazing game" tbh, regardless of touchdowns. Outside of the touchdowns, which you got credit for, it's an efficient game, nothing spectacular. I had this stat line for Luck in my last game. 26/36 414 yards 4 TD's 1 INT. I got a total of +12 confidence. +5 player of the week. +4 huge road win. +1 great passing day. +1 dominated in the red zone. +1 3 TD passes. That's an amazing game, and not a negligible boost of confidence. I find it pretty balanced.

The benchmarks need to be elastic not static. The QB's have a bigger hill to climb with confidence but I don't really mind it here because QB's also generally have the best opportunity for xp/game so they develop faster than other players and it works fine.

For cb's taking a -3 hit on top of other things for not getting a pick is insane especially considering they gain significantly less xp in game. -1 is most appropriate.

I love the added feature and inconsistencies in playing ability in certain situations, Shouldn't be too hard & this is so heavily skewed I would think they could fix in their first or 2nd major patch. It's only 1 variable in their formula.

[jeremym480]

Here's another example of how confidence is done poorly:

In my last game I was up 28-0 at the half and only threw the ball 3-4 times in the 3rd Quarter in route to a 42-0 win. I even pulled my starters in the 4th so I didn't really have any passing numbers to speak of in the 2nd Half.

Flacco ended the game with this stat line: completed 14/24 passes for 196 yards, 2 TD's and 0 INT's (again remember that all but 10-20 of those yards came in the 1st Half) and he still ended up getting dinged with negative confidence for "I Had a Terrible Game". Why? That's a very solid game, in my opinion. I mean, I'm sure that they game can't recognize that a starter is pulled and could have had thrown for 300+ yards, but you would think that throwing for 2 TD's and no INTs would be enough to at keep him from having a "Terrible Game".

For the record, he did get +1 for "Dominating in the Red Zone" and +5 for a "Huge Win at Home", but the -3 for the "terrible game" shows that this system is flawed.

[therewillbechud]

Quote: Originally Posted by NDAlum

Based on your box score in-game you were awarded +3 for 414 yards and 4 TD's. You had to get a "bonus" +9 to actually make it a big gain. I'll just agree to disagree with you guys. Although the game might not be "amazing"...we don't have enough time per game to throw it 50 times and I can't run up the score on my opponents and insult them. I was up 31-7 so I started to run the ball. I'm not going to keep airing it out so I can get confidence bonus points. Reggie Wayne caught two TD's this game and it said he didn't contribute enough so he was deducted -3 confidence. The system is not balanced or logical at some positions and needs improvements. If you don't see that I don't know what to tell you. Enjoy your offline experience. Last thought: just let me turn it OFF for the league so we don't have to deal with it.

Obviously the confidence mechanic was designed around getting a realistic amount of plays, not playing 5 minute quarters or whatever. If you don't have enough time in a game to throw it 30 times, then likewise I don't know what to tell you. You can play sim ball and still throw the ball enough to get decent stats. It's just genuinely dishonest to suggest that the only way to get stats and work the system is by "running up the score and stat padding" that's just a cop out. In the scenario where you're ahead enough to not care about passing it anymore, you're getting plenty of confidence from other areas for that game.

I'm not that concerned with where I got the "bonus points" from. The fact is I threw for 400 yards and 4 TD's without jacking up the score and got 12 confidence. Obviously that is the high end of the spectrum on what one player can or should be able to get just for one game. Usually you're not going to get that, and the system rewards consistent play.

There are a few issues with the system, I don't think anyone denied that there was. Were just not scrapping it as a whole for the same reasons. There's nothing wrong with it being difficult to gain confidence, and nothing wrong with you losing more for sub par games as opposed to what you gain from decent ones.

Regardless of how they balanced it there's gonna always be about 5-10 people in here complaining. That goes for every game mechanic they could ever think up. But I think it's important for people on the other side of the fence to say what we do like about it, otherwise they may just listen to you guys, tear down the idea, and we'll have a stagnant barely evolving franchise mode again.

[Cardot]

I still don't like the basic premise of it. If my QB lights it up, I might be worried that I need to up the difficulty. But the game is going to boost my confidence/ratings which will make it even easier to pass? Which in theory will make the confidence go even higher which in turn will make it even easier. And of course vice-versa if it goes the opposite direction.

[The JareBear]

Chud,

Have you even read our posts?

We want it tweaked not torn down.

Fact: the system as is, is a little flawed and needs tweaking. It's not a crime to point out what's wrong with it so it gets fixed.

The game length should be considered. If 400 yard days are the only way to have a good game, yikes

Thats absolutely crazy

If you're up big on a user in a sim league you don't keep passing the ball to pad stats. That's unsim and poor sportsmanship

EA should let online leagues turn the mechanic off entirely so we can play sim ball and not stats ball.

This is my opinion and I could be wrong. There are more than a few ways to look at things. Try to keep an open mind

[Dynastyyy]

I'm not sure the specifics bc I was breezing through it but I saw one of my db's get -2 for missing and INT instead of -3. I think it's the first time I've seen it at 2 but I can't be sure it doesnt have to do with development. One of my cb's has quick dev the other is normal.

[NDAlum]

Quote: Originally Posted by therewillbechud

Obviously the confidence mechanic was designed around getting a realistic amount of plays, not playing 5 minute quarters or whatever. If you don't have enough time in a game to throw it 30 times, then likewise I don't know what to tell you. You can play sim ball and still throw the ball enough to get decent stats. It's just genuinely dishonest to suggest that the only way to get stats and work the system is by "running up the score and stat padding" that's just a cop out. In the scenario where you're ahead enough to not care about passing it anymore, you're getting plenty of confidence from other areas for that game. I'm not that concerned with where I got the "bonus points" from. The fact is I threw for 400 yards and 4 TD's without jacking up the score and got 12 confidence. Obviously that is the high end of the spectrum on what one player can or should be able to get just for one game. Usually you're not going to get that, and the system rewards consistent play. There are a few issues with the system, I don't think anyone denied that there was. Were just not scrapping it as a whole for the same reasons. There's nothing wrong with it being difficult to gain confidence, and nothing wrong with you losing more for sub par games as opposed to what you gain from decent ones. Regardless of how they balanced it there's gonna always be about 5-10 people in here complaining. That goes for every game mechanic they could ever think up. But I think it's important for people on the other side of the fence to say what we do like about it, otherwise they may just listen to you guys, tear down the idea, and we'll have a stagnant barely evolving franchise mode again.

#1 - We play with 11 minute quarters and get around 100-110 plays per game. It's lower than I'd like but the league didn't want 12 min quarters due to the games taking too long. 11 minutes was the sweet spot with 17/18 sec accel clock.

*Playing offline isn't an option as I personally find no joy in playing the CPU

#2 - I only average about 26-27 pass attempts per game. I'd love to throw it around 30-35 times every game but unless it's a shootout or I'm down early it's not likely to happen.

#3 - I never said the only way to get confidence was to run up the score. In my example it was honest because I was up 31-7 and had 230 yards and 4 TD's. It didn't even cross my mind that I need to go for a confidence bonus in the form of player of the week. I don't play the game to win weekly awards I just want to have fun and play against great league members.

#3b - And no I didn't get confidence from other areas. Reggie Wayne caught two TD passes but it said he needed to contribute more. Once again this is glossed over in my post.

#4 - Regardless of how you put it you only got +3 confidence for throwing 400+ yards and 4 TD's based on your stats alone. The win + player of the week bonus is what gave you the boost.

#5 - You either didn't read my posts or don't comprehend the discussion. Not once did I say the confidence mechanic needs to be scrapped. I've repeatedly said that I like the idea but the implementation is poor. In its current state I'd rather turn it off than deal with needing to hit certain "markers" to trigger a positive outcome for confidence, which is essentially the current system. It's very shallow and simple, which is what I am trying to highlight.

It's disappointing to see so many inconsistencies with what you say I say and what I actually say.