Dynamic Difficulty

[scitychamps87]

If Madden brought back dynamic difficulty, would you use it?

If you don't think this feature should be brought back, explain what settings you normally play on and why, and if you think there's a way the team can improve the difficulty levels to be more realistic.

Personally, I would bring this feature back as I can never seem to find a slider set that's true to ratings AND makes All-Pro challenging nor I can find one that makes All-Madden fair without the CPU getting its little cheats and glitchy outcomes.

Thoughts?

Sent from my XT1650 using Operation Sports mobile app

[ggsimmonds]

Re: Dynamic Difficulty

I didn't care for it when it was present.

It was too touchy and I don't think it took team matchups into account. The changes were too drastic game to game. You could use the Eagles and beat the Browns 24-7 and the game would be like we increased the difficulty. Or you could use the Browns and lose 24-17 and the game would want to lower the difficulty.

As for my settings, right about now is when I typically shelve Madden for good. When I get the next release I immediately start a franchise at all pro and make the same changes each year (e.g. lower both QB accuracy, raise AI run blocking and decrease humans, etc). Typically after 5-6 games I then move up to all madden. Each release I always hope all pro provides sufficient challenge, because that is the difficulty I want to play at.

As for improving difficulty, they need to make the AI smarter by adding (or drastically improving) the adaptive AI. On top of that add coaching staffs in CFM and make better coaches "smarter" at adapting to your tendencies.
In general the difficulty should dictate how effective the AI is at adapting to the user. Good coaches would operate at the high end of your chosen difficulty while lesser coaches the opposite.

[tommycoa]

Re: Dynamic Difficulty

The hybrid to play with is load competetive and expert after you delete profile and when in CFM change game play to Sim. This setup feels way more Sim than having sim in both main menu and CFM.

Animation and gameplay wise, It’s a whole new game with this setup. You’ll still see penalties and injuries as well.

[Nunyerbiz]

Re: Dynamic Difficulty

The hybrid to play with is load competetive and expert after you delete profile and when in CFM change game play to Sim. This setup feels way more Sim than having sim in both main menu and CFM.

Animation and gameplay wise, It’s a whole new game with this setup. You’ll still see penalties and injuries as well.

Where do you make these selections after you delete the profile and reload the game? Last time I deleted my profile to make a 'fresh start' for my current CFM, I wasn't offered any options that led me to believe that my profile was truly gone. At the time, I just shrugged it off so I could play... but now I think I missed something.

EDIT: As far as dynamic difficulty, I agree with what ggsimmonds said above... If you tighten up AI at the individual player level, where they just played smarter and were more aware on a position by position basis... then that's winning a huge chunk of the battle. I think in that scenario, All Pro could be a legit challenge for most seasoned users. If more challenge is needed, then All Madden improves because having the AI in better position means that giving them attribute bumps could be done without leading to crazy warping and rubber band wackiness.

[tommycoa]

Re: Dynamic Difficulty

Where do you make these selections after you delete the profile and reload the game? Last time I deleted my profile to make a 'fresh start' for my current CFM, I wasn't offered any options that led me to believe that my profile was truly gone. At the time, I just shrugged it off so I could play... but now I think I missed something.

EDIT: As far as dynamic difficulty, I agree with what ggsimmonds said above... If you tighten up AI at the individual player level, where they just played smarter and were more aware on a position by position basis... then that's winning a huge chunk of the battle. I think in that scenario, All Pro could be a legit challenge for most seasoned users. If more challenge is needed, then All Madden improves because having the AI in better position means that giving them attribute bumps could be done without leading to crazy warping and rubber band wackiness.

I used to mistake the same mistake with the profile delete. Here’s how you do it:

1. Go to manage and share.

2. Mash X (im on xbox) delete profile. Do not exit this screen. This is where i messed up. It’ll auto save if you back out. On xbox i mash the home button on my controller, go back to main menu, mash start button on madden icon, quit the actual game.

3. When the game starts back up, you’ll be prompted to Accept terms for licensing. This is how you know if you successfully deleted profile.

4. The Competetive/Sim hybrid, i’m Selecting competetive in game styles and expert on skills.

5. When in CFM i use Sim instead of Competetive. I leave it Competetive in MM.


As far as what it does, it makes players play true to ratings, but you’ll still see penalties and injuries in games. May also give the User the boost it needs to even playing field with CPU AI on All-Madden.

Schnait1 led me onto this. He uses arcade/sim.

This feels like the secret sauce to building slider sets.

Arcade gives more animations, while competetive gives ratings ultimate value.

About to try this setup
1. Arcade on Setup
2. Change to Competetive in Main Menu/
3. Sim in CFM

This may open the whole thing. Not sure. Just actually been enjoying the game with comp/sim setup.

[ForUntoOblivionSoar∞]

Re: Dynamic Difficulty

I don't even like the fact that AI takes a ridiculous leap (or rather, your team's AI goes down the toilet) in the playoffs on All Madden. Yeah, in real life no player takes a play off in the playoffs (pun intended), but they don't get suddenly smarter or dumber.

So no, I wouldn't like it.

As for the playoffs, maybe the only thing that should change is every player's motor should be temporarily changed to high.

[tommycoa]

Re: Dynamic Difficulty

I don't even like the fact that AI takes a ridiculous leap (or rather, your team's AI goes down the toilet) in the playoffs on All Madden. Yeah, in real life no player takes a play off in the playoffs (pun intended), but they don't get suddenly smarter or dumber.

So no, I wouldn't like it.

As for the playoffs, maybe the only thing that should change is every player's motor should be temporarily changed to high.

Shining to comp/sim is like turning on a Reality Switch for this game. Can’t state this enough. A lot of problems are fixed with this simple twist. It doesn’t effect sliders. Had to make minimal changes. It’s more of an optimizer.

[TMJOHNS18]

Re: Dynamic Difficulty

In theory sure, but the game really only has two difficulties; AP and AM. Dynamic would then be making slider changes and that can lead to wonky gameplay.

Plus the sample size needed would require nearly a season of play considering how matchups effect how games play out.

Not to mention how it would handle rebuilding teams. May eliminate need to actually rebuild if game adjusts down/up to team talent.

[scitychamps87]

Re: Dynamic Difficulty

Does anyone actually find All-Pro to be a challenge on a season long basis? Does anyone find All-Madden to be actually fun? I'm perpetually caught between the two. All-Pro for me usually ends up as a season filled with mostly fun close games that I end up winning where All-Madden is crazy and I get some games where I blow teams out but others get blown out and every game contains ridiculous plays no matter how close it is.

All-Pro would be the truest to ratings if EA removed the user boosts we get from controlling a player. All-Madden would be more fun if users weren't nerfed similarly.

I will say that recently All-Madden slow game speed with slider tweaks has yielded the best but still imperfect gameplay for me recently.

Sent from my XT1650 using Operation Sports mobile app

[Cardot]

Re: Dynamic Difficulty

Not for me. My first issue would be that I don't have faith that the developers could do it right....seems like a recipe for disaster. But even if it was right, I don't like the idea of the game making things easier just because I start playing poorly.....or vice versa.

I am way behind the times (still playing M25 on the 360 LOL), so this may longer be the case??? But I would much rather they spend the time making sliders do what they are supposed to do. (Sliders shouldn't be reversed, or totally ineffective or have bizarre side effects.) It would be much easier to find that sweet spot difficulty,

[TMJOHNS18]

Re: Dynamic Difficulty

Just to add, the game of football itself makes dynamic difficulty hard to incorporate. If we look at it from a users prospective we only control 1 of 11 players at a time, which have unique assignments.

When I see a game like The Show with dynamic difficulty it makes sense. Pitching/batting can be twaked so users produce realistic numbers. You're tweaking the performance of only two players.

Back to Madden. A successful pass to your first read involves the QB, OL, DL, immediate receiver and immediate defender. All factor into the play, but how can you 'adjust' difficulty so guys perform realistically?

Do you nerf the Eagles pass rush to give user'd Brady time to make the pass? Does your stud OL whiff on blocks because you have Nathan Peterman on the field? You only call one defense, should the opponents offense be needed to make it competitive?

Extremes examples? Yes. But unlike other sports titles the user Madden has a finite impact and I can't say where EA draws the line between which matchups should be handicapped or not.

In the end, maybe play the setting the evens the teams out, if it's still in the game.

[Hooe]

Re: Dynamic Difficulty

I did not enjoy dynamic difficulty in the way it was built into Madden NFL 09, where the game just adjusted gameplay difficulty sliders in the background based on one's success or failure against the CPU. If that's what the OP is referring to here, I'd vote against that returning.

I think there are other ways to make the CPU more challenging which Tiburon should explore first, mostly involving improving CPU play calling, personnel deployment, tendency tracking, and game planning.

[SonOfEd]

Re: Dynamic Difficulty

I think something fleshed out like the VIP system from 2K5 would do wonders for the single player experience in Madden. Incorporate tendency tracking on both sides of the ball would be dynamic enough for me instead of full blown ratings increases/decreases.

[tommycoa]

Re: Dynamic Difficulty

I did not enjoy dynamic difficulty in the way it was built into Madden NFL 09, where the game just adjusted gameplay difficulty sliders in the background based on one's success or failure against the CPU. If that's what the OP is referring to here, I'd vote against that returning.

I think there are other ways to make the CPU more challenging which Tiburon should explore first, mostly involving improving CPU play calling, personnel deployment, tendency tracking, and game planning.

Coaches are a lot better at gameplanning and in-game adjustments this year. Just need them to use timeouts and pull players based on performance. But even 2K’s coaching is weak when it comes to timeouts. With good autosubs Madden’s coaches sub better than 2k.

[ForUntoOblivionSoar∞]

Re: Dynamic Difficulty

Shining to comp/sim is like turning on a Reality Switch for this game. Can’t state this enough. A lot of problems are fixed with this simple twist. It doesn’t effect sliders. Had to make minimal changes. It’s more of an optimizer.

What does “shining to comp/sim” mean? I play on sim all the time.