What is SIM?

[CM Hooe]

Quote: Originally Posted by JayhawkerStL

I answered nearly every question “Not sim.” Honestly, it’s a pretty good list of why sim sports is so dead right now. It’s a list of grievances, of what sim sports games do poorly.

I similarly voted "not sim" for everything.

If the game provides me a mechanic to leverage in pursuit of victory, I will use it. If the game wants me to not perform a certain behavior, it needs to discourage me from doing that. Among other things, for example:

- I consider 1st and 10 a passing down, and generally speaking my run-pass ratio in play calling this year has been very lopsided
- I use the catch controls at all times
- I user a linebacker or safety on defense in coverage
- if I am beating an opponent while only calling a handful of plays, I will stay with those handful of plays until that opponent forces me into something else; informed by playing hundreds of games in Madden 20 now, it is my strong opinion that M20 is a plenty balanced enough game in online head-to-head to force this punch-counterpunch balance, even with the lopsided advantage outside zone runs have.

Based on the poll options, I gather than some of my behaviors I admit above would probably make a lot of "sim" people upset, lol.

In the online franchise I run, we likewise don't really care about "sim" on the field; win however you can leveraging whatever on-field systems the game provides. Since the game doesn't provide tools to police any "not sim" behavior on the field, I don't even try. It's far less stressful for the most part. Some of our league's most compelling games this year have been the styles clashes between drop-back passing players who would more easily fit in everyone's "sim" mold and scrambling, Playmaker-control abusing, User LB chasing Madden ballers. There are some problem areas - Nickel Wide 9 Mid Blitz was a very popular play in our league vs the CPU because the CPU in Madden 20 has extremely limited pre-snap recognition, something that I hope the QB audibling AI described for Madden 21 changes. But for the most part we have a lot of fun.

We do have very strict guard rails around off-the-field behavior such as trades. We do this because: the way Madden CPU teams value players in trades leaves a lot to be desired; our league doesn't have 32 users so we make a good-faith effort to help keep CPU team rosters competitive; and most importantly, there are some tools in the game I, the league commissioner, may use to counteract bad actors. "Sim" is not a factor in determining our off-field rules, though.

[canes21]

Quote: Originally Posted by CM Hooe

I similarly voted "not sim" for everything. If the game provides me a mechanic to leverage in pursuit of victory, I will use it. If the game wants me to not perform a certain behavior, it needs to discourage me from doing that. Among other things, for example: - I consider 1st and 10 a passing down, and generally speaking my run-pass ratio in play calling this year has been very lopsided - I use the catch controls at all times - I user a linebacker or safety on defense in coverage - if I am beating an opponent while only calling a handful of plays, I will stay with those handful of plays until that opponent forces me into something else; informed by playing hundreds of games in Madden 20 now, it is my strong opinion that M20 is a plenty balanced enough game in online head-to-head to force this punch-counterpunch balance, even with the lopsided advantage outside zone runs have. Based on the poll options, I gather than some of my behaviors I admit above would probably make a lot of "sim" people upset, lol. In the online franchise I run, we likewise don't really care about "sim" on the field; win however you can leveraging whatever on-field systems the game provides. Since the game doesn't provide tools to police any "not sim" behavior on the field, I don't even try. It's far less stressful for the most part. Some of our league's most compelling games this year have been the styles clashes between drop-back passing players who would more easily fit in everyone's "sim" mold and scrambling, Playmaker-control abusing, User LB chasing Madden ballers. There are some problem areas - Nickel Wide 9 Mid Blitz was a very popular play in our league vs the CPU because the CPU in Madden 20 has extremely limited pre-snap recognition, something that I hope the QB audibling AI described for Madden 21 changes. But for the most part we have a lot of fun. We do have very strict guard rails around off-the-field behavior such as trades. We do this because: the way Madden CPU teams value players in trades leaves a lot to be desired; our league doesn't have 32 users so we make a good-faith effort to help keep CPU team rosters competitive; and most importantly, there are some tools in the game I, the league commissioner, may use to counteract bad actors. "Sim" is not a factor in determining our off-field rules, though.

I've missed the AI audible news. You have a link, I didn't see it in the gameplay deep dive.

[CM Hooe]

Quote: Originally Posted by canes21

I've missed the AI audible news. You have a link, I didn't see it in the gameplay deep dive.

It's been mentioned a few times - especially in the initial Madden 21 reveal promotional material - that CPU teams will now recognize when you run a play repeatedly on offense or defense and audible to concept counters. The intent is to force users to diversify their play calls. Here's an article this very website posted which contains some of that information.

This feature was indeed omitted from the gameplay deep dive, for whatever reason, so I'm not surprised it's been missed recently.

[canes21]

Quote: Originally Posted by CM Hooe

It's been mentioned a few times - especially in the initial Madden 21 reveal promotional material - that CPU teams will now recognize when you run a play repeatedly on offense or defense and audible to concept counters. The intent is to force users to diversify their play calls. Here's an article this very website posted which contains some of that information. This feature was indeed omitted from the gameplay deep dive, for whatever reason, so I'm not surprised it's been missed recently.

Not to go too much further off topic, but hopefully this means AI teams will begin using pre-play tools more, even when you aren't spamming the same plays. It would be nice to see the AI actually use all of the same tools the user can finally.