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Re: Sliders explained
I think this is one area that needs more detailed discussion. Too often you see posters explaining their sliders or gameplay in vague, general terms, or describing the effects of sliders that are just not correct. These sliders obviously change the values of some equation in the game's coding, and I think it would be useful to people tinkering with these things to understand what exactly is being affected when they change these values.
While I'm aware that some believe sliders behave differently between different modes, I do not believe they influence different aspects of the game in different modes. For instance, one might believe that the Pass Block slider set at 50 in practice mode or offline CCM plays more like 25 in online CCM or Play Now. But I do not believe that the Pass Block slider adjusts anything other than pass blocking in practice, play now, or any CCM mode.
Because of that, I think it's beneficial to experiment with sliders in Practice mode just to determine what the sliders do and do not affect since that mode has the most control. Playing in games can introduce other factors into the gamplay besides sliders (such as the players' consistency traits, hot/cold streaks, fatigue) that can influence results. Plus, you have the benefit of running the exact plays repeatedly to see what trends show up. Determining what precise values to set those sliders to, however, can be something left to whatever mode one believes the sliders play properly on.
With that in mind, here's some of the things I've found.
QB ACC: Really doesn't seem to show much differentiation until you go below 10. That's about the threshold for seeing errant throws.
Pass Blocking: Not entirely sure what this does. It seems to make the offensive linemen hold their ground more if turned high and get pushed around more if turned low. Didn't really see defensive linemen breaking off blocks with much differentiation between high and low settings though. And it doesn't seem to affect whether or not blitzers are picked up.
Catching: Haven't messed with it much. There does seem to be good variation in catches and drops when the slider is adjusted. Not sure if it can create suction catching animations or not.
RB Break Tackling: When set high, you will see the RB breaking more tackles through special moves like stiff arms and juking. This appears to be different than when a RB breaks a tackle due to the Tackling slider being low, which looks more like defenders arm tackling and not wrapping up. Not sure if this slider affects the tackle breaking of other offensive positions as well.
Run blocking: This seems to improve or worsen the movement that the offensive line gets on the defensive line. When set high, you see a surge from your offensive line and sometimes a pancake. When set low, you don't see any surge, and defensive linemen appear to have an easier time shedding the block when the RB gets close.
Fumbles: Like the catching slider, haven't experimented much, but there does seem to be differentiation with the ball popping out more or less when this slider is moved.
Pass Reaction Time: This slider is likely backwards. Turning the slider lower appears to improve the reaction time of defenders when a WR makes a cut. The easiest way to see this is to pick man coverage versus a comeback route. With the slider is set lower, the defender will stop and turn a split second after the WR makes his break on the route. When set higher, the defender takes longer to react to the cut and the WR has greater separation. This test can work with outs and hitches as well. Ins are odd in that much of the time, defenders will break on these routes very quickly as opposed to outs or comebacks. Not sure if this slider affects zone coverage, and if it does, not sure what to look for.
Interceptions: Like the Catching slider. Does seem to affect whether DBs will catch or drop INTs. Not sure if it affects how aggressive or passive they are when going for an INT.
Pass Rushing: Unlike the Pass Blocking slider, this one seems to affect whether defensive linemen will break off blocks through some sort of rip or swim. Its' effect is most notable with DTs who tend to break off of blocks quicker when the slider is set high. The DEs are a different story though. There seems to be a glitch between the RT and LE where the LE is able to just push off the RT almost instantly and run around him for a sack. The RE is almost never able to do this. It doesn't seem to matter how good the RT is at pass blocking or how poor the LE is at pass rushing. Some plays just have the LE pushing off and around almost instantly. This does appear to be affected somewhat by the Pass Rush slider though, but it doesn't totally eliminate it even when turned down to 0.
Rush Defense Reaction Time: Not sure what this does. At first, it appeared to control how quickly blocked defenders would shed their block, but not by some type of block shed move like a rip or spin. They would just push off their block and run free when set high. But after further testing, I've seen results where it didn't appear to do that. I'm confused on this one. It doesn't seem to control their reaction time to draw plays or play actions, or toss or dive plays. The LBs and secondary all react the same. And it doesn't seem to affect their angles either. Toss plays to the outside have the LBs taking the same angles whether the slider is set low or high. Very confused by this one.
Block Shedding: This looks like it controls how well defenders can beat blocks by ripping or spinning off them. It also might affect how often defensive linemen who are getting double teamed sink the blockers (pull the blockers down to the ground with them). There seemed to be some differentiation when set low to high, but like the reaction time, I've seen conflicting results. One test I set reaction time and block shedding to 100 and then to 0 and could see very little difference. Another time I was clearly able to see differentiation when adjusted. Not sure why the difference.
Tackling: This slider controls how well defenders can tackle. When set low, many more arm tackles and slipped tackles show up as opposed to the stiff arms and jukes you see from a high RB Break Tackle slider. Not sure if this has any affect on big hit tackles.
This what I've come up with by trying to isolate certain aspects of the game in practice mode. Since many of these sliders overlap (like Pass Blocking and Pass Rushing), I thought it would be beneficial to nail down what specifically these sliders do instead of taking the approach that a 25 Pass Block/75 Pass Rush = 50 Pass Block/50 Pass Rush. With all the thousands of man hours being put into tweaking these things, hopefully we can get some good insight.
Last edited by WilesThing; 09-10-2012 at 03:08 AM.
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09-08-2012, 03:24 PM
