Is There Anyway To Fix This

[Samantha]

I haven't played a franchise yet, as I wanted to see the updated roster still. But, I have heard some problems with it, and then on the other hand, I have seen where there wasn't a problem at all with the stats. Not real sure.

[DZgroundhog]

I've been messing around with simmed games in a franchise for a few hours and I haven't found anything that fixes them.

I tried simming a full season with injuries turned off because my friends and I always like checking out who Madden predicts will win our fantasy league and things were a bit out of control. I don't have the exact numbers, but at least 10 RB had 450+ carries and 2,000 yards and no backup RB ever entered the game. Plus interceptions were about 5 INTs too high for each QB.

So I tried simming Week 1 again but I changed a handful of teams to a 50-50 RB1/RB2 split. Then I check out the Chiefs box score to see how many carries LJ got since they should be 50-50 and it's actually split pretty evenly. Except Tony Richardson is getting half of the carries, not LJ. On every team that I have set at 50-50, the fullback ends up with half the carries. So I see things like Moran Norris plugging out 18 yards on 11 carries for Houston.

I'm starting to think the only reason we sometimes get remotely decent RB stats during simmed seasons is because the right players are getting dinged up for perfect amounts of time to get a decent split of carries. I just tried simming a week with injuries on and Holmes and LJ happened to get a 10-9 split of carries thanks to Priest getting knocked out for the rest of the game. But then Tiki carried the ball 52 times(?!?!) for the G-Men.

And after comparing yards per attempt for QB, it seems like they're about half a yard shorter than they should be so the computer is just dinking and dunking their way down the field. So I guess I'll try raising the aggressiveness sliders on a few teams to see if that helps.

DZ

[cable guy]

Yeah, 52 carries in a game could be a problem.

[Samantha]

Wow, if all this is really true...it's just absolutely amazing how they can screw up these kind of things. It's one thing if a new feature doesn't quite work right, but when its a sim engine that has been in the game for years and years, how do they screw it up? On top of that, how do they not fix it before sending the game out?

I honestly believe, I really do, that they screw things up for one of two reasons....
1. They realize the screw up, but think to themselves, "no one will notice."...or....
2. They screw it up on purpose so they have something that will be anticipated to be fixed. Example, lefty bug on MVP. Everyone was so anxious to get the lefty bug fixed and have the ability to hit homeruns on both sides of the plate.

[DZgroundhog]

I just tried raising the aggression level of every single coach by 10 clicks and I simmed a couple weeks to see what would happen. I didn't see much of a difference (if any) in the yards per attempt of each QB, but I did notice that interceptions went up. McNair had 0 TD and 9 picks in two games. Basically it seemed like the QBs would now go 18-for-34 for 200 yards instead of 24-for-34 for 200 yards.

I tried simming a game using total control simulation but having both teams controlled by the cpu to see what would happen. For one thing, it definitely kept the rushing attempts down because the quarters were 12 minutes long instead of the simmed 15 (w/acc. clock). But the cpu definitely will not sub out a running back. LaMont Jordan touched the ball on five consecutive plays and didn't come out of the game for a backup (or if he did, it was only for one play and then he came right back in and got another carry). The only player I can remember doing something like this in real life is Faulk back in his heyday and Jordan is no Faulk.

Later today, I'm gonna test out different slider combinations by simming games with total control. I think I'll dig up some good coach mode sliders and try those out first.

Good times.

DZ

[DZgroundhog]

Okay, here's what I came up with as a work-around to limit carries for starting running backs. This is all in a simmed season without injuries; if sim injuries are turned on, there's a decent chance that the RB stats will look better without this fix just because they'll get knocked out of a few games.

First, I changed every single team's RB1/RB2 and made it at least 85-15, even for teams like the Colts where Edge is literally the only guy who carries the ball. If any team had any sort of split in carries, I exaggerated the split when I adjusted the slider. Instead of making it 67-33 for Holmes-Johnson, I made it 60-40, etc.

Here's where it gets goofy. Since the simmed RB2 carries always end up going to the fullback, I had to adjust the depth charts of each team to make the second halfback the starting fullback. As far as I could tell, it had absolutely no effect on the games at all. I have no idea how this would work if, for example, I play against the Bills and 5'7" Shaud Williams is leading the way for McGahee. But at least it works in simmed games.

Here are some stats from my test season based on this work-around:
TEAM (SPLIT) -- halfback ATT-YDS-TD, "fullback" ATT-YDS-TD
Chiefs (60-40) -- Holmes 298-1312-8, Johnson 195-764-5
Steelers (70-30) -- Staley 333-1254-5, Bettis 126-472-7
Falcons (75-25) -- Dunn 285-1158-7, Duckett 125-503-8
Colts (85-15) -- James 353-1439-8, Mungro 76-250-1
Browns (50-50) -- Droughns 249-927-3, Suggs 201-699-7
Dolphins (75-25) -- Brown 350-1411-9, Williams 175-699-5
Chargers (85-15) -- Tomlinson 507-2455-17, Neal 14-20-1

For whatever reason, the 85-15 split didn't seem to work for some teams as LT (507), Alexander (461), Rudi (457), and Kevin Jones (439) all had an insane amount of carries but other teams with an 85-15 split had perfect numbers Edge (353), Portis (371), Dillon (333, actually sorta low).

And then there's the problem of having too many plays per game. It seems like each team is running about 10 extra plays per game in simmed games. Using Total Control Simulation, I was getting a better amount of plays so I'm gonna test Week One by using TCS for each game while I eat dinner and I guess I'll report back once that's done.

[Macar91]

Quote: Originally Posted by DZgroundhog

But then Tiki carried the ball 52 times(?!?!) for the G-Men.

Man, Tiki is a HORSE!

[DZgroundhog]

Well, I really didn't find anything helpful in Total Control Simulation so it looks like the modus operandi will go as follows:

1) All 32 teams have to be human-controlled.
2) Change all coaching tendencies to split the RB carries to at least 85-15 (or a bigger split to match their real-life tendencies).
3) Change assistance for team management to CPU for everything except Reorder Depth Charts (personally, I'd keep Draft Players as Human as well to stop the cpu from making horrid draft picks but that's just me).
4) Go into each team's depth chart and move the backup halfback (or whoever would be getting carries while the starting halfback is on the sidelines) to the starting fullback slot.

Before you play your game in your franchise, here's what I'd do:
1) Go into that team's depth chart and fix the fullback depth. It doesn't seem like it's that big of a deal during gameplay, but it looks goofy seeing Chester Taylor lead block for Jamal Lewis.
2) Change the coaching tendencies for that team by adding 15 clicks towards Run and 15 clicks towards Conservative for offensive strategy. I read this someplace else and tried it out for a quarter or two and it seemed to make the cpu play more realistically. They'd pound me more often up the middle and there would be a lot more short passes rather than everything being 15-20 yards downfield. I can't guarantee this will work perfectly because I only tested it for a few series, but it felt better to me.

It doesn't really take that long to adjust the depth charts and it's worth it if you don't want LT carrying the ball 500 times. Plus this might help lower the amount of major injuries to top running backs since they'll touch the ball 50-100 times less each season.


DZ