before I start let me just say 2 things... 1) This is much longer than I anticipated, but I'd really really appreciate it if you guys would read it... I repeat myself a lot simply because I hope to drive home the point and reduce confusion... 2) I apologize if this is already common knowledge, I dont think it is at all, and to me it certainly was not and when I realized it I had to share.
ok, this year I took a different approach to sliders than I normally do... Instead of just messing with the sliders until I found a set I thought worked pretty good, I decided to try something new.
I decided to try to actually figure out exactly what it is each slider does and then go from there to create a slider set that makes sense given the context of how they effect gameplay... what I mean is that there are tons of different slider sets that can produce realistic results, all different kinds of slider combinations that arent similar at all, and yet they seem to work to make realistic sim games/stats... why is that, and even though the stats work out, is the game really functioning in a realistic way?
With that said, I spent today really examining different combinations of sliders to see how they worked together, and I think i've figured out something very important... they dont work together.
prior to my experiments, I thought Pass Blocking and Pass Rush were directly connected... I thought Run Blocking and Block Shedding were somehow combined to figure out how hard/easy it was to get out of a block... I thought tackling and broken takles depended on one another to determine the success of a tackle... then I had an epiphany (unless everyone else already knew this, then i'm just an idiot), that's not how the sliders work
The blocking sliders do not combine with the shed/pass rush sliders to figure out how good/bad the blockers and pass rushers are... not directly anyway...
rather the Pass Block and Run Block sliders effect how easy it is for the blocking animation to take place, or as I like to say, how easy it is to "engage the block"... It has no effect whatsoever on the success of the block once it is engaged... all it does is determine how easy it is for the blocking animation to be triggered... This is the answer to the dreaded "suction block"... with lets say Pass Block on 100, the blocking animation will be triggered from further away, therefore causing the "suction block" phenomenon as a defender is pulled into the animation. At 0 however, the conditions have to be much more exact (or the odds are greatly reduced) that the blocking animation will occur. At 100 a player can go from standing with their side to the blocker, and they will magically be pulled sideways and turned 90 degrees into a block... at 0 the odds of that happening are much lower, if anything they may just get pushed from the side by the blocker because the conditions arent right for a true block to be engaged
Once a block is engaged however, the Pass/Run block sliders no longer have any effect on how successful the block is... that is where the Pass Rush/Shed Block sliders kick in... once the block is engaged (and depending if it is a running or passing play), one of those sliders will be used to determine how easy/hard it is to break out of the block... for example, at 100 Pass Rush, I can get out of a block with someone like Justin Tuck 95% of the time with a simple bull rush or swim move... however at 0, it is much much much harder, and blockers can hold blocks for what seems like an eternity
I ask each of you to test this for yourselves, put Pass Block at 100 and Pass Rush at 100, then use your favorite DE and rush the QB... you may not sack him everytime, but youll beat your man a lot and get tons of pressure on the qb
this is why i'd wager we saw a lot of "i'm getting too many sacks" threads today... because people who had a high Pass Block for the CPU thought it would negate their pass rush in the 3-4, but if they had a high Pass Rush on, thats all that matters once the block is engaged
now put Pass Block at 0 and Rush Block at 0... this time, if the defender gets you in the block animation (and if your playing on the O-line, its easy for the block to be engaged right away even at 0 for Pass Block) try to break out of it... you'll quickly notice that it is suddenly incredibly hard to use any moves to get out of the block
at 100 and 100 it is easy, yet at 0 and 0 it is hard
at 100 Pass Block and 0 Pass Rush you are basically screwed... not because it is the 100 vs the 0 though, rather because the odds of a block being engaged are at the most (the 100 Pass Block slider) and the odds of you breaking out of that block once it is engaged are the least (the 0 Pass Rush slider)...
What does this mean for gameplay? It means that it should be much less of a guessing game of slider combos to produce the kind of gameplay you want
If you want the defensive line to be better, but blitzes to have more of an effect, put both the Pass Rush and Pass Block sliders low... this will make it harder for the o-line to engage the blitzers because they will be on the move and coming from different angles (remember it is still easy for them to initially engage the o-line if they are just coming right at them, so you dont have to worry about that) while making them more capable when the block is engaged with the line... who knows, it could even make the 3-4 relevant with different blitzing schemes...
from what I see, low Pass Block makes offensive line stunts, blitzes, and zone blitzes where ends drop into coverage more effective because it means guys are coming at the QB from all different places (meaning the chances of them getting by w/out being suctioned into a block are increased) while high Pass Block pretty much eliminates those things from being a threat because the O-line can engage in a block with pretty much anyone coming at them from any angle
High Pass Rush meanwhile will make the d-line deadly (especially user controlled people) because they simply cant be blocked for long at all... and a low Pass Rush will yield the d-line impotent because its harder for them to get out of a block once engaged, and if you have it low enough you better be prepared to blitz the house everytime otherwise the QB will literally have 10 seconds in the pocket.
The exact relation the Run Block and Blk Shed sliders have on the rushing game are a little harder to analyze... while they function the same way as the pass game, the actual in game result is hugely dependent on what plays out on the field... what you should know though is that a low Run Block means the blocking animation will be harder to trigger, meaning if it isnt obvious who a guy should be blocking (aka the O-line seeing someone to block on the d-line right in front of them), the odds of them only being able to chip the player or push him as he goes by are high... with a low Run Block, players won't be able to simply get near a player and suction them into a block... Rather they will actually have to be positioned correctly at the right time to trigger the blocking animation... Be aware though, go too low and you wont just get guys trying to block people and only getting pieces as they go by, you'll instead get defenders running right by blockers a lot because everything has to be so perfect to trigger a block...
meanwhile the Blk Shed works like the Pass Rush... the higher it is the easier it is to get out of a block, the lower the harder it is
Tackling and Broken Tackles also seem to work the much the same way (although it is harder to see during the gameplay)... the Tackling slider has nothing to do with the success of a tackle, rather it's sole purpose is to effect how likely it is that a tackle animation is triggered... the lower it is, the less crazy/lucky/unrealistic tackling animations seem to pop up because the conditions for a tackle to happen have to be much more exact... For example, I saw some new 1 arm attempts at tackles (one was just a reach back and try to grab) that never had a chance at success, but the defender was in bad position and that was the only animation that could be triggered... once a tackle animation is triggered though, the Tackling slider no longer effect what happens... that is when the Break Tackle slider kicks in to determine how easy/hard it is for a player to break a tackle
at 100 Tackling and 100 Broken Tackles, Jacobs was running over lots of guys, at 0 Tackling and 0 Broken Tackles though, it was damn hard to break out of anything, even with a beast like Jacobs... once a guy got you, he didnt let you go... luckily a defender actually had to be in better position for the tackle to take place (no more "suction tackling")
now obviously its impossble to fix all the quirks with the game and make it completely realistic, the game will always have its flaws... but with this knowledge in mind I hope people will work on sliders and understand what is actually happening when they change different things... and I hope it will help create some awesome sliders
I'd love to hear what you guys have to say on this topic, test out the things I described above and see if you see what I'm talking about... I plan on trying to pin point more exactly what it is the reaction times effect during the game (is it speed when the ball is snapped, ability to change direction, awareness... idk but I hope to find out)... if anyone is interested by what i've said here and wants to help figure out the what the reaction sliders are exactly doing, that would be awesome...
if you made it to the end, please let me know what you think of what i've said
ok, this year I took a different approach to sliders than I normally do... Instead of just messing with the sliders until I found a set I thought worked pretty good, I decided to try something new.
I decided to try to actually figure out exactly what it is each slider does and then go from there to create a slider set that makes sense given the context of how they effect gameplay... what I mean is that there are tons of different slider sets that can produce realistic results, all different kinds of slider combinations that arent similar at all, and yet they seem to work to make realistic sim games/stats... why is that, and even though the stats work out, is the game really functioning in a realistic way?
With that said, I spent today really examining different combinations of sliders to see how they worked together, and I think i've figured out something very important... they dont work together.
prior to my experiments, I thought Pass Blocking and Pass Rush were directly connected... I thought Run Blocking and Block Shedding were somehow combined to figure out how hard/easy it was to get out of a block... I thought tackling and broken takles depended on one another to determine the success of a tackle... then I had an epiphany (unless everyone else already knew this, then i'm just an idiot), that's not how the sliders work
The blocking sliders do not combine with the shed/pass rush sliders to figure out how good/bad the blockers and pass rushers are... not directly anyway...
rather the Pass Block and Run Block sliders effect how easy it is for the blocking animation to take place, or as I like to say, how easy it is to "engage the block"... It has no effect whatsoever on the success of the block once it is engaged... all it does is determine how easy it is for the blocking animation to be triggered... This is the answer to the dreaded "suction block"... with lets say Pass Block on 100, the blocking animation will be triggered from further away, therefore causing the "suction block" phenomenon as a defender is pulled into the animation. At 0 however, the conditions have to be much more exact (or the odds are greatly reduced) that the blocking animation will occur. At 100 a player can go from standing with their side to the blocker, and they will magically be pulled sideways and turned 90 degrees into a block... at 0 the odds of that happening are much lower, if anything they may just get pushed from the side by the blocker because the conditions arent right for a true block to be engaged
Once a block is engaged however, the Pass/Run block sliders no longer have any effect on how successful the block is... that is where the Pass Rush/Shed Block sliders kick in... once the block is engaged (and depending if it is a running or passing play), one of those sliders will be used to determine how easy/hard it is to break out of the block... for example, at 100 Pass Rush, I can get out of a block with someone like Justin Tuck 95% of the time with a simple bull rush or swim move... however at 0, it is much much much harder, and blockers can hold blocks for what seems like an eternity
I ask each of you to test this for yourselves, put Pass Block at 100 and Pass Rush at 100, then use your favorite DE and rush the QB... you may not sack him everytime, but youll beat your man a lot and get tons of pressure on the qb
this is why i'd wager we saw a lot of "i'm getting too many sacks" threads today... because people who had a high Pass Block for the CPU thought it would negate their pass rush in the 3-4, but if they had a high Pass Rush on, thats all that matters once the block is engaged
now put Pass Block at 0 and Rush Block at 0... this time, if the defender gets you in the block animation (and if your playing on the O-line, its easy for the block to be engaged right away even at 0 for Pass Block) try to break out of it... you'll quickly notice that it is suddenly incredibly hard to use any moves to get out of the block
at 100 and 100 it is easy, yet at 0 and 0 it is hard
at 100 Pass Block and 0 Pass Rush you are basically screwed... not because it is the 100 vs the 0 though, rather because the odds of a block being engaged are at the most (the 100 Pass Block slider) and the odds of you breaking out of that block once it is engaged are the least (the 0 Pass Rush slider)...
What does this mean for gameplay? It means that it should be much less of a guessing game of slider combos to produce the kind of gameplay you want
If you want the defensive line to be better, but blitzes to have more of an effect, put both the Pass Rush and Pass Block sliders low... this will make it harder for the o-line to engage the blitzers because they will be on the move and coming from different angles (remember it is still easy for them to initially engage the o-line if they are just coming right at them, so you dont have to worry about that) while making them more capable when the block is engaged with the line... who knows, it could even make the 3-4 relevant with different blitzing schemes...
from what I see, low Pass Block makes offensive line stunts, blitzes, and zone blitzes where ends drop into coverage more effective because it means guys are coming at the QB from all different places (meaning the chances of them getting by w/out being suctioned into a block are increased) while high Pass Block pretty much eliminates those things from being a threat because the O-line can engage in a block with pretty much anyone coming at them from any angle
High Pass Rush meanwhile will make the d-line deadly (especially user controlled people) because they simply cant be blocked for long at all... and a low Pass Rush will yield the d-line impotent because its harder for them to get out of a block once engaged, and if you have it low enough you better be prepared to blitz the house everytime otherwise the QB will literally have 10 seconds in the pocket.
The exact relation the Run Block and Blk Shed sliders have on the rushing game are a little harder to analyze... while they function the same way as the pass game, the actual in game result is hugely dependent on what plays out on the field... what you should know though is that a low Run Block means the blocking animation will be harder to trigger, meaning if it isnt obvious who a guy should be blocking (aka the O-line seeing someone to block on the d-line right in front of them), the odds of them only being able to chip the player or push him as he goes by are high... with a low Run Block, players won't be able to simply get near a player and suction them into a block... Rather they will actually have to be positioned correctly at the right time to trigger the blocking animation... Be aware though, go too low and you wont just get guys trying to block people and only getting pieces as they go by, you'll instead get defenders running right by blockers a lot because everything has to be so perfect to trigger a block...
meanwhile the Blk Shed works like the Pass Rush... the higher it is the easier it is to get out of a block, the lower the harder it is
Tackling and Broken Tackles also seem to work the much the same way (although it is harder to see during the gameplay)... the Tackling slider has nothing to do with the success of a tackle, rather it's sole purpose is to effect how likely it is that a tackle animation is triggered... the lower it is, the less crazy/lucky/unrealistic tackling animations seem to pop up because the conditions for a tackle to happen have to be much more exact... For example, I saw some new 1 arm attempts at tackles (one was just a reach back and try to grab) that never had a chance at success, but the defender was in bad position and that was the only animation that could be triggered... once a tackle animation is triggered though, the Tackling slider no longer effect what happens... that is when the Break Tackle slider kicks in to determine how easy/hard it is for a player to break a tackle
at 100 Tackling and 100 Broken Tackles, Jacobs was running over lots of guys, at 0 Tackling and 0 Broken Tackles though, it was damn hard to break out of anything, even with a beast like Jacobs... once a guy got you, he didnt let you go... luckily a defender actually had to be in better position for the tackle to take place (no more "suction tackling")
now obviously its impossble to fix all the quirks with the game and make it completely realistic, the game will always have its flaws... but with this knowledge in mind I hope people will work on sliders and understand what is actually happening when they change different things... and I hope it will help create some awesome sliders
I'd love to hear what you guys have to say on this topic, test out the things I described above and see if you see what I'm talking about... I plan on trying to pin point more exactly what it is the reaction times effect during the game (is it speed when the ball is snapped, ability to change direction, awareness... idk but I hope to find out)... if anyone is interested by what i've said here and wants to help figure out the what the reaction sliders are exactly doing, that would be awesome...
if you made it to the end, please let me know what you think of what i've said
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