As promised, my sliders for opening up the game on AA

[mdgoalie37]

These edits occurred after seeing RudyJuly's idea about setting the Knockdown Slider to 0 - the rest changed very little from my original set.



OK, so I only got one game in with these sliders but the game did feel a bit different - it seemed as though the DBs really had to be in position to make a play.
The sliders I user were:

AA - 7 min quarters 360

OFFENSE HUM CPU
QB ACC 45 50
PASS BLK 60 50
WR CATCH 30 30
RB ABLTY 50 50
RUN BLK 40 65

DEFENSE HUM CPU
AWR 30 45
KNKDWNS 0 0
INT 0 0
BRK BLK 40 45
TKL 35 40

...so they were pretty close to Rudy's. I liked the WR catch lower so I see some drops. I have always run the ball pretty well so I need to make those numbers less in my favor. Plus I like tackling a bit lower so that I see some broken tackles - I hate when video games are more like touch football.

So the game was Penn State(me) vs Colorado. The game was close for a while, 21-14 at half. I broke away in the 4th quarter and won 45-22.

Stats:
PSU passing - 18/23 236 4TD 1 INT
COL passing - 17-30 190 3TD 3INT

PSU Rushing - 22-108 2 TD
COL Rushing - 19-80

One pick was thrown by Colorado when the game was still competitive, a dumb pass right into double coverage. The other two came after I opened up the game in the 4th when COL was throwing on every down. Remember too that COL QB is a freshman.

Obviously one game is not a true slider test especially when you have a mismatch, but the game felt pretty good. I will need to play some more but we may be on to something here.

[mdgoalie37]

Next game up was Notre Dame(me) at #2Michigan. The game was a little weird all the way through, but that isn't strange for this series. One notable injury - Michigan WR Mario Manningham was injured in the previous game, so he did not play. Also ND RM James Aldridge was also injured and did not play.

Game came down to the last seconds, with ND K Burkhadt missing his 3rd FG of the game allowing Michigan to take the rivalry game 13-10.

Notre Dame QB Jimmy Clausen started his third game and was horrific, he was replaced before the end of the second quarter. After that the Irish offense showed some like - not much but some. The Irish led 10-3 (not the traditional 10 - a safety, TD and 2 pt conversion) late in the 4th. Michigan QB Henne put together a 14 play drive in the 4th to tie the game. I then trew a pick and Michigan got close enough to kick a FG to take the lead with 40 seconds left. I got a good kick return and 3 pass plays later I was at the Michigan 27, trotting out the kicker - who missed wide left, game over. The second heart breaker in a row for ND.

Anyway, this is about sliders so here are the stats:

Passing:
ND - 17/31 - 169 - 1 TD - 2INT
MI - 23/36 - 225 - 0 TD - 2INT

Both teams struggled on offense for parts of the game - Henne was missing Manningham or this may have been a very different outcome. One of the ND INTs was by Zbkowski, the All American Safety. All in all the passing sliders seemed fine. I got sacked 5 or 6 times, but the Irish OL is not very good.

Russing
ND - 17-60
MI - 19 - 7 (yes, 7 yards) 1 TD

Well. I haven't had a poor rushing effort from the CPU yet (COL rushed for 80 against my Penn State team, with a better D than ND, with these sliders) so I will chalk this up to an aberration for now.
My ND offense pretty much stinks, so 17-60 is probably about right. I have 3 more games in week 3 to play, but my teams will be favored in each - Rutgers(me) vs Marshall, Penn State(me) vs Buffalo and Virginia(me) vs North Carolina - so we'll see how these play out.

[PAPERNUT]

Are you seeing many fumbles with these settings?

[rudyjuly2]

Quote: Originally Posted by mdgoalie37

I just lost a dynasty game in the Big House with my Irish 13-10 agains #2 Michigan. My kicker missed 3 FGs, including a 44 yarder with 7 seconds left. I hung with them and lost. I actually had a 10-3 lead in the 4th.

I got this from your other thread. I too have been shanking kicks but if you practice kicking (like I did after I just blew two more kicks) I think it will actually become easy, even with the FG accuracy slider at 0.

FG Tip (don't read if you are afraid it will get too easy): To kick any field goal, you only have to aim the arrow in the middle of the posts and just push down and up on the stick (don't angle it). You can really kick each field goal as though they are right in the middle of the hashes by just aiming in the middle and going straight down and up on the analog stick. Sometimes you hook it and its not always perfect but that's the trick to kicking field goals if you want to do it that way. It works even with accuracy at 0.

[mdgoalie37]

Quote: Originally Posted by papernut

Are you seeing many fumbles with these settings?

Not really, I don't even think abut it so I think that means they are realistic. I do get the overturned fumble on occasion, but that's more annoying than anything. I maybe see 0-2 total fumbles per game, excluding the reversed calls.

[mdgoalie37]

Quote: Originally Posted by rudyjuly2

I got this from your other thread. I too have been shanking kicks but if you practice kicking (like I did after I just blew two more kicks) I think it will actually become easy, even with the FG accuracy slider at 0. FG Tip (don't read if you are afraid it will get too easy): To kick any field goal, you only have to aim the arrow in the middle of the posts and just push down and up on the stick (don't angle it). You can really kick each field goal as though they are right in the middle of the hashes by just aiming in the middle and going straight down and up on the analog stick. Sometimes you hook it and its not always perfect but that's the trick to kicking field goals if you want to do it that way. It works even with accuracy at 0.

Oh, I'm not complaining about this, meaning game-wise. I actually like that the kicks aren't automatic.

[rudyjuly2]

Quote: Originally Posted by mdgoalie37

Oh, I'm not complaining about this, meaning game-wise. I actually like that the kicks aren't automatic.

Me too after the debacle on the PS2 last year. I think my kicker is around 40% right now though through 6 games as I've been terrible. Its why I went to practice mode and you can improve a lot (maybe too much).

[mdgoalie37]

OK, so after looking through these forums a bit I saw the theory about the INT slider being at 0 being a problem so I put it up to 30- the rest I did not touch. So far I've played 2 games, both in which my team would be a double-digit favorite. The results, one absolute butt whipping by me and one nail biter were I had to come back and win on a last second FG. My conclusions - well, I'm starting to wonder if messing with the sliders is pointless. I think the momentum is very important in this game and that when you get the momentum the picks start to come. Barring a patch, I'm starting to think that there isn't going to be a magic fix. Actually I get 1-4 INTs a game, so I don't think that is horrible. I have the tougher parts of my schedules coming so I will see how I do against the better teams.

The Penn State(me) vs Buffalo game was a blowout - it was 21-0 and I had run one offensive play (returned the opening kickoff for TD, an INT for TD and the first play from scrimmage was a 60 yard TD run. Posting stats would be pointless, the Buffalo QB threw 4 INTs in the game, but they were behind the entire game. I returned 2 f them for TDs. I pulled my starters halfway through the 3rd quarter. The final was 48-13 and it wasn't that close.

The other game was Rutgers(me) vs Marshall. Marshall ran the ball extremely well on me (contrary to the 7 I gave up against Michigan with ND). Marshall was up 30-14 before I got things going and came back. I tied it at 38 then got the ball with a minute remaining driving into FG range and drilling a 35 yard FG to win 41-38 for my first shootout win.

Marshall
Pass - 12/23/1TD/2INT For some reason I forgot to write down the yards. Both picks came after I got momentum and started my comeback. Before that my D was terrible.

Run 31 - 253 4 TD

Rutgers
12/22/215 2TD 1INT
27-170 3 TD