NCAA 14 CPU Over Use of Screen Plays (Discussion)

[diamok]

Quote: Originally Posted by Wednesday

First: You found a fix for the "QBs scrambling waaaaay to much" issue? Tell me more! That's a game-killer for me. Second: The screen issue is definitely not just you. It's a serious problem with the game, just like the "QB scrambling" issue and the "QB has too many carries on the option" issue. I really want to love this game, but things like this hold it back. On the other hand, look what Playmakers said. He uses the generic playbooks, rather than the team specific ones, and doesn't see the screen issue. Could the fix be that easy..? I'm going to give it a try.

Get back to us quick on your findings using the generic playbooks...lets hope he is correct.

As far as a "fix" for QBs Scrambling to much? Well, not exactly, but setting my Game Rules Intentional Grounding slider to 90 has certainly helped with the issue. (This thread is what led me down that road)

I do have to say, with the screen passes and QB Option run issues, right now, it is really difficult to tell if setting IG to 90 is really what is working. It could be a combination of the Pass Blocking Slider, which I have set to 50 and the IG of 90. As per this thread, ZaPPa believes the Pass Blocking slider has a direct affect on how long the QB stays in the pocket (higher longer, lower shorter), couple that with the IG slider, which JoshC1977 believes affects whether a QB scrambles (low settings) or throws the ball away (high settings) and it seems to be working...ish. :-)

Take care,

[jp18]

Quote: Originally Posted by diamok

It figures, I'm probably the only one that sees this. Great. lol As I siad, creating the custom playbooks and removing all screens and bubbles, has worked really well for me. Guess I'll just keep doing that until someone has a better solution. Anyone know if there is a limit to the number of custom playbooks? If so, I'll prob end up making just the stock playbooks and assigning as needed. Take care,

I had seen this a ton also. Playing against Nebraska was the worst they threw it around 20 times and roughly 15 were screens. I had the aggressiveness at 50/50 per matt & and josh so I restarted the game and bumped it up 10 and Nebraska only threw 2 screens. The problem was that they ended up going for it a lot on 4th down if the ball was near midfield. It did seem to open up the vertical passing game a bunch with more deep throws. I am experimenting with this more and the defensive aggressiveness. I like it at 50/50 but it ends up being much to easy to pass when the cpu blitzes every other play.

[diamok]

Quote: Originally Posted by jp18

I had seen this a ton also. Playing against Nebraska was the worst they threw it around 20 times and roughly 15 were screens. I had the aggressiveness at 50/50 per matt & and josh so I restarted the game and bumped it up 10 and Nebraska only threw 2 screens. The problem was that they ended up going for it a lot on 4th down if the ball was near midfield. It did seem to open up the vertical passing game a bunch with more deep throws. I am experimenting with this more and the defensive aggressiveness. I like it at 50/50 but it ends up being much to easy to pass when the cpu blitzes every other play.

Which sliders are you actually tweaking JP, the Agg/Con? And by bumping up by 10, you mean from 50 to 60?
Just wanna get it straight. :-)

Take care,

[jp18]

Quote: Originally Posted by diamok

Which sliders are you actually tweaking JP, the Agg/Con? And by bumping up by 10, you mean from 50 to 60? Just wanna get it straight. :-) Take care,

Yes the aggression slider. I just finished a game with kent st playing penn st I had it on 55 for aggressive. Penn st threw only one screen pass! Another thing I just noticed was Hackenberg passing up the gimme route to make a tougher throw downfield. Now maybe that has to do with my sliders but this is something that for whatever was rare I have found it pretty easy to stop the cpu by just taking away short routes hopefully its the aggression slider to at least make it easier for gamers to tweak.

[diamok]

@JP - If your up for it, do some more testing and get back to us.

One thing I have come to realize while editing these damned playbooks, I believe they were created with the player in mind, not the CPU. Meaning, 300+ plays at the disposal and the CPU seems to center on about 20-30 (ballpark guess) of those plays (we've all seen the CPU call the same play in row how many times?), where as the player will cycle through the entire list to get the exact play they want...sometime getting a delay of game called on them because of it.

With the idea in mind that the playbooks are not CPU friendly and finding that in some of these playbooks, screens and options make up 20% of the playbook, I am actually not surprised how many times the CPU will call a screen or option.

With this, even if the play calling was completely random, every 5th to 8th play (some playbooks are around 11% screens and options) would be an screen or an option...that's way to much, especially for teams running a Pro or Multiple set.

Anyway, just sharing. :-)

Take car,

[jp18]

Quote: Originally Posted by diamok

@JP - If your up for it, do some more testing and get back to us. One thing I have come to realize while editing these damned playbooks, I believe they were created with the player in mind, not the CPU. Meaning, 300+ plays at the disposal and the CPU seems to center on about 20-30 (ballpark guess) of those plays (we've all seen the CPU call the same play in row how many times?), where as the player will cycle through the entire list to get the exact play they want...sometime getting a delay of game called on them because of it. With the idea in mo mind that the playbooks are not CPU friendly and finding that in some of these playbooks, screens and options make up 20% of the playbook, I am actually not surprised how many times the CPU will call a screen or option. With this, even if the play calling was completely random, every 5th to 8th play (some playbooks are around 11% screens and options) would be an screen or an option...that's way to much, especially for teams running a Pro or Multiple set. Anyway, just sharing. :-) Take car,

Yeah im going to dive in deeper. A lot of it does have to do with the playbook. A great example is Florida they have a mobile qb but not necessarily an option team and playing them it seems all they run is read option. For the most part it just seems to be certain teams im going to take a look at creating a couple generic play books for certain teams that have a multiple offense only allowing a screen from a pro formation and one from a spread formation to see if that will tone down the screen game. Im also going to try a majority of the testing against Nebraska this is the team that I believe throws the screen the most. I might check out off aggression around 70 or higher to see what screens they run or how thwe offense changes. I may be alone on it but I think the game plays better with higher aggression with the coaches being conservative I believed the cpu chooses more conservative plays such as screen, curls, drags, short outs, and the stick routes. Not really sure if it affects in game decisions to fake kicks or go for it on 4th down im seeing that with 50/50 anyway.

[diamok]

The game seems very much about option plays, mobile QBs and the run in general...at least that is what I see when I play.

What I have done to remedy this is, use a good slider set and created playbooks I feel represent 8 of the stock styles of college play. Only the actual Option, Spread Option and Pistol playbooks contain option plays, all others have 0 options and all playbooks have 0 screens.

Here is the list of playbooks I created and the teams I used to create them.
Note - I have limited the number of option plays in each option playbook, as I feel playbooks were designed for humans and not the CPU.
Restricting the number of plays the CPU has to choose from, has seemed to help in overall play calling.

AIR RAID OFFENSE -- West Virginia
MULTIPLE OFFENSE -- Florida State
ONE BACK OFFENSE -- Alabama
OPTION OFFENSE -- Navy 
PISTOL OFFENSE -- Clemson
PRO STYLE OFFENSE -- Wisconsin
SPREAD OPTION -- Oregon
SPREAD PASS -- Marshall

I then use two controllers to set the CPU teams playbook based on their current head coach, once in game, I set both teams to CPU control and watch the game.

Yes, if the team does not have a mobile QB and the HC uses a playbook with options in it, the team will most likely play poorly and lose, nothing I can do about that, as the game does not seem to take into account the HCs Off playbook when recruiting. I may be wrong about this, but there is no way I'm going to look into it, as I've already spent waaaay to much time with this stupid screen/option issue.

I also feel setting coaching sliders as talked about in the OS Community slider thread helps some, though one thing I have noticed, during a blowout game, teams seem to comeback rather easily in the forth quarter. I feel this is due to 1 of 2 things. Either setting the coach Def Agg to 50 is making the team complacent in the forth and calling simple zones for defense, which is allowing the Off to get over the top and score on big plays, or its the Game Rules slider setting for DPI (talked about in this thread) that is set to low, causing the DBs to be overly aggressive and biting on double moves, play action and what not, then allowing the Off to get over the top and score. I will be doing some quick simple testing to see which one it may be and if I can get it toned down.

As of now however, games "feel" better using my playbooks, if I play a team with a mobile QB and the playbook has option plays, it seems and looks good, not great, but good. I do wish I would have known all of this before I started my dynasty, as I would have edited all coaches to replace their playbooks with mine.

As of now this is where I sit, I'll mess with the forth qaurter comeback craze I noticed and report back, but right now, I'm playing the game as I have it.

If anyone has any insight on any of this, please post and share.

Take care,

[jp18]

Quote: Originally Posted by diamok

The game seems very much about option plays, mobile QBs and the run in general...at least that is what I see when I play. What I have done to remedy this is, use a good slider set and created playbooks I feel represent 8 of the stock styles of college play. Only the actual Option, Spread Option and Pistol playbooks contain option plays, all others have 0 options and all playbooks have 0 screens. Here is the list of playbooks I created and the teams I used to create them. Note - I have limited the number of option plays in each option playbook, as I feel playbooks were designed for humans and not the CPU. Restricting the number of plays the CPU has to choose from, has seemed to help in overall play calling. AIR RAID OFFENSE -- West Virginia MULTIPLE OFFENSE -- Florida State ONE BACK OFFENSE -- Alabama OPTION OFFENSE -- Navy PISTOL OFFENSE -- Clemson PRO STYLE OFFENSE -- Wisconsin SPREAD OPTION -- Oregon SPREAD PASS -- Marshall I then use two controllers to set the CPU teams playbook based on their current head coach, once in game, I set both teams to CPU control and watch the game. Yes, if the team does not have a mobile QB and the HC uses a playbook with options in it, the team will most likely play poorly and lose, nothing I can do about that, as the game does not seem to take into account the HCs Off playbook when recruiting. I may be wrong about this, but there is no way I'm going to look into it, as I've already spent waaaay to much time with this stupid screen/option issue. I also feel setting coaching sliders as talked about in the OS Community slider thread helps some, though one thing I have noticed, during a blowout game, teams seem to comeback rather easily in the forth quarter. I feel this is due to 1 of 2 things. Either setting the coach Def Agg to 50 is making the team complacent in the forth and calling simple zones for defense, which is allowing the Off to get over the top and score on big plays, or its the Game Rules slider setting for DPI (talked about in this thread) that is set to low, causing the DBs to be overly aggressive and biting on double moves, play action and what not, then allowing the Off to get over the top and score. I will be doing some quick simple testing to see which one it may be and if I can get it toned down. As of now however, games "feel" better using my playbooks, if I play a team with a mobile QB and the playbook has option plays, it seems and looks good, not great, but good. I do wish I would have known all of this before I started my dynasty, as I would have edited all coaches to replace their playbooks with mine. As of now this is where I sit, I'll mess with the forth qaurter comeback craze I noticed and report back, but right now, I'm playing the game as I have it. If anyone has any insight on any of this, please post and share. Take care,

I have adjusted some of the coaching aggression sliders I haven't been able to completely take away the screens yet. I keep playing between 50/50 and 25/75 with defensive aggression what im noticing when the cpu gets a lead on defense they blitz way to much on 50/50 and allows passing to become wide open. With it on 24/75 for conservative they blitz a lot less taking away the pass game. I'm going to adjust a bit more with the percentages based off of there defensive percentages irl. Ive charted it before at 50/50 for several teams and say out of 70 plays the defense blitzes at least 30 or more times, to high for some teams imo. The problem right now is I can't tell if its just playcalling tendencies or if it has an affect on player tendencies as well.