50(ish) Threshold-based Slider Set for NCAA 14

[JoshC1977]

Quote: Originally Posted by Brycewesley

Not sure if this has been answered here or not, but is there anyway to properly implement these sliders on an already started online dynasty? Thanks!

I honestly have no idea, I have never done an online dynasty.


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[StormsWarning]

have a question about your set bro, for auto subs im not able to set them at 49/50 i am able to get them at 50 for the out and 51 fot the in. is that ok? all other settings were fine. and are these good for a play now as well?

edit and is there a way to stop the cpu from no huddling every single play this is very annoying......

[NewNapkin]

Quote: Originally Posted by StormsWarning

have a question about your set bro, for auto subs im not able to set them at 49/50 i am able to get them at 50 for the out and 51 fot the in. is that ok? all other settings were fine. and are these good for a play now as well? edit and is there a way to stop the cpu from no huddling every single play this is very annoying......

Not Josh but have been following for long enough...

1. Fix the auto subs. Move the 51 to 100, then move the 50 down to 45. Move the 100 back down to 50, and the 45 up to 49.

2. No, they aren't made for play now. Gameplay is noticeably different.

3. You'd have to change the CPU coach's No-Huddle setting under Edit Coach.

[StormsWarning]

Quote: Originally Posted by KGHerm

Not Josh but have been following for long enough... 1. Fix the auto subs. Move the 51 to 100, then move the 50 down to 45. Move the 100 back down to 50, and the 45 up to 49. 2. No, they aren't made for play now. Gameplay is noticeably different. 3. You'd have to change the CPU coach's No-Huddle setting under Edit Coach.

hey KgHerm thx alot bro this was really bothering me, hoping on now to adjust it, i use josh settings for madden and the out come has been amazing, id imagine the results would even be better for this amazing game!

[JoshC1977]

Morning guys,

I posted an updated slider set in my Madden 18 thread for NCAA 14. I know, sounds weird...but I am actually adapting the same fundamental concept across the EA games and it is working remarkably well.

I have a large "info dump" to do for this thread to explain a lot of the changes and why I am going down this road and I need to update the OP. I'll work on it over the next day or two. In the meantime, you can venture over to that thread and see the new settings....and I know, there will be questions....I will get the info out on here....it will just take time to write-up

[ARamblinWreck]

hey Josh, I have been following this thread for some time. I got back into the game about half a year ago, and yours were the sliders I chose to implement. I had never been able to get through 3 seasons in a single dynasty due to slider frustration(in 14 alone, I probably had 15 failed dynasty attempts). Your sliders changed that for me, so thank you for your hard work.

My question is, when and why did you decide to leave all sliders at AA default, as opposed to having unique sliders and letting speed threshold and coach settings be the variables you tested with. I ask because on default AA, im having way too easy a time running the ball. Some of the box scores towards the beginning of the thread had very balanced results, and I'm just curious as to why you moved away from those earlier slider sets.

[JoshC1977]

For those of you who follow my Madden 18 thread, you will know that I have put together an updated set for all of the recent Madden games (as well as NCAA 14). This post is to capture some of the key differences/rationale for not only what I have changed, but for some of the things that have stayed the same.

Overall Philosophy
I don't want to play against a slider set, I want to play against the players on the other side of the ball. If I have built a team up to a 99 overall, it should feel like that....if I have a 70 overall team, it should feel like that. I used sliders on Heisman for years, but ultimately I grew bored and frustrated with every game having the same degree of "challenge" and the same basic "feel". Adjusting sliders also change CPU tendencies (both player tendencies and play-calling tendencies). Tired of screens/four verts all the time? Tired of CPU throwing the same basic patterns (cough...stick patterns....cough) all the time? Yeah, me too....

This game is one huge computer program, one huge equation. You drift away from its most balanced configuration by tweaking something, something else will adjust 'under the hood' to compensate. The farther away you get, the worse it will be. I believe that when the game is at its most balanced, you allow for the largest variety of outcomes/animations based on player ratings to occur. As All American is inherently the most balanced setup, this is what we will use.

This set isn't about manipulating the gameplay to one person's standards of what "looks right" but rather just allowing the game to do what it can do. I'm using this approach for both Madden games and NCAA and it has gone really well so far. If you're looking for a slider set to make every game a "grind", this may not be it for you.

Now to go through the settings.

What has stayed the same:
Sliders, quarter length and injury settings are all the same. Coach sub frequency is a big one....50 for all coaches....period. This is just like the fatigue slider in Madden; you can really begin upsetting the gameplay by altering this here.

What has changed:
MM game speed: I went back to normal to clean-up some graphical issues. Back to the default.

Fatigue: I've advocated setting the Main Menu (MM) fatigue to "off" in the past to counter the user's ability to come back in the second half of games when on Heisman. I'm reversing course on this one for one major reason; it opens-up the passing game too much as offensive players seem to get an added "burst". Second-half comeback issues - well, that is something else.....I'll get to it in the "secret sauce" section. But here we go, back to the default.

Autosubs: If you start the game with a brand new user profile, what autosub setting does the game start you with? If you said 60/80, you're wrong. It's actually 65/80...which, by the way, is counter to all other EA games. You hit the reset button, they go to the more traditional 60/80. I've tried both 65/80 and 60/80; both are quite good - but I feel 65/80 is a tad too imbalanced in favor of the defense (NFL-level tight coverage, very hard tackling, and pass rush definitely has upper-hand at all times). You can certainly stick with the old 49/50 as well for a "softer" feel - but if you're going for balance; 60/80 is our bread-and-butter and has resulted in a lot of positive improvements with coverage and QB inaccuracy. Yup, back to the default..but I would not fault any of you if you wanted to stick with 49/50 or even go with the 65/80 (just please....don't do the mixed bag approach....it can get rather ugly.)

Home Field Advantage: We went down the road of turning this off years ago because it always felt like it functioned oddly. I now believe a lot of that was due to the "secret sauce" (see below).

This is coming back on for one massive reason - improved CPU play-calling. My test case for play-calling is always Alabama's playbook. It is stick pattern to the TE over and over and over and over. When doing some testing, I was shocked as the game I was playing against them, they were running all kinds of different plays. It took me tinkering to figure it out; but I realized that it was having HFA "on" which made all the difference. Coach aggression settings obviously are still a factor here too, but I tested against a fair number of teams and there was just a nice variety of plays/forms being called against me. It's almost like HFA is part of the game's AI or something.....you have to really play to get a feel for it. But again, back to the default.

CPU coach sliders (except for sub freq - see above): Not a change per se....just reclassifying the coach sliders such as aggression and run/pass ratios to...."do what you want" things. I do still think setting defensive run/pass ratio to 50 is a great approach. We know the aggression between 35-65 works well....nothing has changed there either. But with all of the other changes we're making; go with the flow....do what works for you here.

The "Secret Sauce"
Set the Coach Progression setting to "Normal". Yeah....I know, it sounds crazy, Not only that, it can only be done at the start of a dynasty.....unless someone knows how to change this using the dynasty editor.

I'm pretty darn convinced though that this setting is key; that setting it to other speeds affects the speed that other things occur in-game...particularly fatigue rates and the hot/cold streaks. If you've been using "very slow" for the last few years like I have, I bet you can't recall the last time you had one of your defenders hit a cold streak late in a game. Hot/cold streaks definitely seem better overall as does fatigue with this set to normal. I also think that setting coach progression to slower settings caused some wonky stuff to happen with HFA. Hoping one of our talented dynasty editor gurus can help us figure out how to adjust this for existing dynasties....I will be starting a new one - but I know others have very long-term dynasties ongoing.

Summary
So yeah....everything except for quarter length is at the game's default now. You go, didn't we play that when the game first dropped in 2013? Maybe....but how many of us immediately dove into autosubs to get "better subs"? How many of us immediately raised the penalty sliders? How many of us had no clue about the impact of things like the coach sub frequency? How long did it take for us to inadvertently break the game? An hour? Two hours? Maybe before even playing our first game? How many of us went back to the game's true default after the final patch/tuner dropped? Hey, I'm right there with the rest of you....this might be the true default...but how many of us actually have played it? Am I saying that this is perfect? No! But, I think many people will be pleasantly surprised at the things this game does very well when it is left alone.

[Hushroom]

So do you need the editor for these sliders when it comes to adjusting coaching sliders?

Or do you just adjust to teams you are playing?