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

[Frank the Tank]

I'm glad you don't mind going through this with me . . . with no future college football game in sight, might as well make this one work as well as possible if you want college football.

Having nothing better going tonight, I just finished another game, and had some better results. I tried sliding the line to the side the defensive line was shading to, and it worked somewhat better. (Maybe that is what you meant all along? Sorry if I didn't get it at first.) Still quite a bit of swimming, but between that and using a back to block 1/2 - 2/3 of the time, I got the sacks down to 4 in 45 pass attempts. (Once again, o line and d line of approximately equal quality.) One was certainly my fault for holding the ball too long. If I can get this ratio consistently, that would seem just about right, as 2-4 sacks per game average seems reasonable depending on how much you throw.

Upping the run defense 5 points did work well, too. Didn't have nearly as much success running the ball this time, 23 carries for 103 for my main backs, as both the mediocrity of the backs on this team and their pro style offense probably contributed to that.

Incidentally, I also had my best punt return game ever, 6 returns for a 23.8 average. Still looking for my first punt return TD, however.

Next thing, can you recommend any adjustments to make the AI offense more potent, especially at passing, but keeping decent balance? I played 2 games against UCF and Bortles, and in neither has he really shredded me the way he probably should have based on the quality of my defenses. One game he did have about 400 yards, but on 60+ attempts and with 5 INTs. The other I basically made him look like a chump, and that was playing with Cincinnati. I've already upped WR catching a bit, would putting the QBA at 15 be too much? I don't mind a little robo QB if that's what it takes for the AI to move the ball consistently and really challenge me with its offense.

I'm still loving everything else about how things play with your sliders. Especially how the receivers get open (sometimes) against man coverage and the DBs don't just mirror the routes. Finding cutback lanes in the running game also seems to play very realistically.

[JoshC1977]

Frank,

What do you have sub frequency set to for the CPU coaches? This is the fatigue slider and has a HUGE bearing on how effective the CPU offense is. Also, the offensive aggression slider is also key. For good offenses, it should be around 65 (or higher for hyper-aggressive teams like Baylor/TCU).

I keep pondering the adjustment to QBA=15 for CPU...you go from getting a few offline throws per game to virtually nil. Not a lot of in-between....you'll be relying on deflections/throwaways/drops for 95% of your incompletions...it's actually quite annoying. If you don't mind not seeing any autosubs at all, many swear by turning fatigue off. I personally can't stand not having subs...but it doesn't bother others as much. It's another tool in the shed.

[vtp82]

I absolutely love this slider set. I've been playing this game for years and this was the first slider set that seemed to play organically. Thank you so much for all of the effort you put into fixing some of the overpowered aspects of this game. And this is definitely one of my top 3 favorite sports games of all time.

Right now I've started a Dynasty with Idaho. I enjoy building teams. In my first game we won 34-7 over North Texas. It should've been closer, but we got a long TD pass before half and also a pick six at the start of the third that allowed us to run away with it. It was a very fun game as I threw for 270 yards and rushed for almost 100. They threw for a hundred less and also got a little under a hundred rushing yards. Very fun game overall. I did notice that the defenders are still a bit brain-dead when it comes to the read option.

[Frank the Tank]

Quote: Originally Posted by JoshC1977

Frank, What do you have sub frequency set to for the CPU coaches? This is the fatigue slider and has a HUGE bearing on how effective the CPU offense is. Also, the offensive aggression slider is also key. For good offenses, it should be around 65 (or higher for hyper-aggressive teams like Baylor/TCU). I keep pondering the adjustment to QBA=15 for CPU...you go from getting a few offline throws per game to virtually nil. Not a lot of in-between....you'll be relying on deflections/throwaways/drops for 95% of your incompletions...it's actually quite annoying. If you don't mind not seeing any autosubs at all, many swear by turning fatigue off. I personally can't stand not having subs...but it doesn't bother others as much. It's another tool in the shed.

I have the sub frequency set where you advise to set it for each coach, at 50. The aggression level is where you advise in your spreadsheet.

Played a good game this evening between similar teams (me Syracuse, them Duke) and I think things are pretty close now. I was sacked 3 times in 29 called passes, a similar ratio to what I had in the last game, so perhaps that is at a good level now. I actually don't mind being sacked with average to above average frequency, as some negative plays are necessary to make up for virtually no penalties. It's just a sack every 4th pass play is too much. Sliding my line to the strong side of the defense, plus frequently using a back to block, seems to come out about right. I'm okay with it, at least.

Still wish I could get AI passing more downfield. (I kept accuracy at 10.) I think their longest pass play before running with the ball was 13 yards or so. Their coach aggressiveness was on 60 I think. I do play a lot of zone, perhaps that is the reason. Mostly because Duke played 4-wide much of the game, and the dime defense doesn't have too many blitzes I like, but that seems to be the pattern.

Everything else is looking pretty good I think. I actually struggled to run the ball until hitting some nice ones in the 4th quarter. I thought I played a pretty good offensive game overall and still barely won, 34-31, so the challenge level is about right.

Thanks for bearing with me while I figure stuff out. If you come up with any ideas for getting the AI to try more than 1 deep ball per game, that would be icing on the cake.

[JoshC1977]

I think your sack levels are about right now.

The CPU deep game....boy, I can write a very large tome describing this. Here are a few things that determine the tendency of the CPU to attack deep:

• How you play on defense...the CPU adjusts to what IS and IS NOT working based on how you play (you can roll player ratings into this one)
• THP and STR rating of the QB
• Overall tightness of coverage (too tight, no throw....)
• Amount of time in the pocket (which is why keeping CPU PBK at 50 is key)
• The playbook being used
• The QB's style (most scramblers will take-off before a deep pass develops)

I can go on...but I think you get the idea....lots of variables. I have some games where I see a ton of deep balls, others where I don't. When you know there is a problem though is when the CPU starts running screens on every god-forsaken third down. As long as you're still seeing the pass variety, then the deep balls will come.


Note: if you tweaked your user PBK slider up, that could also affect the CPUs deep game....

[Frank the Tank]

There certainly is variety in the game results. I played Alabama against Ole Miss, and even with all of Alabama's talent on the front 7, I could not stop their running game, they had like 267 yards. Their puny running backs just wouldn't go down. And their QB threw just one incompletion. (Although I basically count screen passes as incompletions. They gain about the same yardage half the time.) Then I played Washington State against Stanford, and basically shut down the Stanford running game despite greatly inferior talent.

Does it matter that Ole Miss runs spread while Stanford runs a power game? Just curious if you ever thought about using different sliders depending on the style of opponent. But at least the Stanford defense presented a good level of toughness. They just shut down my WRs, rarely was anyone open. So I had to turn to the running game with WSU. It totally didn't feel right, and it didn't work that great, either, except I broke through the line for a few big runs.

So I'd say the difficulty against the defense is about right now. It feels about like it should.

Here is one last question, I hope. On kickoff returns, do the blockers block based on run blocking skill or pass blocking skill?

[JoshC1977]

Quote: Originally Posted by Frank the Tank

There certainly is variety in the game results. I played Alabama against Ole Miss, and even with all of Alabama's talent on the front 7, I could not stop their running game, they had like 267 yards. Their puny running backs just wouldn't go down. And their QB threw just one incompletion. (Although I basically count screen passes as incompletions. They gain about the same yardage half the time.) Then I played Washington State against Stanford, and basically shut down the Stanford running game despite greatly inferior talent. Does it matter that Ole Miss runs spread while Stanford runs a power game? Just curious if you ever thought about using different sliders depending on the style of opponent. But at least the Stanford defense presented a good level of toughness. They just shut down my WRs, rarely was anyone open. So I had to turn to the running game with WSU. It totally didn't feel right, and it didn't work that great, either, except I broke through the line for a few big runs. So I'd say the difficulty against the defense is about right now. It feels about like it should. Here is one last question, I hope. On kickoff returns, do the blockers block based on run blocking skill or pass blocking skill?

I considered separate sliders for play styles a long time ago - but really, if set up correctly, one slider set should be universal and reflect a team's philosophy. Every game WILL though, as you alluded to, feel different. It may not always make sense...but neither does college football.

No idea on the KO return blocking question....I can't even speculate.

[BlackRain37]

Quote: Originally Posted by Frank the Tank

There certainly is variety in the game results. I played Alabama against Ole Miss, and even with all of Alabama's talent on the front 7, I could not stop their running game, they had like 267 yards. Their puny running backs just wouldn't go down. And their QB threw just one incompletion. (Although I basically count screen passes as incompletions. They gain about the same yardage half the time.) Then I played Washington State against Stanford, and basically shut down the Stanford running game despite greatly inferior talent. Does it matter that Ole Miss runs spread while Stanford runs a power game? Just curious if you ever thought about using different sliders depending on the style of opponent. But at least the Stanford defense presented a good level of toughness. They just shut down my WRs, rarely was anyone open. So I had to turn to the running game with WSU. It totally didn't feel right, and it didn't work that great, either, except I broke through the line for a few big runs. So I'd say the difficulty against the defense is about right now. It feels about like it should. Here is one last question, I hope. On kickoff returns, do the blockers block based on run blocking skill or pass blocking skill?

In my experience, the spread seems to be more run friendly than a pro set. My games against Stanford vary year to year based on their personal. One year I pretty much hold them "in check" to 130 rushing yards or so.....the next year, they roll for 200+....very reflective of real life IMO