I've been working for the past several weeks off and on to create a setup for NCAA which provides a more balanced and ratings-based experience. The biggest issue with this game (as with all the EA football games) is that adjusting sliders affects CPU play-calling behavior and results in a number of imbalances in player performance that results in a skewed one-way outcome for the various matchups. As such, I determined that I was going to go all-in with default gameplay and penalty sliders and conducted a number of trials.
In these trials, I came to one inescapable conclusion, Heisman is not the way to go. Heisman difficulty results in a number of issues which start us down the "slider spiral"....in short, players are overly aggressive, which leads to a lot of weird things like
- "WWE tackles"
- Defenders constantly overrunning plays (opening-up the read option)
- O-linemen getting "the big push" where they can push a guy 5 yards downfield
- Over-aggression in coverage, leading poor overall coverage and animation issues.
All of these things are issues that necessitate slider adjustments in order for the game to play reasonably well. Heck, we even went down the road of coach aggression adjustments in a vain effort to massage the problem. But, as my friend Matt10 taught me, look at the animations and fix the problem as directly as possible. So...here we go....we have issues...we're going to fix the problem....bye bye Heisman; Hello All American....and hear come the cries of, "But All American is too easy...sniffle...sniffle.".
Before this new round of testing, I last played All American 3-4 years ago. What have we learned since then that can help us?
- HFA is a "keep games close" feature and is better when it is turned off.
- The game plays tougher with the Main Menu fatigue slider turned "off"
- The coach Sub Frequency is really a fatigue slider and directly impacts how well the CPU plays. We have found that a "default" value of 50 works best.
- Use of offsetting game speeds between Main Menu and Dynasty can yield better results. More on this below...
- Autosubs have a direct effect on gameplay. More on this below....
So, aside from the last two, this really is all pretty standard fare relative to my past work.
Game speeds: This worked really well on Madden and while I am not 100% on NCAA, the use of Main Menu speed at slow and Dynasty at normal works very well. I believe that when the two game speeds are identical, that the AI speed is "off" from the animation speed (so, you get QBs looking to throw to a receiver when he is only halfway through his route). By setting the main menu speed a notch slower, I believe that this tightens the gap and makes the CPU much more effective in targetting receivers.
Autosubs: I've said before that gameplay is most balanced when all of them are set to the same values. But here, let me throw a wrench into things. Default is not 60/80; but if you start with a brand new profile, it is actually 65/80! This was completely unexpected, but it got me going down the path of "which is default"? Well, I've played around with various settings for the last couple of months and frankly, I am still playing around with them a bit. I've played with 3 primary settings; 49/50, 60/80, and 65/80. I don't care much for 65/80; it feels a bit too "video-gamey" and I have ruled it out pretty quickly. Now 60/80 is very solid and if someone wanted to go down this direction, I wouldn't blame them.
But the autosub setting that has intrigued me is the 49/50 (which I pilfered from Madden's CFM setting). The most over-used word here is "organic"...but I am going to use it here...it feels organic. Tackling animations have variety, you see a good number of missed throws for the CPU (even though QBA is at 50), running backs have some "swerve", and because of the lower Autosub "In" value, the footplanting is much better overall.
Final Thoughts before I post the set....
- This set is designed to provide a ratings-based experience. That means, if you have a dominant team, you will probably dominate (as you probably do on Heisman anyways). But...I also think that if you play a truly "sim" style, that you will still have a lot of fun here. I'm playing without any house rules and I have won big, won close, lost close, and been blown out. Matchups matter, but you still get that variety.
- Also....this is the kind of set you need to play quite a few games to really appreciate. The difficulty here is deceptive. I tried the exact same setup on Heisman...and frankly, I thought it was easier because of the aforementioned issues on Heisman.
- I have not tested on CPUvCPU or Coach Mode nor will I...don't ask me about how it plays on those modes. Also, I primarily use the d-linemen at the start of the play and then switch, if needed, later on. If you solely user a LB or DB, I have no idea how this will work.
- Do not ask me about slider changes....the whole premise is to NOT adjust the sliders. I think if you play sim, give these a really long shot and just enjoy it without worrying about stats; I think many people will enjoy these.
06-04-2017, 12:26 AM
