Brainstorming how to eliminate the "CPU Screen Sack"

[Colt45]

I really wish I could get the CPU to stop throwing screens because they totally rake me with screen after screen.

[trrt]

Quote: Originally Posted by Colt45

I really wish I could get the CPU to stop throwing screens because they totally rake me with screen after screen.

Well editing out 70% of the Screen plays in the Defensive Playbooks for your CPU opponent seems like it would help that problem. Not sure myself how much work this actually involves but i will find out tonight when i get home!

But you are saying you are getting burned by successful screen plays? You never get sacks when the CPU QB fails to pass the ball EVER while your whole dline converges on him?

What level are you playing on? sliders/speed threshold/etc??

[J-Unit40]

Here's the scoop and I tested this extensively a week ago and never really posted about it....

If you are playing against a "pocket passer" style QB he will execute the HB screens/slip screens very well.

If you are playing against a "balanced" style QB he will execute them at a far lesser success rate and take a pretty high number of sacks.

If you are playing against a "scrambler" style QB he is an AI disaster and will take more sacks on screens then he will actually throw the ball.

Pocket passers tend to drop back quicker and shuffle in position to get the ball off and into the tailback's hands before taking the 8-12 yard loss. Play against Geno Smith or Barkley or Bray or even go into practice mode and only run screens against a multitude of fronts and coverages and the outcome will be heavily in the favor of that QB and team.

Balanced passers (Renner, Brissett, etc) aren't terrible, but are not that slick at dropping back and getting the ball off before taking the sack.

Scrambling QBs (Denard, Boyd, T-Magic, Braxton Miller, Driskel, etc) do not execute nearly as well and tend to stop and look to run, but sort of freeze and get buried by D-Linemen.

100 passes (# of sacks taken)

Geno Smith (0 sacks taken, multiple hurries)
Bryn Renner (20 sacks taken, multiple hurries, off release point)
Tahj Boyd (37 sacks taken, multiple hurries, stopped and looked to run = sack)

All testing was done on Heisman and with the tuner.

[kzdwfy]

Quote: Originally Posted by trrt

It's nice to pad my sack totals and all but this is REALLY killing the ability for the CPU to sustain drives and score points. I see the CPU call Screens on two consecutive plays all the time when playing on All-American. The CPU play calling is already suspect as it is and they simply cannot overcome repeated 2 and 15+ or 3 and 15+. Ok so what are the options: 1 - Heisman instead of All American. Do they call smarter plays on Heisman? Do they execute the screen more effectively? Anyone have insight/experience with this? 2 - Sliders. Don't know how this can help without screwing up the rest of the gameplay. But hypothetically maybe QB Accuracy or Pass/Run Block or RB Ability may come into play during the execution of a screen? 3 - Roster Edits - Any thoughts what the fastest/easiest way would be to edit CPU rosters for this? I guess something to the QB would be optimal (vs editing the whole OLine for example). But again, cranking the Awareness to 100 obviously will have an impact in other places. 4 - Speed Threshold. I have been using 60-70 this year and it clearly has an impact on the gameplay. I was never really super convinced of that until this year. It does seem to prevent the frequent "big play" aka "the only way the CPU can usually score!" lol. What impact does it have on the Screen play is the question! 5 - And finally probably the only actual solution - edit the CPU playbooks. Question for those who have done this - what exactly do you do and how long does it take? do you edit a few of the generic playbooks and assign those to the CPU or do you edit each teams playbook? I can see perhaps other value in editing the CPU playbooks. You can eliminate other terrible plays that have no chance of ever working for the CPU. What do you guys think? For a while I tried to ignore this but I realized i absolutely have to get this sorted out if i want to keep playing this game for the next 9 months. I suppose this is in the overall theme of improving the CPU's ability to execute their offense successfully. This to me is still the #1 thing holding this game back.

I just created a thread to adjust all acceleration numbers to be the same as the awareness numbers. Take a look at my write up and let me know what you think

[Bootzilla]

Quote: Originally Posted by J-Unit40

Here's the scoop and I tested this extensively a week ago and never really posted about it.... If you are playing against a "pocket passer" style QB he will execute the HB screens/slip screens very well. If you are playing against a "balanced" style QB he will execute them at a far lesser success rate and take a pretty high number of sacks. If you are playing against a "scrambler" style QB he is an AI disaster and will take more sacks on screens then he will actually throw the ball. Pocket passers tend to drop back quicker and shuffle in position to get the ball off and into the tailback's hands before taking the 8-12 yard loss. Play against Geno Smith or Barkley or Bray or even go into practice mode and only run screens against a multitude of fronts and coverages and the outcome will be heavily in the favor of that QB and team. Balanced passers (Renner, Brissett, etc) aren't terrible, but are not that slick at dropping back and getting the ball off before taking the sack. Scrambling QBs (Denard, Boyd, T-Magic, Braxton Miller, Driskel, etc) do not execute nearly as well and tend to stop and look to run, but sort of freeze and get buried by D-Linemen. 100 passes (# of sacks taken) Geno Smith (0 sacks taken, multiple hurries) Bryn Renner (20 sacks taken, multiple hurries, off release point) Tahj Boyd (37 sacks taken, multiple hurries, stopped and looked to run = sack) All testing was done on Heisman and with the tuner.

I had similar results. That said, you have to play on Heisman to even get those results. On AA, you can essentially take the Renner numbers and give them to Smith and adjust up accordingly. Scramblers take sacks almost every time. It's rare when they don't.

[ralphieboy11]

Quote: Originally Posted by J-Unit40

Here's the scoop and I tested this extensively a week ago and never really posted about it.... If you are playing against a "pocket passer" style QB he will execute the HB screens/slip screens very well. If you are playing against a "balanced" style QB he will execute them at a far lesser success rate and take a pretty high number of sacks. If you are playing against a "scrambler" style QB he is an AI disaster and will take more sacks on screens then he will actually throw the ball. Pocket passers tend to drop back quicker and shuffle in position to get the ball off and into the tailback's hands before taking the 8-12 yard loss. Play against Geno Smith or Barkley or Bray or even go into practice mode and only run screens against a multitude of fronts and coverages and the outcome will be heavily in the favor of that QB and team. Balanced passers (Renner, Brissett, etc) aren't terrible, but are not that slick at dropping back and getting the ball off before taking the sack. Scrambling QBs (Denard, Boyd, T-Magic, Braxton Miller, Driskel, etc) do not execute nearly as well and tend to stop and look to run, but sort of freeze and get buried by D-Linemen. 100 passes (# of sacks taken) Geno Smith (0 sacks taken, multiple hurries) Bryn Renner (20 sacks taken, multiple hurries, off release point) Tahj Boyd (37 sacks taken, multiple hurries, stopped and looked to run = sack) All testing was done on Heisman and with the tuner.

Good stuff here, and it solidifies what I was already thinking. I'm almost to the point where I want to modify all the ratings of scrambling QBs to make them balanced. The screen sack issue is a big problem, and I personally think they scramble during pass plays way too often.

These issues are right up there with the horrible CPU pass defense for me.

[trrt]

Quote: Originally Posted by ralphieboy11

Good stuff here, and it solidifies what I was already thinking. I'm almost to the point where I want to modify all the ratings of scrambling QBs to make them balanced. The screen sack issue is a big problem, and I personally think they scramble during pass plays way too often. These issues are right up there with the horrible CPU pass defense for me.

I think so far your idea ralphieboy11 seems the most promising possible improvement to this problem. I am going to do some testing on All-American to see how the Balanced QBs perform.

Great ideas/insight here guys. Thank you!

[trrt]

Quote: Originally Posted by J-Unit40

Here's the scoop and I tested this extensively a week ago and never really posted about it.... If you are playing against a "pocket passer" style QB he will execute the HB screens/slip screens very well. If you are playing against a "balanced" style QB he will execute them at a far lesser success rate and take a pretty high number of sacks. If you are playing against a "scrambler" style QB he is an AI disaster and will take more sacks on screens then he will actually throw the ball. Pocket passers tend to drop back quicker and shuffle in position to get the ball off and into the tailback's hands before taking the 8-12 yard loss. Play against Geno Smith or Barkley or Bray or even go into practice mode and only run screens against a multitude of fronts and coverages and the outcome will be heavily in the favor of that QB and team. Balanced passers (Renner, Brissett, etc) aren't terrible, but are not that slick at dropping back and getting the ball off before taking the sack. Scrambling QBs (Denard, Boyd, T-Magic, Braxton Miller, Driskel, etc) do not execute nearly as well and tend to stop and look to run, but sort of freeze and get buried by D-Linemen. 100 passes (# of sacks taken) Geno Smith (0 sacks taken, multiple hurries) Bryn Renner (20 sacks taken, multiple hurries, off release point) Tahj Boyd (37 sacks taken, multiple hurries, stopped and looked to run = sack) All testing was done on Heisman and with the tuner.

Fantastic findings J-Unit. The inconsistency of this problem from game to game was bugging me but it makes total "EA sense" that it would be tied to the damn QB tendencies!! Always something to sort out in this game it seems. Maybe we would get bored without having these "challenges". lol