The Game Outside of the Game - Issues and How to Fix Them

[Tuscaloosa]

This thread started with some of my conspiracy theories about the game lol. It quickly evolved into a place for everyone to discuss ideas on specific tweaks, and just making the game fun/realistic in general. Only then did it truly become "The Game Outside of the Game" - our everlasting quest to come up with new ideas.

[whughes]

Re: The Game Outside of the Game - Issues and How to Fix Them

These are good points, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I’d just like to add that instead of turning the FG accuracy way up, sim all special teams plays. I do this, and I know there’s a number of other players who do as well. I’ve had blocked punts and field goals, punt and kick returns for touchdowns by the cpu, and I even had to recruit a different kicker because the “power” kicker I recruited only had like 65 accuracy and was 6/13 his freshman season kicking for me.

[Tuscaloosa]

Re: The Game Outside of the Game - Issues and How to Fix Them

These are good points, thanks for sharing your thoughts. I’d just like to add that instead of turning the FG accuracy way up, sim all special teams plays. I do this, and I know there’s a number of other players who do as well. I’ve had blocked punts and field goals, punt and kick returns for touchdowns by the cpu, and I even had to recruit a different kicker because the “power” kicker I recruited only had like 65 accuracy and was 6/13 his freshman season kicking for me.

I hope you have an answer for the reason I don't do this - do you guys know how to make a FG attempt occur in sim when Ask Coach seems to be inclined to go for it on 4th down?

[SilverBullet19]

Re: The Game Outside of the Game - Issues and How to Fix Them

I intend to switch to Matt10's sliders for my next season. I think Lopaka uses them and he always seems to have a good battle on his hands nearly every game.

I'm still apprehensive about the fatigue thing, I think for the same reason most people are...less subbing. Maybe I will take away my OC's fatigue advantage thing for starters and see how it goes to start.

[Tuscaloosa]

Re: The Game Outside of the Game - Issues and How to Fix Them

I intend to switch to Matt10's sliders for my next season. I think Lopaka uses them and he always seems to have a good battle on his hands nearly every game.

I'm still apprehensive about the fatigue thing, I think for the same reason most people are...less subbing. Maybe I will take away my OC's fatigue advantage thing for starters and see how it goes to start.

Yeah, for the longest time I was apprehensive as well. I even tried a few games with just the clearing of skill trees, leaving on fatigue to try and get more subs/injuries. I could certainly still tell a difference, but it was clearly not the same punch as it was with the two changes combined. After considering everything, it bothered me way more that the CPU fatigue rate was much faster than the USER's than it ever did about having a handful of backup HB carries and a few DL subs each game. Especially considering the fact that we have formation subs, which IRL is typically a more common reason for teams to change personnel than actual fatigue, IMO, with third down backs and pass rushers.

[whughes]

Re: The Game Outside of the Game - Issues and How to Fix Them

I hope you have an answer for the reason I don't do this - do you guys know how to make a FG attempt occur in sim when Ask Coach seems to be inclined to go for it on 4th down?

As far as I know you can’t. In situations like those I’ll either manually kick the field goal, or just go for it

[Tuscaloosa]

Re: The Game Outside of the Game - Issues and How to Fix Them

Sound advice on the simming Special Teams, whughes. In the second quarter of trying it my punter had a punt blocked which they recovered for six. I don't think I've had a kick blocked, of any kind, since Tecmo. This certainly helps with Special Teams realism - adding to OP.

Also, can you get the blocked kicks and such if you watch the play?

[whughes]

Re: The Game Outside of the Game - Issues and How to Fix Them

I can’t say for sure whether or not you’ll still get blocked kicks/punts if you watch the play. I never watch them

[Trojan32]

Re: The Game Outside of the Game - Issues and How to Fix Them

I can’t say for sure whether or not you’ll still get blocked kicks/punts if you watch the play. I never watch them

I play Coach mode and “sim and watch” the play.

Missed FGs - yes ( my K missed a 30 yarder last game and I wound up losing 27-24)

Missed XP’s - yes

Blocked punts and fakes by opponent - No

Td returns on punts and KO’s - yes

[Tuscaloosa]

Re: The Game Outside of the Game - Issues and How to Fix Them

I play Coach mode and “sim and watch” the play.

Missed FGs - yes ( my K missed a 30 yarder last game and I wound up losing 27-24)

Missed XP’s - yes

Blocked punts and fakes by opponent - No

Td returns on punts and KO’s - yes

I've had several CPU kickoff returns that almost went the distance under this setup, while actually playing.

It's strange to me that in all of my testing of sliders over the past month or more I only saw CPU fake punts while testing in All-American. I honestly can't remember if I've ever seen one under Heisman, in my own testing or while playing with other people's sets. IIRC, I even saw one faked field goal in All-American.

[StoneCalf]

Re: The Game Outside of the Game - Issues and How to Fix Them

Some good food for thought. Although I have tailored the game to a significant degree to suit my needs and desires (stringent recruiting rules, editing certain user player attributes, editing CPU play cetc) there are some things mentioned here that I will try in the future.

One thing that I applaud EA for is the built in flexibility that allows for editing all of those player attributes, gameplay sliders, etc., and that's without even using the editor.

2. Lack of CPU run game - directly ties in to number 1. If the CPU successfully runs the ball, that's more TOP for them, and less for the USER, which obviously means less stats, less scoring, and ultimately less winning resulting in upset young men wanting their money back - NOT GOOD.

While this is a valid point, I have found that with certain changes, the CPU can be more than adequate, even robust at times. I will preface that the following results I'm going to list is due in large part to the fact that, through self-imposed and randomized recruiting restrictions, my current team's defense is only rated 81 overall. So, if a team is run-first and has some decent linemen, I can find myself on my heels in a hurry. My Marshall team currently sits at 7-4, but I've lost 4 out of my last 6 contests. Here's how the CPU run game has fared against me in all games this season:

Win vs Bay 48-28....cpu rushed 347 yds on 45 attempts (7.7 ypc)
Win vs NC 34-28.....cpu rushed 179 yds on 44 attempts (4.1 ypc)
Win vs Tamu 51-17..cpu rushed 122 yds on 26 attempts (4.7 ypc)
Win vs Rice 33-17....cpu rushed 84 yds on 14 attempts (6.0 ypc)
Win vs UTEP 49-37...cpu rushed 207 yds on 36 attempts (5.7 ypc)
Loss to FAU 24-27....cpu rushed 157 yds on 21 attempts (7.4 ypc)
Win vs FIU 24-21.....cpu rushed 161 yds on 37 attempts (4.3 ypc)
Win vs Mia 37-30.....cpu rushed 114 yds on 21 attempts (5.4 ypc)
Loss to UAB 27-31...cpu rushed 174 yds on 35 attempts (5.0 ypc)
Loss to USM 35-42...cpu rushed 363 yds on 42 attempts (8.6 ypc)
Loss to ECU 17-24...cpu rushed 103 yds on 30 attempts (3.4 ypc)

To the OP, Tuscaloosa- I'm not trying to be contrary, just giving my experience that it is possible for the CPU run game to be healthy. In all fairness, this season has been one of, if not the best the CPU has been consistently good at running the ball on me. If is extremely rare for the CPU to rush for over 300 yards per game, and it happened twice this season. With that said, I'm ok with it and not going to complain because I'm usually much better at run defense than pass defense. Looks like I need to focus more on recruiting better front 7 personnel.

[Tuscaloosa]

Re: The Game Outside of the Game - Issues and How to Fix Them

No worries, man. I'm far from sensitive lol. In fact, that's half of the reason I started this thread - to allow a place for others, who are willing, to give their input about both what I'm doing and what they're doing to me directly, instead of spending 3 or 4 more years reading through thread after thread.

Those are some really good looking numbers. I'm surprised the CPU ran for over 300 on you and you still won. I'd love to know the details of your current set-up. I thought about starting a thread for just that - a place for everyone to post the details of their current set-up and why; not really intended to be a place for any discussion/debate, just one post for each of us which we can change any time we make changes.

On recruiting, this random number recruiting I'm doing is very new, so I don't have much data or experiences to report. The idea of it is that once you start to be successful you will obviously gain more recruit interest from top to bottom. So, I'm hoping it presents situations like the USER getting the #4 QB overall coming out, who will obviously be pretty talented. But then, he ends up having receivers that were all outside of the top 75; or vice versa, all top receivers trying to make a 2 star qb better.

[StoneCalf]

Re: The Game Outside of the Game - Issues and How to Fix Them

Those are some really good looking numbers. I'm surprised the CPU ran for over 300 on you and you still won. I'd love to know the details of your current set-up.

I'm not a high-skilled player (I don't have the reflexes that I used to), and I don't prefer how the Heisman difficulty games play out, so I play on AA, 9 minute quarters, normal game speed. Here's some of my sliders that are relevant to the CPU run game:

CPU run ability 95
CPU run blocking 90
User Run defense 10
User tackling 10

During that Southern Miss game where I gave up an embarrassing 363 yards on the ground, it included a long, like 80 yard, breakaway run by the CPU. I was tired of getting run all over, so I took control of one of my safeties for a play to stack the box more, and got burned on it when the hb got through that first wave of defenders..... and it was all green to the end zone lol.

On recruiting, this random number recruiting I'm doing is very new, so I don't have much data or experiences to report. The idea of it is that once you start to be successful you will obviously gain more recruit interest from top to bottom. So, I'm hoping it presents situations like the USER getting the #4 QB overall coming out, who will obviously be pretty talented. But then, he ends up having receivers that were all outside of the top 75; or vice versa, all top receivers trying to make a 2 star qb better.

Sounds interesting on your recruiting idea. Hope it works out as you develop it.

I have long been using a dice roll to determine my next recruiting class limitations. The higher the roll, the better class I can go after:

6 = can sign (2) 5* players, (1) 4* players (can sign 1 player from any state and the rest have to be from conference and adjoining states)

5 = can sign (1) 5* player, (1) 4* player (can sign 1 player from any state and the rest have to be from conference and adjoining states)

4 = can sign (1) 5* player (can sign 1 player from any state and the rest have to be from conference and adjoining states)

3 = can sign (1) 4* player (can sign 1 player from any state and the rest have to be from conference and adjoining states)

2 = can only sign 3* players from conference and adjoining states, but still get the 1 player from any state, but still 3* max

1 = can only sign 3* players and they can only include adjoining states

I also employ the rule where I can only recruit 2 more players than the number of my players leaving, so I'm not cutting an unrealistic number of players.

[falcor1234]

Re: The Game Outside of the Game - Issues and How to Fix Them

I also employ the rule where I can only recruit 2 more players than the number of my players leaving, so I'm not cutting an unrealistic number of players.

i have a question about this part. how do you keep the computer from adding players to your board? i have all my coaches turned to not allowing the computer to add players to my board offer scholarships or set up visits. i even fill my board in the off season recruiting with 35 recruits that never get an offer and use all my points. but they still add players. i go from having a 13-15 player class to 19-22 player class.

[whughes]

Re: The Game Outside of the Game - Issues and How to Fix Them

i have a question about this part. how do you keep the computer from adding players to your board? i have all my coaches turned to not allowing the computer to add players to my board offer scholarships or set up visits. i even fill my board in the off season recruiting with 35 recruits that never get an offer and use all my points. but they still add players. i go from having a 13-15 player class to 19-22 player class.

As far as I know there’s no way to prevent this. You just have to cut them