Special Thanks To:
Bill Harris for providing an excellent base slider set from which to develop this one.
Cursvie for his discussion of dumbing down the human player’s AI and overall category settings vs. sub-category settings.
Note to non-coach mode players: If you came here looking for something that will help your CPU completion percentages, I can sympathize with you but I must warn you that if you try ALL of these settings, you’ll probably find your games to be too easy. That’s because with coach mode, nothing other than kicking and punting is dependent on direct human input, and the settings are designed to help the AI to achieve accurate results. Those settings may therefore be too user-friendly for stick jockeys. If you’re generally happy with how your games are playing other than CPU completion %, then I would suggest using only the settings that apply to CPU passing, or using my theories on what affects CPU % to make adjustments to your sliders.
Evolution of this slider set:
First off, I’d like to say that Bill Harris has once again done an excellent job in developing a coach mode slider set. The biggest difference between Bill and I is that I do not believe as he does that the settings need to be the same for HUM and CPU. I think the game has a built-in bias toward the human player that needs to be accounted for, and there are aspects of the CPU’s game that need more help than the human side does.
I started a Washington Redskins franchise after the opening day roster update and I have taken that up to the third week of the 2011 preseason. I used Bill’s sliders, with my adjustments, all along. My second franchise, and the one used here for evaluating the sliders, was started after the most recent patch, uses the Week 2 roster upadate, and has Loose Cannon's NCAA 2010 draft class imported. Up until three games ago I was posting my game results in the thread for Bill’s sliders. No changes I made were so significant that a separate thread for my settings was warranted.
My chief gripe, by far, with results I had been getting was low CPU pass completion percentages. My reading of multiple slider threads indicates that this is a common theme among most slider sets. I kept bumping up CPU QBA without much success, and after a +10 increase before the Raiders game didn’t do anything, I decided a different approach was needed. The issue really wasn’t with how accurately the CPU QB was throwing, but with pressure causing bad throws and with my defenders getting too many deflections. Sack numbers not too high (2.5 per game for me in 10 Seahawks games), but the CPU pocket was collapsing too quickly. Cursive’s discussion in his initial post got me to thinking about a starting point being the overall number not for CPU passing, but for HUM pass defense. The higher the number, the easier for the CPU to throw, so I decided upon 16 as starting point. That set HUM Pass D Reaction, INT, and Pass Rush at 20. I wanted to leave INT at 0 (it’s now 1), and that bumped the overall number to 17. That INT may need to come up given how few I’ve had in both franchises.
After three games played with the change to HUM pass defense, I decided I was onto something and that such a significant change in that slider group’s numbers merited opening a new thread about these settings. The CPU QB performances in the three games:
Eli Manning (62.3% in ‘09) - 15-18 (83.3%), 317 yds, 2 TD
Derek Anderson (44.5% in ‘09) - 12-22 (54.4%), 168 yds, TD
Drew Brees (70.6% in ‘09) - 20-28 (71.4%), 299 yds, TD
Note that there is a significant difference, as there should be, between Eli & Brees and Derek Anderson, although Anderson’s wasn’t the sub-50% that we see so often.
Could Eli really go 83% against the Seattle defense? Probably not on a consistent basis, but it’s theoretically possible with his receiving corps. Attribute the high number to the big drop in the pass rush setting. Other than getting sacked twice, Eli had all the time he needed to throw, and there were no pressure-induced incompletions. That result may be overkill and prompted adjustments of +5 to HUM pass rush and -5 to CPU pass block, to their current settings. Anderson was sacked once and we didn’t get to Brees, but I did notice a positive effect on the degradation to the CPU’s pocket and there were incomplete passes caused by the pass rush in both games. Over time, it may be seen that some modest increase to the HUM pass rush is needed as a balancing factor. 54% for Anderson seems about right to me, and Brees was less than 1% above his 2009 season percentage- spot on, essentially. Three games don’t make a final evaluation, but they do indicate a big step in the right direction.
From my game scores below, you’ll see that a dramatic increase in CPU scoring seems to coincide with my big slider change. Appearances, as they say, can be deceiving. Those scores are not a result of getting lit up by the CPU QB. The Giants game was “that game” where everything that doesn’t happen much happened all at once. Eli did complete his first four passes in the opening drive, but on third and goal after 2 runs, and with the Seahawks having much less field to defend, he threw incomplete and the G-Men had to settle for a field goal. At the point that Eli was 8/11, the Giants only had 6 points on the board to show for it. I should have had a 7-6 halftime lead. But after I had a punt downed at their 7, Eli hit Mario Manningham, and Kelly Jennings missed the tackle. With Manningham having 92 speed, he’s faster than everyone on my defense other than Earl Thomas, who was occupied with Hakeem Nicks and was too far away to be a factor. Nobody had a good pursuit angle, and the result was a 93 yard TD. I made it 13-10 with 18 seconds left in the half, and then all the wheels fell off. Hasselbeck threw a pick-six to Keith Bulluck, and then the G-Men had a short drive to a TD after recovering a Julius Jones fumble, and I was suddenly down 27-10 less than 5 minutes into the second half. I managed to fight my way back, and with just under 11 minutes to go a 49 yard run by Justin Forsett made it 27-27. It appeared overtime was on the way when I punted for a touchback with less than a minute to go. But then Nicks broke a Thomas tackle and ran away from everybody else for an 80 yard TD (giving Eli 183 of his yards on 2 completions). The final score came with Kiwi taking a sack-caused fumble 19 yards to the house.
Arizona had a defensive TD and a safety. Take those away and that was a 27-20 ballgame.
The Saints against the Seahawks is just asking for trouble to begin with, and we gave them a lot of unnecessary help, with Hasselbeck throwing three picks, including a pick-six. The other two INTs were converted into another 10 points. And Hartley hit a pair of 50+ FG’s.
Last time I counted plays, it was 127, but that was in the Oakland loss where I was behind for so long and had a 44/17 pass/run split.
Enough talk. Here are the nuts and bolts:
V. 2.0 Posted 10/20/10
Settings
Game Options:
Quarter Length:15 Minutes
Play Clock:On
Accelerated Clock:On
Accelerated Clock Runoff:25 Seconds
Injuries:45
Fatigue:62
Game Speed:Normal
Player Min Speed Threshold:100
RB Sub: 89/92
Penalties:
Offside:100
False Start:100
Holding:55 (65)
Facemask:50
Defensive Pass Interference:100
Offensive Pass Interference:100
KR/PR Interference:70
Clipping:50
Int Grounding:70
Roughing the Passer:85
Roughing the Kicker:75
Player/CPU Sub-categories
Passing:
QB Accuracy:21/70 (21/79)
Pass Blocking:80/70 (80/80)
WR Catching:45/40 (45/60)
Rushing:
Broken Tackles:10/5 (5/5)
Run Blocking:90/75 (75/75)
Fumbles:60/55
Pass Defense:
Reaction Time:34/85 (20/85)
Interceptions:10/1 (1/1)
Pass Rushing:33/40 (20/40)
Rush Defense:
Reaction Time:50/40 (50/40)
Block Shedding:15/5 (15/15)
Tackling:75/60 (75/75)
Special Teams:
FG Power:30
FG Accuracy:67
Punt Power:62
Punt Accuracy:100
Kickoff Power:30
*Fumbles may be a work in progress. At 30/30 from Bill’s set, I was seeing far too many. Last change was two games ago.
** Had been 0/0 until last game. CPU is good, but HUM may need to come up.
CPU Coach settings
Pass-Heavy Offense: 60
Balance Offense: 50
Run-Heavy Offense: 40
Offensive Aggression: 0 (reduces “Bombs Away”)
4-3 Defense Run/Pass: 60
4-3 Defense Aggression: 20
3-4 Defense Run/Pass: 40
3-4 Defense Agression: 40
SEATTLE SEAHWAKS 2010 SEASON TO DATE
Redcord: 5-5
Schedule and Results:
SF W 6-3
@ DEN L 24-31
SD W 21-16
@ STL W 22-7
@ CHI W 31-3
ARI W 24-23
@ OAK L 10-24
NYG L 27-41
@ ARI L 20-36
@ NO L 14-44
Note: In 2009, the Saints scored 40+ 4 times.
All games played post-patch
Individual Stats Through 10 games
Matt Hasselbeck 216-368 (58%), 2329 yds, 15 TD, 9 INT* 80.7 rating
Average (Rounded except for TD): 22-37, 233 yds 1.5 TD, 1 INT
* 3 INT vs. New Orleans in first game with CPU INT raised from 0 to 1
Julius Jones 75-302, TD, 4.0 ypc
Justin Forsett (8 games) 69-243, TD, 3.5
Leon Washington: 74-222, TD, 2.9
Mike Williams 34-302, 3 TD, 13.7 avg.
Golden Tate (7 games) 29-391, 3 TD, 13.4
John Carlson (8 games) 28-322, 2 TD, 11.4
Brandon Stokley (6 games) 24-296, 2 TD, 12.3
Leading Tackler: Lofa Tatupu - 76 (7.6/g)
Sack Leaders: Brandon Mebane (6), Chris Clemons (5), Aaron Curry (4)
TEAM STATS - 10-game Average
Total Offense: 315.7
Passing: 235.0
Rushing: 80.7
Scoring: 19.9
Sacks Allowed: 2.4
First Downs 14.5
3rd Down Conv.: 40%
Total Defense: 322.2
Passing: 204.9
Rushing: 117.3
Points Allowed: 22.8
Sacks: 2.5
INT: 3 total, needs work
Bill Harris for providing an excellent base slider set from which to develop this one.
Cursvie for his discussion of dumbing down the human player’s AI and overall category settings vs. sub-category settings.
Note to non-coach mode players: If you came here looking for something that will help your CPU completion percentages, I can sympathize with you but I must warn you that if you try ALL of these settings, you’ll probably find your games to be too easy. That’s because with coach mode, nothing other than kicking and punting is dependent on direct human input, and the settings are designed to help the AI to achieve accurate results. Those settings may therefore be too user-friendly for stick jockeys. If you’re generally happy with how your games are playing other than CPU completion %, then I would suggest using only the settings that apply to CPU passing, or using my theories on what affects CPU % to make adjustments to your sliders.
Evolution of this slider set:
First off, I’d like to say that Bill Harris has once again done an excellent job in developing a coach mode slider set. The biggest difference between Bill and I is that I do not believe as he does that the settings need to be the same for HUM and CPU. I think the game has a built-in bias toward the human player that needs to be accounted for, and there are aspects of the CPU’s game that need more help than the human side does.
I started a Washington Redskins franchise after the opening day roster update and I have taken that up to the third week of the 2011 preseason. I used Bill’s sliders, with my adjustments, all along. My second franchise, and the one used here for evaluating the sliders, was started after the most recent patch, uses the Week 2 roster upadate, and has Loose Cannon's NCAA 2010 draft class imported. Up until three games ago I was posting my game results in the thread for Bill’s sliders. No changes I made were so significant that a separate thread for my settings was warranted.
My chief gripe, by far, with results I had been getting was low CPU pass completion percentages. My reading of multiple slider threads indicates that this is a common theme among most slider sets. I kept bumping up CPU QBA without much success, and after a +10 increase before the Raiders game didn’t do anything, I decided a different approach was needed. The issue really wasn’t with how accurately the CPU QB was throwing, but with pressure causing bad throws and with my defenders getting too many deflections. Sack numbers not too high (2.5 per game for me in 10 Seahawks games), but the CPU pocket was collapsing too quickly. Cursive’s discussion in his initial post got me to thinking about a starting point being the overall number not for CPU passing, but for HUM pass defense. The higher the number, the easier for the CPU to throw, so I decided upon 16 as starting point. That set HUM Pass D Reaction, INT, and Pass Rush at 20. I wanted to leave INT at 0 (it’s now 1), and that bumped the overall number to 17. That INT may need to come up given how few I’ve had in both franchises.
After three games played with the change to HUM pass defense, I decided I was onto something and that such a significant change in that slider group’s numbers merited opening a new thread about these settings. The CPU QB performances in the three games:
Eli Manning (62.3% in ‘09) - 15-18 (83.3%), 317 yds, 2 TD
Derek Anderson (44.5% in ‘09) - 12-22 (54.4%), 168 yds, TD
Drew Brees (70.6% in ‘09) - 20-28 (71.4%), 299 yds, TD
Note that there is a significant difference, as there should be, between Eli & Brees and Derek Anderson, although Anderson’s wasn’t the sub-50% that we see so often.
Could Eli really go 83% against the Seattle defense? Probably not on a consistent basis, but it’s theoretically possible with his receiving corps. Attribute the high number to the big drop in the pass rush setting. Other than getting sacked twice, Eli had all the time he needed to throw, and there were no pressure-induced incompletions. That result may be overkill and prompted adjustments of +5 to HUM pass rush and -5 to CPU pass block, to their current settings. Anderson was sacked once and we didn’t get to Brees, but I did notice a positive effect on the degradation to the CPU’s pocket and there were incomplete passes caused by the pass rush in both games. Over time, it may be seen that some modest increase to the HUM pass rush is needed as a balancing factor. 54% for Anderson seems about right to me, and Brees was less than 1% above his 2009 season percentage- spot on, essentially. Three games don’t make a final evaluation, but they do indicate a big step in the right direction.
From my game scores below, you’ll see that a dramatic increase in CPU scoring seems to coincide with my big slider change. Appearances, as they say, can be deceiving. Those scores are not a result of getting lit up by the CPU QB. The Giants game was “that game” where everything that doesn’t happen much happened all at once. Eli did complete his first four passes in the opening drive, but on third and goal after 2 runs, and with the Seahawks having much less field to defend, he threw incomplete and the G-Men had to settle for a field goal. At the point that Eli was 8/11, the Giants only had 6 points on the board to show for it. I should have had a 7-6 halftime lead. But after I had a punt downed at their 7, Eli hit Mario Manningham, and Kelly Jennings missed the tackle. With Manningham having 92 speed, he’s faster than everyone on my defense other than Earl Thomas, who was occupied with Hakeem Nicks and was too far away to be a factor. Nobody had a good pursuit angle, and the result was a 93 yard TD. I made it 13-10 with 18 seconds left in the half, and then all the wheels fell off. Hasselbeck threw a pick-six to Keith Bulluck, and then the G-Men had a short drive to a TD after recovering a Julius Jones fumble, and I was suddenly down 27-10 less than 5 minutes into the second half. I managed to fight my way back, and with just under 11 minutes to go a 49 yard run by Justin Forsett made it 27-27. It appeared overtime was on the way when I punted for a touchback with less than a minute to go. But then Nicks broke a Thomas tackle and ran away from everybody else for an 80 yard TD (giving Eli 183 of his yards on 2 completions). The final score came with Kiwi taking a sack-caused fumble 19 yards to the house.
Arizona had a defensive TD and a safety. Take those away and that was a 27-20 ballgame.
The Saints against the Seahawks is just asking for trouble to begin with, and we gave them a lot of unnecessary help, with Hasselbeck throwing three picks, including a pick-six. The other two INTs were converted into another 10 points. And Hartley hit a pair of 50+ FG’s.
Last time I counted plays, it was 127, but that was in the Oakland loss where I was behind for so long and had a 44/17 pass/run split.
Enough talk. Here are the nuts and bolts:
V. 2.0 Posted 10/20/10
Settings
Game Options:
Quarter Length:15 Minutes
Play Clock:On
Accelerated Clock:On
Accelerated Clock Runoff:25 Seconds
Injuries:45
Fatigue:62
Game Speed:Normal
Player Min Speed Threshold:100
RB Sub: 89/92
Penalties:
Offside:100
False Start:100
Holding:55 (65)
Facemask:50
Defensive Pass Interference:100
Offensive Pass Interference:100
KR/PR Interference:70
Clipping:50
Int Grounding:70
Roughing the Passer:85
Roughing the Kicker:75
Player/CPU Sub-categories
Passing:
QB Accuracy:21/70 (21/79)
Pass Blocking:80/70 (80/80)
WR Catching:45/40 (45/60)
Rushing:
Broken Tackles:10/5 (5/5)
Run Blocking:90/75 (75/75)
Fumbles:60/55
Pass Defense:
Reaction Time:34/85 (20/85)
Interceptions:10/1 (1/1)
Pass Rushing:33/40 (20/40)
Rush Defense:
Reaction Time:50/40 (50/40)
Block Shedding:15/5 (15/15)
Tackling:75/60 (75/75)
Special Teams:
FG Power:30
FG Accuracy:67
Punt Power:62
Punt Accuracy:100
Kickoff Power:30
*Fumbles may be a work in progress. At 30/30 from Bill’s set, I was seeing far too many. Last change was two games ago.
** Had been 0/0 until last game. CPU is good, but HUM may need to come up.
CPU Coach settings
Pass-Heavy Offense: 60
Balance Offense: 50
Run-Heavy Offense: 40
Offensive Aggression: 0 (reduces “Bombs Away”)
4-3 Defense Run/Pass: 60
4-3 Defense Aggression: 20
3-4 Defense Run/Pass: 40
3-4 Defense Agression: 40
SEATTLE SEAHWAKS 2010 SEASON TO DATE
Redcord: 5-5
Schedule and Results:
SF W 6-3
@ DEN L 24-31
SD W 21-16
@ STL W 22-7
@ CHI W 31-3
ARI W 24-23
@ OAK L 10-24
NYG L 27-41
@ ARI L 20-36
@ NO L 14-44
Note: In 2009, the Saints scored 40+ 4 times.
All games played post-patch
Individual Stats Through 10 games
Matt Hasselbeck 216-368 (58%), 2329 yds, 15 TD, 9 INT* 80.7 rating
Average (Rounded except for TD): 22-37, 233 yds 1.5 TD, 1 INT
* 3 INT vs. New Orleans in first game with CPU INT raised from 0 to 1
Julius Jones 75-302, TD, 4.0 ypc
Justin Forsett (8 games) 69-243, TD, 3.5
Leon Washington: 74-222, TD, 2.9
Mike Williams 34-302, 3 TD, 13.7 avg.
Golden Tate (7 games) 29-391, 3 TD, 13.4
John Carlson (8 games) 28-322, 2 TD, 11.4
Brandon Stokley (6 games) 24-296, 2 TD, 12.3
Leading Tackler: Lofa Tatupu - 76 (7.6/g)
Sack Leaders: Brandon Mebane (6), Chris Clemons (5), Aaron Curry (4)
TEAM STATS - 10-game Average
Total Offense: 315.7
Passing: 235.0
Rushing: 80.7
Scoring: 19.9
Sacks Allowed: 2.4
First Downs 14.5
3rd Down Conv.: 40%
Total Defense: 322.2
Passing: 204.9
Rushing: 117.3
Points Allowed: 22.8
Sacks: 2.5
INT: 3 total, needs work
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