[MarketingWiz]

Quote: Originally Posted by Weewam

One thing I would like to examine is the differences between game flow and ask madden playcalling. Ive tried both with the slider sets, and have a couple of non-data supported conclusions. There are two areas of concern between game flow and ask madden. The first is play variety. Again, I didnt take notes so I don't have data to support my claim, but I feel that game flow offered a greater variety of plays. Or, to be more specific I guess, game flow offered more variations in different situations. I felt like anytime I was in a certain situation, say 2nd and short, I would get the exact same play suggestions from ask madden. The second area of concern lies in realistic statistics. I had the impression that game flow provided a better experience as a realistic nfl sim. In general, the plays seemed more difficult to execute, and that difficulty translated into more realistic stats at the end. I don't know how many others got the same impression as I did. I was hoping that Wiz could find the time to incorporate this into his lab testing to get a definite answer. I'm going to be doing the same thing to find out which style of playcalling provides the best experience as an nfl sim with these sliders.

Got your back pimp... The winner DEFINITELY is GAMEFLOW. My concern is that on GAMEFLOW, you can dial up an "aggressive" run defense an infinitude amount of times. And as my little lab test already bore out, if you consistently "dial-it" up, the type of sliders you will need, would not do justice to the presentation of the animations nor the SIM experience. Let me explain.

Certainly we can all agree that if you dial up CPU BRK TKL, and RUN BLK, to "99".... And dial down HUM RUN REAC, BLK SHED, and TKL, to let's say "1".... And set the SPEED THRESH to "0", I assure you, that you will not be able to stop the CPU running game AT ALL. And herein lies the rub. And then to counter the cartoonish animations, and a BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAASSSSSSST CPU RB, you then have to dial up the HUM RUN REAC, BLK SHED, TKL sliders, and move SPEED THRESH up to 65 or higher. Are you starting to see the problem?

If you tweak the RUN BLK and BRK TKL sliders too much, the animations become cartoonish, non-Sunday like. So in essence, to maintain a balance between great animations, realistic stats, a credible CPU running game, and allow the HUM to control the HUM defensive play-calling and action by switching defenders constantly, the AI in M13 cannot deliver the goods for all these wishes. Sooo, something's gotta give.

What I have proposed be sacrificed is HUM Defensive control. By foregoing, switching defenders, and having to play within "vanilla" defenses provided by Ask Madden, the CPU run game can "breathe", stretch out it's legs, and produce respectable stats, while keeping the animations from becoming cartoonish.

The problem I have with GAMEFLOW, is that you do indeed have a selection of more plays than ASK MADDEN. So if you factor in the competitive nature in each one of us, our tendency would be to "cheese it" and find the most aggressive, balanced, blitz, and simply annihilate the A.I. for the CPU running and passing as my previous post bore out in the lab.

Now, if you are going to make a "pinky promise" to lay off the aggressive defense selections in GAMEFLOW and play a more "balanced" defensive approach, then GAMEFLOW and/or calling your own BALANCED defensive plays, will do the trick with this slider group. The key here is being honest with yourself and keeping the "pinky promise."

I have noticed that if I accept the "vanilla/lame-a.ss" defenses provided by Ask Madden, I don't have to worry about "the pinky promise" and can have a competitive, realistic, properly animated sim experience. In fact, with regards to the audibles I choose on Defense, if I choose any type of blitz package (and I do choose a few), I make sure that the blitz package IS NOT BALANCED. Why? Because my data has proven time and time again to me in the lab, that it is not the blitz that is the killer, it is the BALANCE of the blitz that the A.I. cannot process. It's as if the new "infinity engine" that produces all the funny pinball like collision animations, "freezes up" for a micro-second of indecision when you dial up a balanced blitz, and it's this microsecond that allows the HUM defensive blitz to "surround" the CPU RB and not allow him to be productive. If the blitz is unbalanced, it's as if the CPU RB is programmed to cut away from the direction of the blitz and not necessarily run into the teeth of it like it does when the blitz is balanced.

A lot of rambling, I know. But I get really pumped up to share what I see and track in my lab/cave.

Bottom line is that CPU run game is broken in M13, even post-patch. However, IF YOU ARE willing to make the "pinky promise" or buy into my HOUSE RULES, you can work around this inherent flaw in M13.

Just my 2 cents...

Back to the lab...






to finish testing the tune-up....






Stay tuned...


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