[Aestis]

Quote: Originally Posted by Steely McBeam

I did some comprehensive sliders for Madden 21 and this is what my final version look liked. I have not published these previously. The point of these sliders was to try and get the 16th and 32nd best player at any position at a level that reflected "average starter" and "poor starter". This was to make bad starters play like bad starters and average players average. The downside of these sliders is that for some positions particularly TE, RT and OLB you did not get any/many elite 90+ OVR players. These sliders were the product of three 10 year sim efforts to 2049 in addition to taking a franchise from 2020 to 2049 three times. I think it may be possible to address the number of elite players by upping the number of X-factor, Superstar and Star players from the default but did not ever explore this as my sliders were already functioning well enough for me before it became an option. I love Madden and across Madden 18, 19, 20 and 21 I have probably taking the Steelers from year 1 to year 30 fifteen times. And I can say this with absolute certainty that thus far there are no set and forget XP Sliders that ultimately do not alter the minimum or a maximum OVR rating in a way that doesn't break the gameplay sliders if you have the balance set for difficult play at year 1 at All-Pro level. For me the typical breakage comes with O-line ratings. For example for the Madden 22 release the RT position: OVR 85+ 7 players OVR 80-84 3 players OVR 75-79 8 players OVR 70-74 10 players OVR 68-69 4 players The best RT is 89, the 16th tackle is 76 and the 32nd is rated 68. Previously it has not been possible to set sliders that as the initial rosters age and new players emerge to elevate new players to the 85+ range without raising the worst starters to the mid 70s and then suddenly what should be "bad starters" play like solid mid-level players. I am planning to do set-up the same style XP sliders for this Madden but it takes time. Step 1 Is get my game play sliders working reasonably. Step 2 For each position assume what rating an average starter should be and what the worst starter should be. Step 3 Do the 10 year sims to the end and play with the XP sliders to get the 16th and 32nd players* close to the level I want. Step 4 Play through manually and check every 5 years to see where I am at. * For QB, HB, FB, TE, T, G, C, DE, FS, SS, K and P each only has one starter so 16th player average and 32nd * For MLB and DT I assume that 16 teams are 3-4 and 16 are 4-3 meaning the league has 48 starting MLBs and 48 starting DTs. * For WR and CB as two take the field minimum in most formations the league's worst starter is ranked 64. NOTE THE BELOW ARE MADDEN 21 SLIDERS as a an example. Year 2025 2030 2035 2040 QB 95 100 HB 110 125 140 150 FB 90 WR 90 95 100 TE 110 115 120 125 130 T 90 G 90 C 95 90 DE 95 DT 105 MLB 80 85 OLB 70 75 CB 110 115 FS 100 110 115 SS 115 120 130 137 K 110 115 130 135 P 110 115 130 135

Will respond at more length when I get some time but you're absolutely right that there will be no fire & forget set of sliders to solve all XP issues. Stars/Superstars/XFs are generated at very diff rates as leagues progress vs file start and at very diff rates from one position to the next.

So for people who REALLY want league talent to progress at a rate that closely matches file start, there will be some doing. I've run a couple dozen sims already and will post some detailed visualizations of the talent distribution in the coming week or so. Testing out diff levels of XF/SS/Star to affect said distribution as XP sliders alone won't do it.