Penalty sliders effect on gameplay

[cthurt]

https://youtu.be/cYdDK06H0QQ?si=xAc_op9sYbZUC-vF

Not sure if all.the effects are legit on every difficulty level but this is an interesting find, if it wasn't already known.

[roadman]

It's been debated for years and there is a penalty slider thread in the

slider forum discussing this same very topic.

It's the ying and yang of penatly slider discussions, besides them not working properly.

[Gotmadskillzson]

Yeah been known since the NCAA football days. Some years the effects are stronger.

[Iteachpercussion]

The idea that penalty sliders have some magic impact on how ai players move, are aggressive, etc.. is complete nonsense. It has always been nonsense. Those sliders have never had an impact on player aggressiveness or anything else.

EA stated in the past that all the sliders do is increase or decrease the chance of a penalty. PC modders have found no, none, zero, nada correlation or causation between penalty sliders and any of the supposed impacts.

I watched this guy's video, and have tried many of the penalty slider theories over the years just to see and out of curiosity; but not once have a seen any indication or evidence that supports such theories.

Why would increasing offsides make defensive players more aggressive? Why would it impact block shedding? It simply makes no logical sense and there is nothing in the coding that substantiates such claims.

What the sliders do is act as a "die roll modifier" for if a penalty occurs or not. Just like a table top roll playing game. There is no other impact on ai players.

I know me saying of this will not change a lot of people's minds, but I just do not see why this keeps floating around.

[canes21]

Been a theory in the community for years like others have already pointed out. EA has disputed this. We've found no evidence that this is true in the modding scene, though we don't have access to every bit of code. I've personally never seen any impacts that the guy and others have talked about when testing it myself extensively.

I'd say the sliders don't impact gameplay, not like he is saying. I can have holding at 0 or 99 with my current sliders and nothing changes at all. I think theories like this simply get started because of the ambiguity in many of the games settings and the impacts they have on the game. The penalty sliders don't really tell you exactly how they'll lead to more penalties, and as we've all seen, they really don't lead to more penalties, so for many people they're going to assume those sliders are impacting something and will create theories like the one in the video.

I could see a case where the sliders dictate how often certain animations trigger which have a chance to be called for a penalty such as a holding animation and that can lead to better blocking when it isn't flagged every time that animation triggers, but, as I said, I have simply not seen this be the case anytime I have ever tested it be it in Madden or NCAA.

Plus, the examples he uses in his video, like the clip of the "aggressive play on the ball for the interception" are things I have seen consistently with my Def PI slider at 95 or 99. When I throw the ball in front of any back 7 player in zone, they break on the throw like that more often than not, so clearly having my penalty slider at or near maxed out is not having the impact he claims it does. That's been the case annually, too, so, again, I just don't buy this theory personally.

[Mike Lowe]

Quote: Originally Posted by Iteachpercussion

The idea that penalty sliders have some magic impact on how ai players move, are aggressive, etc.. is complete nonsense. It has always been nonsense. Those sliders have never had an impact on player aggressiveness or anything else. EA stated in the past that all the sliders do is increase or decrease the chance of a penalty. PC modders have found no, none, zero, nada correlation or causation between penalty sliders and any of the supposed impacts. I watched this guy's video, and have tried many of the penalty slider theories over the years just to see and out of curiosity; but not once have a seen any indication or evidence that supports such theories. Why would increasing offsides make defensive players more aggressive? Why would it impact block shedding? It simply makes no logical sense and there is nothing in the coding that substantiates such claims. What the sliders do is act as a "die roll modifier" for if a penalty occurs or not. Just like a table top roll playing game. There is no other impact on ai players. I know me saying of this will not change a lot of people's minds, but I just do not see why this keeps floating around.

100% correct, and I have had confirmation in the past from EA Sports. People won't even believe it when they say it so...yeah. Just sharing for those who haven't turned into slider zombies yet. Save yourselves!

[C0883R]

Quote: Originally Posted by Iteachpercussion

The idea that penalty sliders have some magic impact on how ai players move, are aggressive, etc.. is complete nonsense. It has always been nonsense. Those sliders have never had an impact on player aggressiveness or anything else. EA stated in the past that all the sliders do is increase or decrease the chance of a penalty. PC modders have found no, none, zero, nada correlation or causation between penalty sliders and any of the supposed impacts. I watched this guy's video, and have tried many of the penalty slider theories over the years just to see and out of curiosity; but not once have a seen any indication or evidence that supports such theories. Why would increasing offsides make defensive players more aggressive? Why would it impact block shedding? It simply makes no logical sense and there is nothing in the coding that substantiates such claims. What the sliders do is act as a "die roll modifier" for if a penalty occurs or not. Just like a table top roll playing game. There is no other impact on ai players. I know me saying of this will not change a lot of people's minds, but I just do not see why this keeps floating around.

This is false I challenge you to play any slider set the way it comes. Then play with the same slider set with Penalties at default 50. Then tell me if you get the same game play or not. I can save you the trouble and tell you right now the 2 games will not be the same.


It's true. You can not increase penalty count regardless of where you put them. However you can change gameplay effects like Aggression. Penalties do have gameplay effects on the sliders.

[Iteachpercussion]

Quote: Originally Posted by C0883R

This is false I challenge you to play any slider set the way it comes. Then play with the same slider set with Penalties at default 50. Then tell me if you get the same game play or not. I can save you the trouble and tell you right now the 2 games will not be the same. It's true. You can not increase penalty count regardless of where you put them. However you can change gameplay effects like Aggression. Penalties do have gameplay effects on the sliders.

I have used these "theories" in the past to see for myself. Every time... no change to gameplay. None, zero, nada. It simply is not true as much as people want it to be. I have been playing Madden since Madden games have existed. I have put countless hours into slider settings, isolating specific sliders (gameplay, penalty, fatigue, speed parity). I have done immense amount of testing over the years on player ratings in combination with a wide range of slider sets. Still, through all of that, I have never been able to get penalty sliders to impact the way the ai plays.

As I stated before and has been stated by others, there is nothing in the game coding to make this true. Plus the "logic" behind it just does not make sense. It is always argued, including in the posted video that the ai players act a certain way to not get penalties if the slider is too high on some sliders (such as def pass interference) and then having offsides high creates more aggressive behavior. The logic used on one slider does not make sense compared to the logic used on another.

This is no different than the theories that you have to set your settings in a certain way in the Main Menu and then have different sliders in Franchise mode and somehow the Main Menu sliders "bleed" through into Franchise mode and magically makes the game play better. That makes no since either but plenty of people swear by it and do it anyway.

Play the game the way you want, with whatever settings you want. But until someone can show me some definitive proof that penalty sliders impact ai players in some way beyond trigger animations and frequency of penalties, I simply will not believe it. I will take the word of people who work on the game code and the modders who have sifted through the code, as well as my own testing and observations, over what people claim to "see."

I am not trying to be rude or anything of the sort. I am merely trying to provide some logic to these claims that have been thrown out here for years. I have been in these forums long enough to see all kinds of wild and crazy theories out.