2nd Patch Broke the CPU running game and Sliders

[Rudy]

Well I've come to the conclusion that the second patch has completely broken the cpu running game and it's mainly because it broke the cpu run block and human rush defense sliders. They simply don't work anymore. That's why I saw the cpu running game take a hit once the 2nd patch came out. Those two sliders do not work anymore.

I ask anyone to play a game on All American. Play against the cpu on AA and turn the cpu run block slider to 100 and then turn the human run defense slider to 0. I don't think it makes a difference. The cpu running game will suck just like on AA default. I even played a half a game on Heisman. I don't think those sliders work their either. CPU run block at 100 and human run defense on 0 and you would think the cpu would just be plowing through me. Nope.

The sliders are broken now in terms of the cpu running game. I'm really disappointed. This is a game killer for me on AA. I'm going to have to make the jump to Heisman and see if I can tweak the game so it plays like AA. But I don't want to really deal with the garbage that comes with Heisman either. I hope I can fix this issue or the EA team can because this will ruin NCAA 11 for me. I'm tired and going to bed. I'd love to hear any feedback on this as well. Tune those sliders to the max and watch the cpu running game go unchanged.

[jaymo76]

I haven't seen this yet but I have only played TWO games post patch. I acutally noticed against two FCS teams that they had some decent runs against me and my D could not tackle for the life of me. This is what I find so frustrating about patches... what gets patched, why, and what is affected??? Sometimes I think it's better to avoid the patch. At least you know what you have. At this point I don't want to toy with the sliders really at all. I am now in season five and it's so much work to start over. Pre-patch the game was playing as I wanted (with a few exceptions... DB's and slant routes, etc.) so I hope I don't need to change too much. If I get a chance I will play a few games tomorrow using your suggestions and see how it looks. Let's hope that it's just a freaky multi-game anamoly...

[steelerfan]

The CPU has still run about the same against me. I will try to skew the sliders and see what happens. Gawd, I hope it's not screwed up....

[AustinWolv]

It isn't screwed up in the two games I've played in my OD thus far.

Using my same Heisman sliders as pre-patch, the CPU running game got better. Really pounding the rock and breaking tackles. Was loading up the box and they were still breaking off solid runs......even had the CPU break some long TDs against my D. One RB averaged 9 per carry against me on 18 carries, but one carry was a 74 yd TD, so for the rest of his carries, it was at 5.1 ypc.

I'm on 360.

[Rudy]

Even if you are happy with how the cpu running game is now, I'd love for you guys to just play 1/2 a game with the sliders moved in crazy directions. Put cpu run block at 100 and human rush defense at 0. Or even try cpu run block at 0 and human run defense at 100 (I'll try that this morning). I don't think you guys will see a difference. If you guys are happy with the cpu running game then that's great but I don't think the sliders will do anything more to change it.

At this point I'm not going to play my dynasty anymore and will just test out sliders on Heisman. It's how unhappy I am with the cpu running game on AA right now. I played a couple exhibition games last night just trying to fix it and I shouldn't have to play Bama with a crappy team in order to see the cpu run the ball. I should be able to take two average teams and have the cpu run with success - particularly if I jack up the sliders in their favour. Right now those sliders are broken imo.

[oweb26]

LOL why are you just testing the sliders in order to see their effect after the patch? Setting yourself up for disappointment huh?

[Rudy]

LOL why are you just testing the sliders in order to see their effect after the patch? Setting yourself up for disappointment huh?

And a huge disappointment it is. The game played very well before this second patch. I was having a lot of fun. The second patch fixed some things. I like the looser pass coverage but it absolutely ruined the cpu running game. The cpu run blocking sliders and human run defense are screwed up beyond belief. Feels like NCAA 09 again. AA is now unplayable for me.

I just took Oregon St. into Pitt this morning on Heisman. Had cpu run block at 100, human run defense at 0, cpu RBA at 60 and human tackling at 60 (I raised it for Heisman to reduce the crazy broken tackles you can see on this level - will still tweak) and Dion Lewis had a nice first half. He had 16 carries for 82 yards, 5.1 ypc, 2 TDs and a long run of 15. He got hurt just before half so I ended up coming from behind (down 14-0 or 17-0 and won 21-17). Those results are good to me but with those sliders I should be getting destroyed on the ground. I tried reversing the sliders - cpu run block to 0 and human run defense at 100 and I honestly don't see much difference.

This has to be fixed or this game will become a coaster for me soon. I will not play a football game anymore where the cpu run game is neutered. AA is dead to me at the moment. All of my future games will be Play Now Heisman games until I get those sliders right. Part of me just wants to delete the patch but then I lose both and the progression fixes. This sucks for me right now.

[morsdraconis]

Try, instead of moving the blocking slider and the defense slider, move tackling down to 0 and see if you see a huge difference in defensive ability. For some reason, I was seeing DRASTICALLY different run defense by just moving the slider 5-10 points in one direction or the other. I'd be interested to see what 0 tackling does post update.

[Rudy]

You might be right. The tackle slider usually does affect things but there is no excuse for blocking sliders working this bad. Plus I don't want to turn the cpu into a break tackle machine. I've already boosted the cpu RBA to 65 on AA just to get them to break some long runs. They break enough tackles as it is. For now I will simply experiment on Heisman. If that doesn't work I think I'm going to have to delete this patch and deal with the dynasty issues.

[jaymo76]

Rudy,

I tried some slider changes.....

Game one: using my NORMAL sliders (which I haven't changed since patch 2 came out) and the cpu East Michigan had 39 rushing yards
Game two: versus Bowling Green (cpu run block 100, cpu rb 55, human run D zero)... the cpu had a total of NINE YARDS RUSHING
**caveat: the cpu offense in total only had 49 yards (lowest ever in my time playing the NCAA series)

I have several concerns right now post patch two. I didn't see them at first BUT this game has become far, far too easy. THE CPU CAN NO LONGER RUN THE BALL!!!

[steelerfan]

Jaymo, try playing a game with default rosters and see if your results are different (not against EMU or BGSU either, lol). I'm guessing that a big part of what you're seeing is related to the terrible year 5 rosters you have. The only possible solutions, I believe, are starting over or suffering through enough horrid years to get the rosters balanced again. This is assuming the recruiting and progression is now fixed.

[AustinWolv]

I'll be playing tonight and I did some adjustments to my Heisman sliders, so will be watching the CPU rush game for sure.
All I know is that the CPU ran the ball very well in two Heisman dynasty games post-patch#2. Over 100 yards each game against teams that should have run for over 100.

If you are playing Play Now games while playing with sliders, you are spinning your wheels.

[jaymo76]

Jaymo, try playing a game with default rosters and see if your results are different (not against EMU or BGSU either, lol). I'm guessing that a big part of what you're seeing is related to the terrible year 5 rosters you have. The only possible solutions, I believe, are starting over or suffering through enough horrid years to get the rosters balanced again. This is assuming the recruiting and progression is now fixed.

I haven't played a full game but I did play practise mode and the ASU vs ASU and I played in a 4-3 man D and the cpu had a running play that usually goes for big yards. The cpu only broke one of of probably close to fifty attempts. If I had to ball park it I would say that the cpu avg was about 3 ypc.

[JeffHCross]

Practice Mode is, 90% of the time, considerably easier than a real game, for whatever reason. I've found plays that work in practice mode for big gains but never, ever, work in a real game.

For what it's worth:

2. What happened to the cpu rush game? Post patch two not one team has over 100 yards ruhsing.... (the closest was 71)

In our Online Dynasty, three teams (UNC, Maryland and Iowa) all had 100+ days against top-tier defenses (VT, FSU, and Ohio State).

[Rudy]

On Heisman the cpu run game seems good. But no matter what difficulty level you play on, you better accept how the cpu run game is because the sliders are broke and you can't fix it. The only thing you can adjust is the cpu RBA and the human tackle slider. So if you like it then it's great. If not you are screwed. It's garbage that the sliders don't really work for the actual blocking. I'm giving Heisman a try for the next while. Hopefully I'll get another Play Now game in tomorrow morning. I'm only in the 2nd year of my dynasty so the results should still be similar.

[CLW]

I haven't noticed much of a change honestly with the CPU run game post Patch #2. With my set of sliders the CPU has from time to time just ran all over my defense (Duke) and sometimes not.

[Rudy]

Well I tried playing a game without the patch and the cpu can run the ball better but the sliders don't really work that well pre-patch either. The biggest difference it seems to me is that the default level of the cpu run game really dropped after the patch. So the very weak sliders are unable to fix it.

NCAA 09 had terribly weak sliders and NCAA 11's slider system reminds me of the same thing. I don't get it because NCAA 10 had much more responsive sliders. This falls completely on EA's dev team imo. They simply don't spend enough time testing certain parts of the game. Progression and those simulations Russ and his team ran should have been run many, many times before the game was released. We shouldn't need one or two patches to fix dynasty progression. That stuff should be nailed down prior to release. They should bring in a community guy who specializes in that area and looks for that stuff exclusively.

Furthermore the sliders need to be tested MUCH better. When I max out one slider or if I zero out one slider it should make a ton of difference no matter what difficulty level I play on. On Heisman with cpu run block at 100 and human rush defense at 0 it should resemble Tecmo Bowl imo. I should see blockers getting creamed left and right but I don't. Post patch the cpu running game on those settings looks normal. I have a feeling that most of the dev team plays on Varsity or AA with almost nobody playing on Heisman and I don't think they tweak the sliders much at all. This area is huge and there are tons of slider threads and views on OS as everybody likes to tweak the game. Give us the tools to fix the game ourselves. Again, bring in a guy on those community days whose sole job is to test every slider across every difficulty level. MLB The Show is bad this way as well. They don't spend enough time in this area (user fielding errors only changes the fielder's range - doesn't boost the number of bobbles. Been like this for years and they don't fix it. Guys don't boot balls when you drop the slider - the balls just go through you like you are a ghost).

Patch #3 needs to make the blocking sliders far more sensitive. It needs to boost up zone coverage so it can be useful. It has to tone down the cpu blitzing on Heisman - especially on third down. I'd like to see kick returns loosened up a little as well. It won't take much to really make this game great but it does need some fixes.

[cdj]

Practice Mode is, 90% of the time, considerably easier than a real game, for whatever reason. I've found plays that work in practice mode for big gains but never, ever, work in a real game.

Could some of that be due to Adaptive AI or pre-snap changes made by the CPU? I end up using Play Now games for my 'practice' mode to get a better feel of what works and doesn't.

[ebin]

Well I tried playing a game without the patch and the cpu can run the ball better but the sliders don't really work that well pre-patch either... It won't take much to really make this game great but it does need some fixes.

Well said, and I completely agree. It's frustrating because although this game is really good, we are so close to it being a fantastic game, and it seems like we should be able to get there with sliders, but they aren't nearly sensitive enough.

[jaymo76]

So frustrated... again. I thought after yesterday that things were good again but I was wrong.

I just demolished UCLA (12th ranked rushing team in the country with the #2 back in the country~ he avg. 177.2 ypg)

UCLA rushing stats:

18 carries for THREE YARDS!!!!!
RB#1 13 carries for 14 yards (longest rush was 14 yards)

I just can't play this game on a daily basis anymore after this. My QB's are lights out and the cpu RB's can't run the ball. We have played this game before.... it was called NCAA 09/10. All the patch had to do was slightly modify zone coverage and man coverage on slants and we have one of the top five football games ever made... that's all they had to do (I can deal with the depth chart glitch, etc). Now however, this game is entirely different and most importantly.... it's NOT fun for me anymore! I don't expect we will see another patch but I would love to hear some feedback from the developers as to WHY these changes were made. Who asked for them? Was the game considered to difficult for the masses? What gives EA/Tiburon??? AA post patch this game was so dam good, fun, and challenging.... now it's just like 09/10 but with locomotion I no longer have a reason to play if this is what gameplay will be like.

Now to look on the bright side, I definitely got my $70 worth from this game pre patch two and I loved it. Heck I played 53 games in less than a month! It's just sad to see a game I held in such high regard only a week ago come crashing down to such mediocrity... If these changes can't be reveresed and soon this game will hit the shelf permanently... after all of the strides made this year, that just doesn't sound right.