Planning for Next Season (2015)

[gschwendt]

We're obviously at the stage where we're looking towards the next season. With me taking over and with the next season starting soon, I wanted to open up discussion on a few topics.

1. Suggestions for slider changes... we need changes, give me your feedback
2. Do we limit recruiting next season? Currently the poll leads 3-1 but only Escobar, myself, marcotte14, & skipwondah33 have voted. At this point, we would limit to only 4-star recruits... deadline to vote is before preseason starts.
3. Is everyone returning for next season? I assume everyone that's active plans to continue but how about Eric & Razor? I'll reach out them specifically but now is the time to make it known that you don't plan to return.
4. With the question of everyone returning, do we make any conference changes? Certainly UCLA & Auburn will be swapped out to other conferences... other than that, do we shuffle conferences up? We're at 10 right now... do we go shift down to 5 users in a conference giving us 4 UvU games each season?

Any other topics you want to discuss, by all means, let's hear it. Everyone that has been in an OD I ran before should know that I'm very open to discussion... I'll make decisions if no one else will but otherwise I'm just here to hit the advance button.

[skipwondah33]

Tackling man lol. I don't want them all but the rate people bounce off and get trounced..even in user vs user games is frustrating. I know our guys are bad but I have guys with 70-75+ tackle rating going against guys with 50-60 break tackle/trucking...who are destroying my guys multiple at a time.

Hell your WR I think on that screen broke what 5-6 tackles alone?

Coverage sucks but that's because all of my players suck at it..even the good ones lol. Hopefully we will become better at it with better players.

Just looking forward to next season's players

[gschwendt]

It looks like both Eric & Razor will remain with us, though both will stay on auto for the time-being. With that in mind, I say we go to two conferences of 5 User teams (each conference with 1 auto). Let me know any objections or thoughts and if you have a suggestion on how to break the conferences up.

[JBHuskers]

I'm good with limiting to for two more years then open it up.

I'm back next season and up for whatever. I wouldn't mind less user games as it has been tough lately to get with people's work schedules.

[marcotte14]

I still think it is way too easy to pass on the cpu, or move the ball in general. I think tackling is ok, due to the fact of how bad our teams are, I've noticed a difference from just last year with that. I know myself and a couple other teams are ranked and 1 team is undefeated, IMO of how bad are teams are, that shouldn't happen, I mean this is a death Penalty OD and we potentially have a team playing the BCS NC game in the 2nd year.

IMO I also think that we should keep the conferences the same to keep the realism of CFB, but take out UCLA and Auburn and bring back the best PAC12 and SEC team that we took out in the first place. (I think its Cal and Texas A&M)

[skipwondah33]

I have guys with 70+ tackling though. Every player they attempt to tackle shouldn't instantly knock them over like a bowling pin. You would everyone who carries the ball is 300+ lbs and running full speed.

That shouldn't happen 90% of the time and especially shouldn't happen to 3-4 players all at once like I've had happen multiple times. Said player will take hand off and get 3 steps. .. lower his shoulder and 3 guys instantly hit the ground like a semi truck hit them....meanwhile losing no momentum and getting faster.

In regards to passing. I think it's easy with certain plays. Not much seems to work against the CPU other than a handful of plays...they play the Read Option stupidly. Then again though they defend other plays like my team is moving in quick sand most of the time. Will have lane or outside all of sudden 3 players are free before I even get out of back field

[JeffHCross]

Slider changes: Obviously I'm content with the current sliders. I do agree with marcotte that this level of success probably shouldn't happen, so I'd be good with finding more difficult sliders. For example, I wonder how far these current sliders are from what you guys were using pre-reboot. Obviously those sliders were designed to give better contests at the Powerhouse level, so I wonder how they would scale to our level of teams. We should be struggling more than we are (though, as skip mentioned this week, momentum is everything in this game). I'd be interested in looking at some sliders that others have used, though I don't want to make massive, sweeping changes just for the sake of changes.

We now know that penalty sliders are a huge part of gameplay, even though that makes practically no sense. I think that should be one of the first places we look to change right now.

Recruiting: I voted in the poll to stay at . I had proposed a +2 rule, but Snoop is the only one that will be next year, so close enough.

Conferences: I agree that the conferences deserve re-balancing (especially with 2 members of the SEC/Pac being on Auto for most of the season). However, JB's right that it's getting harder and harder to schedule. Snoop and I got lucky this week. I'd like 5-user conferences, but realize that it would slow us down. You guys have been playing this game for a year solid, so maybe you wouldn't mind slowing down ... I'm just getting back into the swing of things, so I want to go fast-fast-fast

I have guys with 70+ tackling though. Every player they attempt to tackle shouldn't instantly knock them over like a bowling pin.

And the average Georgia running back has 84 BTK, 80 TRK, and 81 ELU. I don't know which of those go into calculating a broken tackle (I think BTK is only used for simulations), but overall that kind of rating difference is going to mean, on average, you'll probably miss a tackle. The best tackler on my current roster has 75 TAK. The worst LB on Ohio State's default roster (a 69 OVR Freshman) has 75 TAK. No other player at LB for OSU has below 78, and most are 80 and above. Most of Ohio State's safeties are above 75.

This is like playing Madden with a bunch of 7th round draft picks. Or the Browns. Or the Raiders. Or putting cornerback-level tacklers at every position We should struggle. The problem is that the game is, and always has been, an all or nothing programmed game. Either you get your ass run over, or you make the tackle. It doesn't know there should be a middle ground that isn't remotely consistent.

[skipwondah33]

Not just the tackling but the Physics and how the actions are displayed. I can be running close to full speed to someone not moving at all but once they catch the ball and turn I will get planted into the ground like they were moving at full speed. It's random. You would think hitting someone before they truly got started sort a speak would be a good thing. In fact though doing that results in you being trucked and said player gaining speed after trucking you.

My 3 starting LB's have 77, 77 and 75 tackle ratings. Yet are destroyed time and time again by QB's, RB's and TE's...even WR's. I'm talking even guys rated around my level (Auburn, Georgia State). If you check the 9:49 (2nd quarter in the game) mark of my game with G, that is how I give up alot of TD's..surprised he didn't score on that I honestly figured he was going to after shaking off first 2 tackles. CPU would have but they would have gotten faster each broken tackle. Anderson has very low BTK, Elusive and Trucking ratings.

Now I know I completely whiff on alot of tackles because I'll never get use to the twitchy movement ability likely, but ones where I come into contact with the ball carrier with the momentum and angle you would think it's my 4-yr old son trying to tackle these guys the way they are thrown about.

We can put up hundreds of yards through the air, run Options all day that baffle the CPU and give the QB boatloads of room (see Mosley's numbers), break records with these crappy teams...but aren't expected to be able to Tackle with them?

It's not even just the way are teams are rated. The CPU breaks alot of tackles period even when you have an All-American team I've found.

If my guys can tackle half as well as the Georgia game I'd be tickled . Usually when I play I expect the CPU to shrug off the tackle, so I dive then immediately try to change players so I can help out after the broken tackle. Didn't need to do that but a few times which were unsuccessful as well.

[JeffHCross]

We can put up hundreds of yards through the air, run Options all day that baffle the CPU and give the QB boatloads of room (see Mosley's numbers), break records with these crappy teams...but aren't expected to be able to Tackle with them?

No, honestly, we shouldn't be able to do any of it

[skipwondah33]

Like the way the game feels and plays with the team being crappy. Just want to be able to tackle better in instances where a tackle should happen. Sometimes it feels like I'm going against Christian Okoye in Tecmo Bowl. One of my favorite players growing up



Other than that I don't know much about sliders to be suggesting changes. I'm good with whatever you guys think. I do agree with the conference changes though.

[gschwendt]

I have a SS with 95TKL and two LBs with ~85TKL and they even get bounced off of poor running QBs & WRs. Tackling certainly needs to be adjusted... whether that's HUM Tackle, HUM Run Defense (isn't that still a thing) or CPU RB Ability. That said, I agree that we at the same time need to make some things more difficult... it will be hard to balance it out for everyone but I'll work on creating some decent sliders this weekend.

[JeffHCross]

G, at the very least, something's screwy with the CPU conferences. Neither Louisville (ACC) nor Minnesota (CUSA) played any conference games.

[psusnoop]

I'm back.

I thinks tougher set of sliders are needed at this point.

Tackling, cpu run tackle, offensive run block lowered. Cpu pass accuracy dropped 5, cpu we catch dropped 5, human tackle up 10-15, human pass Acc lowered 5, human run block lowered 5-10.

Something we we shoot for 7-9 wins next two seasons. This should not be as easy as it seems to be.

[gschwendt]

Here are the current settings & sliders. I have a set that I'm in the process of tweaking but wanted to paste these to get some discussion.

Settings

CPU Offensive Skill		Heisman
CPU Defensive Skill		Heisman
User vs User Skill		Heisman
Quarter Length		8 Minutes
Game Speed		Normal
Speed Threshold		0
Home Field Advantage		On
Ice the Kicker		Off

Penalties

Offsides		50
False Start		50
Holding		50
Facemask		50
Offensive Pass Interference		50
Defensive Pass Interference		50
KR/PR Interference		50
Clipping		50
Intentional Grounding		50
Roughing the Passer		50
Roughing the Kicker		50

Sliders

Slider	HUM	CPU
QB Accuracy	10	50
Pass Blocking	45	70
WR Catching	30	45
RB Ability	50	60
Run Blocking	5	75
Pass Coverage	100	5
Interceptions	40	40
Rush Defense	40	90
Tackling	45	60
FG Power	25	45
FG Accuracy	5	40
Punt Power	25	40
Punt Accuracy	50	70
Kickoff Power	35	40

[JeffHCross]

Ice the kicker is off? That explains some things.

[gschwendt]

Ice the kicker is off? That explains some things.

Yeah, first time noticing that myself. No reason for it to be off IMO.

[skipwondah33]

I knew it was off since start of last season.

For CPU's rush D to be at 90 it sure does suck against Read Option if that's what we all are using. Against I-Form and the like it's every bit of that slider number.

A 5 explains ours though and those dump truck sized holes lol...and the speed at which the players struggle to move vs CPU.

[JeffHCross]

I don't think there's any slider that would suddenly defend the Read Option accurately.

[gschwendt]

I don't think there's any slider that would suddenly defend the Read Option accurately.

Correct... read option defense sucks no matter what. As a human, you can do a few things when you know it's coming, otherwise you're at the mercy of your player's Play Recognition rating... and even that has to be higher 90s to be effective.

[JeffHCross]

One thing I definitely wouldn't touch is the speed threshold. Bama burned me three times because their WRs must have had a speed advantage. Wouldn't want to take that away.