More info on CPU Sliders (from EA)

[eaglesfan27]

Quote: Originally Posted by Pared

Wait... did I miss something? What exactly did he state that made you "feel a little better?" He explained the sliders but I don't see how they impact the CPU. I still feel like we're at square one when the topic first arose. Someone help me out here.

Exactly. I don't see how anything is better from yesterday. I still can't change how accurate the CPU QB is or how often the WR's of the CPU drop it. Other things might be changable but these 2 issues seem like they will be huge. I'm a sim player who doesn't like to have to change the player in the middle of the play every time to try to prevent QB's from having very high completion percentages. Oh well, it is time for lunch and to swing by Gamestop to cancel my preorder.

[Malachi]

Quote: Originally Posted by mva5580

Yeah, thanks for addressing this after someone else brought it to our attention and a 60 page thread blew up because of something you neglected to mention weeks ago. Appreciate it. My last post on the Madden 09 board, I'm done. You guys have fun with it and hopefully the other issues which show up in the final retail version aren't entirely crippling. But considering past performance, we all know what's going to happen on August 12th. Multiple glitches show up and the board implodes. Glad I won't be here to deal with it.

This was exactly my point in the sliders thread. I got an infraction (don't give a damn) for pretty much laughing at people who are genuinely surprised by the latest turn of events. Like seriously how can you be surprised? I'm no Madden fan, but if I were, I wouldn't be surprised because I would have been use to this sort of thing by now. It's always something each year.

[dave374]

Yikes ... no kicking sliders???

Hello insta 57-yarders.

Sidenote: Something sliders could fix last year.

[Ian_Cummings_EA]

Quote: Originally Posted by Nza

Thanks Ian. Off hand, the following are not covered with that system, or at least not available to refine like the rest: - CPU QBA. (effected by human pass defense difficulty setting?) - CPU WR catching. (effected by human pass defense difficulty setting?) - CPU fumbles. (effected by human run defense difficulty setting?) - CPU int. (effected by human pass difficulty setting?) - CPU pass reaction time. (effected by human pass difficulty setting?) - CPU run reaction time. (effected by human run difficulty setting?) Also, no special teams? not even human? With the difficulty sub levels and each of these per level, slider development will probably be even more involved than before. I'd imagine with the CPU sliders it would have been quite a bevy of options indeed, perhaps even overwhelmingly so. Still though, while I can see how removing CPU sliders can effectively condense the slider functionality we always had in some cases, the sliders above remain absent with a system like this. I must say though, these categories seem far more intune with what I wish Madden always had for sliders. All in all, until people really sit down to tweak it, I'm not sure it is possible to say either way if it was a good or bad move. The absence of the above suggests bad, but it may not be that simple.

Sorry, oversight on my part with Special Teams. I looked deeper and special teams still exist, but they are all global (i.e. updating Kickoff Distance changes the distance for CPU and User).
09_STSliders.jpg

As for these:

- CPU QBA - Possible workaround is adjusting the human pass rush to get more pressure, which will lead to much less accuracy / more rushed throws.
- CPU WR catching. No possible workaround that I can see.
- CPU fumbles. Increasing human tackling will actually (in a roundabout way) adjust this. Not ideal though...this is a bit of a reach.
- CPU int. Changing QB Accuracy would result in more off-throws I assume which would lead to more INT's. But not ideal here...this is a bit of a reach.
- CPU pass reaction time. If the intent is to make the passing game harder...lowering catching and QB Accuracy would work. Reaction time itself can't be tweaked though.
- CPU run reaction time. If the intent is to make the running game harder...lowering Run Blocking + Break Tackling for human would work. Reaction time itself can't be tweaked though.

[mdgoalie37]

Ian, thanks for posting this after the poopstorm last night.

Anyway, does the adaptive AI take into account player ratings at all? Meaning if I play with the worst rush d in the league will the game keep adapting to make it easier for me to stop the run that eventually I'm giving up nothing on the ground regardless of the team I play against?

It is possible for you to give us more details as to how this adaptive AI works?

[Flamehead]

I appreciate your explanation, Ian, but in the spirit of "moving forward", how do we correct the problem? I understand the answer is implied in your explanation, but is that it?

See, here's the thing: these new sliders would be more palatable if the cpu wasn't robo qb and actually played a little more realistically (there's that word again) with underthrown/overthrown balls once in a while. Can this not be patched? And if so, can it be done by August 12?

And Bill, or anyone else who has the game, will you please try the suggestion mentioned earlier in this thread about two users with one switched to cpu after loading the matchup? I'm curious to see if that impacts anything.

[Nza]

Quote: Originally Posted by NC State-31 UNC-27

So you RAISE the human sliders to make the game harder? This couldn't be more confusing. And when you raise the Passing slider, we don't really know what it does right now......we'll just have to look at the "sub sliders" What if we put the passing slider at 20 (the hardest, apparently?) and the sub sliders at 0? Would 0 for pass blocking mean no pass blocking at all? Or perfect pass blocking? Is it effected at all by the main slider rating of 20? W.....T.........F!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think it's pretty simple, at least this is how I understand it. Madden was always about difficulty setting first, gameplay sliders second. The difficulty influenced how you approached sliders.

This is no different, except instead of one global difficulty, you have four - throwing, runing, run d, pass d. These are called "top level sliders", as per Ian's post. And instead of a bunch of gameplay sliders categorized under "Offense", "Defense" and "Special Teams", you now have three "sub sliders" for each of those four "top level sliders".

It is my understanding each "sub slider" represents a fraction. Say All Madden pass offense can be labelled '4.0', then bringing each of the "sub sliders" up gradually increase that to a 4.1, 4.2 etc. I.e., the lowest "sub slider" setting is the lowest its "top level" slider can go. In this case, having 0 sub sliders would mean the passing offense is, in total, at the default All Madden level.

If I'm right, it's a lot simplier to understand than it is to explain in writing.

[Bill_Abner]

Quote: Originally Posted by Flamehead

And Bill, or anyone else who has the game, will you please try the suggestion mentioned earlier in this thread about two users with one switched to cpu after loading the matchup? I'm curious to see if that impacts anything.

Yep, that's on the To Do list.

[Ankido]

Now I understand the whole concept of no CPU sliders. If you look at this way, the CPU never needed slider adjustements. The problem is with "BUGS" that cause the CPU to do superman like abilities. This forces us to adjust CPU sliders. What EA is trying to do is keep CPU sliders to the difficulty of the game. The only time sliders need to be adjusted is by how the user players. Say your playing a season and the sliders begin to adjust to your play style and your defense is horrible. After the first season is over you aquire new defensive talent thus making your D much better in the second season. So what do the sliders do? The sliders start to change in favor for your defense because you've improved. This means you don't have to adjust CPu sliders because the AI is already doing it for you. Well not the CPU sliders but the human sliders.

I SEE I SEE, this could be viable in franchise mode. However, I still don't see how the QB accuracy and all that other jazz that could pose a problem will be fixed. Maybe in patches I hope?

Hey, great job I'm starting to like this. Only time will tell when we get our copies.

[DereckM]

Ian so are you gonna make a push for next year to have sliders for the cpu? Maybe different sliders for QB acc and QB power? Some of us have been asking for that for a few years now.

Ive given up on madden 09. Im just thinking with you being in the mix with 2010 we can get a few more of the things we really want from a sim gamer stand point I guess.