Creating Your Own Sliders

[rudyjuly2]

I figured I would post this in its own location for those that want to try to tweak sliders on their own but aren't quite sure how to do it. Rather than blindly trying slider sets out there, why not try adjusting them yourself? Unless the slider creator has the same feelings about the game and a similar skiill level, you might not like just trying a random slider set. There are tons out there and many are very different because they are all a unique and personal thing. If you have used someone's in the past and/or share similar feelings on the game as someone that might be a good thing for you. Otherwise, just read the following below and see if you can do some stuff yourself.

These are my personal thoughts on sliders and how to fine-tune them yourself. Some things could be open for debate but I think this is a good guideline.

Q & A FOR YOURSELF TO HELP FIGURE OUT WHAT YOU NEED TO DO

RUNNING GAME

1. How is your yards per carry for your RBs? The average should be around 5 over the course of a season.
Adjust RBA and RBL accordingly but keep in mind the other items below. Increasing Running Back Ability (RBA) will lead to longer runs while increasing run blocking (RBL) will create bigger holes and make your running game more consistent.

2. Are you seeing enough big runs (or too many of them)?
Increase RBA to allow for bigger plays. This will also reduce fumbles when raised. If the running game is too inconsistent, consider boosting the blocking to help eliminate the negative runs.

3. Are you happy with the number of broken tackles?
Decrease tackle ability (this is relative to RBA) to boost number of broken tackles.

4. Are power backs effective or not?
If they are not effective, drop the tackle slider to allow bigger backs to break more tackles. Some believe the tackle slider affects defensive pursuit angles but that is debatable. The tackle slider is linked to RBA so be aware of this. Furthermore, the higher you increase RBA, the more likely you skew the game towards speed backs.

PASSING GAME

1. How realistic are the completion percentages?
If they are too high, drop QB Accuracy but remember that this also drops arm strength a bit as well. If too low, some passes are very wild and the cpu will throw more picks.

2. How many dropped balls do you see?
We normally don't see enough dropped balls in an EA football game. Simply drop the WR catch slider to affect their hands. This slider also affects (to a smaller degree) the WR's aggressiveness in going after the ball and their route running. Dropping this will also help bring down the QB completion percentage if too high.

3. How is the pass protection?
If it is too strong, drop pass block. Remember that a rushed QB will make more errant throws and potentially lead to interceptions as well. Lowering pass protection also helps cut down the effectiveness of crossing patterns due to the time some take to develop.

4. Do defensive backs cover well or not? Watch man to man matchups to help see this.
If they are giving up too much room or not making enough plays, increase def. awareness (this is primarily for pass defense but does affect the ability of run def. awareness too). If you find your defenders jump too many balls and/or get too many interceptions, you will need to drop this.

5. Are there too many interceptions?
The interception slider only affects the defenders hands. Dropping this will result in less INTs due to defenders dropping them. The better way to address this is to drop Def. Awareness so defenders don't jump the routes as much. This is usually the best way to help reduce the cpu QBs high interception rate.

6. Do defenders play the ball well IF in position?
This is primarily what the knockdown slider is for. Contrary to what some believe, it does not determine how often a defender "goes for the pick" vs. just swatting it down (at least imo). The knockdown slider determines how well a defender defends a pass in the air if they are in position. If you raise it, defenders will tip more passes away and LBs can knock down a lot of passes over the middle. If too high you may see super jumps and warping to the ball. This also has a big effect on how well the deep ball is defensed - the higher the knockdown slider the harder it is to hit the deep pass.

LINKED SLIDERS
People should remember that both the pass block and run block sliders are tied to the break block slider and they are all relative. Having all of them set at 0, 50 or 100 is the same thing. Having pass block at 25, run block at 75 and break block at 40 means that pass block has been downgraded 15 points and run block upgraded 35 points.

Running back ability and the tackling slider are also linked. If you want more broken tackles, make sure the tackle slider is less than the RBA. An RBA of 60 and a tackle slider of 40 means the defenders are at a -20 disadvantage when wrapping up.

Defensive awareness is primarily used to help fine-tune the coverage in the secondary. However, it does affect the defenders ability to diagnose running plays and run to the ball so beware of this effect when adjusting it.

[rudyjuly2]

I want to add that I think Varsity, All-American and Heisman are all playable this year. I do think you can fine-tune each level to get a similar experience. Of course, there will be some differences but I had created a slider convertor that can take an AA slider set (input whatever sliders you are using) and it can spit out a Heisman slider set that should play similarily. It also has a separate tab for Varsity. It's not going to be 100% accurate but I figured I would attach it here if you want to try it.