GWJ2STAR 3.0 - Week 1

DSGamer wrote:

Yeah, guys. I'm out. Thanks for the past two seasons.

Perhaps we should all play at least one game of this season (so we each get our butts kicked) and then compare notes about sliders. I played with this configuration, but it was a few years down the road in an NIU dynasty, so I think I had a better team than I'll be playing with now. In week 2 I play Iowa, so they should probably kick my butt.

When MSU wanted a TD, the game gave them one with a 2-3 broken tackle run by someone.

This may be something that is just cheap that could be adjusted with sliders. On the other hand, my guess is that a D/C rated EMU squad should have problems with tackling some of the beasts of MSU. The question is if we've gone too far.

10 yards per carry, lmao. If you watched my game, you would understand that it was a joke. They were breaking and eluding every tackle on every run. I know MSU is a good running team but this was ridiculous.

Jay, I doubt there is a way to check this stat, but can we look at yards after contact for receivers as well? That is where I got destroyed. I think the stats look good/realistic, but it 'felt' like my players bounced off offensive players a bit too easily.

That would be the only tweak worth looking at in my opinion.

It was frustrating, but I like how my QB threw some really inaccurate passes (it was his first game).

Their DL seemed to dominate, but they had huge speed/quickness advantages over me, so it made sense.

What is nice is that the difficulty fits with our desire for the dynasty, which is to build up the skill level of our teams to a point where we can compete, so now I'm dying to get some players with high tackle ratings!

Thanks, and I'm excited that this makes it a bit more difficult (I just wish I had chosen a team with company in conference!).

I'm going to play my game now (assuming we're rolled) so I can contrast the differences. My first game was B-rated Cincy and this will be a home game against D-rated Army, so hopefully I can notice some differences. Also, I didn't set the tackle to conservative last game, and I wonder if that helped. I only set my offense to all conservative and put QB contain and Option contain to aggressive against the CPU. That might also be worth looking at.

Having my O on conservative allows me to rarely fumble, and I did not have a fumble against Cincy with those settings.

Sorry, I just got home from getting supplies for my daughters diorama that she is doing for class and lunch out. Right now, she and my wife are having some "Ezio time." But I will roll at some point today.

Leroyog wrote:

10 yards per carry, lmao. If you watched my game, you would understand that it was a joke. They were breaking and eluding every tackle on every run. I know MSU is a good running team but this was ridiculous.

That's why I curious about any gameplan adjustments. Some guys like to use aggressive ball stripping, which leads to just that.

I do think you have a much tougher hill to climb than the rest of us. EMU is a school that should get rolled. I'm not sure where your talent level is, but I'm pretty you will have more luck with schools in the MAC.

I want to keep the dialogue open on this. But I'd also like to see some discussion about what kinds of things teams do to maximize their talent.

At SMU, I run a 4-3. But when I face a spread or air raid team, or anyone that emphasizes the pass, I roll out the 4-2-5. If I am facing a run heavy team, I make sure my formation subs for the 4-4 and Bear defenses have my best tacklers where I want them. Especially in the first season, I would practice by playing a lot of exhibition games against teams I had coming up, looking for defensive formations that worked.

I also never use the hit stick when making tackles. For me, it is the miss stick. I also tend to try to use my LB's to get outside and force the HB back into the rest of my dense rather than try to make all the tackles myself.

But I'm definitely going to take the results I see across the board into consideration. And I will try to accommodate everyone as much as I can by adjusting sliders where need be.

But I am the type of guy who learned hockey by playing a full season of NHL 10, but constantly increasing slider difficulty as my play improved. As I learned strategy and started winning, I would dial it up and suddenly fin myself in a losing streak. But over time, my play would improve more. This is a much tougher thing to pull off with a group, as we are all in different situations, and have different expectations.

I will admit that this is a pretty radical change in just one off-season. It's why I raised User QB Accuracy from 10-30 before the season started, as well has increasing User Run Blocking and Pass Coverage. I also dropped CPU Pass Coverage. And I'm willing to continue to change it. But I would like to do some dialogue involved how we are playing the game.

I totally understand all of this.....

but when I hit a guy twice in the backfield, he shouldn't bounce off and break both tackles while strolling down field eating a hot dog.

Actually, I don't always play defense in games that aren't close. I've admitted as much. However, I played defense against Washington for a bit. And what I got in return were some long runs. I restarted the game to see if I could devise a better game plan and the same thing was happening. I tried to close the gap and couldn't so that's that. But for what it's worth the CPU's 2nd run on me was like an 80 yard TD run where he broke 3 tackles. I know Nevada isn't in Washington's league, but it was pretty clear I had no chance to stay in the game.

Leroyog wrote:

I totally understand all of this.....

but when I hit a guy twice in the backfield, he shouldn't bounce off and break both tackles while strolling down field eating a hot dog.

Eric Dickerson could totally do that. But I do see the frustration as very valid.

so I dug a lttle to see how much disparity we are talking about. I have to admit, you might be in for a long season. This is why you saw what you saw.

If you ran a 4-4 this is the match-up:

LB 74 LB 59 LB 57 LB 57

LE 60 DT 61 DT 60 RE 63

vs.

HB 95
SP 89 AG 90 ACC 90 AWR 93
BRK 93 TRK 88 ELU 88 STFF 87

Capers is not only a 95 OVR HB, but he is a power back with huge break tackle ratings. I don't think you will see stuff like this all season. But with three LB's in the 50's, and all your best DL in the lower 60's, it should be really hard to stop the run.

You started with a the worst 1* team in the game. And obviously, that is the hardest team to recruit for. I have to admit, the sliders changes were a real kick in the pants for you.

Dickerson never got caught standing still in the backfield to one hand throw a guy off, spin out of another tackle and then stroll downfield with a blocker and no one near by

Also, it's just a video game. No need to to dive deeper into the situation. To each his own.

I know you don't like me, Jayhawker. That's clear. It's been clear to for a few months now. I don't think the above is exactly true, but I won't bother trying to defend myself. I'm out of the league, you're correct. Just please, in the future, don't take your dislike of me so public. I still have people here I consider friends or at best GWJ buds. Don't poison the water because you dislike me.

firesloth wrote:

Perhaps we should all play at least one game of this season (so we each get our butts kicked) and then compare notes about sliders. I played with this configuration, but it was a few years down the road in an NIU dynasty, so I think I had a better team than I'll be playing with now. In week 2 I play Iowa, so they should probably kick my butt.

When MSU wanted a TD, the game gave them one with a 2-3 broken tackle run by someone.

This may be something that is just cheap that could be adjusted with sliders. On the other hand, my guess is that a D/C rated EMU squad should have problems with tackling some of the beasts of MSU. The question is if we've gone too far.

It's definitely worth looking at.

Through the four games played so far, these are the stats of opposing running backs. I left out the QB, becasue they mess with the averages.

UTEP 22-90
SMU 20-128
SDSU 25-102
EMU 22-237

I didn't include Nevada, becasue he doesn't play defense and just sims the game at that point. I think these seem to fit with the level of competition.

If you are playing a team that is more powerful than you, it really does help to go into the Gameplan settings during the game and set some of the variables to conservative. It really helps in tackling.

Nevermind

Nevermind

I just want to say...I love you all!

If we can't quit bickering and get along, I say we blow up the whole league and start from scratch (and I say this selfishly so I can have friends in conference! haha).

Or...We set up a Halo match and take out our frustrations in a murder/death multiplayer game!!

airicc8 wrote:

I just want to say...I love you all!

If we can't quit bickering and get along, I say we blow up the whole league and start from scratch (and I say this selfishly so I can have friends in conference! haha).

Or...We set up a Halo match and take out our frustrations in a murder/death multiplayer game!!

To be honest, with these sliders, it might be a really good plan. I think it would be much more fair to take the current settings into consideration in picking a team. We might even go to a 3* Dynasty.

We basically have this season to prepare for NCAA 12.

That could be kind of cool, give us all a fresh start and a mindset (I really like all the people we have in the group, and would hate to see anyone go).

It'd be nice to get a nice slider set and league set-up ready for the '12 game.

On another note, I just played against Army and beat them 42-12 strictly using the option. My HB (Kazee) had all 6 TD's.

Kazee had 15 carries for 192.

Army had 67 yards rushing to my 312. I was 2/5 passing for 31 yards, and they were 15/30 for 194.

They are a D team and I a C.

airicc8 wrote:

That could be kind of cool, give us all a fresh start and a mindset (I really like all the people we have in the group, and would hate to see anyone go).

It'd be nice to get a nice slider set and league set-up ready for the '12 game.

I disagree. The sliders we figure out now will undoubtedly have to be changed for NCAA 12.

Let's just play the season out, and adjust on the fly. We're only likely to get one or two more seasons in before the new game comes out.

TheCounselor wrote:
airicc8 wrote:

That could be kind of cool, give us all a fresh start and a mindset (I really like all the people we have in the group, and would hate to see anyone go).

It'd be nice to get a nice slider set and league set-up ready for the '12 game.

I disagree. The sliders we figure out now will undoubtedly have to be changed for NCAA 12.

Let's just play the season out, and adjust on the fly. We're only likely to get one or two more seasons in before the new game comes out.

I agree with this. I suggest we finish week 2 games and consider how things are going. This gives everyone a chance to get their games in, although we may expect to lose many of those.

The player shrugging off tackles happened with the last sliders, too, if you were playing a sufficiently strong team. Go back and peak at the highlights from my game against Wisconsin last year...notably the one where a CB catches the WR in the backfield, holds him upright while the safety comes in only to have both defenders slide off the WR leaving him free to run for a TD. Part of this was where I had my defensive gameplan, I suspect.

However, if it seems ridiculous after folks have had some time to play on- and off-line games, let's change it.

TheCounselor wrote:
airicc8 wrote:

That could be kind of cool, give us all a fresh start and a mindset (I really like all the people we have in the group, and would hate to see anyone go).

It'd be nice to get a nice slider set and league set-up ready for the '12 game.

I disagree. The sliders we figure out now will undoubtedly have to be changed for NCAA 12.

Let's just play the season out, and adjust on the fly. We're only likely to get one or two more seasons in before the new game comes out.

I agree that it is doubtful that the sliders will transfer. Heck, part of the problem now is that EA keeps releasing tuning packages that adjusts the game and changes the slider values. So the sliders don't even stay accurate within one release.

I do think that playing on a more realistic set of sliders will make it easier to start out at this level for NCAA 12. Whether that is the current set-up or a new one doesn't mater as much to me. I have SMU at a level I would probably take for a new league. But as I pointed out to Leroy, EMU is a long ways from that. I can't blame some of you for thinking this is not worth the hassle.

I do hope some of you find it to be at least as much, and hopefully more fun than last season.

I definitely don't want to start over. I have EMU at a 3* prestige team now.

I agree with everyone's points, I'm fully down to continue, and I look forward to my trip to EMU next game!

Also, I was able to buy a banker's box full of about 5,000 baseball, basketball, and football cards this afternoon and I've already found a Kobe Bryant rookie card and some others. I feel like I'm 12 years old!

Ok. Week 2 is in.

I lose to Wisconsin 20-16. They blew me away in the rushing category, but I kept pace in most of the other. And I could've/should've won the game if not for several huge dropped passes (the stats only list 2 but I know there were more), including my last play of the game.

0:18 left on the clock, 4th & 10 from their 11, open receiver in the endzone, in his hands...gets leveled and drops it, game over.

If I had receivers who could hold on to the ball or an O-line that was little more than a revolving door I could have pulled this one out, despite the He-Man RB's.

Even in a loss I feel like I accomplished something though. Which I guess would mean we're getting closer to realism, because if UTEP ever goes into Madison to face the #4 ranked team in the country, and only loses by 4 points, that UTEP would treat that as a victory and Wisconsin would treat it as a loss.

I went into Purdue and beat them. They ran for over 200 yards and averaged another 10 per carry. Still seeing the ridiculous looking broken tackle runs. Even with tackling set to conservative, the RB's are treating my players like paper machete.

Leroy,

In anticipation of our game in Week 3, if the league rolls today/tonight, I'd be available (my wife is gone). If not, tomorrow early would work or Monday evening.

I am on Hawaii time, so you'd have to subtract 5 from Michigan (I think). I get off work Monday at 5:30 HI time.

Moved to the Week 2 thread.

Good timing then, I begin a new shift this week where I can probably play you during the week. We'll see when the week rolls.

I instant replayed 5 plays where 2 D-lineman shed their blocks on my O-lineman with the identical move and get free passes before I could even get 3 steps from center. No chance to get a good throw off. It was like synchronized QB murdering.