Madden 2004 sliders, anyone?

[Eel Snave]

Does anyone have any suggestions, or perhaps has saved Bill's suggestions for sliders? I went and bought Madden 2K4 (WHY? DEAR GOD, WHY?), and I need suggestions on sliders to make the game more realistic-ish.

[freelunch]

here is the portion of Bill's relevant Night Call containing Madden 2k4 info:

MADDEN: WRAP-UP PLUS FINAL SLIDERS
Thanks to plenty of help, we have 'final' slider settings for All-Pro mode difficulty level tonight. First, though, a few final comments.

I received an e-mail from Scott Zolnoski about a playcalling method that is for the ultimate football grognard. He assigns a number range for each play in his playbook and then generates a random number between one and one thousand on first down to determine his play selection. This is for first down only, but if he's ahead in a game on the road, he uses the same method on second down to simulate the home-field advantage. That is so cool that I don't even have anything smart-alecky to say.

By the way, coach mode is borked in Madden, unfortunately. CPU vs. CPU games play fine, but when you go into coach mode, the quarterback goes brain dead. He will get sacked and sacked and sacked. Even if you raise pass blocking to 99, he will get sacked too often.

EA needs to fix this. So I saw a post on Usenet quoting this response from EA concerning the sack issue in coach mode: Thank you for contacting us here at Electronic Arts Technical Support. Unfortunately we have not been able to reproduce this issue.

I'd be glad to help out here, EA Tech Support. Try this:
1. Start the program Madden NFL 2004
2. Start a game in coach mode
3. Count the sacks

That should do it. Drop me an e-mail if you have any questions about this procedure.

Here are some other things that aren't fixed, no matter what slider settings you use:
1. CPU kickers are insanely accurate
2. Too many defensive touchdowns on interception returns
3. Challenge rulings are flagrantly wrong on frequent occasions
4. Too many runs for negative yardage, even when total rushing yards for a game are accurate
5. Penalties are unbalanced, as even with the slider at 99 there aren't enough false starts called (as well as some other penalties)
6. Punter's skills vary too widely. The worst punters in the league are going to average thirty-five yards per punt. That's necessary, though, unless you want the best punters averaging over fifty, because of how the rating system works.

Those sound pretty serious, but actually, Madden is a blast to play. Nothing is a game killer, unless you want to play in coach mode. I think our slider settings balance the game about as well as it can be balanced.

I've also heard from two other people this week who have slider projects. Michael Meredith (aka Redwolf) developed a very systematic, methodical procedure to develop sliders for the All-Pro level. If you're interested, there's a long, detailed thread about his project here: http://www.maddenmania.com/forums/showt ... hreadid=36. You need to register for the Madden Mania forums, but his sliders are excellent and so is the discussion. He also ran some season simulations and established that the Madden sim engine is surprisingly good. That thread is here: http://www.maddenmania.com/forums/showt ... eadid=5898.

I'm hoping that possibly next year we can establish common procedures for gathering game data and share all our game logs. That way we'd have a larger pool of data to analyze before making adjustments.

There is also a Pro level slider project and you can find it here: http://www.maddenwishlist.com/sliders.php. No registration is necessary. I never actually found out this fellow's name, even though we've e-mailed back and forth, but if you're playing on the Pro level, these sliders are worth trying.

Okay, now let's talk about final settings at the All-Pro level. Again, I'd like to thank the people who did the most testing: Karl Anderson, Ed Muchnick, Aaron Liebling, and Matthew Kreuch. They sent me a ton of game logs and I really appreciate their efforts.

These settings will also work very well in coach mode as soon as EA fixes the sack bug. However, if you'd like to play in coach mode anyway, raise pass blocking to 99 for the CPU. That will help significantly, at least.

Here are the settings. This is on All-Pro level, 12 minute quarters, accelerated clock. Like I said, I would consider these sliders to be fairly stiff. One of their positive qualities is that if you play as a weak team against a strong one, you will probably get smacked in the mouth. You can only do so much on the field--that's why you need front office skills as well to have a successful franchise.

// Option Group: Penalty Settings
Clipping [0-99] = 70
Def. Pass Interference [0-99] = 99
Face Mask [0-99] = 60
False Start [0-99] = 99
Holding [0-99] = 55
Intentional Grounding [0-99] = 50
KR/PR Catch Interference [0-99] = 99
Off. Pass Interference [0-99] = 99
Offsides [On/Off] = On
Penalties [On/Off] = On
Roughing Kicker [0-99] = 99
Roughing Passer [0-99] = 99

// Option Group: AI Settings
CPU Def. Awareness [0-99] = 65
CPU Def. Break Blocks [0-99] = 50
CPU Def. Interceptions [0-99] = 20
CPU Def. Knockdowns [0-99] = 70
CPU Def. Tackling [0-99] = 35
CPU FG Accuracy [0-99] = 0
CPU FG Length [0-99] = 55
CPU Kickoff Length [0-99] = 35
CPU Pass Blocking [0-99] = 15
CPU Punt Accuracy [0-99] = 70
CPU Punt Length [0-99] = 70
CPU QB Accuracy [0-99] = 45
CPU RB Ability [0-99] = 65
CPU Run Blocking [0-99] = 70
CPU WR Catching [0-99] = 70
Human Def. Awareness [0-99] = 65
Human Def. Break Blocks [0-99] = 50
Human Def. Interceptions [0-99] = 20
Human Def. Knockdowns [0-99] = 70
Human Def. Tackling [0-99] = 35
Human FG Accuracy [0-99] = 50
Human FG Length [0-99] = 55
Human Kickoff Length [0-99] = 35
Human Pass Blocking [0-99] = 15
Human Punt Accuracy [0-99] = 65
Human Punt Length [0-99] = 65
Human QB Accuracy [0-99] = 45
Human RB Ability [0-99] = 65
Human Run Blocking [0-99] = 70
Human WR Catching [0-99] = 70

Thanks and I hope that these sliders make the game more enjoyable for you.

this info has been posted with Bill's approval.