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Josh Looman, the lead designer for NFL Head Coach 2009, is currently hard at work tweaking the sim engine to get realistic results. There's a thread on it at OS. It was started seven days ago, and has some info. in there if you care to read through it:
I haven't read through the whole thing yet, but from what I've gather, you will NOT have to restart your franchise for these fixes to take effect. For those who don't want to venture over there, I'll post his first post here:
I just wanted to check in with you guys on what I'm currently tuning for the patch.
I'm looking at some of the offline franchise stats there have been complaints about and I want to make sure my priorities match yours.
Here’s a disclaimer before you start reading the sections below:
First off, the problem with our stats engine is that it’s touchy. If I bring passing touchdowns down slightly, that could mean that rushing touchdowns rocket up to 25-30. It will also mean that receiving touchdowns could drop much lower.
The trick is finding the right balance, which won’t be perfect but will be as close as it can get.
When you get these fixes, you may still be unhappy with a few of the results. My goal is to get them as close as possible so that it doesn’t ruin the experience for you in offline franchise mode.
Another key thing to remember: This tuning is for offline franchise only. Online franchise runs on a completely separate engine and these changes do not apply to online franchise.
Rushing touchdowns
I'm trying to increase these so that they match what normally happens in the NFL each year. I'd like the max to be around 15-18, since the leader last year had 18 and the leader in 2007 had 15. After tuning this yesterday, I’ve got the league leaders at about 22, which is still too high for me yet.
Passing touchdowns
I’m trying to decrease these slightly. After some tuning yesterday, I’m getting QBs with about 35 as the max for a season. Here's what they look like right now:
Rushing averages
I’m trying to increase these for backups. The problem is…if I increase them for backups, they go up for starters too.
After yesterday’s tuning, Peterson and Turner are averaging 7.0 yards per carry. I’m working on bringing that down.
Tackles
Now for the ‘game killer’ that has caused numerous people to wait weeks to start franchise mode. After doing some digging, I figured out what the problem is.
The screens are mislabeled.
Here’s what’s going on…in-game, we display two columns on the stats screen for tackles; solo tackles and assisted tackles.
When you load back out of game and go into the season stats screen, you now see two columns as well, but they are labeled total tackles and assisted tackles.
The total tackle column is actually showing solo tackles and every other screen that displays total tackles is showing the solo tackle stat, even though we are adding them together in the back end.
When it comes to progression, it is using the combined tackle numbers, even though you don’t see that value in a column when looking at the spreadsheet.
Here’s a screenshot of my stats screen in-game after playing a 5 minute quarter game in week one:
And here’s a screenshot of my stats screen after exiting that game:
So, the fix here is that I need to try and decrease solo tackle numbers for the top guys in the league right now.
Beason led the NFL with 110 solo tackles last year, and I’ve got guys getting 160-170 right now.
I need to try and pull those down and distribute them all a little more evenly, especially when it comes to the number of tackles that corners get.
Injuries
Since the stat engine also controls simmed injuries, I’m going to tune these down slightly and I mean slightly. I’m happy with the number of injuries we have in the sim right now, but I’ve seen a lot of complaints, so I’m going to decrease these a little bit.
Sacks
I’m also looking into increasing sacks for outside linebackers in the 3-4. Our stat engine does a decent job of differentiating between 4-3 and 3-4 defenses, but as I mentioned before, it’s touchy.
I worked for weeks just trying to get linebackers in general to get sacks instead of DTs. I’ll see what I can do in this department, but this one will be much tougher than the rest of the categories above.
Ok, that’s what I’ve got planned for now.
Is there any other category of stats that should have a higher priority than the ones I mentioned above?
I’ve got limited time to get this stuff in for the patch, so I’ve got to pick the highest priority things that are bothering you guys the most.
I haven't read through the whole thing yet, but from what I've gather, you will NOT have to restart your franchise for these fixes to take effect. For those who don't want to venture over there, I'll post his first post here:
I just wanted to check in with you guys on what I'm currently tuning for the patch.
I'm looking at some of the offline franchise stats there have been complaints about and I want to make sure my priorities match yours.
Here’s a disclaimer before you start reading the sections below:
First off, the problem with our stats engine is that it’s touchy. If I bring passing touchdowns down slightly, that could mean that rushing touchdowns rocket up to 25-30. It will also mean that receiving touchdowns could drop much lower.
The trick is finding the right balance, which won’t be perfect but will be as close as it can get.
When you get these fixes, you may still be unhappy with a few of the results. My goal is to get them as close as possible so that it doesn’t ruin the experience for you in offline franchise mode.
Another key thing to remember: This tuning is for offline franchise only. Online franchise runs on a completely separate engine and these changes do not apply to online franchise.
Rushing touchdowns
I'm trying to increase these so that they match what normally happens in the NFL each year. I'd like the max to be around 15-18, since the leader last year had 18 and the leader in 2007 had 15. After tuning this yesterday, I’ve got the league leaders at about 22, which is still too high for me yet.
Passing touchdowns
I’m trying to decrease these slightly. After some tuning yesterday, I’m getting QBs with about 35 as the max for a season. Here's what they look like right now:
Rushing averages
I’m trying to increase these for backups. The problem is…if I increase them for backups, they go up for starters too.
After yesterday’s tuning, Peterson and Turner are averaging 7.0 yards per carry. I’m working on bringing that down.
Tackles
Now for the ‘game killer’ that has caused numerous people to wait weeks to start franchise mode. After doing some digging, I figured out what the problem is.
The screens are mislabeled.
Here’s what’s going on…in-game, we display two columns on the stats screen for tackles; solo tackles and assisted tackles.
When you load back out of game and go into the season stats screen, you now see two columns as well, but they are labeled total tackles and assisted tackles.
The total tackle column is actually showing solo tackles and every other screen that displays total tackles is showing the solo tackle stat, even though we are adding them together in the back end.
When it comes to progression, it is using the combined tackle numbers, even though you don’t see that value in a column when looking at the spreadsheet.
Here’s a screenshot of my stats screen in-game after playing a 5 minute quarter game in week one:
And here’s a screenshot of my stats screen after exiting that game:
So, the fix here is that I need to try and decrease solo tackle numbers for the top guys in the league right now.
Beason led the NFL with 110 solo tackles last year, and I’ve got guys getting 160-170 right now.
I need to try and pull those down and distribute them all a little more evenly, especially when it comes to the number of tackles that corners get.
Injuries
Since the stat engine also controls simmed injuries, I’m going to tune these down slightly and I mean slightly. I’m happy with the number of injuries we have in the sim right now, but I’ve seen a lot of complaints, so I’m going to decrease these a little bit.
Sacks
I’m also looking into increasing sacks for outside linebackers in the 3-4. Our stat engine does a decent job of differentiating between 4-3 and 3-4 defenses, but as I mentioned before, it’s touchy.
I worked for weeks just trying to get linebackers in general to get sacks instead of DTs. I’ll see what I can do in this department, but this one will be much tougher than the rest of the categories above.
Ok, that’s what I’ve got planned for now.
Is there any other category of stats that should have a higher priority than the ones I mentioned above?
I’ve got limited time to get this stuff in for the patch, so I’ve got to pick the highest priority things that are bothering you guys the most.
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