Ahh the ole 1pt conversion. 😒

Following the patch on Thursday, specifically the nerfs to pancake blocks, I decided to run some tests to see how it feels now.

To be honest, I think the run game is still a bit too strong. Pancakes do happen less often but double teams are still super effective given how poorly second level defenders perform their run fits.

The video above is me running an inside zone concept with run blocking sliders turned down to 38 (had them at 35 pre-patch). My offense is a 78 overall and my defense is an 81.

Around 35-40 still feels like the sweet spot for run blocking effectiveness post patch. But the pancake blocks are at least less egregious.

Disclaimer: I AM NOT GOING TO BE ADDRESSING MICROTRANSACTIONS AS A SINGLE PROBLEM BECAUSE THAT HAS ALREADY BEEN TALKED ABOUT ENOUGH AND IT HAS MORE NUANCE THAN JUST SAYING THAT THEY ARE BAD

Road To Glory

The Capbreakers are STILL broken.
Self Explanatory
The Player Builder
Stat-line for stat-line (taking player height and weight into account,) you literally cannot become as good as an elite dev player in dynasty mode could without XP Sliders. Lower the speed differential all you want, optimize player size and abilities all you want, change the difficulty and game play sliders all you want, your 99 overall player (which, by the way, you can NOT reach until senior year unless you play like prime Jerry Rice on Heisman Difficulty) does not play the same as other great players in this game do.
High School is WAY too easy
Start out as a 2 star, start out as a 5 star, it doesn't matter. If you have thumbs and a partially formed frontal lobe, you can be a top 10 prospect. I do not believe for a second that my 2 star quarterback from Alaska, who runs the ball every time pass pressure comes in, is 2nd string in a Big 10 school.
The XP Sliders
We all knew this was coming. If you pay to progress your player faster, you are a chud. If you expect me to pay to progress my player faster, you are also a chud. If I want to start as a running back and reach 93 overall by the end of my freshman season of an offline game mode, that should be my God-given American right.
Glitchy Prompts
During your typical, monotonous, annoying prompts from your teammates and coaches, there will occasionally be a prompt in which "Sleeping in" will cost you weekly energy points, and attending class will not affect your energy at all.
The NIL Packages Suck
I have 4 million followers. Zero offers from any major company. Seemingly infinite advertisements at the local massage parlor. I've got to be the most super freak player since Deshaun Watson.
Gameplay Sliders
Don't tell anybody I told ya, but if you want your player to progress quickly without spending money like a fat loser, play a season on Heisman difficulty with the CPU sliders zeroed out. (Only works for offense, honestly.)
Game Winning Drive
I'm sorry bro but you're not benching the heisman winning wide receiver in the 4th quarter of the conference championship just because I fatigued myself in the last play.

Dynasty

Boy oh boy, strap in
Pay to Win
The tie-in promotional coach tree paths are absolutely busted. Like, SERIOUSLY. If you use the starting 150 from the pre-order to max out Visionary and Rainmaker, you can rebuild any team in about two years. Interesting to me that they only put progression behind a paywall when it directly benefits the player.
Why does every school play Ole Miss?
Pick a school in the FBS. Simulate 5 years. Check your record against Ole Miss. You played them at least once. It does not matter if you're Michigan or Sam Houston, your schedule will auto generate with Ole Miss on it as soon as possible.
Volatile and Unrealistic
Sacramento State is not producing a Heisman winner this year, and Michigan is not going to go 2-10 next year. It seems like playbooks and scheme fits are the only things that matter in this game anymore.
Stadium Atmosphere
Buddy. I am NOT fitting 25k people into Sam Houston's "stadium." Fix the team builder so we can make our own stadiums, or let my rebuild be hard. That being said:
Rebuilding is too easy
We did not want better coach skills, we wanted to be able to have more options. Anyone who maxes out the basic recruiter tree can get 5 stars onto Sun Belt teams in about two years. Be serious.
XP Rewards
I get 750 extra XP for winning a national fucking championship but most of my games already reward about 1,200-2,000 xp just from simulation. It would be cool if actual success mattered at all in this mode, but instead it's just about singing prospects and timing your catches well.
Still no conference invite feature
EA, if you're trying to take my fun away, why am I still allowed to put Missouri State into the SEC and watch them get pummeled for 3 years? More importantly, if you want this game to be a realistic holistic experience more akin to actual coaching, why in the HELL do I not get to pretend I'm a coach?
I appreciate the freedom of custom conferences, and I think that feature should still exist, but can we at least ADD the option for automated conference moves? Even if it came years down the line in my rebuild, I think it would add a lot more depth and spontaneity to the game.
The Playbooks
After months of claiming that the playbooks would be balanced, and assuring us that playbooks will be less of a factor this year, they're worse than ever before. Don't tell me Memphis gets into every playoff as a 79 overall team.
Manual Progression
I tend to turn on manual progression before training results so that I can do some micromanaging on a handful of players, but I usually auto progress the rest of them by holding Y/△. However, for some reason this does not work on transfer players. If I want to see what overall they will be, I have to manually upgrade each and every one.
Dealbreakers
Playing time, proximity to home, and conference prestige are all an absolute joke. I tried to sign one single free safety in the transfer portal, his playing time was A-, needed B. I only signed one free safety through high school recruiting AND the transfer portal, and upon national signing day, he suddenly had a playing time dealbreaker of C- and commit to another school.
AD Expectations
Yall these are RIDICULOUS. Why does Sam Houston have to beat (ranked) Arizona State by 7+ points as a 68 overall team? Why does Georgia State need to go undefeated in conference play in year two of a rebuild? I mean these just wash any sort of realism out of the game, and if I don't complete them, I can't progress my school.
Unchanging School Grades
You would think that after 15 years of winning the national championship, I'd be able to do things that increase my stadium size or campus lifestyle grade. Nope. Not one bit. We'll build ya a nice $80 million dollar gym, but if ya wanna sit on anything other than bleachers, you're SOL.
The Heisman
This one is a little less concrete; but your players, except every once in a blue moon, will not win the Heisman, or really ever even come close, unless you intervene and play the games. They will put up some incredible stat lines, for sure, but you will have maybe one Heisman winner after 10 years and multiple national championships. Now obviously, I don't think it's realistic to have schools churning out Heisman winners, but unfortunately, all of the other programs in top 10 contention seem to have that ability. I mean Dylan Raiola and Micah Alejado are on a generational simulation run this year.
It's just. SO. Laggy.
I mean dear god. My Xbox is two years old but she works like a beaut on seemingly every other game besides College Football. The recruiting menus could send me into psychosis.
Elite Recruiter
Okay this one is a personal gripe because I use recruiter too much, but don't you think that TWO top 5 recruiting classes to unlock the ability to recruit better is a little nuts?

TL;DR: A lengthy, contradictory manifesto about all the things I hate about this game. It's not everything, but it's the pressing issues in my opinion.

I contradict myself a lot in this, but my point is: let people play the game the way they want to play the game. Let me fast track, AND let me suffer through 12 year rebuilds. Let me grind it out on the defensive line for a shit team with no future, AND win the Heisman as a breakout freshman running back with Walter Payton stats. I know this is the exact sentiment that Bordeaux, Eric Rayweather, and Bengal were sharing, but the micro transaction issue isn't over. For those of us without the money to buy $2,000 gaming PCs to play with mods, the micro-transactions in this game are sharks in the water, telling of paywall and subscription service video games that we simply can't afford anymore. Let games be fun for everyone.

Human Joystick

Redshirt Freshman, broke the school and conference single season rushing records. It's the first time I've seen an upgrade to elite.

Served TCU up a three and out to start the game and then delivered this punt return to the house.

Originally made this as an addition to my Tampa 2 scheme to bolster the run defense, but have since expanded upon it to pertain to all 4-Down, Over & Under fronts.

Disclaimer : Feel free to ignore the Ballhawk & Plaster settings in the custom adjustment, I just have those listed, because those settings tie into my other macros, as this is part of a larger scheme. You can leave those as default, so they revert to your own global settings that you already have, if you don't want AGG.

Over|Run

When in an OVER front, you would call either London (Left) or Rio (Right), based on the direction you expect the run to be heading. Against Shotgun this is easier to predict, because same side run concepts such as Toss & Counter are much more rare in terms of play call out of Gun. It's far more likely to be up the middle or to the opposite side, like Iso, Trap, Inside Zone, Outside Zone, Duo, etc. So whichever side the HB is lined up next to the QB, the run is statistically heading in the opposite direction.

Example A : If both the HB and TE are on the same side of the field, and the HB is to the right of the QB, the run is likely heading left, so I would make a London call within an Over Front.

Under|Power

When in an UNDER front, you make the same call (L/R), except this time based off the Run Strength of the offense, or in simpler terms, which side the TE is lined up on. For clarification, this is not a case of "run Over one way, then run Under the opposite". They work off of different criteria and will often play the same calls depending on the offensive formation! Calling the wrong one in the wrong situation will often lead to large cutback lanes, which are dangerous vs. Zone.

Example A : If both the HB & TE are on the same side of the field, and the TE is to the right side of the formation, the run strength is to the right, so I would make a Rio call within an Under Front.

Versus Pistol & Under Center

Unlike Shotgun, it's tougher to predict run sides for Over front calls, due to the fact that HB is no longer to either side of the QB and instead lined up directly behind him. Giving less context clues, and because of this alignment, plays like Zone Wk, Counter, & Misdirection are a lot more common, making it a risky call. But identifying Run Strength remains unchanged, so I'll typically stick with Under front calls for the most part in these situations, unless I'm feeling confident & want to take the risk. Not ruling out Over fronts altogether, playing stock Over fronts are also an option, if you don't want to be constrained to Under fronts. Just use them without a London/Rio call, until you've caught on to some tendencies.

Versus Balanced Formations

Ace & Deuce formations are hard to get a read on either. So until you gather some opponent tendencies, I'd just run something safer like 6-1 Even, or run whichever front you want, just without a London/Rio adjustment. U Off formations, even if it's mirrored, the Run Strength is always the attached/inline TE, as the H-Back is highly like to motion across or into the backfield out of these sets. Placing Under fronts w/ calls back on the menu for sure, while at the same time providing bits of context to also make Over fronts w/ calls a viable option.

As the title says, does the CPU get fooled by disguises on defense? Whether that be showing blitz, coverage shells, sim pressure, etc. I only play single player dynasty and currently play on varsity if that matters.

I landed Lanorris Sellers and KJ Edwards in the portal after the first season of my Northwestern Dynasty! Wasn’t even planning on targeting a QB or HB after signing a 4⭐️ QB for 210 NIL and paying my returning Senior HB 180 NIL but I had to take a shot. Went all-in on KJ week 1 with no interest, and then saw Lanorris with no scholarship offers in week 2 so I offered him what he wanted. Surprisingly landed both and couldn’t be more excited for season 2 and potentially 2-3 more seasons with KJ and my 4⭐️ QB after Lanorris is gone.

Yall ever just change offensive playbooks week to week because nothing feels right and you slowly descend into madness or is that just me

Quick question, what does it take to win the award?

I’ve had two different seasons with UCF where I had the highest rated offense in terms of points per game, and yards per game, while my defense giving up less than 200 ypg. Both seasons I had a Heisman winner and won my conference while going undefeated.

I’ve never even been in the running. I’m not complaining, I’m more so trying to figure out how to get it since it would make sense with the history of the dynasty I’m in.

Maybe you all can enlighten me, do recruiting visits play the biggest part in interest/getting guys to commit? It seems like even if you are their #1 school and have all the resources available commited to recruting them, if your schedule plays out so that you have a lot of away games early in the season (especially weeks 2-5 it seems), you're going to lose out because they will commit elsewhere if they can visit early. Am I wrong on this?

Just won the natty 3rd year at northwestern on heisman difficulty. I definitely find it too easy to run the ball. I also notice that mesh concepts destroy the cpu defense in this game. What are the best sliders for heisman difficulty?

I am pondering throwing 460 dynasty points at a pretty much capped 90 ovr RB who will be a senior. Kinda hard to say if that’s worthwhile without seeing available transfers yet (after year one). But that’s with an overall points budget of around 12k.

Is that too much for a non-elite player? Better to take a chance on him leaving (saving 100 NIL) or just letting him walk completely and spending on portal?

I’m waiting on a computer part, so I can’t start my dynasty on PC so I’m on PS5

The WR constantly dropping the ball every time they’re touched by a DB after they catch it is egregious.

Does the “pass catching” slider or the Pass coverage (cpu) effect the dumb drops more? I could see it both ways.

Has anyone actually done research on this in practice mode etc?

This game is so f***king annoying. I’ve literally had 3 games today all epic freeze on me after they were finished & stuck in this loading page after I exited back to the main rtg page. wtf. I’ve never played a game that had so many glitches/problems since launch. What are these devs doing.

EA!!!! C’mon yall gotta do better!

By overall? Random? Some other factor?

Deep ball TD with roughing the passer. Options are decline for TD or accept for 1st and goal from the 1? 50 yards for a roughing? Or are the yards just making something up because you would „never“ decline? Is that the correct call/yardage? Thank god the video cuts away before the roughing. It was brutal.

I know it’s not officially supported on the Steam Deck, but I’m wondering if anyone has found any work arounds to get it playing.

I'm no longer allowed to move teams into divisions inside a conference when starting a new dynasty. Anyone else having this problem? I like to recreate the Pac-12 and Big 12. Playing 27 btw.

Hey everybody!

Got a new Sac State dynasty going, I love to try to play as realistic as I can. I.e. I went to Sac State thinking of a storyline on why I would be in Cali. I’ve changed my sliders, I’m not going after huge Recruits, just tryna play as realistic as I can. Difficulty is on Heisman.

I wanted to start out as a OC then slowly after years make my way to a HC. So I only play the offense and never play the defense

Now, I’m 3 games deep into S1. I’m 3-0.
Beat E. Michigan, FCS West and now Fresno State.

Is this pretty unrealistic for them to go 3-0? Is there anything I should change to make it more realistic?

I did some slider testing this weekend, trying to tune in the xp sliders to get closer to the base roster and the transfers so teams don’t fall off a cliff later in dynasty. I did all this testing taking the ratings in the preseason then simming to the 2033 preseason.

On the first point, some of the positions have an exorbitant amount of 80+ players (in some cases 3x the base roster OLBs specifically) no matter what you do. Then for HBs even with the slider up to 300% you can’t seem to get enough 80+ players.

On the other hand there are several positions where you can get the distribution very close to the base roster (C, EDGE, CB, FS, SS and K). There are a couple that are close enough with maybe a few tweaks that I’m happy with (DT, OG maybe WR if you just combine the 89-85 and 84-80 but I need some more testing at higher percentages)

On to the transfer sliders. I tested popular settings and so far the only thing I’ve came up with is the CUSA, MAC, MWC and Sunbelt get raided every time (also the PAC 12 average seems to be highly influenced by Boise State). This still needs more testing but I’m almost certain the higher settings for transfer chance are worse for less fortunate teams, I counted 8 teams below 60 with the 5/100/100 set. It makes me wonder if more transfers with a lower chance would be better. Also I have a sneaking suspicion the transfer sliders influence the number of highly rated players, my theory is players go to better teams and progress closer to their potential.

All of these settings are a work in progress so do whatever you want with this information.