Animation Sliders: Work (only?) in slow-sims (CPU/CPU and CPU/Human), most likely don't affect fast-sims
QB Accuracy - Seems to control not just the throwing accuracy of the QB, but also their awareness, their ability to move around quickly in the pocket, and their ability to dodge sacks/tackles. Might control awareness and reaction times of the entire team, including special teams, not just QB.
Pass Blocking - how easily/long blocks are held during passing plays?
WR Catching - Controls certain catching animations. "It also impacts the percentages of passes caught/dropped, regardless of the players' catching ratings." [thank you ycleped]
RB Ability - Appears to control movement of every player, including any ball carrier and possibly how well receivers run their routes. "Definitely impacts not only the movement of the players but how well they hold the ball. I've been messing around with this and have found at lower levels it is very difficult to trigger a truck stick broken tackle, and failed attempts often result in fumbles. A lot of fumbles. It even seems as though this slider slows the player down." [thank you ycleped]
Run Blocking - how easily Oline gets off line to create blocks? "What I hypothesize is that when the QB is dropping back to pass, the pass blocking slider is the one that is used. If passing isn't an option (i.e. any type of turnover return, kick return, run play, or QB passing the line of scrimmage), the run blocking slider is what is used. And I guarantee it affects the whole team." [thank you ycleped]
D Awareness - Controls defense reaction times, including on punt returns. Also seems to control how much separation a receiver can create, possibly how easily corners can bat down passes (this may or may not be controlled by Knockdowns too), possibly how many broken tackles are observed. "Not only that, but it also controls how fast the defense reacts, especially on play action, how fast the defense commits to either the run or pass and how accurate the commit is." [thank you ycleped]
Knockdowns - could control how easily corners bat the ball, or it might just control how easily defensive linemen are able to bat the ball down at the line of scrimmage, or perhaps both.
Interceptions - might control how aggressively defenses pursue interceptions, might control certain defender catching animations. "What this slider does is raises the chances across the board for the whole defense of catching the passes that are thrown to them. I can't say for certain if it does the other things you say it might do, but I know for certain it increases the chances for every defender of catching a ball." [thank you ycleped]
Break Block - probably how long blocks are held, along with Pass Blocking/Run Blocking. "I'm guessing this impacts the strength rating. If you have a 95 str RG and a 95 str DT, almost all of the time the RG will hold out longer. Increase the slider, however, and it gives the DT more of a shot of shedding blocks. The offense has the advantage to start with, so this slider allows this advantage to be changed." [thank you ycleped]
Tackling - certain tackling animations, maybe how many tackles are broken, etc.
FG Length - could mean several things; some might theorize that it controls the power of the kicker, and some might theorize that it controls the AI's decision-making regarding going for longer field goals. However, I would suggest that it defines a boundary on the field that the defense becomes more aggressive about protecting. Who knows.
FG Accuracy - same as FG Len, could mean several things, but generally as this increases the likelihood of a kicker making a longer field goal will also increase.
Punt Length - this one is one of the only self explanatory ones, controls max/average punt distances.
Punt Accuracy - will impact how many Punts Inside 20 occur, and consequently starting field position.
Kickoff Length - self explanatory
Penalty Sliders: more information required to determine whether these affect only slow-sims, or also fast-sims. Does anyone notice a difference in fast-sim stats as penalty sliders are adjusted? My current guess is that these only affect slow-sims
False St./Facemask/Clipping - increasing seems to increase penalties called, but these might also affect the decision-making of the AI, making the relationship very non-linear when it comes to penalty sliders.
Holding - higher values result in more holding calls.
Int Grounding - seems to affect when/how often a QB throws the ball away, and whether the ball is thrown near receivers (higher values) or not.
Offensive PI - might depend on other factors; I've seen this called once (I believe I've seen a receiver push-off animation).
Defensive PI - might control how aggressively the defense tries to bump receivers off their routes; it is unclear, but there is more PI called at higher values.
Roughing passer/kicker - tough to determine if increasing these actually increases amount of penalties, or it affects AI decision-making more.
Coach Sliders: some work in slow-sims, others work only in fast-sims
Offensive Pass/Run Ratio - Seems to impact fast-simmed games, which cmp66's recommendations would indicate. No idea to what extent this affects live games/slow-sims, but other users assert that it does. My thinking is the playbook PBAI tagging also has a lot to do with Pass/Run%, and this slider might affect the decisions made on a case-by-case basis in certain game situations (1st & 10, 3rd & short, etc.), rather than as a "standard" Pass/Run% overall.
Defensive Pass/Run Ratio - Controls which type of substitution packages are preferred and also influences defensive passing and rushing stats; high run defense results in better defensive rushing stats, while higher pass defense results in better defensive passing stats. Having this slider too far in either direction may result in overly effective defense in that area. Which nickel and dime packages are favored, like 2-4-5 or 3-2-6, as well as a preference for dime (run) vs quarter (pass), can be adjusted using this slider; see viewtopic.php?f=18&t=18504#p80886. However, I can't confirm whether this affects slow-sims, fast-sims, or both.
Playbook - I'd say probably doesn't affect fast-sims. Obviously will greatly affect slow-sims, though.
Offensive Aggression - Controls team Philosophy (check Player Info); values of 50 or under (default middle) will foster a "Vertical Passing" or "Establish Run" team philosophy, whereas values 51 or over will foster a "West Coast" or "Ball Control" team philosophy. Whether a team is "Vertical" or "West Coast" has a profound impact on Yards Per Attempt for passers:
BelieverInTeal wrote:Here are my results:Spoiler:
It looks like higher aggression leads to more short passes
Defensive Aggression - Still a bit of a mystery; might control Man/Zone ratio, might control blitz percentages. More data desperately needed by forum users.
RB1/RB2 - affects (only?) fast-sims; RB2 is fullback, slider determines amount of FB snaps or carries in fast-sims [determined based on observations/data by ycleped].
General Settings: seem to be only for slow-sims(?)
Fatigue (and Auto subs) - Only for slow-sims; needed if you want to see your second and even third depth players on the field.
Sub OUT/IN - only affects slow-sims; players will sub out of game when they reach Sub OUT %, and re-enter the game when they reach Sub IN %. Basically represents player fatigue/awareness/reaction times.
Pass Leading - A QB "leading" a receiver probably means they are placing the ball where only the receiver can get it. At least, that's my best guess; as this was increased I noticed more high and low passes.
Random Weather - This one is confusing. When random weather is off I tend to see conditions that more closely adhere to the weather variables entered in the CITY table of a .ros/.fra, which contain entries for average temp and wind speeds by location. In particular, some locations were given wind values of up to 15 (Buffalo, Jacksonville), and both Santa Clara and SF are given a whopping 35, which seems to be intended for Candlestick Park, however, this was not adjusted for Santa Clara (I recommend this be adjusted).
Offense Catch Assist - "On offense if you are user controlling a WR for the catch after the ball is thrown, with the offensive catch assist set to 'on", the WR will attempt to catch the pass even if you don't press the 'catch' button when controlling him. If set to off, you MUST press the catch button in order to catch a pass while usering a WR." [thank you very much ycleped]
Defense Pass Assist - "Defensive pass assist affects the same thing, only swatting involved too. If you are controlling a defender when this is on and you don't press swat or catch, the defender you are controlling will still attempt to catch/swat with the help of the CPU. With it off, the defender will do nothing towards the ball unless you manually try to catch or swat." [thank you very much ycleped]
Blocking Settings:
"Before the snap on offense, you can switch to whatever player you want and control them for the duration of the play. If you switch to a blocker pre-snap on a run play, these sliders affect your blocking.
With blocking slowdown on, while controlling a player on a run play that is NOT your ball carrier, the game will go into slow motion to make it easier for you to manually throw blocks for your ball carrier.
With Switch Slowdown, switching back to the ball carrier will be slowed down too so that you can take a second to see where you are actually going before resuming to normal game speed.
With Auto Switch back, the game will switch you back to your ball carrier after a certain amount of time of controlling a blocker." [all by ycleped]