Currently holding is set at 62 with default at 50. Where would you prefer it be set at?

55

The problem is I don't know where. Madden said this year's game will have realistic penalties, and set the sliders for 50. I assume if we go higher or lower we will get more or less.

You told me once that a bigger number changes how long they block and it might not change the frequency of calls.

If we started at 50, played 4 weeks and check the averages we could go up or down from there. 50 might be a good number like the developers intended, but we don't know. Starting with custom sliders makes the people who complain justified in their arguments. Starting at 50 they could only complain about the game, not at the commissioners.

We should first start with how many penalties do we want in a game? The current NFL averages? I'm hearing penalties are way up I the NFL, maybe we want to use 2014 averages. Is using the NFL penalties per play to high for a video game?

I've got way more questions than answers, but I'll flow with the majority opinion!!

Just hope more guys show up here, and have a say....

Directly from the League Handbook:

 We want an average of 5 penalties per team but from personal experience, we may 

only  see  about  2-3  on  human  controlled

teams  and  about  5-6  on  computer  controlled 

teams. Penalty sliders are very difficult to manage but we will try our best.

So I took our league's week 3 statistics and compared it to a comparable league that is using 50/50 sliders. They are running a no-switch league with 9 minute quarters and 25 seconds accelerated clock compared to our 10 minute quarters with 16 seconds accelerated clock.

These are the numbers I came up with:

In our league, we ran 1,512 total plays on offense and defense (minus special teams) and we had a total count of 116 penalties. This averages out to 3.6 penalties each team per game. Also worth noting that each team averaged 47 offensive plays per game.

 116 penalties / 32 teams = 3.625 penalties per team

Our penalty rate would be calculated as 1 penalty every 13 plays

 1512 total plays / 116 penalties = 13.03 plays per penalty

Which gives us a penalty rate of 7.7%.

 1 penalty / 13.03 plays = 0.0767 penalty per play or 7.67%

The other league I took statistics from ran a total of 1,700 plays on offense and defense (minus special teams). They had a total penalty count of 103. This puts them at 3.2 penalties per team each game. We will also note that they average 6 more plays per game than us at 53 offensive plays.

 103 penalties / 32 teams = 3.218 penalties per team

This also amounts to an average of 1 penalty every 16.5 plays.

 1700 plays / 103 penalties = 16.504 plays per penalty

Which gives our comparison league a 6.1% penalty rate.

 1 penalty / 16.5 plays = 0.0606 penalty per play or 6.1%

So the difference between us and them is we have a 1.6% higher chance per play for a penalty to occur. Now this will amount to all penalties and not just holding violations. If we assume that holding is called 85% of the time then the disparity between the two leagues will get smaller.

 7.7 * 0.85 = 6.545% at 85% holding violations for IMFL

6.1 * 0.85 = 5.185% at 85% holding violations for comparison league

6.545 - 5.185 = 1.36% disparity

So lets take it deeper. Let's put the value of 5.185% holding violations as the standard of the default 50 slider for holding calls and 6.545% as the standard for a slider set at 62 (which is where we currently are). If I were to adjust the slider up from 50 to 55 using our comparison league's statistics. We would use this equation:

 5.185 / 50 = x / 55 which would become 50x = 5.185 * 55 or 50x = 285.175

which simplifies further to x = 285.175 / 50 or 5.7035

So the comparison league's holding penalty rate adjusted to 55 would move their holding violations from 5.185% to 5.704%, a difference of 0.6% more holding calls possible per play.

Let's use the same calculations with the IMFL slider variables.

 6.545 / 62 = x / 55 which would become 62x = 6.545 * 55 or 62x = 359.975

which simplifies further to x = 369.975 / 62 or 5.806

So using our statistics we get a change from 6.545% down to 5.806%, a difference of 0.7% fewer holding calls possible per play that we will see in our games.

The important part is either way you look at it, we will see about 5.7% - 5.8% holding call rate as opposed to a 6.5% rate, which is a difference of ~ 0.7% fewer holding violations. Calculated over 47 offensive plays per game puts us at 2.7 holding violations as opposed to 3.0.

So the final word would be that we will see 1 fewer holding violations called every 3 games when the slider is set to 55 as opposed to 62 and possibly 1 fewer call every 2 games when adjusted to 50.

Now knowing that information, where do you want the slider set?

Last edited by yougod10 (1444813139)

In comparison to sim standards, the average NFL team will run about 65 plays and average about 8 penalties per game. Which is 1 penalty every 16.25 plays including special teams. So the bottom line number is close to actual if we use default sliders but we are not including special teams plays in our calculations but are including penalties incurred during special teams plays. So this will skew the results a little as the penalties per play should be plus the amount of times each team runs a special teams play.

Last edited by yougod10 (1444826164)

I like 5a game also, and it looks like you are tracking it just fine, lol.  If we average 3 a game, that only leaves 2 penalties left for other violations though.

False start is the second highest called penalty in the NFL and I don't see near enough of those in my games. It's an easier penalty to handle because it happens pre play. That's huge for running more plays in less time. A holding kills the spirit because you watch your play succeed, then it gets called back, then you lose 10 yards, it's like pulling a band aid off slow. False start quick and easy!

Could we attempt to increase false start, lower holding and still average 5 total a game?

False start occurrence is dictated by fake snaps for the most part. So the best way to get them to occur more is to fake snap the ball more.

I don't like that we're going by the average for the league. Certain teams are getting screwed badly by it and that's the point that needs to be made. It should at least stay at the default of 50 and maybe even 45

If I change it, I won't put it less than the default limit.

Just to clarify, in case someone doesn't know yet, the holding slider does not, technically, make cause more penalties to occur. The holding slider changes the length of time that a blocker stays engaged, therefore allowing more opportunities for holding to occur. That's why even between the two tested leagues, the highest amount of penalties called was in the league with the default slider (15 penalties) but they also had the games with the fewest (1).

So the teams that are accustomed to getting called for penalties probably will not see a significant difference in the amount of penalties if I lower the rate. They WILL see that blocking ability will decrease even further.