Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Welcome to NHL04 Rebuilt 2017. We hope you enjoy your visit.


You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.


Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
Best "Difficulty" Settings
Topic Started: Jul 8 2017, 11:06 PM (774 Views)
Chiefaho
Member Avatar
Rookie
Hey all,

I know there has been a post or two about this before, but it seems it hasn't been brought up for a while. What does everyone think the best combination of settings is for a good game against the AI? The three main things to change that seem to make the biggest difference are user faceoffs, pass assist, and player advantage. I've been switching these settings just about every game in my season, can't find a consistent set. I know it's mainly personal preference, but I'm curious to see what everyone has been using lately.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Nettles
Member Avatar
Roster Development Team
[ *  *  *  * ]
I would increase aggressiveness all the way up to 7, increase pass interceptions and shot blocking, and play around with the AI pass frequency...I think it has to be in the 4-6 range for them to score the most goals.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
NooN
Rookie
I just use Trent's AI settings.

Basic: Game Speed - 0, Puck Control - 0, Fatigue - 6, Injuries - 7, Fighting Difficulty - 3, Shot Accuracy - 4, Shot Power - 3.

Skating: Speed Burst (%) - 0, Fatigue Recovery - 1, Player Acceleration - 0.

Checking: Hitting Power - 0, Hitting Difficulty - 7, Bruise Control - 0, Aggression - 0, Stick Check Effectiveness - 5.

Pass/Shoot: Pass Assist - 2, Pass Speed - 5, Saucer Pass Speed - 0, Pass Interceptions - 7, AI Pass Frequency - 3, Dump Speed - 0, Dump Height - 3, Soft Dump Speed - 0, Soft Dump Height - 3, AI Dump Puck Frequency - 6.

Physics: Puck Elasticity - 3, Puck Friction - 3, Glass Breaking - 0, Puck Gravity - 2.

Defense: Shot Blocking - 1, Hook Effectiveness - 0.


As for rules I use these settings:

Skill Level: Medium
Period Lenght: 6
Penalties: 4
Fighting: 0 (I don't do any fights during game, but if You like to fight during game, You can set this setting up to max).

If You find winning too easy using these settings, You can give CPU advantage. You can do it under Starting Lineup tab. There are 2 bars - Player Advantage & Goalie Advantage. Set both to -1 or -2. This will give CPU player and golie advantage.


As for Launcher options (I'm using Launcher version 1.5.0 - B4) under Game tab:

Penalty Time: 10
OT Time: 6
Last Minute Timer: 29
Fights Per Game: 0 (As I mentioned, I don't like fighting during game, but if You do just set this setting up as You prefer).

I've been playing with these setting for a while and playing experience is great, but You can tweek them for Your own liking until You find what's best for You. You mentioned that You tweek setting for just about every game. My suggestion is to stick with these setting for a while and get used to them.

If You're winning too many faceoffs there are some files You can edit and set faceoffs for every player on Your team to "50". I haven't done it myself, so I'm not sure which files need to be edited.

That's about it, hope it helps ;)

Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Matteo
Main-mod roster maker
NooN,10 July 2017
4:54 AM
Checking: Hitting Power - 0, Hitting Difficulty - 7, Bruise Control - 0, Aggression - 0, Stick Check Effectiveness - 5.

Pass/Shoot: Pass Assist - 2, Pass Speed - 5, Saucer Pass Speed - 0, Pass Interceptions - 7, AI Pass Frequency - 3, Dump Speed - 0, Dump Height - 3, Soft Dump Speed - 0, Soft Dump Height - 3, AI Dump Puck Frequency - 6.

Defense: Shot Blocking - 1, Hook Effectiveness - 0.

I believe that the game becomes a little harder if you modify these:

Aggression: 7

Stick Check Effectiveness: 1-2

Pass Assist: 0

Pass Speed: 7

Saucer Pass Speed: 7

Shot Blocking : 3-4
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Vod
Member Avatar
Development Team
Another thing to keep in mind is the difficulty setting also plays a large role in the way the AI plays the game on top of the attribute modifiers. There's a lot more to the difficulty setting than is apparently obvious.

Let's use Medium as the baseline. If you increase the difficulty, the CPU players get bonuses to their attributes, so they'll skate faster etc. But it also affects other AI modifiers that are hidden to the player, which affects overall intensity (hooking etc) and many other factors. So to fine-tune the game-play, you can use a combination of the difficulty setting and the bias sliders. The idea is you use the bias sliders to offset the attribute bonuses or penalties the CPU gets based on the difficulty, while still getting the AI behavioral changes that comes with the various difficulty settings.

So let's say you want to reduce the excessive hooking and overall intensity without giving yourself an unfair attribute advantage, one way to do that is by setting the game to easy and then move the bias sliders towards the CPU to offset the attribute penalties they would take. The same for higher difficulties. You can move the bias sliders away from the CPU to offset the attribute bonuses they would get.
NHL 2004 Launcher | My Changelog | NHL 2004 Preservation | NHL 2004 Debugger
Online Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
Moonwalker
Member Avatar
Regular
[ *  * ]
If you're easy to play with a computer, no settings will help, I think you need to think about the online mod. :hockey:
Online Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
« Previous Topic · NHL 2004 General Discussion · Next Topic »
Add Reply