[JoshC1977]

This is a more general post to serve as an FYI for all. Long story short; be cognizant of your quarter length/acc clock settings and the impacts they may have on your gameplay.

(As a quick aside - these observations were made on current gen - I have no idea about old gen)

Background:

I had been playing around with default AP settings and was pretty consistently observing this odd CPU behavior where you would flush a QB out of the pocket and on the run, he would attempt this off-balance pass down the field. Inexplicably, it would nearly always be a wobbler that would go straight to a defender for an interception. I have NEVER seen this animation/issue before; but it was consistent and a couple of guys I know were also seeing it. Great QBs like Russell Wilson were making utterly boneheaded decisions (so bad, even a MUT player would cringe)

Tried a quite few things; nothing seemed to fix it (it occurred on AM as well, but with lower frequency due to the lower number of times the CPU would be under pressure. I basically thought, it's a bug; and decided to roll with it.

Well, I had run quite a few games at that point and had been running 10 min quarters with a 20 second accelerated clock. As we actually have defense in 23 (unlike in 22), the numbers were just WAY too low. So, I turned accelerated clock off to get a few more plays. Started playing and quickly realized something unexpected; that boneheaded QB behavior with the "wobblers" that went straight to defenders completely went away. Heck, the AI as a whole was playing a much more balanced and intelligent brand of football. I'll say it right here....Madden 23 Default AP on 10 min quarters with no acc clock is the best experience I've ever had with this series.

Now, I was on discord with a friend and he tried out 11 min quarters with the 20 sec acc clock. He saw the same change in AI behavior (though increasing the quarter length did reduce the aggression, or the "bite" of the AI play).

So basically, I think what was happening is that the AI, when running 10 min quarters with 20 sec acc clock, was perceiving it didn't "have enough time". So, nearly every play, they were "trying to make things happen". This lead to a LOT of questionable decision making by the AI. When we added more plays in the game (either by disabling the acc clock or increasing the quarter length); they "calmed down" and played with more control (and not just QBs, but across the board).


Breakdown:

I personally would advise not going below 10 min/no acc clock for any difficulty - that seems to be the point where things turn bad. For most people in here, that is likely not an issue. The AI is aggressive to a fault on shorter games and it can definitely cause issues.

If you're on All Pro or Pro, I would also highly suggest you take a good long look at just sticking to 10 min/no acc clock (where I personally see a good solid 120 plays per game). This seems to be the optimal setting to get the best performance out of the CPU - higher clock settings can quickly put you in the boat of feeling like you only lose if you beat yourself (vs feeling like the AI can beat you) - a common complaint for many here.

AM players can likely manage higher quarter lengths; indeed, it might be beneficial in quieting-down some of the over-the-top issues.


Final thoughts:
Long story short: this is a cautionary post, not "the gospel" or anything like that. I'm sharing these observations as most are in the nascent stages of slider development. I strongly suggest you consider the impact of your preferred quarter length/clock setting and give different settings a shot BEFORE adjusting anything. You might be pleasantly surprised.

I also suggest that as you guys fine-tune things; you lock-in your quarter length/acc clock setting (and bypassing the 'personal preference 'trope) - and when you get the inevitable whiner asking if they can use "X clock setting", tell them it is at their own risk.

Well, that's it, I'm off...have a good slider cycle guys...