Adjusting team strategies for realism

[Itasurf]

I play on Superstar, but in BAL I am not able to activate that difficulty yet on PC. So I play professional in BAL, because the AI are more logical in that difficulty. All Top Player does anyway is boosting the opponents Agility and Response, plus scripting kicks in all the time.
Professional is actually very similar to Superstar, the main difference is the goalscoring efficiency. Top Player on the other hand seems to go out of it's ways to make the game unrealistic and boring.

I have boosted Response and Agility on all players on my OF, so my professional level is harder than "standard" Top Player.
I lose a game every now and then, something that never really happen on "standard" Top Player. I just lost 1-3 (with Argentina) against Brazil in the world cup finals for example. But I won 2-0 (with Norway) against them the tournament I played yesterday. I played both these tournaments in Professional because I forgot to "patch" the option file to Superstar after doing some testing.

Activating Superstar on PC can be quite frustrating, after doing so you must avoid all types of options menus, because the cause the game to crash.

PS. Just because Top Player is supposed to be the hardest game mode, doesent automatically mean that it offers the best gaming experience.
I feel that a modified OF that does exactly what the difficulty settings does, without the negative effects offer a better gaming experience, better simulation and a satisfying level of challenge. I would not mind the game being harder, but I would mind it if it does so by making your controls worse and your teammates stupid as Top Player does.

Sabatasso, did you manage to activate Superstar level in Cup/Leagues and ML?? I´ve only manage to make it work in exibition matchs, which by the way, I was playing last night with Germany against Netherlands and got my 3rd penalty in 417 games!!! Felt like winning a championship...

 

[Sabatasso]

Master League cheat tool, but it contains the option to choose Superstar difficulty.
http://pes2008editing.blogspot.com/2010/01/master-league-settings-tool-v11-by.html

 

[blazer89]

...they still dont attack enough for my liking.

Yeah I'm having this trouble too... On Professional difficulty, mainly just because I'm getting better at the game. In fact it's hardly a challenge anymore. I think I'll have to go to Top Player.

Sucks though, because now I have to start a new ML.

Actually, I may just try a bump up to Top Player without any changes to the edit file... Though pressure will probably be absurd.

edit: Or maybe I'll put the assisted attack balance to 4 (attack, I think it is), like Sabatasso recommended (currently have it on 3, balanced). That may do the trick... Though that also means I'll have to start over... Grrr.

 

[blazer89]

I just tried to bump up my ML to Top Player (with the Professional edit file settings) and I swear it was easier. The big difference was the high pressure which seemed to take guys out of position too often.

I did some testing and am going to start over. :huh:

Professional just got too easy for me. My only hope now is to play Top Player, lower the pressure, and raise the assisted attack setting to 4 (attack). If that setting gets too easy, this game won't have much value to me. :mellow:

 

[Itasurf]

Setting the Assisted Settings for the CPU doesn´t work, assisted settings only apply for Human Players!!! Just play a exibition match and in the middle of the game change your controller to the other team, go to assisted settings and there it is, always back to the same. I don´t know where did people get the idea that it effected the CPU team.

 

[blazer89]

Setting the Assisted Settings for the CPU doesn´t work...

Yeah I was kind of wondering about that, because the on screen display during the match didn't show any difference. Plus when I was doing some other testing a while back I switched over to the other team and noticed the assisted settings were different than what I had put them to.

Oh well.

 

[blazer89]

I played a game on Top Player, with pretty much the same adjustments as Sabatasso recommended (I think I have my Defensive Line at +20 instead of +10). I have to say I like it better overall than the Professional set up I had. It's not without it's negative either though. My biggest gripe with it is that the ping pong passing is back... I think maybe boosting Player Support (to get players going forward more) and Position Switch (to get players out of position more) might help.

Back to the drawing board. :mellow:

 

[Sabatasso]

Setting the Assisted Settings for the CPU doesn´t work, assisted settings only apply for Human Players!!! Just play a exibition match and in the middle of the game change your controller to the other team, go to assisted settings and there it is, always back to the same. I don´t know where did people get the idea that it effected the CPU team.

It works, but if you also allow auto form change, the AI starts modifying itself during the match to suit the situation. Hence the increased momentum changes and goals galore that come now and then.

 

[Itasurf]

I'm pretty sure the "assisted" term refers to human players and not CPU, as the AI is already set for the CPU. It doesn't make much sense for us to assist how the CPU will play, but for those that don't know how or don't want to worry about tactics changes, to have assistence on those options. I already tested changing it and it always goes back to the teams default, didn't fell any change in how the CPU playes either. Anyway, if you're from Argentina and I'm from Brazil, probably we'll never settle for it.

 

[blazer89]

Assisted settings are only for the computer. I've double checked, and the computer controlled teams are always set on: 0, 4, 0, 1, 0, 2, 3.

When you switch sides during a game you will see this. And when you switch back to your original team, these settings will be applied to that team as well.

 

[grincho]

I played a game on Top Player, with pretty much the same adjustments as Sabatasso recommended (I think I have my Defensive Line at +20 instead of +10). I have to say I like it better overall than the Professional set up I had. It's not without it's negative either though. My biggest gripe with it is that the ping pong passing is back... I think maybe boosting Player Support (to get players going forward more) and Position Switch (to get players out of position more) might help.

Back to the drawing board. :mellow:

Any new thoughts?

 

[blazer89]

Any new thoughts?

Yeah I boosted the Player Support and Position Switch just a bit and that seemed to have gotten rid of the ping pong passing, though I've only had time for a couple of games so far.

Overall I am really liking Top Player a lot more. It does have it's cheap elements to it, but it does some other things better than Professional too. Computer players seem more brazen and more prone to mistakes, which not only makes it more realistic but may also explain why people were saying that Top Player is actually easier than Professional.

Dropping Pressure really helps the difficulty of Top Player, as the computer will play the passing lanes more and make it harder to break the defense down.

I need to play a few more games to try to "finalize" things.

 

[grincho]

I need to play a few more games to try to "finalize" things.

Thanks, it's just that it's a pain to change every single team here (PS3)

 

[blazer89]

Thanks, it's just that it's a pain to change every single team here (PS3)

Yeah I'm on PS3 too, and am doing one league/section at a time. I'll upload it once I'm done, probably within this upcoming week.

North American version, by the way.

 

[blazer89]

I posted my two files in the completed file section:

http://www.pesgaming.com/showthread.php?p=1589213

The Top Player settings I came up with are:

1. Player Support - Add 30 to each team.
3. Position Switch - Raise by 20 for each team, not going over 80.
4. Offensive Style - Subtract 30 from each team, not going under 20.
5. Pressing - Subtract 30 from each team, not going under 20.
6. Defensive Line - Add 20 to each team.
7. Compactness - Lower by 30 for each team, not going under 20.

The game still seems easy. I just don't think much can be done about that, on the PS3 at least... Unless someone wanted to dive in and spend some serious time going through player by player...

And that ain't gonna be me.

I'm going to start a new ML and hope that, 1. It works out, and 2. There is a new patch that fixes the fouls and penalties, and adds a new Superstar difficulty.

 

[JohnnieDarko]

I just registered to say how AWESOME these settings are! Thanks Sabatasso and Blazer89 for figuring out all this. Pes now offers attractive open and creative football, while still having the good parts of 'old' Pes.

I used it in combination with the PESedit 1.6.5 patch

I changed the settings recommended by Sabatasso with PESEditor 1.9.1 And i've put them in a short list for convenience:

• Give all players S02 "passer" card
• Give all CF, WF, SS, AMF, SMF and CMF the S01 "Reaction Card"
• Tune the team sliders for "Professional"
  • +10 pressure
  • +20 player support
  • +10 defensive line
  • -30 Attacking style
  • -35 Compactness
  • +10 position switch
• Give all top teams a compactness of 43
• Set all goalkeepers to "Defensive",
• Put minimum keeper aggression to 75.
• Set minimum agression for all outfield players at 75, maximum at 90 for all outfield players.
• Set agility +5 for all players
• Set minimum 75 agility for all players

I haven't done these settings yet, as they require manually editing every team ingame:

Assisted Settings, all teams:
Lineup 2 (Makes AI choose the best possible starting 11 depending on form and ability)
Auto Form Change 1 (Makes AI change positions slightly to suit the subs)
Attack Balance 4 (Instrumental to make AI attack with flair and not use the same old patterns)

Imo this thread deserves a sticky! :w00t

 

[LUCAPLAYER]

I posted my two files in the completed file section:

http://www.pesgaming.com/showthread.php?p=1589213

The Top Player settings I came up with are:

1. Player Support - Add 30 to each team.
3. Position Switch - Raise by 20 for each team, not going over 80.
4. Offensive Style - Subtract 30 from each team, not going under 20.
5. Pressing - Subtract 30 from each team, not going under 20.
6. Defensive Line - Add 20 to each team.
7. Compactness - Lower by 30 for each team, not going under 20.

The game still seems easy. I just don't think much can be done about that, on the PS3 at least... Unless someone wanted to dive in and spend some serious time going through player by player...

And that ain't gonna be me.

I'm going to start a new ML and hope that, 1. It works out, and 2. There is a new patch that fixes the fouls and penalties, and adds a new Superstar difficulty.

I think that also the support range option must be taken into consideration. If we lower it the players will be more spreaded in the field. I tried to lower it by 30 and i feel it's even better.

 

[trueblade]

I am playing these settings however, their doesnt appear to be any way of stopping the centre backs backing off when your running at them!

 

[JohnnieDarko]

I am playing these settings however, their doesnt appear to be any way of stopping the centre backs backing off when your running at them!

Have you tried setting all player aggression stats to at least 75? 3 Posts above you can see what I changed, and I don't have this problem, atleast not unrealistically often. The aggression stat solves a lot of problems with players and keepers backing off.

 

[trueblade]

No i haven't but I am sure that would take hours of editing going through every player. I have already spent hours implementing all the other changes.