How to defend against exploits in DD

[seafoamgreen]

After my most recent rage-quit (induced by an opponent exploiting slow fielding animations and defenders' inability to throw accurately to a base), I thought I'd ask for some tips on how to deal with folks like this.

His technique seemed to be to always try and take an additional base (he was successful 50% of the time as half of my throws were nowhere near their target), always steal (at least a quarter of the throws took the 2B off the bag), always bunt with men on (tried it with his catcher, even- success!) and always squeeze with a man on third (also successful 50% of the time because the catcher tagging animations take a year and a day to load).

I imagine I'm not the only person frustrated that a good 30% of the opponents I'm matched with aren't interested in playing baseball. Curious to know how you guys are dealing with these things (or if I'm being, as one opponent doing these things called me in a post-rage-quit message, a "p**** b****").

[Armor and Sword]

If your ratio is 30% of "win at all cost" cheesers then your doing great.

I have had just 1 so far. I have been lucky. It sucked too because we were playing an epic 1-0 game. I was up in the bottom of the 8th 1-0.

In the top of the 9th he hit a double, then had a single. then proceeded to bunt 3 straight times to cheese in some runs.

I was really disappointed. We all know no MLB team ever bunts 3 straight times.


Ever.

I move on. I play another opponent. For the most part it seems a good majority of the players are playing good baseball. And then when you get the pitching cheesers? Those are easy pickens for me. After they walk me 2-3 times in a row I start teeing off on them.

I acutally had a player quit on me this morning (snuck in a game before heading to work he he) I just hit a 3 run bomb with Puig to go up 4-0 in the bottom of the 4th. First he tried to just get me to allow him to quit. I would not. Then he did a friendly concede and I took the win. But why quit down 4-0? I don't get that at all.

[seafoamgreen]

You're having better opponent luck than I, then! I'd never quit a fairly-played game even if I was losing badly (lost 7-1 against a guy who had a bunch of mashers and I can't hit offspeed to save my life- he beat me fair and square so I saw it out). It's just people who are playing baseball like an arcade game that infuriate me.

[bcruise]

I've had games where I've been able to throw out 3-4 guys trying to steal 2nd and 3rd with a slide step...it really does seem to be effective. Obviously it's not going to work well if you throw offspeed, but with a fastball it isn't too much different than a pitchout. You have to keep them from getting that extra step though - if they get that it's a guaranteed steal if the guy is fast.

That said, I haven't run across one of the really hardcore cheesers yet - the type who bunts all the time. Do you guys think the quick shift bunt defense would be effective in slowing that down? I can do that adjustment in less than a second of menu time, so I don't think I'd run into timer problems if I had to do it many times in a game (as awful as that would be)

[DarkArrow]

your post is really only a rant on how a vast portion of the "community" play online, or just online sports gaming in general (see NHL, Madden, Fifa)

I have friends that play like this on exhibition matches. And have been doing so since the MVP baseball days. They say it's their competitive nature but I know it's just the "do anything to win" mentality
It's really a question of character. Some people have it, some people don't.

There's not "defending" against it, there's just accept it or don't play online.

[Armor and Sword]

Quote: Originally Posted by bcruise

I've had games where I've been able to throw out 3-4 guys trying to steal 2nd and 3rd with a slide step...it really does seem to be effective. Obviously it's not going to work well if you throw offspeed, but with a fastball it isn't too much different than a pitchout. You have to keep them from getting that extra step though - if they get that it's a guaranteed steal if the guy is fast. That said, I haven't run across one of the really hardcore cheesers yet - the type who bunts all the time. Do you guys think the quick shift bunt defense would be effective in slowing that down? I can do that adjustment in less than a second of menu time, so I don't think I'd run into timer problems if I had to do it many times in a game (as awful as that would be)

Bunting is highly effective in this series. Even if the ratings stink it seems to be easy to lay down an easy sac bunt at will. I wish it could be nerfed and tuned properly. Bunting is a low percentage play and pitchers and very low rated bunters should not be able to easily square up a bunt. So even if you in bunt defense (something I did against this guy after his first bunt because I had that feeling) I still could not get to the ball in time to throw out a runner at home which is exactly why he was bunting....three times in a row.

So since it is easy to bunt with success in getting a ball down the line, it is exploited by the "win at all cost" cheesers you will encounter sometimes. It is a fact of online playing. But the vast majority of randoms I have played thus far has been good. Surprisingly good.

Maybe it is the maturity of baseball and the people who play and love the game. I certainly am having more fun playing this game online than any other sports game by a wide margin.

[Pappy Knuckles]

My games have been good up until the one I just played. The guy stole 9 bases on me and hit 4 bunts for singles (3 of them in a row). I ended up losing 4-1. Very frustrating experience. I felt like there was nothing that I could do.

[MrOldboy]

You have to play differently online, whether the person is a "win at all cost" cheeser or not. You have no way of knowing until they show their true colors in game. Just expect them to do so and if they play with respect then reciprocate and don't be an ***. Most people I have played online just want to play a game of baseball and don't pout when losing. Although I had one game that dragged on due to tons of hit batters, pausing for no reason, constant stepoffs, etc. Took over an hour, but I just put the controller down and let them keep beaning me.

Regarding constant bunters. Learn to start any hitter with speed with high fastballs, often just out of the zone so they cannot make solid contact if they guess high. If they show bunt hit the pitch meter early causing the fastball to end up high out of reach. REMEMBER to do this every time you have a runner on 3rd <2 out situation. Always assume they will try to squeeze. I switched to meter pitching for this reason. Once you determine if they are a constant bunter you have to remember to use bunt defense with every hitter. (Note: This does not stop squeezes most of the time due to the fielding animations, but can deter certain players if they don't know this. It does help with bunting for a hit).

On outfielder animations, get a feel for what animations trigger when. For instance with a runner on 1st and a hit to the CF if you throw to the cutoff man it will often trigger a slow casual throw animation. There are many other situations where slow animations trigger. One good piece of advice is to throw to bases and not cutoffs if it isn't a hit to the gap.

Also there is a bug/error where they have the SS be the cutoff for hits to RF and they can sometimes end up way over by 3B. It isn't successful all the time, but on hits to RF I've had some people keep going to 2nd hoping that I hit L1. I always throw to 2nd base and never the cutoff on hits to RF with the bases empty because of this.

Also also remember to accept a concede thinking the other player is conceding, it is almost always in my experience the friendly quit. They really need to either add a yes/no menu to that or make it very clear which it is.

Anyways, if you want to play online you need to deal with a fairly significant chunk of the population playing with a bit of cheese. I learned this the hard way this year as I stopped playing online last year due to the online being a mess and let my guard down this year and took a few stupid losses.