Every AI batter has barry bonds discipline

[rjackson]

Re: Every AI batter has barry bonds discipline

My only biggest gripe with CPU batting right now, is that even in the hardest level with default or adjustments to settings, too many times the CPU will take called 3rd strikes on pitches that catch too much plate to just sit there and not even flinch at a swing.

Meh, I get frozen by Uncle Charlie a fair bit. You forget seeing Miggy getting frozen by a FASTBALL? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6cmMYue4QE I don't really see a problem but who knows, maybe you have quick counts on and I don't? I find that the SP's K/9 matters on this. Verlander would get these a ton more than Eric Stults in the game, for instance.

As for the original posting topic--use the batter analysis tool after each game. Set it to your team and everything else to "all". Then, cycle the results to look at things like "chased" and "deep strikes" (I like to see how many I let zip by, usually a couple at minimum). Then do the same for the CPU. You would be surprised at how good it is at being evened up and if it is not, there is a reason for it.

[Heroesandvillains]

Re: Every AI batter has barry bonds discipline

My only biggest gripe with CPU batting right now, is that even in the hardest level with default or adjustments to settings, too many times the CPU will take called 3rd strikes on pitches that catch too much plate to just sit there and not even flinch at a swing.

That really bothers me, and adjustment wise it's a difficult answer as to how to fix it. What I'm beginning to work on now is a CPU Timing up to 10 and I'm seeing a bit of improvement, with a stronger ability to foul off balls but there is still much more remaining to be seen. If you adjust the CPU Contact higher, IE above 5 you'll bring a new set of problems with poor contact resulting in hits. Plus an advancement in their discipline which means they'll take even more pitches making for unnatural feeling at bat many times.

Overall it's a tough fix, and would be best if the AI were just naturally programmed to react to pitches realistically and let their individual ability determine whether they are successful in the at bat or not. I don't get the impression that this is the way the AI is being created.

Spoiler

For me, I'm currently at 2 CPU contact (which primarily means the level of forgiveness the batter gets when making contact, ie poor or late contact can still be rewarded with a Hit). And I'm using 10 for the timing, 5 for the power.

edit -- My theory anyhow is perhaps at 10 they won't be bashful about swinging and feel confident in making contact with a pitch as they should, they are MLB players. Hopefully I will see a vast improvement or at least a difference in how CPU deals with protecting the plate in those 2 strike situations in particular. Because too often I could fire a pitch near the strike zone and they will just take it and end up called for their 3rd strike. Also I feel this 10 timing rate is actually a very fair improvement for them because on the other side of the coin, I feel great about making contact with a pitch if it's in terms of just ability. Obviously other factors affect whether I actually do make any contact or not. So the CPU should not be suffering from having the ability and the intelligence of making contact on a 2 strike fastball around the strike zone.

With CPU Contact at 2 you've essentially hampered their vision and discipline so drastically that you've created your own problem.

Would I be wrong to say that?

[KBLover]

Re: Every AI batter has barry bonds discipline

That really bothers me, and adjustment wise it's a difficult answer as to how to fix it. What I'm beginning to work on now is a CPU Timing up to 10 and I'm seeing a bit of improvement, with a stronger ability to foul off balls but there is still much more remaining to be seen. If you adjust the CPU Contact higher, IE above 5 you'll bring a new set of problems with poor contact resulting in hits. Plus an advancement in their discipline which means they'll take even more pitches making for unnatural feeling at bat many times.

I can't live with CPU timing at 10. HoF Classic Pitching can be enough of a hair-graying exercise and having the CPU with near great timing on every swing? No thanks. It can be hard enough to fool them on speed as it is, even with lower timing. 10 on HoF Classic...I'll leave that for braver folks than I!

And I definitely agree with what you mentioned on having CPU contact over 5, especially on HoF and higher.

In MLB13, I tried the "better CPU sliders to make them swing" theory, and for a few games it seemed to work out. I was getting encouraged. But then it started looking the same as before and introduced side effects.

The only thing that really helped with higher Human pitch control. That seemed to be the biggest impact in MLB13, maybe because of my chosen interface (Classic) so that the randomness stopped being so extreme and gave me "partial success" to "partial failure" instead of perfect or garbage.

In MLB14, Pitch Consistency seems to matter less to this, but I left my control at 6. I think MLB14 is better at controlling the RNG extremist results, so that might be why I can get away with lower consistency and still see the chases and getting away with a few mistakes (foul balls) or mis-hitting good pitches to hit, like we see sometimes in the real game.

[@legendm0de]

Re: Every AI batter has barry bonds discipline

With CPU Contact at 2 you've essentially hampered their vision and discipline so drastically that you've created your own problem.

Would I be wrong to say that?

Yea, because I played at 5 for literally years including 2 weeks after this game launched, compared to only using this type of slider set for maybe 12 months overall now. However, my sliders from last gen are significantly different from what they are in PS4's edition because it's a much different game.

I've experimented with the contact slider all the way up to 10 as I've said, which is a horrifying mode where any contact on the ball, no matter how mystifying it looks will get into play and land somewhere for a hit. So from the drastic experience there, it's safe to assume anywhere from 8-10 for cpu contact is a hazardous direction if you want to game to feel realistic.

My move from 5 was based on dissatisfaction with the particular way the CPU lacks hit variety in my opinion. Partly this has to do with solid hits which also has been moved @ 2. However my concern with the cpu taking 3rd strikes too often for my taste has always been the consistent issue for me with the CPU batting experience. Not so when I experimented on 10 however, but that has it's own set of problems.

And to the poster before you, I understand a batter can be frozen with 2 strikes, however, I have simply randomly just thrown fastballs over the plate with no intent to decieve the CPU and ultimately I've seen far too often he still will take a 3rd strike looking, which is bothersome to me (and I'm playing on the highest level). I have not tested that particular method with cpu contact sliders on 5, but I will take a concentrated effort to monitor this and I'll record and share my results.

[@legendm0de]

Re: Every AI batter has barry bonds discipline

I can't live with CPU timing at 10. HoF Classic Pitching can be enough of a hair-graying exercise and having the CPU with near great timing on every swing? No thanks. It can be hard enough to fool them on speed as it is, even with lower timing. 10 on HoF Classic...I'll leave that for braver folks than I!

And I definitely agree with what you mentioned on having CPU contact over 5, especially on HoF and higher.

In MLB13, I tried the "better CPU sliders to make them swing" theory, and for a few games it seemed to work out. I was getting encouraged. But then it started looking the same as before and introduced side effects.

The only thing that really helped with higher Human pitch control. That seemed to be the biggest impact in MLB13, maybe because of my chosen interface (Classic) so that the randomness stopped being so extreme and gave me "partial success" to "partial failure" instead of perfect or garbage.

In MLB14, Pitch Consistency seems to matter less to this, but I left my control at 6. I think MLB14 is better at controlling the RNG extremist results, so that might be why I can get away with lower consistency and still see the chases and getting away with a few mistakes (foul balls) or mis-hitting good pitches to hit, like we see sometimes in the real game.

Completely understood; but my only rebuttal to that is most often, MLB players can make contact quite comfortably. It's not the matter of timing and their ability to physically reach a pitch, it's about the pitchers scheme to get the hitter confused and fooled at the plate, neutralizing his ability. So if I have their timing at 10 I theoretically should still be able to get them out just about as easily as I've experience in the past. There is still alot to learn for me moving on to this 10 cpu timing slider.

[torpidbeaver]

Re: Every AI batter has barry bonds discipline

I disagree with OP; I'm leading the league in team strikeouts playing on All-Star+/HOF.

I'm also "leading" the majors in walks, however, so I can't claim it's all daisies and pixie farts in Seattle-land.

[Mrmagoo]

Re: Every AI batter has barry bonds discipline

I disagree with OP; I'm leading the league in team strikeouts playing on All-Star+/HOF.

I'm also "leading" the majors in walks, however, so I can't claim it's all daisies and pixie farts in Seattle-land.

I'm 4th in pixie farts.

[cardinalbird5]

Re: Every AI batter has barry bonds discipline

If you are pitching on HOF or higher with default sliders...you can't expect realistic results regardless of your skill level.

My recommendation is sliders. I want the game to be challenging, but I want the hitters to act like they're human. If you use HOF, bump the CPU hitting down...if it is on AS bump it up a notch. If you use DD, then AS+ is a pretty good happy medium.

[underdog13]

Re: Every AI batter has barry bonds discipline

but the thing that really bothers me is when have you seen the AI take a strike, especially one in the middle of the zone .

Often

10char

[FreedomFigter]

Re: Every AI batter has barry bonds discipline

Has anyone else noticed a pattern that if you aim the pitch outside of the zone and then purposely miss on your spot to have it end up inside the zone they dont swing at it and will strike out on it much more often than otherwise.

It seems they never swing at my good pitches that break out of the zone, but if I purposely start it outside the zone and then throw a 'meatball' or whatever to make it end up in the zone they dont swing at it.

[nomo17k]

Re: Every AI batter has barry bonds discipline

Has anyone else noticed a pattern that if you aim the pitch outside of the zone and then purposely miss on your spot to have it end up inside the zone they dont swing at it and will strike out on it much more often than otherwise.

It seems they never swing at my good pitches that break out of the zone, but if I purposely start it outside the zone and then throw a 'meatball' or whatever to make it end up in the zone they dont swing at it.

I don't think the AI is coded to be aware of your intention (because that would be cheating), so it should not be aware of where you aimed to begin with. It's likely one of these things where you notice it more because of the situation. You intended to pitch off the strike zone, so you probably were ahead on two-strike, and then AI took it for a called third strike. You remember that more than when things go as intended.

I do generally agree that AI appears to guess a pitch a tad more than I would expect human waiting to protect the plate would do.

Yes, AI should get frozen once in a while by how he was set up; Miggy got frozen by a 89 mph fastball by Romo was a good example, but Romo relies on his slider so much that he was set up pretty nicely for a borderline pitch on the outside corner. Miggy was going to take it if was going to break off the zone, but instead Romo threw a fastball which confused him. That was a nice execution.

But I feel AI takes a third strike, not to mention it is often fat fastball, a bit too often. My guess is that AI sometimes goes into his "guessing" mode and just takes when he guesses wrong. It shouldn't happen as much as it does right now.

[tessl]

Re: Every AI batter has barry bonds discipline

Seems every CPU hitter is barry bonds in their plate discipline. Lead the league in Runs against, ERA yet near last in strikeouts, pitches just off thew plate that almost always take rarely get strikouts them chasing. I thought I read they fixed this for this year somewhere or did I dream it? Either way definitely still an issue.

This really ruins the pitching for me.

I tested this in manage mode. In 100 games there were over 30 chased pitches a game. Runs scored are ridiculously low as a result of changes to plate discipline.

But, based upon what happened with this year's game I wouldn't be surprised if the developers change the game again based upon the op's complaint.

[SwedishTouch76]

Re: Every AI batter has barry bonds discipline

Im not seeing what the OP is. Currently pitching on AllStar + and hover between there and next one up. Computer chases pitches all the time. Last game struck out Allen Craig 3 times on pitches well off the plate. I also will get the computer looking a couple times a game.

[KBLover]

Re: Every AI batter has barry bonds discipline

Has anyone else noticed a pattern that if you aim the pitch outside of the zone and then purposely miss on your spot to have it end up inside the zone they dont swing at it and will strike out on it much more often than otherwise.

I can't purposely miss, per se (Classic), but I have noticed that if I intended to have the pitch move out of the zone and it ends up in the zone - I've seen the same thing.

Likewise, if I start it in the zone and it misses, sometimes this just swing anyway. This was much more noticeable in MLB13 for me because of the CPU player behavior in that game.

In MLB14, I notice this sort of pattern much less. It's more like VIS and DIS are always in effect and there's noticeable differences in hitter behavior due to those ratings - so much so that it guides a part of my pitching strategy this year (in MLB13, I basically ignored it because hitters all acted so similar, regardless). In MLB13, it looked to me that VIS/DIS applied only in certain situations/counts, even though that may not be (probably isn't) true.

[underdog13]

Re: Every AI batter has barry bonds discipline

Has anyone else noticed a pattern that if you aim the pitch outside of the zone and then purposely miss on your spot to have it end up inside the zone they dont swing at it and will strike out on it much more often than otherwise.

It seems they never swing at my good pitches that break out of the zone, but if I purposely start it outside the zone and then throw a 'meatball' or whatever to make it end up in the zone they dont swing at it.

Considering the devs say that the game doesn't know if it's cpu v cpu or hum v cpu. It's most likely a placebo