Rubberbanding AI is killing my enjoyment

[saucerset]

Re: Rubberbanding AI is killing my enjoyment

I don't believe real life has rubberband AI. Seems like The Show is representing the game of baseball pretty well.

I agree. I think it goes both ways equally without it being a set 'code'.

[Speedy]

Re: Rubberbanding AI is killing my enjoyment

So far in my season, every game my bullpen coughs the lead. Just now I was up 4-2 with Walden pitching the 8 th. I use the meter for pitching and quick counts. 8 th place hitter comes up with a 3-0 count, fastball perfect on the meter, ball goes way off target. Pinch hitter, they get a 3-1 count and rock a seeing eye single. Marte comes up, ball is hit to 2nd, Wong throws it into the stands. Tie game.

Harrison up next against Belisle, and first pitch is a homer.

Seems to happen a lot this year. No lead is safe, which can make for some excitement, but it also creates frustration since I feel I'm constantly burning through my pen, since you know no matter who comes in the run is scoring.

Anyone else feel this way on this years game?

Would be a boring game if you won every single one handily, right?

[fjackson18]

Re: Rubberbanding AI is killing my enjoyment

rubber band AI a touchy subject around here. some feel it exists some don't. I don't think there is though. I do think this game works that hard in being "realistic" that it HAS to make sure some things do happen in a game. but would that be called rubber banding? who knows. i win big, lose close ones, win close ones and have an occasional 4+run loss. but i am winning more than i am losing.

[Maxflier]

Re: Rubberbanding AI is killing my enjoyment

I definitely notice the rubberband AI this year. I have actually shelved the game because I got so tired of it.

[Padgoi]

Rubberbanding AI is killing my enjoyment

I think the higher difficulty definitely tends to favor the Cpu in ways that would make people think rubberbanding exists. For example, this happened to me today :

Up 6-0 in the bottom of the 5th, sabathia is cruising. First three batters of the 5th go single, single, Jack to make it 6-3.

Top 6th, I get a runner on third with one out and fail to get him home.

Bottom 6th, the inning starts with a hard ground ball to my second basemen, who oles it into a two base error (being my 3rd error of the game in only the 6th inning, all of which were computer generated errors). Very next batter doubles to make it 6-4. Very next batter triples to make it 6-5. Next batter sac fly and we're tied at 6. Two batters later, guy hits a jack and now I'm down 7-6. Mind you, this all happened to 3 different pitchers (I took out sabathia after the 3-run 5th inning) using a few mound visits and checking previous at-bats to make sure I mixed up pitches. Sometimes there's nothing you can do about it.

Is that real baseball? I mean, yeah, it happens on occasion in real life, but the frequency that which it happens on the higher difficulties in the game are what make it unrealistic and what make people argue that there is some comeback code. Is there? Who knows. I just think the higher difficulties are definitely tuned to favor the Cpu and if you have the sliders even for human and Cpu, more often than not on the higher difficulties you're going to see some weird happenings.

[nomo17k]

Re: Rubberbanding AI is killing my enjoyment

rubber band AI a touchy subject around here. some feel it exists some don't. I don't think there is though. I do think this game works that hard in being "realistic" that it HAS to make sure some things do happen in a game. but would that be called rubber banding? who knows. i win big, lose close ones, win close ones and have an occasional 4+run loss. but i am winning more than i am losing.

That would be rubber banding, wouldn't it? Because that statement means there are forced situations by the game.

I don't know which difficulty the OP is playing on, but I think the most realistic results happen probably on All-star.

What have been said about the difficulty levels by the devs in the past is that the A.I. itself doesn't really change that much it's "smartness" on level on and above All-star. The differences you feel against A.I. on HoF and Legend more likely come from the boosts or reduction in PCI size, timing, pitch command and such.

I think what this means is that assuming that the game is tuned to realism on All-star (which seems to be the case based on CPU vs. CPU games, which play quite realistic), CPU might actually be getting (effectively) rating boosts in HoF and Legend, which when you yourself are very well executing your strategies realistically, CPU might still be able to punish you because it is (effectively) getting boosts in his ability.

I'm just guessing here, but I find pitching to CPU above HoF often unreasonably challenging, while on All-star it feels more balanced. But the difference in challenge is not situational, so it is different from rubber banding.

[fjackson18]

Re: Rubberbanding AI is killing my enjoyment

That would be rubber banding, wouldn't it? Because that statement means there are forced situations by the game.

I don't know which difficulty the OP is playing on, but I think the most realistic results happen probably on All-star.

What have been said about the difficulty levels by the devs in the past is that the A.I. itself doesn't really change that much it's "smartness" on level on and above All-star. The differences you feel against A.I. on HoF and Legend more likely come from the boosts or reduction in PCI size, timing, pitch command and such.

I think what this means is that assuming that the game is tuned to realism on All-star (which seems to be the case based on CPU vs. CPU games, which play quite realistic), CPU might actually be getting (effectively) rating boosts in HoF and Legend, which when you yourself are very well executing your strategies realistically, CPU might still be able to punish you because it is (effectively) getting boosts in his ability.

I'm just guessing here, but I find pitching to CPU above HoF often unreasonably challenging, while on All-star it feels more balanced. But the difference in challenge is not situational, so it is different from rubber banding.

And that's why i ask if it is. i can score 4 in an inning and i guarantee the first batter for them is hitting a double. but majority of the time they get one
in the inning and i still win as the end result. sometimes they match my four runs but i still pull it out. what i really was touching on when i spoke of things having to happen are the errors or animations that cause fielders to make mistakes. i don't think that's rubberbanding. as opposed to the game having things happen out of our control.

[nomo17k]

Re: Rubberbanding AI is killing my enjoyment

And that's why i ask if it is. i can score 4 in an inning and i guarantee the first batter for them is hitting a double. but majority of the time they get one
in the inning and i still win as the end result. sometimes they match my four runs but i still pull it out. what i really was touching on when i spoke of things having to happen are the errors or animations that cause fielders to make mistakes. i don't think that's rubberbanding. as opposed to the game having things happen out of our control.

But if they are happening because of the situation, then the game is basically forcing certain things to happen, and that's something the devs have categorically denied.

People just tend to remember things that go against their favor in inopportune times, when similar things are actually occurring in other nondescript situations with similar frequencies.

In this game more memorable moments tend to happen in late innings, so people (incorrectly) attribute the cause of whatever they observe to comeback or rubber banding... It is convenient to think that's the culprit, but the game is not doing this.


What I observe in playing quite a few online games against human opponents is that some people actually do "choke," and make mistakes that they would not make in non-pressure situations. With fielding, if you don't make plays well by triggering smooth animations, I think the chance of making errors increases. That type of thing can also be mistaken as the game forcing things to occur.

So I think it is a mix of various factors, but with all the uncertainties (because we of course don't know exactly how the game internal works), the game forcing things to happen has clearly been denied, so if we care we should look for reasons elsewhere.

[badmrfrosty7]

Re: Rubberbanding AI is killing my enjoyment

Every time I start to think there's a comeback code or something, I find times that I was impatient or am just having a bad game with all the breaks going the other way.

HOWEVER! That's not to say there isn't faulty code that screws you over from time to time. I just believe it's coincidental whether it makes you win or lose. And in a game where every moment and break counts, it can be an emotional experience when these things occur.

So when you're infielder fans/doesn't even try on what seems to be a field-able grounder or short pop up, or when your opponent hits multiple line drives down the line in a row that all appear like the exact same type of hit with the exact same path, or when your fielder pats his glove 7 times before making what was an easy throw, now difficult, or makes a slow pickup of the ball allowing a baserunner to go from 1st to 3rd, it's just the code man. It's non-discriminative coding that makes a beautiful game incredibly frustrating from time to time, but baseball can be a cruel sport anyway.

The faultiest thing I've seen are these insane suicide squeeze attempts. I just lost back to back games from this insanity. Every time I get stuck in a bases loaded situation in the 9th I switch the infield to Bunt Defense and the cleanup hitter still lays down a perfect squeeze attempt to tie. Even had it happen two hitters in a row. One to tie, the next to win it. It was the Dodgers 4 and 5 guys. I've gotten to the point where I'm just hitting the batter and conceding defeat when I get in this jam because I can't stand to see it happen again. I can agree that this has killed my enjoyment. But all the other occasions are live-able because I still have some control over the outcome at the end of the day.

[Dynasty Legend 99]

Re: Rubberbanding AI is killing my enjoyment

I just had a game in the 12th inning, tied 1-1 (Using P.A.D.'s set of slider/difficulty). I had a ground ball with no one on, one man out. Grounder to Hosmer, he doesn't react to it and somehow Colon can get to it either. Next Play, Line drive right into short right center field, Rios somehow does that animation where he's running to pick it up but misses and falls down. Letting the runner all the way from 1st come home and score. Oh well, i honestly felt something fishy happened but I have seen this happen many times on crazy plays. I just have to remind myself that playing on almost the highest difficulty, I'm going to have games not go my way with things out of my control. Nobody enjoys losing, but having to scrap and claw for every win is great, and I really don't min. I really love playing with P.A.D.'s set, I have both good and bad days.

The Best Teams lose over a third-40% of their games.

[countryboy]

Re: Rubberbanding AI is killing my enjoyment

I beat the Giants 8-0 on default Hall of Fame. How come rubber banding AI didn't effect my game?

[HozAndMoose]

Re: Rubberbanding AI is killing my enjoyment

I beat the Giants 8-0 on default Hall of Fame. How come rubber banding AI didn't effect my game?

I won the World Series in 5 games on HoF.....

[NDAlum]

Re: Rubberbanding AI is killing my enjoyment

I only play on AS level. What I have started doing is mixing in mound visits when an innings after the 5th starts to go a little south.

It has really helped from my point of view


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Ruffy]

Re: Rubberbanding AI is killing my enjoyment

I think the higher difficulty definitely tends to favor the Cpu in ways that would make people think rubberbanding exists. For example, this happened to me today :

Up 6-0 in the bottom of the 5th, sabathia is cruising. First three batters of the 5th go single, single, Jack to make it 6-3.

Top 6th, I get a runner on third with one out and fail to get him home.

Bottom 6th, the inning starts with a hard ground ball to my second basemen, who oles it into a two base error (being my 3rd error of the game in only the 6th inning, all of which were computer generated errors). Very next batter doubles to make it 6-4. Very next batter triples to make it 6-5. Next batter sac fly and we're tied at 6. Two batters later, guy hits a jack and now I'm down 7-6. Mind you, this all happened to 3 different pitchers (I took out sabathia after the 3-run 5th inning) using a few mound visits and checking previous at-bats to make sure I mixed up pitches. Sometimes there's nothing you can do about it.

Is that real baseball? I mean, yeah, it happens on occasion in real life, but the frequency that which it happens on the higher difficulties in the game are what make it unrealistic and what make people argue that there is some comeback code. Is there? Who knows. I just think the higher difficulties are definitely tuned to favor the Cpu and if you have the sliders even for human and Cpu, more often than not on the higher difficulties you're going to see some weird happenings.

This sounds like about every 3rd game for the Blue Jays this year. The higher difficulties...are yep....harder.

I think people forget how much failure the game of baseball is. Great teams still lose 35% (60 games) a year. Most teams lose just under half their games. Good hitters fail 70% of the time. Most pitchers only pitch quality starts 50% of the time or less. Also most lose 35% or more of their starts.

Factoring all that I feel lucky I win any game.

[Padgoi]

Re: Rubberbanding AI is killing my enjoyment

I beat the Giants 8-0 on default Hall of Fame. How come rubber banding AI didn't effect my game?

Same defense every post. It doesn't happen every game. I won a game 7-1. Then lost a game 4-3. Then the 6-0 comeback happened. Is there malicious code? Probably not. What I'm saying is the Cpu gets a ridiculous and unrealistic boost on higher levels. Can it be attributed to baseball being baseball? Sure. Is it realistic? Not the way the game has it play out.