Too many HR's?

[redsoxfan25]

Re: Too many HR's?

I didn't think All-Star pitching would be that bad. I found Veteran too easy, I remember either last year or 2 years ago I tried All-Star pitching and just got annihilated. I like/try to play with default sliders.

Going on just about 3 weeks pitching on All-Star, I'm going to have to bump down CPU Power at least. I'm not exaggerating, there's been a HR hit in every game for 3 weeks. I think only 4 or 5 runs in 3 weeks have come from base hits. Just now I gave up 4 in one game to Kris Bryant. HRs piss me off but when they come in bunches like that? Absolutely infuriating.

[Gagnon39]

Re: Too many HR's?

So are people still seeing a trend of too many home runs?

I'm currently in mid-June of my franchise as the Cubs (as always) and the NL home run leaders are as follows:

1. Kyle Schwarber (26)
2. Anthony Rizzo (20)
3. Kris Bryant (15)

Not surprisingly I lead the Majors in home runs as a team (which I'd be interested to see if an NL team's ever lead an AL team. I'm guessing yes, but probably not too often.).

My team has 98 home runs (through 62 games). Houston is second with 85. The closest NL team is the Dodgers with 78.

I've always looked at my video game stats as okay as long as they fall within what I call the "realm of believability." I can live with stats that are high where I lead the league in different categories as long as it would be (albeit maybe unlikely) possible in real life.

Right now Schwarber's on pace for right around 70 home runs. Likely? Nope. Possible... I suppose. If he were to hit 100, that would be the point at which it was just too much.


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[nomo17k]

Re: Too many HR's?

If you are still hitting too many HRs, I think you need to bump up a difficulty (if you are generally hitting too well) or if the issue is isolated to HRs, you may want to use slider(s) to reduce your sweet spot... depending on the severity and your tendency, you could use and reduce Contact/Timing/Solid Hit sliders until your HR numbers are in check.

[No.27]

Re: Too many HR's?

I didn't think All-Star pitching would be that bad. I found Veteran too easy, I remember either last year or 2 years ago I tried All-Star pitching and just got annihilated. I like/try to play with default sliders.

Going on just about 3 weeks pitching on All-Star, I'm going to have to bump down CPU Power at least. I'm not exaggerating, there's been a HR hit in every game for 3 weeks. I think only 4 or 5 runs in 3 weeks have come from base hits. Just now I gave up 4 in one game to Kris Bryant. HRs piss me off but when they come in bunches like that? Absolutely infuriating.

I think the intentional walk might have to become your best friend. I wouldn't have let Kris Bryant face another pitch after the first homer. I just walked Joey Votto three times after he scored a 2 run homer in the first. I took note and he didn't get around for a run as I'm actually having to get used to pitching with men on base. I've also found lowering solid hit slider by a notch will help with getting more base hits.

[marbury]

Re: Too many HR's?

Bump up pitch speed to 9 or 10.

[Gagnon39]

Re: Too many HR's?

If you are still hitting too many HRs, I think you need to bump up a difficulty (if you are generally hitting too well) or if the issue is isolated to HRs, you may want to use slider(s) to reduce your sweet spot... depending on the severity and your tendency, you could use and reduce Contact/Timing/Solid Hit sliders until your HR numbers are in check.

My problem with that is everything else is right where it needs to be. I don't want to lower my power slider because I already hit too few doubles. However if half of my home runs would just hit the wall or fall a little short of it, things would be perfect.


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[KnightTemplar]

Re: Too many HR's?

Yeah, so my intention is not at all to downplay the concerns some people feel about the apparent difficulty reduction, but am simply curious what causes people to feel that way. It's just part of the process of understanding the issue, without which we cannot really hope to have any solution.

It is of course possible that things like timing window and PCI size has been increased to further "open up" hitting in an effort to make the game accessible to more people...

... but even if that's true, that trend really started happening a few years ago, and while the ill-tuned ball physics (and the wind effect that exacerbates the problem) really made it look worse out of the box, I personally don't feel that aspect of the game specifically is substantially worse than, say, MLB 16.

If you ask that if the timing/contact window for generating HRs is a bit too wide, then I actually agree in general though... a difference I think is that's not an issue specific to this year but I have felt that way for a few years by now.

(And also heading to the ShowNation forum... there are now people complaining how the recent patch nerfed hitting too much to the extent they actually think it's too hard to generate offense... I don't agree with that feeling but it just shows people develop wildly different impressions.)

So I suppose that I just don't agree with the claim that hitting has gone arcade because the developers wanted it.. I just personally think that's not true (so a complaining around it only creates noises that lead to nothing, and if they have actually tried, they've really done a poor job making an arcade experience).

Now that the patch has nerfed power enough to the extent that arcade crowd expresses unhappiness, I am just curious what still remains of the "too many HRs" issue.

Looking at your video, I actually think I would not be surprised that you are naturally good enough to hit on Legend. I usually hit very comfortable on HoF/Zone and I don't move PCI well enough as you do, and All-star is definitely too easy for me. You having gotten better at the game may also be a factor.

Really enjoy reading your analysis on this game. Bottom line, IMO, it's not the game (post patch) it's the user. Either too stubborn to change, or not wanting to take the time to experiment. You're right, from "nerfed" to still a problem confirms it's not the game, again in my opinion.

Some guys are too good for LEGEND, some so awful that ROOKIE is a problem. Lots of variables.

[Bunselpower32]

Re: Too many HR's?

Getting one hittable pitch every bat isn't really unexpected though (even the in-game Strategy Guide states that's about the fraction of "good" pitches you would receive).

As per a developer, AI doesn't change that much on and above All-star, and more significant difference in the difficulty is caused by changes in things like PCI size, difficulty of locating pitch, etc. (That's a conversation from a few years, so things might have changed, of course.)

Aside from the difficulty level, if CPU's inability to locate his pitches bothers you, you could also try increasing Pitcher Control and Pitcher Consistency sliders for CPU. The former tweaks pitchers' ability to command pitches very close to the intended target, and the latter tweaks their tendency to throw totally errant pitches that miss far away from the intended target.

But I think that's about the only way to influence CPU's pitch location.

A wise man once said "As a hitter, you get about one pitch to hit per at bat to do something with. Your job as a hitter is to figure out which one that is, and do something with it."

That was Tommy Herr I believe. So getting one good pitch per at bat sounds like the game is playing as intended.

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[nomo17k]

Re: Too many HR's?

My problem with that is everything else is right where it needs to be. I don't want to lower my power slider because I already hit too few doubles. However if half of my home runs would just hit the wall or fall a little short of it, things would be perfect.


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

Lack of double may still be an issue for the game, since the ball physics still doesn't get slicing down the line correct... IRL, a significant fraction (if not majority) of doubles are from hits down the line:

Spoiler

<iframe src="http://www.fangraphs.com/graphframe.aspx?config=0&static=1346576&type=spray &num=1&h=450&w=450&players=4316&position=2B&mt=bat tedball&ss=2014&se=&cht=hittype&pos=ALL&vs=ALL" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="450" width = "450" style="border:1px solid black;"></iframe>

but the game still struggles to reproduce these due to lack of slicing after the ball bounces off the ground, most doubles in the game tend to come from balls hit to the gap between outfielders.

If you are hitting too many HRs but too few doubles, that might be a good case for reducing Power slider by one click or so, to convert some HR power to so-called "gap power"? Power slider might be a little too sensitive even by one click but at least that doesn't affect other parts of the game too much.

If you don't want to touch Power, you could still use Solid Hit/Timing/Contact to reduce the sweet spot enough to tone down HR power.

[nomo17k]

Re: Too many HR's?

Really enjoy reading your analysis on this game. Bottom line, IMO, it's not the game (post patch) it's the user. Either too stubborn to change, or not wanting to take the time to experiment. You're right, from "nerfed" to still a problem confirms it's not the game, again in my opinion.

Some guys are too good for LEGEND, some so awful that ROOKIE is a problem. Lots of variables.

Even if it's mostly up to the user settings, I think it can still be a pretty frustrating experience to find the right settings. And I certainly hope Legend has not become too accessible that some guys cannot find challenging enough settings to play realistically...

A wise man once said "As a hitter, you get about one pitch to hit per at bat to do something with. Your job as a hitter is to figure out which one that is, and do something with it."

That was Tommy Herr I believe. So getting one good pitch per at bat sounds like the game is playing as intended.

Yeah, the devs who have coded up the part of the game really studied baseball to make things work close to real-life. The reason why I enjoy this game a little too much...

[WhiteBunny]

Re: Too many HR's?

Really enjoy reading your analysis on this game. Bottom line, IMO, it's not the game (post patch) it's the user. Either too stubborn to change, or not wanting to take the time to experiment. You're right, from "nerfed" to still a problem confirms it's not the game, again in my opinion.

Some guys are too good for LEGEND, some so awful that ROOKIE is a problem. Lots of variables.

To be honest, a week before the release of MLB 17 i was still playing MLB 16 on All-Star difficult ( pitching/hitting ) and it was a fair challenge. To me the difference in terms of difficulty was night and day since the first game i had with MLB 17.
If they don't take a step back with all this DD crap, next year this game will be a mess. At least, for who want to play a baseball sim.

[Gagnon39]

Re: Too many HR's?

Lack of double may still be an issue for the game, since the ball physics still doesn't get slicing down the line correct... IRL, a significant fraction (if not majority) of doubles are from hits down the line:

Spoiler

<iframe src="http://www.fangraphs.com/graphframe.aspx?config=0&static=1346576&type=spray &num=1&h=450&w=450&players=4316&position=2B&mt=bat tedball&ss=2014&se=&cht=hittype&pos=ALL&vs=ALL" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" height="450" width = "450" style="border:1px solid black;"></iframe>

but the game still struggles to reproduce these due to lack of slicing after the ball bounces off the ground, most doubles in the game tend to come from balls hit to the gap between outfielders.



If you are hitting too many HRs but too few doubles, that might be a good case for reducing Power slider by one click or so, to convert some HR power to so-called "gap power"? Power slider might be a little too sensitive even by one click but at least that doesn't affect other parts of the game too much.



If you don't want to touch Power, you could still use Solid Hit/Timing/Contact to reduce the sweet spot enough to tone down HR power.

The only thing that worries me there is the description of the power slider in the game. It says it can reduce the amount of home runs but also says that it affects extra base hits (albeit to a lesser degree). I done well lately to move from last in the Majors in doubles to 25th.


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[nomo17k]

Re: Too many HR's?

The only thing that worries me there is the description of the power slider in the game. It says it can reduce the amount of home runs but also says that it affects extra base hits (albeit to a lesser degree). I done well lately to move from last in the Majors in doubles to 25th.

That's just one idea to convert some HRs to doubles. There are a class of doubles and HRs for which the only distinction is whether it went over the fence or not, and reducing Power slider helps convert some HRs into doubles there. Since you are not producing enough doubles already, there aren't many of them that would be converted into singles anyways.

All this depends on what kind of HRs you are over-producing... so I'm not saying this is the right solution though. It's just one idea.

[cherman24]

Re: Too many HR's?

I didn't think All-Star pitching would be that bad. I found Veteran too easy, I remember either last year or 2 years ago I tried All-Star pitching and just got annihilated. I like/try to play with default sliders.

Going on just about 3 weeks pitching on All-Star, I'm going to have to bump down CPU Power at least. I'm not exaggerating, there's been a HR hit in every game for 3 weeks. I think only 4 or 5 runs in 3 weeks have come from base hits. Just now I gave up 4 in one game to Kris Bryant. HRs piss me off but when they come in bunches like that? Absolutely infuriating.

I'm getting annoyed with CPU HRs at the moment as well. I'm not saying you don't have a game like that or a player who goes off, but to go on a 5 game losing streak where only 1 run was not the result of a HR is silly. Players with 2-3 HR games in 5 straight??? The one that told me it's time to take a few days off was in the bottom of the 9th tied and 0-2 count...purposely throwing out of the zone and the CPU was fouling off, it just felt like it was almost scripted. Threw a change up (which was intended to be a dirt ball) was lifted over the wall for the game winner. I'll cool down a bit and get back on the horse.

[Razeart2422]

Re: Too many HR's?

I do agree there are too many homeruns by the computer. But the computer hitting 1 a game is not unrealistic. I play on Hall of Fame pitching and i have had a few games where i have given up 0 homeruns. I usually pitch around guys who are on a hot streak or who have high power ratings.

You should try walking more batters by pitching around them. Sometimes pitching around them would get you some strike outs aswell.

I have been testing the power slider at 4 for 12 games. With Veteran batting and Hall of fame pitching. I have allowed 16 homers and i have hit 12.

I am averaging exactly 1 HR per game and the cpu is averaging 1.3