Please help me understand difficulty ratings better

[TGov]

I've played The Show for years now but I've never really ventured far from Veteran and All-star difficulties in the game.
I think there's Hall of Fame and Legend difficulties beyond that, if I'm not mistaken.

What makes the game more difficult with those higher settings?
Is it smarter strategies? Faster gameplay? Less hittable pitches? Quicker animations?

With the use of Sliders you can really tailor the game to your liking but I've never tried a higher difficulty with "easier" Sliders to balance it out. Now I'm curious though.

Thanks for any feedback guys.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Operation Sports mobile app

[Caulfield]

Re: Please help me understand difficulty ratings better

I've played The Show for years now but I've never really ventured far from Veteran and All-star difficulties in the game.
I think there's Hall of Fame and Legend difficulties beyond that, if I'm not mistaken.

What makes the game more difficult with those higher settings?
Is it smarter strategies? Faster gameplay? Less hittable pitches? Quicker animations?

With the use of Sliders you can really tailor the game to your liking but I've never tried a higher difficulty with "easier" Sliders to balance it out. Now I'm curious though.

Thanks for any feedback guys.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Operation Sports mobile app

really good question. I have bumped CPU sliders like contact and power and such to 0 and bumped those same human sliders to 10 and put it on Legend. had some really interesting games like that as I normally play Dynamic difficulty and hover between veteran and allstar.

[bcruise]

Re: Please help me understand difficulty ratings better

The most obvious differences are in the user interfaces - HOF and Legend generally make them tougher to use effectively. The user's PCI size (an estimation of their overall hitting ability) is reduced, making it tougher to get solid contact. In meter and pulse pitching, the mechanics are sped up - pulse pulses quicker and the meter is faster on the way back to the accuracy point. Analog probably has some aspect of it that's tougher too, but I don't play with that mode often so I really don't know.

In addition, the CPU's PCI size increases pretty dramatically, making it easier for them to get the bat on the ball. You might look at the size of it on Legend and ask yourself how the CPU can possibly miss - but it does, and pitching becomes much more about making effective pitches that either break off of the plate or just nip corners, making the hitters chase out of the zone. It's not perfect, it will still foul off pitches over the middle and sometimes swing and miss at clear strikes. But there is generally less margin for error, and a much bigger risk of trying to throw too many hittable strikes.

I feel like, to some degree, the AI throws more pitches off the plate in HOF and Legend (this generally shows up in its end-of-game first pitch strike percentage), and that's mainly in an attempt to get you to expand the zone. This can work against it at times because if you can lay off of those, you will draw walks.

Finally, I feel like it's really important not to fall into patterns when playing on the upper levels. I know a common strategy for some people is to always/almost always take the first pitch, and if you show that tendency the CPU is going to throw more first pitch strikes because it knows you won't swing. If you swing at the first pitch when the CPU leaves it over the plate, you're more likely to see it try to make you chase a pitch out of the zone later on. And, it goes without saying that you really don't want to get caught throwing the same pitch/location repeatedly to a CPU batter whose abilities are inflated by the difficulty level - unless that pitch is really good and has high confidence (Pedro Strop's slider comes to mind - if I throw that slightly off the plate to a righty, I will get a LOT of swinging strikes regardless of when I throw it).

[TGov]

Re: Please help me understand difficulty ratings better

Thanks guys, I appreciate the feedback.
I'll probably try my luck with All-star and some boosted sliders, see if I can find a neutral ground for my play style.
Thanks again. [emoji106]

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