Contact - Swings & Misses - Strikeouts

[countryboy]

Re: Contact - Swings & Misses - Strikeouts

Not that you will care or anybody else for that matter, but when you make slider adjustments you have to play many , many games to get a good sample size of the difference it makes, make an adjustment, not multiple, and start over. It takes a long time and a lot of effort to actually make a slider set mimic real stats or play the way you want it to. Anybody can make some adjustments play a few games and post them for all to see, but that's not the correct way to go about it.

I understand that.

I just can't enjoy playing with altered sliders. I've always preferred to play at default. It's just my preference. I made those adjustments for a few games because I felt I owed it to the community since I started the thread and mentioned those changes, but I just can't enjoy playing the game that way because I'm more concerned with the adjustments than the game.

My comment wasn't meant as a knock against sliders, the adjusting of sliders, or anyone who adjusts sliders. I was simply stating that I had gone back to default just in case, not that there was, someone waiting to see what additional information/results/stats I would post using the slider adjustments I mentioned.

[Caulfield]

Re: Contact - Swings & Misses - Strikeouts

Not that you will care or anybody else for that matter, but when you make slider adjustments you have to play many , many games to get a good sample size of the difference it makes, make an adjustment, not multiple, and start over. It takes a long time and a lot of effort to actually make a slider set mimic real stats or play the way you want it to. Anybody can make some adjustments play a few games and post them for all to see, but that's not the correct way to go about it.

on the one hand thats true but on the other hand for a lot of people the game does play just fine on default . I think cb has played this series long enough to know default suits him well enough

[countryboy]

Re: Contact - Swings & Misses - Strikeouts

One thing I will mention since paying attention to this "issue" over the last few games is that as a pitching meter user, I'm finding that if I miss the accuracy mark on the meter, then the CPU is more likely to get a piece of a pitch, even when its out of the zone. If I'm perfect, or extremely close to the accuracy mark, I'm more likely to get a swing and a miss.

Maybe there is more of a punishment when missing the accuracy mark this year?

[DJ]

Re: Contact - Swings & Misses - Strikeouts

I've had the opposite issue, lol. More good timing swings missing the ball than I saw last year. I've as lo moved up to HOF Directional and I'm striking out a lot now, although I have games where I'm locked in. The Mets are a low-rated contact team in my Franchise (tops in Power), but I'm hesitant to drop back down to AS because I was hitting too many HR's.

Like CB, I'm default sliders.

[El_MaYiMbE]

Re: Contact - Swings & Misses - Strikeouts

I've had the opposite issue, lol. More good timing swings missing the ball than I saw last year. I've as lo moved up to HOF Directional and I'm striking out a lot now, although I have games where I'm locked in. The Mets are a low-rated contact team in my Franchise (tops in Power), but I'm hesitant to drop back down to AS because I was hitting too many HR's.

Like CB, I'm default sliders.

So despite my feedback that Very Late and Early swings, respectively, yield too much contact; I have noticed that there are swings and misses occasionally on good timing.

I find it interesting that the probability of swinging and missing on anything other than Good Timing, is LOWER than Good Timing itself. To me that means this is a defect 100%.

The problem with this "bug" in particular is that if you are a bad hitter, you probably do not notice as you constantly take horrible hacks and strike out on pitches out the zone anyway, if you play on Veteran or Rookie you probably just chalk it up to the easier difficulty level and if you are a casual gamer, this might not seem like a big deal to you altogether. So ironically, the better a hitter you are the more obvious it becomes that you cannot strike out as much as you should.

So couple all those things together and something that should be a HUGE issue is being glossed over.
Note: when I say "you', I do not mean you directly, just in general terms.

[El_MaYiMbE]

Re: Contact - Swings & Misses - Strikeouts

One thing I will mention since paying attention to this "issue" over the last few games is that as a pitching meter user, I'm finding that if I miss the accuracy mark on the meter, then the CPU is more likely to get a piece of a pitch, even when its out of the zone. If I'm perfect, or extremely close to the accuracy mark, I'm more likely to get a swing and a miss.

Maybe there is more of a punishment when missing the accuracy mark this year?

I feel like the game places the emphasis in the wrong place when deciding what the punishment is for bad accuracy during pitching. It should come by way, of pitches that are timed perfect by the hitter, being crushed more often when accuracy is off.

If the hitter is Very Late or Very Early, even if I missed my accuracy, they should swing and miss more than 75% of the time. Especially considering there are so many other timing areas within the window where contact is possible.

After Very Early there are still Early, Slightly Early, Good, Slightly Late, Late and Very Late....in the timing window. There are 6 other zones, 5 of which should allow for contact.

The further away you move from Good, in either direction, the probability of making contact should drop. It should almost drop off a table at Very Early and Very Late for everyone except ELITE CONTACT/VISION hitters, and even they should still swing and miss more times than not when they are Very "anything", but their high contact and/or vision should allow them to stay alive....SOMETIMES...thus what makes them valuable. Instead, everyone in the game seems to have a "knack" for fouling pitches off due to the inability to swing and miss even on bad swing timing. Everyone becomes a pesky hitter at the plate OR puts the ball in play, rather than swinging and missing.

This is especially alarming, especially with how many K's there are in today's MLB game. It completely ruins the immersion and realism of the game, and when it comes to strikeouts, nullifies the difference between players who strike out constantly vs guys who rarely strikeout (Giancarlo Stanton vs DJ Lemahieu)

All of this should be true regardless of how good or bad the accuracy of the pitch was. Me making a bad pitch should not forgive someone being Very Late, if it they were how bad of a pitch could it have been?

[countryboy]

Re: Contact - Swings & Misses - Strikeouts

After watching the Gomes, Corbin, and Eaton at bat versus Wacha in the Nats/Cards game, I have no more complaints about this issue within the game.

[countryboy]

Re: Contact - Swings & Misses - Strikeouts

Sorry for the back to back posts but wanted to share this.

In my 3 games since going back to default (Legend), strikeouts have been:

CIN - 11
CHC - 10
CHC - 9


STL: 8
STL: 9
STL: 7

Just thought that I would share

[baseballguy99]

Re: Contact - Swings & Misses - Strikeouts

I totally get what you say about playing in default. There is something about tuning sliders that makes me feel the same . Just wish it was more challenging on default meter . They need another pitching difficulty

[bcruise]

Re: Contact - Swings & Misses - Strikeouts

Sorry for the back to back posts but wanted to share this.

In my 3 games since going back to default (Legend), strikeouts have been:

CIN - 11
CHC - 10
CHC - 9


STL: 8
STL: 9
STL: 7

Just thought that I would share

I can add some strikeout numbers too now that I'm actively playing in a franchise to test my gameplay vs. the stats I'm putting up. 5 games so far, default Legend as the Cubs:

vs Texas:

4 BB, 8 K
3 BB, 7 K
5 BB, 9 K

vs. Atlanta

5 BB, 10 K
6 BB, 6 K

[reply to CB ends here]

The best part of this is that every strikeout feels earned - I need to get the CPU to expand the zone to have a high chance of getting that third strike, and to do that I need to pitch from ahead in the count. Because of this, the first pitch strike is huge - as is keeping it near the corners and not making it too hittable (because the Legend CPU will eventually catch on and punish you for it). With that said, a fair amount of my called thirds come from minor meter misses that hang over the corners of the plate and the CPU can't pull the trigger.

Here's an inning from the same franchise data as above of Cishek being nasty - one of the best innings (by results) that I've pitched on Legend. And it's far from perfect, but in this case the mistakes (most notably the Freeman K pitch which landed on the other corner of the zone from where I aimed, and the Acuna 3-2 cement-mixer) either weren't punished or resulted in a good outcome.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dZoXzp_EYpI" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I knew the blue was giving that corner throughout the game btw. Wasn't that surprised when I saw Freeman get rung up on it - though I was surprised the pitch actually landed there!

It's not like I mean to turn these types of discussions into a teaching class, but it's impossible to talk about why I can get my strikeouts - and therefore defend my position - without discussing or showing my methods. Hopefully that's understood by all those reading.

I do acknowledge the issue of contact being made far off of the PCI - I said as much earlier in the thread. Maybe I'm missing a reason why it happens - perhaps because of Legend difficulty, perhaps players with high vision getting too much leeway on the outside of the PCI, combination of both, or something else I haven't considered. But even despite that, I'm able to get decent numbers of swings and misses, and with it strikeouts.

[countryboy]

Re: Contact - Swings &amp; Misses - Strikeouts

That pitch sequence to Donaldson was filthy!

And agree bcruise, strikeouts this year feel more rewarding.

While like you, and others, I think there's too much contact with the PCI being severely mis-located for whatever reason, I think my biggest issue was re-learning how to pitch since off-speed pitches are as effective as last year and pitching off the fastball is more "rewarding" this year.

Whatever the case may be, I'm happy to have "resolved my issue" and can get back to playing and a quest to return to the World Series this year.

[Roscosuper]

Re: Contact - Swings &amp; Misses - Strikeouts

I can add some strikeout numbers too now that I'm actively playing in a franchise to test my gameplay vs. the stats I'm putting up. 5 games so far, default Legend as the Cubs:

vs Texas:

4 BB, 8 K
3 BB, 7 K
5 BB, 9 K

vs. Atlanta

5 BB, 10 K
6 BB, 6 K

[reply to CB ends here]

The best part of this is that every strikeout feels earned - I need to get the CPU to expand the zone to have a high chance of getting that third strike, and to do that I need to pitch from ahead in the count. Because of this, the first pitch strike is huge - as is keeping it near the corners and not making it too hittable (because the Legend CPU will eventually catch on and punish you for it). With that said, a fair amount of my called thirds come from minor meter misses that hang over the corners of the plate and the CPU can't pull the trigger.

Here's an inning from the same franchise data as above of Cishek being nasty - one of the best innings (by results) that I've pitched on Legend. And it's far from perfect, but in this case the mistakes (most notably the Freeman K pitch which landed on the other corner of the zone from where I aimed, and the Acuna 3-2 cement-mixer) either weren't punished or resulted in a good outcome.

<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dZoXzp_EYpI" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" width="560" height="315" frameborder="0"></iframe>

I knew the blue was giving that corner throughout the game btw. Wasn't that surprised when I saw Freeman get rung up on it - though I was surprised the pitch actually landed there!

It's not like I mean to turn these types of discussions into a teaching class, but it's impossible to talk about why I can get my strikeouts - and therefore defend my position - without discussing or showing my methods. Hopefully that's understood by all those reading.

I do acknowledge the issue of contact being made far off of the PCI - I said as much earlier in the thread. Maybe I'm missing a reason why it happens - perhaps because of Legend difficulty, perhaps players with high vision getting too much leeway on the outside of the PCI, combination of both, or something else I haven't considered. But even despite that, I'm able to get decent numbers of swings and misses, and with it strikeouts.

I'm curious as to why you max out every pitch? What i mean is, when you're supposed to stop the meter in the Yellow to Red section, you always max it out into the red. Curious about your theory here.

[Caulfield]

Re: Contact - Swings &amp; Misses - Strikeouts

I'm curious as to why you max out every pitch? What i mean is, when you're supposed to stop the meter in the Yellow to Red section, you always max it out into the red. Curious about your theory here.

I always max out fastballs and sliders myself, always but I dont even have a real reason why, other than I try to make it part of my routine. Changeups I never max out and try not to even let it get even a little in the yellow. Curveballs I try to put it exactly between max and minimum. Dont know why except it became my routine years ago

[bcruise]

Re: Contact - Swings &amp; Misses - Strikeouts

I'm curious as to why you max out every pitch? What i mean is, when you're supposed to stop the meter in the Yellow to Red section, you always max it out into the red. Curious about your theory here.

In this video I did indeed max it out the whole time, but I don't always. Basically, I max it unless I need to "take something off" in order to throw a strike, or if I have runners on and need to make sure I don't throw a wild pitch. And being behind in the count does not necessarily put me in that former situation - it depends who my pitcher is, what their overall and individual pitch confidence is, the batter I'm facing, and the game situation. In the video I fall behind Acuna and I still max it out, mostly because there are two outs, Cishek was rolling, and Acuna's a pretty good hitter. I was perfectly willing to risk the walk since it was pretty unlikely to hurt me in that situation, and that's why I was trying to get him to chase a low sinker even at 3-1.

I'll be honest...I really don't see a bigger energy hit from max effort pitches, or at least it's not enough to make a difference over the course of a game. Even pitching like this I can throw 100 pitches or more with the Cubs starters and usually just barely end up in the red. The only real "downside" I see is a lesser degree of control. While the upside is what you saw in the video - more effective pitches that the CPU is more likely to chase and/or miss.

One more thing...unless I have almost maxed confidence (and sometimes not even then), I almost never try to throw breaking pitches in the strike zone intentionally. They're just too easy to hang over the middle. As you can see, even when I'm aiming off the plate they sometimes hang or catch corners anyway. I got totally lucky Acuna didn't destroy the 3-2, but I think the fact that he hadn't seen a strike in the zone until then helped in fooling him.

[Vercingetirex]

Re: Contact - Swings &amp; Misses - Strikeouts

In this video I did indeed max it out the whole time, but I don't always. Basically, I max it unless I need to "take something off" in order to throw a strike, or if I have runners on and need to make sure I don't throw a wild pitch. And being behind in the count does not necessarily put me in that former situation - it depends who my pitcher is, what their overall and individual pitch confidence is, the batter I'm facing, and the game situation. In the video I fall behind Acuna and I still max it out, mostly because there are two outs, Cishek was rolling, and Acuna's a pretty good hitter. I was perfectly willing to risk the walk since it was pretty unlikely to hurt me in that situation, and that's why I was trying to get him to chase a low sinker even at 3-1.

I'll be honest...I really don't see a bigger energy hit from max effort pitches, or at least it's not enough to make a difference over the course of a game. Even pitching like this I can throw 100 pitches or more with the Cubs starters and usually just barely end up in the red. The only real "downside" I see is a lesser degree of control. While the upside is what you saw in the video - more effective pitches that the CPU is more likely to chase and/or miss.

One more thing...unless I have almost maxed confidence (and sometimes not even then), I almost never try to throw breaking pitches in the strike zone intentionally. They're just too easy to hang over the middle. As you can see, even when I'm aiming off the plate they sometimes hang or catch corners anyway. I got totally lucky Acuna didn't destroy the 3-2, but I think the fact that he hadn't seen a strike in the zone until then helped in fooling him.

Maxing out seems to only impact control for me as well. I never have issues with energy if I max out every pitch