What factors cause CPU meatball pitches?

[sandmac]

Offline user vs CPU in franchise...I’m assuming the lower difficulty settings, 3-1 count and stamina cause more meatballs.

Are there any other factors like actual sliders or attributes that contribute?

I’m playing on Legend and just not seeing center cut mistakes as you would in real life just constant painting and junk from the CPU.


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[bcruise]

Re: What factors cause CPU meatball pitches?

I don't believe there's any specific meatball code so to speak, any more than I believe there's scripting or comeback code. A meatball is just a control miss that happens over the plate as opposed to off of it. And that's all about ratings and the CPU's pitching decisions (which, if you've ever tried to play as a player-locked catcher, you know they often don't go to plan).

Both the control and consistency sliders could affect it because both affect how widely and frequently a pitcher misses by, but consistency probably has a larger effect because it affects the wide-area misses more, and could potentially turn a good curveball that dips out of the zone into a cement-mixer over the plate.

I do see mistake pitches from CPU pitchers even on Default Legend, though - and hitting them hard when they're thrown is an important factor for being able to compete on that level.

[monk31]

What factors cause CPU meatball pitches?

I don't believe there's any specific meatball code so to speak, any more than I believe there's scripting or comeback code. A meatball is just a control miss that happens over the plate as opposed to off of it. And that's all about ratings and the CPU's pitching decisions (which, if you've ever tried to play as a player-locked catcher, you know they often don't go to plan).

Both the control and consistency sliders could affect it because both affect how widely and frequently a pitcher misses by, but consistency probably has a larger effect because it affects the wide-area misses more, and could potentially turn a good curveball that dips out of the zone into a cement-mixer over the plate.

I do see mistake pitches from CPU pitchers even on Default Legend, though - and hitting them hard when they're thrown is an important factor for being able to compete on that level.

Agree with bcruise. Look at your post-game batter/pitcher analysis and take a look. You probably have a pretty realistic heat map.

One other thought, how many pitches are you seeing in a game? If you get into a lot of deep counts you’re more likely to run into something center cut in more of your ABs.


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[LowerWolf]

Re: What factors cause CPU meatball pitches?

I think of the Strike Frequency slider as a quasi meatball slider. I play on All-Star and put that slider to 0, and the CPU definitely nibbles more now.

If you’re on Legend and want more pitches left over the plate, I’d try raising that. The description even says moving it to the right can make the CPU pitch poorly.

[TheWarmWind]

Re: What factors cause CPU meatball pitches?

Strike frequency impacts pitch strategy. Lower the strike frequency to get the CPU to aim more for the corners. Raise it to increase the number of pitches that are for "just getting a strike.

Pitch control effects size of the area that the pitcher can aim at. Raising pitch control will make that area smaller and therefore make the pitcher more accurate. Lowering it will make the area larger and the pitcher less accurate. The pulse interface is the best one to see the impact of this slider, as it impacts how small the pulse can get.

Pitch consistency impacts both the frequency that the pitcher pitches inside that aiming zone, and the general magnitude by which they miss. Raise pitch consistency to get more balls in the aim zone, and have the misses generally miss by less magnitude. Lower pitch consistency to get less balls in the aim zone, and have those pitches miss by a generally larger magnitude.

I'm currently playing on Legend directional with these settings:

CPU strike frequency: 5
CPU control: 4
CPU Consistency: 5

You can check out my full slider set I have it posted.

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[sandmac]

Re: What factors cause CPU meatball pitches?

HUGE help. Thanks to all. Wind, are you seeing the CPU give up enough walks?


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[Caulfield]

Re: What factors cause CPU meatball pitches?

I don't believe there's any specific meatball code so to speak, any more than I believe there's scripting or comeback code. A meatball is just a control miss that happens over the plate as opposed to off of it. And that's all about ratings and the CPU's pitching decisions (which, if you've ever tried to play as a player-locked catcher, you know they often don't go to plan).

if there is a glut of ''meatball code'' threads next year, I'll look back on this day and know where it originated lol


also, I'm going with ''practice'' as an answer for meatball factor cause, double lol

[TheWarmWind]

Re: What factors cause CPU meatball pitches?

HUGE help. Thanks to all. Wind, are you seeing the CPU give up enough walks?


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I have to be pretty tight with my discipline most games, but yeah, and I have had a game or two on those settings where the CPU pitcher had trouble finding the zone.

I haven't been playtesting my sliders for very long though. I usually play on All-Star but created a new set for Legend due to request. I've got about a 20-25 game sample size and so far my walk ratio is about even with my All-Star set (which has CPU control at 5 and CPU consistency at 7).