Manage mode players

[tessl]

Post your thoughts on manage mode.

[My993C2]

Re: Manage mode players

I'd like some feedback as to what umpire setting you use. I found with perfect I get too few runs and with average I get too many runs. I have no idea why it would be this way but this has been my experience.

I quit playing mlbts 19 because I was frustrated with not being able to get enough of a variety. I'm curious what umpire setting other manage mode users employ and what results you are seeing.

I would be surprised if the umpire tendencies would have a huge effect on the amount of offense (or lack of offense) generated in a game. But I have had my umpires set on the "personalized" setting 99% of the time in MoM games, in CPU vs CPU games as well as in RTTS games. I did try the "perfect" umpire tendency at least once not long ago, but that was when I got called out on strikes in a RTTS plate appearance on a pitch I felt was clearly out of the strike zone. But it did not take long for me to migrate back to the "personalized" umpire setting because that is how the real world umpires call their games.

I think the challenge we all face while trying to create a reasonably accurate simmed game of baseball in MoM games is to get the pitchers to throw a combination of pitches that are both purposely in the strike zone as well a pitches to deceive the batter that are purposely out of the strike zone but at some point looked like they would be strikes and get this to happen that statistically matches the real world. Of course it is easier said than done.

I know you have said in the past that you feel the game should play well out of the box using the default "everything set to a 5" slider setting. But sometimes we need to tweak a slider setting up or down and it takes many games to determine whether or not the slider tweak was the right change to make. I am getting back into MoM games after a two year break and I am reasonably happy with the results I am seeing with my sliders that are not too far off of the default "5" values. But who knows what MLBTS20 will play like. My current MLBTS19 sliders might be trash in the new game. Only time will tell. We need nomo to work his statistical analysis magic, but has he gone AWOL this year?

[tessl]

Re: Manage mode players

I would be surprised if the umpire tendencies would have a huge effect on the amount of offense (or lack of offense) generated in a game. But I have had my umpires set on the "personalized" setting 99% of the time in MoM games, in CPU vs CPU games as well as in RTTS games. I did try the "perfect" umpire tendency at least once not long ago, but that was when I got called out on strikes in a RTTS plate appearance on a pitch I felt was clearly out of the strike zone. But it did not take long for me to migrate back to the "personalized" umpire setting because that is how the real world umpires call their games.

I think the challenge we all face while trying to create a reasonably accurate simmed game of baseball in MoM games is to get the pitchers to throw a combination of pitches that are both purposely in the strike zone as well a pitches to deceive the batter that are purposely out of the strike zone but at some point looked like they would be strikes and get this to happen that statistically matches the real world. Of course it is easier said than done.

I know you have said in the past that you feel the game should play well out of the box using the default "everything set to a 5" slider setting. But sometimes we need to tweak a slider setting up or down and it takes many games to determine whether or not the slider tweak was the right change to make. I am getting back into MoM games after a two year break and I am reasonably happy with the results I am seeing with my sliders that are not too far off of the default "5" values. But who knows what MLBTS20 will play like. My current MLBTS19 sliders might be trash in the new game. Only time will tell. We need nomo to work his statistical analysis magic, but has he gone AWOL this year?

I know sliders are the thing for a lot of people but don't use them. For one thing the developers continue to issue patches for several months after the game is released.

Thanks for the reply.

[My993C2]

Re: Manage mode players

BTW is sacrifice bunting borked in MoM game play?

I was playing a Spring Training game last night in MLBTS19 (Nationals vs Astros) and the game went deep into 16 extra innings. So I was presented with numerous sacrifice bunting opportunities when the lead off hitter made it to first base. Four times throughout the game I tried to lay down a sacrifice bunt with a position player (who did not have a high bunting rating) and all four times the player's bunting attempts were popped up and easily caught by the first base man or catcher for the out. I can see perhaps one out of four attempts resulting in a pop up, but not all four should fail. I hope I am wrong here, but it appears that SDS has purposely took bunting out of offline game play all because online DD players might have been exploiting the system. Sad especially since sacrifice bunting worked fine in older versions of the game.

[Ranger Fan]

Re: Manage mode players

If they will fix just a few things in this mode I am happy. Its all i play

1. In Game Injuries. For some reason not 1 injury inside a MOM game. Some notifications prior to game starting but 0 in game even with injury slider at 10

2. Rotate the inner league schedules for christ sakes. Thats all modes


3. CPU Bull pen usage. Guys had close to 100 appearances on CPU teams, especially NL Teams

[tessl]

Re: Manage mode players

BTW is sacrifice bunting borked in MoM game play?

I was playing a Spring Training game last night in MLBTS19 (Nationals vs Astros) and the game went deep into 16 extra innings. So I was presented with numerous sacrifice bunting opportunities when the lead off hitter made it to first base. Four times throughout the game I tried to lay down a sacrifice bunt with a position player (who did not have a high bunting rating) and all four times the player's bunting attempts were popped up and easily caught by the first base man or catcher for the out. I can see perhaps one out of four attempts resulting in a pop up, but not all four should fail. I hope I am wrong here, but it appears that SDS has purposely took bunting out of offline game play all because online DD players might have been exploiting the system. Sad especially since sacrifice bunting worked fine in older versions of the game.

Sacrifice bunting is not like it used to be. Players with a high bunt rating are okay but others will either pop up the bunt or bunt hard resulting in a force play at second. If the batter is slow it sometimes is a double play.

[tessl]

Re: Manage mode players

If they will fix just a few things in this mode I am happy. Its all i play

1. In Game Injuries. For some reason not 1 injury inside a MOM game. Some notifications prior to game starting but 0 in game even with injury slider at 10

2. Rotate the inner league schedules for christ sakes. Thats all modes


3. CPU Bull pen usage. Guys had close to 100 appearances on CPU teams, especially NL Teams

As with sacrifice bunting injuries used to be realistic. It's a great game - I hate to complain too much - but it is frustrating when things which are fine get broken.

[Red_Ted_is_back]

Re: Manage mode players

I hate to be that guy but what does MoM mean?

Took me ages too before I realised it’s Manage-only Mode.


Sent from my iPad using Operation Sports

[Red_Ted_is_back]

Re: Manage mode players

BTW is sacrifice bunting borked in MoM game play?

I was playing a Spring Training game last night in MLBTS19 (Nationals vs Astros) and the game went deep into 16 extra innings. So I was presented with numerous sacrifice bunting opportunities when the lead off hitter made it to first base. Four times throughout the game I tried to lay down a sacrifice bunt with a position player (who did not have a high bunting rating) and all four times the player's bunting attempts were popped up and easily caught by the first base man or catcher for the out. I can see perhaps one out of four attempts resulting in a pop up, but not all four should fail. I hope I am wrong here, but it appears that SDS has purposely took bunting out of offline game play all because online DD players might have been exploiting the system. Sad especially since sacrifice bunting worked fine in older versions of the game.

This sums up perfectly 19’s bunting. Franchise and MTO. It has been either destroyed or made totally random with odds stacked against, unless a very specific set of criteria is met: Pitcher at bat. That’s the only time sac bunt works consistently. Any other sac bunt situation I would say less than 20% success rate so I don’t even bother anymore. Drag bunting no better so I never attempt that.

In the 19 pre-release streams, it was said that sac bunting was unlikely to work online unless it was a sac play, or player had a high bunt rating, to eliminate bunt cheese. Looks like not only was it done for offline as well, it wasn’t done properly and surprisingly never fixed throughout the year.

Hopefully fixed in 20, but not holding breath.


Sent from my iPad using Operation Sports

[tessl]

Re: Manage mode players

This sums up perfectly 19’s bunting. Franchise and MTO. It has been either destroyed or made totally random with odds stacked against, unless a very specific set of criteria is met: Pitcher at bat. That’s the only time sac bunt works consistently. Any other sac bunt situation I would say less than 20% success rate so I don’t even bother anymore. Drag bunting no better so I never attempt that.

In the 19 pre-release streams, it was said that sac bunting was unlikely to work online unless it was a sac play, or player had a high bunt rating, to eliminate bunt cheese. Looks like not only was it done for offline as well, it wasn’t done properly and surprisingly never fixed throughout the year.

Hopefully fixed in 20, but not holding breath.


Sent from my iPad using Operation Sports

I can't say with 100% certainty but my experience is high bunt rated players can still bunt. I suspect as with some other problems that have been introduced into the game over the years a vocal minority complained loudly and got it changed - for the worst.

Another problem in manage mode is if the CPU brings the third baseman looking for a bunt the user controlled batter won't swing away until sometimes after two strikes. Frequently he never swings at all. The choice is bunt into a force play or double play or have the batter stand there and take pitches.

It needs to be fixed but I haven't filed a bug report because I've seen them "fix" one thing only to cause other problems.

A few years ago somebody griped about not enough chased pitches. They introduced more pitches in the dirt - which resulted in a lot of wild pitches. Fixed chased pitches - broke wild pitches.

Somebody complained balls didn't curve foul often enough. Balls which used to land fair down the line started curving foul which resulted in fewer hits down the line which resulted in lower scores. Fixed balls curving foul - broke accurate runs scored.

Somebody complained about "cheese bunts". Fixed cheese bunts. Broke sacrifice bunts.

How injuries got broken I don't know but it wouldn't surprise me if it was a complaint about too many injuries.

[Ranger Fan]

Re: Manage mode players

I can't say with 100% certainty but my experience is high bunt rated players can still bunt. I suspect as with some other problems that have been introduced into the game over the years a vocal minority complained loudly and got it changed - for the worst.

Another problem in manage mode is if the CPU brings the third baseman looking for a bunt the user controlled batter won't swing away until sometimes after two strikes. Frequently he never swings at all. The choice is bunt into a force play or double play or have the batter stand there and take pitches.

It needs to be fixed but I haven't filed a bug report because I've seen them "fix" one thing only to cause other problems.

A few years ago somebody griped about not enough chased pitches. They introduced more pitches in the dirt - which resulted in a lot of wild pitches. Fixed chased pitches - broke wild pitches.

Somebody complained balls didn't curve foul often enough. Balls which used to land fair down the line started curving foul which resulted in fewer hits down the line which resulted in lower scores. Fixed balls curving foul - broke accurate runs scored.

Somebody complained about "cheese bunts". Fixed cheese bunts. Broke sacrifice bunts.

How injuries got broken I don't know but it wouldn't surprise me if it was a complaint about too many injuries.

Your 100 percent right. To many people whining about dumb crap on forums. It takes away from them actually fixing whats wrong. 10 plus years of a game and somehow the DEV team cannot figure out how to rotate inerleague schedules. They can however get the right color on our 5th uniform option. Injury bug is ridiculous. It was identified in May of last year and yet after 10 or so patches nothing was done about it. Game is designed for online play. When the issue was finally answered by a DEV he said oh really had no idea. We might patch it. No reason ever given why the brain trust can't figure out a way to rotate innerleage scheduling

[tessl]

Re: Manage mode players

One thing for all franchise users which includes manage mode is the upcoming March 4 developer stream which is scheduled to discuss the "new trade hub".

It will be interesting to see what they have done. I've always imposed my own restrictions on trades to prevent robbing the CPU.

[My993C2]

Re: Manage mode players

Ignoring a new bug where the "Dugout" view in MoM games is broken (I have been using the "Backstop" view as a replacement for now), I am liking that I am seeing a decent but not too crazy amount of offense in MLBTS20 Manage franchise games and all my CPU batting and pitching related slider settings are set to the default value of 5. Of course I am only working on a small sample of games. But so far so good.

[forme95]

Re: Manage mode players

Ignoring a new bug where the "Dugout" view in MoM games is broken (I have been using the "Backstop" view as a replacement for now), I am liking that I am seeing a decent but not too crazy amount of offense in MLBTS20 Manage franchise games and all my CPU batting and pitching related slider settings are set to the default value of 5. Of course I am only working on a small sample of games. But so far so good.

Would love to hear if injuries have been added back in. To me, that was the only thing that killed MoM for me last year.

You want arcade, play Madden. Want sim game, play MLBTS

[Adam_SDS]

Re: Manage mode players

Would love to hear if injuries have been added back in. To me, that was the only thing that killed MoM for me last year.

You want arcade, play Madden. Want sim game, play MLBTS

The issue was that injuries did not occur in any CPU vs CPU situation. That should have been resolved.