re: Too many two out inning rallies by AI!! (Comeback AI Discussion)
Man this thread got kind of ugly, and I guess I'm partially to blame because I was on here the last couple of days venting my frustration after several consecutive late inning comebacks by the CPU. I feel bad about that now, because I do think I might have been over reacting quite a bit ("knee jerk" as Russell called it). I am not by any means saying that some of the oddness I was seeing was realistic, but I also appreciated Russell taking the time to address those of us who believe there might be a problem. He says there is no comeback AI, and I believe him. SCEA has been nothing but upfront & honest with the community and have given us unprecedented access to them and what goes into making this game. Like many have said, this is a different game this year and there is definitely a learning curve.
I have spent almost my entire day off today trying to figure out what I may be doing wrong to have these CPU offense surges occur at such an abnormal rate. I know that 1 day isn't much time, and I am not claiming that I figured anything out definitively, but I did make some adjustments that seem very positive. Some of the adjustments involved my approach to hitting, but that doesn't really apply to this topic (but I'm improving nicely here as well). As for all the other stuff, I decided to go back to the default sliders since I have been messing with them like crazy since the game came out. I think this alone improved things quite a bit. My first 6 games after going back to default have been awesome. I won one game on Veteran and went 2-3 on All-Star which was my regular level in past years. I almost got no-hit by Fausto Carmona in one game which was a lesson in frustration (broke it up in the 8th, that felt good), I ultimately lost 2-0 but it was an awesome game. I also started taking a much more "intense" approach to pitching and it's helping a lot. I think I was relying too much on how I pitched when playing the previous 3 years of The Show, and as we all know MLB 09 is a different animal. It sounds simple, but I am thinking way more about every single pitch before I throw it. I don't rely on the catcher's suggestions as much, only sometimes if it makes sense to me. I pay more attention to each hitters hot/cold zones, and I think about how I pitched to him in previous at bats so I don't repeat myself too much. It's also imperative to consider the count at all times. I know that these are all things you are supposed to be doing as a pitcher, but I believe that in MLB 09 you need to stay much more focused on each of them than in past years. Of course, I still make mistakes and pay for most of them, but that's the big leagues baby!
I don't know if it was because I "normalized" the sliders or because I am approaching things differently (probably both), but I had a ton of fun with this game today and I can't wait to get some more games in ASAP. I guess the moral of this diatribe would be to reverse an old saying..."don't hate the game, hate the playa'!"
Man this thread got kind of ugly, and I guess I'm partially to blame because I was on here the last couple of days venting my frustration after several consecutive late inning comebacks by the CPU. I feel bad about that now, because I do think I might have been over reacting quite a bit ("knee jerk" as Russell called it). I am not by any means saying that some of the oddness I was seeing was realistic, but I also appreciated Russell taking the time to address those of us who believe there might be a problem. He says there is no comeback AI, and I believe him. SCEA has been nothing but upfront & honest with the community and have given us unprecedented access to them and what goes into making this game. Like many have said, this is a different game this year and there is definitely a learning curve.
I have spent almost my entire day off today trying to figure out what I may be doing wrong to have these CPU offense surges occur at such an abnormal rate. I know that 1 day isn't much time, and I am not claiming that I figured anything out definitively, but I did make some adjustments that seem very positive. Some of the adjustments involved my approach to hitting, but that doesn't really apply to this topic (but I'm improving nicely here as well). As for all the other stuff, I decided to go back to the default sliders since I have been messing with them like crazy since the game came out. I think this alone improved things quite a bit. My first 6 games after going back to default have been awesome. I won one game on Veteran and went 2-3 on All-Star which was my regular level in past years. I almost got no-hit by Fausto Carmona in one game which was a lesson in frustration (broke it up in the 8th, that felt good), I ultimately lost 2-0 but it was an awesome game. I also started taking a much more "intense" approach to pitching and it's helping a lot. I think I was relying too much on how I pitched when playing the previous 3 years of The Show, and as we all know MLB 09 is a different animal. It sounds simple, but I am thinking way more about every single pitch before I throw it. I don't rely on the catcher's suggestions as much, only sometimes if it makes sense to me. I pay more attention to each hitters hot/cold zones, and I think about how I pitched to him in previous at bats so I don't repeat myself too much. It's also imperative to consider the count at all times. I know that these are all things you are supposed to be doing as a pitcher, but I believe that in MLB 09 you need to stay much more focused on each of them than in past years. Of course, I still make mistakes and pay for most of them, but that's the big leagues baby!
I don't know if it was because I "normalized" the sliders or because I am approaching things differently (probably both), but I had a ton of fun with this game today and I can't wait to get some more games in ASAP. I guess the moral of this diatribe would be to reverse an old saying..."don't hate the game, hate the playa'!"
. Then I remembered a post by Brian Ma a while back where he was attempting to explain how the sliders worked (talk about a wordy guy, lol...j/k I actually love reading his posts). I remember him explaining how each slider can have a ripple effect on other aspects of the game, and you may not realize that you're changing more than just that one thing (my simplified words, not his). With all the tweaks I was making, who knows what they were effecting? So I went back to square one and I'm staying ultra focused on keeping my baseball brain sharp at all times. I think I'm seeing a light at the end of the tunnel now. At least I hope that's what it is, or perhaps it's just a fastball coming towards my dome, we'll see (I'm gonna go ahead and duck just in case). 
Comment