The Dynamic Difficulty Discussion Thread

[ckarlic]

Re: The Dynamic Difficulty Discussion Thread

I have a quick question. I played on the vita using dynamic difficulty and noticed that it went back to the beginning (Rookie) for both hitting and pitching today when I played my second game with DD. I havent played a franchise and have been playing show live games only and wonder if it resets after each game if you are not in franchise. Does your difficulty reset each game or should it stick and progress as you move along for those who have been just playing exhibition or show live games?

Regardless, I was the Reds playing the Cards and even though it was on Rookie, it was a tight game. I won 5-3 and the Cards had 7 hits while I had 10. Game was tied 3-3 up until the 8th inning when Phillips hit an RBI double to break the tie. Line score looked legit even though I was on Rookie + for both hitting and pitching. It just feels weird since im normally a All Star difficulty player. If the game plays great with DD, im sticking to it as long as I can.

Just curious about whether the difficulty sticks if you are not in franchise.

[nemesis04]

Re: The Dynamic Difficulty Discussion Thread

I have a quick question. I played on the vita using dynamic difficulty and noticed that it went back to the beginning (Rookie) for both hitting and pitching today when I played my second game with DD. I havent played a franchise and have been playing show live games only and wonder if it resets after each game if you are not in franchise. Does your difficulty reset each game or should it stick and progress as you move along for those who have been just playing exhibition or show live games?

Regardless, I was the Reds playing the Cards and even though it was on Rookie, it was a tight game. I won 5-3 and the Cards had 7 hits while I had 10. Game was tied 3-3 up until the 8th inning when Phillips hit an RBI double to break the tie. Line score looked legit even though I was on Rookie + for both hitting and pitching. It just feels weird since im normally a All Star difficulty player. If the game plays great with DD, im sticking to it as long as I can.

Just curious about whether the difficulty sticks if you are not in franchise.

It should be tied to your settings profile. Do you have auto save on?

[bcruise]

Re: The Dynamic Difficulty Discussion Thread

I have a quick question. I played on the vita using dynamic difficulty and noticed that it went back to the beginning (Rookie) for both hitting and pitching today when I played my second game with DD. I havent played a franchise and have been playing show live games only and wonder if it resets after each game if you are not in franchise. Does your difficulty reset each game or should it stick and progress as you move along for those who have been just playing exhibition or show live games?

Regardless, I was the Reds playing the Cards and even though it was on Rookie, it was a tight game. I won 5-3 and the Cards had 7 hits while I had 10. Game was tied 3-3 up until the 8th inning when Phillips hit an RBI double to break the tie. Line score looked legit even though I was on Rookie + for both hitting and pitching. It just feels weird since im normally a All Star difficulty player. If the game plays great with DD, im sticking to it as long as I can.

Just curious about whether the difficulty sticks if you are not in franchise.

It sticks. The entirety of my difficulty-setting process has been in exhibition games - I haven't touched season, franchise, or RTTS with it. Just have to make sure the profile is set when you start a game.

As for Rookie+....It can surprise you, for sure. Both me and H&V experienced tougher games than we thought we would at first. The AI will definitely try to get you to chase sometimes. You have a big advantage in contact though, so as soon as you get good pitches to hit (getting deep in counts helps with that), you'll be knocking the ball around the yard and getting up to Veteran.

[Heroesandvillains]

Re: The Dynamic Difficulty Discussion Thread

I dove into this last night and it is very well done! My only issue which is totally on me is that I am impatient and do not want to start on the bottom rung of the ladder to make the climb up to Hof+. I would like to be able to pick the + difficulties or able to start at any of the regular difficulties and work from there. Other then that I think DD is great, as it will capture many who are in no mans land as far as difficulty and find a home for them.

I'll be back with more impressions later on guys (tax season! ), but I just wanted to touch on this.

I couldn't agree more.

I feel like I'm prolonging the inevitable here. 9 games in:

Hitting: Veteran, Progress +
Pitching: Veteran +, Progress +++

When I know I'll need to be around AS or HOF.

I like that this mode is a slow burn, but as a vet of the series, I really would love to have started on AS -.

Don't get me wrong, newbies need the assessment so it's perfectly implemented for them. But I know where this is heading for me (though it is pretty exhilarating NOT knowing where I'll end up!).

But remember, for me, the PS3 version is temporary. I'll be upgrading May 6th. And the idea of having to 'start over' because of profiles not transferring is daunting and I really hate to have to DO THIS all over.

Again, I'm in it for the long haul here but Nemesis makes a point that I was echoing over and over while playing last night. And on top of it, I REALLY REALLY don't want to have to do this again on the PS4.

[RogueHominid]

Re: The Dynamic Difficulty Discussion Thread

I'm coming up on 10 games using DD, so I figured I'd ask in advance what kinds of stats and impressions, specifically, would be most useful to those interested in my experiment of using it both batting and pitching during Spring Training with my franchise A's team.

Let me know what you want to know/see, within reason, and I'll have info for you later today. I'm about to take a nap, then I'll play games 9-10 later this afternoon and post.

[Brian SCEA]

Re: The Dynamic Difficulty Discussion Thread

For those interested, this is the exact Strategy Guide text describing Dynamic Difficulty. Feel free to share and use as you see fit:
Dynamic is a special difficulty setting, available in both the pitching and hitting difficulty options. When set, Dynamic Difficulty will track your hitting and/or pitching results and automatically adjust your difficulty over time. Your current progress is reported at the start of each inning, on promotions/demotions, and when Dynamic Difficulty is first turned on during a game.

The difficulty levels are: Rookie, Rookie+, Veteran, Veteran+, All-Star, All-Star+, Hall of Fame, Hall of Fame+, and Legend. The default starting difficulty is 'Rookie+', which is halfway in-between Rookie and Veteran. In addition to listing difficulty, a 'progress' field may appear to show whether you are about to promote or demote. For example, a '++' denotes that you are almost halfway to a promotion, while a '----' denotes that you are near demotion. Your Dynamic Difficulty progress is tied to your game settings profile, and discarding your game settings profile will also will reset your Dynamic Difficulty progress.

The difficulty adjustments are 1/2 difficulty steps. The primary criteria for difficulty promotions/demotions under Dynamic Difficulty is your team OPS (in the case of RTTS, your individual OPS). A promotion may only happen if your team is winning by 3 or more runs, and a demotion can only happen if your team is losing by 3 or more runs. This rule is waived for relief pitchers starting mid-game. Promotions/demotions are checked after each at-bat, and after a promotion or demotion no further changes or progress may happen until the next game.

Also, this is the exact text for Quick Counts:
Quick Counts allows you to significantly speed up games with much shorter at-bats. Instead of starting counts on 0-0, counts will start on middle and late counts. The most common starting counts are 1-1 and 2-1, followed by the 3-2, 2-2, and 2-1 counts. Pitcher versus batter attributes have an influence on how often 3-0 vs 0-2 counts show up, but every batter will see each count. There is a small balancing bonus that helps a batter put the ball into play more often, to compensate for the reduced number of pitches he'll see in an at-bat. Overall, you'll see an increase in strikeouts and base on balls balanced by fewer fouls. Every pitch you throw will be more critical, because there are far fewer of them.

As a rough guideline, if a game would have had 145 pitches thrown without Quick Counts, then with Quick Counts on that would translate to about 80 pitches 'actually thrown' plus an additional 105 'simulated pitches' for a total of 185 pitches. As a compromise for realism, the game corrects for this inflated number by subtracting 1 pitch per plate appearance for display purposes, so that a pitcher's individual pitch count will appear more comparable to a regular game.

The 'Simulated pitches' in Quick Counts drain less energy, to balance out fatigue loss. Quick Counts is set globally when entering a game, and CPU hitters and pitchers will adjust their strategy to take adapt to the higher leverage gameplay balance.

[ckarlic]

Re: The Dynamic Difficulty Discussion Thread

I'm coming up on 10 games using DD, so I figured I'd ask in advance what kinds of stats and impressions, specifically, would be most useful to those interested in my experiment of using it both batting and pitching during Spring Training with my franchise A's team.

Let me know what you want to know/see, within reason, and I'll have info for you later today. I'm about to take a nap, then I'll play games 9-10 later this afternoon and post.

Great experiment. What would be helpful would be some box scores. Also, what is your "normal" difficulty level you used to play on pre DD days. Also stats such as team hits/HR's/RBI's/BB's/K's would be great to see.

I haven't had the chance to try Dynamic Difficulty on the PS3 yet but here is a screenshot of my Universal profile from the last 3 games I played on the vita. Im still on Rookie + for hitting and pitching but to me the box scores look good. I normally play on All Star default across the board pre DD days and consider myself a vet of the series.

[Heroesandvillains]

Re: The Dynamic Difficulty Discussion Thread

Great experiment. What would be helpful would be some box scores. Also, what is your "normal" difficulty level you used to play on pre DD days. Also stats such as team hits/HR's/RBI's/BB's/K's would be great to see.

I haven't had the chance to try Dynamic Difficulty on the PS3 yet but here is a screenshot of my Universal profile from the last 3 games I played on the vita. Im still on Rookie + for hitting and pitching but to me the box scores look good. I normally play on All Star default across the board pre DD days and consider myself a vet of the series.

Sure those box scores are accurate?

Mine are not. Showed a 9-2 game that never happened. But I still haven't got the release day patch, so perhaps that was one of the fixes.

[ckarlic]

Re: The Dynamic Difficulty Discussion Thread

Sure those box scores are accurate?

Mine are not. Showed a 9-2 game that never happened. But I still haven't got the release day patch, so perhaps that was one of the fixes.

Yeah. Those were the only games I played the last 2 days and they are correct.

[dmankey1]

Re: The Dynamic Difficulty Discussion Thread

What do you guys use as your hitting method (timing, zone..etc.). I was using timing but man, I can't seem get a solid hit for anything. I don't remember having this much trouble last year. My pitching is fine, I've played 5 games and in Veteran+ but i'm still on Rookie+ hitting. Maybe the timing window is narrower or something? I'm hitting the ball but it's just bad hits that pop up or get fielded easily, no solid contact hits. I thought about adjusting the timing slider but I feel cheap doing that. Any advice?

[ckarlic]

Re: The Dynamic Difficulty Discussion Thread

What do you guys use as your hitting method (timing, zone..etc.). I was using timing but man, I can't seem get a solid hit for anything. I don't remember having this much trouble last year. My pitching is fine, I've played 5 games and in Veteran+ but i'm still on Rookie+ hitting. Maybe the timing window is narrower or something? I'm hitting the ball but it's just bad hits that pop up or get fielded easily, no solid contact hits. I thought about adjusting the timing slider but I feel cheap doing that. Any advice?

I use zone hitting. Been using zone hitting for the longest time.

[bcruise]

Re: The Dynamic Difficulty Discussion Thread

Zone here, too. Meter pitching.

[XxJustAguessxX]

Re: The Dynamic Difficulty Discussion Thread

What do you guys use as your hitting method (timing, zone..etc.). I was using timing but man, I can't seem get a solid hit for anything. I don't remember having this much trouble last year. My pitching is fine, I've played 5 games and in Veteran+ but i'm still on Rookie+ hitting. Maybe the timing window is narrower or something? I'm hitting the ball but it's just bad hits that pop up or get fielded easily, no solid contact hits. I thought about adjusting the timing slider but I feel cheap doing that. Any advice?

Go zone hitting, timing is damn near impossible. Getting way better results with zone hitting.

[ahuffman]

Re: The Dynamic Difficulty Discussion Thread

Personally, I am doing just fine with timing. I have always used it since it became an option though. I am struggling a little, but most of that is just me being rusty and trying to get used to quick counts. I keep forgetting that I have it on, and strike out looking because I did not realize I had 2 strikes. My pitching is far better than usual so far, but I am not sure how much of that is due to quick counts.

So far I am on Rookie+ for hitting and Veteran+ for pitching.

[A_Quiet_Pro]

Re: The Dynamic Difficulty Discussion Thread

Am I the only person around here that uses zone analog for hitting?