A few "non-slider" adjustments that work for me.

[gpe1975]

I had been absolutely shutting down the opposing hitters on HOF. I was allowing 2 runs or less with my 3-4-5 starters and throwing 2 or 3 hitters with my 1 and 2 starters.

I made some minor adjustments to the CPU hitter's power and contact (very slight, like one click from default.)

The main thing that changed the game for the better were two changes that had nothing to do with sliders.

1) I took the ball marker from "fade" to "off". This has caused my control to not be nearly as precise. I have also thrown more "meat" pitches when behind in the count. When the ball marker was on fade, I could hit the outside corner more when behind in the count and eventually get the out.

I also think it is cool that when you turn the marker off it makes you learn how each of your pitchers pitches move and how much. Really adds a new level of challenge to the game.

2) Turned pitcher confidence "off". This seems to allow your good pitchers to pitch like they normally do and doesn't allow bad pitchers to get too good. The way I see it, if the human player is playing well, his crappy pitchers will experience some success.

These non-slider changes have worked well for me. No guarantee they will work for you. These are just a few things that I have noticed.

[JT30]

Re: A few "non-slider" adjustments that work for me.

I agree about the pitch cofidence meters. I believe they are just a visual thing though and there is still a built in confidence factor for each pitch... but you just cant see it when the meter is off.

[Kamasutra]

Re: A few "non-slider" adjustments that work for me.

Both your points are very good. I as welll was pitching with fade and I'm about to try it on "none". I imagine I would come to the same conclusions you did, i.e you really get to know your individual pitchers to a much higher degree.

Like many who play on the hardest settings, the human pitching is the only aspect left to tweak for me to trully feel I'm playing a balanced game. Right now on HOF with pro-cpu hitting sliders, I'm still only giving an avg of 2 walks (3 best case scenario) per game and striking the ai out 7 to 8 times.
Btw, I have Human pitch command at 0. I tried the classic pitching, but this doesn't offer a challenge as well, as you quickly master this technique and dominate the ai.
I agree with the 2nd poster, the confidence on/off system is purely esthetic, as your pitcher still gains and loses confidence depending on the situation. As a test, turn confidence off, load the bases and then give up a grand salami, see how well you pitch afterwards :P

[monk31]

Re: A few "non-slider" adjustments that work for me.

Kamasutra,

Is it really just aesthetic? Do you think it is the individual pitch confidence that you turned off and it is the overall confidence that is affected after that Grand Salami, or Vice versa?

[Kamasutra]

Re: A few "non-slider" adjustments that work for me.

in my experience after playing with this feature on/off over severall games, it's the overall confidence of the pitcher, not on the individual pitches themselves, as JT mentioned.
To be clear, the confidence on/off is that graph bar you see in the batter analysis, not the individual pitch type confidence, which is built into the game it seems.
So bottom line, by turning it off, you cease to make every pitcher equal in regards to pitching in a given situation...example: Santana will not freak out after giving up a HR and lose total control like Ervin Rookie Joe Blow would...
So this goes back to what the original poster said: An ace pitcher will continue to pitch realistically, enough to differentiate him from Mr. AA Dude.