I love sliders and talking about them so I figured I would post mine as well. I'm typically a good pitcher and lousy hitter. I found the pitch speed too fast in '08 and usually lower it all the way to the bottom since my eye just isn't good enough at default. This helps me actually draw walks if I'm trying to be patient. Better yet, I can turn on a fastball! Last year I couldn't pull a fastball without guessing which made me look foolish guessing at pitches way out of the zone. Even though with pitch speed at 0, a good fastball will fool you when you try to have an eye at the plate, particularly if a pitcher mixes in off speed stuff. I don't use Guess Pitch at all.
A few common things I will point out before listing the sliders on All-Star. I think both the user and cpu have too good of pitch control on default (I use Classic which may be easier this year). I think outfielders are still too fast and get to balls in the corner preventing doubles when they should be doubles. I see very few fielding errors although the fielding error slider also seems to affect a defender's range and/or ability to make a play - even if there is no error (not 100% sure though). The other thing I feel strongly about is relief fatigue is too high (I've always felt that on every version of the Show) so I drop them down to 0.
A few things I will have to look at as well are baserunner speed and fielder arm strength. I don't have a big issue with these although others like Blzer feel that runners are too slow and/or fielders arms are too strong. Either way I've left that for now.
In terms of pitching, I really like to reduce control for the user to help induce user issued walks. But one of the best ways to produce walks is make the cpu offense a little more potent. If you are scared of them, you will nibble and issue walks to the good players. Giving in to good hitters will get you burned this year. I personally found the cpu paints corners too well on default. I'm a "timing only" swing guy so this really hurts me. Lowering the cpu pitch control really helps produce mistakes and allows me to smack them for extra bases. I also lower strike percentage which does cause the cpu to throw more first pitch balls. I use the Classic pitching method which may be easier this year. Meter is tough and I've read many people talk about too many passed balls. Raise human consistency to help reduce this.
I think the power on hits off the bat is pretty good. I also haven't felt the need to adjust the Solid Hits slider although much of hitting is personal skill level and these things will have to be tweaked by the user. I'm a timing only guy so if you are good with the analog stick, you will find these too easy to hit and either not use them or have to tweak them.
Most of my slider changes are very balanced since I find All-Star to be very balanced for my skill level. Changes I do to myself typically work well when also applied equally to the cpu. I also use auto base running since I hate having to do most of that stuff myself. I do manual field though. R2 diving is very tough this year. Stick to the R-stick in the field unless you are 100% certain you have to dive (then use R2).
Since my ramble is so long, I'll post the sliders in the next post. I do expect these to change a little over time but for the moment I'm happy. I've played a ton of games on the demo (the hitting is quite a bit different from retail but the pitching seems similar) and 9+ games of the retail version so far.
A few common things I will point out before listing the sliders on All-Star. I think both the user and cpu have too good of pitch control on default (I use Classic which may be easier this year). I think outfielders are still too fast and get to balls in the corner preventing doubles when they should be doubles. I see very few fielding errors although the fielding error slider also seems to affect a defender's range and/or ability to make a play - even if there is no error (not 100% sure though). The other thing I feel strongly about is relief fatigue is too high (I've always felt that on every version of the Show) so I drop them down to 0.
A few things I will have to look at as well are baserunner speed and fielder arm strength. I don't have a big issue with these although others like Blzer feel that runners are too slow and/or fielders arms are too strong. Either way I've left that for now.
In terms of pitching, I really like to reduce control for the user to help induce user issued walks. But one of the best ways to produce walks is make the cpu offense a little more potent. If you are scared of them, you will nibble and issue walks to the good players. Giving in to good hitters will get you burned this year. I personally found the cpu paints corners too well on default. I'm a "timing only" swing guy so this really hurts me. Lowering the cpu pitch control really helps produce mistakes and allows me to smack them for extra bases. I also lower strike percentage which does cause the cpu to throw more first pitch balls. I use the Classic pitching method which may be easier this year. Meter is tough and I've read many people talk about too many passed balls. Raise human consistency to help reduce this.
I think the power on hits off the bat is pretty good. I also haven't felt the need to adjust the Solid Hits slider although much of hitting is personal skill level and these things will have to be tweaked by the user. I'm a timing only guy so if you are good with the analog stick, you will find these too easy to hit and either not use them or have to tweak them.
Most of my slider changes are very balanced since I find All-Star to be very balanced for my skill level. Changes I do to myself typically work well when also applied equally to the cpu. I also use auto base running since I hate having to do most of that stuff myself. I do manual field though. R2 diving is very tough this year. Stick to the R-stick in the field unless you are 100% certain you have to dive (then use R2).
Since my ramble is so long, I'll post the sliders in the next post. I do expect these to change a little over time but for the moment I'm happy. I've played a ton of games on the demo (the hitting is quite a bit different from retail but the pitching seems similar) and 9+ games of the retail version so far.
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