MLB 09 All-Star Sliders for the bad hitter/good pitcher

[The Chef]

Re: MLB 09 All-Star Sliders for the bad hitter/good pitcher

All Right I am attempting everything to save this game including now getting into the sliders. I have tried Rudy's for 3 games and I have had about 2 hits in each game. I am not striking out a whole lot...that is about 8 per game. I am getting a lot of Pop ups and weak fly balls. Anyway to fix that??

Try raising your solid hits slider one at a time until it plays better as that should help you get a little more bat on the ball resulting in slightly better hitting. I wouldnt touch power personally as it seems it only helps the ball in distance, not strength and if Im understanding you correctly, your problem is with the way the ball comes off the bat and not necessarily the distance it travels when coming off the bat? Last game my only hit was a screamer off the center field wall with Ethier and I have everything at default except what I posted earlier so it can be done. Dont give up man, this seems like a great game that just requires more practice to get success then previous sports titles.

[Acedeck]

Re: MLB 09 All-Star Sliders for the bad hitter/good pitcher

I'm enjoying these sliders right now, but I have noticed one thing (not necessarily specific to your sliders). The amount of CPU first pitch strikes are very high this year. Over 85% of the time, my CPU pitchers are throwing first pitches in the zone. It seems like that's a little high. It's causing my pitch counts to get screwed up because I see so many hittable balls on the very first pitch. I generally like working the count, but there's no point in not swinging if you know the ball's going to be right down the middle on the first pitch. Starting 85% of your at-bats down 0-1 isn't exactly a good thing. I wish the CPU would throw more balls on their first pitch.

[The Chef]

Re: MLB 09 All-Star Sliders for the bad hitter/good pitcher

I'm enjoying these sliders right now, but I have noticed one thing (not necessarily specific to your sliders). The amount of CPU first pitch strikes are very high this year. Over 85% of the time, my CPU pitchers are throwing first pitches in the zone. It seems like that's a little high. It's causing my pitch counts to get screwed up because I see so many hittable balls on the very first pitch. I generally like working the count, but there's no point in not swinging if you know the ball's going to be right down the middle on the first pitch. Starting 85% of your at-bats down 0-1 isn't exactly a good thing. I wish the CPU would throw more balls on their first pitch.

Strange you mention that since Im not seeing that at all so far, last game Peavy started off the batters with a first pitch strike almost exactly the same amount of times he started them off with a first pitch ball. There were 2 times when the count went 3-0 before getting one over the plate, I ended up walking 5 times that game which is much better then anything I saw last year. Im not using these sliders verbatim but close enough and Im enjoying them to this point.

[Acedeck]

Re: MLB 09 All-Star Sliders for the bad hitter/good pitcher

Strange you mention that since Im not seeing that at all so far, last game Peavy started off the batters with a first pitch strike almost exactly the same amount of times he started them off with a first pitch ball. There were 2 times when the count went 3-0 before getting one over the plate, I ended up walking 5 times that game which is much better then anything I saw last year. Im not using these sliders verbatim but close enough and Im enjoying them to this point.

After posting this, I noticed the next game was much better. The previous three or four games prior it was incredibly bad. I actually just had one of the most exciting games I've played in so far. It was very rewarding. I was down 3-0 until the bottom of the eighth (playing as the Tigers against the Rangers). I got a rally going and got it to 3-1, with runners at the corners and two outs. I singled to score the runner at third, but fizzled out after I got the game to 3-2. In the bottom of the ninth, I had some more two out magic with a clutch hit to tie the game and take it to extras. After the following four scoreless innings, I finally had even more 2 out magic with a bases loaded single to walk off the game. I was down the entire game, not getting any hits at all. Finally my bats started connecting and it really felt good. The numbers of hits were a little high (18 and 13). Though, I guess that's to be expected when you have a game go to 14 innings.

[DJ]

Re: MLB 09 All-Star Sliders for the bad hitter/good pitcher

Anyone else noticing that with the fielding errors slider increased, your players in the field have terrible reactions to the ball when put in play?

I about lost it last night when I saw Delgado, instead of playing a ball that was coming right towards him that was tailor-made for a 3-6-3 (or 2) double play, run BACK TOWARDS THE FIRST BASE BAG!!! The ball makes its way thru for a single and on the next pitch, a 3-run HR is smashed to LF.

The targeting issue in the OF also drives me nuts, but I don't know if that's connected to the same slider or not.

So, I put the fielding error slider back to default (wasn't seeing any errors with it raised) and it seemed that fielder reaction was much more realistic; guys were making plays for balls instead of letting them roll right past them.

Again, this might just be an issue I'm having, but wanted to throw it out there to see if anyone else was noticing similar issues.

[ckarlic]

Re: MLB 09 All-Star Sliders for the bad hitter/good pitcher

All Right I am attempting everything to save this game including now getting into the sliders. I have tried Rudy's for 3 games and I have had about 2 hits in each game. I am not striking out a whole lot...that is about 8 per game. I am getting a lot of Pop ups and weak fly balls. Anyway to fix that??

Yeah. Im still in ST. I like using ST to tweak my settings to my liking before I go into my season. But I am sort of in the same situation as you. I would hit the ball but most of my balls were warning track power which in all honesty I felt they were no doubters. It was late last nite so I made some adjustments to these sliders. Everything was the same except the following: (Numbers are clicks from the left)

Meter Pitching

Global

Fielder Speed (2)

User:

Contact (6)
Power (6)
Pitch Control (5)


I haven't tested these out but I will tonite when I get home from work.

Also, it seems that the ST ballparks are alot bigger than some of the MLB parks. So that might be the reason why I seem to have warning track power.

[rudyjuly2]

Re: MLB 09 All-Star Sliders for the bad hitter/good pitcher

Anyone else noticing that with the fielding errors slider increased, your players in the field have terrible reactions to the ball when put in play?

I about lost it last night when I saw Delgado, instead of playing a ball that was coming right towards him that was tailor-made for a 3-6-3 (or 2) double play, run BACK TOWARDS THE FIRST BASE BAG!!! The ball makes its way thru for a single and on the next pitch, a 3-run HR is smashed to LF.

So, I put the fielding error slider back to default (wasn't seeing any errors with it raised) and it seemed that fielder reaction was much more realistic; guys were making plays for balls instead of letting them roll right past them.

Again, this might just be an issue I'm having, but wanted to throw it out there to see if anyone else was noticing similar issues.

I 100% agree with you. I think the fielding error slider is broken. It affects the cpu in terms of creating errors but tones down reaction time for the user. I've had balls go right through me or right beside me with it on 10 and no error, no block, no anything. They just don't make any plays. The more I play the more I see of this. I might just back it down a little more (still at 8 for the moment) since I'm annoyed with how this is working myself. I don't see any errors for myself, just missed plays.

Here are two pictures of Inge - the one where a ball goes right through him and he's a great defender (no error). The other he doesn't even try to make a play. This was when I had the error slider maxed out at 10.

[DJ]

Re: MLB 09 All-Star Sliders for the bad hitter/good pitcher

^Those plays are so frustrating.

Well, if the worst thing we have to complain about is the lack of HUM fielding errors, we are in a good place overall.

[rudyjuly2]

Re: MLB 09 All-Star Sliders for the bad hitter/good pitcher

^Those plays are so frustrating.

Well, if the worst thing we have to complain about is the lack of HUM fielding errors, we are in a good place overall.

I agree but I pm'd Kolbe and Russell about this and hopefully they can look into and possibly even patch if for us (if it is an issue).

[DJ]

Re: MLB 09 All-Star Sliders for the bad hitter/good pitcher

I agree but I pm'd Kolbe and Russell about this and hopefully they can look into and possibly even patch if for us (if it is an issue).

Hope for you guys they can; I'm playing the PS2 version so it's something I'll have to deal with. Hopefully returning the fielding error slider back to default with alleviate the problem.

[JohnnytheSkin]

Re: MLB 09 All-Star Sliders for the bad hitter/good pitcher

Hey Rudy, thanks for the sliders. Glad they many of the values were still the default five, as this game is eminently playable out of the box.

Some minor questions/complaints/praise:

1) How are your user at bat pitch counts? With the CPU pitch control so low it seems that every at-bat runs five to eight pitches due to the easy to see out of the zone balls. *Maybe this also deals with the strike frequency setting?*

2) The CPU contact might need to stay at default, as I wasn't seeing a lot of watched or missed third strikes (I'm using meter pitching).

3) Keeping the user pitch control at five works great with the sliders and meter pitching.

4) With reliever stamina on zero, can you still have a long relief guy go three innings give or take? And a middle reliever pitch two?

5) I bumped the pitch speed up to three and it's perfect, as like you, I'm a swing only timing guy.

Otherwise, great job! This amazing game just became even better!

[rudyjuly2]

Re: MLB 09 All-Star Sliders for the bad hitter/good pitcher

Thanks Johnny. These aren't exactly a big slider set since most things are at default lol. Just a few tweaks here and there. You are right though. Meter is harder this year and you probably need to bring pitch control back up to default. You also might want to raise human consistency if you see too many passed balls.


1) How are your user at bat pitch counts? With the CPU pitch control so low it seems that every at-bat runs five to eight pitches due to the easy to see out of the zone balls. *Maybe this also deals with the strike frequency setting?*

My counts aren't that high because I'm an undisciplined hitter. If you are seeing too high pitch counts for the cpu, I would boost cpu pitch control up a touch and possibly raise the strike frequency. Strike frequency has the biggest effect on the first pitch imo and I think you will have better results tweaking cpu pitch control.

2) The CPU contact might need to stay at default, as I wasn't seeing a lot of watched or missed third strikes (I'm using meter pitching).

I'm able to get the cpu to swing through strikes. I'm striking out about 6 guys a game so its pretty good. I'm even seeing some watched strikes but meter pitching is harder. Going down to default for cpu contact seems like a good idea for you.

3) Keeping the user pitch control at five works great with the sliders and meter pitching.
Good idea. When I tried using the meter briefly, four out of my five pitches went wild. I went right back to Classic.

4) With reliever stamina on zero, can you still have a long relief guy go three innings give or take? And a middle reliever pitch two?

The reliever stamina slider doesn't have a great effect. I've pitched 4 innings with a long reliever without much of an issue at all. I have no problem taking any reliever and pitching them two innings. I don't think there is a single reliever that can't go at least two innings with it at 0 and usually still have at least 1/2 his stamina bar. The bigger effect is that a reliever that goes two innings will be a bit more tired the next day and it will encourage a more varied use of your pen.

5) I bumped the pitch speed up to three and it's perfect, as like you, I'm a swing only timing guy.
Pitch speed is totally user preference. I suck and need it as low as possible.

[The Chef]

Re: MLB 09 All-Star Sliders for the bad hitter/good pitcher

In terms of pitch count, Peavy struck me out something like 18 times in my last game and pitched 8 innings with a pitch count of near 120, keep in mind he had a no hitter until I finally broke it up in the 9th, so for me atleast, the pitch counts arent way too high.

[JohnnytheSkin]

Re: MLB 09 All-Star Sliders for the bad hitter/good pitcher

To be honest, the pitch counts are probably fine. I just like my games to be over in 30-40 minutes. Sure it's unrealistic for baseball, but I don't like sitting and being overly patient and having games stretch over an hour.

Different strokes...

[The Chef]

Re: MLB 09 All-Star Sliders for the bad hitter/good pitcher

To be honest, the pitch counts are probably fine. I just like my games to be over in 30-40 minutes. Sure it's unrealistic for baseball, but I don't like sitting and being overly patient and having games stretch over an hour.

Different strokes...

Gotcha, in that game it took me about 70 minutes to play and that was with skipping all cut scenes and rushing through it since I was trying to fit a game in prior to work.