Explanation of Gameplay Sliders

[DetroitStyle]

Re: Explanation of Gameplay Sliders

Does fielder arm strength affect stolen bases? My problem is that when I have the steal ability set at 4, I cannot steal a base for the life of me. It drives me crazy. However, when I adjust the slider to 3, the CPU never throws me out, which also bothers me. I currently play with fielder arm strength at 3. If I were to bump fielder arm strength to 4, would that affect the amount of stolen bases or does adjusting the fielder arm strength slider have no affect on stolen bases?

No it won't. It even tells you in game that it doesn't affect catchers arm strength during stolen bases.

[JG1986]

Re: Explanation of Gameplay Sliders

No it won't. It even tells you in game that it doesn't affect catchers arm strength during stolen bases.

Weird. Never read that. Thanks for the info.

[Bobhead]

Re: Explanation of Gameplay Sliders

What Detroit said.

You can try toying with the error sliders, and baserunning speed sliders to fine tune the success rate of steals.

For example, -1 to Baserunner Speed... then -1 to Fielder Speed to keep things balanced defensively... that will make the success rate of steals slightly lower. You can combine that with base steal abilty at 3 (where you said it was too high) and give it a shot.

[BoSox5]

Re: Explanation of Gameplay Sliders

Great stuff Bobhead, really helpful. Everyone plays at different skill levels so slider sets aren't always perfect because of that. This write-up gives a better idea from a personal perspective of what sliders to change to make it more realistic for myself.

Wondering if you could possibly give some advice. I score a good amount of runs and hits are about what is expected. The only frustrating part is that about a 1/3 of my outs are on K's. I don't want a drastic change but would be happy with about 2 fewer a game. Would you suggest raising the contact slider but lowering solid hits slider? Again, I'm happy with runs and hits, just want to lower the amount of outs that are K's. I use zone hitting.

[Bobhead]

Re: Explanation of Gameplay Sliders

Whenever your strikeouts are too high, but you don't suck at hitting, 99% of the time, it's because of pitch speed. I'd try lowering Pitch Speed 1 point, then maybe lowering Solid Hits 1 point also to maintain balance.

Increasing Contact helps to a certain extent, but I'm guessing/assuming that most of your strikeouts come on pitches outside of the zone (chases), and all the contact in the world wont really help you reach those.

[mlblover15]

Re: Explanation of Gameplay Sliders

Ok struggling to win or score runs or slow down cpu offense... two weeks into my season, 2-9. scoring 1-3 runs a game, getting 1-5 hits a game. I'm aleady in slider hell.

even on rookie with these sliders at 0 i still cant win over the computer...

CPU solid hits
CPU strike freq
Fielder speed
fielder reaction

Should i lower the following... ?

CPU Timing
CPU Contact

I'm getting seriously frustrated again with this game... i have started and re stared many franchises before this one... and i dont want to restart this one... i need serious help... I dont ness. want to turn this game into an arcade game but i just want to slow down the CPU offense.. and increase mine..

any ideas????

[Bobhead]

Re: Explanation of Gameplay Sliders

Ok struggling to win or score runs or slow down cpu offense... two weeks into my season, 2-9. scoring 1-3 runs a game, getting 1-5 hits a game. I'm aleady in slider hell.

even on rookie with these sliders at 0 i still cant win over the computer...

CPU solid hits
CPU strike freq
Fielder speed
fielder reaction

Should i lower the following... ?

CPU Timing
CPU Contact

I'm getting seriously frustrated again with this game... i have started and re stared many franchises before this one... and i dont want to restart this one... i need serious help... I dont ness. want to turn this game into an arcade game but i just want to slow down the CPU offense.. and increase mine..

any ideas????

I'm guessing you also set some human sliders to 10? These are probably the cause of your problems, you can't just start maxing and min-ing sliders at the first sign of trouble.
I can't give you any suggestions on what to lower because you didn't actually give me any information about your games, but honestly I'd put everything back at default and play a few more games.

[mlblover15]

Re: Explanation of Gameplay Sliders

Ok i have not maxed out all human sliders... that is insane. lol. but i was thinking about keeping all human sliders at default and just lowering those i listed..

I'm averaging between 1-5 hits per game, narely a extra base hit, and can't win games... i just cant... im coming off a 7-game losing streak and that is horrible...

Part of me is like...

"hey lets go back to the ASB 05 days and just slam the teams to death... "

Maybe that is what i need to realize what i have in front of me. I mean it was after a 122-40 season with all my hitters going .300+, 30+ hr, 100+ rbi, and my pitchers going 20+ wins in the season on HOF level... that is when i decided to move on...

I'm starting to think i need to allow that to happen again to get me back to accepting what this game is all about... it is a great game, dont misunderstand what im saying here...

The last full season i played on this series was 08... i had a great season.. that was the last easier version of this game that i played. I dont think i have allowed myself to accept the level of diff this game brings to the table.

Yes i have made up my mind... im going back to crushing teams to no degree of uncle... once i get bored with that i will start to really focus on bringing the game back to realism... maybe lol...

thanks for the forum to air out my brain and to get my thoughts clear... im out!!!!

[Bobhead]

Re: Explanation of Gameplay Sliders

I literally just went up to Legend within the last couple of weeks. I've been on HoF for the majority of the summer though, and my sliders have not changed much on Legend.

Hitting Difficulty: Legend
Interface: Zone

Pitching Difficulty: All-Star
Interface: Analog

Human Contact: 5 (was 4 on All-Star/Hall of Fame)
Human Power: 1
Human Timing: 9 (was 6 on All-Star, 7 on Hall of Fame)
Human Foul Frequency: 8
Human Solid Hits: 6 (was 4 on All-Star, 5 on Hall of Fame)
Human Starter Stamina: 6
Human Reliever Stamina: 2
Human Pitcher Control: 2
Human Pitcher Consistency: 1

CPU Contact: 1
CPU Power: 3
CPU Timing: 8
CPU Foul Frequency: 8
CPU Solid Hits: 6
CPU Starter Stamina: 6
CPU Reliever Stamina: 2
CPU Pitcher Control: 1
CPU Pitcher Consistency: 2
CPU Strike Frequency: 5 (was 3 on All-Star, 4 on Hall of Fame)
CPU Manager Hook: 5
CPU Pickoffs: 4

Pitch Speed: 1 (3 on AS, 2 on HoF)
Fielding Errors: 10
Throwing Errors: 5
Fielder Run Speed: 0
Fielder Reaction: 2
Fielder Arm Strength: 1
Baserunner Speed: 6
Baserunner Steal Ability: 4
Baserunner Steal Frequency: 8
Wind: 3
Injury Frequency: 5

[unitednations161]

Re: Explanation of Gameplay Sliders

how does hitting difficulty affect sliders? Say if i had 6 contact and 5 power and 6 timing on veteran, how would it be affected if i moved to all start? im really getting the hang of this game and pounding the ball with like 8 doubles but no home runs a game and was wondering if the hitting difficulty is what i should change?

[JG1986]

Re: Explanation of Gameplay Sliders

Hey Bob, I was hoping you could perhaps guide me on something. I play on AS with sliders that I've created between looking at all of them on here on OS and then adjusting to my own liking so that I can make the playoffs but not dominate the league. I'm about 60 games into my Mets franchise. In the first month my team ERA was in the low 4's, which I feel is fair. However, as I got into the second month and now the third, my pitching is dominating. I don't strike out that many batters. In fact, I'm last in the league in strikeouts. But my team ERA is drastically decreasing. I'm in the mid 3's all of a sudden. I understand it is a long season but I don't feel like this is just good pitching performances. I'm assuming I'm just getting "better" at pitching. I don't want to increase the CPU hitting sliders at all. As soon as I bumped CPU hitting to 6, they swung at everything and it didn't feel like baseball to me. So I put it back down to 5. I would rather decrease HUM pitching. Between HUM consistency or HUM control, which would have a bigger impact on the CPU hitting in your opinion? Thanks!

[Bobhead]

Re: Explanation of Gameplay Sliders

I actually started out the year with the exact same problem... low strikeouts, but I was piling up on double plays and consecutive fly-outs to the point that I was breezing through most innings. Most of my games I ended up giving up like 10 hits, but getting 2 double plays a game, with a lot of random fly-outs and other stuff, so while every inning felt like somewhat of a challenge, I was never actually giving up runs.

I also noticed my strike percentages were insanely high, and I realized that my pitching approach was just as unrealistic as my sliders were. I was pitching too aggressively.

I decided to raise Solid Hits a few points. It leads to more hits/runs per game, as the CPU batters make quality contact more often.

Additionally, as the batters are more potent, they are more apt to punish you if you try to just throw random strikes and breeze through innings. You will have to re-evaluate your approach. You're basically forced to throw outside the zone if you want to win games, so over time, your strikeouts should increase slightly as well.

If you prefer to change your own pitching, I'd probably start with Pitch Control, but again I don't know what your strike numbers look like (or what your current sliders are), so I can only stand by my own experiences outlined above.

[JG1986]

Re: Explanation of Gameplay Sliders

I actually started out the year with the exact same problem... low strikeouts, but I was piling up on double plays and consecutive fly-outs to the point that I was breezing through most innings. Most of my games I ended up giving up like 10 hits, but getting 2 double plays a game, with a lot of random fly-outs and other stuff, so while every inning felt like somewhat of a challenge, I was never actually giving up runs.

I also noticed my strike percentages were insanely high, and I realized that my pitching approach was just as unrealistic as my sliders were. I was pitching too aggressively.

I decided to raise Solid Hits a few points. It leads to more hits/runs per game, as the CPU batters make quality contact more often.

Additionally, as the batters are more potent, they are more apt to punish you if you try to just throw random strikes and breeze through innings. You will have to re-evaluate your approach. You're basically forced to throw outside the zone if you want to win games, so over time, your strikeouts should increase slightly as well.

If you prefer to change your own pitching, I'd probably start with Pitch Control, but again I don't know what your strike numbers look like (or what your current sliders are), so I can only stand by my own experiences outlined above.

Yes, what you experienced is exactly my problem. I have CPU hitting at all 5, except solid hits, which is at 3. Maybe I will try to increase their solid hits before decreasing my pitching or some combination thereof. Thanks!

Edit: I'm definitely thinking, based on the tinkering that I have done, that increasing the CPU solid hits slider by 1 or 2 clicks, things will change. For instance, normally if it is a situation where I do not want to walk the batter, I will groove a fastball just to avoid the walk because I feel walking batters severely damages a pitcher's confidence in this game. But now, knowing they will make better contact, I will shy away from grooving because of the potential consequences. The more think I think about it, the more this slider makes sense for my particular situation. I will leave all of my sliders back to where they were before tinkering but increase CPU solid hits. Awesome, thanks again!

[geisterhome]

Re: Explanation of Gameplay Sliders

great, thanks for this! what im wondering about is how changing the difficulty affects the slider? find that somewhat confusing.

[Bobhead]

Re: Explanation of Gameplay Sliders

Made a few changes for 2014.

I've found that Solid Hits doesn't impact line drives the way it did in the past. It seems like its more tied to home runs than anything. I've played with the slider all year long and the slider has proved ineffective in my efforts to increase line drives.

I know the batting physics were re-re-changed before last year's game, which I did not play much, and I suspect that this is when the change occurred.

But of course, I could be completely wrong, and I'd like to see what everyone else is... seeing?

Either way, I updated the the descriptions of the SH slider to reflect my observations.

I also tweaked the descriptions for Pitch Control and Pitch Consistency, and added descriptions for the two "Error" sliders.

Finally, I added a section summarizing a few problems that people frequently make threads about on the forums. I'll add a couple more and figure out a way to organize it (alphabetical? categorically? I'm open to suggestions) less arbitrarily.