TheWarmWind's Impact Sliders

[TheWarmWind]

Re: TheWarmWind's Impact Sliders

I don't doubt it. I think it might work great for you on veteran. It just isn't for me on All-Star. I felt like I saw a lot of 2-0 counts and pitchers panicking to catch up. Limited sample but with control artist quirk pitchers, which was part of my curiosity.

A realistic amount of first pitch/EC strikes are important to me as it creates that first pitch fastball swinging situation, an additional layer of cranial stimulation. I am keeping mine on 6 as the game is just a hair low on offense and EC zone%. Strike freq 6 perfects it. But, that's just me. We all play differently and for different reasons as well such as perceiving how at-bats are approached. I don't need/want pitchers to go for the corners all the time but I do want the attitude of missing far is better than missing middle early, if that makes sense.


I don't know if this helps your or anyone else but hopefully it does.

I hear ya, and I have mad respect for those of you that go for the full sim experience. I was just sharing info to possibly help with the next time you need to tweak (patch, MLB 18). I do not want to have a direct influence on your sliders nor do I want to say "my way is right and yours is wrong" in any way.

I assume you already knew that, I'm just being paranoid and making sure everything is gravy. Love your sliders for for full sim (obviously), I just also love dialogue between the slider sets to help solidify our understanding of each slider. Plus, pooling our testing results is an awesome resource.

My sliders may be pretty close to vanilla, but I pulled info from the entire sliders sub-forum to make them. Man I love the OS community.

For me, I'll never go full sim for long, unless I MoM (which I have done in the past and loved). With the Sim/Arcade hybrid, I just find the successes more satisfying and the failures less frustrating. I get to bent out of shape on full sim.

[No.27]

Re: TheWarmWind's Impact Sliders

I don't doubt it. I think it might work great for you on veteran. It just isn't for me on All-Star. I felt like I saw a lot of 2-0 counts and pitchers panicking to catch up. Limited sample but with control artist quirk pitchers, which was part of my curiosity.

A realistic amount of first pitch/EC strikes are important to me as it creates that first pitch fastball swinging situation, an additional layer of cranial stimulation. I am keeping mine on 6 as the game is just a hair low on offense and EC zone%. Strike freq 6 perfects it. But, that's just me. We all play differently and for different reasons as well such as perceiving how at-bats are approached. I don't need/want pitchers to go for the corners all the time but I do want the attitude of missing far is better than missing middle early, if that makes sense.


I don't know if this helps your or anyone else but hopefully it does.

Just before we put this to bed and out of interest I've just got one more question. What are your total pitch counts looking like with strike frequency at 6?

[No.27]

Re: TheWarmWind's Impact Sliders

I get to bent out of shape on full sim.

Me too! I usually play after work and like the game to be relaxing. I really don't mind if there is not enough CPU offense 😀

[rjackson]

Re: TheWarmWind's Impact Sliders

Just before we put this to bed and out of interest I've just got one more question. What are your total pitch counts looking like with strike frequency at 6?

I am thinking around 150 as an average. Low is 125-129 and high was probably 180 with my latest 5-4-6 setup control/consistency/freq.

I think of it this way - the CPU logic determines the spot aimed by the CPU pitcher and we are at the mercy of that except for difficulty level.

Control puts it in a smaller circle of accuracy so higher control is more likely to hit the spot on the black. If you went control 0, it would be 50/50'chance of being a strike and has more chance of getting to a more hittable spot, but still not middle middle. This is assuming they pass the consistency check or that circle will move somewhere else entirely.

Consistency is how often the pitcher gets the release point down or that early/late message. It makes them miss big, makes easy pitches to lay off of, and some meatballs as well. You get more walks because it is easier to layoff a poor ball and not protect a close ball.

Frequency is how often they try to throw strikes early. Not all strikes are equal, though. You still have the consistency check. Assuming that is good, then it is a combination of AI and your play. The higher the level, the more they will attack the black because you are more likely jumping on deep strikes. If you always take strike one, they will keep on taking it, though. It adjusts at all levels but it adjusts quicker on legend than on rookie. At least, in the past it did. I think now it just gives a smaller chance of success but the AI stays the same.

That is why the PCI is bigger on the lower levels, to reflect that greater chance of success. I also think that is why it appears that they go for the corners more often, they are trying to miss on purpose.

One size does not fit all for sure. If I was less patient, these sliders would destroy me. I prefer to only swing at deep strike ones on the first pitch and try to force them to nibble. If I am too patient, I fall behind the count constantly and get destroyed. Ya'll are right, they can be frustrating at times. Kazmir kills me with that slow change of his and the sinkers. I look for something up but that change just drops out, and my timing is always too early. I hate that guy!

[No.27]

Re: TheWarmWind's Impact Sliders

I am thinking around 150 as an average. Low is 125-129 and high was probably 180 with my latest 5-4-6 setup control/consistency/freq.

I think of it this way - the CPU logic determines the spot aimed by the CPU pitcher and we are at the mercy of that except for difficulty level.

Control puts it in a smaller circle of accuracy so higher control is more likely to hit the spot on the black. If you went control 0, it would be 50/50'chance of being a strike and has more chance of getting to a more hittable spot, but still not middle middle. This is assuming they pass the consistency check or that circle will move somewhere else entirely.

Consistency is how often the pitcher gets the release point down or that early/late message. It makes them miss big, makes easy pitches to lay off of, and some meatballs as well. You get more walks because it is easier to layoff a poor ball and not protect a close ball.

Frequency is how often they try to throw strikes early. Not all strikes are equal, though. You still have the consistency check. Assuming that is good, then it is a combination of AI and your play. The higher the level, the more they will attack the black because you are more likely jumping on deep strikes. If you always take strike one, they will keep on taking it, though. It adjusts at all levels but it adjusts quicker on legend than on rookie. At least, in the past it did. I think now it just gives a smaller chance of success but the AI stays the same.

That is why the PCI is bigger on the lower levels, to reflect that greater chance of success. I also think that is why it appears that they go for the corners more often, they are trying to miss on purpose.

One size does not fit all for sure. If I was less patient, these sliders would destroy me. I prefer to only swing at deep strike ones on the first pitch and try to force them to nibble. If I am too patient, I fall behind the count constantly and get destroyed. Ya'll are right, they can be frustrating at times. Kazmir kills me with that slow change of his and the sinkers. I look for something up but that change just drops out, and my timing is always too early. I hate that guy!

Thanks that's good information and will help me decide whether to trial raising it a notch. I think the league average is about 150 so that's spot on. You must have a pretty good eye!

I've been playing with justmuncs Fictional roster and have discovered it's based on last years Hybrid which contains WTNY pitch edits so that's an added wrinkle where we will be seeing some different results.

I played exclusively with the Hybrid last year and know the bottom of rotation/bullpen guys can get pretty wild at times so control/consistency 5/5 is working well. Just have to see if raising strike frequency a notch will be better for the lower rated guys. Good Luck.

[TheWarmWind]

Re: TheWarmWind's Impact Sliders

Me too! I usually play after work and like the game to be relaxing. I really don't mind if there is not enough CPU offense 😀

It's not just that for me. I often feel like there are runs that I didn't earn on full sim settings. With an arcade/sim hybrid, I feel far less frustrated with failures and more satisfied with successes because I feel like my play had an impact. Hence the name of the sliders.

But at the same time I never want to lose player differential. Building and managing a team is a big part of the fun for me. If that became meaningless when I played the game it'd just be another EA NHL game all over again (seriously, getting something even resembling a sim experience in those games is impossible). There is a reason I stopped playing that game (max difficulty, sliders maxed out in sim favourable directions, still heavily arcade flavoured).

I digress though. Sorry for the vent about EA's NHL, but... you know... Canadian. Good thing I love Baseball.

[No.27]

Re: TheWarmWind's Impact Sliders

It's not just that for me. I often feel like there are runs that I didn't earn on full sim settings. With an arcade/sim hybrid, I feel far less frustrated with failures and more satisfied with successes because I feel like my play had an impact. Hence the name of the sliders.

But at the same time I never want to lose player differential. Building and managing a team is a big part of the fun for me. If that became meaningless when I played the game it'd just be another EA NHL game all over again (seriously, getting something even resembling a sim experience in those games is impossible). There is a reason I stopped playing that game (max difficulty, sliders maxed out in sim favourable directions, still heavily arcade flavoured).

I digress though. Sorry for the vent about EA's NHL, but... you know... Canadian. Good thing I love Baseball.

Got it. Thanks for the explanation on the name. I was wondering about that.

I will digress for a minute as well. Canadian eh, that explains to me why the guide is so well written. I'm an Australian and work at a school. We get a lot of Canadian relief teachers down here travelling the world. As a matter of fact we have a couple working here ATM. I always remark on how well prepared they are to teach. You might be able to correct me but I feel you must have really a good education system up there.

Funny you say that about ea NHL as I finally got around to deleting NHL 16 the other day. I wasted my money on that one for sure. I only played it about 6 times and the Bruins are my favourite sports team. Despite all the complaint threads on the main forum the AI difference between NHL and the Show is like night and day.

[Dragsy]

Re: TheWarmWind's Impact Sliders

By deep strike do you mean one in the middle of the zone?

[bronxbombers21325]

Re: TheWarmWind's Impact Sliders

Any tips on how to get the CPU teams to throw less wild pitches? I'm fine while the CPU starter is in, but once the bullpen is called on I see 3 or 4 wild pitches per game. I've scored so any runs, and made a lot of comebacks that I shouldn't have made if it were for the CPU allowing runners to move up. I don't like winning games that way. I get they happen occasionally, but not every single game.

[rjackson]

Re: TheWarmWind's Impact Sliders

By deep strike do you mean one in the middle of the zone?

Yes.
If you look at the swing analysis and see that 3X3 grid, it is the square in the middle aka a pitch that is middle-middle. Look at your batting analysis during or after the game. There is a lot of good information in there but you can look at your team, all batters, leave the rest alone and change the result column I think it is (it is the very bottom one) and you can see all the deep strikes you got for a game.

[TheWarmWind]

Re: TheWarmWind's Impact Sliders

Any tips on how to get the CPU teams to throw less wild pitches? I'm fine while the CPU starter is in, but once the bullpen is called on I see 3 or 4 wild pitches per game. I've scored so any runs, and made a lot of comebacks that I shouldn't have made if it were for the CPU allowing runners to move up. I don't like winning games that way. I get they happen occasionally, but not every single game.

Nope, sorry. I would assume increasing CPU pitch control or consistency would help but I haven't playtested that so the best I can offer is a "try at your own risk". I haven't faced the same issue that you have, so I haven't explored any solutions.

Might want to pick the brain of another slider set maker for this one. Sorry I couldn't help.

[TheWarmWind]

Re: TheWarmWind's Impact Sliders

So I think I've settled on my super ambitious plan for playing the Show this year. First off, most of my time will go into my 2014 carry over with these sliders locked in for now, playing every pitch of every AB.

Second will be a more experimental Franchise with Justmunc's fictional with the Mets, using Quick Manage, Player Lock (is it still a thing?), critical situations, and a lot of other crazy stuff. I think I'll start out copying whatever settings/sliders No.27 settles on for that. I'll use it as a sort of slider lab/for silly fun game mode.

Third will be a Quick Manage/MoM ONLY using rjackson's sliders. I'm thinking either Justmunc's Brewers, Justmunc's Astros, or OSFM Blue Jays for that one.

All this plus my very real obsession with Overwatch. It's going to be great.

[No.27]

Re: TheWarmWind's Impact Sliders

So I think I've settled on my super ambitious plan for playing the Show this year. First off, most of my time will go into my 2014 carry over with these sliders locked in for now, playing every pitch of every AB.

Second will be a more experimental Franchise with Justmunc's fictional with the Mets, using Quick Manage, Player Lock (is it still a thing?), critical situations, and a lot of other crazy stuff. I think I'll start out copying whatever settings/sliders No.27 settles on for that. I'll use it as a sort of slider lab/for silly fun game mode.

Third will be a Quick Manage/MoM ONLY using rjackson's sliders. I'm thinking either Justmunc's Brewers, Justmunc's Astros, or OSFM Blue Jays for that one.

All this plus my very real obsession with Overwatch. It's going to be great.

That sounds like a good plan but while you were off calming the waters in the guide thread I snuck back down to Veteran to have a look after you explained your theory to me.

In my first game I scored a lead off double on a wonky fielding error. I had an epiphany with my next at bat. Lefty/Lefty match up with a pull/power batter at the plate, 5 or 6 pitch battle waiting for that low 90s fastball. Then it came middle/up and with pull influence I hit a screaming double over the infield and between the CF/RF. Right where I wanted it to go and drove the runner in! I don't think I've been as happy all year with a hit on All Star. I might have got the double on All Star but probably not where I thought it would go with pull influence. I wonder if level is a factor when people seeing different things with Directional?

I'm converted and going to give Veteran a decent sample size in my new DODGERS franchise. So far I haven't had to change any settings. Only small adjustment is if I remember I do the manager hook 3/7 trick.

Pitching is another story. Classic is now dead to me this year! After a 99 rated Kershaw clone sailed through 7 innings and then fell apart because I couldn't spot the curveball (other than in the dirt!) which had struck out 5 and was full confidence. I used meter early in the year but felt it was a bit too spot on. I don't like analog. Do you have any pulse tips? I can only time it to the big circle

Update: Think I've worked out pulse in pitching practice. For me the best option is to press the pitch type then quick press the pulse nearly before it even starts pulsing. Got my highest ever gold score in pitching practice with this method and had never even tried pulse before. Loving the pitch going where it is supposed to!

[TheWarmWind]

Re: TheWarmWind's Impact Sliders

lol I hear ya. My best advice for pulse is to press the button as the pulse is getting smaller. Think of the tightening marker as the motion your thumb makes when you press x. So you want to be starting the motion when it's at its largest, and finishing it when it's smallest.

Do keep in mind that pitch control effects how often the pitch will start inside the pulse, so it is still possible to throw wild. However, it is much less likely on good inputs thanks to the precision engine they introduced last year.

I agree that difficulty level can have a big impact on the results that people see in directional, but a big part of that is because it's easier to see patterns when you're pumping out more "solid" results. I'm thinking of a few ideas right now to proof of concept the guide. I'm not trying to sweep the naysayers under the rug, I just want to help those along who want to believe the guide but have struggled to see the results. Minor buffs and debuffs can be difficult to pick up on, especially at higher levels. More on that later in the guide though once I fully figure it out.

[nunogomes]

Re: TheWarmWind's Impact Sliders

TheWarmWind,

i use a mix of your sliders and Armor´s, and im a "faithfull" follower of your directional hitting guide (once again, thanks for that).

Im having a blast with the game but now that im 25 games on my NYY season (15-10) there is a obvious problem i would like to tackle without ruining everything else wich is just perfect!

So, the problem is that my pitching staff (official rosters, no trades) leads the league in strikeouts and by a fair margin. On the other hand, my players ALSO lead the league with the fewest strikeouts. So, i strike out the CPU too much and i rarely strike out myself.

However, all other stats line up. I am middle of the pack in BA, middle of the pack in RBI´s, HR´s, Hits, etc... AND... my pitching staff ALSO is middle of the pack in ERA, CPU´s offense is ok against me, they get their runs, their hits...

How can i "solve" this 2 problems without ruining a perfectly realistic season in very possible way imaginable?

Thanks!