Stats-Based CPU Sliders [MLB 18 Version Season-Mode Memorial Edition]

[Incognito]

Re: Stats-Based CPU Sliders [MLB 18 Version Season-Mode Memorial Edition]

CPU base running still appears to be too aggressive. Anyone else noticing how the base runners are still acting as if it's MLB 2017? They're still trying to advance on blocked pitches in the dirt, (which would've allowed them to easily advance in 2017) but are getting thrown out every time this year.

[My993C2]

Re: Stats-Based CPU Sliders [MLB 18 Version Season-Mode Memorial Edition]

CPU base running still appears to be too aggressive. Anyone else noticing how the base runners are still acting as if it's MLB 2017? They're still trying to advance on blocked pitches in the dirt, (which would've allowed them to easily advance in 2017) but are getting thrown out every time this year.

Yeah I have not really noticed much difference in terms of the CPU base runners holding back regarding advancing after balls in the dirt at the plate. When the ball does get away from the catcher, in these cases we want the CPU runners to advance. But as stated I am not noticing much of a difference between 17 and 18.

[forme95]

Re: Stats-Based CPU Sliders [MLB 18 Version Season-Mode Memorial Edition]

Yeah I have not really noticed much difference in terms of the CPU base runners holding back regarding advancing after balls in the dirt at the plate. When the ball does get away from the catcher, in these cases we want the CPU runners to advance. But as stated I am not noticing much of a difference between 17 and 18.

SDS needs to tone down the effects of the in the dirt ball. The way it currently is, its like a bouncy rubber ball that goes flying after it hits the dirt, and it rarely has that type of effect IRL. Yes, it scoots away, but not at the rate it does in the game.

[nomo17k]

Re: Stats-Based CPU Sliders [MLB 18 Version Season-Mode Memorial Edition]

Always had a big interest in US sport...NHL, MLB, NBA, NCAA...dunno why, maybe I was born in the wrong country.

Having US sports tv coverage in abundance now in the UK helps.

I even used to listen to NFL games on the armed forces radio when I was young and there was no tv coverage.

It was something different I guess...and something I really enjoyed the more I got into it.

Been "playing" cpu v cpu in all genres for years now.

Your work is such a massive help Nomo and is greatly appreciated.

Long may it continue.

I suppose streaming makes it even easier these days to watch international sports.

I have a MLB.tv subscription but a blackout restriction prevents me from watching local teams (A's and the Giants). I get envious when I see people outside the U.S. watching the games without any blackout and have better accessibility to live streaming.

Business often works very weird...

[nomo17k]

Re: Stats-Based CPU Sliders [MLB 18 Version Season-Mode Memorial Edition]

CPU base running still appears to be too aggressive. Anyone else noticing how the base runners are still acting as if it's MLB 2017? They're still trying to advance on blocked pitches in the dirt, (which would've allowed them to easily advance in 2017) but are getting thrown out every time this year.

Yeah I have not really noticed much difference in terms of the CPU base runners holding back regarding advancing after balls in the dirt at the plate. When the ball does get away from the catcher, in these cases we want the CPU runners to advance. But as stated I am not noticing much of a difference between 17 and 18.

SDS needs to tone down the effects of the in the dirt ball. The way it currently is, its like a bouncy rubber ball that goes flying after it hits the dirt, and it rarely has that type of effect IRL. Yes, it scoots away, but not at the rate it does in the game.

I am not watching every single minutes of the games for obvious reasons so I might just have been lucky, but I don't think I've seen too egregious cases of base running yet, though overall I think it tends to be on a slightly more aggressive side than conservative.

That said, I tend to think in-game A.I. overall hasn't really changed that much over the last few years, so it's likely the same issues that we have seen already are still there.

I just really fail to understand why the devs do not bother to improve... I feel they are more low-hanging fruits than anything.


At least with wild pitch, catchers are better at handling them this year so they aren't automatic in advancing runners.

[ericjwm]

Re: Stats-Based CPU Sliders [MLB 18 Version Season-Mode Memorial Edition]

I've said over and over again the difficulty level does matter in CPU vs CPU games.
Try mixing Hall of Fame hitting with pitching on All Star and you will see an amazing amount of realistic offense and games that play out very much like real life. Though with this difficulty mixture the strikeouts seem to be down a little. I'm testing to see if All Star hitting with veteran pitching gets better results. The key is to mix two difficulties.. if you don't there isn't enough offense and the batters don't pull the ball nearly enough.

BTW, this is with default sliders. Messing with the power slider creates too many walks as the AI pitchers tend to pitch around batters too often as if they fear them more.. as they should lol

[NolanRyansSnowmonkey]

Re: Stats-Based CPU Sliders [MLB 18 Version Season-Mode Memorial Edition]

I suppose streaming makes it even easier these days to watch international sports.

I have a MLB.tv subscription but a blackout restriction prevents me from watching local teams (A's and the Giants). I get envious when I see people outside the U.S. watching the games without any blackout and have better accessibility to live streaming.

Business often works very weird...

Even when the Rangers are blacked out on MLB Network I can still watch all 162 games on a different channel. Do they not do that there? Or are you referring only to streaming services?

[nomo17k]

Re: Stats-Based CPU Sliders [MLB 18 Version Season-Mode Memorial Edition]

Even when the Rangers are blacked out on MLB Network I can still watch all 162 games on a different channel. Do they not do that there? Or are you referring only to streaming services?

That's the thing... The teams make a lot of money by selling to local cable companies the rights to broadcast live their games, so MLB.tv blocks them to facilitate local viewers to buy cable subscriptions. I don't watch cable/TV at all these days, so if I want local games I'd have to pay extra to overcome the inconvenience introduced purely for business reasons. (There is a workaround to make MLB.tv work with messing with DNS and such.)

I wonder what happens to the health of MLB financials once streaming services becomes much more dominant form of entertainment over cable.

[nomo17k]

Re: Stats-Based CPU Sliders [MLB 18 Version Season-Mode Memorial Edition]

I've said over and over again the difficulty level does matter in CPU vs CPU games.
Try mixing Hall of Fame hitting with pitching on All Star and you will see an amazing amount of realistic offense and games that play out very much like real life. Though with this difficulty mixture the strikeouts seem to be down a little. I'm testing to see if All Star hitting with veteran pitching gets better results. The key is to mix two difficulties.. if you don't there isn't enough offense and the batters don't pull the ball nearly enough.

BTW, this is with default sliders. Messing with the power slider creates too many walks as the AI pitchers tend to pitch around batters too often as if they fear them more.. as they should lol

That the difficulty level affecting CPU vs. CPU/MoM games is one of the long standing myths, so I have tried to test it a couple times myself... and as far as I can tell, I don't see the effects in my data collection. (If you are curious, the data may still be available in spreadsheets from earlier years in my signature below.)

And I think it makes sense to think the difficulty level affecting only when a user is playing against CPU (user vs. user is a different matter though). For example, when you change hitting difficulty, both your hitting and CPU pitching are affected in various manners. When you change pitching difficulty, both your pitching and CPU hitting are affected in various manners. So the game would not know how to "modify" gameplay, not knowing which rules to take, if both are CPU. In order to avoid the conflict, I think the game is implementing overriding rule that the difficulty level does not matter when controls are on CPU for both hitting and pitching (in CPU vs. CPU/MoM games).


About Power slider affecting walks... I haven't explicitly tested given that I don't usually change Power slider more than one click away from the default, but I doubt that slider affecting pitcher AI. I think the pitcher AI is responding to batter attributes, but Power slider only affects the ball physics in gameplay (e.g., power numbers like HRs are not affected when you sim games, which it should, if the slider is affecting batter attributes). And I haven't seen any strong indication that walk frequency or strike % per count changing when I change Power slider.

[Guys_WhoGame]

Re: Stats-Based CPU Sliders [MLB 18 Version Season-Mode Memorial Edition]

Are you close to a recommended set yet?

[nomo17k]

Re: Stats-Based CPU Sliders [MLB 18 Version Season-Mode Memorial Edition]

Are you close to a recommended set yet?

Depends on how the current set goes. (And patches not messing things up...)

[NolanRyansSnowmonkey]

Re: Stats-Based CPU Sliders [MLB 18 Version Season-Mode Memorial Edition]

That's the thing... The teams make a lot of money by selling to local cable companies the rights to broadcast live their games, so MLB.tv blocks them to facilitate local viewers to buy cable subscriptions. I don't watch cable/TV at all these days, so if I want local games I'd have to pay extra to overcome the inconvenience introduced purely for business reasons. (There is a workaround to make MLB.tv work with messing with DNS and such.)

I wonder what happens to the health of MLB financials once streaming services becomes much more dominant form of entertainment over cable.

Gotcha. Yeah that is irritating and I totally agree. I remember Dallas Cowboys games being blacked out when I was a kid, and we would fight the rabbit ears and outside antennas to get a fuzzy signal out of Waco. Cowboys games are never blacked out here anymore even without paid cable. But with the Rangers, its Satellite or nothing (except the radio, which at times seems even better than watching it)

[My993C2]

Re: Stats-Based CPU Sliders [MLB 18 Version Season-Mode Memorial Edition]

That's the thing... The teams make a lot of money by selling to local cable companies the rights to broadcast live their games, so MLB.tv blocks them to facilitate local viewers to buy cable subscriptions. I don't watch cable/TV at all these days, so if I want local games I'd have to pay extra to overcome the inconvenience introduced purely for business reasons. (There is a workaround to make MLB.tv work with messing with DNS and such.)

I wonder what happens to the health of MLB financials once streaming services becomes much more dominant form of entertainment over cable.

I started using a VPN for all of my internet activities last year (a paid subscription, no way in H E double hockey sticks would I ever use a free VPN) and one would think using a VPN would get around the challenges some people have in accessing games from their local markets. Set your VPN to connect to a server outside of the blackout region where you live and then you should be able to watch your local team on MLB.TV

[nomo17k]

Re: Stats-Based CPU Sliders [MLB 18 Version Season-Mode Memorial Edition]

I started using a VPN for all of my internet activities last year (a paid subscription, no way in H E double hockey sticks would I ever use a free VPN) and one would think using a VPN would get around the challenges some people have in accessing games from their local markets. Set your VPN to connect to a server outside of the blackout region where you live and then you should be able to watch your local team on MLB.TV

VPN is fine when it works, but most of them are slow and fairly costly for what it does... at least that's been my experience so far, so I only use it when I really need it, though with all the fiasco around the Internet safety and such I understand the motivation for using it.

What I've used with MLB.tv is Unlocator. I believe it should still work (I have to resubscribe again), but I heard the MLB app on smartphone have started using GPS for location. It looks like we are out of luck with VPN/DNS proxy service on those devices.

What surveillance society we have become.

Actually, I'm a bit surprised to hear that there is MLB.tv blackout restriction in Canada, given there is only one team there right now. I know such restriction does not exist for, say, subscribers in Japan.

[My993C2]

Re: Stats-Based CPU Sliders [MLB 18 Version Season-Mode Memorial Edition]

VPN is fine when it works, but most of them are slow and fairly costly for what it does... at least that's been my experience so far, so I only use it when I really need it, though with all the fiasco around the Internet safety and such I understand the motivation for using it.

What I've used with MLB.tv is Unlocator. I believe it should still work (I have to resubscribe again), but I heard the MLB app on smartphone have started using GPS for location. It looks like we are out of luck with VPN/DNS proxy service on those devices.

What surveillance society we have become.

Actually, I'm a bit surprised to hear that there is MLB.tv blackout restriction in Canada, given there is only one team there right now. I know such restriction does not exist for, say, subscribers in Japan.

I am not blacked out here in Western Canada where the closest teams (Seattle and Denver) are not close at all. No if there is a MLB.TV blackout in Canada it would only be restricted to the GTA. As far as VPN performance,
I use IPVanish on my home computer and my smart TV as well as my cell phone and I do not notice any performance issues. But I don't watch baseball games from my phone and yeah that is concerning if they will be using GPS to determine if you should be blacked out.