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

[NolanRyansSnowmonkey]

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

Only thing I can think of is that you got more LD and GB so your HR dropped even as your other hits/outs stayed the same.

Yeah I agree, i would think so too, but my fly ball% is 39.8%. Which is actually up a tiny bit more than what I've had.
Line drives did go up a bit to 21.9%.
And ground balls are at 38.3%, down just a bit from 40%.


The wind isn't knocking them down because I turned wind to 0 for this test. I just find it very curious.

[nomo17k]

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

...

Is there some sort of weird buffering to power by moving the Contact slider up that I dont know about?

I was playing with hitting sliders around 55433, and getting a normal amount of home runs, well over one per game. Doubles were high but babip and average were a bit low, but home runs were never an issue at all.

Experimenting with another set, in increasing batting average, I kept the same sliders but bumped Contact to a ridiculous amount (8) just to see how much it would change things. I thought it would be just crazy offensive numbers, but to my surprise over 15 games or so (I never intended to play more than one game on this setting) my babip is right at .300 and my average is around .275.

The craziest part is that home runs have dropped to .50 home runs per game now, and doubles have dropped to a reasonable level. This makes no sense to me whatsoever. Is it just a weird fluctuation because of sample size (15 games 15 different teams) or is it something else?

The only two things I can see wrong with this set is less than half the home runs, and 20 points high on batting average. (Also a large increase to the percentage of ground balls going through the infield (about 35 to 40% as opposed to the 19% I was seeing before, and the 23%(?) or so MLB average.)

...

A 15 game sample is still small, so I'd not be too convinced of all the results you are getting, but in certain situations I could see that high Contact reducing HRs.

I think one of quite a few things that Contact slider does is to something similar to what Solid Hit does in effect. That is, it increases the amount of line drives you hit. This is from a couple years ago, but, very roughly, my understanding of Solid Hit slider is illustrated in this picture:



I wasn't very explicit in this slide, but basically what happens when you increase Solid Hit (or Contact) slider is that more of the batted balls you generate cluster toward the launch angles that are optimal for producing line drives.

That in turn reduces fly balls, some of which would have been homeruns if you had Solid Hit/Contact lower. I think a similar mechanism might be causing your ground balls to be of harder kind, which go through infielders more.

While I'm not too convinced this is what you are experiencing, the situations you are describing in relation to increased Contact are not entirely surprising to me... in a way that what I described could be a factor.

[capa]

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

Nomo,

I see you dropped Fielder run speed to 2 for testing...any appreciable improvements by doing so?

C

[nomo17k]

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

Nomo,

I see you dropped Fielder run speed to 2 for testing...any appreciable improvements by doing so?

C

It's not so much some improvement that I'm seeking in doing that adjustment, but more about how much I could lower without making the XBH balance off. Since so many people like having Fielder Run Speed low (I am usually for it as well), I want to have it at the lowest value where it does not affect the gameplay stats negatively.

So far the doubles are not spiking, but triples could be happening more than they do in real-life. Still not clear how much is actually due to the adjustment though. It is about which compromise to make at this point, so will see.

[NolanRyansSnowmonkey]

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

A 15 game sample is still small, so I'd not be too convinced of all the results you are getting, but in certain situations I could see that high Contact reducing HRs.

I think one of quite a few things that Contact slider does is to something similar to what Solid Hit does in effect. That is, it increases the amount of line drives you hit. This is from a couple years ago, but, very roughly, my understanding of Solid Hit slider is illustrated in this picture:



I wasn't very explicit in this slide, but basically what happens when you increase Solid Hit (or Contact) slider is that more of the batted balls you generate cluster toward the launch angles that are optimal for producing line drives.

That in turn reduces fly balls, some of which would have been homeruns if you had Solid Hit/Contact lower. I think a similar mechanism might be causing your ground balls to be of harder kind, which go through infielders more.

While I'm not too convinced this is what you are experiencing, the situations you are describing in relation to increased Contact are not entirely surprising to me... in a way that what I described could be a factor.

Very interesting. I didn't realize that about the Contact slider. I thought the pci just got a bit larger, along with more ability to checkswing. This is good to know.

I think it is definitely at least part of what I'm seeing. I dont think its everything, because plenty, even too many, fly balls of all trajectories are being hit, they just aren't leaving the yard. Several warning track shots that the outfielders camp under, but just not enough. Seems like grounders are turning into line drives more than fly balls. In fact, a lot of the balls that the game classifies as grounders I would classify as line drives, since a lot of them clear the infield dirt even. But some of the games line drives I would classify as fly bslls. Either way, now that you've pointed it out I can definitely see that Contact has had at least some effect in creating more line drives.

Still seems like some of my 38% fly balls would carry out.

I shouldn't even be messing with this set as it's an experiment set lol. But I'm learning something so good.

My other set is still seeing a lot of doubles but I keep bumping sliders around and playing a game or two or three and repeating.

We are in the Tshirt business on the side, and I'm thinking about creating a T-Shirt that says "Embrace Slideritis." Slideritis is not for everyone but I enjoy having it until I get my franchise going.

Cant wait to get these CPU vs CPU sliders going too. My wife just doesnt get why I will sit and watch a computer play baseball lol.

[Guys_WhoGame]

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

SDS should fly you guys down haha. Great read

[dman08]

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

The game is so beautiful, watching the cpu play is extremely satisfying. I started some sliders myself to get my M.o.M. franchise going. I'm getting good numbers honestly

[nomo17k]

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

Very interesting. I didn't realize that about the Contact slider. I thought the pci just got a bit larger, along with more ability to checkswing. This is good to know.

I think it is definitely at least part of what I'm seeing. I dont think its everything, because plenty, even too many, fly balls of all trajectories are being hit, they just aren't leaving the yard. Several warning track shots that the outfielders camp under, but just not enough. Seems like grounders are turning into line drives more than fly balls. In fact, a lot of the balls that the game classifies as grounders I would classify as line drives, since a lot of them clear the infield dirt even. But some of the games line drives I would classify as fly bslls. Either way, now that you've pointed it out I can definitely see that Contact has had at least some effect in creating more line drives.

Still seems like some of my 38% fly balls would carry out.

...

I might have been a bit misleading in just citing my own conceptualization of Solid Hit slider, so I want to supplement with what I also want to add.

Solid Hit slider does not change the size of PCI, whereas Contact slider does. I didn't want to me these sliders work similarly (Contact obviously does more, and in detail I don't know how they work, of course... it's mostly my speculation).

Given what has been said by the devs about what PCI means, simply changing the PCI size may change the variation of hits you generate, if you do not change your approach.

In the attached drawing, there are two PCI with different sizes centered at the same point, to see what happens when you place the PCI centered at the same place and just change Contact slider.

For each PCI, the dotted circle encloses the area where line drives are generated. The dash-dotted line encloses the area for fly balls. (Note that this is roughly similar to the drawing the devs used in their pre-release stream to explain how PCI works.)

There is a "star" which I mean to be the pitch location.

What is interesting in the drawing is that when the PCI is smaller, the pitch is enclosed by the fly-ball zone, whereas when it is larger, it comes into the line-drive zone.

What this tell us is that, even without the help of the kind of hit variety change caused by the Solid Hit slider, the hit variety you get would change by varying the Contact slider, if your tendency of PCI placement does not change.

[NolanRyansSnowmonkey]

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

I might have been a bit misleading in just citing my own conceptualization of Solid Hit slider, so I want to supplement with what I also want to add.

Solid Hit slider does not change the size of PCI, whereas Contact slider does. I didn't want to me these sliders work similarly (Contact obviously does more, and in detail I don't know how they work, of course... it's mostly my speculation).

Given what has been said by the devs about what PCI means, simply changing the PCI size may change the variation of hits you generate, if you do not change your approach.

In the attached drawing, there are two PCI with different sizes centered at the same point, to see what happens when you place the PCI centered at the same place and just change Contact slider.

For each PCI, the dotted circle encloses the area where line drives are generated. The dash-dotted line encloses the area for fly balls. (Note that this is roughly similar to the drawing the devs used in their pre-release stream to explain how PCI works.)

There is a "star" which I mean to be the pitch location.

What is interesting in the drawing is that when the PCI is smaller, the pitch is enclosed by the fly-ball zone, whereas when it is larger, it comes into the line-drive zone.

What this tell us is that, even without the help of the kind of hit variety change caused by the Solid Hit slider, the hit variety you get would change by varying the Contact slider, if your tendency of PCI placement does not change.

That's a great visualization of how the Contact slider works, thank you. I had it in my mind something like this, as I figured with a larger pci the "barrel" area would be larger. But I didnt see it with that much detail, and, I was just assuming. The pitch placement star really showcases how just a difference in pci size can change batted ball types.

With this, it seems like you could raise contact % and lower miss%, while lowering strikeouts, by raising Contact to a pretty high mark away from default, and countering that by dropping solid hits to a pretty low mark away from default, and still see somewhat similar batted ball types.

I usually like to stay at least somewhere closer to default on these sliders, but pitchers paint pretty good on Legend and some of those high and in pitches are tough to get the pci on, which increases strikeouts due to pci placement. In turn, I've remedied this by raising timing. Clearly timing wont help much on that particular pitch location with the same PCI placement, but on other
pitches that I would have just missed, i will now have some contact, thus evening out the numbers while giving me a bit more plate coverage. MLB makes contact on about 76% of swings I think, and I'm usually in the 68% range on legend. But strikeout numbers were on point.


The Contact slider seems like it can be used to get wood on those high inside pitches, decreasing strikeouts that are due to pci placement, and a person could lower Timing and Solid Hits to compensate. Thus decreasing miss% based on PCI placement, but keeping strikeouts and batted ball types pretty similar...

I'm thinking out loud again, forgive me if these seems obvious to everyone, but it actually helps to write this out.

Do you foresee any oddities in stats, or visually, by putting Contact way up, and Solid hits and timing way down? I wonder if getting too far away from default on these going cause something to seem out of proportion.

Without opening up an entirely new test set, I wonder for the sake of curiosity alone, what would happen to batted balls, etc if Contact was at 10 and Solid hits at 0, if pitch locations and pci placement and timing were all exactly the same.


I may have to test it some day. But today is not that day. Priorities, Snowmonkey, priorities.

[dman08]

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

Hey nomo i know you working on your set but i would love if you tried my set for a few games and just tell me what kind of stats you get. I don't care about the credit, i just enjoy playing manager mode or watching cpu vs cpu like everyone in here. I'll post a link but it would be greatly appreciated because I'm getting great numbers and results.

[dman08]

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

Just to let you know i have it on dynamic difficulty hall of fame+. I don't know if that matters with the cpu or not.

https://forums.operationsports.com/f...e-sliders.html

[jjwhite001]

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

Hey Nomo..what name is your latest slider set under?

Sent from my SM-S320VL using Operation Sports mobile app

[nomo17k]

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

Hey nomo i know you working on your set but i would love if you tried my set for a few games and just tell me what kind of stats you get. I don't care about the credit, i just enjoy playing manager mode or watching cpu vs cpu like everyone in here. I'll post a link but it would be greatly appreciated because I'm getting great numbers and results.

Thanks for letting me know, but I'd suggest that you collect data and post results on your own.

I welcome feedback/suggestions/ideas/discussions in the thread about what to do in general, but since it takes quite a bit of time to collect data, I have time only for a test with some specific goal in mind.

[nomo17k]

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

Hey Nomo..what name is your latest slider set under?

If I end up posting to the slider vault, it would probably be named similarly to this thread title (i.e., "Stats-Based ..."). I don't have a recommended set quite yet, so it's not there. And I'm not sure if I'll post there at all.

[dman08]

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

Thanks for letting me know, but I'd suggest that you collect data and post results on your own.

I welcome feedback/suggestions/ideas/discussions in the thread about what to do in general, but since it takes quite a bit of time to collect data, I have time only for a test with some specific goal in mind.

I hear you. It's a lot of work collecting all this data and watching these games play out in its entirety. I just know youwere trying to see if there was a balance with slower fielder speed and i think i have it just about right. I'll keep posting boxscores andnow I'll start collecting foul ball percentage, first strike percentage and swing and miss percentages. Thanks nomo