9 Innings with MLB2K6's AI

[Zhariken]

Re: 9 Innings with MLB2K6's AI

Exactly. Somewhere in the 30's for "Throw Strikes" and somewhere in the 60's for "Take Strikes". Worked well in 2K5.

The pitcher staying in to bat was a chronic issue last year. Nothing can be done about that one; no sliders, nothing. Interesting review/post

Watched another game before I came to class today (I'm in class now), a 5-3 win over the Marlins, with the excitement of a blown save in the Top of the 9th by Gordon and a walk-off HR in the bottom of the 9th by CARL Crawford () to end it.

Each team had a pitch count in the ~125-130 range (I think it was something like 126 and 128) which is getting more toward what I was hoping.

One glaring result of the free-swinging AI is my team's K/BB ratio. I'm not positive what most teams were putting up (something in the range of 1-2 K/BB I think, not sure), but my Phillies had a ridiculous 7.61 K/BB ratio!!! That's most definitely something that I need to address in the sliders, but I think it's something I can accomplish.

With all the excitement I had in the game, a few big flaws stood out. Around the 3rd inning a speedy Marlins player hit one back up the middle. My 2B missed it (not a big deal, realistic) while trying to backhand the ball. The ball skated (that is, it looked like it was on ice...) to center field and rested about 5 feet from the wall. My CF (good old Carl) proceeded to run over to the ball, pick it up, then his momentum sent him careening into the wall. Crawford fell down (the runner was at second by this point), stayed on his back for a while and finally got up to throw the ball in by time the run had scored.

Sad.


Another time the manager sent Mike Lieberthal (see: Catcher, surgically repaired knee, ~F speed with no stealing ability) to try and steal second at a crucial point in the game (bottom of the 8th, up 1 run).

[Zhariken]

Re: 9 Innings with MLB2K6's AI

How are the camera angles in the game. What options are available?? Keep coming with the reviews.... As far as i am concerned your thread has been the besrt in helping me decide what i will do re: purchasing. Right now i watch MLB and NCAA CPU games... For those that dont know why we like to watch.... consider it a GM mode or something. We organize our teams, watch them play and make tweaks. I was able to win the World Series in MVP after 3 seasons without a top notch team on paper in owner mode. Its a good feeling..

The camera angle(s?) for just watching a game appear to be relatively non-existant. I can't check right now (at class), but I believe there's only one default option for viewing games. It's sort of a random/broadcast type camera that switches around. Actually watching the games ranges from good to frustrating, depending on the type of play. I'll check this again tonight and get back to you.

[Zhariken]

Re: 9 Innings with MLB2K6's AI

You really buy video games to watch the CPU play against each other? Why not watch a real game, and just sim the video game? If building a team is your cup of tea, something like OOTP might be more up your alley.

Baseball games, yeah. To be fair, I 'played' NCAA baseball on xbox, never watched them. Took Miami to the playoffs before I got bored of the game. I play NHL, games most of the time (sometimes I'll watch though), always play NFL games (but Head Coach has me excited), and always play Basketball.

I've played various iterations of OOTP/Puresim/FOF/EHM in the past and enjoyed them, I just really like watching a 3D representation of my team as well. Just has more lasting appeal to me than watching names/numbers.

[kingdevin]

Re: 9 Innings with MLB2K6's AI

Baseball games, yeah. To be fair, I 'played' NCAA baseball on xbox, never watched them. Took Miami to the playoffs before I got bored of the game. I play NHL, games most of the time (sometimes I'll watch though), always play NFL games (but Head Coach has me excited), and always play Basketball.

I've played various iterations of OOTP/Puresim/FOF/EHM in the past and enjoyed them, I just really like watching a 3D representation of my team as well. Just has more lasting appeal to me than watching names/numbers.

have u watched mlb the show

[Zhariken]

Re: 9 Innings with MLB2K6's AI

have u watched mlb the show

Nope, no ps2.

[TheLooseCannon]

Re: 9 Innings with MLB2K6's AI

Cool, yeah I was about to suggest you to tinker with the sliders because I'm just watching the WBC right now (and playing the USA games), and at first the AI-controlled games were frustrating. Then I adjusted the sliders pretty drastically and I've had some very exciting games, including a couple walk-off homers by Carlos Lee and Hee Seop Choi.

[ericjwm]

Re: 9 Innings with MLB2K6's AI

..HAVEN'T CHECKED YET BUT HAVE U PLAYED THE SHOW OR NCAA B-BALL?

My style is like yours...I am a CPU v CPU watcher. I have tweaked the Show MLB which gives me a pretty good sim (my favorite is still MVP 2005). If u havent tried it u will feel a bit better by watching it as opposed to MLB 2K6

Yeah, the Show is one of the best baseball games ever IMO. The AI for the most part is unrivaled by any baseball game before it. It's not only fun to play but extremely entertaining for MO Mode & CPU vs CPU games. I was just hoping 2k6 would be a solid effort also, especially since Take Two's got the 3rd party license.
For the past 3 yrs I've been getting MVP & Sonys MLB series. Now that MVP's gone, 2K6 was going to be my secondary game. But now I'm not so sure if its worth it. I'll probaly give it a rental this weekend & find out for myself.

[slickdtc]

Re: 9 Innings with MLB2K6's AI

Thanks a lot for the impressions. Seems like you know baseball and you know what you're talking about here. And not afraid to adjust the sliders.

I'm still waiting to get the game. I think we've identified some issues, mostly in fielding and baserunning (actually, almost exclusively in those areas). Hopefully some type of slider tweaks can adjust these without having disastrous side effects. I just hope roster edits aren't needed ... I don't think I could edit every single player's whatever rating, it's just wayyyyy too time consuming.

I'm excited for the game, though some of the fielding / baserunning impressions are discouraging. Hopefully the good greatly overshadows the bad.

[Pared]

Re: 9 Innings with MLB2K6's AI

Grounder to 3rd, Blalock was playing a deep 3B and actually charged the ball, no complaint there. However, as soon as the ball hit his glove, it magically teleported to his throwing hand and he short-armed it to 1st all in one motion. When the ball hit his glove, his right foot was on the ground, the ball was out of his throwing hand and heading to 1st before his left foot ever touched the ground. It was honestly that quick. The baserunner wasn’t even half way down the line before he was thrown out.

Ok…this one is tough to explain. Burrell hit one right back up the middle…it went THROUGH the pitcher’s foot, over the second base bag, was scooped up by the shortstop (who was running toward RF to get to it), who then ran head-first into the 2B and knocked him over…and all in one motion threw an absolute rocket…across his body…sidearm…while jumping…and got Burrell out by 4 steps.

Ok, great impressions... seems like you have the mindset of actually wanting to play(watch) a baseball video game that MIMICS the real thing. From some of these passages though... it doesn't seem like you're going to find it with this game.

I won't mention what's already been said... but you owe it to yourself to try the competition....

[Zhariken]

Re: 9 Innings with MLB2K6's AI

Thanks a lot for the impressions. Seems like you know baseball and you know what you're talking about here. And not afraid to adjust the sliders.

I'm still waiting to get the game. I think we've identified some issues, mostly in fielding and baserunning (actually, almost exclusively in those areas). Hopefully some type of slider tweaks can adjust these without having disastrous side effects. I just hope roster edits aren't needed ... I don't think I could edit every single player's whatever rating, it's just wayyyyy too time consuming.

I'm excited for the game, though some of the fielding / baserunning impressions are discouraging. Hopefully the good greatly overshadows the bad.

Thanks for the kind words, after a bit more tweaking and watching, I think I'm prepared to follow another game play-by-play, probably get it posted tonight if nothing else comes up.

[EnigmaNemesis]

Re: 9 Innings with MLB2K6's AI

Thanks for the kind words, after a bit more tweaking and watching, I think I'm prepared to follow another game play-by-play, probably get it posted tonight if nothing else comes up.

Will you provide us with the slider tweaks once your finalized? I would love to try them on the 360 version if the same scenarios are present.

[Zhariken]

Re: 9 Innings with MLB2K6's AI

Ok, great impressions... seems like you have the mindset of actually wanting to play(watch) a baseball video game that MIMICS the real thing. From some of these passages though... it doesn't seem like you're going to find it with this game.

I won't mention what's already been said... but you owe it to yourself to try the competition....

It's really been a labor of love on this thus far. Getting a PS2/The Show simply isn't an option on my budget (college student looking to graduate and relocate half way across the country in a couple months). I realize my previous posts about the game don't come off very complimentary, but I'm TRYING to embrace this game and improve it however I can. The next ~10-15 games will probably decide it for me, whether I want to continue sticking with it or not. I may be back to playing PES5/WE9 full time soon though (Forza Inter! ).

[Zhariken]

Re: 9 Innings with MLB2K6's AI

Will you provide us with the slider tweaks once your finalized? I would love to try them on the 360 version if the same scenarios are present.

Certainly, in fact, I'll add my latest test sliders in my next PBP and put them up on the slider board just to give people something to play around with.

[Zhariken]

Re: 9 Innings with MLB2K6's AI

Just for the sake of disclosure and the curiosity of others, I’ll include the settings I’ve arrived at so far in this post. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t consider this nearly ‘final’ or even ‘good’, simply better than they are out of the box. I would encourage others to try out their own sliders, maybe take parts of what I post and see how it fits your vision of the game, etc. I’ll try to make notes for most/all of the sliders to give you an idea of where I was trying to go with the changes. If anyone would like to take these and make a better version, by all means, be my guest!

Game Settings:
Showboat Catches: On (haven’t seen any/many(?) of these yet. Not sure what to look for really.)
Baserunner Speed Boost: Off
Fielder Speed Boost: Off
Broken Bat: Sometimes
Active Bullpen: On (Not sure if taking this off would help AI managers sub in relievers at more appropriate times or not. Haven’t played with it.)

Difficulty:
-Player Options: (I’m not sure if player options apply at all when the game starts AI vs. AI. However, to rest players from the screen before the game starts, I need to start the game 1P vs. AI, whether the ‘player options’ still apply to my team after I switch to AI vs. AI in-game is unknown to me. I would hope not though. Again, these are truly meant for AI vs. AI, I don’t know the results one would get playing the game with them.)

Batter Contact: 57
Batter Power: 43
Bunt Assist: 80
Baserunning Speed: 55
Stealing Success: 52
Fielder Errors: 35 (I tried lowering this to avoid the freakish incidents of wild pitches/missed throws from the OF. I believe it helped, not sure.)
Fielder Speed: 50
Fielder Speed Burst Length: N/A
Fielder Speed Burst Power: N/A
Fielding Aggression: 90 (Hoping this counteracts the fielders watching a ball roll toward them during a play. Can’t confirm/deny the effect though.)
Pitcher Fatigue: 33 (To counterbalance the patient hitters and reduction in called strikes)
Pitcher Interface Speed: N/A
Injuries: 50 (No injuries for me yet though)
Pitch Speed: 83 (Tired of watching pitches float to the catcher)

-AI General Options: (I believe these take precedence over the ‘player options’ in the AI vs. AI games, and all the ‘player options’ settings are just exact copies of these where applicable)

AI Errors: 35
AI Fielder Speed: 50
AI Fielder Aggression: 90
AI Throwing Aggression: 25 (I was hoping this would prevent the AI from always throwing to the base ahead of the baserunner, regardless of the situation/threat. Unfortunately, this does not appear to alleviate the problem. No matter what, the outfielders still gun it to the infield after every hit, occasionally resulting in a multi-base error.)
AI Hit’N Run: 55 (No real rhyme or reason to this, other than I perceive an inability to manufacture runs by the AI. Can’t seem to string together a few hits most of the time. Hoping this would help them score off something other than a HR.)
AI Sac Bunt: 52 (Still haven’t seen one. A few times I’ve seen players show bunt on the first pitch, pull back on a ball, then completely forget about bunting the rest of the AB. Don’t think that’ll ever be helped through sliders.)
AI Squeeze: 50
AI Showboat Attempt: 45
AI Showboat Skill: 40
AI Run Aggression: 15 (I was hoping this would cut down on the AI making huge, ridiculous circles after a base hit and subsequently getting thrown out at first because of it. Doesn’t seem to help.)
AI Steal Success: 52
AI Steal 2nd: 55
AI Steal 3rd: 30 (I’ve seen far too many failed attempts at stealing 3rd )
AI Steal Home: 5 (This should be incredibly rare. Given my team’s aggressive running style, the only time I had a man on 3rd he ended up getting gunned out trying to steal home. I really don’t want to see this happen too often!)

-AI Batting Options (Overall this will just reflect my observation that pitch counts are unrealistically low, batters are insanely aggressive, and strikeouts were out-numbering walks by a 7-to-1 ratio. These settings lend to making hitters MUCH more patient/intelligent, actually draw a walk once in a while, but not make them superhuman when it comes to avoiding strikeouts. This and pitching AI are clearly the two crucial sets of sliders when it comes to representing an accurate game of baseball with mlb2k6)
AI Batters Use Inside Edge: On
AI Take Strike Overall: 85 (I’ve seen FAR too many first-pitch-swinging outs)
AI Take Strike Ahead: 60
AI Take Strike Behind: 45 (I don’t want to see everyone go down staring at strike 3.)
AI Take Ball Overall: 100 (This may seem extreme, but again, I’m still testing, but I think this may actually be close to what is needed. Probably in the 90-100 range is ideal.)
AI Take Ball Ahead: 80 (Hoping to see batters continue to work counts/tire out pitchers.)
AI Take Ball Behind: 55 (Chasing a bad ball when desperate isn’t out of the question though, so this isn’t very high in my sliders.)
AI Skill: 55
AI Contact: 57
AI Power: 42 (I think I’m seeing too many HRs. Not just too many HRs, but rather the large majority of runs are scored via the HR. Looking for more singles/doubles that score a runner if possible. The ‘contact’ slider reflects this as well.)

-AI Pitching Options (Not much mystery here, just trying to generate longer ABs, throw more balls, waste some pitches, walk some guys, but still record strikeouts.)
AI Pitchers Use Inside Edge: On
AI Corner: 60
AI Change Speed: 50
AI Change Location: 52
AI Throw Strike Overall: 25 (I’m still seing around 60-65% strikes being thrown at worst. This seems really low at first, but I think it’s closer to realism that it looks at first.)
AI Throw Strike Ahead: 38
AI Throw Strike Behind: 45
AI Fatigue: 33 (See above, to counterbalance the higher pitch counts. Seems about right, maybe needs to be around 40…a good performance can still get a pitcher into the 8th/9th, and a pitcher can get knocked out of the game in the 3rd/4th if they struggle.)
AI Pickoff: 0 (The pickoff bug at 2B is such a killer for me that I’d rather scrap pickoffs entirely than see it play out over and over.)
AI Pitchout: 60 (Raised this a bit to make up for the 0 in pickoffs. I’ve seen the AI perform pitchouts at appropriate times thus far.)
AI Meat Pitch: 32 (Early on I saw a lot of these, and I may have naively attributed all the free-swinging to it. Not sure if it makes CPU hitters better or not. I usually see ~2-3 per game at this number.)


Alright…on to the game!

The only changes made since my last post were 5-3 and 7-1 wins hosting Florida. Also, OF Jason Michaels was traded to the Indians for RP Arthur Rhodes to reflect reality. We’re up to 6-11 now and no longer in possession of the worst record in the league (congratulations 4-14 Cincinnati Reds!). The team’s morale has never been higher and we’re riding a 5-game win streak into the final game of a 3-game series against the 7-10 Marlins. If Ryan Franklin can put together a solid outing today we just might make it out of the basement in the month of April!

April 23rd
Sergio Mitre (0-2, 16.87ERA, 16K) vs. Ryan Franklin (1-2, 2.95ERA, 16K)
Roster notes: Sal Fasano will again be in for Lieberthal. Pat Burrell will rest in favor of Choo Freeman.

Wind is out to right at 6mph.


Top of the 1st:
I just noticed Ryan Franklin has 16Ks and 0BB this season.

Levesque pops out to right on the first pitch.
Pokey Reese grounds one to short, nice sliding stop by Rollins, and throws him out!
Cabrera swings at the first pitch and grounds it to 1st to end the inning.

Bottom of the 1st:
Rollins hits one to the wall in left center and Aguila just barely runs it down.
Utley swings at the first pitch (so much for patience…) and flies out to right.
Abreu swings at the first two pitches, the first a foul ball, the second a 437ft home run to right center. In his defense, it was right over the plate and asking to be slammed. But come on guys…patience!!!
Mitre throws a ‘meat ball’ to Blalock on the first pitch and Hank grounds out to short.

Top of the 2nd:
Hermida swings at the second pitch and pops out to 1st. So much for the slider changes begetting patience.
Willingham stares at 3 pitches (working a 2-1 count), swings at misses at pitch #4, then grounds out on the potential 3rd strike.
Aguila flies out to right after 4 pitches, quick end of the inning.

Bottom of the 2nd:
Ryan Howard lined one to second, it bounced off Pokey Reese’s out-stretched glove and rolled oddly toward 1st…Reese chased it down, scooped it up, then knocked off Jacobs (who was also running after the ball) before throwing it to 1st (well after Howard had crossed the bag.)
Carl Crawford chopped one off the plate (on the first pitch as well, thanks Carl), which bounced high down the 3rd base line, Mitre charged off the mound, back-handed it (he’s a righty), teleported the ball into his throwing hand, pivoted and jumped on his lead leg, turned 360 degrees then side-armed it to the 2nd baseman to get Ryan Howard out by a good 4 steps. I’ll ignore the fact that he should’ve had NO body weight behind the through and just focus on the fact that the throwing motion involved him dislocating both his shoulder and elbow to get it to 2nd. It looked incredibly painful (think taking the limbs of a GI Joe man and twisting them all sorts of bad directions).
Crawford stole 2nd on the first pitch. Freeman showed good patience, working a full count walk without ever taking the bat off his shoulder.
Fasano grounded into a double play, nothing spectacular to speak of.

Top of the 3rd:
Jacobs singles to center on a 2-0 fastball over the plate.
Amezaga missed a bunt on the first pitch and actually connected with one on the second pitch! Unfortunately for Alfredo he bunted it right to the pitcher, leading to an easy out at 2nd. The Phillies nearly turned a double play from it.
Mitre squared to bunt on the first pitch, and Ryan Franklin responded by sending the ball 5 feet over Sal Fasano’s head. Amezaga took second easily. Mitre chopped one toward first on the next pitch and Amezaga wisely took 3rd, Mitre was retired by Fasano (it didn’t go very far).
Levesque blooped one into no man’s land in left field to score Amezaga from 3rd.
Levesque is caught trying to steal second base on the 2nd pitch of Pokey Reese’s AB.

Bottom of the 3rd:
Franklin strikes out swinging.
Mitre is at 49% stamina after throwing 22 pitches. Further examination reveals his Stamina is only rated ‘D’.
Rollins grounds out to second on a 2-0 pitch.
Utley grounds out to second on the 1st pitch.

Top of the 4th:
Ryan Franklin is at 65% stamina after 28 pitches. His stamina is B+.
Reese lined out to short.
Cabrera swung at a 3-0 fastball down the middle and lined out hard to short.
Hermida grounded out to the pitcher.

Bottom of the 4th:
Abreu flied out to right.
I wish Joe Morgan didn’t talk so much, in the game and in reality…
Blalock works a 3-0 count, Mitre hits the strike zone to get one strike, but Blalock turns on a fastball over the plate. HR to center, 2-1 ballgame.
Howard pops out to short on the first pitch.
Mitre is down to 9% stamina after 33 pitches.
Mitre is at 0% stamina as he throws ball four to Carl Crawford. Crawford takes first.
Crawford steals second on the first pitch (a high ball).
Mitre still out there throwing to Freeman…but Freeman bails him out by grounding out to short after 2 badly thrown balls to end the inning.

Top of the 5th:
Franklin is at 53% stamina after 39 pitches.
Willingham worked a 2-2 count before striking out swinging.
Franklin seems to be losing his control.
Aguila flied out to right on the 3rd pitch.
Jacobs grounded out to first to retire the side.

Bottom of the 5th:
Phillies still up 2-1 and Mitre STILL on the mound…with 0% stamina.
Fasano goes down swinging on three pitches that were all remotely close to the zone.
Franklin goes down swinging on four pitches, including two ‘meat ball’ pitches.
Rollins drove one to right center for a double…

….

….

……..and the game just froze.

Wow.

The crowd audio is looping, the screen is frozen…I’m going to bed.

*Sigh*

[StabMasterArson]

Re: 9 Innings with MLB2K6's AI

In response to the poster above me I feel your pain same thing happened to me playing in New York Giambi trys to steal(why?) second I throw him out and then my first freeze approx 5 games into my mlb2k6 experiance,disgusted I stopped playing thinking hey maybe its a fluke.Game 6 inning 4 I got the pleasure of a foul ball freeze yummy.

Sigh is so right.I cant handle this because I enjoy playing all the games and nothing is worse then replaying games that I just put 40 mins into just to have to re-do it.