Project to decrease OF rocket arms.......

[Graphik]

.....as well as a project to get your pitcher to throw more walks.

First of all, the OF arms on this game can eventually ruin the game overall. I cant even count how many times I've been unable to advance a base on a hit and run or been able to go home from second on a shot to the wall. As well as the cpu AIs ability to advance bases in the proper situation. Turns the game into a station to station game and its been racking at my nerves.

Good news though, although its been reported that lowering arm strenght does nothing, I found that to be false. What I've been doing is lowering each and every OFs Arms in a range from 0-10. At 0, I was actually able to score from FIRST with the fastest player on my team. I hit a shot to the wall and mashed the bottons and I beat the throw by miliseconds. Definite improvment huh?

What you do is this:

All Outfielders with Arm Strenght 90 or higher=6-10
(In other words, 96=8, 93=7, 98=10)(Round of to the highest number)

All Outfielders with Arm strenght of 80-90=1-5

All Outfielders with Arm Strenght below 79=0

The disparity in arm strenghts is'nt to noticable so this may be subject to change. I may try a 1-20 system so every player in the league wont look the same. Although I am really happy with the initial results. To tell the truth, I could care less if every player in the league looked identical in arm strenghts. I just want to advance bases properly. Of course we still have the Ichiros and the Dye arms who are known for cannons. To compensate, something above 10 may do just fine.

Anyway, the results of the 1-10 project are that the OF arms are still a little bit on the unrealistic side but I can confidently say that I seen 2 instances when the cpu AI used the CUT-OFF MAN. Plus, I've seen many more offline throws which is probably the best incentive of the ratings scale. I've seen throws off the bag and a few that missed the bag completely for an extra base. And NO, I did'nt tinker with the Arm Accuracy rating.

So give it a try and report your findings. I have to start over my season but I need to correct the player fatigue and injury bug anyway. What I'm doing is adjusting every outfielder on the game. This includes the AAA and AA players as well so they wont be moved up and kill the enjoyment.

For simmers and ppl who may play more than 1 season, this may not be for you because all hell will break loose after the 1st season. (I'm guessing) Speaking for myself, I know damn well I wont get pass the 1st season. Never have and I doubt I ever will. So get it while its hot. As for the pitchers project, I have to try it first and I'll make a new thread about it soon.

[Chitown1211]

Re: Project to decrease OF rocket arms.......

Ive started something similar. I just lowered all OF arms to 40 pts less of what there real value is. I also adjust arm accy to just below whatever there adjusted arm strength comes out to.

So if a player had a 90 arm originally I changed it to 50 and made his accy around 45. Arms are still too powerfull , but atleast its something.

Problem with going all the way down to 10 or less is sometimes you will get a huge lolipop throw from the out field. I mean its like the OF is throwing a pop fly into the infield.

[Graphik]

Re: Project to decrease OF rocket arms.......

Ive started something similar. I just lowered all OF arms to 40 pts less of what there real value is. I also adjust arm accy to just below whatever there adjusted arm strength comes out to.

So if a player had a 90 arm originally I changed it to 50 and made his accy around 45. Arms are still too powerfull , but atleast its something.

Problem with going all the way down to 10 or less is sometimes you will get a huge lolipop throw from the out field. I mean its like the OF is throwing a pop fly into the infield.

I've seen that pop fly throw on a few occasions. For the most part, they only did it when they did'nt have to challenge a runner. If my guy already made it to second, they would float a ball over to third for example. But when they have a chance to gun someone, they will throw it hard. With the range on 0-10, it totally eliminates those cannons and instead you'll see more balls bounce and roll their way to the base. It was a thing of beauty.

I tried 50 and did'nt notice much of a diffence. It was slower for sure but I was still unable to score from second on a ball hit to right or at the wall. I went straight to 10 and 0 after that and I'm very satisfied with the results. I did'nt get a triple yet but I'm very close. When I scored from 1st with my fastest runner, I was sold. My runner was rounding 3rd the instant he threw the ball and he legged it out. If the OF Arm attributes were normal, he would of gunned my runner with at least 4 or 5 steps left to get to the plate.

[gtm]

Re: Project to decrease OF rocket arms.......

Graphik, good work. Please post the numbers we need to change when you are satified with your findings. This should be great.

[jjhennes]

Re: Project to decrease OF rocket arms.......

Are you finding that they actually use the cut-off more? Or just that throws themselves bounce and roll to their destination instead of a darts right to the bag, and thus make it easier to score from second on singles etc.

Thanks

[Spectre]

Re: Project to decrease OF rocket arms.......

Blah, I wish they could just patch this...

[TRex187]

Re: Project to decrease OF rocket arms.......

I also adjusted all of the OF arm strength and control to 0, unless they had a very high rating (above 90) - I adjusted those players to arm strength and control to 10. I find that these adjustments along with adjusted Pro sliders plays very well. I have tagged up and made it safely to the next base and cpu players throw to the cut-off man more often.
Its a pain to change all of the player ratings - but it does work.
If we can find a fix for player pitchers walking cpu batters, this game would play even better. Any suggestions?

[Graphik]

Re: Project to decrease OF rocket arms.......

Are you finding that they actually use the cut-off more? Or just that throws themselves bounce and roll to their destination instead of a darts right to the bag, and thus make it easier to score from second on singles etc.

Thanks

Yep, thats exactly it. I was suprised to see them use the cut-off man for a change. The throws are often offline as well. I also scored from 2nd on a single to right as well. I cant even describe how it makes the game 10X better. To bad I can only play 1 season but I'll take it.

[Graphik]

Re: Project to decrease OF rocket arms.......

I also adjusted all of the OF arm strength and control to 0, unless they had a very high rating (above 90) - I adjusted those players to arm strength and control to 10. I find that these adjustments along with adjusted Pro sliders plays very well. I have tagged up and made it safely to the next base and cpu players throw to the cut-off man more often.
Its a pain to change all of the player ratings - but it does work.
If we can find a fix for player pitchers walking cpu batters, this game would play even better. Any suggestions?

I saw under pitcher attributes that each pitch in their arsenal has a Control rating. I was thinking of dropping those down to 0 and see what happens. I haven't tried it yet.

[soxrox]

Re: Project to decrease OF rocket arms.......

I am already in my GM Season. Is there anyway to change these settings while in my season. I was looking around and I could not figure out how to edit the players arm strength.....any suggestions.

[Chitown1211]

Re: Project to decrease OF rocket arms.......

Last night I went ahead and tried the 1-10 arm strength edits. And I must say it plays Waaaaaay better than before.

One of the worries I had was everyones arm feeling the same, but thats not the case. A rating from 1-10 makes a huge difference. A 8 rated guy is way stronger than a 2 rated guy. Also lowered accy as well. I let accy max out at about 40 for the most accurate guys going down to 10 for the least accurate. This also helps make guys that are rated equal feel different. Say two guys are both rated 1 for arm strength. If I want a guy to be a VERY terrible thrower I lower his accy to below 10.

Other things I did.

Speed edits. Made a speed rating of 60 the minimum for all position players. Too many players in this game have speed rating under 50. Which is insane. I went through and pretty much raised everyones that was low. I of course tailored them to fit the real life players speed , but I did devise sort of a chart for minimums as fallows.

OF's - 70
SS and 2B - 70
3B and 1B- 65
Catchers- 60

I am also editing all Catchers throw accy to 40 as a max and 0 as a min based on real life skills so that you dont always throw a perfect rocket to 2nd on a steal attempt.

Nothing should be done with IF arms. As they need to be strong in order to compensate for the slow downs and delays when trying to turn a double play or on slow grounders.

Ill finish this up tonight. I just happy I will be able to enjoy playing a season this year.

[Chitown1211]

Re: Project to decrease OF rocket arms.......

I also adjusted all of the OF arm strength and control to 0, unless they had a very high rating (above 90) - I adjusted those players to arm strength and control to 10. I find that these adjustments along with adjusted Pro sliders plays very well. I have tagged up and made it safely to the next base and cpu players throw to the cut-off man more often.
Its a pain to change all of the player ratings - but it does work.
If we can find a fix for player pitchers walking cpu batters, this game would play even better. Any suggestions?

IMO walks are totally up to you. The way I found to make yourself throw more walks is to make sure you fear the CPU hitters. You have to edit the hitting sliders for the CPU until you FEAR the better hitters if you know what I mean. Make them strong enough so that grooving one down the middle to Griffey jr is suicide. That way you will be forced to throw off the plate more and throw more balls.

For instance. Say the CPU has 0 outs, 2 runners on base , and Arod at the plate. You should be scared to death to throw anything in the zone.

[Graphik]

Re: Project to decrease OF rocket arms.......

IMO walks are totally up to you. The way I found to make yourself throw more walks is to make sure you fear the CPU hitters. You have to edit the hitting sliders for the CPU until you FEAR the better hitters if you know what I mean. Make them strong enough so that grooving one down the middle to Griffey jr is suicide. That way you will be forced to throw off the plate more and throw more balls.

For instance. Say the CPU has 0 outs, 2 runners on base , and Arod at the plate. You should be scared to death to throw anything in the zone.

The way I throw walks is to aim everything on the corners of the strike zone. Even with pitches that break, I make sure to aim it where I think the edge is. I get maybe a few walks a game but its not nearly enough. I will try the control attributes and see what I find.

[gtm]

Re: Project to decrease OF rocket arms.......

Will you guys post your final findings and tell us exactly the numbers to change(from/too). i'll manually edit them. I'm fine with it.

[TRex187]

Re: Project to decrease OF rocket arms.......

My adjustments were as follows (it makes it quick and easy):
Change ALL Outfielders:
1. Arm strength : change to 0 if original attribut is less than 90
change to 8/10 if original attribute is greater than 90
2. Arm control : change all OF to 0.

I've made these changes (it takes about 2 minutes per team) and the game plays much better. I'm using sliders that were adjusted from the PRO difficulty (which also makes a difference).