Classic swing - slider recommendations

[phillyfan2578]

Re: Classic swing - slider recommendations

I was having a real tough time producing runs, the Dodgers arent known for their power, more their average and I strikeout so frequently that I wasnt scoring at all. Since I made a key trade with Minnesota, my offense is getting a little better and I may have fixed the whole CPU offense thing, I just need to get my strikeouts up a little and I will be finished finally. My biggest problem previously was if I ever tried to build my pitching staff up, they would end up being so dominant that it wouldnt be fair, so I messed with the AI Pitcher Difficulty slider and ended up losing my first game 8-6 to the Angels, didnt feel cheap though, just felt tough.

That's good. What I like most about these sliders are the good players stand out among the average ones. In the 3 game series with the Braves, Chipper took me deep twice and hit around .555. Players like Johnson and Diaz really struggled against me.


I have started to realize in the last few games that the same holds true for me. Utley is on fire right now and Howard has started to come to life. Before my 4th game last night they were the only players to homer and the only players hitting above .300. Last game Rowand and Barajas hit back-to-back homers, and Victorino hit his first. Other then that I score most of my runs by just trying to stay patient and work the counts.

[The Chef]

Re: Classic swing - slider recommendations

That's good. What I like most about these sliders are the good players stand out among the average ones. In the 3 game series with the Braves, Chipper took me deep twice and hit around .555. Players like Johnson and Diaz really struggled against me.


I have started to realize in the last few games that the same holds true for me. Utley is on fire right now and Howard has started to come to life. Before my 4th game last night they were the only players to homer and the only players hitting above .300. Last game Rowand and Barajas hit back-to-back homers, and Victorino hit his first. Other then that I score most of my runs by just trying to stay patient and work the counts.

I had to raise the AI Pitcher Difficulty to 30, had it at 40 before dropping it to 20 and figured 30 might be better in the end. I had played 2 games with it at 20 and it wasnt the results that were killing me, it was watching guys like Macier Izturis destroy me on pitches that were low and away, I dont mind this happening sometimes with lower tier players, and dont mind having someone like Guerrero kill me, but Izturis murdering me seems a little unrealistic. Last game was unbelievable, I just beat the Angels 17-6, I walked 5 times, only hit 2 HR's but they just couldnt stop me from getting timely hits. The Angels struggling is largely thanks to Lackey getting tossed after 3 innings thanks to beaning me twice, and their bullpen came in and was horrible. Looking back on it, Im kinda surprised they didnt throw Shields out there, they brought in both their LR's and a couple MR's but never trotted Shields out there at all. Im getting to the point where messing with sliders is consuming more time then just playing the game.

[phillyfan2578]

Re: Classic swing - slider recommendations

I had to raise the AI Pitcher Difficulty to 30, had it at 40 before dropping it to 20 and figured 30 might be better in the end. I had played 2 games with it at 20 and it wasnt the results that were killing me, it was watching guys like Macier Izturis destroy me on pitches that were low and away, I dont mind this happening sometimes with lower tier players, and dont mind having someone like Guerrero kill me, but Izturis murdering me seems a little unrealistic. Last game was unbelievable, I just beat the Angels 17-6, I walked 5 times, only hit 2 HR's but they just couldnt stop me from getting timely hits. The Angels struggling is largely thanks to Lackey getting tossed after 3 innings thanks to beaning me twice, and their bullpen came in and was horrible. Looking back on it, Im kinda surprised they didnt throw Shields out there, they brought in both their LR's and a couple MR's but never trotted Shields out there at all. Im getting to the point where messing with sliders is consuming more time then just playing the game.

In reality Shields shouldn't come out there unless it's a save situation. I wish I could say the same for my season. The Braves pitched Wickman in all three games I played them, two of which weren't save situations. I saw McBride and Gonzalez but never Soriano.

I'm using the default CPU difficulty. Even with timely hitting, 17 runs sounds like a lot. I was scoring 17 runs with the default sliders, but that was every game. Maybe you should bump up that diffculty to 35?

[The Chef]

Re: Classic swing - slider recommendations

In reality Shields shouldn't come out there unless it's a save situation. I wish I could say the same for my season. The Braves pitched Wickman in all three games I played them, two of which weren't save situations. I saw McBride and Gonzalez but never Soriano.

I'm using the default CPU difficulty. Even with timely hitting, 17 runs sounds like a lot. I was scoring 17 runs with the default sliders, but that was every game. Maybe you should bump up that diffculty to 35?

The difficulty I have at 30 now is for the AI, meaning it effects how easy it is for them to hit my pitchers, not the other way around. I have the Player Pitching Difficulty at 95, Lackey was pitching fine, he had struckout 6 and walked 1 over 3 innings, like I said I strikeout a lot, its the bullpen that came in and was destroyed, and this was the first time in 42 games that I have scored anything over 8 runs so its not happening very often at all.

I havent had a chance to try it at 30 since the Mets/Cards game is on, but after the game I will try it out and see how it works. I desperatly need to figure out how to get more strikeouts while keeping the CPU offense potent enough to score some runs when the situation presents itself. As it pertains to the Braves and what you were seeing, when I played the Braves they actually had Soirano in the starting rotation and Gonzalez was their closer with Wickman as the setup.

[RoyalBoyle78]

Re: Classic swing - slider recommendations

I use heelfan's sliders, and stopped pressing up. I've cut my HRs from 6-8 a game to 1-2. Much nicer stats.

isn't to the point to swing up when using your power hitters?

[phillyfan2578]

Re: Classic swing - slider recommendations

The difficulty I have at 30 now is for the AI, meaning it effects how easy it is for them to hit my pitchers, not the other way around. I have the Player Pitching Difficulty at 95, Lackey was pitching fine, he had struckout 6 and walked 1 over 3 innings, like I said I strikeout a lot, its the bullpen that came in and was destroyed, and this was the first time in 42 games that I have scored anything over 8 runs so its not happening very often at all.

I havent had a chance to try it at 30 since the Mets/Cards game is on, but after the game I will try it out and see how it works. I desperatly need to figure out how to get more strikeouts while keeping the CPU offense potent enough to score some runs when the situation presents itself. As it pertains to the Braves and what you were seeing, when I played the Braves they actually had Soirano in the starting rotation and Gonzalez was their closer with Wickman as the setup.

I left the pitcher difficulty at 100 for Player Options and for AI Pitcher Difficulty and it works pretty good so far. If that was the first blowout in 42 games that is completely understandable.

My only other adjustments were CPU and Human fatigue and CPU Pitch Speed. I'm going to try and tweak the CPU contact a bit or check out the CPU Skill and see if that makes a difference.

I'm trying not to get too far into the season right now because I am hoping for a Opening Day roster set soon. Any info on that?

[The Chef]

Re: Classic swing - slider recommendations

I left the pitcher difficulty at 100 for Player Options and for AI Pitcher Difficulty and it works pretty good so far. If that was the first blowout in 42 games that is completely understandable.

My only other adjustments were CPU and Human fatigue and CPU Pitch Speed. I'm going to try and tweak the CPU contact a bit or check out the CPU Skill and see if that makes a difference.

I'm trying not to get too far into the season right now because I am hoping for a Opening Day roster set soon. Any info on that?

What works for you is all that matters, and like I said before, some settings may look completely out of whack but other sliders will effect this and make it playable in the end. Im thinking of lowering the CPU contact by 5 to see if they swing and miss a little more, and if that works then I will have to monitor their scoring again and may need to lower the AI Pitcher Difficulty back down to 20 again or atleast 25. Basically I just want the CPU to average scoring anywhere between 4-5 runs a game while my strikeouts arent garbage. Being able to strikeout the CPU seems to be a universal problem, Ive read people complain about not being able to strikeout anyone with Johan so there is something wrong in this aspect.

[The Chef]

Re: Classic swing - slider recommendations

To give you an idea, I played another game since then, only changes I made are the following....
AI Throw Strike Overall to 40 from 35
AI Pitcher Difficulty to 20 from 30
AI Contact to 45 from 50

Played the Angels again, they had Weaver going and I had Wolf going. I lost the game 5-3 thanks to a 3-run HR in the bottom of the 8th off of Houston my reliever after Lance Carter got into some trouble. Wolf did however strike out 4 over 6 innings, which equates to a 6 k/9 rate which isnt bad since he isnt really a strikeout pitcher, the game didnt start all that well, the first 3 Angels players I faced all swung at the first pitch but they calmed down after that. They went 7/30 at the plate hitting only .233, I went 7/31 hitting only .226 so it really was more of a pitchers duel. The #'s dont worry too much since the Angels offense is ranked 16th I believe so they arent exactly a powerhouse. I walked them a total of 2 times and they walked me a total of 4 times. Felt a lot better, we will see how someone like Schmidt fares when he pitches but so far its atleast on the right track.

EDIT- Well once I get these sliders finally finalized I can fully enjoy my franchise, I need to be patient though, the only thing I dropped between the last 2 games that could effect the CPU's offense was AI Contact, considering lowering the AI Pitcher Difficulty would only make them better offensively, but yet I went from them batting nearly .350 in the game where they scored 6 runs to only batting .233, so a bigger sample size will need to be gotten. In my franchise we, being the Dodgers, are ranked 4th in the league now, so I would expect to do well, oddly enough Im only 22-23 so far though.

[phillyfan2578]

Re: Classic swing - slider recommendations

Being a Philly fan I can verify that Wolfie isn't a strikeout pitcher, but he does get his K's when the curve is sharp.

I upped the CPU skill last night to 20 and it didn't seem to have any difference in CPU contact. Tonight, I'm going to try upping the actual CPU contact to 55 or 60. My starters are striking out the CPU way too much right now. Myers, Garcia, and Eaton all have yet to give up a run through their first starts. I'm looking forward to my upcoming Mets series to see if they touch up my pitchers a bit.

[The Chef]

Re: Classic swing - slider recommendations

Being a Philly fan I can verify that Wolfie isn't a strikeout pitcher, but he does get his K's when the curve is sharp.

I upped the CPU skill last night to 20 and it didn't seem to have any difference in CPU contact. Tonight, I'm going to try upping the actual CPU contact to 55 or 60. My starters are striking out the CPU way too much right now. Myers, Garcia, and Eaton all have yet to give up a run through their first starts. I'm looking forward to my upcoming Mets series to see if they touch up my pitchers a bit.

What do you have the AI Pitcher Difficulty set at? Ive noticed the higher this # is the more strikeouts you can get but the less potent the CPU's lineup becomes, lower the # and suddenly you cant strike anyone out but their offense will be respectable again. On a side note, has anyone tried going in and editing the strikeout rating for their pitchers? If its on a scale of 1-100, I could always jot down where they are prior and whenever I release or trade a pitcher just put this back where it was before so they arent invincible when I face them. If it all works out correctly, you could keep their offense capable of making solid contact but at the same time still strikeout, worth a shot and I may do it myself, if I do I will report back and let you know how it goes.

EDIT- The only problem with changing the strikeout rating for my pitchers is their rating will probably increase and thus make them even better in all aspects, I would suggest that if someone raises them that they also lower the AI Pitcher Difficulty in turn, maybe 5 clicks at a time on each until the desired effects are there.

[The Chef]

Re: Classic swing - slider recommendations

Well after trying it with an actual strikeout pitcher I really liked the results, Schmidt pitched 6 innings against the Brewers and struckout 7, walked 1. Its funny because I won the game 12-3, after losing the last game and not even hitting .250 for the game, I hit .361 while they hit .235. Their batting average for the game was a little low but last year batters hit .239 against him so its not that far from reality and on the season batters are hitting .247 off of him, which is higher then last year in the majors anyways. Im absolutly thrilled that I got so many strikeouts, I know it will come down when someone like Lowe pitches but I just wanted Schmidt to get his average at the very least and this is certainly a step in the right direction.

EDIT- I made a mistake, they actually hit .250 off of Schmidt going 6/24, off of my relievers they went 2/10 so they actually had more success off of Schmidt, not sure if simulating might have caused this since I managed from the bottom of the 7th on since it was already over.

[The Chef]

Re: Classic swing - slider recommendations

Just a quick update since it appears this thread has died, my next game, since dominating the Brewers with Schmidt, I have gotten shelled already. Lowe came in and gave up 5 runs in the first inning, partly thanks to a grand slam from Hall, seems the results have been very diverse.