What are you hoping to see as far as Improved AI goes

[Trevytrev11]

Some of my hopes for improved AI are (and maybe some of these have already been seen). I understand some of this stuff could be addressed with sliders, but I'm hoping for just a smarter game out of the box.

First with the in game stuff:

-Better pitch calling: (last year, I felt there were only a few pitchers that actually pitched like themselves (Tom Glavine being the best IMO). I would really like to see a guy like Rivera bury cutter after cutter on my hitters hands or see Maddux buckle a lefty with a backdoor 2 seamer).
**on the same note, I would like my catcher to call a better, more realistic game (no more 2-0 changeups at the letters).

-More execution: I would like to see the computer steal, double steal, hit and run, sac bunt as well as bunt for hits, squeeze, etc. And not be as predictable about it. Last year, I don't think there were many, if any hit and runs. It seems the hitter was always taking...and it seems that the runner always went on the first pitch. I can probably count on one hand the times the computer tried to bunt for a hit. It would be nice to see guys like Pierre, Furcal, Victorino, etc. bunt for a hit at least say once a series or so. Also, it would be nice to have someone else sac bunt besides the pitcher. How great or suprised would you be to see a double steal of 2nd and home? How about the computer trying to squeeze in the winning run?

-More fundamentals: Kind of along the lines of the above, I would like to see a contact hitter try and hit a grounder to the right side to advance a runner from second to third or score a runner from third with 0 or 1 out. I would lik to see (though don't know how could tell) the AI try and hit a fly ball for a sac fly.

-More overall aggresiveness on the bases. Seems the computer always played it safe and if it he play was going to be close, they would hold up on the bases.

Off the field:

-More smarts with the assistant manager after a manager ejection. Just because Geren gets tossed doesn't mean there isn't a brain in the dugout. Why is street pitching his 5th straight inning with 10% stamina when my pen is rested and ready?

-Obviously and probably most importantly, better roster management. I think a killer for many last year was playing the Mariners and seeing Ichiro batting 4th and Sexson leading off (or something of the sort). I think Trades are always going to be a sore spot because the computer can't think like we can.. We know Alou is a 40 something hitter who is declining. The compuer sees him as an 84.

-Realistic Player progression. I would love to see some of my minor leagues become the next superstar.

[BadKermit]

Re: What are you hoping to see as far as Improved AI goes

Trevy, you have posted some really good, well-thought-out posts. It's really refreshing. Nice work.

[myghty]

Re: What are you hoping to see as far as Improved AI goes

Off the field:

-Obviously and probably most importantly, better roster management. I think a killer for many last year was playing the Mariners and seeing Ichiro batting 4th and Sexson leading off (or something of the sort). I think Trades are always going to be a sore spot because the computer can't think like we can.. We know Alou is a 40 something hitter who is declining. The compuer sees him as an 84.

-Realistic Player progression. I would love to see some of my minor leagues become the next superstar.

As for off the field, these 2 rank up there.

[gamerk2]

Re: What are you hoping to see as far as Improved AI goes

-Better pitch calling: (last year, I felt there were only a few pitchers that actually pitched like themselves (Tom Glavine being the best IMO). I would really like to see a guy like Rivera bury cutter after cutter on my hitters hands or see Maddux buckle a lefty with a backdoor 2 seamer).
**on the same note, I would like my catcher to call a better, more realistic game (no more 2-0 changeups at the letters).

I agree 100%. What happened last year, was AI pitchers were attacking hitters weaknesses, regardless of what their individual strengths were.

-More execution: I would like to see the computer steal, double steal, hit and run, sac bunt as well as bunt for hits, squeeze, etc. And not be as predictable about it. Last year, I don't think there were many, if any hit and runs. It seems the hitter was always taking...and it seems that the runner always went on the first pitch. I can probably count on one hand the times the computer tried to bunt for a hit. It would be nice to see guys like Pierre, Furcal, Victorino, etc. bunt for a hit at least say once a series or so. Also, it would be nice to have someone else sac bunt besides the pitcher. How great or suprised would you be to see a double steal of 2nd and home? How about the computer trying to squeeze in the winning run?

Its a possibility, but highly unlikely we'll see some of these features. Sac bunts, at least with the bottom third of teams, should happen more though.

-More fundamentals: Kind of along the lines of the above, I would like to see a contact hitter try and hit a grounder to the right side to advance a runner from second to third or score a runner from third with 0 or 1 out. I would lik to see (though don't know how could tell) the AI try and hit a fly ball for a sac fly.

Agree; The AI seems concerned with saving outs though, and thats why it always played safe. Might be addressed this year, but i doubt it.

-More overall aggresiveness on the bases. Seems the computer always played it safe and if it he play was going to be close, they would hold up on the bases.

See above

Off the field:

-More smarts with the assistant manager after a manager ejection. Just because Geren gets tossed doesn't mean there isn't a brain in the dugout. Why is street pitching his 5th straight inning with 10% stamina when my pen is rested and ready?

No arguments here.

-Obviously and probably most importantly, better roster management. I think a killer for many last year was playing the Mariners and seeing Ichiro batting 4th and Sexson leading off (or something of the sort). I think Trades are always going to be a sore spot because the computer can't think like we can.. We know Alou is a 40 something hitter who is declining. The compuer sees him as an 84.

Agree, some of the lineups i see make no sense.

-Realistic Player progression. I would love to see some of my minor leagues become the next superstar.

Now that we have a minor league system, i'm eager to see how players progress.

[SeaNNyT]

Re: What are you hoping to see as far as Improved AI goes

AI batters that can be stuck out and get hits at a realistic pace, and the K's to Hit ratios will vary game to game.

Last year it seemed they either all were struck out on one setting or would hit everything and never be struck out on another.

[EnigmaNemesis]

Re: What are you hoping to see as far as Improved AI goes

I would love to see the AI as good as the AI was in NHL 08 by EA Sports. That was one of the best AI systems I have played in a LOOOONG time.

Always felt like you were playing another human opponent. Made intelligent and fundamental decisions against you and never had the "stupid CPU like" moments.

[bukktown]

Re: What are you hoping to see as far as Improved AI goes

Good post Trev. I just want to speak on one specific topic. Last year the AI pitching became very predicatable. I dont necesarilly want to see Mariano Rivera throwing my lefties cutter after cutter inside just because thats what makes him great in real life. Because video game hitting is easy when you know what to look for. I want the AI to adapt to exploit my weaknesses and change tactics when I have success. If I keep swinging at curveballs in the dirt, then I want almost every single 0-2, 1-2 and 2-2 pitch to be a curveball in the dirt until I stop swinging at them. Once I lay off one of them then the equation gets reformulated.

[Trevytrev11]

Re: What are you hoping to see as far as Improved AI goes

Good post Trev. I just want to speak on one specific topic. Last year the AI pitching became very predicatable. I dont necesarilly want to see Mariano Rivera throwing my lefties cutter after cutter inside just because thats what makes him great in real life. Because video game hitting is easy when you know what to look for. I want the AI to adapt to exploit my weaknesses and change tactics when I have success. If I keep swinging at curveballs in the dirt, then I want almost every single 0-2, 1-2 and 2-2 pitch to be a curveball in the dirt until I stop swinging at them. Once I lay off one of them then the equation gets reformulated.

I agree. I think this would require some calculating on the fly and I would think they would be able to do this based on things I see in NBA 2K8. If I go to the post with Garnett 4 or 5 times in a row and he's scoring at will they will instantly start double teaming in there.

Seems similar logic could be used to say "this guy keeps swining and missing at the junk in the dirt, lets keep throwing it." or "this guy is turning on every fastball middle-in, lets throw soft stuff away."

Of course this only works (at least for me) if we have an easier time picking up and recognizing pitches.

[Trevytrev11]

Re: What are you hoping to see as far as Improved AI goes

I agree 100%. What happened last year, was AI pitchers were attacking hitters weaknesses, regardless of what their individual strengths were.

Its a possibility, but highly unlikely we'll see some of these features. Sac bunts, at least with the bottom third of teams, should happen more though.

Agree; The AI seems concerned with saving outs though, and thats why it always played safe. Might be addressed this year, but i doubt it.

See above

I agree with you and honestly didn't even know that about the AI attacking hitters weakenesses (probably because I never used Inside Edge or hot/cold zones to know what my weaknesses were).

As far as all of the other stuff. I think, again, this is something they could pick up from the NBA series. Teams seems to have different personalities in that game. The Suns seem to run more than other teams, the Spurs play more of a set/post offense. Seems like something similar could be done to address teams philosophies. You look at the Red Sox or Yankees vs. a team like the Angels and you get two personalities. The Red Sox pound the ball and score a ton of runs off of the 3-R HR. While the Angels are gritty and grind out runs by doing little things (taking the extra base on a single, advancing runners with productive outs, stealing, etc.).

It would be nice if each team had a personality. Seems like team sliders could handle that. You could adjust the teams aggressivness on the bases, their willingness to bunt, their approach at the plate (do they work the counts or are they free swingers).

I think just these types of little things would improve the game in a big way.

I'm convinced that if I sim a season, Jose Reyes would steal 70 or 80 bases. However, if I played 162 games against the Met's. He would probably steal 15-20 bases. The logic that their simmed stats are based on don't seem to carry over into the real games.