MLB 2K11 Developer Diary: Dynamic Player Ratings with New Trailer

[Trevytrev11]

Re: MLB 2K11 Developer Diary: Dynamic Player Ratings, Presentation and More

Guys remember the ratings are dynamic. This seems to make hot & colds based on the players real life season.

Which would mean there has to be a setting in the modes D P R S exist to allow for on the fly changes ala (Roster Updates)
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Not for Franchise & My Player:

Franchise and My Player
In Franchise and My Player modes, the DPRS uses the player results generated by playing or simulating games in your season. Both Franchise and My Player are designed and intended to allow you to play multiple seasons which is why we use the results generated within your Franchise or My Player. When you call up a rookie in his second year after the draft, and he starts lighting up the league, we want you to see him go into a hot streak and get the benefit of playing above expectations. As some of your veteran players age and struggle at the plate, we want them to go cold and for you to decide if you want to bench them or keep them in the lineup. In the next section I’ll show examples of how the DPRS works within franchise mode.

[ocat]

It's like this. Last year, sometimes you'd have a guy that usually hits like .330 end up hitting just .279. Basically this system would take into account that that batter is struggling and his ratings would be reduced.

My question is this. Does this really impact the game that much, or does it just look good? If I'm Prince Fielder and I'm a great power hitter but lately I haven't been driving the ball and my Power ratings dip into the 60's for example, how does that guy ever break out of that slump? I'm a little skeptical because it almost seems like the ratings don't really mean anything if a guy with 50 contact and 60 power can all of a sudden start killing the ball and have his power bump up into the 80's.

Remember that the DPRS uses data from a rolling 4 week period, so you will have any good or bad performances dropping off the end of that 4 week window with each game you play. This will prevent never ending hot or cold streaks (unless the player is having a breakout year of is really struggling)

[bigfnjoe96]

Re: MLB 2K11 Developer Diary: Dynamic Player Ratings, Presentation and More

Not for Franchise & My Player:

Franchise and My Player
In Franchise and My Player modes, the DPRS uses the player results generated by playing or simulating games in your season. Both Franchise and My Player are designed and intended to allow you to play multiple seasons which is why we use the results generated within your Franchise or My Player. When you call up a rookie in his second year after the draft, and he starts lighting up the league, we want you to see him go into a hot streak and get the benefit of playing above expectations. As some of your veteran players age and struggle at the plate, we want them to go cold and for you to decide if you want to bench them or keep them in the lineup. In the next section I’ll show examples of how the DPRS works within franchise mode.

We'll if this is the case, then the engine better have checks & balances so user skill doesn't over-rule the DPRS System

[SoxFan01605]

Re: MLB 2K11 Developer Diary: Dynamic Player Ratings with New Trailer

I'm just skeptical as to this point 2K's ratings have been spotty even without such additions and NO game has handled hot/cold very well (every sports game to this point that attempts to handle them bloats performance too much for too long). I don't know that I trust their simulator (or anyone's for that matter) to properly handle such changes...but we'll see.

That said, it does sound intriguing and it really sounds like they have a lot of data driving it, which is promising. I'm not going to get too worked up about it either way until I see it for myself.

I do agree with Jayhawker that it sounds much better for MLB Today as the adjustments are based on real world performance and therefore the concerns about how the game handles it are mitigated (since we don't have to rely on the simulator to determine the end to a hot/cold streak).

Also, it does indeed sound like you can turn it off, so if it works, then fantastic! And if it doesn't, then it seems that the worst case is that it becomes a useless feature rather than a damaging one.

We'll see though. Either way, it's nice to start seeing some more info and some of these things explained...I'm just excited baseball season (and gaming) is so close.

[dodgerblue]

Kind of makes my head spin....

So if it's user dictated, then if you are highly skilled at the game conceivable all or most of your players could go on hot streaks at the same time.

But if the game randomly or based on real mlb stats dictates or trumps the user input, then the game is more sim but then might not rely enough on input.

It's a delicate balance they will have to tread.

[tmac55]

Re: MLB 2K11 Developer Diary: Dynamic Player Ratings with New Trailer

I really like what I'm reading here. I am cautiously expecting an improved franchise mode where progression and regression are very possible. If this works as planned, 2K will win some fans back

[rudyjuly2]

Re: MLB 2K11 Developer Diary: Dynamic Player Ratings with New Trailer

Kind of makes my head spin....

So if it's user dictated, then if you are highly skilled at the game conceivable all or most of your players could go on hot streaks at the same time.

You definitely better have a balanced slider set. Too hard your players will turn into bums. Too easy and they will all become inflated. Certainly something to watch.

The 4 week rolling period will help but I would prefer to see the streaks also tied into potential and/or consistency. A young player has the potential to develop into a great hitter or really struggle. A 7 year veteran is what he is by now.

Example - a young player like Starlin Castro could get really hot and hit over .320 or he could get cold and struggle around .220. This I can accept. But a guy like Albert Pujols is incredibly consistent and talented. In the last 10 years he has batted between .312 and .331 eight times. Two times he has great years of .357 and .359. I'd like to think he would never suffer a slump to the point he's hitting significantly under .300. I think some players, particularly established players, should have a consistency rating that prevents them from getting too hot or cold in franchise mode.

[duke776]

Re: MLB 2K11 Developer Diary: Dynamic Player Ratings with New Trailer

Sounds very nice to me. I know there's certainly things that could go wrong, but I'm definitely looking forward to trying this out myself (hopefully I can find someone who has a blockbuster card who doesn't owe money like I do ). I also like that they mentioned there will be a franchise insight, I love franchise, so I'm obviously looking forward to that.

[rock85]

Re: MLB 2K11 Developer Diary: Dynamic Player Ratings, Presentation and More

That's why I think this is brilliant for MLB Today, but could really be dubious for franchise play. But they did mention that it would have to be operational, which implies you can turn it off.

One thing to consider though is that there is another factor. If You get hot with a player, and his ratings go up, you may still face some pitchers that are just as hot, which could help bring him back into line. For slumping players, this would really mimic the idea that facing a lower rated pitcher can get some guys back on track.

I did appreciate how he described loading in last year's data to verify how well tuned this really was. What we really want is realistic results based on fluid ratings. Too often it becomes clear that many games are not doing this step of verifying simmed results with real life results.

But really, the idea that I can hop online in July to play, and not only have accurate rosters and line-ups, which 2K did fairly well last year, but now with accurate ratings, is going to be really, really cool.

When the Cards are facing a rival, and I get that itch to play out the games, it was always a little bit of a bummer that we weren't getting the right hot guys. In particular, I think this will be a big deal with pitchers.

Speaking of which, when you use MLB Today to play out games on your own, I sure hope they let me alter my opponents line-up, and especially the starting pitcher. Actually, this needs to be in place for any play now type of game. It's been left out for the last two releases, and is just a glaring problem we should not have to deal with.

You bring up a really good point and makes a lot of sense. In a baseball season you have your ups and downs and sometimes a struggling hitter will get on the right track by facing the other teams #5 starter and it goes the other way also facing there #1 (hot to cold). I really hope this is implemented well if is man this is going to be great for in game strategy

[hitstreak13]

Re: MLB 2K11 Developer Diary: Dynamic Player Ratings with New Trailer

Man, this sounds pretty good as I think it will add alot of strategy during franchise play. I can just imagine someone trying to groom their closer of the future only to get lit up during the season, causing his progression to stall. This should force you to use him as a reliever first (carefully I may add) and try to build up his confidence and attributes.

This, along with new fielding controls, should definitely cause you to think more during games. I mean, not only are we going to have to worry about pitching matchups (dont want that cold reliever facing a red hot Albert Pujols), but making defensive substutions may be the difference between that must win and a heartbreaking loss. Cant wait.

[DJ]

Thanks for the insight, 2K. It sounds like a cool feature, I just hope it's implemented well. NBA Live tried to do something similar to this and failed. I imagine it's not an easy thing to pull off.

[Cardot]

Re: MLB 2K11 Developer Diary: Dynamic Player Ratings, Presentation and More

It just seems that the law of averages would automatically make for hot and cold streaks. As a .300 hitter, you are going to have streaks of .350 or .400 and streaks of .150 or .200, but over the course of the season, you are going to come close that that average.

Again, if you flip a coin (50/50), you are going to have periods hit flipping 4,5 or 6 heads in a row and vice versa with tails. This is basically what happens during these hot and cold streaks.

I was thinking the same thing. As an old timer who goes back to the days where sports simulation games were done with dice, cards and spinners, you don't need to conjure up a formula for hot and cold streaks, they happen on their own.

I generally am not a fan when video games try to put a logarithim on intangilbes...like hot streaks, momentum, clutch ratings, team chemistry etc. They generally end up being overdone and forced. One such game that comes to mind was NCAA football '07. They implemented a "momentum" system which dominated the game and for me ruined a game that I otherwise really enjoyed. Hopefully not the case with 2K11.

[bigfnjoe96]

Man I remember being in a dice franchise back in the day. Man did we have some fun

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[jake44np]

Re: MLB 2K11 Developer Diary: Dynamic Player Ratings with New Trailer

Man I remember being in a dice franchise back in the day. Man did we have some fun

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Me too, strat o matic basketball and Pursue the Pennet for baseball.
I spent way too much of my youth playing those two games.

[JayhawkerStL]

Re: MLB 2K11 Developer Diary: Dynamic Player Ratings with New Trailer

Me too, strat o matic basketball and Pursue the Pennet for baseball.
I spent way too much of my youth playing those two games.

Grew up on All-Star Baseball, but graduated to Strat-O-Matic. Played card and dice baseball games through college. Then a friend introduced me to an APBA league where we mailed (as in snail mail) the floppy disk from home to home, as we played out out home series vs. the CPU.

But Diamond Mind Baseball is what really came alive for me. I spent time in several leagues.

Becasue of ll of this, I have never taken the franchise play of action sports games very serious. When sims like OOTP can't get it right, I'm not going to stay up worrying about my action sports game.

And yeah, there is absolutely no need for the AI to instigate hot and cold streaks. They happen all of the time in games with dice and cards.

But for MLB today, I do like it. And if they included that in online play, it would be cool, too. Then all it is doing i updating the ratings of players based on real life performance. that is holy grail stuff.

But using simmed results to instigate this seems like a bad idea. But I will enjoy giving it a spin anyway.