Hello,
I am not a sliders maker, nor I have the popularity of several sliders guys here on the forum.
But I have a deep passion for sabermetrics and statistics, and I played baseball for several years before “retiring”.
This is my first MLB 2K game since 2K7, and I think this game has a lot of potential (I decided to buy it instead of The Show) but also has some issues that are holding it back.
I have been studying its sliders since day 1, in order to identify how to improve the game, how to make it 100% realistic and to make it look like a real baseball game on TV.
I had been playing at All-Star difficulty, and I found it quite fun and challenging, albeit with some issues that have started to become annoying.
These are the issues that I decided to address in my sliders:
Too many double plays and too easy to turn double plays
Not enough extra base hits
Unrealistic baserunning behaviour (liners into gaps often produce just a single)
Too many flyball-popups dying
Unrealistic infielders plays (the diving and the throw on the knees to first always makes the out)
After experimenting with the sliders and comparing them to lots of games on MLB.TV, I found what I think it is a perfect set.
MLB 2k12 now plays naturally, smoothly, I have seen lots of new animations and new situations on the field: it looks like the game is “unlocked” when tweaking certain setting.
VERSION 1.02 (most likely the final one, as I hit a sweet spot with the game) - MARCH 14th
Now on with the sliders:
Controller Setup:
- Classic Batting
- Total Control Pitching
[These sliders only work with classic batting. I did a lot of experimenting in the drills section and it seems that Total Control batting works differently, as you really have to use the three swings and if you only use the contact one there is a lack of power that does not work with these sliders.]
Pitcher Fatigue: 45
[I changed it from 55 to 45. I was drawing too many walks, because when pitchers get tired tend to throw all over the place and allow too many free passes]
Active Bullpen: On
Catcher Suggestion: Off
Dynamic Player Ratings: Off [This is a MUST]
USER BATTING:
Batting Contact: This is a personal preference. I have seen people complaining because they cannot hit, people complaining because it's too easy, too many Ks, not enough Ks etc. I use the default All Star value of 45
Batting Power: This is really important and should not be touched. If you use Classic Batting it should stay at 50 no matter what sliders and what difficulty level you are playing at.
Bunt Contact: 40
Bunt Success: 45 I left the two bunt values at All Star default. I didn’t really test them, I have bunted a couple of times during my games, I was safe once with Bernadina.
Batter Eye Frequency: 0 (User preference)
CPU BATTING:
AI Batting Contact: Again a personal preference, 55 works fantastic for me (I am striking out an average of 7 batters per game) but that might not work for someone else.
AI Batting Power: Same for human power, it has to stay at 50. Not only it affects Hrs, but also groundballs. If it's higher than 50 there won't be enough GB.
AI Bunt Contact: 60
AI Bunt Success: 60
USER PITCHING:
Pitch Meter Speed: I like it at 65 because I can feel the difference between pitching with the bases empty and pitching from the stretch, which is nonexistent if the meter is too fast.
Pitch Speed: 100 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARXJx...c7AUAAAAAAAAAA I tried to compare a real life pitch with an in-game pitch. The speed that matches a real life fastball (Bard's second pitch both on MLB.TV and in-game) is 100.
Pitch Break Influence: 45 This reduces the CPU tendency to swing and miss. Some of the other sliders set raised CPU contact too much because the CPU was striking out a lot. I think the key is here, because almost all of the swings and misses that I have seen are cause by breaking balls with too much break.
Pitcher Composure Influence: 55 This makes pitching more challenging when the pitcher is in a jam.
Pitcher Control: 30
CPU PITCHING:
AI Pitch Speed: Pitch speed is at 100 As mentioned above
AI Pitch Success: 50
AI Strike Zone Tendency: 50 It looks like the magic number for a realistic pitch count and strike % is 100 combined between Pitch Success and Strike Zone Tendency. In every game I played, the opposing pitchers threw about 140 pitches per game (MLB average is 149) and had a strike % around 60. Having it at 50-50 also solved my problem of too many walks.
AI Pitch Break Influence: 45
AI Pitcher Composure Influence: 50 This is more important than it seems. I don't really believe in intangibles, clutch players and all that stupid mainstream media stuff, but this slider affects strikes and balls thrown. I tried lowering it to 0 and all I saw from the CPU pitcher was strike after strike after strike.
USER FIELDING:
Throw Accuracy: I don't know. I use autofielding (it gives me the feeling of being a pitcher with the whole defense behind me) so I have never thought about this slider. Sorry.
Gather Error Frequency: 50 Due to the fact that I use autofielding, this slider is the same as the CPU fielding.
Throwing Error Frequency: 55 Due to the fact that I use autofielding, this slider is the same as the CPU fielding.
Outfield Throw Speed: 90
Infield Throw Speed: 80 I calculated this value and the one above by looking at the pitch speed. In real life outfielders average 88mph with their throws and infielders between 70 and 80 mph. Therefore if my pitcher pitches at 100, the throws of the position players will be a bit slower.
If you have pitch speed at 75, for example, you might want to use 65 for outfield throw speed and 55 for infield. From what I could see, though, this does not affect the game play drastically.
Outfield Run Speed: 0 This is literally a game-changer, one of my most important findings. When outfielders run at 0, the whole game changes: there is more hit variety, as some flyballs fall in front of the outfielders, some are not caught, some fly past them and against the warning track. What I really didn’t like of the game at default is that the outfielders caught EVERYTHING, every flyball, even the most difficult ones.
Another consequence of this value at 0 is that there are more extra-base hits (coupled with my baserunning speed slider) and I love how the problems of the liners into gaps that often produce just a single is completely gone. Now if you mash the ball in the outfield the result is most of the times a double, like it is in real life.
After this change about 30% of base hits are XBH, just like in the MLB. Wow.
Infield Run Speed: 0 I stayed consistent with the outfielders speed, even though in my opinion this slider does not affect game play too much.
CPU FIELDING:
AI Gather Error Frequency: 50
AI Throwing Error Frequency: 55 In the majors throwing errors are more frequent than fielding (gather) errors, so this slider is slightly higher than the one above. I was tempted to raise the errors, especially the gather errors, as I love the animations of the infielders bubbling the ball, but this combination of 50-55 gives me about one error combined per game, exactly the MLB average.
AI Outfield Throw Speeds: 90
AI Infield Throw Speeds: 80
AI Outfield Run Speed: 0 Same as human, it feels like a brand new game.
AI Infield Run Speed: 0
USER RUNNING:
Base Runner Speed: 70 This is another game-changer, maybe even more important than the oufield run speed.
I have always had the sensation that baserunners were too slow in this game: lots of double plays, not enough close plays at first, not enough extra base hits, that stupid animation of the shortstop that dives to get the ball and on his knees throws it to first and always gets the baserunner. All these issues were affecting the realism of the game.
Plus, I had the visual impression that the runners were slower than real life when stealing a base.
So I took the MLB base stealing times (3.25 seconds for the steal of second base for average players, 2.98 seconds for speedy guys like Bourn, Ichiro or Crisp) and I compared it with the game. I timed a couple of players and my suspects were confirmed: a player like Victorino timed 3.3 seconds to steal second in game. That was too slow.
So I upped the Base Runner slider till I got to the magic number of 70.
Other than a realistic visual effect, the slider is extremely important for other purposes: now it's possible to score from first on a double (like in real life), ofter players go from first to third on a single to right field (like in real life), the baserunner now beats the throw a diving SS almost every time, the double play are gone and like in real life (where the average is 1 double play per game) a defense turns the double play only if the runner is a slow power guy (Dunn, Butler, Ortiz) or if they are in perfect position. My defense turned a couple of double plays, one with the 2B fielding the ball, stepping onto 2nd and then firing to 1st .
So happy to see these results.
Pickoff Success: 40 All star default. I never picked off anyone so far.
Catcher Arm Strength: 65 This is obviously to counter the baserunning speed at 70. The ratio remains the same, and even here I had great results: stolen bases with Gardner and Jemile Weeks, caught stealing with Furcal and Betemit.
Catcher Arm Accuracy: 45 I like to see the occasional high throw from the catcher.
CPU RUNNING:
AI Base Runner Speed: 70 Same as human.
AI Hit-n-Run Tendency: 55 All Star default, like it.
AI Sacrifice Bunt Tendency: 60
AI Squeeze Tendency: 65 The Cardinals with man on 3rd and 1 out played a squeeze against me with Furcal bunting. Really nice to see.
AI Base Running Aggression: 65 Default All-Star.
AI Steal Aggression: 60 Default All-Star.
AI Catcher Arm Strength: 65 Same as human.
AI Catcher Arm Accuracy: 45 Same as human.
These sliders are giving me an unbelievable variety in games: I have had pitching duels, shutouts, offensive outbursts, big innings, multi-HR games, big defensive plays, force outs... everything I wanted from a baseball game.
I am extremely satisfied with these sliders and excited with the games I had. I saw lots on new animations and situations on the field.
Nonetheless, feel free to give me an opinion and tweak them to your liking. Like I said, I use auto-fielding and auto-baserunning, so I don't know how these work with manual settings.
Last, I have to thank all the users who gave their feedbacks in the other sliders thread, it has been super useful to read everybody's opinion.
Enjoy!
Beetlebum
I am not a sliders maker, nor I have the popularity of several sliders guys here on the forum.
But I have a deep passion for sabermetrics and statistics, and I played baseball for several years before “retiring”.
This is my first MLB 2K game since 2K7, and I think this game has a lot of potential (I decided to buy it instead of The Show) but also has some issues that are holding it back.
I have been studying its sliders since day 1, in order to identify how to improve the game, how to make it 100% realistic and to make it look like a real baseball game on TV.
I had been playing at All-Star difficulty, and I found it quite fun and challenging, albeit with some issues that have started to become annoying.
These are the issues that I decided to address in my sliders:
Too many double plays and too easy to turn double plays
Not enough extra base hits
Unrealistic baserunning behaviour (liners into gaps often produce just a single)
Too many flyball-popups dying
Unrealistic infielders plays (the diving and the throw on the knees to first always makes the out)
After experimenting with the sliders and comparing them to lots of games on MLB.TV, I found what I think it is a perfect set.
MLB 2k12 now plays naturally, smoothly, I have seen lots of new animations and new situations on the field: it looks like the game is “unlocked” when tweaking certain setting.
VERSION 1.02 (most likely the final one, as I hit a sweet spot with the game) - MARCH 14th
Now on with the sliders:
Controller Setup:
- Classic Batting
- Total Control Pitching
[These sliders only work with classic batting. I did a lot of experimenting in the drills section and it seems that Total Control batting works differently, as you really have to use the three swings and if you only use the contact one there is a lack of power that does not work with these sliders.]
Pitcher Fatigue: 45
[I changed it from 55 to 45. I was drawing too many walks, because when pitchers get tired tend to throw all over the place and allow too many free passes]
Active Bullpen: On
Catcher Suggestion: Off
Dynamic Player Ratings: Off [This is a MUST]
USER BATTING:
Batting Contact: This is a personal preference. I have seen people complaining because they cannot hit, people complaining because it's too easy, too many Ks, not enough Ks etc. I use the default All Star value of 45
Batting Power: This is really important and should not be touched. If you use Classic Batting it should stay at 50 no matter what sliders and what difficulty level you are playing at.
Bunt Contact: 40
Bunt Success: 45 I left the two bunt values at All Star default. I didn’t really test them, I have bunted a couple of times during my games, I was safe once with Bernadina.
Batter Eye Frequency: 0 (User preference)
CPU BATTING:
AI Batting Contact: Again a personal preference, 55 works fantastic for me (I am striking out an average of 7 batters per game) but that might not work for someone else.
AI Batting Power: Same for human power, it has to stay at 50. Not only it affects Hrs, but also groundballs. If it's higher than 50 there won't be enough GB.
AI Bunt Contact: 60
AI Bunt Success: 60
USER PITCHING:
Pitch Meter Speed: I like it at 65 because I can feel the difference between pitching with the bases empty and pitching from the stretch, which is nonexistent if the meter is too fast.
Pitch Speed: 100 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARXJx...c7AUAAAAAAAAAA I tried to compare a real life pitch with an in-game pitch. The speed that matches a real life fastball (Bard's second pitch both on MLB.TV and in-game) is 100.
Pitch Break Influence: 45 This reduces the CPU tendency to swing and miss. Some of the other sliders set raised CPU contact too much because the CPU was striking out a lot. I think the key is here, because almost all of the swings and misses that I have seen are cause by breaking balls with too much break.
Pitcher Composure Influence: 55 This makes pitching more challenging when the pitcher is in a jam.
Pitcher Control: 30
CPU PITCHING:
AI Pitch Speed: Pitch speed is at 100 As mentioned above
AI Pitch Success: 50
AI Strike Zone Tendency: 50 It looks like the magic number for a realistic pitch count and strike % is 100 combined between Pitch Success and Strike Zone Tendency. In every game I played, the opposing pitchers threw about 140 pitches per game (MLB average is 149) and had a strike % around 60. Having it at 50-50 also solved my problem of too many walks.
AI Pitch Break Influence: 45
AI Pitcher Composure Influence: 50 This is more important than it seems. I don't really believe in intangibles, clutch players and all that stupid mainstream media stuff, but this slider affects strikes and balls thrown. I tried lowering it to 0 and all I saw from the CPU pitcher was strike after strike after strike.
USER FIELDING:
Throw Accuracy: I don't know. I use autofielding (it gives me the feeling of being a pitcher with the whole defense behind me) so I have never thought about this slider. Sorry.
Gather Error Frequency: 50 Due to the fact that I use autofielding, this slider is the same as the CPU fielding.
Throwing Error Frequency: 55 Due to the fact that I use autofielding, this slider is the same as the CPU fielding.
Outfield Throw Speed: 90
Infield Throw Speed: 80 I calculated this value and the one above by looking at the pitch speed. In real life outfielders average 88mph with their throws and infielders between 70 and 80 mph. Therefore if my pitcher pitches at 100, the throws of the position players will be a bit slower.
If you have pitch speed at 75, for example, you might want to use 65 for outfield throw speed and 55 for infield. From what I could see, though, this does not affect the game play drastically.
Outfield Run Speed: 0 This is literally a game-changer, one of my most important findings. When outfielders run at 0, the whole game changes: there is more hit variety, as some flyballs fall in front of the outfielders, some are not caught, some fly past them and against the warning track. What I really didn’t like of the game at default is that the outfielders caught EVERYTHING, every flyball, even the most difficult ones.
Another consequence of this value at 0 is that there are more extra-base hits (coupled with my baserunning speed slider) and I love how the problems of the liners into gaps that often produce just a single is completely gone. Now if you mash the ball in the outfield the result is most of the times a double, like it is in real life.
After this change about 30% of base hits are XBH, just like in the MLB. Wow.
Infield Run Speed: 0 I stayed consistent with the outfielders speed, even though in my opinion this slider does not affect game play too much.
CPU FIELDING:
AI Gather Error Frequency: 50
AI Throwing Error Frequency: 55 In the majors throwing errors are more frequent than fielding (gather) errors, so this slider is slightly higher than the one above. I was tempted to raise the errors, especially the gather errors, as I love the animations of the infielders bubbling the ball, but this combination of 50-55 gives me about one error combined per game, exactly the MLB average.
AI Outfield Throw Speeds: 90
AI Infield Throw Speeds: 80
AI Outfield Run Speed: 0 Same as human, it feels like a brand new game.
AI Infield Run Speed: 0
USER RUNNING:
Base Runner Speed: 70 This is another game-changer, maybe even more important than the oufield run speed.
I have always had the sensation that baserunners were too slow in this game: lots of double plays, not enough close plays at first, not enough extra base hits, that stupid animation of the shortstop that dives to get the ball and on his knees throws it to first and always gets the baserunner. All these issues were affecting the realism of the game.
Plus, I had the visual impression that the runners were slower than real life when stealing a base.
So I took the MLB base stealing times (3.25 seconds for the steal of second base for average players, 2.98 seconds for speedy guys like Bourn, Ichiro or Crisp) and I compared it with the game. I timed a couple of players and my suspects were confirmed: a player like Victorino timed 3.3 seconds to steal second in game. That was too slow.
So I upped the Base Runner slider till I got to the magic number of 70.
Other than a realistic visual effect, the slider is extremely important for other purposes: now it's possible to score from first on a double (like in real life), ofter players go from first to third on a single to right field (like in real life), the baserunner now beats the throw a diving SS almost every time, the double play are gone and like in real life (where the average is 1 double play per game) a defense turns the double play only if the runner is a slow power guy (Dunn, Butler, Ortiz) or if they are in perfect position. My defense turned a couple of double plays, one with the 2B fielding the ball, stepping onto 2nd and then firing to 1st .
So happy to see these results.
Pickoff Success: 40 All star default. I never picked off anyone so far.
Catcher Arm Strength: 65 This is obviously to counter the baserunning speed at 70. The ratio remains the same, and even here I had great results: stolen bases with Gardner and Jemile Weeks, caught stealing with Furcal and Betemit.
Catcher Arm Accuracy: 45 I like to see the occasional high throw from the catcher.
CPU RUNNING:
AI Base Runner Speed: 70 Same as human.
AI Hit-n-Run Tendency: 55 All Star default, like it.
AI Sacrifice Bunt Tendency: 60
AI Squeeze Tendency: 65 The Cardinals with man on 3rd and 1 out played a squeeze against me with Furcal bunting. Really nice to see.
AI Base Running Aggression: 65 Default All-Star.
AI Steal Aggression: 60 Default All-Star.
AI Catcher Arm Strength: 65 Same as human.
AI Catcher Arm Accuracy: 45 Same as human.
These sliders are giving me an unbelievable variety in games: I have had pitching duels, shutouts, offensive outbursts, big innings, multi-HR games, big defensive plays, force outs... everything I wanted from a baseball game.
I am extremely satisfied with these sliders and excited with the games I had. I saw lots on new animations and situations on the field.
Nonetheless, feel free to give me an opinion and tweak them to your liking. Like I said, I use auto-fielding and auto-baserunning, so I don't know how these work with manual settings.
Last, I have to thank all the users who gave their feedbacks in the other sliders thread, it has been super useful to read everybody's opinion.
Enjoy!
Beetlebum
they had 3 singles 1 double as did I. you were right about the double plays they play out better here
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