WaitTilNextYear's Sim Quality Sliders for 2k13

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: WaitTilNextYear's Sim Quality Sliders for 2k13

These seem to really fix some of the flaws of the game

I agree with contact being down...batters strikeout...ALOT in MLB
I also agree with pitching control being down...but I use a further out pitching cam so mine is at 30

The power is slightly high IMO, if you sim the year I find too many players with career highs in HRs...but the rosters are askew as well, so I can see why 80 will give you a shot while playing the game and getting a rare HR with a backup SS where the default that will never happen

I don't like dynamic ratings...did you find that the higher rated players would go on too long of a streak and weak players would slump too much?

and I have injuries on 70 but that is because baseball players are wussies and the higher injury rating reflects that to me

I'm still trying to find an IF and OF speed that works...default is bad, but too low seems to break the game for me....so far I have OF speed at 40 for user, 35 for CPU and IF speed to 25 for user, 20 for CPU

Thanks for the useful feedback!

The power slider might end up going down from 80, but so far I am happy with it there. It was originally at 85 and I felt that 80 was too underpowered, but I've adapted to 80.

I don't think the power slider affects the stats in simmed games. I think there are a few too many 30-40 HR guys, but it's not too terrible. But, that's probably due to the ratings as you mention. Some of the worst offenders I saw were Nolan Reimold of the Orioles hitting 43 HR and Andrew Brown of the Mets having power ratings in the 80s. I had to edit them both.

Many of these sliders are preferences since we all have different skill levels. The injury thing is a preference.

As far as dynamic ratings, I'm ok with them. Whether a stud player has his ratings inflated or a crappy player slumps, there will be a pretty wide gulf between the best stats and the worst ones, so it doesn't bother me as much as it bothers other people. I do wish the strength and duration of the streaks were better correlated with performance though. I have noticed that a player can be "cold" then hit a HR then next game and be "hot" all of a sudden. Then again I have noticed a streak lasting for several weeks with no more than mediocre performance sustaining it.

[OSchienne]

Re: WaitTilNextYear's Sim Quality Sliders for 2k13

cool thanks for the response...I may have to up the power a bit

But I am also tweaking the roster because I think a better roster would help in some of these regards

Thing I am not sure of is that pitchers have a not allowing triples attribute, but they are all 25...I don't like the 2b and 3b and rather have like OOTP has...Stuff=strikeouts Movement=HR and gap hits allowed control=Walks allowed

I am also not sure of Eye...is that walks? Well they have an atrribute that says how often they walk Is it avoiding Ks? They have a seperate line for that as well...Is it both? Does it go hand in hand with contact?

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: WaitTilNextYear's Sim Quality Sliders for 2k13

cool thanks for the response...I may have to up the power a bit

But I am also tweaking the roster because I think a better roster would help in some of these regards

Thing I am not sure of is that pitchers have a not allowing triples attribute, but they are all 25...I don't like the 2b and 3b and rather have like OOTP has...Stuff=strikeouts Movement=HR and gap hits allowed control=Walks allowed

I am also not sure of Eye...is that walks? Well they have an atrribute that says how often they walk Is it avoiding Ks? They have a seperate line for that as well...Is it both? Does it go hand in hand with contact?

Yeah, the "allowing triples" attribute for pitchers is weird. I agree it should be "gap hits" in general. I'm not sure how the game sorts out giving up a double vs. a triple, since the difference is highly contingent on factors outside the pitchers control like batter speed and defensive range. That said, I have seen these vary. In the rosters I use they weren't all set to 25, though they probably should be. Although the allowing triples attribute slider could just be operative in simmed games, which would make a lot more sense.

The batter's eye is it's own thing. There is a feature in this game called "batters eye" and basically with it on the game prompts you what the incoming pitch will be. I have this feature off since I find it slightly unrealistic, but with it on, I believe the P winds up and when he delivers the ball (or right before) a notification pops up that says "slider!" or something like that. It's there to key you in to the pitch type. And the batter's eye slider determines the frequency of the warnings. So, if you have it set to 100 (and batter's eye is on in the preferences) you'll get notification on each pitch. If it's set lower, then maybe only on certain pitches and with certain hitters. If the batter's eye feature is turned off in the preferences, then the slider has no effect whatsoever. Innovative, but useless in my opinion.

Walks, strikeouts, and contact are all handled by separate ratings from the batter's eye feature.

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: WaitTilNextYear's Sim Quality Sliders for 2k13

Most Recent Changes Recorded, OP is current.

Lowered USER batting contact from 25 --> 20.
I'm really liking the decrease in USER contact. It's been dropped from 35 to 20 in just a couple of weeks. It really forces you to improve the swing timing or risk K'ing 6-10 times per game, which is realistic. I am seeing good results in terms of hits, runs, and strikeouts per game on offense. It can be frustrating at times with mis-timed swings, but it's a bit more challenging, and I think that's a good thing.


Raised CPU batting contact from 45 --> 50.
At CPU contact = 45, I was able to maintain a team ERA under 4, lead MLB in Ks, and carry a batting average against around .250. I'm giving up a reasonable amount of homers so I didn't want to touch the CPU power, but by raising CPU contact up to 50, the intent is to cut back on some of the double digit USER K's and make the CPU's offense feel a bit more dangerous as far as consecutive hits/rallies/making it hard to flirt with no-hitters. As both my skills and my team improves over time, this was a necessary adjustment to make. I have yet to notch a no-hitter though I've been close 2-3 times, and beefing up the difficulty will make it harder to do, but supremely satisfying if you can do it, which I hope I can, lol.


Raised Injury Frequency from 18 --> 30.
I had injuries at 15 for the longest time and I was afraid to move it because when this game dropped, lots of people were posting that the injuries were overpowered. Well, I did see some injuries, but not really many impactful ones. I lost a reliever for 4 months in my 1st year, and Jose Altuve for 3 weeks, but other than that it was mostly nagging 3-5 day injuries. I also heard people talking about they had injuries at 60 or 70 and thought that was best. I am not comfortable jumping all the way to 60 or 70 yet, but I had recently raised the injury slider barely at all to 18 to see if there was any noticeable difference, and didn't really see any difference (about a month of games). I have now played 2 games with it set to 30 and haven't seen any injuries in those 2 games. I'm going to roll with injuries at 30 and see what happens. If things get too crazy on the injury front I'll adjust it back.

But, we can adjust injuries in increments of 1, why not the other sliders too? I feel like if I could go by increments of 1 instead of 5 with the gameplay sliders, we could really perfect the set. Oh well, it's pretty dang good anyway, imo.


As per usual, happy playing, gents!

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: WaitTilNextYear's Sim Quality Sliders for 2k13

Alright so I played about 20 games (19 to be exact) with these newest settings [the ones referenced in the previous post] and took some notes. I will use a comparison of my results over this 19-game sample with 2013 MLB averages to drive the analysis.


Runs Per Game on Offense

Me: 3.74
MLB: 4.24

I am coming up about half a run short. Keep that in mind. But I am the Astros, so this shouldn't shock anyone although my roster is much improved after 1.5 years of team-building.

Runs Per Game Allowed

Me: 4.47
MLB: 4.24

Pretty reasonable here. I'm giving up 0.2 runs per game more, but I've also faced some powerful teams like the Tigers and Rangers and this is well within reason.

Hits Per Game on Offense

Me: 6.05
MLB: 8.64

This is a problem. I'm getting about 2-3 hits per game too few, and my team and individual batting averages have been sinking fast. This is also a good reason why I'm scoring 0.5 runs per game less that what average might be (my offense is pretty average too).

I recently lowered USER contact from 35 --> 20, so I think I'll bump it back to 25 and take another 15-20-game sample.

Hits Per Game Allowed

Me: 9.74
MLB: 8.64

I'm giving up a hit or so more per game, but again, I've played some powerful offenses so I'll give this a bit longer. The CPU contact might have to come back down -or- I could raise USER pitch control/break as an alternative. Not too concerned with these numbers though.

Errors Per Game

Me: 0.368
CPU: 0.579
MLB: 0.568

I'm making too few errors, so I'll nudge up the USER gather error freq. I do see a lot of bobbles, but not all of them lead to errors. The CPU numbers look really great however.

Walks Per Game

Me: 2.68
CPU: 1.63
MLB: 2.95

Well, I'm pretty near the MLB-average in walks taken, so that's good. The CPU is getting 1.3 fewer walks per game. Part of this is due to me being a very aggressive pitcher, but maybe I can lower the USER pitch break or control. However, the cpu is also 1 hit per game over the average, so if I make a move to try to increase cpu walks, their hits might go up too. I might just have to pitch away from contact a bit more and bite the bullet with a couple more walks. In other words, the fix here might be a change in my approach instead of a change in sliders.

Strikeouts Per Game

Me: 6.89
CPU: 7.53
MLB: 7.49

I am VERY happy with how this is turning out. I used to only K 3-4 times per game, but raising the AI pitch speed and lowering my contact has made this MUCH closer to sim-like. Raising the CPU contact has also helped them make more contact. I was striking them out at an 8-10 per game rate for the longest time, before I upped the CPU contact. Now they're almost dead center.

The only issue I see here is, my batting walks are fine, and my batting K's are good, but me having 2 hits too few means I need to find a way to make more contact, but without totally screwing up the BB and K rates. My thought is to raise USER contact to 25 like mentioned above and possibly also raise the CPU pitch break by 5 to 35. The contact increase might help me get the ball in play a bit more (and increase hits), while increasing the break might maintain K-rates at a reasonable level.

Doubles Per Game

Me: 1.26
CPU: 1.63
MLB: 1.72

Looking pretty good here and I think me being on the low side of doubles has more to do with a lack of hits in general, so I won't change anything specifically here, but see how the contact change affects this. CPU is again on the money.

Homers Per Game

Me: 1.32
CPU: 1.11
MLB: 1.00

For the most part his is ok. The cpu being 10% higher is fine by me, and like I said I've just played a tough stretch of teams (Rangers, Tigers, O's) that can hit the ball out of the park. My homers are 32% over the norm, and while I play in a hitter's park, this is a bit too high. So, on the one hand, too few hits. On the other hand, too many homers. I'm going to take a 2-step approach here. First, I will raise that contact to 25 and see what that does with the hits. Second, assuming the hits are good, I will lower power by 5 to 75 and see what the new HR rate would be. So, we'll see I guess.


All in all, I like what I'm seeing and the game is fun and playing great. This set has come a long way and it's taken 200 games or so, but we're getting really close to as good as it gets for 2K13 imo. I hope some of you feel the same way.



Also, I am NOT making any changes to this set quite yet. I'd like to play a few test games with my proposed changes and wrap my brain around that BEFORE I recommend the changes to all of y'all.

[moth to a flame]

Re: WaitTilNextYear's Sim Quality Sliders for 2k13

Great sliders, man. I am really enjoying them. I enjoy how they mesh with my rosters. Thanks for the work getting these just right.

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: WaitTilNextYear's Sim Quality Sliders for 2k13

Boys and girls, ladies and gents, I have completed the next phase of my slider research and the results are interspersed with the previous slider testing from a couple of posts ago in the quote below. This new stuff is all in BOLD. The 2 samples have no overlap--they come from completely different sets of games. These are all played games in franchise mode, with nothing simmed whatsoever.

The difference between the older sample and the newer sample is that I increased the USER batting contact slider from 20--> 25 and raised the USER gather error frequency from 50-->55. That's the only difference. It was largely successful, so I have updated the OP with these 2 changes. Please check your numbers.!!

The short summary of this research is that, in a 28 game sample, raising the USER batting contact from 20-->25 basically corrected USER hits, runs, doubles, and homers nicely to near 2013 MLB averages. However, it also decreased USER batting K's to a point that's a bit lower than I'd like (from 6.89/game to 5.36/game).

The USER gather error frequency fix was less successful in that it nearly doubled my error rate, so instead of being at 0.37 errors/game, I'm at about 0.71/errors per game. Ideally, somewhere around ~0.55 per game is what I'd like to see. The CPU is at 0.5 so that's good. I will look further into the nature of the errors to see if bobbles or throws are driving this and should be adjusted.

By "MLB" in the post below, I am referring to real-life MLB team average values on a per game basis as of about the 4th of July, 2013.

Runs Per Game

Me: 3.74
CPU: 4.47
MLB: 4.24

**New Sample (Me): 4.21
**New Sample (CPU): 4.71

My runs have come up to about MLB average, which is what I was looking for. The slider change had nothing to do with the CPU batting, so the jump from 4.47-->4.71 is just noise. Verdict: Good thing.

Hits Per Game

Me: 6.05
CPU: 9.74
MLB: 8.64

**New Sample (Me): 8.36
**New Sample (CPU): 10.4

My hits have improved dramatically, which is also what I was looking for. The slider change, again, had nothing to do with the CPU batting, so the jump from 9.74-->10.4 is just noise. We'll address CPU runs and hits down below. Verdict: Good thing.

Errors Per Game

Me: 0.368
CPU: 0.579
MLB: 0.568

**New Sample (Me): 0.714
**New Sample (CPU): 0.500

Well, raising the USER gather error slider by 5 to 55 has about doubled my USER error frequency. I was hoping the effect would be more subtle. If a 5-point change in the slider doubles the error freq, the only way to deal with this might be to play half the season on the lower setting, and half on the higher setting. I could also lower the gather error back down and up the USER throw meter difficulty and/or USER throw error freq. I will comb back over the type of errors made and see if I'm getting too many bobbles or too many overthrows.

I think I'll keep the slider on the newer setting (with error freq = 0.714) since it's closer to the average and I've already played most of the season having too few errors. Good news is CPU is holding steady in a very realistic .50-.56 error per game range. Verdict: Mixed :/

Walks Per Game

Me: 2.68
CPU: 1.63
MLB: 2.95

**New Sample (Me): 1.96
**New Sample (CPU): 1.25

Well, my walks have gone down with increased USER contact--maybe I am feeling more comfortable swinging and not taking enough pitches now? The CPU walks have now varied from 1.25 per game to 1.63 per game, and both are too low. I need to figure out a way to up their walks and decrease their hits. The obvious solution is to throw fewer strikes, so it may take me continuing to refine how I pitch to crack this nut. Verdict: Needs Work.

Strikeouts Per Game

Me: 6.89
CPU: 7.53
MLB: 7.49

**New Sample (Me): 5.36
**New Sample (CPU): 8.11

Well, I was afraid that might happen. By raising the USER contact to 25, I fixed the hits problem, but now I am K'ing 1.5 times fewer per game. Some MLB teams *do* strikeout less than 6 times per game, but that's the exception not the rule. I may have to give the CPU a bump of 5 on the pitch break. At least the CPU K-rate is holding in the 7.5-8.1 range, which is pretty good. Verdict: Mixed :/

Doubles Per Game

Me: 1.26
CPU: 1.63
MLB: 1.72

**New Sample (Me): 1.92
**New Sample (CPU): 1.75

Awesome. The doubles thing was fixed by fixing the hits thing. The CPU is holding rock steady around 1.6-1.7. My doubles went up to an above average, but reasonable 1.92 considering park effects etc.. Verdict: Good thing.


Homers Per Game

Me: 1.32
CPU: 1.11
MLB: 1.00

**New Sample (Me): 1.18
**New Sample (CPU): 0.892

Well, I did not adjust the power at all and did not change any USER pitching or CPU batting sliders, so I take this to be just noise that the CPU dropped from 1.11 to 0.89. In fact, if you take the average, you get about 1 which is perfectly average. For the USER, even though I increased the contact slider, my HRs dropped from 1.32 to a more reasonable 1.18 HRs per game. This is evidence that the power and contact sliders DO work independently, and I think it looks really good. Verdict: Good thing.

So, the USER hits, runs, doubles problem has been solved.

The new to-do list includes:

1. Find a way to nudge CPU walks up, but lower their hits. The CPU is getting about 1.5 too-many hits per game, and about 1.5 too-few walks. A fix for this might only come from pitching approach rather than sliders I'm sad to acknowledge. Any easy way to lower USER pitcher control will also cause a loss of command that the CPU should turn into more hits. I just need to throw more intentional balls is what I'm thinking.

2. Find a way to increase USER K's while batting by 1-2 per game, without affecting hit/run/homer totals. In an attempt to fix this, I will increase the CPU pitch break by 5 to see if the extra movement will make me swing and miss a bit more.

3. See if the "too many USER errors" issue is a bobble or throw issue, and adjust accordingly. After analyzing this, a change (or not) to the USER gather or throw error sliders will be forthcoming.

Thanks for sticking with me and this set. We won't stop until we get it perfect. So, let the research continue. As always, feel free to comment on your observations.

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: WaitTilNextYear's Sim Quality Sliders for 2k13

3. See if the "too many USER errors" issue is a bobble or throw issue, and adjust accordingly. After analyzing this, a change (or not) to the USER gather or throw error sliders will be forthcoming.

OK, this took a little searching--there really is VERY little search engine-accessible data on fielding vs. throwing error frequencies. But I stumbled across one site that said the MLB average over a 3-year period in the mid 2000s was about 60% fielding errors and 40% throwing errors:

http://www.sportsmogul.com/content/errors.html

The site ^^^

I also stumbled across a site that gives a graphical representation of errors per game throughout the history of baseball by year:

http://michaelbein.com/baseball.html

The other site ^^^

These together tell me the 60:40 fielding:throwing breakdown (mid 2000s) is ok to apply to 2013 error data of about 0.56 errors/per game.

In doing so, I figured out the issue is too many throwing errors.

Over last 28 game sample, throwing errors per game: 0.446
2013 MLB prediction, using 60:40 breakdown: 0.224

The throwing errors are basically 2x as high as they should be. Will decrease the USER throw error slider by 5 for the next sample of games.

Over last 28 game sample, fielding errors per game: 0.268
2013 MLB prediction, using 60:40 breakdown: 0.336

The fielding errors are a little low, but I'll keep the slider unchanged and see what the next sample looks like.

It appears there is a solution to item 3 on the to-do list.

[Hunkerdown]

Re: WaitTilNextYear's Sim Quality Sliders for 2k13

Very excellent sliders!!!

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: WaitTilNextYear's Sim Quality Sliders for 2k13

By the way, I had the injury slider at 30 and it was too high. Not really sure what these people are seeing who have it set to 60 or 70, but I'd almost suggest they're not playing enough games to draw reasonable conclusions. Over about a month of games, I had 5 significant long-term injuries (broken bones, torn UCLs, torn shoulders) which is way too high. I've since backed the injuries off to 25, but I need to play more games.

[movethechains11]

Re: WaitTilNextYear's Sim Quality Sliders for 2k13

Is there a way to set the camera settings without having to do it for every game?

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: WaitTilNextYear's Sim Quality Sliders for 2k13

Is there a way to set the camera settings without having to do it for every game?

Yeah, if you set the camera settings outside of playing in a game, it will stick. Actually, even if you change it in game, the settings should stick. I just set it once and never had to again. I can post more detailed instructions tomorrow when I'm at the console. Are you playing franchise? Play now? Create a player? Maybe the different modes operate differently. I always just play franchise mode.

[movethechains11]

Re: WaitTilNextYear's Sim Quality Sliders for 2k13

Yeah, if you set the camera settings outside of playing in a game, it will stick. Actually, even if you change it in game, the settings should stick. I just set it once and never had to again. I can post more detailed instructions tomorrow when I'm at the console. Are you playing franchise? Play now? Create a player? Maybe the different modes operate differently. I always just play franchise mode.

Thanks! I strictly play franchise mode and it normally sticks until I turn the console off then the next time I turn it back on it has went back to default. I can't seem to find it outside of in a game

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: WaitTilNextYear's Sim Quality Sliders for 2k13

Thanks! I strictly play franchise mode and it normally sticks until I turn the console off then the next time I turn it back on it has went back to default. I can't seem to find it outside of in a game

Hmm, well I think just saving your files before turning it off would work. I have auto save on, which I actually can't turn off for some reason, and it saves all my files (franchise, settings, and rosters) each time I exit a game or a mode. I'd suggest turning on autosave and that should fix it--just remember to make a back up copy so in case it saves after something you don't want, or the file is corrupted, you have a backup.

[movethechains11]

Re: WaitTilNextYear's Sim Quality Sliders for 2k13

Hmm, well I think just saving your files before turning it off would work. I have auto save on, which I actually can't turn off for some reason, and it saves all my files (franchise, settings, and rosters) each time I exit a game or a mode. I'd suggest turning on autosave and that should fix it--just remember to make a back up copy so in case it saves after something you don't want, or the file is corrupted, you have a backup.

Appreciate the help and sliders are awesome btw!