The Phoenix Slider Set v1.0 for MLB 10 + In-depth slider descriptions

[davewins]

This is very helpful. I didn't realize what you mentioned about the contact slider and it seems to be true. I thank you for the time and effort you put into this thread.

My only problem now is I can't seem to find a way to make hitting realistic for me. I am just getting too many hits no matter what. I think I am narrowing down the culprits. I feel as though the confidence is scripting the game for me. What I mean is I can get 8 hits in the first 2 innings and then 2 for the next 7. It just doesn't feel balanced. It's just hit after hit after hit because I rattled the pitcher. I wish there was a slider or even we had the option to completley turn off confidence altogether.

I also think the timing is just too easy. I have messed with all hitting sliders to make it more difficult and I still hit the ball too hard too often which results in too many hits. I think this is because I sit on fastballs out over the plate. I feast on fastballs and when I get them I don't miss. I wish the timing slider had more of an affect on things. If I am a fraction early/late I don't want to hit the ball as hard as I did when I was right on it. If they gave me the option to turn off pitcher confidence and just keep it natural so I am just going against the pitcher rating and have them throw less meatballs it would be great. Or just make hitting more difficult. Squaring up a baseball that's coming 90+ mph is the hardest thing to do in all sports. I feel like the sweet spot is too big and I don't think cursor hitting is a realistic approach to simulating this at all. It's just too difficult to try to analyze exactly where the ball is going to be and time it correctly all while having the cursor exactly on the baseball. I think the system they use is good I just wish that the timing window was harder. At least make sliders more adjustable because I do realize that I am in the minority with my problem.

Basically if you remember back to the MVP days when you do an analysis of your swing they show the colored balls representing quality of contact. White balls were misses, yellow represented foul balls, light green slightly early/late contact and dark green perfect contact. Let's just say that every 100th of a second made a difference in quality of contact. I would like them to make the timing window even tighter so every 10th of a second made a difference. I am not talking about swinging and missing. I am talking about quality of contact. This way we see more type of hits and less squared up balls. I swear no matter what I do I hit too many hard hit balls. I tried every hitting slider and I even put the cpu pitch control and consistency to 10 so they throw less meatballs. It doesn't matter because once they are rattled they throw too many meatballs. I think if they increased the timing window immensely and even further tweaked the confidence or possibly add an option to actually completley disable it then I would be in baseball heaven. Unfortunatley this is holding me back from truly enjoying this great game.

If they lowered the pitch speed a little bit and then made it so you had to be more precise with the left stick with the much needed addition of a MUCH larger timing window affecting batted balls I think we would have an excellent hitting system. I have hit HR's on Legend difficulty with power, contact, solid hits, timing all zeroed out when I didn't even have the left stick on the ball. Just because I timed it "just early" and it was a hanger. I would like to be punished for missing this pitch by fouling it straight back. This would be like you see on tv when a pitcher gets a hanger and fouls it back. He doesn't miss it completley but he fouls it back. This happens. Player's don't ALWAYS execute LOL.

I know this is a slider thread and I am getting off topic but I figure this is the best place to discuss this. Especially seeing that the OP is a hardcore player as well and he may have/had the same problem as me.

[topside]

Ho are you guys so amazing at hitting? I'm struggling in that department. I have no problems with my pitching at all. Hitting on the other hand I struggle to make contact and I'm always way off on my timing. I think it had something to do with my camera angle seeing how I was using Pitcher. I have since moved back to CATCHER and I'm starting to hit a little better but not like you guys. Zeroed out sliders and still killing it on legend? Have you tried 10 on pitch speed?

[baseball66]

Whoa, you are some kind of hitter, lol.

If you have zero'd out hitting sliders and are still killing the ball the only thing you have left is playing with cpu pitching sliders.

Have you tried editing your players hitting attributes down to see if that has any effect on your hitting?

Dave, maybe you should give 2k10 a go, i've read of guys who are having a heck of a time hitting in that game.

[Phoenixmgs]

Quote: Originally Posted by davewins

This is very helpful. I didn't realize what you mentioned about the contact slider and it seems to be true. I thank you for the time and effort you put into this thread. My only problem now is I can't seem to find a way to make hitting realistic for me. I am just getting too many hits no matter what. I think I am narrowing down the culprits. I feel as though the confidence is scripting the game for me. What I mean is I can get 8 hits in the first 2 innings and then 2 for the next 7. It just doesn't feel balanced. It's just hit after hit after hit because I rattled the pitcher. I wish there was a slider or even we had the option to completley turn off confidence altogether. I also think the timing is just too easy. I have messed with all hitting sliders to make it more difficult and I still hit the ball too hard too often which results in too many hits. I think this is because I sit on fastballs out over the plate. I feast on fastballs and when I get them I don't miss. I wish the timing slider had more of an affect on things. If I am a fraction early/late I don't want to hit the ball as hard as I did when I was right on it. If they gave me the option to turn off pitcher confidence and just keep it natural so I am just going against the pitcher rating and have them throw less meatballs it would be great. Or just make hitting more difficult. Squaring up a baseball that's coming 90+ mph is the hardest thing to do in all sports. I feel like the sweet spot is too big and I don't think cursor hitting is a realistic approach to simulating this at all. It's just too difficult to try to analyze exactly where the ball is going to be and time it correctly all while having the cursor exactly on the baseball. I think the system they use is good I just wish that the timing window was harder. At least make sliders more adjustable because I do realize that I am in the minority with my problem. Basically if you remember back to the MVP days when you do an analysis of your swing they show the colored balls representing quality of contact. White balls were misses, yellow represented foul balls, light green slightly early/late contact and dark green perfect contact. Let's just say that every 100th of a second made a difference in quality of contact. I would like them to make the timing window even tighter so every 10th of a second made a difference. I am not talking about swinging and missing. I am talking about quality of contact. This way we see more type of hits and less squared up balls. I swear no matter what I do I hit too many hard hit balls. I tried every hitting slider and I even put the cpu pitch control and consistency to 10 so they throw less meatballs. It doesn't matter because once they are rattled they throw too many meatballs. I think if they increased the timing window immensely and even further tweaked the confidence or possibly add an option to actually completley disable it then I would be in baseball heaven. Unfortunatley this is holding me back from truly enjoying this great game. If they lowered the pitch speed a little bit and then made it so you had to be more precise with the left stick with the much needed addition of a MUCH larger timing window affecting batted balls I think we would have an excellent hitting system. I have hit HR's on Legend difficulty with power, contact, solid hits, timing all zeroed out when I didn't even have the left stick on the ball. Just because I timed it "just early" and it was a hanger. I would like to be punished for missing this pitch by fouling it straight back. This would be like you see on tv when a pitcher gets a hanger and fouls it back. He doesn't miss it completley but he fouls it back. This happens. Player's don't ALWAYS execute LOL. I know this is a slider thread and I am getting off topic but I figure this is the best place to discuss this. Especially seeing that the OP is a hardcore player as well and he may have/had the same problem as me.

I agree even Legend hitting is too easy. The game has come along way since 08 in hitting though. I remember in 08, I pretty much gave up on playing that game vs the CPU, all I did was play RTTS and online.

I think the game is too generous on timing and stick placement. Several times a game I'll foul back a 2 strike pitch when I totally missed the ball with PCI in the swing analysis. With timing, I just don't think the game has enough windows so to speak, pretty much what you said. However, I don't agree with the example of that you should not be able to hit the ball hard on a hanger even if you are a bit early. If you only could hit the ball real hard with great timing, then hard hits would pretty much only go to those certain alleys in the outfield. You should be able to rope a changeup down the line if you are a little early on it. Isn't that how those doubles down the line happen in real life, the batter swings a little earlier or later than he would have ideally desired. I do agree that the game should implement a better foul system as well. Several times in a game a player is basically right on a pitch but he just misses it and fouls it straight back.

I completely agree with the confidence system. Hell, when you are pitching and you have very little confidence (a third or less), the CPU hits the ball really well even if you located it perfectly. Pitchers are just too easy to hit with low confidence. That's the reason why I turned off pitch confidence; if you have low overall confidence and low pitch confidence in say your fastball, you pretty much CANNOT throw that pitch. Also, batter confidence is overblown as well. If a guy hits a HR in a game, he's pretty much money the whole game. If the number 8 hitter is 2-3 with a HR and Albert Pujols is 0-3, Pujols is the easier out. And, batter confidence carries over from game-to-game as well, it allows hitters to become too hot and too cold in my opinion.

The power swing is also an issue. Even on Legend, it is too rewarding, and there is just not enough risk. I sit on fastballs mainly, and I pretty much sit on a certain location until I get 2 strikes. And, I use the power swing with anyone that can put up about 15 or more HRs a year, and that's a lot of players.

I think the power attribute for hitters plays far too much into their batting average. Players with mid to low contact with high power ratings can consistency hit the ball hard in my opinion.

Pretty much your only option is to play with power at 0. I played a game with it at 1, and it seemed to really cause balls to be hit a decent amount more softly compared to at 2. It probably won't reduce hit totals much though, but I think it'll reduce extra base hits, but then you'll probably have a singles party on your hands. Or you'll have to lower your batters' attributes.

One last thing, I did not like MVP's hitting system because it was based on player attributes way too much. All you had to do was properly locate the pitch inside or outside because the up and down on the left stick influenced the hit in the air or on the ground (basically what the right stick does in The Show). With power hitters in MVP, all I did was press up and in before the pitch and wait for a pitch on the inner portion of the plate. With that hitting system to get realistic results, the system had to use the batter's attributes in the far majority to determine the result of the hit.

[Phoenixmgs]

Quote: Originally Posted by topside

I also had a very hard time striking out the CPU.

Here's the strikeout reels from the 1st two games of my real season, which I just started after I finalized my sliders. The second video features one of those coveted CPU strikeouts where the pitch is in the dirt. Zambrano only lasted 4.1 innings in the start. I basically only had strikeout pitchers pitch 5.1 innings (Angel Guzman is a good strikeout pitcher) in the first 2 games and I was able to rack up 13 strikeouts, I'd say pretty decent considering the pitchers. I play 29 game seasons, which is why each video is VS a different team.


The pitchers in order are: Carlos Zambrano, Sean Marshall, and Tom Gorzelanny.



The pitchers in order are: Ted Lilly, Angel Guzman, and Carlos Silva.

[davewins]

Quote: Originally Posted by baseball66

Whoa, you are some kind of hitter, lol. If you have zero'd out hitting sliders and are still killing the ball the only thing you have left is playing with cpu pitching sliders. Have you tried editing your players hitting attributes down to see if that has any effect on your hitting? Dave, maybe you should give 2k10 a go, i've read of guys who are having a heck of a time hitting in that game.

Yeah I messed with the cpu pitching sliders as well. I put control and consistency to 10 while putting strike frequency to 1 so I get less meatballs. It doesn't matter because when the confidence goes down it's still too many meatballs. A well placed fastball is the toughest pitch to hit in baseball. I just wish there were more well placed fastballs thrown at me. It's just too easy to time the fastball and like phoenix said they are too generous on stick location.

Someone else mentioned raising pitch speed to 10. I did this and it was definetley VERY challenging. However I am afraid that I will just be a slap hitter even with my power guys. I want to be able to pull the ball for power with my big guns. Also it's extremely difficult to draw walks with pitch speed at 10.

I won't give up messing with sliders just yet because this game is too good to just give up on. I will try dumbing down some of my hitters attributes if I have to and I will maybe try to find the right pitch speed that will give me a challenge. Ultimately though I don't think this will be right. I want the pitch speed to be the same or maybe even a LITTLE slower and then base mostly everything on timing and more precise swing placement.

I think the system is too forgiving when it comes to good timing. It over rides the stick placement. Just because I timed an inside corner fastball perfect doesn't mean I should hit it hard every time. The sweet spot on the bat is only 3-4 inches. When I put the PCI a little to the right or left I shouldn't be rewarded with a hard hit ball just because I timed it perfect. This is when I should either foul the ball off or pop one up/ground out etc.

[davewins]

Well I think I competely worded it wrong about being a little early/late. I shouldn't be punished by getting an out. I should definetley hit the ball hard. It just shouldn't be exactly the same. Every 10th of a second should make a difference in hit quality instead of say every 100th of a second. I would like to see more variety in hits and this is how it would be done. Of course they would need a better physics engine for this.

Basically I want a tighter timing window so if you are a fraction early it's going to make a difference. But I would absolutely not want to see the same ball hit in the same gap because that's the only time you can hit it hard.

They 100% improved the hitting engine in 09. In 08 and prior years you could hit opposite field just as hard as when you pull the ball which was unrealistic. I voiced my opinion on this and they surely changed this and it made hitting very realistic.

The only thing I don't understand is why they can't somehow make sliders have more of an affect on things. Make it so we have a 20 or even 30 point slider system. So we can go up or down 10 or 15 clicks instead of just 5. Everybody's skill set is different and a lot of people's approaches are different. And of course everybodys fun factor equation if you will is different. What they see as realistic.

Also I think Brian does an excellent job with the pitcher batter duel. I truly do. I can't imagine how tough it was to get that down in programming. It's very smart. However it's just too easy to time fastballs in this game and since the CPU throws majority fastballs it's only a matter of time until I get a good one to hit and I hit it. I wish they would set up something where we have a user profile and we play "x" amount of games. The tendencies are then made for us (the user). The CPU then pitches to us and not the player that's up at bat. Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe the pitcher pitches to the PLAYERS tendencies. This is all well and good in CPU vs CPU games but when we are controlling the players the CPU should be pitching to OUR tendencies. For example, I suck at curveballs. Even ones down the middle I am not that good on. I am not good at hitting sliders. Throw me more sliders!!! LOL. Even if I know it's coming I struggle with it. I think this would help as well.

[davewins]

Quote: Originally Posted by Phoenixmgs

That's the reason why I turned off pitch confidence.

I was under the impression that when you turn off confidence you are only turning off the visual aid that shows what pitches the pitcher has good/bad confidence in. Thats what it says in the description. However this game has been known to have broken options so maybe it does turn it completley off. If it does I think that could possibly help me.