Strike Frequency and Foul Frequency

[KBLover]

What exactly do these two things do?

Strike Frequency - text in game make it sound like it 'makes' pitches be strikes. Is that the case or is it just how often the AI will aim for the zone and then control, BB/9, and the control/consistency sliders take over?

Foul Frequency - same thing, text says this 'makes' balls be foul when the physics/timing would say they would stay fair. Is that true? If not, what does it do?

From the sound of the text, it seems I want these things to be 0. I don't want anything forced/made to be one way or another.

[forme95]

Strike Frequency more or less is how often the cpu pitcher throws for a strike in early counts.

Foul frequency from what I have seen and experienced, is the higher the value, the more pop foul, foul in the stands, foul balls you/cpu will hit. I noticed at default, I would see a lot of pop fouls. At 3, I was seeing more fouls out of play, with a few pop fouls.

[bcruise]

I don't have strong opinions one way or another on strike frequency - difficulty level seems to play a large part as well because on HOF I see a lot more early-count balls out of the zone than All-Star. I will say that Nomo's CPUvsCPU testing led him to setting that on 6, but I find leaving it in the middle works fine for me.

Foul frequency is different. My view is that I take that slider down as far as I can while I'm still able to foul off a realistic number of pitches. I try to stay around the 18% that's mentioned in the strategy guide, and even at foul frequency on 0 I can have games that reach or exceed that.

The benefits on gameplay of being able to lower that slider are numerous - more hits down the lines, potentially more strikeouts due to misses on what the slider description calls "borderline swings", and generally just a more organic-feeling game. It can make the early counts seem as exciting as the late ones because you aren't just handed those foul balls. Playing with this slider lowered requires patience though - swing at a corner strike and you're much more likely to put it in play, but not hit it very hard. If you get too carried away with free-swinging you'll be seeing 60-70 pitch complete games from the CPU.

[KBLover]

Yeah, I have Foul Frequency at 0 and like it for the most part. I share your findings on it, bcruise. I've gotten swing happy, jacked up the CPU's confidence from all the crap hits and easy outs, and then it's lights out.

That patience you mention kinda leads me to the quandry I have with Strike Frequency. Sometimes it just seems like I'm handing the CPU 0-2, 1-2 counts all day because I'm trying to be patient while 40 BB/9 pitchers paint like Maddux.

The strike frequency one still has me scratching my head. If I have it at 10 and Control/Consistency at 0 - the AI will pound the zone early (despite the other sliders and whatever ratings might say), and then become completely wild?

I'm not sure why this slider even needs to exist...shouldn't early strikes be determined like every other strike, based on location and accuracy??

[Bobhead]

Strike Frequency determines how often the CPU tries to throw a strike (and how blatant his efforts are). It does not have any relationship at all with physics, umpires, or the pitchers individual abilities.

With the slider at 10, the pitchers sole purpose in life will be to throw strikes. A strike-obsessed pitcher will in turn aim right down the middle when necessary, in order to absolutely guarantee to himself that every pitch he throws crosses the plate. It does not actually guarantee anything - the pitcher's ratings are still in play, and there is every chance that a pitch aimed down the middle instead goes elsewhere (but of course, that is not a likely event).

If I defined pitching as a balance between throwing strikes and avoiding hits, I could then define strategy as deciding where to place the fulcrum. The Strike Frequency slider moves that same fulcrum in either direction, making the CPU priority strike throwing more than avoiding hits at 10, and making the pitcher focus solely on avoiding hits (regardless of pitch count) at 0.



As for Foul Frequency... think of hitting as an algebra formula. Foul Frequency adjusts variables under the hood, like the size of your timing window, and exactly how much plate you cover, to increase or decrease the overall frequency of foul balls.

There's no "forcing" with either of these sliders (or any slider at all). Almost everything in baseball comes down to physics. The game is built on a comprehensive physics based engine, and of course, all physics is driven by math. (Even though that engine may not be 100% perfect... some of the variables are off but the equation still balances out) Thus, the sliders can only operate by changing the underlying variables and coefficients in the formulae that drive the engine.

Put another way, think of an acceleration slider in a comparable racing game... It would not make your car magically defy its peak velocity. Instead, it would make the car's body lighter so that it could naturally reach a higher speed. That removed weight would of course come at the expense of handling, a loss of inertia, and everything else one would expect to correlate with a lighter vehicle.

Every slider in The Show operates with this premise. They don't make 2*2 = 10... they simply add or take away numbers within the formula so that you get a different product.

Getting back to Foul Frequency... If the default size of the timing window is X, than putting the slider to 10 shrinks the window to X-Y. Reducing the slider to 0 enlarges the window to X+Y... It does the same thing with plate coverage (X inches of range on default), and so on.

Which variables to change is to the developers' discretion. It's possible they tied Foul Frequency to additional variables, and I don't pretend to know every single variable for every single slider... but as far as the FF slider, the only affected variables I have observed, are the ones for plate coverage and timing window.

Sorry for getting all nomo in this thread.

[ruxpinke]

Great thread with great insights. Thanks to all.

[KBLover]

Wow, Bobhead - awesome explanation.

Feel free to get all nomo because:

a) Hideo Nomo is one of my favorite pitchers ever.

b) I almost always learn something from his posts, even if it wasn't something I was looking to find out.


I'm pleased to know that strike frequency works the way you describe. From the sound of it - does seem like I will feel better with it lower than higher. I would think a real pitcher would try to minimize hard hits against him even if it cost a few more walks. Plus it would give BB/9 and Control and Command/Confidence more room to shine (does hit paint all night or does his location waver?)

Foul Frequency - that explanation was eye-opening. You basically described it the exact opposite of what I was thinking it was doing!

Definitely going to have to play with going extreme in the other direction just to see the difference it makes and see how much I like it.

Thanks again for being so through. This is the kind of stuff I love learning about/tinkering with in sports games. It's the closest we can get to modding the AI and such!

[ruxpinke]

Im playing on All Star with Strike Frequency at 2 and enjoying it.