Stats-Based CPU Sliders [MLB 18 Version]

[sonsart2]

I've been an MoM player for years and have used Nomo's CPU sliders for years. I give him all the credit in the world for the level of dedication he brought to making the most realistic game possible.

This year I'm trying to emulate his methodology as best as possible to come up with my own set.

Below is a link to the work I've done so far.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...it?usp=sharing

Current Sliders (updated 4/1):
Contact: 5
Power: 5
Timing: 6
Foul Frequency: 5
Solid Hit: 5
Starter Stamina: 5
Pitcher Control: 5
Pitcher Consistency: 5
Strike Frequency: 5
Manager Hook: 5
Pick Offs: 5
Fastball Pitch Spd: 5
Offspeed Pitch Spd: 5
Fielding Error IF: 7
Fielding Error OF: 5
Throwing Error IF: 6
Throwing Error OF: 5
Fielder Run Speed: 5
Fielder Reaction: 5
Fielder Arm Str IF: 5
Fielder Arm Str OF: 5
BR Speed: 5
BR Steal Ability: 5
BR Steal Frequency: 7
Wind: 5
Injury Frequency: 5
Trade Frequency: 5

[bbbcowboy]

Thank you for doing this. I to have used Nomo's sliders for years and I look forward to see what you come up with.

[sonsart2]

I've been impressed so far with how little really needs to be adjusted. It looks like I need to tweak power a little, raise infield errors and tweak base stealing frequency, but that's about it. This is as close as I've seen it being realistic over the long haul out of the box in a long time.

[NolanRyansSnowmonkey]

Quote: Originally Posted by sonsart2

I've been impressed so far with how little really needs to be adjusted. It looks like I need to tweak power a little, raise infield errors and tweak base stealing frequency, but that's about it. This is as close as I've seen it being realistic over the long haul out of the box in a long time.

Hi, glad to see this thread again! I assume Nomo commissioned you? I hope lol.

My problem when I try to 'tweak' one slider such as power (or some other sliders) is that it always seems to affect everything else. So when I only need to raise power for example, all the sudden batting averages increase since more balls get through. So then I adjust another slider one notch to compensate, which now causes batting average to be too low, then I must bump something else up a notch...and so on, and now it's a chasing game.

(Maybe you can give us some tips regarding this lol. It takes a while to find enough balance between "feel" and sample size to change a slider without having to play half a season first)

Most of that experience for me was last year however, when one notch of some sliders seemed to have large effects. It seems less drastic per notch this year so far.

I'm like you though in that I'm amazed at how good everything looks on default. Pretty encouraging. Can't wait to see your next version of these!

[NolanRyansSnowmonkey]

Also how do you guys normally use this set? I know ideally you would manage your team's game, and then have every other game on the schedule play out on the screen with the same sliders for consistency.

But since it would take most of the day to have every game play out, that's clearly not an option for most people. So do you guys sim the rest with the exact same sliders? Or do you have another set that you sim with?

What I did last time is played my games and simmed the rest. But in the playoffs I used Nomo's sliders to watch every game. That was a ton of fun.

[sonsart2]

Quote: Originally Posted by NolanRyansSnowmonkey

Also how do you guys normally use this set? I know ideally you would manage your team's game, and then have every other game on the schedule play out on the screen with the same sliders for consistency. But since it would take most of the day to have every game play out, that's clearly not an option for most people. So do you guys sim the rest with the exact same sliders? Or do you have another set that you sim with? What I did last time is played my games and simmed the rest. But in the playoffs I used Nomo's sliders to watch every game. That was a ton of fun.

I try to do the same thing with the added twist that I try to manage my minor league games as well (usually with the base OSFM rosters, once they're available).

[sonsart2]

Quote: Originally Posted by NolanRyansSnowmonkey

Hi, glad to see this thread again! I assume Nomo commissioned you? I hope lol. My problem when I try to 'tweak' one slider such as power (or some other sliders) is that it always seems to affect everything else. So when I only need to raise power for example, all the sudden batting averages increase since more balls get through. So then I adjust another slider one notch to compensate, which now causes batting average to be too low, then I must bump something else up a notch...and so on, and now it's a chasing game. (Maybe you can give us some tips regarding this lol. It takes a while to find enough balance between "feel" and sample size to change a slider without having to play half a season first) Most of that experience for me was last year however, when one notch of some sliders seemed to have large effects. It seems less drastic per notch this year so far. I'm like you though in that I'm amazed at how good everything looks on default. Pretty encouraging. Can't wait to see your next version of these!

I'm making my first tweak after 2 more games...it's going to be very small. We'll see what happens. You're right, there are always unintended consequences, but if you continue to iterate, hopefully you can smooth things out. The advantage this there is that there isn't anything drastically broken that I'm trying to fix.

[sonsart2]

I've made my first set of updates to the sliders. There isn't a lot that's really out of whack.

I've added 1 to power because home runs were considerably lighter than I would have expected at less than 1 per game vs. about 1.25 last year. I suspect an ancillary benefit will be that batting average may tweak up just slight from this move.

I've added 1 to both infield error sliders as they were about 30% less than last year. I don't think by any means that's where they'll end up. I think it will be considerably higher before I'm satisfied.

Finally, I've added to steal frequency. I'm looking to get a few more steal attempts in the game. It too was about 30% less than IRL last year. I suspect it will likely impact success rate.