2026 Dynamic Difficulty Wishlist

[NightOwl]

This year’s dynamic difficulty feels significantly different than years prior. My difficulties for both pitching and hitting fluctuate much lower than they ever have. Years prior, pitching would be HoF+ - Legend+ and hitting would fluctuate between All Star+ - Legend. This year with my hitting it’s been Veteran+ - All Star+ and my pitching has been All Star - HoF. And that’s completely fine. HOWEVER, I’d love to see SDS add a floor and ceiling option to dynamic difficulty next year (even this year if possible).
I don’t like to adjust sliders because I want the full xp and don’t want to set to one difficulty because I love the fluctuations with dynamic allowing much better hot/cold runs.
What have you other dynamic difficulty guys been doing this year? Upping the dynamic difficulty slider to 10 maybe?

[Ghost Of The Year]

Re: 2026 Dynamic Difficulty Wishlist

I always play with the Dynamic Slider set to ten , until the all star break. After that, I lower the slider to one, and let the chips fall where they may.

[Ghost Of The Year]

Re: 2026 Dynamic Difficulty Wishlist

Also, I wish SDS would troll a few folks who shall remain nameless and rebrand Dynamic Difficulty "Comeback Code Mode".

[NightOwl]

Re: 2026 Dynamic Difficulty Wishlist

I always play with the Dynamic Slider set to ten , until the all star break. After that, I lower the slider to one, and let the chips fall where they may.

I’m going to give 10 a shot. Seems as good an opportunity to see what’s wrong as any. Feel like years past, 12+ hits in a game for sure meant a bump, and right now at default, there’s sometimes very little movement at all.

[bcruise]

Re: 2026 Dynamic Difficulty Wishlist

I don't feel like it's any different, personally....it's still clearly based on On Base Plus Slugging because the more hits (and especially extra base hits) you get without recording outs, the faster the bar will go up and you'll progress levels. For pitching, you have to record outs without giving up hits - and you get dinged more on the progress bar for giving up doubles, triples and homers. That's it - other than the slider there aren't any other factors that make it increase or decrease at different paces (although there is a rule about delaying the actual level advance/decrease in a close game until the end of an inning - this is mentioned in the in-game strategy guide)

Neither of those appears to have changed, at least to me. If you aren't seeing as much movement in the progression either way (which seems like the complaint here - I'm not 100% sure though), is it possible you're not getting or giving up as many extra base hits as you did in previous years?

[Jeffrey Smith]

Re: 2026 Dynamic Difficulty Wishlist

I don't feel like it's any different, personally....it's still clearly based on On Base Plus Slugging because the more hits (and especially extra base hits) you get without recording outs, the faster the bar will go up and you'll progress levels. For pitching, you have to record outs without giving up hits - and you get dinged more on the progress bar for giving up doubles, triples and homers. That's it - other than the slider there aren't any other factors that make it increase or decrease at different paces (although there is a rule about delaying the actual level advance/decrease in a close game until the end of an inning - this is mentioned in the in-game strategy guide)

Neither of those appears to have changed, at least to me. If you aren't seeing as much movement in the progression either way (which seems like the complaint here - I'm not 100% sure though), is it possible you're not getting or giving up as many extra base hits as you did in previous years?

This explains a lot to me. I don’t think I’ve ever struck out as much as I have this year. Pitchers throwing over 100mpr and higher pitch speeds in game have been this old guys kryptonite.

No wonder I can’t increase my DD level.

[NYJin2011tm]

Re: 2026 Dynamic Difficulty Wishlist

I don't feel like it's any different, personally....it's still clearly based on On Base Plus Slugging because the more hits (and especially extra base hits) you get without recording outs, the faster the bar will go up and you'll progress levels. For pitching, you have to record outs without giving up hits - and you get dinged more on the progress bar for giving up doubles, triples and homers. That's it - other than the slider there aren't any other factors that make it increase or decrease at different paces (although there is a rule about delaying the actual level advance/decrease in a close game until the end of an inning - this is mentioned in the in-game strategy guide)

Neither of those appears to have changed, at least to me. If you aren't seeing as much movement in the progression either way (which seems like the complaint here - I'm not 100% sure though), is it possible you're not getting or giving up as many extra base hits as you did in previous years?

I went up to All Star from starting at Veteran in two games in hitting. Pitching I think took three to four games. After ten games my hitting has regressed back to Veteran+. Pitching is up tp HOF. It seems the same to me too.

[NYJin2011tm]

Re: 2026 Dynamic Difficulty Wishlist

This explains a lot to me. I don’t think I’ve ever struck out as much as I have this year. Pitchers throwing over 100mpr and higher pitch speeds in game have been this old guys kryptonite.

No wonder I can’t increase my DD level.

Me too!... and I love it! I had a game where I struck out 15 times on timing. I don't think I've ever done it in my Show history and I started in 07.

[NightOwl]

Re: 2026 Dynamic Difficulty Wishlist

I don't feel like it's any different, personally....it's still clearly based on On Base Plus Slugging because the more hits (and especially extra base hits) you get without recording outs, the faster the bar will go up and you'll progress levels. For pitching, you have to record outs without giving up hits - and you get dinged more on the progress bar for giving up doubles, triples and homers. That's it - other than the slider there aren't any other factors that make it increase or decrease at different paces (although there is a rule about delaying the actual level advance/decrease in a close game until the end of an inning - this is mentioned in the in-game strategy guide)

Neither of those appears to have changed, at least to me. If you aren't seeing as much movement in the progression either way (which seems like the complaint here - I'm not 100% sure though), is it possible you're not getting or giving up as many extra base hits as you did in previous years?

That is interesting about the change waiting til end of inning. Where can the in-game manual be found?

[bcruise]

Re: 2026 Dynamic Difficulty Wishlist

That is interesting about the change waiting til end of inning. Where can the in-game manual be found?

While in a game, pause and go to settings > controls/guide > strategy guide. There are 5 sections of it and the nugget about how Dynamic works is in the "other" section, on pages 4 and 5. It's all worth a read, because there are things in the guide that explain how some of the "under the hood" mechanics work, and the data behind it.

[markprior22]

Re: 2026 Dynamic Difficulty Wishlist

I don't typically use DD because it defaults to beginner and (as far as I know) you have to just play games until the difficulty moves up to where you want it. Is there a way to make DD start at a particular level rather than the easiest?

[BlueSkies77]

Re: 2026 Dynamic Difficulty Wishlist

It has always bugged me how Doubles and especially home runs drop the bar significantly. I wish we could make it so no matter what it raises or drops the same distance no matter the result. I get that a home run is worse than a single but a single home run is not the end of the world. It should be based on multiple hits and home runs stringed together, not one single home run making it drop half the bar.

[NightOwl]

Re: 2026 Dynamic Difficulty Wishlist

I don't typically use DD because it defaults to beginner and (as far as I know) you have to just play games until the difficulty moves up to where you want it. Is there a way to make DD start at a particular level rather than the easiest?

It lets you choose your starting difficulty when you select it in the beginning. Might have to delete profile and load the game back up though.

[NightOwl]

Re: 2026 Dynamic Difficulty Wishlist

It has always bugged me how Doubles and especially home runs drop the bar significantly. I wish we could make it so no matter what it raises or drops the same distance no matter the result. I get that a home run is worse than a single but a single home run is not the end of the world. It should be based on multiple hits and home runs stringed together, not one single home run making it drop half the bar.

That’s a good point too. It cares less about rally singles than it does a singular homerun.

[markprior22]

Re: 2026 Dynamic Difficulty Wishlist

It lets you choose your starting difficulty when you select it in the beginning. Might have to delete profile and load the game back up though.

Thanks for the info. I'll try the profile reinstall.