RTTS Difficulty Setting Confusion

[NewNapkin]

Hello everyone!

So there is one thing that either no one cares about or knows about in RTTS that really just confuses me. Apparently, in MLB '13, difficulty setting was altered to one setting lower in AA, the selected setting in AAA, and one setting higher in the big leagues. This was confirmed by nomo17k after bcruise did some testing:

Quote:

In short, it looks like the difficulty level you specify in your own setting is applied at the AAA level, and at the AA and MLB levels, you will be playing at one level lower or higher than what you specify. (The change is made internally, so you cannot see it reflected in the setting you see.) For example, if your setting is HoF, you'll be playing at All-star at AA and Legend at MLB level. If your setting is All-star, you'll be playing on Veteran at AA, HoF at MLB, so on and so forth. (If the level go above or below what is allowed in the game, the difficulty level stays within the range.... e.g., if your setting is already Legend, you'll be playing HoF down in AA but are still Legend in MLB.)

This was back in MLB '13, and there has been no one to confirm that this is still true.

Has anyone done further testing in '14, or can any dev give some information? I feel like I should be able to use my sliders from franchise and let the talent on the minor league rosters show the difference in gameplay.

[aukevin]

I'm pretty sure the difficulty increases in the postseason as well.

[bcruise]

Quote: Originally Posted by KGHerm

Hello everyone! So there is one thing that either no one cares about or knows about in RTTS that really just confuses me. Apparently, in MLB '13, difficulty setting was altered to one setting lower in AA, the selected setting in AAA, and one setting higher in the big leagues. This was confirmed by nomo17k after bcruise did some testing: This was back in MLB '13, and there has been no one to confirm that this is still true. Has anyone done further testing in '14, or can any dev give some information? I feel like I should be able to use my sliders from franchise and let the talent on the minor league rosters show the difference in gameplay.

Nice to know someone's still interested in this...lol.

I don't believe it's ever been officially confirmed by a dev, but this actually became even easier to prove in '14 with Player Lock.

If you still own the game, try this: Go into an exhibition game on any hitting difficulty level other than Dynamic or Legend. Choose Zone hitting and make sure the Plate Coverage Indicator is on ( i use reticle as it's the one I'm most used to judging its size). When your first hitter steps up to the plate, screenshot with the share button. Then, with the same hitter still up pause and go into the subs screen to turn player lock on for that player (highlight player, press R2 and accept the confirmation. Unpause and screenshot.

If you didn't notice immediately you should after comparing the screenshots - the PCI should have shrunk for the Player Lock shot.

Here's an example on All-Star difficulty (I realize there's not a lot of context in these pics, but this is REALLY easy for anyone to take 5 minutes and see on their own game):

Normal Exhibition



Player Lock



So why does that happen? I believe it's the same effect used in RTTS, seeing as Player Lock and RTTS both function basically the same while in-game. And the effect is that of the difficulty getting bumped up a level for a player playing in an MLB game. I even tried AA and AAA exhibition games in player lock, and the pattern holds true - larger PCI for AA and "normal" PCI for AAA.

Notice I said not to try this little test on Dynamic - that's because switching between player lock and normal has no effect. And if you apply the same logic to RTTS, it means that with Dynamic difficulty you can have an RTTS that is completely unaffected by this internal difficulty shift. That was great last year, but it's even better for '15 ASSUMING everything will still work the same - we have the ability to "lock in" a Dynamic Difficulty setting now with a slider. That means that once you find a setting that's good for you, you no longer have to worry about difficulty moving up or down AT ALL, and you can be confident that your results are purely based on skill!

I have no idea about playoffs...the reason I'm able to be so sure about the RTTS/Player Lock thing is that it's a closed environment - same pitcher, same hitter, same game conditions. Back when I tested this in '13 I took great pains to be able to create the same situation inside and out of RTTS - meaning I edited a pitcher's and hitter's ratings to be identical to that of which I had in an RTTS game. Seeing the same thing happen in Player Lock mode, where there is no doubt that the game situation is the same, corroborates that test IMO.

[ktachanok]

yes,you can be confident that your results are purely based on skill

[nomo17k]

Quote: Originally Posted by KGHerm

Hello everyone! So there is one thing that either no one cares about or knows about in RTTS that really just confuses me. Apparently, in MLB '13, difficulty setting was altered to one setting lower in AA, the selected setting in AAA, and one setting higher in the big leagues. This was confirmed by nomo17k after bcruise did some testing: This was back in MLB '13, and there has been no one to confirm that this is still true. Has anyone done further testing in '14, or can any dev give some information? I feel like I should be able to use my sliders from franchise and let the talent on the minor league rosters show the difference in gameplay.

I think this was not just in MLB 13 but has always been the case (at least since MLB 10... when I started playing).... just that it was first explained in detail in the Strategy Guide since that iteration and became obvious.

I've heard this was done to make us feel more pronounced the difference between all the levels. Without changing the difficulty I think some felt that the differences among AA, AAA, and MLB weren't felt strongly.

After learning this, I adjust my difficulty level through different levels, because I love struggling down in minor to prolong my journey to The Show.... besides minor league stadiums are fun.


bruise's test above is interesting, but I actually am not sure the difficulty level change is intended for the player-lock mode? It does make sense things are similar between RTTS and player-lock, but is that part intentional or a bug? Not sure.

No wonder I sucked doing player-lock Josh Donaldson season thinking I was actually plaing HoF!! I unusually sucked and didn't understand why so I might have been playing on Legend unknowingly.

Anyways, very nice find again.

[NewNapkin]

Great stuff bcruise!

Sad to see that this has been around for a while and still is around, for me at least. I don't like changing the difficulty to counter this, because it doesn't feel right and I feel bad for knocking down the difficulty when I make it to the majors.

When I'm like the worst player at that position in my organization, I want to struggle, and have my poor ratings make that happen while using realistic sliders.

[Dolenz]

Could it be possible that the size of the reticule is affected by the skill of the pitcher you are facing? Which would also mean that facing Kershaw gives you less room for error than facing a #5 pitcher?

That to me would make more sense than sneakily adjusting the difficulty as the player progresses.

[nomo17k]

Quote: Originally Posted by Dolenz

Could it be possible that the size of the reticule is affected by the skill of the pitcher you are facing? Which would also mean that facing Kershaw gives you less room for error than facing a #5 pitcher? That to me would make more sense than sneakily adjusting the difficulty as the player progresses.

This has always been the case, regardless of difficulty settings.