MLB '08 news and info

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 4:18 pm

sportdan30 wrote:I too am looking forward to using Lohse as well.

I never thought I'd see those words typed out for the world to see...let alone twice in the same thread.

webdanzer · Post by **webdanzer** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 4:20 pm

btmmayor wrote:...but I'm just curious why some people see no problems with CPU offense on default settings while others are celebrating if the CPU can score more than 2 runs (against a less than stellar pitching staff with an ERA of almost 5 in 2007).

I agree that this is very strange. Before those two recent games, the only way I was able to get the CPU to do anything against me on HOF was to juice the sliders big time, and I went 10 or so games myself before doing that, seeing low numbers all the while.

Could be that these two games were a fluke, but I know I'm not pitching any differently now than I was then when I was with you guys in saying that the lack of CPU offense was a big problem. It certainly still may be a problem, but I'm at least somewhat encouraged by recent results.

Slumberland · Post by **Slumberland** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 4:28 pm

Are you starting with a different roster file?

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 4:40 pm

webdanzer wrote:
btmmayor wrote:...but I'm just curious why some people see no problems with CPU offense on default settings while others are celebrating if the CPU can score more than 2 runs (against a less than stellar pitching staff with an ERA of almost 5 in 2007).
I agree that this is very strange. Before those two recent games, the only way I was able to get the CPU to do anything against me on HOF was to juice the sliders big time, and I went 10 or so games myself before doing that, seeing low numbers all the while.

Could be that these two games were a fluke, but I know I'm not pitching any differently now than I was then when I was with you guys in saying that the lack of CPU offense was a big problem. It certainly still may be a problem, but I'm at least somewhat encouraged by recent results.

I think it's a problem as they just don't punish you for bad pitches. However, I don't think it's that much of an issue to increase the CPU batting slider.

If some of you guys don't want to mess with sliders, then my question is what baseball game hasn't required tweaking. Coming from HH, I just got used to it.

If you don't want to go into slider hell, just mess around with three things, CPU contact, power and Hum pitching control.

Start with CPU power. If you want the CPU to become deadly use +20. I did that and scaled down to a level that was somewhat realistic. CPU contact does more than just increase hits, it controls how well they hit. They seem to be able to hit pitcher's pitches better and can hit "blue zone" pitches a little better. Pitches in the red get murdered.

Play with Hum pitching control to how you want to pitch. I have it a 5 (-5) . Set at 0, I had too many CPU at-bat walks. I was getting 4-6 walks a game. With this setting if you needed to get a pitch over for a strike you almost had to throw it at the heart of the plate. That led to an increase in CPU hitting but was frustrating because pitching wasn't really fun.

Anyway I think the game plays good out of the box in every other department. Tweak hitting to your liking. With the sliders you have a game where the CPU can hit anything and that's a good thing because that means the sliders are actually working. (Not like the INT slider in Madden).

btmmayor · Post by **btmmayor** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 4:53 pm

JRod wrote:
Play with Hum pitching control to how you want to pitch. I have it a 5 (-5) . Set at 0, I had too many CPU at-bat walks. I was getting 4-6 walks a game. With this setting if you needed to get a pitch over for a strike you almost had to throw it at the heart of the plate. That led to an increase in CPU hitting but was frustrating because pitching wasn't really fun.

Wow, again very different from the results I'm getting. Since tweaking I put my pitch command at 0 (-10). With both metered and classic pitching I didn't feel at all like I needed to groove a pitch just to get a strike.

I believe it was Web who commented earlier in the thread about turning off Pitcher Confidence. I'm starting to believe that this plays a huge factor in how a pitcher is performing. Once my pitcher gets that bar full or close to it his command is spot on and he becomes very difficult to hit.

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 5:05 pm

btmmayor wrote:
JRod wrote:
Play with Hum pitching control to how you want to pitch. I have it a 5 (-5) . Set at 0, I had too many CPU at-bat walks. I was getting 4-6 walks a game. With this setting if you needed to get a pitch over for a strike you almost had to throw it at the heart of the plate. That led to an increase in CPU hitting but was frustrating because pitching wasn't really fun.
Wow, again very different from the results I'm getting. Since tweaking I put my pitch command at 0 (-10). With both metered and classic pitching I didn't feel at all like I needed to groove a pitch just to get a strike.

I believe it was Web who commented earlier in the thread about turning off Pitcher Confidence. I'm starting to believe that this plays a huge factor in how a pitcher is performing. Once my pitcher gets that bar full or close to it his command is spot on and he becomes very difficult to hit.

I'm not that good with the meter system.

Actually I meant to say that was with someone like Umbaldo Jiminez. He has 100mph fastball but can't throw a strike. With pitcher's a little better you don't need to groove pitches but I found it wasn't realistic for target pitchers when they gave up 4-5 walks a game. With a guy like Francis he isn't going to throw heat but he will stay on the edges. At 0, the amount of walks was too high (4-6 per game).

BTM,
I think you want to see the same game in everyone's hands. That's not going to happen because how we play baseball. That said, the sliders I listed are what i would call difficulty sliders. Meaning you tweak them to get the kind of difficulty you want to see. Each person is different. Then there are realism sliders, like fielder speed. In order to get more realism from the game, I turn this all the way down because the fielders are too fast.

Brando70 · Post by **Brando70** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 5:23 pm

JRod wrote: If some of you guys don't want to mess with sliders, then my question is what baseball game hasn't required tweaking. Coming from HH, I just got used to it.

If you don't want to go into slider hell, just mess around with three things, CPU contact, power and Hum pitching control.

Here's the funny thing: I had lowered my pitching control all the way to 0. I was throwing a couple walks a game. I changed it last night back to the default of 10 and threw five walks. I honestly couldn't tell the difference. And that almost always seems to be the way with sliders for me. It's so rare that I change a slider and see an immediate, noticeable difference. I have a limited time to game anyway, I don't feel like wandering the maze of sliders looking for the perfect gameplay cheese.

The developers themselves have repeatedly cautioned about the sliders, which makes me think they either don't do much or do too many odd things. My plan is to stick with All-Star. If it gets too easy, I'll go to HoF. There are a few clear slides like CPU pitching aggressiveness and Power that I may bump up, but for now I don't have the need.

webdanzer · Post by **webdanzer** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 5:59 pm

Slumberland wrote:Are you starting with a different roster file?

Nope, I'm using the same one. I haven't downloaded any new ones yet.

btmmayor wrote: I believe it was Web who commented earlier in the thread about turning off Pitcher Confidence. I'm starting to believe that this plays a huge factor in how a pitcher is performing. Once my pitcher gets that bar full or close to it his command is spot on and he becomes very difficult to hit.

Yep, it was me, and I still think that this is an issue. I agree with you, pitchers are too good when their pitch confidences are high. And this is something that feeds off itself to compound the issue. If you start off pitching well, your pitches get better, upping your performance even more!

btmmayor · Post by **btmmayor** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 9:46 pm

JRod wrote:BTM,
I think you want to see the same game in everyone's hands. That's not going to happen because how we play baseball.

No, I don't want to see the same game in everyone's hands. Thats the way sports games like Madden are in my opinion.....scripted and boring. The fact that we see such different things with similar settings, like pitch command, is fantastic when it comes to a sports game.

I'm just trying to isolate and identify the settings that will help the CPU offense put up better, more realistic numbers against me.

Slumberland · Post by **Slumberland** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 9:52 pm

Brian's an interesting dude... sometimes it's like he's answering in riddles and koans

, but it's really uncharted territory, having a dev interacting post release and even making slider suggestions(!). I wasn't around for the High Heat heyday, but has this ever happened before? He posted some new stuff today, specifically about the pitch count slider, and that the CPU is actually using a hidden meter interface just like the user, behind the scenes.

webdanzer · Post by **webdanzer** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 10:15 pm

Where is Brian commenting? Throughout the various threads at OS?

Slumberland · Post by **Slumberland** » Mon Mar 24, 2008 11:17 pm

Yes... mostly in the slider section, as of late.

webdanzer · Post by **webdanzer** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 10:40 am

Well, three games of 2, 2, and 1 by the cpu, so maybe the cpu offense was a fluke for me. I'm keepin' on truckin 'til I hit 20, though.

Slumberland · Post by **Slumberland** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 10:48 am

Me too... trying to get there with both the Rays and the Mets. Hopefully can get there before opening day, then make some difficulty decisions, and restart everything again!

lexbur · Post by **lexbur** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 10:54 am

Anyone complaining about the CPU not scoring enough, have you played against the Yankees yet? In my season it's only the first week of May and A-Rod has 15 homers already. Last night he came up with runners at second and third, so I walked him, only to have Giambi hit a grand slam. I lost 8-2.

Slumberland · Post by **Slumberland** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 10:57 am

First game I ever played was against the Yankees. Shut them out. The Mets just might need an entirely different difficulty level in this game... and I assume the same goes for the Yanks and Sox.

spooky157 · Post by **spooky157** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 11:08 am

Slumberland wrote:First game I ever played was against the Yankees. Shut them out. The Mets just might need an entirely different difficulty level in this game... and I assume the same goes for the Yanks and Sox.

I agree. Even though the Yankee pitching isn't great I still don't have a problem shutting down even the most potent of offenses on AS. After reading all that stuff on OS from Brian I decided to stop messing with sliders and just made a few edits to my pitchers. I lowered their "pitching clutch", "hit", "HR" and "BB" rating down by 9 ticks and it's done wonders in 5 games. I even gave up 7 runs to the Royals. Throwing in the strike zone seems a lot more dangerous now so I work outside the zone a lot more now to try to get the AI to chase, leading to more walks.

lexbur · Post by **lexbur** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 11:28 am

Are you guys playing in a season or just random exhibition games or "quick play" games? Because when I look at the Yankees' lineup in my season, half of their lineup has that flame icon next to their name (meaning they're hot). I don't know if a team or player could get "hot" in random quick-play mode. I wonder if that has anything to do with it.

I don't know. One thing I do know, the Mets' pitching can't be *THAT* much better than the Tribe's. CC beat out Johan for the Cy Young award last year, and I'll take Carmona over any number two starter out there. Westbrook, Byrd, and Lee round out a real nice rotation. Plus we got two guys starting the year off in Buffalo (Sowers and Laffey) who would make most teams' starting rotations right now. Add Perez, Betancourt, Borowski, Lewis, Kobayashi coming out of the pen...

***Sorry for the rant... can you tell I'm PUMPED about the upcoming season?!!***

Slumberland · Post by **Slumberland** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 11:32 am

Yeah, I think they overdid it with the Mets staff a bit. With Pedro and El Duque, it feels like you get all the benefits (great control and movement) and none of the drawbacks (arms or legs could fall off at any moment).

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 11:56 am

I haven't tinker with sliders too much other than some minor adjustments to Sky's. As I was updating the rosters last night, I also checked for other sliders and the only one uploaded was the one by Skyboxers. Playing AS with the Jays and I am so far 8-12 in my season with the typical inconsistentcy from the bullpen and the inabilty to score with runners in scoring position at key times of the game. Maybe it's just me

.

Danimal · Post by **Danimal** » Tue Mar 25, 2008 1:54 pm

When are opening day rosters out? Is it after the first game or do you actually have to wait for a player to appear in a game. I'm thinking of someone on the Cubs here

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Wed Mar 26, 2008 8:10 pm

From Kolbe @ OS:

Ok folks - lets settle this.

1) Yes, there will be a patch
2) The specifics of what will/wont be fixed with this patch are not yet available
3) Yes, it will take time. Time to fix the issues, time to test the issues, time to test the deployment of the patch and time to get the patch approved.

Please be patient.

-Kolbe

Slumberland · Post by **Slumberland** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 9:31 am

I'm nowhere near my 20 game target yet. Loving the game more and more as I play it, though. Was down 3-1 against the Braves last night in the bottom of the 9th, 2 outs, Beltran hits one that makes it just tough enough for Chipper so that it bounces out of his glove diving for it. Delgado quickly gets behind 0-2, hangs in there and pokes one between fielders into left with the most awkward swing you ever saw. David Wright comes up, I guess fastball up and in, and he blasts a three-run homer to take a 4-3 lead.

You'd think that momentum would carry over, but I'm down 4-0 to Smoltz and Co. in the next game of the series, currently on hold.

Reyes is hitting a pitiful .111 through five games.

GTHobbes · Post by **GTHobbes** » Thu Mar 27, 2008 10:16 am

This is definitely a game that you come to appreciate more and more the more you play it. I absolutely love being able to save games this year. God Bless SCEA for this one.

dbdynsty25 · Post by **dbdynsty25** » Fri Mar 28, 2008 2:25 am

Well...I found another issue.

If you strike out with a runner on first base...you're not allowed to run to first if there is a wild pitch. It happens occasionally, even with runners on base.

At least that's how I remember the rule in the rule book.