Bobhead's Sliders

[Bobhead]

Slider Vault Name: Bobhead Sliders
PSN: IanFuego

There is also a second slider set uploaded for Hall of Fame batting difficulty.

Notable Options:
Batting: Zone
Pitching: Analog
Fielding: Throw Meter On -- Buttons
Guess Pitch: Off
*All pitching and batting visual aids are turned off (pitch cursor, PCI, etc...)

-- Set 1: All Star Batting / Hall of Fame Pitching --
Contact: 5
Power: 4
Timing: 7
Foul Freq: 3
Solid Hits: 3
Starter Stamina: 6
Reliever Stamina: 1
Pitch Control: 1
Pitch Consistency: 1

-- CPU --
Contact: 3
Power: 4
Timing: 7
Foul Freq: 2
Solid Hits: 4
Starter Stamina: 6
Reliever Stamina: 1
Pitch Control: 4
Pitch Consistency: 2
Strike Frequency: 5
Manager Hook: 4
Pickoffs: 6

--Neutral--
Pitch Speed: 5
Fielding Errors: 10
Throwing Errors: 7
Fielder Speed: 0
Fielder Reaction: 5
Fielder Arm Strength: 2
Baserunner Speed: 1
Baserunner Steal Ability: 1
Baserunner Steal Frequency: 10
Wind: 4
Injury Frequency: 5

-- Set 2: Hall of Fame Batting --
Contact: 6
Power: 5
Timing: 7
Foul Freq: 3
Solid Hits: 5
Starter Stamina: 6
Reliever Stamina: 1
Pitch Control: 1
Pitch Consistency: 1

-- CPU --
Contact: 3
Power: 5
Timing: 6
Foul Freq: 4
Solid Hits: 4
Starter Stamina: 6
Reliever Stamina: 1
Pitch Control: 4
Pitch Consistency: 1
Strike Frequency: 5
Manager Hook: 4
Pickoffs: 6

--Neutral--
Pitch Speed: 5
Fielding Errors: 10
Throwing Errors: 7
Fielder Speed: 0
Fielder Reaction: 5
Fielder Arm Strength: 2
Baserunner Speed: 1
Baserunner Steal Ability: 1
Baserunner Steal Frequency: 10
Wind: 4
Injury Frequency: 5


Keep in mind the Hall of Fame sliders were just made this past week, there might still be a variety of changes that need to be made.
---
Overview
---

The Timing Window
This is probably the first change that jumps out at you. With default sliders, you are at the mercy of the game to decide where your hits go, and you will find that many of them go directly up the middle. By increasing Timing, and lowering Foul Frequency, the timing window is expanded, allowing you to think the way real hitters think: By waiting on a pitch, you can hit it the other way; and by swinging early, you will be able to pull the ball more consistently. These are things that just did not translate well with default sliders, and I feel it is an important part of hitting that had to be worked in.

CPU Offense
The second thing you may notice is the huge reductions to the CPU's offensive sliders. This was done for two reasons. First, on the Hall of Fame pitching difficulty, the AI's plate vision is just unreal. The CPU batter is just consistently able to hit too many pitches, leaving your stats way shorthanded, with roughly 3 or 4 missed swings and 2 or 3 strikeouts per game where the MLB averages are approximately 12 and 7, respectively. By lowering Contact, you increase the number of pitches the AI batter will "misread" making your pitching experience a lot more realistic, and a lot less maddening. Another minor issue is that while a user has to plan ahead and select a swing (ie: Power Swing) before the pitch, the CPU has no such requirement, and is more apt to use power swings at "perfect" times. Power was reduced 1 point to compensate for this.

Pitching
For starters (pun not intended), Pitch Consistency has been greatly reduced. Basically I felt that pitchers were far too dominant in this game. With default Pitch Consistency, about half your games will be shutouts, regardless of which side you fall on, and I felt this was far from realistic. To remedy this, I lowered Pitch Consistency, which controls a pitcher's confidence. With a lower Pitch Consistency, pitchers have to work to obtain and maintain any sense of confidence, resulting in a much more realistic ebb and flow through 9 innings. You will have rallies, failed rallies, and maybe you will get shutout anyway, but you won't get those 15 strikeout 2 hit shutouts that no one ever sees in real life.

Walks have also been greatly improved. At default, once a pitcher (on either side) builds rhythm and confidence, a walk is almost unheard of. By greatly lowering Pitch Consistency, high confidence and rhythm will be harder to obtain and maintain, meaning both offenses will have the realistic ability to disrupt the pitcher's flow with a good approach at the plate. By lowering Pitch Control, pitchers, especially relievers, will have a harder time coming out and immediately dominating. A pitcher's control ratings become more important and you will be extremely aware of which pitchers in your bullpen (and your opponent's) are prone to walk batters in key spots. In real life, only the best relievers are capable of pounding the strike zone. You have teams all over the place with bullpen problems, and most of it stems from excessively poor accuracy. The changes to the sliders reflect these real life tendencies.

Speed and Defense
Another important thing to note with these sliders is all the changes made on the defensive end. I spent hours upon hours doing research here. I watched videos of double plays on Youtube, as well as outfielder footage and other such things, and I felt that players in this game were capable of running and throwing at flat-out superhuman speeds. For example, if you watch baseball frequently, you will know that a throw from 3rd to 1st really does take a lifetime to complete, something that the commentators will often discuss.

The changes I made do not all reflect real life baseball, as balance was also important to preserve. For example, batters are quite slow getting out of the box in this game, and this is something sliders cannot change. As compensation, I felt baserunners needed to be given a small advantage in speed over fielders. If you decide to make changes to the speed/defense sliders, I recommend you still keep baserunning speed 2 point higher than fielder speed.

[Bobhead]

Made a bunch of changes, particularly on the lower half, with big changes to baserunning speed, fielder speed.

I've been studying the end-of-game charts and analyses, and was holding off on making changes for a while, until I was sure that what I saw was a trend, and not a streak. I made the changes above about 6 games ago, and since then I've drawn about 15 walks, not including intentional walks, and including 3 walks I drew in a game I just played. Upon request I can post box scores and analyses information and all of that for every game.

[BleacherCreature]

Great work and great explanations of your findings.
A lot of the things you mention are things I have seen also and was trying to figure out the best possible, hmm, fix I guess is the word I'll use.
I've been using analog hitting since day 1 but I can't play on any hitting level higher than veteran. I swing and miss way too much on all-star with analog. It doesn't feel natural to have to flick the right stick forward and to the left or right. Straight up feels natural and I think my hitting suffers because of this so I am about to give zone a try.
I really like the difference in the CPU pitcher's approach to my AB' on all-star. On veteran I feel they throw too many strikes even with a lowered strike frequency.
I'm going to try these in the next few days as I am always open to trying anyone's sliders.

[Bobhead]

Quote: Originally Posted by BleacherCreature

Great work and great explanations of your findings. A lot of the things you mention are things I have seen also and was trying to figure out the best possible, hmm, fix I guess is the word I'll use. I've been using analog hitting since day 1 but I can't play on any hitting level higher than veteran. I swing and miss way too much on all-star with analog. It doesn't feel natural to have to flick the right stick forward and to the left or right. Straight up feels natural and I think my hitting suffers because of this so I am about to give zone a try. I really like the difference in the CPU pitcher's approach to my AB' on all-star. On veteran I feel they throw too many strikes even with a lowered strike frequency. I'm going to try these in the next few days as I am always open to trying anyone's sliders.

Thank you for the feedback. I feel your pain on Analog Hitting, that was what I used for a while when I first got the game, but I just couldn't get into it. You definitely need contact swing more on analog, and I definitely think Analog requires a slightly different slider spread on offense.

On a general note, I made a few minor changes, and am currently playtesting a fielder run speed/baserunner speed of 1. Not ready to call it "acceptable" yet, but its definitely looking good, and I am definitely leaning in favor of the drop right now.

[nomo17k]

I like how you are very thorough with explaining what you are doing, haha. It makes it easier to see what you are thinking when you do your adjustments... appreciate your time.

One question about lowering fielder arm strengths. I agree in game the plays develop a tad faster than I feel on, say, watching games on TV. So my preference is lowering it myself (actually running games at zero right now). Also, DaiYoung in the CPU vs CPU thread reported that outfield assists come at higher rate than real life... I think there are I'm following up on it myself, but anyways...

What is your opinion about the effect on base runner aggressiveness from lowering the arm strengths slider? Do you feel there is much effect?

[Bobhead]

Quote: Originally Posted by nomo17k

I like how you are very thorough with explaining what you are doing, haha. It makes it easier to see what you are thinking when you do your adjustments... appreciate your time. One question about lowering fielder arm strengths. I agree in game the plays develop a tad faster than I feel on, say, watching games on TV. So my preference is lowering it myself (actually running games at zero right now). Also, DaiYoung in the CPU vs CPU thread reported that outfield assists come at higher rate than real life... I think there are I'm following up on it myself, but anyways... What is your opinion about the effect on base runner aggressiveness from lowering the arm strengths slider? Do you feel there is much effect?

Based on my observations, I'd say absolutely. I have never seen a case where a CPU baserunner "doesn't know" he is slower than normal, and thus makes an easy out trying to stretch a single into a double, or anything along those lines. AI Baserunners seem to be fully aware of fielder speed, baserunning speed, and arm strength, and their aggressiveness changes accordingly. I still make assists occasionally (if I had to completely guess, I'd say about 1 OF assist for every 3 games), on close plays with perfect throws, but its at a very realistic level, and never because of the CPU's miscalculation of the game's current physics.

[Bobhead]

Playing with Power at 6, and both Run Speeds at 1. My starter, Jeremy Hellickson was really struggling early, and gave up a lot of hits, and I honestly got lucky a lot, and narrowly escaped several rallies (a play at the plate, a pop up bunt for a double play, among other things). The announcers even said something about them completely outplaying us and still losing, pretty cool. Anyway I know its only one game, but its still a game I think deserves a box score (10 inning game, note the skipped inning). I drew 5 walks, but there were plenty more for the taking, I was just too frustrated at my 4-0 deficit to really maintain any discipline at the plate.

MIN at TAM - Tropicana Orange Juice
Jan 1,	1	2	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	R	H	E
Minnesota Twins (6-9)	3	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	6	16	2
Tampa Bay Rays (7-8)	0	0	0	3	2	0	0	0	2	7	8	1

Scoring Summary
SCORING DETAILS			MIN	TAM

Minnesota Twins
HITTERS	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	HR	AVG
Span, CF	5	0	2	0	0	2	0	.328
Morneau, 1B	5	1	2	1	0	0	0	.345
Mauer, C	5	2	3	0	0	0	0	.328
Thome, DH	3	1	1	3	1	1	1	.233
Casilla (PR)-DH	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.178
Kubel, LF	4	0	1	0	0	1	0	.232
Repko (PR)-LF	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	.250
Young, RF	5	0	1	0	0	1	0	.367
Nishioka, 2B	4	0	2	2	1	0	0	.289
Valencia, 3B	5	0	0	0	0	0	0	.306
Tolbert, SS	4	1	3	0	0	0	0	.417
TEAM TOTALS	42	6	16	6	2	5	1
BATTING: 2B: Mauer (3), Young (3), Repko (1) HR: Thome (4) RBI: Morneau (6), Thome 3 (7), Nishioka 2 (11) GIDP: Casilla, Valencia 2
BASERUNNING: SB: Tolbert (1), Nishioka (3)
FIELDING: E: Span (2), Nishioka (2)

Tampa Bay Rays
HITTERS	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	HR	AVG
Brignac, SS	5	1	2	1	0	1	0	.136
Rodriguez, 2B	5	0	1	1	0	1	0	.192
Damon, RF	4	1	1	0	1	1	0	.189
Longoria, 3B	3	2	1	0	2	2	0	.231
Johnson, 1B	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.270
Kotchman, 1B	3	1	0	0	0	3	0	.000
Lopez	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	.226
Upton, CF	5	0	1	2	0	2	0	.250
Jaso, C	3	1	0	0	2	1	0	.261
Zobrist, DH	5	0	1	2	0	0	0	.160
Joyce, LF	4	1	1	1	0	0	0	.182
TEAM TOTALS	39	7	8	7	5	12	0
BATTING: 2B: Upton (1), Rodriguez (3), Brignac (2), Joyce (1) RBI: Upton 2 (4), Zobrist 2 (8), Rodriguez (2), Brignac (1), Joyce (2)
BASERUNNING: SB: Damon (3), Brignac (1) CS: Upton (1)
FIELDING: E: Brignac (3)

Minnesota Twins
PITCHERS	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Blackburn	5	5	4	4	2	6	0	5.00
Capps (BS, 1)	1	1	1	0	0	1	0	6.00
Manship	3	0	0	0	1	3	0	0.00
Nathan (L, 0-1)	0.2	2	2	2	2	2	0	7.71
PITCHING: Pitches-Strikes: 170 - 64

Tampa Bay Rays
PITCHERS	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Hellickson	6	9	4	4	0	3	1	4.50
Howell (BS, 1)	2	3	1	1	2	2	0	4.50
Sonnastine	1	3	1	1	0	0	0	5.84
Farnsworth (W, 1-0)	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	7.11
TEAM TOTALS	10	16	6	6	2	5	1
PITCHING: Pitches-Strikes: 150 - 71

For comparison, note the scores of my previous 12 games (no simmed games):

VS LAA: Won 3-1
VS LAA: Lost 2-6

At CWS: Won 1-0
At CWS: Lost 1-2
At CWS: Won 1-0
At CWS: Won 4-3

At BOS: Lost 3-7
At BOS: Lost 0-2
At BOS: Lost 1-6

VS MIN: Won 8-4
VS MIN: Won 5-1
VS MIN: Won 7-6

[BleacherCreature]

Wow do I need practice with zone hitting!!
I strike out more now than I did using analog.
I will say though, making solid contact and getting an opposite field double over the right fielder's head feels really sweet!
I was headed to the 10th of a 1-1 tie A's vs Cubs (me).
I gave up a solo HR to Suzuki and then tied the game in the bottom of the 9th on a wild pitch, my runner going to third and Suzuki throwing the ball into left field.
I only allowed 2 hits but I just realized I pitching on All-star instead of HOF. I will switch that up next time.
Only one game where I made some really bad swings so I can't give a ton of input. Overall wasn't bad. As I said I only gave up 2 hits (I did strike them out 13 times though) and I had 5 myself (3 singles and 2 doubles).
All the hits felt legit and I didn't feel cheated or see anything that made me scratch my head.
I want to try these for a few more games and get a good feel of what's happening, plus I want to get better with zone hitting.