Question On Sliders

[aceshigh]

Hey there guys, some of you have said that the sliders value actually change when you input them from "All-star" difficulty, rather than "Rookie" (which is what I've done). Could anybody tell me what the difference is? Does the game become any "easier"?

I'll explain my problem: I'm late into my franchise with the Yanks (still using NoFakeNames Roster v.5) and so far I've been 65/50 more or less on my own sliders, but lately something is not going the way it should and I've been through a rough 3-week long stretch with the cpu CONSTANTLY hitting for double digits (around 14/18 hits per game), and my team is almost always shutout. I rarely get any hits and I only happen to score on homeruns (yeah, that part is pretty close to reality, I know ). As a result I'm 4-15 in the last 3 weeks. Now, I haven't touched the sliders at all until now, when I did touch up some settings (the user batting contact was 20 and I put it up to 30, and I lowered the CPU contact to 60, from 65) but nothing has changed. It's really getting ridiculous. I understand that some games are just destined to go wrong, but three straight weeks of shutout baseball isn't really close to reality... Thanks in advance

[wudl83]

could it be that your pitchers are quite fatigued?

I read about those rumors regarding difference in difficulties via slider input but to be honest I can not confirm that.

EDIT:

Maybe I got to correct my statement. I played a game a few minutes ago. Right before the game I put my sliders in from legend (I had them put in from all-star before) and I got to say that the game played a little bit different. It felt smoother and hitting was more difficult. It was one of the most realistic games I ever played.

[aceshigh]

It was one of the most realistic games I ever played.

Thanks for the reply! Would you say it was harder than before? I should try that just for the sake of checking every possibility... And nope, my pitchers are not fatigued, I try to keep them as rested as possible. Some of them (Pettitte, Kuroda, Hughes) just got back from 4/5 weeks long injuries also... idk :unknw:

[wudl83]

hitting felt not more difficult, but putting the ball in play felt more difficult. know what I mean?

I got to say that I play with auto fielding and auto base-running because it eliminates some flaws you would get with user control. but like I said overall it felt smoother. I think I saw two or three animations I hadn't seen before.

but it only was one game, I got to play some more to make a final statement.

[aceshigh]

hitting felt not more difficult, but putting the ball in play felt more difficult. know what I mean?

Absolutely, that's the same problem I'm facing. I don't strike out much, but the CPU fielders manage to get on EVERY ball, even balls down the middle, unlike my fielders (I use manual fielding). Either the CPU has unbelievable luck and aims perfectly down the middle, or the "lazyness" level on my sliders is set up very high

EDIT: I forgot to ask, if you happen to play more games like that, could you tell me how the CPU hitting feels? I can live with not putting many balls into play, but I hate the fact that the CPU puts balls into play even from way out of the strike zone and they all end up as base hits. That's been happening too often.

As soon as I have some free time I'll put the same sliders I'm using right now from the most difficult level, I'll check what's different and I'll tweak them from there. Again, thanks for your help :)

[wudl83]

I noticed what you are describing in your EDIT.

The first game I played was with the Blue Jays (Morrow) against the Mariners (Saunders) and the Mariners hit 3 homeruns. Normally I would say that this was nothing special, sometimes I got 3-4 games in a row where I don't give up a single homerun, then there will be 3-4 games in a row where I get bombed. But all those 3 homeruns came of ridiculous pitches. 2 of them were way outside the strikezone and the 3rd one was a perfectly nailed 12-6 curveball right at the lower outside corner.

There were some more hits of the Mariners like those. All in all I lost 2-10 and the Mariners had about 13-14 hits and managed to get 4-5 walks.

I played another game with the same sliders yesterday evening with the Yanks (Pettite) against the As (Straily). Same lineups as in reality. There were some hits of the As where I couldn't believe that they were able to make contact let alone to put the ball in play since those pitches were so far away that in reality you would need a robot-arm to get to those pitches.

But overall I didn't get bombed, it was 2-2 going into the 9th. I had given up 8 hits and 3 walks. After that I had to leave.

What I realised in those two games was a way more realistic user hitting and more realistic user pitch numbers (normally I average about 100-110, in both games I had way above 140). The only thing that bothered me a little were those magic hits the CPU got. And overall I got way less Ks than usually. But not getting 10-12 Ks per game is great.

The rest felt really really fine.

[aceshigh]

Alright, thanks a lot for your feedback, it was really appreciated!!

My aim was to find a good set of sliders that would actually stop the CPU from getting A LOT of bases hit on outside the strikezone pitches or pitches that would normally be hit into groundouts. Yeah, it's fine if the CPU batters hit them, but I'd expect many of them to be fouled off, and not be put into play. Though, according to your feedback, it keeps happening anyway, so probably the answer isn't in modifying the sliders.

It's having 5/6 straight games like the one you had with the Mariners that really bugs me, it's just not real. And I can't manage to put the ball into play, not even if I hit pitches that are right in the middle of the strikezone! Last game I played was vs the Red Sox (Pettitte vs Bard) and I had to stop at the third inning after I gave up 8 hits and 4 runs. Ouch

I think I should add that with the same sliders (right before this rough stretch started) I managed to sweep the As and getting 2/3 vs the Orioles getting a truckload of Ks (also not really close to reality), so probably the answer is in the too low/too high ratings for the players?

[wudl83]

Today I played another game which felt quite fine. Rays (Hellickson) vs. Jays (Buehrle). I won the game 3-1. It seems that hitting is indeed a lot harder when you put the sliders in from legend compared to putting them in from all-star. In those three games I was hitting about .230 something and had 2 homeruns. One with Encarnacion when I was crushed 2-10 from the Mariners and one with Cano when I played with the Yanks against the As.

I used the same slider settings like I did use before when I put them in from allstar. And in the games before I had at least an average of 5-6 runs scored per game. There definately is a difference.

I gonna try around a little bit and maybe I put up a slider suggestion for this case as the Jays had some ridiculous hits against Hellickson again.

But one question: where's your user pitching composure slider at?

[aceshigh]

Holy moly! It's a huge difference indeed. As far as realism goes, it's been quite good for me, with very different results. The games have always felt difficult, but I'd always be able to get a few clutch hits. Now I get nothing like that, it's like somebody changed my sliders overnight My pitching composure is at 55

[wudl83]

Holy moly! It's a huge difference indeed. As far as realism goes, it's been quite good for me, with very different results. The games have always felt difficult, but I'd always be able to get a few clutch hits. Now I get nothing like that, it's like somebody changed my sliders overnight My pitching composure is at 55

And there you go. I bet that lowering this number to about 25 or even 20 reduces those magic CPU hits...

[aceshigh]

Thanks! I'll try that and will let you know what happens!

[wudl83]

Some further testing clearly shows that putting sliders in from legend

- makes hitting more difficult

- is highly dependent on your pitcher's composure when your composure slider is higher than 15 (the higher the more magic hits the CPU will make which applies heavily to the long ball)

- is highly dependent on your pitcher's stamina (the lower the stamina or the higher the fatigue of your pitcher the more magic hits the CPU will make which applies heavily to the long ball)

[aceshigh]

That's very helpful! So if I lower the pitcher's composure and fatigue (I guess that needs to be changed, as I can barely get over 100 pitches with CC), I should be seeing less Vladimir Guerrero-style hits, huh? I just didn't have a chance to tinker with those yet. Damn work... What are your user/cpu batting sliders?

Oh, and out of curiosity, what's the batter's eye frequency slider value you're using? What does that change? Do you think it could have an influence on increasing/decreasing the hitting difficulty?

Many thanks :)

[wudl83]

I don't play with batter's eye. Don't like it. So I can not say something about it.

I personally play with 40 user contact and 65 user power along with 75 CPU contact and 75 CPU power.

But you have to keep in mind that the pitching sliders like speed, control and break of the ball are influencing hitting as well.

And yes, I would lower pitcher's fatigue in the game settings to 50 and user pichting composure to 10, 15 or 20.

[aceshigh]

But I didn't understand what the batter's eye actually does. Does it mean hitting using the left analog to aim where you want the ball to go?

My hitting sliders are 30 for user contact, 60 for user power, 60 for CPU contact and 80 for CPU power. Pitching speed is 85, strikezone aim is 45, break is 55 and pitching success is 50 if I remember well.

[wudl83]

The batter's eye slider correlates with the batter's eye rating each player has.

The higher the batter's eye slider and the batter's eye rating the more often you will see the pitches' location and pitch type before the ball gets to you.

Know what I mean?

But to occur it has to be turned on in the game settings.

I have it off, I don't like it.

Hitting:

Up your contact and lower the CPU's strikezone aim.

[aceshigh]

Ohhhh finally, thanks for the explanation! Now it's all clear Then I don't think I have it on, because I have the strikezone window off until after the ball has arrived to the catcher's glove, therefore I don't see any info about the type of pitch or where it's gonna go. Will check though.

Just wondering: How often do you use the left analog stick (if you play with a controller) or the direction keys (if you're playing with the keyboard) to send the ball where you want after you hit it? And how often do you just hit the ball without bothering? Because sometimes it feels like I get more bases hit if I don't use the left stick, and just swing, while I only get flyouts or groundouts when I actually do use the stick.

[wudl83]

I use it rarely. Like let's say about in 1 out of 6 or 7 ABs.

Using the left analog stick not only makes the batter trying to send the ball into one direction, it also makes something like a power swing out of it.

It all depends.

[aceshigh]

I remember with 2K9 if you pushed the analog up and then swing, it would almost automatically be an homerun. I personally haven't seen this happening with 2K12 as in my case only popups or flyouts come out of it. Thanks Wudl and sorry if I asked too many questions will come back with more though!

[wudl83]

It also depends on if your using classic hitting or total control hitting.

No problem man. Questions are there to be answered.

[aceshigh]

Total control hitting all the way Glad this talk actually made you make some changes to the sliders of your roster for a more realistic game! Keep up the good work, can't wait to see the final result ;)

[wudl83]

Okay I hope the roster plays well with total control hitting. I have been using classic hitting since a long a time... :D

[aceshigh]

Classic hitting is just pressing the A button right? I've never used that actually. Using the analog makes me feel really into the game, but it does have a drawback: I ruined a lot of sticks due to too "aggressive" swings :D

[wudl83]

Yeah classic hitting is only about timing. The AI decides for you wether you swing for power or for contact. Classic hitting has one big advantage: greater variety of hits.

[sabugo]

The way you press the button also has influence in the way you hit.

Quick presses make for slap hits, infield singles, etc and more well timed presses will give you line-drives and power hits.