Editing Pitch Physics

[WacoKid]

Hey Everyone,

 

After discovering reditor, and learning a little bit, I started messing with the Pitch Physics.  Thanks to @Kccitystar for pointing me in the right direction of where to start.  I think I got my first decent result toward a more realistic flight path of the 2 seamer.  The settings I edited for the pitch are in the description of the youtube video.  I think the flight path is pretty good.  I haven't tried hitting against it yet, or determined if there is going to be a huge effect on contact for hitters yet.  This is just a preview of whats going on.  Input is welcome.

 

 

Thanks,

 

Chris

[Kccitystar]

That looks great brother! Sidenote, using Streamable over YouTube is *perfect* for these types of short clips.
 

 

Also, the DownImp 1/2 values might be associated with movement when there's minimal/maximum effort on each pitch, it looks like.

[WacoKid]

59 minutes ago, Kccitystar said:

That looks great brother! Sidenote, using Streamable over YouTube is *perfect* for these types of short clips.
 

 

Also, the DownImp 1/2 values might be associated with movement when there's minimal/maximum effort on each pitch, it looks like.

Thank you!  Ill take a look into the Streamable option to see how it works.  I do like the ease of recording with windows, just win+alt+r and I'm good, very quick and I can record at full resolution and 60fps.  The issues I was having was recording with Nvidia, was giving me weird resolutions and only recording 1/4 of the screen.

 

I'll give it a shot throwing the pitches at medium effort to see how things change for sure.  Tinkering with the horiz. impulse and parameter 4 values I'm discovering if you add or increase the value in horiz impusle, you need to lower the value in parameter 4 to balance out, or the effect is way over the top.  Also it appears that using low values will help create the effect i was looking for.  Next week I will be able to actually play through a game to see how this affects the AI batting, and also playing with the individual pitchers movement values to see how drastic the changes would be with a higher attribute score.  I'm a little concerned the changes will fool the AI too much.  I have maybe thrown 50 pitches, they look at them a lot more.  I think the game could use a little more looking strikes/k's for realism but don't want to make it easy.

 

Here is 4 Seamer Take 1

Effect I am going for with 4 seamer, average lateral movement on a 4 seamer is between 4-5 inches.

and Circle Change Take 1

 

I think the circle change needs to have parameter 4 lowered for sure, it fools hitters kinda easily.

 

Chris

[Bostonnico]

@WacoKid  Thank you very much friend, for everything you are doing for MLB2k any change to improve the game is welcome. And I think you're doing a good job, the pitch and his movements are a very important part of the game. Greetings 👍👍⚾️⚾️

[WacoKid]

2 hours ago, Bostonnico said:

@WacoKid  Thank you very much friend, for everything you are doing for MLB2k any change to improve the game is welcome. And I think you're doing a good job, the pitch and his movements are a very important part of the game. Greetings 👍👍⚾️⚾️

No Problem!  Was inspired by all the work I saw going on around here to keep this game current by yourself and many others.  Glad I held onto my copy.  I'll have plenty more coming this week.  Thanks for the kind words.

[WacoKid]

Something I am working on today, is looking at Sinkers and 2 seamers.  These two pitches perform fairly similarly in real life, but have wildly different stats in game.  In many analysis I have found, it appears the differences are so minimal, that these pitches can be classified together at times due to them being difficult to differentiate.  Based on PitchF/X data, the 2 seamer actually has a little more vertical movement than the sinker, and the sinker moves horizontally slightly more than the 2 seamer.  Trajectory wise, there doesn't appear to be much difference either, they will probably be withing 10-15 degrees of each other there.  The differences i see watching video of the two pitches is going to be the downward impulse.  I will look to flatten out the two seamer flight path a little bit, and add slightly more downward impulse  to the sinker on the back end of the flight path. 

 

Also playing with the 4 seamer, to accentuate horizontal movement just a bit more, I changed the trajectory to 350.  For a RHB and RHP, this means the ball will run in a little.  Gives the four seamer more life than being a straight laser. 

 

I got to play a game in my Braves franchise today with the pitch physics altered for the 4-seam, 2-Seam, Slider, Change, and sinker.  The game was a barn burner until the 11th inning, Braves vs Nats.  Strausberg started, got injured halfway through the third.   The Nats opened up on me in the 11th for 6 runs including a Grand slam by Soto off Luke Jackson.  Threw a slider I wanted in on his hands, didn't get down or in enough, he went down and gave it a ride.  Some things I noticed, ground ball % up on sinkers/2 seamers low and away, which is what you would expect.  The outside pitches batters get ahead of and roll over on result in weak grounders, or pop ups, like you would expect.  Batters seem to go with the pitches a bit more and spray seems more realistic.  Would really like some feedback on the sinker.  Trying to get this similar to 2 seamer, with a different Trajectory.  Results in the box score below.  Also attached the pitches.csv if someone wants to import and give a go.

 

Highlight reel from game just for fun.

 

Pitches.csv

[WacoKid]

Here is 15 minutes of a game with modded pitch physics.  Scherzer vs Keuchel.   Game ended up close, won 4-3 in the 10th, on a single by Freddie Freeman down the left field line.  I do think this is affecting the spray distribution when the ball is put in play, getting a lot more variance, less balls hit up the middle and into the alleys, more even distribution around the field.  Also attached the pitches.csv here that has some changes made to the slider.  Adjusted trajectory to 120 from 115, also may look into flattening it out a little by removing some vertical

 

 

How the game ended.

 

Pitches.csv

[Bostonnico]

@WacoKid  Thank you very much bro, this is something that will definitely make a great improvement in the game, congratulations you have done well.

[WacoKid]

3 hours ago, Bostonnico said:

@WacoKid  Thank you very much bro, this is something that will definitely make a great improvement in the game, congratulations you have done well.

Thanks man!  Any feedback would be helpful if you notice anything that could be better or just needs to be changed.  Still got a lot of work to do with this so it is by no means done.  Lots of individual stats to update and testing with different movement attributes and sliders.

[WacoKid]

Here is a video with some results from latest edits of 4sfb, 2sfb, and slider.  Got video from both hitters and pitchers perspective.  Finally was able to get the slider flattened out a little bit.

 

 

[WacoKid]

An Update:

 

I started from scratch on this, starting with just the trajectories first.  I have gotten back to playing with Downward and Horizontal impulse.  Have 6 pitches done that I am pretty happy with.  Also found a set of sliders I am using and adjusting that are helping produce some great results with game lines, and also have global edits on anticipation, acceleration, and catcher block plate .  Had an excellent game last night, played as the Braves vs the Nats.  Ended up winning 2-1,  the Nats gained the lead early off a Soto solo shot in the 2nd.  I tied it up on two hits from Flowers and Swanson.  Got the second run after getting a single with Acuna, stole second, and Albies drove him in with a hit into RC.  Strausberg was on the hill, and he had 10 k's.  I got caught lookin on few fastballs away(these move a little now), but his Change was what was killing me.  The Nats threatened in both the 7th and 8th, getting runners in scoring position early.  Got lucky  With the pitch speed slider set to 75-80, off speed pitches are much more deceptive.  The changes are noticeable from the hitters perspective, so you do have to pay attention more when hitting. 

 

Change Notes:

Fastball - Adjusted trajectory to give it some life, 4 seamers do have run on them in real life.  The cool thing about this change, is it is so small, but has produced the ability to use this to freeze up hitters if you place it exactly right.  The AI will also swing more defensively against these when you are pitching close around the zone.  This means you will have to be much more protective in those 0-2, 1-2, 2-2 counts as well.  Don't count on not getting rung up.

Traj-  Set to 353.  This gives the ball that 4-5" of movement into RHB's from a RHP, and vise versa for LHP's

P4 - Upped to .650 from .600

Slider - Adopted the pitch properties of the slurve, adjusted trajectory up a bit to 125.   Make this pitch a little less flat in its trajectory, most common sliders behave this way.  It moves much more like a curveball, but with a lateral emphasis and a higher average velocity.

Traj - Set to 125

DI1 lowered to 480

DI2 lowered to 1080

P4 Left at .700 -  Knocked it up .100 to help further differentiate behavior with curveball

Slurve - Changed this pitch quite a bit, including its name to Sweeping Slider.  This is going to behave differently, have a higher velocity and a much flatter trajectory than our basic slider.  Still working on getting the effect right for this.

Curveball - Changes as noted above, to differentiate from slider more. 

Traj - Increased 5 points to 155, moves more like it should 2 to 7.

P4 - Left at 600, may lower a little bit later if I think its needed.

2 Seam Fastball - Adjusted trajectory, this behaved a little too differently from a sinker, which I will get into in a minute.

Traj - moved to 255, these have more drop in real life than what is portrayed in game.  I think this also makes the pitch a litter more deceptive to the player and forces you to hit more defensively deeper in counts.   As mentioned about the 4 seamer in the first paragraph, this can also be used to fool the AI and get them to chase out of the zone if placed correctly.  I did play with this one more to ensure it wasn't OP against the AI. 

DI1 - Lowered to 500

DI2 - Lowered to 980

P4 - Increased at tick to .650

Sinker - Worked with the 2 seam to bring these two closer together while still giving them different effect.  Mainly through closing the gap on their trajectories a little. 

Traj - This was a little too straight down in Vanilla, I brought this up to 240 to bring more in line with 2 seamer, these 2 pitches behave very similarly with some slight differences.

DI1 - Left same as vanilla at 780

DI2 - Lowered to 1180 from 1380 as the drop seemed to emphasized, while still keeping it higher than the 2 seamer.

Cut Fastball - Just wanted to flatten this out a bit.  This pitch is designed to fool hitters into thinking its a fastball, while its cutting in at their hands.  Wanted this effect more pronounced in game.  Minor changes seem to have done the trick and it is noticeable from the hitters standpoint.

Traj - lowered from 98 to 95

DI2 - Lowered from 1080 to 980.

P4 - Increased from .600 to .650

 

Next Steps

- Looking at changeups and some of the other off speed pitches

- Looking a slitter, this thing has ungodly drop in game.  Some guys can probably pull that off, but I think it needs to be adjusted a little to make more realistic. 

- Finish up the Sweeping slider.

 

I've attached the pitches.csv for importation through reditor.  If anyone wants to give this a try and give their feedback I would really appreciate it.

 

Thanks,

 

Waco

 

pitches.csv

[mariners93cuba]

On 24/5/2020 at 18:04, WacoKid said:

Aquí hay 15 minutos de un juego con física de tono modificada. Scherzer vs Keuchel. El juego terminó cerca, ganó 4-3 en el décimo, con un sencillo de Freddie Freeman en la línea del jardín izquierdo. Creo que esto está afectando la distribución del rociado cuando la pelota se pone en juego, obteniendo mucha más variación, menos bolas golpeando en el medio y en los callejones, una distribución más uniforme alrededor del campo. También adjunto aquí pitches.csv que tiene algunos cambios realizados en el control deslizante. Trayectoria ajustada a 120 desde 115, también puede considerar aplanarla un poco al eliminar algo vertical

 

 

Cómo terminó el juego.

 

Pitches.csv 2,41 kB · 3 descargas

 

How do you make the season 2019?

[WacoKid]

1 hour ago, mariners93cuba said:

 

How do you make the season 2019?

I used this franchise file, it was simulated up to 2019 at the start of spring training so players have their correct ages and such.  The roster was great too, pretty accurate.

 

2019 Franchise

[LouisvilleLipp]

Good stuff. Are you going to incorporate this into KC's 2020 roster?

[Kccitystar]

2 hours ago, LouisvilleLipp said:

Good stuff. Are you going to incorporate this into KC's 2020 roster?

[WacoKid]

2 hours ago, LouisvilleLipp said:

Good stuff. Are you going to incorporate this into KC's 2020 roster?

If it works well enough and doesnt impact hitting negatively I think that would be awesome.  So far so good, have gotten some good games with what i have so far.  Makes hitting on ore interesting.  After i get 10 or so games I'll do a post with the box scores and some more video of gameplay with changes.  Want to make sure we still get a variety of outcomes.

[WacoKid]

UPDATE:  Results from some games played

5-4 in the month of June.  Disregard the monster record my Braves currently have, I had simmed a few months to see what would happen. Have seen some great games, some hit parades, and pitching duels.  Seeing slightly more looking K's with the AI and myself, before these were very hard to come by.  I see good variety in spray, hits going to all fields, players going with pitches if timing swings right, and making weak contact if they don't.  Had to save in the middle of the last game of the 3 game set with the Pirates.  Soroka has been solid so far, 3-1, but I got shelled for 6 runs in the first 2 innings.  This really eased my concerns about the sinker being too much, and it looks pretty accurate from the batters point of view.   Overall I would say so far the changes haven't affected game play in a negative way, and is getting us more realistic ball movement and is forcing me to pay closer attention when batting, or else I get caught looking.

[picklebrad]

I have played a few with these changes and as a previous pitcher all the way through college, I love the way the ball moves now! Great job man.

[WacoKid]

4 hours ago, picklebrad said:

I have played a few with these changes and as a previous pitcher all the way through college, I love the way the ball moves now! Great job man.

Thanks!  Glad its working as intended.  Still got some work to do on offspeed pitches.  Any thoughts about changes or adjustments?  Be as nitpicky as you like.

[rr9210]

Thanks. So good!

 

What is the most important value for really good performance against AI?

 

I want to have really crazy K ball.

 

 

[WacoKid]

3 minutes ago, rr9210 said:

Thanks. So good!

 

What is the most important value for really good performance against AI?

 

I want to have really crazy K ball.

 

 

I found adding some low values to horizimp1 seemed to fool the AI more.  But it also makes the pitches look funny and unnatural.

[rr9210]

Thanks.

 

Can you make R.A Dickey's knuckleball?

I tried, but it didn't work out.

[WacoKid]

I tried adding pitches to add some types that would be putcher specific.  But it doesnt work because there are animations and artwork tied to these that we cant edit or add to.