Blazzen's Slider Research Thread

[Blazzen]

Hey guys.

Let me start by saying this is for SWING STICK and TOTAL CONTROL PITCHING ONLY. If you are a zone hitter or a classic user, STOP READING NOW, HIT YOUR BACK BUTTON OR CLOSE THE WINDOW.

Anyways, I made a spreadsheet with all of the popular slider sets to compare them. Some slider sets I get too much offense, some not enough, some too many singles, some too many home runs, etc. So I figured I'd compare them and also include the default settings on there as a reference.

I've noticed a couple of things. Some sliders weren't meant to be changed. The best way to pick out these sliders are in the default settings. When they don't change between all star and legend they were meant to be at that setting. These sliders include things like runner speed and fielder speed. The game was designed to be realistic with these sliders at that particular setting.

I also decided to take an average of all the sliders ("AVG") and an average of the all star and legend default settings ("Default AVG").

I came up with my ("Blazzen") sliders basically by averaging the "AVG" and "Default AVG" settings with the one exception being CPU strike zone tendency. We all know that slider has to be low in order to get a realistic amount of walks.

Anyways, let me know what everyone thinks. I haven't tried out the Blazzen slider set yet (I'm bored at work which is why I decided to do this in the first place ). I'll try them out when I get home.

POST RESULTS HERE! kkthx

EDIT: Posted below are the most current "Blazzen" Sliders. I'll continue to update these sliders as I tweak them ON THIS PAGE, however I will not continue to update the spreadsheet because it was mainly for research purposes. Plus it's a pain in the *** to change it, save it, zip it and then upload it (I'm lazy). BOLD MEANS THAT SETTING HAS CHANGED AND IS NOT THE SAME AS THE SPREADSHEET.

Slider Name	Blazzen
Pitcher Fatigue	45
User Batting
Batting Success	60
Batting Contact	40
Batting Power	70
Pitcher Handedness Influence	100
IE Batting Zone Influence	100
Batting Pitch Influence	75
Batter's Eye Influence	50
Hit Direction Influence	50
Zone Hitting Influence	50
Bunt Contact	50
Bunt Success	50
CPU Batting
Batting Success	60
Batting Contact	60
Batting Power	80
Pitcher Handedness Influence	100
IE Batting Zone Influence	100
Batting Pitch Influence	75
Bunt Contact	65
Bunt Success	50
User Pitching
Pitch Meter Speed	80
Pitch Speed	80
Gesture Recognition	80
Hold Timing Influence	80
Release Timing Influence	80
Pitch Rating Influence	100
Pitch Break Influence	100
Pitcher Composure Influence	80
CPU Pitching
Pitch Success	65
Pitch Selection Tendency	75
Strike Zone Tendency	5
Pitch Zone Tendency	10
Pitcher Composure Influence	75
User Fielding
Fielding Errors	20
Throw Meter Influence	90
Fielder Speed	50
CPU Fielding
Fielding Errors	40
Fielder Speed	50
User Running
Base Runner Speed	65
Pickoff Success	25
Catcher Throw Out Success	40
CPU Running
Hit and Run Tendency	75
Sacrifice Bunt Tendency	70
Squeeze Tendency	70
Base Running Aggression	75
Steal Aggression	50
Steal Success	45

[mkharsh33]

very nice! appreciate you putting this together. i've made me a copy of this and am looking things over - will give yours a try. i always like these comparisons as it helps make sense of what people are thinking on certain things. i'm not quite happy with my own set - want a challenge mixed with realism, but simulation all the way.

thanks!

[ckarlic]

Quote: Originally Posted by mkharsh33

very nice! appreciate you putting this together. i've made me a copy of this and am looking things over - will give yours a try. i always like these comparisons as it helps make sense of what people are thinking on certain things. i'm not quite happy with my own set - want a challenge mixed with realism, but simulation all the way. thanks!

Looks great!! Just picked up this game Yesterday and will give these a go sometime this weekend

[jkra0512]

First off, great job putting this all in one spot. Secondly, I thought Holy Grails' sliders were for classic hitting?

[Blazzen]

Quote: Originally Posted by jkra0512

First off, great job putting this all in one spot. Secondly, I thought Holy Grails' sliders were for classic hitting?

You are 100% correct sir, my mistake. That explains the odd slider values in his set.

The file has been updated. Note this did change some of the "Blazzen" slider values slightly.

Also, I changed the excel version to 97-2003 workbook. I went home at lunch and my home PC doesn't have Excel 2007 and it wouldn't open. So it should open for everyone now.

[Blazzen]

Busy weekend - out of town for a wedding but I did get a few games in over the course of the week.

My Braves franchise pretty much keeps up with the RL schedule though I'm a week or two behind because I had to send the Xbox off for repair.

I played the phillies series, nats series and 1 game in the cubs series. I went 2-1 against the phillies, swept the nats and lost the first game to the cubs.

I'd say the only thing that's been a little low is user and cpu strike outs. The higher contact rating has a lot to do with that I imagine. I wasn't too patient pitching or at the plate either. I found you have to throw a certain amount of balls to the CPU to get strikeouts and I was throwing too many first pitch fastballs for strikes. I was also jumping on a lot of first pitch fastballs from the CPU. I'm considering lowering the CPU strike zone down to 0.

I also lowered user errors to 30. 50 was too high.

Overall the slider set is working out pretty well and I will continue to use it. Let me know how its working out for everyone else!

[mkharsh33]

agree with your thoughts...and i've also lowered cpu strike zone to zero - it's amazing the difference between 5 and 0 on that particular slider...much more true to life.

thanks again for sharing that spreadsheet - i made a copy and it was very helpful to see them lined up side by side.

[Blazzen]

Quote: Originally Posted by mkharsh33

agree with your thoughts...and i've also lowered cpu strike zone to zero - it's amazing the difference between 5 and 0 on that particular slider...much more true to life. thanks again for sharing that spreadsheet - i made a copy and it was very helpful to see them lined up side by side.

I also bumped up CPU pitch success from 60 to 65. It was honestly right in the middle with the averaging (62.5) and I decided to go lower. Now that I've played a few games I decided to go to 65.

I'm going to leave the spreadsheet the same, but I'm going to post the "Blazzen" sliders in the first thread and keep them up to date as I tweak them.

[mkharsh33]

good deal...i'll note the change. funny, but i've done so much roster editing lately that i haven't actually played any games...

[Blazzen]

UPDATE:

So far the CPU has scored at most 4 runs on me. I've played 10 games with the sliders so far and I'm 8-2 (Went 2-1 vs. Phillies, 3-0 vs Nats, 2-1 vs Cubs and now 2-0 vs Rockies) but one game against the Cubs was simulated which I won. The Braves do have really good pitching though.

My last 2 games have been against the Rockies. Vazquez went 7 innings giving up 1 run - I ended up winning the game 6-1. Todd Helton doubled in a run in the 7th for the only Rockies run. I bunched singles and doubles along with the help of 4 walks and 2 hit batsman to get my 6 runs against whoever the right handed sinker baller they have is. The next game I won 6-0. Jurrjens (who was 5-8 with a 5.02 ERA coming into the game) threw a complete game shutout. 6ks, 5 hits, 0BB. I scored all 6 runs in one inning off whoever the hispanic sounding left handed starter they have is (I'm awful with names lol). McLouth had a lead off triple in the inning, Diaz had a bases loaded 3RBI double that inning which 2 of the 3 runners reached without a hit (BB and HBP). Think the line was something like:

Rockies 0 5 0
Braves 6 11 1

I'm kind of wondering if I need to raise the CPU batting to about what JBH3 uses (70, 60, 80 - it's currently at 60 60 75). Then again, the most offense I've put up is 6 runs and I've done that only twice. All of the other games I've won have been 4 run or less affairs which really has played out about how Braves games go. The CPU can't seem to bunch hits together and they also hit into a lot of double plays. I don't walk very many people at all either so that doesn't help the CPU's cause. I have given up home runs (a 3 run shot to Aramis Ramirez in the bottom of the 8th with Rafael Soriano trying to close out the cubs still lingers in my mind) but not that many, though, in RL the Braves give up the least homers in the majors I believe. I'm thinking I might just be on a hot streak because my overal record is only 8 games over .500, which I've gained 6 of those 8 in the last 10 games. The phillies have lost 6 straight which put me in first place for the first time all season with my last win!

I have 2 more games until the All Star Break (like I said I'm behind due to my Xbox having to be sent off for repair). I think I'll play these 2 games and if I don't see any more offense from the Rockies I may bump up the CPU batting a bit. I may also raise user pitch gesture as I believe this will cause more walks and more "meaty" pitches because right now I can paint the black a little bit too easy.

Thoughts?