Stats-Based CPU Sliders [MLB 12 Version]

[nomo17k]

The initial testing with the default slider set after 75 games.

My impression is that unless you are nitpicky, things are good as is. There are some stats that are kinda off, but not to the extent the game doesn't play well. The game stats are compared to 2009 - 2011 MLB ave when offense has come down a bit, so even the slightly higher batting average (.273 to .257) isn't that much of an issue really.

What improvement can I make?

What I consider to be a relatively significant deviations (game to MLB ave):

-- GIDPs (1.19 to 0.75)
-- WPs (0.08 to 0.33)
-- HBPs (0.11 to 0.32)

Minor deviations:

-- walks (2.92 to 3.21)
-- strikeouts (6.60 to 7.04)
-- swing & miss rate (17.2% to 19.4%)
-- batting average (.273 to .257)
-- steal attempts (0.71 per game to 0.89)

Very minor deviations:

-- doubles (18.1% of all hits to 19.9%)
-- steal success rate (67.9% to 72.3%)
-- fielding errors (0.26 to 0.33)
-- strike % (63.3% to 62.9%)
-- foul (25.8 to 24.8)



### SLIDER SET FOR THE STATS ###

Contact: 5
Power: 5
Timing: 5
Foul Frequency: 5
Solid Hits: 5
Starter Stamina: 5
Reliever Stamina: 5
Pitcher Control: 5
Pitcher Consistency: 5
Strike Frequency: 5
Manager Hook: 5
Pickoffs: 5
Pitch Speed: 10
Fielding Errors: 5
Throwing Errors: 5
Fielder Run Speed: 5
Fielder Reaction: 5
Fielder Arm Strength: 5
BR Speed: 5
BR Steal Ability: 5
BR Steal Frequency: 5
Wind: 5
Injury Frequency: 5

[bubs3141]

wow

so you are saying that the sliders on default except for pitch speed at 10 is the way to go this year? Could the developers actually have followed your posts from previous years? Are you a secret developer?

Nice job Scea and maybe (Nomo)

[nomo17k]

Quote: Originally Posted by bubs3141

wow so you are saying that the sliders on default except for pitch speed at 10 is the way to go this year? Could the developers actually have followed your posts from previous years? Are you a secret developer? Nice job Scea and maybe (Nomo)

The default slider is at least as good as what the stats in that post suggests.

It's just that the gameplay designers know what they are doing. I did this last year and even back then was very impressed that a whole a lot of stats just were right on. To do that, they really must be a good student of the game...

The title for the best baseball sim is warranted!!

I must add: Whoever are working on this part of the game deserve raise from SCEA. I said that last year and repeat that again.

[ParisB]

Quote: Originally Posted by nomo17k

The default slider is at least as good as what the stats in that post suggests. It's just that the gameplay designers know what they are doing. I did this last year and even back then was very impressed that a whole a lot of stats just were right on. To do that, they really must be a good student of the game... The title for the best baseball sim is warranted!! I must add: Whoever are working on this part of the game deserve raise from SCEA. I said that last year and repeat that again.

Yea, totally agree. Thanks for your time and efforts man.

[tgreer]

75 games in the books? Wow, you sir are a machine. Through my first 20 games i was a little worried (very little because of the small sample size) about hits and runs being a tad low. But I got to say, so far games 21-28 are putting any worries to rest that I had. They have been very good offensive games. I'm still gonna do a 50 (at least) game run on Default but I agree with you, I believe this years version is that close without touching a thing. Your stats over 75 games obviously back that up!

[nomo17k]

Quote: Originally Posted by tgreer

75 games in the books? Wow, you sir are a machine. Through my first 20 games i was a little worried (very little because of the small sample size) about hits and runs being a tad low. But I got to say, so far games 21-28 are putting any worries to rest that I had. They have been very good offensive games. I'm still gonna do a 50 (at least) game run on Default but I agree with you, I believe this years version is that close without touching a thing. Your stats over 75 games obviously back that up!

I'm on Vita and keep running the games in background while I do other stuff, so that's the not-so-secret secret...

It's good to double check if Vita and PS3 versions both give similar stats, so we should still compare once you guys accumulate enough stats. Then we can say we are likely really on equal footing, haha.

[seanjeezy]

Do you think lowering consistency 1 click would throw everything out of whack? wouldn't it address the low WP and HBP and possibly BB and strike%?

Edit:
Also Nomo, what have you seen in regards to relief appearances and manager hook? are specialists facing the right amount of batters with reliever stamina on default?

[Heroesandvillains]

I'm impressed, Nomo.

I'm in a bit of a rush right now, but I'll be back tomorrow with some of my thoughts. I'm just going to suggest an, "Easy does it." I'd like to see you go to less extremes this year (in an effort to get a finalized set done, sooner versus later).

But I know how much you love to test the sliders, so obviously Tgreer, Floyd and myself can do that while you do whatever it is you've been planning on.

I'm thinking consistency could come down to 4, as well as fouls to 4, and stolen base success could go to 7 (thanks to Ninjoid).

And...I'm already elaborating when I promised I'd pick your brain tomorrow! LOL! I'll be back, but GREAT WORK MAN! You just saved so many of us so much time!!! Thank you, Nomo!

[nomo17k]

Quote: Originally Posted by seanjeezy

Do you think lowering consistency 1 click would throw everything out of whack? wouldn't it address the low WP and HBP and possibly BB and strike%?

I don't think it does, at least not by just one click. I was using Pitcher Consistency 2 (out of 10) last year to bring 2.5 walks to about 3.4 per game per team and that's quite a few clicks down, but it really didn't affect other parts of the game much.

If anything, this year I could add a bit more walks probably by just one or two clicks down, which probably won't bring HBPs and WPs close enough to real life; these need to be almost tripled. But I'd take walks more than WPs since the latter happens less in general.

Quote:

Also Nomo, what have you seen in regards to relief appearances and manager hook? are specialists facing the right amount of batters with reliever stamina on default?

I'm tracking a couple stats to see how pitchers are used, but not detailed enough to see if the moves really make sense. But the number of pitchers used in games (Np in the spreadsheet), number of pitches starters throws (PC1), number of IPs starters throw on ave (IP Strt) are right on, so as far as the number of hooks it seems fine. I've seen 9 CGs which is about twice more than expected from MLB ave, but this might be luck so I'm not concerned much.

Quote: Originally Posted by heroesandvillians

I'm impressed, Nomo. I'm in a bit of a rush right now, but I'll be back tomorrow with some of my thoughts. I'm just going to suggest an, "Easy does it." I'd like to see you go to less extremes this year (in an effort to get a finalized set done, sooner versus later). But I know how much you love to test the sliders, so obviously Tgreer, Floyd and myself can do that while you do whatever it is you've been planning on. I'm thinking consistency could come down to 4, as well as fouls to 4, and stolen base success could go to 7 (thanks to Ninjoid). And...I'm already elaborating when I promised I'd pick your brain tomorrow! LOL! I'll be back, but GREAT WORK MAN! You just saved so many of us so much time!!! Thank you, Nomo!

Is the BR Steal Ability slider backward this year again? Have to see you guys stats again...

I agree with Consistency 4. I probably end up using Foul 4 if the foul number keeps up, but I actually want to see a bit more swing and misses than what that slider can do.

Actually few appear concerned, but I find GIDPs quite nagging. They are rally killers and as annoying as all these balls hitting pitchers in up the middle... But don't know what the best way really is to reduce them.

[nomo17k]

Okay, here's the set I'm gonna go with for the next test. What changed is in italics.

Contact: 4
Power: 5
Timing: 5
Foul Frequency: 5
Solid Hits: 5
Starter Stamina: 5
Reliever Stamina: 5
Pitcher Control: 5
Pitcher Consistency: 4
Strike Frequency: 5
Manager Hook: 5
Pickoffs: 5
Pitch Speed: 10
Fielding Errors: 6
Throwing Errors: 5
Fielder Run Speed: 4
Fielder Reaction: 5
Fielder Arm Strength: 2
BR Speed: 5
BR Steal Ability: 5
BR Steal Frequency: 7
Wind: 5
Injury Frequency: 5

My reasoning for the changes:

By lowering Contact, I hope to reduce batting average while increasing swing & miss which should lead to more Ks.

By lowering Pitcher Consistency, I hope to induce more walks, and slightly lower strike percentage as well. Likely not enough, but this should also increase HBPs and WPs a bit.

I see more throwing errors happening than fielding errors. The overall number of errors seems to be fine, but for now I'll just increase Fielding Errors to see how things go.

Decreasing Fielder Run Speed is largely aesthetic, but this might produce a little more XBHs. I don't wish to increase triples, but I can have more doubles.

Decreasing Fielder Arm Strength is also aesthetic but it's obvious arms are too strong so this is justified. Hopefully this contributes to slightly more XBHs, and reduce GIDPs on bang-bang plays at 1B.

Increasing BR Steal Frequency to increase steal attempts.