AI Follow-up Questions...ie The Boys are back in town....

[J-Unit40]

Brian, this may have been mentioned earlier, but the CPU outfielders appear to be a tad too fast or maybe they play too deep and cut off a lot of the would-be gappers and down the line shots? Thoughts.

Oh, and I play on All-Star with Fielder Reaction slider at -10 and Fielder Speed at -10. Thanks.

[ty5oke]

Quote: Originally Posted by J-Unit40

Chris + Kolbe + Brian = Freaking stellar!!

Exactly.

[PadresFan104]

Brian, Kolbe, Chris - I'm stunned by the amount of information you continue to share with the community. That last post by Brian was insanely cool.

Brian - I am in my second year of RTTS and I now have about 500 total at bats. I can appreciate your persistence about small sample size, vs. the experience over the long haul. On default All-Star, the ups and downs are all there and it feels "right" for me without any slider tweaks at all.

I don't have any questions that haven't already been asked, but I can't wait to read more of your well thought out, and informative posts. You're making my favorite sports game of all time even better!!

[Pared]

Brian,

On default AS or HOF it seems as if Hits down the line are difficult to come by. It's very hard to have a ball hit where the OF won't cut it off before it rolls to the wall.

Is this an issue with the user not getting around fast enough? It seems like many hits land just outside the foul line that would be ideal for these kinds of hits but they are very few and far in between.

It's very hard for the user to get a double down the line because of this.

[Pared]

Also any thoughts on pickoffs? It would be nice if the user has some sort of input on how this occurs... such as a snap throw to first or a fake to third then first.

Unless I'm missing something... the user has no input in this situation aside from deciding to pickoff, correct?

[tmoneymill]

Hey pared, ever since i have set my OF depth to shallow for always, i have been seeing more cpu hard hits right down the line get the wall. and depending on the batter, its either a stand up double or a close play triple. Same with hard line drives to the gap. Now with the pop flys at the warning track, you still have time to get back to those, and you can even still get back to attempt to rob hrs.

If they moved "normal" depth up 5 steps it would be perfect, i think they play just a lil too deep on normal

[nemesis04]

Quote: Originally Posted by Brian SCEA

Q: Pitcher stamina slider doesn't do much, if anything. Pitcher control doesn't seem to do anything either. (Garrett67) A: There are two stamina sliders, one for the starting pitcher and one for relievers. A typical starter will change +/- 12 pitches for reaching 0 energy (though 1/4 is a more typical baseline for subs). Certain pitch types take more energy to throw (each game will be slightly different) but pitch count alone will give you a good idea. If you want to reduce control and keep the game somewhat balanced around that, I'd suggest the pitch count slider.

With regards to the pitching fatigue slider, is it a fatigue slider or a stamina slider? The slider itself is labeled fatigue but the description talks about stamina. Depending on which one it is tells us which way to go. People seem split on what it is.

Also, in game there is a third bar above the other two which increases or decreases based on what you do with the starter and relief pitching fatigue slider collectively. What info is that third bar supposed to be telling us?

Thanks!

[countryboy]

when the patch is released(not going to tell when are you guys ) will we have to restart a franchise in order to see the "updates" or will they still take effect in an existing franchise?

Thanks

[JT30]

Quote: Originally Posted by countryboy

when the patch is released(not going to tell when are you guys ) will we have to restart a franchise in order to see the "updates" or will they still take effect in an existing franchise? Thanks

Countryboy.. Are you kidding? Did you not see what Brian wrote?

"I'd like to keep this thread to my areas of knowledge, such as strategy or gameplay"

Jeeez...give him a break

[Brian SCEA]

Q&A Part III
Sorry for these longer responses, I hope the format allows each person to find their topics of interest.

Q: Brian, this may have been mentioned earlier, but the CPU outfielders appear to be a tad too fast or maybe they play too deep and cut off a lot of the would-be gappers and down the line shots? Thoughts. (J-Unit40)
A: That's a good theory. I've noticed certain stadiums make a big difference on certain type of hits in this regard (i.e. stadium factors). You should also see a longterm difference in results between good and bad fielders. The starting 9 players are also slightly superior at fielding compared to the average performance over the year as other players are mixed in. This is certainly a question of degree and precision if we're talking small adjustments.
A: One tip I forgot to mention is that the speed at which outfielders move is partly related to their fielding ability (which also affects quality of fielding). And reaction of course gives them a good jump too, more apparent on infielders. I don't know about fielding depth and can't speculate. I plan to look at attributes for the roster and explore some theories. If it's a valid issue that the roster would address then it'll happen. If it's working correctly considering all users (a representative sample) to a reasonable degree, that's how it'll stay. Many users have seen a reasonable number of doubles, but again this is a subjective question of degree/precision. If I won't change it because it's working reasonably for the average user, I've at least told you how.

Q: Brian - I am in my second year of RTTS and I now have about 500 total at bats. I can appreciate your persistence about small sample size, vs. the experience over the long haul. (PadresFan104)
A: That's great to hear. I've had similar experiences using different play styles, but I recognize there will be a variety of experiences given a variety of players. With certain stats like HRs or Walks there will naturally be some more people on the side of "too few HRs" and "too few Walks" due to the learning curve, and that's fine to the right extent. What's more important than stats is if the stats made sense in context, and happened for appropriate reasons including luck.

Q: It seems like many hits land just outside the foul line that would be ideal for these kinds of hits but they are very few and far in between. (Pared)
A: The way the game works, a near miss is a near miss. In fact, a superior contact batter would have landed some of them fair, as would moving the pitches an inch in your favor. Streaks will also happen where a number of hits land just fair in succession.

Q: Also any thoughts on pickoffs? It would be nice if the user has some sort of input on how this occurs... such as a snap throw to first or a fake to third then first.
Unless I'm missing something... the user has no input in this situation aside from deciding to pickoff, correct? (Pared)
A: Yes, that would be nice. I don't have the space to discuss software development philosophy and can't justify doing it on company time. But I don't regret our allocation of time and priority for this past year.
A: There's a lot of strategy regarding steals/pickoffs/leadoffs/pitchouts/hit+runs, and it would take more than a page to cover it in summary. I'd certainly like to improve it more but most of it works under the hood already. Specifically about pickoffs, if you see the runner lead off, you have some chance of getting an out. You usually won't succeed except in the long run (unless the guy's on the 2nd or 3rd extra), but it serves a second purpose by holding the runner (reduced steal chance, reduced success rate, pitcher can focus more on batter, etc..). Alternatively if you see a leadoff and think it's a steal (human or CPU) you could pitch out (1 free out is much better than 1 ball costs). In higher level play that's a good way to think ahead of an amateur.
A: Handedness and other factors have their influence but it doesn't change basic strategy. In real life I can't recall but it's maybe 200 pickoffs per out - hhowever most are half-hearted pickoffs that can be condensed to equivalent events/balance. I'm talking situations where the pitcher doesn't even have to release the ball to get the runner to return. There is the chance of overthrowing but if you ever see that chances are you'd have picked off a couple guys by now (unless you're picking off at no leadoffs). To wrap this up pickoffs are successful in the long run (in RL you're lucky to net 1 game out of 162 because of it), so it's only for advanced users or competitive play.

Out of fairness for other topics and time, that's all I'll say for steal strategy and sliders. I can't answer questions as fast as they come while working on the game, and as I said we'll try to ramp down gradually on Q&A.