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

[bcruise]

Quote: Originally Posted by MissionMaximus

I totally agree with your statement. I max out pitch speed to make a 98mph heater realistic. I don't know why everyone's sliders has pitch speed at -10 from default. Why make a 98mph fb more like a 98mph changeup, really allows pitchers to confuse the batter cpu/human by mixing up speeds. Making a guy that might throw a max 90mph 4seamfb seem that much faster with a change of speed at 70-80mph offspeed pitch.

Exactly. But it's not just that - maxing the pitch speed brings something else into the equation - the greatly reduced timing window. Hitters don't get to see the ball floating in and react to it all the time - especially fastballs. Raising the pitch speed means that you have to anticipate and not just react. With that comes unpredictable hitting results - just like real life.

It is hard, but it's very rewarding when you anticipate fastball, turn on it, and blast it out of the park!

[sask3m]

Quote: Originally Posted by Bill_Abner

No offense taken Knight. We've both been at this tweaking editing thing for a long time. I'm just giddy that I have found a hands-on baseball game that I want to spend the time editing to my personal taste. Been a while. And I agree about the CF thing. Can't make those guys too slow or it will mess up a LOT of other things. Last night's games has me rethinking a few things. I play as the Reds and even with Dunn's reaction and fielding att's lowered to like 10 clicks, he's still able to prevent the line double unless the ball is just blistered down the line and reaches the corner. (I'd also like to add how much I wish the player ratings were actual numbers and not yellow slider bars!) And MAN I wish we had the High Heat ball friction setting! That would help. LOL Anyway.. Playing the Cubs and Soriano hit a hard grounder down the 3rd base line, Encarnacion dove and missed it, and it rolled near the wall in foul territory and Dunn, even though he was lumbering managed to cut it off and Soriano stopped at first. After looking at the replay it was clear that Soriano had NO chance and the AI knew it. Dunn had the ball in hand and Soriano was just touching 1st. And this was with Dunn edited to play like the 1940 Babe Ruth in LF. Here's a sky shot of Great American and try to imagine that scenario: http://www.baseballpilgrimages.com/n...incinnati1.jpg A grounder over the bag, and Dunn is able to hold this to a single? I dunno. Just seems off to me. But I wonder if it's just Dunn's reaction/speed? Are the baserunners a bit too slow? On the replay Soriano looked like he was carrying a piano on his back, and like I said if he had tried for 2nd Dunn had him out by 5 yards. I know that there are settings to raise baserunner speed as well as infield throw speed (the counter-balance). I might mess with this some today and see how much it screws up the rest of the game.

sorry to disappoint Bill but scea has already stated that the individual infielder outielder sliders don't work in the game , i'm not sure what soriano's speed rating in the game is but could it be lower than it should be, i've noticed more than a few players that are off.

[Brian SCEA]

Quote: Originally Posted by Squint

I find it comical that the only thing members of this, and many other forums, want is to have some level of interaction with the development team of a particular video game and when we are given that rare opportunity all tact and appreciation go out the window.

I understand the frustrations some people have, and I welcome any criticism of the game in its appropriate threads. My only concern is if off-topic posts and thread hijacking are disrupting what could be a more productive forum. If there's a way to moderate comments so off-topic posts are moved to their own thread that would make everyone happy unless the intent is to hijack the thread.

I notice the same users repeating questions that are already addressed by my posts and their own. I welcome the traumaip to review the progression of his own comments:

traumaip post 1:
"Thanks so much guys for a freaking AWSOME game man im in love with it.
Can you guys comment at all about the walkoff homerun glitch?
And if not thats cool but then could you comment on the stolen..."

It sounds like he knows these are off topic, and is cool if I don't comment. So I give him the benefit of the doubt that he read the original post and replied.

traumaip post 2:
"I would like to thank you Brain for taking time to respond to my question on stolen bases."

I thought that was it, but sometime later post 3 comes to beat the dead horse again. I reiterate what's already been posted with clarification.

traumaip post 4:
"Well thank you for answering. It just becomes a problem for those who do like our season stats and franchise stats to be close to real.."

I understand these feelings, but that's all I know. The dead horse beating continues with post 5, and other people join in with their own protests. With post 6, I can't tell if a person who was in this thread from beginning to end remembers what he and I have posted earlier in the week. If I didn't reply to post 1, it sounds like he would have been very happy. Ironically this phenomenon seems to be isolated to issues I don't know anything about.

Everyone's frustrations must be based on valid reasons, and I play the game as much as anyone else. I have my own criticisms of the game, but the difference is I don't belabor them in public and just focus on solutions.

I've been playing games for years, and I know the feeling of being so close to the experience I wanted. I go back and play some of them years later and find I'm best off enjoying what I enjoy. I'll play Civ 2 when I want real gameplay, but go to Civ 4 when I want a more visually immersive experience. I wish they'd take the gameplay of Civ 2 and apply it to Civ 4 graphics, but that won't happen so I choose accordingly and game happily without regrets. I've played thousands of games I wish I could match up, and a lot of that goes into how I develop my areas.

It goes without saying that I'm not a spokesman or customer support. If Sony wanted to give marketing and not actual practical information, they certainly wouldn't have chosen a programmer. We have commercials and demos to sell games, I'm here to help people who already have it and gain some understanding. It's my hope that the most useful information is shared elsewhere over time.

[Bill_Abner]

Quote: Originally Posted by sask3m

brian said that reducing "fielding ability" could lead to more balls getting past outfielders or to that affect anyways, maybe this also leads to cpu outfielders taking bad routes etc. as well?

Yes, and after playing a couple of games with some pretty drastic new settings -- I really like what I see mainly because I think the people who are having issues with this stuff can find a nice comfort zone. I'm pretty excited about it.

A lot of this is going to vary depending on teams, the stadiums, etc. But here are a few examples:

Both games were played @ Houston, with it's short porch in LF.

Freel hits a rocket into LF (not a hard grounder but a pretty well hit ball) that gets past Lee and rolls to the wall. Lee grabs it and throws to the relay man who fires it to second and Freel slides, beating the tag. Without the tweaks, this is a single. No doubt in my mind.

Later in the game Tejada rips one to left that lands almost right ON the line near the warning track. Dunn hustles over, bare hands the ball off the wall-hop and throws it to 2nd -- Tejada slides in safe with a double. It was close -- but he beat the throw.

Without the edits, I think both of these are either singles or the runners are thrown out. Both, to me, looked liked doubles the moment they were hit.

This is admittedly a very small sample (2 games) but right now I am focusing on:

Batting Contact (slider)
Pitch Speed (slider)
Baserunning Speed (slider)
IF throwing Speed (slider)
Outfielder Reaction (Attribute)
OF Fielding -- more important than I thought (Attribute)
OF Arm Strength --another vital one I think (Attribute)

This might end up blowing up later on, but man...really liked that two game sample.

[Brian SCEA]

Quote: Originally Posted by bsb13

I know its probably too little, too late, but I co-sign when it comes to there being a problem with errors in the PS2 version. I'm just not seeing any throwing errors or outfield errors by me or the CPU. I fear if I play every game in my season I'm going to be winning a lot of gold gloves. Just thought I would throw that in there. Thanks

Thanks this is good to know. It sounds like this is PS2 related but not on PS3. This was the key point I wanted to verify.

[Deutscher]

Quote: Originally Posted by Brian SCEA

If you mean do we sometimes upload a roster where nothing's changed, I don't think that's typical if it's ever happened. What I like is how there's a changelist for each roster you can check, so I hope that would answer your question. I don't handle trades and callups but from what I've seen there's a fairly quick turnaround. You'll see attributes change depending on some factors, and that's a continuously evolving system.

I guess my question may have been a bit wordy. My apologies. I guess what I'm asking is when people download the Knight Rosters...will they stick with those throughout their franchise??

Or will people be updating their rosters every week?

Or is the weekly roster update moreso aimed at online play or people wanting to start a franchise with the LATEST roster??

Hopefully that's better worded lol

Thanks again, I can't even begin to explain how much I appreciate all of this!

[Brian SCEA]

Quote: Originally Posted by Pared

I've mentioned this to Brian and hopefully he'll see my point... it's really not so much the fielders speed or reaction but the hangtime and trajectory of the ball when it comes off the bat down line... as well as ball friction during certain instances. You still can't have a ball hit down the line go all the way down the line to the corner of the wall... because fielders read this and play the bounce accordingly. The AI defenders don't do this and properly cut off the ball prior to it getting there.

Yes, this was my point when I asked if attributes were the root of the problem. Some people think it is, but you and I are in the other camp. I think attributes can be improved several ticks regardless, and going even further could help. Roster updates happen on Monday so we'll see. The root of the problem is not in any area I have the power to change. If my speculation is correct, the real problem takes months to solve. The best I can do is dance around it with pitching/hitting/attribute changes in my power.

This is always a question of degree of precision, and hopefully each year the issues people talk about will become finer and finer. As mentioned, we'll also give the user more control of these things as well. If anyone feels this is fundamentally a step back from last year, let me know by PM to avoid an avalanche.

[Knight165]

Quote: Originally Posted by Bill_Abner

Batting Contact (slider) Pitch Speed (slider) Baserunning Speed (slider) IF throwing Speed (slider) Outfielder Reaction (Attribute) OF Fielding -- more important than I thought (Attribute) OF Arm Strength --another vital one I think (Attribute) This might end up blowing up later on, but man...really liked that two game sample.

Bill with the exception of the contact slider(I confess...I really only "play" games to test...otherwise it's manage only mode for me)...and the IF throw speed(I actually put the fielder arm speed.....that does both to +5...to get the OF to throw directly to the bag more often)...
...these are the main focus of my edits....it was last year and continues to be this year.
You're exactly right....the combo of OF reaction and ability is excellent IMO...add to that ....that I lower the arm strength but also lower the accuracy. That allows me to not totally weaken the arm of the OF's....but still get guys into the bases for extra base hits....tag ups etc......I know it seems like putting the ARM STRENGTH slider to +5 is contradictive but it's not really. It's almost like a trigger for the OF's to rely less on the cutoff guys...with the lower arm strength and accuracy attribute edits...I'm happy.
Not that you need my confirmation.....but you're definitely in the right frame of thinking IMO.

M.K.
Knight165

[Knight165]

Whoops....I'm sorry....I just realized that Brian was still answering questions and making comment in this thread.
I don't want to derail or clutter it...sorry.
I will PM or start another thread(maybe a better idea) anything about edits.

M.K.
Knight165

[SoxChamp]

Quote: Originally Posted by Knight165

I know it seems like putting the ARM STRENGTH slider to +5 is contradictive but it's not really. It's almost like a trigger for the OF's to rely less on the cutoff guys...with the lower arm strength and accuracy attribute edits...I'm happy. Not that you need my confirmation.....but you're definitely in the right frame of thinking IMO.

I agree completely. After seeing your suggestion of setting ARM STRENGTH to +5, I was amazed at how much of a difference it made. Playing MO mode, I could never get shallow outfielders to throw all the way home on a tag. They always hit the cutoff man and there was never a play at the plate. But by clicking it up 5 ticks, outfielders routinely throw directly home. There's now a much greater chance for a close play at the plate.