Sunday, March 23, 2008

More MLB 08

A few more thoughts today after several more games over the weekend.
  • Looking for walks? I think there are a few key sliders that help this: CPU Pitch Aggressiveness. I put this at zero. I also bump pitch count a few clicks and drastically lower strike %. The control slider seems to be window dressing. I walk more times in MLB 08 than I ever did in High Heat.
  • I have the doubles down the line issue pretty much resolved at this point. It's not 100% authentic but it's certainly good enough for me. I focused on a few key attribute edits as well as slider tweaks. I am convinced that baserunning speed and infield arm strength -- those in-game sliders do absolutely nothing. When maxed out, the base runners aren't any faster and the arms look the same as when set to default.
  • However, the key edits are: OF reaction, Arm str, and Fielding Ability. Currently, the scale used in the game is a 100 point system. That's too high. There are players with reaction and fielding near 100 and they can cover damn near the entire outfield. I have no formula per se to lower these, but I dramatically lower the fielding attributes of every OFer in the game, as well as their reaction. Most players are well under the 50% mark in both areas. This doesn't make them play like Greg Luzinski, but it does help improve the chance of a realistic double. Same for Arm Str. The best arms I have are now at 50% -- and they can still throw runners out but the CPU seems much more willing to stretch hits into doubles instead of fearing a laser beam from left center.

This has greatly improved my experience with this game and after about 10 games using these edits playing with the Reds in Chicago, Houston, and LA, I have had very few instances where it negatively affected gameplay. Once the roster gurus fix the simmed stolen base issue, I'll be good to go for my franchise.

Did I mention how incredible this game is?