question on game difficulty settings

mpbarnet · 03-29-2009, 08:26 PM

Is there a setting to increase the difficulty anywhere? I can't find one, and the best I'm coming up with is the trade difficulty settings. I just finished my 18th straight year with the Orioles winning at least 96 games, and are looking for more challenge.

I've looked over the online manual and can't find anything useful. Ugh.

Thanks
Michael

PhillieFever · 03-29-2009, 09:35 PM

Here's some tips to ramp up difficulty:

First off,use these settings for trading: Hard/Heavily favor prospects.Alson,never use the shop around feature,just seems broken too me.

Secondly,scouts are a bit too accurate for me in the game,change the setting to make them less accurate

Third,a little more extreme,but you can turn off ratings all together and play by just using stats,makes it much more challenging to rate players.

Fourth,this is a little more drastic bu you can go to talent change randomness and jack it up to 150,by doing that players ratings will have a lot more spikes and drops making the game much more unpredictable.

RchW · 03-29-2009, 09:47 PM

You can always beat the AI. You need to ensure that you don't fleece AI teams for 2 or 3 prospects in trades for declining vets. Make sure injuries are on and trading is difficult. Don't hoard players. Release or trade (reasonably) anyone you can't use and that will level the playing field a little. Limit your cash and/or payroll to the middle third of the league. If you don't have morale turned on, do so, it will add just enough uncertainty to help, and may have you trading disgruntled players.

One of the best ways to increase difficulty is to switch teams every 3-5 years. Take over the worst team and build it into a contender.

How many WS did you win in 18 years?

mpbarnet · 03-30-2009, 08:28 PM

went to the series 8 times, winning 5.

I want it to be as realistic as possible, so I'm not really down with raising the unpredictability through the roof. There's no need for a Nefi Perez to turn in a year in which he hits, which would be unpredictable!

If I set the trading to heavily favor prospects, does that mean the AI will want my prospects, or that it will want my vets and to ship off their prospects?

PhillieFever · 03-30-2009, 10:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mpbarnet

went to the series 8 times, winning 5.

I want it to be as realistic as possible, so I'm not really down with raising the unpredictability through the roof. There's no need for a Nefi Perez to turn in a year in which he hits, which would be unpredictable!

If I set the trading to heavily favor prospects, does that mean the AI will want my prospects, or that it will want my vets and to ship off their prospects?

It means it will be nearly impossible to pry top prospects for aging vets,a common OOTP strategy

mpbarnet · 03-30-2009, 10:27 PM

Ah, so what you're saying is John Hart and Mark Shapiro are nowhere to be found to pluck Cliff Lee, Grady Sizemore, and Brandon Phillips for 2 months of Bartolo Colon off Omar Minaya?

satchel · 03-31-2009, 09:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mpbarnet

Is there a setting to increase the difficulty anywhere?

Play online against humans and be humbled.

lt2cents · 04-01-2009, 09:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mpbarnet

Is there a setting to increase the difficulty anywhere? I can't find one, and the best I'm coming up with is the trade difficulty settings. I just finished my 18th straight year with the Orioles winning at least 96 games, and are looking for more challenge.

I've looked over the online manual and can't find anything useful. Ugh.

Thanks
Michael

That there is no one game difficulty setting is a real weakness of OOTP-- behind it is that the AI is weak in roster management, game play management, financial management and player development. It's why you see so many requests for improvements in this or that part of the AI. And why everyone has to figure out how to handicap themselves to make it interesting. But of course self handicapping is not the kind of competition anyone really wants.

All the self handicap suggestions are useful and there are many more, some that I use. But the real solution unfortunately lies in having to wait for improvements in the AI. When the AI is good enough to regularly beat us, then it will really be useful to have a difficulty setting-- to handicap the AI so that we get a chance once in a while.

lt2cents · 04-01-2009, 09:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lt2cents

... But the real solution unfortunately lies in having to wait for improvements in the AI. When the AI is good enough to regularly beat us, then it will really be useful to have a difficulty setting-- to handicap the AI so that we get a chance once in a while.

Getting a competitive AI is the prerequisite need to make a challenging game. And it must be an AI that gets along by 'smarts', not by cheating like some computer games. It must make good decisions, not fiddle with the human players ratings, or twiddle the injury rates for computer teams vs. human, and so forth.

So-- QUESTIONs:
So given that eventually the OOTP AI might be too good ( well someday maybe ???? !!!) --- what would be suggestions to set up a game difficulty scale by handicapping the AI? How would you do it without resorting to making the AI what it is now (for instance)?

SteveP · 04-01-2009, 02:25 PM

If you want to play a game on the computer where the AI isn't cheating and regularly beats you, try chess.

If you want to play to win and have more balance in the competition, play fictional leagues. As it is, if you play with "real" players, you have an advantage over the AI, since the AI can't duplicate your level of holistic knowledge about real life players.

The hard truth is that we are many, many years away from having computer AIs that can play a realistic computer sim as good as a human -- without cheating, which would destroy the reason for a realistic computer sim. In the meantime, there are satisfactions to be had in the chance to immerse yourself in a world that few people get to experience IRL.

phightin · 04-01-2009, 09:45 PM

The problem with the whole not trading aging veterans for prospects strategy is that many many times you will find that a 4 or 5 star prospect will in fact never turn out to be anywhere close to that good. So your stuck with a situation where you don't want to cheat to get a 4 or 5 star prospect but not even sure at the same time if you're really cheating or not. Plus in real life many many teams trade away prospects for somewhat aging veterans thinking they did in fact get the better of the deal. there's just no moral way to figure out how to deal with it.

Afino · 04-01-2009, 10:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by satchel

Play online against humans and be humbled.

See my signature for proof on THAT one.

PSUColonel · 04-01-2009, 10:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by phightin

The problem with the whole not trading aging veterans for prospects strategy is that many many times you will find that a 4 or 5 star prospect will in fact never turn out to be anywhere close to that good. So your stuck with a situation where you don't want to cheat to get a 4 or 5 star prospect but not even sure at the same time if you're really cheating or not. Plus in real life many many teams trade away prospects for somewhat aging veterans thinking they did in fact get the better of the deal. there's just no moral way to figure out how to deal with it.

This is why I actually think Neutral is the best setting. I believe most or many of the testers agree.

If anything, perhaps favor veterans is more realistic...however I've never tried it.

jmknpk2 · 04-02-2009, 04:49 AM

I was able to routinely beat the game, build up a team and win several world series in a row. It wasn't until someone recommended turning off ratings and playing only with stats (like someone mentioned earlier in this thread) that I found a challenge. I have not won a world series yet in that mode.

PSUColonel · 04-02-2009, 12:12 PM

yes, but then you're giving the AI an advantage, as it has a feeling of what the ratings are..

03-29-2009, 08:26 PM	#1
mpbarnet Minors (Single A) Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 93	question on game difficulty settings Is there a setting to increase the difficulty anywhere? I can't find one, and the best I'm coming up with is the trade difficulty settings. I just finished my 18th straight year with the Orioles winning at least 96 games, and are looking for more challenge. I've looked over the online manual and can't find anything useful. Ugh. Thanks Michael

03-29-2009, 09:35 PM	#2
PhillieFever Hall Of Famer Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Elk Twp. NJ Posts: 6,763	Here's some tips to ramp up difficulty: First off,use these settings for trading: Hard/Heavily favor prospects.Alson,never use the shop around feature,just seems broken too me. Secondly,scouts are a bit too accurate for me in the game,change the setting to make them less accurate Third,a little more extreme,but you can turn off ratings all together and play by just using stats,makes it much more challenging to rate players. Fourth,this is a little more drastic bu you can go to talent change randomness and jack it up to 150,by doing that players ratings will have a lot more spikes and drops making the game much more unpredictable. __________________ We're All Wednesday Aren't We? WAWAW

03-29-2009, 09:47 PM	#3
RchW Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Toronto ON by way of Glasgow UK Posts: 15,629	You can always beat the AI. You need to ensure that you don't fleece AI teams for 2 or 3 prospects in trades for declining vets. Make sure injuries are on and trading is difficult. Don't hoard players. Release or trade (reasonably) anyone you can't use and that will level the playing field a little. Limit your cash and/or payroll to the middle third of the league. If you don't have morale turned on, do so, it will add just enough uncertainty to help, and may have you trading disgruntled players. One of the best ways to increase difficulty is to switch teams every 3-5 years. Take over the worst team and build it into a contender. How many WS did you win in 18 years? __________________ Cheers RichW If you’re looking for a good cause to donate money to please consider a Donation to Parkinson’s Canada. It may help me have a better future and if not me, someone else. Thanks. “Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition …There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.” Frank Wilhoit

03-30-2009, 08:28 PM	#4
mpbarnet Minors (Single A) Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 93	went to the series 8 times, winning 5. I want it to be as realistic as possible, so I'm not really down with raising the unpredictability through the roof. There's no need for a Nefi Perez to turn in a year in which he hits, which would be unpredictable! If I set the trading to heavily favor prospects, does that mean the AI will want my prospects, or that it will want my vets and to ship off their prospects?

03-30-2009, 10:27 PM	#6
mpbarnet Minors (Single A) Join Date: Feb 2009 Posts: 93	Ah, so what you're saying is John Hart and Mark Shapiro are nowhere to be found to pluck Cliff Lee, Grady Sizemore, and Brandon Phillips for 2 months of Bartolo Colon off Omar Minaya?

04-01-2009, 02:25 PM	#10
SteveP Moderator Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 3,109	If you want to play a game on the computer where the AI isn't cheating and regularly beats you, try chess. If you want to play to win and have more balance in the competition, play fictional leagues. As it is, if you play with "real" players, you have an advantage over the AI, since the AI can't duplicate your level of holistic knowledge about real life players. The hard truth is that we are many, many years away from having computer AIs that can play a realistic computer sim as good as a human -- without cheating, which would destroy the reason for a realistic computer sim. In the meantime, there are satisfactions to be had in the chance to immerse yourself in a world that few people get to experience IRL.

04-01-2009, 09:45 PM	#11
phightin All Star Reserve Join Date: Nov 2008 Posts: 586	The problem with the whole not trading aging veterans for prospects strategy is that many many times you will find that a 4 or 5 star prospect will in fact never turn out to be anywhere close to that good. So your stuck with a situation where you don't want to cheat to get a 4 or 5 star prospect but not even sure at the same time if you're really cheating or not. Plus in real life many many teams trade away prospects for somewhat aging veterans thinking they did in fact get the better of the deal. there's just no moral way to figure out how to deal with it.

04-02-2009, 04:49 AM	#14
jmknpk2 All Star Reserve Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 982	I was able to routinely beat the game, build up a team and win several world series in a row. It wasn't until someone recommended turning off ratings and playing only with stats (like someone mentioned earlier in this thread) that I found a challenge. I have not won a world series yet in that mode.

04-02-2009, 12:12 PM	#15
PSUColonel Hall Of Famer Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 13,141	yes, but then you're giving the AI an advantage, as it has a feeling of what the ratings are..