14 replies to this topic

[DetroitStyle]

I got bad news, and well...more worse news.

Here's a season sim from pasta padre with full stats and records:
http://www.pastapadr...ode-sim-results

The bad news:

It looks like nothing, zero, zilch, nada, has been changed in regards to franchise and the franchise sim engine (other than aesthetic tweaks). I tested the engine extensively last year trying to pump out IRL stats and it just sucked. It was terrible and any major tweaks destroyed gameplay. Some of the most glaring issues were HR totals and Batting Average. You can see in the images that they are the same as last year. Only about 5-10 player hit above .300 while IRL there's generally 20-30. HR totals are still low topping out at 37, when there's usually a few outliers at 50+ and generally 3-4 at 40 HR's IRL. Not so this year in 2K12 *smh*

The worse news:

Despite the sim engine being dreadful last year, you could expect realistic results in franchise. Meaning the pirates weren't going to win the world series unless they really built a team. From the results at PastaPadre even this has been screwed in 2K12. As you can see the A's win it all while powerhouses like Detroit (in a crappy central) and Washington make a playoff run. The nationals won 93 games, just so we're clear. More than boston and new york.

The upside:

There is a chance some ratings are inflated or too low for a lot of players. This may or may not be corrected through roster updates thus providing a more balanced sim. As well, it is possible they may patch the game to correct this skew. Although this is EXTREMELY unlikely. It is likely as well that community roster edits can correct this although, as i said earlier, it did not work that way for me last year.

All in all this has got me into a rage, almost to the point of canceling my preorder. The game hasn't been released and it's still too early to really be sure but it's not looking good. When there's smoke there's fire right? What do ya'll think?

[mcoll86]

gnerally i tend to a agree.. some and fire. to add this stuff, i gm a franshse in 2k11, meaning i make the roster, do al, the gm stuff, but let the game pay out the games, its almost that bad in some respcts. static get a bit waky. my pitchers sim to pitch sub 1.50 era's, stirke a lot, walk some, but not so off there really bad, dont give up hr much, on the batting side, there not hitting hr, best highest palyer only as 12, and about 130 games pthrough right now, fair on walks, but hit bases like crasy, like, steals are not a lot. if this this year game doing this i dont what i think of it. i donlt allow dh in my leagues. i chose that way becuas that real baseball. now that may account for some of odd offense, but all of it. we will see that the new one does.

[Qbrick808]

The bad news:
Some of the most glaring issues were HR totals and Batting Average. You can see in the images that they are the same as last year. Only about 5-10 player hit above .300 while IRL there's generally 20-30. HR totals are still low topping out at 37, when there's usually a few outliers at 50+ and generally 3-4 at 40 HR's IRL. Not so this year in 2K12 *smh*

The worse news:
Despite the sim engine being dreadful last year, you could expect realistic results in franchise. Meaning the pirates weren't going to win the world series unless they really built a team. From the results at PastaPadre even this has been screwed in 2K12. As you can see ... Washington make a playoff run. The nationals won 93 games, just so we're clear. More than boston and new york.

While I would agree that your observations are obviously not a good sign, it may not be as dramatic as your first impression.

In the last four seasons, only one time has a major leaguer reached 50 Home Runs, so we shouldn’t be expecting that to happen regularly. Ten others did reach 40 over that span, but even that’s still less than three per year so it’s not such a glaring deviation.

The better Batting Averages are clearly off, but keep in mind that many of the real .300 hitters are barely clearing that hurdle. Just short of half the players who hit over .300 during the last four years did not get past .310, and the number of guys who hit between .290 and .300 is just a few shy of the amount who were over .300 but not .310. If you adjust that range of player and widen it to include those who bat between .290 and .310, rather than just focusing on the .300 mark so specifically, things balance out a lot more neatly.

Also, don’t consider the Nationals making a playoff run as such a joke. Winning more games than both Boston and the Yankees may be a bit of a stretch, but Washington has improved a lot in recent years and they have actually put together a very solid team with strong corner men in and out, a solid backstop, and a truly elite back of the bullpen combination (add a CF and one more pitcher, which they’re working on right now, and they should definitely be in the playoff hunt all season... and no, I do not root for the Nats or live in/near DC).

The overall point… it may be a fact that there is a discrepancy in several areas, but I don’t know that it’s such a significant gap from the reality to be considered any sort of disaster.

Edited by Qbrick808, 04 March 2012 - 07:28 PM.

[DetroitStyle]

I don't think it's a disaster by any stretch. Or at least not yet. I'm just fuming because initially it looks clearly like the engine has not been tweaked at all. That really irks me, especially considering the issues with it last year.

[DonSPa]

how was he able to play franchise allready??i noticed reyes in a marlins portrait so hopefully they have most corrected

[Qbrick808]

I'm just fuming because initially it looks clearly like the engine has not been tweaked at all. That really irks me, especially considering the issues with it last year.

Yeah, I can certainly understand that. It seems pretty clear that the focus for changes leading into the 2K12 version was on a lot of elements that did not include Franchise Mode (at least not in any fundamental ways). This will of course make some people angry while satisfying others, but given that Franchise is the most involved way to connect with the game, you'd think they'd realize that a large core considers that mode a top priority.

It could be that the developers are so in love with their new MLB Today concept that they felt many people might gravitate towards that and away from the Franchise Mode (and they likely didn't have the ability to create the new mode they're introducing AND devote enough time to rebuild the basic underlying model which drives the Franchise Mode).

Edited by Qbrick808, 04 March 2012 - 08:31 PM.

[DetroitStyle]

how was he able to play franchise allready??i noticed reyes in a marlins portrait so hopefully they have most corrected

He's a popular/mainstream sports gaming reviewer. So naturally he gets special access to sports game releases to try and review.

I wouldn't worry about the portraits. That's probably the first thing I'm going to take care of is to release a portrait pack

[DonSPa]

ahhh ok lucky guy lol, thnx DS and looking forward to the portraits,im sure there will be a few needed done.

[DetroitStyle]

well looks like i was wrong!

Did a sim with the newest 2K roster update and everything seems normal stats wise..other than the tigers finishing in last place

There were 4 guys with 40+ HRs and 21 with above .300 averages!! So it looks like it's good to go!

On the other hand...pitching stats are out of hand. The most wins was 17, and most innings pitched was 215. REALLY low totals. Also the most strikeouts was 217, really low as well. weird...

[DonSPa]

its early only played 2 games impressive.One thing that im not sure if it can be adjusted but a ball was hit into the outfield and had a hard time getting the closest player to be controlled if this continues it maybe a looong day for outfielders.I have to also get used to getting set before throwing the ball as i think i gave a few fans a free ball lolol.May have to adjust the baserunning speed for steals which wont be a big thing.
For stadium modders just by looking at PNC seems like stadium modders will have to deal with bad ad placement again.Clemente wall has three ad spots with 3 ads on each spot, instead of just 1 ad.NO big deal again but would be nice if the ads were as authentic as the real deal.Havnt tried any other things yet like franchise ,my player or anything

[Hollywood70]

I simmed an entire season as well, DetroitStyle.. You'll be glad to know with everything turned on to "automatic" the tigers handily won the central with 96 wins, despite losing Verlander for 60 days due to an injury... Unfortunately they lost in the Division Series. I advanced to 2013 to check out the schedule. Unfortuantely, it's still all wonky in terms of start times -- all Sunday games are night games, etc etc. I noticed while playing 2K11 that this seemed to correct itself every 5 seasons and then go back to strange. At least they have the proper days off, not weekend days off and such as was the case in 2K10.

Additional observation - WAY too many injuries on the default setting. And they still don't pronounce "Boesch" properly

[DetroitStyle]

HAH! I know, "Now batting, Brennan BOOSH" It makes me chuckle.

It's good to hear about some variety from the engine. So maybe after a few roster updates, it can find a nice middle ground for realism.

Interesting about injuries...Last year I reccommended turning it up to 100% because WAY too many players were playing 150-160+ games. I'm talking 50-100 players. Thus, turning injuries all the way up would prevent that. I noticed in my Sim this year, with injuries at 50, only 1 player played 162 games which was encouraging to me. More testing needed!

Ahh, here was my original thread: http://www.operation...er-testing.html

[Qbrick808]

Anyone else noticing that the CPU pitchers are taking very little time between pitches during an at-bat?

There have been many instances in just this first day of playing where I wasn’t able to get to the menus via the D-Pad before the pitcher was already in his motion (meaning I couldn’t pinch-hit or pinch-run when I was intending to). This also has an effect on base runners taking a lead and getting that button held down in time when you intend to steal.

I suppose it's something which will be somewhat easily adjusted to (like by getting to the menu screen in a hurry before you should really need to), but it’s definitely weird and has even caught me a few times when I was conscious of it and anticipating the need to press the D-Pad button earlier and faster than what I’ve become used to.

[Hollywood70]

I have noticed that, but I kind of like it. Keeps me on my toes.

[DonSPa]

yeah i noticed he was ready to pitch before i had my baserunner in position and ready to steal and caught me off guard as well lol