Biggest Problems with the gameplay engine

Have started to check the game replays again and am reminded of some of the "dumb" things that HAL isnt aware of.

Im forgetting some, but here are a few that bother me:

1. Bunting for a basehit. This should be a checkable option. I know Cobb may be an A in bunting and 1-17, but i want him swinging for EBH.
2. Ignoring the preferences checked. If a hitter preference is checked, "dont H&R" why would HAL H&R with that guy?
3. Keeping picthers in to Hit -- and then removing them before they throw a pitch the next inning. seems like DH Logic in non-DH leagues.

Im sure there are some others im missing, if we compile a list and provide as a wish-list of programming updates, would that lead to progress? Has a list like this been created yet?

I agree with all of the above concerns. The not honoring checked boxes makes me crazy, especially at high caps when you've checked avoid lefty or avoid righty and HAL doesn't pitch hit for them when pitchers change and bad matchups ensue. This has spawned a whole strategy at 200M wherein some managers --who shall remain nameless -- draft second rate starting staffs and good relievers. That way they are almost guaranteed favorable matchups with frequent reliever switches. And during the critically important 200 M draft you can get much better hitters by ranking your starters after round 15. Mind you, I'm not complaining about the strategy per se, you have to adopt to the circumstances in which you find yourself. But I don't think the strategy would work so well, if HAL simply followed managerial instructions. This seems also an artifact of the later iterations of ATG which introduced a glut of ace relievers.

My other biggest beef with playing the game is the 680 AB rule. So many guys played in every game in their given seasons and still get injured because they are power hitters who just fail to meet the arbitrary at bat requirement. I really wish SOM would take the time to create some code (even knowing how difficult an issue that is for their programmers) whereby every hitter who played in all their teams games in a given year, is injury proof. I think that there are probably several dozen guys like this, generally superstars to boot. This should just be common sense but...

Oh yeah, one more thing. If you use a player a lot, after a few months I have observed that player become injured longer and more frequently on any team he is on. Mike Schmidt is the most recent example. For months he was a mainstay on my power teams and righty teams. Never got injured. Then about three months ago he starts getting hammered on 4-5 teams at once to the point where he was playing less than half time on one time, despite being in the lineup both ways. Now I avoid drafting him altogether. Oddly, I got him as a consolation for A-ROd in my last 200M draft.

Granted this is a variant of several old threads regarding multiple injuries for the same player across teams. That issue was never resolved but did create a lot of divisiveness in the community. Nev was a big proponent of the injury issue and I don't think that it is happen chance that the two top rated managers at SOM have had the same experiences with this issue. But we've both seen this routinely over the past ten years, and I'm just not a coincidence theorist. And I am well versed in probability theory so statistical outliers don't make much an impression on me normally. Until they happen over and over and over again.

To add to the prior post. Include HBP as part of PAs. Or even Sac Flies and Sacrifies. I can name a few guys in that 590+ range that if HBPs were included would be injured for a max of 3 games.

How tough would that code be? ABs + BBs + HBPs + SFs + Sacs = # of PAs

Simple math must not be in the SOM system.

Agree with Frank. Just get the stats straight from baseball reference from total plate appearances.

I think Strat prides itself on realism for advertisement purposes. But the real story is much different. You peer behind the curtain and you see much sloppiness that never seems to get better. I think they really don't give a rats ass.

To add to the prior post. Include HBP as part of PAs. Or even Sac Flies and Sacrifies. I can name a few guys in that 590+ range that if HBPs were included would be injured for a max of 3 games.

How tough would that code be? ABs + BBs + HBPs + SFs + Sacs = # of PAs

Simple math must not be in the SOM system.

Buster Posey the poster boy

the two that get me are mauer and stenzel.

the two that get me are mauer and stenzel.

To make matters worse, Strat's stats for Stenzel are incorrect: baseball-reference has Stenzel with 525 at bats and 76 walks, not 522/ 75. I emailed them about it several months ago, and they acknowledged the discrepancy- but said that that they weren't going to do anything about it.

My gameplay related issues -- which are really more a part of the underlying game structure than the programming -- involve the distribution of defensive chances and ballpark singles. Finesse pitchers rely on their defense to a much greater degree than power pitchers, but Tommy John and Jamie Moyer have the same number of defensive chances on their cards as Randy Johnson and Nolan Ryan. Also, groundball pitchers have the same breakdown of defensive chances as flyball pitchers. From a teambuilding standpoint, a team that gets 9 strikeouts a game would have more of an incentive to skimp on defense than one that gets 5 strikeouts a game, but the game doesn't allow for that trade-off.

Similarly, I don't understand why about 99% of the hitters, and maybe 95% of the pitchers have exactly five ballpark singles from each side- no more, no less. As a result, Ichiro's chance of a ballpark single is the same as Rob Deer's. Ballpark homers, by contrast, are more broadly distributed.

I can't imagine that this would be fixed, as it would require redoing (and then repricing) all the cards.

why don't lefties hit more to the right side and righties more to the left? would make a diff who u put in lf or rf anyway

Dukie Wrote: To make matters worse, Strat's stats for Stenzel are incorrect: baseball-reference has Stenzel with 525 at bats and 76 walks, not 522/ 75. I emailed them about it several months ago, and they acknowledged the discrepancy- but said that that they weren't going to do anything about it.

Nice of SOM to acknowledge the error and do NOTHING! Must be difficult to adjust the ABs to 525 and BBs to 76. Oh its that numbers thing. Simple math is beneath them.

Customer Service: "Customer service is a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer satisfaction – that is, the feeling that a product or service has met the customer expectation." Do we get this?