Since some people are grabbing only the CPU part and missing the bigger point, I want to explain why I used the CPU so much for stress-testing.

The reason I used the CPU so much to stress-test the game’s engine is because against the CPU, I have full control over more variables.

I can control the difficulty, sliders, modes, players, player attributes, rosters, umpire settings, PCI settings, pitch speeds, fielding, stamina, confidence, animations, and everything else around the test. That is how you stress-test a system. You control as many variables as possible, push certain systems hard, and then watch what keeps happening.

And yes, I can beat the CPU on GOAT difficulty with pitch speeds all the way up. This is not about me not being able to beat the CPU.

I also messed with my own sliders. I changed CPU sliders. I changed human sliders. I changed player attributes. I mixed up rosters. I tested different modes and different difficulties. I tested games where I let the CPU jump ahead on purpose to see how the engine reacted. I tested games where I got ahead on purpose to see how the engine reacted. I even quit out or simmed parts of games to see if the game had predetermined win tendencies and outcome pulls, and yes, at times, it did.

That is my point.

This is not just one CPU game. I tested this in DD, Mini Seasons, Franchise, Online Rated, and Ranked Seasons. Some of those are against the CPU. Some are against real players. The same kind of engine behavior shows up across the game.

In Ranked Seasons and Online Rated, the game still feels like it changes gears around the 5th or 6th inning. All of a sudden, both sides start getting runs, foul balls, weak hits, bad animations, pitcher confidence swings, and nonsense outcomes no matter what you throw or do. It stops feeling like clean baseball and starts feeling like the engine is trying to create a game moment.

The biggest problem is that there is so much going on under the engine and under the coding that I don’t think SDS themselves know what is even going on anymore, how to explain it, or how to actually fix the problems.

That is why we keep getting band-aid fixes.

The foul-ball problem has been around forever. Instead of fixing the foul-ball logic, they put PCI shrinkage in the game because they didn’t know how to fix the foul-ball problem. Then to counter PCI shrinkage, they started throwing switch hitters all over the game because same-side matchups became worse. Then to counter the switch hitter problem, they started giving pitchers reverse splits. Then they added more modifiers, quirks, captain boosts, and attribute nerfs. That is why you have 98 overall cards looking and playing more like 93s.

It feels like every fix creates another problem because the engine itself is the problem.

The defense makes it worse too. Player defensive attributes and fielding animations do not always line up. A 90+ defender should not suddenly move like the game picked the wrong animation at the worst possible time. Catchers should not randomly forget how to throw runners out. Outfielders should not take broken routes or jump straight up on routine plays just because the game needs a rally.

That is why I keep saying it feels like I am fighting the engine more than I am playing baseball.

The game has foul-ball survival, confidence swings, stamina drain, weak-contact hits, fielding animation problems, PCI weirdness, late-game outcome pressure, and predetermined tendencies stacked on top of each other. And when all of those systems start firing together, it does not feel organic. It feels artificial.

Hard baseball is fine. Losing is fine. The CPU beating me is fine. A real player beating me is fine.

The problem is when the game stops feeling like baseball and starts feeling like the engine is steering the outcome.

SDS needs to rebuild this game engine from the ground up. Not add another band-aid. Not add another modifier. Not add another hidden tuning layer. Rebuild it so ratings, timing, PCI, stamina, confidence, defense, and animations all make sense again.

Because once you see the system under the engine, there is no going back.

@Pergo_MLBTS said:

These conspiracies about vs. CPU stuff are so strange to me. You can literally throw the same 3 pitches to every single CPU batter and strike out 95% of them, but we're supposed to believe there is some secret behind the scenes code forcing all kinds of things like forced foul balls, confidence drops, pitch input not mattering, etc. etc. etc. Makes no sense at all.

They love to make up random things.

It looked cleaner while I was writing it, but once I posted it here, it came out way messier than I wanted. So yeah, my bad on that part.

But the point of the post wasn’t to make something pretty. The point was to call out SDS and the problems I’m seeing under the engine: foul logic, confidence, stamina, sliders not fully controlling outcomes, and the same patterns showing up across DD, Mini Seasons, Ranked, Online Rated, and Franchise.

Challenge isn’t the problem. I don’t want the CPU easy. I want the game to feel honest.

When the engine starts using foul balls, confidence, stamina, weak contact, fielding animations, and late-game pressure to create artificial difficulty, it stops feeling like baseball and starts feeling like I’m fighting the engine.

So I’ll own the messy wording, but I’m not backing off the point.

And somehow it never helps YOU at all. It only hurts you. Amazing.

If they made the outfield realistic and dropped HR by 50 percent this game would play better, plus turn down fouls by 60 percent.

100% agree

The problem is the outfields are scaled too small, and that's been an issue for years. Triples are almost impossible because the OF cover too much ground on a field improperly scaled. Combine that with the fact the CPU always takes the perfect route to the ball, makes the perfect read off a carom...and here we are.

Balls also carry too much on weak contact, there should be way more "Texas-leaguers" that drop in.

Unless you are Bo Jackson gunning down Harold Reynolds at the plate in the old Kingdome.

Otherwise yes the field is too small allowing fielders to cover way too much ground and make unrealistic catches and throws. This makes it very much HR or bust.

@rubicante23_PSN said:

Foul balls are a problem everywhere - except maybe on legend difficulty online.

This happened because they didn't want strikeouts to be through the roof. Most players cant lay off the low change ups...so they let them foul it off. Half of the foulballs should be "weak in play contact" to stop the foul ball merchants. Also half of the homers should be doubles and triples. This would get us a lot closer to reality.

One of the basic problems that's been pointed out to SDS years back is that the outfield is too small. If you go by scale it's too small by a factor of about 30%. If this was corrected, a great many of the issues reported with the basic game would be solved without anything else needing to be done.

This is why the game lacks the realistic number of "dying quails" that drop for hits, as well as too often seeing fielders able to make laser like throws to the infield to nail runners when in a real game such a play would be impossible.

This happened because they didn't want strikeouts to be through the roof. Most players cant lay off the low change ups...so they let them foul it off. Half of the foulballs should be "weak in play contact" to stop the foul ball merchants. Also half of the homers should be doubles and triples. This would get us a lot closer to reality.

@MoeBuug68_XBL said:

And the CPU still fouled off pitches it had no business touching.

So this I have seen. I've thrown pitches that the CPU fouls off...and I've immediately paused and gone into not the in-game replay, but the console screen recording and watched in slow-mo, and the bat was nowhere near the ball. Go and watch the in-game replay and it will show actual contact. This is not every time, just enough to make me scratch my head at the under-the-hood stuff

And I will say that yeah, the visible bars on the opposing CPU pitcher mostly feel like they're useless window dressing, I'll agree to that. I do also feel at times if you're "cruising" too well, CPU batters will just artificially inflate your pitch count with the aforementioned questionable foul balls.

Other than that though, I don't feel like there's a grander conspiracy theory at play. Showdowns, and certain points in crucial MS games feel a little underhanded but everything else feels fine

Yeah, I realize for the trolls that might be an epiphany. But, they really do exist, and they write pages of words on papers, literally (gasp) thousands of words! It takes time to read them, but it's worth the effort. This OP was worth that effort. It is detailed and provides many examples of how the game engine employs dirty tricks to makes things artificially challenging.

Challenge isn't the OP's issue. Artificiality is. Big difference, but I guess it takes nuance to figure that out, and that seems well beyond the intellectual grasp of the trolls here.

I agree with you, I don't play multi-player at all but this dude's rant make zero sense. Can it be frustrating at times playing the cpu, yes it can but to me playing the cpu is all about grinding and blowing off steam after a long day of work. So no it's not meant to be like real life.

You may have already have a giant chart in your room trying to figure out who Pepe Slivia is.

I take the opposite argument- cpu needs to have real AI. You should be able to tell cpu that you want it to emulate an 800 player - and it should be able to really closely emulate how a real 800 player plays.

I think we dont have that because every sports game prefers you play online - people dont spend money to beat cpu....but they will spend money to beat some guy in Puerto Rico that they've never met. Game companies want you online - thats where the microtransaction money is. Every sports game has terrible cpu intelligence - they do not play like real people in any way.

@SaveFarris_PSN said:

Once you see the system under the MLB The Show's engine, you will be in violation of Terms of Service.

And nah nah nah hey hey hey goodbye....