Having a discussion in one of my leagues. I've always been under the assumption that ballpark size matters and that the rating of 1b, 2b, 3b and homers is just a number. Thought I seen this in a developer chat but can't find it. A fellow owner has a large centerfield but a guy with 82 range playing it. I thought a player like that was better off in a smaller park but takes a hit in larger parks. What is the actual answer to this? Does park size not matter?

No, the +/- numbers matter.

So if I'm in a ballpark that is -3 across the board on average then I could get away with less range in the outfield then? I've been playing this a long time and have always gone with the bigger parks needing better range to cover ground. If they are in the minus then that means less chance of hits so what's the sense of have great range. Time to rethink my strategy.

I've noticed worlds that are 0-0-0-0-0 have different PFs -- do they perform the same in the game or do they perform differently due to the PF differences (some are above 1.00 and some below)?

I usually choose larger parks also so this could explain my struggles in the post season.lol

I don't really think the game works that way. The +/- affects hitting. You can take some of that away with range(+ plays) or give it away(- plays). A high-range CF doesn't "cover" for low range LF/RF. That's been stated by CS and I've found no definitive evidence to dispute it.

Posted by opie100 on 1/23/2018 1:06:00 PM (view original):
I've noticed worlds that are 0-0-0-0-0 have different PFs -- do they perform the same in the game or do they perform differently due to the PF differences (some are above 1.00 and some below)?

The +/- ratings are just crude approximations of underlying true park effects/factors. Zero is within some modest range of zero, not exactly zero in all cases.

I found where I seen the info I was going off of. It's in the help button on the ballpark page. This is what it says. I may just be misinterpreting it.

Effects - Ballpark effects are ranked on a scale from - 4 to + 4, based on their impact on hits (1B), doubles (2B), triples (3B), homeruns to left field (HR LF) and homeruns to right field (HR RF). These values are based how the ballpark has historically performed in each of these respects as compared to its contemporary ballparks. A negative number indicates that the ballpark yields less than the average for the type of hit, while a positive indicates that the ballpark yields more than the average for the type of hit. The more negative or positive number, the more extreme the effect for that hit in that direction. These numbers are just indicators of the relative effect in the simulation engine. They are important for users and founded entirely on historical fact, but are meant for display purposes and not explicitly used in the simulation engine

I think what they meant is that they don't treat it like a literal dice roll modifier (adding +1 if you hit it to LF for example), but they use it to represent the relative differences between the parks. So a +4 rating in Santa Fe makes it a lot more homer friendly than a 0 in Rochester, but nowhere in the programming is '4' added to anything.

Posted by dedelman on 1/23/2018 1:57:00 PM (view original):

Posted by opie100 on 1/23/2018 1:06:00 PM (view original):
I've noticed worlds that are 0-0-0-0-0 have different PFs -- do they perform the same in the game or do they perform differently due to the PF differences (some are above 1.00 and some below)?

The +/- ratings are just crude approximations of underlying true park effects/factors. Zero is within some modest range of zero, not exactly zero in all cases.

Does PF reflect potential differences then when the ratings are the same?

(The following two sentences from the devs are contradictory:

These numbers are just indicators of the relative effect in the simulation engine. ... but are meant for display purposes and not explicitly used in the simulation engine

) The park dimensions themselves are aesthetic and do not affect the Sim engine. Each park's unique combination of +'s and -'s is a byproduct of each individual park's real life elevation to sea level, symmetry/asymmetry, wall height, average game temperature, air pressure, foul territory square footage, infield grass/turf length, and a number of minutae. That is what the devs refer to as "calibrated to the historical average". The parks cause the data, the data gets rounded off into WIS's whole number +/- for 1b 2b 3b HR-L/R

These +/- Ballpark effects are observed by being included into one side of the pitcher-batter interaction to produce overall results that are skewed towards whatever direction the park has historically produced.

Fielding +/- is relative to fielding par values exclusively. So for an 82 range CF, he plays as "3 range units below par" no matter where you play; he makes the same fielding +/- in Colorado (huge outfield, deep fence) as he does in Philadelphia (shortest distance to LCF/CF/RCF)

In real life it probably works the way you're understanding it, but this game is not designed with outfield square footage built into the fielding algorithm

Posted by opie100 on 1/23/2018 3:01:00 PM (view original):

Posted by dedelman on 1/23/2018 1:57:00 PM (view original):

Posted by opie100 on 1/23/2018 1:06:00 PM (view original):
I've noticed worlds that are 0-0-0-0-0 have different PFs -- do they perform the same in the game or do they perform differently due to the PF differences (some are above 1.00 and some below)?

The +/- ratings are just crude approximations of underlying true park effects/factors. Zero is within some modest range of zero, not exactly zero in all cases.

Does PF reflect potential differences then when the ratings are the same?

Yes.

Posted by hypnotoad on 1/23/2018 2:57:00 PM (view original):
I think what they meant is that they don't treat it like a literal dice roll modifier (adding +1 if you hit it to LF for example), but they use it to represent the relative differences between the parks. So a +4 rating in Santa Fe makes it a lot more homer friendly than a 0 in Rochester, but nowhere in the programming is '4' added to anything.

No, this is wrong ^

For home runs specifically, positive park factor "enhances power" and it does so literally in the hitter's power attribute. In WIS, POW is calibrated to [home runs per hit], where 0 units of power is literally calibrated to 0% HR/Hit and the top of the scale of 99 power is calibrated to approximately 28% HR/hit. This is based on the historical average up until 2005 or whenever WIS was created.

So when the game does the pitcher-batter interaction, having +4 HR means that a hitter with 99 power aka 28% HR/hit will hit a HR at a higher rate than he would in another stadium. So in a sense it creates the illusion that the batter has power of 103 because his HR/hit is skewed in that direction. Same principle for -4 stadiums but in the other direction

Let's consider one of the asymmetrical stadiums- Minute Maid Park.The given dimensions are "315 362 435 373 326" and the real life data supports the authenticity of WIS's given PF as 0 0 2 2 1. They play indoors on turf or whatever with slightly above average foul territory, so this creates a standard volume of singles and doubles. However, because of the stupid mound in dead-center, everything that would normally go for a double (or a 400-435 HR) goes for a triple, thus the +2 increase for their weird asymmetry

Also, let's also consider Minute Maid's directionality for a moment. Left field is short and has the train above the restaurant, center field has the grassy knoll, and right field is slightly shorter compared to other stadiums but not as short as LF--- 315 at the LF pole is super short and 362 in the alley is very generous, so real life data supports that more HR are hit to LF than RF in this stadium. What this means for HBD is that for every at-bat:

whether an out, or when a batter gets a hit based on splits (.280 or whatever), the game uses whatever his power is calibrated to (let's say 99 = .280 again) to determine HR or XBH or single, and then determines push/pull to determine the directionality of every out/hit. So if our sample .280 x 280 batter is RH with low push/pull, he ends up having a slightly higher HR/hit and HR volume than a LH batter with the same .280 x .280 combination at this specific park. The difference ends up being very small, like 29% or 29.5% HR/hit vs the "normal" 28%

You won't notice the affect in a visiting series or even a single home season, but over hundreds and thousands of games you will begin to observe the slight boost. It is actually built in, even though the devs gave a very poor explanation in the past

I find the width of the park is more important than the length.

According to a friend

Cellmate?