Power Pros Forum

Hi everyone, new to the forum and I am pretty happy to have found this community. Been playing MLBPP since '07 came out and I think its the best console baseball game ever made - it's great and I have yet to find someone who doesn't agree (after playing it). Anyways, there have always been some things that confused me about the game mechanics in MLBPP. I've always just kind of worked through them instead of trying to address them (and Google searching doesn't really lead me to anything), so I was hoping some people here might be able to help.

1. I don't the exact name for it - mood or motivation or form - but its the emoticon that represents how a player is feeling, such as during a season (which is all I play lol). Players might be having incredible games and the team is on a roll, but I can't figure out how to improve their mood from something like the purple or blue sad faces to the back-flipping light purple happy face. Can anyone give me a hand with this?

2. How much money should I be investing a practice items such as contact bats and stamina cleats? Should I be buying the hotdogs and such as well? I usually just buy the lowest item in each category..

3. Is there a "definitive" roster update that this community rolls out? I mean, MLBPP has a LOT of option for players and I wondered if people take into account special abilities for players as they progress in their MLB careers or if people just update roster moves and averages. Either way, I think it'd be cool to see and maybe be a part of.. I watch a lot of baseball hehe..

Edit: 4. Another thing that, from reading around here does not seem to have a solution, but I figured I'd ask about anyways: is there any way to manually select/control fielders when it selects the wrong one for a play? (infield aggravation!! argg!)

OK, now to some fun stuff: realistic moments in MLBPP '08 - I had my share in '07, but thought I'd share some of my '08 moments here for those kind enough to read my post.
* In Fenway Park, a home run over the monster hit the top of one of the high billboard signs and bounced up out of the park (I don't mean the top section of the sign, I mean the actual TOP side!)
* In Fenway Park, a home run to middle right field hit the top "spine" of the dugout wall and bounced into the out-of-bounds triangle that contains nothing.
* Jacoby Ellsbury, whilst in Fenway Park, made a forward-diving catch and, upon making the catch, did several gymnastic rolls before standing up to cheer.

I'm sure I'll see many more during the season, but that's just so far!

In Season or MLB Life mode you don't have direct influence over anyone's form. In Exhibition mode you can set the handicap to lock the form at one state (use the Yellow form for average). You may be able to do the same with Season, but not MLB Life.



There is a thread that discusses the best vitality boosters for the cheapest prices. Some will say only invest in contact bats for power hitters who don't spend much exp on contact, others say only buy stuff at the end of success mode.



There is a roster update that just moves players. It's marked accordingly and is updated on a daily basis. New players are difficult to add because of the need to run success mode and not give them over powering stats.

Updating supposed "under and overrated" players are people's opinions and may/may not be accurate.



someone has claimed they can use C and Z (wiimote+nunchuck) and lock on with B (manual). I typically see this on locking down outfielders.

If a player has 'Consistency 4' then they aren't affected by the up and down motivation swings.

In Season and MLB Life modes, there is a practice option that accelerates the motivation scale ("improves condition") and an option that slows down the scale ("maintain condition"). In MLB Life you only get to use those practices at select times of the year (spring training, during the All-Star break if you don't make the team, during the playoffs), but in Season mode you can put players with red/pink condition into practice to maintain that condition longer, and players with blue/purple motivation into practice to accelerate it (shorten the time they spend in that condition).

Wow, thanks MaxDSterling for the great response that addressed all my questions.

As for your response, Wyl, I appreciate the information's depth, but don't know that I completely understand what you're talking about regarding practicing in Season mode. All my players are constantly in practice - whether it be Automatic or I've specified players to practice as a group in a certain category - every one of my players is always in practice. Is this a problem? Should I be put putting blue/purple players in a specific category of practice?

umm, i'll try to jump in here, though its hard to compare to two mods...

The scale for condition goes like this:
Purple Backflipping Smiley is highest.
Red Bouncing Smiley is second highest.
Yellow Spinning Smiley is average.
Blue Slightly Sagging (i think) Smiley is second lowest.
Purple Sagging Smiley is lowest.

In practice in my life mode, if you scroll down to the bottom, you will find:
improve condition
maintain condition
rest.

improving condition speeds up the condition meter (which basically goes up to Highest then back down to lowest in just over a month.
maintaining condition does just the opposite, it slows it down.

rest is just that.

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in season mode, at the menu, go to practice, select a player, and scroll to condition (if there is a condition practice, i think it might be fitness in another one) A suggestion: put some pitchers in your rotation in rest or rehab so you don't have to waste your relievers in one game.
And to answer your question, other than conditioning, which i rarely use, i just put them in a practice where their grade is about to go up, like if a guy has 13 in run speed (chone figgins, for example), and i want him to have an A (14), then i would put him in run spd practice. Then, if you want, you can switch it to a weak spot.


sorry about the chart being bad. its hard to see the yellow, i know, but that should give you an idea of what the chart is like in my life mode.

So, basically, I should put players with bad forms (purple/blue) into conditioning practice and those with good forms (yellow or better) into areas of practice they are close to leveling up in?

Sounds like a good plan to me. Once you start a season, your pitchers should be hanging out in rest/condition improvement because anything else will just fatigue them to death.

yeah, thats what i usually do (tried 3 times now to give tim lincecum gyroball though, still hasnt worked...

Making sure a player is well-rested, giving them a few days off, and putting them in rest/fitness practice usually can improve moods. Even something as simple as changing the order of the line-up can make a difference.