MLB 12 The Show - Heads Up on Pitch Speeds

[Eddy_SCEA]

Just wanted to let you guys know that we are expanding the Pitch speed slider more so that each notch will mean more than it currently does. (Like many of you asked for in another thread) Although ideally we would like to make this more extreme, there is a balance point that we need to be careful with. If we allow the speeds to be too slow or too fast, we jeopardize the balance of the game by making stealing too easy or too difficult. But we were able to open this up more than last year's version without effective the competitive balance of stealing. Hope this helps!

[nomo17k]

From what I've been reading, I think quite a few guys will like the choice of slowing down the pitch speed...

One thing about stealing.... I thought (from in-game description) the pitch speed (at least the way you can adjust by the Pitch Speed slider) was not supposed to affect the stealing aspect of the game. So does this mean the steal success rate actually have depended on the pitch speed setting???

Anyways, I hope I can still bring the pitch speed up to the MLB level.

[Yankees2009Champs]

Quote: Originally Posted by Eddy_SCEA

Just wanted to let you guys know that we are expanding the Pitch speed slider more so that each notch will mean more than it currently does. (Like many of you asked for in another thread) Although ideally we would like to make this more extreme, there is a balance point that we need to be careful with. If we allow the speeds to be too slow or too fast, we jeopardize the balance of the game by making stealing too easy or too difficult. But we were able to open this up more than last year's version without effective the competitive balance of stealing. Hope this helps!

Hopefully the pitch speed on pitchouts won't be 5 mph faster than top speed a pitcher throws.

[sydrogerdavid]

Quote: Originally Posted by nomo17k

From what I've been reading, I think quite a few guys will like the choice of slowing down the pitch speed... One thing about stealing.... I thought (from in-game description) the pitch speed (at least the way you can adjust by the Pitch Speed slider) was not supposed to affect the stealing aspect of the game. So does this mean the steal success rate actually have depended on the pitch speed setting??? Anyways, I hope I can still bring the pitch speed up to the MLB level.

I'm under this impression as well. So, I will be able to steal many more bases if I turn the pitch speed all the way down?

[Bobhead]

Quote: Originally Posted by nomo17k

From what I've been reading, I think quite a few guys will like the choice of slowing down the pitch speed... One thing about stealing.... I thought (from in-game description) the pitch speed (at least the way you can adjust by the Pitch Speed slider) was not supposed to affect the stealing aspect of the game. So does this mean the steal success rate actually have depended on the pitch speed setting??? Anyways, I hope I can still bring the pitch speed up to the MLB level.

I'm not a dev by any means but let me throw my theory out there.

First off, technically speaking, it's physically impossible to only change the speed of a pitch, and nothing else, without then affecting the steal success rate of a runner.

I would assume that the reason pitch speed doesn't affect the stealing aspect is because the devs implemented a counterbalance, so that when you change the pitch speed slider, the game is secretly also changing something else (I don't know what that something else is, of course), whether it's the catcher's throw speed, or simply the steal success rate, so that in essence, your chance of stealing a base remains the same, because what you gained from a slower pitch, you lose in the catcher's thrown ball being slightly faster (or your slide being slowed down, or whatever it is the devs actually went with).

I think what Eddy was alluding to is that this counterbalance, like anything else would have limits. Speaking in strictly hypotheticals, let's say that they decided the best counterbalance was increasing the running speed of a base stealer. That would mean that as you lower the pitch speed slider, the speed of a base stealer is secretly, automatically lowered, so that the steal success rate remains the same. Let's say the game allowed you to lower pitch speed by say, 60 points. It would then need to reduce the runner's speed by 60 points. If you're stealing with David Ortiz, you now have a problem, because your basestealer literally has a speed of 0. That's why pitch speed sliders can only be expanded but so far without completely re-working things.

Of course that's an exaggerated example, and the game most likely modifies these things multiplicatively (with percentages), instead of with flat numbers, so you'd never have anything actually reduced to zero, but hopefully you get the idea.

[nomo17k]

Quote: Originally Posted by Bobhead

I would assume that the reason pitch speed doesn't affect the stealing aspect is because the devs implemented a counterbalance, so that when you change the pitch speed slider, the game is secretly also changing something else (I don't know what that something else is, of course), whether it's the catcher's throw speed, or simply the steal success rate, so that in essence, your chance of stealing a base remains the same, because what you gained from a slower pitch, you lose in the catcher's thrown ball being slightly faster (or your slide being slowed down, or whatever it is the devs actually went with).

My wild guess for such a counter balance measure is the catcher's throw speed (guessing from the fact that we cannot change catcher's arm strength by any slider, and also that it seems the most reasonable component to adjust just for adjusting steal success rate...). And/or perhaps how fast catcher delivers to 2B, BR sliding (sometimes you notice that he slows down...), etc., as you might also be guessing...

In any case, I just wanted to know if the Pitch Speed slider has any effect on other parts of the game, because that will make a slider set for CPU vs. CPU games easier, haha...

But it's a great choice the devs have given us I think.

[Eddy_SCEA]

Correct. It is a butterfly effect that we have to take into account. If we change the pitch speed, we have to be aware of the running speed, and if we change the running speed, we have to be aware of the catcher throwing speed and ball in play speed. Of course we cover all of the bases (no pun intended) but you can understand why we stay away from making extreme changes because we do not want to alter the entire game experience too much in order to address one area. We can on a smaller scale without it altering peoples impression of the game, but we do not want to change the overall experience.

Short answer... slowing down the pitch speed will not make you a better base stealer.

[letsgopens66]

Quote: Originally Posted by Eddy_SCEA

Correct. It is a butterfly effect that we have to take into account. If we change the pitch speed, we have to be aware of the running speed, and if we change the running speed, we have to be aware of the catcher throwing speed and ball in play speed. Of course we cover all of the bases (no pun intended) but you can understand why we stay away from making extreme changes because we do not want to alter the entire game experience too much in order to address one area. We can on a smaller scale without it altering peoples impression of the game, but we do not want to change the overall experience. Short answer... slowing down the pitch speed will not make you a better base stealer.

Does pitch location drastically affect MPH this year? For example, a high fastball from Daniel Moskos of all people could hit 98 MPH if I threw it fairly high. Normally, I would be around 94-95 with him.