We are proud to present part 2 of our 2 part interview with the MVP Baseball 2004 production team, led by Brent Nielsen. Just in case you missed part 1, you can read it here.

Operation Sports: Can you go into more detail on the new hitting system?

MVP Baseball 2004 Team: Okay, you asked for it. Here’s a detailed breakdown of the new Pure Swing System in MVP 2004.

The Pure Swing System is made up of MANY different components to determine not only hit contact quality but whether or not you will make contact at all. It’s all about hitting the ball where it’s pitched as opposed to directing a hit or lining up a cursor (shudder).

To be honest this system was what we were gunning for last year but didn’t achieve. This year we went far beyond what we had envisioned last year. We think gamers will really enjoy the depth and challenge on all four skill levels (yes, we read the OS posts and added a level above All-Star called, appropriately enough, “MVP”. We also made All-Star difficulty far more difficult. Of course there are many sliders so you can make just about anything in the game fit your needs. There’s something for everyone.

Without any further ado, here are some of the main factors to determine contact quality and hit types in MVP Baseball 2004:

Batting Factors

Timing – The better your timing the better the chance you have to hit the ball well or at all.

We use audio as well as a PIP window to give feedback on your timing. The PIP will show a replay of your swing from above or the side and you can gather whether you were early or late, as well as if you swing over or under the ball.

Left/Right Stick Placement – The old “hit it where its pitched adage applies here. If you see a fast ball away, what do you do? If you go with the pitch, chances are you’ll hit a nice shot the other way if your timing is right.

Up/Down Stick Placement – Think of Derek Lowe pitching. If his sinker is working batters will have little success trying to hit the ball in the air. This holds true in MVP 2004. You have to try hitting the pitch as it was intended to be hit. That means if the pitcher is keeping the ball low you should try to push the stick down as opposed to fighting the pitch and trying to hit in the air.

What you do with the stick also determines where the ball makes contact with the bat. You want to hit it on the sweet spot every time but if your timing or left/right or up/down placement is off it will shift the contact point on the bat, decreasing the contact quality and in turn creating an infinite amount of hit types such as nubbers, choppers, dribblers, pop ups, bloopers, tailing and hooking liners, high fly balls and many more.

Batter Attributes – Both power and contact are taken into account separately. We are using 0-100 for our ratings this year (as opposed to 36-100 last year) thus clearly separating AA journeymen from MLB all stars.

These attributes determine the size of his timing window. The higher the ratings the larger the window the better chance he has for high contact quality. They also determine how the batter matches up against the pitch.

Hot/Cold zones – These indicate how well a hitter has success in a given area in the strike zone over time. However, new this year is the ability of the CPU hitter to learn your pitching tendencies. If you are consistently pitching the ball in the same cold zone, they will adjust and rip you. Remember, just because you’re pitching in a cold zone doesn’t mean the hitter can’t hit the ball (and hit it hard), it’s just a representation of his overall trends of success in hitting.

Pitcher Factors

Pitch Attributes – The better the pitcher’s pitch the steeper the climb to quality contact.

Pitch Effectiveness – How much the pitcher fills the pitch meter affects how the batter sees the ball. The more fill, the more effective the pitch, making the batters job significantly harder. The less you fill the pitch meter will increase the chances you will get hit hard. The CPU works the same way. On MVP skill level the pitcher will throw at close to 100 percent effectiveness and it trickles down on the lower skill levels. You should also keep this in mind when you’re pitching. Gone are the days where you could tap the pitch button and have success. Try that against the CPU and see what happens this year.

Pitch Accuracy – This is where the pitch is released in the green accuracy zone. The closer to the middle of the green the better the pitch. Outside the green are mistake pitches and give the batter a boost. The less accurate the pitch the better chance the user has of hitting the ball well.

Pitch Type – This is pretty simple. Certain pitches are harder to hit in the air or get around on.

Pitch Location – Similar to pitch types, pitch locations will have an effect on what the batter is trying to do. Using the Derek Lowe example again, his sinkers are much harder to hit in the air than something up in the zone.

Those are just a few of the factors that when combined determine contact quality. There are many more things that come into play in the batting interface during a single player, including pitcher learning, new to MVP Baseball 2004.

In MVP Baseball 2004 the pitcher learns your swing habits and pitches you accordingly. For example, if you’re like me and chase EVERYTHING the CPU will throw more pitches out of the zone until you prove you won’t swing at them. When you adjust to his adjustments he adjusts again. It’s a game of cat and mouse.

Another way the pitcher learns is based upon what pitches you are having success hitting. In short, if you are tattooing a certain pitch he will stop throwing it as frequently and try to get you out with his other pitches. These adjustments too will continue all game long and are re-evaluated on a regular basis. The amount the pitcher learns is based upon his star level.

We also expanded on check swings. Whether or not you go around on check swings is totally based upon where the bat is in the zone when you release the swing button. We have a PIP window here as well to show the swing and the call from the first or 3rd base umpire.

This gives you an idea of some of the improvements we’ve made to our hitting system in MVP Baseball 2004. In short, if you do the right thing you’ll be successful more often than not but do the wrong thing and the pitcher will win. It’s very deep, challenging and fun and we really believe that it’s a winner.

Operation Sports: Is there a manage only mode with generated pitch counts?

MVP Baseball 2004 Team: Yes. We have included a Manager Mode as a separate mode unto itself AND incorporated it into Dynasty Mode. You are able to manage each at-bat and perform substitutions, hit and runs, steals etc. while the game unfolds. This is also available for ALL of your minor league teams as well. Think of it as an extension of the intervention option we had last year. This year, you can sim a few innings, intervene and jump right into the game and play a few innings, jump back out and manage a few innings. It’s a great way to get through even more games in Dynasty Mode while keeping a macro level of control over your team, their strategies and the results.

Operation Sports: If there is one thing that jumps out at you in the gameplay department, what would it be?

MVP Baseball 2004 Team: I’m not sure there is only one specific thing that jumps out at me. We have spent the last year trying to make everything in gameplay jump out. That said the depth in gameplay is what we are most proud of. We have been playing MVP Baseball 2004 in different iterations for about 8 months now and on a daily basis still see things we’ve never seen before and have a blast with every game.

I suppose if there is one thing that jumps out it’s at how much this year’s game just really plays like baseball. Dropped third strikes, check swings (with contact, varying degrees and appeals), wild pitches, passed balls. All of the little things that add up to a great playing game of baseball.

Operation Sports: Are you including Signature homerun celebrations for the star players, like Sosa's hop & Bret Boones flipping of the bat?

MVP Baseball 2004 Team: Our home run celebrations are tied into our scripted animations that take place after the home run has left the park. This is so that the gameplay camera can follow the ball out of the park; especially for balls that barely clear the fence so that fielders can track the ball and time their jump at the wall in attempt to make the catch. So Sosa’s celebration when he crosses home plate is an example of a signature home run celebration that has been included for this year.

Operation Sports: How many realistic batting stances and pitching windups is there this year?

MVP Baseball 2004 Team: There are over 125+ signature batting and pitching styles for specific players in the game.

Operation Sports: Is there a separate animation for a drag bunt vs. a sac bunt?

MVP Baseball 2004 Team: No. Not this year. The way our hitting animation system is designed it would have required a big change. We believed our efforts were better served elsewhere. That said we have overhauled bunts with the hitting system overhaul and there is more differentiation between good and bad bunters.

Operation Sports: Has the stadium crowd been updated?

MVP Baseball 2004 Team: Yes. Most of the entire lower bowl in all stadiums is now in 3D (and animating) and the colors and attire reflect that of the home team.

Operation Sports: I would like to know more about the player happiness and manager/player dynamic, as it seems very RPG’ish and VERY interesting.

MVP Baseball 2004 Team: Yep – this is a pretty amazing feature for 2004. We received a lot of great response to the momentum meter last year and so we decided to take it a step further. And then another step. And we kept going until we had designed Team Chemistry. Managing a baseball team is more than simply substituting players and setting line-ups. The best managers are the ones that can deal with the varying personalities that exist in a clubhouse and get the most out of that team. Team Chemistry in MVP Baseball 2004 is essentially a sum of your players’ happiness/morale levels. There are different personality types in our game – some guys are more team oriented than other guys – some guys focus on their individual stats and so forth. By managing these differing player happiness levels, you will arrive at your team’s chemistry. There are different levels of team chemistry for each team in your organization, so you can’t simply ignore your minor league teams. There are a multitude of choices and options at your fingertips that you have as a Manager to impact player morale and as a result, affect your overall Team Chemistry. While I don’t want to give away too much information, one hint is to look at your team’s depth chart – it will provide a snapshot of which players are happy and which are pretty annoyed. It’s up to you to manage your team – both on and off the field.

Operation Sports: We would like to thank you for your time with this interview, is there anything else you would like to add?

MVP Baseball 2004 Team: Not a problem. The only thing to add is of course MVP Baseball 2004 will be online for PS2 and PC this year. We hope everyone enjoys playing MVP 2004 as much as we do.