New hitting mode.

[Kaiser Wilhelm]

I'd like to see a hitting mode where the PCI is absolute. I'd like this just to make hitting more difficult and to curb the effectiveness of center swinging with circle which almost guarantees a foul ball. That would really be the only difference. It would make pitching less frustrating online and hitting feel more rewarding. As it is, using circle almost feels cheap because as long as you aren't too early or too late you can hit just about anything that isn't a wild pitch.

[ManiacMatt1782]

Re: New hitting mode.

play on HOF or Legend. the PCI is much smaller. or pitch to contact. THrwoing a high strike, or a low strike all but ensures a pop-up or ground ball to someon who only keeps the PCI in the middle.

[Kaiser Wilhelm]

Re: New hitting mode.

play on HOF or Legend. the PCI is much smaller. or pitch to contact. THrwoing a high strike, or a low strike all but ensures a pop-up or ground ball to someon who only keeps the PCI in the middle.

I'm currently on legend actually. Even then, I can foul the ball off using circle. Yes, if I miss the ball I eventually pop up, but more often than not, I can foul off pitches that are almost two boxes away from my PCI.

I'd also like to see the PCI be able to go one box out of the zone.

[@legendm0de]

Re: New hitting mode.

This is the stage I got to when I sought out how to make the game a challenge beyond simply playing at legend difficulty. The first thing I started doing was turning off all of the User Interface during my at bats. Turning off the K-zone, the PCI (which didn't exist at the time) but removing these visual aids may add enough level of difficulty alone, before you even change anything about the actual gameplay.

But there are many things you could do yourself to make the game take it to the next level you're looking for without you needing an entirely new game mode.

You can take a glimpse of what the game looks/feels like with the changes I brought up. I still have changed a number of things about the hitting to get that level of difficulty you are looking for.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/hGMy_Cb8c0o" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[Bobhead]

Re: New hitting mode.

I'm currently on legend actually. Even then, I can foul the ball off using circle. Yes, if I miss the ball I eventually pop up, but more often than not, I can foul off pitches that are almost two boxes away from my PCI.

I'd also like to see the PCI be able to go one box out of the zone.

You do realize that is supposed to happen right? Home plate is only 17 inches wide. Thus, one of those "boxes" represents only a third of the width of the plate, that is, 5.75 inches. So even if you include the area a few inches inside, and outside, the plate, you are only talking about 24 inches of horizontal space you need to cover.

The average bat used by the an MLB player is 26-33 inches long.

As long as your timing (and your timing slider) is in the appropriate place, you should always be able to reach pitches outside of your PCI. Even if one thinks of the PCI as an "absolute" marker... you can and should expect to make contact on a well-timed swing, the majority of the time... regardless of where you aimed to swing.

That's why off-speed is a thing.

[@legendm0de]

Re: New hitting mode.

That is another point I just couldn't elocute as effectively as you did without your supporting numbers, it's natural for the contact to be made outside of your swing zone shown in that post swing diagram exactly as you stated.

With that point made, there are still things that can be done to authenticate the challenge of making the contact and obtaining basehits that way the op desires.

[JPCaveman13]

Re: New hitting mode.

That is another point I just couldn't elocute as effectively as you did without your supporting numbers, it's natural for the contact to be made outside of your swing zone shown in that post swing diagram exactly as you stated.

With that point made, there are still things that can be done to authenticate the challenge of making the contact and obtaining basehits that way the op desires.

What about just changing the shape of the PCI to align more to a bat?? As Bobhead already covered the length of bats and their coverage, a more oblong PCI, wider than the zone yet narrower from top-to-bottom, would be better since bat widths are 2.5 - 2.75" inches wide and baseball widths are 2.875 - 3" wide. From the centerline of the bat, a max of 4" above or below would result in contact. Depending on the batter's height, the top and bottom edges of the PCI could only cover maybe a third of the zone to at an absolute max of half of the zone.

[@legendm0de]

Re: New hitting mode.

What about just changing the shape of the PCI to align more to a bat?? As Bobhead already covered the length of bats and their coverage, a more oblong PCI, wider than the zone yet narrower from top-to-bottom, would be better since bat widths are 2.5 - 2.75" inches wide and baseball widths are 2.875 - 3" wide. From the centerline of the bat, a max of 4" above or below would result in contact. Depending on the batter's height, the top and bottom edges of the PCI could only cover maybe a third of the zone to at an absolute max of half of the zone.

I stay away from the PCI diagram, because I enjoy the natural point of view of see ball hit ball. I wish they would actually emphasize that as the primary way to go and I'd be willing to bet that more people would find themselves satisfied.

But to your point, and as a player who used PCI since Ken Griffey Jr Baseball on N64 I think a larger PCI would indicate to the player that they have the right to place it almost anywhere and still make contact. Contact is really more about timing than the location. When you miss it's usually because you measured the speed of the pitch wrong moreso than anything else. I think they would frustrate users if the PCI was larger and they still weren't getting hits. Currently the PCI represents the sweet spot of where the bat will make contact. If you hit it plush within that system you most likely will get rewarded,so that makes the challenge for the player to continue trying to sync their PCI with the ball indicator. If the PCI is larger like in your experiment, the player would probably fail to understand what the problem with himself is if he's still making poor contact.