Lowering pitch speed does wonders

[RandyBass]

Since switching to zone hitting this year I have found hitting to be a serious grind, even with sliders in my favor. Today I decided to lower the pitch speed, though I didn't much like the idea of pitches coming in slower, but wow! What a difference it makes.

Three points to make regarding this:

1. With zone hitting it gives you more time to actually line up the PCI. On default often times I would try to line up a pitch only to discover the PCI hadn't moved at all (after it had showed the result, post pitch). With pitch speed lowered it makes things far easier and is much more forgiving.

2. You can actually see the pitches! Seems like a lot of pitches on default speed just flat out vanish from thin air. Sliders that don't so much slide as much as they disappear. Same goes for a good change up down in the zone. With pitch speed lowered it doesn't do that.

3. When playing this game you're stepping into the shoes of an MLB player, and the game is naturally going to be slowed down for them. Expecting a normal "average Joe" to step into the batter's box and be up to speed is a bit unrealistic. So lowering the pitch speed is in fact probably more realistic than keeping it up.

So far I played only about a half a game, but the difference was night and day, so much so that now I'll have to adjust my sliders because I was hitting just about everything. Either way, I highly recommend it.

[Bobhead]

Re: Lowering pitch speed does wonders

Couldn't agree more. I moved pitch speed down to 1 for this very reason. I was tired of being so overwhelmed by a 90mph fastball.

Since lowering pitch speed, I've found hitting to be a little more enjoyable and interesting.

Plus a lot of pitches still aren't fully realistic in terms of speeds and trajectories. Can't expect to react at a major league level when we aren't getting major league pitches yet.

[RandyBass]

Re: Lowering pitch speed does wonders

The game has gone from punishingly realistic, to flat out fun. It's like the shackles have been taken off. I'm free!

Seriously, the game actually feels fun now, and "fun" is definitely not a word I would have used to describe it before. That's not to say I didn't like it or appreciate it's realistic approach, it just was on the overbearing side.

Another advantage to being able to see the ball is that it frees up the custom hitting camera. Before I used it to get the best view possible, because I pretty much had to. Now I can zoom back a bit and get a view that looks cool, and still have a chance because the ball won't disappear on me.

Wish I would have thought of this before.

[braves_94]

Re: Lowering pitch speed does wonders

I use default sliders and get a pretty good game playing on hall of fame. When it comes to pitch reconition, do you try to find the ball and it's highest point? Do you take a couple of pitches to get down the timing on the pitcher? Do you take notice of the breaks on the individual pitches, and where in the zone the CPU likes to spot them? When in certain counts they throw them?

But I definately know the feeling when you catchup in hitting so the game feels like less a true sim, and more of an "arcade" game, to where you're not being no-hit through 6 innings every third game. Either that, or I just ran into the back-end of the Philly rotation on the road! (Drum roll!)

[mr9inchesbpel]

Re: Lowering pitch speed does wonders

This depends on the TV you have, but I switched from a plasma that didn't have that much input lag, to a new Sony TV with game mode that has some of the lowest input lag ratings on the market.

First few games after switching and trying hard, I was able to pull fastballs that I usually wouldn't pull and I was able to draw walks a lot easier.


If you have a bad tv with a lot of input lag turning down pitch speed might help if you have a good tv and the right set up then your hardly going to get fastballs thrown by you on default sliders unless your up against Chapman on legend mode.

[Mrmagoo]

Re: Lowering pitch speed does wonders

If I may ask, what was the model number of the TV you replaced the plasma with?
What made you decide not to just go with another plasma?

[KBLover]

Re: Lowering pitch speed does wonders

Funny because I can NOT hit on a low pitch speed.

Everything seems to take "forever" to get to the plate and I feel like I'm playing MLB13 again where I feel "late" in order to be "on time".

If anything, I think a low pitch speed slows down the breaking stuff too much and that hurts my pitch identification. Higher pitch speeds get the "humps" and "darts" happening that represent the "signatures" of a pitch so that lets me adjust my timing more easily.

I usually sit at 7 or 8 pitch speed. 10 brings in that overpowered by mediocre velocity feeling too much (though that can happen still if the pitcher is changing speeds a lot on the pitch speed I'm at) but lower has me out in front of 94 MPH fastballs (which frustrates the heck out of me).

[strawberryshortcake]

Re: Lowering pitch speed does wonders

I'm the complete opposite. I bump up the pitch speed to the full maximum, 100% and leave everything else on default.

I need a fast ball to look like a fast ball. I need a breaking pitch, a change up, off speed pitch, to actually feel different than a fast ball but still retain a convincing speed. After a handful of games, my eyes are trained to recognize pitches.

Sometimes, honestly I wish I could bump up the speed to 200% if the game would allow.

[daddies3angels]

Re: Lowering pitch speed does wonders

Also type of camera angle matters. The angle I use I have to have low pitch speed. Even on low pitch speed im still behind 95+ fastballs.

[Bobhead]

Re: Lowering pitch speed does wonders

Funny because I can NOT hit on a low pitch speed.

Everything seems to take "forever" to get to the plate and I feel like I'm playing MLB13 again where I feel "late" in order to be "on time".

If anything, I think a low pitch speed slows down the breaking stuff too much and that hurts my pitch identification. Higher pitch speeds get the "humps" and "darts" happening that represent the "signatures" of a pitch so that lets me adjust my timing more easily.

I usually sit at 7 or 8 pitch speed. 10 brings in that overpowered by mediocre velocity feeling too much (though that can happen still if the pitcher is changing speeds a lot on the pitch speed I'm at) but lower has me out in front of 94 MPH fastballs (which frustrates the heck out of me).

I agree, and it's a problem for me too, but because I use zone, an even bigger problem was when I didnt have the time to move the PCI and ended up looking stupid at the plate because the game ignored my inputs (because they were not "in time".

So I took the lesser of two evils and dropped the pitch speed.

It was very hard at first... for exactly what you described. Pitch recognition was a lot harder...
But eventually I adjusted and I have no problems now.

[DemurOnion]

Re: Lowering pitch speed does wonders

I'm old school. I higher the pitch speed and I won't be using zone.

[RandyBass]

Re: Lowering pitch speed does wonders

For pitch recognition I'm speaking more on the tail end of the pitch, where sliders seem to actually accelerate when they reach the plate. Same for change ups. When in reality those pitches will lose pace.

Biggest thing though with this is being able to actually move the PCI. Rather than having it lock in place you can actually move it and cover those pitches towards the edge of the zone. It' a huge difference.

The way zone hitting is designed in this game isn't entirely realistic. In real life a hitter will start his swing, then track the location, but in this game once you press X to start your swing the PCI will stop moving because you get locked into an animation and so you can't really track a pitch.

Still trying to find a balance with sliders, but I did go all the way up to Legend and it's nice to have that challenge.

[Bobhead]

Re: Lowering pitch speed does wonders

The way zone hitting is designed in this game isn't entirely realistic. In real life a hitter will start his swing, then track the location, but in this game once you press X to start your swing the PCI will stop moving because you get locked into an animation and so you can't really track a pitch.

I've been vehemently complaining about this for like 4 years now. Sadly it doesn't seem like it is getting fixed any time soon.

[RandyBass]

Re: Lowering pitch speed does wonders

I've been vehemently complaining about this for like 4 years now. Sadly it doesn't seem like it is getting fixed any time soon.

It would be difficult to design, because you'd essentially have to have branching animations mid-swing, and then have it all look fluid without a hitch. Either that or drop animations all together and just have it be physics based, which would be even more of a challenge.

However, with lowering the pitch speed like this it's almost as though the left stick is actually the start of the swing, with the X button being the last part of the swing.

I can't emphasize it enough, this has really opened up the game for me.

edit: And thread title really should read: "Lowering pitch speed does wonders for zone hitting"

My mistake for not specifying that.

[KBLover]

Re: Lowering pitch speed does wonders

It would be difficult to design, because you'd essentially have to have branching animations mid-swing, and then have it all look fluid without a hitch. Either that or drop animations all together and just have it be physics based, which would be even more of a challenge.

BBPro did similar.

You picked your zone where you were looking (like putting the PCI somewhere) but then the hitter could adjust as he swung, depending on his ability.

So while it wasn't a manual adjust, there was acknowledgement of this type of thing you mention.

Based on the hitter's contact rating, he got so many "adjustment units". Then based on speed/timing and location and how far he'd need to adjust, that determined the results.

Then again, BBPro was physics based for much of the hitting mechanics.