With all they've tweaked with gameplay, there's still so much more they didn't...

[Knight165]

Re: With all they've tweaked with gameplay, there's still so much more they didn't...

When pitching, do you check the pitches that were thrown the previous at bat? I find myself doing that now and I'm seeing greater success at preventing the comebacks.

Yes....
and...when I'm managing games....I chart the pitchers and use it in subsequent AB's as well.

The one thing I hate that was changed this year was no way to see the hot/cold zones unless you leave them on all the time(in manage mode games)....I really like to use the cold zones to pitch to(unless they are counter intuitive to the hitter tendency....(like a pull hitter that has cold zones away....and I shift on him....)


M.K.
Knight165

[Millennium]

Re: With all they've tweaked with gameplay, there's still so much more they didn't...

Yes....
and...when I'm managing games....I chart the pitchers and use it in subsequent AB's as well.

The one thing I hate that was changed this year was no way to see the hot/cold zones unless you leave them on all the time(in manage mode games)....I really like to use the cold zones to pitch to(unless they are counter intuitive to the hitter tendency....(like a pull hitter that has cold zones away....and I shift on him....)


M.K.
Knight165

You can set them to preview and you'll only see them in the first pitch of every at bat. They fixed that from last year.

[Mets7766]

Re: With all they've tweaked with gameplay, there's still so much more they didn't...

As others have said, the pitchers in this game are apparently made of Teflon (and all can field like Maddux in his prime). I hit probably between 5-10 shots back at the pitcher in each game I play. Almost all of which are immediately fielded with no effort by the pitcher, no matter how hard they are hit. The bigger issue, though, is the pitcher taking (literally) a hard hit ball off of the face or chest, and recovering [I]immediately[I] to throw out even fast runners. This has to be fixed, and soon. I still play The Show every day, but holy crap, this year's edition has some SERIOUS flaws. The 'every fast lead-off hitter trying to bunt their way on in literally every first inning' is also pretty annoying. None of the flaws are game-breakers by themselves, but they are starting to add up. The Show has been an automatic pre-order for years, but that changes next year. If you love the game, and think it is amazing, I'm not arguing with you, I'm simply stating my opinion.

[HozAndMoose]

Re: With all they've tweaked with gameplay, there's still so much more they didn't...

As others have said, the pitchers in this game are apparently made of Teflon (and all can field like Maddux in his prime). I hit probably between 5-10 shots back at the pitcher in each game I play. Almost all of which are immediately fielded with no effort by the pitcher, no matter how hard they are hit. The bigger issue, though, is the pitcher taking (literally) a hard hit ball off of the face or chest, and recovering [I]immediately[I] to throw out even fast runners. This has to be fixed, and soon. I still play The Show every day, but holy crap, this year's edition has some SERIOUS flaws. The 'every fast lead-off hitter trying to bunt their way on in literally every first inning' is also pretty annoying. None of the flaws are game-breakers by themselves, but they are starting to add up. The Show has been an automatic pre-order for years, but that changes next year. If you love the game, and think it is amazing, I'm not arguing with you, I'm simply stating my opinion.

Havent had a single player try and bunt on me in the first inning. So its not every fast player in literally every first inning.

[Mets7766]

Re: With all they've tweaked with gameplay, there's still so much more they didn't...

Havent had a single player try and bunt on me in the first inning. So its not every fast player in literally every first inning.

I'm glad that it's not happening to you, but it certainly is to me. I'll try to post some examples.

[therewillbechud]

Re: With all they've tweaked with gameplay, there's still so much more they didn't...

This guy are sick.

No seriously that was a phrase uttered in the greatest game ever created. Nobody was sacked over it, we weren't angry about it, we just laughed.

Now there are so many sad faces about, that makes me a sad panda too.

I know grammatical errors and bugs are not the same, bugs actually take a really long time to work out, and the moment you fix one that can lead to 100 other bugs, so those fixes you put in have to be thoroughly tested.

And this is a problem that will get worse not better as games get more and more sophisticated.

People don't want to hear that, they don't care about that, they just want the thing to work. The game works beautifully, okay but I want it to work better. Where do we draw the line between what is an acceptable bug and what is not? Because the process and the software doesn't know the difference. "Higher priority bugs" are things like "if this bug happens the whole game reboots itself".

You can have open beta testing and 40,000 players take part in your event and when you're done you're very fortunate if you've identified and fixed a dozen new bugs that you weren't aware of before. Nothing gets more trivialized than the quality assurance part of the process from the consumers perspective. No matter how much emphasis you put on it, the day of release someones going to do something weird that will have effects on your game that you didn't know about.

And you can't retroactively change perceived flaws with your game logic either. You want the game to make sense, but when it's out into the public you have no real idea what's going to make someone believe this thing would better this way than that way, you can only be assured that someone will feel that way.

This is basic knowledge about bugs and game design, but one worth repeating to some people, it seems.

[jinku]

Re: With all they've tweaked with gameplay, there's still so much more they didn't...

However, I'm thinking there will be an "Official" thread at some point for this? Not sure if Ramone's "Top 3" thread counts for listing gameplay improvements specifically?

[NDAlum]

Re: With all they've tweaked with gameplay, there's still so much more they didn't...

I was simply explaining that there definitely was a hitch, but that it was probably due to Miller's poor fielding rating. I didn't insult you in any way.

There was a hitch but don't we want some form of momentum to be in this game. To have Miller follow thru on the pitch and then instantly bounce over to the 1B line would be unreal.

I'm not saying the CPU doesn't come up clutch and I personally get frustrated by it as well at times. I am not as far on the "it's the game" train but I see where you could get frustrated.

[Factzzz]

Re: With all they've tweaked with gameplay, there's still so much more they didn't...

Late to this thread, but one thing i'd like to see is something to distinguish the better fielders from the poorer fielders.

Specifically, i think it'd be a good idea to have fielding animations that only certain players can pull off, if they're rated high enough.

For example, in the game, any ball hit between shortstop and third that shortstop gets to and makes a jump throw to first, the throw is always weak, and bounced in the ground. Always.

Whereas a guy like Tulo makes a strong accurate throw for the out. So guys rated high like Tulo, should have their own animation for plays like that. Etc.

EX:

<iframe src='http://m.mlb.com/shared/video/embed/embed.html?content_id=103718383&topic_id=6479266&w idth=400&height=224&property=mlb' width='400' height='224' frameborder='0'>Your browser does not support iframes.</iframe>

We need some animations like that for the good defensive players so we can really see the difference in ratings.

[eastcoast49ers]

Re: With all they've tweaked with gameplay, there's still so much more they didn't...

Most glaring problems for me are the batted balls up the middle that hit the pitcher (happens way too often), and the fastball/changeup speed differential. change ups are crazy hard to hit this year.

[capa]

Re: With all they've tweaked with gameplay, there's still so much more they didn't...

My top annoyances that kill the realism and immersion factor for me are:

1) too many tappers hit right in front of plate...both by human and cpu
2) too many balls hit directly back through the middle whether they hit pitcher or not
3) passed balls that go directly through catcher
4) pickoff throws into the stands (ludicrous)
5) lack of urgency on many fielding animations - both human and cpu controlled
6) only 1 slide animation into the plate
7) suicide squeeze attempted way too often by cpu
8) fast leadoff man will bunt way too often even if infield in
9) pitch speed differential between FB and Changeups

C

[eastcoast49ers]

Re: With all they've tweaked with gameplay, there's still so much more they didn't...

My top annoyances that kill the realism and immersion factor for me are:

1) too many tappers hit right in front of plate...both by human and cpu
2) too many balls hit directly back through the middle whether they hit pitcher or not
3) passed balls that go directly through catcher
4) pickoff throws into the stands (ludicrous)
5) lack of urgency on many fielding animations - both human and cpu controlled
6) only 1 slide animation into the plate
7) suicide squeeze attempted way too often by cpu
8) fast leadoff man will bunt way too often even if infield in
9) pitch speed differential between FB and Changeups

C

Good news is these dont seem to be things that cant be fixed with tuning. For a sports video game, that is a pretty small list of glaring problems compared to some other titles. If they could fix these super annoying issues this game would be perfect

[zephyr13]

Re: With all they've tweaked with gameplay, there's still so much more they didn't...

4) pickoff throws into the stands (ludicrous)

See Jon Lester, in real life...

[dubplate]

Re: With all they've tweaked with gameplay, there's still so much more they didn't...

You can set them to preview and you'll only see them in the first pitch of every at bat. They fixed that from last year.

I wish that worked with quick counts.

[zephyr13]

Re: With all they've tweaked with gameplay, there's still so much more they didn't...

I wish that worked with quick counts.

Yup... me too... That's the one thing that bugs me about quick counts.