Ball Physics look improved in 16!

[tnixen]

OK guys I have watched every stream and video of MLB The Show 16 and I think I can safely say that the Ball Physics have once again taken another step forward and have been improved. I am seeing hits that go all the way to the wall down the lines and into the corners and the ball also does not seem to hang as long like a balloon as in 15. Also seeing some nice variety too.


Do you guys agree or are my eyes playing tricks on me?

[bayman]

Re: Ball Physics look improved in 16!

I saw a chopper go all the way to 1st base which may be the furthest I've ever seen a chopper go in this series.

[MrOldboy]

Ball Physics look improved in 16!

They tweak it every year. We'll see once we can get out hands on it. I actually saw someone post that they think fly balls hang longer so I guess it's subjective comparing two games off a stream. If ground balls down the line get to the corner or sidewall with some speed that'll be all the improvement I need.

[HypoLuxa13]

Re: Ball Physics look improved in 16!

I agree some of the choppers I've seen look to have a little more variety. But until I see a hard hit, pulled ground ball down the line actually ROLL all the way into the corner, I'm skeptical. In the streams there have been a couple low line drives that have made it into corner, and those were hits that seemed like they probably would have died in the outfield grass before. But as I said, I want to see a hard ground ball over the bag that is both fair and rolls into the corner.

[Bobhead]

Re: Ball Physics look improved in 16!

It's tough to say. For most of the gameplay in the streams, the devs had "cheat mode" on (whatever they call that developmental module thing), and they had it locked to certain hit-types. For example in the gameplay stream they had it locked to ground balls for much of the night, in order to show off new fielding animations.

That kind of "god interference" makes it hard to judge the ball physics for what they really are, so I'm withholding judgment.

Granted I have not watched every stream... which stream do you think would be best to watch to gauge this sort of thing?

[thaSLAB]

Re: Ball Physics look improved in 16!

It's tough to say. For most of the gameplay in the streams, the devs had "cheat mode" on (whatever they call that developmental module thing), and they had it locked to certain hit-types. For example in the gameplay stream they had it locked to ground balls for much of the night, in order to show off new fielding animations.

That kind of "god interference" makes it hard to judge the ball physics for what they really are, so I'm withholding judgment.

Granted I have not watched every stream... which stream do you think would be best to watch to gauge this sort of thing?

Auto-hit (what you're referring to) does not use different ball physics.

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[Bobhead]

Re: Ball Physics look improved in 16!

Auto-hit (what you're referring to) does not use different ball physics.

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Yes of course but it's still very relevant. Baseball is a game of sample sizes. For example, I want to see X number of line drives per game, and then out of those line drives I want to see Y number of liners reach the wall. At least one hit amongst the streams reached the wall, but with so many modifiers going on, I can't get a feel for how likely the occurrence really was.

Tough to evaluate data when you know the sample population is atypical and non-random.

It's no different from guys who make threads or observations but their sliders are somewhere other than default. Can't judge home run trajectories unless the power slider is at default.

Only an un-tampered game can really convey any improvements in ball physics.

[BrianU]

Re: Ball Physics look improved in 16!

There is definitely a tendency to see things you wish for when you have limited data. Confirmation bias or whatever, when it comes to the hitting physics.

My biggest wish more than any other feature would be very simply to have the grounders down the lines have proper speed and distance. In MLB 15 and prior there is no reason to use guard the lines to protect the lead from a double because it's literally not possible. For me something as simple as this would add more than any of the big name features but I know the majority of users wouldn't see it as important as I do.

[MrOldboy]

Re: Ball Physics look improved in 16!

Auto-hit (what you're referring to) does not use different ball physics.

Sent from my 831C using Tapatalk

I'm assuming it functions the same as the community challenge tools. That is the first thing I will be doing. Setting up a ground ball down the line to see if it rolls or dies.

[BrianU]

Re: Ball Physics look improved in 16!

I'm assuming it functions the same as the community challenge tools. That is the first thing I will be doing. Setting up a ground ball down the line to see if it rolls or dies.

I'm not so sure they have custom challenges anymore. I hope not at least, people exploited the hell out of that last year.

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[MrOldboy]

Re: Ball Physics look improved in 16!

I'm not so sure they have custom challenges anymore. I hope not at least, people exploited the hell out of that last year.

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Would be sad if it's gone entirely as it was an interesting way to experiment with the game. I don't see the issue, just have a limit on how much XP you can earn from the challenges each day or something like that. If they removed it I'd assume it was because it wasn't very popular since they could of easily nerfed the rewards from it without removing it.

[HypoLuxa13]

Re: Ball Physics look improved in 16!

In yesterday's presentation stream, I did notice at 36:25, as they were having the conversation about Tulowitzki, that hit he got really appeared to be a genuine inside-out swing base hit. Those type of hits seemingly looked different in previous games. Maybe I'm just imagining it.

[tessl]

Re: Ball Physics look improved in 16!

They tweak it every year. We'll see once we can get out hands on it. I actually saw someone post that they think fly balls hang longer so I guess it's subjective comparing two games off a stream. If ground balls down the line get to the corner or sidewall with some speed that'll be all the improvement I need.

The problem is when they "fix" one thing it doesn't happen in a vacuum. Ground ball down the line goes to the corner - what happens if a ground ball past a diving second baseman goes all the way to the wall?

[nomo17k]

Re: Ball Physics look improved in 16!

As far as hits down the line, in a couple cases I've seen in earlier streams, I don't think it rolled away like it should in IRL.

I've personally mentioned this to the devs in CD-like opportunities and given it's been mentioned many times in the past (e.g., (http://www.operationsports.com/forum...ill-lacks.html), they must be aware of the issue.

But I think it was already too late in the cycle to given more consideration. It will change the XBHs balance need to be tweaked in coordination with other factors (fielder positioning), so they probably didn't want to mess with the balance.

[MrOldboy]

Ball Physics look improved in 16!

The problem is when they "fix" one thing it doesn't happen in a vacuum. Ground ball down the line goes to the corner - what happens if a ground ball past a diving second baseman goes all the way to the wall?

That's why I said tweak. Hopefully they tweak the game every year to eventually get to a point where the ball can roll realistically to real life. If everything is balanced then that shouldn't happen, a ground ball hit past the second baseman would get cut off by the CF or RF. I'm not saying jack up the roll speed. I'm saying tweak the game so that the ball physics can be more realistic. We've all discussed this before, nothing we say is in a vacuum and we all get that. For example part of the issue isn't just the ball physics, but fielder speed, reaction, routes, how the ball spin interacts with the ground, etc.

The end result though is that I want to see the hit types that I see in real MLB games. Slicing liners that bounce and then hit the side wall and cause the fielder to back peddle or a grounder rolling over the base and hitting the side wall or corner for instance. Obviously a lot more than the ball physics need to be adjusted, but since the devs tweak everything every year I can see this happening one day.