MLB The Show 16's Successful Year, And A Look At An Ideal Roadmap Ahead

[jaredsmith83]

I"d love more depth in RTTS. Great concept and has always been a focal point for me, but with how NBA 2K has revamped MyPlayer to the level they have, RTTS is starting to feel very stale. Its my main mode in The Show, and always look forward to it, but as of late its starting to feel dated.

[Mike Lowe]

Re: MLB The Show 16's Successful Year, And A Look At An Ideal Roadmap Ahead

Lol I would 😂.

Just imagine being on a 9 person chat while playing the OF. Honestly would be really fun for me

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

I'm embarrassed a bit to admit that I'd love it too haha

Sent from my SM-G930P using Operation Sports mobile app

[Mike Lowe]

Re: MLB The Show 16's Successful Year, And A Look At An Ideal Roadmap Ahead

The article touched on it but I was wondering if any of you who play both Madden and The Show franchise feel about them? The article mentioned that The Show's franchise is better than Madden's, but I've felt the past 3 years or so Madden has had the better and more immersive franchise. Just wondering the reasons others might feel differently.

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Thanks for the reply, man. Just to clarify, I said the franchise mode *interaction* is better in the Show than in Madden. As a whole, Madden's franchise mode I'd rate better than The Show.

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[Russell_SCEA]

Re: MLB The Show 16's Successful Year, And A Look At An Ideal Roadmap Ahead

Speaking of adjustments, make me want to shift against Chris Davis. As it is now, if my human opponent can’t pull the ball, why would I bother shifting? This is a tricky balance, but it would be nice to see MLB players follow their own hitting styles a bit more than they do currently.

Christmas came early for you guys, I just so happened to be doing a test on spray charts two days ago. This was in 17 obviously fyi.

I set the cpu to swing and hit at every pitch with no foul balls (You've seen the widgets we use in the stream we can force the game to do anything) and I threw the cpu batter about 140 pitches to see if the hit distribution would mirror the batters hitter tendencies. The pitchers used his entire pitch repertoire and threw all over the zone fyi. The results are below, one thing I noticed outside of the obvious is that a vast majority of the hits the opposite field were on pitches off the end of the bat. Which is what you would expect to see in real life I also set the defense to extreme Pull hitter shift and about 29 balls thrown dropped in for hits.


Right handed pitcher
Left handed batter
Contact Vs. R 60
Power Vs. R 40

Hitter Tendency Extreme Pull
• LF 24%
• CF 28%
• RF 48%

140 Pitches hit location distribution
• LF - 15
• CF - 9
• RF - 48
• Infield L - 13
• Infield C - 29
• Infield R – 26

• 7 Pop Ups
• 36 Fly balls
• 45 Line drives
• 66 ground balls
• 7 choppers
• 17 extra base hits
• 71 chased


Same test about 140 pitches thrown the cpu batter was set to swing at everything.

Right handed pitcher
Left handed batter
Contact Vs. R 95
Power Vs. R 84

Hitter Tendency Extreme Pull
• LF 31%
• CF 33%
• RF 36%

140 Pitches hit location distribution
• LF - 25
• CF - 20
• RF - 21
• Infield L - 12
• Infield C - 38
• Infield R – 25

• 2 Pop Ups
• 39 Fly balls
• 35 Line drives
• 67 ground balls
• 11 choppers
• 22 extra base hits
• 58 chased
• 52 hits
• 88 Outs

So as you can see batters are hitting to their hitter tendencies and the shifting took away a lot of hits. Fyi the game is far from finished and these numbers aren't a reflection of the final product. We still have a lot of testing and tuning to do. Just sharing a little test info during crunch time.

[Bullit]

Re: MLB The Show 16's Successful Year, And A Look At An Ideal Roadmap Ahead

I stand by what I said in another thread. I really have a feeling about this years game. I really think we are about to see and experience something truly epic.

[Mike Lowe]

Re: MLB The Show 16's Successful Year, And A Look At An Ideal Roadmap Ahead

Christmas came early for you guys, I just so happened to be doing a test on spray charts two days ago. This was in 17 obviously fyi.

I set the cpu to swing and hit at every pitch with no foul balls (You've seen the widgets we use in the stream we can force the game to do anything) and I threw the cpu batter about 140 pitches to see if the hit distribution would mirror the batters hitter tendencies. The pitchers used his entire pitch repertoire and threw all over the zone fyi. The results are below, one thing I noticed outside of the obvious is that a vast majority of the hits the opposite field were on pitches off the end of the bat. Which is what you would expect to see in real life I also set the defense to extreme Pull hitter shift and about 29 balls thrown dropped in for hits.


Right handed pitcher
Left handed batter
Contact Vs. R 60
Power Vs. R 40

Hitter Tendency Extreme Pull
•LF 24%
•CF 28%
•RF 48%

140 Pitches hit location distribution
•LF - 15
•CF - 9
•RF - 48
•Infield L - 13
•Infield C - 29
•Infield R – 26

•7 Pop Ups
•36 Fly balls
•45 Line drives
•66 ground balls
•7 choppers
•17 extra base hits
•71 chased


Same test about 140 pitches thrown the cpu batter was set to swing at everything.

Right handed pitcher
Left handed batter
Contact Vs. R 95
Power Vs. R 84

Hitter Tendency Extreme Pull
•LF 31%
•CF 33%
•RF 36%

140 Pitches hit location distribution
•LF - 25
•CF - 20
•RF - 21
•Infield L - 12
•Infield C - 38
•Infield R – 25

•2 Pop Ups
•39 Fly balls
•35 Line drives
•67 ground balls
•11 choppers
•22 extra base hits
•58 chased
•52 hits
•88 Outs

So as you can see batters are hitting to their hitter tendencies and the shifting took away a lot of hits. Fyi the game is far from finished and these numbers aren't a reflection of the final product. Just sharing a little test info during crunch time.

Awesome, and thanks for sharing Ramone. I have respected the AI extreme pull hitters already in '16. The tricky balance--and admittedly it might not be a wise adjustment to implement--is getting these representations to play out in human v human games, otherwise all 9 hitters develop the tendencies of the actual human, which can be an odd experience.

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[Russell_SCEA]

Re: MLB The Show 16's Successful Year, And A Look At An Ideal Roadmap Ahead

Awesome, and thanks for sharing Ramone. I have respected the AI extreme pull hitters already in '16. The tricky balance--and admittedly it might not be a wise adjustment to implement--is getting these representations to play out in human v human games, otherwise all 9 hitters develop the tendencies of the actual human, which can be an odd experience.

Sent from my SM-G930P using Operation Sports mobile app

This already happens a human can't override a hitters tendencies. It's simple addition. The human input is added into the equation, for instance if human A has a tendency to swing a little late then this is just applied to the batters in the lineup based on their tendencies. Which would just cause everything to shift a little not override. It's same thing with swing timing. If Human A is really good at batting then the guy in his lineup that's a a .300 hitter in his lineup now becomes a .330 hitter. And the batter in his lineup that's a .200 hitter now becomes a .230 hitter because of the humans timing.

[Mike Lowe]

Re: MLB The Show 16's Successful Year, And A Look At An Ideal Roadmap Ahead

This already happens a human can't override a hitters tendencies. It's simple addition. The human input is added into the equation, for instance if human A has a tendency to swing a little late then this is just applied to the batters in the lineup based on their tendencies. Which would just cause everything to shift a little not override. It's same thing with swing timing. If Human A is really good at batting then the guy in his lineup that's a a .300 hitter in his lineup now becomes a .330 hitter. And the batter in his lineup that's a .200 hitter now becomes a .230 hitter because of the humans timing.

Awesome. Thank you for the feedback, sir.

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[Coach_Chever]

Really nice article.

I disagree with most of what you thought about gameplay. I have no problems pulling off the same animations the AI does. My walks seem to be just about on track with the real MLB average, for both pitching and hitting.

Now I should say I solely play offline, default settings, no slider adjustments at All Star.

As far as your problems with online gameplay, I really can't comment on those issues. I never have and most likely never will play this game online.

Adjustments I think are very easy to manage. I really don't understand this point though:

· Speaking of adjustments, make me want to shift against Chris Davis. As it is now, if my human opponent can’t pull the ball, why would I bother shifting? This is a tricky balance, but it would be nice to see MLB players follow their own hitting styles a bit more than they do currently.

Well if you are playing against a human opponent who cant pull why would you want to shift? I don't see how getting players to react more like the real world players, when they are controlled by human players would be possible and dont see the point. Playing offline, I do have to shift against Davis and most players seem to play true to form.

All of your points with Franchise mode are very good and if even half of them are implemented it would push this game to new heights.

I am not going to comment on the Diamond Dynasty stuff as I have said I don't play or even like those modes.

RTTS I hope they can find I balance between what they are doing now and the NBA and FIFA examples. I dont want to play a linear story with some fictional player. I also don't want to play as anybody but myself. I don't find this mode boring at all and I never have. Working your way thru to the bigs has always, for me, been fun, challenging and rewarding experience. Carry over saves have been kind of useless, because they keep adding things that make me want to start over every year. Then I keep playing my new career and rarely ever go back to my carry over.

I also, personally, hope they never go the E sport route. I play games, The Show especially, to escape from the world. I don't want to have to deal with people in my game. If I want a social interaction or community game there are already plenty of those games out there.

Well this is my longest post I have ever typed on my phone and I am sure it is in horrible need of editing. As always this is all just my opinion and preference.

I know what you mean about playing a linear story and preferring to play as yourself while I am still gonna get FiFA 17 and I will be playing The Journey I do hope for the option to play with my own created played Im a writer and Tecmo Bowl kid turned grownup so I'm all about the create a player modes I just jumped to current gen like I'll say 6 months ago and I said before I got a PS4 that I was gonna buy The Show because its create a player mode was so detailed I couldnt resist I havent played a baseball game since Bases Loaded on Nintendo and on top of that I'm a big football guy baseball isnt really on my radar however after copping The Show 16 I love the game and I am looking forward to getting The Show 17 I have gained a better respect for the sport of baseball and I'm learning more and more about it through the game this is also a long post for me but as I said I writer so sometimes I just go off on tangents but I had to reply because I agree with you about being stuck to the one character when opting to play a certain sports games.

[Bryzine21]

Please God. No fictional players in my DD mode.

[@legendm0de]

Re: MLB The Show 16's Successful Year, And A Look At An Ideal Roadmap Ahead

Christmas came early for you guys, I just so happened to be doing a test on spray charts two days ago. This was in 17 obviously fyi.

I set the cpu to swing and hit at every pitch with no foul balls (You've seen the widgets we use in the stream we can force the game to do anything) and I threw the cpu batter about 140 pitches to see if the hit distribution would mirror the batters hitter tendencies. The pitchers used his entire pitch repertoire and threw all over the zone fyi. The results are below, one thing I noticed outside of the obvious is that a vast majority of the hits the opposite field were on pitches off the end of the bat. Which is what you would expect to see in real life I also set the defense to extreme Pull hitter shift and about 29 balls thrown dropped in for hits.


Right handed pitcher
Left handed batter
Contact Vs. R 60
Power Vs. R 40

Hitter Tendency Extreme Pull
• LF 24%
• CF 28%
• RF 48%

140 Pitches hit location distribution
• LF - 15
• CF - 9
• RF - 48
• Infield L - 13
• Infield C - 29
• Infield R – 26

• 7 Pop Ups
• 36 Fly balls
• 45 Line drives
• 66 ground balls
• 7 choppers
• 17 extra base hits
• 71 chased


Same test about 140 pitches thrown the cpu batter was set to swing at everything.

Right handed pitcher
Left handed batter
Contact Vs. R 95
Power Vs. R 84

Hitter Tendency Extreme Pull
• LF 31%
• CF 33%
• RF 36%

140 Pitches hit location distribution
• LF - 25
• CF - 20
• RF - 21
• Infield L - 12
• Infield C - 38
• Infield R – 25

• 2 Pop Ups
• 39 Fly balls
• 35 Line drives
• 67 ground balls
• 11 choppers
• 22 extra base hits
• 58 chased
• 52 hits
• 88 Outs

So as you can see batters are hitting to their hitter tendencies and the shifting took away a lot of hits. Fyi the game is far from finished and these numbers aren't a reflection of the final product. We still have a lot of testing and tuning to do. Just sharing a little test info during crunch time.

idk, the second test, despite being labeled extreme pull hitter still would make it impossible to shift a defense around IF solely based on just data like that. I always thought two things about those labels, firstly that they only were based on successful hits and not factoring tendency for all balls put in play. If based on "successful hits", then it would make swinging for all pitches obsolete because full at bats would determine what pitch he's looking to hit and that would influence where and then of course you have the pitcher execution level and overall skillset as equally if not more a factor in the equation.

Secondly, and I'll keep this succinct but to piggyback on point one, I always viewed this entire topic as a more approach driven and based on the mentality a player takes to the plate than an actual ability to hit here or there. A player always goes to the plate keen on certain pitches and he has a short amount of time to make a decision so when you get in a full at bat and you need a hit or to make a play that's where your tendencies start to take shape. Like extreme Pull hitters such as colby rasmus, when needing a sac fly the approach is much more open minded and will be higher likely to spray a fly ball anywhere from center to opposite field but in a general at bat needing a hit he's looking for pitches to get on top of for xbhs.

It's highly nuanced discussion, but in short and sweet terms I just think it's always moreso a mental approach at the plate than any physical skill set per batter and that's harder to rearrange for a hitter than some kind of mechanical changes. If that same player I described, Colby Rasmus changed his mind all season this year and dedicated to hitting opposite field against the shift his average might increase by 8 or 15 points (20 if very blessed by the man above) but that's not gauranteed. What is gauranteed is you'd take him out of the middle of your lineup because he's never going to hit 20+ HRs ever that way..

it's just all crazy n stuff..

With that said, I have never had enormous problems with this but it is a noticeable area that can be improved and focused on more just to make sure it's nicely tailored for us. Personally, I always look to strip artificial contact from the game system and null certain universal sliders which helps alot with regard to player tendencies and individual attributes being more noticeable. So I think improving ball contact model to oriented on a baseball bat opposed to wall spin can only be a gigantic improvement for us.

[nemesis04]

Re: MLB The Show 16's Successful Year, And A Look At An Ideal Roadmap Ahead

I think depending on the hitting mechanic you can pretty successfully get a hitter to hit out of his tendencies. Directional hitting for example is very over powering and quite regularly I could get a dead pull hitter to go opposite the shift.

[redsox4evur]

Re: MLB The Show 16's Successful Year, And A Look At An Ideal Roadmap Ahead

Please God. No fictional players in my DD mode.

There already are fictional players in DD.

[Armor and Sword]

Re: MLB The Show 16's Successful Year, And A Look At An Ideal Roadmap Ahead

I really enjoy DD as a break from my franchises. I play this game year round and having DD mode expanded on 16 has been great. Conquest mode is a lot of fun. And boy do I love opening packs!!

[MetsFan16]

Re: MLB The Show 16's Successful Year, And A Look At An Ideal Roadmap Ahead

Pretty good list of improvements. I'm honestly one of the few people on here who plays a lot of each and every mode. My time is spread out throughout DD, Franchise, and RTTS because I love what each mode offers. Some improvements I'd like to see,

Gameplay, hit variety, less outfield errors, more ground ball animations that go either way (a lot of ground ball animations, you know whether or not youll catch the ball before it gets to your player), better Bullpen AI.

RTTS, they are hinting at a more interactive mode with dialogues so i'll have to wait to see how those progress in the streams.

EQUIPMENT: My biggest thing is that you have to Buy equipment in RTTS. In the Majors, players sign contracts with brands and they get all of their equipment either for free or much much cheaper. Then, when you sign that contract, you only wear that one brand. Now, if I wanted to wear all NIKE equipment, I won't have Diamond level attributes in each slot. The only way I can do this is buy mixing brands. Which you never see in real life.

I think there should be a franchise type sponsorship in RTTS where you either buy (or through interactive RTTS dialogues get offered different brand contracts) and they're worth diamond,gold,silver, level attributes and you can wear all the same brand and get diamond level attributes.

In Franchise: I do not mind if no expansion, customizable, create a stadium feature is implemented though I do understand why others would love them. when the time comes and MLB is introducing expansion teams in real life, then maybe those would be necessary. I would like to see better Player Progressions, rotating interleague schedules,

Accurate playoff schedules. In '16, if there are only 2 division series games for that day (either national or american) you will see both games being played at 1pm EST. If there are 4 games being played in one day, you see 3 being played at 7pm EST and 1 at 8pm EST. In real life, when there are 2 games, one game starts at 4pm and another starts at 7pm, (depending on time zones and home teams) roughly, but they are spread out with at least 3 hours in between start times. In real life, 4 games in one day, they are spread out. 1pm, 3pm, 7p, 10pm. again depending on time zones and the home team)

Another thing in PostSeason play, with the 5 man rotations screen, if I only want to use a 4 man rotation during the playoffs, I hve to move the rotation around accordingly now with Player Morale, an Ace will be upset they are not in the Ace slot. This can be fixed, but having a "Press Conference" and announcing what your 4 man rotation before the series begins, they do this in real life. You say "he starting game 1, this guy game 2, then him 3 and him 4."

Final thing in Franchise, The Draft:
I do not want to scout 21-23 year olds. Not even if theyre 98 potentials. Please get rid of these old prospects and give me high schoolers or junior college players, it is more realistic

Also, after the draft, you sign them, you should be able to put them in the minor leagues for that summer. Not beginning of next year. Also, they are mostly really hideous with the random skin, hair, color, facial hair combos. They are all given generic equipment. I have to go through each team's drafted players, and edit them to correct their weird hair, facial hair combos and give them branded equipment.

Diamond Dynasty is perfect, maybe offer an Offline Battle Royale using Extra Innings tendencies because I love the mode, but have trouble playing online with my internet.