Situational Hitting w/ Zone Hitting

[El_MaYiMbE]

Re: Situational Hitting w/ Zone Hitting

See now I'm confused so I think im going to go lab with directional hitting and see if I can manipulate the timing and get the experience I want

With directional hitting if you are righty, and the pitch is inside and you want to hit the ball to opposite field in the air, you press right + up with left stick.

The player you are controlling reads this as pull hands in, but slash to right side.

If you want to pull that same exact pitch, you press left stick to left and swing, and player still brings hands in but now pulls ball to left.

No guarantees, and timing should also be considered but this is how it is meant to be used.

Ideally however you should not be insiding outing pitches right? You mostly go with pitch. So if pitch is down and away you push right and now the batter will extend arms and poke ball other way.

Notice in all instances the batter auto aims bat based on pitch location and desired hitting direction. Batter adjusts swing on fly based off that, more like you naturally would at the plate....Instead of forcing you to aim bat.

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[killaxxbearsxxx]

Re: Situational Hitting w/ Zone Hitting

With directional hitting if you are righty, and the pitch is inside and you want to hit the ball to opposite field in the air, you press right + up with left stick.

The player you are controlling reads this as pull hands in, but slash to right side.

If you want to pull that same exact pitch, you press left stick to left and swing, and player still brings hands in but now pulls ball to left.

No guarantees, and timing should also be considered but this is how it is meant to be used.

Ideally however you should not be insiding outing pitches right? You mostly go with pitch. So if pitch is down and away you push right and now the batter will extend arms and poke ball other way.

Notice in all instances the batter auto aims bat based on pitch location and desired hitting direction. Batter adjusts swing on fly based off that, more like you naturally would at the plate....Instead of forcing you to aim bat.

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I gotcha. I feel like I'm derailing the topic so to answer it on zone hitting I make the read the player makes automatically on directional for every situation. If the ball is right and I need to hit right I aim right. If the ball is left and I need to hit right I aim left. If the ball up and I need to hit down I aim up and swing earlier and so on.

[p00p1]

Re: Situational Hitting w/ Zone Hitting

With the camera shift, I think they designed directional for the user to determine hit location before the pitch and judge whether or not you should swing once the pitch is delivered. MVP was more read/react. If directional plays that way, I'm mistaken. In MVP if you had a good hitter and got a pitch down and in, if you timed it right and pressed down and in, you could hit a homerun, not just pull a ground ball.

[parky_17]

Re: Situational Hitting w/ Zone Hitting

With the camera shift, I think they designed directional for the user to determine hit location before the pitch and judge whether or not you should swing once the pitch is delivered. MVP was more read/react. If directional plays that way, I'm mistaken. In MVP if you had a good hitter and got a pitch down and in, if you timed it right and pressed down and in, you could hit a homerun, not just pull a ground ball.

On sort of a side note, I wish they would bring back the camera shift for directional hitting that they had in MLB 15, the way it was in 16 and looks to be in 17 make it hard to use for me

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[El_MaYiMbE]

Re: Situational Hitting w/ Zone Hitting

With the camera shift, I think they designed directional for the user to determine hit location before the pitch and judge whether or not you should swing once the pitch is delivered. MVP was more read/react. If directional plays that way, I'm mistaken. In MVP if you had a good hitter and got a pitch down and in, if you timed it right and pressed down and in, you could hit a homerun, not just pull a ground ball.

Camera shift is optional.
I have hit HRs with Brett Gardner and Ellsbury specifically when pointing stick down and in on a low pitch.

It's an influence, not an absolute guaranteed outcome.

Additionally you don't need to preload your location. Works better when camera shift is off as it's less jarring. I personally don't use any visual aids when hitting.

Both systems are identical.


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[PhantomPain]

Re: Situational Hitting w/ Zone Hitting

Good thread and conversation. I have been absent from MLB for a couple of iterations and this will be my first on a ps4. I am going to have to play around with the different methods for hitting to see what feels most comfortable to me.

I am curious if the new bat/ball physics will change any of this. With a round bat now, I would think that influencing fly balls and ground balls may change something since it is more realistic. We'll see.

[killaxxbearsxxx]

Re: Situational Hitting w/ Zone Hitting

I realized that in this talk I missed one crucial thing about my use of zone hitting. Forewarning, I've not seen the other threads on zone hitting so this could have been said

When I use zone hitting I'm very careful about when I move the PCI. I see a lot of people moving it mad early, whether they want to take away a certain pitch or they're just looking for a pitch in a certain spot. I don't know if that works better and honestly it does not matter, that's not the point. When using zone hitting it feels intuitive to me when I wait until I read the pitch to move it at all.

It feels like the earlier you move it, The wider the range of movement for the PCI. So if you're messing around with it early on you have to control it on it's full range of motion and that's when it can become counter-intuitive and feel like you're aiming your swing which is not something you'd feel at that plate.

lets take a high fastball for example. If you read that it's up near the top of the zone, like in the area where it could be a borderline strike but it's probably a ball but you still want to out a swing in it, if you react early, the PCI will move its full range and it'll feel comparable to if you were trying to get on top of the ball in real life. But lets say it's not that high. This time it's sure strike and you know it. If you let the ball travel a little bit before moving the PCI, you can press the Left Stick up fully and still only get up to the higher 1/3 of the zone vs the very top covering higher than the strike zone.

Or lets say you're protecting the plate and get a fastball off the plate outside and chase it (it happens). If you move it early you can get to this pitch and make contact (you might roll over though) and it'll feel comparable to when you're throwing the bat out there to fight it off in real life. But if you get a pitch on the outside corner for a sure strike, you can let it travel a bit, press the Left Stick fully right (all if my examples seem to be with right handed hitters) and the PCI only travels to the outside corner

Once you understand that, Situational hitting follows the same rules as real life.
It's very possible that what I just explained is common knowledge, and I apologize if this is the case. Also I don't know if this works the best or really if this is the way it truly works. All I know is that I've been searching for the most intuitive approach and for me this is the best way to achieve that. Also, as illustrated earlier in this thread, just because it is the most intuitive approach for me does not mean it will be for you. This post is merely detailing what I do so that if there are others who wish to do so, they may.

[El_MaYiMbE]

Re: Situational Hitting w/ Zone Hitting

I realized that in this talk I missed one crucial thing about my use of zone hitting. Forewarning, I've not seen the other threads on zone hitting so this could have been said

When I use zone hitting I'm very careful about when I move the PCI. I see a lot of people moving it mad early, whether they want to take away a certain pitch or they're just looking for a pitch in a certain spot. I don't know if that works better and honestly it does not matter, that's not the point. When using zone hitting it feels intuitive to me when I wait until I read the pitch to move it at all.

It feels like the earlier you move it, The wider the range of movement for the PCI. So if you're messing around with it early on you have to control it on it's full range of motion and that's when it can become counter-intuitive and feel like you're aiming your swing which is not something you'd feel at that plate.

lets take a high fastball for example. If you read that it's up near the top of the zone, like in the area where it could be a borderline strike but it's probably a ball but you still want to out a swing in it, if you react early, the PCI will move its full range and it'll feel comparable to if you were trying to get on top of the ball in real life. But lets say it's not that high. This time it's sure strike and you know it. If you let the ball travel a little bit before moving the PCI, you can press the Left Stick up fully and still only get up to the higher 1/3 of the zone vs the very top covering higher than the strike zone.

Or lets say you're protecting the plate and get a fastball off the plate outside and chase it (it happens). If you move it early you can get to this pitch and make contact (you might roll over though) and it'll feel comparable to when you're throwing the bat out there to fight it off in real life. But if you get a pitch on the outside corner for a sure strike, you can let it travel a bit, press the Left Stick fully right (all if my examples seem to be with right handed hitters) and the PCI only travels to the outside corner

Once you understand that, Situational hitting follows the same rules as real life.
It's very possible that what I just explained is common knowledge, and I apologize if this is the case. Also I don't know if this works the best or really if this is the way it truly works. All I know is that I've been searching for the most intuitive approach and for me this is the best way to achieve that. Also, as illustrated earlier in this thread, just because it is the most intuitive approach for me does not mean it will be for you. This post is merely detailing what I do so that if there are others who wish to do so, they may.

I follow what you are saying completely.

Moving the PCI early causes you to almost go "beyond the strike zone" causing you to be too under the ball or too on top of the ball...etc... because when you start to swing it stops the PCI from moving, so moving the PCI and swinging simultaneously almost corrects that.

Do you play with PCI enabled or disabled?
I feel one thing I never really tried is playing with it disabled.

What I feel is difficult is looking at the PCI AND the pitch and trying to move where it is, but maybe thats my problem. I should just be aiming where the ball is in relation to to the pitch, and by hiding the PCI I would essentially be aiming the bat but not have to "track" it.

Might be on to something, and that is what I wanted to get out of this thread.
Get ideas going as to how people are using the different hitting modes.

[underdog13]

Re: Situational Hitting w/ Zone Hitting

That's a good tip, I think I'm going to try that as I have a chronic case of over moving the pci.

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[PhantomPain]

Re: Situational Hitting w/ Zone Hitting

I realized that in this talk I missed one crucial thing about my use of zone hitting. Forewarning, I've not seen the other threads on zone hitting so this could have been said

When I use zone hitting I'm very careful about when I move the PCI. I see a lot of people moving it mad early, whether they want to take away a certain pitch or they're just looking for a pitch in a certain spot. I don't know if that works better and honestly it does not matter, that's not the point. When using zone hitting it feels intuitive to me when I wait until I read the pitch to move it at all.

It feels like the earlier you move it, The wider the range of movement for the PCI. So if you're messing around with it early on you have to control it on it's full range of motion and that's when it can become counter-intuitive and feel like you're aiming your swing which is not something you'd feel at that plate.

lets take a high fastball for example. If you read that it's up near the top of the zone, like in the area where it could be a borderline strike but it's probably a ball but you still want to out a swing in it, if you react early, the PCI will move its full range and it'll feel comparable to if you were trying to get on top of the ball in real life. But lets say it's not that high. This time it's sure strike and you know it. If you let the ball travel a little bit before moving the PCI, you can press the Left Stick up fully and still only get up to the higher 1/3 of the zone vs the very top covering higher than the strike zone.

Or lets say you're protecting the plate and get a fastball off the plate outside and chase it (it happens). If you move it early you can get to this pitch and make contact (you might roll over though) and it'll feel comparable to when you're throwing the bat out there to fight it off in real life. But if you get a pitch on the outside corner for a sure strike, you can let it travel a bit, press the Left Stick fully right (all if my examples seem to be with right handed hitters) and the PCI only travels to the outside corner

Once you understand that, Situational hitting follows the same rules as real life.
It's very possible that what I just explained is common knowledge, and I apologize if this is the case. Also I don't know if this works the best or really if this is the way it truly works. All I know is that I've been searching for the most intuitive approach and for me this is the best way to achieve that. Also, as illustrated earlier in this thread, just because it is the most intuitive approach for me does not mean it will be for you. This post is merely detailing what I do so that if there are others who wish to do so, they may.

This has always been the case for me, exactly as you describe it. Unfortunately I apparently don't have the quickness I used to have so when I do like you say "wait a bit on the pitch" and then move it therefore the PCI can't get too far away from you, the PCI ends up not moving at all. So what I did when I was playing a couple of years ago on the pd3, I would hold my thumb just a bit off the swing button so that my reaction when pressing it, while moving the stick, actually gets the stick to move better for me but not too much as if I was just doing it way early. The stick moves better because it is moving just a fraction of a second prior to me pressing X to swing. Not sure if that makes sense lol.

Maybe things are a bit different for me on the ps4 (first time this year) but I will be trying all hitting methods to see which one is most comfortable.

[killaxxbearsxxx]

Re: Situational Hitting w/ Zone Hitting

I follow what you are saying completely.

Moving the PCI early causes you to almost go "beyond the strike zone" causing you to be too under the ball or too on top of the ball...etc... because when you start to swing it stops the PCI from moving, so moving the PCI and swinging simultaneously almost corrects that.

Do you play with PCI enabled or disabled?
I feel one thing I never really tried is playing with it disabled.

What I feel is difficult is looking at the PCI AND the pitch and trying to move where it is, but maybe thats my problem. I should just be aiming where the ball is in relation to to the pitch, and by hiding the PCI I would essentially be aiming the bat but not have to "track" it.

Might be on to something, and that is what I wanted to get out of this thread.
Get ideas going as to how people are using the different hitting modes.

I turned my PCI off..it was just entirely too much for me to try to look through the PCI and when I can see the PCI, I'm too worried about lining it up correctly whereas with it off I can just go to the ball with the stick and look at the feedback afterwards

[MetsFan16]

Situational Hitting w/ Zone Hitting

I play with PCI on and Zone Analog (flick)

I find that there are times throughout my RTTS or Franchise season I just really struggle. Like I pop-up everything and weak ground balls.

It's incredibly frustrating knowing you have the PCI in your control and you are just missing the sweet spot during these struggles. You get under the ball, on top of it, move the PCI too much, not enough.

But then I realize... this is Baseball. The nature of baseball is full of Ups and Downs. Every player in the history of the MLB has had an 0-20 stretch. Some more than others but still.

I take my struggles, grind through them, it's frustrating but then the nature of baseball (and maybe some Dev Coding) flips and you get on a hot streak, you hit .600 for a 5 game span with 3 HR. You really notice it in RTTS.

So when I find myself in a slump, I take a breath, just try my best to make good contact and I know they'll eventually start faking for base hits.


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[killaxxbearsxxx]

Re: Situational Hitting w/ Zone Hitting

This has always been the case for me, exactly as you describe it. Unfortunately I apparently don't have the quickness I used to have so when I do like you say "wait a bit on the pitch" and then move it therefore the PCI can't get too far away from you, the PCI ends up not moving at all. So what I did when I was playing a couple of years ago on the pd3, I would hold my thumb just a bit off the swing button so that my reaction when pressing it, while moving the stick, actually gets the stick to move better for me but not too much as if I was just doing it way early. The stick moves better because it is moving just a fraction of a second prior to me pressing X to swing. Not sure if that makes sense lol.

Maybe things are a bit different for me on the ps4 (first time this year) but I will be trying all hitting methods to see which one is most comfortable.

I had this same problem and I made the same adjustment in hovering my thumb over the x button. I had trouble doing this consistently though because when an at bat starts getting tense and i start falling behind I put my thumb right back on it. So my next adjustment was to use analog stride with zone hitting. I'm still getting used to it but pulling the stick back gives me something that I HAVE to do so I can't react too fast to the pitch. Also it's kind of fun for me to have to find the proper stride timing for each player against each pitcher. It makes it so I can't go hacking at the first pitch unless I'm familiar with the pitcher and that adds more thinking and realism for me.

[PhantomPain]

Re: Situational Hitting w/ Zone Hitting

I had this same problem and I made the same adjustment in hovering my thumb over the x button. I had trouble doing this consistently though because when an at bat starts getting tense and i start falling behind I put my thumb right back on it. So my next adjustment was to use analog stride with zone hitting. I'm still getting used to it but pulling the stick back gives me something that I HAVE to do so I can't react too fast to the pitch. Also it's kind of fun for me to have to find the proper stride timing for each player against each pitcher. It makes it so I can't go hacking at the first pitch unless I'm familiar with the pitcher and that adds more thinking and realism for me.

I will give that a shot killa. Thanks for the idea.