Convince me to switch to directional hitting

[The JareBear]

Re: Convince me to switch to directional hitting

In regards to the last few posts, not sure why one has to be better than the other. That was never my narrative. I love zone, I love directional. Not sure why my reference to the "Strategy Over Skills" philosophy was taken as me implying zone doesn't require strategy. If anything it requires more strategy than directional. I was just referring to the base philosphy of S.O.S. pertaining to making ratings matter over "stick skills" for those who desire that.

Edit: I admit now, that the S.O.S. Madden philosophy maybe isn't the best analogy for The Show. Just very different games, obviously

It's subjective, nobody is wrong.

When I think of the pitching options: Meter, Analog, Pulse, Classic, all very fundamentally different ways of achieving the same thing. That's awesome. I wish every sports game offered anywhere near this type of playstyle variety.

Please don't attack me for this post. I have no issue with your zone hitting. Zone is awesome. I use zone and directional.

Bottom line is so far this year, for me personally, I am hitting close to .330 with zone and around .280 with directional. I also feel like I see more hit variety on directional, but that's just me. I just love that we have these options. In no way, shape, or form was it ever implied that zone hitting isn't sim

[ManiacMatt1782]

Re: Convince me to switch to directional hitting

Do you prefer PCI on or off?


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I keep it on but put it on outline obscures as little of the screen as possible. I do know folks who play with it off, I admittedly am not good enough to know where I am lined up without seeing it.

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[PsnHitman17]

Re: Convince me to switch to directional hitting

I have a question regarding directional hitting. How do I steal an individual base with directional hitting using flick? I know you are supposed to use the left stick to point to the guy lets say on first and then hit R2. But I think that only activated the directional hitting to try to hit a ball to right field because both my runners started to steal.

Hold your left stick in the direction of the base runner you want to steal then click R2. ( while holding left stick in direction)

[loso_34]

Re: Convince me to switch to directional hitting

Are you a bad player or a decent player. Directional's lack of control will help bad players as it takes the skill of aiming the swing out of the equation. On the same token, it will hamper a good player for the same exact reasons.

Players don't aim their bats in real life. I'd say the difference between the two modes is results at the end of the day.

Directional is more sim as its all ratings. you'll approach every ab different according to the player ab..where as with zone if you aim the cross hare correct you will be success 9/10 times.

[BegBy]

Re: Convince me to switch to directional hitting

Directional needs to account for user input timing a bit more on All Star and above, imo. It can get a bit tired when good timing on bad pitches result in popups or dribblers. At times it's almost better to swing late to stop the automatic outs. Better chance of success by playing worse kinda feels lame.

I can hit a fair bit better on zone and not move the PCI than directional. It's unfortunate that directional is inferior as I really dislike the other hitting methods and slider sets for directional are much harder to tweak because of how much of an influence the pitcher's ratings and batters ratings truly are.

If playing on zone and a pitcher leaves a pitch hang there is a good chance I can get a hit. With directional the chance is there, for sure, but it's much smaller.

I have read that while playing DD against other people that directional is very good this year. Not sure why but it seems like contact and physics are a bit extreme in PvP (don't play, just read forums) so maybe that is a reason to consider directional for at least that mode.

[rtwilli4]

Re: Convince me to switch to directional hitting

The Show 16 was my first video game since Madden and NCAA in the mid 2000s and I really sucked at hitting at first. So I tried all of the modes, all of the ways possible.

Each time I tried something new I'd always think " OK this is my favourite." Just one of the many great things about this game.... So many options and they are ALL good!

I started out with directional and really struggled once above Rookie level as I couldn't lay off pitches out of the zone. It was really hard for me to tell if a fastball was going to be high or an off speed pitch was going to hang in the zone. I also struggled to pick up the pitches early enough to get good timing.

So I switched to analog with stride on directional and this really helped my timing. It was way more challenging but the stride part of it helped me get my timing down... I played baseball for most of my life and analog feels the most like an actual baseball swing. Very rewarding when you get it right.

I was still struggling to lay off bad pitches so kept messing around and ended up in full analog zone (so using the PCI). This was awesome!

The PCI being present solved my vision problem. It really helped me to lay off anything that wasn't right in the sweet spot. Until I get two strikes, I just sit on pitches in the batters hot zones and wait for a fastball or a hanging off speed.

I know use zone with the buttons as input. The stride and flick is the most life like, but once I got to all-star difficulty it was just too much going on for me to enjoy it. I don't much time to play PS and this is the ONLY game I play. So I am probably not very good compared to a lot of people who play this game.


Zone with buttons is probably the easiest way for someone like me to actually score runs and hit bombs at a realistic rate while still playing on All Star and taking advantage of the best slider sets out there. I feel that below all star, you don't really see life like pitch choices or movement.

I like the idea of a clean screen and more emphasis on ratings (directional) and am trying it right now until OSFM comes out... But it's very difficult for me to lay off pitches in the dirt without the PCI on the screen.


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[ManiacMatt1782]

Re: Convince me to switch to directional hitting

Players don't aim their bats in real life. I'd say the difference between the two modes is results at the end of the day.

Directional is more sim as its all ratings. you'll approach every ab different according to the player ab..where as with zone if you aim the cross hare correct you will be success 9/10 times.

Actually you do. You don't realize it because it's a part of your hand eye coordination. But there is a very different feel and how you swing to say a high pitch, a middle in pitch, a middle away pitch, and a low pitch at the plate in real life.

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[BL8001]

Re: Convince me to switch to directional hitting

I wish the PCI worked like this

/
---
\

Lean both of the diagonal bars closer to 0° than 90°

Meaning your bat/pci worked along swing planes. You cannot swing the bat flat across all areas of the strike zone like the game represents the pci now.

Of course if the PCI was aligned with closer to correct bat planes we would need to be able to move around in the batters box to adjust where our "fanned" out pci was locating in relation to the plate.

I also wish there was a transparency option for the pci

I try all batting styles. I was briefly in love with directional with analog but have returned to zone with button.

With zone I feel like instead of hitting the ball I am catching it with the PCI and pressing swing type when it hits my glove. It just does not feel like swinging something at a moving object.

[hyacinth1]

Re: Convince me to switch to directional hitting

I tried them all and was going with Directional for regular games and analog for RTTS.

After reading this thread and understanding how zone works, I switched back to zone and can hit the ball the best out of the 3 hitting modes. Sometimes I wonder if it's too easy now. I just sit on where I anticipate the pitch and if it's there, I have a very good chance of getting a hit.

[rtwilli4]

Re: Convince me to switch to directional hitting

I wish the PCI worked like this

/
---
\

Lean both of the diagonal bars closer to 0° than 90°

Meaning your bat/pci worked along swing planes. You cannot swing the bat flat across all areas of the strike zone like the game represents the pci now.

Of course if the PCI was aligned with closer to correct bat planes we would need to be able to move around in the batters box to adjust where our "fanned" out pci was locating in relation to the plate.

I also wish there was a transparency option for the pci

I try all batting styles. I was briefly in love with directional with analog but have returned to zone with button.

With zone I feel like instead of hitting the ball I am catching it with the PCI and pressing swing type when it hits my glove. It just does not feel like swinging something at a moving object.

If you sit on a certain pitch in a certain location and the pitcher throws that pitch, you should hit the ball hard. Even the worst player in The Show is one of the best hitters on the planet.

A good pitcher on All Star should be able to defeat that strategy more times than not, by locating his pitches off the middle of the plate and away from your hot zones. That's how it works in real life.

You're strategy only works if you're patient and willing to take strikes. If you can do that, you should be rewarded handsomely when the pitcher makes a mistake.

Are you on All Star or above? sliders?

I like your PCI idea. I think it would make more sense visually than what we have now. Maybe try the wedge PCI? You might like that.

I think the game already functions that way to a point. Down and in is very difficult to square up as opposed to up and away. This has to do with bat angle and I find that the game plays fairly realistically in that respect.





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[rtwilli4]

Re: Convince me to switch to directional hitting

If you sit on a certain pitch in a certain location and the pitcher throws that pitch, you should hit the ball hard. Even the worst player in The Show is one of the best hitters on the planet.

A good pitcher on All Star should be able to defeat that strategy more times than not, by locating his pitches off the middle of the plate and away from your hot zones. That's how it works in real life.

You're strategy only works if you're patient and willing to take strikes. If you can do that, you should be rewarded handsomely when the pitcher makes a mistake.

Are you on All Star or above? sliders?

I like your PCI idea. I think it would make more sense visually than what we have now. Maybe try the wedge PCI? You might like that.

I think the game already functions that way to a point. Down and in is very difficult to square up as opposed to up and away. This has to do with bat angle and I find that the game plays fairly realistically in that respect.



Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[rtwilli4]

Re: Convince me to switch to directional hitting

I wish the PCI worked like this

/
---
\

Lean both of the diagonal bars closer to 0° than 90°

Meaning your bat/pci worked along swing planes. You cannot swing the bat flat across all areas of the strike zone like the game represents the pci now.

Of course if the PCI was aligned with closer to correct bat planes we would need to be able to move around in the batters box to adjust where our "fanned" out pci was locating in relation to the plate.

I also wish there was a transparency option for the pci

I try all batting styles. I was briefly in love with directional with analog but have returned to zone with button.

With zone I feel like instead of hitting the ball I am catching it with the PCI and pressing swing type when it hits my glove. It just does not feel like swinging something at a moving object.

Sorry I meant to quote you... See the post above.


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[wellred]

Re: Convince me to switch to directional hitting

I think the misconception is directional is easy mode. I don't have this years game yet so yeah probably with the increased PCI on all star this can get a little stupid on all star level difficulty. But I've always used timing because if I use zone or analog it's like playing on arcade mode, I could put up some ridiculous numbers like that. Directional is essentially a way to handcuff or boost your own skills and leave it up to the game engine to decide what happens when the ball hits the bat. No it's not the hardest thing ever, but if you are skilled at hitting already the other modes will generally give you better personal results, there just isn't much denying that because it gives a skilled user far more control over what's going on. That's fine, but rarely is that going to produce as much of a simulation expericne as directional hitting on an appropriate difficulty level.

[Thebard]

Re: Convince me to switch to directional hitting

The problem with directional this year is contact swings will let you foul off almost anything and make it very difficult to get someone out before throwing a ton of pitches (no matter where you put them). I faced contact swing cheese the other day (all high speed guys and nothing but directional contact) and it was almost as bad as bunt cheese last year. They foul off everything out of the zone and eventually hit a weak roller somewhere they can beat out. Totally unfun to play against and especially bad with the catchers dropping what seems like every 3rd pitch.

[BL8001]

Re: Convince me to switch to directional hitting

Ok played several games with directional and then several with zone.

Directional is easier, just because you only need to time the press.

But what I notice for sure is hit variety seemed way less with directional.

With zone you can place the PCI and influence the spin and lift by where it is vs. where the ball is when you button swing.

With directional, even using the LS to point different directions the results seemed very random vs where the feedback window located the pci/ball info. But generally a fly ball or grounder. Not many line drives or hooking/slicing hits.


With zone my philosophy of attack is to
1. guess pitch offspeed/break low
2. sit the wedge PCI middle low to low in the zone and look for fastballs or cutters.

If the plate battle extends past 4-5 pitches I will start guessing what he is going to throw. Same goes for game itself, if the guy is only throwing sliders and fastballs I am not guessing his changeup as it's a waste of time.

So basically just guess the pitch that can fool you, and sit on anything thrown straight-ish. If they throw the fooler you can take the pitch (even for a strike early on) or swing if they place it where you are looking.

What I am still coming to grips with is how to play the ball to different fields with the PCI. Because you can't close or open your stance slightly to hit to different fields it has to be an early or late swing I guess. In reality if you want to pull or push the ball you can just open up during your swing or keep your front shoulder closed and still square it up with an on time swing.