Directional Hitting Guide

[TheWarmWind]

Re: Directional Hitting Guide

You have confirmed my suspicion about the down influence. I had so much success with it last year especially with 2 strikes. This year not so much.

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Yeah I've been moving away from using it as much. I mean, let's be honest, it was way, way too OP in games past.

I often joked about how I could have renamed this thread "why you should use the down influence" and it honestly wouldn't have made much of a difference.

The down nerf and up buff does open up much more hitting situationally. I also feel like there is a much more dynamic relationship between my batters, runners, and my managerial decisions this year.

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[GainzBro]

Re: Directional Hitting Guide

Yeah I've been moving away from using it as much. I mean, let's be honest, it was way, way too OP in games past.

I often joked about how I could have renamed this thread "why you should use the down influence" and it honestly wouldn't have made much of a difference.

The down nerf and up buff does open up much more hitting situationally. I also feel like there is a much more dynamic relationship between my batters, runners, and my managerial decisions this year.

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Well said. Down swing was like an automatic line drive last year. I do like having to adjust my approach more pitch to pitch rather than relying on a button "hack".

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[Jeffrey Smith]

Re: Directional Hitting Guide

I’ve also pretty much stopped using down influence on my swing this year. Seemed to result in double plays every time I had a runner on.

Last year ball seemed to be just over the infielders head with down influence.


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[GainzBro]

Re: Directional Hitting Guide

I’ve also pretty much stopped using down influence on my swing this year. Seemed to result in double plays every time I had a runner on.

Last year ball seemed to be just over the infielders head with down influence.


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Exactly.

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[sportyguyfl31]

Re: Directional Hitting Guide

You said in the update that vision is no longer a factor on no influence swings. How would you approach power hitters with low vision?

For a hitter with high contact, with low vision...i would assume influence would hurt him if vision becomes a factor when you start using pull, push, or fly ball influence If I understand right. For this kind of hitter, no influence would be best, since his high contact rating plays more of a factor?

[TheWarmWind]

Re: Directional Hitting Guide

You said in the update that vision is no longer a factor on no influence swings. How would you approach power hitters with low vision?

For a hitter with high contact, with low vision...i would assume influence would hurt him if vision becomes a factor when you start using pull, push, or fly ball influence If I understand right. For this kind of hitter, no influence would be best, since his high contact rating plays more of a factor?

Precisely. It'll make your timing window smaller (practically at least) but you'll get more hits overall.

To be clear though, vision is a factor in the no influence swing, just much less of one then the other swings. For leadoff style hitting you'll still want to increase your vision as much as possible using the down influence or contact swing (circle). But for cleanup, yes, no influence should dominate your approach, especially when you're ahead in the count.

Edit: to add onto what once said so far, both in this response and in the thread in regards to MLB 20, it's impossible to say if vision has been nerfed or K/9 had been buffed.

Both are kind of the same thing, but that's part of the two way pull off the systems at work here (which have knock on effects on other systems). At the end of the day, I can only provide the best advice based on my sliders and playstyle. There is too much to keep track of to provide sound advice for all possible difficulties and slider settings.

At the end of the day, the main goal of this guide was to give people an idea of how directional hitting works. The impact that the guide can have can vary widely between different difficulty levels and slider settings.

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[Mackrel829]

Re: Directional Hitting Guide

This is fantastic. Thanks so much!

Just a quick clarification: You mentioned that the stick should be held in the desired direction all the way through the swing. Do you hold the stick before the pitcher even releases the ball, through their wind up etc? Or do you wait until the ball is released and then push/pull the stick along with the button press?

Also, what difficulty and slider settings do you use if you don't mind sharing? I had what felt like a perfect set up for a good amount of time - Dynamic Difficulty locked into All Star + on both batting and pitching with default sliders apart from a bump to Starter Stamina. Was getting perfect games with a really good balance of hits, runs, home runs, etc. All of a sudden, the gameplay seems to have cratered. I can't get a hit and there are innings where the CPU just hits everything. It feels like a gameplay patch has messed everything up but I don't think there's been a patch?

[TheWarmWind]

Re: Directional Hitting Guide

This is fantastic. Thanks so much!

Just a quick clarification: You mentioned that the stick should be held in the desired direction all the way through the swing. Do you hold the stick before the pitcher even releases the ball, through their wind up etc? Or do you wait until the ball is released and then push/pull the stick along with the button press?

Also, what difficulty and slider settings do you use if you don't mind sharing? I had what felt like a perfect set up for a good amount of time - Dynamic Difficulty locked into All Star + on both batting and pitching with default sliders apart from a bump to Starter Stamina. Was getting perfect games with a really good balance of hits, runs, home runs, etc. All of a sudden, the gameplay seems to have cratered. I can't get a hit and there are innings where the CPU just hits everything. It feels like a gameplay patch has messed everything up but I don't think there's been a patch?

Yes, you hold it as soon as you decide what swing you want all the way through the pitch.

As for what difficulty and sliders I play on, you can check those out in the sliders sub-forum. I'd link it but I'm responding on my phone. They are called TheWarmWind's Impact Sliders.

Keep in mind though, cold streaks are a part of the game.

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[Mackrel829]

Re: Directional Hitting Guide

Yes, you hold it as soon as you decide what swing you want all the way through the pitch.

As for what difficulty and sliders I play on, you can check those out in the sliders sub-forum. I'd link it but I'm responding on my phone. They are called TheWarmWind's Impact Sliders.

Keep in mind though, cold streaks are a part of the game.

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Will check them out. Thanks a lot!

[GainzBro]

Re: Directional Hitting Guide

Here I am in the middle of one of my worst user slumps reading this again to get grounded.

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[julolo]

Re: Directional Hitting Guide

Am i the only one to spam the easy doubles when opponent defense switch and let me hit grounders in the gap ?
That's what i really appreciate with directionnal, you can choose the directions of your hits and use opponent bad defense alignment.
That's how i beat cpu on HOF or Legend difficulties. I put Blackmon/Bellinger/Olson in leadoff, get the easy double then replace by a speedy runner.

[GainzBro]

Re: Directional Hitting Guide

Am i the only one to spam the easy doubles when opponent defense switch and let me hit grounders in the gap ?
That's what i really appreciate with directionnal, you can choose the directions of your hits and use opponent bad defense alignment.
That's how i beat cpu on HOF or Legend difficulties. I put Blackmon/Bellinger/Olson in leadoff, get the easy double then replace by a speedy runner.

You must have perfect timing and pitch selection. I'd have to see it to believe you can hit doubles on-call.

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[SwedishTouch76]

Re: Directional Hitting Guide

You've used the term " balanced swing "..Is that just no influence or?

[Rmiok222]

Re: Directional Hitting Guide

You've used the term " balanced swing "..Is that just no influence or?

I believe he means just pressing X. Not power swing, not contact swing.

I think. I could be wrong.


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[TheWarmWind]

Re: Directional Hitting Guide

You've used the term " balanced swing "..Is that just no influence or?

I honestly have no idea. The guide has multiple minor errors like that. It's just such a monstrosity to edit and I'm very, very lazy.

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