Directional Hitting Guide

[phantomshark]

Re: Directional Hitting Guide

I've been playing with the camera suggested in another thread, Fish-Eye zoomed all the way in and lowered until the pitcher is in the exact center of the strike zone square. It's helped me a bit in identifying low pitches. Any other views you've found better for identifying those?

[hyacinth1]

Re: Directional Hitting Guide

Adding to this thread like the poster above.

Best Zone hitting ever in a video game was High Heat.

I have been playing The Show on PS2 and now PS4 (skIpped PS3).

I've always preferred Zone but it was always hit or miss with me. My head was into the HH version of Zone which I thought The Show did a good job imitating during PS2 but there was just something missing on PS4.

I really liked the MVP series except for the directional hitting.

But now, especially in the show 17, after months of trying each of the hitting styles, directional is the best imo. It's the only method that works for me now and I get results whereas in Zone I struggle a lot.

Maybe Zone is more realistic, but 2 or 3 hits out of 10 in a baseball videogame does not make it much fun for me. I don't play hardcore anymore like in the old days but more casual. So for the casual baseball gamer I've become, directional provides me a good mix of realism + fun in for a baseball videogame.

[TheWarmWind]

Re: Directional Hitting Guide

I've been playing with the camera suggested in another thread, Fish-Eye zoomed all the way in and lowered until the pitcher is in the exact center of the strike zone square. It's helped me a bit in identifying low pitches. Any other views you've found better for identifying those?

I'm... probably not the best person to ask about this. I've played with the same batting camera since the dawn of time, so I can't really comment on what the best camera angles are. I'd suggest bending CardinalBird's ear if you can find him. Beyond that maybe surf the sliders sub-forum or make a new post in main forum and see if you can find any help on the matter. Definitely not my area of expertise.

[Dragsy]

Re: Directional Hitting Guide

I know the zone offset and zoom variants are recommended a lot for people struggling with timing. May be more for zone hitters though. I felt like the pitch was always on me too quick to make a read and it was tricky differentiating between close balls and strikes. I prefer cameras a bit further back, especially fish eye, partially the practicality in that it feels like I have more time to read the pitch, but also just because it's nice to see more of the stadium.
I have no clue how people can hit at all watching from behind the pitcher. Fair play. It's not for me, in terms of immersion I feel like if I'm controlling the batter, I should be seeing the game how he sees it. Not a knock by any means.

[Fuimus Troes]

Re: Directional Hitting Guide

I'm... probably not the best person to ask about this. I've played with the same batting camera since the dawn of time, so I can't really comment on what the best camera angles are. I'd suggest bending CardinalBird's ear if you can find him. Beyond that maybe surf the sliders sub-forum or make a new post in main forum and see if you can find any help on the matter. Definitely not my area of expertise.

Wind, thanks again for your guide/settings. Loved playing a few games today. My biggest tweaks were to the cameras -- for pitching I chose one of the broadcast cameras, can't remember which team, but it's the one that's most "on top of" the pitcher. Funny thing, I'm getting better results with pulse on that camera, too. I think the main thing is that my timing is better when the circle is smaller/farther away -- I also find that camera more enjoyable because it's a pitcher's view and you can really see when you fool the batter.

For hitting, I was using strike zone for a while, and even though results were good, I hated it for aesthetic reasons. So now I'm using wide but I bumped the camera closer -- it's a great compromise between your camera and the strike zone -- best of both worlds.

You should try those cameras out, even if for a game. I think you'll like them!

[COMMISSIONERHBK9]

Re: Directional Hitting Guide

couple of questions. one do u guys think its better to hit with the buttons or analog? also does anyone have guess pitch tips. I been just guessing up and aiming down. I am now getting hits but not scoring and or getting home runs.

[loso_34]

Re: Directional Hitting Guide

Hmm yeah, I'd definitely recommend some more down swings in your approaches. If guys are struggling to get it out of the infield, it tells me their problem is vision, or lining up the ball and getting solid contact at a good angle. Downward influence will boost their vision and help smack a few more solid hits. It may reduce power but it won't completely disappear (I actually need to edit the OP because I have hit homeruns with a down swing now), plus when you hit into the gaps they are pretty much guaranteed doubles.

What difficulty/sliders are you on?

HOF with some adjustments..i believe solid hits/pitch speed were raised. everything else seems the norm.

how does a pitchers k/9 affect hitters? faced a guy with 99 k/9 and couldnt time anything off of him and had a ton of whiffs.

in addition for pull hitters what quadrants of the plate are you looking to swing? ive always only wanted to swing at middle in but how about low? slightly away?

[The Chef]

Re: Directional Hitting Guide

couple of questions. one do u guys think its better to hit with the buttons or analog? also does anyone have guess pitch tips. I been just guessing up and aiming down. I am now getting hits but not scoring and or getting home runs.

Yeah, don't use guess pitch. I hate to be blunt but guess pitch is probably the worst thing I ever used 4 years ago or so. The penalty for not guessing correctly was pretty strong so I was basically a boom or bust candidate. I ditched it a few years back now obviously and my hitting is far better then it ever was on guess pitch. I finished season 1 the other day as Seattle and led the league in average as a team. I'm a mere 6 games into season 2 and I'm hitting .309 as a team and leading the league again so far. Granted it's early but I can't stress it enough you will do better ditching guess pitch and just reading pitches or guessing in your head if need be, at least then there's no penatly to guessing incorrectly.

[TheWarmWind]

Re: Directional Hitting Guide

HOF with some adjustments..i believe solid hits/pitch speed were raised. everything else seems the norm.

how does a pitchers k/9 affect hitters? faced a guy with 99 k/9 and couldnt time anything off of him and had a ton of whiffs.

in addition for pull hitters what quadrants of the plate are you looking to swing? ive always only wanted to swing at middle in but how about low? slightly away?

K/9 battles vision in the same way H/9 battles contact. So yeah guys with high K/9 are tough in directional, and guys with both are brutal.

When using a pull swing, you're looking for middle in. This is your ideal pitch location, assuming you can time it right.

[TheWarmWind]

Re: Directional Hitting Guide

Ok, I've got a slider set and two practice scenarios to help proof of concept the guide for those that are struggling to see the difference between the different swing types, or even the benefit of picking a swing influence at all. The differences will show up from ideal contact scenarios, you can ignore choppers and popouts, or situations where you chased. The main thing you want to focus on is hit speed. This is the only thing power effects. There will be overlap, as there is always an element of randomness to power, but you will notice higher average hit speeds on pull and up solid hits, whereas you will notice it is easier to get a solid hit with push/down swings.

The reason why it's so much easier to see with this slider set is because it's so Human batter favoured. When you can push out more solid hits, it's much easier to see the patterns.

Roster: DEFAULT

Difficulty: Veteran (add 1 to X for every level you choose above Veteran)

Sliders all default EXCEPT

Human Contact: 6 + X
Human Timing: 8
Human Solid Hits: 10
Fastball Speed: User's Choice
Offspeed Speed:User's Choice

Go to mini-modes on the front screen and select batting practice.

For batter, you have two choices.

Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers for a Power Archtype
Francisco Lindor of the Indians for a Speed/Contact Archtype

These two were chosen because they both have high vision and they both have balanced hitting profiles.

For the pitcher, choose Ervin Santana of the Twins.

He was chosen because his attributes are nearly even across the board. His stuff is all good but he has nothing exceptional. He has been my "calibration" pitcher for years as he is solid, predictable and relatively easy to read the pitches from while also not being a pushover.

Hope this helps those who are frustrated by their lack of results. I know if I were in their shoes, being able to see something tangible to know the effort was making a difference would go a long way.

[phantomshark]

Re: Directional Hitting Guide

As much as this guide has helped my game vs CPU, I feel like I may have to stay with zone hitting vs human players. They tend to pitch everything at either the bottom or top of the zone, rarely in the middle, and I can't figure out how to adjust my swing using directional, while in Zone I can drop the PCI down to the bottom of the strike zone and get great power even on pitches out of the zone low. Is there any way to use directional vs people who are really good at landing everything on the edges of the strike zone?

[TheWarmWind]

Re: Directional Hitting Guide

As much as this guide has helped my game vs CPU, I feel like I may have to stay with zone hitting vs human players. They tend to pitch everything at either the bottom or top of the zone, rarely in the middle, and I can't figure out how to adjust my swing using directional, while in Zone I can drop the PCI down to the bottom of the strike zone and get great power even on pitches out of the zone low. Is there any way to use directional vs people who are really good at landing everything on the edges of the strike zone?

Yeah I should mention in the OP that this is a vs. CPU only guide. I am and always will be an offline only franchise player. Unfortunately, I have no idea how this translates to online nor do I have any advice for you.

[loso_34]

Re: Directional Hitting Guide

As much as this guide has helped my game vs CPU, I feel like I may have to stay with zone hitting vs human players. They tend to pitch everything at either the bottom or top of the zone, rarely in the middle, and I can't figure out how to adjust my swing using directional, while in Zone I can drop the PCI down to the bottom of the strike zone and get great power even on pitches out of the zone low. Is there any way to use directional vs people who are really good at landing everything on the edges of the strike zone?

That's what I dislike about meter/pulse pitching. These guys can locate on the edges with the likes of Trevor bauer consistently. Guys with very low control becoming pin point artists because somebody is good at a game within the game.

You can face guys awful on zone who can run into a fluke hr off the plate cause of the op power in that interface. I remember hitting a ton f solo shots on zone. You can't compete using directional it's tough yet the narrative is directional is easier.

[loso_34]

Re: Directional Hitting Guide

Yeah I should mention in the OP that this is a vs. CPU only guide. I am and always will be an offline only franchise player. Unfortunately, I have no idea how this translates to online nor do I have any advice for you.

It works well online. Maybin has been hot since the advise. I feel like some is more forgiving tho so it's tough to compete

[Gagnon39]

Re: Directional Hitting Guide

I have to say that probably 85% of the time I don't touch the analog stick. I just try to time the pitch.