Is Online Hitting in MLB The Show 18 "Broken" or Merely Experiencing Growing Pains?

[RaychelSnr]

If you spend even a limited amount of time in the MLB The Show community, it...

Written By: Kevin Scott

Click here to view the article.

[HenryClay1844]

I'm sure that it's partly because I am old and out of touch, but I cannot see how anyone enjoys online gaming so much and how it's supposedly so much more important than old fashioned man on AI action. I don't have any problems with hitting in my franchise mode. I've got the setting pretty well, although I don't walk or strikeout nearly as much as most MLB hitters do. 

[redsfan4life]

Re: Is Online Hitting in MLB The Show 18 "Broken" or Merely Experiencing Growing Pain

Saw this coming a mile away. I hated last years game and stayed completely away this year. Do not regret it for a second.

[actionhank]

Re: Is Online Hitting in MLB The Show 18 "Broken" or Merely Experiencing Growing Pain

although I don't walk or strikeout nearly as much as most MLB hitters do.*

If I had a dollar for every time I've said to myself "He's missed the strike zone 3 times now...don't swing" only to go on to strike out...I'd have paid for this game twice over.

On a semi-related note, when playing online is the little slow down as the pitch is thrown intentional? I've only played against a friend online and it threw me off a bit when I first saw it. I assumed it was something to make up for the inherent lag in online play.

[Therebelyell626]

Re: Is Online Hitting in MLB The Show 18 "Broken" or Merely Experiencing Growing Pain

Honestly, online competitive players for any game are the biggest whiners I have ever seen in my life. Honestly this whole generation of gamers attitudes towards gaming is "win at all costs". What this has lead to is an increase of developers striving to appease their cash cows and complete disregarding an actual representation of the sport they are trying to portray.

I am strictly an offline player. I have not played a sports title for more then two months after release for more than 5 years because good sports games get patched into oblivion to appease the win at all costs online crowd. I recently went back to NHL 18 for a spell and didn't even recognize the game I was playing. Was a decent game at release but has since became a **** show that feels sluggish and unresponsive.

You can directly correlate the downgrade on quality across all sports titles with the rise in popularity of card based online modes such as ultimate team and diamond dynasty.

Unfortunately these game modes are the cash cow and these communities will directly shape gameplay for all future iterations of sports titles. This may be an unpopular opinion but the truth is I feel like these players do not care about a proper representation of a sport because of their win at all costs mentality. I just wish players would adjust to a games design and not complain and opine for changes everytime a new mechanic comes out and doesn't fit their play style.

[eric7064]

Re: Is Online Hitting in MLB The Show 18 "Broken" or Merely Experiencing Growing Pain

Broken. Without question. Obviously there is going to be some differences between the offline and online experience when playing users. I understand that. But at one point you could not throw a fastball. I played over 100 RS games, and went 60-40 and I maybe threw 3-4 fastballs a game. Everything was offspeed and breaking pitches.

You could not strike anyone out (unless they were just bad and swung at everything) and the game is dominated by power. The PCI have been messed up since day one. Its not growing pains, its simply a bad experience that does not resemble the game of baseball and how it should be played.

Then you play an offline game on franchise, which is what I primarily do, and the game plays like a gem.

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: Is Online Hitting in MLB The Show 18 "Broken" or Merely Experiencing Growing Pain

I'm sure that it's partly because I am old and out of touch, but I cannot see how anyone enjoys online gaming so much and how it's supposedly so much more important than old fashioned man on AI action. I don't have any problems with hitting in my franchise mode. I've got the setting pretty well, although I don't walk or strikeout nearly as much as most MLB hitters do.*

Ooooh. I'm getting so worked up reading this part I should probably go take a cold shower.

[nemesis04]

Re: Is Online Hitting in MLB The Show 18 "Broken" or Merely Experiencing Growing Pain

It seems hard to call it growing pains when the hitting was at least sound in some of the previous versions online and they basically unraveled it and turned it into a knotted mess. In watching streams of this years version it looks unrecognizable to what I was familiar with. I have no clue what type of feedback they are using to mold the hitting game online but it looks misguided to me.

[RockPowderDownLoL]

Re: Is Online Hitting in MLB The Show 18 "Broken" or Merely Experiencing Growing Pain

I have seen these videos of guys 'squaring up pitches dead center' when in fact they are NOT. They are close to the center but it depends on if it's to the left or right, up or down.

If you are using a wedge pci you will not understand this because you assume a bat is swung through the zone on a flat plane. it does NOT.the wedge pci is only a good representation of what the sweet spot LOOKs like in relationship to the bat. I can't believe I have to explain this but it's the #1 reason why people claim to 'square up pitches dead center' and get weak contact.

the bat passes over the plate and makes contact with the bat at anywhere between a 20-45 degree angle.

I'll give one example: Right handed pitcher vs left handed batter. Pitcher throws a 4 seam fastball low and inside. The batter will likely swing the bat through the zone at a 15-20 degree angle. Batter hits the ball for a weak line drive down the 1B line for a single. The PCI feedback shows the PCI completely above the ball, not even touching the ball!

the batter hits it off the end of the bat but due to being early and having his bat vertically on plane with the pitch he shoots it into left and BECAUSE he is early the bat was tilted up and any contact with the ball anywhere would of produced a variety of hits EXCEPT a ground ball.

just one example is all i care to give. i could go on but most of these guys complaining are too proud to admit they are doing something wrong.

[jada855]

Re: Is Online Hitting in MLB The Show 18 "Broken" or Merely Experiencing Growing Pain

In a dev twitch stream of MLB The Show 18. It showed a hiccup after making contact with the ball. That was by design for online play. After seeing this I am glad I don’t play online. As that hiccup would drive me insane. Not sure how people deal with it after seeing. Has it been this way since MLB 14 😳

[Mercury112491]

Re: Is Online Hitting in MLB The Show 18 "Broken" or Merely Experiencing Growing Pain

Honestly, online competitive players for any game are the biggest whiners I have ever seen in my life. Honestly this whole generation of gamers attitudes towards gaming is "win at all costs". What this has lead to is an increase of developers striving to appease their cash cows and complete disregarding an actual representation of the sport they are trying to portray.

I am strictly an offline player. I have not played a sports title for more then two months after release for more than 5 years because good sports games get patched into oblivion to appease the win at all costs online crowd. I recently went back to NHL 18 for a spell and didn't even recognize the game I was playing. Was a decent game at release but has since became a **** show that feels sluggish and unresponsive.

You can directly correlate the downgrade on quality across all sports titles with the rise in popularity of card based online modes such as ultimate team and diamond dynasty.

Unfortunately these game modes are the cash cow and these communities will directly shape gameplay for all future iterations of sports titles. This may be an unpopular opinion but the truth is I feel like these players do not care about a proper representation of a sport because of their win at all costs mentality. I just wish players would adjust to a games design and not complain and opine for changes everytime a new mechanic comes out and doesn't fit their play style.

I’d say the vast majority of players i play against in ranked are playing the game straight up. Do you get some guys who take advantage of things? Sure. But the majority do not. But thanks for your uninformed and overlay generalizing opinion.

Also the exploits that online players have noticed over the last few years have resulted in changes to the game play that benefit both online and off.

The reason you see online players being more vocal is their is no sliders for online play. So everyone is playing with the base product. When the base product isn’t working as it should they speak up. Online players can’t tune pitch speed or contact ability or fielders speeds. I’ve tuned my offline franchise to run like a dream. It plays phenomenal. Online on the other hand does not.

If you don’t think there’s an issue with the base game hitting look at the average BABIP for online players. It’s WAY below what it should be. People aren’t asking SDS to tune the game to be more arcade. They are asking for something more true to life.


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[torpidbeaver]

Skipped this year's version. Could see the writing on the wall last year. They're abandoning their core in an attempt to cater to some nebulous idea of a new player. Trying to make it okay for everyone usually ends up making it good for no one. You try for Coke Classic, and end up with New Coke.**

*old man yells at cloud.jpg*

I still think the best idea at this point is to allow for their changes to affect online without changing the gameplay offline. Rocket bunts, I've heard, are a fine example of how that might be beneficial.

[Therebelyell626]

Re: Is Online Hitting in MLB The Show 18 "Broken" or Merely Experiencing Growing Pain

I’d say the vast majority of players i play against in ranked are playing the game straight up. Do you get some guys who take advantage of things? Sure. But the majority do not. But thanks for your uninformed and overlay generalizing opinion.

Also the exploits that online players have noticed over the last few years have resulted in changes to the game play that benefit both online and off.

The reason you see online players being more vocal is their is no sliders for online play. So everyone is playing with the base product. When the base product isn’t working as it should they speak up. Online players can’t tune pitch speed or contact ability or fielders speeds. I’ve tuned my offline franchise to run like a dream. It plays phenomenal. Online on the other hand does not.

If you don’t think there’s an issue with the base game hitting look at the average BABIP for online players. It’s WAY below what it should be. People aren’t asking SDS to tune the game to be more arcade. They are asking for something more true to life.


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

So your upset that I have an opinion, but then immediately give your opinion after mine. So your opinion is more important than mine? Your right it's not fair for me to group all online players into one category. But go ahead and spend 5 minutes over the **** show that is the show nation forums.

That is where the majority of the online competitive community is based. And quite frankly it makes the entire online show community look very childish. I am probably twice your age. I have been playing the show since '06 and have been lurking around these forums since around 2008. Some would say the operation sports forums are where the offline sim crowd resides, while the online competitive crowd usually hovers around the show nation. I have never seen the level of vitriol on these forums as I see over there.

Is the online hitting broken this year? It may very well be. I wouldn't know I don't play online. But for you to say the online community isn't responsible for it getting to this place then you are insane. It is also quite ignorant to say that patching he game for online players does not effect offline players. How do you know that a certain tuner update combined with my sliders wasn't a good fit for the replication of baseball I was trying to achieve? Plus you missed the fact that I wasn't exclusively discussing the show in my reference to patching sports titles. I also referred to NHL 18 in my original post. The game was decent at release and since it has been patched into oblivion to appease online players the game doesn't even feel like hockey, and no combination of sliders are even remotely possible to fix it because it is so broken. THe point of my original post was "be careful what you wish for when it comes to patches". Games can be so irrevocably broken if tuners get to far away from the initial engine design that not even sliders can save the few of us that just want to play a game that feels like the sport it is trying to represent. That is why it is called an opinion my friend. You don't have to take it personal