MLB The Show 19 Twitch Stream - Hitting Improvements

[Councilmann_Jamm]

Re: MLB The Show 19 Twitch Stream - Hitting Improvements

Contact hitters being useful is great news. Hopefully this effects the AI for offline play as well.

I feel like contact hitters weren't an issue on 18.



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[BigOscar]

Re: MLB The Show 19 Twitch Stream - Hitting Improvements

Really liked some of the chat about content hitters, they look to have removed the inexplicable floatiness of everything they hit and given them gap power. Still not sure about how many ground balls will make it through the infield, but we at least saw a couple, unfortunately there was no sign of any infield hits which concerns me a bit as the fielding seems to have been made so slick that it might have eliminated them. Really glad to see bad outfielders covering less ground, that was one of my biggest concerns and they've addressed it.

Beyond that though, I was a bit concerned with the rest of the stream. The entire game seems to be being built around online head to head and how to stop the worst, cheesiest players from breaking the game, rather than trying to make the game play true (much like what they did with the introduction of rocket bunts, which they have apparently now removed). I get that these cheesy people ruin the online experience for others, but you can't build your game around stopping them.

The pitching in particular sounds concerning. It sounds like control of secondary stuff is going to be all over the place, combined with rewarding people for swinging at meatballs, so that does seem like a recipe for people just camping down the middle and just crushing the inevitable hanging breaking balls that the game arbitrarily decides to force on you (already an issue in 18).

Hopefully it's not the case, as I really don't want pitching to be as random as it sounded. In an ideal world it should require just as much skill as hitting, but they did make it sound like even good input wouldn't be decisive in where the ball goes.

[Councilmann_Jamm]

Re: MLB The Show 19 Twitch Stream - Hitting Improvements

Ever since I started using directional hitting and using THEWARMWIND notes I have seen a lot of different varieties of hits. I've use contact hittiers with gap power.

But directional is more based on player attributes than stick skills

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[ninertravel]

Re: MLB The Show 19 Twitch Stream - Hitting Improvements

what is with those cards coming up now?? are they replacing portraits?? because we are gonna have a lot of out of date cards when trades happen!

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: MLB The Show 19 Twitch Stream - Hitting Improvements

Watching right now and taking notes...

*Situational bunting tweaks seems like a good idea. Nobody likes the rocket bunts that crept in to combat cheesy mc cheeserton.

*Making offspeed pitches less effective? How about making the velocity of change ups more realistic? 6-7 MPH gap is far more common than 8-13 MPH gap. Not sure how I feel about them tinkering with how effective these pitches will be. It almost sounds like they're overcooking it, which may lead to other issues and complications/patches.

*Good to see HR/9 might matter in played games.

[HolyHell]

Re: MLB The Show 19 Twitch Stream - Hitting Improvements

Main takeaways:

Matty V is still the same.
Why is he still in the game? I know the answer but still.
These changes (including the other defensive changes) cater to online crowd, therefore, this game will pretty much play like The Show from the past half decade.

[Speedy]

Re: MLB The Show 19 Twitch Stream - Hitting Improvements

I'm really concerned about the lower effectiveness of pitches 2-5. I'd love to hear more about how that works:

Is it tiered (i.e. pitch #5 has a higher penalty if overused than pitch #2)
How much is too much?

It also puts a SEVERE amount of importance of correct pitch types too.

[Bartolo Colon]

Re: MLB The Show 19 Twitch Stream - Hitting Improvements

Main takeaways:



Matty V is still the same.

Why is he still in the game? I know the answer but still.

These changes (including the other defensive changes) cater to online crowd, therefore, this game will pretty much play like The Show from the past half decade.

Considering he’s been in the game for over a decade and my ears haven’t melted, speaks to how great Matty V is.

But yes a new voice would be nice as long as it’s not Joe Buck

[nuckles2k2]

Re: MLB The Show 19 Twitch Stream - Hitting Improvements

I was floored at "making off-speed pitches less effective"

They glossed over this fact hardcore - but all I need to know is if this is in The Show 19:

<iframe src='https://gfycat.com/ifr/YellowCompetentCony' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' allowfullscreen width='640' height='404'></iframe><p> <a href="https://gfycat.com/yellowcompetentcony">via Gfycat</a></p>

[PhilliesFan13]

Re: MLB The Show 19 Twitch Stream - Hitting Improvements

Are these changes just for online or offline too? I didn't watch either stream yet.

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[JoshC1977]

Re: MLB The Show 19 Twitch Stream - Hitting Improvements

Are these changes just for online or offline too? I didn't watch either stream yet.

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All game modes.

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: MLB The Show 19 Twitch Stream - Hitting Improvements

I'm really concerned about the lower effectiveness of pitches 2-5. I'd love to hear more about how that works:

Is it tiered (i.e. pitch #5 has a higher penalty if overused than pitch #2)
How much is too much?

It also puts a SEVERE amount of importance of correct pitch types too.

Yeah, this doesn't make a whole lot of sense because usually P1 - P5 is ranked in terms of usage, not in terms of effectiveness. Just because a guy only throws his curveball 11% of the time doesn't mean it's a weak pitch. As a matter of consistency, I almost always edit a pitcher's fastball to be P1 based, again, on usage. There are only a handful of pitchers in baseball that throw something else more often than their primary fastball (4SM/2SM/CUT).

[Syce]

Re: MLB The Show 19 Twitch Stream - Hitting Improvements

Yeah, this doesn't make a whole lot of sense because usually P1 - P5 is ranked in terms of usage, not in terms of effectiveness. Just because a guy only throws his curveball 11% of the time doesn't mean it's a weak pitch. As a matter of consistency, I almost always edit a pitcher's fastball to be P1 based, again, on usage. There are only a handful of pitchers in baseball that throw something else more often than their primary fastball (4SM/2SM/CUT).

i think what they are getting at is, People in '18 were spamming 1 pitch. you may have heard about it on forums/reddit whatever about how people were not using fastball AT ALL. it was always off speed pitches. so what they are saying now, is you cant have say a 12-6 Curveball that may be your 3 pitch and you are constantly spamming that pitch and never throwing your other pitches, If you do this in '19 that Curveball is going to get crushed eventually because the effectiveness of that curveball is going to go down resulting in hanging curveball.

[Blzer]

Re: MLB The Show 19 Twitch Stream - Hitting Improvements

That ball is sure being smacked around the yard pretty hard. Gameplay was too choppy to really assess much of anything. Must be the online aspect of it.

Ball interaction with grass and dirt continues to be identical. Saw another ground rule double bouncing off the grass. Really hoping the PS5 version of The Show is a complete reinvention, and anything from the old game is completely left in the past. Bring over what makes the game good, but recreate it... don't "port" it.

[WaitTilNextYear]

Re: MLB The Show 19 Twitch Stream - Hitting Improvements

i think what they are getting at is, People in '18 were spamming 1 pitch. you may have heard about it on forums/reddit whatever about how people were not using fastball AT ALL. it was always off speed pitches. so what they are saying now, is you cant have say a 12-6 Curveball that may be your 3 pitch and you are constantly spamming that pitch and never throwing your other pitches, If you do this in '19 that Curveball is going to get crushed eventually because the effectiveness of that curveball is going to go down resulting in hanging curveball.

That's fine, but the devil is in the details. What's the threshold for "spamming"? Do you get artificial penalties for using a lower tiered pitch like they mentioned?

I also think there's a very real apprehension about us offline players who strive to play "sim" continuing to get punished by countermeasures being deployed against online cheese-a-holics. Spamming the same exact pitch has never been an issue in games I've played. Yet, now there will be a potential modifier that could affect me in some nebulous way that none of us will really understand until patch #9 drops in mid May to fix some imbalance inevitably caused by this.


EDIT: We should also be clear about what they actually said, which was a stated intent to nerf all pitch types other than fastball and slider. They said on the stream that they are making offspeed pitches (1) move less and (2) be harder to control. They want to punish people more for high offspeed pitches and they want to make fastballs tougher to handle. So, it's not just about spamming the same pitch. There's a whole scheme going on here to pretty drastically overhaul the batter-pitcher dynamic.