It feels like button accuracy’s features have eroded through the years.

[nemesis04]

I am finding this years version of button accuracy to be very vanilla. They did change the needle speed which offers a small learning curve and added the perfect accuracy for cutoffs and throws home which is a nice touch. Overall though the meter now lacks personality especially since they pinned the accuracy section of the meter to the 12 o’clock position. Also, I still feel the green section is way too prominent on the meter and feel it should bleed more into the yellow portion of the meter.

With that said I decided to head back starting with the show 16 and played each version up until 20 with button accuracy to see its evolution. My biggest take away was little by little, bits and pieces of it have eroded away. For starters we used to have the chevrons like analog which displayed throw strength, now gone. A major piece missing which added most of the personality in my opinion was the shift of the green accuracy section forwards and backwards along with the varying speeds of the needle based on the players attributes. Having those varying speeds and shifts kept you off balance from mastering the meter to the degree that you can now.

In conclusion I am not really looking for them to change it back but maybe in the future offer a classic version along with the current one which allows us to enjoy its earlier features which I feel had more personality than what we have now.

Thoughts?

[ChaseB]

Re: It feels like button accuracy’s features have eroded through the years.

Just to clarify, do you mean personality in terms of making players feel better or worse based on their ratings? And then also altering where the arrow is while bleeding green and yellow more?

[nemesis04]

Re: It feels like button accuracy’s features have eroded through the years.

Just to clarify, do you mean personality in terms of making players feel better or worse based on their ratings? And then also altering where the arrow is while bleeding green and yellow more?

Yes, the meter was more dynamic and when you activated it you could instantly tell the type of fielder you were controlling by the speed of the needle and how far or close it had to travel to reach accuracy. The green accuracy section in 20 does change size but it is always pinned to the same location.

[LastActionHero]

It feels like button accuracy’s features have eroded through the years.

I totally agree with this. Now the perfect needle is always in the middle and travels at the same speed for everyone. Is the size of the green area still variable depending on the difficulty of the play?

And like you said the red, yellow and green should blend in a little bit so the outcome is not so black and white as it is now. This way, if you hit the needle in between colours, you might have an online throw or you might throw it a little bit off, which results in more exciting gameplay. In previous editions sometimes hitting the yellow could still end up being a good enough throw for good players but this year it seems like every throw in the yellow will pull the first basemen off the bag.

As for analog, I would love a meter above the player as well in which you can steer/adjust the direction in real time while you’re pushing the R stick towards a base. This way when you see you’re not pointing it true east (first base) you can still try to get it right on the fly. If this will ever happen I’m back in the analog defense camp.

[BigOscar]

Re: It feels like button accuracy’s features have eroded through the years.

Yeah, I really didn't feel the change in the meter at all tbh, I know they said they'd made it much more difficult and that worse fielders would feel significantly worse, but it honestly feels exactly the same. Maybe the meter is faster? But I can't feel that at all, it's still incredibly easy regardless of who you use and I don't actually recall making a throwing error since my first game.