Giving up on Pure Analog Hitting

[born_bad]

Re: Giving up on Pure Analog Hitting

I was struggling at 1st, but with about 20 games or so under my belt now, I'm playing on default Veteran with Catcher 9 view and my last game I got 22 hits and 6 HR's. All of a sudden, I was crushing everything every pitcher they brought in threw. I haven't played a full game since then, so maybe it was a fluke, but I think the analog hitting clicked with me now. If I have a lot of success in my next game, I'll try All-Star.

My tips would be don't spend any time worrying about different stride animations. The only thing you need to do is start pulling back on the R stick right before the pitcher is about to release. People that worry about the different animations are overthinking it and it doesn't impact the correct timing. Use the same timing for every hitter.

The other tip that improved my hitting is not pulling all the way back on the R stick. I just feather it back a little bit and that makes it easier for me to push it forward in time to get good contact.

I also did much better when I stopped using "guess pitch." I still have it on, but I don't ever guess anymore. I just focus on watching the pitches now instead of trying to guess ahead of time and it has helped me a lot. I find myself taking more pitches this way now, too, for some reason and have really worked into some hitter counts and then capitalized.

I'd stick with it because the satisfaction of crushing a pitch with the R stick feels so much better than pressing a button.

[djep]

Re: Giving up on Pure Analog Hitting

I've been playing this game since before release day and last week I was ready to give up on the analog hitting. I just couldn't hit anything with authority - late on fastballs and early on offspeed.

But playing around with the other batting modes felt stale. The timing-only option (and I was a "button press only" hitter in MLB 10) didn't work for me this year b/c the game would move your PCI all over the place. Zone hitting is fine but after analog hitting for a while, zone really felt stale. So I dropped it down to veteran and maxed out my TIMING and FOUL slider and lowered pitch speed to zero. The difference has been dramatic.

This week I've been crushing, just flat-out raking. I no longer feel like I'm swinging underwater. I can wait longer on a pitch and not jump out of my shoes. I haven't even been thinking about my stride and timing and just started focusing on the ball and the strike zone, just like in the old days. Being a baseball player, you know what it's like when you're hyper-focused on your mechanics.

I may have to bump it back to All Star cause the AI pitchers throw too many meatballs on Veteran for my taste. But it feels great to be hitting the ball and analog really does add an awful lot to the experience once it all clicks.

So my advice

- drop pitch speed to zero (it might feel like whiffle ball at first but you'll quickly adjust)
- max out your timing window
- max out your foul slider

[aarontab]

Re: Giving up on Pure Analog Hitting

I at one point posted a thread about striking out too much, and that was on analog. The reason why is because i didn't have good plate discipline and analog was causing me to foul off a lot of good pitches i got. I've since made the switch from analog, and now i bat a very realistic (with my RTTS guy anyways) .260-.280 with around 14% strikeout tendency (down from around 30% with analog). I agree, analog is pretty sweet in theory, but for the sake of my own sanity and enjoyment of the game, i had to switch. Now i actually hit homers on fat pitches instead of foul tips and balls into the catcher's knees.

[DiddyGotGrillz]

So I've decided (for now) that I am going to give up on the analog hitting. I'm throwing in the towel. Why? Because I'm THIS CLOSE to hurling my PS3 through a sliding glass door.

First let me say this: I play baseball. I played my entire childhood, high school, and still at age 28 I am playing competitive baseball against guys who throw 80-90 mph.

HITTING THE FRIGGIN' BALL IN THE SHOW ON PURE ANALOG IS HARDER THAN HITTING AN ACTUAL 90 MPH FASTBALL.

It severely frustrates me that I am waiving the white flag, as one of the reasons I purchased the game was for this new feature, but I just can't take it anymore. I don't have time to play the g-d dam game all day every day. At most I can squeeze in one game a night, and I'm not always at my most focused at 9:00 on a weekday night. I've played nearly an entire spring training and my team batting average is below the mendoza line. There are times where I show flashes of improvement, but then the very next game I'll be swinging at everything.

I think I could play this game for a year straight and I'd STILL never be able to tell the difference between a change and a fastball until AFTER the bottom has dropped out of it and I'm bashing myself in the forehead with my dual shock controller for swinging. I don't know what my problem is, but I just cannot seem to pull it together. I am playing on Veteran, with my batting sliders pushed all the way up. I've used practice mode quite a bit, and here's the thing...I do great in the cage. But on the field it just doesn't translate. I hate this game.

If all you have to say is "practice more", then I hate you too. I need to hear from others who have said "F This" and given up on analog hitting entirely.

Where's the emoticon for "donkey punch self in face"?

Oh wait...

----> (<-- me)

If you swing at everything and can't tell the difference between a ball and a strike - how is that the fault of analog hitting? Wouldn't you have the same problem swinging and the same bad pitches by simply pressing the "x" button?

Didn't anyone every play MVP Baseball back in the day? It's the same system, this is nothing "new." As a matter of fact, when I bought my PS3 three years ago - I did so just so I could play the show, when I discovered that you swing the bat by simply pressing "X" I was really disappointed. Pure Analog hitting is nothing new, but is certainly a positive step in the right direction for The Show.

[cadarn]

Re: Giving up on Pure Analog Hitting

If all you have to say is "practice more", then I hate you too. I need to hear from others who have said "F This" and given up on analog hitting entirely.

As a casual player I knew it wouldn't be worth my time after testing it on the demo. Haven't bothered with it at all since I got the game.

[DiddyGotGrillz]

And by the way, Nixon08 - I wasn't trying to be a jerk about that, I just don't understand how analog is different than anything else. Am I missing something? Are we thinking about the right thing?

Also, can someone fill me in on what "Zones" are? I've just played The Show in default mode since buying my PS3 in '08. Thanks!

[aarontab]

Re: Giving up on Pure Analog Hitting

If you swing at everything and can't tell the difference between a ball and a strike - how is that the fault of analog hitting? Wouldn't you have the same problem swinging and the same bad pitches by simply pressing the "x" button?

Didn't anyone every play MVP Baseball back in the day? It's the same system, this is nothing "new." As a matter of fact, when I bought my PS3 three years ago - I did so just so I could play the show, when I discovered that you swing the bat by simply pressing "X" I was really disappointed. Pure Analog hitting is nothing new, but is certainly a positive step in the right direction for The Show.

I'm not debating anything you said other than the part about the problem still existing when you press the button. I'm sure it's different in all cases but i saw a dramatic difference when i made the switch. My reasoning is that while my plate discipline didn't necessarily improve, i was able to actually put the strikes that the pitcher throws into play, where on analog they never got hit solid and went foul, putting me in crappy counts every time and allowing me to get struck out WAY more often. sometimes the correlation is more indirect, but it still made the game EASIER for me. Not necessarily 100% better (i love the concept of analog hitting, i just don't want to change the sliders too much where i feel like a cheater), but certainly easier and more appealing to somebody who doesn't want to practice like a pro ball player just to play a game at a decently high level.

Also, on a side note, i feel like the PS3 controller makes analog harder in and of itself. I HATE that analog stick's location and i feel like it's the chief reason i struggle with it. I end up having to hold the controller at the 45 degree angle just to push straight back and straight up on the thing..

[nixon08]

Re: Giving up on Pure Analog Hitting

Yep. I guess I saw the 90 mph ball. And was thinking that is more on level with the Major, but I apologize. Bro I am not trying to hate on your league. So good luck.

Haha, no worries dude. You know as well as anyone that throwing 90 and flat is easier to hit than 90 with movement and location. That's what separates the men from the boys.

In reality, hitting a 90mph heater with movement and location would take some serious luck on my part. And honestly, anything above 86-87 is going to take some time for me to adjust to the speed.

[Scottdau]

Re: Giving up on Pure Analog Hitting

Haha, no worries dude. You know as well as anyone that throwing 90 and flat is easier to hit than 90 with movement and location. That's what separates the men from the boys.

In reality, hitting a 90mph heater with movement and location would take some serious luck on my part. And honestly, anything above 86-87 is going to take some time for me to adjust to the speed.

True. Good post wood bat man.

[adice15]

Re: Giving up on Pure Analog Hitting

I had the same problem and went down from Veteran to Rookie. I couldn't even get a hit on Rookie, I would get about 3 hits a game.

[nixon08]

Re: Giving up on Pure Analog Hitting

If you swing at everything and can't tell the difference between a ball and a strike - how is that the fault of analog hitting? Wouldn't you have the same problem swinging and the same bad pitches by simply pressing the "x" button?

Didn't anyone every play MVP Baseball back in the day? It's the same system, this is nothing "new." As a matter of fact, when I bought my PS3 three years ago - I did so just so I could play the show, when I discovered that you swing the bat by simply pressing "X" I was really disappointed. Pure Analog hitting is nothing new, but is certainly a positive step in the right direction for The Show.

I'm not blaming the analog pitching, I'm blaming myself - hence the self-inflected pain. I think the issue isn't the back and forth motion, it's the direction in which I am pushing the right stick forward. This goes along with pitch the recognition issue. Not only am I swinging at pitches out of the zone, I'm swinging at pitches in the zone and making poor contact because I'm not thrusting the right stick forward at the right angle.

You've got:

-Timing your stride
-Timing your swing
-Recognizing ball/strike (to swing or not to swing)
-Recognizing inside/outside (where to swing)
-Familiarizing yourself with the circumference of the right stick so that you can angle your joystick without looking at it
-Combining those last two steps in one split second

You have to be incredibly focused I think.

[nixon08]

Re: Giving up on Pure Analog Hitting

True. Good post wood bat man.

It's weird. In real life it's "see ball hit ball". I'm not sure where hand-eye coordination comes from, but I don't really need to put much thought into where I am swinging the bat. Some kind of phenomena occurs where my eyes and my arms communicate with each other independently, and the bat just goes to the right place.

In the game, with my thumbs, that phenomena just doesn't occur. It's super frustrating.

[DJ]

Re: Giving up on Pure Analog Hitting

I refuse to give up on Analog Hitting. I dropped down to Veteran and feel like I'm starting to get the hang of things, and it's very rewarding.

[aarontab]

Re: Giving up on Pure Analog Hitting

I'm not blaming the analog pitching, I'm blaming myself - hence the self-inflected pain. I think the issue isn't the back and forth motion, it's the direction in which I am pushing the right stick forward. This goes along with pitch the recognition issue. Not only am I swinging at pitches out of the zone, I'm swinging at pitches in the zone and making poor contact because I'm not thrusting the right stick forward at the right angle.

This is why the PS3 controller makes it all worse...until they figure out an almost 13 year old controller design could, you know, MAYBE be improved upon, using analog is more frustrating than satisfying

[HexHollow]

Re: Giving up on Pure Analog Hitting

That said, I like it a lot more than the buttons now and once you get the hang of it the buttons feel like incredibly robotic and also feel like they give you even less control.

I agree the button hitting now seems robotic. Analog hitting is the best feature added to MLB11.

Try a different camera angle!

Default catcher cam is terrible for batting. I don't like any of the catch cams that much, they seem to place the pitcher too close like Little League distance. I would have a hard time switching from my favorite Wide 2.