Research Poll

[spit_bubble]

Re: Research Poll

@spit_bubble: The two main constraints with adding waste pitches is VITA has no buttons left, and this feature has to compete with others people are proposing. The CPU itself does do waste pitches, though perhaps too subtly.

After you select a pitch type, most of the buttons are freed up. This certainly isn't a glaring issue, the lack of waste pitches, as aiming does the job pretty well. That being said, it's almost always in the back of my mind when I want a waste pitch: will this pitch end up going wild and catching a fat part of the plate? It seems too arbitrary, and takes away slightly from the realism.

Now, add in a waste pitch like I proposed, and you provide another layer of depth by fine tuning the controls. I think the payoff would be worth it, relative to what it would take to add it. Like I say, it would just amount to adding an option to augment a pitch by selecting the waste pitch button after you select the pitch type, and then having waste pitches miss the strike zone with greater frequency than normal pitches.

There, I have stated my case.

Also, more feedback came to mind:

10) Pitch Speed and Ball/Strike – On Allstar difficulty, are fastballs too fast or slow? Is it Is it too hard or easy to call a ball or strike? Or instead, can you usually tell if it's a ball or strike but you just want to swing anyways? What do you think about batting while in strike 2 situations? 2-0 and 3-1 situations?

It's kind of tough to tell for sure, but it seems to me like maybe the ball physics need some adjusting. If I had to guess I would say that a pitched ball does not decelerate enough. I'm pretty sure the velocity of a pitched ball in real life loses approximately 8 mph from the time it leaves the pitcher's hand to the time it crosses the plate. In MLB 12 a pitched ball will sometimes seem to defy the laws of physics, with the movement of pitches being to sharp and too quick. The end result is that pitches will sometimes seem to vanish rather than doing what they are supposed to do. If a pitch had the proper deceleration you would see sliders slide like they should, change ups get pulled back like on a string, etc.

I don't know I may be wrong on that, but it seems to me like giving pitches just a touch more deceleration might loosen things up for the better.

7) Hitting Modes - Which hitting mode do you prefer? Which hitting mode would you never use? Have you tried timing-only hitting yet?

I know you're not specifically asking this, but since I have your ear...

I really feel one big thing lacking with the hitting in this game is the lack of hitters with pull tendencies. Every hitter in the game is a spray hitter, even Canadian cover boy and real life pull hitter Jose Bautista.

This has been brought up before, by me and others here on this forum, and I even started a thread dealing with it a while back with a complex solution. I think even if it were addressed in a simple way it would add a lot to the game. Something like, giving pull hitters a different timing window, one that rewarded early swings and penalized trying to go the other way. Then obviously you'd have the AI try to pull the ball more with pull hitters, giving those hitters a much different feel when facing them. You'd also have to decide whether or not to put a shift on when these guys came to bat.

I really think some sort of step towards adding pull hitters would be a step in the right direction.

[MizzouRah]

Re: Research Poll

1) Overall Difficulty - Hitting, using timing on veteran feels about right to me. Pitching, using pulse pitching on AS I really like this new pitching mechanism, fielding I've been using auto with analog and no meter, I was making too many errors with the meter on and although I love the OF play on manual fielding, there are too many IF that let balls go under their gloves or simply don't get to a ball quick enough like they should. I'm going to try to pitch from the catcher cam to see if I can get a read on the ball a bit quicker (even with fielding on assist, routine ground balls are getting past my IF on some plays - I don't see this issue with the CPU controlled players)

2) Game Log - Never use

3) Strategy Guide - Seems fine to me

4) Pitcher Batter Analysis - Seems fine the way it is

5) Pitching Interfaces - Pulse pitching and I absolutely love it. Just a thought that maybe the pulse could change colors depending on a pitcher's stamina as the game goes along?

6) Classic Pitching - I'm going to mess with this option this weekend

7) Hitting Modes - I want to use analog, but would rather just push up for contact and pull back and push up for a power swing - so for now, I'm using timing and like it

8) Stealing Balance - Don't play 2P or haven't as of yet

9) Guess Pitch Modes - Have not used this yet and honestly, I don't really understand the benefits of using it?

10) Pitch Speed and Ball/Strike – I think pitch speed is perfect on AS, I usually go with a power swing on 2-0, 3-1 counts. I think any baseball game for me has me always thinking swing.. it's tough to lay off pitches, at least for me.

[dce21b]

Re: Research Poll

1) Overall Difficulty - Ok well as far as the actual difficulty levels I think they are where they need to be beginner is easy and legend is unforgiving which it should be.

My issue lies with how online matchups are set up. There's no true measurement of how good people really are. If you have the time to sit and play 10 games a day, then you can shoot right up the leaderboard. While you may get beat by the same guy one game out of ten with other people, and he obviously is better then you, your ratinging will still be higher then his because you are able to play more.

Also if in play now one player uses all legend settings for his match ups and wins 75% of his games and another uses veteran and wins 90% of his games.... whos really better??

What I would like to see is a division system like the one in diamond dynasty where this system either seperates or is all incompassing and is based on uniformed settings in game.

Spring Training: This would be your starting point regardless of your user settings you can use any difficulty GP on/off SZ on/off etc. You would be eligible to leave this division at anytime after you have achieved say 1000 rating points.

Season Series:The min difficulty settings you could use here in this division would be Veteran but you will still be able to choose all other settings however you would like.

Division Series:The minimum difficulty settings in this division would be All Star and I personally would start debating whether or not GP off but would have swing feed back off etc.

Championship Series: The minimum difficulty settings here would be Hall of Fame, GP off, No strike zones, No swing feed back

World Series: The minimum difficulty settings here would be Legend, GP off, no strike zones, no feed back basically for the best of the best.

You would never be forced to leave a division but you would never advance your rating in a higher division by games played within your own division. Lol if that makes sense.

We would all start in the Spring Training division and unlock the higher divisions as you played. Going back to how you are trying to stream line the game between online and single player menus. You could use your unified settings to be the division you are in and when you hit play now automatically be sent to match ups with people in your division.

This would help immensely to help separate your self from the pack and see where you really stand. So If you wanna play 10 games a day using guess pitch smacking noobs around and be top ranked in the Season Series have at it. But dont be surprised when your at the bottom of the barrel when you step up against true pros in the World series division. I think this would be awesome but that's just me. I just find it annoying when I play these "top ranked" guys who honestly suck or play cheese ball and are ranked high because of quantity of games not quality.

2) Game Log - Honestly not a real big deal to me, I check it out time and again just to check some things out but it does its jobs. I know that it could be better for those stat freaks out there but for the casual user it is sufficient.

3) Strategy Guide - Lol there is one?? I will have to check it out.

4) Pitcher Batter Analysis - I will check it out time from time, but honestly espically if you were to implement a new match up system on higher difficulties online I would like to see it disabled. Ever play someone who checks your hot and cold zones for every single batter for the entire game. totally freaking uncalled for.

5) Pitching Interfaces - I use analog for everything now and I feel its good as well as the meter pitching. I'm sorry I just dont get pulse pitching and do not like it at all. At least with meter and analog pitching I can add extra speed or movement at will with how I can manipulate the meters. Pulse just dont get it.

6) Classic Pitching - No i dont use it, but I know its there and think its great for those who are disabled and have limited dexterity or mobility.

7) Hitting Modes - I am using zone plus analog and its fantastic ... i dont like pure analog my second favorite would be just regular zone. One thing I do not like, is the ability at lower levels of play that people dont have to move their PCI at all and still make good contact on balls that arent even in the PCI.
Yet if I hit a ball pefectly with power low in the zone it becomes a chopper a dead ball or a pop up. I would like to see the location of your PCI and point of contact more relavant as it is in Hof or Legend. I mean its possible to get contact on balls with your PCI in the dirt on chest high fast balls which is totally wrong and makes you think its all a crap shoot.

8) Stealing Balance - I find that if I try to auto steal... or leave at the point of release and have a one step lead I get throw out too easily at second. I feel stealing this way is more respectful of the game and I get punished for it. On the other hand when you manually or early steal its very easy to take the base... hence peoples frustrations.

As far as pickoffs my pitches are over throwing the 1st baseman entirely to often and not only does he miss but misses horribly and throws it into the stands resulting in 1 to 3rd way too often. In fact almost 90% of my overthrown pickoffs go into the stands.

So not only is it really easy for players to steal early easy you get punished as the pitcher by overthrowing your pick offs. It seems to happen reguardless if you do a regular quick or elusive or whatever. I could understand if it was more likely to happen on quick moves but it doesnt seem to matter which you are trying.

I dont have a problem with early stealing its just annoying when you constantly overthrow 1st... guess maybe i should just step off but when they have a big lead its hard not to throw.


9) Guess Pitch Modes - I absolutely loath GP, I wish it would do a Thelma and Louise and drive off a cliff and die already.

No but seriously its just really annoying and promotes bad baseball. And people who solely rely on it are never gonna become better hitters.



I understand its just another tool in the game for casual players who just wanna jump into a game and have fun. But for those of us who are more competitive its not fair. This especially effects DD players cause you cant choose to have an online game with it turned off.

I dont have a problem playing against people who use it, infact I use it against them but sometimes it still comes and screws me over. Go into a game and throw any pitch you want with the stick straight down, a dirt ball, unhitable you shouldnt even be swinging at it. Have one of your other guys hit and have him use contact(o) and guess pitch down. Look at how many times he can make contact with that pitch and how many times the pitch you threw into the dirt actually comes up into the zone.

Between him being able to foul it off and then the fact that for whatever reason your dirtball becomes a hitable ball in the zone it makes someone who is very proficant at doing this almost impossible to strike out. Because if you throw high they will know and still be able to make contact with there gianourmous PCI they will have moved up because they its obviously not down and guys who are good at this wont chase out side. I usually have to get them with a change up or get them to chase out side... but if their timing is good they will most likely get a foul or a hit.

Basically it would be nice to still have control of your pitch even if they guess correctly. For instance if they guess down and i see it like you do now instead of losing control you as a pitcher should be able to throw it harder to make the ball go high or move it more to the right or left. You are able to manipulate the pitches with your controls so why does the pitcher get screwed because someone can hit R2 and LS down??

This all goes back to my difficulty section.

10) Pitch Speed and Ball/Strike – Ball speed is fine on all difficulties, this may become an issue if you guys made the PCI more accurate and meaning full. Cause right now you can make contact on anything early or late on easier settings because it doesnt seem to matter to much where or when you swing.

Wow, I think I spent over an hour writing this up... please do a survey on Diamond Dynasty I have another hour or so on this topic as well lol or just look up my post in that section. Thank you and good day.

[LowerWolf]

Re: Research Poll

Good to see, even as great as this series and MLB 12 in particular are, you guys being on here soliciting feedback to make it even better.


1) Overall Difficulty
I'm playing on Veteran and it's giving me a challenge so far. But I also using Timing hitting and Classic pitching which removes some of the "skill" from the user and leaves more up to ratings. In the past, my pitching has tended to be too good, but so far that hasn't been the case. I'd say the game could possibly be a tad easier, but there seems to be enough people enjoying Legend and HOF that overall difficulty is probably pretty good.

2) Game Log
I don't even know what it is. LOL.

3) Strategy Guide
I'e glanced at it, but haven't really used it.

4) Pitcher Batter Analysis
I look at it every now and then, but don't really use it much.

5) Pitching Interfaces
I use Classic. I like to keep things simple. Trying to line up a meter 120 times a game strains my eyes after awhile. Pulse and Analog intrique me, but I like ratings to be king. And again, I like simplicity.

6) Classic Pitching
Yes, I like it. To be honest, I generally just press the button. I don't try to time it or hold it down. And holding it down doesn't really seem to add any extra oomph for me. And even just pressing the button and playing on Veteran, my pitchers are still not as accurate as they should be sometimes.

7) Hitting Modes
I use Timing only. The ball comes in too fast for me to really use anything else. I've used Zone, but then I wind up hitting too well.

8) Stealing Balance
I don't steal much, but then I play as the Braves and we're slooooow for the most part. And so far in my dynasty, Bourn has yet to get on base.

9) Guess Pitch Modes
When I used GP, I used the default. I really like the strategy aspect of GP. However, I don't use it anymore.

10) Pitch Speed and Ball/Strike
Pitch speed is, IMHO, still too fast. I'd like to see more range in the slider - though I know that's tricky with keeping balance in the game. The CPU still tends to throw too many strikes (at least on Veteran). There also seems to be a difference in exhibition games and season games. I walked plenty in exhibition games, but once I started my season it's strike-strike-strike all the time.

[Cavicchi]

Re: Research Poll

1) Overall Difficulty - Rate the overall difficulty of hitting/pitching/fielding/running. Is even Legend too easy for you, or Rookie too hard? Are there specific modes that too easy or hard, such as zone hitting or analog throwing, etc..? Or is one area overall okay but a specific action (hitting a slider, getting a double play, etc..) at an extreme for you?

Yes, Rookie is harder for me than I feel it should be. I think there should be some options to make Rookie easier for those that need them: A batting aid could be introduced that helps the user know what type of pitch is coming. The aid should only be used with hitting set to timing. The frequency of this aid could be adjusted with a slider, and available only in Rookie level.

4) Pitcher Batter Analysis - Do you use the Pitcher-Batter Analysis tools? What kind of new data, charts, or filters would you like? Would you like more than the last 25 pitches drawn?

I do look at player ratings and where and what type of pitch went for a hit against me. I also look at what the opposing pitcher throws, speed and pitch type.

5) Pitching Interfaces - Of the four pitching interfaces (Classic, Meter, Analog, Pulse), which do you use the most overall? Which would you never use? Are there specific improvements you would like to see to any of the existing pitching interfaces?

I use Classic pitching. I tried Pulse but was annoyed by the pulsating circle. I would rather see an expanding circle, expanding once.

6) Classic Pitching - Do you like using classic pitching, even occasionally or in the past? When using classic pitching, would you like it if the power setting phase was tied to the pitcher's animation?

I like Classic pitching because all the other choices don't work for me.

7) Hitting Modes - Which hitting mode do you prefer? Which hitting mode would you never use? Have you tried timing-only hitting yet?

Yes, I use Timing and that is what I prefer.

[NAFBUC]

Re: Research Poll

1) Overall Difficulty - Rate the overall difficulty of hitting/pitching/fielding/running.

I play allstar level for classic hitting, classic pitching manual fielding and auto running. The difficulty level of allstar is good for me with an adjustment of sliders. Running is to hard for me. In fact, I would like to see more options for the user when using auto running. Right now you can do limited hit and run. Of couse if you have a runners on 1st and third and you want to hit and run, both runners take off, and the third base runner is toast if you miss the ball when batting.

Also the camera options are huge when you are hitting, fielding and pitching.
The ability for us to use custom cameras was a great option.

For fielding, It would be nice to have sliders seperate for outfielders and infielders for speed and reaction. Also a slider that would reduce or expand the 'catch zone', making it easier or more difficult to be in a postition to field the ball.

2) Game Log

The gamelog is useless once you exit the game. Please expand the boxscore with pitchcounts for each pitcher, umpires, attendance etc. There are times I want to go back and see how many pitches was thrown by my pitcher the last time out, or keep track on the umpire tendencies by knowing the games which umpire was behind the plate.

If the boxscore is done right, you do not need a gamelog. You can read the numbers and know what happened during the game. Just go to MLB.COM and look at the regular season boxscores.

Baseball is a game of numbers, and the boxscore should reflect the game outcome if done correctly.

3) Strategy Guide - Have you used the in-game Strategy Guide? Would you like to see certain topics covered? Would you like to see more topics in general covered?

It is to bad more users do not look at the strategy guide and control options.
This would reduce the redundant posts of how do I do this.........

4) Pitcher Batter Analysis - Do you use the Pitcher-Batter Analysis tools? What kind of new data, charts, or filters would you like? Would you like more than the last 25 pitches drawn? Yes

The biggest issue for me is once you exit the game or even save the game,
the data is gone. I love to use the pitch breakdowns of how many times you used a certain pitch, and the results/percentages of what happened.

5) Pitching Interfaces - Of the four pitching interfaces (Classic, Meter, Analog, Pulse), which do you use the most overall? classic Which would you never use? Meter

6) Classic Pitching - Do you like using classic pitching, even occasionally or in the past? When using classic pitching, would you like it if the power setting phase was tied to the pitcher's animation?

Yes, I love classic pitching. There was a poll done here a couple of weeks ago and classic pitching and hitting (timed) was the number one option used by OS users. I am fine with the current setup. I get realistic pitch counts, walks, ball/strike ratio etc. If you do make changes, please do not add any screen graphics. It is nice to have a clean screen pitching with classic.

On a side note, if playing the cpu, why do we need the cpu pitch selection, etc on the screen when the cpu is pitching?

thanks

7) Hitting Modes - Which hitting mode do you prefer? timed

I would like to be able to have an option for groundball/flyball and opposite field/pull type hits using the timing mode.

8) Stealing Balance - Do you play 2P offline/online? No How often do you pitchout? Quick pickoff? Slow pickoff? Deceptive pickoff? Playing against the cpu, I like pickoff selections that are available. I like to keep the baserunner off balance with a couple of slow pickoff attempts, then later in the pitch count use the deceptive or quick movement.

9) Guess Pitch Modes - Which guess pitch mode do you prefer, if any? Do you use it always, or just in certain counts/situations? Do you think that mode is balanced for single-player games against the AI?

Use timed hitting only.

10) Pitch Speed and Ball/Strike – On Allstar difficulty, are fastballs too fast or slow? Is it Is it too hard or easy to call a ball or strike? Or instead, can you usually tell if it's a ball or strike but you just want to swing anyways? What do you think about batting while in strike 2 situations? 2-0 and 3-1 situations?

I have the pitch speed slider either on 1 or 2. I think there should be an increase in flexability when using all the sliders.

thanks for providing us a feedback forum Brian.

[Majingir]

Re: Research Poll

1) Overall Difficulty - I've never been able to get the hold of zone hitting, regardless of the difficulty. I use veteran(though most people on here use all star), but the entire game can change completely just based on sliders, so I think difficulty doesn't mean that much.

2) Game Log - I've never used game log(except for a few times when I wanted to see the wind speed to see if there was too much wind in my games)

3) Strategy Guide - I've never used this.

4) Pitcher Batter Analysis - This is real helpful when making sliders. You can see things like timing, strike%, amount of foul balls, amount of liners,groundballs,fly balls ect.

5) Pitching Interfaces - I'm using Pulse right now, but I used analog last year. Pitching seems too easy though, I'm constantly throwing over 80% strikes(and that's including my throwing balls intentionally at times too). I want pitching to be harder to throw strikes, but not so hard that the AI gets so much more hits off you, cause with the 80% strikes I'm throwing, the AI gets a good amount of hits already.

6) Classic Pitching - I don't use classic pitching.

7) Hitting Modes - I like analog hitting the best. I've tried timing hitting and I couldn't really hit that much. The one thing I liked better about timing hitting over analog hitting was the player stride when swinging. On analog, it might not be a full stride(since the user doesn't pull back at the same moment every time), but on timing, it's the exact same every time, and it looks way better(especially when you take a pitch)

8) Stealing Balance - I'm having trouble stealing bases this year. The AI however seems to be able to steal bases quite easily though, even if their player isn't good at stealing and I throw a fastball. I can't change player speed though, because it'll make it even easier for the AI to steal(if I increase speed) or harder for me(if I decrease speed).

9) Guess Pitch Modes - I use the 1/6 guess pitch. I use it every single pitch, it helps alot,especially since the curves/sliders move so much in the game. It's not like I just have a bad eye for seeing the ball, in real life, I have one of the best plate disciplines. I just can't really pick it up that much in the game.

10) Pitch Speed and Ball/Strike – I think most people on here would agree that the pitch speed this year is too fast. The one thing I can't really do on the game is determine if a curve or slider will be a strike or a ball. Because when I look at the ball, it looks like it'll be a strike, and since it moves alot, by time I swing, it's in a completely different location. It's even worse when pitchers throw pitches on the corners and the entire ball is outside the strike zone and it's called a strike.

[raneman85]

Re: Research Poll

1) OVERALL DIFFICULTY: I play mainly on All-Star for both hitting and pitching. Once in a while Veteran if I want a high scoring game. I occassionally mix-up sliders just to change the game experience but pretty much stick to default -1 for reliever stamina. HOF to give me a relaity check.

2) GAME LOG: I do check it out.

3) STRATEGY GUIDE: Don't need it. Have no problem with it.

4) PITCHER BATTER ANALYSIS: Use it most of the time

5) PITCHING INTERFACE: Right now between Meter and Pulse Pitching. Meter is more realistic. I don't watch the meter much as I time out of each pitcher's relaease point. I have pulse easily timed but I like it. Analog once in a while as a change.

6) CLASSIC PITCHING: Once in a Blue Moon. A power setting may be a nice touch.

7) HITTING INTERFACE: Zone with PCI (on most of the time). I feel zone is the most challenging.

8) STEALING BALANCE: Currently think it's fine but again I will experiment and mess with sliders once in a while. Not many opportunities to play 2 player offline. Online play is too cheesy unless you get in an online league.

9) GUESS PITCH MODE: I use it at sparingly, I usually guess the pitch correctly: fastball when ahead of the count. I found out when I do guess it accurately I swing too early or pop up the pitch due to anticipation. Guess pitch is more of a head game. If I'm pitching and playing 2P I usually win the battle because I go against the norm. I like the natural head game battle between pitcher and batter without the added element. I have no problem with it being in the game.

10) PITCH SPEED, BALL/STRIKE: I think pitch speed is relevant to what camera angle so I leave it alone. If turned up everything looks like a fastball. I did find a difference in breaking pitches being more profound if turned down one or two clicks. I turn down CPU pitching consistency to draw more walks.
Can you usually tell if it's a ball or strike but you just want to swing anyways? Yes I am easy to strike out because I will chase out of the zone. Throw me a broad and I'll chase her.

[lw22]

Re: Research Poll

good work with the game. Thanks a lot.



1) Rate the overall difficulty of hitting/pitching/fielding/running. Is even Legend too easy for you, or Rookie too hard?

I play All-Star for all and am happy.


Are there specific modes that too easy or hard, such as zone hitting or analog throwing, etc..? Or is one area overall okay but a specific action (hitting a slider, getting a double play, etc..) at an extreme for you?

I use timing hitting. I want to keep it simple.



2) Do you use the game log? Would you like a game option that displays it in chronological order, rather than most recent innings first? At the end of the game log are some miscellaneous data about that day's game. Are there other fields of data you would like to see?

I use game log sometimes. I'm happy with the display of most recent innings first. However, it may not state all the actions for that AB, e.g. guys get thrown out advancing more than 1 base.



3) Have you used the in-game Strategy Guide? Would you like to see certain topics covered? Would you like to see more topics in general covered?

No comment.


4) Do you use the Pitcher-Batter Analysis tools? What kind of new data, charts, or filters would you like? Would you like more than the last 25 pitches drawn?

I use the Pitcher-Batter Analysis tools a lot. Very good tools. The only problem this year is that the timing/contact info of CPU batters' AB isn't displayed even if I press L3, and neither is my pitchers' pitch sequences.

Btw, the colours of #2 and #4 pitches are too difficult to tell when I try to see the pitching sequences.


5) Of the four pitching interfaces (Classic, Meter, Analog, Pulse), which do you use the most overall? Which would you never use? Are there specific improvements you would like to see to any of the existing pitching interfaces?

I use Classic to keep it simple. I never use others. Very happy with Classic. It's simple!



6) Do you like using classic pitching, even occasionally or in the past?

See answer to Question 5. Please keep Classic pitching. Don't delete it.



7) Do you play 2P offline/online? How often do you steal in 2P? Do you manual (i.e. early) steal or auto (on windup) steal? Is it too easy or hard to steal overall? Is it too easy or hard to defend against steals overall? Or are there specific situations that need balance? Are bad basestealers able to steal too effectively? How often do you pitchout? Quick pickoff? Slow pickoff? Deceptive pickoff?

I only play against CPU in the season mode.


8) Which hitting mode do you prefer? Which hitting mode would you never use? Have you tried timing-only hitting yet? (you should!)

I use Timing hitting only to keep it simple. Never use other modes.



9) Which guess pitch mode do you prefer, if any? Do you use it always, or just in certain counts/situations? Do you think that mode is balanced for single-player games against the AI? For two-player games? Can you hit effectively without using guess pitch at all? What difficulty do you hit on? Lastly, in two-player games how do you feel when your opponent uses guess pitch against you?

I don't use it. I turn it on ("No Feedback") only to get the CPU pitchers' pitch sequences or the hitting info of my batters.

[chuckm1961]

Re: Research Poll

3

Strategy Guide desperately needs more info about Guess Pitch mode. What each option means, and most importantly, whether the programmers meant for us to guess on every pitch. A bit of advice would be greatly appreciated here!

5 and 6

I use classic pitching. If it was not available, I would have to seriously think about giving up what I consider to be the best video game of all time. I do NOT want to pitch by timing things to stuff on the screen. I want to pitch more by feel and strategy, and that is what classic pitching gives me.

9

I used to use GP all the time. Now I try to be more selective. I use an edited offset camera, with Pitch Speed down to 2 (-3), and I still have trouble reading balls and strikes. I would LOVE any option that helps us to read balls and strikes better.

[drustrk3]

Re: Research Poll

5) Pitching Interfaces:


I love the ability in analog pitching to edit the meter. Right now for analog pitching, I shrik the meter to the smallest amount possible and move it to the corner of the screen. When I pitch I go by feel and don't use the analog meter at all.

How about the option to not have a meter at all and go by "feel". The invisible meter would be tied to each pitchers motion with penalties resulting in missed location and decreased velocity/break. This would create the difficulty in hitting spots that many users seem to desire. It also would replicate the feel of real life pitching as well. Lastly, it would leave the screen clear of a clunky meter and make the graphics and presentation that much better.

In the end it seems to be all about options and having many for the many different preferences.

[Kernel Pie]

Re: Research Poll

1) Overall Difficulty -

I find the difficulty levels excellent out of the box. This is my first year with the game (though I've played baseball video games for years) and I started out on All-Star. Quickly switched to HOF and I am getting realistic, challenging results.

2) Game Log -

I rarely use this but appreciate that it's there.

3) Strategy Guide -

Yes, I have used this--mainly for instructions on controls. I feel the baserunning was not explained too well, and I never did see an explanation of the difference between Defualt basernning and Classic baserunning, though I might have missed it.

After reading through it, though, I still have questions on baserunning that were not answered.

4) Pitcher Batter Analysis -

Yes, I use this all the time. I would like to see the R2 button work when pitching like it works when hitting. I want to see the location, sequence, and type of each pitch in an at-bat with one button click when pitching, without the game pausing. I hate having to press select and pause the game basically just to see my pitch sequence, which only shows location when you're on the mound.

5) Pitching Interfaces -

I am using classic right now. I found most of the other interfaces cumbersome, and almost tedious. I started on meter, but I guess I'm just lazy and like just focusing on my pitch choices and my defense, rather than accuracy. I will prbably bounce back and forth between the 2.

I would never use pulse pitching--it gives me a headache.

6) Classic Pitching -

I love classic pitching, and yes, please link the button press with the motion to affect pitch velocity; that would be even better.



7) Hitting Modes -

I use Zone. I love this interface. I would never use timing as I hate seeing my PCI move off the ball, when I can see the ball just fine.

ZPA is nice also, but I see no benefit to an analog swing rather than a button swing.


10) Pitch Speed and Ball/Strike –

I feel the pitch speed is to slow. I've upped the sliders to the max and still find it easy to hit fastballs. On the highest setting I want the pitch to be a blur almost. To be fair, I haven't tried Legend yet, so perhaps it's faster on that difficulty.

[PAPERNUT]

Re: Research Poll

1) Overall Difficulty - Pitching is perfect on All-Star, but hitting is a bit tough. I use Veteran for hitting and anything above is a bit tough. I think a calibration tool could help a bit with that for some TVs.

2) Game Log - Use it some, but not a big deal to me.

3) Strategy Guide - Do not use.

4) Pitcher Batter Analysis - Great for setting sliders for pitching. More stats, the better.

5) Pitching Interfaces - Love Pulse pitching. Would love to see speed control options for pulse pitching. Please leave all options though as it is great to have a choice instead of being locked into certain ones.

6) Classic Pitching - Used in past, but rather use Pulse or Analog.

7) Hitting Modes - Tried all. Timing is my favorite as I want to see attributes determine the results in most cases.

8) Stealing Balance - No issues.

9) Guess Pitch Modes - Do not use.

10) Pitch Speed and Ball/Strike – No issues with this.

Things like this survey and community involvement keep this game on top. Keep it up. Thanks.

[cusefan74]

Re: Research Poll

Overall Difficulty:

I think it is great, the game plays really well right out of the box and I need to make very ew adjustments to it.

Game Log:

Very rarely look at it so I don't care if it's there or not.

Strategy Guide:

I like it I use it some.

Pitcher Batter Analysis:

I think this a great feature. I use it a lot.

Pitching Interfaces:

I like the new pulse pitching. Other then that I would use the meter.

Classic Pitching:

Never use it.

Hitting Mode:

I use zone hitting, but I am gonna try some of the other modes to see how I like them.

Pitch Speed and Ball/Strike:

I think the pitch speed is pretty good, but there are way too many strike calls out of the box, but the sliders allow for you to fix that.

Guess Pitch Mode:

I like it and use it. Sometimes I don't use it, but it is nice to have the option.

[thaSLAB]

Re: Research Poll

Hey Brian, great thread! My thoughts below:

1) Overall Difficulty - I think the different difficulties cover a large range of skill levels, and if people are willing to swallow their pride and play at their skill level, and work their way up then the game is very accessible. That said, I think the spike in difficulty between the hitting levels, is more steep than with the other areas. Overall, I think with the difficulty levels and provided sliders, you can make the game as easy or as difficult as you want. In regards to CPU hitting, I think they could do a bit more "situational" hitting, in terms of hit influence. One thing that may help people (psychologically) is renaming "rookie" to something less noob sounding, lol.

2) Game Log - I use the Game Log all the time. I guess if there was one thing I would like to see changed, is the ability to sort by inning/chronological order. Or like you say, some type of hot button to jump to the next (half) inning. And maybe a method to filter out scoring plays only. I think the information included is good, but would like to see for pitchers - Groundout-Flyouts, Batters Faced, No. Pitches, Inherited Runners-Scored. For batters - Total Bases and Runners Left in Scoring Position. And finally, for the Team: RISP ABs (i.e. 1-for-6). And last but not least, the ability to print/export the gamelog

3) Strategy Guide - N/A

4) Pitcher Batter Analysis - This is another tool I use all the time. It would be beneficial to add a tab that has the pitch chart with the pitch sequence numbers, so that you can quickly view how the last AB progressed. I'd like to see the pitch sequence numbers added to the 'select' screen chart too. Other filters could be "w/ 1 strike", "w/ 2 strikes" etc. As for number of "last XX" pitches displayed, more is always better, but I know all pitches may pose a memory issue, but 75 or so would basically cover 6 or so innings of the game.

5) Pitching Interfaces - I've become a pulse pitcher since this year, and was strictly analog last year. If I would like one thing added to PP, it would probably be adding in some sort of effort mechanic, whether it be holding the button, or tying it into the meter some way. As for which method I rarely use, I would have to say Classic.

6) Classic Pitching - N/A

7) Hitting Modes - I prefer Zone and Zone Analog Hitting, but I have tried them all at one time or another. Only because I like to have as much user input as possible.

8) Stealing Balance - N/A

9) Guess Pitch Modes - Never used GP. (Well, I did for MLB 11 long enough to get the psychic trophy )

10) Pitch Speed and Ball/Strike – I will have to try AS hitting. I haven't tried any difficulty other than HoF for hitting. Overall, I think the pitch speeds are realistic, which for the average person it too fast still. The new catcher cam helps tremendously, but I did tilt it up just a little bit more, to help better follow balls low in the zone. On 2-0 and 3-1 counts, my approach usually depends on the batter (that's why I recommended adding the analysis filters for these situations), but I will typically focus on a zone and look for my pitch. With men on-base and a good contact batter at the plate, I may swing influence to try to move the runners over, or get a sac fly. Basically, just always trying to out-think, or at least keep the CPU from out-thinking me... all the while, not out-thinking myself