WOW...I almost FORGOT why I LOVED ASB so much...

[Dick_Smalls]

Re: WOW...I almost FORGOT why I LOVED ASB so much...

Thats a good point, Also one of the things that I feel no baseball game has fully developed or explored is the impact and variety in the defensive ratings of a player to give them individuality and demand user strategy.

I remember growing up on Earl Weaver Baseball on the Amiga and buidling your team not only required offensive building strategies but you also had to account for the defensive ratings of your players as well. And the game was designed in such a way that you really saw the differences in the defensive skills of the players around the league and the use of fielding a strong defensive team had a bigger signifigance to success in your games. I remember how much ground my team covered in the infield and how solid they performed when I had Ozzie Smith at SS and Ryne Sandberg playing 2nd. It was like almost nothing got thru there....I remember Ozzie cutting off alot of balls that where hit deep in the hole and Sandberg had a cannon of an arm which robbed alot of speedy runners on weakly hit balls.

I really would love to see this attention to detail and aspect of thegame get more attention in the future. I'd love to see more of these variables play a role in the game. It seems like none of the games today put enough emphasis or defensive ratings in the player's attributes to allow you to really see the player's seperate themselves in the field.

There should be ratings like RANGE, ARM ACCURACY, ( maybe CONFIDENCE, COMPOSURE, AGILITY or BALANCE ) factored into the player's skills as well. Im not a programmer but I definitely dont feel like enough attention has been put into seperating the defensive skills that each of the player's in MLB possess.

[Dick_Smalls]

Re: WOW...I almost FORGOT why I LOVED ASB so much...

Thats a good point, Also one of the things that I feel no baseball game has fully developed or explored is the impact and variety in the defensive ratings of a player to give them individuality and demand user strategy.

I remember growing up on Earl Weaver Baseball on the Amiga and buidling your team not only required offensive building strategies but you also had to account for the defensive ratings of your players as well. And the game was designed in such a way that you really saw the differences in the defensive skills of the players around the league and the use of fielding a strong defensive team had a bigger signifigance to success in your games. I remember how much ground my team covered in the infield and how solid they performed when I had Ozzie Smith at SS and Ryne Sandberg playing 2nd. It was like almost nothing got thru there....I remember Ozzie cutting off alot of balls that where hit deep in the hole and Sandberg had a cannon of an arm which robbed alot of speedy runners on weakly hit balls.

I really would love to see this attention to detail and aspect of thegame get more attention in the future. I'd love to see more of these variables play a role in the game. It seems like none of the games today put enough emphasis or defensive ratings in the player's attributes to allow you to really see the player's seperate themselves in the field.

There should be ratings like RANGE, ARM ACCURACY, ( maybe CONFIDENCE, COMPOSURE, AGILITY or BALANCE ) factored into the player's skills as well. Im not a programmer but I definitely dont feel like enough attention has been put into seperating the defensive skills that each of the player's in MLB possess.

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Re: WOW...I almost FORGOT why I LOVED ASB so much...

excellent point about the lack of defensive ratings playing an improtance in baseball games today I never really noticed it until you mentioned it. I am not old enough to have experienced Earl Weaver baslleball but i have heard alot about it over the years.
Funny you should mention the stats over physics in High Heat, i noticed something that really supports your idea. In one season I decided to change my ballpark, from shea stadium to the old Polo Grounds to make it harder for the visiting teams to go deep on my week pitching staff and to give my speedy runners some extra basehits but the wierd thing is that I noticed almost no difference at all. Players were still hitting homers except now they were just going alot deeper. So I dont think the game determines distnace when hit but it just uses stats and decides if its going to be a homerun or basehit depending on the batters numbers. In All Star, does the game really require you to use your bullpen and does it punish you if you lay pitches out over the plate too often? I rented the game and couldn't get used to the faster pitching compared to High Heat

[**DONOTDELETE**]

Re: WOW...I almost FORGOT why I LOVED ASB so much...

excellent point about the lack of defensive ratings playing an improtance in baseball games today I never really noticed it until you mentioned it. I am not old enough to have experienced Earl Weaver baslleball but i have heard alot about it over the years.
Funny you should mention the stats over physics in High Heat, i noticed something that really supports your idea. In one season I decided to change my ballpark, from shea stadium to the old Polo Grounds to make it harder for the visiting teams to go deep on my week pitching staff and to give my speedy runners some extra basehits but the wierd thing is that I noticed almost no difference at all. Players were still hitting homers except now they were just going alot deeper. So I dont think the game determines distnace when hit but it just uses stats and decides if its going to be a homerun or basehit depending on the batters numbers. In All Star, does the game really require you to use your bullpen and does it punish you if you lay pitches out over the plate too often? I rented the game and couldn't get used to the faster pitching compared to High Heat

[jake]

Re: WOW...I almost FORGOT why I LOVED ASB so much...

Thanks K Mosely.

I appreciate what you are saying about the little things and ratings. With me last year one of the things I was looking for was speed ratings which were reflected in gameplay. Specifically, I looked at the bunt and the soft hit ground ball. I wanted to see if someone with a 90+ spd rating was going to beat it out or, at least, make it close. I thought in this regard WSB was on target. I was so tired of TP where no matter what a baserunner was thrown out by the same distance at 1st. I also liked how in WS getting a triple seemed to be more possible because of the ball physics and the play of the outfield. Im not terribly fond of how the ball hangs up, allowing the OF to cover great ground in spite of the poor jump. This is why I opted for WS last year. I really like the expansion mode though. I also liked WSBs GM features but I hated the CPU trades which is why I quit playing. I realized that all BB games were another year away from being there. Its funny you mentioned Earl Weaver though. That was over ten years ago right? I have often thought baseball games should be further along than they are. Being a PS1 owner its easy to understand why. With TP being the only choice it was true. In fact, Ive grown envious hearing people refer to games on the other previous gen systems that had good BB games.

[jake]

Re: WOW...I almost FORGOT why I LOVED ASB so much...

Thanks K Mosely.

I appreciate what you are saying about the little things and ratings. With me last year one of the things I was looking for was speed ratings which were reflected in gameplay. Specifically, I looked at the bunt and the soft hit ground ball. I wanted to see if someone with a 90+ spd rating was going to beat it out or, at least, make it close. I thought in this regard WSB was on target. I was so tired of TP where no matter what a baserunner was thrown out by the same distance at 1st. I also liked how in WS getting a triple seemed to be more possible because of the ball physics and the play of the outfield. Im not terribly fond of how the ball hangs up, allowing the OF to cover great ground in spite of the poor jump. This is why I opted for WS last year. I really like the expansion mode though. I also liked WSBs GM features but I hated the CPU trades which is why I quit playing. I realized that all BB games were another year away from being there. Its funny you mentioned Earl Weaver though. That was over ten years ago right? I have often thought baseball games should be further along than they are. Being a PS1 owner its easy to understand why. With TP being the only choice it was true. In fact, Ive grown envious hearing people refer to games on the other previous gen systems that had good BB games.

[p00p1]

Re: WOW...I almost FORGOT why I LOVED ASB so much...

The new ASB will let you edit players defensive abilities. I also think ASB is the best baseball game, but one thing that really annoyed me was exactly what you mentioned. When you runner slid into the base and injured himself. I realize that on close plays sliding is the only thing you can do, but ASB for some reason decided to make sliding completely CPU controlled. I had many plays when I would go into second sliding while the throw was going to third base, which didn't bother me until I started losing players to injuries on plays where they had no business sliding. I can't understand this especially since the N64 version had user controlled sliding and even let you overslide the base if you slid too late. It was one of several things that seemed to digress when the game was made for the next gen systems, like scouting reports and player ratings.

[p00p1]

Re: WOW...I almost FORGOT why I LOVED ASB so much...

The new ASB will let you edit players defensive abilities. I also think ASB is the best baseball game, but one thing that really annoyed me was exactly what you mentioned. When you runner slid into the base and injured himself. I realize that on close plays sliding is the only thing you can do, but ASB for some reason decided to make sliding completely CPU controlled. I had many plays when I would go into second sliding while the throw was going to third base, which didn't bother me until I started losing players to injuries on plays where they had no business sliding. I can't understand this especially since the N64 version had user controlled sliding and even let you overslide the base if you slid too late. It was one of several things that seemed to digress when the game was made for the next gen systems, like scouting reports and player ratings.

[Dick_Smalls]

Re: WOW...I almost FORGOT why I LOVED ASB so much...

Jake I agree with you 100% on the EW statement.....It's been close to 20 years beleive it or not ( 1986 i think Amiga Earl Weaver ) and while the baseball games have made tremendous strides in many features such as graphics, animations, atmosphere, career and franchise modes, ect , one of the most important aspects of the game, gameplay and player individuality hasnt nearly been developed to the point I think it should ....or COULD be.

I remember designing my stadium in EW with a huge deep outfield to take advantage of my player's lack of power and great outfield defensive range and it paid off because the game engine took all of these attributes into account when playing.

[Dick_Smalls]

Re: WOW...I almost FORGOT why I LOVED ASB so much...

Jake I agree with you 100% on the EW statement.....It's been close to 20 years beleive it or not ( 1986 i think Amiga Earl Weaver ) and while the baseball games have made tremendous strides in many features such as graphics, animations, atmosphere, career and franchise modes, ect , one of the most important aspects of the game, gameplay and player individuality hasnt nearly been developed to the point I think it should ....or COULD be.

I remember designing my stadium in EW with a huge deep outfield to take advantage of my player's lack of power and great outfield defensive range and it paid off because the game engine took all of these attributes into account when playing.

[Motown]

Re: WOW...I almost FORGOT why I LOVED ASB so much...

Hey DS, can you use the guess pitch in BP or HR derby?
(ASB 2003)

[Motown]

Re: WOW...I almost FORGOT why I LOVED ASB so much...

Hey DS, can you use the guess pitch in BP or HR derby?
(ASB 2003)

[silver540i]

Re: WOW...I almost FORGOT why I LOVED ASB so much...

Mr. Smalls, you couldnt be more right. Comparing EW to the graphics and franchise offerings of todays games would be unfair, but the gameplay of EW was stellar.

Knowing that the ratings actually made a difference (offence and defense) made it fun as hell.

WSB and ASB are getting really close for me. My gripes are always not enough playable cameras, and minute gameplay issues like baserunning, offline throws, weather affects. In essence, anything that makes the game play like an unpredictable, random sport that it is.

[silver540i]

Re: WOW...I almost FORGOT why I LOVED ASB so much...

Mr. Smalls, you couldnt be more right. Comparing EW to the graphics and franchise offerings of todays games would be unfair, but the gameplay of EW was stellar.

Knowing that the ratings actually made a difference (offence and defense) made it fun as hell.

WSB and ASB are getting really close for me. My gripes are always not enough playable cameras, and minute gameplay issues like baserunning, offline throws, weather affects. In essence, anything that makes the game play like an unpredictable, random sport that it is.

[Dick_Smalls]

Re: WOW...I almost FORGOT why I LOVED ASB so much...

LOL...Motown, I didnt even know ASB had a GUESS PITCH feature.. Also, this is one feature I'm really not sure how I feel about.

While I indeed love the cursor batting system in baseball games and find it essentially adds more realism and hit variety by simulating the attempt of a baseball player to put his bat on the ball....and I even agree with POWER swings which allows a user the ability to simply swing harder with the risk of a reduction in contact, hence the smaller recepticle inside the batting cursor.

But the idea of giving someone a magical bonus for guessing the right pitch baffles me to a certain extent. I mean, shouldnt your reward of guessing the right pitch just simply be the fact that you time your swing appropriatley to correspond with the right pitch you've guessed which will allow you to make solid contact??

I mean if your guessing fastball and get a fastball....your gonna swing early and have a better chance at smashing it...There's your natural guess pitch bonus!
What is the reasoning behind adding an artificial modifier or bonus ontop of that ??

Conversely, if your guessing fastball and get an offspeed pitch, your gonna be way out in front of it and miss it...there's your penalty if you play the natural guessing game without having to use artificially added guess pitch modifiers


Unless there is something I am missing, I never really understood the guess pitch bonus thing in baseball games