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

[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

[Blaise]

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

Guessing a pitch is very real. I can tell you from personal experience, that if your looking for a low and away fastball and your keying in on that pitch, and you get it, your going to have a better chance of making contact.

In baseball, batters are really guessing everytime they go up there. They pick out zones that they want to swing in. Watch a real game, watch a batter get struck out looking, or hesistate on a pitch. That happens when a guy is looking outside, lets say, and gets an inside pitch, and is frozen by it.

If you dont believe me, ask anyone who's played HS, College, Minor league or Major league baseball and they'll tell you the same thing. In a game, you can reach almost every pitch, and get some part of the bat on it. In real life, your not going to be so lucky.

[Blaise]

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

Guessing a pitch is very real. I can tell you from personal experience, that if your looking for a low and away fastball and your keying in on that pitch, and you get it, your going to have a better chance of making contact.

In baseball, batters are really guessing everytime they go up there. They pick out zones that they want to swing in. Watch a real game, watch a batter get struck out looking, or hesistate on a pitch. That happens when a guy is looking outside, lets say, and gets an inside pitch, and is frozen by it.

If you dont believe me, ask anyone who's played HS, College, Minor league or Major league baseball and they'll tell you the same thing. In a game, you can reach almost every pitch, and get some part of the bat on it. In real life, your not going to be so lucky.

[Dick_Smalls]

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

Blaise, I think you might have misunderstood my point. I whole heartedly agree that guessing a pitch gives you an advantage and that players do look for specific pitches and locations all the time in baseball....

my point is, should the advantage be an artificial modifier in the form of a bonus?? I simply think that if you naturally guess the right pitch and location, you will have your cursor and the timing of your swing all perfectly executed to make solid crushing contact without the aid of an artificial bonus or modifier on top of it.

If it's still too easy in a video game with a cursor batting system to get SOLID wood on the ball even when your not getting guessing a pitch or general location, then that cursor batting system needs to be fine tuned for better realism by the developers ( I wont mention any names here ) but in ASB......I think the cursor system was spot on in this respect...it was VERY challenging to use consistently to get good solid contact.

This is one of the reasons why I really feel the developers intentionally made the cursor system a bit sluggish so you couldnt easily glide your cursor to any part of the screen and smash the ball ala Missile Command style. It required some tact and guesswork against the better pitchers who threw hard and/or had great movement on their 'stuff' This is one of the main reasons why I found ASB so deep and enjoyed it immensely

I just fear that ASB may buckle to appease the masses and perhaps make hitting easier....I really hope not or just hope it's difficulty is customizable cause I loved the challenge of hitting in 2003.

[Dick_Smalls]

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

Blaise, I think you might have misunderstood my point. I whole heartedly agree that guessing a pitch gives you an advantage and that players do look for specific pitches and locations all the time in baseball....

my point is, should the advantage be an artificial modifier in the form of a bonus?? I simply think that if you naturally guess the right pitch and location, you will have your cursor and the timing of your swing all perfectly executed to make solid crushing contact without the aid of an artificial bonus or modifier on top of it.

If it's still too easy in a video game with a cursor batting system to get SOLID wood on the ball even when your not getting guessing a pitch or general location, then that cursor batting system needs to be fine tuned for better realism by the developers ( I wont mention any names here ) but in ASB......I think the cursor system was spot on in this respect...it was VERY challenging to use consistently to get good solid contact.

This is one of the reasons why I really feel the developers intentionally made the cursor system a bit sluggish so you couldnt easily glide your cursor to any part of the screen and smash the ball ala Missile Command style. It required some tact and guesswork against the better pitchers who threw hard and/or had great movement on their 'stuff' This is one of the main reasons why I found ASB so deep and enjoyed it immensely

I just fear that ASB may buckle to appease the masses and perhaps make hitting easier....I really hope not or just hope it's difficulty is customizable cause I loved the challenge of hitting in 2003.

[silver540i]

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

Smalls is right. In my legendary battles with friends on EW, a guy like Nolan Ryan would pipe the heat so fast you almost had to guess. Swinging early meant you got a Natural Bonus of making good contact, while if the pitch was offspeed, you either missed horribly, or hit something weakly.

[silver540i]

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

Smalls is right. In my legendary battles with friends on EW, a guy like Nolan Ryan would pipe the heat so fast you almost had to guess. Swinging early meant you got a Natural Bonus of making good contact, while if the pitch was offspeed, you either missed horribly, or hit something weakly.

[Blaise]

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

You mean like in the Old MLB for PS1, right?

I understand you, but dont agree with you for one reason, You still have to put the bat on the ball. Even if the ball is "right down the pipe", youve still have to swing accurately, and have good timing on your swing. The "artificial" part IMHO isnt so artificial. By guessing correctly, you increase the likelyhood of contact, guess wrong, and you decrease the likelyhood of contact. Thats what i think it boils down to. The likelyhood of contact, and if you think in those terms, then maybe you'll understand the system alittle better, or like it alittle better.

[Blaise]

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

You mean like in the Old MLB for PS1, right?

I understand you, but dont agree with you for one reason, You still have to put the bat on the ball. Even if the ball is "right down the pipe", youve still have to swing accurately, and have good timing on your swing. The "artificial" part IMHO isnt so artificial. By guessing correctly, you increase the likelyhood of contact, guess wrong, and you decrease the likelyhood of contact. Thats what i think it boils down to. The likelyhood of contact, and if you think in those terms, then maybe you'll understand the system alittle better, or like it alittle better.

[Blaise]

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

I would like to add that I personally like the "sluggishness" of the ASB cursor, for me it makes me concentrate on certain zones. WSB is alittle too fast for my liking.

[Blaise]

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

I would like to add that I personally like the "sluggishness" of the ASB cursor, for me it makes me concentrate on certain zones. WSB is alittle too fast for my liking.

[silver540i]

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

The only thing that seems off with ASB batting, is how the ball is seemingly already across the plate, and then is hit. Looks weird. My favorite batting model is BBpro98. Great physics.

[silver540i]

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

The only thing that seems off with ASB batting, is how the ball is seemingly already across the plate, and then is hit. Looks weird. My favorite batting model is BBpro98. Great physics.

[Dick_Smalls]

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

I agree with that......its funny you mentioned that. it's especially apparent when you see replays in ASB, it almost seems as if the ball slows down as it gets to the plate on the replay and waits for the batter's bat to catch up with the ball to make contact across the plate.

Yes BB PRO was one of my favorite recent day games as well....the ball physics and the feel of contact was extremely realistic and very gratifying. When you made contact it felt very good. It's funny too because, If I recall correctly, you didnt have a cursor batting system but yet the timing alone yielded a great deal of variety in hit balls and placement. In fact, in BB Pro 96 and 98, the ball speeds were so fast, I dont think I would have had a chance to even think about moving a cursor towards the ball...timing the pitches alone was brutal!

[Dick_Smalls]

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

I agree with that......its funny you mentioned that. it's especially apparent when you see replays in ASB, it almost seems as if the ball slows down as it gets to the plate on the replay and waits for the batter's bat to catch up with the ball to make contact across the plate.

Yes BB PRO was one of my favorite recent day games as well....the ball physics and the feel of contact was extremely realistic and very gratifying. When you made contact it felt very good. It's funny too because, If I recall correctly, you didnt have a cursor batting system but yet the timing alone yielded a great deal of variety in hit balls and placement. In fact, in BB Pro 96 and 98, the ball speeds were so fast, I dont think I would have had a chance to even think about moving a cursor towards the ball...timing the pitches alone was brutal!