Idea for More Challenging/Realistic Pitching

[Ferrari997]

First off, let me state that I really love the new pitching interface. But sometimes I feel that not only this game, but all baseball games in general, it is too easy to pitch exactly where you want.

My idea actually already exists in the game, but just not in single player. I think it would be way more realistic and challenging as well when pitching, to have the baseball marker fade out right before pitching just like as if you were playing against someone on the same TV.

For those who are not familiar with that, when you play against someone on the same tv, the baseball marker designating where you want to pitch fades out for obvious reasons so you don't give away your pitch. You still move around the "invisible baseball" but you have to do it by feel and touch.

I think this is way more realistic because obviously in real life pitchers dont have a marker of where they want their pitches to land. It places more of an emphasis on accuracy. My suggestion would be the more highly rated pitchers (Santana, Peavy, Webb), their invisible marker would be less sensitive and move slower whereas the lower rated pitchers, it would be extremely sensitive and a lot harder to place pitchers wherere you want.

Let me know what all of you think. Because the only way you really "miss" your spots, is if you do the wrong gesture/time it wrong. I really think this would really add a new dimension to the already great pitching.

[DirrtySouth78]

Re: Idea for More Challenging/Realistic Pitching

if you keep the Strike Zone off it makes it a lil bit more difficult, because you don't know the edges of the Zone so your going on feel..Thats the clostest thing I can come up with at the moment

[Bahnzo]

Re: Idea for More Challenging/Realistic Pitching

The best way for MLB2K to make pitching more difficult is to increase the speed of the pitching meter. As it is, the meter speed remains the same when you up the TCP slider. It's only the green zone on the meter that becomes smaller. That and get rid of meatball pitches.

[Trevytrev11]

Re: Idea for More Challenging/Realistic Pitching

The best way for MLB2K to make pitching more difficult is to increase the speed of the pitching meter. As it is, the meter speed remains the same when you up the TCP slider. It's only the green zone on the meter that becomes smaller. That and get rid of meatball pitches.

I think they should speed it up as well...but also for the more mediocre pitchers, I think they should have the speed vary from pitch to pitch. It would make almost every pitch a challenge as you could never get the timing down (obviously they should include an option to turn this off).

Quality pitchers who are known to hit their spots more often would have a much more consistant speed and guys who have trouble locating their pitches would constantly see variable speeds.

I think this would be a good way to seperate the difference in quality between a teams #1 and their #5.

[Bahnzo]

Re: Idea for More Challenging/Realistic Pitching

I think they should speed it up as well...but also for the more mediocre pitchers, I think they should have the speed vary from pitch to pitch. It would make almost every pitch a challenge as you could never get the timing down (obviously they should include an option to turn this off).

Quality pitchers who are known to hit their spots more often would have a much more consistant speed and guys who have trouble locating their pitches would constantly see variable speeds.

I think this would be a good way to seperate the difference in quality between a teams #1 and their #5.

Agreed. That makes more sense to have a bigger difference between the better pitchers and whatnot. As it is, it's just as easy to hit spots with all pitchers regardless of their talent or control. Maybe next year, huh?

[Trevytrev11]

Re: Idea for More Challenging/Realistic Pitching

Maybe next year, huh?

Should be 2K's slogan.
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I think this would add another dimenstion to pitching.

I have another thought as well.

With each pitch motion there is a defined stop point on the pitches diagram. With a fastball it is straight up, with a slider it is at 3:00, etc. What if on your motion if you were "to the right" or "before" the stop point, you would miss inside and if you were "to the left" or "after" the stop point you would miss to the left.

So take a righty throwing a curveball. You start at 8:00 and go counter clockwise to 12:00. If you let go at 12:00, you throw it in the right spot. If you let go on the 1:00 side, you throw it inside and if you let it go on the 11:00 side you throw it outside.

Then:

If you let go of the stick before the center, you miss up and after the center you miss down.

This would cover missing pitches in all directions and make the miss based on user error. Also, they could tune it so a small miss to Maddux doesn't miss much at all-maybe an inch, but a small miss to Daniel Cabrera misses by 6 inches or so.

[stealyerface]

Re: Idea for More Challenging/Realistic Pitching

Trev, this is a great point, but if you check out the pitching, it is already kind of there. Let's say you are throwing a fast ball. The first motion is straight back (6 O'clock) and after the meter fills, you go straight up (12 O'clock) for the "perfect" gesture. Ahhh.. but this is where it gets so much more fun. Let's say you have the umpire that likes to give that outside corner. So you line up the pitch cursor a foot off the plate, throwing the ball to the outside edge of the right handed batter. Now you bring the first motion back to the 6 O'clock spot, but instead of going to the 12 O'clock, you bring it up to the 12.3 or 12.5 spot. Not quite a two seam pitch, but just off of the centered 12 O'clock spot. The ball will tail in like you put a little backwards cut on it. Likewise, if you throw the fastball and bring the stick to the 11.7 or 11.8 areas, the ball will cut, and tail away. Mind you, this becomes a great risk/reward because if you go too far, you get a bad gesture, and you get meatballed. But if you play with the release, and find out how far each pitcher can push the envelope before it turns into a meatball, you can get some nasty action on the balls, and really use the strike zone. I have had two Beckett performances with 13 strikeouts, and the majority of those backwards K's were using the release point to move the ball around the edges. When you need that behind the count strike, then you go 6-12. But when you are ahead of the batter and want to work the zone, this is a great way to really get some variety, and throw off the hitter. This works for all the pitches too. Want that curve to end up a bit off the plate? Tweak the release and watch a little extra bite buckle that batter's knees. Where this really shines is the fastballs though. Use the 2-seamer like Maddux, and you can get that ball to start under the left handed batter's elbow, and bust the strike zone on the inside black. Yes, the pitching could stand a tweaking, but I have it dialed in pretty well now, and I love moving the ball around the plate just by changing the release point.

SYF

[snowmizer]

Re: Idea for More Challenging/Realistic Pitching

Every baseball game should have the following:

1. An invisible cursor that...
2. springs back to center with no analog input, and...
3. has no rumbling indications when it reaches a strike zone border.
4. And a tiny bit of randomness for even perfectly-inputted deliveries.

Just having the first three features (which were the outstanding highlight of the otherwise infamous WSB 2k1) makes it much easier to just miss the zone. And, after developing a feel for the game over time, it becomes much more satisfying if you instead paint the black on crucial pitches.

And that was the case when 2k1's invisible cursor indicated exactly where the ball would cross the plate. Now that it typically illustrates the pitch's targetted break point, combined with the possibility of the flubbed deliveries of 2k8, it would be even better.

Given enough time, though, even that would probably get too easy, which is why #4 is needed. Only the most precise real-life pitchers should have virtual pinpoint control. Why not just program in an option for some randomness?

It could be something along these lines... A pitcher with a 100 rating in Precision could have the ball move up to one inch in any direction off the target; a pitcher with a 40 rating could move up to four inches; etc.

[mmorg]

Re: Idea for More Challenging/Realistic Pitching

I think they should just hide the pitching meter, but let you throw a couple warm up pitches with the meter one before the inning starts so you can get a feel for the timing on that pitchers meter. This would make things a lot harder and you would really have to know that pitcher to use him well.