Convince me to switch to directional hitting

[rtwilli4]

Quote: Originally Posted by BL8001

I wish the PCI worked like this / --- \ Lean both of the diagonal bars closer to 0° than 90° Meaning your bat/pci worked along swing planes. You cannot swing the bat flat across all areas of the strike zone like the game represents the pci now. Of course if the PCI was aligned with closer to correct bat planes we would need to be able to move around in the batters box to adjust where our "fanned" out pci was locating in relation to the plate. I also wish there was a transparency option for the pci I try all batting styles. I was briefly in love with directional with analog but have returned to zone with button. With zone I feel like instead of hitting the ball I am catching it with the PCI and pressing swing type when it hits my glove. It just does not feel like swinging something at a moving object.

Sorry I meant to quote you... See the post above.


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[wellred]

I think the misconception is directional is easy mode. I don't have this years game yet so yeah probably with the increased PCI on all star this can get a little stupid on all star level difficulty. But I've always used timing because if I use zone or analog it's like playing on arcade mode, I could put up some ridiculous numbers like that. Directional is essentially a way to handcuff or boost your own skills and leave it up to the game engine to decide what happens when the ball hits the bat. No it's not the hardest thing ever, but if you are skilled at hitting already the other modes will generally give you better personal results, there just isn't much denying that because it gives a skilled user far more control over what's going on. That's fine, but rarely is that going to produce as much of a simulation expericne as directional hitting on an appropriate difficulty level.

[Thebard]

The problem with directional this year is contact swings will let you foul off almost anything and make it very difficult to get someone out before throwing a ton of pitches (no matter where you put them). I faced contact swing cheese the other day (all high speed guys and nothing but directional contact) and it was almost as bad as bunt cheese last year. They foul off everything out of the zone and eventually hit a weak roller somewhere they can beat out. Totally unfun to play against and especially bad with the catchers dropping what seems like every 3rd pitch.

[BL8001]

Ok played several games with directional and then several with zone.

Directional is easier, just because you only need to time the press.

But what I notice for sure is hit variety seemed way less with directional.

With zone you can place the PCI and influence the spin and lift by where it is vs. where the ball is when you button swing.

With directional, even using the LS to point different directions the results seemed very random vs where the feedback window located the pci/ball info. But generally a fly ball or grounder. Not many line drives or hooking/slicing hits.


With zone my philosophy of attack is to
1. guess pitch offspeed/break low
2. sit the wedge PCI middle low to low in the zone and look for fastballs or cutters.

If the plate battle extends past 4-5 pitches I will start guessing what he is going to throw. Same goes for game itself, if the guy is only throwing sliders and fastballs I am not guessing his changeup as it's a waste of time.

So basically just guess the pitch that can fool you, and sit on anything thrown straight-ish. If they throw the fooler you can take the pitch (even for a strike early on) or swing if they place it where you are looking.

What I am still coming to grips with is how to play the ball to different fields with the PCI. Because you can't close or open your stance slightly to hit to different fields it has to be an early or late swing I guess. In reality if you want to pull or push the ball you can just open up during your swing or keep your front shoulder closed and still square it up with an on time swing.

[strut24]

Quote: Originally Posted by andrewochs615

I have a question regarding directional hitting. How do I steal an individual base with directional hitting using flick? I know you are supposed to use the left stick to point to the guy lets say on first and then hit R2. But I think that only activated the directional hitting to try to hit a ball to right field because both my runners started to steal.

I have the same problem. When I use the left stick to point to 1B, the game is thinking I am trying to influence my hit pre-pitch. And inevitably both guys on 1st and 3rd end up stealing. I saw the response in here but didn't see how to overcome it influencing your swing and to actually just steal with one guy.