MLB The Show 21 Hitting - Here's What We Would Improve

[ChaseB]

In MLB The Show 20, developers at SDS pushed forward with "perfect" inputs for hitting as...

Written By: Chase Becotte

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[candidcubs705]

This is a great article! I love a lot of the points made above. I wanted to add one more: Batter view. I have noticed a slight competitive advantage to pitch tracking in the closer strike zone cameras vs the Fish eye, larger views. I know this can come down to player preference, but in a sport in which vision is important, it seems strange that this is the case. I would like the camera angles in competitive play to be consistent. I may be off base here, but it is something I have observed myself. 

[ChaseB]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Hitting - Here's What We Would Improve

This is a great article! I love a lot of the points made above. I wanted to add one more: Batter view. I have noticed a slight competitive advantage to pitch tracking in the closer strike zone cameras vs the Fish eye, larger views. I know this can come down to player preference, but in a sport in which vision is important, it seems strange that this is the case. I would like the camera angles in competitive play to be consistent. I may be off base here, but it is something I have observed myself.*

That's a good one. I was just thinking of direct hitting mechanics, but certainly some cameras are a bit better than others by default, which is something interesting to consider for competitive purposes.

[wilo28]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Hitting - Here's What We Would Improve

Been waiting for an MLB game with cursor hitting (PSY style) for over 10 years. Guess its not going to happen. All theese leagues monopolizing their licenses is not good, I still remember owning MVP Baseball 04, allstar baseball 04 and high heat...those were the days.

[BigOscar]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Hitting - Here's What We Would Improve

You sort of touch on it, but for me, zone hitting will never be right until they sort out the main problem. Contact, far too much contact. You can completely miss the ball with your PC, have late or early timing, yet still either foul off or put the ball in play weakly. Missing the PCI should be missing the ball, early/late should make the PCI smaller. Baseball doesn't work unless hitting the ball is difficult.

I get that they want to make it easier on new players, but that's what lower difficulties are for(larger PCI, more forgiving timing window). If you can't get the right amount of contact then you can't aim for realistic BABIP, as it would mean just endless runs. So instead we are stuck with artificially low BABIP (usually in the form of super fielders who can outrun a 100mph line drive) to make up for the fact there aren't nearly enough swing and misses.

Until they get that right, I don't think hitting will ever be particularly good with zone. Instead it will continue to have far too much randomness baked in and will continue to feel like your input isn't really mattering much.

[chode60005]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Hitting - Here's What We Would Improve

Your point about foul balls is spot on. I've been a show player for many, many years and my, biggest gripe w hitting is my lack of strikeouts vs cpu. My flaw is I swing too much. But I hate that I don't strike out much. You hit it on the head saying if pci placement isn't at least on the ball, it should be a swing and miss. If you are "very late" on a swing, it should result in much small area to allow foul balls. Poster above described exactly how it should play out.

And I'd like to see the ratings matter for this. If I'm playing as Keston Huira who led NL in strikeout last year, he probably should have one of the smaller pci's in the game

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[drugsbunny]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Hitting - Here's What We Would Improve

I wish the analog controller played a bigger role in the batter wind up. There was an old arcade game named World Series baseball that had the little analog handle to control the windup with a realease for contact but a full push for contact. I thought that was a fun concept. I think analog realease would serve well. Hitting last year was pretty good as a whole. I can't think of how much more you need to add to a good recipe. I just wish the game had more context control after the action has started. The show has always been a watered down click and press game. Once the ball is hit, the game is pretty pedestrian. Once the ball is hit, the cpu really takes over once you identify the ball location. Catch made, back to pitching. I would like to see more control over the players once the ball is in motion. I hate the computers involvment in my movements. I would love to throw the ball around after the play is over. I would like to be able to interact with different areas of the field. I would to have some sort of fun other than pitching and hitting. The game has become stale.

[48hour records]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Hitting - Here's What We Would Improve

I really rather mlb2k batting controls

[LastActionHero]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Hitting - Here's What We Would Improve

Good written in depth article with videos explaining all the points made. These are the articles I keep coming to this site for.

Chapeaux!

[AUTiger1]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Hitting - Here's What We Would Improve

As someone who uses directional hitting I would hate to be forced into having to use zone hitting in online play. My skills aren't good enough to successful hit that way because I'm many decades removed from the PS2 days of having no other choice so my skills have diminished greatly. It would definitely hamper my enjoyment of the game.

[Red_Ted_is_back]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Hitting - Here's What We Would Improve

This is a great article! I love a lot of the points made above. I wanted to add one more: Batter view. I have noticed a slight competitive advantage to pitch tracking in the closer strike zone cameras vs the Fish eye, larger views. I know this can come down to player preference, but in a sport in which vision is important, it seems strange that this is the case. I would like the camera angles in competitive play to be consistent. I may be off base here, but it is something I have observed myself.*

If by consistent you mean fish eye for batting, then that’s a +1 from me.


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[RainOnTim]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Hitting - Here's What We Would Improve

Interesting article. Generally, I really like the hitting system in 20 (I use zone). I play exclusively offline, so I don't really care about how the system deals with "competitive" play.

I agree with the article that weirdness in the system is good. Smoking a perfect line drive for an out or blooping a terrible hit that somehow finds grass in the outfield feels like baseball. I've never seen a real baseball game where something incredibly weird didn't happen, so it's good the game allows this.

I definitely disagree about check swings, especially the way it's presented in this article.

"This should come down to a simple rule: Pitches in no way touching the zone that you’re very early/late on should end up being check swing strikes no matter what."

So I think about facing a reliever who throws an upper 90s fastball/hard slider combo. Both pitches start in the same spot, but the slider could end up going way out of the zone. I want to be able to gear up for the fastball, read it's actually a slider, then hold off on swinging. So this would be a situation where my (checked) swing would be early/very early and the ball would be out of the zone. The system proposed here would punish me for this and that's doesn't seem right.

The only part of the current hitting system that doesn't really feel good to me is foul balls. It's the only thing where I don't feel a connection between what I'm doing and what's happening. Other than late "emergency" swings (so, very late timing with pci on or near the ball) or getting fooled by a change up I read as fastball (very early timing with good or perfectly placed pci). Those feel "right." But the at-bats that go on for like 9-10+ pitches, those feel random to me. I don't ever get the feeling that I'm spoiling pitches, I just feel like I got lucky.

Otherwise, I'm not sure what changes I'd actually like to see to hitting. Personally, I think the thing that would make hitting feel better is changes to things on the pitching side. The AI being better about pitch calling/sequencing for example.

[RainOnTim]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Hitting - Here's What We Would Improve

You can completely miss the ball with your PC, have late or early timing, yet still either foul off or put the ball in play weakly.

I don't really know how the hitting system is determining these outcomes, but I think there are times when that's fine. Theoretically, if you're late swinging at a high inside fastball and your pci is covering outside, the ball could still make contact with the bat handle because of the path the bat is taking through the zone. Again, I'm not sure that's close to how, or even if, the game is paying attention to the bat as a physical object, but I'm fine with weak contact on pitches you completely miss as long as it makes sense in a way similar to what I described.