MLB 2K11 Developer Diary #3 - Pitching and Hitting

[JayhawkerStL]

I don't think you are going to see the sort of consistently off strike zone that people like to talk abut seeing in real games. For one, it doesn't exist nearly as concrete as people like to think.

What they have done is, if the ball is 100% in the zone, you are going to get a strikes. If the ball is 100% out of the zone, you are going to get balls called. It's all of those pitches that you try to pain the corners that are gong to be iffy. And they are iffy in real life, too.

I have not seen anything where they are going to have imaginary wider or more narrow strike zones based on different umpire profiles. That might be cool, but completely unnecessary.

I guess that someone could actually mine some data and come up with realistic numbers on balls and strikes now that many broadcasts have that info. Of course, that would mean we need a ton of nice solid strikes called balls just because. I don't know the numbers, but it would certainly be an interesting feature.

But it would have to be backed up with real data, or the stats could go wonky as all get out. And you could not imagine the number of comeback code threads we would see.

[duke776]

Quote: Originally Posted by Jayhawker

What they have done is, if the ball is 100% in the zone, you are going to get a strikes. If the ball is 100% out of the zone, you are going to get balls called. It's all of those pitches that you try to pain the corners that are gong to be iffy. And they are iffy in real life, too.

This is one thing I'm very very happy about. We all know last year with how if you just nipped the corner, you'd automatically get a strike. I mean I'm fine with it being a strike sometimes and other times not (like how they have made it for 2k11), but last years just completely widened the strike zone way too much. I had actually forgotten about this until it was mentioned in the dev diary. This should also help with the user throwing more balls too, color me excited.

[rudyjuly2]

Quote: Originally Posted by duke776

This is one thing I'm very very happy about. We all know last year with how if you just nipped the corner, you'd automatically get a strike. I mean I'm fine with it being a strike sometimes and other times not (like how they have made it for 2k11), but last years just completely widened the strike zone way too much. I had actually forgotten about this until it was mentioned in the dev diary. This should also help with the user throwing more balls too, color me excited.

Totally agree. The strike zone was almost hard to miss last year because you got every call as a pitcher.

[SoxFan01605]

Quote: Originally Posted by duke776

This is one thing I'm very very happy about. We all know last year with how if you just nipped the corner, you'd automatically get a strike. I mean I'm fine with it being a strike sometimes and other times not (like how they have made it for 2k11), but last years just completely widened the strike zone way too much. I had actually forgotten about this until it was mentioned in the dev diary. This should also help with the user throwing more balls too, color me excited.

Agreed. Between the easy calls and the pinpoint accuracy, it wasn't uncommon to rack up 10+ k's with almost anyone. This should help a lot. I like variable strike zones, and it seems they decided to take a very fair approach to it for all users. Fully variable (like the other game) can lead to clear cut strikes being balls, and vice-versa which seems to frustrate a lot of people. This way, you still get some suspense on the borders, but lose the frustration of missing obvious calls. Sounds like a good balance IMO and should add a lot to the pitcher/batter matchup as you said.

[Spanky]

Anyone remember when they released the demo last year? 1 week before? 2 weeks before? we have to be getting close, you'd think.

[rudyjuly2]

Quote: Originally Posted by Spanky

Anyone remember when they released the demo last year? 1 week before? 2 weeks before? we have to be getting close, you'd think.

It came out a week before release on the 360. The PS3 didn't see the demo until after release unfortunately.

[jeffy777]

Yep, one week before last year on 360, so I'm guessing maybe March 1st (next Tuesday).

[Wavebird99]

Yeah we probably wont see a demo until next week.