This game needs a complete fielding overhaul.

[canes21]

I don't even know where to begin. I know we have all experienced plenty of issues with fielding. Some are minor and purely visual while others are gamechanging.

It starts with slow tappers hit back to the pitcher that result in base hits because instead of fielding the ball and tossing it in one smooth motion the pitcher fields hit, takes 3 steps to stop, stands there for a half second, then tosses a slow high arching ball to first that allows even David Ortiz to reach safely on a ball that nobody in baseball would be safe on if there was a smoother and more realistic chain of animations.

There's also the casual backhands that result in infield "hits". We've all seen this as well. Routine groundball hit towards a middle infielder deep. Instead of charging the ball at all and having a relatively easy play your fielder decided to actually take 3 steps back to prepare for a slow rolling ball approaching at 3 mph. By the time he gathers the ball and tries to throw the baserunner is already taking his elbow protector off and talking with his basecoach.

Dives. Not much needs to be said here. They all look terrible. The ridiculous over the shoulder dives are so pitiful looking. The players look so stiff in all dives and none look natural. They result in players laying there and having no urgency in getting up even if they stopped the ball on the play.

Catchers still get up out of their stance at Olympic speed. Usain Bolt couldn't even match the speed of a catcher in this game collecting balls in front of the plate. The only reason I can halfway handle this is because of the unrealistic number of balls that stay fair a foot in front of the plate instead of being hit down and back for a foul like in real life. Too many "tips" break physics and end up in front of the plate instead of the batter staying alive or even having the ball get caught for a strike out still.

Players still react too perfectly off the bat despite ratings. There's hardly ever a bad angle taken on any hit. Every ground ball is played perfectly. If a bad angle occurs it is only of flyballs in the OF. All infielders read the ball perfectly resulting in the errors looking forces instead of happening naturally. We need more reads that aren't bad, but aren't perfect which plays in with a play difficulty system that makes errors more authentic so they don't seem completely random and actually make sense as to why they happen.

Outfielders have no hurry and neither do cutoff men. These are more known issues. They don't charge the ball and use momentum nearly enough. They take too many gather steps. Crow hops are rare. They double clutch more times than not.

Then there are the visual issues. Fielder's standing under popups and flyballs don't look natural. The stance is off, too stiff, they don't move around enough like in real life. I want fielders to possibly collide, look around to make sure they don't, constantly take small steps to account for the ball not coming straight down like real life. Miscommunication would be nice so you have a ball drop between two or three fielders in that awkward zone in the shallow outfield.

Animations need to blend together better. Far too much hitching. Fielders need 100x more urgency in all areas. I play with auto fielding and just use the buttons to throw. I pretty much have the button pressed the second the ball is off the bat so I know I'm not missing the windows on a lot of these issues. It's judt problems with the games. I play with baserunning speed at 1 or 2 and still see infield hits from slow animations. Look at the bare hand throws on bunts from 3rd basemen. Those are nice. They are super smooth, have urgency, and look natural. Nothing else doesn't come close to those animations.

I don't want to sound like I hate the game. I love it. We are in year 3 of our franchise almost at the break. I keep coming back because the game is that great and I'm not even close to tired of it. I just feel like fielding is the weakest part of the game. The controls and ways to field aren't the issue. It's the animations and the way they link plus the lack of urgency. It's just not good to be honest.

[Counsell3333]

Quote: Originally Posted by canes21

I don't even know where to begin. I know we have all experienced plenty of issues with fielding. Some are minor and purely visual while others are gamechanging. .

I'm streaming a fielding clinic right now. You just need to use it properly.

[KBLover]

The urgency is what kills me the most as there's no slider for that. A lot of the other things can at least be mitigated with sliders.

But there's nothing you can really do without gimping realism in other areas (like making runners run ridiculously slow) for the urgency things.

It's funny you mention the catchers, though. I give a few hits because the catcher reacts too slowly, like he's just staring at the ball and is like "oh yeah, I need to pick it up and throw it".

Another one is the forced running into the wall. It kills me that when I see Sano field the ball well away from the wall to the left of the foul line, and I trigger a throw and instead of throwing, he runs four steps to brace against the wall he was nowhere near in the first place. It's like I hit triangle and that makes him run to the wall. I can even see the animation shifting from a field and come up to field and run to the wall. Why?

I think if they improved urgency, built in "read time" and/or lowered the reaction for the good fielders to something less than almost-literally instant, and came up with a way to implement the route errors like they did for the outfield (they ARE there - I see plenty of route errors, but I think the speed/quickness of fielders and the trajectory of a lot of balls lets them "outrun their mistakes" too frequently), then I think fielding will take some steps forward.

Quote: Originally Posted by Counsell3333

I'm streaming a fielding clinic right now. You just need to use it properly.

A lot of these animation problems he mentions happen to the CPU fielders as well as when on auto-fielding/throwing, where there's no possibility of user error.

[Steven78]

Fielding in one word for me, awkward.

It never feels smooth and the situational awareness is mostly terrible.

[Armor and Sword]

I just feel like fielding is the weakest part of the game. The controls and ways to field aren't the issue. It's the animations and the way they link plus the lack of urgency. It's just not good to be honest.


Fielding is better now than it ever was in the series. With that being said there is a give and take in an animation based fielding system.


The urgency thing is something I really hope is addressed with the SS (deep in the hole or slow rollers routine grounders not being charged).

OF's slowing up is a momentum thing IMO and every now and then it bites me in how slow they are to react and get the ball out. But it has been drastically improved from years past. I also love the fact fielder ratings are truly now being effective and I can easily differentiate between elite guys and average guys and guys who are clear liabilities. The new ball paths OF's take are terrific and far more realistic than ever before. I see mis played balls etc and it looks great and natural.

I thought fielding was a sore spot for years and starting with 15 I have seen huge improvements. So they are hearing us and working on it.

Also the game looks gorgeous in motion and again that is the give and take of having an animation based system. Once the animation kicks in....you can't break out of it. I enjoy the beauty of this game and am willing to deal with some occasional hiccups vs playing 16/32 (or even PS2/XBOX) bit type of fielding where you get great reaction but zero realism and limited beauty.

One area that must be addressed IMO is the insane reaction times of catchers who have cat like reflexes to jump out of their squat and are able to track pop flies, dribblers, passed balls and also wild pitches bouncing right back to them perfectly. That is an area of the game needs to be tuned and ratings based far more. Way too many automatic easy outs far too often Imo. Catchers seem to be able to get almost everything.

That is not like IRL. Not close.


I don't disagree fielding still needs evolvement/improvement each cycle....but this years has been the best yet.

[canes21]

I'll agree that the fielding is the best it has been. It's still the weakest spot in the game play to me. That's just how great everything else is. This game is that good and improved fielding could take it even further.

[NDAlum]

We need 3 things:

Urgency
Urgency
Urgency

[countryboy]

I don't know that defense needs a complete overhaul but there are things needed to be improved upon/fixed.

My two biggest gripes are:

1) the locking an infielder in place (most notably SS/2B) that leads to infield hits because you can no longer charge a slow chopper in the infield. The game locks your fielder into place and forces you to wait on the ball to reach the fielder instead of the fielder charging the ball and throwing on the run.

2) Lack of defensive web gems or great plays. Everything seems so routine. You rarely see that jumping catch in the infield on a line drive over the fielders head. You rarely see that 3B snag a hot shot down the line, jump up and throw out the runner at first. You rarely see that outfielder run back on a ball reach out and make the catch right before crashing into the wall. Everything seems so routine, even the diving plays. Seems as though they just happen so they happen instead of happening based off a great play.