Major League Baseball 2K9 Developer Diary: Gameplay

[bigfnjoe96]

Man I can't wait to experience that Real-Time Atmosphere. As for hitting Baa, I guess we'll have to wait til OS get their BETA to find-out if the Step Influence Slider has been removed.When I asked the dude @ gamespot about it he had no clue & actually said he couldn't find said slider.

As for trying to make the game more accessible, I can't blame 2k for trying to simplify the game. @ least he said for us vets, the game can still be challenging.

Hopefully we can get a Franchise Diary Next..

[slickzeus]

Well its good to hear that the developers are proud of the game. I would doubt a company would come out and say that if they knew it was garbage ala 2K8. March 3rd cant come soon enough!

[DiddyGotGrillz]

Please, Please, Please make this game so that it works OUT OF THE BOX!!! 2K Baseball Games have been pathetic for Next Gen systems and it is ridiculous!

I admit, I have never been a 2K sports fan. I feel like the controls are loose and sloppy. I never feel like I have control over my guy. I just don't see what you spend your time on during the offseason? Your player models are horrific and the gameplay isn't great.

STEP IT UP 2K....this is your last chance for me.

[baa7]

Quote: Originally Posted by DiddyGotGrillz

Your player models are horrific

You completely lost me there. What are you talking about??

[bigfnjoe96]

Quote: Originally Posted by baa7

You completely lost me there. What are you talking about??

He has no idea what he's saying. He just needed spew his anger towards the 2k for putting out bad games the last 3 years.

[Trevytrev11]

Quote:

Ø No more meatball – The idea of throwing a bad pitch when you made a poor gesture was good but the way we designated a meatball was definitely too harsh. What we did instead was to identify earlier on in the gesture process the pitch the user is attempting to throw, if they don’t finish the gesture or make a poor gesture we simply affect the way that pitch is thrown. For example, Fastballs will be straighter and slower while Curveballs will have less break on the ball. Naturally, this will make those pitches more hittable without making them “meatballs”.

Great news there. Finally there was is some confirmation on this (unless I missed it before).

Quote:

Ø Removed the “Release Timing” - We felt that the “Release Timing” aspect of throwing a pitch made the game less accessible. After thorough focus testing, we discovered that the aspect of pitching that attributed to the most “meatballs” was the release timing. As a result, we kept “Release timing” as an option to the user but not on the default controls. If a user loved the way it worked last year, they can turn it on from the pause menu.

Not sure about this. How does an analog pitching system work without release timing? Instead of release timing, is it push timing? If so it's the same concept, isn't it? Instead of back-hold-forward-hold-time your release for a fastball is it just back-hold-time your forward to throw the pitch? If so, It's basically the same thing, just a little simpler, I guess.

Quote:

Ø Inside Edge Data driving the AI – Inside Edge is our exclusive scouting service which is also used by some MLB teams to get reports on players. As in previous years, you can purchase these reports during your franchise to earn an extra advantage when facing the AI opponents. Our pitcher’s decision making is primarily based off Inside Edge data for pitchers and weaknesses. When deciding what pitch to throw where, our pitchers have to take into consideration many different variables most simply broken down into two aspects: o What does the pitcher want to throw and where? o What are the hitter’s weaknesses?

I really wish that there was an adapatable AI here. Scouting reports are nice, but you learn a lot more from the last swing of a hitter. If my hitter kills fastballs, but me as a user am a crappy fastball hitter, the game should adapt, recognize this and throw more fastballs. If a guy waits on a curve and crushes it foul by a few feet, you probably don't want to throw that pitch again just because IE says he's a crappy curveball hitter...Basically, Inside Edge goes out the door when a user is at the controls.

Quote:

Lastly, we implemented zone hitting as an alternate control scheme. Zone hitting is where you have a cursor and you have to put the cursor in the same zone that the ball crosses the plate in addition to your regular swing. Zone hitting works with either the Classic swing (press A button) or Total Control (RStick). We also added a “sweet spot” to the cursor, if you lineup the “sweet spot” of the cursor where the ball crosses the plate, the hitter will get an additional boost to your hit.

Digging this, though it would be nice to have a hidden cursor once you grow familar with the sensitivity of the controls.

Quote:

Basically, when you have a runner on first base you press LT (L2 on PS3) to take a lead. To steal, hold LT until it vibrates which will indicate that your runner is ready to take off. The runner will now take off when you release the button. Stealing “on the fly” certainly adds a lot of fun to base stealing because now the user is forced to try to get a good jump on the pitcher. If you get a good jump, you will actually take off right before the pitcher starts his delivery and get a perfect steal. We also added a little more information for pitchers, if you look over at the runner that’s on base, we give you his “steal rating” which indicates how much of a threat he is, so if you have Benji Molina standing at 1st, his steal rating will be pretty low and you can focus on the hitter.

Intriguing. I like the idea of loading the steal and releasing the trigger to go. I wonder how you would go back on a pick off. Maybe just continue to hold the trigger? Also, I hope their term of "perfect steal" isn't some sort of boost that guarantee's your runner is safe.

-Hopefully next year they add a few things to the pitchers arsenal to combat this...a variety of picks as well as incorporating the slide step for pitchers that use it (some don't ever use it).

The chioce to simplify the game out of the box don't bother since they are offering options. It's a little concerning only in the fact that because it's the out of the box way, I think that maybe things like zone hitting and the three step pitching method maybe didn't get full attention, but only time will tell.

[jaebonez34]

Was a good read but I have one question about the baserunning. In the article they say they have changed it so now you control what base the runner goes to with the right stick but my question is what does that do to the directional sliding? It's prob. something simple but it must have changed because of the new baserunning controls.

[Trevytrev11]

Quote: Originally Posted by jaebonez34

Was a good read but I have one question about the baserunning. In the article they say they have changed it so now you control what base the runner goes to with the right stick but my question is what does that do to the directional sliding? It's prob. something simple but it must have changed because of the new baserunning controls.

Good question...maybe they just moved it to the L-Stick since I don't believe it serves a purpose when running in 2K8.