Major League Baseball 2K10: MLB Developer Insights - Pitchers vs. Hitters Part I & II

[Jamin23]

How come it still says Alan's metal supply instead of Western Metal supply?

[kcxiv]

Quote: Originally Posted by Jamin23

How come it still says Alan's metal supply instead of Western Metal supply?

probably didnt get permission to use the official name.

[Jamin23]

Quote: Originally Posted by kcxiv

probably didnt get permission to use the official name.

It's a little thing, but it makes the game that more authentic. It says Western Metal Supply in the show and it is part of the stadium, so they should have permission to use it. Plus I think it said it in previous versions of the game.

[JT30]

Quote: Originally Posted by Jamin23

It's a little thing, but it makes the game that more authentic. It says Western Metal Supply in the show and it is part of the stadium, so they should have permission to use it. Plus I think it said it in previous versions of the game.

Of all the issues with the game, you are worried about this?

[Jamin23]

Quote: Originally Posted by JT30

Of all the issues with the game, you are worried about this?

I'm not worried. It's a small issue that could easily be fixed. I never did say that it is going to ruin the game or that it was the biggest issue.

[Blzer]

Quote: Originally Posted by Jamin23

I'm not worried. It's a small issue that could easily be fixed. I never did say that it is going to ruin the game or that it was the biggest issue.

As kxciv said, it's not so much a "fix" as it is a permission agreement. If they could use it, they would.

[Jamin23]

Quote: Originally Posted by Blzer

As kxciv said, it's not so much a "fix" as it is a permission agreement. If they could use it, they would.

As I said it's such a small thing and really shouldn't be complaining about it. All I want is authentic stadiums, which from what I have seen look great, but it should be the least of my worries.

[kgisbeast]

Just thought I'd resurrect this thread. I was bored and was reading through these two insights trying to get some idea on how the cpu batting AI is going to react. The pitching controls and batting all sound great to me from a human perspective how they did the ratings.

This all sounds wonderful to me. It might still be a bit easy to pinpoint your pitches and guess pitch types once you really get the hang of it, but the amount of control is amazing. The way they differentiate between players also sounds fine although still might be a bit easy.

Quote:

On my gesture, I was supposed to stop at 9 o’clock. However, I moved the right stick too far past 9 o’clock (more like 7 o’clock…whoops), resulting in the pitch being overthrown in that direction. Had I done the opposite and completely stopped short of my gesture, the pitch would have been closer to the middle of the plate rather than outside for a ball. The right stick gesture this year dictates the placement of the ball in a way that is predictable. No more random pitch gestures with random results. If you stop short of your gesture on a 12-6 curveball, the pitch will be hung. If you go past your gesture on a 12-6 curveball, the pitch will be overthrown below the strike zone, or even into the dirt. This 1-to-1 relationship between the right stick gesture and final location of the pitch is consistent for each pitch type. Even better though, it gives the gamer a sense of command on the mound. And like we touched on earlier, the pitcher’s control rating plays a heavy role in how far off a pitch misses when the gesture is performed inaccurately. After pitching earlier today with Jonathan Sanchez, I really feel how much bigger the margin for error is with an ace like Halladay.

Quote:

The Panda swings for the fences. Strike 1. When getting a max pitch, the batter’s contact chance is decreased and the pitch is thrown with ideal velocity and movement. The smaller the pitch meter is, the less breaking balls will move and the slower fastballs will travel. Think of a full meter as a way to represent the pitcher’s ratings. If I fill the meter 50% instead of 100%, Halladay’s cut fastball is no longer a rating of 88 for that pitch. This is crucial considering how important a pitch’s rating is to the batter’s chances of making solid contact, or just contact in general. And don’t worry - the likelihood of timing a max pitch is easier or harder depending on who is pitching and how tired they are. The 2K10 dev team did a great job making sure that the player ratings, player tendencies, and performance of the gamers’ pitching mechanics all come together in a realistic, learnable fashion. While accurately nailing the gestures is required for perfect aim, the degree of difficulty varies from pitcher to pitcher, and pitch to pitch. Since the slider is Halladay’s lowest rated pitch, it requires more accurate movement on the right stick and more precision in timing the meter compared to his higher rated sinker.

The pitching AI also sounds great. From watching the gameplay video you can also see the pitchers work the zones and around the plate. I saw this much.

Quote:

If pitching is about control, command, and avoiding the big mistake, hitting is definitely about waiting for the right pitch and working the count. Get ahead in the count, and you’ll be more likely to see a fastball for a strike. Fall behind in the count, and you’ll be chasing breaking balls outside of the strike zone. Face a pitcher like Halladay, and both the balls and strikes are separated by inches. Face the 4th or 5th man in the rotation, and strikes are down the middle more often while the balls are way outside of the strike zone. That’s the beauty of incorporating Inside Edge™ into the CPU AI hitting and pitching logic. Per count, every pitcher will throw what he throws in real life and will try to hit the spots that he hits in real life.

The human hitting interface sounds great as well although like I was saying might be easy to guess and time the pitch after a while

Quote:

Sticking to the realism theme, every batter has a new eye rating this year (both vs lefties and righties). The higher the eye rating, the more likely your batter is to see the pitch type as it is being thrown as well as what part of the strike zone it is being thrown to. By pitch type, I mean fastball, breaking ball, or change-up. You won’t know the exact pitch type, but by knowing which of the 3 categories the pitch is, your timing will be that much better on the swing.

Quote:

Unfortunately for me, Pablo’s eye rating vs righties is only a 64. The next pitch is a 12-6 curveball by Halladay that just drops into the strike zone. No swing. Strike 2. The pitch started out looking a lot like a fastball that would have been high for a called ball 2. If Pablo had the eye rating of a guy like Albert Pujols, I would have had a chance at knowing it was a high breaking ball and waited to unload on it. If I hadn’t read so deep into Halladay’s scouting report, I wouldn’t have ruled out a 12-6 curve being thrown.

Quote:

Only 18% of his pitches in real life are 12-6 curveballs compared to 71% which are fastballs. I should clarify that by no means are the pitch tells too effective. They simply provide occasional and subtle hints to the batters in real life who are patient, read pitches, and draw walks. While Pablo had an outstanding 2009 season, he is not what we would call a patient hitter.

Quote:

My timing was a little late, but I’m still alive. In Major League Baseball® 2K10, we completely re-wrote the physics of the hit distribution. The location of the pitch and the timing of the swing have everything to do with where that ball is hit and how hard it is hit. Replicating real life, the location of the pitch and my late timing is what drove the ball 20 feet foul to the left of the 3rd base line. Had I timed my swing perfectly against that low and away strike, Pablo could have been looking at a line drive base hit over the 3rd baseman’s head. My timing was late and the angle of the bat during contact resulted in a foul ball. Want to pull a ball and rip it down the base line for a double? Start the swing early against an inside pitch when making contact, just like in real life. If you want to hit a blooper over the infield to opposite field, swing a little later against an outside pitch. Major League Baseball® 2K10 is about playing baseball, not spamming the swing stick in hopes of base hits that are randomly sprayed about the field. If you find yourself hitting too many fly outs to the outfield, it’s time to lay off the power swing against high pitches. If you find yourself grounding into double plays, it’s time to lay off those low and away pitches being thrown for balls.

Quote:

Oh, by the way, while writing this, Pablo just grounded out to 3rd. Faced with a 1-2 count, I resorted to the defensive swing. The defensive swing is a new swing type in Major League Baseball® 2K10. Flicking left or right on the right stick will perform a defensive swing. This swing is a low risk, low reward swing that is good to use when faced with 2 strikes. If you aren’t sure whether an incoming pitch is going to be a ball or a decisive 3rd strike, flick the right stick to the left or right to protect the plate. It’s all about working the count and waiting for the right pitch. This is a good way to foul pitches off to stay alive. In my case with Pablo, the defensive swing resulted in a ground out to 3rd. For other players with a lesser contact rating, they may swing and miss. However, you still have a better contact chance and a higher foul ball chance when using the defensive swing. In addition to staying alive with 2 strikes while waiting for the dream pitch, defensive swings can also wear down a starting pitcher who is trying to go the full 9 innings by racking up a high pitch count.

This is where my questions start as far as AI batting logic when facing the cpu

Quote:

Motion capture shoots with 2-time Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum and A’s 2009 Rookie of the Year Andrew Bailey allowed us to pick the brain of the best arms in the business. Both young guns said that guys like Kevin Youkilis, Bobby Abreu, and Colorado’s Todd Helton were more than just tough outs. Due to protecting the plate and their defensive swings, they were frustrating outs. They worked the count by taking balls and fouling off strikes that didn’t give them much to work with. During a long inning, they can temporarily wear a pitcher down. With the new batting camera, you’ll have an even better idea of which pitches are defensive swing candidates along the edge of the strike zone.

He then goes on to talk about the different swing types and what you can do at the plate. He doesn't talk about the AI batters actually doing these things themselves. So are we going to see certain AI batters use these swings more often than others? Will we see certain batters being more patient? etc. That would be very cool. He talks about guys like Youkilis(in real life) are tough outs because on 2 strikes they utilize a defensive swing but are we going to actually see the AI do that????? Will we actually see batters that are more patient in real life being patient at the plate??? This has yet to be answered nor did that gameplay video answer these questions. This being the biggest problem with last years game and batter AI and the CPU Swinging at everything you'd think they would talk about it and address it. But they haven't actually said they did or didn't yet in either insight. Nor does the gameplay video show that they did...... For all we know they addressed the AI pitchers. Addressed the Human Pitching and batter interface and revamped IE that way, but nothing is said about the AI batters.. Did they stop short and are waiting for next year to do this? did they fix it or didn't they???

This below also concerns me bit. In theory this is great. He talks about how pitch counts really affects how a player plays. From a human perspective and subbing your pitchers i have little doubt this will work correctly. But he doesn't talk about how the managerial AI will react as far as subbing players.

Quote:

Last but not least, I’d like to touch on our new pitch count system. Baseball, more so than other sports, makes less use of terms like stamina and fatigue. In baseball, the proper term is pitch count. Sure, announcers will comment on how a pitcher looks tired or fatigued but his teammates, coaches, and manager will be talking about his pitch count. In Major League Baseball® 2K10, we do the same. In an organic style of feedback, the speed of the meter and the shrinking gesture targets are the key indicators of stamina feedback. Every pitcher is rated so that he caps out at his max pitch count in-game. When a pitcher starts to get tired, the meter will start moving faster and faster, making it harder to nail the 100% mark. The green zones representing the pitch gesture targets will shrink smaller and smaller, making it significantly harder to hit your target. Also, the pitch ratings for each pitch start to plummet. The Felix Hernandez fastball that was working wonders in the beginning of the game will start to get hit harder and harder, by more and more hitters if he is left in too long (it should also be noted that the pitch ratings tie more into the contact quality this year. How else could we have simulated the gameplay fact that in 2009, Tim Lincecum allowed 60% fewer HRs per 9 IP when throwing his dreaded change-up and fastball?) If a pitcher’s pitch count gets too high too soon, leaving him in for a complete game will definitely beat up his ERA. This authentic approach leads to bullpen decisions and strategies that have always taken place in real life but not in video games. The importance of needing a low pitch count will also change your strategy when batting. We already went over all of the big reasons why you should work the count for a pitch that will be a quality pitch to hit. This is just one more reason to work the count. Even if the first pitch is a hittable strike, swinging at it every time may be doing the pitcher a favor as far as his pitch count goes.

This just seems a bit sketchy to me, because from everything i've heard through the blog and from watching the gameplay etc, everything seems to be addressed minus revamping IE for batters and Batter AI and Managerial AI. Did they stop short on these two things and didn't address them this year?