MLB 2K11 Developer Diary #3 - Pitching and Hitting

[rudyjuly2]

Quote: Originally Posted by BigBlue

I sure hope that middle relievers, setup guys, and closers have drastically lower pitch count limits than starters. Relievers should tire faster and not be allowed to throw 80 pitches in a game by human or CPU ai managers. I once faced a reliever for 8 innings (extra inn game) because my opponent didn't feel pressured to change him, regardless of how patient at the plate I was. This will certaintly be a great test of CPU ai and how far 2k has truly come with this game. March 8 can't get here fast enough. BigBlue

Relievers did fatigue last year but the cpu always left the first reliever in the game too long. Combine that with a tendency to pull the starter too soon and that meant the first reliever came in and stayed way too long. I think the pitch count thing will fix this.

[blkprince04]

everygame has some issues to be ironed out, but for the most part if everything works out well we should have a solid game, i don't want to get my hopes up to high 2k has let me down in the past..so with that being said only time will tell guys n gals....... really hoping 2k ironed out the bugs n glitches...

[duke776]

Quote: Originally Posted by rudyjuly2

Relievers did fatigue last year but the cpu always left the first reliever in the game too long. Combine that with a tendency to pull the starter too soon and that meant the first reliever came in and stayed way too long. I think the pitch count thing will fix this.

I'm almost 100% sure last year that relievers fatigued at the same rate as starters, meaning the stamina rating was useless. I can't prove it now, but I checked it out back when I still had 2k10 and relief pitchers would lose 1 energy for every pitch they threw. So they could throw 100 pitches before they are at 0 energy. And it wasn't just the first pitch they threw, I made sure to throw a lot of pitches with them. That was very annoying knowing that stamina did not matter.

[HealyMonster]

Everything seems promising so far, im still not holding my breath but they are talking a good game thus far. Cant wait to see some actual gameplay of this game in action.

One thing I am curious about is pitch counts for the CPU. Things seem perfect while your pitching. Its going to be cool to have accurate pitch counts,etc. The only thing though is, I am not a normal hitter in baseball video games and Im certain most of us are like this. How will the game even out for people who go up there hacking? I mean, I feel like every CPU pitcher is going to pitch a complete game or something because Im quite simply not going to take as many pitches as a real life batter or even the cpu. Has anyone heard of how they are going to manipulate this?

[JayhawkerStL]

Quote: Originally Posted by RiderGH

One thing I am curious about is pitch counts for the CPU. Things seem perfect while your pitching. Its going to be cool to have accurate pitch counts,etc. The only thing though is, I am not a normal hitter in baseball video games and Im certain most of us are like this. How will the game even out for people who go up there hacking? I mean, I feel like every CPU pitcher is going to pitch a complete game or something because Im quite simply not going to take as many pitches as a real life batter or even the cpu. Has anyone heard of how they are going to manipulate this?

There's always The Bigs.

But this complaint sounds like a guy in my football league that wanted help running the ball. When i looked at his stats, he was average nine yards a carry, but he would only run it four times a game. So his game didn't seem realistic.

You could try just playing the Home Run Derby for your baseball fix.

[CMH]

Quote: Originally Posted by RiderGH

Everything seems promising so far, im still not holding my breath but they are talking a good game thus far. Cant wait to see some actual gameplay of this game in action. One thing I am curious about is pitch counts for the CPU. Things seem perfect while your pitching. Its going to be cool to have accurate pitch counts,etc. The only thing though is, I am not a normal hitter in baseball video games and Im certain most of us are like this. How will the game even out for people who go up there hacking? I mean, I feel like every CPU pitcher is going to pitch a complete game or something because Im quite simply not going to take as many pitches as a real life batter or even the cpu. Has anyone heard of how they are going to manipulate this?

Good question, but I think that's more a function of needing to adjust. Or you can always mess with the sliders. I think it's like fouls in basketball games. You either want a lot of them or you don't. Somehow the stats are going to be affected by this. I'm sure if you are the type to swing so much that the CPU throws 50 pitches in a complete game (just a random number) then you can adjust the stamina to meet that.

Personally, I want the game to ship with the CPU pitch counts matching real life numbers. Yes, video gamers tend to be hackers, but that's our fault, not the game's. Changing the game to meet our arcade-like needs would be taking the game away from the realism we want.


edit: Just to add to this, developers can't really plan for our patience. If we are hackers, we are hackers. They don't know how we'll play the game. What's more important to me is that VC does the little things right to ensure the CPU throws enough pitches in a game.

If the CPU doesn't throw enough balls then that's the game's fault, not ours. If hitters don't foul off enough pitches, that's the game's fault, not ours. Basically, I can be as patient as I want, but if every CPU pitcher is going to be Cliff Lee then it won't matter what they do to pitch counts.

They say that they've made huge adjustments to this. I'm inclined to believe that have if they are pushing pitch counts so much. It was easy to get away with stamina/energy because it was abstract. But, now that they are relying on concrete numbers that can't lie. If the pitch counts are off, and a gamer is playing realistically, I imagine more people will be upset over this than they've ever been over stamina/energy declining over the course of the game.

[JayhawkerStL]

Quote: Originally Posted by CMH

Personally, I want the game to ship with the CPU pitch counts matching real life numbers. Yes, video gamers tend to be hackers, but that's our fault, not the game's. Changing the game to meet our arcade-like needs would be taking the game away from the realism we want.

It really does take a willingness to change your approach to playing the game.

Last year I just really worked on trying to find reasons to take pitches. Early in the count, I was looking for one pitch. If it was low, or a breaking ball, I just took it, regardless if it was a strike. What I found after some time was that my approach was really beginning to mimic my days from playing high school baseball.

Over time, as you take more pitches, you really start to get a feel for what different pitches look like, and it becomes easier and easier to read balls and strikes. At that point, hitting becomes such a joy. I've read how a lot of people want hitting gutted and re-done, but I think it is near perfect.

I would approach contact and power swings differently. Mainly, it either needs to be one swing type, or three, with larger penalties for using contact or power instead of normal. But if you spend time considering the ramifications of the swings, I think you can approach an at-bat wit ha plan suited to each hitter's skills and the situation.

It seems like most folks chose to just use power 90% of the time. I chose contact most of the time, but increased the power slider. They guys using power swings were forced to increase the contact slider to achieve realistic results.

But batting does raise an issue about realistic results. Once I really improved my patient approach at the plate, it's not like I could suddenly become a free swinger when I was hitting with Vladamir Guerrero. It's actually as unrealistic as hacking with Albert Pujols.

I'm not really sure what the answer is, to be honest.

[jeffy777]

Last night, I worked 3 walks in one inning at the plate in 2K10......so the game is more than willing to walk you if you're patient. But if you hack at everything, then there's not much the AI can really do. Either you're going to make contact or strike out. The AI pitchers select their pitches quite realistically, so if you're down 0-2 you can usually expect them to try to get you to chase some junk out of the zone. You just have to learn to be patient and fiddle with the camera settings until you can read pitches better. I used to be a hacker as well, but the camera angle in 2K10 (combined with a lot of practice) really helped me. I like the the Hitter 3 camera zoomed all the way in. IMO, it's perfect for reading pitches. Another tip to help you become more patient is to go up there and take pitches until you get at least 1 strike. If you do this, you'll often find yourself in a good hitter's count (not all pitchers throw first pitch strikes) or sometimes a pitcher will even walk you on 4 straight pitches if you're lucky.

I really liked the hitting in 2K10 (I hope it doesn't change too much), and the Pitcher vs. Hitter matchup was really well done. As for pitching, I didn't like the user pitching because of the pinpoint accuracy making it too easy to dominate, but I thought the AI pitching was pretty good in terms of pitch selection.