Konami's Making Power Pros 2016 (PS4/PS3/Vita) & Pro Yakyuu Spirits Ace (iOS/Android)

[strawberryshortcake]

I tried removing all the blue color coded players from the "majors" and delegated them to the "minors." Even though I have "lock" for all the lineup done in the "arrange" location, the computer still decided to replace Buster Posey (all green) with some guy with a green/yellow color coded badge during the fielding portion. Just don't understand what the point of "locking" a player does at all.

EDIT: Found out locking works to lock the batting order, but wheres my lock for fielding position

Also, with Pennant mode, there is a maximum of 16 custom teams that you can bring without using any of the NPB teams. If only we could have customize any number of teams, that would have allowed me to do a massive MLB + NPB franchise mode.


I believe I have all the indicators turned off but I'm still seeing the following from both the batter's perspective and the pitcher's perspective. Am I missing one more option? The ability to turn off the indicator for where the ball would cross home plate would make things realistically and incredibly challenging.

[Will I Am]

You can turn it off in pys but don't believe there is an option in pp, not much point in an option to turn it off though because it's basically impossible to play the game without it. The show's hitting cursor (pci) covers pretty much the whole plate whereas the hitting cursor in pp is small. If you want more of a challenge make sure your hitting cursor lock on is set to off, up the pitch speed and up the cpu pitching difficulty, also upping the cpu defense keeps a lot of hits from falling in or getting by infielders.

[Spirits Translation]

Will is right, in PYS you can turn it off but not in PP. When I tried PYS with it off I couldn't hit anything. All you see is a white ball coming at you, so how do you know if it's a 2-seamer, cutter or forkball? With a huge PCI you can be wrong and still hit the ball, but in this game you have to be precise.

Real-life batters try to pick up the pitchers grip or spin of the ball coming towards the plate. Both PYS & PP show the spin of the ball and when PYS introduced pitch grips you could actually see some grips at the point of release! I think this way is the most realistic, although I think PYS is done better. For one you have 2 difficulty levels for the ball spin marker and only the real ballers can play with the hardest setting. Second, with elite pitchers it can be hard to read the spin, so sometimes you have to guess with 2 strikes. Hitting against Darvish back in the 2010 version was a great challenge.

If you want to see what it's like without a cursor then change batting to timing only.

In regards to the fielder lock, again I don't get into that kind of editing so I can't help you there.

[strawberryshortcake]

Technically, isn't it more realistic without the ball marker and simply watching the trajectory of the pitch as it travels the distance from pitching mound to home plate. Yes, it was definitely difficult in PYS, but I did manage to get a couple good contact on the ball with the ball marker completely off.

This is why the option to completely turn off the ball marker should at least be an option for god-mode experts. When I first was introduced to PYS 6, based on youtube footage alone, seeing the ball marker made the game look ridiculously easy to hit. Obviously, the story is completely different when you actually play the game. It's much more difficult than it looks.

The hypothetical option for no ball marker in conjunction with slowing the ball speed would be a happy medium. In real life, the hitter doesn't see where the ball crosses the plate until it actually crosses the plate. With the ball marker on in both PYS/Jikkyou, the hitter actually sees where the ball crosses the plate even the pitch crosses the plate. It's still very much a challenge, but it would certainly be nice to simply have the user read the pitch trajectory path rather than possibly relying on the ball marker.

I already try to ignore the ball marker whenever I can and simply watch the path of the pitch, but it would certainly be nice to have that "god-mode" option where the ball marker is off. But sometimes I resort to looking for the ball marker as opposed to watching the actual pitch path.

Plus, one can already see the spin of the ball without looking at the ball marker.

[Will I Am]

I never stare at the k zone when hitting I watch the pitcher deliver the ball, watch the flight of the ball to the plate and move my hitting cursor to line up with the cpu pitch cursor with my peripheral vision. I have tried watching the k zone but then my timing gets way off. Regardless of how you hit I just dont think there is any real reason to have no batting point, would end up being frustarting to no end, the option to have i guess would be ok but it is what it is.

[Spirits Translation]

Quote: Originally Posted by strawberryshortcake

Technically, isn't it more realistic without the ball marker and simply watching the trajectory of the pitch as it travels the distance from pitching mound to home plate?

MVP had the "Hitters Eye" where (at times) you could pick-up a pitch out of the pitchers hand. To me that's realistic but others say that a ball turning purple is arcadey and not realistic.

A ball spin marker is also realistic to me. PYS has somewhere around 30 different pitches and you won't be able to make out most of those out without it. And it doesn't point to the location of the ball crossing the plate (except fastballs), it only points to location before the break. But lining up your aim on a fastball in time can be tough, and in PYS some top pitchers even have break on their fastballs.

Let's say you take away the spin marker in Power Pro - or play The Show? You have men on 1st & 3rd with one out and you're looking for something up in the zone to lift a fly ball at a minimum. The ball is pitched and is coming at you dead center so you swing....but whoops it's a forkball and you just grounded out for a double play! You can't tell if it's a fastball or breaking ball so you are just guessing. In PYS or PP if you swing at that forkball then it's your mistake. You got a quick look at the spin but got all excited and swung anyway.

The Show has so many camera angles but none are perfect, they all have strengths in reading certain pitches like the bend on a curveball. You don't even have to aim to hit the ball, you can park the PCI dead center and hit the ball around all day so it's not for me. With a system like PYS or PP you only need 1 camera but they also offer an offset view for those that prefer.

[strawberryshortcake]

Shorter Version
It would be nice to have the option to completely turn off the ball marker for those wanting an intense challenge.


Longer Version
Don't get me wrong, both PYS/PP are now my favorite baseball games. I have stopped playing the show. MLB16 is likely going to be the last MLBtheShow baseball game that I buy. From here on out, the only baseball game that I'll buy are PYS/PP. Everything in the game is so well done from the animations to the bat-ball-turf physics, the atmosphere, the replay angles, everything just seems so organic and natural.

But there's a difference between reading the pitch out of the pitcher's hand versus knowing where the pitch crosses the plate. In MVP, you still can't tell where the pitches will cross the plate. There's still a challenge in knowing where the final pitch location is in MVP. Even though the ball marker doesn't always point to the final location of the pitch for both PYS/PP, it does point to the vicinity of the final location. The ball marker sort of gives away the final pitch location.

Quote: Originally Posted by Spirits Translation

Let's say you take away the spin marker in Power Pro - or play The Show? You have men on 1st & 3rd with one out and you're looking for something up in the zone to lift a fly ball at a minimum. The ball is pitched and is coming at you dead center so you swing....but whoops it's a forkball and you just grounded out for a double play! You can't tell if it's a fastball or breaking ball so you are just guessing.

But isn't that the purpose of the breaking pitch? To deceive the hitter into swinging and missing? A good breaking pitch in conjunction with pitcher's arm motion speed is suppose to make it look like a fastball. It's suppose to look as if it coming straight, but at the last minute suddenly drop way down in the zone.

As it stands right now, when the ball marker is turned on, it can be a little "easier" to lay off PYS/PP pitches when they're out of the strike zone before the pitch even crosses the half way point between pitcher's mound and batter. Secondly, I want to sometimes be fooled into chasing outside pitches. Right now, I don't think I have ever chased an outside pitch in either PYS/PP.

I just want to be able to have an option where I can't see the ball marker at all just like it is in PYS. Yes, even though I am absolutely terrible at hitting the ball without the ball marker, having the option to turn it off would allow me to replicate the actual hitting experience better.

Look at the two final videos below. You don't see a ball marker to tell you where the pitch is going to cross the plate. You must watch the pitch from beginning to end. This is the type of experience I would like to have in PP to give the game a little bit more challenge (if I need the challenge later on). Even with the ball marker, it's already challenging enough on default setting, but at the same time, it would be nice to have that option to completely turn it off to mimic the last two videos below.

MPV Hitter's Eye

Spoiler

No ball marker, simply need to read and watch the pitch trajectory.



No ball marker, simply need to read and watch the pitch trajectory.

[Spirits Translation]

That was a nice "Hitters Eye" video, not sure if I've seen that one before.

Quote: Originally Posted by strawberryshortcake

But isn't that the purpose of the breaking pitch? To deceive the hitter into swinging and missing?

Batters (should) have a plan with every single pitch. If you're cocked & loaded for a fastball it's easy to be "fooled" and swing over a breaking ball because you have to start your swing so quickly. Rewind & suppose instead the plan is to look for a forkball? You're going wait and look for that slow rolling or tumbling action and react accordingly. In PYS you can replicate this but without a ball spin marker you're guessing every time.

Look at this video I made back in 2011, You'll see that even with a spin marker I swung over several breaking balls. I was just looking for a certain pitch and looked really bad when it was something else. Like IRL when you pick up the pitch mid-swing but it's too late and you say "dammit!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHEoClZ2bPY

Now there are cases where some pitchers are so filthy that it's really hard or impossible to pick up differences in velocity & spin. And PYS replicates this by providing you with a ball spin marker with no spin - like if Randy Johnson were in PYS you'd be swinging at small dots. So you could make the case that a game without a spin marker replicates a nasty, nasty pitcher like Mariano Rivera where you have to guess all the time.

Quote: Originally Posted by strawberryshortcake

In MVP, you still can't tell where the pitches will cross the plate. There's still a challenge in knowing where the final pitch location is in MVP.

If I remember correctly MVP was strictly zone based hitting. If it had a cursor like PYS you wouldn't do very well. It was fun though, I think I used to use zone with the right stick to control swing animation.

Quote: Originally Posted by strawberryshortcake

Even though the ball marker doesn't always point to the final location of the pitch for both PYS/PP, it does point to the vicinity of the final location. The ball marker sort of gives away the final pitch location.

After a pitch is thrown you have a split second to decide where you're going to swing. The game kind of does this processing for you, because if it didn't there would be no way you could hit anything. You'd have to wait until after the break to determine your aiming point but that would be too late.

I think you do have a good point about not chasing bad pitches in Power Pro that are way outside the zone. I'd like to see the game offer a ball spin marker with 2-levels like PYS. In that game I've swung at plenty of reasonably bad pitches. In 'The Show' though I've swung at wild, Bob Eucker "Just a bit outside" type pitches LOL.

And the short version - if I were a dev I'd grant you the option to turn the spin marker off.