MLB The Show 16's Successful Year, And A Look At An Ideal Roadmap Ahead

[Bryzine21]

Please God. No fictional players in my DD mode.

[@legendm0de]

Quote: Originally Posted by Russell_SCEA

Christmas came early for you guys, I just so happened to be doing a test on spray charts two days ago. This was in 17 obviously fyi. I set the cpu to swing and hit at every pitch with no foul balls (You've seen the widgets we use in the stream we can force the game to do anything) and I threw the cpu batter about 140 pitches to see if the hit distribution would mirror the batters hitter tendencies. The pitchers used his entire pitch repertoire and threw all over the zone fyi. The results are below, one thing I noticed outside of the obvious is that a vast majority of the hits the opposite field were on pitches off the end of the bat. Which is what you would expect to see in real life I also set the defense to extreme Pull hitter shift and about 29 balls thrown dropped in for hits. Right handed pitcher Left handed batter Contact Vs. R 60 Power Vs. R 40 Hitter Tendency Extreme Pull • LF 24% • CF 28% • RF 48% 140 Pitches hit location distribution • LF - 15 • CF - 9 • RF - 48 • Infield L - 13 • Infield C - 29 • Infield R – 26 • 7 Pop Ups • 36 Fly balls • 45 Line drives • 66 ground balls • 7 choppers • 17 extra base hits • 71 chased Same test about 140 pitches thrown the cpu batter was set to swing at everything. Right handed pitcher Left handed batter Contact Vs. R 95 Power Vs. R 84 Hitter Tendency Extreme Pull • LF 31% • CF 33% • RF 36% 140 Pitches hit location distribution • LF - 25 • CF - 20 • RF - 21 • Infield L - 12 • Infield C - 38 • Infield R – 25 • 2 Pop Ups • 39 Fly balls • 35 Line drives • 67 ground balls • 11 choppers • 22 extra base hits • 58 chased • 52 hits • 88 Outs So as you can see batters are hitting to their hitter tendencies and the shifting took away a lot of hits. Fyi the game is far from finished and these numbers aren't a reflection of the final product. We still have a lot of testing and tuning to do. Just sharing a little test info during crunch time.

idk, the second test, despite being labeled extreme pull hitter still would make it impossible to shift a defense around IF solely based on just data like that. I always thought two things about those labels, firstly that they only were based on successful hits and not factoring tendency for all balls put in play. If based on "successful hits", then it would make swinging for all pitches obsolete because full at bats would determine what pitch he's looking to hit and that would influence where and then of course you have the pitcher execution level and overall skillset as equally if not more a factor in the equation.

Secondly, and I'll keep this succinct but to piggyback on point one, I always viewed this entire topic as a more approach driven and based on the mentality a player takes to the plate than an actual ability to hit here or there. A player always goes to the plate keen on certain pitches and he has a short amount of time to make a decision so when you get in a full at bat and you need a hit or to make a play that's where your tendencies start to take shape. Like extreme Pull hitters such as colby rasmus, when needing a sac fly the approach is much more open minded and will be higher likely to spray a fly ball anywhere from center to opposite field but in a general at bat needing a hit he's looking for pitches to get on top of for xbhs.

It's highly nuanced discussion, but in short and sweet terms I just think it's always moreso a mental approach at the plate than any physical skill set per batter and that's harder to rearrange for a hitter than some kind of mechanical changes. If that same player I described, Colby Rasmus changed his mind all season this year and dedicated to hitting opposite field against the shift his average might increase by 8 or 15 points (20 if very blessed by the man above) but that's not gauranteed. What is gauranteed is you'd take him out of the middle of your lineup because he's never going to hit 20+ HRs ever that way..

it's just all crazy n stuff..

With that said, I have never had enormous problems with this but it is a noticeable area that can be improved and focused on more just to make sure it's nicely tailored for us. Personally, I always look to strip artificial contact from the game system and null certain universal sliders which helps alot with regard to player tendencies and individual attributes being more noticeable. So I think improving ball contact model to oriented on a baseball bat opposed to wall spin can only be a gigantic improvement for us.

[nemesis04]

I think depending on the hitting mechanic you can pretty successfully get a hitter to hit out of his tendencies. Directional hitting for example is very over powering and quite regularly I could get a dead pull hitter to go opposite the shift.

[redsox4evur]

Quote: Originally Posted by Bryzine21

Please God. No fictional players in my DD mode.

There already are fictional players in DD.

[Armor and Sword]

I really enjoy DD as a break from my franchises. I play this game year round and having DD mode expanded on 16 has been great. Conquest mode is a lot of fun. And boy do I love opening packs!!

[MetsFan16]

Pretty good list of improvements. I'm honestly one of the few people on here who plays a lot of each and every mode. My time is spread out throughout DD, Franchise, and RTTS because I love what each mode offers. Some improvements I'd like to see,

Gameplay, hit variety, less outfield errors, more ground ball animations that go either way (a lot of ground ball animations, you know whether or not youll catch the ball before it gets to your player), better Bullpen AI.

RTTS, they are hinting at a more interactive mode with dialogues so i'll have to wait to see how those progress in the streams.

EQUIPMENT: My biggest thing is that you have to Buy equipment in RTTS. In the Majors, players sign contracts with brands and they get all of their equipment either for free or much much cheaper. Then, when you sign that contract, you only wear that one brand. Now, if I wanted to wear all NIKE equipment, I won't have Diamond level attributes in each slot. The only way I can do this is buy mixing brands. Which you never see in real life.

I think there should be a franchise type sponsorship in RTTS where you either buy (or through interactive RTTS dialogues get offered different brand contracts) and they're worth diamond,gold,silver, level attributes and you can wear all the same brand and get diamond level attributes.

In Franchise: I do not mind if no expansion, customizable, create a stadium feature is implemented though I do understand why others would love them. when the time comes and MLB is introducing expansion teams in real life, then maybe those would be necessary. I would like to see better Player Progressions, rotating interleague schedules,

Accurate playoff schedules. In '16, if there are only 2 division series games for that day (either national or american) you will see both games being played at 1pm EST. If there are 4 games being played in one day, you see 3 being played at 7pm EST and 1 at 8pm EST. In real life, when there are 2 games, one game starts at 4pm and another starts at 7pm, (depending on time zones and home teams) roughly, but they are spread out with at least 3 hours in between start times. In real life, 4 games in one day, they are spread out. 1pm, 3pm, 7p, 10pm. again depending on time zones and the home team)

Another thing in PostSeason play, with the 5 man rotations screen, if I only want to use a 4 man rotation during the playoffs, I hve to move the rotation around accordingly now with Player Morale, an Ace will be upset they are not in the Ace slot. This can be fixed, but having a "Press Conference" and announcing what your 4 man rotation before the series begins, they do this in real life. You say "he starting game 1, this guy game 2, then him 3 and him 4."

Final thing in Franchise, The Draft:
I do not want to scout 21-23 year olds. Not even if theyre 98 potentials. Please get rid of these old prospects and give me high schoolers or junior college players, it is more realistic

Also, after the draft, you sign them, you should be able to put them in the minor leagues for that summer. Not beginning of next year. Also, they are mostly really hideous with the random skin, hair, color, facial hair combos. They are all given generic equipment. I have to go through each team's drafted players, and edit them to correct their weird hair, facial hair combos and give them branded equipment.

Diamond Dynasty is perfect, maybe offer an Offline Battle Royale using Extra Innings tendencies because I love the mode, but have trouble playing online with my internet.

[masterchaoss]

Can we not have the shows franchise mode become like my gm, that mode is slow as all hell and vary restrictive. If we get anything like that I hope it's a separate mode from franchise. I do think expansion would be great though.

[Speedy]

Great stats and info, Ramone! As far as the below percentages:

Quote: Originally Posted by Russell_SCEA

Hitter Tendency Extreme Pull • LF 24% • CF 28% • RF 48%

I would love the ability to adjust these tendencies.