I can't figure out zone hitting and it's driving me insane

[bigdave117]

is there some kind of a trick that I'm just not seeing?? Every time I think it's a fastball, it ends up being a slider. Everytime I think it's a slider, ends up being a fastball. Trying to get the exact location of the ball is nearly impossible even when I do time it/read the pitch correctly


What's the trick here? Do you guys hit with plate coverage indicator on or off?? Do you try to follow the ball from start to finish or how the hell do you square it up/time it everytime like so many people on youtube are able to do?


I'm absolutely awesome pitching wise too - I can hit like 90% of my pitches right on the corner but hitting I just can't figure it out. It's so frustrating. I can dominate on any difficulty level and even against great players online pitching wise but I'm so bad hitting


edit: I use the strike zone camera

[kaybli]

I agree. Its very tough to actually move the PCI to where the pitch is going. Most of the time I just keep the PCI in the middle and wait for my pitch there unless I see a pattern of a pitcher pitching down or up too much. I don't know how the youtubers seem to move the PCI to where the ball is most of the time. I think one think that helps is using the Strike Zone camera angle. Most youtubers I've seen swear by it. I personally don't like it because I like the aesthetics of the MLB Show 16 Cam but maybe I'd hit better in Strike Zone. What batting camera do you use?

[bigdave117]

Quote: Originally Posted by kaybli

I agree. Its very tough to actually move the PCI to where the pitch is going. Most of the time I just keep the PCI in the middle and wait for my pitch there unless I see a pattern of a pitcher pitching down or up too much. I don't know how the youtubers seem to move the PCI to where the ball is most of the time. I think one think that helps is using the Strike Zone camera angle. Most youtubers I've seen swear by it. I personally don't like it because I like the aesthetics of the MLB Show 16 Cam but maybe I'd hit better in Strike Zone. What batting camera do you use?

I use the strike zone camera also

[kaybli]

Yea. If you don't mind the aesthetics of it, a lot of people do say Strike Zone is the best camera angle for adjusting your PCI to the pitch. Just keep practicing in batting practice mode!

[Black59Razr]

Quote: Originally Posted by bigdave117

I use the strike zone camera also

I need Offset to help me see the 'pitch' of the pitch. Strike Zone view makes every pitch look the same to me. Offset is closer to 3D - you see an extra layer of depth or pitch. Try using custom view, edit to offset, then zoom in as much as it will let you - wont' be as zoomed in as strike zone though.

Once you start using offset, it's about repetition, just like real baseball. Eventually, you'll start swinging less at sliders that start down the middle and break to a corner for a strike, and you'll be like, damn how did I lay off that slider? You'll start noticing something didn't look right in the pitcher's release - it came out funny. This is why a heavy dose of curveballs are useless against good hitters.

You also have to walk in to every at-bat with a game-plan. If you don't have a game-plan, or don't understand what this means, just use the at bat to gather information about the pitcher's tendencies (only in online. The CPU pitchers are unrealistically random), and hope you get lucky and fall into a hitters count.

Use zone hitting as if it was directional. Meaning, don't move the circle around for a while. Also, make it invisible until you are really comfortable with the distraction of it. If/when a pitcher has established he's living on the corners, then you can start moving it based on his trends. Does he always throw off-speed low with 2 strikes? Does he like to throw high and in heat to start the at-bat? Does he like back door sliders? Once you have a profile on him, you can play guess hitting and move your PCI wherever you think he's coming. This actually makes your timing way better too, increasing the PCI size. Reason being, if you are sitting on his low and away slider, and you see the ball released in the area of a high fastball, you're swing timing is for a low slider and should be 'good' if it is, in fact, a slider. If you get fooled and it's a high fastball, so be it. You'll swing and miss and it's just a strike. It won't be a pop-up for an out. Don't get caught in between (too late for fastballs and too early for breaking balls). This is where most poor hitters get caught up.

If he's not predictable and all over the place, your best bet is to leave the PCI where it is and focus on good timing/increased PCI size.

Also, changing from a 50" top of the line TV to a 32" 1ms delay monitor will turn a .200 hitter into a .300 hitter - no joke.

Rant over. Bored at work lol

[nomo17k]

I recommend reading the Hitting section of the in-game Strategy Guide for tips on the PCI placement. (Go to pause menu while playing a game, then Controls & Strategy -> Hitting).

If you are not good at moving PCI while the pitch comes to you (I'm one of these people), one thing you can do is to preload PCI near the place where you expect a pitch and only swing if the pitch comes near that zone and lay off if it's not in the zone.

[bigdave117]

Do you guys have any advice for learning how to read, time and locate the PCI perfectly?

Any decent player is going to be extremely random so you won't be able to predict anything correctly. That advice is useless. You have to become like the guys on YouTube who can time and locate everything perfectly

[nomo17k]

Quote: Originally Posted by bigdave117

Do you guys have any advice for learning how to read, time and locate the PCI perfectly? Any decent player is going to be extremely random so you won't be able to predict anything correctly. That advice is useless. You have to become like the guys on YouTube who can time and locate everything perfectly

Playing online against HUM is different than playing offline in sim-style.

I think the best online guys are capable of moving PCI mid-pitch and also time it correctly and it is an amazing skill (look at how someone like cardinalbird5 does it...), but one reason why they can do this is because the pitch speed for online games is rather slow.

Also, there's some patterns that a lot of online guys tent to fall into when pitching (overuse of high and tight fastballs, overuse of offspeed pitches, etc.), which makes it easier to read pitches if you play a lot of online games.

But If you play offline in a sim style, you have to make a compromise with pitch speed and PCI control with Zone...