MLB 2K11 News Post

MLB 2K11 Developer Diary #3 - Pitching and Hitting

02:01 PM - February 18, 2011 by Fiddy

Check out the latest MLB 2K11 Developer Diary #3. Designer, Shawn Bailey covers pitching and hitting.

Quote:


	"Through the Pitcher Control slider, you can change the concept of control to be more or less challenging. This new slider will allow you to customize the pitching experience to your liking. This is a sensitive slider that will make it noticeably easier or harder to throw strikes. And don�t worry,we are not disabling achievements this year if you change the sliders. It�s your game and it should be played however you want to play it."

Game: Major League Baseball 2K11Reader Score: 5.5/10 - Vote Now
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Member Comments

# 41 blueduke @ 02/18/11 06:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jayhawker


	Finishing this Dev Diary really has me believing that this game may actually hit it out of the park. I'm completely comfortable now that the team gets baseball in a way that I was not nearly as sure of the last two releases. I love, almost universally, the upgrades they have made to how the game should play. Proper penalties for contact and power swings, lack of control in pitching, ratings that actually differentiate fielders are all things that enhance the experience regardless of the look of the game. But the little stuff they seem to have heard to. In addition to achievements being enable regardless of sliders and being able to sac camera settings to your profile, they other stuff that I might have not been worried about, but were definitely present in the forums. No HR tells unless they are bombs, cut down on the opposite field HR's, and from the look of the leaked video, real time presentation is back. Factor in DPRS and MLB Today and the new fielding mechanics and animations, and they have done far more work on this game than I thought they would. They have described a game I really want to play right now. I can't wait to see it in motion and then test drive it.

^This

All I've read about this game.....if it comes to fruition.....WOW. God help 2K if they botch this

# 42 bonannogiovanni @ 02/18/11 07:23 PM

Despite all the good things that have been mentioned, I'm still disappointed not to hear that analog hitting has not undergone an overhaul. In 2K10 defensive and check swings were useless because they had to be predetermined as soon as the ball left the pitcher's hand, I could not change my mind while attempting a contact swing to try to foul the ball off. Now I hope for a foul ball slider at least.

# 43 Galvatron @ 02/18/11 07:39 PM

The one thing that grabbed my attention was the detail about the body language on the field, when your pitcher is frustrated on the mound or getting a key out. I think this, along with the new pitch count monitoring is a more realistic way to manage your pitcher's performance. Kinda reminds of how Fight Night did away with stamina and energy meters in favor of facial expressions a few years ago.

# 44 Bwnarrow3 @ 02/18/11 08:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jeffy777


	Man, so many good things in that article. It finally feels like they're listening to us and adding the things we've wanted and addressing the issues we've complained about. It's a good feeling.

Yeah it's about freaking time. It's only been about 4 years that I've been asking for this stuff. Oh well I guess I can finally be happy.

# 45 SoxFan01605 @ 02/18/11 08:37 PM

Best info so far...so much to like about this

(namely pitch control being better tuned and a slider to further adjust)

# 46 RGmoney @ 02/18/11 08:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jayhawker


	This 100% false. A flick to the right or left on the RS was always a defensive swing, and could be executed as the ball was on the way. It helped if you were just trying to make contact, but it was very doable. And the check swing was perfectly implemented. I had several check swing every game I played. I do wonder if it was easier to pull off becasue I used contact swing most of the time. It should be near impossible to hold back a power swing in contrast. It might have affected the defensive swing, too. But both of these features were tuned perfectly. All i can think of is that you didn't know how to do them.

Agree. This sums up my experience last year as well.

# 47 bonannogiovanni @ 02/18/11 08:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jayhawker


	This 100% false. A flick to the right or left on the RS was always a defensive swing, and could be executed as the ball was on the way. It helped if you were just trying to make contact, but it was very doable. And the check swing was perfectly implemented. I had several check swing every game I played. I do wonder if it was easier to pull off becasue I used contact swing most of the time. It should be near impossible to hold back a power swing in contrast. It might have affected the defensive swing, too. But both of these features were tuned perfectly. All i can think of is that you didn't know how to do them.

I'm surprised to hear that, did you keep your pitch speed slider too low (50 or less)?

# 48 bonannogiovanni @ 02/18/11 09:24 PM

Yes analog, I had pitch speed quite high to make fast ball look really fast both when batting and pitching. Maybe my reflexes are too slow....

# 49 duke776 @ 02/18/11 09:26 PM

A pitch control slider!!!!!!! Yes! I love it. Everything else they had in here sounds really great too. I truly hope the demo in not too far away like he said.

# 50 rudyjuly2 @ 02/18/11 09:40 PM

Love the pitching slider and the fact opposite field power is toned down. Tons of great stuff in here. Looking really good!

# 51 jeffy777 @ 02/18/11 11:41 PM

Quote:


	Once we had the physics and hit types behaving properly, the next step was to improve the visuals of the swings. We removed every single contact swing, both one-handed and two-handed, from MLB 2K10. We re-shot new contact swings that look much more natural and smooth. Batters will step into their swing rather than stepping, pausing and then swinging. In addition to the contact swings looking more realistic, the batter also looks a lot better when leaving the box on his way to first. Gone are the days when the contact swings looked choppy and sluggish. Also, a concept of acceleration allows the player likenesses to shine through even in the first few steps to first base after making contact. Guys like Carl Crawford get out of the box much quicker than someone like his new teammate, Adrian Gonzalez.

I'm really liking the sound of this too.

# 52 jr86 @ 02/19/11 04:45 AM

Agree. Lot of good stuff here. Especially like the bit about strikes not always getting called if the corner of the ball touches the strikezone....that used to drive me nuts in 2k10.
If the onfield action is as good as all the info we have received this is going to be a cracking year to be a baseball fan.

# 53 Blzer @ 02/19/11 06:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Money99


	I hope that you can still hit a decent amount of homers using contact swing. I'm still of the belief there's no use for a variety of types. It should be completely stats based.

Very much agreed. I also hope this year I can actually make contact with the ball instead of getting "Very Late Swing" even though I feel like I'm timing it perfectly or early. I always try and pop in MLB 2K10 because quite frankly the game is very fun for me, but if I can't make contact or check swing, where does the fun go?

# 54 BigBlue @ 02/19/11 08:09 AM

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

# 55 ripwalk @ 02/19/11 09:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bulls23


	Extremely happy with these improvements. All they need to add are rain delays and retractable roofs and you have the best baseball game of all time.

Umm, I think that might be jumping the gun a bit, considering all you've seen is the features in writing at this point and some cinematic trailers for the most past. Also, most would agree the last game in the series still had a lot of rough patches needed to be ironed out.

I wouldn't jump the gun too much - everything sounds great, but if you put your expectations THAT high you are much more likely to be let down.

# 56 rudyjuly2 @ 02/19/11 10:30 AM

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.

# 57 blkprince04 @ 02/19/11 11:27 AM

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...

# 58 duke776 @ 02/19/11 12:37 PM

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.

# 59 HealyMonster @ 02/19/11 12:50 PM

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?

# 60 CMH @ 02/19/11 01:15 PM

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.

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