Balls & Strikes

[JWJKP]

One big downfall of MLB 2k7 was being able to tell if a ball is a strike or not. What is the best way to do this for the developers to fix this?

There should be some guessing involved but not being able to tell a ball coming at your head or straight to the dirt from a pitch right down the middle is just bad.

I have played well over 300 online games and I am still guessing on every pitch.

[Ricanlegend]

You have to stop being swing happy.It took me awhile to get my strike zone in oder,but after i did you can read the pitches.

[mgb]

No I played a lot to and still can't determine ball and strikes. Im not swing happy I normally take the first strike.

[ksig24]

Ahhh, a RicanLegend sighting. I see you are eagerly awaiting the arrival of this game too. See you atop the leaderboard.

[JWJKP]

I am not swing happy. I have tried and tried to figure the pitches out. But in the end, like online games, doesn't matter if the guy throws it down the middle (hardly ever) or if its in the dirt (almost always)...to me they all look like they are right down the middle.

In real life players can read the pitches sometimes. There needs to be something that allows you to do this. I know EA (damn them) has the color of the ball change for a split second right after release...color of course indicating the pitch type. Once you learn the colors you can at least figure that part out.

Of course, its still a challenge even with the color thing for pitch type because you have to pick up on the color, make the quick calculation in your head what that means and then respond to it...all in a second or two.

[bphillips4]

i know what it is the pitcher on the mound is too close up and the ball breaks too late to pick up on it.. back off 2k what were you thinking...i swear these people that hurried this game out didnt even take into consideration how baseball is played... its so frustrating its a discrace to baseball games as a whole...its also a discrace to mvp 05... its disrespectful to it lol jk

[ksig24]

I see where you are coming from, but you seriously need to look at from a hitter perspective. Watch some pitches and think like a hitter. Watch the ball movement and where it starts and is released. I felt the same way, but after hundreds of games, you start to hit instead of guess. Hope this helps, but we are all optimistic as to what the new game will bring. Forget 2K7.

[bphillips4]

yeah i know it would of been ok if classic swing was done right and wasnt delayed like it was but it was sooooo annoying...i mean i am so anxious for a game to match mvp 05 i would pay 160 for it just to have it on next gen if it was better than 05

[ksig24]

Yeah, I feel you, but think about the problems there were with MVP05. If there was a high fastball and you swung, you would always miss it. The pitching was not hard enough. If you hit the meter it would be perfectly placed. There was no margin of error, no risk reward factor. Other than those things, MVP was perfect. Amongst other things, but I wont go into those now. The main reason why I dont play it anymore.

[rh6 and dtrain]

Use your batter eye to guide your sweet zone, i like mine up and in, don't guess and let everything else go unless the situation calls for change.

[FrenziedSokar]

wassup ksig long time..

one thing i would like to add on this to have a check swing that works! lol..they need to have a better way to check swing then u might not always be swinging at bad pitches.

[Jordai]

There should be like a 3-2 count about ever 3 at bats. (CPU and User)

[merff11]

How about a camera view from the hitters eye? Make it like you are standing in the box instead of being like the umpire. Last time i hit a baseball I wasn't looking at it from the catchers perspective.

Maybe a higher camera point of view will make it easier to judge the height and trajectory of the actual pitch. Overhead cams make it hard to judge if is high or low, catcher cams make it hard to judge speed of pitch. Keep the cam at catchers depth but at batter's head height. Do we need to watch the hitter swing all the time? Show me who is walking to the plate and give me a good cam. I see enough of the hitters swings when I am pitching. Maybe add as a batting view option. May solve some of the hitting problems.

[Bl00d h0und Gang]

I was able to dominate 95% of the online community. I would often go 2 games without giving up a single hit. Why? Because most people don't know how to utilize the batter's eye. When used properly, it is just as effective as the hitter's eye from MVP 05, 06. I think tutorial videos would go a long way in improving the community as a whole when it comes to batting.

[FrenziedSokar]

"I was able to dominate 95% of the online community. I would often go 2 games without giving up a single hit."

Wow that's sounding a little arrogant there sunshine

[BANKY]

bloodhound gang-95% huh?

I bet if i played you 5 times, i would win at least once or twice and might even take the series from you.

How about you join our league next year bloodhound? I wanna see if you really are as good as you say you are.

What you think Frenzy? I think that i would whip his 455!

[FrenziedSokar]

ya i would like to see him back up his words, i am sure we can find a space in either FBL Season 13 or FBL - The Minors if he is interested

[ksig24]

LOL boys play nice. I will be back for sure thats whats up!

[ksig24]

Whatup Bank, Frenzied!

[BANKY]

WHATUP!

Ksig in the hizouse, lol.

[ksig24]

LMAO. How are things? Cant wait for this bad boy to drop! We can get some leagues rolling. You gonna get it for 360 or did you pick up a PS3?

[Maverick]

I am not swing happy. I have tried and tried to figure the pitches out. But in the end, like online games, doesn't matter if the guy throws it down the middle (hardly ever) or if its in the dirt (almost always)...to me they all look like they are right down the middle.

In real life players can read the pitches sometimes. There needs to be something that allows you to do this. I know EA (damn them) has the color of the ball change for a split second right after release...color of course indicating the pitch type. Once you learn the colors you can at least figure that part out.

Of course, its still a challenge even with the color thing for pitch type because you have to pick up on the color, make the quick calculation in your head what that means and then respond to it...all in a second or two.

I thought this as well in the start. The way to better deal with this is similar as the way you do in real life. Start out looking in a particular zone (imagine the zone being in 9 zones). You can have an idea even on highest pitch speed that maybe a foot after the release point whether a ball was going to be in the zone you are looking at or not. Layoff the pitch...dont swing if its out of the zone, EVEN if its a strike. Now if you are going against a guy who is always throwing out of the zone...they will get behind in the count and you will probably get a good strike soon.

[ToyDingo]

This is a problem that is going to exist because video games cannot accurately portray depth perception. Few games have done a good job with this with out resorting to something gimmicky (EA).

I don't know what they could do about this, but it really didn't bother me. Eventually it became less about whether the ball was a fastball over the middle or a sinker in the dirt. Soon, it turned into a game of trying to out think the pitcher.

When you can predict that it'll be in the strikezone, you'll constantly get hits. To the point that it got boring...

[Bwnarrow3]

I honestly think that EA's idea is the best

[Maverick]

I honestly think that EA's idea is the best
i am confused...what did EA do to create depth perception or help recognize pitch location. if you are referring to the color code system...that didnt tip location...that just tipped off the type of pitch it was...really it was suppose to sim rotation on the ball.

Also keep this in mind...cuz this problem is inherent in all baseball games..and really in all sports games. the view and perspective given is that of someone watching the game. Not of someone actually playing....Think of an actual baseball game when you are hitting....you focus in on the ball. and things like velocity and location are really percieved because not so much by how the ball is moving against the background the way it is in a videogame...but by the way your ACTUAL eye and head or moving while tracking the ball. Basically it is hard to get it right because in the end it is a sim and you arent actually hitting. baseball as well as all sports sim games are not sports sims. They are actually interactive sims of you watching the sport.

[ToyDingo]

^^I remember 2K doing something like that way back in the day when they were known as Sega Sports. It was during the time that they were putting "first person mode" in all of their games. There was a first person baseball mode.

You actually stood in the batter's box and attempted to play the game. It was a neat idea, but because of the speed of the pitchs (if you were facing Randy Johnson, you were screwed) and the lack of depth perception at the time, it was nigh impossible to distinguish between balls and strikes...

But it was still a neat idea...

[GhostRider]

Speaking of balls and strikes, 2k needs to implement a realistic BALL/STRIKE ratio in this game so patient hitters will get more walks...I adjusted sliders last year to get realistic totals, but it needs to be a stock setting...among other things.

[GhostRider]

^^I remember 2K doing something like that way back in the day when they were known as Sega Sports. It was during the time that they were putting "first person mode" in all of their games. There was a first person baseball mode.

You actually stood in the batter's box and attempted to play the game. It was a neat idea, but because of the speed of the pitchs (if you were facing Randy Johnson, you were screwed) and the lack of depth perception at the time, it was nigh impossible to distinguish between balls and strikes...

But it was still a neat idea...


Fisrt Person Football was incredible on NFL2k5......

[Bl00d h0und Gang]

bloodhound gang-95% huh?

I bet if i played you 5 times, i would win at least once or twice and might even take the series from you.

How about you join our league next year bloodhound? I wanna see if you really are as good as you say you are.

What you think Frenzy? I think that i would whip his 455!

I'm being totally sincere when I make those comments. I was way ahead of the curve with MLB 2k7 because it used the same exact batting engine from MVP 2004- 06. The timing was exactly the same. The only difference in batting from MVP to MLB 2k7 was the batters and hitters, which in theory worked exactly the same, and the nex gen controller. You can ask anyone that played MVP on PS2 consistently and they'll know my name Bldhound gang. Ben Brinkman even mentioned in the IGN interview last week how ridiculously old the batting codes for MLB 2k7 were. He might light of it because it was pathetic. That is why MLB 2k7 only held my interest for 2 and a half months. While I would be playing MVP baseball all the way until Christmas. From an online game play perspective MLB 2k7 was too boring and repetitive for people that loved MVP on old gen consoles.

Btw, last month I played. Which was August. I was ranked #6 overall.

[PointShaver]

Ksig. Holy crap man. I haven't seen you in ahwile. Frenzy any chance of bumping up the pitch speed in FBL? Say to like 100. Haha. God I miss playing this game. Looking forward to playing you guys again this year. I wan't dibs on the Nationals.

[ksig24]

I will be back for another season fa sho, fa sho, im getting that fa sho! LOL. What up Point? How are things?

[Ricanlegend]

Ahhh, a RicanLegend sighting. I see you are eagerly awaiting the arrival of this game too. See you atop the leaderboard.
Am dying just waiting for new information to come out.Please everybody dont jump to the Detroit tigers bandwagon,play with your favorite team,plus i dont feel like playing the tigers every time.