Animation Frequency

[2K Admin Ron]

What animations play too frequently? Describe as best you can.

[RedLine]

A few I can think of:
1. Players in the dugout throwing their arms over their heads while arching back (like oh no)
2. Pitchers walking around the mound after throwing over to first
3. Infielders diving for line drives and catching them all

I'll play the game some more and come up with a few more.

[bobafett4ever]

A few I can think of:
1. Players in the dugout throwing their arms over their heads while arching back (like oh no)


And that happens most of the time in your own bullpen when you hit a homerun, lol.

[beat you 4ever]

And that happens most of the time in your own bullpen when you hit a homerun, lol.


I agree with that one.


I also think the animation for the manager, looking randomly up in the air, and or throwing his arms in the air. Also the scratching of the neck of players seems to be too frequent. I would also like to see the transition from walking to running, and vice versa, smoothed out, I hate to see a guy running to the plate, to bat, and then, as soon as he reaches the umpire, he stops and walks slowly. I have never seen a player running to bat, just my observation.

[jeffy777]

When the pitcher is waiting for the catcher to throw the ball back, every single pitcher waves his mit up and down the exact same way. I know it seems minor, BUT we see this animation after EVERY single pitch, so it gets really old. There was much more variety in 2K7 and 2K8 in this area.

[Trevytrev11]

Fielders stepping in one direction and throwing in another. It happens all the time. A fly ball my fielder catches on the run, he will continue to run and step toward third and then throw to second. My catcher will step to second and throw the ball backwards to get it to the pitcher. It just looks bad.

The other one, and I'm not sure if this is an animation issue or what, but infielders can take about 8 steps in the time it takes a linedrive to leave the bat to get to them. Because of this, they make plays on balls they have no bother getting to.

[Nick15_19]

I also think the animation for the manager, looking randomly up in the air, and or throwing his arms in the air.
Ya this happens to often. I would like to see running and walking transition smoothed out, same with the outfielders running and changing direction.

[ill pill]

Some pitchers wind-ups seem really jerky. I'm not sure how much I can help cause I'm not exactly sure but I'm thinking K-Rods

[BigBlue922]

Outfielders overruning fly balls only to reach back awkwardly to make the catch. UGLY animation.

Also need more variable animations around 2nd Base during a double-play. I think this took a big step backwards as compared to 2K8. We desperately need collision detection too.

BigBlue922

[Greg7]

Fielders overrunning the ball. Infielders and outfielders both do it. The most frustrating thing about this one is that you really have no control over it. Generally I'm running to make a play on the ball and I try to stop on the "spot" only to have my fielder go into a slow motion animation and overrun the ball and have to reach across his body to make the catch. To be honest I'm not sure I've ever seen that in real life... maybe on a bad hop in the infield but I don't think 2k9 even has bad hops. I guess the animation is in the game to counteract human error, but I'm never about to overrun the ball when the animation kicks in.

Another animation that I see too often is on balls hit to the wall where the fielder jumps to try and make the catch. There's nothing wrong with this animation, but it's the only jumping catch at the wall that the game has (without climbing the wall). There just needs to be more animations for catches at the wall. If new animations are added for leaping catches at the wall, collision detection with the wall needs to be taken into account; as well as fielder AI if the fielder collides and falls down with runners on base.

A third animation issue that I have (and this can tie in with my first point) is that it seems as if the route to the ball has already been mapped out for me and there doesn't seem to be much freedom in the fielder's movements.

Another notable animation that I see play with great frequency is where the fielder misplays the ball and it hits off the end of his glove as he stumbles forward. I'm okay with a player misplaying a ball because it does happen in real life but you never see a ball ripped at an infielder who tries to make the play, only to have the ball hit the heel of his glove and fly straight up in the air as the runner makes it safely to first. I guess there needs to be more error animations. I usually just see the one where the fielder is stumbling forward and looks like he's going to fall over.

[sideffx]

Players running off the field, even side by side you can see the player are synchronized it just looks tacky.

[buckyrocks]

I know this is for animations that are seen to frequently but how about adding an animation of players spitting, i mean, i think every baseball player ever spits and you never see it in the game.

[BigBlue922]

Please do away with the cloud dusts. You never see them during a game because the dirt is watered down.

Please improve some of the running animations. Players dont always run with their chest out and shoulders back. Looks awkward.

Home plate umpires do NOT have a large bill of the cap sticking out behind their head. Their caps have a very short bill (hardly noticeable) when they have their masks on.

Can a catcher remove his mask and toss it aside after tracking down a popup around the plate, please? It's silly for Steve Phillips to mention tossing the mask aside when it doesn't happen in the game.

Pitchers NEVER field popups in the infield!

Please eliminate players walking through each other (this game is SCREAMING for collision detection)

At the end of games, EVERYONE should leave the field. I shouldn't be seeing base coaches, umpires, and the on deck batter still on the field as though the game were continuing.

I LOVE THE BULLPEN ACTIVITY! I LOVE SEEING RELIEF PITCHERS WARMING UP DURING THE GAME! EXCELLENT JOB!

Have the CPU catcher come out to the mound and settle down a pitcher from time to time.

BigBlue922

[thereelslim]

Need WAY more dug-out animations. The manager shouldn't be throwing his hands up in frustration because he is losing 1-0 in the first inning. In the field, outfielders do that one animation where they catch a flyball with 2 hands way too much (need to speed up that animation). How about a little foot-planting in the field, players change directions like Reggie Bush without losing speed. Players walk around in circles during the post-play time. A couple new animations in that time slot would make it much more enjoyable

[Wookie481512]

Several things I would like to see visually.

Literally a thousand new animations need to be done next year to bring this game up to speed in order to compete with rival games. It seems to me that the animations are individually performed thus looking jerky and less fluid. If yall can blend the animations together along with the several new animations that might be the solution. Here is where they need ot be implemented:
1. In Field Fielding (Tags, scoops, flips, turning two, dives, short hops, bobbles, slide stops, jumping snare catches, foul ball in the stand catches, and throwing animations)
2. Out field fielding (catches, dives, paths OF take to the ball, appraoches ot the ball, wall scaling, crashing into walls, and catch and throw aniamtions)
3. Hitting (Early swings, late swings, follow through swings-(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sz-0An2PYc) , and homerun swings

Stadium animations and excitement need to be implented as well. Hitting clutch game winning hits or even homeruns feel bring and unrewarding. There should be fireworks, stadium specific sounds and animations, players in the dugout getting excited, crowds getting crazy. I would love to see mascots in the game. There used to be in the old games abck on reg xbox. whatever the case currently the game is not fun because there is absolutley NO EXCITMENT in areas where there should be.
http://texas.rangers.mlb.com/media/v...ent_id=3104033 (broadcast Perspective)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aooOF...eature=related (fan perspective)

The pains and joys are never really felt watching the players. Have them get excited. In know the cutsces of the dugouts looks stale all the time becasue its like there really isnt a feel if watching a real dugout. They are all doing the same thing at the same time whether it be lame clapping or raising there hands for no reason. Have a cutscene or something but man alive dont show the dugout looking lame like that.

I would like to see weather play more of a role in the game. Rain and snow flurries are a realistic part of the game that is missing in last years game.

Presentation should be be more on point as well. I would prefer next year to be more sim baseball based then the arcadey feel. I dont want the on screen informations on swing timing and all that jazz. Stat tracking needs ot eb more in depth. I dont really care so much as to what a players nickname is as much as I care about what aplayer is doing this year versus last year and the game he is currently playing. Tracking players stats is awesome and updating stat leaders is a must.

The franchise screen needs to be easier to navigate and more pleasing to the eye than the cluttered screen of MLB.com that it is now. I really like maddens new franchise screen. Here is a pic of it:
http://insideblog.easports.com/cfs-f...anchiseHub.jpg

The fielding cameras are too high for my enjoyment. The camrea needs to be zoomed in a little, and flattened out a little to see more action. I would also love to see fans walking around in the background.

These are some good visual things that this game needs. Most improtantly are the animations of course but imagine a 2k game that implemented all the above.
Two liitle nuances that I want to see is wide forearm wristbands and numbers back on the wristbands and forearms bands.

[SAINT Wick]

Pros: None


Cons: All


Suggestions for improvement: Please review 2k7 for notes on improvements

[phjcwsmlb]

Rain delay is body out please !

[baseballbell]

pleas take out the automatic home run trot. when the ball is hit deep, you shouldn't know automatically if it's gone or not. and even on the no-doubters, not all players are posing a**holes like pujols and soriano, so let the players run until the ball is in the seats.

[bigfnjoe96]

The Animations in the game to be:

1- Re-done to look more Natural & Fluid
2- Slowed Down to help them look more Natural & Fluid

The outfield throwing animations need to be gotten rid of. Those need to be re-done also. Not every throw needs a high leg kick.