Ways to improve the MVP engine

[koshi]

I have no idea if, or when, and in what shape or fashion we'll see MVP again. So I guess I'll keep this brief and focused on the engine itself, as opposed to nitpicking about features in the game, or not in the game.

The following list are ideas to improve the pitcher/batter part of the game. It's the area where most of the action on the field takes place, and it's the area where MVP needs the most improvement:

Pitcher's Focus

Fatigue should not be the only thing that effects a pitcher's control. The way MVP is now, as the pitch count goes up, the pitching meter becomes more difficult. This just isn't entirely realistic. Some pitchers actually start the game wild and then get into a groove later on.

I suggest rewarding players for hitting the perfect green area, and also punishing them for missing it. So that if early on you continually miss the perfect green area that area will shrink, simulating a pitcher losing his focus. If the player is able to later on time his release right, then that area should expand again, simulating a pitcher regaining his focus.

User Pitcher Ball Frequency

There currently is a slider for CPU Pitcher Ball Frequency, but NOT one for the user. Adding this to the "Gameplay Tuning" settings would be a great improvement.

It seems now that when you miss the perfect green area, pitches too often gravitate towards the middle of the plate. Giving players more control over this would result in more realistic results, mainly more bases on balls given up by the user controlled pitchers.

I suggest adding a "User Pitcher Ball Frequency" slider that effects pitches NOT released at the perfect green area of the pitch meter, so that you could make these pitches gravitate OFF the plate rather than towards the middle. This would result in higher pitch counts and a more realistic number of bases on balls given up by the user.

Splitting the CPU Swing Frequency slider

As it is now, you can adjust how often the CPU swings, but finding a balance is too difficult. If you don't want to CPU to swing so often, this usually means that there'll be too many called third strikes, and too few attempts at chasing pitches outside the zone.

I suggest splitting this slider into "CPU Swing Frequency Strikes" and "CPU Swing Frequency Balls". Altering these would allow you to adjust how often the CPU swung at pitches inside the zone, and outside the zone respectively.

CPU Hitter Patience

This sort of relates to the issue above, except that it has to do more with how often and how well the CPU works the count.

With the current "CPU Swing Frequency" slider you can make it so that the CPU isn't as aggressive, but at the cost of too many called third strikes. Implementing hitter patience in both the "Gameplay Tuning" settings AND the attributes of each player would help better simulate the game of baseball.

For the "Gameplay Tuning" settings, a "CPU Hitter Patience" slider would universally effect all the hitters, making them more, or less, adept at taking pitches early in the count.

For the hitter patience attribute of each individual player, this would effect how aggressive each hitter is early in the count. An extreme example would be a hitter like Wade Boggs who never swung at the first pitch, so he'd have a very high "Hitter Patience" rating...

And with that... I'm gonna go have some chicken before my next game.

[bsb13]

Good suggestions, and just like all other baseball games have now, they need to add break point pitching.

[koshi]

They also need to hire back DrJones...

To fix them rosters!

[koshi]

Quote: Originally Posted by CookooForCocoa

User Pitcher Ball Frequency ...when you miss the perfect green area, pitches too often gravitate towards the middle of the plate...

Actually, come to think of it... That's not true...

Basically, what I what thinking is that there could be a slider set up so that when you miss the green perfect area, you could influence the likelihood of the pitch being a ball or not.

[koshi]

A few other things...

New Hitting Sliders for the Gameplay Tuning Settings

CPU Hitting Average
CPU Hitting Slugging
User Hitting Average
User Hitting Slugging

These for sliders could help fine tune things. There currently exists a "Contact" and "Power" slider for both the CPU and User, but they aren't very refined.

The "Contact" slider seems to only effect the ability to make contact, but not necessarily the result. So this slider only really seems good for effecting the number of swings and misses. An "Average" slider would effect what happens after contact is made... Whether or not a base hit has occured. The "Slugging" slider would then further refine things by helping define the quality of the base hit... Does it go for extra bases or not.

These things could help the engine a great deal. As it is now it seems the disparity between difficulty levels is too great. I've found the 2nd difficulty level (Pro in 2005, and Sophomore in NCAA) to be the most realistic, but also a bit too easy. Adjusting the sliders helps this problem, but no matter what it's still relatively easy. If you go up to even the next level (All-Star in 2005, and Junior in NCAA) then the CPU gets too good... Not unbeatable, but just unrealistic. As it even says when choosing the 3rd difficulty level for an exhibition game: "Mistakes will get punished". Well in real life, even at the MLB level with world class hitters, mistakes don't always get punished.

So... Having these sliders to help vary the hitting more would also help vary the results, and make for a more realistic experience.

[koshi]

To expand on the CPU Hitter Patience...

Patience could also extend beyond pitches early in the count, to pitches when the batter is ahead in the count... Like 2-0, 3-1, etc. So that hitters were more selective in these counts. Maybe make it so hitters looked for a specific pitch in a specific area when ahead in the count, and then really connected if they get that pitch... Taking everything else. Though it almost seems as if there may already be a little of that going on already, it's tough to tell.

[koshi]

Thought I'd throw this unfinished thought out there...

RE: Fielding

A while back I switched OFF the fielding assist (the circle that shows up on the field where the ball will land). Why? Because with it on fielding equates to running towards the circle, and there really isn't much tracking of the ball unless there is a diving attempt.

I was really liking this feature off, as it added some challenge to fielding. However, I think only using the vector line makes fielding a bit TOO difficult. I still will misjudge an easy flyball every so often, and I think the engine would benefit greatly from some slight tinkering, and here's what I had in mind:

1. You could give a better camera angle, one that was more dynamic and perhaps panned out to give you a wider view. This would allow for better judgment of fly balls. I use the widest angle as is, but still a lot of flies disappear off screen.

2. More animations to indicate that the fielder has the ball in his sights. As it is now, if you make it within range of the catch assist circle (if you have it on) the fielder will usually hold his glove up. I think it would be better to have more of an indication that the fielder was under the ball... And perhaps better fielders could have larger catch assist circles, so that if you ran down a fly ball with Ichiro and got within ten feet (as opposed to say five for lesser fielders) the catch assist circle would kick in... Then you'd CLEARLY see an animation indicating the ball will be caught.

3. A better vector line. Though, I think with a better and wider camera angle this might not be necessary. In fact, I'm not even really sure what could be done to improve the vector line...

Well, I don't know, like I say it's an unfinished thought... But I think simply running to a circle on the field is unrealistic, but with the fielding assist off it doesn't quite simulate fielding as well as it could.

[bsb13]

Quote: Originally Posted by CookooForCocoa

Thought I'd throw this unfinished thought out there... RE: Fielding A while back I switched OFF the fielding assist (the circle that shows up on the field where the ball will land). Why? Because with it on fielding equates to running towards the circle, and there really isn't much tracking of the ball unless there is a diving attempt. I was really liking this feature off, as it added some challenge to fielding. However, I think only using the vector line makes fielding a bit TOO difficult. I still will misjudge an easy flyball every so often, and I think the engine would benefit greatly from some slight tinkering, and here's what I had in mind: 1. You could give a better camera angle, one that was more dynamic and perhaps panned out to give you a wider view. This would allow for better judgment of fly balls. I use the widest angle as is, but still a lot of flies disappear off screen. 2. More animations to indicate that the fielder has the ball in his sights. As it is now, if you make it within range of the catch assist circle (if you have it on) the fielder will usually hold his glove up. I think it would be better to have more of an indication that the fielder was under the ball... And perhaps better fielders could have larger catch assist circles, so that if you ran down a fly ball with Ichiro and got within ten feet (as opposed to say five for lesser fielders) the catch assist circle would kick in... Then you'd CLEARLY see an animation indicating the ball will be caught. 3. A better vector line. Though, I think with a better and wider camera angle this might not be necessary. In fact, I'm not even really sure what could be done to improve the vector line... Well, I don't know, like I say it's an unfinished thought... But I think simply running to a circle on the field is unrealistic, but with the fielding assist off it doesn't quite simulate fielding as well as it could.

If you switch fielding AID off and leave fielding ASSIST on it will make it so its not so easy to over run balls. I thought I was the only one who would sometimes play MVP games with just the vector line on.

By the way, I just got 07 and I really like it alot more than 06 mainly because the new pitching system was waaay over due.

[koshi]

Quote: Originally Posted by bsb13

If you switch fielding AID off and leave fielding ASSIST on it will make it so its not so easy to over run balls. I thought I was the only one who would sometimes play MVP games with just the vector line on. By the way, I just got 07 and I really like it alot more than 06 mainly because the new pitching system was waaay over due.

Yeah that's how I've been playing, so that you don't actually see the circle but when you enter it you can usually tell. I just think it could be done better, so that it really feels like you're judging fly balls.

[koshi]

THE IDEA THAT WILL CHANGE GAMING (slightly ) IN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS:

I thought of this while thinking about coming up with a "solution" for a better fielding experience in MVP...

The Intelligent Camera

A camera that isn't just positioned in a certain area or focused on a certain object... But one that understands the action in the game and changes it's view accordingly, as if there were a human controlling it.

Case in point:

Winning Eleven, critically acclaimed and rightfully so. Arguably the best sports series on the market... And yet it contains, what I consider to be, a large flaw... And that is it's camera. Even on the widest angle you are too often forced to look at the radar to see where your players are positioned. This is because the camera puts the focus on the ball, and centers that focus in the middle of the screen. If you watch games on TV you'll notice the camera shift slightly so that you see the action unfolding. A subtle yet significant difference, brought about by the input of intelligence.

For example... During a game on TV if you have action at midfield, with both teams fighting for the ball... The camera person will center that action. However, once a team has taken control and then begins to advance the ball, you'll see the camera shift (if the camera person is doing their job) so that you see the action downfield and ahead of the ball... In anticipation of a forward pass.

If this were implemented into Winning Eleven it would make a world of difference, and you would never have to break the flow of things to look down at a few blips on a radar. If it were implemented into MVP, or any other baseball game, you could get a better sense that you were judging and tracking down a batted ball in the field.

I haven't played every game out there and don't even own one of the latest consoles, so I don't know what has and hasn't been done... Or even what is capable of being done... But it seems to me that if you can program AI into the people/characters of a game, then you can almost certainly apply that to the camera bringing you the action.

There... There it is... Tucked away here on the MVP NCAA Baseball Forum at Operation Sports... Perhaps the idea has already been used, or is being used on a game yet to be released... Whatever the case, it's another step that will help distinguish the latest generation of games from it's predecessors.