MVP Baseball 2004

TheGamer · Post by **TheGamer** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 1:15 am

I received this update from IGN on MVP. I was written by the production staff. One of the small things that he talked about that I feel is real cool and I haven´t seen in any baseball videogame is the checked swing dribbler. Everything that I have read about MVP makes me feel that this will be "the" baseball game to have..
 
 Jared, if this is against your site policy, I apologize and feel free to delete this post..this is straight from IGN...Just thought you guys would be interested.
 
 
 "MVP Baseball 2004: Pure Swing System
 Everything you need to know to get a hit, plus exclusive new screens and movies.
 
 February 10, 2004 - The following text was written by the MVP Baseball 2004 production staff, led by Producer Brent Nielsen.
 
 
 Hitting in MVP 2003 was based on timing and modified by positioning the left stick up for a fly ball, down for a ground ball and either left or right to direct the ball to a side of the field. While that was fun and easy to learn we didn´t feel like it was very realistic because if your timing was correct you could do whatever you want with the ball and usually hit it really hard.
 
 That brings us to MVP 2004 and the EA Sports Pure Swing System. The Pure Swing System is made up of MANY different components to determine not only hit contact quality but whether or not you will make contact at all. It´s all about hitting the ball where it´s pitched as opposed to directing a hit or lining up a cursor.
 
 Here are some of the main factors to determine contact quality and hit types in MVP Baseball 2004:
 
 Batting Factors
 
 Timing - The better your timing the better the chance you have to hit the ball well or at all.
 
 We use audio as well as a PIP window to give feedback on your timing. The PIP will show a replay of your swing from above or the side and you can gather whether you were early or late, as well as if you swing over or under the ball.
 
 Left/Right Stick Placement - The old "hit it where its pitched adage applies here. Say you´re Pujols and you see a fast ball away. What do you do? If you try to pull that ball chances are you´ll roll over on it and hit a nubber out to the 3rd baseman. If you try to go with it chances are you´ll hit a nice shot the other way if of course your timing is right. Up/Down Stick Placement - Think of Derek Lowe pitching. If his sinker is working batters will have little success trying to hit the ball in the air. This holds true in MVP 2004. You have to try hitting the pitch as it was intended to be hit. That means if the pitcher is keeping the ball low you should try to push the stick down as opposed to fighting the pitch and trying to hit in the air.
 
 What you do with the stick also determines where the ball makes contact with the bat (yes, the ball will always make contact with the bat). Of course you want to hit it on the sweet spot every time but if your timing or left/right or up/down placement is off it will shift the contact point on the bat, decreasing the contact quality and in turn creating an infinite amount of hit types such as nubbers, choppers, dribblers, pop ups, bloopers, tailing and hooking liners, high fly balls and many, many, many more.
 
 Batter Attributes - Both power and contact are taken into account separately. We are using 0-100 for our ratings this year (as opposed to 36-100 last year) thus clearly separating AA journeymen from MLB all stars.
 
 These attributes determine the size of his timing window. The higher the ratings the larger the window the better chance he has for high contact quality. They also determine how the batter matches up against the pitch.
 
 Hot/Cold zones - These indicate how well a hitter has success in a given area in the strike zone over time. However, new this year is the ability of the CPU hitter to learn your pitching tendencies. If you are consistently pitching the ball in the same cold zone, they will adjust and rip you. Remember, just because you´re pitching in a cold zone doesn´t mean the hitter can´t hit the ball (and hit it hard), it´s just a representation of his ovePitch Attributes - Think Randy Johnson´s slider or Rivera´s cutter. The better the pitcher´s pitch the steeper the climb to quality contact.
 
 Pitch Effectiveness - How much the pitcher fills the pitch meter affects how the batter sees the ball. The more fill, the more effective the pitch, making the batters job significantly harder. The less you fill the pitch meter will increase the chances you will get hit hard. The CPU works the same way. On MVP skill level the pitcher will throw at close to 100 percent effectiveness and it trickles down on the lower skill levels. You should also keep this in mind when you´re pitching. Gone are the days where you could tap the pitch button and have success. Try that against the CPU and see what happens this year.
 
 Pitch Accuracy - This is where the pitch was released in the green accuracy zone. The closer to the middle of the green the better the pitch. Outside the green are mistake pitches and give the batter a boost. The less accurate the pitch the better chance the user has of hitting the ball well.
 
 Pitch Type - This is a simple concept. Certain pitches are harder to hit in the air or get around on.
 
 Pitch Location - Similar to pitch types, pitch locations will have an effect on what the batter is trying to do. Using the Derek Lowe example again, his sinkers are much harder to hit in the air than something up in the zone.
 
 Those are just a few of the factors that when combined determine contact quality. There are many more things that come into play in the batting interface during a single player. One example new to MVP Baseball 2004 is pitcher learning.
 rall trendsIn MVP Baseball 2004 the pitcher learns your swing habits and pitches you accordingly. If you chase everything, the CPU will throw more pitches out of the zone until you prove you won´t swing at them. When you adjust to his adjustments he adjusts again. It´s a game of cat and mouse.
 
 Another way the pitcher learns is based upon what pitches you are having success hitting. In short, if you are tattooing a certain pitch he will stop throwing it as frequently and try to get you out with his other pitches. These adjustments too will continue all game long and are re-evaluated on a regular basis. The amount the pitcher learns is based upon his star level. Scrubs don´t learn as quickly as all stars. That´s why they´re scrubs.
 
 Finally, we expanded on check swings. This year if you check on a pitch in the strike zone there´s a chance you´ll hit a little "excuse me" dribbler out in front of the plate. Whether or not you go around on check swings is totally based upon where the bat is in the zone when you release the swing button. We have a handy PIP window here as well to show the swing and the call from the first or 3rd base umpire.
 
 This is just an overview of the improvements we´ve made to our hitting system in MVP Baseball 2004. In short if you do the right thing you´ll be successful more often than not but do the wrong thing and the pitcher will win. It´s very deep, challenging and fun and we really believe that it´s a winner.
 of success in hitting."

bigmoe · Post by **bigmoe** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 12:09 pm

. I know a lot of guys complained about too many line drives last year. Im hoping this years game...will there. . be dribblers...high balt. choppers....liners down each line hitting or missing chalk....screaming fouls into the dugout....fouls back onto the screen....high towering fly balls ......drives to the gap...bouncers to and off the wall..hard hit grounders handcuffing the infielders...to hot to handle....grounders with eyes up the middle...grounders or liners that hit the bag and kick foul ..texas leaguers....ground rule doubles...with all these type hits from foul line to foul line.. ..Did I miss any?.Oh yea fans reaching into field of play ala fan interference . .....just wondering? ....c...ya
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Slumberland · Post by **Slumberland** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 12:41 pm

This has only served to confuse me further. The hit-it-where-it´s-pitched system he´s describing is what I thought was in place last year. Was I mistaken that entire time? And if the ball "always hits the bat" as he says, why would you ever swing over or under the ball? Maybe I´m reading it wrong.

Zeppo · Post by **Zeppo** » Thu Feb 12, 2004 1:26 pm

I assume with the "ball always meets the bat" he means graphically, the ball hits the bat if there is contact, not the bat hitting a fat contact zone surrounding the ball. That is just an assumption.
 
 This all sounds great to me. We shall see if it is in fact as he says. One thing I wonder about is walks. One thing I like about the idea of the MVP pitching system is that it seems to be set up to make for more walks. But he mentions:
 
 "Outside the green are mistake pitches and give the batter a boost. The less accurate the pitch the better chance the user has of hitting the ball well."
 
 This makes me think that if you miss the accuracy zone, you´re more likely to toss up a "D´oh!" pitch than miss the strike zone.
 
 (Anyone else remember Konami´s "Bottom of the Ninth" way back for the original PSX? This was an awesome baseball game with no MLB License, though it had the MLBPA license. Anyway, it had a simple cursor system that worked really, really well, and pitching was straightforward, but once in a while, the hurler would toss up a meatball right down the middle and there would be a little "D´oh!" type icon in a comic-style speech bubble coming from the pitcher. You had no control over this, it just happened from time to time, and if the batter could react, he could crush it. Anyway, I am hoping MVP generates more walks than the usual none-to-few in video games, and not just a lot of "D´oh!" pitches.)