MLB 11 The Show a quick tidbit

[JRod]

Definitely agree about the strike zone, especially the high strike. That would be sweet if you got an option to change the strike zone to your preferences. I feel as though I wouldn't chase as many pitches if it went based off how they call it in MLB games.quote]

What's also silly about the strike zone is that it's pretty uniform, and doesn't seem to take into account if I guy is crouched or upright.

I'm convinced it has to be an MLB mandate or something because seemingly every series I've played had a too big of a zone.

Was HH's zone any better? Can't remember.

Yep HH was. Maybe the guy was Chuck Knoblauch but his zone was tiny. Then you have Randy Johnson and his was huge. HH nailed a lot of stuff right, they MLB and 2k can't get right...still.

[Pete]

Now I know the defense has changed this year, and I really do like the changes. However, I have had a few WTF instances with hard hit balls in the infield and was wondering if anyone else was having the same problem.

I have had one hit to the 2B and one to the SS where they turn to the outfield and go out to get the cutoff when it seems like they should have made the play. The ball zips right by them without them even attempting to make a play.

Normally it would be no big deal, but, of course, it directly led to runs being scored.

Otherwise, just a fantastic game.

[RallyMonkey]

^^^^^^^^ Pete, it is the only issue i've noticed since getting the game that really has bothered me. While you have seen it at 2B and SS, I have had it happen at 1B too. Like you said, it's such a good game that it only leaves me WTF'ing for a moment, but it certainly does seem like a built-in "let's let the CPU score a few runs" logic.

[sportdan30]

^^^^^^^^ Pete, it is the only issue i've noticed since getting the game that really has bothered me. While you have seen it at 2B and SS, I have had it happen at 1B too. Like you said, it's such a good game that it only leaves me WTF'ing for a moment, but it certainly does seem like a built-in "let's let the CPU score a few runs" logic.

Haven't see those instances as of yet. However, I have seen in consecutive games now the left fielder of the CPU controlled team misplay a line shot that results in a double or triple for my team. It hasn't happened with any of my players, but it's just strange to see the same animation happen in back to back games.

[Brando70]

Hit an opposite-field HR with Marlon Byrd while using the contact swing. Was just trying to put the ball in play on a 1-2 count and wound up taking a curveball over the right-center wall. Not a lot of wind, either. I had assumed the power modifier was pretty substantial but it can't be that big of a penalty.

[JRod]

One thing that is not realistic in The Show but is huge in baseball is when a pitcher loses break on his pitches.

Even a meatball breaking ball pitch still has a lot of break on it. So a curve ball "left up" should be a breaking ball that didn't break and turns into a mid 80s "fastball". That simply doen't happen in The Show. A slider left up still has the good break on it. Now break does change if you try a curve ball up but there's no such thing as a true meatball where a curve ball doesn't break.

What happens is a curve ball that The Show things is a meat ball is a curve that breaks right into the center of the plate but it still a great looking pitch because it looks like it's missing the zone and falls in. This has been the shows problem for as long as I can remember.

[AJColossal]

What happens is a curve ball that The Show things is a meat ball is a curve that breaks right into the center of the plate but it still a great looking pitch because it looks like it's missing the zone and falls in. This has been the shows problem for as long as I can remember.

This is something I never thought of that definitely happens in real life. Would be cool if they could implement it.

Again, another example of something I haven't seen in The Show or any other game.

[backbreaker]

The Show 2nd patch fix list

General

- Users can now share saved data files.
- Pitcher will now catch more pop up bunts, jammed hits in the air instead of ignoring them
- CPU batters will no longer swing at balls that bounce up in to the strike zone
- Fixed bug with bases loaded, two outs, ball in dirt strike three, step on home. Batter comes back up to the plate at the start of the next inning fixed.
- Fixed CPU closer getting yanked after giving up 1 run when ahead by two in a save situation
- Catcher will now catch more balls that bounce in front of him instead of blocking them. As it stands, a lot of the blocked balls turn in to WP's.
- Fixed Miguel Tejada's homerun bug - This can occur only when you make a RTTS show player and make him lefty or switch hitter, because Tejada is normally right handed.
- Fixed Errors incorrectly being called on backend of double plays, when the out wasn't made.
- The rob HR off the glove issues addressed. Now when a rob hr is attempted, the ball hit's the glove and the ball goes over the wall it is counted as a HR.
- Catcher will pick up balls under him instead of standing up all the time. Also he catches more short hops instead of standing up all the time.
- Knucklball pitch movement addressed (no longer looks like a good change up. left and right movement occurs)
- Fixed issues with pitcher not fielding bunts that were popped up.
- Fixed the bug, not giving an error, on some error throws in the infield.
- Fixed giving batter non-existent Fielders Choice.
- Wind influence reduction based on extensive tests versus real life stats and community feedback
- Added Pitcher and Batter handedness changes. On the substitution screen, when entered from the bullpen only.
- Fixed an issue that was causing a stutter in the Start screen and during pitches in-game. Not always, but sometimes.
- Analog Pitching, is now harder to pin point your location
- Analog Hitting has been made easier(Increased the timing window)
- Meter pitching, its now harder to pinpoint your location




- Franchise Fixes:
-- Cause players with low overall to retire sooner.
-- Fixed a bug causing players to not store their initial attribute levels at the start of each season, causing progression in the offseason to appear much larger than it was since it was being calculated to the start of 2011, regardless of the current season.
-- Decisions on contract options need to be made sooner since the exclusive negotiation period was shortened from 15 to 5 days.
-- Only players with 6+ years of service time will be flagged as type A or type B free agents.
-- Fixed the accelerated progression where players were progressing to their potential at age 26 instead of 30.
-- Fixed 99 ovr players were not correctly normalizing to 1.0f.
-- Adjusted salary curve and fixed issues with salaries in short seasons.
-- Now the game doesn't backload contracts that are less than $5M per year or less than 4 years.
-- Adjusted how potentials are assigned to generated players.
-- More logic to see if a contract should be tendered to a player before allowing him to become a free agent. Also, more accurate calculation for salary reserved for minor league players under the team's control.
-- Fixed some bugs with the popup message in multi-user franchise mode when minor league teams secure a bye in the playoffs.
-- Make sure any player who is decent (75 ovr, 75 potential) are being offered arbitration. Also, make sure free agents were offered arbitration by the CPU and teams didn't receive compensation picks for players to whom they didn't offer arbitration.
-- Fixed the issue to make sure that contract offers and arbitration offers aren't cleared when a player becomes a free agent at the end of the 5 day exclusive negotiation period.
-- Fixed the issue and now more 1 year contracts for arbitration eligible players.
-- Make the best available player the most valuable if the team is missing minor leaguers.
-- Set team strategies for the user teams as well.
-- All minor leaguers will now have 1 year contracts by default.
-- Treat CPU controlled user teams as CPU teams for purposes of reducing trades during the season.
-- Clear a player's minor league option used status at the start of spring training instead of at the end of it. This was allowing the user to send players down during spring training and not have an option used.




RTTS
- Fixes an event ordering issue at the end of offseason. Promotes decision to force career player contract signing to the beginning of the Advance function on the last day of offseason, in front of HandleOrganization. HandleOrganization may move the player to the 40 man roster in the HandleRenewal call, and this previously would change the Renewable status before the player was forced to sign, which would put the career player into a state the system was not prepared for.



Online -
- Sportsmanship fix for Gamer of the Day online home screen. Was always showing zero.
- player vault appearance fix. This would happen when creating, exporting, uploading, then downloading single players. They would have a Jeter head instead of the head created.
- custom roster load to make sure they all load the same. tested, and no more divergence. To test, use leagues with a custom roster.
- Framrate improvements during online game when pitcher side is from pitching view, the batter's screen takes framerate hits. This is most noticeable in TB. Graphics improvements done and the 2nd base umpire turned off.
- Balks and Batter Walk-ups should now work in league games when set to ON in League create. For Batter walk-ups Presentation Mode must be set to any option, other than Fast Play.
- Fixed the issue where once anyone in a league trades and has more than 40 players on a league team, the game may crash for some users when accessing My Leagues. Or some teams may have the wrong player and cause league problems.
- Fixed Play Now and exhibition games entered don't always have Wind at 4mph coming in from RF.
- randomness restored to wind for online games.
- Side ticker clean up, which addresses games that are in Preview status.
- On Line check swings adjustments, opening up the timing window for them. Should now be improved.

[Slumberland]

- Analog Pitching, is now harder to pin point your location

SWEET

[MizzouRah]

Nice, just in time for me to start playing this game!

[tjung0831]

Started a 2nd season with the Cubs and on opening day threw a 4 hitter with Zambrano. Unfortunately James McDonald of the Pirates threw a perfect game(105 pitches) against me and I lost 2-0... The beauty is that I was pounding the heck out of the ball in my other season with the Orioles...All Star defaults but every game was a hit fest. Same settings with the new season and I have a game that only has 4 total hits....CRAZY STUFF! I cannot believe I was the victim of a perfect game.

[10spro]

If only PSN was back on.

[Rodster]

If only PSN was back on.

I'd hate to be a PSPGo owner right now.

[skinsfan]

If only PSN was back on.

You can get the patch without PSN;but of course online play is another matter.

[Slumberland]

I found analog pitching to be almost exactly the same as pre-patch.

[AJColossal]

I found analog pitching to be almost exactly the same as pre-patch.

You know something that I think makes the game even better and might help with this? Turn off variable strike zone or variable umpire strike zone or whatever it's called.

Even though I like the idea of a variable strike zone, I found that more times than not it was calling too many pitches that should be balls as strikes and limiting walks. Really enjoying the results with this off.

And for those that are complaining about too many HRs, I was finding that the wind was playing too much of a role. In games that the wind was calmer, the HRs would be just right. But in games that the wind was blowing out like crazy, there would be 3-4 per team almost without fail.

The wind slider fixed that, but now that the patch addressed this, I'll probably check it out on default.

Now that the patch addressed wind effectiveness, analog pitching and the closer bug, the gameplay is just about perfect for me.

[Brando70]

You know something that I think makes the game even better and might help with this? Turn off variable strike zone or variable umpire strike zone or whatever it's called.

Even though I like the idea of a variable strike zone, I found that more times than not it was calling too many pitches that should be balls as strikes and limiting walks. Really enjoying the results with this off.

I might do that, even though I like variability. I am getting behind or KL'd on some ridiculous calls. It seems much more likely that borderline balls or ones that are even outside the zone are called strikes than the other way around.

I don't know if it's me, but two games since the patch I have been shelled for double-digit runs in my Cubs franchise, after having a team ERA around 3.50. It seems like there are a number of times when I try to bend the release with the R3 stick, but the motion goes straight or even to the opposite direction I was pushing. It's made for some interesting pitches.

I also got the dubious Hands of Stone trophy the other day for having five errors in a game!

[AJColossal]

I also got the dubious Hands of Stone trophy the other day for having five errors in a game!

As much fun as analog fielding was, I had turn it off. Too many games like this.

[Slumberland]

I also got the dubious Hands of Stone trophy the other day for having five errors in a game!

As much fun as analog fielding was, I had turn it off. Too many games like this.

Yup. I like the feel of it, but the results are wacky.

[AJColossal]

Was enjoying it and getting a handle on it but what killed it for me were the endless errant flips to 2B, especially on double play attempts. I tried flicking it gently, quickly, looking at the controller to make sure I was aiming perfectly "up", stopping & taking a deep breath, counting to 10,...

Seriously, if someone can explain it to me, by all means.

[Brando70]

Two of my five errors were big user errors. One was on a play to 1B where I missed the bag running my 1B over, and then got kind of stuck going in a loop trying to get him to touch it (I forget you can use the throw option to do this). Another one was me changing my mind on a throw and triggering the fake throw instead.

I actually have had good results with analog fielding except for the occasional fake throw. In fact, I like it better than the buttons because it feels way more intuitive to me. I haven't had any issues with double-plays using it -- I usually just push up like I normally would for a throw, then pre-load the throw to first.

[vinny-b]

had plan to download the new Knight roster and initiate a new RTTS.

PSN down. Thanks Sony...

[Slumberland]

You can probably get it in there if you have a thumbdrive lying around or something.

[Pete]

I have not had problems throwing with the analog and have had minimal throwing errors. The few I have had have made sense. Last night Rolen's momentum took him into foul territory, I tried to throw quickly to first but pulled Votto off the bag.

On most of my throws, I try not to hold for too long, unless, like the above example, I need to get it off quickly and I know I run the risk of throwing off line.

The thing I am having trouble with is the dive and jump. In the past, it was up on the right stick to jump and down to dive. Now you have to hold the R1 button and push up to jump and hold the R2 button and push down to dive. Having a hard time getting the hang of that.

[GTHobbes]

The thing I am having trouble with is the dive and jump. In the past, it was up on the right stick to jump and down to dive. Now you have to hold the R1 button and push up to jump and hold the R2 button and push down to dive. Having a hard time getting the hang of that.

Pete, I'm not sure if there's any difference with analog fielding, but using button fielding, I changed it in the options to where the R2 button handles both jumping and diving (no need to press up or down on the right stick). You might want to take a look to see if this solves the problem for you.