So I've been an avid The Show player for the last several years, preordering the game, and playing a ton. Until this year. Because last year's online play was so bad I decided to wait until the game was on sale and not spend a dime more this year. I got the game in OCT and I've worked my way to a solid team of 99s and generally had a great time doing moments, showdown, conquest, etc.. That is until I started playing RS. I've played about 10 RS games and already I want to stop playing, even though I have a winning record. Just the sheer amount of bonkers insane situations I see playing out is baffling. Now I'm not a WS quality player. I admit that. But I play on a gaming monitor, I use a wired connection, I can make it to CS. This last game I gave up 16 hits. 11 hits I gave up were on pitches on the black or OFF THE PLATE. Including 5 singles, a double, and a home run that were SEVERAL INCHES off the plate. Like basically in the dirt or 6 inches outside. It left me scratching my head how someone could RIP balls that much off the plate. Balls that most major leaguers would spit on.
My question is this. Will online play ever be good if SDS sticks to this RNG based hitting and pitching that throws well executed pitching down the middle?
I've said for the last few years that they need to change the PCI to something more bat shaped and switch from a RNG based hitting system, to a physics based system, where the PCI is bat shaped through the zone and results are based upon where the ball actually hits the bat. They make huge open world games with real physics now. Why can't they make this use real physics too? That way if the contact results show I was underneath the ball, then so be it, I can't argue. But I can only stomach so many routine flyball out GOOD/GOOD contact results where the balls is DIRECTLY in the middle of the PCI.
I've also said that they need to change the pitching to something a little more in depth. It doesn't matter if you're using meter, pulse, or analog, if you're off by a sliver there's a 99% chance that the ball is going straight down the middle. They need to make a pitchers control factor more into the ability to execute a pitch properly. Maybe make the yellow line bigger or smaller depending on the pitcher's control. As it is now it seems if you execute a pitch perfectly the game checks the pitcher's control and if it's bad says, "Yeah yeah yeah, I know you had perfect release on this pitch.... buuuuuuuut I checked the stat sheet here and it says this guy's only got 70 control. Soooo the pitch is going straight down the middle... Sorry!"
In addition that, why pitch speeds increase as difficulty goes up is beyond me. Does this game exist in a world where two things traveling 95MPH have two separate speeds? How do you go from grinding conquest on rookie where 99MPH is one speed and then to RS on hall of fame where 99 can be a different speed? They need to make pitches hard to execute and PCIs smaller to increase difficulty, not alter the laws of physics...
My guess is that SDS doesn't feel like doing a complete tear down of their game engines to make them actually good. That's why they concentrate on churning out more and more content rather than improve gameplay. And I admit the content was spectacular this year. Sure we've been missing a few cards, but there is a TON to do and I've really enjoyed the content part. However the actual core gameplay is just eroding my desire to actually even buy the game again. I guess I don't blame them, they're probably making a ton of money while phoning it in gameplay wise. So why do anything different? Why put in all the effort to rebuild when they don't need to?
Here's hoping there will eventually be a rival baseball game out there to light a fire under them.
Sorry guys. Rant over...