Entry #2 - 05/01/02

　　By Dave Perkinson

　　Producer, Visual Concepts

　　Pitching has undergone a lot of work from the previous installments of the series. Addressing the gameplay issues of World Series Baseball 2K2 and moving World Series Baseball to the Xbox, we knew that we needed to improve the hit and pitched ball speeds, the depth of the animations, and the ball physics. Similarly, we had to do a better job of individually representing pitchers and batters, we needed to shore up the game camera so that it tracked the ball more nimbly, and we needed to make the CPU play a more realistic game of baseball. With those changes, as well as overhauling certain game modes entirely, the team had set ambitious goals for the product.

　　From an animation standpoint, we knew, as Troy [Skinner, executive producer at Blue Shift] stated in the earlier designer diary, that we had a solid core system. What we needed were animations to fill the holes in the system. We wanted to see as many of the routine and not-so-routine plays as possible and allow the user and the AI alike to take advantage of them. We wanted to see players throw on the run, we wanted to see shortstops range into the hole between second and third and make jumping throws, and we wanted to see players dive and make the throw from their knees. With that in mind, we brought in our motion-capture athletes in late October and early November for lengthy shoots designed to gather all the data that we desired. Along with enhancing the main gameplay animations, we wanted to drastically improve our overall presentation. Reaching this goal meant expanding our cutscene package and including a new action replay system, so a great deal of time was spent capturing ambient and celebration animations as well.

　　Not only does this look painful, but if he misses that ball he'll be singing soprano. In terms of AI, there was a case where the game actually needed to behave a little less intelligently--or, in other words, more realistically. The batting AI needed to be less stringent about which pitches it chose to swing at. The game needed to occasionally be fooled and chase pitches outside the strike zone. The user needed to know that there were benefits to throwing pitches out of the zone, and that every once in a while (depending on the batter, of course), the CPU would strike out waving at something it could never hit. Last year, users were punished with balls and lost stamina when throwing outside the zone. This year, there's actually an advantage to it--especially with the Richie Sexsons and Jim Thomes of the world at the plate.

　　For pitching, we wanted the AI to know not only what type of pitches a player has, but also how often he throws them, how fast they go, how accurate they are, and what he'll throw when he needs a strikeout. On top of that, each pitcher has a unique fatigue attribute that is tailored to the individual. Certain starting pitchers will tire faster than others. Certain closers may be able to go a little longer than others. Also, a great deal of time was spent to make sure that all the pitches in the game behave uniquely. The user should now have a sense, whether batting or pitching, if the man on the mound has devastating breaking stuff, or just pitches that he needs to show occasionally to keep the hitter from sitting on the fastball.

　　Batting has been refined quite a bit for the Xbox incarnation of the series. I've run out of room for this entry, but I am happy to report that the good folks over at GameSpot have allowed us to do another entry on our gameplay changes. We haven't even had a chance to talk about baserunning, errors, wild pitches, or the cutoff man! Thanks to GameSpot for the additional entry, and look forward to more next week.