Hi, I am a young umpire looking to have a fun way to keep my skills in check when I am bored and/or wanting a statistical way to see my calls. As a base point, this is an amazing game to do so. There are a few points of interest I have found that would make the experience more diverse and enjoyable, as well as some personal requests for the experience. I also understand this is an indie flash game so updates will take time. But overall, amazing.
-- Points I see in other comments --
- The plate is upside down. I know this is probably repeated ad nauseam but it just stands out. I have no doubt this'll be fixed soon.
- I hope the camera view can be improved. Specifically a height adjustor. I tend to sit my eyes just above the top of the box, for personal reasons, this addition would help the adjustment for higher and slower pitches. To balance this, maybe having additional players per team with different heights could diversify the strike zone.
- Swing-and-misses.
- For added challenge, I hope an additional difficulty for faster pitching can be added. I wish to challenge myself and consistently get 90+ percent per side. Since the current difficulty is based on score, and not the pitches, maybe a separate setting as a "Pitch difficulty" with the current setting as a "Score difficulty" could add a multiple to the difficulty selection.
Ex) Score difficulty being hard but speed being normal (current) would have easier pitches to call, but less forgiving where Score being easy and speed being "Major League" could have more challenging calls, but more forgiving. This would make the difficulty have 4 options rather than 2 or 3 with a simple addition.
--- Points I want to see that I haven't seen mentioned ---
- For additional challenge, I recommend adding side arm animations for diverse release points.
- I would like to see a toggleable catcher that would not only obscure some view but also add a bit of framing to the pitches for added challenge. Having the glove catching the ball while it is in motion towards the zone. This would add extra details like the squeeze of the glove and the sound of the ball entering the glove. Maybe having separate options for glove only or full catcher.
- I would like to see an addition to the feedback saying how close to the zone the wrong call is, and that influencing the score. I believe the "correct+difficulty" is a reflection of that but at the least see an average incorrect distance in the inning and end of game report would help. Smaller misses should have less effect on integrity and small correct calls should have a the vice-versa effect.
- Maybe an additional integrity meter to show which team you lean towards regarding bad calls. If it gets too far to one side, it can add a multiplier to the negative calls and if it is closer to the middle it could add a small multiplier to positive calls.
- When playing "make correct calls," the game still shows the objective "make the hatters win" as well as not giving a rating at the end of the game if they lose.
Quick nit pick but in the standard mode, the home team was winning and the game didn't end after the away team reached 3 outs. I recommend a quick option pop up asking if the player would like to finish the inning, or end the game depending on preference.
I love this game and have already bookmarked it. Keep it up!
Disclaimer: I've probably put a dozen or more hours playing this game so consider me your #1 beta tester lol. I truly enjoy playing your game and I want to see it be successful!
I get all of the comments that talk about making batters swing and all that, which I suspect may be in the works, albeit still far out. Thus, I intend to focus more on QoL and similar smaller-scale improvements that probably are a bit less energy intensive to fix.
- Umpire Range-of-Motion: with the new right-handed batters added, it would be nice to be able to move the umpire to the left side of the plate. I'm not sure what the long-term vision is for umpire positioning, but currently, the umpire motion travels on a fixed line, which works, but I could totally see it being done two-dimensionally where there is some defined plane the umpire is allowed to travel within to allow the player to reach their preferred line-of-sight. This plane could even flip/mirror itself for left and right-handed batters if it ends up asymmetrical.
- Streak Tracker: while the streak multiplier maxes out at 3x (which I think is fine btw, kudos to the points system which isn't too difficult), it would be cool to see real-time what the current correct call streak is, and maybe at the end (or even real-time) have an added metric for longest streak.
- Strike 3 Pitch Location: on strike 3 calls (and I'm assuming ball 4 calls), the pitch location flashes for only a moment, so players aren't able to see where the pitch was before the next batter steps into the box. I'd like to be able to see how close the pitch is when I ring up a batter.
- Pitch Challenge Clarification: on more than one occasion, I've called a pitch a strike, and the pitch was challenged. The replay showed a one-pixel overlap between the baseball and the white border of the strike zone. In previous versions of this game, I seem to recall this same scenario being called a strike, so I'd recommend you look into that and maybe provide a rules section with clarification on what constitutes a ball or strike.
- Team Choice: it would be cool to select which team you want to help win prior to starting a game. I suspect you're already working on something like this or have already considered it.
-Difficulty Setting: I didn't notice much of a difference between the two difficulty settings, but I didn't see you really mention it in the v9 update log so I'm just guessing you haven't gotten too deep into it yet.
Thanks again for your support of this project, and feel free to write me back if you had any questions about this feedback!
Thanks a lot for this feedback. I am really happy to hear that you have enjoyed the game! Here are some of my thoughts on the feedback:
Umpire Range-of-Motion: I did forget to adapt the umpire motion when I added right-hand-batters. I will look to get that fixed soon. As for more general controls, the 2d plane idea is really cool! My only concerns is whether that can be done with intuitive controls. I will try to find ways to do this but will likely be long-term
Streak Tracker: Really cool idea! Will try to see what UI makes sense for this. I will be adding some other UI in the next few releases, so I can try to add this after that.
Strike 3 Pitch Location: Yea this is definitely a problem. I will try to get a fix in the next few releases
Pitch Challenge: I have noticed some edge cases too. I will try to get to the bottom of it but might take a few releases to find the issue.
Team Choice: Yes definitely a cool idea! I am focusing on polishing the in-game experience at the moment and then I want to think about what the out-of-game expansion should be. Whether this a story mode or the choice to pick teams or something else, I need to figure out.
Difficulty setting: Currently the scoring is more forgiving at the lower difficulty. You can make more mistakes and survive. I wanted to avoid making the game mechanics themselves too different but open to it if that's the best solution.
Thanks for the wonderful feedback, I have added all the short term items in my backlog and will address them in the next few releases!
Edit: As of v11 release, Umpire Range-of-Motion + Strike 3 Pitch Location + Pitch Challenge have been fixed! The rest are longer term goals in the backlog
Current State: The Speed minigame includes fair/foul balls, despite no batter or animation. The Speed minigame also does not allow you to return to the main menu after completing a game. It would also be nice to have a catcher's glove for the minigame, although this does add to the challenge (perhaps make this an option the user can toggle?). I noticed the emphatic ball and strike call still doesn't seem to do much, is it just me? I think maybe there should be a small point boost for a correct emphatic call (10-20%), but a large point loss (30-50%) for an incorrect emphatic call. Love the check swings and foul balls, so awesome implementation of that feature. Would be cool to have the check swing feature something the batter challenges like another commenter said. Would also be nice to view your final pitch breakdown against each team, so that I can see how I expanded the strike zone for my team and tightened it up for the other team.
Future Plans: Not sure what the full game plans are, but it would be cool to have different teams offer you different rewards (bribes, money, XP, etc.) for calling the game a certain way. Some examples I can think of are 1. # of strikeouts in a game, 2. blocked challenges, or 3 # of wrong calls in their favor. I could see this being implemented as a message from a coach of one of the teams prior to the game, offering you a mini-goal that you can achieve regardless of who wins. This way, you can still have the team you want win while still making the other coach happy. And then maybe you can have an "opposing coach trust meter" that changes after each game based on how your calls are towards them, and if it gets too low, you may be investigated by the league. Also, we're all looking forward to doubles, triples, and home runs. I think the transparency aspect is fun as far as hit chance goes, so it would be cool to either be able to see the chances of different hits, or maybe even have this unlockable as you progress your umpire skills. For example, a new umpire would not be able to see the hit chances, but you could unlock different umpiring features as you go, such as the strike zone box displays and player (both home and away could be unlockable) quality stats. Once again, these are just some ideas to keep your creative juices flowing!
this is great! would love batters actually swinging, both for checked swings + so the batters can get hits and i don't have to the naked gun them on base every time. i'd also love to see my final accuracy on screen after finishing the game. big fan of what you have already tho, good job and keep it up B )
Would also love check-swing calls, even as a home plate ump you can still make a few judgments of egregious swing motions from behind the plate
In fact, I think that should be the challenged, since they are actually contested in MLB, unlike balls and strikes which are final, and you know, MORE conducive to be manipulated (as in the goal of this game)
(Also would love the Pat Moberg mode of just pursuing accuracy instead of being a secretly corrupt ump)
This absolutely rules. Big fan, gonna play this lots. A list of things I would love to see:
Harder levels where the pitches are faster and move more Left handed batters and pitchers Batters to actually swing so the game isn't just about walks and strikeouts
After another playthrough, I think adding one final screen at the end where you can see a chart of every pitch and your total accuracy is the biggest thing. Another change I thought of was a third camera that's moved slightly further back and with a catcher's model in the way, cause right now I think both views are just slightly too good. Finally, I would adjust the pitches themselves, as right now, they basically are all the same speed which really makes the game easier, not having to adjust to fastballs is big
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Hi, I am a young umpire looking to have a fun way to keep my skills in check when I am bored and/or wanting a statistical way to see my calls. As a base point, this is an amazing game to do so. There are a few points of interest I have found that would make the experience more diverse and enjoyable, as well as some personal requests for the experience. I also understand this is an indie flash game so updates will take time. But overall, amazing.
-- Points I see in other comments --
- The plate is upside down. I know this is probably repeated ad nauseam but it just stands out. I have no doubt this'll be fixed soon.
- I hope the camera view can be improved. Specifically a height adjustor. I tend to sit my eyes just above the top of the box, for personal reasons, this addition would help the adjustment for higher and slower pitches. To balance this, maybe having additional players per team with different heights could diversify the strike zone.
- Swing-and-misses.
- For added challenge, I hope an additional difficulty for faster pitching can be added. I wish to challenge myself and consistently get 90+ percent per side. Since the current difficulty is based on score, and not the pitches, maybe a separate setting as a "Pitch difficulty" with the current setting as a "Score difficulty" could add a multiple to the difficulty selection.
Ex) Score difficulty being hard but speed being normal (current) would have easier pitches to call, but less forgiving where Score being easy and speed being "Major League" could have more challenging calls, but more forgiving. This would make the difficulty have 4 options rather than 2 or 3 with a simple addition.
--- Points I want to see that I haven't seen mentioned ---
- For additional challenge, I recommend adding side arm animations for diverse release points.
- I would like to see a toggleable catcher that would not only obscure some view but also add a bit of framing to the pitches for added challenge. Having the glove catching the ball while it is in motion towards the zone. This would add extra details like the squeeze of the glove and the sound of the ball entering the glove. Maybe having separate options for glove only or full catcher.
- I would like to see an addition to the feedback saying how close to the zone the wrong call is, and that influencing the score. I believe the "correct+difficulty" is a reflection of that but at the least see an average incorrect distance in the inning and end of game report would help. Smaller misses should have less effect on integrity and small correct calls should have a the vice-versa effect.
- Maybe an additional integrity meter to show which team you lean towards regarding bad calls. If it gets too far to one side, it can add a multiplier to the negative calls and if it is closer to the middle it could add a small multiplier to positive calls.
- When playing "make correct calls," the game still shows the objective "make the hatters win" as well as not giving a rating at the end of the game if they lose.
Quick nit pick but in the standard mode, the home team was winning and the game didn't end after the away team reached 3 outs. I recommend a quick option pop up asking if the player would like to finish the inning, or end the game depending on preference.
I love this game and have already bookmarked it. Keep it up!
Thanks for the awesome feedback! It's great to hear that you found it useful as a real umpire as well!
Disclaimer: I've probably put a dozen or more hours playing this game so consider me your #1 beta tester lol. I truly enjoy playing your game and I want to see it be successful!
I get all of the comments that talk about making batters swing and all that, which I suspect may be in the works, albeit still far out. Thus, I intend to focus more on QoL and similar smaller-scale improvements that probably are a bit less energy intensive to fix.
- Umpire Range-of-Motion: with the new right-handed batters added, it would be nice to be able to move the umpire to the left side of the plate. I'm not sure what the long-term vision is for umpire positioning, but currently, the umpire motion travels on a fixed line, which works, but I could totally see it being done two-dimensionally where there is some defined plane the umpire is allowed to travel within to allow the player to reach their preferred line-of-sight. This plane could even flip/mirror itself for left and right-handed batters if it ends up asymmetrical.
- Streak Tracker: while the streak multiplier maxes out at 3x (which I think is fine btw, kudos to the points system which isn't too difficult), it would be cool to see real-time what the current correct call streak is, and maybe at the end (or even real-time) have an added metric for longest streak.
- Strike 3 Pitch Location: on strike 3 calls (and I'm assuming ball 4 calls), the pitch location flashes for only a moment, so players aren't able to see where the pitch was before the next batter steps into the box. I'd like to be able to see how close the pitch is when I ring up a batter.
- Pitch Challenge Clarification: on more than one occasion, I've called a pitch a strike, and the pitch was challenged. The replay showed a one-pixel overlap between the baseball and the white border of the strike zone. In previous versions of this game, I seem to recall this same scenario being called a strike, so I'd recommend you look into that and maybe provide a rules section with clarification on what constitutes a ball or strike.
- Team Choice: it would be cool to select which team you want to help win prior to starting a game. I suspect you're already working on something like this or have already considered it.
-Difficulty Setting: I didn't notice much of a difference between the two difficulty settings, but I didn't see you really mention it in the v9 update log so I'm just guessing you haven't gotten too deep into it yet.
Thanks again for your support of this project, and feel free to write me back if you had any questions about this feedback!
Thanks a lot for this feedback. I am really happy to hear that you have enjoyed the game! Here are some of my thoughts on the feedback:
Thanks for the wonderful feedback, I have added all the short term items in my backlog and will address them in the next few releases!
Edit: As of v11 release, Umpire Range-of-Motion + Strike 3 Pitch Location + Pitch Challenge have been fixed! The rest are longer term goals in the backlog
Current State: The Speed minigame includes fair/foul balls, despite no batter or animation. The Speed minigame also does not allow you to return to the main menu after completing a game. It would also be nice to have a catcher's glove for the minigame, although this does add to the challenge (perhaps make this an option the user can toggle?). I noticed the emphatic ball and strike call still doesn't seem to do much, is it just me? I think maybe there should be a small point boost for a correct emphatic call (10-20%), but a large point loss (30-50%) for an incorrect emphatic call. Love the check swings and foul balls, so awesome implementation of that feature. Would be cool to have the check swing feature something the batter challenges like another commenter said. Would also be nice to view your final pitch breakdown against each team, so that I can see how I expanded the strike zone for my team and tightened it up for the other team.
Future Plans: Not sure what the full game plans are, but it would be cool to have different teams offer you different rewards (bribes, money, XP, etc.) for calling the game a certain way. Some examples I can think of are 1. # of strikeouts in a game, 2. blocked challenges, or 3 # of wrong calls in their favor. I could see this being implemented as a message from a coach of one of the teams prior to the game, offering you a mini-goal that you can achieve regardless of who wins. This way, you can still have the team you want win while still making the other coach happy. And then maybe you can have an "opposing coach trust meter" that changes after each game based on how your calls are towards them, and if it gets too low, you may be investigated by the league. Also, we're all looking forward to doubles, triples, and home runs. I think the transparency aspect is fun as far as hit chance goes, so it would be cool to either be able to see the chances of different hits, or maybe even have this unlockable as you progress your umpire skills. For example, a new umpire would not be able to see the hit chances, but you could unlock different umpiring features as you go, such as the strike zone box displays and player (both home and away could be unlockable) quality stats. Once again, these are just some ideas to keep your creative juices flowing!
this is great! would love batters actually swinging, both for checked swings + so the batters can get hits and i don't have to the naked gun them on base every time. i'd also love to see my final accuracy on screen after finishing the game. big fan of what you have already tho, good job and keep it up B )
Batters can now get hits in the latest (v10) release! (End game accuracy report was also added back in v6). Let me know if you have any thoughts!
Would also love check-swing calls, even as a home plate ump you can still make a few judgments of egregious swing motions from behind the plate
In fact, I think that should be the challenged, since they are actually contested in MLB, unlike balls and strikes which are final, and you know, MORE conducive to be manipulated (as in the goal of this game)
(Also would love the Pat Moberg mode of just pursuing accuracy instead of being a secretly corrupt ump)
Checked Swing calls have been added in v13!
This absolutely rules. Big fan, gonna play this lots. A list of things I would love to see:
Harder levels where the pitches are faster and move more
Left handed batters and pitchers
Batters to actually swing so the game isn't just about walks and strikeouts
Big fan of what you have so far keep it up
After another playthrough, I think adding one final screen at the end where you can see a chart of every pitch and your total accuracy is the biggest thing. Another change I thought of was a third camera that's moved slightly further back and with a catcher's model in the way, cause right now I think both views are just slightly too good. Finally, I would adjust the pitches themselves, as right now, they basically are all the same speed which really makes the game easier, not having to adjust to fastballs is big
Thanks for the feedback! Latest update should address all of these.