MLB The Show 16: Precision Input Gameplay Engine Breakdown

San Diego Studios revealed a lot of new features during last week’s stream, but one of the

features that is not being talked about and still has some question marks behind it is the new Precision Input Gameplay Engine being implemented in MLB The Show 16.

What is Precision Input?

Gameplay focused on determinism, firmly prioritizing user skill with better

benefits for accurate inputs and bigger penalties for inaccurate inputs. Basically, this will affect everything that requires timing and hand eye coordinationg including hitting and pitching. The main aspects of hitting will be noticeable in zone hitting and potentially pure analog hitting (which they are supposedly bringing back the stride).

Zone Hitting:

For zone hitters, PCI placement will have a bigger impact on your success at

the plate. This year we will see less randomness with the PCI and more

consistent feedback for each swing.

In the past, we would often see pitches where the PCI was not even touching the ball and it would result in a HR or we would see a ball squared up perfectly with good time to equate

into a weak fly out or ground out.

Hopefully this year, we see a more consistent engine with the zone hitting and users are rewarded more with good PCI placement and timing. An example of this are in the images below.

Analog Hitting:

This is all speculation, but the stride is supposedly coming back. If so, then

this means the user has more control of their outcomes at the plate.

Pure analog hitting will require good timing with the stride, good timing with the

swing, and good analog placement that controls the placement of the PCI.

Users should get rewarded for better stride timing and swing timing more

than ever if this is implemented properly.

Directional Hitting:

This should be impacted the least, since the users are forfeiting the ability

to control the placement of their swings. In theory, good swings will be

rewarded more, but the problem is that when users choose to use

directional hitting they are sacrficing bat placement and leaving that feat to

be decided more on attributes. In speculation, good timing swings may be

slightly more rewarded and vice versa.

Pulse and Classic Pitching:

Pulse and Classic pitching will be affected minimally by precision input. You

may be rewarded more with good timing on the pulsations when using

pulse pitching, but classic pitching strictly goes by the pitchers’ attributes.

Meter Pitching:

Meter pitching will be impacted significantly by precision input. If the user

can consistently hit the green spot of the meter then they will hit their

spots, however if the user is off then the pitch will be off even more than

usual.

Analog Pitching:

Similar to Meter pitching, Analog will be heavily impacted by precision

input. Users will be more rewarded when they hit their intended spot and

punished when they miss.

In the past, you were not punished as much when missing a spot with analog and the ball would still go where your input took it. Now users may be punished even more, however if you can consistently hit your spots with analog then it will be very effective.

Fielding:

Precision Input may have an impact on Fielding. That is yet to be

determined, but it would affect analog throwing and button accuracy the

most.

Overall, this feature will reward those with better timing and placement.

This should be a positive, especially for online play where you want user

skill to determine the winner and not attributes, randomness, and luck.

MLB The Show 16: Precision Input Gameplay Engine Breakdown