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!