Fielding Mechanics

This page discusses the mechanics of playing defense, other than throwing. For throwing mechanics, see this page.

## Basic Controls

### Running around the field

The game will automatically determine which fielder is in control, which is indicated by a hand pointing down toward the character. Use the control stick to move the character.

By mashing B, the fielder in control will dash faster.

Usually, characters will stop moving once the control stick is put back to neutral, but very fast characters will continue to have momentum if they have been dashing

### Jumping

When the character isn't dashing, pressing the A button will make the fielder jump. When making a jumping catch, the fielder will not bobble the ball. The heights of each jump (excluding super jumps) is the same for each character.

Jumping makes the character go 2.1 units off the ground in the Y direction. Super jump characters go 3.8 units off the ground.

See below for information on jumping abilities.

### Diving

When dashing, press the A button to dive. If the ball is within the range of the fielder, the dive will automatically dive in the direction of the ball. Otherwise, the dive will be in the direction of the control stick.

## Abilities

### Wall Jump

On low home run hits, some characters can jump onto the wall, then jump again off the wall to potentially rob a home run.

Wall jumps are higher than super jumps, but are the same for all characters.

Characters with Wall Jumps: Mario, Luigi, Baby Mario, Baby Luigi, Toadette, Bowser Jr.

Details about wall Jumps can be found later down on this page.

### Super Jump

This ability gives characters a much higher jumping ability. Their jumps go 3.8 units off the ground compared to 2.1 units for non-super jumpers.

Characters with Super Jump: Luigi, Waluigi, Boo, King Boo, Paratroopa, Paragoomba

### Clamber

Characters with the Clamber Ability can climb the wall and make catches while hanging off the wall. This is more useful at stadiums with large walls (Peach Gardens, Bowser Stadium), but it's usefulness is limited because it takes time to climb high on the wall.

To trigger a clamber, the character must be running towards the wall and be less than 5m away when A is pressed. Clambers can catch a ball 1m above the fielder's height.

Video: https://clips.twitch.tv/CrowdedFilthyMilkDancingBaby-o-NbbQH9HX3AXbua

Characters with Clamber ability: Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Dixie Kong, Yoshi

### Sliding Catch

It's not fully understood what this ability does. Anecdotally, it seems like the diving range for characters with this ability is expanded, and possibly has a lower bobble chance.

Characters with this ability: Mario, Daisy, Wario, Koopa Troopa, Toadette, Shy Guy, Noki, Dry Bones

### Tongue/Suction Catch

These are the names of Yoshi and Birdo's diving catches. Their diving ranges are very large, but that is already reflected in their Dive Range statistic, so it appears as if the ability doesn't have an extra effect other than visual.

### Super Catch (Glue Hands)

This ability removes the possibility of the character bobbling the ball.

Characters with this ability: Diddy Kong, Peach, Toadsworth

### Magical Catch

This is the name of Magikoopa's diving catch. Magikoopa will cast a spell on the ball and attract it towards him slowly. This ability visually puts stars around the baseball. Sometimes, the stars will appear but the ball isn't attracted.

### Ball Dash

When characters with this ability have the ball, they will run at super speed. This is useful on the infield to get players out in rundowns.

Characters with this ability: Monty Mole, Goomba

### Wall Splat

This is an anti-ability. If A is pressed within 3m of a wall, the character will forcefully "splat" themselves onto the wall and remain there for a period of time. Video: https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxrGUwlRfREAhzpB5Vo7Zgb9lcRlL-5ivm

## Hit Boxes for Normal Catches

When not diving, each character has a hit box in which they will catch the ball. The hitbox is a cylinder determined by a radius and height of the character. The radius for catching ground balls is different than the fly ball catching radius.

There are 16 unique height - groundball radius -flyball radius pairings.

As seen above, the difference in groundball vs flyball hitbox radius is different for each class.

## Bobbles

On batted balls, characters have a chance to bobble the ball (unless they have the Super Catch ability). This will knock the ball away from the character, with the distance depending on how hard the ball was hit.

### Bobble Chances (Credit - Roeming)

Bobble's are calculated using a bobble index given to each character. The index is also what type of character they are (Balance/Power/Speed/Technique). Bobbles are also determined by the type of hit (flyball or groundball), the type of catch, and if the character was centered under the ball.
Being centered on the ball is based on the folowing hitboxes. If the ball is within the radius of these hitboxes, then the catch is considered centred.

 0.59
 0.6
 0.7
 0.88
 0.9
 1
 1.1
 1.11
 1.2

Bobble Chance (Not on Toy Field)
 Power
 Speed
 Technique

Ground Fumble Chance (Not on Toy Field)
 Power
 Speed
 Technique

Toy Field has separate bobble/fumble chances.

Bobble Chance (Toy Field)
 Power
 Speed
 Technique

Ground Fumble Chance (Toy Field)
 Power
 Speed
 Technique

### Chemistry Bobbles

If a character is nearby when a bobble happens, the ball will bounce in the direction of the other character. Two examples are found in this video (credit-MORI).

If the bobbling fielder is in the deep outfield, then the game will look for players with chemistry within 20m. Otherwise, the radius is 15m. It will choose the closest player with chemistry to bobble towards to.

There are two types of chemistry bobbles: type 1 when the character is making a normal catch, and type 2 is when the fielder is doing an action (sliding catch, wall jump, etc). This matters for the direction the bobble will go.

### Bobble speed

The amount a bobble slows down the hit ball depends on if it was a 'hard hit' (defined by the batter charging and getting non-sour contact, or if it was a Bowser or Boswer Jr. star hit), and the type of bobble (normal, or chem type 1/2).

Slowdown factors
 Hard Hit

### Bobble direction

The direction the ball bounces off of the player depends on the speed of the ball, if the character was centred on the ball, and if it was a chem bobble.

Non-Chem Bobble Angles, in degrees
 Ball is not centered and moving slowly (less than 0.5m/frame)
 Ball is not centred and moving fast

If the bobble was a chem bobble, then the ball will have a random angle towards the fielder within 22.5 degrees of where the chem-partner is standing. If it was a normal catch, then the bobble will go vertically in the air at an angle somewhere between 22.5 and 45 degrees. If the fielder was doing an action (sliding, jumping catch), the bobble will pop up between 45 and 67.5 degrees.

## Running

The running speed of the characters is calculated as follows:

* Take the normal speed of each character (found in the table below)
* If the player is mashing buttons to make the character sprint, the maximum sprint bonus is 1.4x the normal speed.
* If the player has the ball dash ability (Goomba or Monty), multiply by 2.25x (for CPU-controlled characters, this bonus is only 1.5x)

Essentially, the formula is Fielder velocity = Normal Speed \* Mashing Multiplier \* Ball Dash Multiplier

The following table shows the normal and sprint speeds of each character. The normal speed doesn't increase linearly, as shown in this chart made by Super63.

For the ball dash characters, here are their speeds when they have the ball:

Speeds of ball dash characters when they have the ball
 Monty

The percentage increase in speed as a result of making characters superstars (50 added to their speed stat)
 20
 30
 40
 50
 60
 70
 80
 90

### Dash Glitch

If the player begins mashing with one character and the game switches to another character, the newly-controlled character won't be able to start dashing unless the player completely stops mashing the B button for some time before resuming again.

## Dive ranges

Each character's dive range is determined by combining their dive hitbox, their running speed, and the sliding catch ability. There are separate dive ranges for different hit heights.

### Pop-fly dive range (for balls that are hit 5m+ into the air)

When a dive is initiated by pressing A, the game calculates how far the character can run until the ball will hit the ground. The maximum frames it will calculate is 45 frames for most characters, and 60 frames for characters with the sliding catch ability (if A is pressed before this, then the dive won't catch the ball). This is the minimum dive range (any closer and a running catch will be triggered). This minimum can be boosted by sprinting.

Then, the game calculates the maximum dive range. For normal characters, this is the minimum dive range + the dive hitbox. For sliding catch characters, this is the minimum dive range \* 1.2 + the dive hitbox. The dive range width is 60 degrees. If the drop spot of the ball is within this area, then a dive will catch the ball (assuming no bobble).

Practically speaking, since the minimum dive range is based off of how far the character can run, this means that the longer time that sliding catch characters get to run, then the larger boost they receive to their total dive range. This means that A should be pressed as close to 60 frames as possible for sliding catch characters to take the most advantage of the 1.2x to the running speed. Since non-sliding-catch characters don't have that boost, A can be pressed anytime between 0 and 45 frames without sacrificing any range.

As an example, Yoshi's sprint speed is 0.1834, and his dive range is 5.31m. If A is pressed 45 frames before the ball hits the ground, Yoshi's minimum dive range is 45\*0.1834=8.253m. His dive range of 5.31m is added to give 13.563m maximum dive range. So at 45 frames, Yoshi can dive to catch a ball between 8.253m and 13.563m.

For a sliding catch example, Mario's sprint speed is 0.1680 and his dive hitbox is 1.65. The A button can be pressed 60 frames before the ball hits the ground. This gives us a minimum dive range of 60\*0.1680\*1.2=12.096, and a max dive range of 12.096+1.65=13.746 at 60 frames.

Below are the ranges for each character at several frames. Before 45/60 frames where A can be pressed, the calculation assumes that the character is sprinting for the rest of the frames. This is in graph form for some characters on the right

## Pick-offs

When pitching, press the B button to enter pick-off mode. This will allow the pitcher become a fielder and attempt to get the runner out. If the batter initiated a steal before going into pick-off mode, then the runner will begin running when the camera switches to fielding view.

It's not possible to get a runner out on a pure pick-off - the runner will always get back to the base in time.

## Fielder Swapping

In the base game, the game will automatically switch which character the player controls in the field. It will usually select the closest fielder to the ball, but it has somewhat irregular behaviour.

In Project Rio v0.1.7.a, the game has been modified such that pressing R will switch control to the nearest fielder to the ball. Furthermore, it has the following button combinations for more manual selection:

1. Scroll: press Y to scroll forward through the following list, and X to scroll backwards
	1. P-C-1B-2B-SS-3B-LF-CF-RF
2. Auto select SS by pressing Z+Y and 2B by pressing Z+X (useful for when the game auto selects an outfielder for a line-drive up the middle where the 2B or SS can reach with a jumping catch)

## AI covering bases

The AI will always assign a character to cover each base. If a player runs away from the base for any reason, another character (usually the pitcher) will cover the base instead.

## Lockout Frames After Hit

For each position, this is how long after a hit until the fielder can be controlled. For reference, the screen switches between the batting scene and the fielding scene 25 frames after the ball is hit.

## Knockback

On hard hit balls, the fielder will slide back once they catch the ball. During the slide, they are unable to be controlled. The length of the slide depends on the ball's "energy".

The ball will have energy on a non-sour charge hit, or a Bowser/Bowser Jr. star hit. The starting energy is equal to the final power of the hit (and multiplied by 4 for bullet balls). The energy then decays by 0.3% each frame, and by 15% for each bounce. Once the energy falls below 50, then it's considered to have no energy anymore.

The knockback frames are based on the ball's energy and the weight of the character. The formula is: Knockback frames = Ball Energy \* 30% \* weight factor. If the ball still has any energy, the minimum knockback is 3 frames.

For example, for a charge hit with 150 power that is caught 60 frames after the ball was hit, it will have 125.26 energy remaining (150\*0.997^60). If the ball was caught by Bowser (4 weight), then he will be knocked back for 18.79 frames (125.26\*0.3\*0.5), or about 31% of 1 second. If Toad (0 weight) caught the ball, then he would be knocked back for 37.6 frames (125.26\*0.3\*1), or about 62% of 1 second.

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## Wall Jump Mechanics

### Trigger requirements

* Character must be moving.
* A has to be pressed with at least 25 frames until the ball goes over the wall.
* The ball has to be at least 2.5 + character height meters in the air when it crosses/hits the wall.
* Unconfirmed check - likely that the wall the fielder is going towards is in fair territory.

### Types

The game has two types of wall jumps: the regular one to attempt to catch the ball, and a "for-show" one that just performs the animation but can never catch the ball.

Determination for which type of wall jump gets triggered. Everything under "Regular Wall Jumps" needs to be true in order for that type to be chosen.
 Fielder running angle compared to where the ball will cross over/hit the wall
 Fielder distance to spot where the ball will cross over/hit the wall

### Making a catch

Catchable wall jumps have a maximum height of the fielder's height plus 6.5 meters. The game will adjust the height and timing of the jump to be at the catching spot as long as the ball is below that height between 25 and 50 frames after A is pressed.

Bobbles are possible on these wall jumps. These bobbles will always be in the direction of the field and never be the type of bobble that is angled backwards towards the stands.