Super Mega Baseball 4 Patch #3 Available Today on All Platforms - Patch Notes

EA and Metalhead Software have released Super Mega Baseball 4 patch #3 today for all platforms. It includes DLC #2 featuring Ciudad de Colores Ballpark for players that own the Ballpark Edition. The update adds new pitcher disengagement rules, animations and plenty of improvements and fixes. Check out the patch notes below.

New Stadium

• Ciudad de Colores is now available as DLC in the Ballpark Edition. It will be available for individual purchase on August 14, 2023 in first-party stores. (For PlayStation players who pre-ordered the SMB4 Ballpark Edition prior to June 2nd at 9am PST ONLY, you will need to download the DLC manually from the PlayStation store page (which includes DLC #3: Castillo Arena when it becomes available).

New Pitcher Disengagement Rules

• After a third step off or pick-off attempt during an at-bat where a runner does not advance and no out is made, the pitcher will be charged with a balk and all runners will advance one base.
• The CPU is less likely to throw pickoffs as their disengagement limit increases.
• The CPU is more likely to steal as the pitcher’s disengagement limit increases.
• Pitchers no longer lose Mojo after a failed step off or pick-off attempt. Pitchers instead lose Mojo when a balk is committed.
• In Pennant Race and Online Leagues, balks will increase a player’s auto-forfeit count just as beanballs and walks do.

Improvements

• Animations have been added to Shuffle Draft that show the player selected moving to the projected lineup table, allowing remote users to see who was picked when drafting with an online party.
• In Shuffle Drafts outside of Online Leagues, you are now presented with the selections made by the CPU-controlled teams at the end of each round. You can also view the roster of the other teams at any point during the draft.
• A new option has been added to the “Audio & More” tab in the Options menu for reducing the size of the in-game HUD elements.
• The size of the loading and saving game notifications has been reduced. The size is now dynamically scaled based on the message being displayed and the locale/platform.
• Pitchers now lose Mojo when striking out or hitting into an out just like position players do, except when they are the current pitcher.
• Players playing out of position now receive a 1-level Mojo penalty in addition to any Fielding or Arm skill penalties they normally receive. When on offense, swapping defensive positions with a player who is receiving this penalty will not remove the penalty until the next defensive inning.
• When batting, the pitch location indicator now appears a bit later, particularly at high Ego. This makes it more difficult to focus solely on the indicator and ignore the break of the pitch when batting at high Ego.
• The line drive fielding camera is now more reserved for line drives hit at an infielder where the camera angle makes it easier to judge whether or not the infielder should jump.
• CPU pitching substitution decisions have been tweaked so that the CPU tends to pull pitchers earlier than they did previously.
• The substitution screen now briefly blocks proceed input when the screen is first opened for a missing pitcher substitution. This prevents accidental button presses when attempting to skip the new inning cinematic.
• The substitution screen now warns you when attempting to substitute a position player into the pitch mid game.
• In online versus play, the pitch clock timer that appears while pitching is now visually distinct from timers that appear when waiting for the opponent to complete an action.
• Pitcher breathing is now exaggerated when the pitcher is tired.
• When the pitcher has an Elite pitch type trait, that pitch type now has a special highlight in the in-game pitching HUD.
• When the pitcher has the Workhorse trait, the stamina bar now has a special highlight in the in-game HUD.
• New animations have been added for when the batter is hit by the pitch and stays on their feet.
• A new animation has been added for when the batter is trotting around the bases after hitting a home run.
• The catcher’s throw animations after a strikeout have been updated.
• The special batting routine for “fake charging the mound” now plays if the batter bats against a pitcher who beaned them in their previous at-bat during the same game.
• A new “disappointed” animation has been added for the catcher during a home run cinematic.
• Some baserunner leadoff and slide animations have been updated.
• Some umpire animations have been updated.
• Better crowd reactions have been added for double plays, triple plays, and wall catches that rob a home run.
• CPU pitchers now tend to throw slightly more strikes early in games.
• You can now filter the Free Agents list in the Franchise Sign & Release and Player Movement screens. The filter options are all players, position players only (which includes two-way players), and pitchers only.
• In Franchise mode, a player’s “Valuation” is now shown alongside their Loyalty attribute. Valuation matches what the player’s starting salary would be in a fresh Franchise playthrough and reflects their fair value given their skills and other attributes.
• In Franchise mode, you can now sort players by the difference between their valuation and their current or asking salary for rostered players or free agents respectively.
• In Franchise mode, the minimum chance of gaining a pitch type or changing a secondary position from a Player Development Opportunity has increased from 2.5% to 5%.
• In Franchise mode, Manager Moments are now biased towards presenting a choice between two players of relatively equal skill.
• In Franchise mode, you can now view career batting stats for pitchers and career pitching stats for position players.
• In Franchise, Season, and Elimination modes, the Starting Pitcher row in the pregame lineup has an updated header to show which slot in the rotation this starting pitcher occupies.
• In Franchise mode, the news feed scrollbar now has page up and page down buttons.
• In the Franchise Sign & Release screen, after selecting a player to release the default selected free agent now appears closer to the middle of the table instead of the top.
• In the Franchise Player Re-signing screen, you can now undo some actions. The wording used in the “Re-sign Interest” column has been updated to reflect this change.
• In the Franchise Player Re-signing screen, sorting behavior has improved. The “Re-sign Interest” column now sorts by percentage that the player accepts an offer to stay at their current salary.
• In the Franchise Player Re-signing screen, players who have been dealt with are now highlighted with different colored text.
• In the Franchise Player Re-signing screen, there is now a button to skip all when watching the results of automatically offering “current salary” to all remaining players.
• In the Franchise Player Re-signing screen, there is now an option to view the selected player’s career stats.
• The Franchise Player Re-signing help screen now better describes how a player’s Asking Salary is determined based on their Valuation at previous signing and their Loyalty.
• Outside of Franchise mode, roster tables now show the player’s role in the active lineup in the column usually occupied by Salary in Franchise mode.
• A warning is now provided before starting a Shuffle Draft or Franchise mode playthrough with a player or free agent pool respectively that appears to contain duplicate players.
• In Shuffle Draft, team changes for selecting a player are now previewed on highlight rather than on confirmation only.
• The algorithm for selecting the up-to-8 players drawn each round in Shuffle Draft has been updated to better account for Team Chemistry needs.
• When picking a team for Pennant Race, you can now view trait descriptions from the team picker dialog.
• The controller now vibrates for more events including beanballs, pitcher KOs, and home runs.
• The Mojo and Fitness icons are now included in the Mojo and Fitness change events in game respectively, as well as in various help content.
• Some text fonts used in the HUD have been updated to improve readability.
• New error explanations have been added for the Crossed Up trait, and the Wild Thrower trait after a disastrous throw.
• The post game menus now enter and exit faster.
• The Franchise, Season, and Elimination setup screens have been updated, particularly to improve spacing.
• The random team button has been added to more screens.
• When copying a league, the placeholder league name is now always valid.
• Your presence is now set to busy when you are in the middle of a Shuffle Draft for an Online League.
• Pennant Race Awards iconography has been updated.
• The Legends League logo has been updated.
• Spacing in the Player Menu has been updated.
• The preview image for Peril Point has been updated.
• Positions of the Cancel and Accept buttons in the Logo Editor have been swapped (their shortcut button assignments remain the same).
• More games can now be listed in Franchise and Season Hub’s season schedule preview.
• The “Aardvark” logo component is now more correctly labeled as “Armadillo.”
• Miscellaneous visual improvements to some stadiums have been made.
• Miscellaneous visual improvements have been made in the UI, particularly for navigable buttons on various screens.
• Miscellaneous audio improvements have been made, including a minor adjustment to batted ball sound effects on deep fly balls.
• Some performance improvements have been made.
• (Steam and Xbox only) Character loading times have improved.
• (Steam only) Hitting F12 to take a screenshot in watch mode no longer displays the watch mode controls if hidden.
• (Steam only) Hitting F12 to take a screenshot of the team photo in full screen no longer exits full screen.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed: Game crashes when winning a standard Franchise, Season, or Elimination championship during online co-op play.
• Fixed: In Franchise mode, signing a player at their asking salary fails to properly save, leading to the player’s salary resetting back to their previous salary upon reloading the Franchise or starting the next season (was already fixed on Xbox, Steam and Switch).
• Fixed: Relievers and closers incorrectly receive a Mojo penalty when starting in the batting order and then swapping positions later to relieve the current pitcher.
• Fixed: The pitcher is incorrectly injured after taking a comebacker to the head when the Metal Head trait activates.
• Fixed: Various pitching animations have minor clipping or do not hide the ball from the batter’s view before the delivery.
• Fixed: The pitcher’s feet clip through the mound during some strikeout cinematics.
• Fixed: Some cameras for the hit by pitch cinematic do not sync properly with the beaned batter animation in online play.
• Fixed: Catcher throws the ball through the batter during some strikeout cinematics at the end of an inning.
• Fixed: Ball dirt vfx sometimes carry over into the next scene.
• Fixed: The Ego 99 Challenge trophy/achievement does not unlock in Franchise, Season, or Elimination games.
• Fixed: The Perfecto trophy/achievement can be earned outside of standard game modes.
• Fixed: Notification for the Crossed Up trait appears too early.
• Fixed: The home plate umpire is incorrectly positioned on the outside corner of the plate instead of the inside corner.
• Fixed: After finishing a game in Franchise mode, the pitching rotation for CPU-controlled team(s) involved in the completed game update incorrectly and lead to the CPU replacing the pitcher best suited to start the next game with a different pitcher.
• Fixed: In Franchise Mode, the Loyalty attribute and related information cannot be found in Team Hub.
• Fixed: In the Franchise Sign & Release screen, sort order is lost when backing out of My Players to Free Agents.
• Fixed: In the Franchise Sign & Release screen, the default selection incorrectly highlights a catcher instead of another pitcher when attempting to release a pitcher but no other pitchers of that role are available to be signed.
• Fixed: In Franchise mode, a Player Development Opportunity can fail to offer any value after the player receives a skill arc event.
• Fixed: When confirming a transaction using the Player Movement feature or in Franchise Sign & Release, one uniform would often have the wrong logo.
• Fixed: Navigation of the stats table in Team Hub does not behave as intended.
• Fixed: Backing out of the Shuffle Draft Custom Team Control screen does not always return to the correct screen.
• Fixed: Duplicate teams appear in Exhibition and Online League team pickers for Franchise mode teams when past the first season of the Franchise.
• Fixed: In Online Leagues with season duration set to “Manual,” the text box in the main Hub is blank.
• Fixed: Male head 7 and female head 11 have incorrectly positioned teeth that cause gummy-looking smiles.
• Fixed: Male heads 11 and 13 have incorrect facial hair geometries that cause clipping.
• Fixed: Eyewear on female head 12 can clip with the player’s head.
• Fixed: Male head 19 flashes oddly in the Player Editor.
• Fixed: Facial animations in the splash cinematic do not slow down with the slow motion effects.
• Fixed: Facial animations of the three hero players on the Play Menu are sometimes in sync.
• Fixed: League selection can take a long time to load when savedata contains many leagues.
• Fixed: Batter can sometimes play the wrong dodge animation, making it appear like some pitches hit the batter while not registering as a hit by pitch.
• Fixed: Batter can be seen sliding forward in an unusual manner after hitting an obvious foul ball.
• Fixed: Players in the dugout and bullpen sometimes freeze at the end of their clapping animation.
• Fixed: Players sometimes have their backs turned towards the field before running out to their positions at the start of an inning.
• Fixed: Baserunner slides do not always play the slide sound effects when expected.
• Fixed: Speaker icon flickers too rapidly when someone is using voice chat in online play.
• Fixed: Minor animation issues with Batting Routines 14 and 18.
• Fixed: One of the pitcher KO animations does not react fast enough to being hit by the ball in the head.
• Fixed: Minor clipping issues with various animations.
• Fixed: Some player emotes are muted, particularly in online play.
• Fixed: Last name “English” is not announced properly by the in-game announcer.
• Fixed: When reaching the season win cinematic while watching a CPU vs CPU game, the screen is blacked out during parts of the cinematic.
• Fixed: Attempting to start a Shuffle Draft using a league that did not have enough players in online party play caused an indefinite hang to occur.
• Fixed: Pennant Race and Online League Hubs show the wrong or irrelevant Ego in the Player Menu.
• Fixed: In Pennant Race and Online Leagues, viewing another user’s details can show the wrong profile picture.
• Fixed: Team selections are not always remembered in the Exhibition team select screen.
• Fixed: The base stealing help controller image points to the wrong buttons.
• Fixed: The team photo never finishes loading in some scenarios.
• Fixed: The stadium loading screen incorrectly has an out of position red asterisk next to a relief pitcher when loading a mid-game save.
• Fixed: Unintended sound effect plays when the Player Menu reappears after being hidden.
• Fixed: Batter walk-up songs are not heard in Stade Royale with cloudy weather.
• Fixed: On rare occasions, the front end music does not stop when entering a game.
• Fixed: Blank player names can be entered in the Player Editor, leading to incorrectly rendered names.
• Fixed: Game crashes when attempting to start a Franchise, Season, or Elimination after a Shuffle Draft when there is not enough save data room for the new game mode.
• Fixed: Miscellaneous crashes and hangs in the front end.
• Fixed: Miscellaneous rare crashes during gameplay.
• Fixed: Miscellaneous minor UI issues.
• Fixed: Miscellaneous audio issues.
• (PS5 only) Fixed: The jumbotron can show glitched images.
• (PS5 only) Fixed: A disconnected error dialog can incorrectly appear when resuming the game from a suspended state.
• (Steam and Switch only) Fixed: Leagues are incorrectly duplicated in various league pickers when playing local multiplayer.
• (Steam only) Fixed: Game can crash when opening both league pickers on the Exhibition team select screen.
• (Steam only) Fixed: Some mouse clicks fail to register near buttons.
• (Steam only) Fixed: Pennant Race Awards screen does not function properly with the mouse.
• (Steam only) Fixed: Sound effects missing when using the mouse on various front end screens.