Okay, so I've been playing Franchise mode a lot this year and I honestly think there are a lot of things that need to be improved. I haven't played Madden in a few years, but The Show's Franchise mode doesn't really compare to the realism/depth of Madden's Connected Franchise Mode. Of course, The Show has nearly flawless gameplay, which is why these improvement would mean so much more! I'm going to list things and I'd love to hear others thoughts!
1) Regional weather fixed: Weather should change when selecting the game. Temperatures should be accurate. It should not be 59 degrees in Washington in the middle of May. This is easy to fix and just quite annoying that its still wrong.
2) Spring Training: It should mean something more. There have been some good threads on this that I don't need to rehash, but I sim through it (wanting some injuries to take place like in real life). There just isn't any real reason to participate.
3) Player Progression: This needs to be retooled (always). There are certain things that players cannot really improve much at: arm strength and speed for instance. There are other things that tend to improve with Major League experience: plate discipline, contact, fielding (to a degree). Overall, I just don't think its very representative of real life. In addition, there are certain attributes that don't regress and some that do. Plate discipline doesn't ever really regress. Speed does significantly. Arm strength doesn't regress much IRL unless theres an injury. You get the idea.
4) Scouting and the draft: This sort of ties in with the above. The way young players develop makes no sense. The draft is full of players who are equally far from their potential at every attribute. There are never players who have a 70 fielding rating coming in. Heck there aren't even very many who have a high speed rating. There are certain tools that are evident when players are young: speed, arm strength, arm accuracy, fielding. Especially arm strength and speed! How often do you see a high school prospect with a cannon in The Show? Let scouting be redone and completely based on the "5 Tools" and the "20-80 system". After the draft their full attributes can be revealed. Also maybe give us 10 rounds? Balance out the high potentials - increase the amount of dynamic change that takes place with player potentials (more D's turning into B's and A's turning into C's).
5) Potentials-by-Attribute: This would solve the above problem. Give players potentials at all the attributes instead of overall. Then you can draft someone and find that they are a 40contact with an 80pot contact. Or a 40 contact with 45 potential contact but an 80 power potential. I think it would make things much more varied and realistic.
6) Rosters: There should be more than 90 roster spots available, at least 100. Even if they don't expand the minors at all, it'd be nice to have 4 25 man rosters. I am running out of players due to injury (which is awesome, but it'd be nice if I could call up another OF to AA instead of a 2B). Let my draft picks join my system as soon as they sign a contract.
7) Offseason: Simplify this! I love that all the MLB rules are present, but if I have to bookmark a how-to thread on OS in order to make it through without losing my players to some rule I wasn't understanding, it kind of defeats the purpose. I believe there has to be a way for the rules to all be present/functional, but for it also to be easy enough for the casual baseball fan/franchise player to figure out.
8) Presentation: Pitchers' names are never mentioned on the mound. This is just weird. Theres never "Here's Scherzer with the 2-2" it's always "Here's the 2-2". Relievers stats are shown but rarely ever spoken of when they enter the game. Situational stats please! That means RISP, splits against certain pitchers, etc. Talk about roster moves during the game; especially kicking off the new season, tell me who the other team signed as a FA (Here comes Cruz, whom the Mariners signed to a big deal this offseason). Tell me about trades: "Here comes Zobrist, he was picked up last year in a trade with with the Rays". Tell me about injuries during the game (especially the 1st of a series): "You'll notice no Manny Machado in the lineup tonight, as he's found himself on the DL with a wrist contusion." These would add so much to the immersion of the game.
I'm probably forgetting some things, but I'd love to hear some others thoughts on this. I love franchise! I just wonder what it would be like if it were up to par with the rest of sports gaming!
1) Regional weather fixed: Weather should change when selecting the game. Temperatures should be accurate. It should not be 59 degrees in Washington in the middle of May. This is easy to fix and just quite annoying that its still wrong.
2) Spring Training: It should mean something more. There have been some good threads on this that I don't need to rehash, but I sim through it (wanting some injuries to take place like in real life). There just isn't any real reason to participate.
3) Player Progression: This needs to be retooled (always). There are certain things that players cannot really improve much at: arm strength and speed for instance. There are other things that tend to improve with Major League experience: plate discipline, contact, fielding (to a degree). Overall, I just don't think its very representative of real life. In addition, there are certain attributes that don't regress and some that do. Plate discipline doesn't ever really regress. Speed does significantly. Arm strength doesn't regress much IRL unless theres an injury. You get the idea.
4) Scouting and the draft: This sort of ties in with the above. The way young players develop makes no sense. The draft is full of players who are equally far from their potential at every attribute. There are never players who have a 70 fielding rating coming in. Heck there aren't even very many who have a high speed rating. There are certain tools that are evident when players are young: speed, arm strength, arm accuracy, fielding. Especially arm strength and speed! How often do you see a high school prospect with a cannon in The Show? Let scouting be redone and completely based on the "5 Tools" and the "20-80 system". After the draft their full attributes can be revealed. Also maybe give us 10 rounds? Balance out the high potentials - increase the amount of dynamic change that takes place with player potentials (more D's turning into B's and A's turning into C's).
5) Potentials-by-Attribute: This would solve the above problem. Give players potentials at all the attributes instead of overall. Then you can draft someone and find that they are a 40contact with an 80pot contact. Or a 40 contact with 45 potential contact but an 80 power potential. I think it would make things much more varied and realistic.
6) Rosters: There should be more than 90 roster spots available, at least 100. Even if they don't expand the minors at all, it'd be nice to have 4 25 man rosters. I am running out of players due to injury (which is awesome, but it'd be nice if I could call up another OF to AA instead of a 2B). Let my draft picks join my system as soon as they sign a contract.
7) Offseason: Simplify this! I love that all the MLB rules are present, but if I have to bookmark a how-to thread on OS in order to make it through without losing my players to some rule I wasn't understanding, it kind of defeats the purpose. I believe there has to be a way for the rules to all be present/functional, but for it also to be easy enough for the casual baseball fan/franchise player to figure out.
8) Presentation: Pitchers' names are never mentioned on the mound. This is just weird. Theres never "Here's Scherzer with the 2-2" it's always "Here's the 2-2". Relievers stats are shown but rarely ever spoken of when they enter the game. Situational stats please! That means RISP, splits against certain pitchers, etc. Talk about roster moves during the game; especially kicking off the new season, tell me who the other team signed as a FA (Here comes Cruz, whom the Mariners signed to a big deal this offseason). Tell me about trades: "Here comes Zobrist, he was picked up last year in a trade with with the Rays". Tell me about injuries during the game (especially the 1st of a series): "You'll notice no Manny Machado in the lineup tonight, as he's found himself on the DL with a wrist contusion." These would add so much to the immersion of the game.
I'm probably forgetting some things, but I'd love to hear some others thoughts on this. I love franchise! I just wonder what it would be like if it were up to par with the rest of sports gaming!
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