OS community: How can we improve Franchise Mode?

[lion575a]

Re: OS community: How can we improve Franchise Mode?

The Franchise Mode gamers don't need to hear the negatives - you already know what needs improving. So, what are we going to do about it? Are we going to sit on our hands, or is there some tangible, significant action we can take as a group to let SCEA know how much Franchise Mode means to us?

No, actually I dont. What is Franchise mode in MLB The Show missing? The reason I ask is because I feel like amongst all sports games this is the most common and usually very justifiable complaint ....

[e.g.Franchise/Career/Dynasty [Whatever you call it] mode (which to me is the core game mode) is ignored and does not get improved year to year like games 10 years ago did.]

However in the case of MLB the show, I feel like they are the gold standard for actually focusing on this mode and giving us what we want. Most posts I see under other games are ...."Why cant they do what MLB The Show does?"

For myself the only thing that comes to mind is ... the ability to export individual custom or generic non licensed players from a franchise mode to add to a roster and reuse in a new franchise or other modes, and this really has more to do with the ease in making rosters than the actual Franchise mode itself.

[335TDC]

Re: OS community: How can we improve Franchise Mode?

No, actually I dont. What is Franchise mode in MLB The Show missing? The reason I ask is because I feel like amongst all sports games this is the most common and usually very justifiable complaint ....

[e.g.Franchise/Career/Dynasty [Whatever you call it] mode (which to me is the core game mode) is ignored and does not get improved year to year like games 10 years ago did.]

However in the case of MLB the show, I feel like they are the gold standard for actually focusing on this mode and giving us what we want. Most posts I see under other games are ...."Why cant they do what MLB The Show does?"

For myself the only thing that comes to mind is ... the ability to export individual custom or generic non licensed players from a franchise mode to add to a roster and reuse in a new franchise or other modes, and this really has more to do with the ease in making rosters than the actual Franchise mode itself.

This year the Show (1) changed budgets from yearly to weekly, much to the confusion of many; (2) added player quirks, which isn't necessarily a franchise addition; (3) added a Top 50 Prospects list, which is nice; (4) gave us "more ways to not play the actual game," with the AWESOME addition of Quick Manage, i.e. multi-player lock; and (5) tweaked the morale system, which is hit-or-miss just like it is in other games.

These are welcome additions, but represent VERY little impactful change.

The Show hasn't improved scouting, drafting, created prospects (mostly AWFUL: overaged or underskilled and take forever to develop), and progression in quite some time. I think they addressed "falling off a cliff" regression last year, but that's it. It also TOOK AWAY pricing et al. a few years ago, simplifying the mode. Unlike Madden and 2K, it doesn't have relocation/rebuilding stadium, and unlike 2K it doesn't have a uniform editor (though this should be easy to import into Franchise since it exists in DD, right?).

Just to be clear, I play Franchise all the time and I like it; but it hasn't significantly improved over the last several years, and there are LOTS of things that could be done to improve it (year-round scouting, resigning during the season, etc....).

I can't stand Madden and I'm ambivalent regarding 2K, but those two games have taken bigger strides with their Franchise modes in the past few years than the Show has, hands down.

[young22]

Re: OS community: How can we improve Franchise Mode?

I just want better drafting and player progression. If you sim 20 years, there are rarely any drafted players with top end speed or power. Guys also reach the majors way too late, you'll see 29 year old 85 overalls with 2 seasons of service time. And then the guys that do reach early, usually decline as soon as they hit their potential, so you'll have 24-25 year olds hit mid 80s and immediately decline.

And the AI in franchise is just awful. They make the dumbest trades.

Sent from my SM-G386W using Operation Sports mobile app

[underdog13]

Re: OS community: How can we improve Franchise Mode?

2. To build off of 1, as it's been stated constantly (more so this year than in the past) the group of guys that work on this game is VERY SMALL compared to a megapower such as 2k or EA. There's only so many hours in the day, and there's only so many people working on everything in the 9-10 cycle that they spend improving the game.

Hey I have a question for everyone here, I'm just kinda curious on everyone's takes.

Do you believe it's unfair to compare The Show to nba 2k and madden because of the much smaller dev team?

Or fair to compare because the game is the same price?

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

[RogerDodger]

Re: OS community: How can we improve Franchise Mode?

No, actually I dont. What is Franchise mode in MLB The Show missing? The reason I ask is because I feel like amongst all sports games this is the most common and usually very justifiable complaint ....

[e.g.Franchise/Career/Dynasty [Whatever you call it] mode (which to me is the core game mode) is ignored and does not get improved year to year like games 10 years ago did.]

However in the case of MLB the show, I feel like they are the gold standard for actually focusing on this mode and giving us what we want. Most posts I see under other games are ...."Why cant they do what MLB The Show does?"

For myself the only thing that comes to mind is ... the ability to export individual custom or generic non licensed players from a franchise mode to add to a roster and reuse in a new franchise or other modes, and this really has more to do with the ease in making rosters than the actual Franchise mode itself.

I love The Show and I like the franchise mode a lot but it's far from complete and being the gold standard. Let me emphasise, it's good. But there are things that used to be in MLB The Show's own franchise mode on PS3 that I want to see in that mode now as well as aspects of NBA 2k's My GM mode that I'd like to see added to franchise. What they have is solid and is mostly done very well so I can see where you are coming from but there's plenty more still to do.

[tessl]

Re: OS community: How can we improve Franchise Mode?

I dont know if I would go as far s to say Franchise mode isnt a priority with them. I think MLBTS is still the 1 sports game, where the majority of their fan base is Franchise players, but of course some of them do go online to play as well.

Would I like to see improvements to the Franchise mode, yes, as in a better Spring Training logic for teams, and just have it be more like it is IRL, with player invites, and better CPU manager Logic during that time. Along with more Spring Ball Parks, its ridiculous there is only 1 for each league for ST, especially when the old console had more.

You made a lot of very good points, and yes Franchise mode does need to be improved upon, and added too. But its not like they havent done anything to it over the past few years either.

I would prefer them not to even put time into the gimic modes, as in DD, and such, but unfortunately this is where our sports video games have come too, gimic modes, which by the way, make the game company money, because kids will actually spend money to buy thos stub things, or whatever they are called. So I get why games seem to be focusing on this stuff, because it makes them money, and they are a business after all.

Personally Im getting to the point where my buying baseball and basketball video games every single yr are close to done with. I figure why by a game each and every yr, when the mode I play isnt a main focus any longer. Its just what gaming has come to now day. Im not mad about really, why wouldnt they focus on gimic stuff, that brings them in extra cash, thats just good business. Unfortunately that good business on their end, does hurt what I play, but it is what it is.

I agree with the bolded part. I've bought the show every year since the ps2 days but I have reached the point where I feel like Charlie Brown being tricked by Lucy every year to kick the football only to be fooled.

This is the only sports game I buy every year but at some point no matter how much a guy loves baseball reality sets in. The final version of '16 had better gameplay and the focus in franchise was quick manage and critical moments which I don't use because I don't sim.

[BillPeener]

Re: OS community: How can we improve Franchise Mode?

Hiring an outside team of rogue developers to redesign franchise mode is absurd and will never happen.

Teaming up with the OOTP developers will never happen either. This doesn't happen in the gaming industry. Or if it ever has it's more rare than a Mike Trout 1/1 autographed rookie card.

Whatever issues that franchise mode has will be addressed every year. They may not get everything right but it is very important to the devs just like every other mode of the game.

They will never happen if we continue to think they're absurd. Whatever thinking has been going on in the Show community up to this point has resulted in the Franchise Mode we have now. We can continue to live in a small world where possible things are actually impossible or absurdly unlikely, or we can talk in terms of what's possible. For example, instead of just saying "Teaming up with OOTP will never happen", why not say this: "In order for SCEA to team up with OOTP, X, Y, and Z would have to happen."

Maybe it really is an absurd idea, but one thing's for sure: if we continue on with the same line of thinking and reject new ideas because we refuse to use our imagination, we'll continue to get the same results.

Also, don't forget, we're talking about a Major League Baseball video game. Imagine coming up with the idea for video games - or even MLB.

"You'll never get people to come watch you play baseball, let alone pay money! lol!"

"Playing games on a TV? That will never happen. Lay off the kool-aide and let's go play outside."

The reason MLB exists is because someone thought it wasn't absurd.
The reason video games exist is because someone thought it wasn't absurd.
The reason The Show exists is because someone thought it wasn't absurd.

My request from now on is this: if you think the ideas are absurd, then come up with another idea or find something constructive to add to the discussion. Telling us that ideas aren't possible or extremely unlikely is like taking the air out of life and saying just give up. What's the point?

[BillPeener]

Re: OS community: How can we improve Franchise Mode?

No, actually I dont. What is Franchise mode in MLB The Show missing?

1. Mid-season contract extensions (not having this slightly breaks Franchise because angry players have unnecessarily low ratings).

2. The ability to view in-game fatigue.

3. The trade system needs to be overhauled into something more realistic. I can go into more detail in a separate post.

4. Customizable stat columns, as well as customizable displayed stats. For example, in the stats menu, let me make a custom stat that adds steals and hits, or whatever. Then, in the options, allow me to display this custom stat in-game or in the in-game menus. When showing the Player of the Game, let me decide which stats I see. I forget which game had this, but it's not a new idea.

5. Player ratings and other info could be more cryptic and dependent on scout ratings. Instead of saying player X has a 90 speed, imagine your scout tells you "This guy is really fast, Ricky Henderson fast!". Now, you have to infer what the means and use your eyes. But if we can't have that, then just make the visible player's speed rating vary based on who your scout is. Maybe your opponent has better scouting, so they can tell your player is slower than your scout thinks. So now you're getting caught stealing because the other team is more prepared and better staffed. ("visible player rating" is what you see on the screen - not the real value).

They chose to give us fake player Tweets before offering 1 and 2, which to me are relatively easy to add and very important. #2 is by far the simplest and would take a very short amount of time to fix. #1 would take some time but is doable considering off-season extensions are already in the game. #3 would take a lot of work and time to get right. #4 wouldn't take very long, and I feel like most Franchise guys would like to get custom stats. But I also don't think it's a high priority.

Other things I'd like to see:

1. The ability to save player searches, trade proposals, and other related menu screens. I hate finding 8 players who match my needs, only to click on one and then re-do the entire search scheme to locate the other 7 players. I've resorted to taking photos of the TV with my phone.

2. Add a notepad that lets us save links to players and to write down other notes that we can refer back to in-game.

3. Add a player tracker that informs you of how a player is doing. Let's say I track Jose Bautista. Every few days or week, I could get an e-mail informing me of how he's performed over his last 5 games.

4. Less emphasis on uncovering the simple mysteries of the game mechanisms and more emphasis on the mysteries of the players. Baseball, like most sports, requires player evaluation, scouting, and educated judgment to determine player ratings, personalities, and potentials. I want to know how the game mechanics work - I don't want to have to figure out that injuries actually have no impact on players AFTER the injury status is removed. In real life, injuries linger and can impact performance all season, and even for the rest of their careers. Imagine a permanent injury feature where a player tears his Achilles and therefore suffers a permanent drop in speed. Now THAT's realistic and would make Franchise mode much more fun.

Franchise mode will never be complete, and it'll always be unrealistic. We have to be honest with ourselves and say, "hey, I want these 3 things fixed, but once they're fixed, I might have 3 more things that need fixing." We can't fix everything, and there needs to be priorities. In my opinion, a few things on my wish list are much, much more of a priority than player Tweets.

[Hardworker33]

Re: OS community: How can we improve Franchise Mode?

I'm probably too hardcore for the casual gamers, but here's what I think would benefit franchise mode for its popularity & quality (95% of my time is played offline in that mode..)


For everybody to know, I'm that weird guy that loves to hate how hard the mode can be.


1- To increase popularity : Insert couch co-op AND online co-op.
Franchise would attract a lot more players if you could partner up with a friend and run your team together. Franchise is too lonely for now *I don't have a problem with that, but it limits the # of players*.


2- Set a franchise difficulty : Simulation (hardcore), hard, normal, easy


Like NHL did, when you start a franchise, you have the opportunity to select a GM level. The level has an effect on trades, scouting, budgets.


I want to spend 1hr to try to make a deal and seeing after all that time, it will be impossible. It's too easy to rip off the CPU with the trade logic. Upgrade that logic by making other GM's stiff in their approach because they consider their budget, standing. The same applies for our own budget to make it harder for smaller markets so they can't gain 20M bonus in a offseason.


Obviously, you grasp the concept.. easy level is the opposite.


3- Reinvent scouting


Linked with GM level, make scouting more difficult without giving metric numbers for OVR and POT. It's too damn easy to build a team with all 2018 ETA fully developped players with 75 OVR. Ditch the numbers and go with attributes so we can take the decision based on what we want as a player (hopefully, we can draft busts just like IRL).


4- Many ask for it, give a more complete control on budget (tickets pricing, vendors, stadium rénovations and such)


5- Put interactions between GM/Manager & players


Morale is a good thing but he'd be cool to reward/penalize your actions. Give us the opportunity to give a speech before a big game (that gives a small boost to certain players). Also, players asking for a trade would add a dynamic to GM's job with how to deal with ''hard to coach'' players.


On a deeper note (probably too much to ask, but still), add the opportunity to have a 1 on 1 chat with a player where the interaction has a effect on him (like the speech thing, but focusing on individuals). Finally,
your GM moves has an effect on your club. Let's say you're in playoffs race but you decided to trade an MLB player for prospects (or other way around, you go get a star player for the push) your team reacts on your moves with a boost/decline.


By doing that, if you decided to not help your team to push for the playoffs, it will get harder for you to get in since players attributes will decrease. Otherwise, you help them and it makes it easier to go in with a small boost to reward you.




Just my .2 cents!

[335TDC]

Re: OS community: How can we improve Franchise Mode?

They will never happen if we continue to think they're absurd. Whatever thinking has been going on in the Show community up to this point has resulted in the Franchise Mode we have now. We can continue to live in a small world where possible things are actually impossible or absurdly unlikely, or we can talk in terms of what's possible. For example, instead of just saying "Teaming up with OOTP will never happen", why not say this: "In order for SCEA to team up with OOTP, X, Y, and Z would have to happen."

Maybe it really is an absurd idea, but one thing's for sure: if we continue on with the same line of thinking and reject new ideas because we refuse to use our imagination, we'll continue to get the same results.

Also, don't forget, we're talking about a Major League Baseball video game. Imagine coming up with the idea for video games - or even MLB.

"You'll never get people to come watch you play baseball, let alone pay money! lol!"

"Playing games on a TV? That will never happen. Lay off the kool-aide and let's go play outside."

The reason MLB exists is because someone thought it wasn't absurd.
The reason video games exist is because someone thought it wasn't absurd.
The reason The Show exists is because someone thought it wasn't absurd.

My request from now on is this: if you think the ideas are absurd, then come up with another idea or find something constructive to add to the discussion. Telling us that ideas aren't possible or extremely unlikely is like taking the air out of life and saying just give up. What's the point?

My friend, I give you credit for your passion and your unrelenting optimism. But you're focusing on the possible whereas the people who have "criticized" your idea of devs teaming up -- myself included -- are simply choosing to focus on the PROBABLE. As a teacher, I have to explain to students that arguing that something is possible isn't good enough -- almost ANYTHING is "possible" -- what you argue has to be at least probable, and hopefully highly probable. People who are dismissing your idea, even respectfully like I have, simply see your proposal as making little to no business sense (splitting a pie that will be about the same size into substantially smaller slices for each dev), and that's not even considering the human elements involved, like creative egos.

It's not that people don't LIKE your idea -- who wouldn't love to see OOTP and SCEA team up? -- but rather than demanding that we come up with a different solution, perhaps YOU should crunch the numbers to present to them why it would make business sense to do this. Good luck with that.

In the meantime, there are REAL, TANGIBLE, and VERY PRACTICABLE fixes/solutions/additions to Franchise that can be implemented for next year without some highly improbable revolution in baseball gaming development. And it simply makes much more sense to spend energy focusing on these things than hoping that two entirely separate studios creating two entirely different gaming experiences (text sim vs. AAA console sports) somehow buddy up and give US what WE want.

[BillPeener]

Re: OS community: How can we improve Franchise Mode?

Hey I have a question for everyone here, I'm just kinda curious on everyone's takes.

Do you believe it's unfair to compare The Show to nba 2k and madden because of the much smaller dev team?

Or fair to compare because the game is the same price?

Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk

A bigger team isn't always better, but if SCEA really is that much smaller than Madden's team, then that's something to consider. Yesterday, I saw someone say that there's only one dev working on Franchise mode. If that's really the case, then I can't expect big changes every year. I can be annoyed that they only have one dev, and I can blame that on slow progress, but it's the reality of the situation. Now, if it was 8 people working on Franchise, then I would definitely want to know what they're spending their time doing. Maybe they have too many people working on one project.

As far as price, I don't think it's fair to compare. Maybe I'm just old, but I pay $60 for dinner and a movie. Paying the same for a game I play all year seems reasonable, especially with updated rosters, patches, and other DLC.

[tessl]

Re: OS community: How can we improve Franchise Mode?

A bigger team isn't always better, but if SCEA really is that much smaller than Madden's team, then that's something to consider. Yesterday, I saw someone say that there's only one dev working on Franchise mode. If that's really the case, then I can't expect big changes every year. I can be annoyed that they only have one dev, and I can blame that on slow progress, but it's the reality of the situation. Now, if it was 8 people working on Franchise, then I would definitely want to know what they're spending their time doing. Maybe they have too many people working on one project.

As far as price, I don't think it's fair to compare. Maybe I'm just old, but I pay $60 for dinner and a movie. Paying the same for a game I play all year seems reasonable, especially with updated rosters, patches, and other DLC.

The devs themselves said it on a pre-release live stream. DD and Franchise have only 1 programmer assigned. In the last 2 years we have gotten quick counts, quick manage and critical situations. This focus makes the game shallower, not deeper.

The problem is twofold. Only one programmer + focused on the wrong things. Add to that poor gameplay - at least in manage mode - which may or may not get patched and it's hard to blame people for getting tired of waiting only to be frustrated every year.

[BillPeener]

Re: OS community: How can we improve Franchise Mode?

My friend, I give you credit for your passion and your unrelenting optimism.

Hi, 335TDC, thanks for taking the time to respond.

But you're focusing on the possible whereas the people who have "criticized" your idea of devs teaming up -- myself included -- are simply choosing to focus on the PROBABLE.

I understand. The idea of two companies working together is highly improbable. But again, wasn't MLB, video games, and life itself improbable? The first two (don't know about the third) were just someone's improbable imagination before they became a reality. I distinguish between unrealistic possibility and realistic possibility - implausible vs plausible. The idea of OOTP and SCEA teaming up is definitely improbable, but I don't think it's entirely implausible, either. And what alternative is there (see below)?

As a teacher, I have to explain to students that arguing that something is possible isn't good enough -- almost ANYTHING is "possible"

Right, but here's why I made that post. The people before you weren't going into constructive detail about why OOTP won't work with SCEA. They simply said it's "absurd", "pie-in-the-sky", or just bad for business. I'm not saying they're wrong, but I don't see what we stand to gain by simply labeling ideas good or bad.

How do we know it's an absurd idea? Why exactly is it bad for business? What if by working together, they somehow help advertise for each other, generating new customers for each? Perhaps that offsets the costs of collaboration? I don't know, but I don't want this thread to devolve into an argument about what's plausible and what's not based on hypotheticals. Just saying it isn't plausible doesn't get us very far. Same goes for me simply saying it is plausible.

I don't disagree that it's insane to think of two dev teams collaborating. I have no inside info or any historical perspective on the matter. Have dev teams ever collaborated in this way? Maybe SCEA / OOTP have already considered the idea and rejected it for certain reasons. It would be interesting to get their take on why it is / isn't plausible.

All I'm asking for is a little more imagination and consideration before merely labeling an idea "absurd".

perhaps YOU should crunch the numbers to present to them why it would make business sense to do this. Good luck with that.

Right, I would have to make a convincing case. I'm definitely not trying to convince anyone here that SCEA will work with OOTP or that they should. I was just throwing out every plausible scenario I could imagine. I'm sure there's others I haven't considered.

In the meantime, there are REAL, TANGIBLE, and VERY PRACTICABLE fixes/solutions/additions to Franchise that can be implemented for next year without some highly improbable revolution in baseball gaming development. And it simply makes much more sense to spend energy focusing on these things than hoping that two entirely separate studios creating two entirely different gaming experiences (text sim vs. AAA console sports) somehow buddy up and give US what WE want.

I don't mean to be rude at all when I say this, but consider the hypocrisy. You say my idea of 2 dev teams collaborating is extremely implausible (I agree), but then you say there are practical solutions SCEA can implement that aren't implausible. I'd wager that it's also extremely implausible to expect SCEA to suddenly change their approach and start working more on Franchise mode. From what I hear, they only have one dev working on it.

From what I'm understanding, it would indeed require a revolution at SCEA to make Franchise mode much better. Merging with OOTP is insane, but isn't it just as insane to get SCEA to assign more devs to Franchise mode or to convince that one dev to do more?

[BillPeener]

Re: OS community: How can we improve Franchise Mode?

Another outside-the-box idea: I recall an old game, maybe High Heat, having a user-created program that handled trades and other GM duties. Does anyone remember this? You'd import your roster, make a trade, and then export back to the game.

I'm guessing it's against the rules to talk about hacking the game, so I won't go there. But is there some way we can export the roster / franchise files to a computer? If so, I could program a web app that offers a high quality trade system, as well as other features, depending on how much control we have over the files. If the app is good enough, maybe SCEA can implement it down the road.

Hardworker33: I just saw your post. Love your ideas for scouting and having 1-on-1s with the players. Pre-game speeches would also be cool, as well as a "pimp-my-clubhouse" feature that lets you pull a Mark Cuban on your players. "Woah, we have Playstations, I love being an Astro". It'd also be cool to let you pick what position you want on the team. You could be the manager, GM, owner, scout, or maybe even a co-GM or bench coach. The other positions would be filled by the CPU, and you'd have to interact with others. If you're the manager, you can't initiate trades, but you could send a message to the GM asking for certain players to go or for certain players to come in. I guarantee Joe Madden had a say in Zobrist coming to the Cubs, for example. But he certainly didn't handle the FA discussions.

Those are pipe dream ideas, though. I don't expect any of that any time soon.

[1908_Cubs]

Re: OS community: How can we improve Franchise Mode?

Instead of arguing about the very near impossibility of a very, very, very small text-sim based baseball game combining with another baseball development team who does, frankly, a different type of baseball game, why not discuss things that could be implemented? You can talk about all the theorhetical relative impossibilities you want, yes, video games 100 years ago would have seemed insane, but it wouldn't have been relevant, then, either to discuss the creation of them at that point, just like I don't see much reason to stay on the "What if OOTP and The Show became like...one thing!" topic, either.

Personally, while the trade logic is weak, I don't find it that much worse than a lot of the default ai-trade logic on OOTP (if we're going to use OOTP in discussions). Granted, you can tailor it a little, but even on the OOTP boards there's all sorts of discussion about fair and unfair trades.

What I'd like to see eventually done with the Show Franchise is the customization options. I think understanding first that the Show is likely never going to implement as deep of a "Franchise" experience as OOTP deliver's in a similar style setting is important. And honestly? Okay. I love OOTP. But the show is a different beast. But the customization options we see in NBA2k series would be welcome. Granted, you'd need some sort of rotating schedule likely for this to work (which they have said is difficult, and I'm inclined to believe them), but the addition of adding a franchise, expanding, changing the league structure....being able to personalize your MLB universe would be excellent. They've got a decent uniform builder in place. The stadium's would likely be difficult, but could be done if they added 5-7, say, custom stadiums (much harder to do the module thing with baseball than NHL or NBA which have regulation size playing surfaces).

Franchise could certainly use tweaking. Player dev and sim numbers still need some love, but I think the biggest aspect is that customization. That's what I think I love most about OOTP, is the ability to craft and create my own world.

In the end, though, Franchise is certainly a playable, enjoyable, if still somewhat flawed mode. It gets love and I'm not personally offended by the development of the mode. I'd love to see it get some more attention, as while DD and RTTS are fun, Franchise is probably my favorite mode, I don't find it to be a bad mode, either.