Re: MLB The Show 18 Twitch Stream Starting Now - Franchise Mode
My quick initial thoughts. Whole thing ended better than how it started. Could've skipped the first half hour and not missed a thing.
The Good
The menus do look slick, though that's true of every mode now. Visually, everything is more appealing and I like that they went with a lighter background than the dark blue last year. Names pop much more.
Compensatory rounds. That's a nice touch. Glad to see it in there. Ditto retirement logic. Always holding my breath last year one of my guys would retire far too early or a prospect who just gives up. No rhyme or reason.
The bullpen/batting order logic sounds good. Just have to hope elite guys don't get moved around after a rough start. Hopefully they've found the right balance, though I bet it's going to be an issue.
I think the phases for the offseason is the most helpful thing. That's when it can get the most confusing and just simming through isn't really an option. They've broken it down better this year which I can appreciate. Only a couple of issues.
The baseball card text was a little weird. I don't need to see "Qualifying offer made" in a cheesy looking text. I just want to see the information cleanly and clearly. But it's a minor issue. At one point, it also didn't look like it showed an option to bring up the player card (maybe you still can) from one of the free agent windows. You do get a good look at overall stats on the right but it's not going to tell you every stat...or how the player has performed in the past.
The Bad
Still, it's pretty light on new options that aren't just the layout and the streamlining. During the season, the phases don't see to help much. Sim to date can essentially accomplish the same task. You can access some of the information a little bit quicker but if you look at franchise mode for 10 minutes, you could find everything reasonably quickly. They acted like some stuff was new (trade block! Here are your standings!). You could even hear the developer say several times "as you guys saw last year."
So many little things that doesn't sound like they've been addressed. Morale is still broken; they didn't mention any fixes to that and it has such a big impact on the players (tone it done or let us turn it off). No contract extensions (to help fix some morale problems). Still going to be kinda wonky with the opening day/playoff rosters, where the game likes to mess with your 25 man roster, causing you to burn up extra options. Stats, as was mentioned in the other thread, need a much deeper dive. It's all surface level.
There are some small steps. And I get that it's a small dev team, especially for the mode. I'm not mad that Create a stadium isn't in here; I didn't expect it to be. But they gotta offer up a little more for the hardcore fan who has a good grasp on the game. Just to show that they're making an honest effort for that fanbase, especially in a year where they removed online franchise.
My quick initial thoughts. Whole thing ended better than how it started. Could've skipped the first half hour and not missed a thing.
The Good
The menus do look slick, though that's true of every mode now. Visually, everything is more appealing and I like that they went with a lighter background than the dark blue last year. Names pop much more.
Compensatory rounds. That's a nice touch. Glad to see it in there. Ditto retirement logic. Always holding my breath last year one of my guys would retire far too early or a prospect who just gives up. No rhyme or reason.
The bullpen/batting order logic sounds good. Just have to hope elite guys don't get moved around after a rough start. Hopefully they've found the right balance, though I bet it's going to be an issue.
I think the phases for the offseason is the most helpful thing. That's when it can get the most confusing and just simming through isn't really an option. They've broken it down better this year which I can appreciate. Only a couple of issues.
The baseball card text was a little weird. I don't need to see "Qualifying offer made" in a cheesy looking text. I just want to see the information cleanly and clearly. But it's a minor issue. At one point, it also didn't look like it showed an option to bring up the player card (maybe you still can) from one of the free agent windows. You do get a good look at overall stats on the right but it's not going to tell you every stat...or how the player has performed in the past.
The Bad
Still, it's pretty light on new options that aren't just the layout and the streamlining. During the season, the phases don't see to help much. Sim to date can essentially accomplish the same task. You can access some of the information a little bit quicker but if you look at franchise mode for 10 minutes, you could find everything reasonably quickly. They acted like some stuff was new (trade block! Here are your standings!). You could even hear the developer say several times "as you guys saw last year."
So many little things that doesn't sound like they've been addressed. Morale is still broken; they didn't mention any fixes to that and it has such a big impact on the players (tone it done or let us turn it off). No contract extensions (to help fix some morale problems). Still going to be kinda wonky with the opening day/playoff rosters, where the game likes to mess with your 25 man roster, causing you to burn up extra options. Stats, as was mentioned in the other thread, need a much deeper dive. It's all surface level.
There are some small steps. And I get that it's a small dev team, especially for the mode. I'm not mad that Create a stadium isn't in here; I didn't expect it to be. But they gotta offer up a little more for the hardcore fan who has a good grasp on the game. Just to show that they're making an honest effort for that fanbase, especially in a year where they removed online franchise.
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