MLB The Show 21 Will Be Missing a Signature Feature

[orioles0615]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Will Be Missing a Signature Feature

Don't know why people always bring up expansion and create a stadium. The mode would still be broken with those features. Until you expand rosters and rewrite the entire code of how the CPU handles transactions the game made will forever be stale. Also not having minor league stats carry over from year to year is pretty sad as well. Any extra bells and whistles I would want would also be custom draft classes and international free agents

[TheWarmWind]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Will Be Missing a Signature Feature

If we are doing a positive reading of the tea leaves. Expanded rosters IMO will 99% be in. But it will not be in for the PS4 version. They made it pretty clear they could not do it for that console years ago.

Hence why some features of 21’s franchise mode will not be on the PS4 version.

Here is my list which has your #1 as my number 1 as well:

1. Expanded rosters to include full A ball as well as 12 additional slots for non roster invitees
2. New scouting system (Fog of War ala NHL series)
3. New draft presentation and at least 15-20 rounds
4. Retain all the MLB rules of 20 (I am talking the handbook folks)
5. Revamp of in game presentation to have historical matchups, player splits, really get into the statistical matchups more during the game
6. Fully functional replay system like in the MLB.
7. Revamped presentation inside the franchise hub with a better radio show or monthly around the league
8. Hot Stove presentation during the Winter Meetings
9. Expanded roster of umpires and unique personalties and plate tendencies for them.
10. Editable managers and coaches
11. Tune the player quirks
12. Tune Morale
13. Really tune under the hood AI (bullpen management, lineup management, draft logic, fantasy draft logic which was great on 20 do not lose that!)
14. Pitcher/Cather relationships and player relationships in general. RTTS has this to a degree. Expand on that inside franchise mode and tie it to morale as well.
15. Catcher intelligence rating in how they call a game if using API and also tie that in with a pitchers confidence in that catcher.


I am assuming 30 team control and all of the options we have from the last 2 generations will remain. At least we hope. I am assuming all our control options will remain, camera options etc etc.

That list is a stretch. In fact a huge stretch. If we get at least the expanded rosters, revamped scouting and drafting and AI logic improvements along with everything we have now in franchise mode and Y2Y returning in 2022.....Yeah I will be a very happy camper.

I want to be able to purchase MLB 22 as a no doubt easy decision.

Since I am staying on the PS4 this years game is an easy pass on release. If I see some really cool features I want to play....I can get the game this holiday season for $10 bucks or less and have some fun with it.

I have so many questions and hopefully they will all get answered next month.

Fingers crossed they take franchise mode and gameplay to new heights on the PS5. Would love nothing more!!!

I'd add

- player position moves (without edits)

- revamping secondary positions, there are several ways to go about this

- more involved off-season (player meetings, more significant winter meetings, progression/regression moved more into the off-season)

- three way trades and more then 3 trade slots (with cash)

- getting rid of the CP position. Seems obvious this will happen but you never know.

- More attributes. Separating player injury resistance from player fatigue resistance is one a lot of people want, but could also have things like versatility (for revamped secondary positions), Leadership (morale attribute), Tagging, Transition, Vision could be split up into its three separate traits (timing, foul ability, and location tracking for directional users).

- More sliders. The contact slider NEEDS to be split up into its seperate parts, but there are other things sliders could be doing too.

To the list.

I of course could add more. There will always be more.

But yeah, if all of those things combined happen, I'm for sure dumping my carry-over.

Even just some would make me consider it.

If it's none? Then yes, I'm sticking with 20. I don't think it's possible to entice me to play 21 over 20 on gameplay and graphics alone.

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[JoshC1977]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Will Be Missing a Signature Feature

Don't know why people always bring up expansion and create a stadium. The mode would still be broken with those features.

Agreed with the first statement.

Second statement - "broken" is a strong term (but I get what you're driving at - there are 'bigger fish to fry'). The current mode actually DOES work well - but if you use poorly designed rosters (i.e. ones that don't have enough D/F potential players - which is, well, nearly all of them - including the most popular ones), then the mode has a lot of issues. Rosters and how they interface with a franchise mode boils down to the old saying "garbage in, garbage out"...and that's true with all sports games.

Until you expand rosters and rewrite the entire code of how the CPU handles transactions the game made will forever be stale.

Agreed for the most part...but again, starting with a poorly designed roster made it a heckuva lot worse. Use a well-designed roster, and it isn't "stale" at all...in fact, it's quite dynamic in how things can unfold. But, yes, roster expansion and a re-tooling of the management AI is needed.

[CBoller1331]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Will Be Missing a Signature Feature

Agreed with the first statement.

Second statement - "broken" is a strong term (but I get what you're driving at - there are 'bigger fish to fry'). The current mode actually DOES work well - but if you use poorly designed rosters (i.e. ones that don't have enough D/F potential players - which is, well, nearly all of them - including the most popular ones), then the mode has a lot of issues. Rosters and how they interface with a franchise mode boils down to the old saying "garbage in, garbage out"...and that's true with all sports games.



Agreed for the most part...but again, starting with a poorly designed roster made it a heckuva lot worse. Use a well-designed roster, and it isn't "stale" at all...in fact, it's quite dynamic in how things can unfold. But, yes, roster expansion and a re-tooling of the management AI is needed.

Do you think the problem is giving too many prospects high potentials? Or not including enough fringey AAAA (Quad-A) guys/non prospects? I'm sure it can be both.

Just curious cuz I was working on a roster for myself cuz I was still playing 16 on PS3 until I bought a PS5 about a month ago and figured I'd keep that project going.

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[JoshC1977]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Will Be Missing a Signature Feature

Do you think the problem is giving too many prospects high potentials? Or not including enough fringey AAAA (Quad-A) guys/non prospects? I'm sure it can be both.

Just curious cuz I was working on a roster for myself cuz I was still playing 16 on PS3 until I bought a PS5 about a month ago and figured I'd keep that project going.

Take a look at the base SDS roster. I counted the numbers once (yes, it's tedious), and IIRC, they usually have around 800 'D' and lower potential players. A lot of the "full minors" rosters have way less than that (in some cases, in the 200-300 range. BUT, more often than not, the number of A potential guys is usually reasonably close. I will say that if the base SDS roster has 150 A potential guys, and you have 300...you'll have issues there. I would attempt to stay in the same ballpark across the potential grades.

Those 'D' guys are vital (they CAN be usable in franchise) but you need a good proportion of them to siphon out and allow the way for actual prospects to get playing time so they develop. Too many A guys will imbalance the financials and prospect flow (along with making trading too easy for the user).

[orioles0615]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Will Be Missing a Signature Feature

Take a look at the base SDS roster. I counted the numbers once (yes, it's tedious), and IIRC, they usually have around 800 'D' and lower potential players. A lot of the "full minors" rosters have way less than that (in some cases, in the 200-300 range. BUT, more often than not, the number of A potential guys is usually reasonably close. I will say that if the base SDS roster has 150 A potential guys, and you have 300...you'll have issues there. I would attempt to stay in the same ballpark across the potential grades.

Those 'D' guys are vital (they CAN be usable in franchise) but you need a good proportion of them to siphon out and allow the way for actual prospects to get playing time so they develop. Too many A guys will imbalance the financials and prospect flow (along with making trading too easy for the user).

I would also be very interested if they changed to complete 20-80 scale

[Armor and Sword]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Will Be Missing a Signature Feature

On the pre-order blog....all of the wording discussing “revamped” franchise mode is not gone.

No mention of franchise mode.

[knucklecutter]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Will Be Missing a Signature Feature

On the pre-order blog....all of the wording discussing “revamped” franchise mode is not gone.

No mention of franchise mode.

The store.playstation website still says this, the only thing related to franchise.


"Enjoy updates to Franchise and March to October modes which empower you to better make decisions for the future of your club."

[Potatoes002]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Will Be Missing a Signature Feature

I'm a simple man, I just want Nike catchers gear.

For me, I would love to see rehab-assignments finally be a real thing in franchise and not just something I imagine.

[mattynokes]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Will Be Missing a Signature Feature

Some of these have been mentioned already, but here's some things that drive me nuts with Franchise mode that need fixed:

1. Playoff Eligibility: This isn't really a thing anymore. At least not how it's done in The Show. Players don't have to be on the MLB Roster or IL as of 8/31 (there's was always a way around this when it was the rule). Players now simply have to be on the 40-man roster as of 8/31. Still, there's a workaround in real life, but I understand how this isn't feasible to adapt in The Show. However, having 40 players (plus any 60-day IL guys) is needed.

2. Playoff IL Glitch: It's been mentioned and it clearly needs to go. It's simple. Like I said above, if the player is on the 40-man roster or 60-day IL as of 8/31, he's eligible for the playoffs regardless of injury status.

3. Outrighted to Triple-A: Realistically, once out of options and outrighted, the player is removed from the 40-man roster. This isn't the case on The Show. They'll stay on the 40 and the CPU will just keep cycling them through Waivers year-after-year, even though they're 40 years old and 50 overall. This might be the biggest issue that I have. It's simply not realistic and hurts the CPU's roster management. I think this is a big reason why we see players not debut until their late 20s. An old, useless player basically has to retire before the CPU will give a roster spot to a promising prospect.

4. Bullpen Management: It seems the CPU LOVES going to the LRP guys and sticking with them for 2 or 3 innings, nearly regardless of endurance/energy or the situation. They'll come out if they get shelled or if it's on the 9th and it's a Save Opp, but other than that the CPU treats them as the sacrificial lamb too often.

5. Contracts: Why is my guy with 108 days of service asking for $830K? He doesn't have that leverage. Pre-Arb players should be asking for ~minimum salaries for Pre-Arb years. Also, why am I allowed to add a player to my 40-man roster, call him up, and still only pay him $70K? Once a player is called up or added to the 40-man roster, they should be making the league minimum. Arbitration players should understand that their previous salary is grounds for a raise based off of their performance and current service time. Too many times, they're asking for less and it's just silly economics of baseball.

There's some others like 5th SP usage in the Playoffs or not sending down slumping/declining players for more promising and younger players during the season as often as they show, but I think those can at least be explained as possibly realistic. The other stuff above is just poor logic/incorrect based on how MLB teams actually operate.

[dbekoscke]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Will Be Missing a Signature Feature

I'm a bit worried about the word "revamped" being removed and replaced by "updated". I know we are still waiting on hearing more about Franchise mode in March, but I feel like this is a bad omen.

Perhaps, they've been keeping tabs on some community forums and saw the franchise discussions showing some hope for major franchise improvements, and needed to adjust their wording to bring down that hope.

Either way, I truly wish that SDS could spend just one development cycle 90 percent focused on strictly rebuilding franchise mode from the ground up. Then, they could spend 10 percent of their time polishing up this mode over the next one, two, or three dev cycles. After that I'd imagine franchise mode would be something incredible (but of course Y2Y saves would be a must for sure).

[orioles0615]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Will Be Missing a Signature Feature

The store.playstation website still says this, the only thing related to franchise.


"Enjoy updates to Franchise and March to October modes which empower you to better make decisions for the future of your club."

This reminds me of when they added "phases" and stressed "streamlining" your franchise.

Probably going to be something dumb like a CPU assistant GM to suggest moves you make.

[Jhack99]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Will Be Missing a Signature Feature

Either way, I truly wish that SDS could spend just one development cycle 90 percent focused on strictly rebuilding franchise mode from the ground up. Then, they could spend 10 percent of their time polishing up this mode over the next one, two, or three dev cycles. After that I'd imagine franchise mode would be something incredible (but of course Y2Y saves would be a must for sure).

I'm with you on this, but the DD players would throw a fit. And IMO since SDS caters to them, this wont happen. I know DD brings in the majority of the revenue for SDS but Franchise Mode and RTTS are what got this series off the ground. I truly hope I'm wrong, but just like everyone else Ive been hoping for changes that have been way to long over due.

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[Sportsfan28]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Will Be Missing a Signature Feature

Yeah. I don’t see the point of getting 2021 at launch. Carry over saves being gone is a killer. MLB 20 with people updating rosters is good enough for me for at least another year.


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[Hammerhunker]

I understand the possible reasons why y2y saves were chopped, but like Knight's Templar stated, "what else?"  If SCEA is going to start the methodical chopping of features to make more room for their microtransaction program, then they're dying a slow death in my eyes.  

"If-at-least-we-get-this", Mercury said it best in that there is absolutely no realism in cpu game, series, and season  management.  Every move is so random. In today's RL MLB game, especially handling pitching, it's all about customization. 

One final barb, so we're losing Y2Y saves, losing out on all of that work put in by our wonderful roster builders because of a move to a new generation.  Funny though, how many will actually get to play on the new gen. this year?