MLB The Show 21 Franchise Mode and March to October Details From Feature Premiere

[Circle the Wagons]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Franchise Mode and March to October Details From Feature Premiere

Am I the only one who really wants to play franchise games with the runner on 2nd rule? So many times I’d have a 14+ inning game and just hope the CPU would hit a home run so I didn’t have to completely wear out my bullpen.

[boge4427]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Franchise Mode and March to October Details From Feature Premiere

Will the stadium creator be available on the Xbox Series X or just PS5?

[Archie56]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Franchise Mode and March to October Details From Feature Premiere

Will the stadium creator be available on the Xbox Series X or just PS5?

It'll be available for Series X as well

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[Endorphinrush3000]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Franchise Mode and March to October Details From Feature Premiere

Scrap MTO, focus more on franchise alone. That'd be nice

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[MC2]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Feature Premiere Starting Soon - March to October & Franchise Mod

What I pulled from the stream was that we could do it at any time under the "stadium assignment" tab. They didn't explicitly state as such though I think? But seemed to be in the menu in general unlike the rebranding option. So it looks to be available without rebranding, at least to me.

Edit: looked at the video again (on YouTube, around the 32 minute mark), and they showed the assignments thing on April 1st. So not the off season. So it looks like an at any time type thing. Also, looks like you can change any teams stadium at any time for that matter. Unless they had 30 team control or something on, but looks like we're in control of that without having to control all teams. Which is nice.

Makes me think it will be possible to have a mid season “field of dreams” game, and then reassign the normal home stadium after. Very exciting.

[Endorphinrush3000]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Franchise Mode and March to October Details From Feature Premiere

Don't want to disappoint you, but you can't change those things in franchise

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Sure they could. Would it take work? Yep will they do it? Nope but they could if they wanted to

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[Archie56]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Franchise Mode and March to October Details From Feature Premiere

Sure they could. Would it take work? Yep will they do it? Nope but they could if they wanted to

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That wasn't his question though.

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[ChaseB]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Franchise Mode and March to October Details From Feature Premiere

Scrap MTO, focus more on franchise alone. That'd be nice

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It's not ideal to do the "only my mode matters" thing while simultaneously trying to get other things removed. While I understand the desire to want franchise mode to improve, this type of suggestion also comes off as so obviously selfish that it can't be taken seriously either as a suggestion.

What MTO provides could be in-service of franchise mode anyway as parts of it are one in the same. I'd prefer they just work smarter to incorporate the two together rather than remove it. Plus, it's just not a logical suggestion.

Mixed bag for me. I like hearing they reworked some core logic to build on for the future of franchise. But until carryover saves are back, long term franchise saves aren't nearly as appealing (I'm firmly in the if you're going to sim 'em all just play OOTP camp). This means it's harder to take the long view, even if I try to be realistic about what can be done in a yearly cycle. Plus, until we see the AI can better handle roster construction and player management, my interest in franchise will be tepid. Controlling the MLB universe doesn't appeal to me and I don't want to babysit.

For MTO, I like the addition of minor league games, fast tracks, and accelerated development. We see breakout players make an impact every season and this could really capture that in a way more traditional progression can't. The changes to lineup/rotation logic are welcome, as they would get jumbled after every roster move and you couldn't change them before your next game. This also explains why this is exclusively mentioned for MTO -- it's not how the lineups are constructed (both modes) but when. Nice QoL change for MTO but not much impact, if any, in franchise. Unfortunately, I didn't hear anything about letting the user set the opening day roster which is what I was hoping more user control included, although more promotion/trade choices helps. And more variety in postseason scenarios is welcome... It was kind of a slog last year.

Yeah, the bolded is the point I try to get to. I have played enough OOTP that I never play Show franchise for the GM aspects. I'm playing to play with teams and get a good game in -- assuming I'm not playing online. It's not that I don't care about GM stuff working, but my thing is more making it easy as possible to get to Opening Day in a quick fashion with all the awesome rosters not being borked by the AI changes, and then not have the AI be bozos when it comes to pitching changes, lineup tweaks, playoff rosters, etc. That stuff for me takes A1 priority over adding more depth to even stuff like drafting/scouting.

[nickoppel]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Feature Premiere Starting Soon - March to October & Franchise Mod

Player value logic and budget changes were definitely needed. But honestly the weakest part of franchise to me is the draft and how these players progress. And once again, it doesn't seem like they touched upon it.

The other thing that I found odd was they didn't mention the roster or OSFM. I'm assuming they have Ridin and team working on the minors again this year much like last year, but they didn't touch on it at all. You'd think with releasing a month after the season this year, the day one roster patch could be pretty accurate this year if they wanted from a minor league standpoint.

They can only do so much in one year in development


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[nickoppel]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Franchise Mode and March to October Details From Feature Premiere

People need to understand it’s a lot of work implementing all these things into a New game. With software and coding, this is actually a lot they did with the game. It takes time and space

Can’t expect them to just add 5 new features into franchise.

This is great work from them and great foundation


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[Syce]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Franchise Mode and March to October Details From Feature Premiere

People need to understand it’s a lot of work implementing all these things into a New game. With software and coding, this is actually a lot they did with the game. It takes time and space

Can’t expect them to just add 5 new features into franchise.

This is great work from them and great foundation


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But when does it become mundane? people say what you said every year over and over. and nothing REALLY gets updated. the Eye Candy has gotten changed, and MAYBE the trading logic might have been fixed but do we really know?

Year After Year its just a new coat of paint on a stale mode.

at some point, we need to Stand up Against them and stop trying to Defend them. Look at Madden. Atleast they admitted their Franchise mode was not updated in years.

[NJ2NC]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Franchise Mode and March to October Details From Feature Premiere

I've been out of the loop in sports in general since athletes often like to promote their political views more than playing the games. Is this an actual rule now? Runner on second base in extra innings like it's some USAAA travel ball tournament?

Are you aware of the 3 batter minimum for relievers?

[nickoppel]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Franchise Mode and March to October Details From Feature Premiere

But when does it become mundane? people say what you said every year over and over. and nothing REALLY gets updated. the Eye Candy has gotten changed, and MAYBE the trading logic might have been fixed but do we really know?



Year After Year its just a new coat of paint on a stale mode.



at some point, we need to Stand up Against them and stop trying to Defend them. Look at Madden. Atleast they admitted their Franchise mode was not updated in years.

Like they said they had to gut out the old franchise and build a new foundation to go from.

If anything, this is a good step towards the future games


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[NJ2NC]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Franchise Mode and March to October Details From Feature Premiere

I find it disappointing that although the developers improve the game every year and act quickly with patches, some people wont support the game. I would think more support and profit would lead to a larger budget for the next cycle.

[canes21]

Re: MLB The Show 21 Franchise Mode and March to October Details From Feature Premiere

I think that it is becoming more and more apparent that all sports games are really suffering from 1-year cycles. Games are too complex these days and a 9 month period to develop a new game is not enough, even when it is a sports title that has a lot of the work already done for it each year since the foundational gameplay does not change much year to year.

I know many would love to just blame all of the Ultimate Team, Diamond Dynasty, etc. type modes as the reason all sports games are not producing as well as consumers would like to see, and there is probably some truth to it, I think the large issue is the simple fact that games these days are so much more complex, need so much more detail to them, and the annual release cycle is too restrictive.

back on the PS2 it was much simpler to add to games as they weren't as labor intensive. New 3D models were not nearly as complex, all artwork needed less work, gameplay features could be added as they didn't have to work perfectly, animations didn't have to be completely life-like to be acceptable. That's different these days. Every animation has to be nearly lifelike or it sticks out immediately. 3D models are incredibly complex. Features have to be fleshed out more and tuned to be balanced and engines are so much more complex so much more testing is needed for every new addition.

While I am disappointed with SCEA's work towards franchise mode this year, I really do think that all sports game are hurt by releasing annually right now. I know we will not be moving away from annual releases anytime soon, but I think change is needed. We've discussed this some on the NBA 2k boards lately, but I do think it is time that some of these sports developers take an approach that has become a little more common in the industry with other games that release regularly and that is having a core team that works on the foundational level of the game and then having other teams that work on fleshing certain features out and those teams have different releases they are responsible for.

For example, Call of Duty releases annually pretty much, but they have taken this approach far and have different developers making each title. While the games are releasing every year, they've been in development 3 or 4 years. The way it could potentially work for a sports game is you have the base team that works on every release. They work on the foundational stuff, basic gameplay elements, art elements, audio, etc. Those guys are not as impacted by a yearly release. Then alternative teams work on larger feature sets and additions to the game over a 2-year cycle. Team A would work on the 2021 release, team B works on the 2022 release. Team A then works on the 2023 release. Team A and team B are getting 2 years to flesh out their features instead of 1, the game continues to release annually, and we as consumers are happier.

Obviously it isn't that simple, but I do think sports game development is in dire need of innovation. I don't think that somehow 2k, EA, SCEA, and others have all become complacent at the same time. I don't. EA has management issues that attribute to their issues with their games, 2k/Take-Two loves to milk their cash cows, and SCEA seems to love the money DD is bringing in, but I still believe these developers are plenty talented, they just don't have the time to meet our wishes.

Stadium creator just took them years to make. The same guys working on it likely were working on other parts of the game each release the last 3 years. 15 years ago creating a stadium creator was possible to do in 1 year since games were simpler. Times have changed. It isn't 2005 anymore. Games require tons of effort and I think that if SCEA had the resources and the will to do it, had they had a team on the background only working on stadium creator, it gets done in no more than 2 cycles and is probably very polished since that team worked on that project solely. I wouldn't be surprised if a team that is literally dedicated to stadium creator and nothing else could pump out the feature in 1 cycle because being able to literally put 100% of their attention to it and nothing else would make it much easier to tackle. Instead, we have these developers working on big features like that AND trying to put in little additions while also tuning everything else already in the game. I'm sure SCEA may have had a body or two that put the majority of their focus on the feature and not much else, but they didn't have a team that literally worked on it and nothing else.

Maybe things will change one day, maybe not. I don't think the current model will lead to sports games getting better as time moves forward because games will only get more complicated. I think it is a bit sad that as sports gamers we all thought gaming at this point in time was going to be insane, and to a degree it is, but a lot of us didn't ever think that when we were playing our favorite sports games in 2005 or around that time that that was going to be the pinnacle of sports gaming. We all thought that new tech would give us all the depth we had in 2005 with lifelike visuals and even more expansive gameplay. Unfortunately, it seems that outside of maybe NBA 2k that hasn't been quite the reality, and even then, 2k has its own issues right now and it can be argued that nearly 10 years ago with the games around 2k12 were the pinnacle of basketball games.

I cross my fingers each day hoping someone like EA or 2k does take a leap of faith and tries a new approach to sports game development because I think it sorely needs it and it would be potentially hugely beneficial for all sports gamesrs and maybe especially the offline sports gamers.