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

[BJNT]

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

The only thing I’m disappointed in is even in this generation there’s still no playable Single A and no custom draft classes. I’m hopeful that these features will be added in future games.

[countryboy]

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

Confirmation to some things we pretty much figured:

1) No rotating interleague schedules this year

2) Draft and scouting still function as they did previously

[bryanm1982]

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

Confirmation to some things we pretty much figured:

1) No rotating interleague schedules this year

2) Draft and scouting still function as they did previously

Maybe next year they can take the time to do rotating schedules and skip the puppet.

[tessl]

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

I'm a bit disappointed that the fast track option for prospects appears to be unique to MTO. Adding that to franchise mode would go a long way toward addressing some of my personal complaints with the game.

As some others have noted, the existing potential/progression system is pretty predictable. You can generally tell just by looking at the results after the draft which players have a future and which ones will remain useless for the MLB team. If the fast track option works as I've seen it described, then you could theoretically have a mostly linear system that also has a few outliers, which I'd be absolutely fine with.

Something about a 61 OVR, C potential prospect having a hot month, then getting called up in August, then being just ... fine for the rest of the season, thus carving out a long but mostly unremarkable career as a mid-70s replacement-level player sounds enjoyable to me. Typically, that 61 OVR, C potential guy would stay mired in the minors until his late 20s before he's even a useful backup, which means he's not actually useful for anything at all. If the FTO feature changed that, I'd be all in.

(More likely, it would only apply to top prospects, but still, that's an improvement if it means the 50 OVR, A potential draftee is useful before he's 27 years old.)

You are correct it's obvious a lot of draft picks will never make MLB but 82% of draft picks IRL never make it to MLB so it isn't unrealistic. Most of the picks after the 10th round are drafted as filler with the possibility once in a while one of them will surprise and develop into a MLB player.

To have a sustainable long term franchise it has to be somewhat predictable.

I have issues with progression but that's not one of them. There aren't enough high stamina starting pitchers in the draft and stamina never increases - it only decreases - which a few years into a franchise means a lot of 4 and 5 inning starting pitchers.

Another problem is performance based progression is calculated wrong. The use a period of time instead of at bats which generates big changes vs lhp because plate appearances vs lhp are only around 25% of total plate appearances which is too small a sample size to change attributes.

[Archie56]

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

Maybe next year they can take the time to do rotating schedules and skip the puppet.

Because I'm sure them doing skits with the puppet interferes with the game development......

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[hockeyyt988]

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.

Great comment. There is a sports game moving towards this model with Konami’s PES 21 season update.

With COVID pandemic and next gen on the horizon, Konami made the called to not fully development an annual release and rather just did a season update of PES 20 for $30.

I have the game, there has been some gameplay updates but this was a bold move by Konami saying “we’re going to put all our eggs into our 22 next gen release.”

Not sure how big PES is on these forums, but I have it on PC fully modded and it’s incredible. If they use the extra year while FIFA was developing FIFA 21, we could see a flip in that category.

The other aspect is the financials, Konami went first and if it didn’t hurt sales volumes (which idk if it did or didn’t) then other publishers might follow suit. The true issue is that we consumers do fall for the yearly updates thus publishers can keep slinging them out.

Speaking of which, I will be holding off on 21 as I have a PS4 and a 3rd year Mets franchise. I’m hoping 22 comes to PC, that would be heaven.


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[ReturnoftheTmac]

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

Because I'm sure them doing skits with the puppet interferes with the game development......

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Agreed. But also the main point still stands. How do we not have rotating inter league schedules yet?

[KnightTemplar]

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

Because I'm sure them doing skits with the puppet interferes with the game development......

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True. The devs have nothing to do with this. It’s the advertising department.

[douggoud]

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

Agreed. But also the main point still stands. How do we not have rotating inter league schedules yet?

I think it comes down to the fact that only one guy works on franchise mode (last I remember hearing anyways). This one guy the past couple years has had to figure out and program the ability to implement the DD jersey/team maker into franchise in 20, and now the stadium creator and other changes this year. They may have added more people but I could have sworn last year or the year before they mentioned it being just the one guy.

I know I keep saying it, but I'm hoping the added game/stub sales from Xbox will help Sony justify adding more people to the team so they're a little closer in dev team size to EA or 2K. If that's the case then hopefully that poor guy will be able to have some help, and in turn, hopefully be able to work on things like rotating interleague and what not. Time will tell of course.

[BoNity]

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

The way I look at is long term not year to year.

The studio DOES listen to their community. Stadium creator is the perfect example. They took the time and gave a us a pretty comprehensive one at that. Do you think The diamond dynasty YouTube content crowd was clamoring for a stadium creator? Not at all I bet.

And meanwhile I think we have to support the product they consistently put out great baseball games and give us so much fun and replay value

So keep asking for things and maybe create a community want list by votes to always have up and sticky’d would eventually pay off

[moTIGS]

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

You are correct it's obvious a lot of draft picks will never make MLB but 82% of draft picks IRL never make it to MLB so it isn't unrealistic. Most of the picks after the 10th round are drafted as filler with the possibility once in a while one of them will surprise and develop into a MLB player.

To have a sustainable long term franchise it has to be somewhat predictable.

I have issues with progression but that's not one of them. There aren't enough high stamina starting pitchers in the draft and stamina never increases - it only decreases - which a few years into a franchise means a lot of 4 and 5 inning starting pitchers.

Another problem is performance based progression is calculated wrong. The use a period of time instead of at bats which generates big changes vs lhp because plate appearances vs lhp are only around 25% of total plate appearances which is too small a sample size to change attributes.

You’re right and I agree about the vast majority of drafted players never making it and never getting close. But teams don’t know that 30 seconds after the draft ends.

I’m fine with a high level of predictability. But it shouldn’t be 100%.

What appeals to me about the fast track option is that it doesn’t sound like something that makes career minor leaguers into stars. Rather, it can accelerate the development of a very small number of players, not making them better than they’re projected to be but just moving their MLB ETA up a bit.

[Qb]

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

What appeals to me about the fast track option is that it doesn’t sound like something that makes career minor leaguers into stars. Rather, it can accelerate the development of a very small number of players, not making them better than they’re projected to be but just moving their MLB ETA up a bit.

Yep, and I also think it's a great addition considering the limits of their player development system. It looks like the trade interface that debuted in MTO was added to franchise. I suspect that will be the case here as well. Probably easier to build for MTO then integrate to franchise over two years rather than attempting both at once.

[Caulfield]

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

Because I'm sure them doing skits with the puppet interferes with the game development......

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just depends how much money Sony allocates to marketing. we don't know the marketing departments budget or the developers budget. however, they're using puppets so it doesn't feel like too much money is going to marketing. to tell the truth, I like Coach, and wish he'd replace Plesac in the booth

[phenom1990]

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

Marcus Stroman wants to know if rain delays are still in Franchise

[tessl]

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

Marcus Stroman wants to know if rain delays are still in Franchise

I looked up Babe Ruth's final season with the Boston Braves. They played nearly half their games as part of double headers. Traveled by train. No air conditioned dugouts. Most had to take a job in the winter because baseball didn't pay enough to make a living. Bean ball contests occurred because the umpires didn't eject pitchers for throwing at hitters.

Some wonder if the old timers could handle today's game. I wonder if some of today's players could handle the game back then.