Franchise Mode - Detailed Questions - Please Help

[MrQuestions]

Hello all,

I looked around this forum and searched pretty hard, but all I can find are some franchise threads with people posting page after page of details about their personal franchises and it's not easy to look through all that to get the answers I am looking for.

Anyways, I love playing franchise mode but I haven't picked up the game yet because of how terrible last years game was. I want to ask people who have been playing it for a while a few questions.

1.) How does player progression work? (Do players progress based purely on a "Potential" rating? Does performance matter?) Does it work in a realistic manner? Are you happy with it?

2.) Are there any major bugs with the finances of teams like in previous years games? For instance, in 5 years will all the best players be going unsigned because no team can afford them?

3.) How does the draft work? Is it still in the offseason instead of June? Can you tell who the best player in the draft is right away or is it more of a crapshoot?

4.) Do teams value their good prospects properly when you try to trade for them?

5.) Does the game generate realistic stats for pitchers and hitters when you simulate? Does it do a good job of simulating games in that the better team usually wins, or do 100 OVR pitchers routinely get shelled by the AI?

6.) Are there accurate downloadable rosters with full minor leagues available? (Even if fan created like the ones ChrisJNelson used to do).

7.) Do they actually have arbitration and realistic contract situations in the game now?

Thanks a bunch everyone.

[JBH3]

Re: Franchise Mode - Detailed Questions - Please Help

Hello all,

I looked around this forum and searched pretty hard, but all I can find are some franchise threads with people posting page after page of details about their personal franchises and it's not easy to look through all that to get the answers I am looking for.

That's because the "Franchise Progress" thread is to discuss just that...the progress of your franchise, not a question answering thread. Will look over your questions....

[JBH3]

Re: Franchise Mode - Detailed Questions - Please Help

1.) How does player progression work? (Do players progress based purely on a "Potential" rating? Does performance matter?) Does it work in a realistic manner? Are you happy with it?

Haven't gotten through season1. Would gauge it's based on potential, but I think for pitchers there's more to it because I remember reading something about all pitchers having their overall decrease by large amounts due to a high walk/low-K rate.

2.) Are there any major bugs with the finances of teams like in previous years games? For instance, in 5 years will all the best players be going unsigned because no team can afford them?

Budgets and contracts do not tie back to anything tangible. There just made up figures that drastically affect franchise mode. Basically player contracts are too low, and teams have too much money so hardly any decent player makes it into free agency. This a long LONG thread on this actually....Which makes me wonder if you really searched for anything...I searched "Free Agency" and found my thread...

3.) How does the draft work? Is it still in the offseason instead of June? Can you tell who the best player in the draft is right away or is it more of a crapshoot?

It's in June. Their overall rtg is listed.

4.) Do teams value their good prospects properly when you try to trade for them?

I controll all-30 teams.

5.) Does the game generate realistic stats for pitchers and hitters when you simulate? Does it do a good job of simulating games in that the better team usually wins, or do 100 OVR pitchers routinely get shelled by the AI?

SIM stats are screwed up. There's plenty of info on this in the forums.

6.) Are there accurate downloadable rosters with full minor leagues available? (Even if fan created like the ones ChrisJNelson used to do).

Maybe. Look on 2Kshare...

7.) Do they actually have arbitration and realistic contract situations in the game now?

No.

[MrQuestions]

Re: Franchise Mode - Detailed Questions - Please Help

Thanks for the answers, now I won't have to waste my time and money buying and playing this game. It sounds like the game suffers from pretty much the exact same game breaking bugs it's always had. Exactly what I expected...

BTW, I was looking for a thread with info about franchise mode so I didn't have to dig through post after post to find the info I was looking for. Hopefully this thread can help other people who just like franchise mode... I usually just simulate my first couple of seasons so I can play with some young guys I drafted and brought it and there are a lot of others like me... our kind has just given up on Xbox360 baseball I assume...

[kpkpkp]

Re: Franchise Mode - Detailed Questions - Please Help

Let me try and go into more detail where JBH couldnt.


1.) How does player progression work? (Do players progress based purely on a "Potential" rating? Does performance matter?) Does it work in a realistic manner? Are you happy with it?

-Players progress based on a potential rating, yes, but not all high potential rookies pan out. Just like in real life. There is however a bug that causes pitchers to severly regress, sometimes by 10 points OVR. It stems from walk rating always getting worse at each seasons end. So; sometimes you will see a pitcher like Josh Beckett drop 8 or so points OVR because of a bug with walk ratings, even though he went up on his intagibles. I suspect this will be fixed via Patch#2.

2.) Are there any major bugs with the finances of teams like in previous years games? For instance, in 5 years will all the best players be going unsigned because no team can afford them?

-Finances seem to operated correctly in franchise mode. (though teams go into the red in MyPlayer people often report. Also hopefully to be patched.) In Franchise though finances seem to operate correctly, except for the rate at which FA's re-sign. FA's re-sign for too cheap and too often in this game, which creates a very thin FA pool.

3.) How does the draft work? Is it still in the offseason instead of June? Can you tell who the best player in the draft is right away or is it more of a crapshoot?

-For whatever reason you cannot see a rookies potential during the draft. I dont know why they left this out.... So its essentially a crap shoot. However the CPU CAN see potentail ratings. So many gamers let the CPU auto-draft for them, because it picks based on potential. Im hoping they patch in the ability to see potential. And yes it occurs in the offseason. Again.

4.) Do teams value their good prospects properly when you try to trade for them?

-This is the one question I cant answer very well. But any trades I have done were realistic, but then again... I never "tried" to be cheesy while trading with the CPU.

5.) Does the game generate realistic stats for pitchers and hitters when you simulate? Does it do a good job of simulating games in that the better team usually wins, or do 100 OVR pitchers routinely get shelled by the AI?

-Standings pan out realistically, as in good teams usually finish in 1st. Individual stats are another story.
-ERA's are slightly inflated. League leaders are usually around 3.00+ERA.
-Steal totals are slightly high, teams total 200-300 steals sometimes.
-Innings pitched are too high for starters due to the fatigue recover bug.
-AI bull-pen logic is flawed, sometimes causing closers to be over-used and thus perform poorly.

6.) Are there accurate downloadable rosters with full minor leagues available? (Even if fan created like the ones ChrisJNelson used to do).

-There is an edit and CAP limit of 150 edits. But KingFelix has nice rosters, you can check out his thread here.

7.) Do they actually have arbitration and realistic contract situations in the game now?

-Nope.

[MrQuestions]

Re: Franchise Mode - Detailed Questions - Please Help

Ah, thanks for the more detailed response.

It sounds like the game might be alright after the next patch comes out. If it can fix that pitcher regression thing and free agency that would probably make the game passable from what it sounds like.

Thanks again.

[kpkpkp]

Re: Franchise Mode - Detailed Questions - Please Help

Ah, thanks for the more detailed response.

It sounds like the game might be alright after the next patch comes out. If it can fix that pitcher regression thing and free agency that would probably make the game passable from what it sounds like.

Thanks again.

Yeah; I think the best advice for you would be to wait for the patch to come. (Just check here in the next couple of days untill it is released on the PS3 and xbox360)

I say that because I noticed in your first post you said you are a franchise lover. (I am too)

As far as comparing this years version to last years version; it is WAY BETTER. It has some bugs, true, but far less than last year.

I have high hopes for this patch.

Good luck if you decide to buy the game, stay tuned for patch info.

[GlennN]

Re: Franchise Mode - Detailed Questions - Please Help

3.) How does the draft work? Is it still in the offseason instead of June? Can you tell who the best player in the draft is right away or is it more of a crapshoot?

-For whatever reason you cannot see a rookies potential during the draft. I dont know why they left this out.... So its essentially a crap shoot. However the CPU CAN see potentail ratings. So many gamers let the CPU auto-draft for them, because it picks based on potential. Im hoping they patch in the ability to see potential. And yes it occurs in the offseason. Again.

That's interesting. I am not fond of seeing Potential in drafting (like in Madden). Where is the mystery then? I'd like a general idea of Potential, but only as an estimate (that may or may not be right). On the other hand, it is complete BS that the computer sees Potential, and drafts based on it, when you can't see it. That part really really needs to be fixed. If the computer just disregarded Potential, I'd be fine with not seeing it myself.

[JBH3]

Re: Franchise Mode - Detailed Questions - Please Help

That's interesting. I am not fond of seeing Potential in drafting (like in Madden). Where is the mystery then? I'd like a general idea of Potential, but only as an estimate (that may or may not be right). On the other hand, it is complete BS that the computer sees Potential, and drafts based on it, when you can't see it. That part really really needs to be fixed. If the computer just disregarded Potential, I'd be fine with not seeing it myself.

What's cool is I control all the teams, and just selected players based on team need and took the highest rated guy. However, I'm assuming that the highest rated guy did not have the highest rated potential which gives it that factor you're looking for I guess.

[kpkpkp]

Re: Franchise Mode - Detailed Questions - Please Help

That's interesting. I am not fond of seeing Potential in drafting (like in Madden). Where is the mystery then? I'd like a general idea of Potential, but only as an estimate (that may or may not be right). On the other hand, it is complete BS that the computer sees Potential, and drafts based on it, when you can't see it. That part really really needs to be fixed. If the computer just disregarded Potential, I'd be fine with not seeing it myself.

Yeah would be cool if they had like "A" potential or "B+" potentail ratings.

Of course whether the potential rating is displayed as a number or a letter, its cool how sometimes rookies pan out and sometimes they dont. Like in real life.

Regardless... I hope this patches fixes a LOT, lol.

[duke776]

Re: Franchise Mode - Detailed Questions - Please Help

Thanks for the answers, now I won't have to waste my time and money buying and playing this game. It sounds like the game suffers from pretty much the exact same game breaking bugs it's always had. Exactly what I expected...

BTW, I was looking for a thread with info about franchise mode so I didn't have to dig through post after post to find the info I was looking for. Hopefully this thread can help other people who just like franchise mode... I usually just simulate my first couple of seasons so I can play with some young guys I drafted and brought it and there are a lot of others like me... our kind has just given up on Xbox360 baseball I assume...

Well, if all you do is simulate to play with the drafted players, wait until the patch comes to make a decision. Drafted players(all position players from what I've seen and some pitchers) who get called up will freeze the game. So if you're looking to do that in this game you're SOL.

I'm hoping the patch will fix it, because it's just terrible.

[nld230]

Re: Franchise Mode - Detailed Questions - Please Help

1.) How does player progression work? (Do players progress based purely on a "Potential" rating? Does performance matter?) Does it work in a realistic manner? Are you happy with it?

Player progression is broken. The sim stats are the cause, especially with pitchers.

2.) Are there any major bugs with the finances of teams like in previous years games? For instance, in 5 years will all the best players be going unsigned because no team can afford them?

Yep. Except it's the opposite. All superstar players end up take massive discounts so there are rarely any free agent deals.


3.) How does the draft work? Is it still in the offseason instead of June? Can you tell who the best player in the draft is right away or is it more of a crapshoot?

It is in June. However, this is also broken because the CPU will leave their drafted players on the MLB roster while demoting regular MLB players.

4.) Do teams value their good prospects properly when you try to trade for them?

Not in the slightest.

5.) Does the game generate realistic stats for pitchers and hitters when you simulate? Does it do a good job of simulating games in that the better team usually wins, or do 100 OVR pitchers routinely get shelled by the AI?

As I stated above, the sim stats are broken, especially for the pitchers. Pujols hit .250 in one of my seasons with 22 homers. Carpenter had a 6.03 ERA.

6.) Are there accurate downloadable rosters with full minor leagues available? (Even if fan created like the ones ChrisJNelson used to do).

With the edit limit, you won't get full minor league rosters.

7.) Do they actually have arbitration and realistic contract situations in the game now?

No realistic contracts.


Sorry that all of my answers were negative ones, but that's the way this game is.

[LSX]

Re: Franchise Mode - Detailed Questions - Please Help

1. Progression is completely broken. Players will not accurately progress or regress. I'm not sure what it's based on (other than the potential rating) but it surely isn't statistics.

2. Yes, every team has a higher budget than their real-life counterparts, and player contracts are only a fraction of what they should be.

3. The draft is a total crapshoot. You don't really know what you're getting, and the player talent pool is way too close from the first round to the last.

4. No, but they don't really have any good prospects anyway. The default minor league rosters are terrible.

5. Statistics are broken, plain and simple.

6. I have heard there are good rosters you can download, but haven't downloaded any myself.

7. Contracts are nowhere close to realistic, players always re-sign with their teams, there is basically no free agency.


I haven't played this game since the first week after release date. Once I realized that franchise mode was a complete disaster, I couldn't enjoy the game. I figured I would wait around and see if a patch fixed some of the issues, but at this point I'm not expecting anything. I will never again purchase a 2K Sports game without renting it first. Lesson learned

[The GOAT 1988]

Re: Franchise Mode - Detailed Questions - Please Help

to see the potential of players on a roster you can just to edit player and go through the tabs until you see the potential meter with the rating. i doubt you can do this before or during the draft (i have not gotten there yet) but after the draft you can prob. you could always save an extra file right before the draft, sim it, then go through afterwards and write down everyones ratings. if the computer can see it and you cant, i wouldnt consider this cheating (just dont manipulate ratings) but its up to the eye of the beholder. i do this for trades bc i HATE not knowing that i get prospects i think are good but have horrible potential.

i agree that having a rating for players (influenced by the ability of your scout) is very much needed. i dont understand the role of a scout if you dont have potential ratings?!?!