Did the draft improvements make up for lack of franchise improvements?

[LegendKillerOne]

So we are a good chunk into the new MLB the show life now and while the draft changes were a huge step forward not a lot else changed when it came to franchise mode.

Still no additional roster spots, A ball still not playable. No additional minor league systems. No changes to allow editing coaches names or creating coaches.

So really just want to see did the draft improvements make satisfy you this time around? or do you feel you need more?


Personally I feel like unless they make the minor league system deeper, give some coaches control to get real names for the staff members, etc that this might have been my last year getting the game. But keep in mind I ONLY play franchise mode so its everything for me.

[JWDixon120]

Re: Did the draft improvements make up for lack of franchise improvements?

So we are a good chunk into the new MLB the show life now and while the draft changes were a huge step forward not a lot else changed when it came to franchise mode.

Still no additional roster spots, A ball still not playable. No additional minor league systems. No changes to allow editing coaches names or creating coaches.

So really just want to see did the draft improvements make satisfy you this time around? or do you feel you need more?


Personally I feel like unless they make the minor league system deeper, give some coaches control to get real names for the staff members, etc that this might have been my last year getting the game. But keep in mind I ONLY play franchise mode so its everything for me.

It hardly moves the needle for me IMO.

Franchise needs significant improvement in a multitude of areas.

Progression/Regression is so broken in this game it makes future years pretty ridiculous. Which kinda ruins the point of a Franchise mode.


-Franchise Fidelity to Reality Roster out Now!
-Creator of JWDixon’s Franchise Spreadsheet
-More coming soon!

[DL1287]

Re: Did the draft improvements make up for lack of franchise improvements?

The generational prospects were my favorite addition this year but the rest of the draft features could still use a lot of work. There’s basically no high potential position players outside of the 1st round that aren’t 50 overalls. Scouting pitchers is a lot easier than position players so I end up drafting a ton each draft.

I also agree that the regression system is one of the biggest problems. I wish I could get older players without them tanking in overall after a season or two. Minor league players also take too long to develop better hitting attributes too.

Teams also need to value their top prospects more in trades, teams regularly trade them way too often for not much value.

[Douevenbench913]

Re: Did the draft improvements make up for lack of franchise improvements?

The gameplay has taken 2 steps back. The “logic” of swings/misses have made the game unplayable with default sliders…this is even on legend. Strikeouts galore. I do like the scouting in 23 but besides that it’s bare bones. I do like that MTO is multiple seasons as it was in 22…this is the route SCEA is taking franchise. I just want them to bring back the ability to adjust season length…don’t think they will as it has forced people to play the new mini season mode.

So we are a good chunk into the new MLB the show life now and while the draft changes were a huge step forward not a lot else changed when it came to franchise mode.

Still no additional roster spots, A ball still not playable. No additional minor league systems. No changes to allow editing coaches names or creating coaches.

So really just want to see did the draft improvements make satisfy you this time around? or do you feel you need more?


Personally I feel like unless they make the minor league system deeper, give some coaches control to get real names for the staff members, etc that this might have been my last year getting the game. But keep in mind I ONLY play franchise mode so its everything for me.

[countryboy]

Re: Did the draft improvements make up for lack of franchise improvements?

My overall opinion of the draft overhaul is positive and something that has been needed for a while. There are things I’d like to see added/changed to the experience, primarily being locked out of viewing prospects a week at a time, but the scouting process, the actual draft, and the signing of picks is significantly better than the basic point and click system we had before.

And while I am satisfied and happy with the additions made to the draft, and to franchise this year, I have things that I want as well such as editable coaches, expanded rosters, etc

But as a franchise mode only player I think that wanting more additions/improvements will always be a thing no matter what is added during any given cycle.


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[drugsbunny]

Re: Did the draft improvements make up for lack of franchise improvements?

It means nothing to me. Create a team, team branding and RPG elements to building a system is what I'm looking for. Drafting is cool if some player differentiation were more prevalent. but having a bunch of generic players that I'm going to edit anyway is nothing special at all. This generation of game development is about as shallow and pedantic as I've ever seen.

[JoshC1977]

Re: Did the draft improvements make up for lack of franchise improvements?

Honestly, I think the scouting changes made the mode worse, not better (outside of the draft classes themselves). The UI took major steps backwards, the use of "weekly" tasks reduces immersion and in general, I greatly prefer the old approach.

The best part about this game's franchise mode is that they don't ruin it with unnecessary additions (which cannot be said for any of the other franchise modes out there these days). It is such a solid, dynamic mode and many people don't realize how good it is because they are too busy farting with sliders or worrying about minutiae while re-starting constantly. I'm already halfway through season 3 of my Reds franchise I started in April (playing every pitch/game) and haven't touched a slider (outside of injuries) all cycle. Every season has been SO different for us; both at a high-level but also on an individual player basis. There's so many storylines with numerous players that continue to unfold with every AB; it's just an amazing atmosphere where your franchise universe truly feels connected inside of the games themselves (other sports games feel a lot like "Play Now" games that you just access through the franchise menu).

[jcar0725]

Re: Did the draft improvements make up for lack of franchise improvements?

Honestly, I think the scouting changes made the mode worse, not better (outside of the draft classes themselves). The UI took major steps backwards, the use of "weekly" tasks reduces immersion and in general, I greatly prefer the old approach.

The best part about this game's franchise mode is that they don't ruin it with unnecessary additions (which cannot be said for any of the other franchise modes out there these days). It is such a solid, dynamic mode and many people don't realize how good it is because they are too busy farting with sliders or worrying about minutiae while re-starting constantly. I'm already halfway through season 3 of my Reds franchise I started in April (playing every pitch/game) and haven't touched a slider (outside of injuries) all cycle. Every season has been SO different for us; both at a high-level but also on an individual player basis. There's so many storylines with numerous players that continue to unfold with every AB; it's just an amazing atmosphere where your franchise universe truly feels connected inside of the games themselves (other sports games feel a lot like "Play Now" games that you just access through the franchise menu).

Franchise mode is addicting, for me anyway. More than other game franchise modes. I'm so bad at figuring out the new draft system that I end up simulating it. Lol. That's more of a me problem most likely.

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[tc020791]

Re: Did the draft improvements make up for lack of franchise improvements?

Honestly, I think the scouting changes made the mode worse, not better (outside of the draft classes themselves). The UI took major steps backwards, the use of "weekly" tasks reduces immersion and in general, I greatly prefer the old approach.



The best part about this game's franchise mode is that they don't ruin it with unnecessary additions (which cannot be said for any of the other franchise modes out there these days). It is such a solid, dynamic mode and many people don't realize how good it is because they are too busy farting with sliders or worrying about minutiae while re-starting constantly. I'm already halfway through season 3 of my Reds franchise I started in April (playing every pitch/game) and haven't touched a slider (outside of injuries) all cycle. Every season has been SO different for us; both at a high-level but also on an individual player basis. There's so many storylines with numerous players that continue to unfold with every AB; it's just an amazing atmosphere where your franchise universe truly feels connected inside of the games themselves (other sports games feel a lot like "Play Now" games that you just access through the franchise menu).

Very well put. The “franchise” mode itself may be lacking slightly, but the life breathing throughout the league is real. It’s a feeling you don’t get with other sports games for some reason. 225 hours played and I’m still seeing new things every game, every at bat. You can’t say that about other sports games.

[JWDixon120]

Re: Did the draft improvements make up for lack of franchise improvements?

This is where I'm at with Franchise. It has flaws in some of it's core principles which really makes a simulation style franchise unrealistic.

Of the things that could be fixed/added:

A and Rookie ball - This one feeds into my next point, but the rosters need to be expanded to at least show stats. I’m not talking a playable league, but at least give us sim stats. As it stands now, we sign our rookie draft prospects on June 5th, and they aren’t usable until the next year. This is obviously unrealistic.

Draft Classes - This is pretty self explanatory. There’s no reason we shouldn’t have importable draft classes. MLBTS is known to have an incredibly high rated potential vanilla roster. After 5 years of a franchise every 5th Starter is 80+ OVR and every position player is 80+ OVR at the MLB Level. Custom draft classes would help this obviously.

Scouting - Scouts need to serve another purpose besides just amateur scouting. Right now, they scout for 3-4 months and then take the year off while costing your front office $3.0M a year. With the new changes this year they just feel half baked. You can really only scout well for one position and half the time your scouts reports seem way off. I understand the Fog of War but it seems almost overboard at times.

MilB Scouting - This is a feature I would love to see that could make scouts more useful. If anyone here has played FIFA, you know what the GTN is. For those that don’t, here’s the run down... You have a network of scouts that actively search through different countries constantly scouting players from lesser leagues or players that fit your needs.

So for example, the top 50ish players in the word are scouted and the rest have a ? Next to them because their talents aren’t known. Implementing this in MLBTS could be monumental for franchise. Sure, the top 50 prospects can be scouted most of the way, but everyone else should be 10-20% scouted.

If you need a 1B that gets on base and is young, you can set a scout to search for all 1B aged 18-21 with high discipline. It’s that simple.

Hopefully that makes sense lol. If not, search up “FIFA Global Transfer Network”

Progression - This is another vital flaw with MLBTS. If you have a bad progression system, you have a bad franchise mode. Every ”A” prospect you have will eventually reach their goal potential regardless of injuries or how terrible they perform. And I know they added dynamic potential, but that really only moves the potential by 2-3 points. So instead of being a 90 OVR a player will be an 87. As mentioned earlier, after 5-6 years of simming, the league is filled with players who are all 85+ overall. The 5th man in every rotation would be a 2 on every team in 2023.

Regression - There’s only one thing worse than progression in MLBTS, and it’s this. Verlander will toss 200 innings, at a 2.40 ERA, and lose 20 overall points in a year. This shouldn't happen. Veterans who are performing well, should regress 2-5 overall a year. That way you have a slow decline. Currently, on MLBTS, Verlander’s career numbers will look like this:
2023: 2.40 ERA 2024: 66 OVR/Cut off roster. Sometimes players shouldn’t regress hardly any. This should be very very rare, but look at Bonds and David Ortiz’ last season numbers. It’s rare but it does happen.


Transactions - This is another call back to OOTP. It’d be nice to see a player transaction screen within the tabs of their player card. This should be an easy add since they already have a roster history screen. Also, MiLB stats need to be logged for multiple seasons instead of just the current one.

AI Roster Logic - I know this is very tough to get right, but MLBTS gets it so so wrong. In year 1 you’ll see the Royals trade A POT Bobby Witt Jr. for another prospect or the Cubs and Mets trade Swanson for Lindor. It just doesn’t make sense. Also, veteran guys like get waived after slashing .311/.385/.510... because of a low OVR. It just doesn’t make sense.


Custom Rules - We need the ability to change rules in between seasons.

Training - This is a pretty useless feature at the moment. Does it even work properly? There’s no way to tell since it is literally just a screen where you toggle a couple options. There are no reports, or attribute recaps etc. This needs an overhaul.

Advanced Stats - This is a big one for me. I'm a huge stats guy and we're literally in the "Statcast" Era. They even have a deal with Statcast and hardly use it. We only ever get to see a 99% Route Effiency or a catcher 1.67 Pop Time (Pretty sure that's impossible).
Where is OPS+, wRC+, OAA, DRS, etc?

Simulation System - It's pretty obvious MLBTS hasn't touched the simulation system for this game in years. 40+ Pitchers throw 200+ IP a season, when IRL that number is more like 8.

Simulation Sliders - NBA 2K does a great job of allowing users to customize their sim engine to their liking, which paved the way for their ERA's mode. The MLBTS Roster community is huge and this would be a game changer for historical Franchises.

Bullpen Management - This has been an issue for as long as I can remember. LRP's throw 160 IP a season basically as a 6th Man in the rotation. Elite setup guys throw 20 IP a season etc. Cannot believe this has been left in its current state as long as it has.



I'm sure there's more I'm forgetting but those are just the ones I could think of. I understand game development is extremely difficult, but some of these issues have been around for 10+ years.

Just my 2 cents.

I play a ton of MLBTS and it's the only reason I have a PS5 on my desk. Begging for a PC release so these issues could be fixed lol.

[keylo36]

Re: Did the draft improvements make up for lack of franchise improvements?

I'm probably in the minority when it comes to Franchise players but I play every game in my season and I only play one season. So while I understand the importance of improving the scouting and draft features, they don't matter to me because I don't play beyond just the current season.

A few things I'd absolutely love to see:

Larger A Ball Rosters - As someone mentioned earlier, I'd love to see the A rosters expanded to a full 26 players. I'm hoping that with the MiLB players now part of the MLBPA that it could lead to more players being included and pushing SDS to expand MiLB rosters.

Edit/Create Coaching Staff - I play as the Angels and it annoys me that Phil Nevin isn't in the game, but it annoys me even more that the manager they have in the game looks nothing like him. I'd love to see an option to create or edit managers and coaching staff, especially for teams whose managers and coaching staff aren't included in the game.

Import and Create Players! - This is my number one wish for The Show franchise and I can't believe they still haven't added it. I would love for the ability to export players from the live rosters and import them into a saved franchise. I love mirroring the trades that happen in real life in my franchise but so many trades occur that include MiLB players that weren't included in the game at the time I started my franchise. This would help in that area. Also, I love to update ratings in my franchise to match the live roster ratings, especially if there's a huge ratings jump for a player. Instead of having to take a picture or screenshot of their attributes and then manually change them in my franchise, I'd love to be able to export their attributes and import them into my franchise (just like what NBA 2K has allowed you to do for years).

[reyes the roof]

Re: Did the draft improvements make up for lack of franchise improvements?

I don’t think it’s made the mode better or worse, it’s just different. The draft presentation is great but the idea that I’m sending a scout on an assignment to only scout left fielders or to only scout relief pitchers and not closers kills immersion a bit for me

[bryanm1982]

Re: Did the draft improvements make up for lack of franchise improvements?

I don’t think it’s made the mode better or worse, it’s just different. The draft presentation is great but the idea that I’m sending a scout on an assignment to only scout left fielders or to only scout relief pitchers and not closers kills immersion a bit for me

Exactly. Should be just pitchers - or SP or RP. And it should be infield or outfield or ust hitters. That guy scouting that LF is going to not see the SS hit 4 HR in the game. LOL

[Funkycorm]

Re: Did the draft improvements make up for lack of franchise improvements?

That's a tough one. The changes to scouting and the draft were needed, but they lost their luster very quickly.

Franchise will never be perfect in any game. Players will always want that next thing.

But for me, after some patches, the gameplay took a step back for me and what I like to do.

This was the first year I didn't pre-order and got it on day 1 because the draft changes persuaded me but it is going to be a tough sell for me next year. Yeah I would love to see more improvement to franchise but the mode on 23 (22 and 21) for that matter don't engage me like it once did.

I applaud SDS for changing the draft and scouting, even though it lost its luster, but it's not enough to keep me engaged in the show universe any longer without going back to 20 to a franchise I am attached to.

[LegendKillerOne]

Re: Did the draft improvements make up for lack of franchise improvements?

Honestly, I think the scouting changes made the mode worse, not better (outside of the draft classes themselves). The UI took major steps backwards, the use of "weekly" tasks reduces immersion and in general, I greatly prefer the old approach.

The best part about this game's franchise mode is that they don't ruin it with unnecessary additions (which cannot be said for any of the other franchise modes out there these days). It is such a solid, dynamic mode and many people don't realize how good it is because they are too busy farting with sliders or worrying about minutiae while re-starting constantly. I'm already halfway through season 3 of my Reds franchise I started in April (playing every pitch/game) and haven't touched a slider (outside of injuries) all cycle. Every season has been SO different for us; both at a high-level but also on an individual player basis. There's so many storylines with numerous players that continue to unfold with every AB; it's just an amazing atmosphere where your franchise universe truly feels connected inside of the games themselves (other sports games feel a lot like "Play Now" games that you just access through the franchise menu).

Do you use 30 team control or do you just play and whatever moves the computer makes they make?