MLB The Show - General Discussion

[Gabriel]

I finally figured out running. Not a fan of the mechanic in RTTS, but I figured it out.

Has anyone else noticed a bit of lag during the first pitch you see in a game though? I basically have to take the first pitch of each new game, because as soon as the pitcher pulls the throwing hand back, there's a hell of a stutter and it seems like half the animation for throwing is gone, so I don't see the ball until it's already basically at the plate.

It only seems to happen on that first pitch I see though. It's more annoying than anything else, especially when you watch it sail itself right through the middle of your PCI and know you would have absolutely crushed it.
 

I do like the 2-way player option in RTTS, but they definitely need to refine it a bit. Every year, I've led my team in Batting Average (my team sucks), and am close to the top of the group in number of Home Runs, but my performance doesn't seem to impact how often I get to start a game as a hitter. I chose Closing Pitcher as my primary position, but you'd think that if the team is struggling offensively and I am not, that they might think about using me more in hitting situations and/or just flat out asking me to cut back on pitching. Nope.

[The Buscher]

Got MLB 23 as a Christmas cheapie.  One thing I can say got killed dead in MLB 23 is Manager Mode.  Which is a shame as I enjoyed doing in-game managing at times when I was too frustrated with hitting.

The CPU strikes out a comical amount of times playing against itself even with adjusted sliders.  It never used to be like this.  I joke about the uptick in strikeouts in real life but in a CPU vs CPU game you will see multiple silver sombreros and probably one or two golden sombreros every game.

Manager 10 games of franchise.  Through 10 games my team (Mets) have already struck out 139 times.  The runner up is the Marlins who I’ve played in 7 of the 10 games with 130 strikeouts.  The 3rd highest is the Royals with only 96.

That already a huge enough variance to tell you CPU vs CPU play is broken and I suspect it’ll never get fixed now because the number of players who actually use manager mode is quite small.

[The Buscher]

New game drops March 19th.  Definitely not getting it since I only just got the latest one at Christmas but just a heads up for the thread.

Lots of moaning about the fact the game will be out on PS4 again (basically just assuming they can't really make a greatly enhanced PS5 version if they're still working on a PS4 one).  The PS5 shortage seemed to finally end last year but sports games generally are always among the last to be released on old consoles because a lot of people can't afford a console upgrade and the money is there.

[Gabriel]

Cover star this year, for some reason, is Vlad Jr. If they wanted a Blue Jay, they could have gone with Gausman or Bichette, but sure... let's toss Vlad on it.

I haven't had a lot of time with the new scouting in franchise mode, as I ended up playing a whole bunch of Road to the Show, but I enjoy it so far. Needing to prioritize scouting guys who should be available for you, and guys who would actually sign with your team... it adds a layer to the scouting that was sorely missing before.

Every year, I hope for significant additions to franchise, but if each year they can at least give us something the level of the scouting changes, it should keep me satiated.

The big thing I want fixed right now is computer pitcher usage and Bullpen AI. Personally, I'd like to be able to assign different scenarios to each guy in the bullpen so that when I need someone for mop-up, it goes to a certain guy if he's rested and available... and the big one being that guys in the long relief slots typically end up with an Innings Pitched number that resembles a consistent starter.

[Toe]

21 hours ago, Gabriel said:

The big thing I want fixed right now is computer pitcher usage and Bullpen AI. Personally, I'd like to be able to assign different scenarios to each guy in the bullpen so that when I need someone for mop-up, it goes to a certain guy if he's rested and available... and the big one being that guys in the long relief slots typically end up with an Innings Pitched number that resembles a consistent starter.

This please. Too often the CPU will go to my long relievers in situations when it would be ideal to bring in the set-up or closing pitcher. At the end of the season, some of your best relief pitchers would have pitched only a handful of innings.

[Mx. Canadian Destroyer]

A system more akin to line-up and rotation building from OOTP would be amazing. Laying out more options for how someone should be used. I'd love an option to "re-set" the rotation (aka the ace should start the next game) for things like the first game after the All-Star Break. Or even to switch to a 6-man rotation or indicate that you are going to use an Opener rather than your Starter in the next game. 

[Gabriel]

21 minutes ago, Toe said:

This please. Too often the CPU will go to my long relievers in situations when it would be ideal to bring in the set-up or closing pitcher. At the end of the season, some of your best relief pitchers would have pitched only a handful of innings.

For my own team, I have a system in place that rotates pitchers through the different slots to force the CPU to give them innings during the games that I sim. When I'm playing a game, I know who I want in what situations, but if that pitcher isn't rested enough, I usually go with the guy with the lowest innings count who has full stamina.

When I'm in a blow out game (which I classify as a 5 run difference for gaming purposes), whether I am winning or losing, the guy with the lowest innings count and full stamina gets the call.

But we shouldn't have to do anything other than set our lineups, rotations and bullpens. We shouldn't need to find a way to make it work. The game should have the ability to do that based on in-game situations, pitcher skills and current performance.

Giving us the ability to set a "perfect scenario usage" for each pitcher would be huge. For starters, maybe we can assign each guy a pitch count or innings count that we want to stick around if possible, or maybe even just set how much rope our manager gives them in simmed games. For the bullpen, I'd want to be able to set guys as being primarily used for Mop Up Duty, for High Leverage slots, for closing out games, etc. Hell, even throw in a pitch/innings count for the bullpen.

[The Buscher]

Bullpen management has largely always been a problem with the game but it feels even worse now.  On Operation Sports they've mapped out how to take the game's logic and use it to ensure the best relievers get used.  Your closer is your closer and your 8th inning/best setup guy is SU1.  The CPU largely knows when to use those guys as they are in real life.

But everything other than that is counterintuitive.  The CPU almost never touches the SU2 so that's actually where you want to put the worst reliever on the roster.  They rarely will see the field outside of extras.  MR4 is for your 2nd worst reliever for the same reason.

On the contrary, the CPU can't help but throw the LR1 in anytime 7th inning or earlier.  And since most teams roster an actual SP with SP stamina in that spot and they recover stamina accordingly, the CPU will just run those guys in day in, day out for multi-inning outings and they'll rack up comical numbers of innings over a season.  The prevailing thinking then is to put your 3rd best reliever in the LR1 spot.  The CPU will generally turn to them most games and, since it's a reliever with normal reliever stamina levels they can't be abused the way a SP in the bullpen would be.

The issue for all of this though is to truly get accurate BP usage across the league you need to do 30-team control and not only set the roster like this on Opening Day but monitor transactions and police the bullpen layout if a team calls somebody up or there's an injury.  It's far too much work.

I kinda just accept the BP numbers are gonna be broken and worry about my own team.  I'll sometimes use my 2nd controller to make pitching changes for my opponent so the games I'm playing at least feel realistic.  I'll do stuff like throw the closer in for the 8th against my 3/4/5 hitters if it's a big game.  Still an issue with doing this because if you forget to actually switch from CPU to 2P before the next inning starts the CPU will ignore the pitcher you had warming up and put in whoever its default algorithm decides it should.

[The Buscher]

After struggling like hell to hit for a couple of weeks I get off to a 9-1 start in the 5th inning of a game including 4 dingers.  But my pitcher had a pretty high pitch count through 5 and was tiring.

Go to the bullpen menu to warm up a reliever.  And there’s no back button.  I can’t press circle to go back.  No way out.  Completely stuck.  No choice but to turn off the game, losing my offensive explosion.

I know games glitch sometimes but crap like this makes me actually want to put the game back in the box for a while.  Bare minimum I’m setting it to beginner hitting next game because I want my stats back 

[Toe]

11 hours ago, The Buscher said:

After struggling like hell to hit for a couple of weeks I get off to a 9-1 start in the 5th inning of a game including 4 dingers.  But my pitcher had a pretty high pitch count through 5 and was tiring.

Go to the bullpen menu to warm up a reliever.  And there’s no back button.  I can’t press circle to go back.  No way out.  Completely stuck.  No choice but to turn off the game, losing my offensive explosion.

I know games glitch sometimes but crap like this makes me actually want to put the game back in the box for a while.  Bare minimum I’m setting it to beginner hitting next game because I want my stats back 

Is it possible your pitcher got hurt just as you went to make the change? I know that you can't back out if the pitcher is injured.

[The Buscher]

3 hours ago, Toe said:

Is it possible your pitcher got hurt just as you went to make the change? I know that you can't back out if the pitcher is injured.

Nah he was healthy, just tired.  Problem was I was in the bottom of the 5th inning and I was batting.  Had I been the pitching team I probably could've just brought an arm in cold to at least get out of the screen.

Might turn off the warming up of pitchers as a precaution.  Feel like CPU bullpen management is unrealistic enough as is, who cares about warming them up.

[The Buscher]

For the first time ever, you can play as a woman in RTTS.  Awesome addition.

[Your Mom]

13 hours ago, The Buscher said:

For the first time ever, you can play as a woman in RTTS.  Awesome addition.

 

[Gabriel]

I'm of two minds on this. First, obviously female inclusion is a cool addition. I may never use it personally, but it might help grow women's baseball. Beyond that, even if only a handful of young girls pick up the game and feel good about it, they deserve that. EA NHL has women's hockey. Why not women's baseball in The Show? It doesn't radically alter the game. You won't have a mixed men's and women's MLB five years into your franchise. So anyone freaking out needs to chill. Tranquilo, homies.

That said, ANY new addition in a year with minimal or no changes/fixes/updates to Franchise always feels a bit like a slap in my face. March to October upset me for that reason. With no news on franchise yet this year, I'm a little upset they took the time to add completely separate stuff to the game.

I'm not saying it will be easy to fix, as I haven't coded in years and don't know the limitations and restrictions of what they're dealing with... but even without adding new features to Franchise (like full Class-A, expanded draft, bigger rosters, expansion, etc)... even without touching that stuff, there are glaring problems in the mode that need to be addressed like Bullpen AI. Even if they can't get it into a specific year's game... just letting us know it's being worked on, keeping us updated when they hit roadblocks or see progress... stuff like that can go a long way in keeping your fanbase satiated.

[The Buscher]

Yeah whenever they don't mention franchise at all it means the mode is basically a copy and paste job from the year prior.  I'll grant that there's only so much more they could do to the mode in terms of new features and I'm sure there are spatial limitations (that they're still making PS4 might be a bit of a hold back in terms of adding, say, Class A).

But there are definite under the hood adjustments that would make the mode better.  I only just got 23 at Christmas so I wasn't rushing out to the buy this one, but I just have this looming sense that within the first day of release I'll see a post on OS about bullpen AI logic still being broken.

I'm not willing to spend the time doing 30 team control reconfiguring rosters so they'll manage a bullpen realistically.  So I've just had to create a headcanon in my world where some of the best set up guys in baseball are injury prone and that's why they only pitch 15 innings a year, and just accept that it's standard practice in this world for teams to carry multiple SP in the bullpen and have them eat nearly all the innings.  It's dumb, but too much work for me to fix myself.

Hell it's not just the bullpen.  I'm in May in my franchise and I've seen teams carry 24-year old B rated prospects on their bench, accumulating a month of service time and playing in just 2 games instead of having them play every day in the minors.  And nobody ever uses the DH spot logically either - for as long as I can remember Nelson Cruz has been playing RF in the Show and the game refuses to keep him at DH.  And this is a legacy issue - definitely remember years where the Red Sox in my game didn't roster a backup 1B which meant David Ortiz played 1B every day.  Why can't DH be its own position at this point?  There's literally a DH Silver Slugger, so the game can and does track who is taking their ABs at DH.

[Gabriel]

Yeah, the roster logic in general needs an overhaul. It might need to come from something like adding Team Traits or adding GMs and giving them traits of their own... but the vast majority of teams don't want to burn service time or risk prospects not developing by just sitting on the bench, even though sometimes those prospects may legitimately be better or as good as the guys on the roster.

Service Time Manipulation should absolutely be in the game to some degree. It would also stop the issue of having a Free Agents list at the end of the off-season, where you could conceivably piece together a team that would be better than the bottom five in the league, just with guys who are left over after the signing period.

The game should be able to recognize that. So a team like, say the Yankees or Jays would only bring up a prospect if they're going to be playing every day... and if not, they'll go out and find a veteran "bargain" or whatever. Whereas a team like Oakland may be more inclined to run with their top prospects if they can't find a budget friendly veteran who can keep that prospect in the minors a little bit longer.

[The Buscher]

The franchise stream, as expected, didn't reveal much of anything in the way of new features.  Everything they've added is relatively minor.  Maybe the biggest franchise feature is they have a pre-existing injury thing ala Madden where you can choose to ensure players hurt right now will be hurt in-game when you start a franchise (so some guys are already out for the year, etc).

Logic was basically limited to just "we always go under the hood and make some changes every year" but nothing in detail.  Given people have been screaming about bullpen logic for ages, not specifically addressing that doesn't fill me with much confidence that much was done to it.  And that would be really a shame because you can tell instantly the CPU manages the same way every game and kills the same long relief pitchers dead.  Guess we'll see when the game releases and we get reactions on OS.

On to smaller things, I'm no developer but when I see something that's been requested by the community for well over a decade now like a coach editor.  Nothing flashy, just the ability to edit a game-generated-coach just as you can edit the game-generated players.  Change name, jersey number, whatever.  And it's still not in there.  Is it more complicated to add than I think, or do they just not see the value?  Because my god I can't tell you how irritating it is to sign a new 3B coach and then every time I hit a HR I have to see him slap hands with the hitter and remember that my coach is wearing a retired number, or the same jersey number as one of my star players.  And I can't do anything about it.  I know it's small but it's just basic immersion stuff.

[Toe]

On 08/03/2024 at 15:46, The Buscher said:

The franchise stream, as expected, didn't reveal much of anything in the way of new features.  Everything they've added is relatively minor.  Maybe the biggest franchise feature is they have a pre-existing injury thing ala Madden where you can choose to ensure players hurt right now will be hurt in-game when you start a franchise (so some guys are already out for the year, etc).

Logic was basically limited to just "we always go under the hood and make some changes every year" but nothing in detail.  Given people have been screaming about bullpen logic for ages, not specifically addressing that doesn't fill me with much confidence that much was done to it.  And that would be really a shame because you can tell instantly the CPU manages the same way every game and kills the same long relief pitchers dead.  Guess we'll see when the game releases and we get reactions on OS.

On to smaller things, I'm no developer but when I see something that's been requested by the community for well over a decade now like a coach editor.  Nothing flashy, just the ability to edit a game-generated-coach just as you can edit the game-generated players.  Change name, jersey number, whatever.  And it's still not in there.  Is it more complicated to add than I think, or do they just not see the value?  Because my god I can't tell you how irritating it is to sign a new 3B coach and then every time I hit a HR I have to see him slap hands with the hitter and remember that my coach is wearing a retired number, or the same jersey number as one of my star players.  And I can't do anything about it.  I know it's small but it's just basic immersion stuff.

It annoys me a lot when you see one of the real coaches next to one of the created ones. The real ones look almost as good as the players, while the created ones look like they are made of silly putty.

[The Buscher]

Sounds like bullpen AI logic has, unsurprisingly, not been touched.  If the CPU is losing after 5 they'll always yank their starter and bring in a long reliever to pitch the rest of the game, seemingly no matter the score unless they tie or take the lead.  Same as MLB 23.  And yes, this extends to simming too which means starters in the BP will still get like 130 innings a year while the 2nd set up guy will get about 20-30.

Was a day 1 complaint last year, has been a problem for years, and they still do nothing about it.  Bleh.

[Gabriel]

Disappointing, but not surprising. That Franchise gets any resources and time allocated to it is a miracle. I don't think it's a high priority for them, because it doesn't make them any money post-launch.

I've been trying to surmise if anything in Franchise has changed this year, but I haven't seen anyone mention anything yet.