Attn: Sports Mogul (Features Thread)

[DrDoom]

I know it may be a bit early for something like this but I want to start a new features thread for the next version of mogul or even a patch for 2k5. Here are the features that Dr. Doom would like to see in order of importance to Dr. Doom.

1. Historical Rookies
2. All-Time Leader boards
3. Financial Model that more closely resembles that of real major league baseball. This should also include an additional player rating that affects how much money he asks for.
4. The ability to realistically add expansion teams with an expansion draft and all.
5. Manager Signings.
6. Spice up the stats side of the game with clutch ratings and Vs Left/Vs Right ratings.
7. Fan Favorites. If a fan favorite is traded it lowers the fan loyalty rating for the team.
8. A more editable league structure with the option to have up to 3 leagues (think FPSpro for all you baseball gaming vets out there) and up to 4 divisions in each league.


I'm creating this thread because I see many good ideas for new features to be added to Baseball Mogul but they are scattered throughout the forums. I think that if they were all in one place Sports Mogul might have an easier time obtaining a clearer image of what there customers really want (and I do think they (Sports Mogul) really try). After a while I'd like to create a poll with all of the feature ideas that people put in this thread. In the end I'm hoping that in doing this we will be giving Sports Mogul more direction.

[Jeff Olsen]

Originally posted by DrDoom
7. Fan Favorites. If a fan favorite is traded it lowers the fan loyalty rating for the team. Something like this is already in the game.

[moonman]

first off, i have to note that i haven't yet bought 2005, as i'm waiting for the cd version, so if any of these have already been addressed, forget i mentioned them.

in order of importance to me:

1. being able to move the pitcher's slot to any position in the batting order

2. a schedule editor, or at least options in "league editor" to ensure a better randomly generated schedule (e.g., max # of off days in a row, season end date, doubleheaders yes/no, etc). some people may not have the problems with the schedule that i have, as i ussually contract both leagues back down to the eight orignial teams--then i get funky schedules with three off days in a row several times per season.

3. a slider under team options for a percentage of games to start alternate starters. at least for the catcher, but preferably for all postion players.

4. as _options_, a maximum salary (for each indvidual player), a salary cap (for the whole team), and the ability to edit the minimum salary.

5. a contraction feature, with a contraction draft. at present i have to create a new pitcher on a team, copy him ten times, create a new position player, copy him thirteen times, release all the "real" pitchers and players, then delete the team. and this still doesn't address where the released people go, it just dumps them into the free agent pool.

6. more levels to minor leagues, and drafting of amateurs (sp?) rather than AAA players. these needn't be too complex, a la OOTP. just have the same roster screens as now, but have the first five to ten minor league spots be labled "AAA," the next few "AA," etc. we can move people up or down if we want, or ignore it, and either way minor leaguers develop the same. as you lose minor leaguers to free agency and draft new ones, the minor leaguers you keep will move up simply by virtue of those spots being emptied on the screen. in other words, i want this as a "color" thing that doesn't actually affect anything, not as a true feature that could slow down or complicate the game.

7. more stats and types of plays added to box scores and recaps--not only things that aren't kept track of, but things that as far as i know never happen in baseball mogul, such as triple plays, double switches, taking a base on defensive indifference, ejections, etc. but i agree that this stuff isn't necessary if it slows the game down too much.

8. the feature that i know will never happen because i'm guessing they'd have to completely re-write the game from scratch: being able to tmeporarily use a pitcher as a position player or vice versa.


all of Dr Doom's suggestions are ones i could back (although i'd want "historical rookies" to be an option), but none of

them are ones i'd put on my own list.

[mooseman74]

I'd like to see the players' allstar appearances added to their transaction screen...and for the photos to work properly.

[Clay Dreslough]

This is a useful thread. All-Time Leaders was on our list but we couldn't get it built this year.

Just to clarify (for myself, and anyone who ends up voting), "Historical Rookies" refers to a feature that "looks ahead" in the Lahman DB and uses those players as rookies instead of generating random ones. Am I correct?

So, for example, if you start as the 1938 Red Sox, then Ted Williams will appear on your roster before the 1939 season (his rookie year). Or perhaps he will appear on a list of draftable players...

Clay

[mooseman74]

Yeah...that's what Historical Rookies means to me.....that would be a great addition to BBM2K5 I think. :)

[DrDoom]

Just to clarify (for myself, and anyone who ends up voting), "Historical Rookies" refers to a feature that "looks ahead" in the Lahman DB and uses those players as rookies instead of generating random ones. Am I correct?

That is correct.;)

[philliez98]

i would love that feature

[Brent]

Originally posted by mooseman74
Yeah...that's what Historical Rookies means to me.....that would be a great addition to BBM2K5 I think. :)

I know this would be a great addition.

[boomboom]

Originally posted by Clay Dreslough
Just to clarify (for myself, and anyone who ends up voting), "Historical Rookies" refers to a feature that "looks ahead" in the Lahman DB and uses those players as rookies instead of generating random ones. Am I correct?

So, for example, if you start as the 1938 Red Sox, then Ted Williams will appear on your roster before the 1939 season (his rookie year). Or perhaps he will appear on a list of draftable players...

Clay

it would be nice if we could have historical rookies each year. I would love to have an option of having both "H.R." assigned to the teams they originally played for, and having a minor league draft with these players....

but at the same time, an option to turn this feature off even thou I would probably never turn this feature off.

All time leaderboards i think would make the game the best

[oriole^]

Good thread, Doom, and thanks, Clay, for reading.

Yeah, my list is long, but hey, it's a wish list. I'd be happy with any of them. I've included some suggestions for how to implement them as well - it's the network engineer in me.

1. Editable league structure, interleague play, and playoffs

For me, and apparently only for me, this is the big one. I fuss around with moving teams and leagues all the time and would love to play a "what if" scenario where, for example, the Pacific Coast League became the third major league in the 1950's, as almost happened...or Branch Rickey started the Continental League, again as almost happened. This would mean changing interleague play - do all leagues play each other, or only certain ones? - and the playoffs - how many teams per league? per division? with wildcards? I've actually worked up a possible screen for this, and will post it in a separate thread...

2. Salary caps and revenue sharing

An option to share revenue: x% of each team's profits are put in a pool and split evenly amongst all teams. Per team salary cap, possibly with a salary floor (minimum team salary) as well, to prevent player dumping. A "superstar" salary cap: no more than $x, or no more than x% of a team's total payroll, to a single player.

3. Platoon splits

As I described elsewhere, a 1-10 factor towards the left or right, bell-curved around 0 (no difference) is probably the way to go here. If you're feeling ambitious, you could do it separately for average and power.

4. Editable number of pitchers per team and roster sizes

The '79 Orioles, for example, carried nine pitchers and 16 position players. This would seem to be fairly simple to set up.

5. All-Time Leader Board

Which Clay is working on.

6. Historical rookies

A very cool option, especially with the editable leagues.

7. Expansion draft: "pool teams" and player protection

This would basically be some options to the existing fantasy draft. This would allow you to designate certain teams to have their players distributed and not others (contraction), and/or you could allow teams to protect a certain number of players before a draft.

8. "Important players" option

Certain players would refuse assignments to the bench or the minors. Consequences for doing so anyway might be big hits in fan loyalty, a decrease in player performance, or demands to be traded.

9. Expanded salary negotiations

Counteroffers, option years, signing bonuses...

10. Better bench management

Designated replacements, "utility" positions for bench guys who frequently start...

11. "Color" events

Triple plays, double switches, ejections, suspensions, rainouts...

[CpnHowdy]

How about having some type of batch program that maybe runs inside of the league editor box that will do maybe some of the more recent expansion/league/division changes. For instance in 94 to where theres 3 divisions and the wildcard and maybe like in 98 where it would automatically create arizona and tampa (this would just be a time saver for players, I often like to start play in the 80's but because I know I have to take 5 minutes before the 92 and 94 seasons to edit the league kinda takes the fun out.

[boomboom]

Originally posted by CpnHowdy
How about having some type of batch program that maybe runs inside of the league editor box that will do maybe some of the more recent expansion/league/division changes. For instance in 94 to where theres 3 divisions and the wildcard and maybe like in 98 where it would automatically create arizona and tampa (this would just be a time saver for players, I often like to start play in the 80's but because I know I have to take 5 minutes before the 92 and 94 seasons to edit the league kinda takes the fun out.

I would love to see this option too....with historical rookies too.

[B. Gizzle]

what about a 'happiness' meter for players? In real life, some players such as Manny Rameriez and Carl Everet are hard to deal with, even though they are talented, and there are 'problem' guys that are hard to trade, despite the apparent talent. I think something like this should be included in the game. So maybe something the happiness can alter the clubhouse atmosphere, and cause teams to lose/win to a certain degree. After all, synergy does play a big part in baseball.

Some other things that would be nice to see are:
waivers
historical rookies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
in season updates on roster
hiring managers
improving the draft to be high schoolers and collegiate players
expand the minors
more competitive play from ALL teams
ocassional randomly generated free agents that don't suck (some thing like the recent Japanese invasion)

I really enjoy the game, but I'm finding that the improvements between each release to be minimal, and I'd just love to see the game improve to be more realistic.

[B. Gizzle]

oh, and how about improving the bullpen up a bit. Right now, as a long reliever, the pitcher gets about 15 games a season. I don't think that's realistc. Managers put in pitcers for single batters quite alot, so no one should really be pitching that few times, esp. when they're on the active roster all year. Also, maybe the bullpen could be spiced up so that having speciality pitchers, like a lefty specialist could help the team a bit more than just a random group. Essentially, to more accurately portray real baseball, there should be more synergy in a team.

As for individuals, I think the pitcher's endurence should change as they age. No you 18 year old should start out with an 85+ endurence (well, maybe the rare bird, but you know what I'm saying) and it should change throughout their careers to reflect their roles, so it might diminish if they're a reliever and increase as they get older as starters.

Furthermore, I notice that the game really shunns older pitchers, even if they're stats are still very good. A 39 year old Kevin Brown is thrown into the minors, as is many older pitchers, while in reality, we're looking at the likes of Roger Clemens and Randy Johnson. Sure, they're not what they used to be, but they're still aces, but the game really pushes them back.

Lastly, players need to be able to improve to a certain extent even when they're at their peak, there is the skill factor, and then there is the experience factor. While Barry Bond's change from speedster to power hitter isn't common, it does happen to a certain extent with many players as they age beyond their best years, so perhaps this can be taken into consideration. I noticed this to be true for catchers as they hit their 30s, but not quite so for other players.