I'm very impressed so far. I've only played out a small number of games, so I have no input for statistics and the ilk, but some things I noticed while playing out games include:
- Sound is AWESOME, except when one of the crowd noise files plays because it is wayyyy to loud. Also, would adding a sound to play after a strikeout be possible? It seems to me theres an awkward silence which would be just perfectly filled by a STEEEE RIKE!!!!!!!!!! on a looking strike three and something a little more subdued for a swinging strike three. Really anything would be nice just to signal it was a strike out as opposed to a walk (which could also use a sound) /hit.
- Animation is a great feature I was skeptical about, but it really does add to the game. However, I've noticed that when the catcher has a throwing error on a stolen base attempt the game plays the crack of the bat sound and the ball sails to wherever the errant throw went. Not a big issue, but the first couple times it happened I was a little confused.
- Very aggressive PR. I'm playing a semi-historical league in the 1870's, and I see that substitutions are supposed to be very low. However, I've seen the AI use 21 players in a 12 inning game, sometimes subbing a slower/less talented baserunner for a faster one after he had already gotten on base.
- The same applies to relief pitching in that same era. One of the highest rated pitchers in the league with 16 endurance (scale 20) was yanked in 3 consecutive starts after only 3 innings, in which he gave up a total of 0 earned runs, 1 or 2 total runs, and was striking out more than one batter per inning. I finally went in as commisioner and set his personal strategy to practically never get pulled and this fixed the problem, but the logic governing the AI's decision has me worried.
- I love some of the screen changes you've put in. The streak watch page is fantastic, Hot/cold looks very cool although I've yet to see it in its full glory. The league leaders option on the Standings page is a little cramped, so i just turned it off.
-The default skin is pretty poorly implemented. The light colors make it hard to see blue ratings, and as stated earlier the green ratings in this skin are difficult to read while playing out games. I switched mine back to Blue (haven't checked the classic yet), and everything looks good.
- I haven't watched a replay yet, but I'm waiting for a nice gem of a game to experience that. One of my players hit for the cycle already, but it took him extra innings so I think I'll hold off a while
-1870's leagues are extremely entertaining, if for no other reason that some of the box scores are absolutely ridiculous by today's standards.
EG St. Louis had 6 runs, 6 hits, and 12 errors while Philadelphia had 3 runs, 4 hits and 7 errors in a 9 inning game.
Thats an extreme example, most of the games have had more hits than errors, averaging approximately 5-6 per team per game (very rough estimation). I believe one of the catchers had 4 throwing errors on stolen bases in that game (arm rating of 5 out of 20
)
-Suspensions seem like they'll add some realism to the game. There were two players suspended coming out of spring training which I found odd, however. I'm interested to see how the drug suspension works. I'm assuming its basically a steroid suspension? Does this mean that players how do exceptionally well will be "under the microscope" so to speak? Or is it just a totally random occurance?
There were probably a few other things I noticed but did not stick out in my mind, I'm just excited to have another great product! THANKS MARKUS!!