Quote:
Originally Posted by Bowtie
1. By you saying that "Personally, 3D is not even in my top ten list of things I'd add to/subtract from the game, but if it comes, it comes. I'll likely not use it until it gets to the point that it looks like a real game on TV and if it never does, I won't care much" you are indirectly admitting that the developers possibly have misused assets that could be better spent by improving the pre-existing product first - namely the AI.
2. Nobody here is saying that we think the AI is "junk". Only you are saying that. All we are saying is that we think the AI improvements should have come first then perhaps the eye candy graphics.
Bottom line: Do we expect the AI to be perfect? Gee willikers no. But there's always room for improvements though.
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I'm not indirectly or directly accusing the developers of "misusing assets." I don't play online, but I realize a large number of the users of this game do, so it's appropriate for the developers to cater to both that community (online gamers) and my community (offline gamers).
I also don't play historical. I play a very narrow game: I set up a MLB league with current players, I add six expansion teams (Brooklyn, Birmingham AL, San Antonio in the AL; Montreal, New Orleans, Salt Lake City in the NL), create fictional players for those six teams, then play out every game in the ML and every minor league game for my chosen franchise (I've been Seattle, Chicago-NL, now Birmingham) and stay as close as I can to the daily schedule for real-life MLB. It takes me an hour or so to play out a day of games, and I start early in the calendar year so that by the time December rolls around, I'm finishing up my World Series. Same deal every year since 1987 on a Commodore 64. I doubt anyone else plays like I do, and I don't care. It's not required that everyone else plays like I do anymore than it's required that I play like THEY do.
As for the AI, here's the problem: It's mostly subjective. Yes, there is the occasional bug -- my league loves to put around 300 players on waivers at the end of April, but no one ever claims anybody and the problem fixes itself a week later -- but as far as the in-game decisions go, there's nothing so egregious that I can't either overlook it, or remember seeing a real-life manager do something just as bad, or worse. When you start trying to demand a company pour all assets into a subjective component of the game, you set up a scenario in which you can always complain and ask for more attention, as what you consider "good-enough AI" is not necessarily what I would consider "good-enough AI."
My list of wants is pretty short. I'd like to be able to call every pitch. I'd like to fix the game's propensity to declare a relief pitcher "tired" if he pitches two days in a row, regardless of pitch count. I'd love to smooth over a few rough edges in the trading system. But since when does hiring a graphics guy mean none of the above gets fixed?