[Sweed]

Two week update..

Two or three patches later and I'm 20 games into my first season playing out every game. There are still quirks that need to be ironed out but, the on field modern 3d is a big improvement over v26. I already mentioned player models/movement being much better.

Camera movement still loses the ball more than it should but is better than v26. Some of that is losing the ball less with the other being the dynamic camera using a better mix of camera locations during the play. I've seen views from behind the dugout during that I neve saw in previous versions (yes there was a camera there in v26 and before) along with better angles all around the field.

What I didn't appreciate on first view was how much better the whole in game experience looked. Or maybe it's better to say I saw it and appreciated it, but I didn't exactly know why. To me the shadowing and lighting is a huge upgrade over previous versions. This not only shows on the more detailed uniforms mentioned but the ballcaps of the players have shadowing too. It is kind of subtle but that's a good thing. IE it doesn't stick out ("look at what we added!"), rather it is just naturally taken in by your eye giving a more realistic
view of a ballgame being played. This is so well done and whoever coded it deserves a nice pat on the back. Thank you.

The latest patch, at least for me, has greatly improved the roster/player churn. I do look at my "all transactions" daily. I have been randomly clicking on players that were released and then going to their history tab to check the dates. These players are not being signed and released multiple times. Most players released as their league's opening day was arriving had been signed before Jan 1. With many of those in Nov the previous offseason. Almost every player had been with their club for a month, with the majority 3 months or more. The opening day release cycle put a lot of players out of work. Again, looking at my "all transactions" every day of my season I am not seeing these marginal guys return in a sign/release cycle that never ends.

As I enter May the daily "all transactions" are numbering anywhere from 1 to 12ish. Most are IL moves, some are DFA, others straight up releases, with very few signings. DFA's for the most part make sense. Straight up releases are remaining free agents as signings are not off the charts. It seems the AI is no longer signing and releasing marginal players over and over.

Keep in mind I am a slow "manage ever game/ look over my league every day" player. What I see may not be what a long term sim player sees. From where I sit the game is in great shape and I'm looking forward to the "little fixes" and QOL patches that will be coming.

Edit to add: I did increase my minor league clubs to 39 player max and rookie is at 50 (as it was before). I saw Lukas suggest increasing (I picked 39 players as my best guess) this as a way to combat the sign/release. I wondered if teams would hoard players and all keep 39 on the team, perhaps causing a shortage if I was needing injury replacements? Some AI teams did go to 39, some didn't. Most have at least 35. It has not caused a shortage of FA that can actually play at some minor league level. Nor is there a shortage of MLB players that are still FA. They may be AAA type players, which is fine. It seems these guys don't want a minor league deal. To be fair as it's only May IDK if this trend will hold or if they will eventually take minor league deals. Time will tell.