More transparency with the game engine

[Syd Thrift]

I get the general impression that the engine that runs things like player development and so on works really, really well: when I sim out tons of seasons, the results are pretty compelling, day to day transactions seem to make sense, etc. That being said, I don't think we get as much info as we would otherwise get if we were actually "in there" at the GM's seat, and additionally I don't think we really get enough info as to when the game is doing things behind the scenes.

My quick and easy way to solve this? News stories and emails.

Player Development: I'd like to see a news story any time a scout evaluates a player and determine there is a significant jump or drop in their ability. If the scouts are evaluating on a day to day basis, perhaps this could be tripped when a player has an accumulated bump or hit which is significant.

Minor Leagues: A weekly report on your minor leagues would be just plain awesome. It could list who's hitting well, who isn't, how the teams as a whole are doing, that kind of thing.

Individual Minor Leaguer Development: An email from your minor league instructor telling you that a guy is ready to get called up or make the move from one level to the next would be really, really neat.

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Fielding: There is PBP when a guy makes a great play that I've seen but not enough IMO when a guy makes a poor play or allows a hit that an average or good player would not have allowed. I think it's really important to include this info even though a strong case could be made that it's unrealistic PBP (in that a home announcer will very rarely slag his own players). IRL the fan can watch the play unfold and whatever the announcer says just influences that rather than informs it completely.

Streaks and Slumps: An email reporting that Player X just went 0-4 and broke his hot streak (not to be confused with long hitting streaks, reports of which are already in the game) would be nice, as would a

Rest/Rust: If the rest/rust engine works this way, an email dictating that Player X hasn't played in several days and is accumulating rust would be really helpful. For that matter, so would an email saying that Player Y is tired. Yes, I realize that you can just open each individual player profile and see this for yourself, but the whole point of emails is to make this information more easily available and harder to overlook.

Morale: Right now it seems to me that the game only informs you when a player has dire issues with morale (i.e. he wants to be traded or is demanding to be put in the lineup). It'd be nice to see more granular emails detailing the loss of morale for all of the reasons it can occur. I mean, I wouldn't want to see an email every time a player has a point drop, but upon reaching some thresholds (forex +100 or -100 in any one category) it would be useful info.

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I realize that it's a little late for this kind of thing to get stuck into a release, but my ideas do not come to me at easy and convenient times! Hopefully, though, this expansion of emails and news could make it into a patch or next year's version.

[thbroman]

Syd, this is an interesting mix of ideas, and some of them would be on my personal priority list for the next release. I am especially interested in player development and minor-league news, because well placed news on these fronts would save some of the tedium that is otherwise required to monitor what's gong on.

As for the "morale" suggestion, I wonder if the engine actually has a modifier for team morale. If there is one, I agree that we we should have some access to its effects.

[eriqjaffe]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

Player Development: I'd like to see a news story any time a scout evaluates a player and determine there is a significant jump or drop in their ability. If the scouts are evaluating on a day to day basis, perhaps this could be tripped when a player has an accumulated bump or hit which is significant.

Minor Leagues: A weekly report on your minor leagues would be just plain awesome. It could list who's hitting well, who isn't, how the teams as a whole are doing, that kind of thing.

Individual Minor Leaguer Development: An email from your minor league instructor telling you that a guy is ready to get called up or make the move from one level to the next would be really, really neat.

Hmm. Your ideas are intriguing to me and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.

[Electrovik]

I like your idea.

I think it would add to the immersion. I'm used to look at the players in my organization every week, but I usually take a closer look at "good prospects". So I sometime miss important stuff that happens to other player in the organization.

It would help to have that information when it happen, or on a periodic basis (once a week, or a month)...

[ike121212]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

I get the general impression that the engine that runs things like player development and so on works really, really well: when I sim out tons of seasons, the results are pretty compelling, day to day transactions seem to make sense, etc. That being said, I don't think we get as much info as we would otherwise get if we were actually "in there" at the GM's seat, and additionally I don't think we really get enough info as to when the game is doing things behind the scenes.

My quick and easy way to solve this? News stories and emails.

Player Development: I'd like to see a news story any time a scout evaluates a player and determine there is a significant jump or drop in their ability. If the scouts are evaluating on a day to day basis, perhaps this could be tripped when a player has an accumulated bump or hit which is significant.

Minor Leagues: A weekly report on your minor leagues would be just plain awesome. It could list who's hitting well, who isn't, how the teams as a whole are doing, that kind of thing.

Individual Minor Leaguer Development: An email from your minor league instructor telling you that a guy is ready to get called up or make the move from one level to the next would be really, really neat.

----

Fielding: There is PBP when a guy makes a great play that I've seen but not enough IMO when a guy makes a poor play or allows a hit that an average or good player would not have allowed. I think it's really important to include this info even though a strong case could be made that it's unrealistic PBP (in that a home announcer will very rarely slag his own players). IRL the fan can watch the play unfold and whatever the announcer says just influences that rather than informs it completely.

Streaks and Slumps: An email reporting that Player X just went 0-4 and broke his hot streak (not to be confused with long hitting streaks, reports of which are already in the game) would be nice, as would a

Rest/Rust: If the rest/rust engine works this way, an email dictating that Player X hasn't played in several days and is accumulating rust would be really helpful. For that matter, so would an email saying that Player Y is tired. Yes, I realize that you can just open each individual player profile and see this for yourself, but the whole point of emails is to make this information more easily available and harder to overlook.

Morale: Right now it seems to me that the game only informs you when a player has dire issues with morale (i.e. he wants to be traded or is demanding to be put in the lineup). It'd be nice to see more granular emails detailing the loss of morale for all of the reasons it can occur. I mean, I wouldn't want to see an email every time a player has a point drop, but upon reaching some thresholds (forex +100 or -100 in any one category) it would be useful info.

----

I realize that it's a little late for this kind of thing to get stuck into a release, but my ideas do not come to me at easy and convenient times! Hopefully, though, this expansion of emails and news could make it into a patch or next year's version.

Great suggestions. Player Dev and Individual Minor Leaguer Dev are my favorites.

[Orcin]

Great post. Excellent ideas to add to the immersion.

[MizzouRah]

Originally Posted by Orcin

Great post. Excellent ideas to add to the immersion.

Agreed my fellow Cardinal fan.

[clwalcott]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

Individual Minor Leaguer Development: An email from your minor league instructor telling you that a guy is ready to get called up or make the move from one level to the next would be really, really neat.

Rest/Rust: If the rest/rust engine works this way, an email dictating that Player X hasn't played in several days and is accumulating rust would be really helpful. For that matter, so would an email saying that Player Y is tired. Yes, I realize that you can just open each individual player profile and see this for yourself, but the whole point of emails is to make this information more easily available and harder to overlook.

These two seem doable a little more than the others, and very valuable indeed. I didn't know about the rust thing until relatively recently, but I knew about fatigue due to the prompts I get when choosing my lineups. If it can be done for fatigue, it should incorperate rest as well IMO.

[Biggio509]

Originally Posted by Syd Thrift

Individual Minor Leaguer Development: An email from your minor league instructor telling you that a guy is ready to get called up or make the move from one level to the next would be really, really neat.

Just another lost feature from previous versions I would like back. I miss when the high A manager would send an email and say player X is hitting .140 you should think about demoting him. The other big lost feature is the option to receive an email that stops sim when a minor league player is injured for more than X days. The major league portion staid but the minor league portion went.

Although Markus says it would not affect the new engine I still liked the old pinch hitter depth chart. There were a few features lost around 9 or 10, maybe even 8, I wish were part of the current engine.

[Syd Thrift]

I think the PH depth chart goes back to v6! But yeah, if there was a way to modify the engine to make that work, it would be pretty cool. I think that would probably be a bit more work than my idea above though.

[Markus Heinsohn]

Good ideas! See, there's enough stuff left for an update or OOTP 13