Suggestions: The Interface (GUI)

[injury log]

Suggestion

In the pitching staff pane, change the 'Rotation Size' selector to a row of six checkboxes.

Reason

It's a bit annoying to change from a 5-man to a 4-man rotation- it requires five clicks.

Priority

Low

[Kelric]

Originally Posted by injury log

Suggestion

In the pitching staff pane, change the 'Rotation Size' selector to a row of six checkboxes.

Reason

It's a bit annoying to change from a 5-man to a 4-man rotation- it requires five clicks.

Priority

Low

Just to add on to this.

Suggestion
Allow the size of the rotation to be typed into one box, much like many other setup options are.

Reason
All of the clicking is annoying, but this also saves space when compared to having six individual boxes to check.

Priority
Low if this is never implemented, high if the checked boxes idea is considered. This would be nicer to have, I think.

[battists]

Suggestion
Create a "reports" menu. This menu would go at the top between the Teams and Recent menus.

The reports menu would be a cascading menu broken out into a few different tiers. First, the user would select the timeframe:

Current Year
Historical

Next, the user would select the league:

Major League Baseball
MLB AAA
MLB AA

Next, the user would select either League Reports or the specific team:

League Reports
Albany Aviators
Boston Bobcats

Finally, there would be an alphabetical list of all of the reports in that category:

Financial Report
Injury Log
Leaders
Minor League System
etc.

So, want to see the Phillies' salary report?

Report -> Current Year -> MLB -> Philadelphia Phillies -> Salary Report

Want to see the league's historical leaderboards?

Report -> Historical -> MLB -> League Reports -> Leaderboards

Together with this, we could eliminate:

- the report drop-down that appears on some screens
- report buttons on various screens
- the report tab in each team's set of tabs

Reason
Currently, there are seemingly hundreds of ways to access reports. It's overwhelming and very confusing, and just adds to the general clutter of the interface. For example, you can get at some team reports from the team home, or from the team reports tab, or from the reports drop-down, etc. This is in addition to the quick links on the manager portal page, the menu option in the league menu, and so on.

Creating a single report menu would allow users to feel confident in finding the report they want at any given time. Every report would be accessed in the same, consistent manner.

Priority
High

[battists]

Suggestion
Two "widget"-based customizable screens: one for the manager portal, and another for the in-game experience. This would break the game into pieces that you could use to customize your portal or favorite in-game screen, much like My Yahoo or something like that.

Reason
Eliminate the whining (well, most of it) about how the screens have too much or not enough of what everyone wants. Could potentially remove the need for separate broadcast and webcast screens>

Priority
Medium to High

[Qrusher14242]

Suggestion
Be able to sort the email news with the arrows/Go to the newest email when told of a new email

Reason
Would make it much easier to read the news

Priority
Medium

[Honolulu Blue]

Suggestion
Certain personal e-mails should have a reply button with options depending on the nature of the contact.

For example, with a player asking for an extension, there should be options to (a) go to his screen, (b) renegotiate directly, (c) send a non-committal message ("um, we'll get to you sometime in the next few weeks..."), and (d) send a not-so-non-committal message ("I wouldn't re-sign you if you were the LAST utility infielder on earth, ya bum!!!").

Reason
Would add to immersion, interactivity, and the feeling of being a real GM.

Priority
Low

[Honolulu Blue]

Suggestion
A sort based on the contract demands of free agents (years, $/yr, total $$, terms, incentives)

Reason
In order to find out the demands of, say, 15 competing free agents, I have to click each one, and either memorize or write down what they have to say. This is tedious and unnecessary.

Priority
Medium

[pstrickert]

Suggestion
Multiple Team Strategies Templates

Reason
It would allow us to assign a managerial style to historical (or fictional) teams. For example, if we know Tony LaRussa played "small ball" with his team, then we could assign that particular style.

Priority
<!-- / message -->Medium

NOTE: I do think, in general, Team Strategies MUST be easier to set up.<!-- sig -->

[pstrickert]

Suggestion
Ball Location Identifier on Webcast Diamond

Sometimes the PbP does not indicate specifically where a ball is hit to. Perhaps a little red dot could appear on the Webcast ball diamond graphic (corresponding to the Retrosheet Hit Location Diagram) to show the hit location (e.g., 9LS).

Reason
It would clarify the PbP where the PbP is not precise. For example, a base hit to right field could be right at the right fielder, toward right-center, or toward the right field line. On a base hit to right field, the runner on first might take third one time, but not the next. Displaying the hit location could explain the difference. The first time, the ball may have been hit toward the right field line, the second time it may have been hit directly at the right fielder.

Priority
<!-- / message -->Low (but maybe not too hard to implement as an option)

[Muzamba]

Suggestion
Offer the option of a graphical drag-and-drop depth chart.

Example

Reason
Just a visualization aid.

Priority
LOW

[Muzamba]

Suggestion
Include basic nation/state maps in the graphics database to be used in the following ways:

• On Nation Profiles, a map of the country would show the location of each city listed
• On the Teams page in the League menu, a map showing the location of each team within the league
• On the Player Profile, a map showing the player's hometown (and possibly major league teams within close proximity)

All of the above info would be superimposed over the blank map files in the database.

Reason
It would help to visualize where teams are and where players are from. I remember this being done in Front Office Football a few years back. (Besides, I've just always loved maps )

Priority
LOW

[Muzamba]

Suggestion
Show each team's Elimination Number in the league standings. By definition, the first-place team's Magic Number is the same as the second-place team's Elimination Number. (Just to clarify, this should be displayed in addition to the Magic Number column, not in place of it.) It might also be visually helpful to gray-out teams in the standings once they have been mathematically eliminated from postseason contention.

Reason
I've noticed several sports websites were using E#s, especially late in the season last year. I think it would be particularly helpful for GMs to know how far away they are from being eliminated as they make personnel decisions leading up to the trade deadline.

Priority
HIGH, just because it seems like it would be simple enough that it shouldn't take much attention away from more important features.

[Stu]

Originally Posted by Geebob

Suggestion
Team Strategies are a pain in the neck to set up, especially if you are running multiple leagues. It would be much easier to have a personal default which could either be copied into the new league, text edited, or set up as a template.

Reason
Unfortunately many players don't use the team strategies at all because they are tedious to set up. Adding multiple leagues or starting a new league, makes you question whether it is worth it or not. (It is, btw)

Priority
This is a GREAT feature of the game, which is some players don't bother to work through in detail. Either the screen must be made simpler or the process to imput the data in the first place must be improved.
For me ... HIGH.

I agree with this. You should be able to set an overall strategy and have the game automatically adjust the game situation for each part of the game. For example, If I set my overall "Stealing Strategy" to low, the game would adjust the game situation to rarely steal during the early stages of the game or if one team is leading big but steal a lot more in close/late situations.

You could then go in and tweak these more if you wanted to, but it would make it much easier to outline a basic strategy for your team.

[ctorg]

Suggestion
Allow access to the screen that is shown when a sim is in progress during any time, whether simming or not, as its own screen.

Reason
This is one of the most useful at-a-glance screens in the game. I often wish I could reference it rather than switching between league leaders and standings screens to see what I want.

Priority
Low.

[KGAGE]

Suggestion
Create a playoff skin that is automatically used for playoff games

Reason
Currently a playoff game does not feel much different that a regular season game. Just changing the look could help build the excitement a little.

Priority
Low
__________________

[KGAGE]

Suggestion
Tacking on the the elimination number idea (which I agree with), in the wildcard standings, the elimination number should be based off of the last available spot. So if a league has four wildcard spots available, your elimination number should be based off of the team who is currently in fourth place in the wildcard standings, not the team who is in first place. It would also be helpful to color the teams who currently hold the wildcard spots differently than the other teams just to make it easy to see who's currently in and who is currently out.

Reason
Gives you a better idea of where you stand in the league and what your urgency is.

Priority
Medium

[KGAGE]

Suggestion
I would like to see a players regular season results somewhere on the game screen during the playoffs.

Reason
I do not have the entire league's results memorized. Being able to see an opponent's player's regular season results (along with their playoff totals) would help me manage the game better.

Priority
Medium

[battists]

Suggestion
Add a "Save View" option that allows you to overwrite whichever view you are customizing.

Reason
Currently, there is only a "Save As" option, so if you want to modify an existing view, you have to retype the View name exactly, which is kind of a pain.

Priority
Low, but goes to the process of simplifying things in the interface.

[battists]

Suggestion
Add "all infielders", "all outfielders", and "all relievers" (or "Bullpen") options to the Positions drop-down.

Ideally, this would not pull only people who are assigned to that position, but anyone who has a rating at that position.

So, for example, if you chose All Infielders, it would include Ralph Smith, the LF who has experience at 1B.

Reason
Many players divide batters into infielders and outfielders, and look at each separately when putting together depth charts, etc.

For relievers, it would make it easier to see the entire bullpen at a glance, as selecting Relievers doesn't show Closers, and vice-versa.

This would make it a lot easier to see this information at a glance.

Priority
Low (We can already do this with custom filters, but it would still be a nice addition)

[battists]

Suggestion
Improve the text in the waiver process, to make it more clear.

Additionally, it would be great to add two more columns to the waivers page like we had in 6.5:

Claiming Team
Days Left

That way, you could easily see which team had claimed a player, and how much longer the player had until waivers were cleared.

reason
Right now, it just says "Your claim has been accepted." Or "Your claim has been rejected." For people who are unfamiliar with the waiver process, this can be confusing. We can improve the language for these messages.

The additional columns would help to make this screen more user-friendly overall.

priority
Medium