My History-Heavy Suggestions for Future Versions

textilemonster · 01-31-2026, 02:37 AM

The history part of the game is kind of my favorite, so my wish list is skewed toward things that would improve historical gameplay and immersion! As well as a few things that are kind of so niche I may be the only person in the fanbase who's ever noticed them. But let's go!

Historical things for editing
-We already have historical managers, but it would be great if we also had historical owners and historical staff like bench coaches and scouts. You've got players who became long-time coaches like Johnny Pesky for the Red Sox, but you load up the 1975 Boston Red Sox and it's fake staff outside of the manager. Just make it a field/file to fill out, I know I'd have fun looking all that up and filling it out myself.

-It would also be great if we had historical contracts we could fill in. At the least, it would scratch that historical accuracy itch.
-Historical Personalities would also be great to have. Make captains always have the Captain personality. Make infamous clubhouse cancers always be a problem. I understand that doing it yourself may cause problems with your license with the MLBPA or whatever, but making it a field to fill out in the player database maybe? (That does make me realize that maybe I want to have randomized personalities this playthrough, so having an option to randomize personalities would be good, albeit pointless for most players if the game itself isn't including those historical personalities because it's just for modders. Hmm.)

Other historical things
-Standard historical MLB team abbreviations! Mel Ott didn't play for the NY1, he played for the NYG! I understand how this may be difficult with 19th century teams who popped in and out of existence and often shared the same name as another team in the same city from another season, but at least update the team abbreviations for the 20th century teams.
-(More?) Notifications when players break records. We definitely get inbox notes when a player gets, say, hit #3000, but I don't know if we get one when they break an all-time record. I also know that I was recently playing a 1994 Montreal sim and had to go to Baseball-Reference.com to see if Albert Belle had broken the record for doubles in a season (he had). So more of those, please!
-In-box notifications when major players retire at the end of a season and especially when a team retires a number. Retiring a number doesn't happen that often, I'd love to get an email about it rather than having to look at the big list of transactions at the end of the season.
-Historical associated leagues. For example, the Atlantic League was established in 1998, it became a Partner League in 2020, I think? But if I start a Historical game in 2024, the Atlantic League doesn't exist. If there are licensing issues, I understand, but otherwise, it would be nice to have them show up in historical games, especially if the players in the league are already accounted for.
-Make it easier to have fictional teams with historical minor league/Negro League players. I'm aware I can import players when I play a game, but having it just be a box to check would be nice. I know that MLB players and minor league players are two different spreadsheets, so this could be much more difficult to do than I think.

Other kind-of mainstream stuff
-When we're about to play a 3D game, it would be awesome if we could choose a stadium to play in--ESPECIALLY in Spring Training. It's my understanding that what happens on the field is a reflection of what is happening in the simulation, meaning the stadium is basically just visuals, so it shouldn't matter too much? I say "ESPECIALLY in Spring Training" because Spring Training really doesn't matter, they play in non-MLB stadiums anyway, and the default Spring Training stadium this year was kind of ugly and I'd much rather play some of the modded stadiums from the forums that I haven't found a team for.
-MAYBE add some official historical stadiums for 3D? I know there are plenty of modded stadiums, but the official stadiums still look more... Official. It would be nice to have an official Shea Stadium or Shibe Park to play in. I'm not asking for all of them, just the classics.
-Make Challenge Mode a little more forgiving. Currently, you can't manually put a player into the Hall of Fame in Challenge Mode like you can in Commissioner Mode. That seems a weird limitation, it wouldn't make your team play any better or anything. It would also be nice to be able to add a minor league or an indie league in Challenge Mode, but that could affect difficulty or getting card packs, I don't know.
-I know that we won't be getting certain foreign leagues any time soon. But is there anything keeping you from creating quote-unquote "fictional" leagues that just happen to be in Japan or Mexico?
-Improved female avatars/portraits. There's literally women in the game now (well... WAS now that Kelsie Whitmore moved to the new WPBL, but she's still in the historical database probably).
-Expanded stuff for leagues expanding or teams moving. Currently, it just suddenly happens. In real life, both of these things require owner approval. Not to mention all the rumors and stuff that happen before it becomes official. It would be great if teams only moved when they're doing poorly financially, for example. Or maybe have it partially dependent on things like owner personality (one who's more focused on profit would be quicker to move than one who isn't). Story mode news articles about rumors of a team owner thinking about relocating or selling the team, visiting cities that want a team! The age of a stadium being a factor (which would open up other mechanics for us as owners), etc etc. Could be cool.

Hall of Fame
-Historical caps on the plaques would be great. Doesn't even have to be from the correct era for teams like the Phillies or Cubs, I'm mostly thinking Gary Carter should be wearing an Expos cap, not a Nationals cap, and 19th century players really shouldn't be wearing the caps of the 20th century American League teams that only happen to share a franchise ID with their team because that's how you dealt with the chaos of the 19th century.
-You have real Hall of Fame inductees inducted in the Hall of Fame when you start a game, you have a partnership with the Hall of Fame where you can include plaques on Perfect Team cards and look at some neat Hall of Fame artifacts--so how about including actual Hall of Fame plaque descriptions for Hall of Famers? For example, when I look at Sparky Anderson's plaque, it would be nice to read about his successful managing career rather than his impressive "no home runs".
-Speaking of Sparky Anderson, it would be great if we had categories for nonplayers. Managers at the least.
-Much more difficult, I'm sure, but some kind of Veterans Committee (other than us using Commissioner Mode) would be AMAZING.
-And something to fix Hall of Fame voting percentages to be more reflective of reality? Again, probably pretty hard, but in reality, voting percentages go down in years with several new strong candidates, and go up in years with a weak field of new candidates. And the percentage a player gets one year is also strongly correlated the percentage they got the previous year! My main point is I see WAY too many players whose voting histories look like 5%, 20%, 10%, 35%, 15%, 50%, 30%... (I'll admit that I am unusually obsessed with Hall of Fame voting, though.)

The Niche Stuff
-Hey, you know how there are default fake logos for certain team names? Like if you name a team the Blackbirds, instead of creating a logo, it will use a black "B" with a bird perching on it, outlined in blue? I think we could use a few more. Specifically, for some of the names that several historical minor league teams used but aren't covered yet.
-Also, you know those quickstart scenarios? The Promotion quickstart has several teams with names not covered by these logos. Halos, Crimsons, Microbrewers, etc.
--Also also, in those quickstarts. In the Promotion one, the Providence Assassins is mispelled "Assasins", and a team in the US Baseball League quickstart is spelled "Matatdors" when I presume it should be "Matadors".
---ALSO also also, the US Baseball League quickstart has teams in tiny towns or even census designated places like Ethete, Wyoming (population 1553). Technically there's nothing WRONG with that, but... it irks me a tad.

Hope at least a few of these are helpful or achievable in some way at some point. Looking forward to OOTP27!

01-31-2026, 02:37 AM	#1
textilemonster Minors (Double A) Join Date: Jun 2024 Posts: 175	My History-Heavy Suggestions for Future Versions The history part of the game is kind of my favorite, so my wish list is skewed toward things that would improve historical gameplay and immersion! As well as a few things that are kind of so niche I may be the only person in the fanbase who's ever noticed them. But let's go! Historical things for editing -We already have historical managers, but it would be great if we also had historical owners and historical staff like bench coaches and scouts. You've got players who became long-time coaches like Johnny Pesky for the Red Sox, but you load up the 1975 Boston Red Sox and it's fake staff outside of the manager. Just make it a field/file to fill out, I know I'd have fun looking all that up and filling it out myself. -It would also be great if we had historical contracts we could fill in. At the least, it would scratch that historical accuracy itch. -Historical Personalities would also be great to have. Make captains always have the Captain personality. Make infamous clubhouse cancers always be a problem. I understand that doing it yourself may cause problems with your license with the MLBPA or whatever, but making it a field to fill out in the player database maybe? (That does make me realize that maybe I want to have randomized personalities this playthrough, so having an option to randomize personalities would be good, albeit pointless for most players if the game itself isn't including those historical personalities because it's just for modders. Hmm.) Other historical things -Standard historical MLB team abbreviations! Mel Ott didn't play for the NY1, he played for the NYG! I understand how this may be difficult with 19th century teams who popped in and out of existence and often shared the same name as another team in the same city from another season, but at least update the team abbreviations for the 20th century teams. -(More?) Notifications when players break records. We definitely get inbox notes when a player gets, say, hit #3000, but I don't know if we get one when they break an all-time record. I also know that I was recently playing a 1994 Montreal sim and had to go to Baseball-Reference.com to see if Albert Belle had broken the record for doubles in a season (he had). So more of those, please! -In-box notifications when major players retire at the end of a season and especially when a team retires a number. Retiring a number doesn't happen that often, I'd love to get an email about it rather than having to look at the big list of transactions at the end of the season. -Historical associated leagues. For example, the Atlantic League was established in 1998, it became a Partner League in 2020, I think? But if I start a Historical game in 2024, the Atlantic League doesn't exist. If there are licensing issues, I understand, but otherwise, it would be nice to have them show up in historical games, especially if the players in the league are already accounted for. -Make it easier to have fictional teams with historical minor league/Negro League players. I'm aware I can import players when I play a game, but having it just be a box to check would be nice. I know that MLB players and minor league players are two different spreadsheets, so this could be much more difficult to do than I think. Other kind-of mainstream stuff -When we're about to play a 3D game, it would be awesome if we could choose a stadium to play in--ESPECIALLY in Spring Training. It's my understanding that what happens on the field is a reflection of what is happening in the simulation, meaning the stadium is basically just visuals, so it shouldn't matter too much? I say "ESPECIALLY in Spring Training" because Spring Training really doesn't matter, they play in non-MLB stadiums anyway, and the default Spring Training stadium this year was kind of ugly and I'd much rather play some of the modded stadiums from the forums that I haven't found a team for. -MAYBE add some official historical stadiums for 3D? I know there are plenty of modded stadiums, but the official stadiums still look more... Official. It would be nice to have an official Shea Stadium or Shibe Park to play in. I'm not asking for all of them, just the classics. -Make Challenge Mode a little more forgiving. Currently, you can't manually put a player into the Hall of Fame in Challenge Mode like you can in Commissioner Mode. That seems a weird limitation, it wouldn't make your team play any better or anything. It would also be nice to be able to add a minor league or an indie league in Challenge Mode, but that could affect difficulty or getting card packs, I don't know. -I know that we won't be getting certain foreign leagues any time soon. But is there anything keeping you from creating quote-unquote "fictional" leagues that just happen to be in Japan or Mexico? -Improved female avatars/portraits. There's literally women in the game now (well... WAS now that Kelsie Whitmore moved to the new WPBL, but she's still in the historical database probably). -Expanded stuff for leagues expanding or teams moving. Currently, it just suddenly happens. In real life, both of these things require owner approval. Not to mention all the rumors and stuff that happen before it becomes official. It would be great if teams only moved when they're doing poorly financially, for example. Or maybe have it partially dependent on things like owner personality (one who's more focused on profit would be quicker to move than one who isn't). Story mode news articles about rumors of a team owner thinking about relocating or selling the team, visiting cities that want a team! The age of a stadium being a factor (which would open up other mechanics for us as owners), etc etc. Could be cool. Hall of Fame -Historical caps on the plaques would be great. Doesn't even have to be from the correct era for teams like the Phillies or Cubs, I'm mostly thinking Gary Carter should be wearing an Expos cap, not a Nationals cap, and 19th century players really shouldn't be wearing the caps of the 20th century American League teams that only happen to share a franchise ID with their team because that's how you dealt with the chaos of the 19th century. -You have real Hall of Fame inductees inducted in the Hall of Fame when you start a game, you have a partnership with the Hall of Fame where you can include plaques on Perfect Team cards and look at some neat Hall of Fame artifacts--so how about including actual Hall of Fame plaque descriptions for Hall of Famers? For example, when I look at Sparky Anderson's plaque, it would be nice to read about his successful managing career rather than his impressive "no home runs". -Speaking of Sparky Anderson, it would be great if we had categories for nonplayers. Managers at the least. -Much more difficult, I'm sure, but some kind of Veterans Committee (other than us using Commissioner Mode) would be AMAZING. -And something to fix Hall of Fame voting percentages to be more reflective of reality? Again, probably pretty hard, but in reality, voting percentages go down in years with several new strong candidates, and go up in years with a weak field of new candidates. And the percentage a player gets one year is also strongly correlated the percentage they got the previous year! My main point is I see WAY too many players whose voting histories look like 5%, 20%, 10%, 35%, 15%, 50%, 30%... (I'll admit that I am unusually obsessed with Hall of Fame voting, though.) The Niche Stuff -Hey, you know how there are default fake logos for certain team names? Like if you name a team the Blackbirds, instead of creating a logo, it will use a black "B" with a bird perching on it, outlined in blue? I think we could use a few more. Specifically, for some of the names that several historical minor league teams used but aren't covered yet. -Also, you know those quickstart scenarios? The Promotion quickstart has several teams with names not covered by these logos. Halos, Crimsons, Microbrewers, etc. --Also also, in those quickstarts. In the Promotion one, the Providence Assassins is mispelled "Assasins", and a team in the US Baseball League quickstart is spelled "Matatdors" when I presume it should be "Matadors". ---ALSO also also, the US Baseball League quickstart has teams in tiny towns or even census designated places like Ethete, Wyoming (population 1553). Technically there's nothing WRONG with that, but... it irks me a tad. Hope at least a few of these are helpful or achievable in some way at some point. Looking forward to OOTP27!