Interactive Features for Franchise Mode
-
Immersion
Dialogue
Trades
Free Agency -
One big thing that franchise mode needs is more interactive features related to the experience. The following ideas are inspired by the way that NHL 25 handles its franchise mode. The idea is to allow for players to engage in conversations with players, agents, and GM's that can change the outcome of things like free agent signings, trades, and player chemistry. The following are ideas that could really update and enrich the overall experience:
-
Free Agent Signings
Some of the new core concepts to free agency are good including the boosted interest free agents that are prioritized show & player motivations to sign places. To build on this, let Franchise players hold conversations with players to try to persuade them to sign with you. Maybe have some indication on what a player wants and then have players complete dialogue that can improve or hurt your chances to sign a big free agent. This gives franchise player agency in pursuing players & getting the opportunity to convince them to sign with your squad. Additionally, remove the restriction of 3 players on a big board. You can have talks with multiple players but it's important to maintain conversations throughout the off season with the players you want. Teams irl have back up plans if other people fall through. -
Trades
Basically same as above from the perspective of GM's. Have the ability to talk with other GM's (who can also message you) about trade opportunities. Be able to haggle and land on a deal through persuasion. It should be noted that you have to be savvy in your dialogue but that dialogue wouldn't drastically hurt or improve your chances of signing or trading for players. However, it would help in landing players maybe you wouldn't have based purely on the game logic. Additionally, allow for at least 4 assets, cash considerations, & three team trades. -
Player Happiness/Satisfaction
This is something that has existed to various degrees in the game but adding in either dialogue or features where you have to make players happy & you can impact that happiness. This doesn't have to be too crazy but each player can have things that they want based on their contract & profiles. Maybe a player wants to be a starter. If you signed them as a starter & play them as a starter, that boosts or maintains player happiness. If you don't play that player, over time their satisfaction would start to drop & eventually cause players to request a trade. This feature would need to be balanced & also players would not easily have their satisfaction hurt as long as you meet the needs of your players. This could look like a bar or 5 level status of satisfaction that GM's would need to be aware of. Additionally, players may request meetings or you can talk to players to smooth things over. -
In-Mode News & Social Media
Lastly, there needs to be game score tickers on the main menu, a social media tab to keep track of major news, & recap shows. For the game ticker, self explanatory. Seeing scores of other games would be cool. As for the social media, each team would be given like unique 3 beat reporters that report on your team & 2 national level reporters that report on the league as a whole. This could be everything from tweets about player performance, trade rumors, actual trades, history made, milestones hit, etc. This would bring life to the game & also allow players some insight into what teams are doing around the league, who's winning, who's been DFA'd, trades, etc. Lastly a game recap hosted by the default announcers would be cool. This could include highlights from player's games as well as highlights around the league or even blockbuster trades.
Overall these features would allow for players to have more control & influence over their franchises. The player conversations and satisfaction bars would be minor & not drastically changed by small things but would force players to establish better GM -player relations. Additionally, the dialogue can be made to not dominate the whole experience so that players can still enjoy playing through the games. This dialogue would be a big part of the experience but not over take from the franchise mode meaning it would not be so frequent it would cause any annoyance to players. Also, players could have the option between this new default & "Sim" mode which would be how the default of the franchise mode is now. MLBTS is obviously a sim game, but this would allow for better personal connection, influence, & overall immersion in the game!
-
-
Regarding player happiness it was in the game previously but was poorly implemented and did more harm than good. I'd be fine with new features if they include an option to turn them off but that hasn't been the case in the past.
One example previously was player happiness being related to how far the franchise was from their home. When minor league players were called up they were unhappy because they were incorrectly stuck with the minor league salary instead of MLB minimum. It was poorly implemented and good riddance when they ended it.
I believe happiness is overrated in baseball. Charlie Finley's players were unhappy but they won. The reason they were unhappy was mostly due to salary but with today's salaries all tied to service time and with arbitration they are all making a lot of money.
-
Player happiness is still there when signing free agents or resigning your own players.
