SDS's myopia
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This is what SDS remains incapable of comprehending. While a handful of human malcontents have spent their time crafting a cheat stadium to sap joy out of online play in custom stadiums, other folks like myself have continued to use the code option to modify custom stadium outfield, baseline, and backstop wall panels to create stadiums that are vastly more accurate to historic venues.
This link from a recent release thread I created at Reddit's Custom Stadium sub-forum is but one example:
https://www.reddit.com/r/mlbtheshowstadiums/comments/1ok6dzf/milwaukee_county_stadium_1955_era/
Yet, as nice as this may be, the truth is with an easy bit of good old fashioned mutual cooperation, SDS could allow Stadium Creator to be used by the community to create a raft of awesome custom stadiums that would breath life into MLB The Show, giving customers new and interesting options to play their video game.
What a crying shame that a company can be so consumed with its own selfish interests that it sees the path to such customer happiness, and instead chooses to smite it! I cannot imagine the mentality. Moreover, I cannot know for certain the inner workings within SDS, but I strongly suspect there is a corrosive corporate culture, where the employees and a great many managers all know something inside there is sick, something vital is missing.
What a needless self-inflicted injury! So much that could and should have been, and yet all thrown away for reasons that are shockingly insane and self-defeating.
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I enjoy the stadium builder feature. Could you explain what it is you are talking about with this code option? I don't play online but I'd like to try it for my franchise stadium.
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Back in early May it was discovered that the baseline and backstop wall panels could be moved in terms of their position. At first, I and the other veteran stadium builders doubted this was the case, but we soon learned that it was in fact doable. These panels were moveable by the same method used to move the outfield wall panels.
This allows one to custom configure a stadium by modifying the foul grounds. In this way, you can match the layout of historic and modern baseball stadiums vice be restricted to merely the "jewel box design" that Stadium Creator uses as the default layout.
However, in the course of learning about this new found design freedom, it was brought to attention that because SDS did not link movement of the baseline and backstop wall panels to the "red splat" icon that renders such modified stadiums ineligible for online play, there existed a nefarious option for malcontents to build stadiums that ruined online play quality.
Again, myself and other veteran stadium designers spent the bulk of May privately warning SDS of this risk and urging them to expand the reach of the current code that renders stadiums with modified wall panels ineligible for online play -- to expand the code to include movement of ALL wall panels, not merely the ones in the outfield.
We also urged SDS to expand the layout of their default jewel box layout to include all the wall panels, not merely the outfield wall panels. In this way, designers would have a clear choice. Use the default layout for online play options, or modify the default layout but have the result restricted to play versus the CPU in modes like RTTS and Franchise.
We made this earnest effort while custom stadiums were already disabled due to the bug in head-to-head online play. So, had SDS taken our suggestions to heart and implemented them, the community would not have seen the horrible cheat stadiums like Lagrasse in the vault. Instead, SDS made statements that they understood our concerns, but then refused to implement them!
They released an update in late June that further expanded their lockout code and reverted the baseline and backstop walls immobile. However, that update was not applied to MLB The Show 24 and earlier game versions. So, it did nothing to stop people from using the code option. It just made it harder to use it in the honest way folks like myself wanted to use it. We had to design the modified layouts in MLB 24 and then port the stadium over to MLB 25.
There are many honest templates in the vault that use this code option. This stadium in my link uses it, as do other clearly named stadium template models in the vault today.
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I miss being able to use my stadium online in DD. When I was home I actually felt like I had an advantage because I knew how my ballpark would play.
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To further your point, myself, you, and many other veteran creators also suggested that SDS take this opportunity to run with some testing...examples being testing out having multiple different foul ground layouts which would allow for a more modern and sleek look, taking the ground trim code and applying it to the walls so we could create seamless seating without ugly awkward spots we had to fill in.
We asked them to test out the idea of having some "wiggle room" with the fences to help keep them online eligible, while also adding a bit of freedom, and making batter's eyes props attachable, again to help facilitate a clean look...and what do they do with all these helpful ideas?
Spit on us, kick us in the junk, and do something else without the courtesy of calling it rain and completely "lock out" the foul panels, which again as Prior pointed out, didn't work at all because the work around was simple.
Many of the issues SDS faces with the "cheat stadiums" would be alleviated with one simple solution...again, one I've proposed NUMEROUS times: Have the field dimensions contain min/max requirements, nothing more than 375 or less than 315 down the lines, and nothing more than 440 or less than 395 to center, as long as they stayed within those margins, then they're fine and online eligible.
They operate like the GM/Coach of a team that relies solely on analytics, and has to make the "big brain" move and be the smartest guys in the room. Very rarely does it ever pay off.
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@Dinger_Dan19_PSN said in SDS's myopia:
I miss being able to use my stadium online in DD. When I was home I actually felt like I had an advantage because I knew how my ballpark would play.
I missed that and I never bought MLBTS24 because of the lack of year to year saves in franchise. I didn't want to throw away my MLBTS23 franchise. Therefore I can't put the 24 disc in and work on it. I'd like to have the ability to reduce foul territory to make the ballpark a little more hitter friendly.
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@Sarge1387_PSN exactly. I agree.
