Swing and a miss

[larzdachronic_XBL]

I’ve been playing the show for four years now and I always have enjoyed the product as a DD and RTTS player. This year while the ideas to improve RTTS were enticing I think the result was more of a swing and a miss; and I’m not talking about the load out issues. Like posts I have read, I also have the bug where my load out doesn’t record my stats to progress my archetype. Even worse, sometimes if I change loadouts in a series, say to pitch a game, the load out change won’t work and I’ll be stuck throwing a 88mph fastball. Currently this mode is unplayable, but that is not what I’m posting about and I’m hopeful these bugs are currently being worked on. That being said I believe RTTS has room for growth and these are my ideas.

Make the crowd noise more realistic to create a more dramatic emotional experience. Baseball to me is all about the big moments. Everyone loves facing an elite closer with a runner on and 2 down as the go ahead run in the bottom of the ninth of a packed house. If you watch a playoff game there’s a noise build up to each pitch then either a huge awe reaction to a swing and a miss or the house explodes on a base hit. (Or the opposite for a home pitcher) In the past years my RTTS character could walk off a playoff game and there is a crowd reaction and some average noise but the moment is not nearly as big as it should be. The crowd should be on the umpires for bad calls, reacting to results, and every pitch should be create crowd excitement which of course should be amplified in the playoffs. I’ve noticed a slight difference so far this year and it’s a step in the right direction for sure, but there is still so much room for improvement for an RTTS specific fix (as users typically rush pitches to the plate online) that would make this game more enjoyable for me.

Make the path to the draft more exciting and competitive. It could be a HS or college tournament. If possible get the rights to do a collegiate single elimination bracket tournament where your results determine your mlb draft spot. I want to be drafted based on a result not just randomly. Previous years had ‘prospect games’ but no matter what you would be drafted in later rounds and this result really gave the user no incentive to care about performing in the prospect games.

Make the league management more realistic. I shouldn’t have to turn trades off to make the league look the same one year into my career. Every year of RTTS experience the bots would trade their entire roster and the league is unrecognizable when I make the show. It is pretty rare that teams make trades let alone move superstar or franchise players.

Make progression something we have to earn and possibly bp or pitching practice games rewarding. I really enjoy the practice games such as good at bat or hitting to a selected field; however these modes are only prompted randomly maybe once a season. When you go into practice to do it on your own you don’t receive any stats or progression. I feel like you should be able to do this to improve your player whenever you want with a season progression cap or it could be prompted slightly more often. I really don’t like just picking a weekly progression from a list then sometimes having a random baseball clicking mini game. It’s very unrealistic and unrewarding. I should improve based on my results not just choosing a stat.

Just some ideas, I liked some of the changes made this year, it’s a step in the right direction (albeit executed very poorly) but I hope you keep striving to improve rtts because it is by far the best mode IMO.