While I enjoy franchise mode, there are some things that need to be fixed. I just hope there is enough incentive to do so even though franchise mode doesn’t make money for the developers. Here are a few things I would like to see in the future:
1). Better way to develop prospects. Pitchers don’t develop new pitches or improve the ones they have. Their velo, movement, and control attributes for each pitch stay the same. If you face pitching 10 years into the franchise, none of the pitchers have great “stuff”. While they might pick up quirks as other attributes increase, the pitchers never develop great pitches. How can a player have an “untouchable” quirk just because his K/9 attribute is high while his pitches have no control and/or movement?
2). Scouting doesn’t make a lot of sense. The potential attributes are always higher for players who are currently better overall. A player whose ETA is further away always shows very low potential attributes even if his potential is listed as 80 overall.
3). Very few drafted players ever have any power in their bats. There are always some good contact hitters, but never any power hitters. Far more good pitchers can be drafted compared to position players as well. Over time, the league always ends up having a bunch of great pitchers (with weak “stuff”) and very few great position players based on drafted players.
4). You shouldn’t be able to trade for the best players recently drafted from other teams for your worst players before free agency during the off season. You can unrealistically load up your farm system this way.
5). You shouldn’t be able to sign some arbitration eligible players on your roster for unrealistically low salaries for multiple years. An elite player with a 90+ overall isn’t going to sign for 3 or 4 years at $1.6 mil per year.
6). The CPU trade logic is terrible for too many reasons to list here. Why would a team not in contention give up their best prospects before
the trade deadline for a star player when they already have a star player in the same position?
7). The physical size and build of the players never change over time. They look the same forever. Drafting a 5’10” 1B with great potential is pointless unless you manually edit the player. Young players should be able to physically grow and develop skills to play other positions.
8). Hot and cold zones are completely random, unrealistic, and pointless for scouted players. They look like checker boards for some players which makes no sense. Also, the hitting zones never change. Young players should be able to develop the ability to hit fastballs, off speed pitches and cover high, low, inside, and/or outside in a way that is logical. Also, players with great hitting attributes shouldn’t have an entirely cold hitting zone.
Anyway, franchise mode has a lot of potential. I just hope the developers care to make it great. Maybe they leave it the way it is to drive more players over to Diamond Dynasty in order to generate revenue. I personally like playing offline because it’s the gameplay isn’t slow and laggy. I’ll just keep my fingers crossed I guess.