Community Forum

Ok, SDS.

I’ve been getting a bit more frustrated with Franchise over the last few years, and 29 games in To 24 I’ve already called it quits for this iteration. You get to hear my mouth this time. All below comments are based on my experience playing Franchise with All-Star Hitting/Legend Pitching (just like every year).

All but one or two of my games so far have followed the exact same formula:

Every CPU pitcher - and I mean that literally, every single one rated 60-99 - paints every corner of the strike zone with every pitch in their arsenal for every batter of every inning of every game. At least 20% of all pitches thrown are perfectly bisected by the edge of the strike zone.

Because of this insanity, and the fact that pitching “clutch”, H9 and other behind the scenes stats have vastly more impact than user input (in a video game, of all places), I don’t score any runs early. However, because of these same BS stats, I’m also not consistently punished for my bad pitches and the game stays 0-0, until…

4th inning cheat time! Suddenly, the entire CPU lineup is capable of working 10+ pitches per AB, while also being able to hit singles (and occasionally homers) on pitches off the plate, and a high percentage of my pitches on the edge of - but entirely inside - the strike zone start getting called for balls while my guys start committing errors, bloopers rain across the field and all my pitches seem to be moving differently than every other inning. The CPU scores a few runs.

The 5th and 6th innings reel me back in a bit because contact is actually rewarded from time to time and I may give up a deserved run or two because the CPU is finally capable of overcoming my H9 stat to punish a hanging slider. Kinda fun, but it doesn’t last.

7th inning cheat time rolls around and the team that’s behind gets to score a run. I have given up exactly one run in the 7th inning - no more, no less - in every 7th inning in which I’ve had a lead. That’s not internet rage or exaggeration, it’s truth and fact. Every. Single. One. On the flip side, if I happen to be behind, even the best pitcher in the game will start lobbing meatballs down the middle of the plate for me to crush. If I fail to capitalize on my own, one of my guys will get beaned and the poor opposing shortstop will start launching the ball into my dugout when he tries to throw out my guy running to first on yet another week grounder off a perfectly placed change up that split the bottom of the strike zone. Your behind the scenes algorithms correctly determine that I’m not having fun and you give me the run I’m not able to get for myself.

Then in the 9th inning, whoever is in the lead will see their closer completely fall apart so that the tying run can come up to the plate so that my non existent Twitch viewers can get super excited.

Woof. The game is bad, guys. Like, really, really bad.

You have just about micromanaged and overly stat-ed all interest and user input out of the game. Clutch and H9 and Discipline and other offenders absolutely dominate the outcome of every at bat, to the point that the user - whether batting or pitching - isn’t really in control of the outcome. Because of this non functional implementation of stats, the game then needs to break itself and script in some nonsense in the fourth inning, which then needs to be corrected in the 7th. It’s absurd. And whatever the final score is, it’s never reflective of how I actually interacted with the game: Sure, I got my two run homer, but it came in the 9th inning off a bad swing on a perfect pitch low and away, not on any of the 5 or 6 perfect/perfects I managed in the 8 previous innings. Conversely, I may lose a game that pitching-wise I felt I deserved to lose, but none of the runs came on any of my mistakes, they were just the result of the 4th and 7th inning death rounds where everyone becomes Barry Bonds. It’s really tedious. And the ridiculous thing is that if you guys just crawled out of our butts and our consoles for 5 minutes we’d probably be arriving at a ton of the super close games you’re endlessly trying to force on us anyway - but naturally and thus actually interesting and exciting because what’s happening is unpredictable.

Anyway, I’ll leave my rant at that and point out a few more issues below. I feel kinda bad coming in here to give you guys a hard time, and I genuinely appreciate some of the new improved character models for the young guys (the new Brett Baty on the Mets is one of the best in the game) and the stadium sound is much improved. However, as far as I’m concerned, Franchise mode is no longer a functional game and I won’t be back until next gen.

Respectfully,

A Very Dissatisfied Customer

P.S. This other stuff doesn’t seem to be working well either:

1. I had to restart my first franchise because after three games - despite having everything set to manual, like always - the CPU was randomly reorganizing my minor league system every time I simmed a day. Apparently, it even traded away a few of my prospects for Francisco Mejia, and I only noticed because he immediately broke his leg on day one and I saw the accompanying pop up notification.

2. CPU pitching sliders do not work. At all. I cranked CPU confidence and consistency all the way to the minimum possible value allowed by the game and it had literally zero impact on CPUs ability to perfectly paint the edges of the strike zone every at bat.

3. CPU Pitcher confidence needs to be toned down. At the start of the only 3rd inning where I had a large lead (4 runs off 60 pitches against 74 rated Miller on OAK), CPU pitch confidence still looked to be above 80%

4. Plate Discipline is a horribly implemented stat for both the player and the CPU. Being disciplined means not swinging at terrible pitches. Period. It does not mean that players with good stats are constantly walked by pitches well inside the strike zone, or that low rated players need to work with a strike zone that’s 10-20% bigger than reality. This is a stat for S I M U L A T I N G games, not changing the size of the strike zone for every batter and altering user input. If you MUST keep it in, the check-swing tie-in seems like an appropriate, low impact mechanic to keep affiliated… if you must.

5. Pitching and Batting Clutch are my least favorite stats in any game I’ve ever played in my middle-aged life. Full stop. This is a video game and my crappy swings need to be the determining factor in just how clutch any of my batters are. Thank you. Conversely, you really need to fix your game to the point that I’m properly tagged for my bad pitches and you thus don’t need to cheat any runs later on. I just left a slider up and center to Bryce Harper. That pitch was not “clutch” regardless of my stupid rating. Why can’t you just give the CPU a run on that lousy pitch once in a while?

6. The UI is blinding and the progression/regression stats are illegible.

7. I don’t know what is going on with long relievers in this series but it’s brutal. Just absolutely brutal. Every long reliever comes in and throws perfectly painted darts inning after inning after inning. They do not feel pity or remorse. They do not get tired. They do not stop until they’re killed. The game that led to this post saw Spencer Turnbull throw 95 - yes, literally!! - perfect edge of the strike zone pitches for 5+ innings, even after his energy was so low that it was imperceptible on my screen. I know that this is all tied into the the rubber-banding and other keep-it-close scripting but dude… you gotta chill. If you want to absolutely deprive me of getting a hit for a pre-determined period of time just to arbitrarily keep the game close, at least use a few different pitchers. Sheesh.

8. I played around with “Timing” hitting for a couple games for the first time ever. It’s an unholy abomination. Seriously, you guys need Jesus. There is no excuse for offering a game mode to (I assume mostly new-ish) players where they will not even put a ball in play on 3 “good” swings on pitches right over the heart of the plate on All Star. When user input has literally zero impact on a bat it’s no longer a video game - it’s just me rolling some slots to see which screen/event the numbers randomly generate next. This one is really inexcusable and you should be a little ashamed.

9. As is tradition, my super overpriced version of the game didn’t actually grant working early access on the 15th. You then refused to refund the add-on currency ripoff thing after it had failed to work.

10. The New York Mets aren’t a great team, but they’re all professional baseball players. You could have given one guy one hit on one good/perfect swing on one first pitch in one at bat of one game this year. I know, I know, they “hadn’t seen enough pitches” and only one has the badge that allows them to function on such pitches anyway, but c’mon.