Before it's said, yes I know many of these won't be added as Franchise mode is seen as the ugly cousin in the family, but hey a guy can dream. Breaking this into 3 parts based on how "realistic" it should be to add these to move the needle when it comes to fan appreciation.
1. Bare Minimum
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Expanded trade slots (4-5) and actually improved trade logic. Tired of turning the trade slider down, and having to make trades with the other teams sake in mind
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Realistic contact salaries. We got Vladdy signing 14 mil a year for 5 years, and Freeland 10 per year. As a small market team you shouldn't be able to sign Vladdy, Adames, Burnes, and still have some left over. Also it gets unrealistic when the CPU salaries start mixing with real life salaries as the season progress.
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Fleshed out separate international signing period/ draft - with its own pot of money. Recently in the MLB this time has taken the spotlight and should be apart of the game.
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Save minor league stats. This might just be me, but as someone who like to track minor leguer progress over the years and not just rely on the attribute numbers, having these numbers wiped every season is annoying.
2. SDS feels bad for us
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Overhauled CPU logic. This includes trades, FA signings, waiving and claiming, roster construction, lack of offering QO's, no extensions etc... Current state, I only play rebuild teams because it's way too easy to play a team with over 200mil in budget because the CPU is brain dead like. Thanks Mets for putting Vientos on the waivers, I love my new first baseman!
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New and improved off season. Currently it's very stale. I'm not sure what exactly to change as real life has it's dry moments. But maybe implementing a rumor system or communication system with the FA's or agents themselves.
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Expanded contract offerings and trades. Thank LA but hey deferred money is a thing now. For trades, it would be nice to "eat" some money from a trade.
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Game alert system. Instead of having to manually check the transactions page all the time for waivers, or completed trades.
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Year to year (game to game) save file transfers!!!
3. Go buy a lottery ticket
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Expansion teams
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Online franchise - lol good luck.
Hopefully the addition of the custom sim features last expanded the player base for this mode so it adds a little more pressure on SDS but still it doesn't make money. Though there are plenty of ideas and customization packs they could add that could generate a little money for this mode, if that is what it takes.
Also are these forums ever looked at from those at SDS or are we just talking to ourselves?