More Immersion The Better

[KGAGE]

All of the following requests would improve immeersion into our created universes which is where I feel changes made would have the biggest impact for when I play the game. Note that I play out all of my team's games so that is where several of these ideas focus on.

Playoffs
When playing a playoff game, it doesn't feel much different that playing a regular season game. In fact with most of the rest of the league shut down, it seems quieter than a regular season game. Things like a special playoff skin, some added PBP lines (including references to past playoffs years/matches/games), maybe even a playoff rating for players which could minimally change how they play (for better - Nelson Cruz or worse - ARod ) during the playoffs. Anything to make a playoff game and series seem more important would be a good addition.

Replace Out of Town Scores With a Scroll Bar
This would be similar to what ESPN usually has at the bottom of their screen. Scroll bar would not just consist of the day's scores but could also consist of the days top news, milestones reached (possibly a link to go to that game live to see if a milestone is reached), current league leaders, etc.. Allow for breaking news when something important might happen at a different game currently going on with a link to go view that game temporarily before returning to the regularyly schedule broadcast. Making the game reference the ongoing universe in a live fashion would definitely help the immersion factor.

Umpires/Ejections
Have umpires. Each umpire would have its own ratings such as temperament, strike zone size, accuracy. The umpires could be programmed to have "memories" as well which could make it easier for one manager to get tossed over another or a player to get tossed. On a related note, I liked the "Argue with the Umpire" option for a manager. While it would hardley ever change a call, it could keep your player in the game. I also liked that when the you got tossed, you could no longer manage the game. Bring that back. Player ejections (minus suspensions) seems to hardly ever happen and should be increased. Player tempers (perhaps tied to the intelligence rating?) should play in to how easily a player gets tossed.

News Events
Team news (news about a team in general) does not seem to exist. I would like to see news about a team running up a long winning/losing streak. (would also like to see team records for streaks as well). If a team throws up 20 runs on somebody, it should be worth a mention in the news. On a related note...

Journalist
There would be local and nation journalists with ratings such as honesty, looking for the big story, accuracy. Their stories about how your team is doing would appear in the news section. How they portray your team would have an impact on how the public perceives your team. Perhaps even options such as "Ban reporter from locker room" to "Grant exclusive interview" could be used to try to effect the reports coming from these journalists. All of this would tie in to the Fan Interest rating.

Season Ticket Holders
Have a stat in the front office of how many season ticket holders you have from season to season. This would be a good reflection of how many truely dedicated fans you have out there and also serves as the minimum attendance figure for any home game.

Make setting the field locations/coordinates easier
By setting the coordinates for Left Wall, Center Wall, Right Wall, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and Home, the game should be able to figure out the rest. Even better would be a graphical stadium designer which would tie into all of the stadium effects such as capacity, hitter/pitcher friendly.

Fun Fact Widget
Set a fun fact widget which for each batter would pull up a current/intesting fact about the batter. This batter is batting .435 against this pitcher, this batter is 0 for his last 21, etc.

Sound
The crowd noise still needs some work. It over and under reacts to everything. A player should not be booed if they struck out after going 4-4 earlier in the day. A large crowd should sound louder than a small crowd. A playoff game should sound much louder than a May game. Sometimes I feel like reaching in to the computer and slapping the guy he shouts through the whole game "NO way! No way!" before going into a rift of simlish. Players could have intro songs when coming to bat which could be set in a field on the player profile (path name to MP3 file). Allow for us to set up custom noises for certain stadiums (train noise for Seattle, songs played for home runs by home player, firework noises, ...).

Widgets!
I love the widget screen. Here some more widget ideas:
* Live standings which update when a game in the league finishes
* Live league leaders board
* Live all time leaders board
Anything that the game can track would be cool to have a widget for.

Thanks.

[Trick McSorley]

Originally Posted by KGAGE

All of the following requests would improve immeersion into our created universes which is where I feel changes made would have the biggest impact for when I play the game. Note that I play out all of my team's games so that is where several of these ideas focus on.

Playoffs
When playing a playoff game, it doesn't feel much different that playing a regular season game. In fact with most of the rest of the league shut down, it seems quieter than a regular season game. Things like a special playoff skin, some added PBP lines (including references to past playoffs years/matches/games), maybe even a playoff rating for players which could minimally change how they play (for better - Nelson Cruz or worse - ARod ) during the playoffs. Anything to make a playoff game and series seem more important would be a good addition.

Replace Out of Town Scores With a Scroll Bar
This would be similar to what ESPN usually has at the bottom of their screen. Scroll bar would not just consist of the day's scores but could also consist of the days top news, milestones reached (possibly a link to go to that game live to see if a milestone is reached), current league leaders, etc.. Allow for breaking news when something important might happen at a different game currently going on with a link to go view that game temporarily before returning to the regularyly schedule broadcast. Making the game reference the ongoing universe in a live fashion would definitely help the immersion factor.

Umpires/Ejections
Have umpires. Each umpire would have its own ratings such as temperament, strike zone size, accuracy. The umpires could be programmed to have "memories" as well which could make it easier for one manager to get tossed over another or a player to get tossed. On a related note, I liked the "Argue with the Umpire" option for a manager. While it would hardley ever change a call, it could keep your player in the game. I also liked that when the you got tossed, you could no longer manage the game. Bring that back. Player ejections (minus suspensions) seems to hardly ever happen and should be increased. Player tempers (perhaps tied to the intelligence rating?) should play in to how easily a player gets tossed.

News Events
Team news (news about a team in general) does not seem to exist. I would like to see news about a team running up a long winning/losing streak. (would also like to see team records for streaks as well). If a team throws up 20 runs on somebody, it should be worth a mention in the news. On a related note...

Journalist
There would be local and nation journalists with ratings such as honesty, looking for the big story, accuracy. Their stories about how your team is doing would appear in the news section. How they portray your team would have an impact on how the public perceives your team. Perhaps even options such as "Ban reporter from locker room" to "Grant exclusive interview" could be used to try to effect the reports coming from these journalists. All of this would tie in to the Fan Interest rating.

Season Ticket Holders
Have a stat in the front office of how many season ticket holders you have from season to season. This would be a good reflection of how many truely dedicated fans you have out there and also serves as the minimum attendance figure for any home game.

Make setting the field locations/coordinates easier
By setting the coordinates for Left Wall, Center Wall, Right Wall, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and Home, the game should be able to figure out the rest. Even better would be a graphical stadium designer which would tie into all of the stadium effects such as capacity, hitter/pitcher friendly.

Fun Fact Widget
Set a fun fact widget which for each batter would pull up a current/intesting fact about the batter. This batter is batting .435 against this pitcher, this batter is 0 for his last 21, etc.

Sound
The crowd noise still needs some work. It over and under reacts to everything. A player should not be booed if they struck out after going 4-4 earlier in the day. A large crowd should sound louder than a small crowd. A playoff game should sound much louder than a May game. Sometimes I feel like reaching in to the computer and slapping the guy he shouts through the whole game "NO way! No way!" before going into a rift of simlish. Players could have intro songs when coming to bat which could be set in a field on the player profile (path name to MP3 file). Allow for us to set up custom noises for certain stadiums (train noise for Seattle, songs played for home runs by home player, firework noises, ...).

Widgets!
I love the widget screen. Here some more widget ideas:
* Live standings which update when a game in the league finishes
* Live league leaders board
* Live all time leaders board
Anything that the game can track would be cool to have a widget for.

Thanks.

Although some of these suggestions are probably still a few versions in the future, I think all of them are good except the "playoff rating" for players. Better stories, more effort to localize things, more incorporation of localized ballpark effects, etc., are a great idea. It's what still separates Football Manager from OOTP.

[risp2out]

I'm a big immersion guy, too. I play out games and take my time through seasons.

I think the journalist idea has great potential. One aspect of immersion that the game is currently missing is the sense of how players relate to the media and fans. There's the "local popularity" rating, but that doesn't reflect really interesting stories like what would have happened if Baltimore had traded away a fading, but still enormously popular Ripken or how the Boston fans had to deal with the exit of Manny. At the deepest level, you could even take hits as a GM if you trade away someone who turns out to be great.

On a similar note, I'd love more immersion with regard to handling players' feeling and expectation. I love the "I didn't come here to be a role player" messages, but I think it would be rewarding to have interaction around these problems. It would be great, for example, to be able to tell a player, "I'm sending you down until you get straightened out, but we're definitely expecting to bring you back up to start." If you make good on your promise, the player is happier with you. If you don't, maybe he even goes public.

I'd love the game to explore all those shades of how you manage your players and personnel over the course of a season and career.