Matrix Games Forums

First, congrats to Shaun. I've followed the development since the beginning, and it is great to see it all come to fruition.

Now to the questions:

I'm curious if there are any plans to expand the options for expansion and realignment/relocation. Some of the things that I think would enhance this part of the game would be multiple choices as to number of teams being added, user control of where those franchises are placed (could be a screen similar to the association creation screen), choices as to the division/league structures (expanding to 14 teams could give you 3 options - 1 league, 1 division; 1 league, 2 divisions; 2 leagues, 1 division), the ability to move franchises into the chosen league or division, and finally a relocation button (for when the Giants want to move out of New York and settle in San Francisco).

Are any/all of these options being contemplated for a future version? I'd love to be able to mirror MLB's development from 1890-present, but I don't see a great way to do that with the current expansion set up.

Thanks for any feedback and answers in advance, and continued good luck to Shaun.

I totally agree with these expansion recommendations.
It is extremely annoying to have "west coast teams" in the same division as "east coast teams" and not being able to do anything but rename the teams. [:@]

Also agree. Love the idea of potentially moving teams around, as you mentioned.

Since about half of my time is spent playing historical replay, I'd love to be able to re-create expansion/ralignment as it happened.

PS Also would be cool to have stats from prior seasons compiled for appropriate players (so if I start an association in, say, 1990, it would have Robin Yount's "historical" stats, and I could try to persuade him to stick around past '93 and see how many hits he could get).

While we're on the topic - and I love Langer's suggestions - I'd also like to see the ability to wander through the 1871-1899 period and have leagues and teams fold ("contraction"!), and also to create the "jump" from the 8-team N.L. of 1900 to the 16-team N.L. / A.L. of 1901.

Re-reading this, I realize I neglected to add the request for the ability to change the number of games played per season as well. There isn't much use for a 162 game schedule in a 10 team league in 1890.

You can, actually, but the means is somewhat obscure. You have to load a schedule for your association, with a different number of games. That does work correctly. So, for example, you can load 140-game schedules in 1901, 1902, and 1903, and then load a 154-game schedule in 1904.

Thanks for that info, Amaroq. I hadn't messed much with the export/import schedule, but did some last night. Nice little feature that let's me now completely create my own schedules.

You're welcome. I can't believe you're going to make schedules by hand, but there have been a couple good threads on that from the older forum. You might start a new thread and see if you can get a few people interested in the topic.

Yea, this is an area I should conside rexpanding on (no pun intended) in PS 2006.

Got to get 2005 Gold Edition out the door first

Making a 126 game 10-team schedule wasn't hard, just a little planning and about an hour later it was up, plus another hour or so to work out some long home/road stand problems. I certainly won't do that by hand for a larger association, but the game-generated 120 game schedule for a 10 team association was odd at best (6 game series, or a one game series, for example).

Glad to hear that this will get looked at for PS2006. Thanks again.

I agree. After taking time to set up a Candadien Baseball League, I will not expand until I can control the cities being added and the region/alignment they get put in.

Shameless bump in the hopes that Shaun is addressing this in 2006.

I haven't seen it listed in things to be added, but maybe I missed it.

double bump

I'll bump to that!

There are a lot of ideas in this post. Can you guys give some feedback on the one or two things you'd most want to see around expansion/realignment/schedules?

No promises as this is not currently on "the list".

- Shaun

Hmm. There were six ideas suggested in the thread. Here's my priority list.

1. Choice of region for new franchises
2. Relocatation button (ability to move an existing team, e.g., Giants)
3. Choice of new division/league structure (when multiple options available)
4. Choice of number of teams (ability to expand not just from 8 to 10, but say from 8 to 16)
5. Human control of which franchises are in which division/league.
6. Human-controlled contraction

With Amaroq's list, I'd have to go this way:

1. Choice of region for new franchises
2. Relocatation button (ability to move an existing team, e.g., Giants)
3a. Human control of which franchises are in which division/league.
3b. Choice of new division/league structure (when multiple options available)
5. Choice of number of teams (ability to expand not just from 8 to 10, but say from 8 to 16)
6. Human-controlled contraction

1. control of team "birth" what league what division it comes in has top priority to me, the rest falls in afterwards but all this list from amroq and rjolley would be nice.

Since it's been listed in this manner previously, here's my wishlist:

1. Choice of region for new franchises
2. Human control of which franchises are in which division/league.
3. Choice of new division/league structure (when multiple options available)
4. Choice of number of teams (ability to expand not just from 8 to 10, but say from 8 to 16)
5. Relocatation button (ability to move an existing team, e.g., Giants)
6. Human-controlled contraction

I'd say 1, 2 and 3 are one step in and of itself, picking where the new franchise is, then which league and division, and then readjusting the structure of the league and divisions. 4 would be an added extra bonus, as would 5. 6 is the least interesting to me.

Excellent suggestions for an in-depth historical career.

I would absolutely love to see expansion and realignment added to PS 2006.

It would really be immersive to start in 1901 and have the game automatically realign/expand just as it did in RL. I wonder how hard this would be to add?