Some times it's the little things

[puresimmer]

As I work on PureSim 2009 I have decided to adopt a "Sometimes it's the little things" philosophy for the current phase. There is a LONG list of little usability issues, many I noted from this forum. Individually, they are not huge, and they won't look great on marketing literature, but to a long time PureSim player they are the kinds of thing that I think will make a huge impact.

Here's an example, from my PS 2009 change log:

* TWEAK - On the modify roster screen all grid sorts remain "sticky." For example if the user sorts the batters by AVG and then visits the manage minor leagues dialog, upon return, after reloading to respect any changes made by the user, the grid will be re-sorted to match the last thing the user had previously sorted on (AVG)

Little, yes but surprisingly useful. I have been spending time as a player to find as many of these things as I can. So, while I am in this mode, what are some of the little annoying quirks you'd like to see cleaned up?

Of course PS 2009 will not *just* be little things, but I certainly want it to be an evolutionary, compatible upgrade, not some huge re-invention of every concept for the sake of re-invention.

[motnahp]

(1) The ability to use a pitcher as a pinch-runner and being able to replace that pitcher/runner with another position player. Currently, the pitcher/runner must stay in the game and cannot be replaced.

(2) Eliminate the 5-6-3 double play. This one's been in PS for way too long. Time to "retire" it for good.

(3) The ability to import players randomly, perhaps optionally based on a set of pre-assigned criteria. Let's say I want to import a catcher who bats left-handed and has an ARM rating of >60. I would then see on my screen all of those such players from the Lahman dB. There would need to be a limit to what is seen on the screen, naturally. When I select my LHB and >60 arm, I could also select the number of players I will see on the screen (from 1 to 50 sounds about right).

(4) In Multi-player leagues, allow a user to manage games. There are some users (at least one : )) out here who want complete control over player movement AND want to manage a team. An alternative to this would be an interface where PS recognizes player trades, releases, signings, retirements, etc. and has these occur automatically during the season.

That's about all for now. As always, thanks for giving your customers the ability to contribute ideas and submit feedback.

[PadresFan104]

Usually all of my requests are "little" things compared to the rest of the users, so this should be a perfect thread for me... I'll get crackin!

[Wrathchild]

How about a way to see a comparison between the pitchers during the current game? I'd like to see a side by side or top and bottom comparison between the 2 starting pitchers, as well as the 2 current pitchers, and how they've done so far this game, at any time during the game. In fact, I'd like to see the same thing for the hitters, too, almost like a box score to the current point. 

[sportsfan76]

I think it would be nice on the batter's stats windows during the game to have an option to see the batter's results during the day. Like something below:

Conner Jackson
1st- Doubled to Left Center
3rd- HR to Left
5th- K

[jeremy7227]

I'd like to be able to RightClick a player name and select Edit Bio rather than have to View Player Card then select Edit Bio.

On a slightly larger scale but related... I would like to have the ability to do global ratings edits.

Thanks for the sneak peek at '09 Shaun!

[jeremy7227]

One more thing I thought of... The association hitting streak record is kept but I can;t find where to view the record holder's name. I would like that somewhere in the almanac. Currently I keep a .txt file with the progression for my association that I manually update by keeping up with issues of PSPN.

[modred]

separate filters for batters and pitchers in the players/free agent/draft screens.

[Frozen Stiffer]

Shaun,

This is GREAT. I know that I'm just one of many, many longtime Puresimmians, but please accept my thanks on behalf of all of us. It's interesting what you're addressing. Where I work, I've always told my staff that "Big Things are nothing more than a lot of Little Things put together". It's these 'little' fixes that really go a long way. These are the issues I've suggested and requested in the "What's Left..." thread and which I believe would be considered Little Things. If something I post is an epic undertaking, please feel free to disregard:

• When players retire, I like having those that still are or just were your players either on top or in bold so that they stand out. In a perfect world, it would show all players that were ever on your team (I'm sentimental like that), but it's not necessary to go that far.
• On that note, if they were in the minors or free agents when they retired, it doesn't show historical stat totals. It would be nice if it listed these regardless of where the player happened to be at the time they called it quits.
• When you're looking at players in the Contract Status Screen, the stats it shows are for the first season they played, which is usually in the minors. It would make more sense to list them with stats based on where they played their last year- be that in the minors or majors (and which one that was should be indicated).
• Hit by a pitch. Doesn't happen but should.
• Add Birthplaces; it's painful when I realize no member of my Havanna Galleons was born in Cuba. Ouch.
• Including a note somewhere in the HTML Almanac showing a player has retired.
• When you use the PLAYER BIO screen to change the team a player is on, it would be nice if they retained the same contract terms. Currently when you do this, you need to reset the duration and the amount they originally signed for.
• Cash considerations in trades. Sometimes a team has excess capital and not excess staff.
• The option of signing a player to a contract term longer than 5 years.

[KG Erwin]

Just one item for me: expand real rosters to 40-50 players, with full minors. The only practical way to do this would be to use a default early-draft entry in combination with the real rosters, and fill in the remainder with scrubs.

In other words, Robinson, Mantle, Mays et al would already be in the minor levels for their real-life teams 1-3 years before their major-league debuts. Perhaps it wouldn't be a huge coding issue, as the early-entry feature works well in draft leagues.

The real players would fill out AAA (8 position players, 2-3 starters, 2-3 relievers, maybe?) and maybe a few in AA, with scrubs occupying the remaining slots.

The present 10-man real-roster reserve system just doesn't allow enough flexibility, IMHO.

[throttle8]

One suggestion I'd like to make is that if you Quick sim a playoff game, if it turns out to be the last game for your team in that "series", whether you win or loss, the final score is never shown. Pursim will just continue to show who the next two teams playing are or if you are playing for the championship game, it will just state who the new world champion is, without showing the score of the final game.

Insummary: It would be nice to be able to have all playoff game results posted how they are when you quick sim a regular season game.

[CBeasley37]

One thing I'd like to see Shaun is a different schedule every year for my fictional association.
Every new season I know I'll open with 3 in Raleigh then come home for 3 with Columbia, and so on.
I also have a team in my division that I play all my games against at home. It would be nice to be able to edit
the schedule so I could fix this problem.

[PadresFan104]

So here's my list for now, and although many of these aren't necessary little, I know Shaun is reading this thread so I thought I'd put all of my wishes in one spot. You'll see nothing here about stats/financials/gameplay, as I think the engine is REALLY solid at this point. I'm looking for polish...

• Streamlined User Interface - Colors/Graphics/Layout/Dialog Boxes/Buttons/Etc. There must be 5 different variations of buttons, fonts, backgrounds, window colors, etc. Sorry Shaun, but as I focused on this aspect of the game today, it really is kind of a mess in my opinion. I know this doesn't effect gameplay per se, but it does effect my enjoyment of playing the game. From Team Management, switch between the "Modify Roster", "Minor League Roster", and "Rotation" screens. You get the idea. Many people play PS over OOTP for it's simplicity. Clean up the UI and you'll score big.
• Please look into FaceGen integration, I think their price may have come down recently.
• Ship next version with up-to-date MLB rosters.
• For Historical Associations, Update the ballparks that ship with the game (not the pics, just the important stuff that affect stats) and have the appropriate parks assigned to the appropriate teams automatically. Yes, I mean for all years. I believe the data is out there.
• Allow printing of the draft pool.
• First Round Draft picks by the AI are often 1-year deals... Seems that the top draft picks should be getting multi-year deals? Wouldn't you want to secure that player for a number of years?
• During the draft, allow for primary and secondary sorting of the rating columns.
• When selecting cities, and using region-sized finances, allow us to sort alphabetically as well. It's a pain finding cities sometimes.
• Expand the region database.
• Incorporate player pics and team logos into the PSPN.com report. This would really help with the immersion factor.
• Add stories about the Pennant Races to PSPN.com.
• Add Real-Time Scoring Updates from around the league to the PSPN cast.
• Would be nice to be able to move the various dialogs/scoreboard around on the PSPN cast screen.
• Allow us to view the box score in the middle of a game.
• Add some rare plays, or interesting occurances in the PbP. Fouls shouldn't always be outs.
• Add hooks for sounds so the mod makers could spice up the PSPN cast with various sounds like HR calls, etc.
• Add some "texture" to the approval rating number. Instead of a number, maybe have it say things like the "Owner Isn't Happy With Our Financial Performance" or "The Fans are Happy With the Results on the Field". Again, something to improve the feeling that we are really controlling a team.
• I'm not a fan of the box scores as they are now. Just another screen that doesn't fit in with the rest of the interface.
• Allow us to publish an HTML version of the PSPN.com report.
• Create a Summary HTML report for our Association so we can share it on the web.

[puresimmer]

Lots of good stuff here!

BTW, this week I really revamped the custom filter support on player grids:

* New - Improved custom filtering dialog for player grids (more columns, individual settings for pitchers and hitters, play level filters and more!)

* New - Ability to edit player by right clicking on a player hyperlink. Comsmetic note... the updates to the player on whatever underlying screen the user made the edit from will not be reflected until the next time the screen is reloaded.

* New - Custom filter capabilities now exist on ALL relevant players grids (drafts, player page, etc..)

[GNDN]

KG may not agree but I am sticking to my bullpen suggestion.

I am not a programmer but here is how I would look at putting it into place:

It could be part of the in-game line up card accessible only during a game. Add 2 slots just below the line-up. Adding pitchers to the bullpen for warm-up works just like adding a pinch hitter - click on the pitcher, click on the slot. No button required. You double click the player in the bullpen to sit him down. Or you put him in the game the same way you do now.

From there, you adapt the fatigue model to allow for warming up, even using the same color scheme: red is not ready, brown is not quite ready, blue is warm. The time compression works here, too: it is so many batters or pitches until ready. It can be a function of age, endurance, current fatigue level, and maybe pro experience.

Leave a player warming up too long or forget about him? Your punishment is that the player loses one or two fatigue levels for the next game.

You could use the team data section in the corners to notify you when a player is warming up. All it has to say is LHP is warming up.

[CrashDavis]

Shaun,
I know this isn't a small issue, but I think one to consider when you move on to the bigger projects for 2009:

1) In Sand-Box Mode - I'd like to import players with ratings based on the year I am importing them. I believe currently PS is adjusting the ratings the way it normally would for a career historical association. Thats fine for a historical association, but if I wanted to build a Sandbox association with players imported from their best single season year, the adjustment PS makes defeats the purpose.

2) Ability for modders to include an additional tab on the Players Card.


SL

[throttle8]

I have another suggestion that I believe would be a big help.

When we are managing a post season game, it would be very "realistic" and more importantly, very helpful, if the Line Up Game Roster, shown during the game, would keep track of the players playoff stats instead of their season stats. The way it is currently setup, it is very difficult to know how your players are doing in the post season. A player may have really good season stats & be doing horrible in the post season and vice versa.

[Frozen Stiffer]

ORIGINAL: throttle8

I have another suggestion that I believe would be a big help.

When we are managing a post season game, it would be very "realistic" and more importantly, very helpful, if the Line Up Game Roster, shown during the game, would keep track of the players playoff stats instead of their season stats. The way it is currently setup, it is very difficult to know how your players are doing in the post season. A player may have really good season stats & be doing horrible in the post season and vice versa.

throttle,

Interestingly enough, Puresim used to do this. Batters' stats effectively reset for the post season. I don't know at what point (or which fix) removed this functionality, but it used to work that way.

[PadresFan104]

I used to hate it when it did that!  Maybe provide it as an option...

My thought is that since we are not dealing with real people, there is no point to knowing how your player is doing in the playoffs.  If anything, I'd like to see an available toggle that would show player stats for the past [X] games.  Then you could get an idea if your player is on a hot streak or cold streak.  Again, this would be available during the regular season, or during the playoffs. 

Now, in real life, player performance in the playoffs is really interesting, but in a game like PureSim, "The Playoffs" have no meaning to the game engine.  It's just another 3 to 19 games using the same algorithms.  

[jeremy7227]

Here's a little playability request. I would like to be able to export a player pool from one association and import it into another association. Tis would prevent me from having to import players from Lahman and then tweaking certain players that import at P who should be POS players and vice-versa... I could import players once and tweak them, save that as my static pool and quickly create new associations. I would also like to be able to save an "empty" association as a template. Team names/regions ball parks etc. but no players. Also would be good to be able to change association settings on those templates before beginning anew.