Complaints about 'Critical Situations'

[thekodinator]

Apologies if this thread is elsewhere, I did a few forum searches and found nothing so here goes...

I wanted to try the new 'Critical Situations' feature as a means to get through more seasons, but after trying it for April & May in my franchise, I am sorely disappointed. I have 3 main complaints:

1) Outside of individual player achievements (hit for the cycle, 3 HRs, etc.), the critical game moments seem to be only in the 9th inning when it's either tied or a 1 run game. What about getting out of a jam in the 5th inning with the bases loaded and nobody out? I want to play that situation as well.

2) I feel a bit too disconnected bc it only puts you into maybe 1-2 games per week tops. I think they don't have enough different types of situations identified and so you don't get into as many games as I would like.

3) The CPU-sim is awful at managing the game. Multiple times when I've dropped into a 1-run game in the 9th inning, I have a position player at catcher and no other position players available to sub. Also, I frequently only have 1-2 pitchers available in the bullpen. It's like the CPU just burns through my entire bench and bullpen in the innings leading up to the 9th. And then I'm hosed with a position player at catcher or if we go to extra innings.

I have yet to try the new "Quick Manage" feature, but I think that's where I will find my sweetspot with this game. In order to get through the season but still be involved in more games, I am going to try to use Quick Manage for every game (so I can control the usage of my bullpen and bench), and then use the following rule set to jump into game situations (when pitching or hitting):

- Any at-bat with runners in scoring position
- Any at-bat after the 7th inning stretch where the tying run is on-deck or at-bat.

I will miss out on being able to finish individual players' accomplishments, but I'm hopeful that using Quick Manage in this way will help me feel more connected/in-control of my team and ultimately provide me a better experience.

Would love anyone else's thoughts.

[Speedy]

Just want to say...

Really good feedback on the feature; this is what constructive criticism looks like.

[chaz526]

My biggest complaint is that it throws you into these 9th inning situations with 2 outs a lot of times. Let me play the whole half-inning! I don't want to go through a loading screen for 1 batter.

[thekodinator]

Circling back on this, I think I've found my groove for playing franchise mode in a way that allows me to progress through seasons more quickly, while still having more direct impact on the team.

I've completely ditched Critical Situations (good idea, poor execution) and instead am using Quick Manage, with a rule set to determine when I jump in and play the game myself.

In my first attempt, I would jump into the gameplay in these situations:

1. Runner in scoring position in any inning (offense or defense), or
2. Tie game after 7th inning stretch, or
3. Tying run at bat or on deck after 7th inning stretch.

I played a few games this way but jumping into the game every time either team had a RISP became too long, to the point where I was playing a large portion of the game.

Last night I played 9 games with the following criteria for jumping into the gameplay:

1. Runner in scoring position (offense only),
2. less than 4 run lead in the 8th inning or later (offense and defense).

This set-up allows me to get moving through games more quickly, but I still feel really connected to my team and to the outcome of the game. I will be sticking with this method for another 25 games to see if it holds up.

Does anyone else have a method for playing partial games?

[Caulfield]

Next year I'd like to see crit. sit. broken down into two options, one would be ''Milestone Moments'' and the other would be actual ''Critical Situations''. crit. sit. should not include
the milestones. And as said earlier, next year expand what defines a critical situation.
They could even define it as milestone moments can appear in any inning but you could also have crit.sit. broken down even further, into its own two categories, either of which could be turned on and off. late and close could be 7th inning or later and ''Other'' for lack of better term, could be 4th-6th innings. Maybe critical should never appear in the 1st 3 innings, unless ithe post season. I dont really know, I'm just sort of thinking aloud here.