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MLB 14 The Show News Post

Franchise Mode has been an MLB The Show staple for quite some time now, and this year, we’re excited to introduce its long-awaited online version. We took the team-building aspects of Franchise, such as scouting and offseason contract negotiations, and merged them with the customizable schedules and divisional alignments of Online Leagues. We also continued to refine the game logic that governs trade values, lineups, player generation, and more. Let’s go over some of the main features in more detail.


FRANCHISE HOME

When you create an Online Franchise, you automatically become the league’s Commissioner. You’ll get to choose the divisional alignment, schedule type, Designated Hitter preference and whether or not to upload a custom roster, among other things. Once you’re happy with your settings, you’ll need to invite other players to the league, and also determine what teams will be controlled by the CPU (if any at all).


CREATE FRANCHISE

Building a successful team in Online Franchise is as much about what happens on the field, as about what happens off the field. One of the most important things you can do to remain competitive is to draft amateur players effectively, in order to keep replenishing your major league roster with top-tier talent. To do this, you’ll need to scout players throughout the regular season so that you don’t go into your live online draft unprepared. Without proper scouting reports, you’ll have a much tougher time trying to distinguish between future superstars and draft-day busts.


AMATEUR DRAFT

The vast majority of your drafted players will need some seasoning in the minors before they’re ready for The Show, so we’ve given you access to full minor league rosters. You’ll be able to move players up and down from Class-A all the way to the Majors, set training assignments, and also pull-off trades with other teams. Our trade logic has been greatly improved as well, so forget about lopsided trades involving three top prospects for an average major league middle reliever.


MANAGE ROSTER

This brings us to the offseason, which we divided into two parts. In Part 1, you will handle all of your contract renewable players, arbitration cases and draft pick signings. Our player contract logic has received a much needed overhaul, as we made MLB service time more of a factor when determining player interest and ideal salary. One example where this is really noticeable is when trying to offer contract extensions to your young players. In the past, you were able to sign young superstar players to extremely cheap long-term contracts, which is unrealistic in today’s MLB. Now, you’ll still be able to lock these players up early in their careers, but you’ll have to pay something much closer to their market value. This type of contract is becoming much more common in real-life lately, with teams like the Rays and Braves leading the way, and it was important for us to incorporate this new dynamic into the game.


CONTRACT RENEWALS

Free agent signings happen in Part 2 of the offseason, which is divided into an adjustable number of rounds, or advancement periods. Every team gets a chance to make their best offer, and then the commissioner advances to the next round.


FA ROUNDS

Players will either sign with a team, or they will remain on the market for the next round. The bidding wars that occur in this part of the offseason can become pretty intense, coupled with the fact that you’re competing against other human opponents makes the bidding all the more entertaining.


FREE AGENT CONTRACTS

Rounding out the whole package is our expanded record keeping, as we now store draft classes, retired players, and additional career stats and awards on the Player Card. In addition, League Events and Notifications will keep you up to date on what’s happening around the league, and what tasks you need to perform to manage your team properly.


RETIREMENT

We’re all extremely happy with the way Online Franchise turned out, and we hope you enjoy playing it just as much as we enjoyed putting it together. See you online!

Bleacher Report has posted an interview with MLB 14 The Show developers, Luis Martinez and Lance Leahy, providing even more information.

Game: MLB 14 The ShowReader Score: 8.5/10 - Vote Now
Platform: PS Vita / PS3 / PS4Votes for game: 12 - View All
MLB 14 The Show Videos
Member Comments
# 141 nemesis04 @ 03/06/14 02:51 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by JoeCoolMan24
This was my question as well because I don't have 5 other friends who will buy this game. To me, this reads that I can't do an online franchise w/ a fantasy draft until there are at least 6 human players participating.
I am pretty certain they are referring to teams. So it would be 1 human and 5 CPU.
 
# 142 twinsfan34 @ 03/06/14 03:03 PM
Offline vs Online Franchise Features

MLB 14 The Show is written in a C derivative, most likely C++ based on the jobs and job descriptions seen on their website. Seen here (https://playstation.taleo.net/careersection/sceaexternal1/jobdetail.ftl?job=03409)

That said, many classes and methods can be private, public, or protected. And it's not that hard to call a function (method) or a class within various parts of the game. That's the beauty of (OOP) programming. You can reuse code and call it, you can make it private or put within the class to keep it to apply only to that stack.

I'm not an expert programmer in the least. I use SQL Server, some Python, and C#. So it's a different animal altogether, but they shouldn't have too much trouble with the storage factor or trade logic being on offline as well.

I too find it funny they're trying to "stack the bar" or "load the bench press" with 500 lbs when their previous max was 150 lbs. That is, throwing all their resources on the ONLINE component when the machine is the strongest factor to gameplay (speed/quality). The only thing I can see is maybe online they can still fix some bugs.

I'm very curious how the data will be handled server side and how the retrieval of that information to the online storage will work. They'll have to have some sort of play off line, execute load online after game is done type of scenario. It would take too many resources to try to render all those graphics and stats real time.

I am not an online person, except for a few games, most people who want to play online are not 'big stats' guys, they're online to play each other. I find RTTS and such to be more condusive to that type of person versus the 'stat hungry' simulate, manage, and play through 20 seasons in a few weeks type that many offline franchise people are. They also care about the FULL minor league rosters. I just find that the main tug of people who buy MLB 14, would probably fall into that category, the only 'catch' is they're not online as much as thus...even though they might be the majority, they're not heard as much as they'e not online.

I hope the online franchise won't have too many bugs. I look forward to controlling 1-2 teams and doing a lot of simming. I'll watch others for a week or two...hear how it's going...otherwise, I'll probably stick with MLB 13 as I don't see many improvements (other than graphics) being done for what I play most - the offline franchise. As I have a wife, a job that requires lots of hours, and often can only play maybe 1 night a week to a few hour block on a Sat/Sun. It already takes too long for many off-season changes.

Also, hope they fixed the lineup thing where the CPU doesn't change my lineup when I sim. That's annoying.
 
# 143 JoeCoolMan24 @ 03/06/14 03:10 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by nemesis04
I am pretty certain they are referring to teams. So it would be 1 human and 5 CPU.
That's what someone else said, but again, are you saying that I can start a franchise with only 15 teams in the entire league? Or 20 teams? Or 29 if I just abolish the Astros? I've never done a fantasy draft franchise, but in regular franchise mode I don't recall the option to remove teams from the MLB.
 
# 144 nemesis04 @ 03/06/14 03:17 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by JoeCoolMan24
That's what someone else said, but again, are you saying that I can start a franchise with only 15 teams in the entire league? Or 20 teams? Or 29 if I just abolish the Astros? I've never done a fantasy draft franchise, but in regular franchise mode I don't recall the option to remove teams from the MLB.
Yes, you can customize the league. Look at the second pic in the original post. You set all those parameters.
 
# 145 JoeCoolMan24 @ 03/06/14 03:23 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by nemesis04
Yes, you can customize the league. Look at the second pic in the original post. You set all those parameters.
I took that picture to be saying Max Human controlled players, like in case you didn't want more than 10 human controlled teams, but maybe you are right. I'd love to get some confirmation on that.
 
# 146 nemesis04 @ 03/06/14 03:33 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by JoeCoolMan24
I took that picture to be saying Max Human controlled players, like in case you didn't want more than 10 human controlled teams, but maybe you are right. I'd love to get some confirmation on that.
No you choose the teams and then you decide if you want them as Human or CPU.
 
# 147 HustlinOwl @ 03/06/14 04:01 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by JoeCoolMan24
You are telling me that I can start a franchise with only 15 teams in the entire league? I can just eliminate the entire National League from existence? That doesn't seem right.
Yep and its your universe do as wish

Sent from my LG-L40G using Tapatalk
 
# 148 chitownwonder @ 03/06/14 04:05 PM
For all the people complaining about online franchise saying you don't have that many friends, it's not that hard to join a good lg. I got in a MLB lg a few yrs ago for the first time met other people in the lg joined other lgs and they all ran smoothly and it was alot of fun. IMO either you all are anti social able or you just want to play against the CPU either way your choice but complaining that online finally got what they and myself wanted an franchise is just being selfish. Offline always got everything for yrs now online gets a big overhaul and all I've read is complaint after complaint. PLEASE
 
# 149 JoeCoolMan24 @ 03/06/14 04:16 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by nemesis04
No you choose the teams and then you decide if you want them as Human or CPU.
Interesting. Well then as long as Online Franchise's transfer from PS3 to PS4, then I think I'll be able to convince my buddy to buy the PS3 version on Day 1 with me.
 
# 150 brettryantalley @ 03/06/14 04:57 PM
I just recognized the fact that i can finally do something that i've always wanted to...franchise with less than 162 games! am i understanding it right? i may be able to do multiple years of a franchise and possibly only do 20 games per season?
 
# 151 HustlinOwl @ 03/06/14 05:08 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by brettryantalley
I just recognized the fact that i can finally do something that i've always wanted to...franchise with less than 162 games! am i understanding it right? i may be able to do multiple years of a franchise and possibly only do 20 games per season?
Correct

Sent from my LG-L40G using Tapatalk
 
# 152 MR.RANDOM @ 03/06/14 06:52 PM
I've read every page and I couldn't quite figure out if I could possibly put the league setup like the nba so I could put 15 east 15 west and top 5 in each make playoffs. Is that possible?
 
# 153 Armor and Sword @ 03/06/14 07:11 PM
A huge question for me is can I set up an online league that:

Has Timed Hitting/Classic Pitching

Auto fielding/manual throwing

Assisted base running.

My own custom sliders

Basically can I set up a league based around the way I approach the game?
 
# 154 tessl @ 03/06/14 07:26 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Knight165
I haven't seen the PS4 version yet....but I would definitely say that MoM is in the offline franchise.
Ramone wouldn't give me a heart attack like that.

M.K.
Knight165
That's great, thanks.
 
# 155 twinsfan34 @ 03/06/14 07:32 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Knight165
Ramone(SCEA) stated in another thread that the two modes are written separately and that getting in one doesn't automatically transfer to the other.
The reason they can't confirm one way or the other...is that they are trying to write the same code into the offline franchise(from what it seems he was saying).....and until they know that they won't run out of time....they won't say.

M.K.
Knight165
Thanks for this reply night.

1. If anyone has that thread, would appreciate the post where Ramone said that.
2. I wouldn't mind if the game was delayed a week or two IF that was the factor in this coding being worked out for expanded stats/player cards for the offline. Just don't like that so much is riding on the servers and online play for it to go swimmingly.
3. What is the PS+ required for now? Sorry, I can't seem to follow - it is required to play online franchise?
I understand if that's a Sony thing...you wouldn't think SCEA guys would hide all their improvements (online franchise) behind a $50/upgrade (or any other arbitrary amount). It would be kinda sad if that's the case. So why do I need the PS+ again - that is as pertains only to MLB 14 THE SHOW - not anything else...

Would you think they're pretty much done with the game already? Be pretty hard to implement changes it would think...if they affect the GUI/screens for each.

Thanks again...love how well connected this community is.

Also, when are they taking helpers/recruits for putting the rosters together?
Would love to help (e.g. helping with batting stances beforehand, etc - merely suggestions on the front end to help cut down time).
 
# 156 Knight165 @ 03/06/14 08:37 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by twinsfan34
Thanks for this reply night.

1. If anyone has that thread, would appreciate the post where Ramone said that.
2. I wouldn't mind if the game was delayed a week or two IF that was the factor in this coding being worked out for expanded stats/player cards for the offline. Just don't like that so much is riding on the servers and online play for it to go swimmingly.
3. What is the PS+ required for now? Sorry, I can't seem to follow - it is required to play online franchise?
I understand if that's a Sony thing...you wouldn't think SCEA guys would hide all their improvements (online franchise) behind a $50/upgrade (or any other arbitrary amount). It would be kinda sad if that's the case. So why do I need the PS+ again - that is as pertains only to MLB 14 THE SHOW - not anything else...

Would you think they're pretty much done with the game already? Be pretty hard to implement changes it would think...if they affect the GUI/screens for each.

Thanks again...love how well connected this community is.

Also, when are they taking helpers/recruits for putting the rosters together?
Would love to help (e.g. helping with batting stances beforehand, etc - merely suggestions on the front end to help cut down time).
1. I'm pretty sure he stated it in this thread...but I'm not sure. It's somewhere though.
2.Unfortunately.....he stated that the offline franchise won't be getting those improvements marked "online only".
3. PS+ is required for online gameplay......across the board I think(all PS games).....There are a lot of free games as a PS+ member that helps take the sting out of the $50 a year price tag.

We are recruiting right now....we are way behind on getting editors for each team...so if you are ANYONE is willing to pitch in(PS3 to start...on April 1st)....we would LOVE the help.
Thanks!

M.K.
Knight165
 
# 157 tessl @ 03/06/14 08:53 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by twinsfan34
Thanks for this reply night.

1. If anyone has that thread, would appreciate the post where Ramone said that.

This?
``````````````````
Quote:
Originally Posted by Russell_SCEA
I don't believe you get it. The game is still in development the features listed are confirmed for what they are listed for. That's why it has the online franchise tag listed. Because those features are exclusive to online franchise, we are trying to put them in offline franchise but we don't know if there is enough time. Maybe there is maybe there isn't hence why we have not given an answer.

Online franchise and offline franchise are coded in two different languages. FYI so it's not a simple grandfather clause type deal with those two modes.
```````````````````````
 
# 158 Woodweaver @ 03/06/14 09:35 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Knight165
3. PS+ is required for online gameplay......across the board I think(all PS games).....There are a lot of free games as a PS+ member that helps take the sting out of the $50 a year price tag.




M.K.

Knight165

I believe you are correct. This is true for the PS4
 
# 159 baseballphanatic @ 03/06/14 09:41 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Knight165
1. I'm pretty sure he stated it in this thread...but I'm not sure. It's somewhere though.
2.Unfortunately.....he stated that the offline franchise won't be getting those improvements marked "online only".
3. PS+ is required for online gameplay......across the board I think(all PS games).....There are a lot of free games as a PS+ member that helps take the sting out of the $50 a year price tag.

We are recruiting right now....we are way behind on getting editors for each team...so if you are ANYONE is willing to pitch in(PS3 to start...on April 1st)....we would LOVE the help.
Thanks!

M.K.
Knight165
If you can tell me how you guys merge 30 teams from 30 different users editing rosters then I can def help. I was planning on doing all 30 myself but if there is a way to merge rosters to one then you can either assign me a team or a whole division as I will have nothing but free time come April!
 
# 160 thaSLAB @ 03/06/14 09:46 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by baseballphanatic
If you can tell me how you guys merge 30 teams from 30 different users editing rosters then I can def help. I was planning on doing all 30 myself but if there is a way to merge rosters to one then you can either assign me a team or a whole division as I will have nothing but free time come April!
Start here... http://www.operationsports.com/forums/mlb-show-rosters/

Sent from my EVO using Tapatalk
 


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