FOR FANS OF MVP & ALL OTHER BASEBALL GAMES!!

[vt_Brady2705]

I just had an amazing idea for a new feature in the game. I need to know what you think, and hopefully someone from MVP will see this and think about implementing it in the future, if they aren't already.

*Also, I am fully aware they can't make another MLB game for like 6 more years, which is a shame. But, this could also work in an NCAA game. It's just too bad though, because it would be so much cooler in an MLB game.*

Anyways, here's the main idea. I don't know how many of you are fans of the Madden series, but in the new Madden 07, I've seen they have some sort of "Hall of Fame" or "Superstar" mode, where you control one and only one player for their entire career, and you try to get them into the hall of fame. Lets say you want to be a Wide Receiver. When you're team is on offense, you run out to your spot on the field, and then the routes you're supposed to run are drawn on the field. It is your responsibility to run those routes and try to get open, and hopefully have the QB throw you the ball. If the QB hands it off instead, it is your job to block downfield, etc. You have absolute control over only 1 player. It sounds like an amazing way to add a new dimension to the game. Now, apply that to a baseball game ...

Say you want to be RF Jeff Francoeur of the Atlanta Braves. When you're on defense, the camera could be floating just behind you, pointing towards home-plate so you can see the pitch and the bat. Maybe the batter strikes out, or maybe he grounds out to SS, but, maybe he hits a fly ball to you. A creative video-game guy would have to come up with a great way to replicate fielding, but perhaps the camera jumps into a First Person View where the right analog controls what you look at (think Halo's movement system), and you have to run to a circle displayed on the field that shows where the ball will land. And then maybe you have to have the ball be centered on the camera, otherwise you'll drop it. Just an idea, but again, I'm sure there are better ways to handle fielding, especially since this First Person system would make ground balls and diving plays very difficult to handle.

Now lets say the inning is over. You have to run into the dugout from your outfield position, as you can hear the crowd shouting position specific cheers or slurs at you, depending on where you are (maybe if you're at home but you're playing in NY, they say things like "Hey Right Field, you stink!," etc.) Once you get into the dugout, all the other players on your team move around on their own. I don't know whether or not you should be able to interact with them, but you can picture how this would go. Maybe Andruw Jones is sitting on the bench, and you can watch him spit sunflower seeds. Maybe Brian McCann gets up after taking off his pads, and jumps up on the front rail to watch the game. Maybe Bobby Cox paces up and down the dugout floor. With the power of the 360 and the PS3, baseball games should easily be able to handle this kind of thing. Anyways, while in the dugout, you can walk up and down in First-Person-View camera, and maybe jump up on the rail and watch the game, or sit down on the bench and watch, or stare at what your teammates are doing, whatever you want. When your turn to bat is coming up, the manager will always remind you "Hey, Right Field! You're on deck!" And so you go to where the helmets are, grab your helmet and bat, and run up to the on-deck circle. Here there could be a mini-game where you take practice cuts. If you are successful on the mini-game, perhaps your contact and power against the pitcher goes up +1. If you're unsuccessful, perhaps it goes down -1. Or perhaps you can elect to skip the mini-game and just watch the pitcher.

*I forgot to mention one important thing. While you are on defense, and in the dugout on offense, it will appear that the other players only see 1 pitch and hit it. For box-score reasons, the computer may say a batter had a 5-pitch at bat. But for the purpose of expediting the games so they don't all take 3 hours to play each one, all other batters will appear to see only 1-pitch, and either hit it, or miss it for a strike out, or take it as a ball for a walk. When you are on deck, and on the bases, the other hitters will get a full at-bat, so that you have time for your mini-game while on deck, and so you have the opportunity to steal bases while you are running.

When it is your turn to bat, you will hit just like you always have in the MVP series. Lets say you work your way onto first base. Now baserunning ...

You're on first base, and the camera is somewhat behind you, keeping the plate and the pitcher in your vision. At first, it will keep the pitcher more in vision than the plate, but once he begins to deliver the pitch to the plate, it smoothly rotates so you see more of the plate then the pitcher.

It is your responsibility to take your lead, and dive back to the base if he tries to pick you off. Since you're not worrying about controlling the batter and only your runner, there should be no limit (only 2 steps in previous games) to how big your lead can get. While at first base, you can watch the Third Base Coach give you signals. Meanwhile, text will appear above him to show you what it is he's signalling to you. Perhaps he starts doing signs, and above him it reads hit-and-run. On the next pitch, you take off, and the batter hits a ground ball single. The camera stays focused with you in the foreground, and it keeps the third base coach up in the distance. You can clearly see him signaling you to "Keep Coming!" or "Hold up There," and to emphasize this, you can hear him shouting these things while you're turning second base. As you're steaming into third base, you can see him showing you not only to slide, but which side of the bag to slide to, and you have to execute a hook-slide to get in under the tag. When you're sliding into home, the on-deck batter will be there showing you where to slide, just like the third base coach was doing, and just like happens in real life. So while you're running like this, you won't actually be looking at the ball, but relying on your coaches and teammates to tell you to keep going or coming, slide or stand up, and it's your job to execute that.

Sounds like a pretty awesome tweak to a regular MVP game doesn't it? And keep in mind, I'm not saying that this should BE the MVP game, I'm just saying this should be a feature in it. Maybe after playing through a dynasty season, you're eager to try this mode, and so you try to play as 1 player and get them into the hall of fame. They would still progress or regress in the off-season as they normally do, and I don't know what kind of menu options should be available for this type of mode. Perhaps in the menu between games, you have the option to "go train" to keep your ratings and stamina up, or to "go out on the town" to increase your happiness meter or something. That would be a fun tweak. If your player is in a long slump in the field, they become unhappy, and so you start going out to bars to increase their happiness, but then they start spiraling down and your player becomes a washed up drug addict because you handled him wrong. Hahahaha, that would be pretty funny.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

More Ideas for this feature!

You can choose to be any player you want, OR!

You can create your own player (let's say you make yourself a pitcher). Then you go to a special "Scouting Session" where scouts from every team scout you. Depending on how you do in their tests (maybe a bullpen session, maybe pitch 2 or 3 live innings, do some drills or something), you get offers from teams. Maybe if you're terrible, you only get offered a low contract by the Royals, but if you're good, lots of teams give you offers and you pick the one you want (maybe you even get to play on your favorite team!). Then you start out in the minor leagues. In MVP '05 (the last MLB version), they had A, AA, and AAA (no Rookie Leagues). So maybe you start out in A ball, and you have to pitch your way up to the big leagues. Gosh, there are so many things that could be done with an idea like this ...

And then in the menu mode between games, you can control certain things. Like, say it's May of 2007, and your contract with the team expires after the 2007 season. You can negotiate a contract extension, or tell your team how interested you are or aren't in resigning with them. Maybe you can tell them teams you'd prefer they trade you to, or you can demand to be traded to anyone. Try to make it as much of a simulation of being a real life big leaguer.

When you're a free agent, different teams come at you with different offers, you pick the one you want ...

OH! There has to be something to do with money. There has to be an incentive for people to really consider taking the biggest contracts they can. Because in real life, obviously money is important to the players. But in the game, if there's no incentive to take big contracts, then people would just take nothing size contracts with their favorite teams so the higher ups would use more money to go buy other players.

So, maybe money collected is used to unlock certain things in the game. Or maybe the more money you have, the better equipment you can afford, or the better personal trainers you can afford, and thus you can keep your player around in the game longer. There has to be something with money though ...

Anyways, PLEASE let me know what you guys think about this. I'm absolutely drooling over the idea that this would be implemented into a baseball game.

[Friedman]

Great idea, but impossible to put into the game.

[rig99]

Awesome idea, its like a RPG-baseball game. I don't know if EA has some way of letting gamers give ideas but you should definately look into it. I would actually buy their NCAA game if it had this in it.

[pujols]

Dude, that's a really good idea.

[hasoyam]

is just AMAZING send this information to the 2K or EA´ Sports Producers..

[yourhomiejosh]

Really good idea.

Too bad it's already been done for baseball.

Ever heard of Ultimate Baseball Online?

Sure, there are no real characters.

But the concept is pretty much the same.

[GEOLINK]

Thing is the modders can't add a feature like this.

[pitchleague]

there's also something similar to this idea made by the OOTP people. I can't think of what it's called though.

[medric822]

Theirs another game called Inside the Park Baseball, from Out of the Park Baseball.

Woops, didn't see the previous post until I looked at mine.