Saturday, December 6, 2014

Baseball Mogul Diamond

Last week, I promised some news about Baseball Mogul to our newsletter subscribers. I haven't been able to pull together any screenshots, but I can let you know about some new developments, with more information to come over the next 3 months.

We're changing the name, sort of.

In early 1998, we launched a game called Baseball Mogul 99 (instead of the more accurate "Baseball Mogul 98"). This numbering scheme was chosen by our publisher, and matched other sports games, but it has since led to confusion because "Baseball Mogul 2015" includes rosters for 2014, with player stats through 2013.

So, the next version, including stats through the 2014 season, will not be called Baseball Mogul 2016. It will be called Baseball Mogul Diamond. The logic behind the name "diamond" is that we have four notable areas of new features:

(1B) Free Agent Compensation

Baseball Mogul Diamond includes up-to-date rules and regulations for free agent compensation, matching those set out by the most recent collective bargaining agreement (CBA).

Free Agent Compensation
When teams lose players to free agency (after giving that player a "qualifying offer") they are entitled to additional picks in next amateur draft as compensation.

Many of you don't want these roster rules to slow down game play or make it more complicated. So, we have added a new "Roster Rules" dialog that lets you customize this feature.

(2B) Improved Aging Model

This includes many small changes, but the most visible is the fact that players now move "down the defensive spectrum" as they age. Bill James first defined the defensive spectrum in the 1980s, creating a list of positions from the least difficult (on the left) to the most difficult (on the right):


The best offensive players are usually found closer to the left side of the spectrum. (Note that before about 1930, 3B was actually between CF and SS).

As players age, they tend to move from the more difficult defensive positions (on the right) to the least difficult (on the left). For example:

  • Rod Carew played 2B until age 29, then moved to 1B.
  • Craig Biggio was drafted as a catcher, but moved to 2B at age 24 and moved the outfield at age 36.
  • David Ortiz started his career at 1B, then slowly shifted from being a DH in about 15% of his games to starting at DH 97% of the time.
  • etc.

(3B) New General Manager AI (Artificial Intelligence)

We're rewriting the general manager AI so that computer-controlled teams draft, sign, re-sign, release and trade players more realistically. The "Tradezilla" engine had some flaws that needed to be fixed, and the AI had other weaknesses. For example, it was common for a team to sign (or trade for) a star player, only to let him rot on the bench because the team already had a great player at that position. Teams also have serious problems with cash and salary management, among other things.

So ... the new roster rules described above required that we create much more comprehensive GM AI, and has also allowed us to fix existing problems. As many of you have noted, the addition of the roster rules solved some of the problems for us. For example, free agent compensation tends to help small market teams stay competitive with the big boys.

(Home) Improved User Experience

Okay. There are many smaller improvements, so I just lumped them into "improved user experience".

We've improved end-of-season contract negotiations by making it easy to skip a player and come back to him later. We also show you how much payroll you have in expiring contracts, to make it easier to stay within your budget.

You can now view player projections (not to be confused with "predicted stats") on the Leaders Page and in the Sortable Stats Dialog.

Pitcher usage has been adjusted (yet again) to not only match recent trends by managers, but to ensure accuracy in all historical eras. We have also added more adjustable parameters, in case you want to tweak the simulation results to your liking.

And of course we are continuing to respond to your bug reports and suggestions in our forums.

Thank you for continued support and feedback, and please stay tuned for more info!

31 comments:

MLN said...

These seems like great improvements. I haven't bought a mogul version for several years because I didn't see any substantial improvements, but if this description comes to pass I'd be very excited about buying the new version.

Anonymous said...

Can someone please explain to me how stat based scouting works and whats the difference between this and the other scouting methods?

SethMurphy said...

Are there any plans for a mobile version, ipad like iOOTP... been a loyal Mogul player for years, have even reviewed it back when I was a writer/editor for a paper... but don't get to spend much time at the computer anymore. Do love to see the improvements, I think they are much needed.

NYSteinbrenner said...

Clay, have you ever given thought to adjusting city demographic data from decade to decade based on Census data? That would add a major element of realism.

Unknown said...

Will the hiring of coaching staffs finally be added this year?

Kyle said...

Go away Erick, Baseball Mogul is awesome

ErickBailey said...

Ok Kyle... Explain how its awesome. Explain how there's NO ONE on the forums. No one cares about this game anymore. I know there will always be a lot of die hard fans of anything out there. But for my money BM is seriously lacking. I look at it like this. BM is a steak a la carte meal, you get the steak and nothing else. OOTP is a dinner.. you get the steak, all the fixings and a drink for the same price. What idiot if they were hungry would just choose the steak. Simple as that

Anonymous said...

Erick, you're here commenting, but you don't care?

Joe O'Malley said...

Erick...why are you such a douchebag?

ErickBailey said...

Wow Joe, a person talking mess about another person online. Original. Guarantee you'd never do that in public (but of course this is where you tell me how tall and strong you are and how your MMA training is going). And to Anonymous.. I do not care. It's actually fun watching you guys support a dying franchise. Look at Jay Parks.. He's asking about the hiring of coaches...its 2015 and BM doesn't have this yet. And you guys are attacking me... I bet they laugh at you all when you spend your hard earned money on a second rate product. I am willing to bet that preorder sales and sales in general look horrible.

Anonymous said...

I've always enjoyed the simplicity of Baseball Mogul.
Comparing BM to OOTP isn't even relative to me. I can jump into BM and play a few games without wading through the endless BS in OOTP.
I have OOTP and have had it since it's inception, it has the depth but doesn't have much of a fun factor.
These changes to BM while advancing the game mechanics, are not what I as a BM lover since BM99 see as an improvement to what I enjoy in the game and only moves it closer to the over-weight OOTP genre.
Get your engine to run with Super-Mega Baseball on the PS4 and have the best Baseball game on any system.
Semperatus

Kyle said...

Erick, why are you being such a knob? The game is fun. Who cares whether or not you can choose a coach, etc, etc. I play to trade, sign free agents and sim (i.e. for fun). And thanks for watching out for my wallet but the '15 game is 20 bucks. It doesn't exactly break the bank. Why don't you take your sunny disposition on over the to ootp forum where you can discuss the relative merits of different coaches. I'll spend my time killing it in the world series for the 10th year in a row. Also, I've spoken with Clay via email before. He's a cool dude making a sweet game. There's no reason to disparage what he's worked hard on. Nobody is going around telling you unsolicited that your work product amounts to a steaming pile of crap (although, based on our few interactions, I am tempted to say that it's quite possibly the case)

ErickBailey said...

Cry me a river Kyle... So you enjoy an easy game where you can be in a WS for 10 straight years. I am not the only one calling Clay out. READ THE BM BOARDS! Fans of is game aren't supporting him. Go ahead and look at the forums. They mention the launch of Diamond and NO ONE CARES. Go ahead and look. Then go look at OOTPs forums after they announced their new game. Go look at how active that forum is. You also seem to be obsessed with the signing of coaches as you mentioned it twice in your post. And I can list about 100 things other than just coaches the one game has over the others. Oh and my last post on this issue... You said you paid 15 bucks. Either you waited until a price drop or you got the special $15 for purchasing last years game. Why would a company have to sell its newer version of a game for $15?

Anonymous said...

Adding Managers/Coaches to the roster, I think, would make the game a million times more engrossing than adding minutiae to the trade engine.

Dale said...

Anyone here Front Office Football by Solecismic? The one thing I wished Baseball Mogul could do is export the seasons stats into all time records like what is done in FFB. I know you can export with Mogul manually and do stuff that way, but I think an automated process would take this game over the top. Probably too difficult because of the number of players an such.

Unknown said...

When will the new version be available to buy?

Surat Kahn said...

I regret there are no pickoffs moves.
Especially with lefties, it's an important part ofthe game

Unknown said...

this game
download or package game?

Clay Dreslough said...

Baseball Mogul Diamond will be for sale on April 3rd as a download. The packaged CD/DVD should be available in May.

Anonymous said...

I've been a fan of BM since the 2007 version. Tony LaRussa fan long before that. This is the first time I have felt inclined to post and this is only in response to the ridiculous suggestion that BM is a dying game because there aren't a lot of forum posts. I prefer to spend my time actually playing the game!

Jeff Olsen said...

Funny how OOTP fanbois spend so much trash-talking Baseball Mogul while fans of Clay's game hardly ever talk trash about OOTP.

Makes it obvious which game attracts the responsible adults and which game attracts the jocks who never grew up.

Jesse said...

OOTP is for people who want to do nothing but play baseball games.

I love Baseball Mogul because even with an outdated laptop you can run a simulation, do homework, and watch YouTube at the same time.

Jesse said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

So I gotta say I am anxious to come back to try Baseball Mogul this year after 1 year off to play OOTP. The last few iterations of Mogul have suffered from the same thing that turned me off from Madden - specifically that each new year only brought roster updates pretty much. After a year with OOTP I must say I was hoping Clay would do an overhaul to lure me back! OOTP has a horrible interface and a ton of glitches. It runs very slow (I have an intel I7 with 16 gigs of ram btw). Clay please dont let me down!!!

Unknown said...

I see that you can download the Demo but when I do, I only get a Demo of Baseball Mogul 2015, which I already own.

How can someone download the demo to Baseball Mogul Diamond?

Unknown said...

I've been playing this game almost all the way back to the original, and it remains my favorite. I always have it open, along with normal web browsing and TV watching, etc., and it's great to work through building a franchise. It's kept me occupied in Afghanistan and Iraq for two years, so it will ALWAYS have a place in my heart. I tried OOTP for about five minutes and thought it was ridiculous. For those of you who prefer OOTP, knock yourselves out, but do me a favor and leave BM alone. I, for one, love it.

Anonymous said...

In Commissioner mode, when you begin season play, the computer changes the roster to previous computer roster settings. Your changes of all teams rosters disappears. I have Windows 7. Is there a way to fix this?

nokta shop said...

Will the hiring of coaching staffs finally be added this year?
https://www.noktashop.com.tr/

Unknown said...

Are there any plans to release an iOS version? I have moved exclusively to mobile gaming, and this series has been my favorite one, as I have purchased every year since the beginning.

Bergen said...

The should be a way to play the allstar game.

bluebass said...

Why do players who sit for a week stay tired? I have just bought diamond after being away for a couple of years (did not like 2014 - too many .290+ hitters were hitting way below the Mendoza line for a half-season - somebody who was a .330 hitter was hitting .118 at the all-star break.).