These calls are always hard to decipher because rarely (i.e. never) will a Dev say, "Nope, we TOTALLY ignored your complaint. It's still there!"
Brinkman said all the right stuff so it all sounds rosey on paper. And despite the barbs people throw his way (sheepishly raises hand..), the guy is clearly a baseball fan. And that's important. As to my questions, which he was kind enough to answer:
- Are there going to be more fielding camera angles this year?
Answer: YES! Two, in fact
- Has any attention been given to the base running AI?
Answer: YES! Lots!
- Last year it seemed that no matter what settings were used, it was very hard to score from 2nd base on a single, even with a fairly fast runner with 2 outs. Has this been fixed?
Answer: YES! Actually, he seemed to like this question and specifically said, "You'll like this year's game if this was an issue." Well, it was. So we'll see.
- In franchise mode, will the CPU teams do a better job in managing their rosters – will it leave star players rotting in the minors, for example?
Answer: YES! It's better and NO they won't rot in the minors
- The franchise mode AI would sign a player in free agency regardless of whether or not it was a position of need. Has this area been given any attention?
Answer: ....SORTA! He said the AI will still try and "obtain a lot of talent" but will also try to fill a need. So, I dunno how to take that.
I also asked about walks and if we could actually throw them this year and he was firm about this -- that we can because of the better ratings and the new pitch controls. So again, we'll see.
There's also some weird baseball card collecting feature that sounds like a huge waste of dev time.
Sorry if I sound jaded.
But the industry made me do it.
