It's been nine months since the last announcement of any sort of update to HBD. We still operate under free agency rules that were in place two Collective Bargaining Agreements ago. We have no new cities or ballparks to try out. We have no mobile app that pings an API to let us know when games have simmed or if we have a trade chat/offer. These, among other things, all seem like pain points that could be addressed in a relatively short amount of time (maybe outside of the app).

The last update post (from nine months ago) mentions player development updates and an "optimize roster" option. Are either of those things nearing completion? What else is on the roadmap?

I'm just hoping to have a little more light shed on what's being done to reinvigorate this game and bring more owners into the fold. I fear the game has become too stagnant and insular for many new people and want to be assured that the dev team is working on things to prevent that from being the case.

Around 5+ years ago Devs made a lot of empty promises to us. We were told there would be an Arizona Fall League. And that we would have some control over how to develop prospects. I don't think they care anymore. The game runs on autopilot.

As n00b reading these posts, I can't wait to purchase my 10 pack!!!!

There not going to do anothing. They sold out to Fox sports a while back and profiting off these simple games. Too much money coming in behind a big player like fox sports they don't give a damn what consumers say as along as $$$$$ keeps coming in. If it were smaller business at a low level I think it would run so much better with more up grades all the time. Fox sports is just too big to listin to any of us small people.....just my opinion.

All these dynasty games can be so much better with a lot of up grades.....not going to happen because too much $$$$ coming in.

You do know it costs about a quarter per day to play HBD, right? Essentially a bubble gumball outside the grocery for a screaming kid. I don't think WifS is a big cash cow for FOX.

I wouldn't mind a tweak here or there but I'm satisfied with the game. If there was too much money coming in they'd be working to keep more users coming in. My guess is the opposite is true. Too many players leaving, so a skeleton crew is used to keep it afloat. OOTP is probably what you are looking for from what I've read. I'm just too lazy to learn a whole new game. If HBD is shuttered, I suppose I'll be forced to pick it up.

The prospect and IFA upgrade they did a few seasons back is a complete disaster! If they fixed that up so it is not so erratic I'd be satisfied. There are other things but just that would keep me playing. As far as FOX goes we are small potatoes. Not worth the extra spending. If changes don't start happening soon I am sure they will see a drop off in participation and they would most likely just let it die. We'll see. I hope I'm wrong.

Yeah, we've heard "most likely die" for at least 5 years. If there was ONE SINGLE THING I'd like to see, it's varying world sizes. 32 isn't MLB so it's not a "realism" argument. I'd suggest 16(new addition from me), 20, 24, 28 and 32. That gets people playing now. Worlds can decrease but never increase. If you can't maintain a 16 team world, well, that world shouldn't even exist.

Not picking a fight with campbell1972 here, but I'm just tired of hearing complaints about the revised scouting system. I'm just saying this to refute anyone griping about it. From my perspective it works as intended, and is far, far better than the old system.

I'd be super happy with 2 things and they are easy.

A) The prospect draft takes the 1 day over three cycles. Round 1. Suplamental through 3. The rest.

B ) HOF voting is a percentage rather then a number. If you don't believe anyone deserves to be in, you have to check a box.

I agree. Even though I've already bombed a #4 pick, I like the new system. I care way more about signing FA than I did previously. Because all my draft and IFA prospects were can't miss. Feels quite a bit more realistic. I totally get the frustration that it adds some variability, but that's baseball. It's not supposed to be guaranteed.

I like the type A/B comp system better for HBD than updating to match the changes MLB has made.

Posted by hockey1984 on 2/28/2017 11:56:00 AM (view original):
I'd be super happy with 2 things and they are easy.

A) The prospect draft takes the 1 day over three cycles. Round 1. Suplamental through 3. The rest.

B ) HOF voting is a percentage rather then a number. If you don't believe anyone deserves to be in, you have to check a box.

I wish they would just make the rule5 and amature drafts live drafts! And if you can't make the live drafts, then use the current draft settings they have.

Posted by damag on 2/28/2017 11:48:00 AM (view original):
Not picking a fight with campbell1972 here, but I'm just tired of hearing complaints about the revised scouting system. I'm just saying this to refute anyone griping about it. From my perspective it works as intended, and is far, far better than the old system.

Fair enough damag. I don't usually get on the forums so I wouldn't know if I was beating a dead horse or not. I really don't have an issue with the budgeting plan for scouting. Makes sense. Whatever they have done to the prospect ratings is out of control. I had an IFA come up with 0s for both pitching splits. I got a high fielding grade SS that was listed as a C. Good for me right? I'll take him but I wanted a C. I had back to back 1st round picks last season. Their projections dropped up to 40 points in key performance areas. 40 points!? My first pick will be a career minor leaguer and the second may not make ML. You don't get them all I understand but I can often expect drops of 20 points in at least two key stats in top prospects whether draft pick or IFA. My budgeting is usually between 10-15 in all scouting categories.

Realistic or not doesn't really matter to me as much as having an idea of how my budgeting will be useful. It changes how I play the game which I don't have much interest in doing. I would have to go heavier on FAs since prospects are unreliable. I was always heavy on IFAs. Our world has become more competitive for them which is great but I am not seeing the point in bidding at all because of the skewed ratings and after effects. The other option is I let my minors slide and lose my higher value contracts maybe I'll get higher and better prospects because I'll have the budget to have more certainty in the numbers and the ability to bid higher. That is what the effects seem to be saying to owners. Polarizing game plans towards FAs or bail for a few seasons. Anyway you look at it the minors will take a beating. Like I said, If they smooth out the bizzare ratings I'd be perfectly happy.

Of course that all depends on how interested Fox is on maintaining WIS in the first place. We'll see...

As far as prospects - I would like to see a tweak to how scouting budgets work. As of now, anything under $15M is near-useless. I would rather that your scouting budget determine the amount of prospects you see, rather than ratings. Then sign scouts the way we sign coaches.

In MLB, if Team A has a $10M scouting budget, they're going to scout less talent than Team B with a $20M scouting budget. But the ratings they get on players they scout will be determined by their scouts, not by their budget. If I only have the budget to scout one player in the world, he may not be a stud, but my assessment of that one player should be pretty damn accurate.

Right now, it's basically that teams scout a similar number of players, but scouting budget determines how much "time" is invested in scouting each player in order to compile accurate ratings. In reality, that would never happen. A team with a limited budget would choose to scout 250 players in more detail, than do a half-*** job scouting 500.