BREAKING... (The official RBI '14 Thread)

[Gantry]

Nah fuck it

[BeefMaster]

I was just pointing out the fact that it is extremely unlikely that a console/mobile game gets any kind of official mod support, because mods are generally a PC-only thing.

That is almost a fair response, but what is your justification behind your statements? do you have any justification or is this just your opinion or emotion at this time of reading the idea?  FYI i am not attempting to question your integrity but I am more interested in gaining accurate knowledge if you have anything tangible to offer more than emotions. Thanks 

My justification is basically just history - while user-created mods are common on the PC (and, honestly, one of the best things about gaming on that platform), they're virtually unknown in the console community, for a few reasons.

First and foremost - it's hard.  Modding, even stuff as basic as making custom rosters, involves typing, and that's a pain in the ass if you don't have a mouse/keyboard setup.  I manually entered most of the real player names in Tecmo Bowl Throwback on my Xbox 360 (I think I finished 22 of the 28 teams by the time I finished my first season and got tired of data entry), and even with a wireless keyboard it took me a couple hours, all told, because I had to go back and forth between the keyboard and the controller to move through the roster.  What you're talking about (the idea of a "framework" that others can build on) is even more involved than that and would likely require some coding, and that'd be impossible to do on a console at all, bringing me to the second problem...

Consoles are REALLY locked down by the manufacturers - they don't want you to do anything with their hardware and software that they don't specifically authorize and design.  On a PC, you can get at all the files on your drive in order to copy and move whatever you want.  On a console, you simply can't, at least not in a user-friendly manner - you'd have to do stuff like copy files to and from flash drives, and every time you do something like that you risk getting banned from the internet or even bricking your console.

Now, it's possible that they'd make the game open to some sort of editing - as I mentioned earlier, Tecmo Bowl Throwback allowed you to edit player names, as did many of the NCAA games.  But even then, Tecmo Bowl Throwback didn't have any mechanism to share those rosters.  You and a friend want to have real player names on both your consoles?  Then you're both going to have to type them all in.  It may be more allowable in RBI since it's got an MLBPA license (I assume Tecmo Bowl Throwback didn't have that partially because they were scared of an NFLPA suit when people started sharing real rosters), but they might fear the same kind of thing from retired players, or they may want to prevent user editing just to make sure that they're the only ones who can provide new rosters, which they could charge extra for.

Basically, I'm saying that video game publishers have historically had pretty much zero interest in any sort of modding support on consoles or mobile devices, and I see no reason why that would change in this case, particularly when custom rosters are something that lends itself well to paid DLC.

EDIT: Am I still allowed to reply, since I'm being polite?  I spent like 10 minutes writing this.

[RBI Empire]

Another reason for not allowing mods on consoles, other than it's difficult to program that in for 3rd party use, is contol of content by the company giving the rights to use their product, in this case MLB and MLBPA. I know for a fact with the NFL and a game like Madden that the NFL has final say on what goes in the game.

http://extramustard.si.com/2014/03/12/ea-sports-madden-features-nfl-remove/

The NCAA also had this same control and wouldn't allow EA Sports to put a playoff system in their game. They didn't want their fans to be swayed in favor of a playoff system before they had one in place. There were other features as well.

PC games are much easier to hack into than a console game. I'm no hacker, but I assume that for a console game you have to rip all of the raw data off of the game disc in order to get it into a program on a PC and then find a way to make a compatible digital copy for the console or put it back on another disc. In the latter case you would need a modded console just to read the newly burned disc. Most people don't have that technology at their fingertips.

[RBI Empire]

I was even thinking the ultimate feature to this new RBI Baseball framework would be to offer licenses to developers who would like to purchase the base code as a framework and potentially extend the base code with customizations of their own liking so people can be building features in parallel with the gaming company.  If the gaming company likes the feature some developer creates then maybe they will include it in their base product.   Careerwise I do a lot of extensions with out of the box software and have developed many bridge patterns that allow for this collaborative approach to designing software in a very effective approach to getting the software to be the best it can be for whatever purpose it may serve.

I am looking to propose this idea as soon as i find a good contact to discuss it with at the gaming company.  With the brains and passion we have floating around on this forum alone ONE thinks we can come up with some very kick ass customizations and extensions that would give everyone that flavor of RBI baseball they want and allow to share it for others who do not code their same excitement.

Honestly I think what you're getting at is a good idea and definitely out of the box. I think the others on this forum would agree with you that having a company open up programming to a variety of different developers but ultimately maintaining control over what goes in the final product would be a positive for any game, not just RBI. I even think it would take some of the burden off of the producing company.

I think back to many discussions I've had about EA Sports NCAA Football. They've gone so far as to have "community days" where they bring in players from all over the country involved in the NCAA internet community (operation sports, nutopia, gaming tailgate, simsports etc.) to test out the new version months before it's advanced. It's not quite the same as what you've proposed, but these players are allowed to say what they like and dislike about the current version and even make suggestions for features that would be great additions to the game. Sort of like making a pitch for the feature without putting all of the time in to program a demo of said feature. In the end though EA has the final say on what they can put in.

I like your idea even though I'm not a programmer, but I wonder how many developers would be willing to put in a bunch of time working on a feature without getting paid and with the possibility of not even having their feature accepted.

On the other hand, a game that is completely customizable from team Names, Locations, Colors, Roster Size, Stadium and so forth would be awesome with RBI gameplay. Throw in roster sharing and we could have rosters from every season as a possiblity. It could be endless MLB RBI Baseball.

[Gantry]

If you guys remember, paste any of the links you recall with good (as in quality of review, not strictly positive) reviews of RBI 14.  Need to do a front page update.

[RBI Empire]

I'd like to think that my blog is quality work but if I get time later tonight I'll try to find a few that I read last week. Either that or just google RBI 14 reviews.

[Gantry]

Will definitely link to yours, should add you to the links page as well.  Heck that thing probably needs some MAJOR cleanup. 

[BeefMaster]

Played a couple more games today... it continues to grow on me, although that was helped by the fact that I won both games handily - my opponents weren't crushing the ball as much as before, and the hitting gods were on my side.  My last game, against the Rays, I had NINE homers, still using the usually-power-deprived Twins.  I also tested and confirmed the stolen base glitch that Empire posted earlier, although it didn't make a difference in the game.

Xbox Achievement note: I won my last game 12-2, and it gave me the "Sandlot Pro" achievement for winning by mercy rule even though the game went the full nine innings (I scored my last run in the top of the ninth).  Apparently the logic just checks for a ten-run victory, not a specific number of innings.

I've been trying to nibble the corners a bit more when I pitch, and I think it's making a difference - it seems like the power penalty for hits off the end or handle of the bat is more pronounced in the new version.  The next thing I work on is patience - I swing at basically everything, and I need to stop doing that.

[RBI Empire]

Holy crap man, 9 homers!?!? That's some nice work! The most I've hit in a game is 4 and I've only done that twice. Got any tips to up my power game?

[Turd]

I played some games on the iPad on the plane today. You guys are lucky to have a console version cause playing like this ah-sucks.

[RBI Empire]

Yeah, the controls are decent for it being a touch screen game, but it doesn't compare to the console version.

[RBI Empire]

Anyone notice it more common to have power to the opposite field? I don't know if it's the way I have been hitting but it appears most of my hrs so far have been to the opposite field.

There does seem to be more home runs hit to the opposite field on this game. Most of my home runs go to either center field or to the opposite field. I want to believe that there is a way to hit bombs while pulling the ball but I haven't figured it out yet.

[BeefMaster]

Anyone notice it more common to have power to the opposite field? I don't know if it's the way I have been hitting but it appears most of my hrs so far have been to the opposite field.

There does seem to be more home runs hit to the opposite field on this game. Most of my home runs go to either center field or to the opposite field. I want to believe that there is a way to hit bombs while pulling the ball but I haven't figured it out yet.

I've noticed this, too.  Part of the issue is that there's a slight bit of hook to pulled balls, while opposite-field hits go completely straight, so they're a little more likely to go foul if you pull them.  Also, I'm late on pretty much everything, so it's not like I have a lot of choice.

Holy crap man, 9 homers!?!? That's some nice work! The most I've hit in a game is 4 and I've only done that twice. Got any tips to up my power game?

That was the first game in which I'd hit more than three, so I really don't know whether it's a trend or not - I'll find out next time I play.  I've been trying to use the Retreat, holding down when I'm looking for home run power.  Research has shown (really!) that holding up or down when you swing in the original RBI affects the trajectory of the ball (down for flies, up for liners/grounders), and I've had decent luck trying it out in this one, although at least one of my homers was when holding up.

I've also started using the analog stick instead of the D-Pad... I like the additional precision in the field, and it's not been any worse for throwing to bases (although that's partially because the Xbox 360's D-pad is an abomination).

[bonny]

Operation Sports review
http://www.operationsports.com/reviews/749/rbi-baseball-14/

I haven't pulled the trigger on a purchase. $20 is pretty high. Plus I'm still sad about lack of fat guys/retro graphics.

[RBI Empire]

Here's another one that someone posted earlier.

www.sbnation.com/2014/4/10/5601308/rbi-baseball-14-review-ps3-360

[AlecTrevylan006]

So consoles are definitely hard to mod on, but I would think that the Android version would be more moddable... you have access to the files, you can run an Android OS on a PC... I'd think that it would be POSSIBLE to mod that at least.

Shows how little I know about programming though...

[BeefMaster]

Operation Sports review
http://www.operationsports.com/reviews/749/rbi-baseball-14/

I haven't pulled the trigger on a purchase. $20 is pretty high. Plus I'm still sad about lack of fat guys/retro graphics.

Review is pretty fair, all things considered, although I wish the writer would have learned the difference between "tenet" and "tenant".

[RBI Empire]

Just finished part 4. My suggestions for upgrades for the game. Now, hopefully, I can focus on the website and try to get the rosters finished.

http://rbiempire.tumblr.com/post/83634305508/rbi-baseball-14-the-good-the-bad-the-how-can-we-make

[RBI Empire]

So, playing with an All-Star team is really easy on this game. I wonder if they beef up the players on these teams. It's cool that they added the home field advantage headline.

[VEGAS]

Has anyone picked off a runner when playing against the computer?