NEW ONLINE LEAGUE FEATURES:
- Online presence indicates who is currently online in each of your Online Leagues.
- Ability to directly challenge an online opponent in any of your leagues. This sends a notification to the opponent who can then accept or decline the challenge.
- Ability to make your Online League public. The new Public League browser allows anyone to find open, active leagues to join. Filters allow you to find leagues that use specific settings of your choosing.
- Two new settings that allow you to set a maximum number of players for the league, and to ignore the results of games that end due to a player disconnection.
IMPROVEMENTS:
- Significant changes have been made to AI batting at all Ego levels and ball-strike counts, particularly to reduce AI batters' plate discipline and reduce the likelihood of AI batters making contact on pitches out of the strike zone.
- The batting contact simulation has been updated. In particular, foul tips are produced in some scenarios that previously resulted in weakly hit fair balls.
- Tweaked reticle and pitching minigame UI overlays to be more indicative of ball/strike calls.
- The pitch bend arrows have been adjusted so that the furthest arrow lands directly at the intended pitch target.
- Jump input will now be ignored when fielding a ground ball or a line drive that can be caught without jumping, and where a jump is likely to result in a failed catch.
- In Franchise, Season, and Elimination modes, when a playoff series ends early, player Fitness and pitcher stamina now recover an amount relative to the number of games that were not necessary in the series.
- In Franchise, Season, and Elimination modes, CPU teams better optimize their pitching rotation between games and playoff series.
- In Franchise mode, CPU teams are now even less eager to overpay for a player via sign and release without a probable or guaranteed playoff spot.
- In Franchise mode, new trading card poses are generated for all players at the start of the offseason.
- The championship win cinematic now plays when you win an Elimination tournament.
- The stadium announcer now announces the new batter even when the new batter cinematic is quickly skipped.
- AI baserunner aggression has been updated. They are now slightly more aggressive at advancing to 2B, advancing to 3B with 1 out, or scoring with 2 outs. In other cases, they are slightly more conservative.
- The AI's base stealing strategy has been updated to better judge when and when not to attempt to steal a base.
- AI baserunners now take a bit more time to react correctly after a ball is hit.
- AI fielders now take slightly better routes to the ball when playing at high Ego.
- AI outfielders are now less perfect at playing balls hit high enough off the outfield fence.
- The AI is now less likely to attempt a diving catch with the pitcher on softly hit balls.
- AI batters no longer attempt to bunt for a base hit with 2 strikes (but may still attempt a sacrifice bunt or suicide squeeze with 2 strikes).
- When a runner is queued to steal (R1 + steal button), the runner will now ignore other steal input until the queued steal is cancelled (R1).
- Pitchers are now able to get a glove on slightly more comebackers.
- In simulated games, the average number of pitches thrown per plate appearance has been reduced slightly, resulting in slightly longer outings from starting pitchers and slightly less tired pitching staffs.
- Various other minor UI improvements.
ISSUES ADDRESSED
- Fixed: The final pitch reticle location and the actual location that the pitch crosses the plate do not always line up properly.
- Fixed: Infielders can sometimes over-dive for a ball when dive input is given slightly too early.
- Fixed: The batter-runner passes the runner at 1B on rare occasions, leading to an unpreventable out.
- Fixed: In rare situations, the AI can intentionally walk a batter when ahead in the count.
- Fixed: Swing contact can appear to happen well in front of or behind home plate, resulting in odd-looking hit trajectories.
- Fixed: A runner queued to steal (R1 + steal button) can accidentally begin stealing if the button combination is not pressed and released correctly.
- Fixed: "Late" swing feedback can fail to appear if a swing fails to make contact due to the ball having already passed by.
- Fixed: Dive input can sometimes be incorrectly ignored when attempting to dive with the first baseman.
- Fixed: The shortstop and second baseman sometimes fail to back up the third baseman and first baseman respectively, leaving the corner infielder to chase after a deflected ball.
- Fixed: AI batters are late on their swings much more often than they are early, resulting in much more balls being hit to the opposite field.
- Fixed: AI baserunners sometimes start retreating back to their base on clearly uncatchable ground balls or line drives.
- Fixed: AI baserunners can sometimes hesitate for no reason when rounding 3B on shallow fly balls.
- Fixed: AI baserunners can fail to tag up on bunt pop-ups to the catcher.
- Fixed: AI baserunners at 2B can be too aggressive trying to advance to 3B with less than 2 outs on ground balls hit to the shortstop.
- Fixed: In rare situations, AI baserunners can run themselves into an out after an overthrow.
- Fixed: AI outfielders can sometimes throw towards 3B when the throw should go to 2B to prevent the batter-runner from easily advancing.
- Fixed: In rare situations, AI outfielders can pull up short or run past a rolling ball, allowing the ball to roll to the wall.
- Fixed: In rare situations, AI outfielders still throw to 3B when the throw should go home.
- Fixed: AI fielders can run in the wrong direction when trying to chase down a runner heading to a nearby base.
- Fixed: AI fielders consistently time their jumps too early on certain types of hits.
- Fixed: AI fielders sometimes dive when another fielder is already camped for an easy catch.
- Fixed: AI fielders can fail to back off from one another and end up competing for the same catch.
- Fixed: Force out can be ruled when a fielder picks up the ball while clearly not touching the base.
- Fixed: On rare occasions, both the second baseman and shortstop can be cutting for a throw from the outfield when there is a play at 2B, leaving no one to cover 2B.
- Fixed: In rare situations, a fielder carrying the ball and chasing down a runner about to slide can fail to make a tag attempt.
- Fixed: AI infielder tending 2B can be duped into leaving the base during a double steal.
- Fixed: AI outfielders miss too many sliding catches when playing at high Ego.
- Fixed: After pinch hitting, the AI can sometimes leave a player out of position on defense, even with a suitable defensive replacement on the bench.
- Fixed: The AI sometimes throws the ball to no one when throwing around the horn after an out.
- Fixed: Runner at 1B can be seen clipping with the first baseman during some strikeout cinematics.
- Fixed: On rare occasions, players on the field flicker between home and away jerseys.
- Fixed: "Custom Captain" achievement can unlock at the wrong time.
- Fixed: Crash can occur when trying to save changes and switch teams in Team Hub.
- Fixed: In Practice mode, attempting to swap defensive positions or change the batting order of a CPU-controlled team pregame leads to a soft lock.
- Fixed: In Franchise mode, a player who resigns at the beginning of the off season can have a much higher or lower initial asking salary than intended.
- Fixed: In Franchise mode, after hitting a home run, the career home run milestone text can trigger incorrectly.
- Fixed: In Franchise mode, the team specialization bars seen when switching teams in Team Hub are not always updated as players move between teams.
- Fixed: In Franchise mode, on rare occasions CPU-controlled teams will salary dump late in the regular season even when a playoff spot is probable or secured.
- Fixed: In Franchise mode, changing a player's name is not immediately reflected on the player's Career Stats screen.
- Fixed: In Franchise mode, a Player Development Opportunity can remain but no longer have any value after a player experiences a skill arc increase.
- Fixed: In Custom Season and Elimination modes, the championship win cinematic can be shown incorrectly when both teams in the finals are marked as user controlled.
- Fixed: In Pennant Race and Online Leagues, cumulative stats (batting AVG, ERA, W, etc.) do not appear in the post game stats tables.
- Fixed: In online co-op play, the baserunning player can experience unintended slow motion effects well after the ball is hit.
- Fixed: In online play, attempting to queue a runner to steal (R1 + steal button) could incorrectly result in the runner taking off immediately, or not stealing at all.
- Fixed: In online play, a successful check swing can register as a full swing on race occasions.
- Fixed: In online play, initiating a throw immediately before a catch is dropped can incorrectly result in a wild throw.
- Fixed: In online play, base stealing can be exploited by attempting to step out or start a substitution immediately before pressing the steal button.
- Fixed: In online play, if the pitcher has no 4F in their arsenal and a pitch is cancelled (for example, due to the batter stepping out first), the pitcher can appear to gain a 4F for one pitch.
- Fixed: In online play, the batting power score can incorrectly change color following a hit or check swing.
- Fixed: In online play, the wrong strikeout cinematic camera can sometimes be shown for the batting player.
- Fixed: In online play, the ball can stop emitting audio for the batting player during a stolen base attempt or during a strikeout, base on balls, or hit by pitch cinematic.
- Fixed: In online play, the wrong camera is shown on sharply hit foul balls while batting.
- Fixed: In online play, the post game ticker tape fails to fire after you win a game.
- Fixed: In online play, the game can come to a halt after the batter swings in very rare circumstances.
- Fixed: In online 1v1 play, it is possible for the pitching mechanic timer to stop working, leading to auto balls no longer being ruled.
- Fixed: In rare situations, you are unable to pitch when continuing a mid-game save after having played the game earlier in an online session.
- Fixed: In online play, on rare occasions during a pick-off attempt, the batting player would see the ball float and then suddenly warp to the infielder once caught.
- Fixed: In online play, after the catcher successfully blocks a pitch in the dirt and the ball rolls out in front of the plate, the batting player can only see the ball shadow and not the ball itself.
- Fixed: It is slightly too easy to throw out a slow, right-handed batter at 1B from right field.
- Fixed: The pitcher is slightly harder to select via movement input after the ball is dropped or deflected.
- Fixed: In Franchise mode, the special post game flashbulbs and ticker tape fail to fire after winning a conference or championship series.
- Fixed: A second local player joining an online 1v1 or 2v1 game can be placed on the wrong team.
- Fixed: Resetting a Standard team to its default appears to temporarily remove any Mojo and Fitness changes.
- Fixed: The Online Leagues stats screen shows your current team name rather than the name of the team from a previous season whose stats you are viewing.
- Fixed: Pennant Race standings table sometimes does not populate properly when the user is unranked.
- Fixed: Rare crash can occur when ending the offseason in Franchise mode.
- Fixed: The home plate umpire sometimes stands on the wrong side of the catcher after a pinch hitter is brought in.
- Fixed: In player customization, changing pitcher arm angle only plays the animation with the new arm angle once.
- Fixed: Various other minor UI bugs.
- Mitigated: A bad camera angle can sometimes result on pop-ups behind the catcher.
- Fixed: (Steam only) It is impossible to check a contact swing when batting with the mouse.
- Fixed: (Steam only) Shift key is mapped to both step out and a base stealing command.
- Fixed: (Steam only) In Pennant Race, the Pin Award button does not respond to mouse clicks.
