Hello.
The previously announced owner mode, '2060 Challengers Mode,' has now been officially added.
2060 Challengers Mode is set in 2060, 17 years before the standard single-player setting of 2077.
As general manager of the NS Challengers, the tenth expansion baseball club founded with backing from its parent company, NS Group,
you must turn the Challengers—the league's first club to welcome non-human players—into a prestigious franchise and earn promotion to the upper leagues.
The ultimate goal is to lead the club to victory in the 2071 Centennial League, a competition commemorating 100 years of professional baseball.
2060 Challengers Mode adds 'Work Ethic' and 'Readiness' as secondary player attributes.
Work Ethic influences everything from fan service and attitude during games to the effect a player has on teammates.
It can increase naturally through gameplay, but incidents and other effects can also reduce it.
Players with low Work Ethic are more likely to cause trouble or fail to take games seriously.
Readiness measures whether a player's physical condition is prepared for a game.
It decreases after every game and recovers on days without a game, with facilities such as the medical center affecting that recovery.
It also follows a natural yearly cycle: a sharp drop during the offseason followed by a rise during spring training in March.
Readiness itself is not especially difficult to manage, but pushing players too hard can lead to related condition and injury problems.
Some players, including those with low Work Ethic or injuries, may struggle with poor Readiness and require additional individual attention.
Personality-based team chemistry has also been added, making roster construction more detailed.
Pitcher command has also been divided into two attributes, while a new 'Guts' attribute affects performance under pressure.
(The new attributes apply only in 2060 Challengers Mode.)
As general manager of a new club, the job goes far beyond winning games. Invest the parent company's funding in club facilities, pay salaries and bonuses to raise morale, and control expenses ranging from taxes and facility operations to staff wages, player salaries, and supplies. The club itself must survive.
At times, that means loaning players to outside leagues or sending them to promotional events, earning money at the expense of key players' stamina and condition.
If the club cannot survive, neither can the team. As the club grows stronger, the team's underlying strength will follow.
Month-end settlement
Club-level expenses are scattered throughout the operation.
The parent company covers most of them and provides quarterly support, including compensation for operating losses.
Even so, the financial burden entrusted to the general manager remains substantial.
Generate a profit in different ways: sell merchandise that appeals to loyal fans, or negotiate salaries each year to rein in excessive player payroll.
Managing individual player fanbases is not enough. Build the club-wide fanbase and use supporter groups to create steady income and expand its reach.
Prices can be set for many items, including stadium concessions and subscriptions to the club's official broadcast, but raising every price indiscriminately will drive fans away.
Facility construction and management
Above all, simply accumulating money is not enough. Invest boldly in facilities to unlock the club's potential and keep players in peak condition.
The ultimate objective is not merely survival, but to rise from the regional league through the second division and become the strongest club in the top flight.
Be careful, though. Poor results lead to relegation, but bankruptcy will cost the general manager the job.
Developing prospects
Unlike standard single-player, players promoted to the first team barely improve further. Their form rises with experience, then gradually follows an aging curve until retirement.
No matter how talented a player is, that player cannot stay on the roster forever. Keep developing prospects to fill future gaps and steadily strengthen the squad.
Whether to sacrifice the current season for a thorough rebuild and pursue dominance next year, or chase an immediate title to avoid a warning from the parent company, depends on the general manager's judgment and management skill.
Player adjustment
Players still have opportunities to improve after making their professional debut.
They can correct a flawed batting or pitching form, learn a new pitch, master a new defensive position, or even shed a troublesome negative perk.
These opportunities are not unlimited. Adjustment is available only three times during a career, and each attempt takes longer as a player gains service time and undergoes repeated adjustments.
Use each adjustment carefully to complete a player's development and forge a reliable weapon for the team.
Retiring players
Yes, even the greatest player eventually loses the battle against age.
Some players leave to applause after a grand retirement ceremony, while others retire quietly because of injury or are simply released.
Decisive roster cuts and releases are sometimes necessary, but the treatment of hardworking players and franchise stars shapes how fans view both the club and its general manager.
Retirement does not always mean goodbye forever. Former players can return as instructors, managers, or scouts and help strengthen the team.
The club's goal is to enter and win the world-class league held in 2071 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of professional baseball in this world.
Can the club be established successfully and its general manager become a legend by conquering the Centennial League?
Or will the general manager fade into obscurity as the unremarkable leader of a team that briefly appeared and vanished?
The Version 1.5 patch notes released alongside 2060 Challengers Mode are as follows.
Postgame scorecard errors have been fixed, and the displayed information has been revised.
Internal game code has been stabilized and optimized.
Game presentation has been improved.
Disorganized internal logic has been cleaned up.
Various presentation sequences have been added, and awkward sequences have received further improvements.
Fixed an issue that could apply playback-speed acceleration multiple times.
The game save format has been updated.
Save migration runs on the first load and may take some time.
Some translations have been improved.
The rank-ordering feature has been removed from the main game due to age-rating requirements.
2060 Challengers Mode has been added.
2060 Challengers Mode supports manual saving.
It includes two options: Story Mode, where the ending is pursued over a maximum of 11 years, and Free Mode, which can continue indefinitely.
Free Mode is still undergoing final work on adjustable settings such as single-league play and is currently unstable. Thank you for understanding.
Guidance text for tactical commands has been added to the game screen.
Previously, consecutive fielding errors could not occur during a single play. Outcomes with up to two consecutive errors in one play have now been added.
The probability is low, and a third error cannot occur. This may be adjusted later.
The overall fielding error rate has been increased slightly.
An in-game bug-reporting feature has been added.
Open the menu with ESC to access the bug report screen.
After entering a description of the issue, the save file and crash dump are compressed and sent automatically with the note. (Limited to three submissions per 24 hours.)
Some problems cannot be reproduced in the development environment, while asking players to locate, compress, and send save files separately is inconvenient. The new feature lets a report be written in-game and automatically compresses and sends the necessary files at the press of a button.
For simple bugs, please report them on the Steam forum first. If a save file is requested, use this feature to send it.
Storage capacity is limited and currently uses a free tier, so submission limits are necessary. Thank you for understanding.
Some screen transitions may experience excessive delays. If optimization problems recur, please report them on the forum.
With no dedicated localization reviewers available, AI-assisted translation has been used. Some languages may contain awkward sentences or text that does not fit the interface.
Thank you to players outside Korea for understanding.
That concludes this update.
Follow-up testing and patches for Challengers Mode will continue for the time being. Modding support will be expanded after the mode reaches a more stable state.
Planned modding support will allow players previously used in WCBC or single-player to appear in owner mode, and will allow custom teams, staff, prospects, and players to be added for Free Mode.
If any problems or suggestions arise, please post on the forum at any time. Each post will be reviewed and answered.
Thank you to everyone who plays the game.