Ver 1.18 — Clinch Celebrations / Autoplay / Free Agents

Version 1.18 is now available. The highlights are the drama of clinching a pennant, smoother season progression, and a free agent market.
We are also covering the previously unannounced contents of Version 1.17 (title qualification fix, watched-game stat recording unification, and more).

Clinching Moments, Celebrated

• Winning your league or the Japan championship now triggers a full-screen celebration (the Japan championship is celebrated for any team)
• The standings show the magic number (M), recalculated after every game from the whole league's results
• Your team card on the home screen also shows magic numbers and a champions badge
• Custom championship titles (league settings) are reflected in the celebration and banner

"Play To Here" Autoplay on the Schedule Tab

• Click a future game on the schedule tab to auto-play everything up to it
• The ⚙ stop settings let you pause automatically on pennant clinches, injuries, fan votes, and the All-Star break. Turning fan votes / All-Star off resolves them automatically

Free Agent Market (NPB-style)

• Leave TeamID blank (or set it to FREE) in Players_Master.csv and that player appears in the in-game free agent market. They stay on the market every year until signed, retiring according to their personality. Great for hiding a star player in your mod
• Players who declare free agency but never sign no longer quietly return to their old club — they become free agents and stay on the market in later years. Their asking salary drops the longer they go unsigned
• Mid-season signings are now possible: a "Free Agents" option was added to the reinforcement menu, with the same end-of-July deadline as trades
• AI clubs now also release stalled young players in their early 20s, making the market more realistic. Released and expired development players also stay on the market until signed, but they retire after a full year without offers

In-Save Player Editor (First Release)

• Settings → Data Tools → "Player Editor (save)" lets you edit player abilities of a running save in the CSV-editor UI
• Stats, injuries and history stay intact; only abilities and profile fields are applied (team and roster status cannot be changed in this first version)

Reinforcement Screens Redesigned

• The free agent signing screen was rebuilt: a header card with name and contract terms, an ability grid, and career / season-by-season stats on one page
• Overseas scouting (in-season and off-season) now shares the same design. The off-season version is a two-pane layout with a pitcher/hitter tab
• The reinforcement menu is now a tidy 2×2 button grid
• The number / colored number / letter-grade display setting is now respected on every screen (fielding aptitudes used to be forced to letter grades)

New "Growth" Tab in Player Details

• A growth tab charts the player's ability history (solid line) and a projection from today (dashed line)
• Growth types are never spelled out — read the shape of the curve to judge early bloomers and late bloomers

Amateur Career Stats for Draft Prospects

• The draft board now shows amateur career stats — AVG and HR for hitters, ERA and strikeouts for pitchers (sortable columns)
• Unlike scouted ability values (which carry an error margin), stats are facts. Use them to guess what is behind the fog

Match Screen Improvements

• The starting order panel now shows each batter's handedness (throwing arm for the pitcher) and current-season stats (AVG for hitters, ERA for the pitcher)

Records & Rulings Fixes (Ver 1.17, already live)

• Title qualification fixed: rate titles (batting average, ERA, etc.) now correctly require qualifying plate appearances (games × 3.1) or innings (games × 3 outs)
• Fixed stolen bases / caught stealing not being recorded in watched games, and fixed discrepancies in winning pitcher, save and hold rulings between auto and watched games
• Fixed missing strikeouts on failed bunt attempts and hit-by-pitch being double-counted as a walk
• MVP, Rookie of the Year, Best Nine and Gold Glove selections are now based on qualification thresholds, preventing small-sample winners
• Roster screen: drag & drop priority order for relievers and an "abilities | stats" toggle; the stats columns were expanded to match the comparison strip
• The first-round draft lottery got a full-screen card-flip reveal
• Tooltips everywhere: stat columns, abilities, staff traits, contract terms and usage policy knobs now have hover explanations

Other Improvements & Fixes

• Fixed players who had been substituted out re-entering the game later as pinch hitters
• Fixed runners on second not scoring on a single — the scoring judgment based on speed, base-running IQ and the outfielder's arm has been improved
• Fixed seasons ending instantly with 0 games when an extremely low game count was configured; the new-game wizard now snaps the game count to values that fit your league setup
• Adjusted the "unlimited" option for foreign player limits in the new game wizard
• ForeignNames.csv supports a Nat column to assign nationalities per row, reflected in generated foreign players
• Added emblem-change entry points (team edit screen and clicking the emblem on the home tab)
• Traditional Chinese baseball terminology was corrected to common Taiwanese usage (pickoff, splitter, slurve and more — thank you for the reports!)

More improvements are on the way. If you run into issues or have requests, drop by the community hub.