Ver 1.28 — Watch-Mode Pitching Calls / Farm Lineups / Kire

Version 1.28 is out. This update brings two major features — more managerial control while watching games and full control over your farm team's lineup — plus a brand-new pitcher trait "Kire", long-term league balance improvements, and a batch of fixes based on your reports.

More Managerial Control in Watch Mode

• You can now call pitching changes yourself while watching games (or leave them to the AI, as before — it's a setting)
• After pinch-hitting for your pitcher under no-DH rules, you now choose the next pitcher yourself
• Your bullpen usage policies (setup men, closer, etc.) are now respected in watch-mode pitching decisions
• The pitch-by-pitch toggle now persists between games
• When a player gets injured mid-game, proper mid-game exits and substitutions now occur
• Runner advances and runs now show up properly in the play-by-play. Productive groundouts and tag-ups on sac flies are also implemented

Set Your Farm Team's Lineup

• You can now set your farm team's batting order and starting rotation (leave them unset and they are auto-managed as before)
• Development-contract players' farm-game eligibility has been reorganized along NPB-style rules

New Pitcher Trait: "Kire" (Sharpness)

• A new ability representing how well a pitcher's breaking balls miss bats. Together with "Life (Nobi)" for fastballs and "Heaviness" for contact quality, it forms the third axis of a pitcher's identity
• Even pitchers with ordinary velocity and break can now thrive as crafty types with sharp stuff
• Viewable and editable in the CSV editor (both in-game and the external tool)

Long-Term League Balance Improvements

• Fixed the tendency for leagues to drift toward high offense over many seasons. Pitchers now develop Life, Heaviness, Kire and velocity through generational turnover, keeping the league's pitching and hitting in balance long-term
• Star sluggers keep their spotlight. Home run race numbers stay where they should — only the league-wide drift is corrected
• Works with existing saves. Balance will settle naturally as you keep playing

Bug Fixes

• Restored the "Approve FA" action for players who declared free agency on the contract renewal screen
• Fixed retired players appearing on the mid-season release screen
• Fixed error plays where the fielder charged with the error didn't match the ball's direction (e.g., a grounder toward first charged to the third baseman)
• Post-game box scores are now listed in appearance order — pitchers in the order they entered, batters in lineup order (they were previously sorted by stats, which made the game hard to read)
• Unified the earliest inning a starter can be pulled with the auto-sim rules
• Relievers pitching well are no longer pulled after just one batter so often
• Fixed clipped text on part of the player info screen

Notes

• Interleague games are scheduled as a single block roughly 40% into the season, like NPB's real interleague period. If you built a custom league setup and see no interleague games early on, they will appear as the schedule progresses
• If you toggle interleague play on or off mid-season, the remaining schedule is rebuilt automatically

Thank you for all the feedback!
We'll keep working through the reports and requests posted on the Steam forums.