What to improve for next year
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GAMEPLAY:
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swing timing: for whatever reason outside pitches will register as slightly late when you hit them the other way and the perfect window is to center which makes no sense
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swing types: The square swing needs a buff. There is literally 0 reason to use it. The exit velocities stay the same, it shrinks the zone to a pea, and the timing window is so small it's insane. Along with that, the X swing should be nerfed. If you're not swinging for power there's no reason a ball should go 530 feet or an inside pitch flying to the wall in center field. Circle swings are fine where they are for the most part. However I feel like more balls should drop in front of outfielders off of them if squared up.
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pitching: some pitchers have an almost unusable pinpoint. You'll go the same speed and it just turns yellow or is so fast its impossible to time it. Really pinpoint was an overall negative add to the show in my opinion and they should have buffed other pitching types like analog when they added it so you aren't basically forced to use it to be competitive. The par and strikezone is just a joke as well. You made a perfect pitch? Rng ball on the corner. You made a perfect pitch? The ball is actually just going to tickle the par and end up a strike even though you aimed it in the dirt. Sinkers shouldn't sink high, but I think we are at the point where they are too lazy to code that into the game. Also make pitchers throw what they actually throw velo wise, so tired of seeing guys that throw high 90s pumping 104 with a 96 mph slider in the 7th inning when they have 85 pitches.
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fielding: the fielders still aren't urgent at all even though that's what we were all told this year. You cancel a throw because someone rounds third trying to finesse a run and your fielders just have a stroke for like 2 whole seconds before they throw the ball. Then of course you have the opposite where a fielder dives (elly...) halfway across the field to catch a ball hit 105 up the middle. The superman dives aren't it. The field is also made of concrete or something, I've never seen a 60 mph blooper bounce 15 feet in the air like in this game.
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co-op: I don't understand why it matters if we make a full goon squad with captains and everything. Would instantly make it more fun to play if it was all players we wanted to use. Still get freezeoffs too here and there. SDS says it's one of the least played game modes, but maybe that's the case because your execution was cheeks, not the game mode.
NON GAMEPLAY ISSUES:
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DD: I sound like a broken record echoed by the community but a majority does NOT like seasons. At least yall haven't added a "battlepass" yet, but the way it's going I could see that xp rewards path turning into one somehow. Power creep is just objectively better, one feels like you are constantly building a better squad, while sets feel like you built the squad and then steal all the hard work you put in to upgrade your team. They should reintroduce team "epics" next year as well, and the program shouldbe reworked to build a cohesive theme team that you can then upgrade with power creep throughout the year with new epic missions that add more players to the team. The 1st team epic should come with a captain and a few players and add from there. Overall I just want to see more promos and events that are fun.
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franchise: Nobody plays it because you put no effort in. Everyone used to play franchise game modes back in the ps2 days because it was so in depth and you could spend hours on it, but they won't spend money on microtransactions so screw those people.
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DD (Cont.) packs: Overall this year's game felt like a cashgrab, lots of cards only obtainable through packs that were "meta" on release and that wouldn't be a problem, but the pack odds and values of cards makes it hard to justify packs. Madden gets away with it because they release ltds and all of a sudden packs aren't a bad proposition. You can get your "lottery" card and make out like a bandit. The packs in DD just feel dull and the only thing expensive you can pull at all is a high live series or a chase card, neither of which return you enough stubs to justify packs because a majority of the time you spend 75k and get like 15% back on return to player. If you compared putting your money in mlb packs to a slot machine you should just throw it in a slot machine and buy the stubs with the money you might win, it's that bad.
CONCLUSION:
Overall I would say this game gets a 80/100. It's not unplayable, heck sometimes it's even kind of fun. However the downsides of the game will make you tilt so fast and make you not want to play it. Even when you're better than someone you can end up losing because of a fault of the game and not your own and that combined with how DD is run is why the score is an 80. The game could easily be a 90-95 if they just fixed small frustrations. -
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3v3 coop is unplayable. Almost every game I’ve played has a left handed pitch coming out behind a right handers left shoulder and vice versa. 2v2 plays better, but captains don’t work.
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I also agree on the fielder urgency, or lack off at the appropriate time. Anytime a single is hit and there’s a runner on 2nd base, you should be allowed to charge the ball as quickly as you like and not have the animation slowing the outfielder down.
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As this is the DD forum I will only discuss DD specific things
-Legends. We need more legends. Even minor ones.
-Try to avoid taking away things because some people don't like it. Two examples:
The people that complain about the same player getting multiple cards. This SHOULD happen, if the player
played for multiple teams. For example, Piazza should have either his LA or NY 99 by now, with the other
still to come. It seems you may be taking away cards because of a frankly ridiculous complaint
2023 had fantastic program length, and you completed gutted it for 2024, reducing the amount of earnable
cards by well over half. that alone has cut my playtime in half. I assume part of this is because people
didnt like programs like Father's Day. The sad thing is you did address the main concern of having to do a
lot of card specific grinding, and in general the program capstone cards are better this year. So why get
rid of everything else on top of that?
-Offline needs to be better. The drop in miniseasons this year was felt for sure. Stop being afraid to give
offline modes cards. There is no valid reason (I can think of a few outdated ones) why offline modes cant
give the same cards as online
-Fix miniseason stats, allow fast play
-Allow showdown to earn pxp and stop with every node being a must pass node. All or nothing is bad game
design for a game with a grind focus-Smaller, more focused collections are preferable to the larger ones. This also allows for making programs good again without making people compelled to them
-Have more focus with the cards. What was the point of random incognito cards in s2? I can rattle off a ton of
high profile nicknames not used yet, so either release a bunch of these (in a collection) or none at all -
@Wildthingwilly_MLBTS said in What to improve for next year:
At least yall haven't added a "battlepass" yet,
Uh, the main xp track is absolutely a battle pass.
Sure they dont charge for secondary rewards on top of it, but it is 100% the battle pass concept meant to keep people playing constantly -
@Teak2112_MLBTS well, that's what I was insinuating. I think they could definitely try charging the way they have been trying to make it just a money maker game.
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@Teak2112_MLBTS I never understood why we can't get more former players. I'm a phillies fan and how much would you really have to pay a Shane victorino, Jason Werth, Bobby Abreu, or even a Carlos Ruiz? They could throw little players in like that on a bunch of teams and it shouldn't cost that much if they want to be in the game.
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@Teak2112_MLBTS I personally felt like with power creep they could just add a single card and allow you to change the chemistry to add to a theme team. Instead they have to play games making different cards for different teams to mask the fact they don't have enough actual content.
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@Wildthingwilly_MLBTS said in What to improve for next year:
@Teak2112_MLBTS well, that's what I was insinuating, I think they could definitely try charging the way they have been trying to make it just a money maker game.
Sony isnt going to stop trying to squeeze money out of SDS/us
A well done battle pass could be a way to get people to spend more while providing actual value.
Its essential to not lock cards exclusively behind it, or nerf the xp because of itFor example, if the pass was $10 per season and gave a free choice headliners pack each time one was released, double the show/ballin packs on the path, and a 90+ live series card upon path completion I would probably buy it, and I normally wouldnt consider spending money for any of that.
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@Wildthingwilly_MLBTS said in What to improve for next year:
@Teak2112_MLBTS I personally felt like with power creep they could just add a single card and allow you to change the chemistry to add to a theme team. Instead they have to play games making different cards for different teams to mask the fact they don't have enough actual content.
Lets say I was a dodger fan, and Piazza's 99 was to commemorate his post 9/11 HR, which is very clearly a met thing. Would I really want that as the Piazza 99 for the year?
Now in a slower power creep maybe Piazza gets a rookie 97 for the Dodgers and thats probably good enough, provided SDS switch it up the following year. But they dont really plan like that
But i dont understand your point of content. Content = programs, conquests, miniseasons, online tracks, etc. Cards are things you use in that content.
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The logo glitch
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If everyone who is currently on the roster carried over to the next game, what would you rather have added in The Show 25?
3 major superstars (Bonds, A-Rod, etc.) or 33 lower-mid tier names (Trot Nixon, Livan Hernandez, Chuck Knoblauch, etc.)?
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@SakAttack87_PSN Depends on the actual legends.
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@SakAttack87_PSN I would rather have both. I don't think you understand the amount this game makes. The community tries to act like sds is poverty when it's one of the top ten selling playstation games every year and their biggest game mode let's you buy currency in game. They are raking it in.
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@Wildthingwilly_MLBTS said in What to improve for next year:
@SakAttack87_PSN I would rather have both. I don't think you understand the amount this game makes. The community tries to act like sds is poverty when it's one of the top ten selling playstation games every year and their biggest game mode let's you buy currency in game. They are raking it in.
It was just a hypothetical question. Believe me, the Legends roster is the biggest selling point for me every year so I want as many as possible.
I would love to see Superstars like A-Rod and Clemens in the game, but also feel like it could use a ton more throwback "roleplayers" to really flesh out the roster.
Of course, they could shell out a ton of money and add most of the big names currently missing. The fact is, however, they won't.
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@Wildthingwilly_MLBTS said in What to improve for next year:
@SakAttack87_PSN I would rather have both. I don't think you understand the amount this game makes. The community tries to act like sds is poverty when it's one of the top ten selling playstation games every year and their biggest game mode let's you buy currency in game. They are raking it in.
Who is 'they'?
Sony? mlb?
People that may or may not actually kick back to the developer....
For all we know 2024's pack sales went to Concord -
@Teak2112_MLBTS said in What to improve for next year:
For all we know 2024's pack sales went to Concord
I saw in Sony's State of Play lineup they're already discussing Concord 2. Yikes.
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For anyone who reads this that works for this game, I want you to know that this absolutely the worst [censored] game you guys could have created. It’s actually quite amazing how a room full of “creative thinkers” all got together and completely just [censored] on the game. I know a lot of people who are quitting the game or selling their PlayStations cuz of the state of all video games. I hope u guys like losing money!! Even the kids ain’t playing this [censored] anymore. U guys [censored] auck
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You obviously don't know what your talking about because there are plenty of people who are still playing this game
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@sbchamps17_NSW Well, this was a awful year for the game though, and a lot of things.
