When every reward is just another 99, what is the motivation?
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I constantly change cards around. Some runs of the draft conquest Ill use a new threads team, maybe a topps now team, maybe a theme team
The only mode where I feel pressured to use certain cards is DQ, which I don't play anymore anyway because I think it sucks.
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@virusts_XBL said in When every reward is just another 99, what is the motivation?:
People get too obsessed over overalls that they bench they .440 94 overall for a 99 that are hitting .210 with.
Yeah… I’ve done that. I haven’t hit .440 past 20 or so at bats, so, not that, but I know what you mean and I’ve acted under that mindset.
Sometimes i just really want to like a card and that 99 with those crazy power numbers are too tempting, but I just can’t hit with it. I like Griffey and the times I connect, it’s fun, but I’m demonstrably better with Pipeline Past Kelenic.
But, and to the OP, I’ve never felt like I had to do something with all the cards. I’m happy there are so many choices, and each year I try to find the ones I like the most without much regard for collections (I’ll do a small one, but no majors) or “finishing” anything. I like to play baseball games against other people, and I want to use cards I enjoy playing with. I try not to make it much more complicated than that.
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@AppleLemon560_MLBTS sds is definitely dropping the ball on this! Great post. They need to bring back event rewards with theme teams and make it so we can use or have to use certain cards every week or so. Get more creative. Couldn't agree more. I already said whoever idea it was over at sds to take event rewards out this year needs to be fired.
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Excellent suggestion!
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@x-814-x-MAFIA-x_PSN said in When every reward is just another 99, what is the motivation?:
All 99s aren't the same.
^^^^^
This...And... what @virusts_XBL said.
I think that when SDS introduced 125 maximums to Contact/Power/Vision that 99's became "muddied".
I just use the cards I like. I have much better stats, both online and offline, with a lot of cards under 99 than I have with 99 Beltran.
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I light some 99 pitchers up online, others I can't hit for sh!t. Some 99 hitters I couldn't hit water if I fell out of a boat with, while I haul the mail with an 88 ovr Topps Now.
My personal example is Derek Jeter vs Kevin Pillar. Couldn't hit to save my life with Jeter...but ANY Kevin Pillar card I absolutely raked with.
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My program is not perfect but the onslaught of 99s for the rest of the year is why I had it create a Meta score. It's not perfect as I could probably tweak the formula a little or create different formulas for different positions (especially catchers or splitting up starters from relievers)
Using that there are some lower OVR cards that rank higher than some 99s.
Looking at 3B - Jordan Westburg's 98 card ranks higher than five 99 OVR 3B
97 Ke'Bryan Hayes meta is 93.35 while 99 Joe Torre is 93.45 so almost the sameThe recent 99 Cool Papa Bell card has a pitching meta, according to my formula, of 90.1 which ranks last among all pitchers with a 97-99 overall.
But that is just another numerical ranking and as others have said it really boils down to who you play well with.
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I agree with the OP. The ease and quickness of having a team full of Diamond 96 to 99 happened way too fast. 5 days into release most people had a full team of diamonds and by the end of June you could field a team of leveled up 95s and never need another card, hypothetically.....
It also affected the market making low end diamonds basically close to quick sell price by the end of May.
I'd love to see us have to use silvers and golds a lot more to grind towards those diamonds. Even some commons and bronze. It would make building the team a lot more fun and rewarding as well as create a really healthy transaction market.
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Well, 99 overall cards can be used for theme teams too, yk.
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@TheBigPapa55_PSN said in When every reward is just another 99, what is the motivation?:
Well, 99 overall cards can be used for theme teams too, yk.
Yeah, some people, especially on twitter comments and live stream chats are all about the Meta and ranked and forget that there are those of us who use our favorite team's theme team a lot.
Nobody really uses a 99 Ozzie Smith card but Cardinal fans are always happy to see one and I am sure there are players on every team that have the same kind of favorite that make fans of that team happy when they see it, even if it does not make their best squad
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Definitely agree that people get way to caught up in the overalls, even when it comes to using cards in ranked. People see streamers ranking cards and saying which cards are the best, and while sometimes it is accurate, often times it comes down much more to which cards and swings you hit best with and are most comfortable with.
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For me, its the theme team building, I been working a A's theme team (Players on the A's and those were).
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Frankly, the entire virtual rewards concept never made any sense to me. In my view, it leads to a focus on things other than playing virtual baseball games, either versus the CPU or online against other people. Focusing on end-of-phase virtual rewards changes the focus from the games to the trinkets, and I think this is where SDS has faltered.
The further SDS gets from win-loss records the more it myopically changes the focus from the games to things that diminish the game itself. The dichotomy is that the stronger a player's record the stronger his team gets, when this concept gets the cart before the horse. In real baseball, the stronger the team's players the better the record.
See the difference?
In SDS's model for online competition, everyone starts at the same level, and then skill produces different results leading to different rewards. The higher the initial achievement, the stronger the player's roster gets. In real baseball, it works the opposite. The better the team's result, the weaker the roster is supposed to get via lower draft slots. Of course, this all plays out over the course of years when SDS is pushing out a game every year.
This forces the start even, get better and better with more wins formula. This causes 90% of the complaints as customers squabble about what is fair or unfair in online competition play. Given SDS is going to continue to release every year, it seems the only way to actually measure people skill with the game, which seems to me the only fair mode of competitive online play, is to have everyone start with the same roster and slug it out.
No more end of phase rewards. Your reward is your record. And, since records are not the same, then finishing that "season" of online play isn't going to see equal rewards awarded. The people who finish at the top get the best rewards and the lower down the worse the rewards. So, how does one fairly stratify the competition level?
There could be different levels of competition, ranging from beginner to legend, sort of like the difficulty levels are current set. Customers choose their competition level and within that league go after it. Competing at the highest levels and achieving the highest record is the only way to earn the greatest rewards. Playing at lower levels, even with the best records means you win better rewards than other players in the same league with worse records, but at a lower level, your reward won't be as high as players with excellent records at a higher level. Customers receive rewards based on quality of record, and slug it out with the same players with those players based upon the difficulty of the league.
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How ironic, the recent (and I think very harmful) expansion of online betting in sports is having the same corrosive influence in real world sports. Fans aren't focused on their teams winning and losing like they used to be. The outcome of the game is no longer measured in whether your teams wins or loses, nor even on following your favorite teams. Instead, it is based on meeting or failing to meet the betting line.
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/45965400/michael-porter-jr-sports-betting-impact-going-get-worse
This story is a player in the NBA noting the significant difference in how fans react during the games. But, the same problem is being noted in all the major sports leagues, and sadly not only professional games but collegiate. The trend we're riding will consume high school sports before long as the appetite for money starts to gobble up the traditional concept of rooting a team to victory or as a player merely playing for victory.
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@PriorFir4383355_XBL said in When every reward is just another 99, what is the motivation?:
Frankly, the entire virtual rewards concept never made any sense to me. In my view, it leads to a focus on things other than playing virtual baseball games, either versus the CPU or online against other people. Focusing on end-of-phase virtual rewards changes the focus from the games to the trinkets, and I think this is where SDS has faltered.
The further SDS gets from win-loss records the more it myopically changes the focus from the games to things that diminish the game itself. The dichotomy is that the stronger a player's record the stronger his team gets, when this concept gets the cart before the horse. In real baseball, the stronger the team's players the better the record.
See the difference?
In SDS's model for online competition, everyone starts at the same level, and then skill produces different results leading to different rewards. The higher the initial achievement, the stronger the player's roster gets. In real baseball, it works the opposite. The better the team's result, the weaker the roster is supposed to get via lower draft slots. Of course, this all plays out over the course of years when SDS is pushing out a game every year.
This forces the start even, get better and better with more wins formula. This causes 90% of the complaints as customers squabble about what is fair or unfair in online competition play. Given SDS is going to continue to release every year, it seems the only way to actually measure people skill with the game, which seems to me the only fair mode of competitive online play, is to have everyone start with the same roster and slug it out.
No more end of phase rewards. Your reward is your record. And, since records are not the same, then finishing that "season" of online play isn't going to see equal rewards awarded. The people who finish at the top get the best rewards and the lower down the worse the rewards. So, how does one fairly stratify the competition level?
There could be different levels of competition, ranging from beginner to legend, sort of like the difficulty levels are current set. Customers choose their competition level and within that league go after it. Competing at the highest levels and achieving the highest record is the only way to earn the greatest rewards. Playing at lower levels, even with the best records means you win better rewards than other players in the same league with worse records, but at a lower level, your reward won't be as high as players with excellent records at a higher level. Customers receive rewards based on quality of record, and slug it out with the same players with those players based upon the difficulty of the league.
This would cause the population of DD to drop by at least 95%.
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@virusts_XBL I hit with that gold 83 overall Cards Beltran for most of this season, it was just a money card for me. So much so that I havent even wanted the 99 collection Beltran
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OP is spot on. Rewards are way more exciting when they are useful - not just like a 4th or 5th option for you to possibly play in left field.
We all get that the 99 ranking isn't everything, but there's still no place to use a lot of cards. Some are really cool cards too - you just can't use them unless you're gonna deliberately play a suboptimal lineup.
The other problem with the flood of 99s is that it lets any joe blow have a fully maxed out team without doing any work. Thats kind of annoying if you have put in the hours. At some point, like October, I get that you're just gonna make everything available to anyone...but geez, we're not even close to playoff baseball yet
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@rubicante23_PSN said in When every reward is just another 99, what is the motivation?:
Rewards are way more exciting when they are useful
Useful for who?
The guys who grind ranked everyday.
The guy who just likes to play Conquest against the CPU
The guy who wants to play with a theme team from his favorite team?There are only so many slots on a squad so sooner or later there will be guys released who you won't use.
SDS will never please everybody. when they were releasing 95s and 96 a few weeks before the All Star game people were complaining that they were not at 99 yet. When we got 99s early last year another group complained.
The only thing about the cards I think everyone can agree on is that there are too many desirable cards in expensive packs and tucked away in collections that require you to buy those pack or players outright.
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They should definitely stop putting out 99's after the 25th one...Why need more when that's all you need on a squad?
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One idea I had would be to give every non live series card missions for parallels. P2 gets a show pack, p3 a ballin, p4 another show pack, p5 1k stubs or something. The downside, other than coding, is some people would burn out but I think it would be a nice way of giving incentive to play with new cards
