How do we feel about moments?
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I said this last year but it remains true, moments would be fine as a side activity in addition to stat grinds and other things, but as the majority of the content they're just terrible.
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@thepapadell said in How do we feel about moments?:
They're just garbage time sinks that pad the DD playtime stats for them to brag about how much people play DD to justify not touching any other aspect of the game.
This is how I feel about them as well. I loathe Moments. I don't find them fun and I don't find them exciting. I initially thought it would be a good idea but they were horribly implemented and ended up being such a huge focal point of obtaining cards and stars. This year was extra special with 5, 6 and 7 game 'Moments'.
Early, it was, 'Hey, it's Veteran. Sweet. This shouldn't be too bad'.
Now its, 'Well *@&%, it's Veteran'. Good, great, grand, wonderful. No yelling on the bus!'
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@thepapadell said in How do we feel about moments?:
In the two years I've played DD, Moments are by far the least enjoyable time I spend in the game. Everything about them creates negative associations with the game for me and I never find myself really feeling like I spent worthwhile time playing them.
I feel like I could write a novel about how much I hate them.
Starting with the fact that Moments aren't REALLY playing the game. I'm not really interested in recreating something that happened 37 years ago with a slapdick version of a card I'm never going to use. I love baseball. I love the history of the game. I appreciate the historical aspect of Moments and what they're doing. But they are executed so terribly and to see them be such a huge component of the DD experience is beyond annoying and frustrating. With the crazy specific completion goals, ending up playing the Moments that take more than 30 minutes is such a dreadful way to experience this game.
The moments themselves? From the jacked around sliders nerfing every aspect of the game, to the CPU pitchers either blindly throwing the ball into the stands when you need hits or throwing literal dots that you can't even do anything with while never throwing hittable pitches, to the player-lock design that nerfs your ability to actually complete the moment, to CPU runners always on base in front of you (seriously it's awesome that the pitchers are always 5-5 when hitting in front of you) and preventing you from getting XBH....I mean there's just so much to hate. I enjoy a good grind. I don't even feel like moments qualify as a grind anymore. They're just garbage time sinks that pad the DD playtime stats for them to brag about how much people play DD to justify not touching any other aspect of the game.
I don't play DD for this. I want to build my team, acquire new cards and PLAY THE GAME. I don't want to hit 3 XBH with some journeyman catcher that had a random good game in order to earn progress in anything. I don't want to pitch 7 shutout innings at Coors Field with jacked up sliders that make the CPU PCI the size of the goddamn moon.
I wanna pitch with Greg Maddux. I wanna hit Chipper third and hit moonshots with Babe Ruth. In a real game. I don't want to sit and press Square for an hour with Tomas Nido.
They COULD make these more palatable. Why are some moments given the "reach base X amount of times" treatment but most aren't? You know the CPU doesn't throw strikes. Why can't the at-bat reset if we get walked or HBP? Why can't we control the baserunners? Why do kids love the taste of Cinnamon Toast Crunch?
To end this giant wall of run-on sentences I'll say this: Last month's Monthly Program was some of the most fun I've had with the game. I started playing last year so the years of stat grinds were before my time. I had a ton of fun loading up my team with players to grind team innings, unlocking a new card, adding that to the lineup and trying to grind stats while trying to figure out the most efficient way to knock out as many as possible. And guess what? I was PLAYING THE GAME. Baseball. That game. Moments are the worst iteration of Pin the Tail on the Donkey ever conceived. I hate them. Showdowns were annoying enough, but having to slog through moments just to get to the slider circus was such an abysmal experience for me personally. I don't have unlimited time to play games. The thought of spending 90 minutes doing lame moments just to get to a mini-mode where my hitting is nerfed and Jesus Christ himself possesses the body of every fielder and makes miraculous catches on every play does not excite me.
If Moments existed in some other form they might be ok. But I'd much rather load my team, grind stats (especially in a "season" format where stats against and for the CPU are tracked and just is a continuous track like RS) and have fun playing the game.
I’ve posted about this a lot, but this was very well written! Kudos, I can tell from your passion on this subject that we share a similar level of despise for the rng dice roll of the moment / showdown crapshow. If sds reads one post this year I hope it’s this, a massive amount of their client base feels the same way
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I feel like there's so much RNG with moments, great swings turning into simple fly outs to center has driven me completely insane this year. The xbh moments are so screwy.
I legit think starting a mission and just hitting restart 20 times then trying it is the move. Game has to make sure you fail enough attempts first.
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I like moments more then showdown because you don't have to start over. Moments are fast and easy. Moments are a breeze for me! Moments are better then doing stat grinds vs the cpu
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Yesterday I played a RIB showdown and a conquest. I actually failed the showdown by a single run, although it wasn’t possible to fail the conquest even for me, lol. Here’s a short highlight reel of some of the outstanding plays made by the CPU controlled opponents in just one attempt at each.
https://twitter.com/sweedy1407/status/1310171447730601995?s=21
And a personal favourite of mine, the perfect/perfect foul ball. Obviously.
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@ComebackLogic said in How do we feel about moments?:
Everything is moments these days, or a variation of moments, such as Showdown. I was thinking about the days before the moments concept existed in DD, when missions were to be completed in regular play, either against the CPU or H2H. While I’m not a fan of moments, mostly due to the fact I think they’re pretty much rigged, I wasn’t a huge fan of the old method of loading up your line up with grind cards and facing the Rockies on rookie either.
While it seems like a more sensible, streamlined approach to set you a task and then have you right there with the player to attempt to complete only that specific task, the reality is that you’re trapped in that moment until the game allows you to proceed. That’s my main issue with moments, they don’t feel like a skill based challenge, where you’ll succeed based on your ability, they feel like a time sink where you’ll be allowed to progress as and when the programming dictates you will progress. The Willie Mays level fielding from bad to average defensive players and the absolute flat refusal of the AI pitchers to play along with the script at times (Beaning batters with one hit left in a mission to get 4 hits including 3 XBH etc) would be a huge factor in this take.
I also just think they’ve taken the concept too far at this point. POTM is moments, Topps Now is moments, Showdown is just moments with a twist and the draft element of BR bolted on, player programs are predominantly moments.......
It would be nice if we saw something a little more imaginative in terms of mission design next year, I feel like I’ve been in a moment that represents every possible situation in baseball over the past two years. Not to mention some of these magical moments truly do last a lifetime. Or so it feels.
You described moments perfectly. On my first attempt at the Gehrig’s 4xbh moment, I hit three straight homers and would have completed it but Gleybar opted not to run to third on a laser to the gap. So, he and Lou both stood at second and looked at each other. After that, it took hours and hours to complete. Eventually, it decided to let me finish it, and it was the easiest thing in the world. I love the idea of moments. I think it’s cool to relive some of these historic moments, but SDS has decided to use them as a tool to drag out our gameplay experience instead of making them something enjoyable.
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My wife laughs at me because I cuss and yell at the tv. I tell her she just doesnt understand the bs that is Showdowns and Moments. My 7yrold sat n watched cuz my wife told me the game wasnt cheating me I just sucked. He witnessed a robbed HR, a diving catch, and the computer deciding to steal with my 49speed catcher during the Kershaw boss showdown. I even had a runner on 2nd down 14-15 w/9outs left. I hit a perfect shallow fly to right( so much for perfect) and the computer decided since I wasnt going to press L1 to tag up it was going to do it for me. Luckily i knew that was gonna happen so I had my finger on R1 n barely got back to 2nd. I guess it was luck or maybe it was the game congratulating me on avoiding the f@#kery but I was able to hit a 2 run shot with 2 outs remaining.
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I like moments... And showdown. Frustrating. But I get em
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@ustoopid2 said in How do we feel about moments?:
My wife laughs at me because I cuss and yell at the tv. I tell her she just doesnt understand the bs that is Showdowns and Moments. My 7yrold sat n watched cuz my wife told me the game wasnt cheating me I just sucked. He witnessed a robbed HR, a diving catch, and the computer deciding to steal with my 49speed catcher during the Kershaw boss showdown. I even had a runner on 2nd down 14-15 w/9outs left. I hit a perfect shallow fly to right( so much for perfect) and the computer decided since I wasnt going to press L1 to tag up it was going to do it for me. Luckily i knew that was gonna happen so I had my finger on R1 n barely got back to 2nd. I guess it was luck or maybe it was the game congratulating me on avoiding the f@#kery but I was able to hit a 2 run shot with 2 outs remaining.
I've never once had the computer force my runner to move(excluding those weird hits). I never have the feeling of "rigged" in moments or showdown. I get mad. But its not because some conspiracy against me. Ive completed hundreds of the showdowns. And almost all the moments i could hace besides a couple player programs.
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I just finished the Yelich 3 HR for extreme. It was the last thing I needed. It took me about 12 hours to complete.
2 things come from this....
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When I finally finished it, I felt no joy, no elation, no “Yeeessssss!” moment, just relief. No happiness for having done something difficult.
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Because each at-bat is important, and that, in the 3 HR mission, a single is the same as a double is the same as a triple is the same as a walk is the same as a HPB is the same as an out, I find that I have reverted to a worse version of myself, a version that swings at everything, that swings at balls on a 3-0 count to stretch the at-bat. You should come out of these as a better player, not a worse one.
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I hate them.
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@cavalier_0013 said in How do we feel about moments?:
I just finished the Yelich 3 HR for extreme. It was the last thing I needed. It took me about 12 hours to complete.
2 things come from this....
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When I finally finished it, I felt no joy, no elation, no “Yeeessssss!” moment, just relief. No happiness for having done something difficult.
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Because each at-bat is important, and that, in the 3 HR mission, a single is the same as a double is the same as a triple is the same as a walk is the same as a HPB is the same as an out, I find that I have reverted to a worse version of myself, a version that swings at everything, that swings at balls on a 3-0 count to stretch the at-bat. You should come out of these as a better player, not a worse one.
This is the main outcome I don’t like from playing moments , it makes you a worse player. Quality thread here
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Can't stand them at all, when you beat them you just sigh and move on. Does not feel like you accomplished anything at all. When you lose over and over it's frustrating beyond belief, either way it just feels like a massive waste of time. I want to play full games but they have locked so much content behind moments and showdown.
The whole point of DD is the card collecting, give me reasons to use the cards I have collected, let me play with my team.
Even conquest just feels so monetenous at this point having to sim games and sim games and sim games. so sick of time waste.
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I like moments. I love extreme moments. I like showdown.
I neither like nor love stat grind missions, personally.
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Met my match with this Kyle H. 3xbh moment. So for now, I am back to really hating them and the behind the scenes scripting. The parade of crappy Blue Jay relievers that would normally get destroyed on “veteran” somehow pitch like diamonds in this moment or walk you. Awful.
And yet I keep trying.....
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I used to be able to tolerate moments but now they’ve just become so repetitive. For the player programs it’s always the same few things. For the recent Ripken program for example it was get 2 hits and a HR three different times in the same program.
And some of the other moments are just bizarre. Like get 3 hits in a game with 50 contact Mitch Garver, or hit a home run with 50 power Shane Victorino.
And then of course you are always doing it against some pitcher that throws 10 straight offspeed pitches in the dirt and you have to swing to try to avoid a walk. And in between those ten pitches he’s throwing over to first 6 times for a runner that has no purpose at all being in the mission in the first place. And if you do hit the ball and it’s an out you have to sit and watch your guy walk back to the dugout while the other runner on third tries to run home before you can restart it.
After a while it all becomes just so monotonous.
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[censored] Higashioka man. This mission might as well just say hit 3 HR cause this slow as mother is not legging out any doubles.
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Finished Ripkin yesterday and man does that card suck. Only did it to get the 25 stars. He will never break my lineup.