Let’s be honest
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@creeder21_MLBTS My only gripe last year was way too many home runs. I agree that it generally played better. Maybe they over corrected. It definitely still needs some tweaking.
By your own admission, the instance of 3 straight HBP/walks is incredibly rare. That’s never happened to me unless I was specifically trying to walk. I do think HBP and walks should not happen during moments, but I don’t see a problem otherwise. I also think HBP should be 5 PXP, but that’s a minor issue.
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I don’t play online, so whether custom stadiums should be used in that mode is something I can’t speak to….
But I really really really miss Costco Field. Not this years Costco, but the REAL Costco. Offline, it was truly a blast to crush homer after homer after homer. A great way to relax. I miss it.
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Absolutely. I hate moments in general (busy work) but they did make them a little less annoying.
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@GoozeFn_PSN I don’t think you can get away from having a ton of home runs in this game AND get excellent game play with the way their hitting engine is setup. Until they totally rework it I think its pretty obvious that we can either have game play like last year which include a good amount of nukes or game play like this year where it just doesn’t play as well.
So sure, I’m totally onboard with them reworking their hitting engine, but until that time give me last years game play and this years power creep/content model.
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@creeder21_MLBTS I wasn’t around for this, but I wonder what going back to “99” being the highest number for a rating would do for the game.
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@capardo_XBL I didn’t play during that time frame either, but since the 125 attribute cap is out of the bag, I don’t think they can put the toothpaste back into the tube.
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@creeder21_MLBTS I don’t think so either. I would like to see them reign backing maxed out attributes for players who don’t deserve them though. It should really be reserved for special feats and players. Maybe guys like Gwynn would play better if we weren’t giving guys like Willi Castro maxed out contact and clutch all the time, a career .247 hitter.
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Gameplay is [censored]. Teleporting pitches are a thing still. The input lag is insane the fact that legend is easy offline for me but I have to derank to play in all star just to complete the multiplayer because Id have to play over 50 games to complete that many total bases.
On top of that the same meta for over 6 fricking years. Cutter sinker it’s ridiculous. It wouldn’t be so bad if the sinker wasn't coded so unrealistically.
Ill play online for multiplayer but after that im not touching online.
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RNG or dynamic adjustments happen in game for me when playing a player below 700 mostly. I topped out alittle below 900 this year. Probably around 950 last year. This year any player in the 600s I’ve played including one in the beginning around 400 beat me.
This is what I’m certain of with this game. The adjustments happen in multiple different ways. One being hung pitches after some sort of error or just a series of dink hits to give opponent an upper hand. Once this happens ur pitching is going to become a lot tougher to hit. The ball will hang. Even if you hit the correctly the ball will near the edge of the par closest to middle middle to give ur opponent the advantage to make a better contact hit. -
Additionally,
Ur hits are going to be very tough to get into play compared to ur opponent. Another thing I’m certain of is the end game results or logs are wrong. Especially with low outside sliders. You can mount the PCI perfectly on the ball or slightly underneath and ur pci rating on the post game logs will show different. SDS didn’t figure out how to incorporate dynamic difficulty while having the logs display accurate results.
There are other ways the game adjust this as well. They do it in order to keep players that aren’t as good engaged. If they are engaged that’s more playtime and more stubs or the potential for more money spent on stubs. Just a simple marketing technique for a game that’s dying -
@RAisEdByGoAt_XBL I never really noticed all of these things until this year. I do not think this was part of the online play the past few years. I surely would have noticed. But its definitely here now.
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@creeder21_MLBTS said in Let’s be honest:
@GoozeFn_PSN yesterday I was playing the prime DQ stadium against the summer series stadium on All Star. I was walked and HBP 3 batters in a row. I had never experienced that in my entire time playing this game since 2020.
I think folks on my side of the aisle are pretty clear, we don’t like the direction game play has gone in. Online, last year’s game play was fantastic and we would like it brought back to that. A return to form per se. Offline on lower level difficulties, there should be WAY more meatballs. Lastly, totally scrap PCI shrinkage.
Last year, I didn’t speak up when I saw comments I disagreed with about nerfing max elevation stadiums because I never thought they would do it as so many players enjoyed them. With the changes this year, I realized if you don’t speak up they are only getting that feedback so this is me speaking up.
I know what its like to have reactions to complaints ruin your enjoyment of the game. I would give anything to go back to 2023's content structure with large program and tons of cards, but people got all bent out of shape when there were 2 cards of the same player and it took too long to finish programs. And now the game has devolved to content taking less than ~5 hours per week om average to finish everything besides the ranked track quite easily. Everything is so trivial now, its a joke. I think innings absolutely suck and I know when a new one drops to not bother playing that weekend because the content will be [censored].
There is a balance, and it feels they don't even try
Why not have a toggle, similar to cross play, that is play at MLB stadiums only? I would 100% use it, people that enjoy home run derby would not
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@Ditka06_MLBTS said in Let’s be honest:
@RAisEdByGoAt_XBL I never really noticed all of these things until this year. I do not think this was part of the online play the past few years. I surely would have noticed. But its definitely here now.
The complaints about the game supposedly helping the other player if they are behind is not remotely new. Same frequency as past years.
Funny enough, i think the frequency of complaints about perfect perfect outs has actually decreased this year.
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@Teak2112_MLBTS for me personally I remember a lot of dink hits up the middle and down the line last year. I do remember it to a degree. This year is far worse. The servers are far worse. The smoothness of my gameplay feels worse. The laggy servers are worse. The exit velo is really bad. I think in the past the RNG was more balanced. This year is an absolute joke. I’m getting beat by guys that swing at everything. Then suddenly make a perfect bunt that my fielder doesn’t field correctly to suddenly a few late and early dinks to suddenly my pitch hanging across the plate and then boom a homerun of any sort. It’s just gotten silly. I’ve seen multiple content creators including some of the best players in the world complain about it all year. Anotherwards , it’s much worse this year and I’m quickly spending less time on the game due to it. No reason to try and be competitive.
And everyone that thinks it’s a conspiracy is silly. Dynamic difficulty adjustments are on all sorts of games and it’s a marketing tactic to keep players engaged. I’m surprised people don’t realize this more so -
@RealMessiah_XBL said in Let’s be honest:
@Teak2112_MLBTS I actually really liked how TA was set up this year til they just handed us half the TA points to get to the Finest card. But I get that for most players, the original TA grind set up was just waaaaayyyy too much.
The problems with the TA setup:
- There is no variety whatsoever past the initial two tiers. Hits, HRs, Ks. Thats it. Sbs? Wins? Saves? 100% meaningless which is frankly absurd.
- The missions are too few and far between once you get past that second tier.
- There is a content void left by the removal of conquests, mini seasons, and even showdowns that were cut.
- They are giving us less cards, making theme teams weaker
- Earning the all star card vouchers left the all star drop feeling rather lackluster to quite a few of us
- When seasons, or the 1/3rd seasons cough innings cough from last year dropped, there was a guaranteed chunk of content because of TA. They never replaced that so inning drops just feel like any other friday
I think there is a way that this style could be compelling, but the rest of the content just hasn't supported this change. If the innings launched with a color storm style drop and a TA mini season that would have made thinks so much better.
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@creeder21_MLBTS for the love of everything holy they just need to allow us to use the Costco field again and all would be set right in the world
But seriously I do agree with you on some of this stuff. My stats have gone up compared to last year (I think, hopefully mr. stat guy doesn't come at my throat for this) and I made WS for the first time, but because I've gotten better at the game. If we were on the same level of stadium elevation as last year, my stats might be through the roof. The well hit balls with good launch angles just feel like they're dying this year, and not for lack of good cards.
They doubled down on their usage of slider/sweeper PCI shrinkage and at the higher difficulties, good luck tbh. No matter how good of a player you are, even guys like OhChev, ItsPlayful, and the guys who compete for money, you're bound to get bent over by it. And unlike COD streamers, I think guys like this actually have good ideas to help the game (ie, cutting back on the shrinkage).
All of that being said, it's better in some aspects than last year. But they need to improve so many things before they release 26.
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@FiveTick77_XBL the PCI shrinkage is literally the worst for same handed batters, which makes switch hitters the META.
100% agree on how frustrating it is to just watch your ball die at the warning track when you square it up. This did happen in the past and should still be a part of the game, but it should not be happening at the frequency that it is happening this year. To me, it feels like that happens FAR too often.
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@Auburn2525_XBL said in Let’s be honest:
PCI shrinkage is ludicrous. MAYBE for a pull hitter I could understand it somewhat, but for a push/balanced hitter it’s just a miserable addition to the game.
I agree it is ludicrous, but unfortunately it was implemented in 22 or 23 I believe. It was to combat foul balls on pitches outside the zone. However the RNG doesn't know how to function and is why you see on any low and away breaking pitches. Now they can't fix it because the tried in 24 and that was the infamous 3 day no ranked patch that literally broke everything.
