For the long-time DD crowd, what's your impression so far?
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Now that we're more than a week into the game, what do you think so far? I know how people in general feel about the changes to the market, but there's already 37 topics about that one, so I'm going to focus on other areas:
What I like:
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Looks like SDS has made it a lot easier to get through the Multiplayer program, at least for the first cycle. They merged the program last year (which I'm not a fan of), but you us "non-Gods" can get through the program without having to wait for the multiple mission "drops" like you did last year. I didn't even have to enter a BR session. I just focused on the Events.
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Events - it was kind of odd, but I did like the mini "program" that was tied to the event.
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LS Collection Screen - kind of silly, but I like the "COLLECTION COMPLETED!" screen. I like the new look and progression paths.
What I don't like:
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I'm still getting used to the menus. I think they're getting less laggy. I'm getting around on them better, but they're clunky.
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Team Affinity. I only have 2 Jolt cards so far (primarily due to Salvador Perez - best card ever). The grind will be really slow, but I'm still not sure of the benefit. The rewards in the path are pretty flimsy (lots of uniforms, Icons, Banners, etc., but not many packs). I'll be curious to see how many I earn by April 24 (the first collection reward).
What do you guys think so far?
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Like - I also like the collection screen.
I like the easier multiplayer program.
I like that events have meaning.
I love the additions to mini seasons, im a big mini seasons while watching a TV show guy. I think i have finished it about 25 times now. The 7 game mini seasons.Dislikes - servers this year have been worse than normal. With me even not being able to get in without loading the demo first to get in. That got fixed in about a day, but it still isnt great.
I hope the world series cards get added to the multiplayer program again. I mainly play events and occasionally ranked. So I dont usually get to 800.
I have never had an issue with perfect perfects in the past. But I have noticed this year, that it is almost a 50/50 split. Especially between shortstop and second.
Playing a casual game on rookie, the computers are dotting corners like we are on hall of fame or legend. Then veteran and all star are a little easier.
Overall, a little underwhelming this year, but I still will play it like every year since 16 the show for DD
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I'm satisfied with spending 89.99
I do feel the server issues on launch sound result in some free packs or something
I finished multi-player quick and almost done with wbc. I have zero team affinity cards, and really not motivated to do full collection bc I feel like the team collection cards will be dated very soon outside of pujols, tulo, Felix and maybe Manny.
I'm struggling with pitchers and most all my good hitters only play 3rd it seems so I'm having a hard time building a team I'm confident with
I have plenty of content to do which is nice
Most of the online games I've played haven't been too toxic which is nice. Altho pulling a pitcher in 2 strike counts I feel is bush league and should be prevented. Have a pitcher finish an at bat. I feel like everyone does this and I get the yellow stamina is many times the reason but I don't like this. Seems toxic to me.
Also, I'm selling most of my cards and the player info screen you gotta scroll down like 5 sections to see their sell price. So making that more user friendly would be nice.
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I like most of it but the servers and at times insanely slow menus are aggravating. I vaguely remember reading that this was it for TA content so they could use more cards elsewhere. If true I'll view that as I huge negative. I'd rather have more cards in programs to grind and less in packs to buy.
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The positives:
Content. WBC was great. Spring breakout is very good. Having a mini season for former and a lot of conquest for the latter gave the programs some legs which was sorely missing from most of last year's content.
I also liked the multiplayer path. I just bought DeVries because I wasnt a fan of the missions (golds against diamond pitchers? No thank you) but Turang was solid
Rewards: the past years have suffered from the game just not feeling rewarding to play. Programs with 1 or 2 cards, and like 3 show packs. Last year's repeatable content at launch was bad. Premier packs were stupidly rare. This year has rectified most of that. While St Patrick's Day was a throwaway, the WBC content was loaded with cards. The SB drop had a fairly small program, but made up for it with rewarding conquests. The repeatable mini seasons are both great. And the inning path had more stuff in it than last year as well
Hittters getting parallels faster feels GREAT. Mod system is a really good edition
Dislikes:
Turning Team Affinity into a captains only program. Knowing that its the only thing we will get all year makes me just not care much. I'll complete naturally throughout the year (other than the tiny pxp goal for the jolt cards) unless I want to build a specific team earlier.
Event windows being short
I have had very little issues with the servers other than launch night's horrific lag. For me, the game has worked great. However, I am not blind to other people having issues, and its more than just the TMobile crowd
The promised things that arent there: mini season stat tracking, 9 inning mini season games not working correctly, pci shrinkage is still a thing, etc
1:40 Mike Trout. Just seems a little excessive, given we are going to do weekly chase packs too (and while I dont like the chase packs, I appreciate SDS has to try to make money somehow)
Menu lag. Its better but menus should be quick. And I dont need to scroll down so many screens (including a pretty unnecessary large quirks section) to get to the stats screen
Overall, content is king and 2026 is off to a far better start than either of the last 2 years.
I still have MAJOR concerns that they willl keep it up, especially with inning drops which was my single biggest issue with last year's content. They need to come with more than just a spotlight program and Weekend Classic this year. -
I like the content so far. WBC was a perfect start to the year and SDS giving those cards progress for the team affinity of the players was thoughtful and appreciated.
The UI has been a learning curve, but is nice for the most part.
Screen blur has been useful at places like Forbes Field where you have no batters eye, I turn it off at most places.
Stick sensitivity is a nice nod to the players. I’ve been using the foam precision rings for about a year and still prefer them. But, like the blurred back drop it is a nice move by SDS.
I haven’t played too much online yet, as I have been grinding to build packs/stubs. But the limited time I’ve played was fine.
The lack of home runs in those online games made for great game play that I enjoyed much more than when it’s a race to hit solo hrs to win. I know the game as it is playing right now doesn’t reflect MLB’s irl meta, but it has been enjoyable for me. I’m certain the power creep will start to change that, but still worth noting.
There are a few things I dislike that have been implemented, but I’ll keep them to myself so this thread isn’t invaded by the mob who shouts dissension down elsewhere.
One thing I will bite my displeasure about is the lack of exposure of the NLB player’s storylines. For years they have been well-done and important to educate people on the feats, challenges and lives of fantastic ball players. This year the production value is just as good as years past, but within DD it is almost as if it doesn’t exist. Like it’s another league altogether and someone just picking up the game this year may never even know they are there. I wish they had NLB team affinity programs and rewards to make these cards more visible and drive folks to complete the storylines.
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The game play, when I say that, I mean the pitching seems better, and hitting seems crisper. Is it perfect no. Still some questionable hits and outs, but I do realize 2 weeks ago I was using 99's.
I like the new menus, don't love them, still feel there could be some tweaks, the collection screen i like. I like being able to lock in a whole team or set at once, and clicking on any card I don't want to lock in to block them from being locked in.
PCI Shrinkage still exists.
Love that they took the flipping and investing out of the game.
Love the blurred background, hate that it messes with the actual game play. I turned it off and my BA went up almost .150 pts. Something hopefully, they get on and fix.
I don't see a difference in the PCI sensitivity.All in all, for DD which is what I play, I'm enjoying it. Sure, there were some issues on launch, but there is every year. The true test will be, come July, will the game still be playable?
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Overall, I'm really enjoying it. I know people complain about it being the same, year after year, but I don't expect much more than tweaks and minor improvements when our all-things-now world demands 24/7 content updates throughout the entire MLB season for the bargain price of 69.99 (like it or not, I think that does make it something like an annual subscription to what is essentially the same game). I'd expect to see a major leap with the next generation of hardware, but I'm content, for now, with little things like new animations, some new players, incremental physics updates (maybe just me, but seems like super-ball-ground-rule-doubles are down), and QOL improvements.
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The biggest thing, for me, has been the screen blur feature while batting. I've noticed in comments from others, above and elsewhere, that it seemed to create issues for them rather than make things easier, but I feel like I'm hitting much better than I ever have because of it (that still isn't very good by most standards, but noticeable for me). Might be that I use Catcher Near (I like to see my batters, not just their crotch), so there's a lot to obscure that otherwise played tricks on my 52-year-old eyes, or perhaps I'm just Rube Waddell ever vigilant for fire engines, but it dials me in and gives me that Billy Chapel, "clear the mechanism" feeling... I've really enjoyed it, and haven't noticed it affecting anything adversely.
Being able to tamp down the PCI sensitivity a bit is a nice touch, as well as being able to set the "mirror effect" adjustment for the PCI anchor to match pitcher handedness, as I like it a touch up, and a bit off-center toward the pitcher's release point.
I do really like the new UI, overall; it just makes more sense to me... static sliders top and bottom, content in the middle. Neat and tidy. It was painfully slow at the get, as everyone knows, but now that it's in a better place, I'm liking it.
Terrapin Park. Love it.
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The most glaring problem, from my perspective, is the utter disregard of the strike zone. It was an issue last year (more so than I remember prior to that), and seems to have gotten worse this year; 50/50 doesn't even seem to elicit a strike call with consistency. I think that's just inexcusable... it's a pretty central part of the [censored] game, and hitting gets enough of a boost without squeezing the zone. Not sure why SDS seems to be cool with ignoring an actual rule when the fix seems like it would be pretty [censored] easy--and when MLB itself seems to be taking measures to be sure strikes are called correctly--but, here we are. Again.
Might just be me, but some of the player models seem to have taken a step back. Maybe some of the WBC and Spring Breakout players were just hastily put together, but seems to be a glut of extremely wide shouldered, small-headed men coming through the ranks. And can someone tell me what is happening with Rainiel Rodriguez's legs? Jesus Christ.
While I really enjoy Mini Seasons (and think the option to play 9 is great), the stat tracking is abhorrent. Just... wow. I'd love to go through a 28-game season with 9-inning games, but without stats? Tough sell.
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And can someone tell me what is happening with Rainiel Rodriguez's legs? Jesus Christ
This made me chuckle, I’ve been wondering the same [censored] thing, dude must squat like a thousand pounds a day and it can’t be comfortable crouching to catch everyday.
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Dislike. Multiplayer program is way too easy and fast to finish considering how long it is, BR is still rather worthless, and events are too short.
Likes: it’s still fun game to play.
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Overall it’s a bad product I’m not enjoying it and I expect the game to be dead by mid May. You can’t keep releasing slop and think that it won’t catch up to you. This was finally the year critics and players have said enough is enough.
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Postives:
Content is really good
Live Series Collection UI is much improved, being able to mass collect is huge
Liking the feel of gameplay so far
Negatives:
Rest of the UI is a step down from last year
Menus are really slow
There have been quite a few glitches and bugs so far
Overall, really liking the game so far -
Biggest negative is that events needs to stand out more. Everyone loves playing 3 inning online games. They need to be more creative with this. Do captain oriented team events etc etc. Put more rewards for wins etc etc. Can go on and on. They are really missing the boat here with events.
Negative 2, please for the love of everything, fix the perfect perfect line out outs. 50 percent are outs or singles. Make hitting a little easier. Hitting is the bread and butter of this game. Not pitching.
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Defense is good and will be seen as so the more better cards come out. Baserunning is terrible, and hitting feels like it went backwards. We need the old skill gap for baserunning and more control over situational baserunning. If I want a guy going on contact, let me set that plz. Pitchers need a pickoff rating like catchers have catcher poptime. The inner PCI (the dot) needs to be a vision stat and get bigger and smaller based on that stat, the inner bubble needs to be a contact stat, and the outer needs to be affected by Ks/9 more or less based on that stat to reduce foul balls.
Other than that game is fine but frustrating. Also more customization with jerseys and colors on players should be aloud. Why has it been the same since 2013.
