Community Forum

Beltran, IMHO, is still the best card in the game. A speedy switch hitting center fielder that hits for power. You can’t really beat that. I have had him since April and he is STILL in my god squad line up. He is just in right field at the moment.

It’s been that way all year. It was the same with the moonshot choice pack. You should never choose a choice pack from the Ultra. You are just pissing away stubs.

@Rhyno1986_XBL they need to get rid of it entirely. They were able to do it in GOAT this year, so we know that they are able to change it. This year, next year, doesn’t really matter to me as long as PCI shrinkage is gone.

@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.

@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.

@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.

@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.

@YOSHI24_XBL so you want a baseball sim and not a baseball video game. Got it. Let’s just eliminate difficulty levels and we can all play on legend too. That’ll really give the baseball experience because in real life, it’s a game of failure.

@GoozeFn_PSN said in Let’s be honest:

@Ditka06_MLBTS Very strange. Your setup seems every bit as good as mine and I do not experience that ever. Is your internet wired?

I don’t have an issue catching up to outlier fastballs, for the most part. Also play on a monitor, wired internet. Etc. I really don’t have a problem with hitting in general. I’m probably a better pitcher than I am a hitter to be honest, but I’m pretty decent all around. Better than average for sure. So I find it to be strange what Ditka06 is saying here too.

If that was my experience, I would be beyond frustrated if I finally squared up a ball and it did nothing. This year, IMHO, pitchers have been WAY better than hitters up until this point which probably exacerbates not having high elevation stadiums and whatever happened to the RNG this year.

@GoozeFn_PSN yeah, last year the lineup diversity was much better, this year you see WAY more META lineups. I honestly don’t care what cards people use or what stadiums they choose to play in. I never quit a game because of the stadium an opponent chooses because I always feel like I’m going to win, or at least have a good chance at winning.

They definitely attempted to balance things this year, but the problem with that attempt, is their hitting engine along with the card attributes doesn’t allow that to actually work well. It now relies way too heavy on RNG whereas before user input was a more prominent factor. In order for user input to be a more prominent factor the game is just going to give up more home runs. And to be honest with you, to me it isn’t just about hitting nukes (I mean I REALLY enjoy hitting nukes), but about getting rewarded for good swings. In the past that reward definitely came in the form of home runs, they attempted to change that this year and I don’t like the outcome of the game play.

@GoozeFn_PSN yeah, I don’t like that the basically got rid of captains this year. It was a fun way to team build last year and I really enjoy team building and trying out new cards.

I get it how some people hated shield woods and laughing mountain (I personally loved them) as I felt when I had good user input, I was rewarded for it. This year I have had WAY too many examples of good user input with unrewarding results. To me, the video game is hard enough as it so I want my god inputs to be rewarded as much as possible. I felt it was a really good balance last year whereas this year, I don’t feel that.

And as far as only listening to the streamer/Youtube community, I don’t think that is the case at all. I never once heard any of them talk about wanting high elevation stadiums to get nuked. I only hear or saw that here in this forum. Trust and believe that this video game is my main hobby, even with my critiques of the game I still enjoy playing it. I am having fun and enjoying it. I’m still going to keep purchasing the game, but my hope is that the game play goes back to what it was last year, they bring back max elevation stadiums, they keep the power creep, and put out tons of great content throughout the year.

@TripleH-4481_PSN I know they listen to the community. They nerfed high elevation stadiums because a vocal minority called them “shameful” over and over again. If the community actually wanted that, players wouldn’t have been choosing to utilize those stadiums.

With CPU pitching, I also hope they listen and pivot. I want the player base to grow and for people to have fun playing the game. It is a video game after all and is supposed to be FUN.

@samguenther1987_PSN I agree with you. They somehow made playing versus the CPU even more boring. Every time I play against the CPU on rookie or veteran, I think back to when I started playing the game and I probably wouldn’t have continued to play it. Getting absolutely dotted on the lowest difficulties is either impossible for a new player or boring for a good player as you wait for something decent to come in.

What they did with CPU pitching was intentional. Its design was to slow people down in the grind and keep them in the game longer. Its design is to make people buy stubs to get the cards versus playing to earn the cards. Short term, it’s probably successful, but long term, new players are just not going to play and buy the game.

@YOSHI24_XBL last year was not slugfest. IMHO, this game has typically been incredible about balancing good to “perfect” user input and rewarding it. This year, not so much. It had a really excellent balance between sim and arcade, but it has been pushed more towards sim. I like the middle, in what I like to call baseball video game. Not cartoonish arcade or total baseball sim, but just an enjoyable video game where the user gets rewarded for their input.

@YOSHI24_XBL and we can disagree, BUT why do you think people played there? Do you think maybe people enjoyed it?

@GoozeFn_PSN Oh and also for the data, last year the VAST majority of the games I played were on HOF. The 11 games played this year that you analyzed, on All Star and veteran. All of them. I lost my first two games this year so even more on veteran before even reaching All Star. The data you are utilizing is worthless because of how data is recorded this year because of WC.

@Pergo_MLBTS I don’t like how user input isn’t rewarded the way that it should be. This year, I have had far too many instances of where I square it up on a good swing and it just dies in the field of play. I don’t find that to be fun or enjoyable. I’m not elite at the game. I can make WS and have for the past few years that I have competitively played online. I want to play a baseball video game, not a baseball sim.

@GoozeFn_PSN and here is where you, the data guy is going to be COMPLETELY wrong. 2024 was over some 90-100ish games. This year in ranked 11. Made it to like silver 1 or 2 before the first weekend classic and have only played in weekend classic since for ranked. So you are comparing apples to oranges here. Nearly all my online games are not captured in the data here because the way data is recorded this year.

@PAinPA_PSN someone is to blame here!

@Ditka06_MLBTS I have plenty of my own theories as to what it is. RNG definitely plays a part, but at the end of the day, I really don’t care if the WHAT, I just know for a fact the way the game played last year was way more fun.

Shoot, even offline play. On rookie or veteran having to just sit there and wait for a strike batter after batter is extremely boring.

I still have fun playing, but not NEARLY as much. It’s like night and day to be honest. The thing that kills me about the whole thing though, is the game outcomes are the same because either they are better or I am better. Very rarely does the RNG limit the better player from winning (it does happen, has happened to me by either being better and losing or being worse and winning, but it is SO rare). I just want to load up into online play and feel like my good swings are rewarded. Hell, I even want my opponent’s good swings to be rewarded. It just makes the game MORE fun.