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It says on the content release that it will be available by Monday the 15th, not sure if that was an edit or what it said originally

They intentionally burned us out by giving us 4 team affinity programs in two months and incrementally making them harder and more tedious to grind. One of the weirdest decisions I've ever seen in a video game and just an all around awful business decision. They had no choice but to do this because otherwise no one is playing their game anymore during the heart of the MLB season. I am obviously only one person, but I hadn't played season 2 more than maybe an hour or so, and the only way they were getting me back on this game was if I could just hop on and unlock some cards I actually want to use within an hour or so of grinding.

I’m looking forward to them totally butchering CJ Abrams (the bronze fielding will be deserved though)

@Skarmaen_MLBTS yeah this is the part I don’t understand. Cards in packs aren’t even good, how anyone was able to get themselves to grind that first chapter of TA for 89s is beyond me. Feels like they could’ve held off on the good stuff until this week without making their game unplayable for a month leading up to it

I am torn between giving them credit for doing what they should’ve done all year, and shaming them for waiting until literally the week before NCAA football comes out to release actual good content.

Right now in the game there are no overalls higher than a 95 earnable for free, unless BR and/or WS rewards are that high. And the one 95 I’m thinking of is the lightning player, everything else is like a 93 or lower. I don’t know, I’ve barely played the game since S2 started.

So it looks like they’re now adding 99s for free (at least one?), 95s in TA, and adding basically free missions that give thousands of TA points. I think I’m still too burnt out from the awful grinding of the first two months to even come back for free 99s.

@Skarmaen_MLBTS I'd be willing to bet a lot of money they don't monetize Dynasty. Maybe like uniform expansion packs at some point, but EA has the ultimate team money printer formula down pat, they can afford to not monetize dynasty, and they know how angry people would get if they did

The thought of filling out a lineup to do TA missions for the FOURTH time in only 3 months makes me feel a physical reaction. It sounds like actual torture. Obviously I'm being dramatic when I say that but I don't see myself coming back to play this game again.

The best part of 21 and 22 was that if you put in a lot of time and effort to grind things out, you could unlock the collection cards as they release and just play ranked or whatever mode you wanted when you felt like it. Now they are condensing the entire game cycle that typically lasts around 9-10 months and trying to do that 3 times. Gatekeeping what cards we can and can't use, releasing cards in packs that are only good for a week or two and not worth using stubs on. At least in 23 there was some overlap when seasons reset so the grinding was kind of worth your time, this year every single card is just made totally unusable except 1. The TA cards are atrocious and the online modes are stale. They said they fixed foul balls but I haven't played since then so I'll take their word for it. They can't even monetize properly, just go full EA casino mode if you're gonna make your product bad anyways.

Just ranting, but I think I'm actually thankful because my life honestly feels better without this game taking up 2-4 hours of my time per day. I've been playing all the old Fallout games, preparing for the new Elden Ring DLC, exercising more, reading books I've been meaning to read. NCAA coming out will be awesome, but I think overall I am done with these card collecting modes. They use the same manipulative and awful game design that mobile games use and I want to thank SDS for finally removing my blindfold and letting me see truly how much of my time I wasted the last few years on their product.

I’m honestly kind of thankful. I started playing in 21 and I have spent way too much time on these games since then. Logging into the game now since the start of season 2 just fills me with dread. TA is such a slog of a grind and I’ve already done it 3 times, I genuinely can’t do it again. I just really don’t care.

Been playing through all the fallout games for an hour or two a day when I have time and I’m being reminded that I can have fun playing video games instead of essentially just doing chores. So I guess for that, thanks SDS. I think I’m done with card collecting modes forever, just a waste of time and with this forced reset they’re really driving that aspect of it home.

@TPRwell_XBL same here. Just 0 motivation to do any of this. All of the TA cards are bad. They released one good card today that is actually attainable right now and it’s in a chase pack. I’ve already grinded for a bunch of collection fodder just to earn cards that will have to be put away within weeks, I don’t think I can bring myself to do all that again

@BiigD008_XBL No one is going to be using that boost in 2 months when they can unlock him

Griffey has 81 speed what is the point of him being the boss if you're gonna give him 81 speed

@SaveFarris they said that the first boss pack would be earlier and it would be easier to progress.

Griffey being a S2 boss is kinda funny. Every year I’ve played they have waited all year to release a really good Griffey. With this one being the Hall of Fame series i expect it to be really good, not like the kinda mid BR reward from last year or the absolutely atrocious “99” from two years ago.

Could be reading too much into things, but I think Griffey being dropped this early is a sign of them being concerned about the player count dropping off even earlier than normal.

Jhoan Duran does as well. Has outlier on his splitter, I could see them giving it to the 99 S2 Paul Skenes

An unfortunate consequence of this game making it hard to acquire a lot of high end cards is that you have to prioritize when building a team. I would love to try out the Kershaw team, or Ortiz, but I don't have any more stubs. I spent them all on finishing the S1 collection. Also it should have been so obvious that everyone would use a switch hitter captain, they probably just shouldn't have released it. No matchup disadvantages and an extra 12 to both contacts and clutch.

But the biggest thing is they can turn around and drop switch hitters they know people want in chase and choice packs (Goodrum, Adley, Ozzie), give them three weeks to use them, sit back and watch the stub sales pour in.

@The_Bane_Event said in Stating the Obvious:

@YOSHI24 Thank you too. And I know I said casual, but I misspoke I guess. I do play a lot and grind more than the average player. It’s funny how I tried to make a positive post encouraging others to just enjoy what they can and how they can and some folks find a way to turn it negative.

My intention also wasn't to be negative. I don't want to take away from the fun that you personally have had playing the game. I just think that complaining about the content structure is valid and much different from baseless negativity/trolling.

Also, the enjoyment I find in this game is grinding offline for cards and then bringing that team online to compete. I think the fact that you are at a point that I would be content with and it took way more grinding than most prior years would have kind of proves the point of most of the complaints I have seen. Again, I apologize if you took my comment as being a troll or being toxic, my intention was not to be rude to you.

Chapter 1 was a normal team affinity, chapter 2 at first glance looked like it would take longer but actually flew by because of the repeatable boss missions, and now chapter 3 is just a major time suck. I played for probably 6 hours this weekend (not including the ~3-4 hours for the extreme showdown which i finished) and was able to get the AL East finished and NL West to like 50%, and that was with burning all my stubs on some exchanges. NL East, AL/NL Central, and AL West are all at like 10-20% from just using pitchers from those teams occasionally. Probably a 24 hour grind if you're really efficient about it, give or take a few hours based on how quickly you can finish the extreme showdown.

They are literally just milking us via FOMO by making the collection rewards harder to reach. You've put 100 hours into our game over the last two months grinding all the free content you're used to? Aw man, you still don't have that Willie Mays you want that has been sitting there in the collections tab all year? That sucks! Better give us a few hundred dollars so you can get there in the collections and use him for the next 3 weeks!

It's easy to say this when you have all the cards you want. You say that you are one card from your 3rd S1 collection pack and have gotten all the XP bosses with 3 and a half weeks left in the season. Looking at your (public) The Show profile you have 7.5 days of in game time so far. That isn't really "casual NMS offline player" that is probably top 5% of total playtime. You are a heavy grinder and there's nothing wrong with that, but that's why you're happy with the content, because you have put in a huge time commitment to getting it all done.

I have 4 days, which I think is a lot, and am still 40 cards from my first collection pack and 150k xp from my first XP boss.I would be happy with the game as well if I had over 3 weeks to enjoy the cards I have been grinding for since the game dropped. I don't, and on Friday I was told I have to grind for another probably 24 hours of in game time to complete TA which would still have me short of the first collection pack. I'm tired of grinding and at this point with the time I have put in I should be able to just hop on and play a ranked game or two a night with the team I have built, but if I want Rollins, Mays, Sabathia, I have to commit even more of my time to the slog of a grind that is TA3.

@nflman2033 said in Why SDS hates offline players?:

@Dolenz said in Why SDS hates offline players?:

@Doctor-Fauci910 said in Why SDS hates offline players?:

@arvcpa said in Why SDS hates offline players?:

@foresticek said in Why SDS hates offline players?:

I was looking forward today, but only feeling now is disappointment, poor job SDS, I don't think I will make it even into Season 2 this year

When I read the TA3 offline requirements, I thought "what in the world???". It's so fragmented and random. Ick.

I just scored almost 30 runs against the CPU, and barely made any progress. Full AL East TA lineup and I didn't even get the 1500 PXP. Other teams have pitchers so they will be quicker, but still ridiculous.

The conquest save mission might be the most egregious. No TA progress at all outside of PXP with pitchers in conquest unless you purposefully stop scoring runs at 4, so holding you back in other missions just to get a save. Really really bad design.

Yeah, I usually ignore the save missions as they are completely opposite to the offensive missions. If you choose to pursue the save missions then you have to ignore the offensive missions and vice versa.

For sure in conquest and Mini Seasons.

But if you pull your SP after 6 innings in vs CPU and then pitch your closer for last 3 innings, you will get a save each game regardless of the score.

I always finish offensive missions I am working on way before I even consider finishing an entire 9 inning game vs cpu. Especially for like the monthly awards, load up with 3B/LF/whatever position until I finish the mission then quit out. They know this and they include save missions to try and keep us from doing it

When they built the captain system they didn't tie attributes to players and instead just made it card specific. So if they release a 99 Ken Griffey Jr. as a Red, he would be ineligible for a Mariners theme team. Probably so they can make sure certain theme teams aren't so good that everyone runs them, but would be a lot more fun if they were more flexible about it