Community Forum

Just a little over 700k left to go. I can almost taste it!

Since we have had our last Season 1 update I thought I would look at how I progressed playing the game pretty much the same as I always have. I do what interests me and do my best never force myself to play content I don't want to play.

Here is where I stand as of today and I doubt much will change since there is no more content I want to do.

Hours Played
106

For many here that is not a lot of hours. It works out to a little over 8 hours every week. Which I am guessing probably puts me somewhere around the average. But I did everything that I wanted to do and felt was within my reach

XP Earned
623,203

This is actually higher than I thought it would be but two programs with 96K in rewards and a double XP weekend this weekend gave me probably 20% of that total. When the goal feels unreachable as it has felt from very early on this season then it kind of zaps the desire to play out of you. This is the first year that I can think of that I did not even reach the first boss pack in the first program.

Completed Content

• I completed every single "Other" program with the exception of the Egg Hunt program
• I only fully completed 2 Team Affinity but have others all over the board, from 0% to 85%
• I did not do any online programs.

Collections

I have just over 150 S1 cards. Even if I add in the 60 or so TA Cards that I don't have and the 5 missing from the Egg Hunt Program I still don't have enough to even get the one card that I would like from the collection, Lou Brock at 230 cards.

Stubs

I currently have 107,211

I have not bought packs but I have bought a few Cardinals that came in packs. These are the biggies

Tommy Edman - Bought for 8,375
Ryan Helsley - Bought for 43,001
Lars Nootbaar - Bought for 35,950
Nolan Gorman - Bought for 24,135
Tommy Pham - Bought for 5,610
Victor Scott - Bought for 11,210
Tink Hence - Bought for 25,400

So that is 153,681 stubs spent just on Cardinal Players alone. Those marked with a money bag were only available in packs. The other two (the cheapest ones) were BR rewards I believe.

I did get luck with a couple early live diamond pulls which I sold immediately and that helped but as someone who does not have any inclination to flip cards or gamble my stubs on roster updates, stubs seem hard to come by. There are so many No-Sell cards this year it definitely hinders stub earning.

Final Thoughts

Speaking strictly on the content side, since I don't play online and have no real issues with offline play, the content has felt weak at best and bad at worst.

After the day 1 content release the Cardinals got a total of 1 card (Pedro Pages) that I could actually earn from an offline program, not counting Team Affinity. And I actually realize that even though most were in packs the Cardinals actually had it better than many other teams.

As someone who never, ever gambles on packs having half the cards hidden in packs really hurts.

What do I expect from Season 2?

Nothing much different. SDS certainly always talks a good game, giving us all hope that things will be better and move faster next season. I will come up one Jump Start goal short of getting my first wild card to start the season and I need to see if the other wild cards seem attainable or whether they will be a chore, buried deep in the XP path. I fully expect the programs and all the extra packs to continue and to be much the same as the first season, maybe with a little better XP or Stub rewards in programs.

I'm still in for the start of season 2 but the game will be on a short leash.

The problem with the forum these days is that there are two groups at opposite ends of the spectrum. Those who are happy with the game and will jump into any negative thread to try and convince others that everything is fine. Then there are those who are unhappy with the game and will jump into any positive thread and try to convince those who are enjoying themselves that they really aren't.

They have not learned to just agree to disagree and both sides feel the need to be "right" so they end up fighting in almost every thread. It's tiring, and not at all inviting for the average, casual, middle-ground users on the forum.

Not sure but remember, in the stream they said two key things. First you will have to unlock the extra wildcard slots. Second the number of wildcard slots may vary by season.

I wouldn't get my hopes up that you will be able to use 4 slots from the beginning

Strange that nobody ever shows up on the forum saying

"I just demolished my opponent by hitting 10 HRs in Shield Woods Park. Please get rid of it".

@BalsamicArrow88_PSN said in Nothing coming:

@Dolenz64_XBL it’s actually the opposite of understandable… the backlash this game is getting and with NCAA coming out, they absolutely should not wait that long to drop new content.

Nothing they do is going to prevent those who are wanting to check out NCAA from checking out NCAA.

Those who are not interested in NCAA will not all of a sudden become interested simply because they had to wait 9 days instead of 7 between drops.

Every year those of us who stick with the game see the same thing. "This game will die when Madden comes out". "This game will die when NBA comes out". Now there is just a new game to add to that yearly list.

I hope NCAA is everything people are wanting in a football game and that they play it to their hearts content. Either way I will be happy when it's release date has come and gone so that the disgruntled can stop using it as some upcoming boogeyman.

@AdeptOfMemory said in Honestly just fire the entire live content team and start over:

@Dolenz64 You're happy with the $70 you spent on this game? Are you romantically involved with anyone at SDS or you wish you were?

Thanks for proving my point.

I can be unhappy with content so far, and I have been outspoken that I am not a fan of all of the packs, but I don't feel the need to lob petty, childish insults at people who disagree with my opinion. Apparently you do.

And to answer your question. I am neither happy or unhappy about the money I spent on the game. Is it my favorite iteration of the title? No. Is it my least favorite iteration of the title? No. But in the end I will get enough enjoyable play time out of it to feel like I got my moneys worth.

@dmc04005 said in When season 2 starts…this is gonna be rough:

The only real thing the season restrictions effect is ranked, minus the wild cards. And even then, you’re going to get 4. So pick your 4 favorites. Plus it’s not like you can’t ever swap out your wild cards. Everyone will be back on the same page. You’re essentially getting a brand new game in 3 weeks.

I wish online people would stop spreading this falsehood. It will affect offline folks too. Many of the Conquests and Mini Seasons released as part of Season 2 programs will have S2 Card Restrictions. Almost all season 2 program missions for accumulating stats or PXP will most likely require S2 (or core) cards.

So, while it may not be as big of a deal as online, the offline players will be restricted also. We may not need the latest and greatest cards for playing the CPU but it does not mean that we don't enjoy earning and using them.

As for wildcards, you are eventually going to get 4, and even then they did not promise 4 for every season. I think the general consensus is that we will get 1 to start the season and then will have to unlock the other 3. How long that takes or how difficult is to accomplish is up to SDS.

Before I rant, I will say that I am not complaining about the cards or even the number of cards that the Cardinals have received in season 2. Just how they have been distributed by SDS and how they kind of thumb their noses at offline players.

Season 2 Cardinal Cards so far

92 Paul Goldschmidt - Event reward for 10 wins.
91 Tommy Edman - Code Name Pack
90 Nolan Gorman - Season Awards Drop pack (Rare round)
89 Masyn Winn - Season Awards Drop Pack
89 Brendan Donovan - Season Awards Drop Pack
89 Dylan Carlson - TA

1 card out of 6 actually allows me to earn it offline.

For god's sake if you are going to include two players from the same team then split them up and put one in the pack and one in the program.

I guess I am playing something else this afternoon since you give me little incentive to actually play. I'll come back in a day or two when Winn and Donovan are dirt cheap.

Not surprising to most of us and I have a feeling that he announced it prematurely.

We can now move Cincy off the never had a cover list (this is just standard editions)

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Total of 29 covers

Have Had 3 Cover Athletes
Boston Red Sox (Ortiz, Pedroia, González)
Los Angeles Angels (Vaughn, Guerrero, Ohtani)

Has Had 2 Cover Athletes
Atlanta Braves (The Jones' - Chipper and Andruw)
Los Angeles Dodgers (Green and Puig)
Minnesota Twins (Joe Mauer in back to back years)
New York Yankees (Williams and Judge)
Philadelphia Phillies (Howard and Harper)
Toronto Blue Jays (Donaldson and Guerrero Jr)

Has Had 1 Cover Athlete
Baltimore Orioles (Ripkin Jr)
Chicago Cubs (Baez)
Detroit Tigers (Cabrera)
Miami Marlins (Chisholm Jr)
New York Mets (Wright)
Oakland Athletics (Chavez)
Pittsburgh Pirates (McCutchen)
San Diego Padres (Tatis Jr)
San Francisco Giants (Bonds)
Seattle Mariners (Griffey Jr)
Cincinnati Reds (De La Cruz)

No Cover Athletes
Arizona Diamondbacks
Chicago White Sox
Cleveland Guardians
Colorado Rockies
Houston Astros
Kansas City Royals
Milwaukee Brewers
St. Louis Cardinals
Tampa Bay Rays
Texas Rangers
Washington Nationals

What, you don't like the overabundance of female breast logos for "The Knockers"? That one is tame compared to a couple of others out there multiple times.

This is an issue with their ridiculous vault configuration. It's why they have so many duplicates. For example did they need 1000s of copies of Costco Headquarters in the stadium vault last year when 99% of the people downloaded it and never made any changes?

I think they rely entirely on people reporting these logos and even then I don't think it is something that has a high priority for SDS. There are some logos that are worthy of automatic bans for anyone who uploads them and I don't say that as a prude but as someone who understands that the game is not an adult only title and that there are rules.

I understand that some people will say what does it matter what logo I use if I don't play online. It doesn't matter to me but the moment you upload it to the vault you have negated that argument.

@Shauwn said in Why do the Season Award Program?:

I'd rather use Cpt Dansby, Willie Castro, Rich Aurillia, Trevor Story, Ernie Banks, and Corey Seager.
I would much rather see Witt as a top ss option, but he just isn't.

You are not, in all of those cases, comparing apples to apples.

Comparing a card with a boost to a card without a boost is not a fair comparison. As for those players with 90+ cards that you would prefer that is perfectly acceptable.

But let's also not overlook the fact that not everyone has all of those cards to choose from.

• Rich Aurilia requires 120 Season 1 cards to be collected.
• Ernie Banks was a Ranked Season reward that is roughly 25K on the market
• Corey Seager is a live series 90 overall card that costs roughly 90K on the market
• Captain Dansby requires you to use one of your (currently) limited captain choices on him.
• Willie Castro was a Battle Royale reward and requires the Buxton Boost to be comparable
• Trevor Story requires 535K of XP on the reward path

I think it is safe to say that your average player has, at best, only 1 or 2 of those choices. Or if they are like me they have none of those cards yet. For most of us Witt Jr is the best shortstop that is easily attainable for us simply by committing a little time to the weekly drops programs.

Your theory that every lightning card should be the clear winner when comparing shortstops is the surefire way to have no lineup diversity, where every team you face will have Witt Jr at SS.

I have never considered The Show a simulation game no matter how much people try and make it so. When the gamers skill on the controller overshadows the skill of the player they are controlling then it is no longer a sim.

If I want a more realistic sim then I will play OOTP baseball

I feel like there is very little in the game this year that is "for casuals".

There are complaints every year about some aspect or another.

Change too drastically and people yearn for the old days.
Keep it the same as the previous year and people complain that the devs were lazy and simply cut and pasted the same content.

SDS, at this stage is gonna get complaints no matter what they do.

@BASEBALL__24_7_PSN said in Wild Card:

Aren't you supposed to have 2 wild cards unlocked from the start if you did all the missions? I only have 1 unlocked and its also forcing me to use that one wild card for captain Luis Castillo which is a season 2 card. Am I doing something wrong? Thanks

That information was incorrect. The one you unlocked from the head start missions is the first one. You will then unlock 2 more on the XP path. They have not revealed how we will unlock the fourth one yet.

As to your other issue. You have to make a new Season 2 squad. You cannot just modify a S1 squad with S2 players since it is still flagged as a S1 Squad.

I think theBlindRhino has just decided to be unhelpful today.

I would allow the player to quick sell all duplicates en masse. Maybe have checkboxes for each rarity

Quicksell all Duplicate

Commons
Bronzes
Silvers

It's not sexy and it's not fancy but it would be a big QOL upgrade.

(second option would be get rid of the stupid, multi button quicktime mechanic in RTTS fielding)

@jaychvz_XBL said in Pay to Win:

Not even close to pay to win .

I agree that it is not Pay to Win

But there is little argument that this year is the most aggressive monetization push that the game has ever seen.

Is it backwards day today?

Do I get any credit for championing a rolling XP cap for several years now?