I hate ranked seasons because of this. It feels like whoever has the weaker lineup gets the favored outcome. I played someone recently that had a losing record and .231 average. My average in ranked is .301. I had 16 dead or near dead center good/okays for outs and lost the game. I usually can tell early if I am going to lose when I start getting an obsessive amount of good/okay and my pitches float down the middle despite perfect input. It sucks because online play is my favorite but it's ruining it for me.

I am with you. This year's gameplay is the worst it's ever been, including 18. Content is amazing but I just don't enjoy playing anymore, especially online. What you described is the norm for me. Hitting is completely random and feels skewed to one side or the other. Pitching is horrendous. I feel like the only control I have on pitching is which pitch to throw. Using pure analog, I will consistently have perfect input and have the ball go over the middle of the plate or be completely wild. This game is usually the only one I play and I am finding myself putting in only a couple hours per week now. It's strange to me because SDS has listened to the fanbase in so many ways and each year, the main cries are for them to make user input matter more but year after year it matters less and less.

I played Twingaming last year. I hung with him but lost. My favorite was playing JJDaggas and getting him to dashboard and received a bunch of actual voice recorded messages. It was hilarious.

Around 200 this year. My longest was in 18. I kept track and finally pulled a diamond on pack 786.

@ItsaCanesthing said in Long list of best cards at each position:

Great list.
The only one that made me say NO WAY!!!
Was Mo as the #1 Righty in the pen.

His card was an absolute bleep show for me and every time I see him I light him up. And I am HORRIBLE at hitting.

Lot's of people I have asked feel the same way.
Other than you, I have never met anyone say Mo was the best.

loved the list, grest conversation starter.

I am with you in that I rock Mo every time I face him but when I use him, he has been the best righty for me. I seldom give anything up with him on all star or HOF.

I agree. I'm sure they will do their normal thing and start listening to all the whiners in these forums and start screwing with stuff and make it worse. At least that's how it's been the past 2 years.

I love the idea of moments. To me, reliving and playing big moments throughout history and the season could be very fun. Unfortunately SDS has it screwed up because they mess with the sliders to make them more difficult. It has become frustrating rather than fun.

That's not true. All star is very much different depending on the mode. Events at all star difficulty are often different as well depending on how they have adjusted the sliders. If you look at the sliders in the settings, you will see that pitch speed is one of them.

I played a guy that did this the entire game. No matter what defense I selected, the pitcher, 2b and 1b all would go after the ball and no one would cover. I reported it as a bug as well as an email/report. All I got was a confirmation that they received it and would contact me if they needed further info. Thankfully has only happened once.

I don't think the difficulty was upped, I think they nerfed contact and exit velocities. I played 4 rounds since the last patch. 2 3rd inning and 2 National League. I was 4-18 on perfect perfects and only had 3 of those with exit velocity above 100 MPH. Before patch it was a homerun fest on most of the missions and now I hardly homer at all.

Been kicked off trying to do showdown twice this morning.

I agree with you. I have played for many years so I am fine but my son has wanted to get into the game because he sees me enjoy it but it's just too hard for him. He has tried it each year for the past 3 now (he's 11) and lasts a few days to a week before he gets tired of losing every game 1-0 or 2-1 and gives up.

Positives-
Once again, this game is the easiest to play and acquire cards without spending actual money. It looked like it might be going backwards at the beginning but here I am at the end of the cycle with more stubs than I can spend and owning every card I want with all the collections done.
Mini Seasons is great for those of us who don't enjoy online play.
Battle Royale program was great.
Negatives-
Pitch confidence needs to go or be seriously reworked. It should not impact the hitter at all. Only should help pitcher's control.
Fielding animations are way too slow. Way too many infield hits given up due to fielder not having any urgency.
Online pitch speeds are way too fast. I play on a top of the line monitor but even on all star, I feel overwhelmed by the speed. For reference, I am older so my reaction time is waning as the years go by.
Online pitch speeds need to be same as offline so you can practice and be ready for online play easier.
Online games shouldn't vary depending on your opponent's internet connection. So many games have lag to where every pitch comes out of their hand the same and then changes part way to the plate.
Make R2 use only once per at bat. It's only purpose is to view pitches, energy, and confidence level. No need for every pitch. It is currently used as a griefing mechanism.
Hitting was awful this year. I kept my stats for about a week online and offline and had a higher batting average on balls outside of the pci than I did inside. It felt totally random, especially online.
Difficulty levels should be the same from start of year to end of year and in every mode. Events should be a warm up for Ranked but so often it plays like a totally different game. All star on events might have slower or faster pitch speeds and reward contact differently. Moments/showdowns to other offline modes as well.

I want consistency as far as rookie, veteran, all-star, HOF, & Legend are the same in every mode. All-star in a showdown shouldn't be different than vs. Cpu or online. I want consistency on the sliders. Moments shouldn't be made more difficult by adjusting the sliders. If they want it harder, change it to all-star, hof, or legend. I don't think a universal pitch speed is a good idea. It would make too many people unhappy. Personally I would like it but only because I am older and my reaction times are getting worse by the year. I used to make World Series but just can't compete online anymore as the pitch speeds are too fast for me now.

That's not true. All star is very much different depending on the mode. Events at all star difficulty are often different as well depending on how they have adjusted the sliders. If you look at the sliders in the settings, you will see that pitch speed is one of them.

The sims are ridiculous on this one. I had a stretch of 3 rounds in a row where I had 11 against the CPU's 1 and lost all each round before finally moving on the 4th try. I'm on turn 30 and a little over halfway done. I'm lucky to gain 2-3 territories per sim.

I'm losing the Sims at a 4-1 rate. Turn 13 and barely at the cubs. Lucky to get 2 spaces per turn.

This has been the hardest showdown for me. I have failed a showdown twice since they became a thing and now am 0 for 3 on this one. The timing window seems really off and inconsistent from moment to moment in this one. Lots of good contact for outs. Maybe ramping it up to get us ready for extreme?

I recently had shoulder replacement surgery and got bored so I set it to timing and classic so I could play with 1 hand. I only played against the computer on rookie but classic is terrible. The only way I could throw strikes consistently was to aim down the middle and even then it wasn't a great strike percentage. I normally use pure analog which works great for me. I imagine any other setting will beat classic.

There have been 3 years I have found myself hating online play since I started DD in 16. 18 was horrible, the pitch speed was so slow that it made hitting feel super easy but the outcome was random. So many perfectly timed squared up balls that were routine flyouts. 20 & 21 were also really bad. I thought 17 was the best. It was the year I fell in love with online play and felt like the closest version we've had where we were rewarded accurately with out actual input. The beginning of 19, for about a month or so, is a close 2nd. Unfortunately, they did their normal thing and started tweeking with stuff and screwed it up to where it ended very bad. This year, hitting has seemed okay for me so far but pitching is back to the default down the middle often which I hate. I find myself starting to come back to online play a little.