Community Forum

Okay, just saw that spellcheck changed dashboarding to washboarding and I failed to catch it. My point still stands. It should have been shut down by now.

Normally that’s how I do it, almost never buying packs for that reason. But I had some stubs and thought I’d try one. Could not believe the discrepancy between the price and the cards I got. Utter robbery.

I knew packs suck, but I didn’t know they sucked THIS bad. I bought a Vault Pack for 35,000 stubs— and got two crappy Gold players I already had with a value of 1300 stubs, so sold with the stupid tax is just over 2400 stubs of value. That is insane. I get it when you pay 35,000 stubs and get a lesser card you could have bought for 20,000 when hoping to get one for 50,000. But less than 3000 stubs of value?! That is such a colossal ripoff — and I only bought one because so many cards are only available in packs this year. But this is beyond the pale of utter lameness. It’s practically criminal.

Did not remotely work. Now my game app on the iPhone and the website show me as having zero stubs and zero collected cards. This is a nightmare.

Everything is super slow for me, and I can't be sure why. In Conquest, for example, it takes around 10 seconds to go from Reinforce Team to the map getting the reinforcements. If I open a pack, it takes around 10 seconds for it to actually open. Every time I press a button there's a long delay. And, then, during a Conquest game reaction times were off for hitting and pitching. So every time I threw a pitch, it would go to that big red zone at the bottom of the meter and throw the ball in the dirt. Is this happening to anyone else? What would be the cause of this?

Hmm. I thought I finished the (somewhat endless) Jeter storyline (or at least all that's come out so far), and I don't think I got all those cards. I know I got Chili and maybe O'Neill, but that's it. Where would I find the cards in my Collection?

You have to go to the Customize section and click on the logo there. I just highlighted everything as a group and deleted it, then put in my own logo. I thought if I'd changed the logo on the hats for my DD team, that would be sufficient. But you have to go to the Logo Option, too.

Seriously, what is going on with the excruciatingly long loading times for everything in the program? I have a PS5, which last year was lightning quick with everything. Now, whether it's clicking to open a pack, clicking on a card, going between different modes, clicking on Team Affinity moments -- literally everything -- it takes super long. Even on a PS4 I don't recall this slowness. Is anyone else experiencing this? Is SDS aware of it? I haven't even tried any online gaming yet, but know there were server issues. Could that be affecting this or is it the game itself? (I've always played off a physical disc before and this is the first time I'm playing off a digital download version).

Well, it's taken a while, but I finally discovered the secret to hitting. And it's none of the tips people have shared online or in videos, etc. It's simply this: get a state-of-the-art TV, preferably Sony. My dad just traded out a TV that was only 4 or 5 years old for a new Sony Bravia TV.

Here's the difference:

On the old TV, which played at 1080p, but not 120hz or 4K, every time I swung at a pitch I was late or very late. It got to the point where I pretty much had to swing the moment the pitch left the pitchers' hand or I'd never catch up to a fastball or sinker. If I had a RH batter facing a RH pitcher, I could not hit anything thrown hard and inside unless I sat on it at the expense of hitting anything else. The lag time was insane. In Ranked, every hitter on my team was batting under .200.

On the new TV, everything changed. Suddenly, I was EARLY on every pitch or even VERY EARLY. I had to recalibrate everything I'd been doing while hitting (and am still in the process of relearning how to time things). But the change is major. Now, I can turn on an inside fastball or sinker with a RH batter facing a RH pitcher. My hitters are batting more in the .300 range with power. I'm able to score a lot, so the days of trying to eke out a 1-0 or 2-1 win are over. I can compete in Events. I haven't won 12 yet in one turn, but I got up to 8 or so, when my best before was maybe 3 or 4.

I used to not be able to believe how bad I was with how many hours I'd played the game. Now I know, it wasn't me. It was the TV -- and Sonys actually are geared to enhance game play with the PS5. Some parts are still me, but almost entirely related to poor joystick movement. I still move it too hard and often swing under a pitch, etc. But I'm getting better at that now that I don't have to worry about terrible timing as well.

Anyway, "life-changing" is probably too extreme to describe getting better at a video game, but it has certainly and significantly upped my enjoyment. I haven't been able to match the true studs at this game -- those teams who have players all hitting over .400 and .500 and never swing at a bad pitch and hit every strike you throw for a home run or bullet (of course, they almost always seem to play in those stupid HR hitting parks or custom abominations where every flyball is a HR). But I'm at least competitive in almost every game now, and winning a significant amount of the time. I've probably gone from a .450-.500 player to a .550-.650 player. Or in real-life terms, a mediocre team to a playoff contender.

And it's entirely because of the TV. I can't believe I can actually track a pitch now and wait to hit it. It's great. It's like someone with terrible vision getting glasses. Now I know some people had advised getting a monitor over the years, and it probably affects game play the same way. I just wasn't able to get that setup. But now I have something that's at least close to that if not the same. And I think it's terrible and unfortunate that to play this game well, you really need to step up and buy an expensive, high-end TV. But that's the reality.

So that's the secret to hitting. Forget beating yourself up because you suck. Or religiously watching video tutorials. Just get a better TV.

Full disclosure: I've been playing on a very, very large screen with 4K resolution and 120hz speed. For a variety of reasons, I've been having to play on a 1080p screen, I'm assuming at a slower processing speed. I am suddenly unable to hit. It's been pathetic. I can barely hit on Veteran, and when I play online on All-Star in Ranked, I really, really suck. Every game I get maybe 2-4 hits if I'm lucky and strike out almost 1/2 the time or more.

But it's not just me. Granted, the teams I'm playing are also lowly ranked, but they're hitting as poorly as I am. Every game is usually 1-0 or 2-1. Some team might walk into a HR. Or another might steal a run here or there. But neither team is really hitting at all. It's like playing in 1968 and facing Bob Gibson every game.

So my question is -- has the game made hitting appreciably more difficult in the last month or so? Or is it me adjusting to this new system?

The fact is I don't see much of a difference visually. Except I cannot just not get around on a fastball. Sometimes even if I've got the PCI where the pitch gets thrown, I can't get around on it. And then, when I try just starting my swing earlier, I'm completely incapable of hitting a breaking ball or judging whether it's in the strike zone or not. It's really frustrating, and you have to believe me when I tell you I used to be able to hit. And if was sitting fastball, I'd crush it. Playing Mini Seasons Extreme, I was able to regularly beat the computer. Now I can barely muster a run or two in Veteran.

So if anyone has any constructive thoughts, insights, advice, or help, I'd really appreciate it because the fun factor of playing the game -- especially online -- has fallen off a cliff.

I've noticed some other posts on this, but in the last few weeks I've been seeing flashing white dots on all player faces during day games. What's going on with that? Has anyone who makes the game responded to it?

I hate this Showdown. I got to the 2nd-to-last one against Berrios and literally every time I stung the ball, it was right at a fielder or died on the warning track. Got nothing off of him. It was so frustrating. My normal MO in showdowns is to skip the 2nd-to-last one and go to the last one, but when I tried that... 11 runs proved to be too much to get off Carrasco. Same deal as with Berrios, every time I made good or solid contact it was right at a fielder. I think I came within 4 runs. So I've gone almost the distance twice with two different strategies and lost both. It's so annoying. And it seems like virtually every one of the Season 4 programs seems to require you to do the Showdown to get the full points. Ugh. Hate it.

I tried doing the drag bunt/vision thing and, well, maybe I'm just not good or experienced at it. I mean, I do bunt a lot which gets me some wins and tend to fill my bench with speed and bunting guys, but I didn't find a lot of options. One time I was able to get Ozzie Smith and Rod Carew, but my drag bunts weren't very good. I also tend to pop out a lot, which sucks when you're just trying to advance a runner, let alone bunt for a hit.

I know ignoring them is a possibility, but in past years I've been able to complete everything. It's my personality to not let anything go and be completist. Last year was the first year I was able to actually collect every card. This year it's not even close. I'm just saying the time deadline for a season -- not to mention having a life -- limits the ability to do all the offerings. And, at least in the first 3 seasons, I didn't feel the strain. It seems in season 4 there's a lot more to get through and each thing in and of itself seems to take more time and commitment. I just think they need to find a better balance, especially because you can't use all your players throughout the year. And, again, it gets boring having to re-collect players you've already collected. They tried something new this year. Parts were good, parts were not. And, for whatever reason, Season 4 has been more frustrating than fun for me. There's just not enough time in the day to do as much as they're throwing out there. And now there's the Division Series program.

There are too many programs to finish in Season 4 -- and too many seem to need a victory in Showdown to complete them. There are about three weeks or so before Season 5. I don't see any way to finish Team Affinity and all the various other programs that have dropped by then. I won't even have time to play Ranked Seasons or Battle Royale or Events. Just finishing the Moments sections -- usually the easiest and quickest things to deal with -- is taking me forever. There's a ton of them, and a lot seem to be worth only 1 point which makes for a real slog. Just curious if others are finding this to be the case, too. And FWIW, I'm also sick of working to get the cards of players I got in other seasons or collections. How many Juan Sotos or Randy Johnsons or Mark McGwires, et. al. are we supposed to collect? I was intrigued by the fractured seasons and being able to use 99s earlier in the year, but it's now getting tiresome and onerous. I just don't have enough time to do it all. I think they need to take a hard look at what's working and what isn't this year, and then adjust next year's game accordingly.

Missed it -- what was the last Flash Sale at 3:30 PT?

When I hit the start button, there's a brief video glitch, then the blue line makes the circle over the X, and then nothing happens, and it forces me to choose the difficulty level and it keeps repeating in a loop without ever getting to the game.

I just asked this in a previous post -- but do partial achievements in one Extreme mini-season carry over if I restart? In other words, I need one more victory to reach 10 Hall of Fame victories. Does it start all over again if I restart the season, or would I just have to win one more in the new season?

Just curious, if, say you've won 8 games on All-Star in Extreme mini-season but don't win the 15 required for the reward, and then you start a new Extreme mini-season, do those wins carry over so you just have to win 7 more? Or if you strike out 20 people on Legend in one Extreme Mini-Season, do you just have to strike out 10 in another Extreme Mini-Season? Or do all of these have to happen within the same Extreme mini-season?

How do you have the CPU generate the line-up? As soon as I hit the manage line-up button, the server error comes up.

I'm 21 games into Extreme Mini-Seasons - one game out of a playoff position and one game shy of winning 10 on Hall of Fame. I tried to swap out a RH reliever for a LH reliever (Alexis Diaz for Jose Alvarado), it didn't take. Then when I tried to start a game a quick video glitch keeps happening and then the X completes its blue circle, but doesn't start. It returns to the difficulty screen. And this process repeats ad infinitum. At other times, it says I don't have enough relief pitchers. But when I hit the "Manage Roster" button, it says, "Unhandled Server Exception Occurred."

HELP! Are others having this problem? (I didn't see it in the Forums, I saw a similar post re: Conquest). Is SDS aware of this? Is there a fix? Thanks!