Community Forum

I’m tired of getting ticked off even playing a rookie CPU game. There’s just no fun this year in this game. Getting close to just moving on. I play this game quite a bit, but I’m not gonna finish the second inning (I’m at around 410k). Had several wheel spins in 1st inning, got the 30k head start, finished all of the programs except egg hunt, did a mini season, continued with Team Affinity. Stat grinds are tedious and not rewarded enough with XP in offline games. I’ve decided I’m just gonna save the latest Spotlight program for inning 3 for the XP. This game has always just been a way to wind down after hard days at work. It’s become too much of a chore, especially considering how inflated Live series diamonds (upper) are, and how the game just hasn’t evolved hardly any in several years. It’s a shame really. I’ve said it before and caved, but I’m just not buying this game again until it evolves. I mistakenly thought it had for this year. It’s gotten worse. Not sure how SDS thought nerfing elevation, nerfing hitting, and having CPU pitchers throw fewer pitches in the zone was gonna be a fun experience. There has to be a huge number of players not completing this inning this time.

@LuvMyXBOX_XBL I think hitting sucks offline too. Couple that with jacked up reaction times and speed of even rookie CPU defenders and the game gets old quickly. Game will be stale before summer if they don’t fix the hitting.

Absolutely my last year buying this game and I’ve spent thousands on it over the years. It’s tedious, not as fun as it once was, and not rewarding. Something is definitely up with the pack odds this year. I’ve never had so few diamonds considering the number of packs opened. However, the biggest problem I have is just how little rewarded you are with gameplay PXP with bad hitting and unreal CPU defense on rookie (especially). There’s no fun way to grind stats this year and I absolutely don’t have time to play several hours per day. Lately, I give the game one CPU 9 inning game to pull me in. If hitting isn’t bad and I’m not getting gipped by the computer, I might continue to play longer that day. Otherwise, I’m done. Not gonna let myself continue to get ticked off playing rookie CPU games. There are more fun things I can do. If I had this year to do all over again, I wouldn’t have wasted money buying it. If I wanted to get ticked off and ripped off by a sports game, I would’ve played 2K and Madden. MLB is right there with them now.

XP grind offline is terrible. Just not enough Xp awarded for playing CPU games. I wish we could at least get some more XP for repeating mini-seasons. It’s crazy that we can play 3 full 9-inning CPU games scoring a bunch of runs, getting lots of hits, and pitching perfect games and get less than 8-10k XP for all that time. I ended up with around 350k in Inning One, and I’m not sure I’m gonna get to 500k this time either unless they double XP for longer and give more XP in programs. It’s ultimately just gonna make me want to stop playing. I’ve never had this hard of a time completing innings in previous years.

I fear this is just gonna be a problem the rest of the year. It’s the year of the Pack. They don’t want you grinding for good rewards this year. Bottomline.

I do feel like on Rookie, the CPU needs to throw more pitches in the strike zone and tone down the superhuman defense. So tired of barely making it to second base on balls hit to the wall in the gap or having an 80+ runner barely make it home on a sac fly to the warning track. The reaction times of CPU defenders should be the same as human defenders, considering the players are supposed to have the same attributes. The CPU grabs every ball with a bare hand and throws immediately. Slow it down. So annoying this year, even worse than years past. Making a game on lower levels tedious does not make me want to continue to play the game.

@Teak2112_MLBTS It’s a video game. It’s not a real game of baseball. It’s not a fun experience to play 30 minutes and win 3-0.

Nothing is gonna change with this game until people just stop buying stubs or purchasing the game altogether. I’m getting tired of playing 30 minutes and only getting 1.5-2.5k XP. My job is stressful enough every day for long hours to keep playing this game without having fun and not getting my time compensated for enough. Other than money, I just don’t understand why SDS is trying so hard to alienate their player base. They used not to be like this. Someone different is calling the shots and pointing them in a different direction.

I’m halfway. I’m to point now that I just don’t care. I may pop on and complete programs the rest of the year, but I’m done caring about this game. Bungie ran Destiny into the ground, and now SDS is running MLB into the ground. It’s obvious they are monetizing this game more and more and seemingly just care about the launch of the mobile game. I’ve downloaded Forza 6 and the LEGO Batman game, and will shift focus towards those and Black Flag when it comes out. Also time to address more of the games in my backlog on XBox and Switch. MLB has become a timesink that’s just not worth it.

It’s truly just a joke now that you get between 2K - 2.5k for about 30 minutes of your time playing the CPU (if you have a good offensive game). These game developers are doing everything they can to milk money out of you, while at the same time running away their most loyal players. I’ve literally spent thousands of dollars on this game over the years, but I refuse to spend another dime. I went against my better judgement the last couple years when I was saying I’d never fall for it again, but I definitely won’t do it again going forward. SDS has completely flipped their scripts. I feel like it’s because of the mobile game. The people calling the shots are ridiculous now apparently.

Sorry but XP caps are dumb in any game. Why keep playing if you’re not earning XP in a game that rewards earning XP? I understand why they want to slow things down, but people sometimes have to binge a game when they have time. We aren’t all content creators that play all day long to unlock cards. It’s a childish punishment.

I typically get to wheel spins every season in the XP path just by playing CPU games and finishing most programs. Just not happening this year. I only got to 350k season one and I’m only at 150K this season after playing a lot. The game is awarding way too little XP for games, even the games that I’m scoring 20+ runs and 25+ hits. The last 2 weeks of a season need to be double XP. It’s just making the game not very fun, especially with low diamond pull rates.

There’s so little XP earned for games now, I don’t see how any offline grinders can even hit a cap. I played for 5 hours one day this weekend against CPU and a few moments and barely hit 20k XP. Couple that with CPU pitchers that barely throw strikes and the games is gonna get old fast this year. Sure hope changes are coming. I have a full time job and lots of responsibilities so hitting a million xp is not gonna be easy or fun.

It’s annoying but I’m finding that it is training me to be a little better at seeing pitches headed out of zone. It definitely needs to be changed though. CPU games are so slow and not worth it with such minuscule XP earned each game. It will take Double XP days in order to get the same XP per game that we’ve gotten in past years. It goes well beyond just walks. I’ve had my batters hit with pitches more than the last few years combined already. I swing at pitches to prolong at bats, just to give my players a chance to accumulate stats. One thing I will also mention is that I’m seeing way more well struck baseballs dying at the wall, even when playing at short created stadiums. I do think part of that is due to glitchy wind patterns. Maybe I’m different than many players, but sometimes I just prefer a more arcade feel to the game. If I’m playing on Rookie, I want to enjoy the experience of a lot of offense. Simulation should be for higher levels of play. This year’s gameplay is not living up to their own definitions of what the lower level experience should be. They are just too hung up on not wanting fast progression in the game. That should be the decision of each player. We should be able to progress as quickly as we want if we are putting legitimate hours into it. Nobody should be cut off from XP gains after just a few hours, especially with such minuscule gameplay XP being awarded now. I can understand that it may take time for an update, but this team heightens negativity with such poor communication about issues. And I do expect them at some point to give a statement saying that they have been gathering data before making changes. It’s just the wrong way to go about things in a social media world and in games that have forums monitored by the development teams and studios. This year is disappointing so far and needs a turnaround quickly before it’s too late to save it.

Love it or hate it, I really think SDS is using this year as a test of the tolerance of the player base. It’s a bit of a titration of what people will pay to play the game and at what point the player base declines. I’m curious if it was a one-person decision at SDS. I’ve played for quite a few years, paying a lot of money because I have OCD tendencies, but the only thing positive I can really say about the game this year is that servers seem more stable. Other than the first few hours of early release, I haven’t noticed many hiccups. Unfortunately that’s my only positive so far. The low XP cap, little content, expensive packs with low odds, no sell rewards, continued seasonal sets that will require you to pay to get all 3 reward cards, etc are all just very disappointing. I hope it changes but I’m not sure that the whole year hasn’t already been predetermined and locked in. We may be down to zero major sports games that aren’t using this model. It needs to be give and take and not take take.

I think Showdown cards should be sellable. Frankly, I don’t like playing it either.

Ain’t gonna lie, kinda bad look to monetize Jackie Robinson Day.

XP is nearly impossible to complete for the average gamer that has maybe a couple hours to play the game. Everything they do now seems to be geared towards spending stubs or money to complete collections and paths. Can we please have another major MLB licensed game to compete with this one so some real improvements can be made? The direction of this game turned to very negative way about 3 years ago. I went against my first thoughts and bought the game again, but I absolutely won’t waste another dime on stub purchases ever again. I’ve spent so much money on this game over the years. I used to always complete the Live series within the first 2-4 weeks. Ain’t falling in that money trap again for a game that cares less and less about its player base. It’s disappointing. Someone in the lead of this game series has made some detrimental decisions the last 3 years.

Gave up on it for this inning. Saving Program XP for the next one, although it’s doubtful I will play the game enough to complete the path the rest of the year. Feels good to have broken my MLB FOMO habit. Mostly doing other things. Will play Forza and a few other games, plus reading and watching real baseball a lot.

We grind this game by accumulating stats. Those stats don’t include walks. Tone down the balls way out of the zone. Also, either get rid of wind altogether or fix the direction glitch when you start a game.