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@seanstephans_PSN - you're a young man. I'm 55. But yeah, the rest of your post I definitely agree with. Re-started all my RTTS saves. Create a Crime Dog 3B who gets drafted by the Reds. On day 1 of AA, my guy is a 99 OVR. Unsurprisingly, I'm killing it. Get to AAA right after the AA all-star game (totally scripted). Get called into the manager's office - change to 1B or be put on the trading block because I'm "blocked". I say pound sand - I'm staying at 3B. The next day, I'm traded. Two weeks later, I'm in the majors. It's just weird logic that's baked into the game all over. I had been hoping for years that eventually they were going to improve their management AI. But still no real improvement.

@seanstephans_PSN - yeah, my SP has 5 pitches as well. My point being that my RP pitch selections caused my SP pitcher (totally different archetype) to have his 1-2-3 pitches changed. Pitches 4 & 5 didn't change. Also, my RP started with 5 pitches.

My point of the original post being that the 5 pitches seem bound to the Universal Player which means you can't even have a SP and a RP with truly unique pitch types.

@Rathanian_PSN but were you a 2-way player or RF only? It was the 2-way players who were getting dropped from the postseason rosters if I recall correctly.

@rathanian_psn said in If you had to choose right now RTTS 2020 or RTTS 2021?:

But I doubt it goes back to the old method. Though I hope I am wrong but I think the load outs are here to stay.

You're right - loadouts and Archetypes are definitely here to stay. SDS has said as much already. Something about how this is the direction they are going to build on in the future. But my opinion is that they definitely could have implemented this without impacting RTTS nearly as much as they have in 2021.

The game play in 2021 is actually quite good, and there are things I like about the Archetype system. SDS could "fix" RTTS, imo, by making one major change - allow second and subsequent RTTS careers to NOT be linked to the Universal Profile. Meaning they could start at "30" all over again - could have a different physical appearance - maybe could even learn to throw a knuckleball and also not have the exact same pitch selection as the "main" RTTS save - and pick their own secondary position if they truly do not want to be a 2-way player. Yet at the same time allow games played with the "non-linked" RTTS career to count towards Archetype and Program progression (because everyone wants goodies). This fairly simple (in concept at least) change could resolve about 95% of the issues that players seem to have with RTTS.

And, yes, allow RTTS to function in offline mode. Points you earn towards progression should simply be in local cache until server connectivity is restored.

Hopefully in a future version. Obviously not going to happen in 2021, so I'm back to playing 2020 for now.

I've really tried to like the 2021 version of the game. I've leveled up multiple Archetypes to Diamond. According to my Universal Profile, I've played 192+ hours of the 2021 version (granted, some of those were with the game paused or whatnot). I've spent a lot of time posting on this forum trying to help other players where I could.

As a player whose primary playing is in RTTS mode, I don't find this year's version nearly as appealing as previous versions have been. I'm fairly sure if I were a DD player, I would feel differently but I'm not.

So a few weeks back I bought the 2020 version from Amazon on the cheap and have started playing that. Anyone else gone back to a previous version?

Once you hit 100 at Diamond level and got all those rewards, you no longer can progress the Archetype. So yeah, getting progress towards whatever the current carrot at the end of the stick that SDS puts out there will still happen, but not any further Archetype progress. It's not repeatable after the first 100.

I currently have 2 Diamond Archetypes at 100/100 (The Hawk and Cool Papa) and another 2 which I'm grinding through (Crime Dog and Billy the Kid). But once you have those all levelled up, then there's no more sense of growth at all. It's just playing the game - significant less feeling of satisfaction as compared to previous years versions where you still felt like there was room to improve your player even 5, 6 years into a career.

I'm not sure what you mean by "best". My Crime Dog build is as follows: Crime Dog is Diamond level, so I have 4 Perk slots. The Perks I have bound to it are (all Diamond): Contact 6, Power 1, Fielding 4, and Contact 2. My base stats (not including equipment) with that build is: 93 Contact and 94 Power. The big thing to remember is that going over 99 is meaningless - the game will cap at 99. You only get over 99 with the gear bonuses applied. So don't stack a bunch of Power Perks because they literally end up not adding anything.

With gear, my CON is 116 and POW is 117. Hope this helps.

@SamuSuppiluliuma - I salute you sir. Your post is well written very detailed and hopefully something SDS looks at when trying to figure out what went wrong with this year's version of the game.

ROFL - yeah, the AI trade logic has been a source of lots of consternation and puzzlement for years now. Not a huge surprise that they still don't have it dialed in.

If you are exclusively an RTTS player, then IMO 2020 or 2019 are clearly the superior games over 2021.

So this surprised me. Figured I'd post here - not sure if others have seen this or not, or even view it as an issue.

So I play multiple different saves in RTTS. I have a speed guy, a power guy, a 2-way player, a SP (not 2-way) but hadn't tried a RP. Decide to give it a shot. From the main menu, built a new loadout for the "Filthy" archetype which I had never played before. My intention is to sim the first game (where the AI manager makes you start) with my SP Archetype loaded, then sim the next two games (where the AI has you play in the field) and then when I get the call from my agent, explain that I only want to pitch and I see myself as a closer.

Things are going according to plan until the coach asks me what my pitches are. I think to myself "why not mix it up??" and instead of going 4SFB, Change, and Curve as my 1-2-3 I go with Cutter, Circle Change, and Screwball. I do this with my Filthy Archetype set as active.

Yeah - that changed the pitch repertoire for ALL of my pitching saves, regardless of Archetype selected. So your pitch repertoire is not bound to your Archetypes of your RTTS saves, it's bound to your Universal Player. Be careful of changing your pitch types if you run multiple saves with multiple different pitchers.

Also, I had a 4th and 5th pitch learned for my SP Archetype - 2SFB and Slider. My RP with the brand new Archetype starts off with 5 pitches - and the 4 & 5 are 2SFB and Slider.

Yet another thing about this new system that to me seems like a huge downgrade from the prior year's versions.

RTTS trading has been really screwy for as long as I've been playing this title which is ~10 years now. And in that time, I have seen some truly perplexing trades and even been traded in some moves that made zero sense to me.

Worst example I've ever seen: In a previous year's version I have a SP with a 97 OVR in his 5th year or so - he's in his absolute prime at about 23, 24 years old. I'm the #1 starting pitcher on my favorite IRL team. Have won the Cy Young award a few different times. Led the team to a WS championship. Been starter in the All Star game several years in a row. Contract renewal time comes up. They offer me like $22M per year for 3 years or something like that. I sign a long-term 10-year deal at game minimum $30k per year. My logic - money means nothing in the game, therefore why not leave more in the team budget so that hopefully the GM uses the extra funds to improve the team around me. Also, I figure there is no freaking way they would ever trade away such a bargain-basement contract - what could possibly be the motivation?

The very next Spring Training I get traded out. To one of the very worst teams in the league. And despite continuing to pitch amazing, I can't win more than 15 games and for the next few years before I quit the save never got within sniffing distance of a .500 record, much less the playoffs. What did my prior team get in return for me? Three guys - all career minor league layers. OVRs in the mid-50s, aged in their late 20s to mid 30s. Guys who were never going to do anything in The Show.

Never trust the trade logic in RTTS. Never sign a long term contract.

TBH, I'm unsure what could be the issue here. I don't think I've ever gone that long without being called up or traded to another team that immediately called me up. What is your OVR?? After playing 3 complete years I would think whatever Archetype you are using should have progressed to at least Gold by now, if not Diamond. Assuming you are upgrading your Archetype and Perks in your loadout? Seems like your OVR should be at least 90 by now.

Yikes!!! If you are not getting a chance to talk with your manager and/or your agent then I don't think there is a way out man. I'm sorry.

@StainlzSteelRat_XBL Good to know man, thank you!! Yeah, I'm thinking those opportunities that give you the chance to change your mix (assuming 2-way) every so often - or go back to 2-way might be the best path to position changes now. I'll have to test that and see what I find. But thanks for this information - at least maybe there's a way out of being stuck at a unwanted position.

Not seamlessly no. Used to be that you could set your own secondary position. Then eventually the manager would ask you if you want to be moved to that secondary position. And that's how you could sort of make it happen. But with 2021 and the two-way model, you don't get to set your secondary position. IMO, they should have accounted for this by building in at least annual meetings with the manager "how do you feel things are going" where you could revisit position changes, or whether you are one-way or two-way, etc. So at this point I'm not sure that you ever get to switch position unless you are asked to do so by the club.

@SGMRock_XBL Interesting. On PS4 I will often have the pitcher attempt to pick me off even before I've "settled in". I'm walking away from 1B to get into position and the guy is throwing at me. Taking that "one step" lead - it's not uncommon to have him attempt to pick me 5+ times per. Which is why I'm constantly leaning on the left joystick to the left - to avoid the pickoff. Then once the pitcher definitely is throwing home, I quickly move to right.

Taking a "two step" lead is impossible - the pitcher will never deliver the ball to the plate. Pick off attempt after pick off attempt after pick off attempt.

I mean I've had guys with the 2021 version of the game have 60+ steals. I had one guy get called up in early August, got 40+ steals in two months, and win ROTY. I know how to steal. Generally speaking, if your stats are decently high, you get that one step lead, and a good jump you will be successful >90% of the time. That's why getting thrown out 3x in a row by a mediocre catcher threw me off.

So this is more of a game feedback and not a bug report per se.

I've been working up a "The Wizard" archetype which emphasizes defensive skills, contact, and speed. Repeatable tasks include plate appearances, assists, putouts, hits and stolen bases.

My current relative stats for this build are speed 100 and steal 101 (80 base on both, but with gear I hit those numbers).

So I'm playing a series in AAA ball against the Isotopes. I get thrown out stealing 2nd base three different times in the first two games of the series. In all three cases, my experience was like this:

• (1) take lead off from first, hit R1 one time to try and get a good but not great lead. Deal with multiple consecutive pitcher attempts to pick me off at first (at least 3 each time, one time 6). Keep the left joystick to the left so that I don't get picked off. Wait it out;
• (2) pitcher finally makes the motion to deliver the ball to the plate, quickly move the left joystick in a snappy left-to-right motion and my guy makes his jump. Notice with satisfaction that I get a + Stealing pop-up for a second (indicating I got a good jump);
• (3) get nailed out at 2nd.

Frustrated because, hey, I want those stolen bases for my archetype progression and I want to understand how a guy with 100 stealing gets tossed out by a AAA catcher. So I dig into it. Checking the box scores of both games, the catcher for the Isotopes is Jose Briceno who has an arm strength of 72 and accuracy of 58. Also in the box scores show my teammates who were able to successfully steam bases. So I check their stats. The fastest guy has speed 70, stealing 34. The slowest has speed 44, stealing 19.

So what the ever-loving heck is going on here?? How does the guy with the mediocre (at best) arm throw me out 3 of 3 times when I get a good lead and a good jump all 3 times, yet somehow get stolen on by AI with mediocre to lousy stats??

@HumbleGuyCrumb_PSN

Are you PS5 or PS4? I'm still on a 4.

So I switched to my 2-way RTTS guy to check this out. When I'm in clubhouse and make the "My Player" active by moving to it and then hit triangle, my player card comes up and what shows in the upper right corner is my pitching repertoire - my 5 pitches and what their average velocity should be. If I switch to one of my fielding archetypes and do the same thing, what's in the top right is again my pitching repertoire. Same pitches but with lower speeds because the loadout messes with that.

When I exit RTTS and load up one of my one-way guys who is a position player only (in this case CF) and do the same thing, what I see is a heat map of the pitching zones vs left and vs right - I again don't see what you are describing.

When I exit RTTS again and load up yet another one-way guy but this one a pitcher I see the pitching repertoire again.

I'm sorry man but I'm not seeing what you are describing.

@HumbleGuyCrumb_PSN - I saw your post on that earlier and to be honest I couldn't even find where you were seeing that. I loaded my two-way guy and couldn't figure out where you found that. Can you walk me through how you got there?