Community Forum

@Honor_The_Game44_PSN said in Crazy how SDS doesn’t even try to retain their customers:

I really may be off here, but it seems that the players who really like the game this year are offline players. The like having long programs that they are always working on.

Mostly offline player here. This has been the least fun MLB game I’ve ever played. And yes, I collected bobble heads for immortals. The cards are completely uninspiring rehashes each set. Getting a player’s 99 day 1, then 92 version next set, then 97, then back to 99 is horrible. In previous years every program had at least a few cards that made your lineup. This year we only complete programs to add cards to the set collection. And the method of completing programs has been beat to death. Conquest needed a rework two years ago. Showdown has potential but they just gave up on it. Being forced to use cards you hate just to get PxP is horrible. I stopped playing last week. Last year I quit after their answer to Madden was Dollar Store Griffey. If the current content model comes back next year I’m out.

Madden 5 years ago wasn’t Madden today. The “pay 2 win” aspect didn’t appear day one. It was implemented over time. If you can’t see near identical tactics in MLB you aren’t paying attention. Yes, MLB ‘23 is much less pay 2 win than Madden ‘24. MLB ‘23 is also significantly more pay 2 win than MLB ‘22. SDS didn’t lock the best cards and most popular player names behind chase packs out of the kindness of their hearts. They didn’t remove sellable program cards because they want you to be able to earn more stubs. They didn’t make program and event rewards 95 and 97 overalls while dropping weekly 99s in packs because they despise how EA runs Madden. It’s about profit and never in history has a corporation said, “we made enough money last year, this year let’s shoot for the same or less”.

Gameplay: 6/10
Hitting was better, but p/p outs still seem too high. Pitching was worse. It’s like a dice roll with every 4th pitch going wherever. Pitching in general needs a complete overhaul. When you are forced to give pitchers outlier and sinkers just to make them usable you have a problem. Waaaay too many glitches and exploits that took months to fix.

Content: 3/10
Expiring cards is cancer in a game focused on collecting cards. Day 1 99’s ruined any sense of team building and progression. Grinding ~5 hours in August to complete a program and not a single card makes your lineup is horrible. The most exciting thing all year was Easter egg hunt and Extreme. Every other program is a copy/paste. Making every program card non sellable is EA levels of criminal. Forcing people to buy cards/packs to complete a program is also EA. Dumping a “set” and then disappearing for several weeks and using “weekly wonders” as content was terrible.

Captains: 4/10
Awesome idea ruined by expiring cards and day 1 99s. Last year this would be an easy 10/10.

Overall: 4/10
I stopped playing 2 weeks ago and have no intention of starting again. I’ve played DD since ‘17 and this is the earliest I’ve quit. Without a progression/power creep I have no interest in grinding for collection fodder anymore.

You know the game is in a bad way when ALL of the major content creators having nothing positive to say about it. Koogs, Dimmu, Shelfy, Chev, Kyle, Playful, Ray, Gomes… every one of these guys have either dedicated videos or massive social media rants about this game. And these are guys that got “care packages” from SDS.

When you start paying for my copy of the game you can dictate how I play it.

When you start working my 50 hour workweek you can dictate how I spend my free time.

Played a conquest game last night. CPU walked batter on 4 pitches. Hit the next batter on first pitch. Walked the 3rd batter on 5 pitches. In the bright side, I’m learning discipline. On the downside, I’m barely hitting .300 with most guys trying to rush conquest games.

Why is it so hard for people to comprehend that the people complaining often and loud is out of a love for something they want to be better? You should be more concerned about the people that couldn’t care less. They have already moved on. This forum, the sub Reddit, and now twitch and YouTube are overwhelmingly critical of this terrible game. If major changes are not made by SDS you will get your wish and the criticism will die. And the game will die right behind it.

You have 2 more months and this place will be a ghost town.

@Cubsfan217 said in Theory:

@chucky97___ thing is who in there right mind would buy packs right now with 3 weeks left in this season? Man i really wish they would ditch this season/sets [censored]. Its not NCAA thats going to make me quit, its seasons.

Yesterday I watched 3 different “streamers” buy every awards pack player so they could skip the grind for Gunner/Mookie. The majority are probably NOT doing this but enough to keep it profitable for SDS are. The bigger issue not being addressed is the incentive to make the grind boring and unbearable enough that more people just buy the cards to skip. This is an old free 2 play mmo/mobile game tactic. SDS has truly gone complete scum.

@genopolanco_PSN said in Program captains are why there are no 99s?:

I feel like the program captains are just to help with grinding the program. I couldn’t imagine SDS thinks people want to use a whole program team just to have a 99 Griffey.

But you don’t even unlock Griffey Sr captain until the very end of the program so that makes no sense. What you are saying would make perfect sense if you got the captain first in these programs. It’s like they don’t even play this game and have no clue how it works.

@Hikes83_PSN said in What’s the plan for S4:

What’s you plan going into next week?

Starfield

@kILLabkILLed-66_XBL said in Pitch attributes not progressing is being worked on.:

@Ayy2Brute2556_XBL said in Pitch attributes not progressing is being worked on.:

Any updates on this? As of my post it's still an issue. Has anyone found a work around?

I managed to find an almost-workaround

started a new RTTS file using one of those XP grind rosters where every player except your team is a 0 OVR. I simmed until I got a game with earn 2x towards break/control, then threw nothing but sliders all game. AI couldnt hit them at all. That managed to get my slider Break up to 37. It's now at 40.

Did the same thing over—waiting for a 2x break game—but swapped my Slider with my Curve because the AI hits the curve way better. Break upgraded to 37 same as last time. Did that a few times over to get it to 40, then swapped my Slider for my Changeup and did the same thing over again

This is may work, but is not a complete workaround since your attributes still reset. So the only way this works is by just spamming one pitch for an entire game and hoping you get enough to cycle the attribute to the next level. If you don't, your progress is lost. This seems like a simple issue that could be fixed with minimal effort. How do we get this raised up in priority lol

Once your attribute level is high (36, 37,38…) you can’t get enough in one game to level up. Ive been stuck on 37 fastball velo for 2 months. My best single game throwing 100% fastballs I had 25 strikeouts and didn’t make it to 38. Next game it reset.

@CDNmoneymaker93_MLBTS said in Other program…just in time for father’s day:

I do feel they are experimenting alot this year almost like this year's game is being treated as a beta test for next years game when it goes full current get and leaves the ps4/xb1 era behind.

The thought that I paid them $100 so they could “experiment” and beta test for next year has me very excited to pay them next year.

/s

I have a 42” LG Oled C2, a 27” 1440p 144Hz, and a Dell 24” 1080p 240Hz. I prefer the LG TV over both monitors. I sit about 3-4’ from the TV and can see much better than sitting closer to the smaller screens. I have 40+ year old vision though. If I were a 20 something snorting Adderall I’d be 2 inches from one of the smaller screens.

@St-Assassin8577_XBL said in After playing MUT:

DD is a fresh breathe of air. MUT is garbage to compare with DD. Upgrading players in MUT takes currency and player's card which more buying cards as you simply can upgrade in DD by just playing the game offline and online. So if you hate DD, just play MUT or just look at it, and you would appreciate DD a little bit.

If you put the same amount of time into MUT as you do grinding DD you can easily have a top squad. If you’ve played DD from the start you can see it clearly taking a similar path as MUT did over the years. The “at least it’s better than Madden” is the stupidest argument I’ve ever heard. Acting like SDS should get a pass for everything because their game is better than an absolute pile of dog [censored] is insane.

@raesONE-_PSN said in After playing a week of Madden:

It's funny how people are content by comparing a mediocre product to an absolute garbage product. "Oh but this product isn't as garbage as the other, therefore I appreciate it more". Simpleton logic. No offense.

Not just that, they fail to acknowledge the steps this game is taking RIGHT OUT OF THE EA PLAYBOOK.

It will be the same next year and the year after and so on. As long as Madden keeps that ~5 year head start on monetization they will be content. MLB ‘28 will be a carbon copy of Madden ‘24, “but at least SDS doesn’t charge $5 each time you start the game like Madden ‘29”.

Call of duty has them. Most MMO’s have them. This game made a sharp turn last year towards mobile/pay2win tactics. This year it’s even worse. They removed a slog grind in mini seasons that gave a pittance of xp. You will eventually see “XP Boost” packs in the shop. Write it down.

@MarioMendoza935 said in Yet Another Game “Update” That Doesn’t Address Actual Issues:

@chucky97___ said in Yet Another Game “Update” That Doesn’t Address Actual Issues:

Next Gen only is needed if we want any change, until then we're stuck with this.

If SDS actually came out and said "Hey MLBTS'ers - so, we need to sell a ton of packs this year to fund state-of-the-art servers, and a new engine for "next-gen" consoles", I probably could have gotten on board with that. I love transparency.

This.

I had a theory that ‘23 was more monetized than ‘22 because they spent big to get Jeter, McGwire, Sosa, and the NGL and needed to recover money. If they came out today and apologized for this year’s [censored] show and said, “we’re going hard on packs because we are developing an entire new game engine with new modes and legends for ‘25” I would buy a 20 bundle a week and consider it an investment in a much better game.

But there is zero communication so we are left to assume the worst.

@jake98833 said in YourfriendKyle Latest Video:

@SnakeEyes187 said in YourfriendKyle Latest Video:

You now the game is in a bad way when ALL of the major content creators having nothing positive to say about it. Koogs, Dimmu, Shelfy, Chev, Kyle, Playful, Ray, Gomes… every one of these guys have either dedicated videos or massive social media rants about this game. And these are guys that got “care packages” from SDS.

Those guys only care because their channel numbers have taken such a massive hit, and quite frankly their content is terrible anyway.

And their channels have taken a massive hit because the game is bad. You just proved my point. Weather you like, love, hate, or don’t even know who any of them are it’s very apparent they pay their rent by making MLB content.

The fact that we are even debating this in May should be a massive alarm to SDS.