Community Forum

Baahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!

I'm a casual player & play exclusively against the CPU. Franchise & Diamond Dynasty modes to be exact. Have to say that this year's version of the game is a severe let down... Sure, it's visually stunning. However, the game play leaves a lot to be desired. Mostly because the same exact glitches & hiccups seem to carry over from year to year & in this year's version they seem even more exasperating.

IMO, here are the most egregious transgressions in no particular order:

1) The CPU's ground ball rate. MLB's groundball/flyball out ratio is roughly 45%. Yet for some reason, the show's CPU teams only produce groundball outs @ 20%-25% of the time. Grossly unrealistc & it's like this every single year.

Assisted Baserunning Like I said, I'm a casual player. I prefer assisted baserunning but have had to abandon it this year because of how absurdly bad the running decisions seem to be. Even runners who have no business trying to stretch a single into a double seem to do it like clockwork in this year's game with assisted baserunning.

The CPU's superhuman fielding Another continuation year over year over year. CPU outfielders who have no business diving to make catches on scorched line drives do so with regularity. Itr's especially bad in the conquest modes.

The CPU's recovery speed locating & retrieving ricocheted ground balls on missed dive attempts. Most of these would be a physical impossibility in real life. They occur with such regularlity in this year's game that they are no longer laughable.

CPU's pickoff rate success Yet another absurdity - especially in DD's conquest mode. At least one successful pickoff of a runner on first base every fourth or fifth game. Doesn't matter the pitcher. Dosn't matter the runner's lead distance. Heck, even pitchers who never throw over to first seem to be successful at it this year. Last year they seem to make an effort to improve this & this year it's worse than ever before.

As for franchise mode, they touted improvements this year & they were all window dressing. Frankly, they simply slapped lipstick n a pig. Still no international draft, the draft itself again lacks all imagination, and coaching is still incoherent. As far as this mode is concerned, it's time for SDS to clean house and start over. So much potential for improvement & so little innovation four years running. Slap lipstic on a pig & she's still a pig underneath.

For enabling us to turn off commentary from Heidi Watney this year. Also, thank you for enabling us to turn off the in-game lineup & starting defense announcements.

Ms. Watney's comments are both obvious and obtuse. Other than allowing you to check a box off with the PC cults for gender inclusivity, she provides absolutely no value whatsoever in this game.

Also, if I had to hear Mark DeRosa tell me every single game for the third year in a row that Corey Seager is the second coming of Cal Ripken, I probably would've thrown my controller through my television screen.

Quant testing doesn't seem to be their forte... Their approach to game play updates is equivalent to the the "pull and pray" contraception method.

Obvious line drives deep into the gap & the baserunners stand motionless at second base twiddling their thumbs...

Hard grounders through the hole at short and the runners dive back to their bases....

Hard shots up the middle & even the slowest runners try to stretch the hits into a double - and wind up getting thrown out at second by a country mile....

Wild pitches thrown to the backstop at Dodger Stadium & Cincinnati & even the fastest runners just sit parked on 1st base....

Heck, a troop of monkeys could run the bases more effectively! Perhaps you should consider hiring some chimps to develop your algorithms next year? They'll probably pay more attention to detail than the sorry lot of programmers you entrusted with this year's version of the game.

@rikstarr1970_xbl said in Thank you SDS :

I agree with you 100%. I also hit the skip on Heidi’s take on the game. How do you turn off her commentating? But I have noticed that the further you get in franchise, the commentating from the broadcast crew does change up a tad.

Within the in-game Settings menu, go to the. Presentation tab. There's a toggle switch labeled In-Game Sideline Reports. Switch the setting to "Off".

@scar_usmc77_psn said in Really Wish We Could Do Something About BUNT DANCERS:

Counter with even better bunt dancing

A bunt dance off!

Another brilliant marketing move by MLB's brain trust. The Guardians... Are you friggin kidding me???

The video makes me want to puke: https://www.avclub.com/let-tom-hanks-introduce-you-to-the-new-non-racist-clev-1847350289

Get woke, go broke... #WhahooForeva

I'm a casual player & mostly play franchise. I prefer the Classic Pitching interface on HOF or Legend difficulty in a simulation mode for a competitive game. I've played over 120 games like this and have to say that the code behind the interface is complete garbage. Also, your last update unbelievably made things even worse.

The way it's presently programmed, pitchers are off their target well over 60% of the time. I'm not talking slight misses either. They don't even head toward the quadrant of the plate I'm pointing to at lest 30% of the time.

Doesn't matter the pitcher or his control stats either. Heck, I got so frustrated with the crappy pitch location that I jacked up the control to 99 on all of my pitches for all of my pitchers... it didn't make a dent.

Even fastballs aimed directly to the middle of the plate go wildly off target on a consistent basis. I mean, WTF? Mediocre high school pitchers can consistently throw toward the desired quadrant even if they're regularly missing the plate!

Either your developers have absolutely no knowledge of pitching mechanics or your executives are content with allowing your development team to release this half-baked mess.

Hire a QA team for goodness sake! Also, spend a little more time under the hood calibrating the engine & a little less on the window dressing.

@the_dragon1912 said in Classic Pitching is a Hot Mess:

To be fair classic pitching is meant for beginners and playing on lower difficulties. Should it be as far off as you describe? Probably not. But it requires literally no user input whatsoever, thus leaving it all to RNG

You're quite correct about the RNG & I'd argue that every variable dependent on a RNG in this game is sloppy... Pitch location, CPU ground ball ratios and umpire consistency being the most egregious examples. The code is sloppy and produces results that aren't even close to reality.

That said, Classic Pitching does allow for a modicum of user input... You aim the locator where you want the pitch to go. The fact that it goes far to the right 60% of the time that I'm aiming to the left side of the plate is what pisses me off.

@tigermoose93_psn said in Classic Pitching is a Hot Mess:

@the_dragon1912 said in Classic Pitching is a Hot Mess:

To be fair classic pitching is meant for beginners and playing on lower difficulties. Should it be as far off as you describe? Probably not. But it requires literally no user input whatsoever, thus leaving it all to RNG

You're quite correct about the RNG & I'd argue that every variable dependent on a RNG in this game is sloppy... Pitch location, CPU ground ball ratios and umpire consistency being the most egregious examples. The code is sloppy and produces results that aren't even close to reality.

That said, Classic Pitching does allow for a modicum of user input... You aim the locator where you want the pitch to go. The fact that it goes far to the right 60% of the time that I'm aiming to the left side of the plate is what pisses me off.

@painpa_psn said in The Fundamental Problem With Commentary:

@tigermoose93_psn said in The Fundamental Problem With Commentary:

@painpa_psn said in The Fundamental Problem With Commentary:

Remember DD's commentary is chopped to accomadate fast play.
so they either broke down longer commentary or recorded a bunch of short lines and the cpu doesnt patch them in very well.

I'm a Franchise Mode player & my opinions derive from there.

Cpu doesnt put the lines together well there either, in addition to the brodcasters not reading the script before recording it, not protesting the asinine comments they just recorded,and it receiving only minimal attention in several years

Agree. Mark DeRosa comes across like Chris Farley in Tommy Boy in this game.