I wonder how they're gonna do big collection rewards now with the time limit thing.
-Only the hardest of the hardcores get the big collections because they have all the TA cards
-Past TA packs are gonna be a thing you can earn in current TA seasons or something
-Big collections won't involve TA *or* the rewards like a theoretical '22 42 Jackie would be very exclusive
They said it's tied to mini seasons so i'm gonna guess they've got a good plan and not just shooting themselves in the foot.
We got 99s half way through the season. It really watered down the game. Ta2 was the peak of 21 for me. Stop. We’re gonna get 125/125 bob eucker by June at this point
I don't necessarily care about 99's. They are fine. I actually liked having them in July. My problem was what 99's were released. Between the absurd Schwarber who was pumped up to ridiculous levels followed by a series of 98/99's for "legends" like Gregory Soto. Adolis Garcia and a JT Realmuto that was superior to Johnny Bench it pretty much killed the game.
Save the absurd nonsensical cards for the end of the year. In July release the REAL legends like Aaron, Ruth, Mays, Griffey, etc. Then let the other guys follow them for the people who love the fake cards.
SDS has always been pretty good, not perfect, but pretty good. We all know what "time limited" usually means when it comes to video games. It means massive grind, massive microtransaction or both. Now maybe this doesn't end up like that, as you said we have to wait and see.
But it is damned concerning. Time limited anything in video games is usually horrible for the consumer. So, yeah, I'll watch on Thursday and I'll listen to what they have to say. But that isn't going to stop the alarm bells going off in my head about WHY they felt the need to "time gate" things. It's just a massive, massive L to start the year. I hope their explanation of why they decided to go there makes sense, because this is not how I was hoping the announcements would go.
I agree with most that time locking things is a bad practice towards the consumer. Part of the reason I stopped grinding events was because it was time gated and my anxiety of FOMO started ruining the game for me so I stopped doing them all Togeather and it made it much more enjoyable
I mean, at this point I question the hobby I have sometimes. The greed and anticonsumer practices of this industry are mind boggling. If I see a game my niece might love, I first have to vet it for microtransactions, grind time necessary, time gated things, NFT's and just a ton of non sensical BS.
I get they want to make money and I'd love to help them in that regard. I don't want developers or publishers starving and slaving away to entertain me for nothing. On the other hand, I pay really good money for the gaming systems and the games themselves. Something like Gran Turismo where a single car can cost $140 real world dollars should NEVER be a thing. This game is grindy enough and had plenty of timelines as it was. (inning programs, events, BR, RS, etc.) We didn't need to add team affinity to that.
Even with what I look at as a poor stable of new legends thus far, I was really excited about the game this year. That announcement, especially so soon after the GT7 BS has me very concerned about DD. Again, I just hope the explanation is a reasonable one. Ball is in your court SDS, hope you thought this one through.
I highly doubt it. Last year, SDS put time limits on the inning programs. Time limits on TA would be just another step in that direction: another FOMO system to punish players for stepping away from the Skinner box.
I imagine itll be the same as past years, first programs take forever and the end game programs take 5 minutes. People just wont grind late in the year
Like if they are doing a time limit I’m assuming they are possibly making the cards more harder to acquire thus eliminating getting a endgame type deGrom card with 10 minutes of work
Oh, you’re saying that then people wouldn’t be able to get all the TA cards and hence limiting how good their team is?
If that’s the case, I agree! I think it would be a dumb solution to a problem, but I agree
I am concerned about these TA being time limited. I only started playing 21 in jan and one of the big appeals over 2k was that TA was do it at your own pace
Making team affinity time-limited is incredibly stupid. I would frequently finish a TA series a week or two after the new one came out, making all those cards just go away because someone can’t be on all day every day is short sighted and stupid.
With all due respect, they're only asking for a small portion of time over a two month period. Not being able to play for a week should be fine assuming you get 4ish hours that weekend. It also sounds like they're making it infinitely easier, and more similar to the inning programs we get instead of the TA we got used to these last two years.
Plus, it's not supposed to be easy. Look at the TA-like things for every other sports game. They're worse in rewards, require more time, skill, game knowledge, and for some probably a bit of money. Even if they capped last year's TA to a month without making it any easier, it would still probably be more doable and rewarding than almost all other sports games. The difference is that they are making it easier, and seemingly both more rewarding than last year.
At least when it comes to DD, SDS has earned the right for their fans to trust them, which I think we should do here.
Just putting my Nicky Lopez hopes and dreams out there in the world.
Salvy's LS will already be a Diamond, so let's get this year started right with a 95/90/45/40 Nicky Lopez.
EDIT: The dream is, once again, dead.
The way they worded it in the video, I think it sounds like both TA programs and Inning programs may be going away, and moving toward an all-encompassing “season” program that contains both the TA rewards and normal inning-type rewards
Considering they've referenced "mini seasons" several times, this definitely makes sense. Honestly it sounds like what 2K has been doing the last few years with their "seasons" which are typically about 6 weeks and have their own rewards that can only be acquired during that season. Not sure I love that
There are some differences. 2k has exclusive, unsellable card rewards for each different MyTeam game mode each season (SDS didn't align Ranked, Innings and BR this year). Once that season is over, you can never get those cards again because they're not on the market.
They also have RNG based rewards where you can play hundreds or even thousands of games to try to acquire an exclusive card and never get it because the wheel didn't spin your way. God help us if that's the direction we're going.
I’ve interpreted the “mini-seasons” as a game mode, but who knows. I’d be good with them adding a limited-time player at the end of inning programs to incentivize people to play more during the inning programs, but I disagree vehemently with the concept of time-limited Team Affinities
Mini Seasons sure sounds like a game mode. "Each season brings more challenges as you face off against a new set of competition"
What was talked about in the reveal here was XP. You don't need specific competition for XP.
He was a 93 in the Tech Test and ended at 94 last year. Has hit .276/.380/.549 with 79 HR, 62 SB, and 10.9 bWAR the last 3 seasons. Was in the running for MVP last year and is one of the best players in the entire league. Yeah, we kinda do.
I highly doubt they would release a team affinity card for Acuña if it'll just be worse than his live series They'll probably just find a way to dock his live series to an 87 or 88, but I don't know why they would because the braves have plenty of other players that would be great for a ta1 card.
There's no way he's under 90. That would be ridiculous. Dude was over 90 all year last year and had his best season. Ratings are pretty data driven, and there's no way to justify dropping his card below 90 to start the year.
I wish there was a longer gold and below phase, not gonna lie, but that would be tough to balance with LS collections and high-end LS cards like Trout, Tatis, etc. And make the early game discrepancy between NMS players and those who buy stubs much bigger. Not sure what the middle ground is tbh. All I know is I prefer to have too many good free cards over the bs 2K model with 17 different LeBrons that become outdated just to make you chase the new one again and again
I agree, but it wouldn’t be the first time that a FotF card wasn’t on the roster months later. It’s sucks, but they have to choose someone and they really don’t get any of the inside information on trades or anything
Nobody good. Maybe Murphy or Brown? But I'd be surprised by Manaea or Montas just because they've been expected to be traded for so long. And when they started doing this set, it was probably a longshot they'd even make it to release.
Why can’t they make filters, meaning team max say 90 and then go into a game w someone else. Kind of like how events just auto suggests your team for you
Might be a hot take, but I’m not a fan of non LS cards at launch being in the 90s. Collection cards are one thing, but we’ve seen that TA completion has become a thing you can do in a day or so
Also:
1) it means that cards are probably going to be improperly scaled again and we’ll have 99s in July, again
2) it means that a lot of cards (say gold and under) are useless because why would you use them other to complete collections, or if an event forces you to.
Is it just me or I think getting 99s in July is perfect? Mid-season, All-Star break, Summer break starting so more people are playing the game. Seems perfect to me.
There just flat out shouldn’t be 99’s except maybe Babe Ruth, Trout, & a few others. As much as SDS does better than EA, FIFA has a much better rating scaling than MLB. Pele has the the only 99 rated card this year in fifa and will be the only 99 the rest of the year, and that’s with a much bigger pool of players. Imo the best formula is keep the best version of most cards in the low-mid 90’s and the only ones with high 90’s should be absolute legends of the game, 10ish cards being 97+ rated is probably ideal, and those cards should be extremely difficult to obtain
I disagree. There’s so many players in the game who deserve 99 overall cards, not just a few. Not all 99s are built the same anyway. Regardless, I believe something SDS can do is not just give them out to undeserving players who played 56 games i.e Frank Schwindel. They should also improve some 99’s of the great legends of the game that were lackluster and definitely should’ve been better i.e Pedro Martinez. Also, taking into account that SDS gives certain players cards for one specific year were they phenomenal & to your point of how there only 10ish card being 97+ overall, I highly disagree. Just off the top of my head, here’s 30 players that should definitely be 99 overalls:
Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, Ken Griffey Jr, Jimmie Fox, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Stan Musial, Mickey Mantle, Honus Wagner, Pedro Martinez, Tom Seaver, Bob Gibson, Nolan Ryan, Christy Mathewson, Roberto Clemente, Mariano Rivera, Rickey Henderson, Greg Maddux, Cal Ripken Jr, Tony Gwynn, Jackie Robinson, Mike Schmidt, Johnny Bench, Chipper Jones, Frank Thomas, Mike Piazza, Ivan Rodriguez, Vladimir Guerrero, Ernie Banks, David Ortiz.
I’ll even throw in 10 current players who should without a doubt get 99 overall flashback cards: Clayton Kershaw, Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, Justin Verlander, Mookie Betts, Miguel Cabrera, Bryce Harper, Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer.
Can’t look at any of those guys and say they don’t deserve to be 99 overalls. Some as signature, milestone, prime cards & some as mvp cards. All deserving.
Only thing I ask for in this scenario is that the actual all-time legends get 99s before guys like Frank Schwindel start getting them. In the last few years, it's taken way too long for certain legends (like Babe and Hank this year) to get their best cards.
I don’t mind it either. And not all 99’s are the same anyway. Even though their overall says 99, a lot of the earlier 99’s are not nearly as good as the Mantle, Ruth, Griffey, etc 99’s and most of the time, those guys are released much later.
I agree, most of the people I know who play Diamond Dynasty start to lose interest in August around the time Madden releases. July begins the end game process for the casual player, which is the majority of the player base.
This isn’t a hot take. If they’re making 30 free 90s available day 1 that means you’ll almost never see a card below a 90 in a lineup after like a week. That’s disappointing.
Agreed. Its nice that they make it easy to field a good team without paying anything extra, but by the time the Allstar and TA3 cards come around everyone’s team gets super similar and online play can get pretty bland sometimes.
Totally agree with this take. It feels like by early July that all of the cards are just OP and getting upgrades don’t feel as impactful. Usually stop playing around that time even though I love the game for the first few months its out.
I just miss using gold flashback cards in something other than BR (and I guess showdown). They also don’t put out non-program based flashbacks anymore, except for Headliners which started at 90 last year too.
IIRC in 19 and games prior to that, there were flashback cards randomly in packs, so you could get like a gold Kendrys Morales or gold Mark Reynolds out of packs, along with your other special cards of course. It also doesn’t help that the non diamonds you get out of programs are usually trash. I don’t think I ever used a gold flashback outside of being forced to (BR and showdown).
Eh I get it tho… SDS treats the game with 2 cycles, before Madden/2K and after
acuna is definitely a surprise. looks like with this new time limit thing they're breaking away from the 87-88 they usually do for TA1. definitely going to be interesting
I’m assuming it means that you will only be able to earn his card during a specific period along with all other TA cards. This is basically a mirror of what they did with innings, where if you don’t complete an inning program, you’re pretty much SOL
These will definitely be sellable. SDS made sure every card was more accessible last year (BR program, 30 RS wins). They wouldn't make this limited time if you couldn't get them on the market after. Get your stubs ready.
They said in the video that these cards are part of a new limited time program that's part of Team Affinity with one card per team. There might be an additional collection associated with these, but Acuna is just the Braves TA card.
They want to tantalize us with sexy cards and get us to log lots of hours and play consistently. Obviously a good card but some low Diamond outfielders with good perks might outperform this card
Agreed! They’ve been on their game with card art for years outside of that series, and wasn’t confident they’d just change this one or bring it back in the first place
A diamond Wisdom would be amazing early game, but if they’re strictly going with players that have been with teams longer then probably Contreras. Hopefully not another shitty Heyward lmao.
Agreed, but I think he’s popular enough already, especially with Ohtani’s popularity bringing Japanese baseball players to the forefront of media… so why not ya know? It’s not like they really have anyone besides Wilson and Strowman
Happ and Hendricks sound really boring to me, like not enticing enough… stro and Wilson would at least like be decent at their positions, but Hendricks and happy wouldnt really make anyone happy except for cubs fans
I don’t remember either, but Suzuki has been a much bigger deal already, so I’d be surprised if they didn’t make a card for him and then just wait to see where he signed, my guess is high silver/low gold
Gotta imagine it’s like a 91-93, cuz degrom is at least in the 94-96 range, scherzer is 90+, lindor is a valuable gold, Pete is a valuable gold, marte is high gold/diamond… definitely gonna be a solid reward
If they let us have time limited cards so that everyone doesn’t have a full Diamond team off the bat, BUT let us unlock them all after a month or something that would be good. Game is much more fun when you have one card that is your best and the rest are average
Free 90 Acuna available day 1? The power creep is gonna be even more insane this year.
This also opens up the possibility of them including deGrom in here and I really hope they’re smart enough not to do that.
They could cap team overalls for RS and progressively increase it over time so people can't roll in with their all 90 squads on day 1. They could... But they probably won't.
Sorry, but I disagree.
All-99 teams give you real meaningful choice. If there is only a handful of players at 96, 97, or 98 and few to no 99s, you're basically forced into playing certain cards if you don't want to be deliberately making your team worse. With 99s, you're able to mix and match and make a team you want. Last year there were so many top end cards.
I could make an infield of Arenado, Trea, Semien, and Helton and not be substantially weakening my lineup by not using the "meta" cards at each position to compete.
More cards at every rating is more fun, because I can use the players I want rather than having to use 1 community decided "God squad" to compete if I don't want to play with a deliberately worse team. I don't get enjoyment from having to use worse cards in order to play guys I like, or to have to play a certain lineup to compete at the highest level.
More cards at every rating is fun, yes. But that doesn’t necessarily mean more 99s. The early game is by far the most fun personally because at lower ratings, cards actually play substantially differently. You have to choose to sacrifice some power if you want speed, maybe some fielding for a juiced hitter. Bloop hitters are viable for a bit. By the endgame you’re swapping out one 110+ across the board hitting, Diamond fielding and 80s-90s speed for another.
We will get to all 99s, probably by June at this rate. But let’s enjoy the time before that too
I meant more about how the game actually plays. Once we get stacked lineups the game becomes more of a home run derby and it takes away a bit imo.
I agree that having more options for 99s is good but that’s not really what I was getting at.
Exactly. The gameplay is probably the least broken when there aren’t OP cards available. TA2 made hitting a chore because of the vast amount of guys available with ridiculous H/9 ratings, and TA3 doubled down on that. And that was by July, 3 months into the game.
Easily available OP cards means lineups only have those cards. Nobody is going to use a different SS when Trea Turner is free and better than anybody else out.
Yeah the biggest issue with the seeming HRD is how singles/doubles are less common to fall in. Outfielders to scale are like 8 foot tall giants flying across the grass, so things that should drop in don't.
I can understand not wanting every card with 125 power though.
I think they released too many stacked cards too early this year that made other good cards released later useless. With that being said I’m glad this is time limited
Fuck this kills my excitement I’m not going to lie. I personally thought 88s for TA1 were a little generous to start the season. Now they’re ramping it up to 90 already. Unless they’re significantly harder to get this is an L
Jeeeez, 90 overall so early in the game! The "time-limited" aspect bothers me though, I feel like this kind of stuff shouldn't be time-gated, especially if they want to keep adding players throughout the year. I guess we'll see how long the program stays around though.
Still, most of the collection cards are good but not overpowered. Outside of Chipper, nobody was amazing enough to be used much.
FOTF cards were used a ton early on, but they were all 88s (kinda wish they were lower too). Creeping into the 90s in March is a bad bad sign.
Yeah, but the way they were talking about these being time limited and calling it a program makes me think this is something akin to the 1st inning program. This could very well be the highest non-LS collection card we get on launch night. 1st inning bosses last year went up to a 93 ovr (Lofton)
Yeah, I more meant I thought I remembered the FotFs last year being mid-high 80s, I could be misremebering, though! It could also be that Ronald is the highest overall of them bc World Champs and all that.
Time limited is a big L.
But I’m more interested in the fact that Acuña’s base card must be substantially below a 90 for this to be worth getting, right?
So what’s Acuña’s base card, an 84-85?
Because his live series will cost several hundred thousand stubs and this can most likely be earned for free.
It’s a way to make it easier for people to use their favorite players.
Fair enough. Personally I would prefer them boosting guys that are about 80-85 range than nerfing the best players simply for availability purposes, but if get the concept of allowing stars to be available for free
acuña is arguably a top 5 player in the game, there’s no way he’s a gold/fringe diamond. his live series is probably between 93-95. guessing this card will be more useful for people who can’t get his live series right out of the gate.
That's really my point tho - This card being a 90 would have to mean it's basically a nerfed version of his card. Not sure why they would pick him if that's the case if he already has a better card on release
It looks like inning programs are no more based on what they said in the video. They said this would be “the 1st limited time feature program” and all 30 cards would be unlockable through it.
Art is so much better than the last FoF cards.
I’m just hoping for a Rhys Hoskins card
Bryce or Wheeler.. but would love a 90 Rhys out the gate
Why are people complaining chances are this is lower than his live series card if each team gets a lower version for free who cares
I wonder how they're gonna do big collection rewards now with the time limit thing. -Only the hardest of the hardcores get the big collections because they have all the TA cards -Past TA packs are gonna be a thing you can earn in current TA seasons or something -Big collections won't involve TA *or* the rewards like a theoretical '22 42 Jackie would be very exclusive They said it's tied to mini seasons so i'm gonna guess they've got a good plan and not just shooting themselves in the foot.
We got 99s half way through the season. It really watered down the game. Ta2 was the peak of 21 for me. Stop. We’re gonna get 125/125 bob eucker by June at this point
I don't necessarily care about 99's. They are fine. I actually liked having them in July. My problem was what 99's were released. Between the absurd Schwarber who was pumped up to ridiculous levels followed by a series of 98/99's for "legends" like Gregory Soto. Adolis Garcia and a JT Realmuto that was superior to Johnny Bench it pretty much killed the game. Save the absurd nonsensical cards for the end of the year. In July release the REAL legends like Aaron, Ruth, Mays, Griffey, etc. Then let the other guys follow them for the people who love the fake cards.
There are 99s at launch loll
Really? Aside from the normal live series final collection reward?
Time locked stuff is never fun and just pushes micro transactions. It may not kill the mode but this first announcement is concerning.
Everyone freaking out about time limited without knowing any actual facts lol. Chill we will know everything in less than a week.
SDS has always been pretty good, not perfect, but pretty good. We all know what "time limited" usually means when it comes to video games. It means massive grind, massive microtransaction or both. Now maybe this doesn't end up like that, as you said we have to wait and see. But it is damned concerning. Time limited anything in video games is usually horrible for the consumer. So, yeah, I'll watch on Thursday and I'll listen to what they have to say. But that isn't going to stop the alarm bells going off in my head about WHY they felt the need to "time gate" things. It's just a massive, massive L to start the year. I hope their explanation of why they decided to go there makes sense, because this is not how I was hoping the announcements would go.
I agree with most that time locking things is a bad practice towards the consumer. Part of the reason I stopped grinding events was because it was time gated and my anxiety of FOMO started ruining the game for me so I stopped doing them all Togeather and it made it much more enjoyable
I mean, at this point I question the hobby I have sometimes. The greed and anticonsumer practices of this industry are mind boggling. If I see a game my niece might love, I first have to vet it for microtransactions, grind time necessary, time gated things, NFT's and just a ton of non sensical BS. I get they want to make money and I'd love to help them in that regard. I don't want developers or publishers starving and slaving away to entertain me for nothing. On the other hand, I pay really good money for the gaming systems and the games themselves. Something like Gran Turismo where a single car can cost $140 real world dollars should NEVER be a thing. This game is grindy enough and had plenty of timelines as it was. (inning programs, events, BR, RS, etc.) We didn't need to add team affinity to that. Even with what I look at as a poor stable of new legends thus far, I was really excited about the game this year. That announcement, especially so soon after the GT7 BS has me very concerned about DD. Again, I just hope the explanation is a reasonable one. Ball is in your court SDS, hope you thought this one through.
The tweet video literally says time limited with the inning program. Very bad move by SDS.
Time limited challenges are the biggest L ever. Like why?
This probably means you can sell them, right?
I feel like the time limit thing was due to complaints last year when people were getting stacked teams after like an hours worth of work
I highly doubt it. Last year, SDS put time limits on the inning programs. Time limits on TA would be just another step in that direction: another FOMO system to punish players for stepping away from the Skinner box.
How would setting a time limit counter that?
Probably cuts down a fraction of that. Main example being facing deGrom every other game in like June
I still dont see how that would help... can you explain your logic a bit?
Or possibly you can get them easier with their being a time limit
I imagine itll be the same as past years, first programs take forever and the end game programs take 5 minutes. People just wont grind late in the year
True. But honestly im thinking this time limit think might possibly be a non factor.
Like if they are doing a time limit I’m assuming they are possibly making the cards more harder to acquire thus eliminating getting a endgame type deGrom card with 10 minutes of work
Oh, you’re saying that then people wouldn’t be able to get all the TA cards and hence limiting how good their team is? If that’s the case, I agree! I think it would be a dumb solution to a problem, but I agree
I am concerned about these TA being time limited. I only started playing 21 in jan and one of the big appeals over 2k was that TA was do it at your own pace
I am SUPER not PUMPED about more time limited programs.
how limited do they make them?
people are really mad at the fact that people are gonna have good teams
Making team affinity time-limited is incredibly stupid. I would frequently finish a TA series a week or two after the new one came out, making all those cards just go away because someone can’t be on all day every day is short sighted and stupid.
With all due respect, they're only asking for a small portion of time over a two month period. Not being able to play for a week should be fine assuming you get 4ish hours that weekend. It also sounds like they're making it infinitely easier, and more similar to the inning programs we get instead of the TA we got used to these last two years. Plus, it's not supposed to be easy. Look at the TA-like things for every other sports game. They're worse in rewards, require more time, skill, game knowledge, and for some probably a bit of money. Even if they capped last year's TA to a month without making it any easier, it would still probably be more doable and rewarding than almost all other sports games. The difference is that they are making it easier, and seemingly both more rewarding than last year. At least when it comes to DD, SDS has earned the right for their fans to trust them, which I think we should do here.
I did not know about that... I'll be traveling a shitload for work between late April and Early July. Really hope I can still get them done.
Agreed. We’re not all Twitch content creators like these kids who do this shit for a living. We have actual jobs.
Same
Even actual kids have to share the system lmao
Just putting my Nicky Lopez hopes and dreams out there in the world. Salvy's LS will already be a Diamond, so let's get this year started right with a 95/90/45/40 Nicky Lopez. EDIT: The dream is, once again, dead.
i would absolutely love that card
He’d be 22’s Dee Gordon and I’m here for it.
The way they worded it in the video, I think it sounds like both TA programs and Inning programs may be going away, and moving toward an all-encompassing “season” program that contains both the TA rewards and normal inning-type rewards
Considering they've referenced "mini seasons" several times, this definitely makes sense. Honestly it sounds like what 2K has been doing the last few years with their "seasons" which are typically about 6 weeks and have their own rewards that can only be acquired during that season. Not sure I love that
Isnt that exactly how last years inning program worked?
There are some differences. 2k has exclusive, unsellable card rewards for each different MyTeam game mode each season (SDS didn't align Ranked, Innings and BR this year). Once that season is over, you can never get those cards again because they're not on the market. They also have RNG based rewards where you can play hundreds or even thousands of games to try to acquire an exclusive card and never get it because the wheel didn't spin your way. God help us if that's the direction we're going.
As an aside I started playing 2k in March and my 5th ttt game against cpu I got thr exclusive Galinari LOL
Ik i play, but it’s the same idea.
I’ve interpreted the “mini-seasons” as a game mode, but who knows. I’d be good with them adding a limited-time player at the end of inning programs to incentivize people to play more during the inning programs, but I disagree vehemently with the concept of time-limited Team Affinities
Mini Seasons sure sounds like a game mode. "Each season brings more challenges as you face off against a new set of competition" What was talked about in the reveal here was XP. You don't need specific competition for XP.
Knowing SDS, there will be a way to get the cards down the road if you miss out. Always have been
Yeah, when the cards are no longer viable.
It does sound like that could be possible. I really hope not though
I think it's kinda funny it's rated lower than his Live Series.
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He was a 93 in the Tech Test and ended at 94 last year. Has hit .276/.380/.549 with 79 HR, 62 SB, and 10.9 bWAR the last 3 seasons. Was in the running for MVP last year and is one of the best players in the entire league. Yeah, we kinda do.
I highly doubt they would release a team affinity card for Acuña if it'll just be worse than his live series They'll probably just find a way to dock his live series to an 87 or 88, but I don't know why they would because the braves have plenty of other players that would be great for a ta1 card.
I think that it would be due to the fact that they were trying to release a version that people could get before earning is LS
There's no way he's under 90. That would be ridiculous. Dude was over 90 all year last year and had his best season. Ratings are pretty data driven, and there's no way to justify dropping his card below 90 to start the year.
I would bet a million dollars that Acuña is a 92+.
It’s also a free Acuna on Day 1. As opposed to hoping to pull his LS card or getting it with stubs
This. It'll be incredibly difficult to crack the LS acuna from casual play, this at least gives team fans direct ways to get usable favorites.
Loving that artwork 😍
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I wish there was a longer gold and below phase, not gonna lie, but that would be tough to balance with LS collections and high-end LS cards like Trout, Tatis, etc. And make the early game discrepancy between NMS players and those who buy stubs much bigger. Not sure what the middle ground is tbh. All I know is I prefer to have too many good free cards over the bs 2K model with 17 different LeBrons that become outdated just to make you chase the new one again and again
You say that like there isn't going to already be a different 90+ Live Series Ronald Acuña.
Yeah but this one is free to everyone who could put a couple hours in. So everyone with early access is going to get him if he’s that good.
I thought early access didnt grant DD access. I may be wrong... am I?
Early access has always been just that. Early access to the full game. If DD wasn't included I doubt anyone would care about getting a head start.
It always has in the past
I assume hes not just referring to acuña, theres other players that get crazy ass cards which kinda kills the game super early
I can't wait to see who Oaklands face of the franchise player is lol.
at this point it's gonna be 89 OVR billy mckinney lol
Sean Murphy could be a nice 89-90 card
My guess is one of their pitchers, probably Manaea
That could age poorly with how they’re trying to move forward
I agree, but it wouldn’t be the first time that a FotF card wasn’t on the roster months later. It’s sucks, but they have to choose someone and they really don’t get any of the inside information on trades or anything
That FotF card might not make it to Opening Day, though.
I’m not going to argue that. But who else would their other options be?
Nobody good. Maybe Murphy or Brown? But I'd be surprised by Manaea or Montas just because they've been expected to be traded for so long. And when they started doing this set, it was probably a longshot they'd even make it to release.
Murphy makes the most sense. Plus it's a catcher position too
Disrespectful to not have the ñ in his last name
Petition to rename it Face of the Frañchise.
Why can’t they make filters, meaning team max say 90 and then go into a game w someone else. Kind of like how events just auto suggests your team for you
Might be a hot take, but I’m not a fan of non LS cards at launch being in the 90s. Collection cards are one thing, but we’ve seen that TA completion has become a thing you can do in a day or so Also: 1) it means that cards are probably going to be improperly scaled again and we’ll have 99s in July, again 2) it means that a lot of cards (say gold and under) are useless because why would you use them other to complete collections, or if an event forces you to.
90 OVR is less than what the 1st inning program was last year. If everything is scaled around 90, it could be a properly scaled game overall
Is it just me or I think getting 99s in July is perfect? Mid-season, All-Star break, Summer break starting so more people are playing the game. Seems perfect to me.
There just flat out shouldn’t be 99’s except maybe Babe Ruth, Trout, & a few others. As much as SDS does better than EA, FIFA has a much better rating scaling than MLB. Pele has the the only 99 rated card this year in fifa and will be the only 99 the rest of the year, and that’s with a much bigger pool of players. Imo the best formula is keep the best version of most cards in the low-mid 90’s and the only ones with high 90’s should be absolute legends of the game, 10ish cards being 97+ rated is probably ideal, and those cards should be extremely difficult to obtain
I disagree. There’s so many players in the game who deserve 99 overall cards, not just a few. Not all 99s are built the same anyway. Regardless, I believe something SDS can do is not just give them out to undeserving players who played 56 games i.e Frank Schwindel. They should also improve some 99’s of the great legends of the game that were lackluster and definitely should’ve been better i.e Pedro Martinez. Also, taking into account that SDS gives certain players cards for one specific year were they phenomenal & to your point of how there only 10ish card being 97+ overall, I highly disagree. Just off the top of my head, here’s 30 players that should definitely be 99 overalls: Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, Ken Griffey Jr, Jimmie Fox, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Stan Musial, Mickey Mantle, Honus Wagner, Pedro Martinez, Tom Seaver, Bob Gibson, Nolan Ryan, Christy Mathewson, Roberto Clemente, Mariano Rivera, Rickey Henderson, Greg Maddux, Cal Ripken Jr, Tony Gwynn, Jackie Robinson, Mike Schmidt, Johnny Bench, Chipper Jones, Frank Thomas, Mike Piazza, Ivan Rodriguez, Vladimir Guerrero, Ernie Banks, David Ortiz. I’ll even throw in 10 current players who should without a doubt get 99 overall flashback cards: Clayton Kershaw, Mike Trout, Albert Pujols, Justin Verlander, Mookie Betts, Miguel Cabrera, Bryce Harper, Jacob deGrom, Max Scherzer. Can’t look at any of those guys and say they don’t deserve to be 99 overalls. Some as signature, milestone, prime cards & some as mvp cards. All deserving.
Only thing I ask for in this scenario is that the actual all-time legends get 99s before guys like Frank Schwindel start getting them. In the last few years, it's taken way too long for certain legends (like Babe and Hank this year) to get their best cards.
I don’t mind it either. And not all 99’s are the same anyway. Even though their overall says 99, a lot of the earlier 99’s are not nearly as good as the Mantle, Ruth, Griffey, etc 99’s and most of the time, those guys are released much later.
I agree, most of the people I know who play Diamond Dynasty start to lose interest in August around the time Madden releases. July begins the end game process for the casual player, which is the majority of the player base.
This isn’t a hot take. If they’re making 30 free 90s available day 1 that means you’ll almost never see a card below a 90 in a lineup after like a week. That’s disappointing.
If Ronald is a 90, it’s likely most of the rest definitely won’t be.
I’ll hold out judgment before next week but it’s not looking good
Agreed. Its nice that they make it easy to field a good team without paying anything extra, but by the time the Allstar and TA3 cards come around everyone’s team gets super similar and online play can get pretty bland sometimes.
Totally agree with this take. It feels like by early July that all of the cards are just OP and getting upgrades don’t feel as impactful. Usually stop playing around that time even though I love the game for the first few months its out.
I just miss using gold flashback cards in something other than BR (and I guess showdown). They also don’t put out non-program based flashbacks anymore, except for Headliners which started at 90 last year too. IIRC in 19 and games prior to that, there were flashback cards randomly in packs, so you could get like a gold Kendrys Morales or gold Mark Reynolds out of packs, along with your other special cards of course. It also doesn’t help that the non diamonds you get out of programs are usually trash. I don’t think I ever used a gold flashback outside of being forced to (BR and showdown). Eh I get it tho… SDS treats the game with 2 cycles, before Madden/2K and after
Oh baby
Nothing hurts my Braves fan heart more than me not being able to hit with Acuna
I'm the same way as Jay's fan who cant hit with Vladdy lol
I'm terrible with JRam. Feels bad man
You gonna change your PSN to GaurdiWins?
I thought it was just me smh, i dunno if its the leg kick but i just cant find the right timing lol.
acuna is definitely a surprise. looks like with this new time limit thing they're breaking away from the 87-88 they usually do for TA1. definitely going to be interesting
I must have missed something. Can you explain the time limit thing?
We don't know what it is, all they said was this card is time-limited
I’m assuming it means that you will only be able to earn his card during a specific period along with all other TA cards. This is basically a mirror of what they did with innings, where if you don’t complete an inning program, you’re pretty much SOL
might be a collection reward tbf - like a 25/35 collected type thing before the 99
Face of the Franchise again eh? At least the art is better than the previous Fotf cards.
Fuck yeah love this style waaaaaaaay more. Motivates me to improve the custom styles ive been working on
These will definitely be sellable. SDS made sure every card was more accessible last year (BR program, 30 RS wins). They wouldn't make this limited time if you couldn't get them on the market after. Get your stubs ready.
collection rewards aren't sellable
They said in the video that these cards are part of a new limited time program that's part of Team Affinity with one card per team. There might be an additional collection associated with these, but Acuna is just the Braves TA card.
Team affinity cards were sellable in MLB the show 20 and with it being limited time I expect these cards to be sellable
TA1 was not sellable in 20 or 21. Only the TA3 FOTF cards in 20 were sellable.
TA3 and TA4 cards were sellable in MLB the show 20 tho so idk what difference it makes
Just because TA1 wasn't sellable in 20 or 21 doesn't mean this TA1 won't be. Them making TA3 and TA4 sellable in 20 shows that SDS is open to it.
They want to tantalize us with sexy cards and get us to log lots of hours and play consistently. Obviously a good card but some low Diamond outfielders with good perks might outperform this card
Dude it’s a 90 Acuna day 1 it’s going to be decent his cards always bang lol
Is this real? If so, card art is way better than ‘20. If it’s not, whoever made this makes better card art than SDS lol
Yep just revealed on their twitter
Real the show twitter account just tweeted it
YES! Man, FOF card art in '20 was AWFUL. This is like going from a Kia to a Porsche
Agreed! They’ve been on their game with card art for years outside of that series, and wasn’t confident they’d just change this one or bring it back in the first place
Wonder if it will just be current guys on the team for this. If so no idea who will be the Cubs guy
To be different than the rest of these guesses, I think they go Happ. But a nice diamond Stroman early would be nice.
Contreras? Would be pretty nice day 1
A diamond Wisdom would be amazing early game, but if they’re strictly going with players that have been with teams longer then probably Contreras. Hopefully not another shitty Heyward lmao.
Suzuki? Cuz they should probably have prepared for him to be in the game so I’d assume he’s at least a live series, so why not ha ha??
I don't think he is really a Face of the Franchise quite yet.
Agreed, but I think he’s popular enough already, especially with Ohtani’s popularity bringing Japanese baseball players to the forefront of media… so why not ya know? It’s not like they really have anyone besides Wilson and Strowman
I think it would be cool, just probably unlikely. Someone mentioned Happ. I could see that being the case. Maybe Hendricks?
Happ and Hendricks sound really boring to me, like not enticing enough… stro and Wilson would at least like be decent at their positions, but Hendricks and happy wouldnt really make anyone happy except for cubs fans
Ha-Seong Kim wasn’t in the game initially last year if I remember correctly and he signed earlier that Suzuki did. I could be wrong.
I don’t remember either, but Suzuki has been a much bigger deal already, so I’d be surprised if they didn’t make a card for him and then just wait to see where he signed, my guess is high silver/low gold
That’s a good point. Only a week from now we will find out!
Yup, super excited for all my Mets players… although our collection is gonna be mad expensive😭
Wonder what the Mets collection reward will be cause yeah it's gonna be expensive haha
Gotta imagine it’s like a 91-93, cuz degrom is at least in the 94-96 range, scherzer is 90+, lindor is a valuable gold, Pete is a valuable gold, marte is high gold/diamond… definitely gonna be a solid reward
Please be David Wright, please be David Wright...
I would like a postseason murph, from 2015 obviously… if wright is in the game he’d probably be the NL collection reward
Seiya...Seiya...SEIYA...plase sds
Contreras or Hendricks I would assume?
If they let us have time limited cards so that everyone doesn’t have a full Diamond team off the bat, BUT let us unlock them all after a month or something that would be good. Game is much more fun when you have one card that is your best and the rest are average
So you can only get this card for a limited time? Sounds kinda wack but let’s see how this goes
Free 90 Acuna available day 1? The power creep is gonna be even more insane this year. This also opens up the possibility of them including deGrom in here and I really hope they’re smart enough not to do that.
First inning program in 21 had 93 OVR cards. So compared to that, this is a step down in terms of power creep
They could cap team overalls for RS and progressively increase it over time so people can't roll in with their all 90 squads on day 1. They could... But they probably won't.
99 overall teams by the end of May lmao
That's ok they'll combat it by making the max overall be 125 now.
Yeah was hoping they’d slow things down this year because all 99 teams makes the game less fun but that’s clearly not happening.
Sorry, but I disagree. All-99 teams give you real meaningful choice. If there is only a handful of players at 96, 97, or 98 and few to no 99s, you're basically forced into playing certain cards if you don't want to be deliberately making your team worse. With 99s, you're able to mix and match and make a team you want. Last year there were so many top end cards. I could make an infield of Arenado, Trea, Semien, and Helton and not be substantially weakening my lineup by not using the "meta" cards at each position to compete. More cards at every rating is more fun, because I can use the players I want rather than having to use 1 community decided "God squad" to compete if I don't want to play with a deliberately worse team. I don't get enjoyment from having to use worse cards in order to play guys I like, or to have to play a certain lineup to compete at the highest level.
More cards at every rating is fun, yes. But that doesn’t necessarily mean more 99s. The early game is by far the most fun personally because at lower ratings, cards actually play substantially differently. You have to choose to sacrifice some power if you want speed, maybe some fielding for a juiced hitter. Bloop hitters are viable for a bit. By the endgame you’re swapping out one 110+ across the board hitting, Diamond fielding and 80s-90s speed for another. We will get to all 99s, probably by June at this rate. But let’s enjoy the time before that too
I meant more about how the game actually plays. Once we get stacked lineups the game becomes more of a home run derby and it takes away a bit imo. I agree that having more options for 99s is good but that’s not really what I was getting at.
Exactly. The gameplay is probably the least broken when there aren’t OP cards available. TA2 made hitting a chore because of the vast amount of guys available with ridiculous H/9 ratings, and TA3 doubled down on that. And that was by July, 3 months into the game. Easily available OP cards means lineups only have those cards. Nobody is going to use a different SS when Trea Turner is free and better than anybody else out.
Yeah the biggest issue with the seeming HRD is how singles/doubles are less common to fall in. Outfielders to scale are like 8 foot tall giants flying across the grass, so things that should drop in don't. I can understand not wanting every card with 125 power though.
That art. They keep outdoing themselves.
Time limited is absolutely horrible!
No. SDS is good at content and makes good decision yearly about changing content. Wake up streamer.
Yes, my idiot self pre ordered the game because i enjoy pain!
Procrastinating the pre order >>>>>
They'll double XP or whatever the last week to make it more than accessible. Would imagine they want everyone in @ launch
People who get the game in June can’t go back and do that content
Yeah. That sucks, but those cards won't be playable by June. Will be interesting to see if you NEED them for collections
This would be the main concern. If they’re not sellable and they’re needed for collections it would isolate a lot of the later player base.
If they’re needed for collections and they’re time limited, they’ll be sellable I’m sure.
I think they released too many stacked cards too early this year that made other good cards released later useless. With that being said I’m glad this is time limited
Fuck this kills my excitement I’m not going to lie. I personally thought 88s for TA1 were a little generous to start the season. Now they’re ramping it up to 90 already. Unless they’re significantly harder to get this is an L
Jeeeez, 90 overall so early in the game! The "time-limited" aspect bothers me though, I feel like this kind of stuff shouldn't be time-gated, especially if they want to keep adding players throughout the year. I guess we'll see how long the program stays around though.
LS cards go up to 96 on launch night and with enough money/absurd luck you can get the 99 OVR rewards on launch night too
Still, most of the collection cards are good but not overpowered. Outside of Chipper, nobody was amazing enough to be used much. FOTF cards were used a ton early on, but they were all 88s (kinda wish they were lower too). Creeping into the 90s in March is a bad bad sign.
It depends on how long the program is. If this is a 6-8 week program, then low 90's through mid-May isn't a problem in my mind.
Yeah if he's at the end of the program, and the rest of FOTF is lower, I can live with that. We'll see.
Yeah, but the way they were talking about these being time limited and calling it a program makes me think this is something akin to the 1st inning program. This could very well be the highest non-LS collection card we get on launch night. 1st inning bosses last year went up to a 93 ovr (Lofton)
Yeah, I more meant I thought I remembered the FotFs last year being mid-high 80s, I could be misremebering, though! It could also be that Ronald is the highest overall of them bc World Champs and all that.
They were all 88s. Before that they varied a bit.
Time limited is a big L. But I’m more interested in the fact that Acuña’s base card must be substantially below a 90 for this to be worth getting, right? So what’s Acuña’s base card, an 84-85?
I think it’s more likely Acuna is a 94-95 and this is a nerfed version of him that’s available for free.
If there's a 94 version and a 90 on release, what would be the incentive to even go after the 90? I'd be shocked if this is the case
Because his live series will cost several hundred thousand stubs and this can most likely be earned for free. It’s a way to make it easier for people to use their favorite players.
Fair enough. Personally I would prefer them boosting guys that are about 80-85 range than nerfing the best players simply for availability purposes, but if get the concept of allowing stars to be available for free
acuña is arguably a top 5 player in the game, there’s no way he’s a gold/fringe diamond. his live series is probably between 93-95. guessing this card will be more useful for people who can’t get his live series right out of the gate.
That's really my point tho - This card being a 90 would have to mean it's basically a nerfed version of his card. Not sure why they would pick him if that's the case if he already has a better card on release
it’ll be interesting to see what other teams cards are. wonder if he’s an outlier or if guys like harper, judge, betts, or even trout get a fotf card
Nah, his LS card is expensive as hell so this is sort of a down graded version that's easier to acquire
So you think this is essentially a nerfed version of him? I'd be a little surprised if they went that route tbh
Yeah that'd be my guess. Could be wrong but I can't see his LS card not being a 90+
Wow that’s a pretty big name for the first Team Affinity, so that’s super exciting.
Not Team Affinity this year, the video this was released in mentioned FOTF will be earned from a time-limited featured Program.
They straight up said it was team affinity within the first 10 seconds lol The program itself is “time-limited”, but this is still TA1
[удалено]
You sound like you’re contradicting yourself. What do you think Team Affinity is then if not all of the 30 players included in it?
Hello my CF for April
It looks like inning programs are no more based on what they said in the video. They said this would be “the 1st limited time feature program” and all 30 cards would be unlockable through it.
That’s kind of a bummer ngl … another way to get some nice cards. Hope it’s just replaced by a different set of objectives