Patches ruining the game

[jrivera34]

I thought this year's game played great after a few patches. Now I am seeing the following all too often:

-relief pitcher comes in and the pitch count continues from the starter
-after a double switch or pinch hit for the catcher, the new player who is not a catcher stays in the game and drops almost every pitch
-starting pitchers pitching a great game are pinch hit for too early, with low pitch counts, and early in the game


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

[bronxbombers21325]

Re: Patches ruining the game

They have turned hitting into a complete dumpster fire. They have completely ruined the offense for me. Prior to the last patch I had a great variety of games. Some pitchers duels, some close games, some offensive explosions, and some blowouts. Now after the last patch every game is a pitchers duel. My last 10 games I haven't had a game where myself or the AI scored more than 3 runs. I've also only saw 6 homeruns combined. They need to just stop with the patches and let it be if they can't figure it out.

[Bunselpower32]

Re: Patches ruining the game

I hate to say it, but this is what happens when a company a) listens too much and b) hinges their success on online play.

a) I don't think SCEA should stop being involved with the community, that is what makes them a great studio. But...they are patching like a certain president used to govern, they wake up, read the polls and reactions for the day, and do that. There's no time for people to adjust to the game, and since they're accessible, whiny people take advantage of that and bend them to their will.

b) I'm sorry, but online play attracts the worst kind of people. You won't find them here, because this is a place of forethought and patience (generally). But any game that has a competitive element attracts people that have either been protected from losing their entire lives so they exploit/forfeit because losing is unacceptable, or legitimately good players that are obnoxious to play because they let you know how good they are.

When you get into bed with these people (prioritize online features, microtransaction, etc.) you leave yourself exposed to keeping them happy. Too many homers? You have to patch or people will stop playing. Too few? Patch it back, gotta keep the player base up. When you constrain yourself this way, the game suffers.

I remember NBA 2K17 was the best basketball game I had played in a while. Pick and Roll was awesome, pull up jumpers worked, the game was loose. And as long as you didn't exploit like 2 things, the game played like a dream. Well, online prevailed, and by the end of the flurry of patches, I was playing 2K16 again.

[rafusedj]

Re: Patches ruining the game

I'm not sure about anyone else but I noticed the performance of the game has suffered since the patch. I used to play using enhanced visuals and although there was a small frame rate hiccup from time to time I felt the game played quite well. After the patch I have had to switch to high frame rate since trying to hit almost became impossible due to the choppiness of the pitching motion. Like I said I'm not sure if this is just me but if not hopefully it can be addressed in the next patch!

[KnightTemplar]

Re: Patches ruining the game

I hate to say it, but this is what happens when a company a) listens too much and b) hinges their success on online play.

a) I don't think SCEA should stop being involved with the community, that is what makes them a great studio. But...they are patching like a certain president used to govern, they wake up, read the polls and reactions for the day, and do that. There's no time for people to adjust to the game, and since they're accessible, whiny people take advantage of that and bend them to their will.

b) I'm sorry, but online play attracts the worst kind of people. You won't find them here, because this is a place of forethought and patience (generally). But any game that has a competitive element attracts people that have either been protected from losing their entire lives so they exploit/forfeit because losing is unacceptable, or legitimately good players that are obnoxious to play because they let you know how good they are.

When you get into bed with these people (prioritize online features, microtransaction, etc.) you leave yourself exposed to keeping them happy. Too many homers? You have to patch or people will stop playing. Too few? Patch it back, gotta keep the player base up. When you constrain yourself this way, the game suffers.

Somebody finally said it.

But will they (SDS) listen? I would love to see them STOP! Stop adding stuff to this game and spend a cycle cleaning it up. I think Ramone is going to get blasted when he comes back around at years end (unfortunately). I look for it to get down and dirty (again unfortunately).......

.... but WE have created the beast with a countless nagging on these developers to add/change/add/fix/update. Look what its brought. Just my view.

[Culture Rot]

Re: Patches ruining the game

This is not just The Show, but every sports game now. This is the gen we live in.

[Bunselpower32]

Re: Patches ruining the game

Somebody finally said it.

But will they (SDS) listen? I would love to see them STOP! Stop adding stuff to this game and spend a cycle cleaning it up. I think Ramone is going to get blasted when he comes back around at years end (unfortunately). I look for it to get down and dirty (again unfortunately).......

.... but WE have created the beast with a countless nagging on these developers to add/change/add/fix/update. Look what its brought. Just my view.

Make no mistake, SDS is easily the best dev team I've ever seen. The accessibility is an asset in many more ways than it's a detriment. My comment isn't about SDS listening, it's more about SDS (I believe) not really wanting to go this way, but being forced into it thanks to 2K and EA.

[KnightTemplar]

Re: Patches ruining the game

Make no mistake, SDS is easily the best dev team I've ever seen. The accessibility is an asset in many more ways than it's a detriment. My comment isn't about SDS listening, it's more about SDS (I believe) not really wanting to go this way, but being forced into it thanks to 2K and EA.

Oh, don't take it as a knock on them. I agree with you. I love the game. I have never done online stuff. I just think it's sort of reached a point where a splendid game is getting hurt just a bit. Would like to see them slow down, concentrate of fixing what's hurting and ignoring a bunch of whining and complaints.

[ItAllFades]

Re: Patches ruining the game

Honestly, this whole game is a bit of a mess.

[Juzbee]

Re: Patches ruining the game

I have to say that I agree about the online play thing.. I think they should either crapcan that part of the game, or develop a separate game with additional dev resources, possibly with a separate title that is exclusively for online play. In the history of baseball gaming, I cannot think of one time that the online play was considered satisfactory by the people who play it. How many sales would it cost them if they were to just dump online play?

[HozAndMoose]

Re: Patches ruining the game

I have to say that I agree about the online play thing.. I think they should either crapcan that part of the game, or develop a separate game with additional dev resources, possibly with a separate title that is exclusively for online play. In the history of baseball gaming, I cannot think of one time that the online play was considered satisfactory by the people who play it. How many sales would it cost them if they were to just dump online play?

A majority of players spend more time online. So enough that it wouldnt be worth it.

[jeffy777]

Re: Patches ruining the game

Yeah...there's no way they could axe online in this day and age.

What they really need to do is what I suggested earlier this year after the major launch issues: have a BETA for pre-oders. This would give them a jump start on smoothing out issues (both gameplay and server stability) BEFORE the game is launched.

Even if it's just a two day beta...we all know how many things crop up and are spotted within just the first couple days after the game is launched. Imagine if they already had the bug reports and server data a few weeks before the launch of the game. It would go a long way to ensuring a much smoother release with less patches required down the road.

All the big-name games have being doing betas for quite awhile now. I would love to see sports games follow suit, and what better studio than SDS to step up and set the standard.

[Juzbee]

Re: Patches ruining the game

You are definitely right. I think most of the glaring problems on launch day for me were noticeable within an hour or less. Things that I can't believe that ANY tester didn't notice. I don't play online, so I am happy that I wasn't involved in that mess, but for an offline guy like me I am happy with the patches.

[enyc718]

Re: Patches ruining the game

The patches must be doing something to this game.....For the life of me, I cannot find a slider set to stick with...everything is just everywhere with this game. I'm about to pick up Madden again...

[bcruise]

Re: Patches ruining the game

I thought this year's game played great after a few patches. Now I am seeing the following all too often:

-relief pitcher comes in and the pitch count continues from the starter
-after a double switch or pinch hit for the catcher, the new player who is not a catcher stays in the game and drops almost every pitch
-starting pitchers pitching a great game are pinch hit for too early, with low pitch counts, and early in the game


Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports

Every one of those things has been present since launch day and had nothing to do with any patch. In fact 3 was said to be addressed IN patches on multiple occasions.