Single Player - end goal

[SlapShotSal]

This is my first year really diving into DD and I am enjoying it. I play the MP events because they seem fun, but have not jumped into ranked seasons because I don't spend on stubs and because I'm not a great player. As my Event record will show. :-)

I have plenty of good cards (already finished the 30 TA3 moments).

Anyway my question / wonder is how do you other SP players keep enjoying the game? Is it the hunt for the cards? Just like the different challenges? What keeps you playing past July, August.....?

[mjdiggy]

I think I just like the collecting aspect of it. At this point, there's not much else I can do that will drastically improve my main squad, but every now and then, there's a shiny new card that pops up that makes me go "Ooooooh." Especially over the past week or so.

But aside from that, I think Diamond Dynasty is just the most rewarding and least tedious way to play the game solo. There are immediate rewards, there are longer-term goals, and most of the time, there's something new to tackle.

[doubledeuceR6]

Last year was my first year playing DD. I'm no money spent as well.

Chasing and collecting the cards is addictive. I collect real world baseball cards also so that is something I really like.

I've tried to focus a little more on ranked this year and less with trying to stay up to date with every content drop like I did last year. It's nearly impossible to do and can really burn you out, at least that was my experience.

I wouldn't focus on your record too much. Adjusting to online pitch speeds and recognizing human player tendencies is a bit different from playing the CPU. And if you're picking up zone hitting for the first time like I did last year that's another adjustment. I had a .500 record in ranked for most of '20 but ended up being about 30 games over .500 before '21 came out.

[JoshC1977]

I'm a 100% offline player...

I usually enjoy the first couple of months of the mode the most; where you're really upgrading a team. It's usually around this time of the year (and it is again this year) where it becomes a game of marginal upgrades and I begin to lose interest.

This week's reward drops are a perfect illustration. If you've been playing along up to now; none of these cards really push the bar. They have bigger numbers, but we're clearly seeing diminishing returns on the upgrade. They released 40+ high-ish diamonds this week; only a small handful are worth a roster spot on someone's "god squad".

This is the point in the year where DD constantly flops. The challenge of the grind should increase to compensate for the quality of the players the users have. But it doesn't; you're still playing against the SAME live series teams that we've been playing against all along (in the exact same venues we've been playing them in all year - cough...US Conquest map). Aside from a couple of the really good major league squads, very few of them should give you any problem with your "best" squad. We desperately need content (outside of moments) that pits your team against more appropriate competition in more varied environments.

SDS seems to have embraced a mantra of "keep it short/easy so people can go play online" for all of their content. But this is a terrible mindset as it blatantly ignores the community that either a) play solely offline or b) would much rather play offline but dabble in online out of boredom.

Basically, be prepared to "make up" reasons to play or ways to make it harder for you. The mind-numbingly easy grinds will eventually begin to grate on you.

[BA2929]

Quote: Originally Posted by JoshC1977

This week's reward drops are a perfect illustration. If you've been playing along up to now; none of these cards really push the bar. They have bigger numbers, but we're clearly seeing diminishing returns on the upgrade. They released 40+ high-ish diamonds this week; only a small handful are worth a roster spot on someone's "god squad". .

Are you kidding me? In terms of position players (outside of 99 Chipper and 99 Jackie), the cards they released this week mostly destroy the stuff that was already out. Acuna, Turner, Vlad, Salvy, Realmuto and Escobar are all better than literally everything that was out prior. That's nearly an entirely new lineup. You can also throw in Mullins, Story and Castellanos in the mix, and Pete Alonso and Fielder if you want a 1st baseman that can mash with no defense. Hell, Schwarber just came out last week and had everyone passing out from excitement is headed to the bench for a lot of teams because the players released this week are just flat out better.

Also, you can completely revamp your bullpen this week, as Hader, Soto, Reyes and Gossage were all released this week and dwarf almost everything that was out prior. As well as Ohtani and deGrom for your rotation. 99 Ohtani is probably the greatest card The Show has ever released in its history.

That's nearly half of the "40+ cards" that are easily better than what was out. And there are others I didn't even mention, like Soto and Matt Olson, who lots of people will love using and will slide into their "god squad". That's much more than a "small handful" and I expect a large, large majority of players will have lineups that consist mostly of cards released this week for the foreseeable future.

Someone could easily start playing today, grind TA3 and Acuna, and have a squad so good you could compete for World Series immediately.

However, I do agree with the rest of your post. There is just nothing to grind offline right now outside of TA3, Acuna and US Conquest and SDS needs to do better in that regard. I personally love the grind and and quest for new cards so that's what keeps me interested.

[bigcgt27]

My end goal was to simply finish the Mariano voucher collection and also acquire the Chipper Jones MVP reward for completing the Live series collection.

Today I gained enough stubbs to buy deGrom which was the last player I needed, so when I get home I'll complete the NL collection, grab Chipper, which is then the last Award series card that I need in order to obtain the 14th Mariano voucher.

This was my first year ever playing DD (have always been a strictly Franchise player). As a Braves fan, I likely would have fizzled out long ago with DD but the desire to get the Chipper card kept me going.

I'll likely focus my attention on Franchise mode from here on out.