MLB The Show 21
Developers Discuss MLB The Show 21 Road to the Show Upcoming Fixes & Improvements
The developers for MLB The Show 21 have been digesting all the Road to the Show feedback from the community and listed some of the upcoming fixes and improvements.
We absolutely want players who only want to play RTTS to be able to feel like they can progress in and enjoy the mode without having to touch anything else. For players who enjoy multiple modes, our hope is that they’ll discover a more interconnected system where everything is feeding into everything else. A RTTS player should feel like they can freely progress by playing RTTS and only RTTS. Any participation in DD is purely optional and at no point should anyone feel like they need to monetize to progress their RTTS career.
Chase touched up on many of the concerns from the community, including RttS mode, in our MLB The Show 21: Launch Day Guide and Community Concerns article. So make sure to check it out.
Obviously, it takes time to investigate and implement the fixes and improvements, but here’s a list of what is currently being worked on for a future update.
- Fixing an issue where the user isn’t being prompted to create their player when starting RTTS
- Fixing an issue where ballplayers aren’t getting enough progress from RTTS training choices and base gains
- Fixing issues where some loadouts do not progress your player as intended
- Buffing archetype items overall and regulate Ballplayer in DD as needed, without having to constrain growth in RTTS for non-RTTS reasons
- Looking into ways within the RTTS locker-room hub to better surface archetype progression and upgrades acquired
- Looking into ways of making it clearer that playing DD should be completely optional to progressing your Ballplayer or RTTS advancement. It IS true that playing RTTS is required to maximize the progress of your Ballplayer and while we are interested in any feedback on that moving forward, it is unlikely to change in ’21.
As the team implements improvements and fixes, they will continue to monitor the feedback from the community to improve the mode.

Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports
Props all around.
Gonna roll with a player-lock franchise until these fixes drop, but def feeling a bit better about The Show's direction.
We'll see tho.
Sent from my ONEPLUS A5010 using Operation Sports mobile app
Does anyone know if you can be a closer/batter? Or do they force you to be a SP?
This is a ridiculously self-contradictory statement. If the "established philosophy" is one of interconnectivity that emphasizes rewarding players who play the game "in as many ways as possible," then by definition RTTS players are being screwed. And that's what's happened.
And not just on progression. Jesus, they took out the combine...
And that last sentence should end with "Diamond Dynasty" instead of "everything else."
This game plays unbelievably on PS5 and I am enjoying DD, but the disrespect to RTTS and Franchise this year is very real. Shame on SDS for funneling everything into DD.
There is so much confusion and misinformation about this mode out there. The fact that progression is bugged for so many did not help.
I am still not the biggest fan of the current iteration of RTTS and I still believe it needs a lot of work but people posting that you had to play DD to advance and that made it seem like the two way player thing was some long drawn out affair were just wrong.
Part of that is on SDS for not explaining the new progression system of the mode and Ballplayer features better. Part of that is on players who are reposting misinformation without trying it. I had a lot of opinions about the mode myself but I still forced myself to sit down and play it so that I my opinions would be from first hand experience instead of simply word of mouth.
Does anyone know if you can be a closer/batter? Or do they force you to be a SP?
I know there’s a cut scene that gives you the option to be hitter plus sp or rp or cp!
Sent from my iPhone using Operation Sports
It would be awful if SDS saw the failure that was NBA 2k that had multiple different offline modes that weren't all connected and had incredible amounts of depth and was so good it was the #1 selling sports game in the US despite the NBA not being close to as popular as the NFL.
I would hate for SDS to make offline modes so good that non-baseball fans bought the game annually like a lot of non-NBA fans buy 2k annually simply because of the depth in their offline modes.
Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk
This is sadly probably true. Why did Madden start addressing franchise? Because the hate was trending. Same seems to be happening here.
It's not review bombing, in my opinion, if you have played the game and are reviewing based on your honest opinions.
Review bombing usually happens when a game is reviewed poorly by those who have not played the game due to something they don't like about the company or the direction a game took.
Since, as far as I know, Metacritic will allow anyone to post a review for any reason I don't pay much attention to user review scores myself.
For example here is a 0 star review
Here is a 3 star review
Of course, on the flipside, there are perfect score user reviews that are just as useless.
Their vision of the end result is to have everyone playing DD.
Previous iterations of rtts wouldn't work in this game because of the "ballplayer" mechanic. So, it probably would have taken too much work to lift saves from a previous game and implement it seamlessly into this new system, not to mention make sure it works on both the old and new hardware.
I'd be interested to know how much of the foundational code changed.
Twitted it to MLB, hopefully they'll get to it.
Sent from my SM-A716U using Operation Sports mobile app
Does anyone know if you can be a closer/batter? Or do they force you to be a SP?
Yes you can be a Pos player/RP/CP. It allows you to choose if you want to be a full-time SP or a part time pitcher. Even gives you, at least, one more chance to change over.
Sent from my SM-A716U using Operation Sports mobile app
It means no more creating different players at different positions for any mode. You create 1, basically your avatar, for all modes. And while you “technically” don’t have to play DD in RTTS, as the game is now you pretty much have to if you want to advance in any meaningful way. Don’t even get me started on ridiculous loadouts, which is basically CoD nonsense.
It absolutely is awful. And the cherry on top is because RTTS is infected with their online mode, names have to go through a filter. Thankfully it’s not as bad as EA, which thinks my name is inappropriate for some reason (even though a fairly well known QB in the past shares my last name). But my friend with the last name of Cummings can’t play a supposedly “offline” mode in RTTS with his real name.
But man, RTTS being FUBAR like this surprises me coming from SDS.
I try to avoid hyperbole when criticizing a game, but this does seem like a blatant dismissal of those who love that long-time mode, warts and all.
Once all the bugs are fixed and some QOL changes implemented, RTTS will still be a sham because the "overriding philosophy" of "ballplayer" by necessity sells that mode down the river.
The only time I can remember being a Franchise guy and being able to point to a subgroup that's taken it harder than my guys have.
But man, RTTS being FUBAR like this surprises me coming from SDS.
I try to avoid hyperbole when criticizing a game, but this does seem like a blatant dismissal of those who love that long-time mode, warts and all.
Once all the bugs are fixed and some QOL changes implemented, RTTS will still be a sham because the "overriding philosophy" of "ballplayer" by necessity sells that mode down the river.
The only time I can remember being a Franchise guy and being able to point to a subgroup that's taken it harder then my guys have.
Honestly I don’t think how rtts plays outside of not being able to play multiple unique looking people (you can still play as many saves on different teams and positions as you want) is that different from last year.
Archetypes are broken, but if they worked they way they were supposed to it would be the same idea. Yes you can switch between games but you can just stick with one. There is a few minor nuances that can seem odd or weird but I think it was hard to make a perfect two way player that could be in DD.
Maybe that is the ultimate failure, but the truth is the game plays awfully lot like before in almost every aspect that matters. The people who did a unique player for every single save will be bummed and the fact that archetype progression is broken is beyond stupid right now. Outside of those two things though it’s the same gameplay just slightly tweaked.
There are major bugs that I believe many players don't even realize that they have. When I see someone says that they are in year two or three of their career and still a 60 overall, then I am pretty convinced that they have the archetype bug and don't even know that they are bugged. By that time you should have gotten the next level of Archetype and probably some gold perks.
As for the interconnectedness of the modes, I appreciate that I can play RTTS (or any other mode) and still be making progress in the DD programs and getting their rewards because they are based on XP now. But I am not sure that those benefits outweigh the restrictions that were added to RTTS to make that happen.
There are major bugs that I believe many players don't even realize that they have. When I see someone says that they are in year two or three of their career and still a 60 overall, then I am pretty convinced that they have the archetype bug and don't even know that they are bugged. By that time you should have gotten the next level of Archetype and probably some gold perks.
As for the interconnectedness of the modes, I appreciate that I can play RTTS (or any other mode) and still be making progress in the DD programs and getting their rewards because they are based on XP now. But I am not sure that those benefits outweigh the restrictions that were added to RTTS to make that happen.
I agree. I do feel their is stuff messed up behind the scenes for sure but overall I feel it’s not that far off minus as I said the ability to play as a multiple unique players.
Also, anyone having issues being moved up and they have leveled up their archetype and still can’t seem to get in despite having good scores and better overalls than your replacement l, I am fairly certain there is a big for two way players.
I have done multiple tests and no matter how many seasons i sim my two way player, which is a level 91 SS AND 87 SP never gets called up. If I just play as a 91 SS though I will be called up ever single time to MLB the first season.
So I suggest for now don’t pick two way, at least until the MLB calls you up. They will beg you multiple times in the season to try two way again so it isn’t lost forever if you do this.
Unfortunately, the article does little more than to confirm DD is the path of this game going forward. Why don't they just make a DD game like other video game producers have done like NBA JAM (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4NWrZAnFOE&ab_channel=316whatupz)? This is what I think about with DD. At least then they have their exclusive audience.
Sadly, I don't think much will be done with Y2Y and SOTS and of course Franchise. I can still see Ramone saying on stream how they NEVER remove features and just add to them. Pretty soon the only feature will be DD...
And it's broke again. Or still broken
I am beginning to think that the progression bug and the fact that you can't change your loadout on the pre-game screen are tied together. If you play one game and the choose the return to clubhouse option instead of play next game I think the progression may work.
But because the option to choose loadouts when playing 2nd, 3rd, or 4th game of a series does not work I wonder if it just thinks you don't have a loadout chosen so it doesn't know what stats to track.
Of course I went to try and test this theory and got a network error starting the game so I could not.
Sadly, I don't think much will be done with Y2Y and SOTS and of course Franchise. I can still see Ramone saying on stream how they NEVER remove features and just add to them. Pretty soon the only feature will be DD...
I mean I have no issues in theory of DD. I am almost only franchise and RTTS but the main thing for me as long as they want to make sure all get equal treatment is all I want. There is modes in many takes I never play, COD for instance I only do local split screen multiplayer but I don’t hate the people when they get their zombies or other modes that exist in those games
All I want, is everything to be treated equally and not to just treat one mode or another differently.
Maybe I'll just throw it on my external HD for a few months and pretend it was delayed, which is the thing they actually should've done. :jpshakehe
I am beginning to think that the progression bug and the fact that you can't change your loadout on the pre-game screen are tied together. If you play one game and the choose the return to clubhouse option instead of play next game I think the progression may work.
But because the option to choose loadouts when playing 2nd, 3rd, or 4th game of a series does not work I wonder if it just thinks you don't have a loadout chosen so it doesn't know what stats to track.
Of course I went to try and test this theory and got a network error starting the game so I could not.
Not sure that is the reason as I play then exit all the time and never get it to track. What I did notice though, around the same time you mentioned them working I saw them working too. At that time my stats showed properly in RTTS for the first time ever.
What I mean by that is if you use your ballplayer in DD it tells you what your power/contact or speed etc is based on your gear buffs. So if you have only 60 contact but you got a +20 to that DD will say your contact is 80.
Last night for the first time ever RTTS was telling me what my adjusted stats where with my gear numbers attached to them. While it was doing that everything was being tracked it seemed perfectly. Now today that it doesn’t do this again nothing tracks.
What causes this issue I have no clue, but if you see your contact/power being reflected properly with your gear score as well in a game it appears the system will start tracking what you did.