At the beginning of March, Out of the Park Developments released the reveal schedule for the upcoming Out of the Park Baseball 22. So far, they have been right on track. Tonight, Director of Live Content Kris Jardine went live on the OOTP Developments Twitch channel with the Perfect Team 22 reveal.
“Everything is centered around being able to do more with your Perfect Team.” That is the mantra Jardine says the development team kept in mind. Repeatedly, Jardine references that, in Perfect Team 22, players will be able to do More. More customization, more options, more missions, more user decisions. To that end, here are some of the changes coming to Perfect Team 22.
“More customization, more options.”
Jardine shared two screenshots showing more of the expanded strategy and player options that OOTP Developments teased in its release trailer last week. The first image shows some of the brand new strategy options available to your Perfect Team in Perfect Team 22.
“You are the manager of this team, hence you have full control over the team strategy.”The second screenshot shows additional strategy options for players. The “more” strategy is pretty apparent here, with sliders for pretty much every situation a batter could be in.
Jardine was excited to announce another major point of customization: fully customizable card view screens. Players will be able to sort by card tier now, as well as Last 10 Sales (which we’ll discuss soon!). Another new quality of life change coming to PT 22: you will be able to right-click on inactive cards and see the full option set.
Changes Coming to the Auction House
The Last 10 Sales metric will be important to remember moving forward. When searching the auction house in Perfect Team 22, the value of cards will be shown as an average of the card’s last ten sales (hence the name). This will be the only way to assess a card’s value in PT 22. The second major change coming to the action house reduces the length of time a card can be listed. The new maximum listing time limit is 24 hours, down from a maximum of 48 hours in PT 21. The final change involves selling to yourself between teams. In previous Perfect Teams, this has been a grey area. Moving forward in Perfect Team 22, Jardine says the Terms of Service will be rewritten so that players can no longer sell a card between two teams they control.
The livestream announced a series of adjustments being made ahead of PT 22, as well. These adjustments include:
Fielding RangePlatoon SplitsReduced effectiveness of shiftsEngine adjustments to balance for power/contact hittersStolen Base ratesChanges to make AI logic be better situational for pinch hitters and leftiesNew Changes Around Tournaments
Round Robin and Double Round Robin tournaments will now feature a Best of series between the two best teams in their respective Round Robin event. Low Diamond Restrictions, a highly requested tournament mode for PT 21, will be in Perfect Team 22 as well. Competing in tournaments in Perfect Team 22 will give you better rewards, too. Jardine announced that larger PT 22 events will now grant rewards to all players who finish in the Top 16. “One thing we all agree on, internally,” Jardine said, “is we need to do better with tournament rewards.”
In terms of official competition, OOTP Developments will be introducing the Perfect Team Master Series. The PTMS will consist of 6 qualifying events starting in May, and each event will feature a unique format. Players will be forced to master multiple formats to earn enough points to qualify for the PTMS finals. The Perfect Team Championship Series will make a return, as well.
Perfect Team 22 Cards – New Art, Card Types & More
The new art of each era of Perfect Team card in Perfect Team 22.The biggest new addition to Perfect Team 22, in terms of content, are the new Limited Edition cards. Limited Edition cards will drop on a weekly basis, and only 25 copies of each Limited Edition card will be available. From a loot box game standpoint, this seems like a nightmare. I do appreciate that each Limited Edition card is hand-drawn, making each copy unique even from the other copies.
In Perfect Team 22, Live cards (active players, whose stats change based on their performance during the season) will only be updated once a month. This change will hopefully bring a little stability to Live cards, which can be a bit volatile when you play as many games as baseball teams play. Live cards will be important in PT 22’s new season-long mission type, Franchise Heroes. Franchise Hero missions will be divided into three tiers. Each tier will require players to lock on specific reward cards, which will in turn unlock one Franchise Hero card per tier.
New Game Mode – Perfect Draft
Perfect Draft, the new game mode announced last week, is pretty much what it sounds like. Players will be able to draft teams from a pool of cards that consists of every available card in Perfect Team 22, excluding Limited Edition cards. Players will take these drafted teams into tournaments and play against other drafted teams. You won’t keep the cards you drafted, but you will keep the rewards earn in the draft tournaments. Draft modes like Perfect Draft are great for new players. Players who can’t afford to buy great teams benefit as well, since Perfect Draft levels the playing field.
The next big event for Out of the Park Baseball 22 is this Friday’s community Q&A. Then, it’s all patience until OOTP 22 releases worldwide on PC and Steam on March 26.