Sets

I agree with you to some extent, but I think you're trying to make it sound worse than it really is.

One positive thing about X-Factors this year is that we have a guaranteed way of making a specific X-Factor. In previous years if we wanted to make for example X-Factor McDavid, there was no guaranteed way of making him. We could only hope to get him in a random pack. We had guaranteed sets for PUIs though, but not for X-Factors. This is something that you are completely ignoring when you are comparing this year to previous years.

I also don't understand why you are talking about Power Up collectibles as if they are something that doesn't exist anymore. Yeah we don't have collectibles with that exact name this year, but we have X-Factor collectibles and Icon collectibles. It's technically the same thing as Power Up collectibles. Just a different name. And the collectibles are cheap compared to previous years. One collectible is worth the same as one 80 overall card.

The main difference between this year and previous years is that, as you mentioned, we collect static overall X-Factors/PUIs and trade them in for upgradeable ones, which is something we didn't do in previous years. But we start the process by trading in fodder to get the static overall cards, just like we traded in fodder to get an X-Factor/PUI choice pack in the previous years. And as I said, the X-Factor packs were random, whereas this year we have a guaranteed way of making a specific X-Factor.

I'm also pretty sure most of the upgradeable X-Factors and PUIs will end up at 99 this year as well even though EA has been reluctant to unlock new upgrade tiers for those cards.

So I don't really understand your complaint about building and upgrading X-Factors/PUIs, why you think this year is so much worse than previous years and why you are ignoring everything I mentioned above.

I agree with you that event sets are too restrictive this year. We should be allowed to use any overall that we want to use just like previous years when we had event collectibles. We shouldn't be restricted to a few overalls per event. And we shouldn't need so many cards from a specific event to make an MSP.

I also agree with you that EA has botched X-Factors and PUIs this year, but I think the way we build and upgrade those cards is not the main issue. I think the main issue is the way EA has been unlocking new upgrade tiers for those cards. I mean they don't do it often enough, and when they do it, the new static overall card is usually a custom build card that is better than the X-Factor/PUI. TOTY and TOTS cards also have the same issue. TOTY/TOTS/X-Factor/PUI should always be the best version of a player, and it sucks that this isn't the case. And on top of this EA got rid of monthly upgrades for PUIs, which was a stupid decision.

Take Nicklas Lidstrom for example. He is currently at 90 overall, which is already stupid in itself. His best card is a 90 non upgradeable TOTY card that came out on the last day of January. It has better stats than his PUI at 90. This has been the situation for more than 3 months now, and who knows when he is going to get an upgrade. He could have gotten 3 monthly upgrades during this time so his PUI would at least be a 93 now, but no, EA doesn't want to do monthly upgrades anymore. They want his PUI to be worse than his static 90 overall card for more than 3 months. They have now released 94 overall MSPs for 5 weeks, but Lidstrom is still at 90 overall. And yes, his PUI will eventually be better than his static 90 overall card, but his next new static overall card will probably again be better than his PUI at that overall.

I totally agree with ChiSngChiSng​ that EA should bring back monthly upgrades for PUIs, and that the stats should be improved. Instead of just matching the overall and following the player's normal progression stats, every single individual stat on a X-Factor/PUI/TOTY/TOTS card should match the highest value that is available on that player's cards. For example if a player has a Warp Speed card with 99 skating stats and a Sharp Shooters card with 99 shooting stats, then his/her X-Factor/PUI/TOTY/TOTS card should have 99 skating stats and 99 shooting stats. EA should also upgrade those cards more consistently.

EA_Aljo​ I'm pretty sure you have already seen this kind of feedback (I'm mainly referring to the three paragraphs above this one), but I still wanted to tag you.

Another thing is that I think all X-Factors should be released at the start of the year instead of releasing them in batches like EA has done this year. And I would like to see more upgradeable X-Factors than we have seen this year so far. I would like to see one upgradeable X-Factor for each NHL team.

And one more thing is that even though I don't have a problem with the way we build and upgrade X-Factors and PUIs, I think we shouldn't have static overall X-Factors and PUIs. I think all X-Factors and PUIs should be upgradeable to match the highest overall card that is released for that player throughout the year.