I agree with everything. I have 150 hours and have stopped playing due to the removal of these mechanics. There is a strong community of players who utilize these tricks who exist in servers other than the primary Skate. discord server. Pop glitches and the like gain a tons of traction on social media websites and the creativity offered by the mechanics have led to a dedicated community that uses both complex mechanics and fashion from the store and posting such online. These are players that would play the game forever as they are obsessed with the core mechanics of the game. A legacy switch would allow these players to continue having fun and purchasing items from the store instead of going back to previous installments of the franchise and competing with the current playerbase.
Exactly! The tricklining and high-skill community are often the ones driving social media engagement and staying invested in the game's ecosystem (including the store) long term.
By removing and not adding back that depth, EA isn't just 'fixing' animations, they are removing the creative outlet that makes the game worth posting about and worth coming back to every day. A Legacy Toggle or just fully adding those mechanics into the newer build is the perfect compromise, it lets the 'realism' side have their polish while giving not only the most dedicated players a reason to stay in this game instead of going back to previous titles but casual players who also enjoyed those mechanics and the depth it added too. The darkside pop is not a good replacement for what we lost because of the 0.31.1 patch, not only that its demoralizing to spend a lot of time perfecting a mechanic just for it to eventually be patched out later, but most people are not going to continue looking for a new glitch to replace the previous one after putting in so much time to perfect the already balanced pop mechanics that existed before 0.31.1. Having to briefly pull up your quick build menu for a pop glitch (what is required for the darkside pop) is not fun for fluid, compared to what we lost it sucks and isn't a real alternative.
Not to mention that not everyone who watches tricklining videos on social media are trickliners themselves, it can be existing for people outside of that playstyle to see what others can do and the creativity the game allows, but without that, this game is a shell of skate 3, and itself just from the previous builds. There’s no shame in making mistakes while developing the game, it's still in early access but committing to that decision is a choice that significantly more damaging to the game overall. I hope they can recognize that just because the animation is “polished” that doesn’t mean it was worth the sacrifice of the depth and creativity pop mechanics brought, and it's certainly not worth choosing to not add them back with the “polished” animation.
I think its hilarious that you see tricklining as the "high-skill community" and "the ones driving social media engagement". It shows a complete lack of awareness and understanding of how social media algorithms work. Tricklining isn't more difficult than other types of play, you just value the skills used in it more than the skills used in realistic skating. Your social media feeds are likely dominated by it because that's the content you interact with so you keep seeing more of it. Tricklining isn't the lifeblood of the game, it's one niche among many.
Skill = coordination + timing + precision + adaptability under complexity. Tricklining objectively scores higher in all four... lol
A normal line might be 3–5 inputs. A trickline can be 10–20+ perfectly timed inputs (manuals, flips, spins, reverts, stance changes) with no breaks. More inputs = more chances to mess up = higher execution skill.
Manuals/reverts aren’t passive—you’re constantly correcting balance. Holding a long manual chain is an active skill check the whole time, not just at the start/end.
The pop mechanics and advanced chaining added depth that realistic skating simply doesn’t match. That’s why tricklines dominated feeds for a decade: they look insane because they’re mechanically demanding.
Way more players can do clean realistic lines than can consistently hold advanced tricklines. That gap exists for a reason... it’s harder.
If the game wants to keep its high-skill endgame alive (and the community that stuck around after EA abandoned the old titles), it needs to support both styles instead of forcing one rigid “realistic” box.
That’s exactly the point. It’s not about one style being 'better' than the other, it’s about the mechanical depth that allows for that level of execution. Skill expression is what gives a game its 'endgame' and long-term replayability. Supporting both playstyles through a toggle or restored mechanics ensures the game remains a true sandbox for everyone, rather than a rigid and restrictive experience for some, lowering the skill ceiling only hurts the game, there are many other skating games that go more in depth with the realism and if they’re going to cater to that specific playstyle there already is better options for that, no one gains anything from taking out pop mechanics but a sizable chunk of the community loses its reason to keep coming back without them. Flashy tricklining has always been a very big part of the skate community, they can't claim to listen to the community while actively alienating it for no reason.
Tricklining is very deliberate and optional, no one is forced to do that but EA is forcing everyone into a realistic playstyle.
