The Last Homely House
Undying Lands => Valinor => Topic started by: Merrick_H on December 04, 2013, 07:46:12 AM
-
It seems (looking at other digital CCGs), the only way to have a unabusable system, is to either have pay-to-play (e.g. MTGO) where people can trade cards, but have to pay real money for the cards in one way or another, or free-to-play with pay-to-play trade (e.g. Solforge) where the only cards you can trade with other players are the ones you paid for, or completely free-to-play (e.g. Hearthstone) where players do not interact with each other and prices are fixed based on rarity. I'd rather not require any kind of payment, hence the last system will be introduced in January.
- MarcinS
Additional Q/A Below. The reset occurred on 1/12/2014.
Q: Will there be a collection reset?
A: Yes, there will be a reset. Tengwar cards will persist through the reset, so if you had 10 tengwar cards before the reset, you will have 10 choices after the reset.
Q: Can we use Tengwar in my card leagues?
A: No. Tengwar's are not available to be used in "my Cards" leagues at this time. Cards in your "trophy" collection can only be used in casual games.
Q: What is the Trophy Collection?
A: Trophies are special cards that will persist through resets. These could be cards won through league participation such as Tengwars or other cards that at some future date meet the criteria.
Q: Do current Tengwars go in this trophy collection?
A: Yes. Tengwars will remain trophy cards, so if there is another reset, they should persist.
Q: How much will the cards cost in the Merchant?
A: The costs for cards sold by the merchant are:
R+ - 20G
R,P - 10G
U,S - 1G
C - 50S
These prices are for the regular version of cards (non-foil, non-tengwar).
Q: How much will packs and starters cost ?
A: Packs (except for Reflections) will cost 10G each. Reflections packs are TBA. All starters, with the exception of Battle of Helm's Deep (Set 5) and Ents of Fangorn (Set 6) will cost 25G each. The starters from sets 5 and 6 will cost 55G each since they contain 3 fixed rares.
Q: Will the price of cards remain the same no matter what?
A: The prices of cards are fixed and are not intended to change.
Q: Can I buy Foils from the merchant?
A: Not directly, however the "Trade 4 + Gold for a foil" mechanism will still exist.
Q: Can I sell cards to the merchant?
A: Yes, with some exceptions. The merchant will buy cards back from you at 1/4 the price the merchant will sell them to you for. For example, if you have an Extra R+, you may sell it back to the merchant for 5G. The merchant will buy a rare from you for 2G 50S etc. This is meant to make it impossible to buy boosters or starters and sell cards back at a profit.
Foils may be sold back to the merchant for 4x the Merchant purchase price of the card. So a rare foil will sell back for 10G whereas a common foil will sell back for 50S.
Q: If I sell a common foil I have 50 silver that is the buy cost of the same non foil common, right?
A: Yes. Normally the sell back price is ¼ the cost to purchase the card from the merchant. So in essence the sell-back penalty for foils is eliminated.
Q: Will there be any more resets?
A: Resets may happen again, however the primary reason for this reset was to fix some of the merchant issues that were caused by the “Hunters Block Foil Lottery”.
Q: Are the prices for the dailys going to remain at 10 gold to play in one?
A: Yes. The price for the daily tournaments and any time tournaments has gone to 10G to encourage participation, but to somewhat limit the amount of prize support that is given out. Each person who participates in the daily or any time tournament, whether they win a game or not will receive 1 pack as prize support to compensate them for their efforts or time. Prizes have been increased to all participants as well.
Any-Time and Daily Tournament Changes
The cost to participate in each tournament is now 10G. All participants will receive at least one pack for their 10G entry fee while winners of the tournaments and people who win games in the tournaments will get more prize support.
Prizes for Any Time tournaments:
3 wins - 3 boosters and a random promo
2 wins - 2 boosters and a random promo
1 win - 1 booster and a random promo
0 wins - 1 booster
Prizes for Daily Tournaments:
1st place - 10 boosters
2nd place - 8 boosters
3rd and 4th place - 5 boosters
5th to 8th place - 2 boosters
all remaining players - 1 booster
Q: Are the prices for the dailys going to remain at 10 gold to play in one?
A: Yes. The price for the daily tournaments and any time tournaments has gone to 10G to encourage participation, but to somewhat limit the amount of prize support that is given out. Each person who participates in the daily or any time tournament, whether they win a game or not will receive 1 pack as prize support to compensate them for their efforts or time. Prizes have been increased to all participants as well.
If we see that there isn’t much participation in the non-league tournaments, we may tweak prizes and entry fees to encourage more participation. What we want to avoid is “My Cards = All Cards” very quickly.
-
New updates posted above.
-
Hi
Wrote about it in the chat and didn't get an answer. But won't giving people tengwars of choice a huge edge in the "my cards-scene"? Like, some start from scratch, others start with 4x hides.. etc?
My suggestion is that they should only work in all cards, if that's is possible, maybe that's even the case. Some clarification on this would be nice.
Great update otherwise
-
There is some discussion about this and we will update the thread when a conclusion is reached.
-
I really like the proposed changes listed above, and would like to voice my full support for this decision.
One more question: Will this just reset collections, or also reset gold?
-
Tengwars were won with decks containing cards from the abused system.. this makes it hard to justify why some people will keep these cards after reset when some players will loose it all...
-
Thanks Merrik!
-
I think it's a good change. It will make "my cards" fun to play again :)
-
I have 2 Foil Tengwars (I am that cool). Will they stay as 4 or just 1? Also would there be a way to "Parachute Payment" them. So for example you only get 1 a week until you've reached your old tally. That way you won't be broken at the start. Also, please could we have Promos valued as Uncommon? They tend to be about as strong (Boro, DoMT was Uncommon in Black Rider). But I think this reset sounds great!
-
Well you can use 12U Boromir in FotR Block with no problems ;) And while some P tend to be ignorable, most of them actually are quite good.
-
Also would there be a way to "Parachute Payment" Tengwars. So for example you only get 1 a week until you've reached your old tally. That way you won't be broken at the start.
I like Legion's idea. But if it's too hard (i.e. requires too much coding from MarcinS) to be done, Id much rather see Tengwars get hit by reset too, than making them All Cards only thing, as someone suggested in Gemp's chat.
-
Another issue that just occurred to me today:
What about cards going out of stock? Are you able to remove the out-of-stock feature on the merchant? Otherwise, that's going to continue to be a problem for the really popular cards... especially now that there will be little incentive to sell stuff back.
-
Cards will never go out of stock. The merchant will now start acting more like a printer than anything else. You will be able to buy any card you want at any time provided you have the gold.
-
Remove that foiling option, too. Getting foils would be special again.
-
Getting foils will take a VERY long time now as there is no way to print money, but it will still be theoretically possible.
A rare foil will cost 44G (10Gx4 copies + 4G for the foil process)
A common foil will cost 6G.
So if gold "allowances" stay the same at 50G per week, it will take a VERY long time for someone to foil an entire deck.
-
Excellent!
-
Let's do the math here assuming we start the reset on January 1:
200G at reset
50G a week - 12 weeks between the reset and the end of march
Total: 800G
That is enough to foil 18 rare cards.
With the average deck having 15-20 rares per side, it would be practically impossible to get all the rares foiled in a deck before the end of March. Granted, this excludes prizes for leagues, but keep in mind each league costs 35 to 50 gold to join.
I'd like to see someone with a tier 1 deck from any block before the end of March.
-
So basically shortly after March everyone will have a deck similar to an all cards format. I still don't see how these changes are going to make any impact on the deck creation past a three month period. All cards and my cards are going to turn into identical formats again. Sure, people may not be able to abuse the gold system, but who really cares when people can construct a world class deck in a short period of time.
Why have a my cards option when it will essentially turn into an all cards format again?
It appears this ship has already sailed, but I would still prefer to only be able to get cards for my cards from packs, no buying (other than buying packs). If people are too impatient to work at making a decent creative deck, then why even have the format? All cards lets you use your ideal deck, my cards shouldn't.
The biggest advantage to using a system where only cards from packs can be used is that a lot more original decks will be seen. I know a lot of people are tired of playing against the same decks over and over and this would provide a unique option.
-
Any My Cards scenario is eventually going to get more similar to All Cards, because gradually everybody will get more and more cards, and there is a finite number of different cards to collect. That's just the nature of the beast.
At least this new system will be more balanced than the old, with most of us collecting at more-or-less the same rate, and no advantages to those who were gaming the merchant system. My experience with the old system wasn't so much more original decks, as it was a few people with a lot of gold dominating the environment with obnoxious foily decks.
If you want to keep My Cards fresh, then I propose an annual reset each year, on January 1st.
-
Let's do the math here assuming we start the reset on January 1:
200G at reset
50G a week - 12 weeks between the reset and the end of march
Total: 800G
That is enough to foil 18 rare cards.
With the average deck having 15-20 rares per side, it would be practically impossible to get all the rares foiled in a deck before the end of March. Granted, this excludes prizes for leagues, but keep in mind each league costs 35 to 50 gold to join.
I'd like to see someone with a tier 1 deck from any block before the end of March.
Your lack of My Cards experience shows. You never buy cards with your weekly gold (which is used for entry fees only), you do it with your Daily and League winnings. So If I win a Daily Im now guaranteed 41+ gold everytime instead of the 2-3 gold total that I got half the times for opening crap rares worth 20 silver each? And Flaming Brand, Aragorns Bow and every other staple will cost 10 gold, not 100-150?
Yeah, we'll talk again.
-
Thanks for the feedback Cthulhu. We will be looking at options to promote more tournament and league play in the future including changes to prize support.
-
Well just like after the last reset the Daily prizes have to be expanded to the Top 8-10 players, and All Cards single elimination tourney's prizes & entry fee have to be re-examined as well, if you want anyone to play these now that all the promos will sell for 2.5 gold and you get a lot less out of the 1-2 boosters prize fund..
-
Perhaps fewer packs as prize support, and more alternate cards that you can't buy in the Merchant?
-
Just posted something in the chat and decided to elaborate a little:
I think adding Hunters starters and reseting S-prices and MC collections & gold would be enough. Maybe put a max price-cap (but no fixed prices) at about 50-100 gold for extra safety?
I'm not really sure how this fixed prices thing will work out, I'm pretty certain I can collect my primary decks in less than a month (it took me as much last 2 times) if all the rares cost 10 gold..
...Unless Daily prizes get severely reduced, but then we will have the current situation where noone plays them.
Not to mention big part of the fun of opening boosters and collecting will be gone when you know that you'll always get exactly 4 gold and 12 silver from every booster you open (barring some foil) and you can buy Goblin Armory and Hides and every other staple out there for 10 gold. Now that I think about it, Im afraid collecting may become less fun, and geting it up to All Cards much easier and faster thing to do.
So I hope you guys are giving the whole thing some serious thought and will make it right this time, because I doubt the MC scene will live through yet another reset later next year.
P.S. Whatever you do, make sure people start playing Dailys again, as they're the backbone of My Cards. Speaking of which I think its time to cancel the obviously failed Expanded Daily experiment, and try TS in its place. Its the logical thing to do, especially after a reset. You can put Expanded again later if there is enough interest.
-
And add EU friendly times for those dailies.
-
I think adding Hunters starters and reseting S-prices and MC collections & gold would be enough. Maybe put a max price-cap (but no fixed prices) at about 50-100 gold for extra safety?
I agree that Hunters definitely needs to be added. Although, since the Merchant can no longer go out of stock, and S-card prices will be fixed, it's not so much an issue. My impression is that only MarcinS can add Hunters to the merchant though, so that's probably not going to happen.
Price-caps could work, though I am still wary of any system that basically favors the first players to buy up cards. The first to buy get advantage over everyone else, and everyone else will be stuck with the max price thereafter. For that reason, I think I prefer a fixed system. I could see eventually assigning individual fixed values to cards based upon their worth, though.
I'm not really sure how this fixed prices thing will work out, I'm pretty certain I can collect my primary decks in less than a month (it took me as much last 2 times) if all the rares cost 10 gold..
...Unless Daily prizes get severely reduced, but then we will have the current situation where noone plays them.
Time will tell. If it really takes so little time for people to rebuild their collections, then the system can be tweaked and reset again.
Not to mention big part of the fun of opening boosters and collecting will be gone when you know that you'll always get exactly 4 gold and 12 silver from every booster you open (barring some foil) and you can buy Goblin Armory and Hides and every other staple out there for 10 gold.
I disagree. With the old system, the focus of opening packs was on getting cards that were worth a lot of gold, not on getting cards you particularly want. Fixed prices shifts the focus back to getting the cards that you actually want, which is where I think the focus should be. Part of the problem of the old system, was that it got people focused on gaming it for more and more gold, rather than collecting cards.
Now that I think about it, Im afraid collecting may become less fun,
I think that depends on what a particular player finds to be "fun." For those who enjoyed playing with the Merchant System like a stock market, obviously that aspect will be gone. Good riddance, I say.
and geting it up to All Cards much easier and faster thing to do.
If that is true, that may yet need to be tweeked. Or we could simply schedule periodic resets to give people the pleasure of going through the process again. Maybe players get to keep whatever goes in "Trophies" through each reset.
So I hope you guys are giving the whole thing some serious thought and will make it right this time, because I doubt the MC scene will live through yet another reset later next year.
IMO this is the most promising change to the MC system so far, as I had largely given up on the old system. We'll see how it goes.
P.S. Whatever you do, make sure people start playing Dailys again, as they're the backbone of My Cards. Speaking of which I think its time to cancel the obviously failed Expanded Daily experiment, and try TS in its place. Its the logical thing to do, especially after a reset. You can put Expanded again later if there is enough interest.
Based on Gemp statistics, TS is a far less popular format than Expanded, which is about as popular as Movie. IMO Expanded Dailies mainly failed because they were scheduled (and had to compete with) the much more established Movie Dailies. I think Dailies should exist for the three most popular formats (Fellowship, Movie, and Expanded), and each format should get it's own day and times, in rotation. So, if you want to play Dailies every day, you'd have to mix it up between all three formats.
-
My impression is that only MarcinS can add Hunters to the merchant though, so that's probably not going to happen.
Indeed he's the only one, and he already said he will do it before reseting, not to mention Eukaluptus already did most of the work and sent him the Hunters starters in coded form like 3 months ago.
The first to buy get advantage over everyone else, and everyone else will be stuck with the max price thereafter. I could see eventually assigning individual fixed values to cards based upon their worth, though.
No, they would not, as cards will be opened, bought and sold and their price will change.
Individual values sounds fine (as it doesnt make much sense Strength of Kings to cost as much as Goblin Armory), but I suppose it would require lots of coding for MarcinS, so probably won't happen.
If it really takes so little time for people to rebuild their collections, then the system can be tweaked and reset again
As i said, I dont think MC can handle too many resets. Lots of people gave up on My Cards after the last one. More will do after this one. Also during Zool's Reign of Terror (TM) MarcinS already showed that he too doesnt favor resets and will do it as an extremely end measure only.
Fixed prices shifts the focus back to getting the cards that you actually want, which is where I think the focus should be. Part of the problem of the old system, was that it got people focused on gaming it for more and more gold, rather than collecting cards.
I dont think I'd want to or will ever be excited again to open any particular card from booster now that I know i can buy any one for 10 gold...And what "collecting" are we speaking about, when every format staple costs as every junk rare?
I think that depends on what a particular player finds to be "fun." For those who enjoyed playing with the Merchant System like a stock market, obviously that aspect will be gone.
I explained why it won't be fun for me. The old thrill of winning and opening boosters, eagerly awaiting the sight of that 4th Hides you need seriously decreases when: 1) every booster has the same value, so the element of surprise is lower and 2) its hard to get excited by opening boosters when you know you can buy any card you want for as much as you would pay for The Weight of a Legacy.
I predict that not long once people get some MC decks going, they would stop opening boosters in favor of just buying the singles they need, and it was said thats the opposite of what the admins are tryig to achieve with the changes.
IMO Expanded Dailies mainly failed because they were scheduled (and had to compete with) the much more established Movie Dailies
Expanded Dailys have his own day twice a week since July... (you can see the exact date in the changelog tab). Still every time, only like 2-3 people wanted to actually play them, rest just joined and dropped for prizes. Then they just didnt get started at all, when the dropping issue was officially mentioned in MOTD. Then Daily prizes got cut to Top 4 only, and people stopped playing Dailys alltogether.
I think Dailies should exist for the three most popular formats (Fellowship, Movie, and Expanded), and each format should get it's own day and times, in rotation. So, if you want to play Dailies every day, you'd have to mix it up between all three formats.
Im not against that IF there is enough interest this time, just give people time to get some cards first. It isnt much fun to see bad FotR decks in all formats and most of the people sporting those decks joining and dropping exp daily for boosters..
And add EU friendly times for those dailies.
!!!
-
If that is true, that may yet need to be tweeked. Or we could simply schedule periodic resets to give people the pleasure of going through the process again. Maybe players get to keep whatever goes in "Trophies" through each reset.
I like this idea.
I also think the problem with people not signing up for the daily was more about the inflation than the prize changes.
-
I predict that not long once people get some MC decks going, they would stop opening boosters in favor of just buying the singles they need, and it was said thats the opposite of what the admins are tryig to achieve with the changes.
Part of the intent, in my mind at least, is to make the powerful cards available to all for some investment as well as to reduce the strain on the server of the mass opening of packs. The current system significantly encourages people playing the S-Foil lottery. If you get one, MC=AC. Where is the fun in that aside from the feeling of having won the lottery.
Another goal is removing merchant manipulation. It is disheartening to see cards such as Goblin Armory, Aragorn's Bow, Hides, Morgul Brute and other power rares placed so far out of the range of so many players as to encourage them to play the S-Foil lottery. As explained in the first post, the only way to remove merchant manipulation is to make it such that players have no interaction with each other at all through the merchant. The only way to do that is to make all cards always available at a fixed price.
Another benefit is that this will hopefully encourage people to use one primary account helping people foster more of a community.
There is more I could write, but I don't know how coherent it would be.
Yes, if the implementation is as discussed, Trophies are cards such as Tengwars that will persist through any future resets and likely be usable in "All Cards" only or at some point in the future when enough people have had time to build "my cards" decks, in My Cards as well.
A third goal is to make the merchant a net gold sink.
-
We wouldnt be having this conversation nor discussing a second reset in less than a year if only the Hunters starters were added earlier :(
I'm pretty sure neither Aragorns Bow nor Hides nor any other card was so far out of my reach when i first joined the site and i was able to collect my decks for the Dailys rather quickly just by playing in Dailys. I think the market selfregulated itself just fine before the infinite gold bug, and then after the reset the delayed adding of the Hunters starters. The bigger concern IMO is limiting the access to the site to people who join just to troll people with all means they have available.
Ofcourse there will always be initial distance between players who just started and those who play from long time, and the proposed changes won't prevent that - a person who starts collecting and playing january 2014 will still have big MC advantage over one who joins next september. But thats not really a bad thing, it just shows that the time invested in Gemp is in fact the biggest currency there. And the new players can always make the transition to MC more smooth by playing some Sealed and AC Leagues first and geting some boosters, gold and experience before starting MC.
P.S. MarcinS said recently he discovered huge inneficiency in the packs code, which might be the reason for the server strain, so lets hope that gets fixed too.
-
Indeed he's the only one, and he already said he will do it before reseting, not to mention Eukaluptus already did most of the work and sent him the Hunters starters in coded form like 3 months ago.
That's great news!
No, they would not, as cards will be opened, bought and sold and their price will change.
History has shown that nearly all card values gradually creep up over time. Popular cards go up faster.
Individual values sounds fine (as it doesnt make much sense Strength of Kings to cost as much as Goblin Armory), but I suppose it would require lots of coding for MarcinS, so probably won't happen.
Could be. I wonder how tough it would be to assign a tiered value to all cards that would designate their fixed price? Like, I wonder if someone could do a search now for every card selling above X amount, and go ahead and assign a code to those cards that would cause them to cost some extra expensive fixed price once the reset happens?
As i said, I dont think MC can handle too many resets. Lots of people gave up on My Cards after the last one. More will do after this one. Also during Zool's Reign of Terror (TM) MarcinS already showed that he too doesnt favor resets and will do it as an extremely end measure only.
Well, speaking from my own perspective, I gave up on MC long ago because I found it took much too long to build my collection without gaming the system and/or playing in Dailies every day, which I just can't do. So, if it is now a bit easier to build a collection, that is more of an incentive for me to participate in it, as compared to the old system.
I dont think I'd want to or will ever be excited again to open any particular card from booster now that I know i can buy any one for 10 gold...And what "collecting" are we speaking about, when every format staple costs as every junk rare?
Well, it doesn't actually cost the same, because if you get it in a pack you won, that is still far less cost than if you buy it in the store. 10 gold may not sound like much, but keep in mind, it shouldn't be as easy for people to build up the massive amounts of gold they were able to accumulate before. However, the system should be designed so that you can't sell the contents of a single booster, and have enough to buy whatever rare you want. If that is currently the case, then the fixed price of rares should be increased, or the gold you get from selling cards to the merchant needs to be decreased. Otherwise, you essentially end up getting exactly the rare you want in every pack you open, either actually in that pack, or by selling it and buying what you want.
ETA: Based on the figures in post #1, it looks like the redemption rate for cards sold to the Merchant is sufficiently low to prevent this. So, getting what you want in a pack should still have value.
ETA again: HOWEVER the merchant prices for packs probably need to be adjusted, in order to make it worth our while to gamble with packs rather than buy singles. Currently packs cost 10 gold, and the contents of a pack would normally yield 4g 1s that could be redeemed by selling the cards back to the merchant. By gambling with packs, you'd most likely lose more than half your gold, versus buying singles outright. I'd lower the cost of booster packs to about 6g.
I explained why it won't be fun for me. The old thrill of winning and opening boosters, eagerly awaiting the sight of that 4th Hides you need seriously decreases when: 1) every booster has the same value, so the element of surprise is lower and 2) its hard to get excited by opening boosters when you know you can buy any card you want for as much as you would pay for The Weight of a Legacy.
But every booster doesn't have the same value. A booster that has a card you actually need, has more value than a booster that has nothing you need, that you can only sell to the merchant for a fraction of the cards' worth.
Expanded Dailys have his own day twice a week since July... (you can see the exact date in the changelog tab). Still every time, only like 2-3 people wanted to actually play them, rest just joined and dropped for prizes. Then they just didnt get started at all, when the dropping issue was officially mentioned in MOTD. Then Daily prizes got cut to Top 4 only, and people stopped playing Dailys alltogether.
Well, way back when I gave up on the system, they were still scheduled together. I never checked back, and at this point I think a lot of us are just biding our time until the reset. I currently have almost a thousand gold I'm not bothering to spend, and about 18 packs I haven't bothered to open.
Im not against that IF there is enough interest this time, just give people time to get some cards first. It isnt much fun to see bad FotR decks in all formats and most of the people sporting those decks joining and dropping exp daily for boosters..
Each player tends to have their own favorite format. Each player is most likely to build their first deck for the format they like the most, and then branch out from there as they are able.
And add EU friendly times for those dailies.
I'd like to see a wider variety of times for all of the formats. At the time that I gave up on the old system, my work schedule made it impossible for me to participate in the Dailies.
Another goal is removing merchant manipulation. It is disheartening to see cards such as Goblin Armory, Aragorn's Bow, Hides, Morgul Brute and other power rares placed so far out of the range of so many players as to encourage them to play the S-Foil lottery. As explained in the first post, the only way to remove merchant manipulation is to make it such that players have no interaction with each other at all through the merchant. The only way to do that is to make all cards always available at a fixed price.
Or price caps. But at this point I think I prefer fixed prices.
Yes, if the implementation is as discussed, Trophies are cards such as Tengwars that will persist through any future resets and likely be usable in "All Cards" only or at some point in the future when enough people have had time to build "my cards" decks, in My Cards as well.
Excellent!
We wouldnt be having this conversation nor discussing a second reset in less than a year if only the Hunters starters were added earlier :(
I think we would. Hunters is only part of the problem, those are not the only cards to rocket sky-high in price, or go out-of-stock.
I'm pretty sure neither Aragorns Bow nor Hides nor any other card was so far out of my reach when i first joined the site and i was able to collect my decks for the Dailys rather quickly just by playing in Dailys. I think the market selfregulated itself just fine before the infinite gold bug, and then after the reset the delayed adding of the Hunters starters.
I disagree. The problem inherent to the system was present all along. If you joined the site before inflation had taken root, lucky you. Not so lucky for all those who came later.
The bigger concern IMO is limiting the access to the site to people who join just to troll people with all means they have available.
I don't really think there are that many trolls out there. Mostly it's just ZooL in different guises. There will always be minor infractions, that's just life and people aren't perfect. I think the moderators are doing an admirable job, though I'm sure their job would be easier if there was a way to prevent all the attempts to game the sealed deck leagues that happen whenever one starts. Maybe only one entry allowed from each IP?
Of course there will always be initial distance between players who just started and those who play from long time, and the proposed changes won't prevent that - a person who starts collecting and playing january 2014 will still have big MC advantage over one who joins next september. But thats not really a bad thing, it just shows that the time invested in Gemp is in fact the biggest currency there. And the new players can always make the transition to MC more smooth by playing some Sealed and AC Leagues first and geting some boosters, gold and experience before starting MC.
This is why I'd be in favor of some sort of annual reset once a year, to put all current members back on an equal footing again.
P.S. MarcinS said recently he discovered huge inneficiency in the packs code, which might be the reason for the server strain, so lets hope that gets fixed too.
I hope so!
-
Well, speaking from my own perspective, I gave up on MC long ago because I found it took much too long to build my collection without gaming the system and/or playing in Dailies every day, which I just can't do. So, if it is now a bit easier to build a collection, that is more of an incentive for me to participate in it, as compared to the old system.
Well you can't really build a My Cards collection without playing My Cards tournaments and Leagues. :) Neither can you expect to collect at the same rate as someone investing more time and efforts than you. And let me clarify, when I wrote that with the currently proposed changes collecting post-reset looks easier to me, I meant easier through the eyes of the average My Cards fan, regularly playing Dailys and most of the Leagues. If you cant put as much time, collecting will just take you longer, and that cant be helped barring some future S-card-like lotteries, which I hope won't happen anytime soon. If you can only play Dailys and League games like a couple times in a month, then I don't think My Cards is meant for you. All Cards is exactly for the people who can't or don't want to invest such time in the site.
I think we would. Hunters is only part of the problem, those are not the only cards to rocket sky-high in price, or go out-of-stock.
Hunters is the root of the problem, and what caused those things happen. Prices wouldnt skyrocket and cards wouldnt go out of stock (and indeed initially after the last reset they didn't) if there werent winning lottery tickets lying around in boosters, that let everybody who got one buy and foil the entire stock of the merchant, and allowing guys like youknowwho creating accounts until he opens one, and then messing with the merchant in his usual way.
Still, its pointless to discuss it now (we have some saying "putting a hood after the rain"), as adding the starters and reseting S prices should be done right along with the last reset, and I'm certain if done we wouldnt be facing a reset now, but again that ship sailed long ago.
-
do we have a date for the reset?
-
I think it hits January 1.
-
It's January 2...why hasn't this change happened yet?
-
Probably because MarcinS is a human too (as much as his work on Gemp implies otherwise =D>) , and celebrated just like everyone else. Its not like we're paying him to do it ASAP.
Besides if the point is everyone to start from scratch reseting isnt a good idea until tonight when the prizes for the last My Cards league that just ended will be given.
Also Im not so sure that everything about the reset is clear, and all details have been discussed by the admins and agreed on.
Still I hope that it gets done within a week or so, because once announced prolonging it is just bad. At the moment I dont have incentive to start playing the new Sealed, when I know Im losing all the Serie prizes. No one will want to play Dailys or AC tournaments for the same reason too, and I cant remember when the last such tournament happened.
-
Hopefully they will be able to retroactively add in any prizes won in the Revised Sealed League. I've already won my first two games, but I am hesitant to play more until the reset is done.
-
MarcinS told me today that he plans on having the time to implement the server changes regarding the reset this weekend.
-
about leagues that are been played this month?
would they been priced after the reset??
and any rare would cost the same always and with eternal stock ?
i support everithing , but liked actual system
maybe should reset once a year or something to make it fun
and thanx for all the effort
-
The reset has happened!
Updates at the top of the thread. There will be updates as more questions are asked/answered.
-
Tengwars don't show up even in All Cards!
Just played an All Cards League game, in which they were converted into regular cards (I checked my deck afterwards to make sure I've put them in - they're visible in the deck while in Deckbuilder). And its a brand new deck I made today, so they were properly put there from "Trophies".
-
Per MarcinS:
"Tengwar cards show only in Casual games."
I will modify the Q/A to reflect that.
-
I get that the trophy cards are only allowed to be used in All Cards constructed events, but I don't understand why MarcinS would make it so you can't see the trophies a guy won, in competitive events in which you compete to win trophies! It seems to me that league and tournament games are precisely where people would most want to show off what they've won, and I don't see any reason why they shouldn't be allowed to.
Any chance of modifying this?
-
So I assume it takes a lot of coding required to make them show in All Cards AND Casual, but not in My Cards?
Otherwise I just cant see why the once most desired prizes on Gemp have fallen to a state where I dont see why someone will be as excited as before to Top 4 a League again, even more so when he's done collecting his decks. :(
I say just reset them too and make them My Cards again, I'm willing to sacrifice my 40 Tengwars for them to be reinstalled as the most exciting prize on Gemp!
I don't understand why MarcinS would make it so you can't see the trophies a guy won, in competitive events in which you compete to win trophies! It seems to me that league and tournament games are precisely where people would most want to show off what they've won, and I don't see any reason why they shouldn't be allowed to.
+1000
-
I say just reset them too and make them My Cards again, I'm willing to sacrifice my 40 Tengwars for them to be reinstalled as the most exciting prize on Gemp!
I'll sacrifice mine too, I agree with Cthulhu's proposal.
-
I have spoken with MarcinS and he says that it shouldn't be too difficult to code trophies so that they are available anywhere "All Cards" are allowed. At this point there is no timeline on when that would happen, but he is aware of the desire.
-
Yay! Thanks Merrick.
I'm one to talk, I only have two.
-
I'll give up my 33 Tengwar selections as well. Sign me up for the reset of trophies and allowing them in all my cards games!
-
After some thought i agree. Now that all rares are fixed at 10g, having trophies in My Cards persist through a reset really isnt that much of an advantage. Heck, i wouldnt even make anyone give up the ones they have now. What's the big deal?
-
It sure is. 40/33 and so on Tengwar cards provide an unfair advantage to other players. I'll gladly sacrifice my meager number of Tengwars, too for them to regain their value in My Cards.
-
It might be an unfair advantage if all those tengwars worked together to make an awesome deck, but by and large they don't. They're just a bunch of disparate cards, and some of them aren't even rare. What's the most tengwars you've ever put in a single deck? Now, think about how much gold it would cost to just buy the regular versions of those cards. Not that much, I'm thinking.
-
What's the most tengwars you've ever put in a single deck? Now, think about how much gold it would cost to just buy the regular versions of those cards. Not that much, I'm thinking.
I have 18 Tengwars in my King Standard deck. Yeah, after 2-3 months 180 gold doesnt sound like too much of advantage, considering that by that time I and most other people would be 1000+ gold (more if Dailys start to happen regularly) ahead of any new player who's just starting anyway.
-
can someone explain what this is. is it a way to play lotrtcg online? because that would be freaking awesome
-
can someone explain what this is. is it a way to play lotrtcg online? because that would be freaking awesome
yes. and yes, it is.
http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/hall.html (http://www.gempukku.com/gemp-lotr/hall.html)
-
I have 18 Tengwars in my King Standard deck. Yeah, after 2-3 months 180 gold doesnt sound like too much of advantage, considering that by that time I and most other people would be 1000+ gold (more if Dailys start to happen regularly) ahead of any new player who's just starting anyway.
Yep. Even if a new player just sits and waits, they'll be able to afford almost all of the Tengwar rares you are using in just two weeks (50 starting gold, plus 50 gold a week). And that's assuming that all 18 of those tengwars you mentioned are rare. I'm guessing one of them is probably Shotgun Enquea?
-
ok so i just logged on to this game. How did i not know about this before.
i just need more gold. how do you get more do you have to win games?
Thanks
-
You get more gold each week, and you can also sell back cards from your personal collection to make more cash. You get more packs by winning league games.
-
what are league games... Im sorry to bother people but i couldn't find a forum thread explaining this
-
There are tabs across the top of gemp that you can click on to tell you more about stuff, including the leagues. A league is kind of like a tournament that lasts a whole week (or month) long. You can join a league for a certain amount of gold, and then you play in it and win prizes depending on how well you do.
-
thanks i will look at that
-
And that's assuming that all 18 of those tengwars you mentioned are rare. I'm guessing one of them is probably Shotgun Enquea?
2 of them, actually. And its not like we get to play the 1-7 format that often too.
@johnthespud: like mentioned read the tabs on top of Game Hall on Gemp, starting with "Instructions", "Code of Conduct" and "League Rules". You get 50 gold every Monday and you can sell cards from the boosters you win in Leagues ("Leagues" tab) and tournaments (those are found in "Tournament queues") to the merchant.
But collecting cards is just an option, you have All Cards in Casual so you dont have to buy anything if you just want to play Casual games.
-
Is there a problem with the merchant lately? I just tried to filter by 'packs' so I could buy a starter deck for my collection, but I got a message saying there was a problem communicating with the server.
-
Q: Are the prices for the dailys going to remain at 10 gold to play in one?
A: Yes. The price for the daily tournaments and any time tournaments has gone to 10G to encourage participation, but to somewhat limit the amount of prize support that is given out. Each person who participates in the daily or any time tournament, whether they win a game or not will receive 1 pack as prize support to compensate them for their efforts or time. Prizes have been increased to all participants as well.
It has been generally noted by the players that there is currently not enough incentive to play the Single Elimination All Cards Tournaments, even with every player getting at least one booster pack. A poll documenting these feelings is ongoing here:
http://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php/topic,8780.0.html (http://lotrtcgwiki.com/forums/index.php/topic,8780.0.html)
Would you consider adjusting the SE Tournaments to provide more incentive to play? If you would zero the entry fee but do away with a guaranteed pack for every player, that would be good enough for me. Alternatively, perhaps you might keep the guaranteed pack for every player, but lower the entry fee from 10g to 4g? This would allow every player to at least almost break even, by selling the cards they get back to the Merchant.
What do you say?
Also, FYI, I was unable to bring up packs in the Merchant using Chrome, Firefox, or Explorer. None of them worked for me, error every time.