Developer Q&A - Battle for Zendikar (4/11/16)

majincob

loroku wrote:

Meto5000 wrote:

There really needs to be a way to purchase individual cards once you reach a certain point.

I know. I really like the way Hearthstone does it: cards break down into dust you can use to form other cards. Eventually, if you get enough cards, you will always be able to get that last card you want, and it indirectly encourages spending because you can use up all the dupes to make new cards. Even if it were crazy expensive it'd still be worth it. I think this game has the opportunity to do something similar, especially if they can do that before "dumping your cards for runes" goes live, especially since that feels so valueless. That system works better in MPQ where you have scores and scores of characters, and the things you are dumping are also ways to level up characters. In this game, the CARDS are what you want. Leveling PWs is fine, but the cards are what you're really going for.

I agree with this. It's gonna be really hard to move to a better system after they implement cards for runes because they said it converts *ALL* your extras with one button press not optional on pick and choose.

Hibernum_JC

I'll say this - we are actively listening to all your comments about duplicates and will seriously take them into consideration for the future. This doesn't mean we'll actually do a system like Hearthstone's dust system, but we are really taking these comments to heart.

loroku

Hibernum_JC wrote:

I'll say this - we are actively listening to all your comments about duplicates and will seriously take them into consideration for the future. This doesn't mean we'll actually do a system like Hearthstone's dust system, but we are really taking these comments to heart.

Thanks for listening!

The thing is, if - and at this point, I'm guessing it's "when" - the "break your cards for runes" system goes live, it will be extremely difficult to change to anything else later. People will be piping hot mad if they find out they could have saved all their cards and gotten crystals or dust or something infinitely better than runes. So if you go there, you're stuck with it.

That means if you ever do a crafting system, it will need to use runes as the material. Which is... AWESOME, because it suddenly makes runes 1000x more valuable. It means people who have played longer will have more resources, AND it means they will have to make actual game-related choices about how to spend their runes - leveling, or a specific card. It also means your PvP rewards will make sense - tons of runes would be more valuable than crystals in that case because you can get a specific card. It also makes your story reward change almost make sense (seriously, 250 runes is chump change when you can get 300 from a much, MUCH easier PvP battle). AND it limits the "pay to win" aspect because you can really only earn runes in-game (other than a few bonus ones tagged onto special bundles) BUT it also encourages spending because you can buy tons of dupes and break them to get the cards you want faster (or just play to get them slowly). I mean, it seriously hits a ton of what I have to assume are your overarching goals for this game. It seems like a great idea.

Check out this thread for some awesome ideas about using runes to craft:
viewtopic.php?f=36&t=42852

The one last caveat, though, is that your "break cards for runes" prices are way too low. (1 mythic is worth 3 quick battles? Are you serious?) This is something to think through NOW before people start breaking their cards and get steaming mad if you change the prices later.

ChrisTot

loroku wrote:

Hibernum_JC wrote:

I'll say this - we are actively listening to all your comments about duplicates and will seriously take them into consideration for the future. This doesn't mean we'll actually do a system like Hearthstone's dust system, but we are really taking these comments to heart.

Thanks for listening!

The thing is, if - and at this point, I'm guessing it's "when" - the "break your cards for runes" system goes live, it will be extremely difficult to change to anything else later. People will be piping hot mad if they find out they could have saved all their cards and gotten crystals or dust or something infinitely better than runes. So if you go there, you're stuck with it.

That means if you ever do a crafting system, it will need to use runes as the material. Which is... AWESOME, because it suddenly makes runes 1000x more valuable. It means people who have played longer will have more resources, AND it means they will have to make actual game-related choices about how to spend their runes - leveling, or a specific card. It also means your PvP rewards will make sense - tons of runes would be more valuable than crystals in that case because you can get a specific card. It also makes your story reward change almost make sense (seriously, 250 runes is chump change when you can get 300 from a much, MUCH easier PvP battle). AND it limits the "pay to win" aspect because you can really only earn runes in-game (other than a few bonus ones tagged onto special bundles) BUT it also encourages spending because you can buy tons of dupes and break them to get the cards you want faster (or just play to get them slowly). I mean, it seriously hits a ton of what I have to assume are your overarching goals for this game. It seems like a great idea.

Check out this thread for some awesome ideas about using runes to craft:
viewtopic.php?f=36&t=42852

The one last caveat, though, is that your "break cards for runes" prices are way too low. (1 mythic is worth 3 quick battles? Are you serious?) This is something to think through NOW before people start breaking their cards and get steaming mad if you change the prices later.

If this seems like something that you, as a developer think is too cheap, then it means the "conversion" price is currently too low. a 1:8 ratio seems very reasonable for getting rid of something duplicate to gain something new. So, if winning 27 games sounds like it's too low to give someone a non-dupe mythic, then it shows how low the 1000 rune breakdown price is.

Commons craft for 160 runes
Uncommons craft for 320 runes
Rares craft for 1600 runes
Mythics craft for 8000 runes

And like it has been said before, it's going to be way harder to compensate the early adopters of the conversion strategy than it would be to put the whole process off until a later date when the developers understand how many runes our duplicate cards should actually be worth.

nexus13

Trading is obviously the ideal solution for dups. But that is likely a pain to implement and not a good revenue source unless it costs something to make a trade. Some form of crafting seems to be a good idea. It should definitely drive sales of whatever resource you would use for the crafting or at least make spending money more attractive when you know that you can get what you want even if the price seems wild. Also crafting gives the free players some hope of building what they want and staying involved. Maybe a good free player can build the perfect deck for one planeswalker and the whales can have the ideal build for every planeswalker.

Keegan

nexus13 wrote:

Trading is obviously the ideal solution for dups. But that is likely a pain to implement and not a good revenue source unless it costs something to make a trade.

To my mind, trading also leads to a black market, which is always bad for the health of a game.