Power Creep

glggwp

why is it so hard to make this game real pvp??????????

shteev

Morphis wrote:

shteev wrote:

EDHdad wrote:

Ob Nixilis is objectively one of the most powerful walkers in the game, but nobody ever complains about him, because the AI spams his first ability with a full grip of cards. Meanwhile, most Ob Nixilis decks are built around using his -18, which I have never seen cast by the opponent.

It would take literally seconds to modify Ob Nixilis so that he spams ability 3 instead of ability 1. I wonder why this hasn't been done? Is it because it would broadcast to the wider player base how broken he is?

That does not make much sense.
He can't spam third skill.
If you mean he would save for it... Well that's not always the best thing to do.

Sure. But it would make the AI play him much better, and its a simple fix which involves only as much coding as the dev team have proven they're willing to put into planeswalker AI.

Omega Red

I don't have a problem with cheaper cards or PW's with 4 and 5 mana bonuses, but it's the combination of both what breaks the game.

These design choices send a clear message: the devs want a faster-paced game. This only gives more weight to luck via cascades and card draw. Too bad if your starting hand and first bunch of draws suck because the meta now is all about ramping the board and unloading your whole deck by turn three.

Steeme

Just as a caveat: If we're going to improve the AI to use the loyalty abilities more "intelligently", the difficulty of the game will skyrocket. The experienced players with big libraries can brace for impact, but it will be much more difficult for newer players and weaker decks. The single most powerful advantage that the player has over the AI is that the player knows the AI will use the most expensive ability it can when it is available. A match-5 can break the tempo but you know that it is coming and can hold off a turn or so.

Imagine if the AI was controlling Liliana, and you didn't know when your cards were going to be thrown out?

GrizzoMtGPQ

Devs,

If you're trying to build a smart AI why don't you use the information at your disposal about how these decks are to be played correctly? What information is that? The way that PLAYERS do it in QB. I assume that you are recording the card sequences for each deck as it is piloted by a human. Why not use this to your advantage and link heuristics to the actual decks for the player who created it. Not as good as actual PVP but I bet it would get you damn close.

Do you want to see what needs to be nerfed? Look at what is being abused in QB. If you calculate ribbons/hour see what causes an increase for the top 50 players. Whatever new card combos landed in the best decks are exploiting a weakness in your designs.

I'm an iOS developer and an AI designer. I love this game. Let me know if you're looking for some design or coding help. You might want to solicit some other help here too. I know there are some damn smart people playing this game. You could use it to better advantage. It's not weakness to ask for our help. It'll make it way better in the long run. We looked at the EDM card list and found problems with power creep by inspection. In our actual hands we found more. Let us help you find balance and make this game as good and long term viable as paper MTG.

Grizzo, Extinction

GrizzoMtGPQ

Here are a few other ideas about how to make this game more fun again:

Story - Release the OGW event as new story content. Craft something up for SOI. We haven't gotten anything new in a long time and we're getting bored. Too much reliance on QB and events these days.

Constraints - The players are over relying on Mythics and Rares. Institute a deck limitation by PW on the counts of these per deck. Force us to get creative. We'd love it. The coalition boards would go crazy trying to realign and deck craft around them. It would be fun! And it would level out for those who have fewer mythics.

Larger deck sizes - Give us the ability to make real 40 card decks and save them. Make libraries, graveyards, etc real arrays and work correctly. I.e. How can you Deploy the Gatewatch with a single creature deck, 2-3 turns in a row? There should only be 4 copies of the creature in the deck, total!

QB - Change this from an overnight grind fest to something else by shortening it up considerably. Make it 2 hours. Institute a ladder and force the best players to compete against each other for the Mythic. Lower ladders compete for the rare.

Events - How about some transparency about when they're coming? How about making the bonus objectives more thoughtful rather than based on count? Institute more meaningful constraints on the cards that can be used. I.e. In this event Behold the Beyond is banned, etc.

Grizzo, Extinction

Ohboy

Steeme wrote:

Just as a caveat: If we're going to improve the AI to use the loyalty abilities more "intelligently", the difficulty of the game will skyrocket. The experienced players with big libraries can brace for impact, but it will be much more difficult for newer players and weaker decks. The single most powerful advantage that the player has over the AI is that the player knows the AI will use the most expensive ability it can when it is available. A match-5 can break the tempo but you know that it is coming and can hold off a turn or so.

Imagine if the AI was controlling Liliana, and you didn't know when your cards were going to be thrown out?

That's the whole point isn't it? The ai is so weak now there's no skill differentiation. Just look at how many are tied with perfect scores each event.

If you're new you're not supposed to be competitive in the events. You're supposed to place in the lower prize brackets. You play or you grind and climb up. And it's an easier climb than ever now with all the free rares flying every week.

What's the fun in stomping the ai every game? Don't you get tired of it? Wouldn't you prefer an opponent that poses a challenge?

THEMAGICkMAN

Slightly proud my thread got answered by devs and is right now the most popular topic along with "where's sarkhan" and "tamiyos colors" but what will you do when the power creep gets way out of control in a years time? Just let go of the game? We don't want that and neither do you. So please, fix this, slow down the power creep to something like:
Set 1, 4 mana 4/4
Set 2, 4 mama 4/4 flying
Set 3 4 mana 4/4 haste
And so on. Please D3 and Hibernum. Don't let the game die. Fix it. We do love the game, a lot, despite the amount we complain. Please make the game better, I understand that it's difficult sometimes to make decisions. So ask the community. Post a thread asking if you should do something or not. And if it's a matter of "do this for new players, even though it's bad for top players". Then post it and let us suggest alternatives are ways around problems. Let your player base help the game and make sure you tell them why this card/pw was nerfed and tell us to think of the new players/ai/or whatever is the difficulty. Make the game better, with your community.

Ohboy

Letting people on the Internet help decide on things has a solid track record of hilarious results.

Stormbringer0

GrizzoMtGPQ wrote:

Here are a few other ideas about how to make this game more fun again:

Story - Release the OGW event as new story content. Craft something up for SOI. We haven't gotten anything new in a long time and we're getting bored. Too much reliance on QB and events these days.

QB - Change this from an overnight grind fest to something else by shortening it up considerably. Make it 2 hours. Institute a ladder and force the best players to compete against each other for the Mythic. Lower ladders compete for the rare.

Great ideas! Would love to get some new story content with different objectives!.

Regarding QB: Great idea as well. Last week I tried to make the top 10 in one run, it's simply not possible, because I have to work and care for my family. I had 700+ points nonetheless, but made "only" 12th place, because the QB period here in Germany ends at 4 am. Other thing would be to create more price spaces. Mythic and big box just for 1st place? And then a rare plus four boosters for 2-10? And after that it's not even worth spending so much time battling QB for high places.

Ohboy

Stormbringer0 wrote:

GrizzoMtGPQ wrote:

Here are a few other ideas about how to make this game more fun again:

Story - Release the OGW event as new story content. Craft something up for SOI. We haven't gotten anything new in a long time and we're getting bored. Too much reliance on QB and events these days.

QB - Change this from an overnight grind fest to something else by shortening it up considerably. Make it 2 hours. Institute a ladder and force the best players to compete against each other for the Mythic. Lower ladders compete for the rare.

Great ideas! Would love to get some new story content with different objectives!.

Regarding QB: Great idea as well. Last week I tried to make the top 10 in one run, it's simply not possible, because I have to work and care for my family. I had 700+ points nonetheless, but made "only" 12th place, because the QB period here in Germany ends at 4 am. Other thing would be to create more price spaces. Mythic and big box just for 1st place? And then a rare plus four boosters for 2-10? And after that it's not even worth spending so much time battling QB for high places.

Stop playing qb early into the period and try to play the last few brackets if you can. 700+ should guarantee you top 10 comfortably if you time it right.

JopeX37

GrizzoMtGPQ wrote:

Story - Release the OGW event as new story content. Craft something up for SOI. We haven't gotten anything new in a long time and we're getting bored. Too much reliance on QB and events these days.

Events - How about some transparency about when they're coming? How about making the bonus objectives more thoughtful rather than based on count? Institute more meaningful constraints on the cards that can be used. I.e. In this event Behold the Beyond is banned, etc.

Grizzo, Extinction

I have to agree with my coalition-mate here. I really wish I could get another crack at the OGW event and at more stories in general. I get that you guys have been focusing on events and coalitions more lately but I do think the story part has been unfairly neglected.

And in addition to an event scedule, I'd love to know the quick battle color scheme ahead of time as well. Seems a simple enough request to me.

shteev

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pxjWYTnv-Q&t=49m7s

madwren

JopeX37 wrote:

GrizzoMtGPQ wrote:

Story - Release the OGW event as new story content. Craft something up for SOI. We haven't gotten anything new in a long time and we're getting bored. Too much reliance on QB and events these days.

Events - How about some transparency about when they're coming? How about making the bonus objectives more thoughtful rather than based on count? Institute more meaningful constraints on the cards that can be used. I.e. In this event Behold the Beyond is banned, etc.

Grizzo, Extinction

I have to agree with my coalition-mate here. I really wish I could get another crack at the OGW event and at more stories in general. I get that you guys have been focusing on events and coalitions more lately but I do think the story part has been unfairly neglected.

And in addition to an event scedule, I'd love to know the quick battle color scheme ahead of time as well. Seems a simple enough request to me.

The pattern used to be White - Blue - Green - Red - Black - Colorless. Has this changed?

THEMAGICkMAN

I think it's fairly safe to say that the devs have learnt, KLD had a terrible power level, but then AER had some great stuff, with only a few exceptions, one of which is getting nerfed. Baral is OP as heck, but he's meant to be that way, for the $$. Not having a go at D3 or the devs about this, it's pretty simple marketing. People will pay for the OP stuff. I think having 1 great amazing card per set is alright, so long as it doesn't single handedly break the game and I would be surprised to see baral do that to be honest. The masterpieces are generally good, with a few amazing ones, but again, not completely game breaking. I would like to see the power toned down just a little bit more, but it's come a long way and I will be happy with that for now. Keep it up JC and the rest of the devs. But baral will need a nerf in time. Just sayin'.

buscemi

Rishka's Expertise.

morgue427

funny i thought imprison was a decent card not over powered really, a two edged sword you get rid of a threat but give him a mana battery that wont attack unless you buff it so you need to be careful if you use it if they can buff it it can attack you and give mana. used it on my own creatures at times and buffed it hard destroyed the ai with a moon token from hell was a rofl moment

THEMAGICkMAN

buscemi wrote:

Rishka's Expertise.

Yeah forgot about that. I just stole it with gonti from 2.2 in RatC. Cards insane. Like, really insane.

madwren

morgue427 wrote:

funny i thought imprison was a decent card not over powered really, a two edged sword you get rid of a threat but give him a mana battery that wont attack unless you buff it so you need to be careful if you use it if they can buff it it can attack you and give mana. used it on my own creatures at times and buffed it hard destroyed the ai with a moon token from hell was a rofl moment

I think the card effect is very good, and it has a discernible drawback. Anyone who's faced Nahiri, or a deck fronting Slayer's Plate, or fabricate (in the case of PVE events, since no one plays PVP with fabricate), knows that Moon can quickly become a disadvantage.

That being said, it has always seemed a bit underpriced. At the time, I thought, "great, the one thing Kiora lacked was cheap removal, and now she has it."

Mainloop25

THEMAGICkMAN wrote:

buscemi wrote:

Rishka's Expertise.

Yeah forgot about that. I just stole it with gonti from 2.2 in RatC. Cards insane. Like, really insane.

Really, I didn't even know it had that card. huh