How to improve Fate is rarely fair

PastrySpider

You've made several interesting and fun events in the past but sadly Fate is rarely fair isn't one of them. The basic problem is the vehicles objective on each node. Vehicles just aren't really that interesting and since they are colorless, all the nodes can use the same vehicles so your decks all look roughly the same. Also, vehicles just don't synergize all that well with the other Kaladesh cards (no energy and very few abilities). The couple of creature which synergize with vehicles aren't really all the useful either.

Its fine having a vehicle node but an entire event is not much fun. How about making the other nodes use other Kaladesh creature types (elves, dwarves, aetherborn, constructs, artificers, etc). This will mean more decks, more exploration of interesting combos and cards and generally a better event.

Oh and put back two card packs in the progression reward please. The thread on why they are so important was one of the best argued things I've seen on this forum.

speakupaskanswer

Or reduce the amount of vehicles needed to get the objective. Even 4 would be a big improvement.

Ohboy

5 is fine.

But matchmaking needs to match with other event decks.

It's hard to play a vehicle deck against a lopsided aggro QB koth deck.

Szamsziel

And how do you want to decide which deck is event one? As I don't like prolonged fights (hmm isn't that reason other events were modified - like Terrors or Eldrazi one) I've deliberately decided to ignore vehicle objective, and just focus on personal rewards. So my decks are pretty much standard ones. I don't think I'm alone here.

Ohboy

Szamsziel wrote:

And how do you want to decide which deck is event one? As I don't like prolonged fights (hmm isn't that reason other events were modified - like Terrors or Eldrazi one) I've deliberately decided to ignore vehicle objective, and just focus on personal rewards. So my decks are pretty much standard ones. I don't think I'm alone here.

Then yours is an event deck. If you're playing it in the event, then it's an event deck.

losdamianos

I am also going full agro my mission for this event is to make other players life miserable, how do you like the taste of pig mixed with olivia ?
I could complain how tideous this event is and how unfair it is when trying to complete side objective facing normal decks or I could "enrage" others to make their voice heard...

this event could be bearable if players would be force to use EG only vehicle creatures then at least you would know you are standing on the same ground as others but when you carefully holding your vehicles on red node not to win to quick and koth spews big critters killing you. You start doubting yourself, your place in the universe etc.....

Magog

If they could also tweak the matchmaking that'd be great.

I chose my level 47 N2. I got paired with a level 60 N2.

Then just to rub it in, my next match using Dovin was against a level 46 N1.

Mainloop25

How about making vehicles not suck?

/vent

Astralwind

losdamianos wrote:

I am also going full agro my mission for this event is to make other players life miserable, how do you like the taste of pig mixed with olivia ?
I could complain how tideous this event is and how unfair it is when trying to complete side objective facing normal decks or I could "enrage" others to make their voice heard...

this event could be bearable if players would be force to use EG only vehicle creatures then at least you would know you are standing on the same ground as others but when you carefully holding your vehicles on red node not to win to quick and koth spews big critters killing you. You start doubting yourself, your place in the universe etc.....

That's so true. We can never guarantee that other players who join the event would aim for the secondary objectives. If a player is like me whose objective is to win only, even if you match event decks to event decks, the player using some half-assed vehicles is going to have a hard time beating powerful creatures like Olivia, Decimator or Gisela.

There is a need to restrict users by validating the decks they use for themed events. It has to be more specified.
For example, "players are required to have at least 2 creatures of the vehicle types in the deck to qualify for this event".
If the event participating condition is not well-defined, I can just slot in a vehicle and it can still count as a vehicle deck.
The barrier to entry could be a problem for newer players who have limited card list. They probably have to slot in some useless vehicles just to join the event.

James13

I think it was good. The main issue, I think was pairing the summon 5 with enraged mechanics. Without enrage 5 is a great objective IMO. It was just the combination of things that threw off the balance of it. Left it feeling far more stressful than ideal.

I faced one deck that ran a vehicle along with a bunch of pilots. But everything else was more optimized. I won every match with a vehicle deck anyway, but didn't stress about losing any additional objective points. Built for the objectives to happen passively, but didn't go out of my way to force them to occur when it wasn't panning out. <20hp seemed far too risky under enrage so I only got that one match where conditions materialized for me to set it up and didn't even aim for it elsewhere. Seemed to work well for me in the end as I got a top 5 finish unexpectedly (at -11, no less).

In terms of scoring differentiation with that being the only goal it was an amazing success. However the sweet spot it somewhere where people are not annoyed with it. That's a difficult proposition if not impossible as people don't like feeling like they are losing points. But an absolute necessity in creating a spread of point totals like I saw on this event.

PastrySpider

Let me clarify one point. In general, my complaint is less with vehicles being not interesting (though I don't think they are very interesting). My main issue was having a recurring event where all the nodes basically have the same very limiting objective.

Also true that the enrage mechanic makes it less interesting. Enrage limits deck choices even more because you don't have time to develop more interesting strategies. In the end, you need to actively limit your vehicles so they don't wipe out your opponent too quickly.

I agree that toning down the number of vehicles would also be a solution as it opens the deck up to less purely vehicle strategies.

span_argoman

I admit that I felt rather uncomfortable about the event while playing it. But I think the discomfort might come more from us all being a little too used to getting perfect scores. Looking back on it, I rather liked the tension between having to summon 5 Vehicles before the match ended from Enrage or meeting the other secondary objectives.

I especially liked how few ties there were at the top ranks of the Platinum bracket. I think this could be a step in the right direction in the sense that different events can evoke different feels through the objectives while still being able to differentiate the players.

I would compare this objectives pair to Revolt Against the Consulate node 1.1 which I felt were challenging but not too ridiculous to obtain (unlike node 3.1 which while supposedly doable is a little too restrictive in its overall requirements of cards you possess, what you draw and how lucky you are with cascades).

That said, I would recommend, if it's possible, to amend the Vehicle objective to be 2/3/4/5 Vehicles for Bronze/Silver/Gold/Platinum. That makes it less crazy for the lower tiers to meet the objective.

Ohboy

span_argoman wrote:

I admit that I felt rather uncomfortable about the event while playing it. But I think the discomfort might come more from us all being a little too used to getting perfect scores. Looking back on it, I rather liked the tension between having to summon 5 Vehicles before the match ended from Enrage or meeting the other secondary objectives.

I especially liked how few ties there were at the top ranks of the Platinum bracket. I think this could be a step in the right direction in the sense that different events can evoke different feels through the objectives while still being able to differentiate the players.

I would compare this objectives pair to Revolt Against the Consulate node 1.1 which I felt were challenging but not too ridiculous to obtain (unlike node 3.1 which while supposedly doable is a little too restrictive in its overall requirements of cards you possess, what you draw and how lucky you are with cascades).

That said, I would recommend, if it's possible, to amend the Vehicle objective to be 2/3/4/5 Vehicles for Bronze/Silver/Gold/Platinum. That makes it less crazy for the lower tiers to meet the objective.

Seconded.

Easier objectives for lower tiers would silence a lot of complaints.

madwren

span_argoman wrote:

That said, I would recommend, if it's possible, to amend the Vehicle objective to be 2/3/4/5 Vehicles for Bronze/Silver/Gold/Platinum. That makes it less crazy for the lower tiers to meet the objective.

Exactly what I've been saying.

Ohboy

madwren wrote:

span_argoman wrote:

That said, I would recommend, if it's possible, to amend the Vehicle objective to be 2/3/4/5 Vehicles for Bronze/Silver/Gold/Platinum. That makes it less crazy for the lower tiers to meet the objective.

Exactly what I've been saying.

The only problem though is coalition abuse at lower levels.