Elite Pack - planned changes?

gruntface

I realize from the outset this is a relatively futile question but here it goes anyway. 

Now that we are a number of cycles into the elite packs with increasing numbers of players having hit the 400 jewel threshold, have d3h identified whether any changes are likely?

I ask broadly so this includes whether a change is based on contents, cost, dupe treatment, etc

As someone sitting on enough jewels I am hesitant to pull the trigger as things currently stand (and I mean beyond the specific dreadfulness of the current MP cards). Whilst the jewels earned have been free there is a major risk of 'buyers' remorse and this game has trained me to expect the worst cards available to be pulled, rather than the best.

If @Brigby or anyone else could even provide a hint of whether these packs are being reviewed it would be appreciated. In the meantime I'll keep a hold of the mythic replacement currency. 

Matthew

Commenting to bump for awareness.

@Brigby

Any info on this?

DragonSorcerer

Something must be changing as my ticket for repeated mythics dups from my elite pack has been put on hold ...

"Until we have a fix released, we will place your ticket on hold in our queue and will contact you very soon with updates on the situation.'

Ohboy

Probably because they realized people were abusing the supposed one time process to Reroll multiple times... 

But really it's brigby's fault for not clarifying. I even begged him to do so when he listed the Reroll policy. 

Brigby

@gruntface @Matthew

Based on our review so far, it seems like the biggest concern is in regards to receiving duplicates from the Elite Packs, so we expect that the upcoming system to address duplicates will alleviate a lot of this concern. Once that system is available, we'll continue evaluating the impact that Elite Packs have to see if any adjustments are needed.

EDHdad

Here's what I'd like to see:

Before the pack is opened, let the player choose any 8 Mythics from any set in the history of this game.  Those are the possible Mythics in that pack.  Then, if they open a Mythic, it will be one of the Mythics that they really wanted.

The only problem I see with that is that some players will request a refund if they open a Masterpiece instead of a mythic.

Irgy

Brigby said:

the upcoming system to address duplicates

Is there any information available somewhere on this system? You phrase this in a way that suggests it's been announced or at least hinted at before.

Irgy

and on the actual topic...

My suggestion would be they rotate faster, e.g. daily. I mean, they were supposed to increase the chance of getting the card we want by letting us choose from a reduced pool of cards that changed, so we can wait for the cards we want to be available. Or at least that was the impression I got from what was said about them. But rotating only every 2 weeks it's a pretty painful wait for the cards you want.

If it rotated quickly (e.g. daily) then that of waiting for the card we want would become a reality. Though then you'd still find yourself missing out on it by chance.

Really for the amount of effort it actually takes to get enough of these things we should be able to just choose any single card we want.

Laeuftbeidir

Choosing any single card anyone wants would be way way to much. After a while most decks would look similar, and the game would be decided by which side deploys Olivia / the pork /.. More quickly, boring as hell! But a faster rotation - maybe once a week, together with the pw, would be nice

hawkyh1

a community voting system on the 5 mythics could
make it more interesting. the card choice would be
the most wanted cards by vote so not necessarily
non dupe or what you want for that week. voice
your objection on the forum to baral being there if
you already have him there'll be risk just like
opening any other packs. each week can be an all
new selection of cards to last week's. players can get
their votes weighted on if your voted card did not turn
up you get +1 weighting to vote that same card again
on the immediate next vote. get your coalition
teammates to help strategically (weighted)vote, so to
maximize chances of good draws.

HH

madwren

Laeuftbeidir said:

Choosing any single card anyone wants would be way way to much. After a while most decks would look similar, and the game would be decided by which side deploys Olivia / the pork /.. More quickly, boring as tinykitty! But a faster rotation - maybe once a week, together with the pw, would be nice

An interesting comment. I think decks already look very similar due to disparate power levels and obscene rarity taxes.

toastie

Brigby said:

@gruntface @Matthew

Based on our review so far, it seems like the biggest concern is in regards to receiving duplicates from the Elite Packs, so we expect that the upcoming system to address duplicates will alleviate a lot of this concern. Once that system is available, we'll continue evaluating the impact that Elite Packs have to see if any adjustments are needed.

Honestly "we know it sucks, but we are going to leave it as is for several months" really is a kind of **** solution.

Laeuftbeidir

Yes, a lot of them do, but it's not the majority.. Although it may feel like it from time to time (no wonder if you fight mercikillbrianswind mostly). I really love stumbling across a deck combination I've never thought about, and don't get mad at all when losing against it (I was surprised as hell fighting two different ob decks with creatures!like more than one!)

What I'd prefer most would be a totally random choice of mythics from all sets or a cycling choice (one week origins, one SOI,.. You get it). This way, and since the mythics are the main reason to open these packs, I would be way more interested in chasing the unobtathingelythings

Matthew

@Brigby

Thanks for the response!

I agree with the trending thought here, which is that there needs to be more opportunity for individual choice. I do think that this choice should be balanced with an appropriate amount of randomness.

However, the current iteration of the Elite Packs most definitely does not strike that balance. The control is weighted far too heavily in the direction of the development team. I do understand the need to maintain control over the game. But I also believe that if you have done the ridiculous amount of work, exercised the ridiculous amount of patience, or spent the ridiculous amount of money to gather enough jewels to actually buy one of these things, then your reward should be commensurate with the time/work/money that went into gathering the necessary resources.

Phillmoore

Not as bad as the option to buy 3 mythics a few months ago, quite expensive option and then got two the same out of the three and I already had the one I got two more of.  Go figure.   As i only had about 15 mythics at that time the odds were wildly stacked against this outcome.  

We we need to be able to avoid duplicates when real money is spent and like so many i now have over 400 crystals for a pink card but normally I see 2/3 Cards I already have in the list and just know that after all the hard work put in I am going to pull one of those

the option to pull say 3 and choose 1 is a much better play and that way I'd take the risk.  

Matthew

Phillmoore said:

the option to pull say 3 and choose 1 is a much better play and that way I'd take the risk.  

Oh, I really like that idea. That way it's still random, but you also get some degree of choice. The only problem I have is that there's no guarantee of getting a legitimately new-to-you card. This could be avoided if there were a guarantee that at least one of the three cards you get to choose is one that you don't have yet.

@Brigby

This would help avoid the situations for newer players like the one @Phillmoore describes, where even though he had just 15 out of the ~100 mythics, he still managed to pull a duplicate card. It would also allow legacy players the chance to continue to expand their collection, while not giving them explicit control over which cards they get next. Furthermore, it would greatly incentivize the jewel collection process for those advanced players. We all have gaps in our collection that we would gladly pay to have filled. In this way, it would continually give us something to shoot for, while still allowing the developers to maintain some degree of control over the distribution of cards.

It could even be applied to your current model for Masterpiece distribution. And if the player is lucky enough to hit the Masterpiece jackpot when they purchase an Elite pack, they would be able to avoid feeling gypped by getting one that they have no desire to own.

Laeuftbeidir

..and the support team would have way more time for the things that they're supposed to to instead of working on n tickets concerning dupes in elite packs..

Matthew

Matthew said:

Phillmoore said:

the option to pull say 3 and choose 1 is a much better play and that way I'd take the risk.  

Oh, I really like that idea. That way it's still random, but you also get some degree of choice. The only problem I have is that there's no guarantee of getting a legitimately new-to-you card. This could be avoided if there were a guarantee that at least one of the three cards you get to choose is one that you don't have yet.

@Brigby

This would help avoid the situations for newer players like the one @Phillmoore describes, where even though he had just 15 out of the ~100 mythics, he still managed to pull a duplicate card. It would also allow legacy players the chance to continue to expand their collection, while not giving them explicit control over which cards they get next. Furthermore, it would greatly incentivize the jewel collection process for those advanced players. We all have gaps in our collection that we would gladly pay to have filled. In this way, it would continually give us something to shoot for, while still allowing the developers to maintain some degree of control over the distribution of cards.

It could even be applied to your current model for Masterpiece distribution. And if the player is lucky enough to hit the Masterpiece jackpot when they purchase an Elite pack, they would be able to avoid feeling gypped by getting one that they have no desire to own.

This might even make it worth it to chase down those different theme decks you guys mentioned in your initial announcement of the upcoming changes!

DragonSorcerer

DragonSorcerer said:

Something must be changing as my ticket for repeated mythics dups from my elite pack has been put on hold ...

"Until we have a fix released, we will place your ticket on hold in our queue and will contact you very soon with updates on the situation.'

Well, nothing has changed, I've just been sent an Elite Pack. I will not be opening it until pack #5 is out (at the earliest) as I already have 4 of the 8 cards currently on offer and so would expect another duplicate. Out of the 2 initial openings and the 4 replacements packs I've never pulled a masterpiece and only once got a non-dup mythic.