Upcoming New Feature: Booster Crafting (5/25/17)

Brigby
Brigby ADMINISTRATORS Posts: 7,757 Site Admin
Hi Everyone,

Opening boosters and acquiring new cards is a fun and integral part of Magic: Puzzle Quest, and is a great way to improve and build your card collection. Having said that though, we understand that it can be very frustrating to encounter duplicates of cards you already own. With that in mind, here is Hibernum_Will to talk a bit more about the upcoming new feature: Booster Crafting

Hi everyone!
We are excited to officially announce a new feature that we've been working on - Booster Crafting!

What is Booster Crafting?
Booster Crafting lets you turn your duplicate cards into new cards. Duplicates will be converted into crafting tokens, which can be used to craft custom boosters. Importantly, Booster Crafting will provide a way to guarantee getting new cards! Looking for a new Mythic? Not a problem with Booster Crafting!

What happens to existing duplicate cards?
Until the release of Booster Crafting, the option to turn your duplicate cards into Mana Runes will remain in the Cards menu. When Booster Crafting is released, we'll automatically convert existing duplicates into crafting tokens. Afterwards, duplicate cards will be automatically converted when opening packs.

Opening boosters is one of the best parts of Magic - and we want to make that experience even better by providing a way to get guaranteed new cards. We also want to keep PvP competition fair for all players. In order to do so, we’re introducing two token types. Duplicate cards from the newest card set (Amonkhet) will provide tokens used to craft boosters from "Standard" card sets (currently Origins, Kaladesh, Aether Revolt and Amonkhet), and duplicate cards from older card sets will let you craft boosters from sets outside of “Standard.”

Booster Crafting is still in the early phases of development, so some details may change along the way. Having said that though, we wanted to let you know about the feature as soon as we could! We expect to launch Booster Crafting in an update in late June.  Stay tuned - we’ll post more details before the release of Booster Crafting!


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Comments

  • James13
    James13 Posts: 665 Critical Contributor
    Exciting!  Thanks for the preview
  • Laeuftbeidir
    Laeuftbeidir Posts: 1,841 Chairperson of the Boards
    That is seriously worth an announcement! Great news! Also, these informations from @Hibernum_Will are really nice put together and actually answer most of the question I had in mind!

    Will there be different booster in terms of type or size (some dupes = 5 cards booster, lots of dupes = 15 card pack, tons of dupes = 25 card pack)? Or "only" the 5 card boosters (the marks on only = that wouldn't be actually bad, just FMI ) ? 
  • Waschecht
    Waschecht Posts: 76 Match Maker
    Big like.looking forward to it :)
  • Brigby
    Brigby ADMINISTRATORS Posts: 7,757 Site Admin
    edited May 2017
    @Laeuftbeidir
    Keeping in mind that it is still in development, and certain details might change before release, last I heard was that players will have the ability to customize their boosters, in order to hone in on what kind of card they're looking for.
  • Corn_Noodles
    Corn_Noodles Posts: 477 Mover and Shaker
    Using two tokens for Standard and non-Standard is a good way to reward people who have been hoarding duplicates in a way that won't unbalance PVP worse than it already is, I guess.
  • shteev
    shteev Posts: 2,031 Chairperson of the Boards
    Hibernum_Will said:

    Importantly, Booster Crafting will provide a way to guarantee getting new cards! Looking for a new Mythic? Not a problem with Booster Crafting!
    This is enough to pique my interest, certainly!
  • GrizzoMtGPQ
    GrizzoMtGPQ Posts: 776 Critical Contributor
    Yessss! Thank you! Here's hoping! So glad I hoarded dupes. Now the rich shall become the SUPER-MEGA-RICH.
  • speakupaskanswer
    speakupaskanswer Posts: 306 Mover and Shaker
    I really like the idea and I'm curious to see how it will turn out. Two observations/objections:

    1) Still seems kinda unfair that people who hoarded dupe have an advantage (which includes myself, so I'm not jealous). An auto-convert to runes still seems more fair but I guess that would create even more of a backlash now.

    2) This basically means we have another (the fourth? fifth?) currency in the game.
  • madwren
    madwren Posts: 2,226 Chairperson of the Boards
    I should get a bonus booster for predicting they'd create a fifth currency for this.
  • MisterPete
    MisterPete Posts: 18 Just Dropped In
    @Brigby this is great news thanks for sharing!  And thanks for confirming the plan for existing duplicates as many of us have felt we had to hold back on purchasing and opening packs until this was confirmed.  I like the solution to balancing existing dupes vs obtaining cards in standard, nice job.

    As long as the booster you craft is guaranteed to be cards you don't already own this is great.   Would have preferred a way to target specific cards but i think this will still be a huge step to retaining players in this game.

    And if the conversion rate of tokens to new cards isn't too bad I think you'll see a decrease in the 'not another dime' mantra that arose after the changes to drop rates/rewards/etc.

    I hope to be able to recommend this game to new players again and to be able to open packs without the huge disappointment of a dupe rare/mythic as it is now.  Looking forward to the update.

  • Dropspot
    Dropspot Posts: 200 Tile Toppler
    I just wish they communicate the conversion rate for the new tokens and how the system is going to work before they force us to convert.

    I just want to make a informed decision of converting of not converting all my dupes into runes before the system is implemented.
  • Brigby
    Brigby ADMINISTRATORS Posts: 7,757 Site Admin
    @Dropspot
    Exact details regarding the conversion rate and how the system is going to work are still being developed, but once those are finalized, we'll be sure to inform the community ahead of time.
  • PersonMan
    PersonMan Posts: 28 Just Dropped In
    @Brigby
    Can you confirm that duplicates that players have been holding onto will be converted into Tokens (and not Runes) AND more importantly, that this decision will not be changed during development?   Some of us are still holding onto a lot of unopened boosters precisely so that our many many duplicates can be used in the new crafting system, and would feel horribly cheated and lied to if we opened them now and they were converted to Runes before the crafting system is introduced.  

    Thanks.  Also, assuming the conversion rate is something reasonable, this is a great change.  In particular, people who spend 400 shards to get a Mythic (with a small chance of a Masterwork) should get a Mythic, not 50% (or some other fraction) of the crafting tokens the need for another pull of the slot machine where they might get a Mythic or might get more duplicates.  It takes MONTHS of playing regularly to save for just 1 card.  Don't shaft people on it.  
  • madwren
    madwren Posts: 2,226 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited May 2017
    It's a bit ridiculous that Kaladesh and Aether Revolt dupes will not be converted into Standard.

    @Brigby It'd be great if the devs could reassure the cynical masses that "guaranteed new cards" does not mean "with the possibility of duplicates still".

    I mean, I get guaranteed new cards right now. I just need to buy an outrageously large number of boosters in order to do so.

    So, the simple question is:

    Will the crafted booster packs contain cards you already own?

    If no--they do not contain cards we own--then yay. That's really all anyone wants, I think: to stop getting duplicates.

    If yes--they do contain cards we own--then this is much ado about nothing, and will go over as well as, say, duplicates in elite packs.


  • zaann85
    zaann85 Posts: 119 Tile Toppler
    edited May 2017
    NOT ACCEPTABLE! Existing cards all need to be converted to runes!  It is no way fair to people who have played since before you stole all of our duplicates!  This game is on a tight rope and here you go putting the nail in the coffin!  I should have thousands of duplicates laying around,  but instead I have nothing to show for my countless duplicates but runes.  To make this fair for everyone, you must convert everyones duplicates before this new system launches, or you'll have screwed your loyal players for the last time.
  • Laeuftbeidir
    Laeuftbeidir Posts: 1,841 Chairperson of the Boards
    I don't see it as bad as the others. I'm almost certain you'll get a random amount of cards, and the more you have, the higher the chance to get dupes. It's at least a chance to get something.