Adjusting the events

tfg76

Hi, @Brigby and other D3Go folks.

While we´re waiting for the new Dev team to get up to speed, I wish we could get some adjustments to the events to make them more fun and playable. Coming from a software development background myself, I imagine there are many smaller changes you could make without involving developers as such. Here are some thoughts:

1. Adjust event leaderboard prizes. While we would all wish you to add more prizes, I realize the prizes were reduced for a reason, so I won´t ask for that. However, I think it would be great if we could have some more excitement around the higher spots in the events. For instance, in Platinum places 1-5 yield 60 crystals, one pack and one rare. 6-25 yields 40 crystals, one pack and one rare, 25-50 30 crystals, one pack and one rare. 51-100 yelds 20 crystals and a pack. I would say that the jump between 51 and 50 is huge (rares are much more valuable than packs), while the incredibly hard jump between 6 and 5 is almost trivial (20 crystals). As a specific suggestion here, why not reduce the 25-50 to 20 crystals (still huge jump from 51), and take the remaining crystals and divide among the top 5? That would add 50 crystals per player at the top and would make the events more exciting I think.

2. Make sure we have Origins-yielding events. Origins is a part of standard, but there´s no way to play for rares or packs. How about turning Nodes of Power to yield Origins packs and rares and put that into the rotation with the other "standard" events?

3. One event for KLD/AER is enough. Keep EO or combine EO/FirF and allow us to win rares from either KLD or AER, and KLD picks (which also yield AER rares I believe). So the Monday rotation could be EO/NoP/ToA.

4. (a bit more complicated?) Add leaderboards and awards to Trials of the Planes. Imagine everyone having to combat the worst nodes in order to win the top prizes! This is also a way to offset the fact that winning is generally very easy (AI is bad) - give the AI some advantages to even the playing field and make the leaderboards have a greater spread. Also, make a standard version of TotP.

5. Make a standard-version training grounds.

6. Try to adjust the event objectives a bit. I think most people like objectives that are aligned with winning, or that limit deckbuilding, rather than objectives that rely on luck or the opponent´s deck. For instance, I´d much more like to see an objective like "win the game with the opponent having no creatures" than "kill 3 creatures", since the latter requires the opponent to have creatures in the deck. If you meet a deck with no creatures, you can no longer make the top spots in the tournament. Similarly, I like better "win the game at full life total" than "lose less than 10 life". The former is arguably harder to achieve, but at least you can try to build your deck with life gain etc. I personally also like things like "play 3 goats", "have 100 power worth of zombies" or "draw 50 cards". I´d also like to see very complex objectives that really has to be "puzzled" over to achieve.

6. Make events like Return of the God-Pharaoh less "grindy". I think it would be great to have a limited number of shots at each node and the top points - 2 shots per node seems about right. After you have accumulated points 2 times per node, you would no longer get points for that node (maybe you can still grind for runes?). Keep the 4 hr recharge for the people that struggle with the nodes and thus need more chances to get the points. Also, I think it´s enough to have this event every other weekend. The single-player PvE events are much more enjoyable (just one shot at the points there).

7. Which finally brings me to: On the off weekends where we don´t have the premier planeswalker events or PvE events, return Planeswalker Arena, using one of the planeswalkers currently available in the store for crystals. Prizes can be on par with e.g. Hour of Revelation etc.

To me, these kinds of adjustments seem like to they could be much better returns on developer investments (if any) than the huge deals like booster crafting.

wereotter

Your suggested change from point #1 is exactly what people were previously complaining about. Those who finish higher getting more free stuff to get better cards to allow them to continue to place higher. While it may not seem like much, giving someone more crystals means more opportunities to open more packs, and more guaranteed rares without spending any money out of their own pockets.

Making the rewards better split up among the top 50 in every brackets has, in my opinion, been a largely positive thing. It makes the game more enjoyable for people who want to play the game just for personal enjoyment or more casually and don't want to get stomped down by everyone else, which is how things used to be.

I will, however, agree with you that it would be very nice to have events that yield rewards from Origins even if just to help those who haven't been playing since launch to get access to those cards. But Nodes of Power probably isn't the best venue for those rewards. The format of that event lends to very difficult matches against all the broken legacy combos making it difficult to reach those rewards for those who need it the most. Possibly a better solution would be to take the rare reward from the weekly solo PvE event and make that an Origins rare, currently it's an Amonkhet rare. Or.... you could always give players the option of the designated set rare or let them trade that option for Origins before being rewarded the card.

tfg76

Hi, 

When you´re in the top 50 in platinum, you´re not a novice player. You probably got 4-6 points off the maximum score, which means you´ve mastered all objectives and don´t really lose matches. Once you up your game, get a little more lucky, or tweak your decks a bit, you may reach top 25 or even top 5. All I´m saying is that when you reach that goal, it´s that much more rewarding if the awards are somewhat more differentiated. You can´t really make top 50 platinum playing casually.

As for the Origins event, my thought was that it had to be standard. Maybe EO is a better fit than Nodes for that?

wereotter

The problem became that within platinum there are already tiers of players who are extremely hardcore, and those who got there by virtue of just wanting to play with cards they opened. This is becoming even more so now that more cards are being added and standard events are requiring you to use them. Because of that, within platinum, there are several types of and tiers of players and those who were not hardcore were having a hard time playing events and enjoying the game when those who were already at the top were getting dramatically higher rewards than everyone else. The changes in rewards were a way of addressing that and letting those nearer the bottom still get a benefit from just playing their nodes.

Not everyone wants to be in a hyper competitive environment or game, and if you're removing a reward from lower ranked players to give it to higher ranked players, that will be the kind of game you're creating.

tfg76

I suppose the solution to both our problems (I want to be hypercompetitive, others don´t) is to have a levelling system that relied on event results rather than arbitrary grinding of bad cards. That way, the hypercompetitive players could enjoy challenging eachother in another bracket than the casual players, and the casual players wouldn´t have to run into seemingly overpowered decks.

That being said though, a small adjustment like I mentioned is hardly something that will unbalance the playing field. Remember again that the rare you get is much more worth than 50 crystals and is really the prize you´re playing for at this point (which is why I don´t play EO anymore beyond progression - I have all the AER rares).

Krishna

tfg76 said:

Hi, @Brigby and other D3Go folks.

While we´re waiting for the new Dev team to get up to speed, I wish we could get some adjustments to the events to make them more fun and playable. Coming from a software development background myself, I imagine there are many smaller changes you could make without involving developers as such. Here are some thoughts:

1. Adjust event leaderboard prizes. While we would all wish you to add more prizes, I realize the prizes were reduced for a reason, so I won´t ask for that. However, I think it would be great if we could have some more excitement around the higher spots in the events. For instance, in Platinum places 1-5 yield 60 crystals, one pack and one rare. 6-25 yields 40 crystals, one pack and one rare, 25-50 30 crystals, one pack and one rare. 51-100 yelds 20 crystals and a pack. I would say that the jump between 51 and 50 is huge (rares are much more valuable than packs), while the incredibly hard jump between 6 and 5 is almost trivial (20 crystals). As a specific suggestion here, why not reduce the 25-50 to 20 crystals (still huge jump from 51), and take the remaining crystals and divide among the top 5? That would add 50 crystals per player at the top and would make the events more exciting I think.

2. Make sure we have Origins-yielding events. Origins is a part of standard, but there´s no way to play for rares or packs. How about turning Nodes of Power to yield Origins packs and rares and put that into the rotation with the other "standard" events?

3. One event for KLD/AER is enough. Keep EO or combine EO/FirF and allow us to win rares from either KLD or AER, and KLD picks (which also yield AER rares I believe). So the Monday rotation could be EO/NoP/ToA.

4. (a bit more complicated?) Add leaderboards and awards to Trials of the Planes. Imagine everyone having to combat the worst nodes in order to win the top prizes! This is also a way to offset the fact that winning is generally very easy (AI is bad) - give the AI some advantages to even the playing field and make the leaderboards have a greater spread. Also, make a standard version of TotP.

5. Make a standard-version training grounds.

6. Try to adjust the event objectives a bit. I think most people like objectives that are aligned with winning, or that limit deckbuilding, rather than objectives that rely on luck or the opponent´s deck. For instance, I´d much more like to see an objective like "win the game with the opponent having no creatures" than "kill 3 creatures", since the latter requires the opponent to have creatures in the deck. If you meet a deck with no creatures, you can no longer make the top spots in the tournament. Similarly, I like better "win the game at full life total" than "lose less than 10 life". The former is arguably harder to achieve, but at least you can try to build your deck with life gain etc. I personally also like things like "play 3 goats", "have 100 power worth of zombies" or "draw 50 cards". I´d also like to see very complex objectives that really has to be "puzzled" over to achieve.

6. Make events like Return of the God-Pharaoh less "grindy". I think it would be great to have a limited number of shots at each node and the top points - 2 shots per node seems about right. After you have accumulated points 2 times per node, you would no longer get points for that node (maybe you can still grind for runes?). Keep the 4 hr recharge for the people that struggle with the nodes and thus need more chances to get the points. Also, I think it´s enough to have this event every other weekend. The single-player PvE events are much more enjoyable (just one shot at the points there).

7. Which finally brings me to: On the off weekends where we don´t have the premier planeswalker events or PvE events, return Planeswalker Arena, using one of the planeswalkers currently available in the store for crystals. Prizes can be on par with e.g. Hour of Revelation etc.

To me, these kinds of adjustments seem like to they could be much better returns on developer investments (if any) than the huge deals like booster crafting.

your #6 (the first one lol) is my #1. those kill 3 creatures objectives ruin a lot of runs, simply because the opponent has no creatures. and HoR has two of them!

TIMEWARP

I'd like to see higher rewards ("ribbons") for secondary objectives. I'm pretty fed up with players building the best deck to just win, instead of being incentivized to stick to the secondary event goals.

wereotter

TIMEWARP said:

I'd like to see higher rewards ("ribbons") for secondary objectives. I'm pretty fed up with players building the best deck to just win, instead of being incentivized to stick to the secondary event goals.

I could go for that, like swap the ribbons for winning for the ribbons for the first secondly objective? So winning is worth 2, but completing the secondary objective is worth 4.

tfg76

wereotter said:

TIMEWARP said:

I'd like to see higher rewards ("ribbons") for secondary objectives. I'm pretty fed up with players building the best deck to just win, instead of being incentivized to stick to the secondary event goals.

I could go for that, like swap the ribbons for winning for the ribbons for the first secondly objective? So winning is worth 2, but completing the secondary objective is worth 4.

This has been discussed a lot in other threads, but I personally think the best solution is to impose deck restrictions instead of having objectives. E.g. "play at least 3 camels in your deck". Your solution seems easier to implement though, and I wouldn´t mind it as long as the objectives are reasonable (e.g. NO kill 3 creatures).

I must say, though, that at least in Platinum I haven´t seen this issue much lately (at least not in the standard events), but I guess that could also be because of the less obvious objectives. For instance, it´s not easy to see whether a deck was built to achieve "play less than 3 supports", whereas disregarding "play 5 or more vehicles" is pretty obvious.