OKTAGON Q&A Session - October 2022 *UPDATE (11/21/22)

Magic:PQ Support Team

Answers

1. Will you ever reconsider the availability of the rare Vanguard cards? It has always been a big gamble and a bad experience when trying to get a rare Vanguard you really want. The mythic Vanguards are nondupe, so that's not an issue.
   Answer: Thank you for your interest. There are no plans so far, but we have shared this with the team. Let us ask, how would you imagine the Rare Vanguard Cards to be available?  
   
   
2. With another annual rotation, it seems like the right time to discuss one of the oldest unimplemented feature requests - a Standard/Legacy filter. Since this has been a common request for multiple years, is it fair to ask why it has not been built? At this point, I am simply curious what technical difficulty has prevented its creation.
   Answer:  Thank you for your interest! We've sent your feedback to the development team, and they've told us they'll look into how best to implement this request. Thank you for taking the time to send us this suggestion!
   
   
3. Hello! Have you considered alternative methods for ranking players during events? At the moment, the method doesn't seem terribly effective. For example, rank one is only ever claimed by players with a perfect event score (fine), but the rewards for ranks 2-10, 11-50, etc. are almost never being claimed, since as soon as you miss a single objective, or lose a match, you often drop 100+ ranks. Renders those mid-high tier rewards moot. My suggestion would be to set the rewards as based on total event score, rather than a best-worst ranking. Ex. In an event with a max score of 140, players with 140pts get the first place rewards, players with 135-139 got 2nd place rewards, and so on. Makes the game a lot less punishing for being slightly imperfect.
   Answer: Thank you for your feedback. There have been some ideas considering score based rewards already and the team is discussing some alternatives. But we can’t share more details just yet.  
   
   
4. So since we received Dihada, Binder of Wills from the Dominaria United Commander decks, will we be getting Jared Carthalion who is the other Commander from that same set? If not why? Are we getting any Unfinity stuff?
   Answer: Thank you for your interest. We were very pleased that Dihada, Binder of Wills was well received, and we have plans to add more similar Planeswalkers, although there are no plans for Jared Carthalion for now. There are no plans for the Unfinity set, either. The team is currently working on the next set The Brothers’ War (BRO), which might include one or the other Masterpiece from a different set though.    
   
   
5. What are some of the game mechanics that you'd have designed differently with the benefit of hindsight?
   Answer: Thank you for your interest. The top one is the treasure tokens. Back then, we didn't know they would have been used as much as they're currently being used, so the first treasures are in such an apart world than the gold tokens we're using to replace them.
   
   
6. Hi, dev team. First of all I wish you all a great health and thank you for trying your best to make sure we have the best experience playing this game.Would you please consider to make future coalition event have recharge time like Color of Magic, 23h30? Maybe each recharge add 2-3 charges, depends on each event max charges.This way players who live in other hemisphere have more flexibility to clear those charges, unless getting new players from other hemisphere to play in coalition event aren't a priority.Right now most of your coalition event, their last charges happens near midnight on Sunday, and the game ends on Monday right about the time we are getting ready to leave for work and school. So to do the last charges would risk sacrificing our sleep time, have less productive day on Monday, or late leaving for work / school and stuck in traffic.
   Answer: Thank you for bringing this up! This has been shared with the team. 

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hi everyone,

How are you?
Here's another Q&A SESSION.

We will answer the questions posted by October 28th, so please send your questions and doubts HERE.
Make sure to submit only 2-3 questions maximum, this way the team is able to focus and will try to answer all questions in a given month.

Thank you for all the support,
Rebeca

Janosik

What are some of the game mechanics that you'd have designed differently with the benefit of hindsight?

Question also submitted via webform

TBronx

Good Morning,

I have three questions /suggestions:

1) Can you put the timer for elite pink purchases to much less, like 3 days so they vary more often?

More people will buy things instead of wasting weeks for something to be offered.  Also, this will allow you to vary more sets and make more cards available that people will use their resources on. 

2) Since Avacyns Madness has 5 nodes and takes MUCH longer to finish than other events, can you reduce the life points of completing the event by 33%?  

This way we don't lose our entire weekend and put it more in line with other events. People hate how long it takes and how on top of it you have to be to not lose points from full nodes on node refreshes. 

3) Can you remove the target choice pop up when there is only 1 legal target available like a sole creature or the opponent?

This is purely a quality of life improvement. 

Thanks for taking the time to read these!

GatorChomp

I posted here as well as the submission. 

Asylamb

Just my 2p in regard to TBronx questions.

1. Not all players are familiar with the rotation system and not all players know that you can check the Elite Packs contents on the wiki. So, I would be against a shorter presence of EPs in the Vault, because when players get to see their chase card in an EP without knowing it would be there, a week is already quite a short time limit to get enough jewels to try and pull it.On the other hand, I think it would be great to increase the amount of EPs available at a time. Like, 4 Standard and 4 Legacy EPs, +1 of each for VIP players. There is never less than 5 sets in Standard, so it would make sense to have 4+1 in the Vault.
2. I'd rather they just put a time limit on the event. Or discard the "Boss health" gauge altogether and use the regular charge system. I don't feel like "Boss health" mechanic adds any charm, but what it does is adding extra unfairness based on the time zones. Some people will be awake and ready to play when the Boss at the min health and the recharge hits, while some other players will be in deep slumber. And considering how significant the Coalition Rewards are in AM, the current event layout is unfortunate.
3. I assume you talk about spells that have "any opposing target" (creature or PW) and the situations when there are no opposing creatures and Greg is the only eligible target. But there are situations when you have a spell in your deck that you don't intend to ever cast (for "no spells" objectives), because the PW of your choice doesn't have enough support deck slots. And in the case you play a combo deck and the spell gains full mana, you want the spell to ask you for a possible target even if there is only one target, and then you click "Not now".

jtwood

considering how significant the Coalition Rewards are in AM

I don’t know that they’re particularly significant… 

Asylamb

jtwood said:

considering how significant the Coalition Rewards are in AM

I don’t know that they’re particularly significant… 

Yeah, not that significant outside of top 10.

jtwood

I don't normally post my questions here, because it feels very passive aggressive, but I'm making an exception for this one.

Adding a Standard/Legacy sets toggle to the card search screen is one of the oldest feature requests. Instead of asking for it again, are you able to share the technological hurdles that have prevented adding that feature to the game?

Kmiesse

jtwood said:

I don't normally post my questions here, because it feels very passive aggressive, but I'm making an exception for this one.

Adding a Standard/Legacy sets toggle to the card search screen is one of the oldest feature requests. Instead of asking for it again, are you able to share the technological hurdles that have prevented adding that feature to the game?

I also agree. I think this would be a great quality of life adjustment. 

Metroplex78

Please put timers on VIP offers, and put them out frequently.
Also put a 'Deal of the day' offer.
Let us buy any card we want with cash.

Janosik

jtwood said:

I don't normally post my questions here, because it feels very passive aggressive

I like to see the questions that people are asking, they can get conversation going. We might not see the questions Oktagon don't answer otherwise.

versemage

I've been asking for the standard/legacy toggle ever since I saw the post where someone else came up with it. By the way, great idea, You. 

jtwood

@Oktagon_Support Can we get a November Q&A thread, please?

jtwood

I know it’s been a crazy month. Do we have an ETA for the October responses?

Magic:PQ Support Team

Hello @jtwood, sorry for the delay this month.
Unfortunately, as the team is very busy, I still don't have a date to post the Q&A answers. The team will dedicate time to the Q&A as soon as possible, and once I have the answers, I will post them here for you.
Rebeca.

Magic:PQ Support Team

(11/21/22) UPDATE - Answers
Thank you all for participating 🧡, the November Q&A has already started here.

Mainloop25

@Oktagon_Support said:
Answers

• Will you ever reconsider the availability of the rare Vanguard cards? It has always been a big gamble and a bad experience when trying to get a rare Vanguard you really want. The mythic Vanguards are nondupe, so that's not an issue.
  Answer: Thank you for your interest. There are no plans so far, but we have shared this with the team. Let us ask, how would you imagine the Rare Vanguard Cards to be available?  

By either making the rare vanguard pack a separate exclusive non-dupe pack also, or by making them BftA rewards.

versemage

You said in question 4 that the team is working on Brothers War. Please tell me that were gonna get Autobots and Decepticons.