New Player Catchup

Blighted

I have seen a number of comments regarding new players, helping them to catch up, and growing the playerbase.

I started this game back in 2016, it has been a long time since I began leveling up. I was able to grow my cards as they were released. I don't have nearly all of the cards and I don't expect to. Its not about that. But it is about being able to be competitive within the current environment and to be able to enjoy all aspects of the game. So many new players I see come in eager to play, get to around lvl 40-ish, then just stop. What can we do to curb this and get people to stick around longer?

I propose a one time adjustment to player level rewards and a compensation adjustment for existing players to entice them to stick around. This could take any number of forms, but an example would be a major change in level up rewards.

Double rune rewards for all levels, but keep them capped at 5000. Old players know that you don't need more runes after you've been around, but it can be a huge help to new players in leveling up the tri-color walkers.
Change the gold reward at each level (1-50) to match the pacing of pink rewards. Alternate 25 or 50 gold at each level.
Packs. This is the most significant proposal I offer.
LVLs 1-10 could be non-dupe Origin's boosters. lvl 10 could be 5x legacy non-dupe packs.
lvls 11-50 can rotate standard non-dupe packs but have them rarity locked. for instance, lvl 11 is a common standard non-dupe, lvl 12 is an uncommon standard non-dupe, etc.

I feel like this would go a long way towards helping catch new players up to the rest of us.

Tremayne

Very interesting topic.

Firstly, the devs have stated for quite a while that they are working on changing the in-game economy. Maybe they have already considered how to boost new players in order to attract and maintain them. I sincerely hope so.

Secondly, we need to agree on what an experience the new players should receive, if not we risk the discussion runs off the rail because of different purposes.
Personally, when I started 7-8 years ago. I exclusively focused on “Story mode”. Only when I mastered the most difficult levels did I progress to PvP events - it is possible that I played PvE events, but I can’t remember the details.
Recently, a very experienced player restarted the game with a new account and claimed the game was very difficult because he couldn’t compete in coalition events.
I believe the game is designed to be manageable if you use the approach I used. However if the game is supposed to be strictly focused on PvP events. I’m not sure I have any workable solutions at this time.

Thirdly, I am quite sure the rebalancing must focus on the 10 card used in an individual match instead of comparing players experience levels or library size when matching players. So perhaps a newbie and an old timer can be matched against each other, because they have each constructed a deck that consists of 6 common/uncommon - 3 rares and 1 mythic (obviously not the same cards) and have a PW within 5-10 levels of each other.

naabaldan

@Tremayne very experienced player?
It wasn't me

naabaldan

The matching system does not work well, especially in coalition events because in bronze the number of players is very limited. Adding matchmaking based on the deck structure is senseless here.
But I love your idea. You just need enough players/decks or create a piece of software that is able to
Choose a pw of adequate strength and level. The level can easily be adjusted.
Using the know-how of Greg, it should be possible to select cards to build a balanced deck of similar power with some strategy.
It is also possible to learn from the tons of decks build in the past and use this as a base for matchmaking.
As a developer I consider both ways as possible.

Tremayne

@naabaldan - the tier level is obsolete IMO, so I not sure there are any “bronze level” - players, but I do see your point. An old timer with hundreds of commons/uncommons have a huge advantage.

Secondly, someone mentioned an idea a few months ago (@sarah). The idea was to use the beginning/expert/master pre-constructed decks together with “dummy” players at various levels, so for instance a Ajani 1 at lvl 20 and a Nissa WW at lvl 30 and … This idea was supposed to help bronze level players who was missing suitable matches.

Sarah

@Tremayne I seem to be forgettable when I’m not shouting and stomping my feet 😜

Is this the post you are referring to? https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/91077/the-problem-with-matchmaking-and-a-simple-solution

Tremayne

@Sarah - Yes, it was your idea. I still like it.

Sorry, I couldn’t remember it was you, but I am looking forward to your next good idea, and you maybe you don’t have to shout and stomp you feet to be noticed.

Sarah

Hah. People who are curious about the things I rant and rave about will find that I do actually explain things nicely the first few times @Tremayne and I think it’s pretty human to get frustrated when one isn’t listened to. But for some reason people latch on to the angriest examples and think that I start every argument with the volume turned all of the way up.

Although I haven’t been a new player for a very very long time, I do talk to quite a few of them at the “I just downloaded the game last week and it looks pretty fun” in hopes that they’ll turn into a competitive players to replace the “quitters” at high level play.

It’s no secret that there has been a lot of attrition in the last year and the field of competition has narrowed significantly. While the top has gotten ever more competitive, the bottom has practically fallen out of the game.

One of the main reasons I hear—over and over again—is because there is a huge barrier to entry. It’s an incredibly complex game and there are several walls to overcome. Whether it’s simply struggling to acquire enough runes to level up OG Nissa or lacking the necessary synergy between cards to effectively and reliably meet necessary objectives and arbitrary restrictions.

This game is hard. I’ve been spoon fed the mechanics every step of the way by tutorials and I still need an entire discord server of nerds to explain some of the finer points to me. And even when I think I understand how things work, I still need 24/7 help to know which things are currently bugged.

So many people give up before they even get to the forums. And the people who do make it to the forums tend to get chased away by jerks scolding them for being upset or confused about things.

It would be nice to see some meaningful changes from webcore to make the game more accessible to new players (and legacy players returning after a long break, and why not? Veteran players too!) instead of austerity measures. There’s more than enough content in the game—and the odds are so poor—that it is statistically unlikely that giving away a few more packs here and there would significantly alter anyone’s inability to collect the full set.