What new feature worked well in PT26. What Change is needed in PT27?

[cwhitman]

Originally Posted by Lathum

I have no problem with keeping things tight, but between fewer slots per team, a tighter award structure (there were some 64 man dailies you had to finish top 8 to get any reward) and scarcity of tournaments it was really hard to get going this year. Twitch drops kept me afloat but it was really slow going at first.

I agree it's tough to manage early on when things are rapidly changing: I hope Nico finds a good pace for the opening weekend this cycle. Early days are so important.

[LeeD]

Things that worked well:

Variant Boosters. Nice complement to the Variants. No more hunting down bronze, silver, and gold teammates in the shop, and no attendant disappearances of those cards when completing missions. Also a nice bump for players not doing Variants. Low-level cards that can pull in 500-1000 PP increases the EV of Standard packs.

Clubhouse Stars. Nice alternative to the pack draws for tournaments, and also expanded to include rewards for league play.

Increased league fluidity. More promotions and relegations mean teams are stuck above or below their true talent levels less often.

Jump Variant toppers. I like what was done with Wagner and Stieb to keep them relevant beyond their expected shelf life.

-------------------------------------

Things that didn't work well:

Negro Leagues and Future Legends. Far too many of these mish-mashed into unrelated mission sets. Only one mission tree for each, other than the lately-added Negro League Legends. The card art singles these out as a mnemonic. They really should have their own mission trees for primary use and only be included in other mission sets secondarily.

Super promotions. This really needs to be squeezed back. Jumping from Iron to High Gold in one leap is far too extreme. Perhaps Iron to High Silver instead?

Missions in general. A lot of missions with underwhelming toppers (I'm looking at you, Sandy Koufax, and you, Madison Bumgarner). Not enough missions overall. Still mourning the loss of BaL, now mourning the loss of FL and NeL as multiple mission trees.

[cwhitman]

MadBum was awesome: Koufax had the whole XFB issue (that wasn't discovered really until after the card came out, otherwise Paul probably would have juiced him further)

[szczepam]

I don't know how to change it, but the marketplace has been off and extremely overpriced all year. There is just no possible way to complete the last 10 missions or so.

Stephen Randolph, rated 40 and with no value whatsoever outside of completing missions is going for L10 $15,000+ is wild. Not to mention none of the cards people need to finish the missions are available, and the very very few that are are listed at double the L10 price. The whole thing never seemed to balance all season. I suppose supply just wasn't ever close to meet demand for a lot of this year.

[cwhitman]

Originally Posted by szczepam

I don't know how to change it, but the marketplace has been off and extremely overpriced all year. There is just no possible way to complete the last 10 missions or so.

Stephen Randolph, rated 40 and with no value whatsoever outside of completing missions is going for L10 $15,000+ is wild. Not to mention none of the cards people need to finish the missions are available, and the very very few that are are listed at double the L10 price. The whole thing never seemed to balance all season. I suppose supply just wasn't ever close to meet demand for a lot of this year.

That card is a clubhouse card: the only way to get that is by paying stars. Stars have a PP equivalency, but since they also go to higher cards, of course the value will be higher. But you should just spend the small amount of stars to get those cards. It feels like you have missed the clubhouse shop and obtaining those cards. They're very easy to obtain if you play tournaments/drafts

[szczepam]

Originally Posted by cwhitman

That card is a clubhouse card: the only way to get that is by paying stars. Stars have a PP equivalency, but since they also go to higher cards, of course the value will be higher. But you should just spend the small amount of stars to get those cards. It feels like you have missed the clubhouse shop and obtaining those cards. They're very easy to obtain if you play tournaments/drafts

Then I update my thoughts to eliminating the mandatory clubhouse stars to handle missions. I don't mind if it is something that can supplement things, but to only be able to reasonably progress by having to do tournaments and drafts and the like seems tough. I only have 10 missions left and all from the last batch, they just don't seem attainable. I have plenty of points available, but barely any stars.

Another idea would be to make the rewards of some of the missions clubhouse stars if they are going to be that important.

The other thing that has been said a lot this year is that the mission rewards have not justified the costs of most of the missions, which I tend to agree with. I know others have mentioned the seeming lack of missions this year. I don't think that happened when looking at the year end totals, but it did feel like they weren't spread out as well as they were in PT25. In all, it just felt like there was a better flow to the game in 25 from start to finish.

None of this suggests I am unhappy with the game - I preordered within minutes of it being available - I just hope PT27 feels more like 25 did than 26.

[textilemonster]

Originally Posted by szczepam

The other thing that has been said a lot this year is that the mission rewards have not justified the costs of most of the missions, which I tend to agree with.

You know what's fun? Seeing the mission reward card for sale at 20k, while the mission itself needs five cards you don't have and the cheapest of those is 90k.

Clubhouse points are fine, I just wish you could maybe get 1 point as a reward in addition to the card packs you get for reaching the second round of a tournament.

[cwhitman]

Originally Posted by szczepam

Then I update my thoughts to eliminating the mandatory clubhouse stars to handle missions. I don't mind if it is something that can supplement things, but to only be able to reasonably progress by having to do tournaments and drafts and the like seems tough. I only have 10 missions left and all from the last batch, they just don't seem attainable. I have plenty of points available, but barely any stars.

Another idea would be to make the rewards of some of the missions clubhouse stars if they are going to be that important.

The other thing that has been said a lot this year is that the mission rewards have not justified the costs of most of the missions, which I tend to agree with. I know others have mentioned the seeming lack of missions this year. I don't think that happened when looking at the year end totals, but it did feel like they weren't spread out as well as they were in PT25. In all, it just felt like there was a better flow to the game in 25 from start to finish.

None of this suggests I am unhappy with the game - I preordered within minutes of it being available - I just hope PT27 feels more like 25 did than 26.

You can get stars by doing well in league! Are you that against playing tournaments and drafts? I agree that stars should either be in missions or not be important to finish everything, but I also like how it motivates people to play the game and not just buy everything to complete everything.

[cwhitman]

Originally Posted by textilemonster

You know what's fun? Seeing the mission reward card for sale at 20k, while the mission itself needs five cards you don't have and the cheapest is 90k.

People love the completion premium (plus part of it is other rewards, cards going into other missions, and necessary cards already being locked so they don't really contribute)


most missions are pretty easy and cheap: a new team can finish almost everything up to PTE outside of the ones that need stars within a couple days if you know what you're doing, the later ones are expensive but a lot of that is like, that's what people want to do at this point so

in general, missions are pretty bad value. if you want to play the value game, buy the rewards, don't do the missions, and make money by selling cards. i love doing missions! i care about finishing them all! but it's definitely not a good value play, especially if you want to do them quickly

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by cwhitman

That card is a clubhouse card: the only way to get that is by paying stars. Stars have a PP equivalency, but since they also go to higher cards, of course the value will be higher. But you should just spend the small amount of stars to get those cards. It feels like you have missed the clubhouse shop and obtaining those cards. They're very easy to obtain if you play tournaments/drafts

It is easy for the iron and bronze, but what about the 100 and 101+ missions? You need a minimum of 700 stars to achieve those because the cards just aren't in the marketplace.

The problem is the economy is neutered because in order for the market place to thrive you need the supply. The only way to get supply is for people with an excess of stars to buy them with stars and list them on the market place. This appears to not really be happening as the whole game winds down, thus making it hard to complete those missions.

[cwhitman]

Originally Posted by Lathum

It is easy for the iron and bronze, but what about the 100 and 101+ missions? You need a minimum of 700 stars to achieve those because the cards just aren't in the marketplace.

The problem is the economy is neutered because in order for the market place to thrive you need the supply. The only way to get supply is for people with an excess of stars to buy them with stars and list them on the market place. This appears to not really be happening as the whole game winds down, thus making it hard to complete those missions.

Extremely fair: but the person above was talking about an iron card that costs 5 stars.

The Aaron Judge lock for PTE is one of my least favorite mission designs of the year.

[szczepam]

Originally Posted by cwhitman

People love the completion premium (plus part of it is other rewards, cards going into other missions, and necessary cards already being locked so they don't really contribute)


most missions are pretty easy and cheap: a new team can finish almost everything up to PTE outside of the ones that need stars within a couple days if you know what you're doing, the later ones are expensive but a lot of that is like, that's what people want to do at this point so

in general, missions are pretty bad value. if you want to play the value game, buy the rewards, don't do the missions, and make money by selling cards. i love doing missions! i care about finishing them all! but it's definitely not a good value play, especially if you want to do them quickly

I get what you are saying, but with the missions being there I enjoy the challenge of completing them all. It took about a week into PT26 to complete 25. I just don't see any way of completing the missions in 26 and it leaves a weird feeling, for me, with the game. Maybe we could make the missions more of a value play going forward - otherwise why even have them.

[cwhitman]

Originally Posted by szczepam

I get what you are saying, but with the missions being there I enjoy the challenge of completing them all. It took about a week into PT26 to complete 25. I just don't see any way of completing the missions in 26 and it leaves a weird feeling, for me, with the game. Maybe we could make the missions more of a value play going forward - otherwise why even have them.

No I completely agree! I make the joke that finishing the missions is "beating the game", so I'm very much on that note. But the best way to finish missions is also keeping ahead of things too, getting the cards that you will need for missions before they come out, and making sure to sell off dupes during the post mission drop. Or at least being a little patient over the first wave.

[szczepam]

Originally Posted by cwhitman

You can get stars by doing well in league! Are you that against playing tournaments and drafts? I agree that stars should either be in missions or not be important to finish everything, but I also like how it motivates people to play the game and not just buy everything to complete everything.

I'm not against them, but I also don't have unlimited time to invest in them and I know once I start I would end up in a vortex with spreadsheets and notebooks and general chaos. I probably already spend too much time as it is on the game (and that likely won't stop because I enjoy it). Maybe the tournaments and drafts don't take as much time as I think they would, who knows. I already spend all day with PT open and running as it is. I have earned stars and have used them from the leagues, but at this point don't have even remotely enough to handle the missions that are left. Tons of points to spend, but no where to use them or even a way to convert them into stars.

[cwhitman]

Originally Posted by szczepam

I'm not against them, but I also don't have unlimited time to invest in them and I know once I start I would end up in a vortex with spreadsheets and notebooks and general chaos. I probably already spend too much time as it is on the game (and that likely won't stop because I enjoy it). Maybe the tournaments and drafts don't take as much time as I think they would, who knows. I already spend all day with PT open and running as it is. I have earned stars and have used them from the leagues, but at this point don't have even remotely enough to handle the missions that are left. Tons of points to spend, but no where to use them or even a way to convert them into stars.

Depends on how well you want to optimize! You can very easily build a couple open dailies, put them in tournaments, and not make changes for a week or two. Or you can do stats and update them every day like I do (though my stats will be posted publicly this cycle, news soon!). For drafts, you can sign up for a few weekly drafts, do them quickly (5-10 mins a draft), and try and get lucky there. Shouldn't take that much time a day, or even in a week! Obviously you can spend hours or hours on it if you want, but I don't think you HAVE to to get a few stars here or there.

[bailey]

Originally Posted by szczepam

I'm not against them, but I also don't have unlimited time to invest in them and I know once I start I would end up in a vortex with spreadsheets and notebooks and general chaos. I probably already spend too much time as it is on the game (and that likely won't stop because I enjoy it). Maybe the tournaments and drafts don't take as much time as I think they would, who knows. I already spend all day with PT open and running as it is. I have earned stars and have used them from the leagues, but at this point don't have even remotely enough to handle the missions that are left. Tons of points to spend, but no where to use them or even a way to convert them into stars.

It took me about 20 minutes each to make teams for live iron, bronze, silver, and gold dailies back on October 22* and I've won hundreds of stars from each of them and without ever changing them (except very recently for gold). Almost anything you put together for live dailies will win its share of stars, so no need for heavy analysis or spreadsheets.

*that's according to the date in my roster builder.

[szczepam]

Originally Posted by bailey

It took me about 20 minutes each to make teams for live iron, bronze, silver, and gold dailies back on October 22* and I've won hundreds of stars from each of them and without ever changing them (except very recently for gold). Almost anything you put together for live dailies will win its share of stars, so no need for heavy analysis or spreadsheets.

*that's according to the date in my roster builder.

Thank you, good to know. Something to keep in mind going into PT27

[textilemonster]

I like the Clubhouse in theory, just make it a little easier to get points (like adding a reward of 1 star to the lowest reward-giving finish in tournaments) and maybe do more of, You can get this card that's worth a ton of mission-completion-points for the mission via the clubhouse or you can get the equivalent mission-completion-points with these lower value cards that are found in packs at a reasonable rate (I'm looking at YOU, 5L Winter Classic Tim Wallach, a silver card with a L10 of 124k because it's not dropping for anyone).

[HermanSmutley]

Originally Posted by bailey

It took me about 20 minutes each to make teams for live iron, bronze, silver, and gold dailies back on October 22* and I've won hundreds of stars from each of them and without ever changing them (except very recently for gold). Almost anything you put together for live dailies will win its share of stars, so no need for heavy analysis or spreadsheets.

*that's according to the date in my roster builder.

Agreed. I dislike tournaments and drafts but decided to do live Silver, Gold, Low Diamond, Diamond and Open at the beginning of November. I’m crap at the strategy but have won enough to collect all the top cards (with the exception of Prior and Thomas). Once the rosters are set it takes no more than 5 minutes a day.

[daves]

I'd like a feature that jumps right into the mission from the player card. So, if I click on Bringing home the Hardware on the card, it takes me directly to the mission.