I think this change is good, but I'm not sure about allowing phantom decks in EC. I think the number of phantoms in EC should be at least limited to 15 at most.

Anyway, It was hugely problematic to reward a few hours of grinding (no need to even play well, the ladder is just grinding) with as much gold as paying 10$ gets you. It's not surprising at all why almost no one has bought gold from Jed. It's seen almost as cheating. Many players, like WrathOfGods, got a competitive deck together in just a few weeks without paying anything. Now this would be perfectly ok of course if this game was meant to be entirely free and would instead take donations or show ads or something. Another option would be to make competitive constructed tournament playing impossible without some starting investments or miraculously winning a lot of ECs with default decks. Either would be good, but not this (the old way)! Am I the only one who thinks like this?


This idea sounds promising I think. I think playing competitively with the best cards should either 1) be entirely free, or 2) not be possible after just some grinding or 3) be divided into 2 separate systems, the free and the own-cards systems. And the 3rd option - essentially what you were suggesting(?) - would probably be best. Something for everyone.

Ugly_Pug:


These phantoms will expire like the ones won in games.


It will be like it was before except instead of getting X gold at the end of the week you will get X phantoms.


As far as allowing phantoms in the EC, we'll see how it goes. If it seems to be causing problems maybe we will make to separate ones like suggested or disallow them again. I don't think it will have that much effect. Seems like EC's are decided more by how good the player is. If you are good it is still easy to build a good deck for basically nothing.

2 centavos:

It seems like the trick is finding the best balance between "free" and "pay" in TFW. This change will make it even easier to excel with little or no real investment in the game. That is not mucho bueno taco IMO.

The ladder change is an improvement if it increases the success of newer players and seems not worth the trouble for many of the vets. I like the idea of any card in Minor Clashes and real cards only in Expert Clashes. Still tons of opportunities to battle and even make some virtual gold, but owning 100% of a deck still puts you in the A+ lounge!!!

DarkJello

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I think jeds probably right. The phantoms are only there for 20 days and a few overpriced cards like (and mainly) ivory spire "may" come down in price... possibly. Cant really tell that for sure. I have two ivory spires and I really didnt plan to sell them or buy another so being able to use the third phantom spire in ECs might be fun. Now if I could just get a third phantom attrition.. mwaahahahaha

In fact, I think the only cards theres a major need to worry about is spires, volcanic pheonix, legs of baba, teleport, other cards from default decks, etc(Im sure I missed some other good ones) which caused my worry. Theres a possibility they will have no change in value at all, the biggest reason this is possible is because more people may collect the above mentioned cards because they already have one.

So, I like the change again.

Awesome jed.

I highly approve of the phantoms-for-EC change for several reasons. One of which being that new players will no longer be forced to choose between using default decks for ECs or buying all the cards required for one full deck, which is a daunting step to take.

That Jed can now live with rewarding good players over paying customers is a good thing to me. I think it's a more balanced decision (between game design and profit-making) for this game anyway.

have no idea about whether it makes financial sense or not, but I like it. It makes for a healthy ladder and happy newbies!

I dont think this makes sense.....mainly im wondering where owning cards at all comes into play at? Ive gathered a small collection....far from what others have of course. but i dont sit and grind continuously. Now ppl will just gather alot of phantoms and throw decks together. and in one sense that takes away from the skill factor of familiarizing urself with a persons normal deck....now it can change at almost any given time. and they can use it in ec. I also agree a minor clash and expert clash is whats needed. phantoms allowed in mc and real cards in ec. And maybe the MC could award phantom gold maybe as someone stated. seems like a good idea to me. and i wouldnt have a problem at all with more tournaments.....more fun right? mc and ec would be like more tournys. but yea...wheres the advantage in actually owning cards now?

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What about the phantoms from winning or losing any game? If they can be used in ECs and everywhere too, there is a problem. Other than that, this system should be fine because of the vast amount of different cards tehre are, the lifespan of 20 days (that's 2 week's ladder phantoms at one time max) and the fact that ladder wont reward hundreds of them and they cant be moved to another account.

Owning cards would be almost as important as now, because even 100 random phantom cards at a time would require 100 points in 2 weeks, and the theoretical maximum of phantoms earned from ladder at any given moment is 240. But phantoms can be farmed against AI in mere seconds, giving easily at least 100 random phantoms an hour!

Two ways to fix this: 1) get rid of phantoms from any match, 2) divide phantoms into 2 categories, one for the ones that were won from ladder, and another for playing any match. Then reduce the latter phantoms' lifespan to 1 day or mark them somehow differently and don't allow them in ECs.

The slightly reduced benefit from owning cards should be offset by the increase of real monetary value of the cards, because no longer will there be 1500 free gold pumped into the game economy every week.

EDIT
To people who don't think this change is a good idea: not only does this change fix problem of alt accounts perfectly, it was eventually necessary to stop giving so much free gold for the game's survival. Think about it, about 80 000 free gold per year, when the player base can't be guaranteed to grow explosively any time soon, if ever. Even with an expansion released every year, the ratio of (value of owned cards)/player would remain roughly constant without anyone ever buying gold if giving out so much free gold wouldn't stop. Without expansions, every player would have complete collections in a couple years without anyone buying gold.

My first thought on knowing phantoms won in the ladder expire...
Pity the poor ladder winning noob. He does well on the ladder and gets a load of cool cards to play with. Then in a few weeks... BAM - they are all gone. Losing dozens of phantoms at once would suck if you needed them for your deck.

I know there are some guys who wont be able to gain gold for certain reasons, but I found the gold prize a bit better because you could probably go ahead and buy 3 permanent cards instead of getting 750 phantoms that disappear in two weeks.

But alright, it's more fair and dealable with that way too .