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There was something incomplete or missing in what I wrote in my previous post... there's a one essential thing which I couldn't figure out what was it until now...
Playing Hearthstone in the past set my expectations towards team/deck building and strategy creation gameplay. The initial thought is that for Hearthstone ultimate gameplay experience the cards must follow some rules and must be created for such purpose. However in PT universe the cards are created based on real historical data and such space for designing synergies among cards is very limited. Of course there are ballpark strategies dependent on correct cards e.g. lefties double/triple hitter park requiring high contact and gap power, but any high-end LH batter will hit there well too. Obviously PT isn't Hearthstone as the games (matches) are simulated and not played but is PT still baseball simulator? Perhaps the question should be asked in a different way - isn't there already a baseball sim gameplay with high complexity which includes additional dimensions like salaries, injuries and others? Yes, there is, so what else is there for PT universe? Tournaments in which the meta-game was found relatively fast and everyone uses the same strategy and rosters? Collection missions which are more about spending time refreshing auction house?
In my opinion PT's biggest charm/attraction is in collecting cards and around that core other things should be build. As collections would be core, PT league should be done in the same way as tournaments are done now. Player should choose in which league he/she wants to participate and enroll for it for one whole season (subscription). Letting one account to participate in three(XX?, one league compulsory registered as non-limited [current PT league]) different leagues at time would give players that much needed freedom to restart PT with new challenge anytime they feel bored. In the same time they could utilize their vast collection and tinker with ballpark dimensions and train players to new positions. Even themed teams could come as one of the leagues. Finally, this all would leave tournaments to be rather easy to play fun complement. Tournaments would transform to random concept that players would build their rosters from all possible cards in database e.g. player chooses 25 cards from those 75 which were randomly chosen. Random selection would still cover at least 3 cards for each position / roster spot. Obviously pre-requisite for all of this would be creation of HUGE card database. After that creating meaningful and thorough collection missions without option to sell mission rewards. Goal of the mission enhancement should be removal of bottlenecks and balancing AH functionality to make finishing missions challenging but not frustrating.
In conclusion, I firstly thought that I was missing variability in cards (to build more focused strategies), now I think that I am just missing the game mode variability. Maybe I am playing the game the wrong way, maybe I am just a hardcore gamer and want more... maybe I don't get it at all, who knows.
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