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Originally Posted by MaroonAlberich
(1) Exactly which % of the top 1% of the top 1% are they looking to benefit here? Could be wrong, but I don't think we'll see more than a handful of players complete all FotF missions through the divisions and both leagues. At that point, why not just ship the cards to their favorite whales as a "thank you" and not upend the AH for so many. Which brings me to point 2...
(2) Can't think of other ways to pop the AH a bit? Release diamond packs. Release Negro League packs. (Because FFS, after opening over 1000 packs across all teams, I have scored a grand total of 3 Negro League cards. I get that the mission is hard, but it shouldn't require godlike luck or a massive wallet to complete.) Allow packs to be combined to grant the next pack up. Got four SPs? Make a silver pack. Ten silvers? A gold pack. Four golds? A diamond pack. There is a metric ton of other options aside from pricing a decent proportion of the user base out of rounding out tourney teams.
Actually, back to (1) for a minute. Exactly how much "grind-y work" do you imagine some poor FTP has to put in before you would allow him to aspire to be near the top of the heap, much less on top of it?
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(1) Most players will not complete the FOTF series of missions right as they come out, but there are a few that will. Personally, I just completed the Padres for 100 Gwynn and that cost me a bit over 200k on top of the assets I already had. I probably won't do the other FOTFs, at least not right away. But, let's not mistake completing something the week it comes out with not completing it all fall/winter etc. I think it's good to have an aspirational set of missions that can be done over time. People can chip away as they grumble about whales and about how the game is a disaster. With the new pyramid structure, most of these teams that are complaining or can't afford the new FOTF (at least initially) probably aren't in position to compete with those that do anyway.
(2) I don't think juicing the pack odds is a bad idea, but I'm not even sure if they can change that mid-cycle. I also think releasing the hounds with supply undercuts people that have valuable supplies and I know people with a scarce 300-400k Roger Connor aren't going to want to see that price get halved because the pull rates have gone out of control. I think FOTF is the best and most straightforward way to prop up the entire marketplace through increasing demand. It also builds in more opportunities for speculation income, and that has been a staple of F2P teams since the inception of this mode. Maybe if the balance is off, gone too far toward demand, then they hit us with another pack/PP sale sometime soon. They did this type of thing in PT20, my speculation is they did this to ease the bottleneck problem for certain missions.
(1, again) I'm not sure. But most games have gone the way of the microtransaction. People know what this game/mode is and know that you can either spend or work at it, or do both. Those that spend and work will always have an edge. These are the teams that will do FOTF quickly. Those that work can make up for much of their disadvantage at choosing not to spend. Those that spend and don't work can also be dumb money and can get beaten to the punch by better F2P teams. Everyone might be able to do some/all of FOTF over time. Problem is people can't have it all. And especially not for free. If people are just now realizing that, then they can always hop over to another title. If they've invested $0, there's not much sunk cost.