The problem with missions these days:

[Kushiel]

I am mid 70's also but blessed with my wife of 54 years still by my side. Like you, I have too much time and spend too much of it on PT. But I just try to read every post through the lens that not everyone can spend the time we do. And few people have the money that others spend here.

I am, it seems, much more concerned about the future health and longevity of PT than the new management that reminds me of those alien movies. You know the ones where the aliens come to strip all the resources from the planet, kill it, and move on?

[Hwilensky]

Originally Posted by rburgh

I'm going to try to get my FTP teams to complete all the Elite missions before March 2025. I expect some will succeed.


Some of the things I have outlined take very little time - getting twitch drops, playing the reval game, waiting to do missions until the value of the reward you get is more than the cost in PP's to do the mission.


It's a common mistake to try to advance your team up the pyramid quickly. There's a reason the moderators come down hard on teams that are "dumping," - the PP's you can earn in Rookie or Stone leagues dwarf what you can earn at higher levels unless you have a team that absolutely dominates there.


It's even a sensible strategy to save up all your packs until a big mission st is announced, That way, you will have a big inventory of cards to sell when "everybody" is in a buying frenzy. There's an old Wall Street saying that the time to buy is when there is blood running in the streets, meaning when everybody is selling all their stocks. It's true here too.

Its not a bad idea, I just completed all the missions for 23 a week ago...

[bdawg]

Originally Posted by Kushiel

I am mid 70's also but blessed with my wife of 54 years still by my side. Like you, I have too much time and spend too much of it on PT. But I just try to read every post through the lens that not everyone can spend the time we do. And few people have the money that others spend here.

I am, it seems, much more concerned about the future health and longevity of PT than the new management that reminds me of those alien movies. You know the ones where the aliens come to strip all the resources from the planet, kill it, and move on?

100% agree with this. I'm in my 40s, have an engineering job and a family that takes up 97% of my free time (and I love them for it). I enjoy logging in daily and checking my team, shifting things around, buying a new player to add to my team, opening a couple of packs, setting up some tourneys, etc. Occasionally I leave the game run on the tournament page and spam tournaments, but those days are rare.

I subscribed to PT+ for a couple of months, before I started feeling badly that I'm spending $10/mo on a game. I know, we pay for my son to be able to play WoW monthly, so I don't know why I feel badly about it, but I do. Maybe it's just family guilt lol. But as a dad I always feel like I need to be the one to make sacrifices for my family, and I'm happy to do so.

I respect that it takes a lot of time and effort to compete at the PeL level. I'm hanging out in DiL mediocrity (occasionally bouncing down to GoL) and can't seem to get over that hump. That said, I have a feeling most people playing in PeL at.500 ball or better spent quite a bit of money to get there, and I think that's the grating part for most of us. I also think everyone here knows it - which is why you never have people admitting they spent $500 on their team on these forums. Everyone wants to win but nobody wants to admit what they did to win. Like any internet forum, I have a feeling a lot of people come here and pretend they have played like everyone else just to feel like they are part of a community, even when they spent money for their advantages. I'd love to see amount of money spent added to that little "success bar" people post in their signatures! I'm only half-joking, I know it won't happen and don't expect it to.

Speaking for myself, I would appreciate a version of PT where everyone is on a level playing field no matter how much time you devote. I feel like those who devote even less time than I do deserve a persistent mode where they can actually compete with me as well as others, and vice versa, and no, tournaments and perfect drafts don't hit the same as PT itself.

One suggestion which I've heard on here before is that I would love to see every licensed version of OOTP25 be given a F2P-only team where no money can be spent to improve that team, and only daily rewards are given - tourneys, perfect drafts, and twitch drops don't contribute. That way, it only requires a daily login to keep up with other teams, which seems reasonable to me.

[rburgh]

I would appreciate a version of PT where everyone is on a level playing field no matter how much time you devote.

The only way to make this work would be to make it impossible to buy PP's for cash. Then it would be the people who had the ability to spend vast amount of time to spam tournaments who completely dominated, So they would take away tournaments, too.


What would you have left? An online game that was not economically viable. So they would stop offering it.


Curiously, the thing that you FTP players fear most (discontinuation of the game) is exactly what would happen if they changed the game to satisfy your complaints about how unfair the current game is.

[HRBaker]

Originally Posted by rburgh

Curiously, the thing that you FTP players fear most (discontinuation of the game) is exactly what would happen if they changed the game to satisfy your complaints about how unfair the current game is.

Respectfully, that's not my biggest fear. As long as the game makes money - regardless of how many people play - the game will continue.


My fear is the vast majority of F2P players will simply quit playing when the baseball season ends because that's about the same time "improving" your team becomes either money or time. F2P players won't/can't spend the money, and spending significant time after the baseball season is over usually isn't in the cards.

If 2.3rds of the player base quits after the World Series, 2/3rds of the teams left after October are simply cannon fodder.

In my case, I'm resigned to the fact that's the time I move to the classic game. There, I can still feed my baseball habit without the aggravation of the limits on my PT team(s).

For the P2P players, they can continue on competing for the "superman" cards that may change their fortunes in the second half of the year.

I don't think it's possible the "level the playing field" for the full 12 months of a version unless they do it through weekly/seasonal tournaments.

[Kushiel]

Originally Posted by rburgh

Curiously, the thing that you FTP players fear most (discontinuation of the game) is exactly what would happen if they changed the game to satisfy your complaints about how unfair the current game is.

I don't see the same thing that you do here. I see FTP asking for a niche league to play in if that is their choice to do so. All the other parts of the game could stay the same as they are now. Unless of course you are stating that all the high pockets teams would desert PT if they don't have all that available plankton to feed upon. If that is the case then the game's future is short anyway judging by the yearly exodus.

[bdawg]

Originally Posted by rburgh

The only way to make this work would be to make it impossible to buy PP's for cash. Then it would be the people who had the ability to spend vast amount of time to spam tournaments who completely dominated, So they would take away tournaments, too.


What would you have left? An online game that was not economically viable. So they would stop offering it.


Curiously, the thing that you FTP players fear most (discontinuation of the game) is exactly what would happen if they changed the game to satisfy your complaints about how unfair the current game is.

No, I'm looking for something where anyone can compete, log in once a day, and enjoy that particular game mode with the same benefits of those who have more or less time. The other modes are still there - tourneys wouldn't contribute to this mode, but would continue to contribute to normal PT mode. This mode would just have daily rewards and achievement awards.

The game costs money to buy. I'm not saying stop the PTW modes you have now, but just offer that one extra F2P team mode, one per licensed copy of the game. I don't see how that makes it "not economically viable" - we're still buying the game. And the other PT modes would still be there.

The one trick would be the auction house - I think you'd have a lot more people trying to do auction house manipulation tactics with a mode like this, if the auction houses between the normal PT and this mode were the same. But I shrug - it's all hypothetical anyway. I could think of ways to make that a non-issue.

[daves]

I know missions are relevant, but if you can win a weekly tournament and get a Perfect choice pack, you will have either a great player or be able to sell for many PP.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[PunishedF2P]

Originally Posted by bdawg

Like any internet forum, I have a feeling a lot of people come here and pretend they have played like everyone else just to feel like they are part of a community, even when they spent money for their advantages. I'd love to see amount of money spent added to that little "success bar" people post in their signatures!

Just wanted to clear this one up, personally:





As you can see, zero money spent on my team.

Right now, I've completed every mission in the game (except the first Exclusive 1981 mission set from earlier in the year that is not completable at this point). I have a top-level PeL squad (even though I'm back in diamond) - I have Chris Sale, Adrian Beltre, Joe Mauer, etc.

Realistically, I need Buster Posey for LHP hitting catcher and Mariano Rivera in the pen and I basically have a perfect roster minus PTCS rewards.

It's definitely possible to do, and there's a number of guys on this board who are top-end F2P players.

[bdawg]

Originally Posted by PunishedF2P

It's definitely possible to do, and there's a number of guys on this board who are top-end F2P players.

Awesome stuff! That's cool I'm curious how much time you devoted? Do you farm tourneys/drafts? Buy/sell smallish cards on the AH regularly? Farm all the twitch streams?

I can't devote the time to farm tourneys/drafts (once in a great while I'll do it on a Saturday if I'm free), monitor the AH, and hot take, but I find Twitch insufferable (sorry I don't want to watch people play a game or tell me about a game I play - if I have spare time I want to enjoy myself by playing the game). I get it that others enjoy those things and love to spend time doing these things - that's cool! More power to you.

That said, PT isn't a one-off game. I can't just log in and enjoy a few rounds online like an FPS, develop some great techniques, and compete at a high level (and before someone chimes in and says I need to devote tons of time on an FPS to compete - not necessarily true, I've been a great FPS player over the years and it just comes naturally to me, but it's too stressful on me now lol). PT is a persistent mode that ranks you and rates you. And to get to the top is fairly formulaic, achieved by using a pretty standard formula of knowing what cards are great (or watching other teams for how well cards perform), and farming the missions via a combination of time-devotion and/or money. I don't think I'm saying anything that people don't know here.

Like any sport or game I play, I'd like to be able to compete and play at a high level, but I don't have the time to devote, nor do I want to spend the money. To me, it feels like I'm penalized because it's not necessarily skill based since most of it is formulaic. I've heard the arguments "you can devote that time and make it too" - but the point is I can't - I don't have that kind of time. And if I'm a part time player and I can't compete at a high level nor have a chance to be great at it, I'm just going to lose interest, which is where I'm at and why I'm posting a lot about it. Maybe I'm alone here in that sentiment.

All I'm asking for is a mode where I can compete in a persistent PT-style mode, but with what little time I have to compete. And frankly, I'm not going to lose sleep if it doesn't happen (I'm putting this caveat in here because it's important people realize this game is not my life and in the end I don't care - it's a fun time waster to me and I'd like to see some improvements that would make it more fun IMHO). That said, I might end up losing interest and finding something more interesting to do with my time - which is fine too.

You've worked really hard to get where you are, and devoted a lot of time - that's pretty awesome. Curious - does it bother you that a bunch of people who spent money are playing in PeL right now and are keeping you in DiL? Would it frustrate you if you found out 200 more players decided to invest a bunch of money to buy teams better than yours which sent you back to GoL? It would bug me if if that happened and I devoted the kind of time you did to get where you are.

Anyway, I'm just saying the same things over and over. I'm glad a lot of people enjoy PT for what it is right now, that's great. No harm in in expressing my desires for a mode that is more part-time-player friendly, but still gives the thrills and the chance to compete at a high level.

[Fabtron7]

Originally Posted by bdawg

All I'm asking for is a mode where I can compete in a persistent PT-style mode, but with what little time I have to compete.

Isn't this the entire reason they have rookie/stone/iron/bronze tiers?

[PunishedF2P]

Originally Posted by bdawg

Awesome stuff! That's cool I'm curious how much time you devoted? Do you farm tourneys/drafts? Buy/sell smallish cards on the AH regularly? Farm all the twitch streams?

From March to October, I didn't do anything but login and collect live cards / play the updates. Was very casual, not a lot of time went into it. I made 6-7 million PP this year on the updates, so that's my big PP generator.

Then after the updates stopped, I started playing tourneys - Daily and Weekly only, no quick tourneys. No spamming necessary, I log in a few times a day and sign up for the upcoming daily and weekly tourneys (generally 12+ hours away from starting) that I can field the strongest teams in. My winnings have been the primary generator of PP since the updates ended.

Even though I was able to field a top end team capable of competing in PeL earlier in the year with update PP only, I know from last year that if I did tourneys, too, I would have done significantly better.

If you're not playing tourneys really, it's true there is no way to have a competitive team without spending money - I would actually say that tourneys are the central focus of PT, for P2P players as much as F2P - far, far more rewards there than regular leagues or anything else. 95%+ of cards released never any chance of making a league team, they're just for missions and tourneys.

And it's what gives the game loads of depth. Crafting rosters for the different tourneys and caps is what gives 100 other cards good value and a lot of the most fun for me playing.

I get it, if you don't like tourneys; it is what it is. There's just no way to play this game well without playing tourneys.

EDIT: One other thing that is huge for me: I try to collect all of the mission cards before the missions come out. Occasionally missions drop along with new cards, but most of the time there is at least a few weeks (or much longer) to prepare. Every Thursday I take a gander through the latest releases, add most of them to my watchlist, and after the prices cool down a bit, put in reasonable but low buy orders (i.e. 2.5K on a 5K gold card) and try to get them over the next few weeks.

Spotlight packs have made this really easy and affordable to do - when the Spotlight packs are out, the cards go way down in price, but then often rebound way high again after the packs are a gone for a bit i.e. the new set that dropped, I grabbed Clemens for like 25K, Scherzer for 35K, etc - check the prices on those now. And wait until they (if they) end up in some kind of mission set - prices can go even crazier.

But I never pay those crazy prices, because I buy everything in advance as best as I can. The vast majority of mission I simply click 'submit' on everything when they come out.

There's a lot of angles like this with what you should be doing with your duplicates, and your extra non-mission pulls, etc. Another example that has made me a lot of extra PP: Throughout the year, I hold onto any non-live diamonds worth less than 12K, as a rule. Often times, these cards will become part of another mission, and I'll either have them for it, or be able to sell them for significantly more - there were some Baseball Ref cards that I had 2 or 3 of for months from pulls; finally, that last mission set dropped, and I had a few that went from 6K to going for 80K.

[daves]

Originally Posted by Fabtron7

Isn't this the entire reason they have rookie/stone/iron/bronze tiers?

Yes. Theme teams are also available and enjoyable.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[HRBaker]

I don't disagree with most of what has been said, but the primary bubble that rises to the surface as I read these posts is this;

"Perfect Team isn't baseball. It's a highly competitive card game that uses baseball as its theme."


I'm an old (77 years old) baseball fan. Got started with my obsession in 1954 when the Indians won the pennant and lost the World Series. Followed year after year through the 60s and 70s watching games with my Grandfather who called the Indians "Bums".

To me, baseball is going year to year trying to find the right combination of players to be competitive and to win (or almost win) as many seasons as possible... basically the definition of the OOTP classic game.

PT, as interesting as it is, is a mathematical problem (the likes of Chess) that has to be solved and is constantly in motion. It doesn't focus on baseball history, injects superman cards to keep the process going 12 months, and is design to tempt players to spend as much as possible (not that I feel the "business" can do it any other way).

All that being said, I like PT - but only until it reaches the point it is more math than baseball. It took me this entire year to accept that the fist 6 months is fun, then it becomes a chore. At that point, it's back to the classic game - which i HOPE continues to be improved as it always has been in the past.

2 cents.

[Lathum]

Would someone mind explaining about the twitch thing and getting packs?

[Fabtron7]

Originally Posted by PunishedF2P

Just wanted to clear this one up, personally:





As you can see, zero money spent on my team.

Right now, I've completed every mission in the game (except the first Exclusive 1981 mission set from earlier in the year that is not completable at this point). I have a top-level PeL squad (even though I'm back in diamond) - I have Chris Sale, Adrian Beltre, Joe Mauer, etc.

Realistically, I need Buster Posey for LHP hitting catcher and Mariano Rivera in the pen and I basically have a perfect roster minus PTCS rewards.

It's definitely possible to do, and there's a number of guys on this board who are top-end F2P players.

I just looked at my profile and it also says I've purchased zero perfect points... I have for sure bought a few points

[LeeD]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Would someone mind explaining about the twitch thing and getting packs?

Sure.

First, you need a Twitch account if you don't already have one. Go to https://www.twitch.tv and select Sign Up. Follow the prompts to create your account and then go through the usual verification process. Sign on to Twitch to make sure everything is working and to familiarize yourself with the interface.

Second, go to https://challenge.ootpdevelopments.com/v3/login. Log into the team you want to receive drops with your username and password. Click on Twitch at the top and select Link with Twitch account. You should now be ready to receive OOTP drops when watching eligible streams.

Third, start with the official OOTP channel. That is https://www.twitch.tv/ootpdevelopments and loads the default OOTP stream, which might or might not be live at the time you visit. If it's live, you will earn drops after watching for 15, 30, 45, 60, and 90 minutes (up to five per day). If it's not live, a recent stream will start playing. This will not earn you any drops. You can either watch for the entertainment and education value or...

Fourth, Browse or use the Recommended links or Also Watch lists on the left panel to find other OOTP streams. Most of these will be affiliate streams, which can earn you another five drops per day. If the affiliate stream is eligible for pack drops, a message should appear on the chat panel (screen right) telling you so.

Fifth, monitor and claim your drops. To do so, click your profile icon and then Drops and Rewards. The stream screen will minimize (if you are watching), and a list of available rewards should appear. These will show previously claimed rewards as well as progress toward available rewards. If you don't see anything here (because you're not watching a live stream with drops available), scroll to the bottom and select the Campaigns link. This will open up all Twitch campaigns with rewards. You can then scroll down to find OOTP, which will normally show five official and five affiliate drops available for the current day. Note that official drops are currently Silver packs, with a bonus sixth pack (Standard) for reaching the 90-minute mark. Make sure the green Connected button below the listed rewards is displayed. If not, you'll need to return to Step Two for Twitch linking.

Enjoy.

edit to add: You can actually earn six packs from official and six packs from affiliate per day, since the last drop awards you two packs. Also, streams "stack" such that watching one affiliate for, say, 50 minutes and another for 40 minutes will still get your progress to 90 total minutes and all five drops. The affiliates are often helpful with this and will "raid" into another active stream when their stream is ending so that you can continue progress toward any remaining drops. Also note that Twitch will remind you in Notifications when you're eligible for a drop, so you don't have to constantly cycle between the stream and rewards screens.