Lack of Missions this year is really disappointing

[rburgh]

Is that the B-a-L missions came before the NeL ones, since they started out with missions requiring us to buy mostly Bronze cards. While we were doing that, they brought out the NeL cards, then the Silver level B-a-L missions, then NeL missions, then the Gold B-a-L missions.

But they seem to have replaced the B-a-L missions with BBRef cards and missions and increased numbers of NeL cards which will eventually turn into valuable stuff. The also started to pay more attention to the FL cards last year than in previous editions.

I think their focus is to try to attract people playing DFS and rotisserie leagues, since those are the people who study up on minor leaguers. They've also created the souped up cards for postseason, which basically require you to own or buy all the live cards.

As far as pulling duplicates goes, by the time you've opened 100 packs you probably own 500 irons or bronzes, and they are 80% of the cards in packs. And most of us have opened several hundred by now. Right now there are over 1700 different Iron and Bronze cards; they make up nearly 60% of the card set. Of course you're going to pull duplicates. But live iron duplicates are very good things to hoard, since some of them will end up as golds or diamonds, earning you scads of PP's. I think there has been an Iron to perfect recently, too, although that's a long and winding road.

If you're thinking about today with an FTP team, you're going to get very frustrated. All these cards you are chasing to make your team better, you are paying 3-5 x what you'll be able to sell them for in November when the real meta cards come out.

[Big Poppy]

so cynical ;-)

[daves]

Build a lineup and Face of the Franchise were enjoyable collectable missions that have not been in PT25 or PT26. Love to see these come back at some point.

Combinators and variants are big in the latest versions.

[Lathum]

One of the more annoying aspects of this is I have the PP to complete a lot of these missions but I will go days with the highest buy order and the one card I need not being listed.

[quizkid]

Having the highest buy order does not entitle you to a card. If your current buy order price is not getting you the card, perhaps a higher bid would entice someone to part with their card.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by quizkid

Having the highest buy order does not entitle you to a card. If your current buy order price is not getting you the card, perhaps a higher bid would entice someone to part with their card.

My point is the card isn't even listed for days...

[Big Poppy]

its illiquid ie, no one is trading it. like a ghost town out there. i cant move anything.

[quizkid]

@Latham I completely understand your complaint. My point is that you are not offering the holders of an unlocked version of the card enough PP to not lock it for their mission and instead to sell it. Just because you have the highest offer does not mean that someone has to sell it at that price (or even offer it for sale).

[LeeD]

This is all technical truthiness, but there are real problems with this year's shake-out. We have numerous Live Series (!) missions where cards rated Silver and below (!) have no sell orders at any price. The Rod Carew mission is consistently missing sell orders for four or so of its cards, again at any price.

These situations are not normal compared to any of the previous versions I've played and don't involve single bottleneck cards which one would expect to be rare and pricey. They involve middle- or bottom-of-the-bottle cards that would normally be available at any given time; and yet, they frequently aren't, again at any price.

So, what's going on? There are 8000* teams, which doesn't seem unusually low. Participation in Twitch streams doesn't seem to have dropped off. Either players aren't acquiring as many packs as in years past, or they're hoarding packs because they've completed the missions, or they're hoarding packs to open later, or they're hoarding cards.

Sure, you could probably solve your individual problems by bidding substantially above L10 for the cards you need or want, but that's not how the game has previously operated and doesn't bode well for how it will move forward this year.

* Have to take the number of teams with a grain of salt, though. Probably half of these are abandoned/autopilot teams. There are nearly 2000 teams in Iron league and 900 in Low Bronze which haven't completed a single mission, and that's over a third of all teams. Players who aren't completing any missions at all have either abandoned their teams, don't understand the game, or are collecting points and packs for later. In any case, they aren't opening packs, buying, or selling to any meaningful degree.

[Big Poppy]

In the dozens of fantasy leagues I played over the years (even going back to lunch meetings in 1980), interest always dies in June, leaving tons of zombie teams, and the rest of the season is carried by the completion dudes/ladies. But in PT, the completion dudes/ladies are dependent on the liquidity supplied by new blood. May come down as simple to OOTP charging too much for 26.

[Hwilensky]

Originally Posted by Big Poppy

In the dozens of fantasy leagues I played over the years (even going back to lunch meetings in 1980), interest always dies in June, leaving tons of zombie teams, and the rest of the season is carried by the completion dudes/ladies. But in PT, the completion dudes/ladies are dependent on the liquidity supplied by new blood. May come down as simple to OOTP charging too much for 26.

Unfortunately they changed waay too much and too fast, and it has turned off many players. If they needed money this bad, they should have sprinklend things in over the years. Not all at once.

[Big Poppy]

PT is still a fantastic game, even better than OOTP. My first was 5 or 6 in 2002 (?). PT is more focused and less dependent on long slog player development. But, man, so hard to get the algos right ....

[Hawkwing7423]

Originally Posted by Hwilensky

Unfortunately they changed waay too much and too fast, and it has turned off many players. If they needed money this bad, they should have sprinklend things in over the years. Not all at once.

I am not disagreeing with you, but what specific changes do you believe factor into this?

[Big Poppy]

Balance of power, creep and the invisible ceiling.

I support whale leagues wholeheartedly but, like every RPG, min max takes control earlier and earlier each season.

My average player is 94ish but my manager just 76 after breaking a string of winning seasons Teams with half to three quarter 100s too common for May. I got this far with no real money but want to.

But almost impossible to make the jump higher without spending 2x 3x 4x more than I want 2 months in, with 4 months to go. And that's for taking greater risk because card shop is illiquid so you have to roll the dice.

[LansdowneSt]

The current illiquidity is the issue. It takes me thirty seconds to sort my dupes, put two or three up for sale and QS the rest. All those QS cards are now gone from the market. Give me a button that says "Quick Post at 20% premium to QS price" with that 20% a number I put in for all the cards I have selected, and I am happy to send them to the market. Also, why is there even a cap on sell orders?

But for the time I have in a day, I will never sit there and go card by card by card and create sell orders. I don't want to help my competition for incremental PP so (relatively) close to the QS price so my self interest hurts the collective macro-environment. But that's Adam Smith for ya. Additionally, the variant mechanic has lead to hoarding. Plus people hoping an 89 becomes a 90 or a 97 becomes a 100 in the live series. I keep one of every card in case I need it for a mission and I don't think that will or should change...

But between all of that, the market is illiquid. Even if more players came on, I'm not sure they too would not hoard in case they get a worthy variant or just Quick Sell like I do.

[Big Poppy]

Wish LIVE and Non LIVE were separate games because their mechanics are light years apart.

Agree. I quick sell most after a moment of guilt for not contributing to liquidity. Consequence of 25+ years day trading Nasdaq and NYSE. ie no mercy for the competition.

[Big Poppy]

Quick fix.

1. Make at least 2 dozen new missions for unsung and spotlight that let the crowd upgrade quickly.

2. let standard packs have .000001 % chance for Spotlight Pack drop.

[Hwilensky]

There is also something of with the pack mechanics this year as opposed to years past. I know there is bad luck and then there is BAD luck. But I have opened maybe 2000 packs, and have only pulled 1 historical perfect so far, and that was in my starter packs. Maybe it's previous years catching up with me, but since last year, something just seems off.

[Hwilensky]

Originally Posted by Hawkwing7423

I am not disagreeing with you, but what specific changes do you believe factor into this?

I think the biggest culprit are the variant cards. Players are no longer on even ground with one another. Especially in the lower level tournaments. The rich have the pp to buy all the good variants, and then level them up. For the most part, you have the same winner tournament after tournament.

[hineighbor]

'25 missions were great, I'm still doing them getting sick rewards like historical rainbow packs. Long live OOTP '25, the GOAT version in a long time.