PT 27 A Sea of Pain So Far.

[LeeD]

Originally Posted by usa_hank

Disagree. Balance just means you're just playing blackjack with others who know the same basic strategy. It's all just random chance then.

This relies on the assumption that everyone has the same level of game knowledge and the same strategies. They don't. We're surrounded by a sea of players whose game knowledge runs from overwhelmed noob to master of the most intricate details. People also play the game with differing goals and strategies.

I'm certainly not in the top echelon of players, but I won two championships last week with teams that were worse on paper than their competition. Being FTP, I'm mostly biding my time and stocking up on points. That means finding value in silver and gold cards that won't break the bank rather than spending on shiny diamonds that won't actually outperform a well-chosen silver card. There are plenty of dud diamond cards in the launch deck, and some of the perfects are far from perfect. As usual, OVR is not a reliable indicator, at least not until we hit endgame around December and can count on the 104's and 105's to be top dogs.

One way to "beat the system" is to understand the underlying ratings, build a solid roster where every card has a use, and have a coherent strategy that ties it all together. That's why a well-balanced set is important: value throughout, if you know what you're looking for. It's also a lot of fun to watch your 70-something third baseman outperform the competition's diamond cards at bat and on the field.

[Dr.Drill]

I mean, you are right dude.


Many of us are willing to put real money in the till if needed. But the obvious 'give-us-mo-money algos this year' make my private parts hurt.


80%-95% dups on 1K cards when gasoline hitting 6.00/gallon.

[LeeD]

It's just normal distribution when you run into 80-90% dupes after having opened a few hundred packs. Look at the odds. Bronze, one in five. Silver, one in ten. Gold, one in 50. Diamond, one in 150. Perfect, one in 1000.

Open a thousand standard packs, you get a thousand guaranteed bronze cards (one in every pack). Of the remaining 5000 cards (matching to the odds), five would be perfects, 33 would be diamonds, 100 would be golds, 500 would be silvers, another 1000 would be bronze, leaving 3362 irons. So...out of 6000 cards pulled, you get 5362 iron and bronze cards, the vast majority being duplicates since they make up nearly 90% of all cards pulled, past and present.

To convert the odds to percentages (for standard packs):
Perfect: 0.083%
Diamond: 0.55%
Gold: 1.67%
Silver: 8.33%
Bronze: 33.3%
Iron: 56%

TLDR: Needle in a haystack. The only way you don't get 80-90% dupes is if the devs pump out a steady stream of iron and bronze cards, like, almost daily. Even then, those aren't the cards we're really looking for, are they?

[Dr.Drill]

Sadly, this is the RNG math hell we must work with.

Had this card in 1961. Saw Mantle/Maris at Yankee Stadium. (10 years old)

Wonder how Topps actuaries calculated TIER odds when Kennedy was President?

[LeeD]

Originally Posted by Dr.Drill

Wonder how Topps actuaries calculated TIER odds when Kennedy was President?

47 Marv Throneberrys to one Mantle?

[rwd59]

Opening packs is useless now. I opened 21 packs yesterday and every single card was a duplicate. It's not like I have opened 500 packs so far either. I guess I will just hold all my packs for a month or so.

[cwhitman]

Originally Posted by rwd59

Opening packs is useless now. I opened 21 packs yesterday and every single card was a duplicate. It's not like I have opened 500 packs so far either. I guess I will just hold all my packs for a month or so.

opening packs is for assets, not necessarily new cards.

[Dr.Drill]

You can say that until the cows come home.


Taking 2 to 4 hours to get a Quick tourney.
Card Shop ratios are 7 to 10 sellers to one buyer.


Admit the balance is off or 27 will go off the rails. Fix the balance.


I'm 600+ ripped. Progression is dreadful. Abandoned missions to sell LIVE cards for PP. $160 real money invested in addition to game price.


What the heck is a Silver Spotlight for 30K but $24.95 real money? Yuk.

[Dr.Drill]

Originally Posted by Dr.Drill

Taking 2 to 4 hours to get a Quick tourney.

Hour 3.

Did 6 to 8 Quick/day for each tournament in 26.

[cwhitman]

You’re playing unpopular quicks: there are too many kinds. Irons quicks are over four thousand this cycle.

[Dr.Drill]

Originally Posted by cwhitman

You’re playing unpopular quicks: there are too many kinds. Irons quicks are over four thousand this cycle.

But those are controlled by +5 variant like 26.


Why bother to compete when they spent $100s to buy up artifacts ....

[cwhitman]

Nobody is buying artifacts: boosters are sub 1000 on the card shop

[Dr.Drill]

Originally Posted by cwhitman

Nobody is buying artifacts: boosters are sub 1000 on the card shop

I see 8 Missions with Artifact pack rewards.
Those are mostly money pits.

[Dr.Drill]

Just won my .302 Low Gold World Series. Think I did that once in 26, after 8 months. D


Yet my card production in tournaments has crashed.Getting 4-6/day in dailies but Quick is a disaster. Averaged 100-120/packs week in 26 tournaments.


Spent small fortune upgrading Low Diamond. No bueno. These games locked in by whales.

[usa_hank]

Reaching and then competing in PeL is just a pipe dream unless you spend money.

I'm sure someone will chime in with "I made PeL last year with F2P." What he won't tell you is that he is retired, spends 11 hours a day on the game managing 8 teams, mashing the same tourneys and same PDs with all the same teams, so that one of his teams is much more likely to win.

PT won't be a truly great experience for F2P players until there is a true F2P league which is limited to 1 team per actual player.

[Dr.Drill]

I'm happy to put some RM in the kitty. But always looking for positive feedback system first, where effort = advancement. Basically World of Warcraft, Diablo or any RPG.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by Dr.Drill

I see 8 Missions with Artifact pack rewards.
Those are mostly money pits.

Maybe I am not getting the strategy but it seems the artifact packs only exist to boost varients. They also make it much easier to boost than years past which means varient cards are worth far less.

[LeeD]

Originally Posted by Lathum

Maybe I am not getting the strategy but it seems the artifact packs only exist to boost varients. They also make it much easier to boost than years past which means varient cards are worth far less.

Easier to boost in terms of cleaner process, which I applaud. No more searching for a duplicate Joe Shlabotnik that just happens to have the last ten of six thousand points needed for a boost.

Not necessarily easier in terms of acquisition. We all got/get twelve artifact packs for Live Series One, but it remains to be seen how easy they'll be to acquire as the cycle progresses. Nonetheless, the devs have given us an upfront bonanza on these packs, which is welcome. I don't expect that this will have a big impact on variant prices, but it's too early to say with any degree of certainty.

[Dr.Drill]

The pain is the 24 hour Variant auction. Like eBay, the important trading occurs in the last minutes.


Can't find the motivation to schedule bids on that 84 Snapshot pitcher 5.8 hours from now. Sure, I can post bids, but, in many cases, that leads to price inflation, especially when there is little liquidity.


Overall, not worth it for me most of the time.

[Dr.Drill]

no no