Lack of Missions this year is really disappointing

[Big Poppy]

Son and I, here in PHX, happened to turn on game:

"Randy Johnson's perfect game occurred on May 18, 2004, when he was 40 years old, making him the oldest pitcher in MLB history to achieve this feat. Pitching for the Arizona Diamondbacks, he defeated the Atlanta Braves 2-0 at Turner Field, retiring all 27 batters he faced."

Last time we saw Randy live, he was taking pics at Primus concert in Mesa. We were in 1st row, getting pummeled by Navajo mosh pitters.

[zevus]

Originally Posted by zevus

august 13th is when all these changes went into place

i was 65-31 pre all-star break, with my old roster. this same roster was at 9-10 after the Bat of Equity took a swing to induce spending via Roster Improvements.

15-10 after my changes, not as good as the winning % pre all-star break. i suspect it's just a handicap being selectively applied, so you just need better cards to overcome it. i'm not sure if it's reset at playoff time or not

I spoke too soon, ended 36-30, so 12-10 after that post, or 13-13 if we include the postseason, where I got bounced in 4 games (against a team that was #2 after myself before the All Star break, but was 33-34 after the All Star break, lol ... zero roster changes).

The "Oklahoma City Baseball Team" (52-44 pre-AS, 47-19 post-AS, maybe since it was below 0.550 it didn't get hit with the nerf stick) that had the best post All Star record -- it did have some roster changes, though per the card stats for this card game which probably *should* mean something, since it's a card game with card ratings, they don't seem like they should perform particularly well.

Their "Team Chemistry" is 21.37%!! Beats my 15%. Whatever "Team Chemistry" actually does, right? It's deliberately obfuscated like so much else. Perhaps most of this stuff does absolutely nothing, which is why it has to be obfuscated.

... as for the missions, they seem fine to me. They were a little light earlier, but not so much now. The thing with them is that you don't want to do them directly after they are introduced unless you don't mind spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on this as a hobby. Hell, I spent a couple hundred back in OOTP .. 21, I think it was. Whatever the first season was.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by Big Poppy

Would you take 40K PP for that card?

[usa_hank]

This thread didn't age well, not with the recent influx of about 40-50 new missions in the last couple of weeks which has turned the competition on its heads. I know why the devs did it - because they had that 4th of July PP sale, had to have a bunch of missions out to make the whales buy more PP. Looks like it succeeded. Those of us who are F2P are going to be suffering to get back into competition again.

[LeeD]

True that. Launch Plus was the literal game-changer. Loads of packs, loads of cards, and loads of mission completions. Reset button for PT26.

[LeeD]

Yes, Launch Plus really was a reset. I added nine new players to my main team's High Gold roster and am now running 23 Perfects and three 99's. 17-8 today with the new-look roster. This is a massive improvement for an FTP team, especially since I ran a points surplus while doing it. Only 42 missions to clear, and most of them are at least 50% complete.

[Bunktown Ballers]

Originally Posted by tedster

I'm not sure if there's a specific reason the devs have cut way back on regular Mission drops this year but it's been a stark change from previous seasons. Other than the launch missions and NeL there's been basically nothing to do in-game, no interesting Toppers to work toward, and really unless you're grinding tournaments nothing to really keep people occupied.

It's particularly disappointing because I think the changes made to variants, tournaments, and league rewards are all really promising and create a much more cohesive ecosystem, but without regular Mission content I'm losing interest fast and the people I convinced to play with this year have already dropped out because, in their words, "it feels like they just aren't updating the game any more".

I find it kind of confusing personally because there was a lot of great effort made last season to start adding Monday Mission drops on top of regular Mission content, and I thought the system last year was the best it's ever been. This feels like a huge step back, and I really hope they look into changing it to be closer to what we've seen in years past.

Lack of quality missions. One I hate are the missions where you got to buy 2 diamond cards to win 5 common packs. Those Don't do.

[Mal3607]

Originally Posted by Hwilensky

I agree with everything you said, except for the variant cards. I personally think they ruined the game. But everything else you said is spot on.

YES YES YES. Where are the missions? There have been some great card drops lately, and I appreciate the HOF missions, but overall, it's been a bad season for missions.

The variant cards are too confusing, and it takes a significant number of points to update them, making them essentially worthless. I also lost my Derek Lee 100 by accident because somehow it got added to a Bill Matlock variant, and I certainly did not do that on purpose. Asked for help and got...well, not much other than being told that's where it went.

[IanIachimoe]

First time I have ever cleared the mission screen as a longtime F2P player.

* Couldn't have done it w/o the Clubhouse & Clubhouse Stars. Love that feature.