Compiling Ideas

[professor ape]

I have been following a number of the threads where we are expressing frustration with the current state of PT. At risk of sounding like I am asking everyone to sit around the fire and sing “Kumbaya”, I want to take a step back and compile a list of ideas to raise to the team as they work to keep improving the experience.

This post is based on the assumption that generally we have the shared goals of keeping the game challenging and fun, having it feel fair, of building and maintaining a larger audience for the game, and to respect that this is a business which needs to generate revenue in order to thrive. I’ll start by listing a few ideas I have seen others post and a couple of my own. I’ll edit this to add quick summaries of your replies here as people raise interesting suggestions. We can flesh out these brief bullets in the discussion. My only request is that we stay constructive. In no particular order:

- Encourage more diversity in rosters by having special packs as prizes for collection missions instead of specific cards.
- Make PEAK cards based on players’ best ratings from their three-year career peak.
- Have Tournament Leagues which last for up to a week to be more friendly to players who cannot regularly monitor daily tournaments.
- Unlock cards which have been used to complete missions after a set amount of time (e.g. two weeks, one month, etc).
- When purchasing the game give the buyer the option to load the main game only, with PT disabled.
- Disable purchasing of points but instead allow people to buy packs.
- Allow trade up by trading X IRONS for a Standard pack for example.
- More variety in pack types. Examples may include team specific packs, "choose your diamond" packs where you purchase a pack and it gives you a choice of like 5 diamonds and you pick one, etc.
- Statistic based missions with randomized goals to mix it up for different users.
- For example, trade 10 live irons for an historical iron, x historical irons for a bronze or historical bronze, all the way through perfect. Maybe make a cool-off timer too to avoid exploitation.
- Missions that may force you to try different cards. Such as log 1000 IP with Braves, 100 HR with shortstops, or something.
- Pack tournaments. You get 6 to 10 packs and need to put the best team out there. Could also have a version with a pp or $ entry fee and you keep the cards.
- Announce all missions a card will be a part of at the time it is released to discourage hoarding.
- Increase pack rewards for tournaments and/or allow entry into four tournaments at a time.
- There should be entry level, live only iron and bronze tourneys, possibly with the strategies locked to default.
- There should only ever be one 100 rated card of any player imo to make it clear that this is the best version of a particular player that will be released.
- Provide a means to auto re-enter the quick tournaments.
- Make tournaments accessible as a tab when you are logged into your PT team.
- Provide a sandbox to build rosters for different tournament types before signing up for one that is about to start.
- Rewards for streaks of logging in daily. Small rewards build each day capping at something like a free regular pack for seven straight days. Once hit, the clock resets.
- Offer a Silver Pack for 2000 PP
- Have more options for capped tournaments and/or have caps increase over time to keep them fresh.
- Allow PP to be earned for achievements during tournaments.
- I would love at least some real pictures/cards for at least some of the non-live cards players.
- Create a tourney status summary on the main screen so we dont have to sign out, sign in, load the entire tourney, etc to see where we are.
- Allow access to your three teams under one primary login, perhaps using a drop down to select the team.
- Have a “pity“ feature for packs where if you haven’t gotten a Diamond or Perfect card in X packs then your odds increase dramatically until you do draw one at which point it resets to normal pack odds.
- Remove cap of tournament entries but only allow cards to be in one tournament at a time.

[eldur00]

Originally Posted by professor ape

I have been following a number of the threads where we are expressing frustration with the current state of PT. At risk of sounding like I am asking everyone to sit around the fire and sing “Kumbaya”, I want to take a step back and compile a list of ideas to raise to the team as they work to keep improving the experience.

This post is based on the assumption that generally we have the shared goals of keeping the game challenging and fun, having it feel fair, of building and maintaining a larger audience for the game, and to respect that this is a business which needs to generate revenue in order to thrive. I’ll start by listing a few ideas I have seen others post and a couple of my own. I’ll edit this to add quick summaries of your replies here as people raise interesting suggestions. We can flesh out these brief bullets in the discussion. My only request is that we stay constructive. In no particular order:

- Encourage more diversity in rosters by having special packs as prizes for collection missions instead of specific cards.
- Make PEAK cards based on players’ best ratings from their three-year career peak.
- Have Tournament Leagues which last for up to a week to be more friendly to players who cannot regularly monitor daily tournaments.
- Unlock cards which have been used to complete missions after a set amount of time (e.g. two weeks, one month, etc).
- When purchasing the game give the buyer the option to load the main game only, with PT disabled.
- Disable purchasing of points but instead allow people to buy packs.

There needs to be more content diversity, and by that I don't mean more cards, I mean more stuff to do, more stuff to grab our attention, more stuff to fall onto when we get thrown a curve ball that sucks the will to continue playing.

-Different packs, many ideas were provided in the past, but things like team specific packs, "choose your diamond" packs where you purchase a pack and it gives you a choice of like 5 diamonds and you pick one, etc.

-Different types of missions. I think it's time to bring in statistical based missions. They could mimic tournaments and have daily, weekly and monthly based statistical missions generated RANDOMLY so we don't all have the same ones. Those could differ like maybe "Get 50 SB with a DET CF" for a monthly mission, "Get 2 2B in one game with a CIN 3B" as a daily mission, etc. You want lineup diversity ? Those would help, at least a bit. Granted they would be totally optional to participate in...

-Different types of tournaments. Pass the pack tournaments would be fun...

-Been brought up by others in other threads, but find a way to trade up by trading X IRONS for a Standard pack for example.


I'm sure others have great ideas as well.

[mayday10]

In addition to exchanging for packs, also exchange for upgrade in card class.

For example, trade 10 live irons for an historical iron, x historical irons for a bronze or historical bronze, all the way through perfect. Maybe make a cool-off timer too to avoid exploitation.

I like missions that may force you to try different cards. Such as log 1000 IP with Braves, 100 HR with shortstops, or something. There are a million possibilities, but may be tough software wise.

Pack tournaments. You get 6 to 10 packs and need to put the best team out there. Could also have a version with a pp or $ entry fee and you keep the cards.

Just activities and goals to enhance the ways to play and make it seem like everyone is moving forward instead of just stuck in place while lofty, unattainable rewards are being released one after another

[Torgonius]

Originally Posted by professor ape

- When purchasing the game give the buyer the option to load the main game only, with PT disabled.

Why have the team devote resources to this, when a person could just, I don't know, not create an account and not play PT? Unless I totally missed where I wasn't allowed to play OOTP without playing PT? There WAS vodka involved the first time, so it's entirely possible I missed the whole gun to my head thing.

[professor ape]

Originally Posted by Torgonius

Why have the team devote resources to this, when a person could just, I don't know, not create an account and not play PT? Unless I totally missed where I wasn't allowed to play OOTP without playing PT? There WAS vodka involved the first time, so it's entirely possible I missed the whole gun to my head thing.

It was just something raised. I agree that you don’t need to create an account but there is validity in taking away the temptation.

[professor ape]

Originally Posted by mayday10

Pack tournaments. You get 6 to 10 packs and need to put the best team out there. Could also have a version with a pp or $ entry fee and you keep the cards.

That could be very cool but also very cruel. I could picture drawing an incredible card but then watching it float away into the ether when I lose in the semi-finals.

[bailey]

When introducing new collections strive to:
1) Reduce volatility in card values and 2) eliminate speculation and hoarding and 3) eliminate predictability

Make every card released part of a collection on the day the card is released. If a card is released without being in a collection--guarantee that it never will be part of a collection. Do not release multiple copies of the same player, unless all such copies are released on the same day. After issuing live Mike Trout, avoid 2012 Mike Trout, POTM Mike Trout, All-Star Mike Trout, TOTY Mike Trout and TOTD Mike Trout (unless they are issued on the same day). Collection ideas should be limitless and ideas that just re-issue the same players are boring.

This idea does not involve any programming whatsoever. Just plan for card releases in a manner that doesn't sabotage market values (whether up or down) and makes speculation pointless. I think most people like a baseball game more than a Win at the AH game.

[waittilnextyear]

Thanks for creating a productive thread.

I think another tourney slot would be nice. I also think tourney rewards could be juicier. Some of the cards are really nice, but maybe more variety (ugh, another 91 J.J. Hardy and no one will sign up) and maybe doubling the number of packs as rewards. So, instead of 1,2,4 packs, it could be 2,4,8 for 3rd/4th, 2nd, winner in tourneys. That would make the dailies really juicy as well, with maybe 30 packs (basically you get a diamond card within those odds more than 50% of the time) riding on it. At worst, that's 4k quick sell value from just the probable diamond card.

As I've mentioned in another thread, taking away "shiny" objects from whales (FOTF, purchasing of points) is not the best idea. Whales are ripping packs by the hundreds of thousands and these are the cards we are all seeing on the AH, and the ones populating our teams. More supply is what low/no money players should want to see. However, boosting the baseline income a bit, as outlined above, could be helpful.

[neugey]

Like "prof ape" said I think making a good share of the tournaments long-running would help. I think right now there is kind of a "wall" of sorts differentiating tournaments and season play. The more they can do to make tournaments more compelling and break down that wall (adding stat tracking, long-term ones, more consolation prizes, UI/usability improvements), the less freaked out we will be about season play inequity. And to be real, they probably realize they may have went a bit too far with the FOTF mega-missions due to the AH affects, but it's hard to put the genie back in the bottle, just got to live and learn long-term.

[tomnov]

Originally Posted by professor ape

...
- Announce all missions a card will be a part of at the time it is released to discourage hoarding.
- Increase pack rewards for tournaments and/or allow entry into four tournaments at a time.

On those 2 points:
Announcing all missions a card will be part of will lessen the hoarding of the cards not involved in missions or at least high end missions, but will make those in missions completely scarce at least until the mission is released.
Allowing more tournament entries at a time would make daily and weekly tournaments even harder to get into, as you could tie up an entry into those and still spam other tournaments you are strong in. You would have to limit total number of tournaments entered or won in a day to make this suggestion equitable to all.

[waittilnextyear]

Originally Posted by tomnov

On those 2 points:
Announcing all missions a card will be part of will lessen the hoarding of the cards not involved in missions or at least high end missions, but will make those in missions completely scarce at least until the mission is released.
Allowing more tournament entries at a time would make daily and weekly tournaments even harder to get into, as you could tie up an entry into those and still spam other tournaments you are strong in. You would have to limit total number of tournaments entered or won in a day to make this suggestion equitable to all.

Or they could just run more tourneys of each type. They've already done this for the quick-fillers, like certain iron tournaments iirc.

[Marleigh]

there should only ever be 1 100 rated card of any player imo to make it clear that this is the best version of a particular player that will be released.

[Tinkerman]

For new players and those that have maybe had very little success, I think there should be some entry level, live only iron and bronze tourneys, possibly with the strategies locked to default.

[Tinkerman]

Originally Posted by Marleigh

There should only ever be 1 100 rated card of any player imo to make it clear that this is the best version of a particular player that will be released.

For the most iconic players, I think it would be cool to have a card for every level.

[professor ape]

Originally Posted by Marleigh

there should only ever be 1 100 rated card of any player imo to make it clear that this is the best version of a particular player that will be released.

It does seem that the 100 rating feels a bit watered down, especially because a Live 100 is often far inferior to historic cards with significantly lower overall ratings.

[professor ape]

Originally Posted by tomnov

On those 2 points:
Announcing all missions a card will be part of will lessen the hoarding of the cards not involved in missions or at least high end missions, but will make those in missions completely scarce at least until the mission is released.
Allowing more tournament entries at a time would make daily and weekly tournaments even harder to get into, as you could tie up an entry into those and still spam other tournaments you are strong in. You would have to limit total number of tournaments entered or won in a day to make this suggestion equitable to all.

It is such a difficult task to find a balance that works for for the broader audience. I do find it interesting that the bulk of the comments are focused on increasing supply of cards with fewer comments about boosting points. I tend to agree that supply is the lever to pull but it needs to be done in such a way that encourages diversity of cards to avoid the cookie cutter lineups we are seeing. That’s where I like the idea of special packs being the Dominant reward for missions instead of specific players. There are so many options for special “mission only” packs which could guarantee certain levels/types of cards.

[bailey]

Tournaments --- a means to auto re-enter the quick tournaments. Baby-sitting the computer is not fun and those cannot do it are at a big disadvantage. Thanks, for the 900+ packs I earned by baby-sitting, but I'm done with that. I wish there was a way to delete my teams so I can't be tempted to come back.

[smales72]

I'd settle for a more integrated tournament experience. It's so disjointed.

Be great if you could log into your PT team as you would in a league and have a tournament tab along with missions ect. And make roster management and tracking of these tournaments less than a complete drudgery as it is now.

[waittilnextyear]

Originally Posted by professor ape

It does seem that the 100 rating feels a bit watered down, especially because a Live 100 is often far inferior to historic cards with significantly lower overall ratings.

Don't forget about that dominant "100" FOTF Chuck Finley!

Originally Posted by smales72

I'd settle for a more integrated tournament experience. It's so disjointed.

Be great if you could log into your PT team as you would in a league and have a tournament tab along with missions ect. And make roster management and tracking of these tournaments less than a complete drudgery as it is now.

Would be nice to not have to log out/login all the time. Also would be helpful when the card sync error Sundays happen, so you don't feel like you're taking a massive risk logging out.

Plus, a sand box to put rosters together outside of an about-to-fire tourney is something people have wanted.

[smales72]

Originally Posted by waittilnextyear

Don't forget about that dominant "100" FOTF Chuck Finley!





Plus, a sand box to put rosters together outside of an about-to-fire tourney is something people have wanted.

excellent point