Spitballing An Idea

[professor ape]

No, this is not a call for a Special Edition Gaylord Perry card. Now that we have been playing PT for a few years, as a group we have gotten really good at establishing a meta very quickly for both the main game and for tournaments. It doesn’t matter how many strong cards the game puts out there, eventually you get down to a handful of options for an optimized roster.

I’m thinking about how the game could add a new element to keep seasons fresh. What if the PEAK cards were changed such that they had three sets of ratings associated with the single card? The first set would be their true peak where the ratings reflect the peak ratings from their top three seasons, the second set would reflect the peak ratings from their next best three seasons, and the third set based on their seventh through ninth best seasons. Every Sunday after the week closes there could effectively be a dice roll for each of your peak cards to determine which set of ratings the card has for the following week (e.g. PEAK 1, PEAK 2, PEAK 3).

Say that you have the PEAK Joe Morgan card. One week you may have his PEAK 1 where the ratings are based on his three best seasons where he combined for an insane 29.9 WAR but the next week you could get his PEAK 3 ratings based on his seventh through ninth best seasons which produced a solid but more down to Earth 16.4 WAR.

If you are a top team in the Perfect or Diamond levels then the bulk of your roster would likely be these PEAK cards. This would create a lot of week to week diversity in the rosters at those levels as each player would have to adjust to their draws.

Again, this is an early thought where I’m trying to balance out the benefits of adding an element to the top cards to disrupt the meta doldrums without creating too much complication. I think this has potential.

[HondoLane]

Originally Posted by professor ape

No, this is not a call for a Special Edition Gaylord Perry card. Now that we have been playing PT for a few years, as a group we have gotten really good at establishing a meta very quickly for both the main game and for tournaments. It doesn’t matter how many strong cards the game puts out there, eventually you get down to a handful of options for an optimized roster.

I’m thinking about how the game could add a new element to keep seasons fresh. What if the PEAK cards were changed such that they had three sets of ratings associated with the single card? The first set would be their true peak where the ratings reflect the peak ratings from their top three seasons, the second set would reflect the peak ratings from their next best three seasons, and the third set based on their seventh through ninth best seasons. Every Sunday after the week closes there could effectively be a dice roll for each of your peak cards to determine which set of ratings the card has for the following week (e.g. PEAK 1, PEAK 2, PEAK 3).

Say that you have the PEAK Joe Morgan card. One week you may have his PEAK 1 where the ratings are based on his three best seasons where he combined for an insane 29.9 WAR but the next week you could get his PEAK 3 ratings based on his seventh through ninth best seasons which produced a solid but more down to Earth 16.4 WAR.

If you are a top team in the Perfect or Diamond levels then the bulk of your roster would likely be these PEAK cards. This would create a lot of week to week diversity in the rosters at those levels as each player would have to adjust to their draws.

Again, this is an early thought where I’m trying to balance out the benefits of adding an element to the top cards to disrupt the meta doldrums without creating too much complication. I think this has potential.

Interesting idea. For this to work and players to be excited about, I think the PEAK 1 would have to be really, really good, better than most PEAK card stats are at now. The stats as they are now should be basically what PEAK 2 looks like. So if you do roll a PEAK 1 that week, the stats are kind of crazy, and if you roll a PEAK 3, the card isn't really playable that week.

[professor ape]

Originally Posted by HondoLane

Interesting idea. For this to work and players to be excited about, I think the PEAK 1 would have to be really, really good, better than most PEAK card stats are at now. The stats as they are now should be basically what PEAK 2 looks like. So if you do roll a PEAK 1 that week, the stats are kind of crazy, and if you roll a PEAK 3, the card isn't really playable that week.

We’re thinking pretty much along the same lines. PEAK 1 are the best of the best, PEAK 2 are on par with the best non-PEAK cards, and PEAK 3 is a step down for that week.The assumption is that top players have a number of PEAK cards later in the cycle so they have to mix and match on a week to week basis to maximize their rosters.

[LeeD]

To keep people guessing, there'd be no need to reveal which PEAK ratings are being used each week. If your Morgan goes through Monday hitting .210, that might be an indication that you got PEAK 3 this time...or maybe he was just unlucky for that stretch and will bounce back.


Some of us who have Hank Aaron hitting .155 so far this week might be tempted to believe this feature already exists. Maybe I've got 1976 Aaron instead of 1966 Aaron .

[professor ape]

Originally Posted by LeeD

To keep people guessing, there'd be no need to reveal which PEAK ratings are being used each week. If your Morgan goes through Monday hitting .210, that might be an indication that you got PEAK 3 this time...or maybe he was just unlucky for that stretch and will bounce back.


Some of us who have Hank Aaron hitting .155 so far this week might be tempted to believe this feature already exists. Maybe I've got 1976 Aaron instead of 1966 Aaron .

That would certainly be an interesting twist but gaming it out, I think it would devalue the PEAK cards too much if you were blind to their ratings while every other card was a known entity. Besides, a primary goal here is to encourage variety in the lineups. If you didn’t have visibility into the ratings then people would either start the week with the meta lineup or they would avoid the PEAK cards as being too risky. I would also want to be fair to those people who may not have as much time to micromanage their teams throughout the week.

[HondoLane]

Originally Posted by LeeD

To keep people guessing, there'd be no need to reveal which PEAK ratings are being used each week. If your Morgan goes through Monday hitting .210, that might be an indication that you got PEAK 3 this time...or maybe he was just unlucky for that stretch and will bounce back.


Some of us who have Hank Aaron hitting .155 so far this week might be tempted to believe this feature already exists. Maybe I've got 1976 Aaron instead of 1966 Aaron .

LOL. Last week in Diamond League Hank Aaron's dominated the leaderboards for every major statistic (like I'm sure it is in most leagues right now) and had 5 Aaron's with 6-8 WAR, and half a dozen with 4-6 WAR - and then you have my Aaron with 1.5 WAR hitting .220 with 22 HR That's just not right.

[LeeD]

Originally Posted by HondoLane

LOL. Last week in Diamond League Hank Aaron's dominated the leaderboards for every major statistic (like I'm sure it is in most leagues right now) and had 5 Aaron's with 6-8 WAR, and half a dozen with 4-6 WAR - and then you have my Aaron with 1.5 WAR hitting .220 with 22 HR That's just not right.

My Aaron was worth 6 WAR last week in Gold, was named to the All-Star team, and finished 3rd in the MVP voting. We also won the Series and got promoted to Diamond. He did manage to get up to the Mendoza line last night, so maybe he'll be alright for 2029.