PT Combinator

[diamondgirl]

Can someone explain to me in simple terms why I would trade in 2000 cards to upgrade 1 card?

That seems a little... silly

[Magus978]

I feel like the system was supposed to incentivize keeping your duplicates in the event that they qualify to be used for combinators. Did that with my gold Tommy John, and managed to fail with a 78% chance. That kinda' sucked and I haven't tried since, especially as I don't play gold tournaments and he no longer makes my main roster.

[diamondgirl]

Originally Posted by Magus978

I feel like the system was supposed to incentivize keeping your duplicates in the event that they qualify to be used for combinators. Did that with my gold Tommy John, and managed to fail with a 78% chance. That kinda' sucked and I haven't tried since, especially as I don't play gold tournaments and he no longer makes my main roster.

Ya, I pretty much keep every duplicate aside from Lives since I feel they'll be in a mission or something eventually.

But ya, odds are odds. Might throw down 2200 cards and fail with 99% chance.

Not even sure how I'd make it better.

Is it worth it? What if yours worked out? Would it be a game-changer?

[Magus978]

Originally Posted by diamondgirl

Ya, I pretty much keep every duplicate aside from Lives since I feel they'll be in a mission or something eventually.

But ya, odds are odds. Might throw down 2200 cards and fail with 99% chance.

Not even sure how I'd make it better.

Is it worth it? What if yours worked out? Would it be a game-changer?

At this point, no. I think even if I went all the way to level 5 with him, it would not make my roster even in a bullpen role...and it would not compel me enough to try playing gold tournaments. My bread and butter is in silver, especially after Saturday.

[diamondgirl]

Originally Posted by Magus978

At this point, no. I think even if I went all the way to level 5 with him, it would not make my roster even in a bullpen role...and it would not compel me enough to try playing gold tournaments. My bread and butter is in silver, especially after Saturday.

Ok so maybe maybe the advantage is that the card never upgrades overall. So it could be like a Gold card playing in your silver lineup?

[Magus978]

Originally Posted by diamondgirl

Ok so maybe maybe the advantage is that the card never upgrades overall. So it could be like a Gold card playing in your silver lineup?

That would be the case for silver combinators. I could not play Tommy John in silver tournaments, as he is a gold.

I do have a few silver combinators (Craig Stammen and Les Fleming) that I could try to upgrade to see if they would be more useful. I just feel I have better options than either of those in the silver formats I play right now.

[HRBaker]

So far it's like casino gambling. If you manage to "win" with the right card, it could make a difference - however - I almost have to believe they have bigger plans for the cards later, else they really are no different than any other card.

[DotDash]

For anyone actually interested in upgrading these cards, please be aware that the chance of success does not increase linearly from 0% to 100% based on how many points (cards) you invest.
It seems like (based on Iron cards only) for the first level of upgrade, there is a cutoff point at 45% success chance where each additional point invested in the upgrade attempt adds less to the upgrade chance.
Example:

I have an Iron Combinator card at upgrade level 0, which I want to get to level 1. The first 110 points give 10.26% chance of success (0.093% per invested point.) 468 points give a 43.63% chance, so still 0.093% per point.
More than doubling the card investment to 1034 points, only gives 66,83% chance of success, which means you are now getting 0.064% chance of success for each invested point. This keeps dropping until you eventually reach the 100% chance figure.

To complicate it further, when trying to upgrade a card to L2, there seems to be a bell curve, where the first points give the highest returns, then it dips, only to increase again somewhere between the 40% and 50% chance mark.

In both cases, it's more efficient (% for invested points) to take a number of lower level gambles, before the ROI starts dropping, than to invest the points for a 100% guaranteed upgrade.
I'm not a big fan of this layer of obfuscation (it doesn't state that the chance doesn't increase linearly) to what is basically another 'gatcha' element in the game.

Edit: it gets worse. I have a level 3 card. Investing more than half of the required points only gives 21% chance of success, so you're basically forced to invest the 100% chance amount. Why even still have a gambling element at this level, if four 20% gambles cost you more than twice the guaranteed upgrade? It's baffling.

[LeeD]

I've done enough tutoring over the years to realize that the average person has a very poor grasp of probabilities.

[diamondgirl]

Originally Posted by LeeD

I've done enough tutoring over the years to realize that the average person has a very poor grasp of probabilities.

Thanks so much for your input, greatly appreciated.

[vapodge]

diamondgirl, I don't believe LeeD was being snarky, certainly not to you. I read it as them seconding what DotDash had said.

[Ty Cobb]

LeeD shoots! He scooooooooodores!!!

[Stephen_Romine]

These cards are an attempt to do something different with cards in the game. It is poorly implemented, and is not worth even trying to advance the cards IMO.

[LansdowneSt]

For those here, what would you do? More frequent Combinator drop rates? I think if you get the right card, the other combi cards you have (but don't play) could feed into it nicely. So even the ones you don't boost because you have better regular cards have value for when the right one comes along. I don't know that frequency is the issue.

Or is it the upgrade cost that you think is too steep? If the grade isn't steep enough, the tournaments would be already awash in them. Seems a tough balance to strike.

Also, it's like April 12th, so to be fair, our experience with the cards is just beginning as is their chance to have feedback and see card usage across the entire user base.

[Tinkerman]

Is it okay to upgrade a combinator while it is currently in action in tournaments? Can it cause any roster problems?

I've collected roughly a gazillion irons ('cause the premium bronzes have just been included in missions) and I'm ready to 'risk it' with a 100% spin. But I don't want to trash the daily that I'm in, or any others in the future.

[HRBaker]

The problem is we're running blind on this one. Little definition of their purpose, and no clear advantages. I can't help but think (at the moment) that they are trying to find another way to invest our time and money, but this one just doesn't make much sense (yet?).

In general, I like the idea of improving a card, but the way things lay out so far, the usual release of better cards as time progresses is a much better chance to improve your roster than implementing Combinators.

Unless, of course, the Combinators are ONLY useful for tournaments - but then your stripping your collection of cards for future missions to take advantage of that. Ugh.

[diamondgirl]

Originally Posted by LansdowneSt

For those here, what would you do? More frequent Combinator drop rates? I think if you get the right card, the other combi cards you have (but don't play) could feed into it nicely. So even the ones you don't boost because you have better regular cards have value for when the right one comes along. I don't know that frequency is the issue.

Or is it the upgrade cost that you think is too steep? If the grade isn't steep enough, the tournaments would be already awash in them. Seems a tough balance to strike.

Also, it's like April 12th, so to be fair, our experience with the cards is just beginning as is their chance to have feedback and see card usage across the entire user base.

To me its 100% the assets required to upgrade. I don't want to lose valuable cards. But it will take me literally 2500 weaker cards to guarantee am upgrade - No, I'm not down for gambling that much.

Lower that level. Find a few teammates and upgrade without losing everyone. However If they're all teammates anyway, their chemistry is the win.

[diamondgirl]

Originally Posted by HRBaker

The problem is we're running blind on this one. Little definition of their purpose, and no clear advantages. I can't help but think (at the moment) that they are trying to find another way to invest our time and money, but this one just doesn't make much sense (yet?).

In general, I like the idea of improving a card, but the way things lay out so far, the usual release of better cards as time progresses is a much better chance to improve your roster than implementing Combinators.

Unless, of course, the Combinators are ONLY useful for tournaments - but then your stripping your collection of cards for future missions to take advantage of that. Ugh.

It is the stripping of the cards that I find so silly. I know there's better combos to setup (if I want to give up more valuable cards) but seeing that it takes literally 2000+ cards to guarantee an upgrade? crazy.

2400 cards for me is 99%. I KNOW i will hit that 1%.

[Kushiel]

Tournament team possibilities seems to be the top argument that is trying to be used in favor of them. Okay. So, a select few can finance the sheer number of cards needed to make one competitor significantly better than the next. It becomes like an atomic arms race over the season as to who has the most combinators on their team. Hundreds of thousands of cards go poof in the quest to be best at each level.

I see little need to waste brain power on whether they may lead to something wonderful. Combinators are about the Benjamins in my unofficial opinion.

[diamondgirl]

Originally Posted by Kushiel

Tournament team possibilities seems to be the top argument that is trying to be used in favor of them. Okay. So, a select few can finance the sheer number of cards needed to make one competitor significantly better than the next. It becomes like an atomic arms race over the season as to who has the most combinators on their team. Hundreds of thousands of cards go poof in the quest to be best at each level.

I see little need to waste brain power on whether they may lead to something wonderful. Combinators are about the Benjamins in my unofficial opinion.

$ Cash Rules Everything Around Me $
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