Let's Kiss and Make Up

Magic: The Gathering - Puzzle Quest MtGPQ General Discussion
1

I am confident we are not going to scrap the patch and go back to the old system.

I am also confident that many players have already quit, many more have vowed to never spend another dime, while others are merely disheartened and annoyed at the direction of the game.

So how can we fix this?

  1. Increase the jewel distribution. Going from 1 mythic (400 jewels) to roughly 1/13th of a mythic (30 jewels) for top 5 is an absolute joke. Then you reduced the cards from a fat pack (20) to a booster (5). Oh and you gouged the crystals from 100 to 30. Other tiers were also brutally nerfed. Why such harsh nerfs?

Solution - Make competing worth our time. Give all players who tie for first a mythic, give 2nd through 5th 100 jewels, top 25 50 jewels, etc. Jewels are not as valuable as you guys seem to think. There are no cards in the masterpiece collection better than Olivia, Pig, or Deploy. Stop acting like these are god cards. If I am going to spend lots of my valuable time playing a game and competing to win, I expect better than 1/13th of a mythic if I actually win. Don’t ostracize the top players in the community as a way of leveling the playing field, or whatever this hairbrain scheme is. Make everyone have better access to better cards, not reduce everyone’s enjoyment by reducing the joys of opening packs.

  1. Rescale the progression rewards to make them worth our time. Most people I know aren’t willing to spend 60 crystals for a booster and 15 jewels. 27 days of grinding for a hope and a prayer of not a dupe? No thanks.

Solution - Either reduce the cost of gathering crystals or increase the outlay of jewels. (Or both).

  1. Elite packs are not nearly as elite as the developers tend to think. Sure their are some really strong cards, but they are not out of this world powerful. In fact, about half of them are not even playable by most players (Looking at you Lightning Greeves and Ornithopter).

Solution - Make elite packs worth the elite pricetag. This is still contingent on the first rescale of prizes. If I get top 5 in 4 individual events, I think I deserve a decent prize. If I have grinded out for 2 months in gold to get an elite pack, I deserve a decent prize. I certainly don’t think a dupe Yaheeni or Whale is a decent prize. Guarantee a non-dupe, or at the very least make it less likely by allowing us to re-roll the prize 1-2 times if we want to try for a different card.

  1. Communicate with the community. Notice the same root word of these two words? Why would you drop a hugely unpopular patch on us and then give us radio silence for the next 5 days? Why would you not consider that the community might have some good ideas on how to enhance the game experience at all times?

Solution - COMMUNICATE WITH US!
-IF the reason the currency was devalued is that the drop rates have improved, and the net return should be superior to players, than tell us that! In fact, give us the drop rate information so we don’t have to question its validity, or wake up at crazy hours with the latest crackbrained scheme of how seeding of cards works.
-IF you wanted to even the playing field so newer players had a prayer of competing, then tell us that and let us help you with solutions. Nerfing certain cards, reducing mythic distribution just to those who get first place in individual events, creating set restrictions for contest, giving more access to cards early, all lead to better outcomes for both D3 and the player base.

We love this game… why are you doing everything you can to push us away?

Anyway, until we get some fixes to this brutal patch.

Not. Another. Dime.

2

I am already on the verge of giving up on D3H.
There are other better games out there. Why should I continue to spend on this game when I don’t get to enjoy it anymore?

Just encountered a bug with Baral’s expertise today. Gotta say that’s one of the things that pissed me off further.
It’s a game that has not been well-polished enough and we have to pay to support it?
And it seems that we had to pay to experience content too.

No matter how I see it, we’re on the losing end as the customer. They don’t listen to us. Our feedback have not been fruitful.
We’re just wasting time. We’re like cash cows to them. What’s the value of staying in this game?
At least with the amount of money we spend here, we can get a lot more value elsewhere.
The grass should be greener there for cash cows like us.

3

Let me shed some light on the calculations that I feel led to this. Remember when people were asking to share the top prize due to ties? Can’t tear a mythic and split it 20 ways so…

They split the bracket into 3/6.

So for the weekend event with 500 man brackets, we now have 30 top 5 winners. The weekday events will have 15 top 5 winners if the patch notes are accurate about 1000 man events.

How does that skew the calculations?

Before, every 3k people were awarded 5 mythics. Now, for every 3k on a weekend we have (using your figures) 651/13 = slightly over 2 mythics distributed in the top 5. Still less, but that’s because the gains are now spread more evenly, and other brackets take up the remaining equity.

You can work out the rest yourself. Basically the change is that the prizes are no longer skewed extremely to the long tail. It’s not a penalty. It’s a reversion to mean. They finally figured out how to do what should have been done in the first place.

Tldr : your mythic value for top 5 placement went from 1 to about 1/2 or 1/4 depending on event.

4

Any good recommendations on games? Preferably something where the community aspect is good and I can play it on my phone.

5

I recently started playing Sword art online : memory defrag which is a rpg type game with multi-player co-op optional. It implements a lot of small things I wish mtgpq did such as resume on crash and fast loading.

I don’t play it anywhere as much as mtgpq, but would recommend it to anyone as a fun distraction. Being a fan of sword art online obviously helps a lot.

6

Someone mentioned fire emblem… that got my attention. Im a huge fan of that series

7

So your saying a 60% reduction in total mythics + 75% reduction in cards from packs + 70% reduction in crystals for individuals.. AND..
92% reduction in mythics + 15% reduction in cards from packs + 70% reduction in crystals for top 10 coalitions are perfectly acceptable because somehow communism is alive and well in the gaming community?

Do we all get a participation trophy as well?

Anyway, even if that is a valid method to spread the wealth around, why in the world would they not communicate this with us? I for one would say, not no but hell no! I would rather a CHANCE at a good card than a substantially better chance at some watered down garbage prize that won’t even get my heartrate up.

As an aside, I have 70 mythics. That’s a lot, but not compared to most people that played as long as I have. Yet, I won Dynavolt, Aetherworks Marvel, and Planar Bridge in platinum. (And SR with only about 10 mythics) Skill in building decks, timing of cards, probability of gem drops, good defense techniques on the board and with cards, etc make a big deal in this game. It is not a game of whoever has the best cards or the most mythics wins. Thus, abolishing exciting rewards for top players will not make lesser players have a better chance of competing.

Well, I guess if we all quit than that could help their chances.

8

how about scrapping the whole jewel idea and bring back crystal rewards and just charge 2-3k manacrystal.png
for masterpiece pack?

9

Works for me losdominos. But honestly, I don’t think jewels are going away. They put too much into it. Trying to think how they can patch this up now that we are all neck deep in it.

10

Wowowow 2-3k for Masterpiece cards? In my opinion the masterpiece cards are at most slightly better than the best of the normal mythics. Actually at the moment I am even more interested in these normal mythics than masterpiece cards and would never pay more for them as I do not see them as more valuable. They are straightforward and might seem strong at first, but they work with brute force which will not stand against cleverly built decks.
(This might be a risky estimation since I have not played any of them myself.)

11

Hey… 'member when we were complaining that only top players got the most powerful cards in a set?

ooo I 'member!

I’m sure winning these cards had NOTHING to do with being able to place higher in other events and maintain your advantage later.

Sorry to say, but the system was broken, and it was evidenced by continually seeing the same people at the top of every leader board every day in every event. Yes, there is some skill involved, but there’s also the access to certain powerful cards, and a larger variety to chose from when creating strategies which helps out immensely. Eliminating the mythic rare card as a reward for the less than 1% of players who were getting them doesn’t hurt you as much as it helps everyone else, since the vast majority of us aren’t playing with the same collection of options as you are. As someone else also in platinum, I can say I have only about half the number of mythic rare cards as you, and while I agree they aren’t the singular determinant of ability to perform in events, they do make a huge difference. You can say “just get better at building decks” but when you’re paired off against some kind of Deploy the Olivia strategy, there’s really only so much you can expect a player to realistically do. There’s absolutely a lopsided power issue in the game so far, and unlike in physical magic where giving these awards is fine as there’s a continuous singles market out there, in this game there isn’t, and reducing the awards at the top is one way to make matches and the game in general more equitable for everyone.

12

Well, AWM is good in the PvE events. Dynavolt is a solid card, not game breaking. Planar Bridge is total garbage. Not sure how those cards help me stay on top. You could have bought Olivia. I did. Deploy is a great card I do have. They should balance it so its not so broken. That’s on D3, not me.

Anyway, the point is kind of silly. Do top raiding guilds in World of Warcraft get the best gear and thus have an advantage in PvP contests? Yes! Does Blizzard remove good rewards and take an, “Everyone gets a trophy approach” to appease newer and less skilled players? Of course not. Do these players get on the forums and whine about it? Of course.

I know players that have played for just 2-3 months with more mythics than I have in over a year. Regardless, this patch was a brutal nerf to all players. It also reduced the excitement and fun of reaching the “end game”. What incentivizes me with my collection to engage in EmO today? If I beat 499 other people I get 60 crystals and a booster (oh and a almost certainly dupe rare). I guess this can fund my buy in so that I can earn 1/26th of a mythic in the planar challenge. Give me a break.

13

I encourage everyone to boycott spending money and dropping crystals until prices are reversed and Trials is player friendly.

If you are boycotting, make it public.

This game is good. We’ve all tried other games and they are ugly next to this.

I believe we’ll get what we want, but make your protest known.

14

Think step by step. Winning Dynavolt Tower helps to meet “energize x or more” gems on the red and green nodes prior to Chandra and Nissa being released, ditto Aetherworks Marvel which gives an EXCLUSIVE leg up on every subsequent later event meaning you continued, by that advantage to place higher than those who didn’t get it.

Also, while I’ve never played World of Warcraft to understand the comparison entirely, I would assume that if it’s like Final Fantasy XIV, raid gear isn’t a finite resource. Anyone who clears the raids has the potential to get gear, making the comparison you made invalid. Having the right exclusive cards makes it easier to get the next exclusive card, and snowballs from there.

Also your comment assumes I was playing when Olivia was offered for real money. What’s your response to someone who wasn’t? I opened up a lot of packs and bought all the mythic card packs trying to get her considering I missed her and don’t yet have her. I bought packs trying to get Eldritch Moon mythics and never pulled Deploy. I’ve lacked key cards the whole time and never placed high enough to get free mythics.

I’m not complaining about my own performance, but I will say the reward balance was, before this update, incredibly lopsided, and while there are other changes I dislike, this one balance seems more fair.

15

As stated before you are under the incorrect assumption that more mythics equals better play. It was like that in games like WOW where a 100 point shield is better than a 90 point shield.
You are also assuming that every mythic pulled from an event reward is a usefull one (either the card or not being a dupe.

Both are untrue. for one, we have several players in our top 10 coalition who lack all the big bad mythics, wether it be olivia, ulrich or behold the beyond. And yes they play top 10 and play just as well.

You do not need a mythic filled deck to kill Tezz for instance. You need a smart deck. And maybe some help from more experienced players in your coalition.

my point is that Mythics don’t’make a top 10 player, but they are the carrot for a top 10 player.

The jewels give more casual players an opportunity to draw guaranteed mythics over time, and that is a good thing. it gives those players something to strive for and to draw new content and have fun with a shiny new card.

Saying the top 10 coalitions dont deserve a mythic for a reward because it supposedly sets them apart because other don’t’get the same reward is “crab in the bucket” mentality.

This is a competetive environment, just like tennis. Do you hear players complain about the winners getting prize money making their life easier?

in closing: Jewels good, getting rid of mythic rewards, bad.

16

Gotta point out that this

You are also assuming that every mythic pulled from an event reward is a usefull one (either the card or not being a dupe.

Is a horrible argument to make.

When normal players pull mythics, they suffer from the exact same rng whims as what you’re describing. It’s just basic math that the more mythics you open, the higher your chances of a great one is.

Saying it’s not an advantage because the rewards sometimes give bad mythics or dupes is like saying your car isn’t faster than my bicycle because we both have to stop at red lights.

17

I am going to drag this back on topic.

We have interviewed lots of players in Goblinpile and the first question we ask them is why they want to join? Virtually every person says “We want to be in the top guild, engage other top tier players to share ideas, and win mythics.” If you don’t care about rewards and new cards that are earned in some way other than pure luck, then go play candy crush or something.

Our various slack channels have gone from about 800 posts per day to about 200 since the firestorm over the patch died down. Most of the remaining talk is complaining about the patch or talking about new games they are trying out. No one even bothered tracking QB yesterday.

If the point was to deflate and depress the most dedicated and successful player base, then mission accomplished.

If that’s not what you want: Give us the ability to earn good cards when we manage to navigate RNG and win an event. (60 crystals is not a top prize… that’s a buy in)
Explain the new pricing system and how we are better off with actual math
Communicate with us better than sending everyone’s favorite fall boy (Brigby) out at the end of the day to inform us it will take weeks to respond.

18

I feel like you either didn’t read or didn’t digest my point, so allow me to elaborate.

Winning Dynavolt Tower early on meant every time the Inventor’s Fair event came around, you got a distinct advantage over the rest of us considering it was one of the best energize cards for red. Most the rest of us were stuck with the decision of playing sub-par deck in order to meet energize objectives, or foregoing the objective in order to win the match. If we chose not to energize we lost two ribbons per match, ensuring that placement would be low, if we went for energy, we risked losing the entire match, agains lowering placement. Yes there were ways to do it without Dynavolt Tower, but not many, and it was worse for those who also didn’t have Saheeli. So it snowballs from there, winning that card meant winning more cards from other events, which means a larger collection of cards and more likelihood of ability to win and complete later objectives. This is not because the card was mythic rare, but because it was an exclusive advantage offered to those who already had to cards to place well to continue to allow them to place well in the future, the fact that it was mythic rare just made it even harder to get for the rest of us once Aether Revolt launched and it lost some of its relevance.

Additionally, I’ll reiterate, I. never. played. World of Warcraft, so the comparison is somewhat lost on me. However, as I also mentioned, I have played Final Fantasy XIV (also an online MMO if you weren’t aware) and understand that just because something is harder to get, doesn’t make it better, but additionally, those items that are hard to get are, generally better than those that are easy to get. But even then, the comparison doesn’t really hold up, because unless WoW operates differently than FFXIV, raid gear isn’t a finite resource. Just because you have it doesn’t mean someone else can not. The rewards in Puzzle Quest aren’t exactly finite, but many are for the timespan of their greatest relevance. The entire time that Saheeli, Dynavolt Tower, and Aetherworks Marvel were most relevant were during the times that they were placement rewards exclusively. It’s not as though if I went out after the fact and did enough work I could get it too.

I will still state that I don’t think that handing out mythics like candy to the same players over and over is good for the game overall. It’s created the situation I attempted to describe above wherein those who have already will continue to get, and those who don’t have will always trail behind and struggle. Yes it’s possible for someone to break out of the cycle and rise up, but I think the leader boards of basically every event will prove that such occurrences are rare. Ultimately while there’s a little skill involved with regard to match making, this is a game that rewards you for having the most powerful cards in your deck, many of which are gated away behind mythic rare status.

19

I feel like you either didn’t read or didn’t digest my point, so allow me to elaborate.

Winning Dynavolt Tower early on meant every time the Inventor’s Fair event came around, you got a distinct advantage over the rest of us considering it was one of the best energize cards for red. Most the rest of us were stuck with the decision of playing sub-par deck in order to meet energize objectives, or foregoing the objective in order to win the match. If we chose not to energize we lost two ribbons per match, ensuring that placement would be low, if we went for energy, we risked losing the entire match, agains lowering placement. Yes there were ways to do it without Dynavolt Tower, but not many, and it was worse for those who also didn’t have Saheeli. So it snowballs from there, winning that card meant winning more cards from other events, which means a larger collection of cards and more likelihood of ability to win and complete later objectives. This is not because the card was mythic rare, but because it was an exclusive advantage offered to those who already had to cards to place well to continue to allow them to place well in the future, the fact that it was mythic rare just made it even harder to get for the rest of us once Aether Revolt launched and it lost some of its relevance.

Additionally, I’ll reiterate, I. never. played. World of Warcraft, so the comparison is somewhat lost on me. However, as I also mentioned, I have played Final Fantasy XIV (also an online MMO if you weren’t aware) and understand that just because something is harder to get, doesn’t make it better, but additionally, those items that are hard to get are, generally better than those that are easy to get. But even then, the comparison doesn’t really hold up, because unless WoW operates differently than FFXIV, raid gear isn’t a finite resource. Just because you have it doesn’t mean someone else can not. The rewards in Puzzle Quest aren’t exactly finite, but many are for the timespan of their greatest relevance. The entire time that Saheeli, Dynavolt Tower, and Aetherworks Marvel were most relevant were during the times that they were placement rewards exclusively. It’s not as though if I went out after the fact and did enough work I could get it too.

I will still state that I don’t think that handing out mythics like candy to the same players over and over is good for the game overall. It’s created the situation I attempted to describe above wherein those who have already will continue to get, and those who don’t have will always trail behind and struggle. Yes it’s possible for someone to break out of the cycle and rise up, but I think the leader boards of basically every event will prove that such occurrences are rare. Ultimately while there’s a little skill involved with regard to match making, this is a game that rewards you for having the most powerful cards in your deck, many of which are gated away behind mythic rare status.

I didn’t respond to your post.. someone else did. Anyway, I agree that dynavolt gave me an advantage in subsequent IF challenges. But we never talked about removing the mythic rewards from IF.. we were talking about coalition and individual mythics for weekly contests. Do you want them to remove Rishkars Expertise from the likely IF rewards? They probably will… guess this game is really turning out for the better for you. Enjoy playing it alone.

20

I made another suggestion that a week or two after these cards are awarded as placement rewards they ought to be the ones people then can purchase for real money, especially in light of how much of an advantage in later events people who got those cards had. However, if the top players are going to leave the game because they’re not getting extra rewards anymore, I can’t stop you from leaving, but I won’t lament it either.