So this is the story of XP so far, as I see it.
Iteration 1
In iteration one of the XP system Oktagon scaled down everyone’s XP and thought we wouldn’t notice. We did. They wanted to create a system where manageably small numbers like level 82 and level 97 existed, but Ludicrously Big Numbers like level 104 and level 98 were out of reach. A scalable system might have been OK if it had been fair, but it wasn’t; players who mastered after the update got more rewards for less work than players who mastered before the update.
Iteration 2
Who knows what problem Oktagon thought they were fixing with iteration two. They bumped up the levels of ‘veteran players’, assuming that they were worried about being overtaken by ‘newbie players’, who had already demonstrated their unwillingness to master cards at all. As you’d expect, the system still meant that veteran players who’d mastered before the update were at a disadvantage compared to veteran players who mastered afterwards.
This iteration took a long time to code because Oktagon had to work out exactly WHICH players to apply the level boost to; they used an arbitrary system which caused themselves a lot of work, and didn’t solve any of the problems the players had laid out for them with iteration 1. What it DID do was make a considerable number of EXTRA players aware that they’d been pulled into an unfair system. There were more complaints, but also, there were many, many suggestions on different ways to fix the problem from players themselves, which, unfortunately, were either ignored completely, or rejected because of the iterations 1’s ‘Ludicrously Big Numbers’ problem.
Iteration 3
At this point Oktagon threw up their hands and said “Fine! We’ll give you exactly what you want!”. The Ludicrously Big Numbers problem vanished, (presumably fixed?) and we all got what Oktagon thought was the correct amount of XP that we’d earned… the only problem being that we didn’t. Presumably misunderstanding their own color mastery system, they approximated everyone’s XP, ending up giving many players far more than they’d earned. Then they gave us all millions of runes and jewels and boosters but took them back quick before too much mayhem occured.
So that’s where we are now. They’ve done loads of work, but never stopped to think about whether any of it was necessary to fix the problem at hand.
Do I want them to do a 4th iteration straight away? Not really. Why, you ask? Is it because I myself am going to do very nicely thankyou off iteration 3 in terms of prizes? Well, I am, but that’s not the reason.
The reason is very simple.. no matter how many times we explain to them what’s wrong with the systems they create, they create another unfair one anyway. I’d happily explain to them exactly what to do… hell, I have already, many times (JUST ADD UP ALL THE XP IN THE CARDS) but they don’t want to engage with any players who understand the system, they just want to tinker with it themselves.
There’s another reason there’s no rush to do it now, as well; all the XP they need to add up to work out everyone’s total XP is still where it was in the first place, stored inside the cards themselves, and they can fix the total XP calculation at any time in the future because of this.