Hey guys,
Last week NWGameDad commented that the strategy of winning the "double event" quarters (which currently give randomly +7-9 point differential) was a bug and unintended. I was hoping to walk through the way the event works, and ask for your design thoughts on things, and make some suggestions based upon what I think NWGameDad was saying ... although it's possible I misunderstood.
My first guess is that the "double" events were simply meant to be double the 1v1 events, so a +4 point differential instead of +2. As it stands now, if you get +7 as your point differential, and you win only the "double" events, you have a +28 differential for that, and losing the other 12 "event" matchups at -2 point differential each adds up to -24 for a net win of +4 points.
That strategy allows someone with 10 Star Pros to complete the event (but unless they want to sacrifice sleep, they have to buy hot streaks early on or buy game nights, as the final card can only be conquered in +2 via this strategy, unless the Star Pros you have are MVP/HoF/RC level Star Pros).
NWGameDad said that this is a bug and unintended, and a fix would be coming. The only way to fix this that I can think of is to adjust the point differentials. Making the 1v1 events worth +/- 3 points would be really swingy, so I expect the more cautious and easier to control approach is to adjust the point differential of the "double" events. The following scenarios all result in the same change in strategy:
Doubles become +6 = +24 total differential and a -24 total differential for losing the rest of the matchups. So far RttC ties count as wins, so this doesn't change anything.
Doubles become +5 or +4 = +16-20 compared to -24 for losing the rest of the matchups results in a -4 to -8 differential to make up.
If the doubles become +5, then making up -4 requires winning 2 of the 12 other events. In order to guarantee doing this, the player needs to stack three more Star Pros into a position to ensure at least 2 of them show up.
If they become +4, then making up the -8 differential requires winning 3 of the 12 remaining events to get a 2 point win. This will require stacking a third position with 4 Star Pros to ensure that at least 3 are drawn into the match.
Now, here's the problem. As the event was originally implemented it took ten Star Pros to "game" it and end up with a card that wouldn't be anything more than a bench warmer for seasons, wouldn't make a QG/RC lineup, and thus was not really an upgrade reward at all, unless the person can somehow finish in the top-25 in the following RC, which is nearly impossible with the group of "teams" that dominate most of those spots.
So, even as the event currently stands, the people who can get the best card end up with a reward which by definition cannot help them. Changing the event to require 3-4 more Pro Star cards to complete is just going to raise the bar even higher, and make it even less likely that the reward will actually help anyone who can get it (excepting, of course, those people who buy game nights and lose their way to the card ... which for them is a good deal because it costs way less credits than an HoF pack or enough PnP packs to get a Star level PnP reward statistically).
So the first issue, in condensed phrasing:
1.) As originally implemented, the RttC event already requires 10 Star Pros to complete, and also requires hot streaks or lack of sleep. For those without 10 star pros, it requires purchasing game nights to get the cards via 1 loss at a time.
2.) Raising the bar even higher will simply result in the reward being even less meaningful or useful to the players who can obtain it short of loss flopping to it.
Solutions:
1.) Given the already high bar it takes to "game" the event, I am not sure a fix of the "bug" is really necessary. Ten Star Pros is a pretty high bar and the final reward can only be made pro by 25 people or by spending a very significant amount of money on packs at 10,000 credits a pop (for HoF duping with a 1 in 65 chance to dupe per 10k credits) or 2,500 credits per pack (with a very low chance for star, and then a low chance to get the proper star).
Suggestions: Leave the RttC as it is, as it's already a situation where someone has to pay you significant money to make the rewards an upgarade. Additionally, consider expanding the RC dupe card to a larger number of people, perhaps the top 100?
Alternatively, in order to make the final reward actually useful to players who can obtain it, consider adding a duplicate to the end of the event (one more card) which would require a higher point total than getting the first one, which would by necessity require that anyone who wants to get the dupe is going to have to buy game nights.
While a few people might spend a lot of money trying to dupe via packs, the vast majority of us aren't willing to spend that kind of money trying to dupe a card. I do know that I would buy the extra game nights (at 100 credits per 5 and assuming something like 500-600 points to get the dupe card, you would get $50-$200 from people trying to dupe the reward, varying by whether they could win +2 or have to lose their way to it).
This suggestion would be a virtually guaranteed boost in revenue for you guys, and it would make it so that the final reward card(s) for RttC would actually have a spot to get played in the decks of people who are able to actually obtain them.
Anyone else who would like is free to offer other suggestions, but this is the best one I could think of that ensures CD can increase revenue while at the same time actually making the reward something useful to people who can obtain it.
Last week NWGameDad commented that the strategy of winning the "double event" quarters (which currently give randomly +7-9 point differential) was a bug and unintended. I was hoping to walk through the way the event works, and ask for your design thoughts on things, and make some suggestions based upon what I think NWGameDad was saying ... although it's possible I misunderstood.
My first guess is that the "double" events were simply meant to be double the 1v1 events, so a +4 point differential instead of +2. As it stands now, if you get +7 as your point differential, and you win only the "double" events, you have a +28 differential for that, and losing the other 12 "event" matchups at -2 point differential each adds up to -24 for a net win of +4 points.
That strategy allows someone with 10 Star Pros to complete the event (but unless they want to sacrifice sleep, they have to buy hot streaks early on or buy game nights, as the final card can only be conquered in +2 via this strategy, unless the Star Pros you have are MVP/HoF/RC level Star Pros).
NWGameDad said that this is a bug and unintended, and a fix would be coming. The only way to fix this that I can think of is to adjust the point differentials. Making the 1v1 events worth +/- 3 points would be really swingy, so I expect the more cautious and easier to control approach is to adjust the point differential of the "double" events. The following scenarios all result in the same change in strategy:
Doubles become +6 = +24 total differential and a -24 total differential for losing the rest of the matchups. So far RttC ties count as wins, so this doesn't change anything.
Doubles become +5 or +4 = +16-20 compared to -24 for losing the rest of the matchups results in a -4 to -8 differential to make up.
If the doubles become +5, then making up -4 requires winning 2 of the 12 other events. In order to guarantee doing this, the player needs to stack three more Star Pros into a position to ensure at least 2 of them show up.
If they become +4, then making up the -8 differential requires winning 3 of the 12 remaining events to get a 2 point win. This will require stacking a third position with 4 Star Pros to ensure that at least 3 are drawn into the match.
Now, here's the problem. As the event was originally implemented it took ten Star Pros to "game" it and end up with a card that wouldn't be anything more than a bench warmer for seasons, wouldn't make a QG/RC lineup, and thus was not really an upgrade reward at all, unless the person can somehow finish in the top-25 in the following RC, which is nearly impossible with the group of "teams" that dominate most of those spots.
So, even as the event currently stands, the people who can get the best card end up with a reward which by definition cannot help them. Changing the event to require 3-4 more Pro Star cards to complete is just going to raise the bar even higher, and make it even less likely that the reward will actually help anyone who can get it (excepting, of course, those people who buy game nights and lose their way to the card ... which for them is a good deal because it costs way less credits than an HoF pack or enough PnP packs to get a Star level PnP reward statistically).
So the first issue, in condensed phrasing:
1.) As originally implemented, the RttC event already requires 10 Star Pros to complete, and also requires hot streaks or lack of sleep. For those without 10 star pros, it requires purchasing game nights to get the cards via 1 loss at a time.
2.) Raising the bar even higher will simply result in the reward being even less meaningful or useful to the players who can obtain it short of loss flopping to it.
Solutions:
1.) Given the already high bar it takes to "game" the event, I am not sure a fix of the "bug" is really necessary. Ten Star Pros is a pretty high bar and the final reward can only be made pro by 25 people or by spending a very significant amount of money on packs at 10,000 credits a pop (for HoF duping with a 1 in 65 chance to dupe per 10k credits) or 2,500 credits per pack (with a very low chance for star, and then a low chance to get the proper star).
Suggestions: Leave the RttC as it is, as it's already a situation where someone has to pay you significant money to make the rewards an upgarade. Additionally, consider expanding the RC dupe card to a larger number of people, perhaps the top 100?
Alternatively, in order to make the final reward actually useful to players who can obtain it, consider adding a duplicate to the end of the event (one more card) which would require a higher point total than getting the first one, which would by necessity require that anyone who wants to get the dupe is going to have to buy game nights.
While a few people might spend a lot of money trying to dupe via packs, the vast majority of us aren't willing to spend that kind of money trying to dupe a card. I do know that I would buy the extra game nights (at 100 credits per 5 and assuming something like 500-600 points to get the dupe card, you would get $50-$200 from people trying to dupe the reward, varying by whether they could win +2 or have to lose their way to it).
This suggestion would be a virtually guaranteed boost in revenue for you guys, and it would make it so that the final reward card(s) for RttC would actually have a spot to get played in the decks of people who are able to actually obtain them.
Anyone else who would like is free to offer other suggestions, but this is the best one I could think of that ensures CD can increase revenue while at the same time actually making the reward something useful to people who can obtain it.
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