The disconnect between a cards rarity and desirability.

(PixelTwitch) #1

I have recently mentioned my concerns with having a loadout cards rarity linked with the weapons and augments. However I struggled to be able to explain why this was the case in clear and simple terms. After thinking about it a little more deeply I believe I can…

I was looking to deeply into the mechanical reasons instead of emotional responses!
Emotionally there are two possible outcomes when it comes to rarity being linked to weapons/augments.

  1. High rarity cards are literally better as you go up the scale. This would ensure that rare cards are desired while becoming frustrating and/or even unfair to people that do not have the cards.

  2. There will be a disconnect between power and rarity that means common cards would be more desirable then the epics. This would in turn result in two possible issues…

[ol]
[li]You entice people to use an none optimal card though rarity.
[/li][li]You reduce the impact/desire of collecting epics altogether.
[/li][/ol]

I know that certain developers will be wanting to strangle me right now because this is only a problem if the cards are not balanced well. You know what? They are correct… The problem is that Pure Balance and Perceived Balance are two completely different things and I have yet to find any game to have managed to have both Pure and Perceived Balance working together in harmony. One thing a lot of people fail to try and understand or account for is that overbalancing can actually have a negative effect on fun and diversity.

Now, I have to try and be as fair as possible here…
There is at least one decent choice that was introduced in this batch of cards. That choice is Default Stoker and Legendary Stoker! Both options are mostly balanced and offer a rather large difference in the way you play. However there are still far too many examples (the vast majority of cards) that offer little in terms of variation or desirability when it comes to more rare cards.

This is where Valves Stat Track concept really added value and desirability without effecting pure or perceived balance where somebody’s artistic taste was not aligned with a skins rarity.

TL:DR: Rarity alone will not be enough to add value even if the cards are both balanced purely and in terms of perspective. Attempting to artificially to create rarity using components that do effect gameplay will only serve to mislead players into playing none optimal loadouts or even worse, completely devalue the system completely.

TL:DR 2: Rarity should be decided based on cosmetics and features, NOT weapons and augments.

(Rokkamaisteri) #2

So you’re suggesting a system where basically all variations from same merc is relatively easy to get. But if you want certain variation from same merc with cooler equipment and other visuals, you need to test your luck?

(PixelTwitch) #3

Basically have common and epic versions of most loadouts.
Have the epicness decided by skins and additional features such as name customisation, stats tracking and shiny status.

(tokamak) #4

The number of mercs will increase.

A proper system would make it easy to obtain 2 or 3 mercs augmented exactly in the way they want it. The difficulty of customising every other merc however quickly ramps up. It takes a really hardcore player to have 7 precisely fine tuned mercs without paying for it. To have all the mercs as well as having them completely fine-tuned should be left to players who have 24/7 to play as well as as an enormous amount of money to spend on the game.

In other words, people pay/work for diversity and customisation. Not for power. If you have three mercs excellently customised then you got exactly what you’re entitled to as a casual player who doesn’t pay.

Now the catch in this system is that people don’t get to freely chose their first three mercs. That’s a problem for the ‘not pay2win’ argument. Mercs that are further down the levelling tree should be just as easily customisable provided the player is willing to stay in that ‘three easy merc’ limit.

The way to do this is to ‘recycle’ a fully augmented merc entirely (completely wiping all the acquired items for that merc) and transfer that recylce token to the new merc allowing for a free card for that merc of your choice.

In order to repeat this step, all the cards for a particular merc have to be acquired again.

This system allows for one player who has obtained all the mercs and fully decked out 3 of them, to still obtain free customisation of any other 3 mercs, provided he’s willing to sacrifice his initial ones.

I hope this makes sense. Maybe I should draw this.

(Rokkamaisteri) #5

I don’t believe tokamak, your system being entirely perfect. With that system F2P player doesn’t really feel encouraged to commit time for the game and for paying player, there’s lack of that “gimmick” for purchasing items. Word “choose” doesn’t fit in the current system for entirely F2P players.
However I believe players should be allowed to discard cards they don’t want for want for new card, with however adding variables that limits from which pool you get your new card.
Let’s say if you discard 3 Fire Support cards, you’re granted to get new random Fire Support card, with random rarity. If you discard 3 Stokers of common rarity ie. you’re granted to get new Stoker with same or better rarity. If you discard 3 random cards, you’re granted new entirely random card.
System like that allows options for F2P players, but keep them in their toes and keeps players more tempted to buy keys and open crates for new cards.