3C2UC1R sounds like a good pack distribution but really I agree... it's about what's in the sets. If you open in packs more C than UC then designers should design more C and fewer UC. Rarity doesn't need to be tied to rune type so much, EXCEPT, I agree that the exotics and legendaries should mostly all by champions for "wow" factor and just attaching good artwork to expensive runes. I think the problem historically has been designing too many high rarity cards, moreso than giving away too many low rarity cards in packs. Look at what MTG did with mythic rares. They found a way to add a new rarity without increasing the expected value on the number of packs a person needs to buy to obtain a full playset. The newer rarity had exactly as many few cards belonging to it, as it was harder to obtain. Something poxnora doesn't seem to do at all.
This si why all my rune ideas I place as UC or C. Of course, one of my biggest complaints is about this sort of stuff is that certain themes are focused one rarity: Firk 3 C 4 UC 8 R 4 Exo 6 Leg That's just one example, and it's kinda nuts. There are ones that go the opposite direction too, though that is much better (because of how the rarity should be spread out).
Keep in mind a good part of this is because players do not want high rarity spells, relics and equipment, so lower rarities have even fewer champion slots because they are taken up this rune types.
I can kinda understand that, but... No, I don't really understand the whole process of choosing what runes get what rarity. I can understand Legendary and Exotic runes very rarely (hehe) being non-champ runes, and Rares being unlikely to be non-champs, but it still often feels very restrictive for some themes when half of the champions you need are Legendary, Exotic, or even Rare. I usually expect that when a new rune is released for one of the more "expensive" themes, that it will be a lower rarity in order to make that theme more available to players with smaller collections. But it usually happens that once a theme is settled even the slightest, almost all of its new runes are Leg/Exo, which is very frustrating at least for me. Why does this seem (at least) to happen?
To be fair, I don't think people are against exotic equips, for example, but every faction should get them at the same time in an expansion. If SL gets an exotic equip in an expansion and everyone else gets an exotic champion, the likelihood of trading that equip for a champion is low. If every faction has exotic equips, trading is easier. BTW, I, for one, think legendary faction shoes, belts, or rings would be amazing for a mid-term release.
There are a few different considerations when choosing rarity and runes in an expansion Slots in the expansion The distribution of rarities for the theme What has been recently released The rune's design What players are asking for The last one is the one that carries a bit more weight than the others, as the higher rarities often have more unique/new abilities, and are usually more complex and often also higher costed. Runes get shuffled around between expansions frequently due to these factors, because it's a bit like a puzzle, especially since most players count by champions, not by all runes. Note too, that, for example, counting simply my race sometimes doesn't necessarily work - for example, in the LEG for Firk, at last 2 of those are not really part of the major theme of the Firk - Psychic. While you can make just a Firk deck too, it has a decidedly different quality than the more predominant Psychic theme deck and there will be other Firk you don't use, so it's a bit more complicated than just going by Race. But generally speaking, due to the ratio of themes vs rarity slots, this is somewhat inevitable as we expand the newer themes and try to develop them faster. First, keep in mind that lower rarities and older runes often have the older races/themes - for example, there is a ton of Common Elves - but people complain if you make too many Elf, particularly if they are exotic/legendaries. So for example, let's say we are building a new expansion and want to make some cool stuff for the Firk, and keeping in mind that lower rarities are more "generic" or "grunt" champions typically. So it might look like: C - Firk C - Salaman UC - Snaptooth R - Snaptooth Exotic - Firk Legendary - Boghopper No distribution here is not going to add a couple of higher rarity runes to some themes, especially if we are avoiding some well developed ones.
That MAY be true, but the feedback at the time during Maljaran Frontier when we tried it and other times when it was discussed is simply that getting an EXO in your slot feels like a ripoff - it HAS the border, but it doesn't FEEL like you got lucky - it felt like you got ripped of instead.
Yeah, like Endless Wonder. Some factions got exotic spells and others got exotic champions, if you bought a box and got an exotic spell as your guaranteed exo, you had a hard time trading it because everyone wanted the champions. If every exotic were a spell/relic/equip, with no exotic champions for that release, it might be viewed as a positive (or at least not negatively). Who knows though?
My impression was that it wasn't about trading but I could be wrong - and certainly value is related to trading so you might be right.
Interesting. Ok, so, now I have a new question: If I take a newer expansion at random, say, Visions of Amareth, and look at the distribution of runes, this is what I get: C - 8 UC - 16 R - 16 Exo - 8 Leg - 8 That, to me, seems really strange. At least in comparison to rarity. I get that there needs to be at least 8 in each rarity slot for each expansion (one for each faction), but I would also expect Commons to have a LOT more variety in what you get than higher rarities. In this case, there's only one C for each faction, versus 2 UC and 2 R for each faction. Now, my normal idea of rarity is this: Lower rarities will be simpler, easier to get, and a larger variety in terms of raw quantity. Higher rarities will be more complex, harder to get, but have a smaller pool in terms of quantity. It seems that PoxNora does it more like this: Lower rarities will be simpler, easier to get, and the pool to draw from will be reflective of the variety of low quality and/or low skill real world analogies. Higher rarities will be more complex, harder to get, and the pool to draw from will be reflective of the variety of high quality and/or low skill real world analogies. Essentially that PoxNora's rarity system is less like, MTG/Pokemon/YuGiOh, and more like how the real world functions in terms of careers you can choose from.
You happen to pick the expansion where we did something weird. In Visions, we took some of the slots normally for Commons and made reskins like Len the Weird Uncle, and gave those out, IIRC, with every pack. Spirits Beyond, for example is: 16 C 16 UC 8 R 8 EX
So there is a real chance that trading will go? Should i start finalizing my collection so i have everything 2x? And while doing so getting rid of all the doubles at a bad conversion rate? Or just wait? Please give us time to react before you patch in the new system. Btw. if you ask me. Just start over 100 runes per faction will be waaaay healtier for the game than what we have now.
As far as I've read, trading isn't going anywhere for PC players. PS players won't have the ability to trade.
I've read through this thread and the announcement, but nowhere can I see an ETA when pox is released on playstation and thus this change is implemented. Can someone who knows help me?
Hey Sokolov, As a new player, thought I would pass along some feedback regarding the new pricing model. Commons are valuable to me because they allow me to have strategic input into my deck design. I know once I get enough runes, and the commons start to repeat and pile up, this becomes moot. However, as a new player, the quantity of runes is actually more important than the quality. When I started out days ago, I bought a box and a bunch of packs and I still couldn't piece together a deck. I just didn't have enough runes. I then had to pick up a theme deck for another $25 bones. I'm now in an ok spot to have some fun, but it has been an investment. The current pricing model gets me 10 cards for 200. With the new system, I get 5 cards for 150. For the veterans, this new model is good because it focuses on rune quality and helps ease the bloat of commons you guys are probably hit with. But for new players, it makes the game more expensive to get into. Or maybe there are other deck purchase options to ease this? Speaking of which.. with the frequency of commons being reduced in pack/boxes going forward, and since their are a whack of them already in the existing sets, maybe it would be good to have a 'newbie box set' available for purchase - it would contain just a boatload of commons. Faction specific and cheap so newbs like me can get into the game easier. All the best, and I hope you guys continue with your success. Such a great game.
Just starting out your probably best to focus on just one faction. If you bought a box you should have enough commons-rares of other factions to sacrifice in the rune forge to get whatever commons - uncommons you need of whatever you want to play to build a bg. Exos and Legendaries will take more time to acquire the shards for but hopefully the theme bg you bought will give you a decent baseline to build off of. The new packs are supposed to have an option to narrow the rune range down a bit. I can't remember if they're kicking around the idea of faction specific packs or just wrath and protectorate packs, but hopefully that will also help some in this regard. Also if you ask in the faction specific forums if anyone has spare commons/uncommons to trade you'll probably have find some vet players that would be willing to help you out. Anyway welcome to poxnora!
