Gold could pay for drafts not including the most recent set. Tickets could pay for drafts including the most recent set.
Imagine a draft type going in a cycle every week or 2. Example. Maljara Draft: 1x Maljaran Frontier, 1x Heroes of Maljara and 1x Maljaran War.
Here's a possible Plan B. It is supposed to preserve the part that makes playing the game easier for new and returning players, while also preserving the incentive to buy new Runes. For that, we need to change the reward. Instead playing for Runes, you would play for rank (and before you stop reading now, I know that the main objection to this sort of idea is that it potentially splits the playerbase; I am aware of that but still think you should read on!). In addition to the already existing Standard League, we add a new Limited Format Leage. Sooo, here is the system: We take the 2v2 League and remake it as Limited League. There are several Limited League Subtypes; the Subtype tells you which decks are allowed and which aren't. This Subtype changes once* a day. The Subtypes are pretty much the same as in the OP: Constructed Expansion X,Y,Z only Circus Faction X,Y,Z only Champions of Race X,Y,Z only (Theme) FF and Commons only FF and Uncommons only FF and Rares only Sealed All Expansions Expansion X,Y,Z only Exotic only Legendary Limited only All Champions of Race X,Y,Z only (Theme) Except that whenever the Subtype is Sealed, all players receive a random set of untradeable Runes of the Sealed Subsubtype (okay, I'll stop), from which they may build a Battlegroup which can be used in the Limited League. Maybe we could even have Pseudo-Drafts (oh, how cool would that be?), where each player can draft from a set of 30 packs to assemble a BG. Here some example week: On Monday, the Limited Format League is restricted to Hero's Dawn, Hero's Dusk and Heritage. Only Runes of those Expansions may be played. On Tuesday is Maljara Theme day: The only Champions allowed are Stitched, Kanen, Tortuns and Leoss. On Wednesday, there is a Limited-only Pseudo-Draft. On Thursday, the only allowed Factions are FF FW, FF UD and FF SP, and only Uncommons are allowed. On Friday, FF and Splits are allowed, but only Commons and only KF, SP and SL. On Saturday it's Circus day. On Sunday, each player receives a set of untradeable Set of Legendary Runes from which they must assemble a Battlegroup. And so on ... How does this make the game (a) easier and more accessible for new/returning players and (b) gives an incentive to purchase new Runes? Well, look at my example week. (a) Some days just give the players all they need or have maximal accessibility: On Wednesday and Sunday all the allowed and required Runes are given to the players; the entire game is available to all players! On Thursday, Friday and Saturday the restrictions are relatively low: Commons and Uncommon and Circus are available to everyone. Even new players can assemble those decks. (b) Some other days can only be played when players have the Rune pool for it. This gives the players an incentive to actually collect all Runes in the game! On Monday and Tuesday of my example week, players need to have Runes of a specified Expansion or Theme. And while the Uncommon/Common only days -- in this example Thursday and Friday -- require minimal investment, they still provide an incentive for players to get more Runes. Maybe instead of once* per day, the League could change more often, so nobody is left our for an entire day or more. But the idea in general, I think, should appeal to both players and developers alike: There is a reason to play, a reason to purchase, and, hopefully, a lot of fun. For those who recall my musings about balance: This also goes somewhat in the same direction, as imbalances wouldn't be as grievous as they are now, because they are only very temporary and don't occur to often if there are enough subsubtypes available. * -- All numbers are chosen somewhat arbitrarily and are open to discussion.
The "gambling laws" are a crock of crap!! Stupid rules enforced by violence are effective because almost nobody wants to be singled out and punished. (Sent safely from anonymous location).
Indeed! I think such a new League or Tournament system would allow for so many new and fun game formats. That's why I believe that it is the most promising improvement for the game at a moderate cost.
Hmm, there are a few interesting concepts that may be worth exploring. The key is accessibility and reward as mentioned by @darklord48. The reward needs to be incentive enough to warrant the entry, but the entry needs to be accessible so new players who aren't sitting on a bunch of gold can participate and not feel like they are getting a lesser expirence. We are exploring a few ideas regarding this concept, but nothing has been set in stone yet. When we address Tournaments as @Moles said there is a lot of work that needs to be done. But, we welcome all of you to continue discussing ideas and concepts because they inform us what all of you want out of the Tournament system.
What about a free to enter tournament mode only allowing public decks and the winner earns an useful LE rune? LE runes can't be sharded so to me they seem pretty safe to give away. (Alternatively a new rarity could be used for runes earned here and possible also from campaings?)
What if there was just a weekly or biweekly official tournament, with a low / free cost of entry? This would be ideal for a few reasons: There should always be a good turnout even with Pox Nora's small playerbase, and the results of each week's tournament could be published on the main site, preferably with what factions everyone played. This would give people an alternate source of prestige than the Elo ranking system, and (hopefully) give people less reason to complain about X faction being OP. EDIT: And the reward could be pretty good because it's only a weekly thing, and it would hopefully stimulate the competitive scene. Start times could alternate every other tournament so less of Pox's population is left out.
Perfect! Actually having a tourniment that uses the Public Decks is a really good idea. It makes it so basically so anyone can play. The only concern would be the reward. It needs to be were there is enough of a reward to warrant participation, but where someone who is really skilled would just stomp everyone else to farm rewards. In this situation the tournament would have to be by PvP ranking, but with that it would be possible for someone to not find any opponents if no one in their ranking enters the tournament. This will take some thought but it is a good idea.
@Senshu: What do you think about the rotating of types as elaborated both in post #1 and post #25? The list offered is just an example of course, and may very well include Public Decks. I'd really like to stress this point, for I believe that the rotation offers a wonderful way to both increase accessibility and give an incentive to gather more Runes. Your post seems to imply that you can receive a PvP ranking for Tournaments. If I understand that correctly, it would be possible to combine the best of both worlds from my aforementioned posts (#1 and #25). There could be a new league (i.e. replacing 2v2 for now) of rotating types of Tournaments!
The rotation is a good idea because it would get players to engage in tournaments they may not normally play. Right now this is pretty far out in the future we can't commit to anything being specifically in when the tournament system is fixed, but it is a concept worth considering. I was just saying that tournament with a low barrier to enter is a good idea, but it would probably have to consider the player's PvP rank so that high tier players aren't ending up in tournaments with mainly low tier basically making it a farming fest for the high end player.
Thank you for your reply Senshu. I guess game changing concepts like this one rarely have any chance to get implemented, and I wouldn't blame you if you wouldn't seriously consider doing so. But even as a purely theoretical mental exercise it may be a fruitful discussion. It was my misunderstanding that you meant rewarding Tournaments with Rank, but that could actually be a great idea. Would such a thing be possible? Rotating types of free Tournaments that are played for ranking. The result would be rotating Tournament Types without an Entry Fee, with Rank as reward. It would be highly accessible assuming that many of the Types don't require a large Rune Pool, but if you want to play for a high Ranking, you would want to increase your Rune Pool so you can participate in all Types of Tournaments. As beneficial side effects, it would help to promote new Releases by making a Type that requires you to play some of the new Runes (which, in effect, would counteract the possible need to powercreep). This may be done either directly (i.e. "play at least X Runes from Expansion Y"), or indirectly (i.e. "Expansions X, Y, Z only" or "Champions with Race A, B, C only", where the Race A has received new Runes in the most recent Expansion).
