Dear Yoshi & Team: About Current TT Tournament Model

[Naoki_Yoshida]

Hello, everyone. Producer and Director Yoshida here. Thank you all for your feedback on the Triple Triad tournaments!

Let me start with an apology for the lack of adjustments thus far, and also for the delay in communicating our plans for upcoming changes. The team is currently neck-deep in development for Heavensward, even as they look to finalize content for Patch 2.55, and the timing has not been ideal for testing and implementing major fixes. So to keep the development schedule running smoothly, we’ve decided to implement adjustments for the Triple Triad tournaments over the course of several minor patches, beginning with Patch 2.55. We also considered putting the tournaments on hold until all the necessary changes had been made...but as there are no other means of acquiring certain rare cards, the competitions will continue as usual.

That said, I’d like to discuss some of the pressing issues and popular requests and explain how we plan on addressing them.

Issue: The effort required to build a competitive tournament deck

Acquiring Triple Triad cards is a demanding task, and this in turn discourages players from participating in tournaments─without at least thirty cards, it’s difficult to build effective decks. So to improve this situation, we will be looking into reducing the match difficulty for NPCs who reward cards, thus making it easier to reach that thirty-card threshold. (To be addressed in Patch 2.55)

Issue:　Loss of motivation to continue playing when there is little chance of placing in the top ranks

Participants often lose the desire to keep playing tournament matches once a place in the top ranks is no longer within reach. In response to this problem, we will be introducing a new feature wherein players are rewarded with a generous amount of MGP based on their final tournament score (regardless of rank). We intend to make other similar adjustments to provide greater incentives for participants to play through to the end of a tournament.

In a similar fashion, players who accumulate a certain number of tournament points (again, regardless of rank) will be rewarded with a platinum Triad card─which has the possibility of yielding a rare card. By offering a means to earn rare cards other than placing in the higher ranks, we hope to encourage more players to take part in Triple Triad tournaments.

We are, however, still debating whether or not these adjustments can be squeezed into Patch 2.55, and if their introduction is deemed too risky, we will delay implementation until a later patch (Patch 2.56 etc.).

Requests: Eliminating unfair collusion between players/Making it possible to challenge players without the need for discussion

As measures such as those previously described are implemented, we anticipate a significant drop in unsuitable tournament conduct (i.e. using multiple accounts to ensure victory, or throwing matches for payment). Naturally, we don’t believe that these unfair practices will be eliminated completely─unless the system is changed so that tournament rankings are strictly based on victories won through random matching, there will always be a way to cheat regardless of the measures we introduce. But supposing we did change the system to rely solely upon random matching, we would then run the risk of alienating all but the most dedicated Triple Triad players.

Taking these points into consideration, we have two main goals around which future adjustments and additions will be planned. The first goal is to build upon those measures already discussed, and develop a tournament system that is both fun and rewarding for all participants. The second goal─implementing more strictly run tournaments─will require more time to achieve.

I understand that many players are in favor of being able to use the Duty Finder to set up Triple Triad matches. Unfortunately, however, the Duty Finder does not support one-on-one matching at this time. Should such a feature be integrated into the current system, it will also require us to introduce measures to combat a host of related issues such as increased server load, mid-match AFKing, and dropped connections. As you can imagine, this all takes time to test and perfect.

But our players have spoken, and we are looking into designing an improved tournament system (more tightly run competitions based upon match victories) that will make use of this matching feature. We plan to have something concrete ready not too long after the release of Heavensward, and so once more I ask for your understanding and patience.

These are our current goals, and, moving forward, we will continue to rely heavily upon player feedback when considering any changes that need to be made to the Triple Triad tournament system, rules, and rewards. This process of trial and error may continue for a while, but I look forward to hearing your thoughts and opinions on how we can make the game even better!

[Richiealvian]

The idea of Platinum card just reignited my passion for the game. Thank you!

I totally gave up on tournaments after day 1, even though to be honest, I've been telling everyone in the world that I know that I've been waiting for triple triad for 10 years or so. While it was truly a dream come true, I loved the collecting aspect and soon realized I'm not that good at the game (yeah, git gud comments incoming), managed to gather 60 cards in 3 days but after that I'm losing pretty bad in the tournaments. Now I play against Elmer a few times and call it for the tournament. The NPCs aren't that difficult to be honest, but you do need to be lucky for the drops (which I thoroughly enjoyed)

In my opinion though, a strictly double roulette tournament would've been fun. This way, the people winning each week would truly vary.

Even though it's cheating for the current tournament, however it does require massive effort to have 20 alts that has OK score. So I think people who spent the effort have earned it. But would it be possible to have some sort of lockout after you win a rare card so that you're banned from that tournament for the next 3 times the card is featured as a prize, for example?

Would there be ever an option to play cards in player housing? That would be incredible!

[Themis]

[Good things...]

Just knowing that serious thought is being put into the issues that arised around the tournaments to date is enough to restore faith that things will get better for those of who want to enjoy the game and not feel pressured to look for exploits in order to win.

The addition of platinum card packs as a reward for participants is a good step towards this. All that coming first will then do is give those who do win (via whatever means) a guaranteed card, but at least we all have some chance even if we don't come top 3.

Thanks for taking the time to address these issues and relay the current development plans and thoughts on this.

[Shneibel]

Platinum pack !....more RNG missile incoming...take cover !!!!

serious note: Alternative route to archive a goal or do something is always welcome. This will reduce the uniqueness of certain thing, in this case is the collection cards (platinum card), but in return every player have a chance to get them.

[Fyce]

So, in short terms, people now have even more reasons to cheat in order to get, at least, the Platinium Pack and the MGP bonus.
"You gotta secure these tournament victories to have your pack yo'!"

Also, Tournament 5* cards are still rewarded to cheaters only and it will remain that way until Heavensward comes out (maybe even 3.1).

Great.

[Garlyle]

Thank you, Yoshi!

So, in short terms, people now have even more reasons to cheat in order to get, at least, the Platinium Pack and the MGP bonus.
"You gotta secure these tournament victories to have your pack yo'!"

Also, Tournament 5* cards are still rewarded to cheaters only and it will remain that way until Heavensward comes out (maybe even 3.1).

Great.

Review the post.

I don't doubt there will be some win selling for "hit your minimum points for the rewards", but to be honest depending on how they tune that value, the objective is to get it so that you can win legitimately. Right now the only realistic option to win anything is to exploit the system, and there's no incentive to actually participate normally. If people can realistically win something, the necessity for exploitation is reduced.

Also the Platinum pack is likely going to reward the 5* victor cards (rarely). Even if not outright 100% confirmed it seems reasonable that this is what Yoshida is referring to as the contents of that pack.

[Anesjka]

Make it so you have to challenge 15 different npc's or players.... You cannot play a tournament match against a specific opponent more than once....


solved.


あなたは15種類のNPCのか、選手に挑戦する持っているので、あなたが何度も特定の相手とトーナメントの試合を再生することはできません....それを作る....

[Fyce]

I don't doubt there will be some win selling for "hit your minimum points for the rewards", but to be honest depending on how they tune that value, the objective is to get it so that you can win legitimately. Right now the only realistic option to win is to exploit the system, and there's no incentive to actually participate normally. If people can win normally, guess who stops cheating?

Not everyone was cheating. In fact, only the people trying to get to the 1 to 10 place had an incentive to cheat their way up.
Now, everyone will need to "secure" some victory points to get at least the Platinium pack, and some bonus MGP.

We don't know how many point will be needed to get a Platinium pack. But since you need a certain number of points, you can't just go full on random mode and take the risk to lose too many games.

Even if you don't want to cheat, if you start losing some games, you'll say to yourself "damn, if I don't secure some wins, I won't have my Platinium pack this week", and you'll probably want to get a few wintrades with someone in the same situation, even if you didn't want to cheat in the first place.

So, yes, I do agree that there will be a new incentive to play legit'. But people will also want to secure their Platinium pack, and they'll do that with easy win-trading (or win-selling).

"/shout Anyone with enough points for their Platinium pack with a few games left? I need a few wins to get mine."
This will be a thing.

Also the Platinum pack is likely going to reward the 5* victor cards rarely.

There is no confirmation that these packs will contain a Tournament cards, such as Lighning or Cecil. Yoshida just said "rare cards".

[Garlyle]

Oh, it's not ideal, and like I said it'll still happen, and they're aware it'll still happen. But this is still a drastic improvement over "exploit the system or go home".

There is no confirmation that these packs will contain a Tournament card, such as Lighning or Cecil. Yoshida just said "rare cards".

To pull this part specifically, his wording is

By offering a means to earn rare cards other than placing in the higher ranks, we hope to encourage more players to take part in Triple Triad tournaments.

You can already earn rare cards through other means that high placements in tournaments. What cards, however, are currently purely locked to lead placements in tournaments? Exactly. It's entirely possible that it'll be a different set of cards specific to the Platinum Packs or something, but I feel it's a reasonable bet.

[Pterois]

So, in short terms, people now have even more reasons to cheat in order to get, at least, the Platinium Pack and the MGP bonus.
"You gotta secure these tournament victories to have your pack yo'!"

Also, Tournament 5* cards are still rewarded to cheaters only and it will remain that way until Heavensward comes out (maybe even 3.1).

Great.

who cares what cheaters do with there stuff... they will throw away the achievement just as fast as they got it because they didn't put ACTUAL work into it. you know the same as someone who actually achieved top tier PVP level and get that armor, they will wear it for months before replacing... but someone who win trades in a day will glamor over it in a week. All of this does not lessen what you have accomplished.