Triple Triad has its quirks

This game can be a really fun diversion from the norm, but I think there seems to be a wide disparity between what players can do and what your NPC opponents can do.

First up, there's no real middle ground for most opponents. Your early targets are either the training NPC which you pretty much can't lose against or opponents with a full deck of rather more difficult cards with values of 7 or higher on multiple sides.

Trying to build a deck to face off against these opponents does you no good either. After assembling such a deck I was informed there were 'too many rare cards' in the deck so it couldn't be used for a match. Despite all this, countless NPC's will face you with an entire hand consisting of rare cards.

How exactly are we supposed to play a friendly game when we're getting our hands tied behind our back from the start?

Maybe you have to farm cards first? :O

Go looking around the world for other NPCs to challenge; or gather MGP from various events in the saucer and buy silver/gold card packs from the trader to get you off your feet.

Also, look for opponents that use Plus (or to a lesser extent Same). King Elmer can be beaten with careful use of Plus and gives the Godbert Manderville card sometimes on defeat, for instance.

I got a Titan Card from Titan Extreme. Dropped straight to me like the crafting mats do.

One of the players I was doing Garuda HM runs with got a Garuda Card randomly, well, before we all got stuck in the loading screen void and can no longer play.

It's great that you're all getting rare cards, but the point remains that rare card drops do you no good if you can't use them. I've scoured Eorzea for opponents and virtually all of them outside of the Gold Saucer use high strength character cards, usually in multiples. Sometimes you get lucky if its a random draw and you're pit against a more manageable hand, but there's often no 'Plus' rule to help you out, so highest number takes all.

Most of my victories have come from abusing the 'Plus' rule, so opponents which lack that are proving to be considerably more difficult. There's also no guarantee that you'll win a card, and when you do there's no guarantee you can even use it. Most of the cards I've won have been considered 'rare', but my deck can only house one at a time meaning I'm limited to having the starter hand +1 rare.

I just feel there should have been a wider range of opponents for starting players which don't require you to be a Triad master before you've even begun.

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Originally Posted by Lemuria

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Once you get 30 cards you can use more rare cards, go do primals, go farm content like garuda hard, go buy packs of cards, the npcs with the plus rule are at least beatable. QQ

This rare card limit really suck...

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Originally Posted by RathSkybreaker

Once you get 30 cards you can use more rare cards, go do primals, go farm content like garuda hard, go buy packs of cards, the npcs with the plus rule are at least beatable. QQ

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"Once you get 30 cards"

Those last 5 or so cards are RETARDEDLY difficult to get.
Those last 5 cards should be called "you must now defeat NPCs who's hands contain 2-3 4* and 1-2 3* cards, with your hand of 4 1*s and maybe, just maybe, if you spent hours upon hours of playing math games with King Elmer, Bahamut.

TBH, I managed to get 20 cards without "excessive" difficulty. But after 20, things got progressively more difficult as I blatantly ran out of NPCs who's decks were anywhere near my game gimped level.
So, maybe if they cut down the gating by 1/3, things would be reasonable.
0-19 cards, 1 star hand.
20-39 cards, 2 star hand
40-59 cards, 3 star hand
60+, 4 star hand

Atm there are supposedly 80 cards total.
Of them, 20 are 5 star.
So to unlock a 4 star hand under these rules, you literally need every card BUT the 5 stars... Seems fair doesnt it?

Honestly what is the point of 4 star cards anyway?
Under the current system we cannot use more than 1 card above 3 star. And with 5 star cards available, who would use their one slot on a 4 star?
Under the current system, the only purpose of 4 star cards is for NPCs to stack their decks with to kick our asses. This is just bad design.

Triple Triad is combination of skills, luck, and random number generation (for the rewards). So yeah this is not going to be a one day collect them all kind of activities. Try WoW Hearthstone... without buying additional card using real money, it will take awhile to get the rare cards. I think all these complainers need to realize one cold hard fact: this game IS NOT to be played for ONE WEEK and to be done with everything 100%.... You play it a little bit at a time over LOOONG period. And maybe take a month or two offs in between if you should choose - and you will still be fine in catching up with gears when you are back. Enjoy it. SLOWLY. Or go back to Call of Duty: Pew Pew Edition - "I have no clue what I am doing - just hitting random buttons mashing for abilities".

The issue isnt time investment, its artificial difficulty.

For example, Gegeruju with the swap rule.
If he swaps your best card for something weaker, might as well throw the game now, he's got 2-3 5 stars in his hand.
If he swaps a bad card for a 5 star, then you are in luck and may win.
Why? because the power dynamic is no longer one-sided.
Frankly NPC decks are tuned like crap. They are either super weak, or just OP.
There are a whopping TWO reasons why we win even 10-15% of the matches against the OP decks.
1. We can use the Plus and Same rules a lot better than they can.
2. The AI tends to make dumb moves.

The problem is, if we have no rules to exploit, the AI blatantly overpowers us.
I am still trying to get my 30 cards to unlock 2 stars. My hand consists of 4 cards who's total power is barely 15, and Bahamut.
I am playing against NPCs who's hands have 4 and 5 star cards, several of them, with power totals of nearly 30 per card.
Were it not for "lucky swaps" and the AI making bad moves, there is no way in hell that my 1 star hand could beat Gegeruju.
Mathematically (and realistically), if you were to play a HUMAN opponent who's hand was all but literally TWICE a strong as yours. you would be unable to win.
The only reason we win against these super decks is because of RNG and dumb moves by the AI.

The NPCs need to play by the rules, too. I've noticed that they pretty much ignore Random. Momodi has no more than 10 cards in her deck, but she always draws Momodi and at least 2 of the following: Thancred, Miounne, Baderon. I have never seen her draw truly randomly. The same goes for Wymond. Those are the only two I've experienced the Random rule with so far, though.

EDIT: Oh, yeah.. also, they don't seem to be limited by the same rarity rules we are. This is an example of Kenji's 'artificial difficulty' mentioned above.

triple triad isnt supposed to be easy... its a stragey minigame that requires alot of planning not just throwing a card with a high number to beat a card with a low number you will lose almost everytime if u resort to tactics like that

ya you'll have to farm TT cards from old and new content. I believe each level 50 dungeon and Trial, or atleast certain dungeons and Trials, drop their own TT cards you can collect.

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Originally Posted by Gaulent

Maybe you have to farm cards first? :O

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no i have a total of 18 cards and i get the same issue it will not let you put in more than 1 2 star, 3 star, 4 star, or 5 star card in your deck you are only allowed to have 1 of those cards with 4 1 star cards to make your deck where as all teh npc's can have any card combination there is and 90 % of the npc's have all the power house cards such as bahamut, odin, ifrit, titan. ramuh, ultima weapon ... its almost impossible you you have a 1% chance on actually beating one of these npcs and gor help you get an npc that has only random rule cause randomly your cards will be the crapiest you have in you collection where as teh npcs do not have the crappy cards at all they only carry the good cards there as they only get good cards out of a random draw..

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Originally Posted by Spawnie

triple triad isnt supposed to be easy... its a stragey minigame that requires alot of planning not just throwing a card with a high number to beat a card with a low number you will lose almost everytime if u resort to tactics like that

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it also originated in final fantasy 8 and in 8 you were able to use all teh powerhouse rare cards in a single deck in this version you can only use 1 rare cards and the rest common or uncommon.. has nothing to do with being easy or hard when teh npcs dont even carry the crap that we are stuck with 1% chance of winning against some of the npcs is being being hard or challenging its impossible especially with random since the random cards you get are all the crap in your collection and teh random cards and npc gets has 0% crap in it cause they don't even carry the crap cards with them.

in the patch notes this is how the cards are listed
1. 1 star is a common
2. 2 star is an uncommon
3. 3 star is a rare
4. 4 star is a epic
5. 5 star is a legendary

Now as for building a deck in game the game counts legendary, epic, rare and uncommon as rare cards and will not let you put more than one of these in your deck at one time which in final fantasy 8 there was no problems intermixing these cards in your deck. in this game you are only allowed you are allowed only to use 4 common cards mixed with 1 of the other 4 choices which makes you ability to win maybe about .0001% especially against npcs that use only the random rule since there is no such thing as an npc with common cards except for teh one that you get training from first off.

lol 1%?? its quite easy to beat some of the harder npcs with 1 3 star card n rest 1 star if you plan each move right u can win 4/5 times

in TT in ff8 was harder since you lost you good cards if lost a match with all the QQ threads atm id wish they implemented that feature in to this update aswell lol

One thing i wish they would add is a rating system when you challenge a NPC 1 star = weak and 10 stars = very strong, this would help players find weaker NPC's to play against.

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Originally Posted by DemonFury

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Ya the limit sucks but as other said the 1 rare limit is removed once you have collected 30 cards so the best you can do now is just buy packs and obtain rares from Trials, dungeons, and CT raids.

You can obtain some neat rare TT cards like Onion Knight TT card from World of Darkness.

People are complaining about difficulty in Final Fantasy again. The devs must have done something right.

I got an Onion knight card (5 star) from World of darkness and pretty much used that and 4 other cards to overpower most opponents, I'm only at 17 cards so far but have all the cards from the "lesser" card players, most frustrating as mentioned earlier are things like "random" where they pick from their deck of about 7 cards (where over half of them are 2 star or greater) and you get a bunch of 1 star trash and you are expected to win with that. I've not come across any that are "difficult" just sometimes it gets tedious when random means, every card except your decent ones.

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Originally Posted by Luvbunny

I actually won against Momodi and got her card lol. Did not take very long either, maybe around 10-12 games. But I went to Redit and read long threads (with pictures) to explain what those rules means. The in game explanation is not very clear. This is a first launch, I am sure they will tweak and adjust the AI of the NPCs in a few patches down the road. They probably go with the defensive to make sure that you don't "get everything" in one day and finish playing. Then again, most of AMERIKA!!!! do not read and have big problem with reading (or researching, or watching youtube video about mechanics) - I am not surprised they complaint the loudest. IF said content cannot be cleared within hours or day(s), those group will flood the forum and "voice their concerns".

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Your insults are pathetic and absolutely unnecessary. I am well aware of how the rules work, and since I am, I am well aware that the NPCs are allowed to ignore in whole or part some of the rules (Random being the most obvious) for their own benefit.

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Originally Posted by TheRogueX

Your insults are pathetic and absolutely unnecessary. I am well aware of how the rules work, and since I am, I am well aware that the NPCs are allowed to ignore in whole or part some of the rules (Random being the most obvious) for their own benefit.

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They don't really 'ignore' the random rule, but their decks only consist of a small number of cards so it affects them far less. When your opponent can use multiple 4 and 5-star cards, while we're restricted to one of either even at our zenith, it heavily unbalances the playing field in their favor.

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Originally Posted by Firepower

I've not come across any that are "difficult" just sometimes it gets tedious when random means, every card except your decent ones.

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You need to play more opponents. Most of them sport multiple rare cards, while we can't even use a second uncommon card. Not every opponent has the Plus or Reverse rules to help you out either, so it becomes a case of raw power takes all which heavily weights the match in their favour unless they do something stupid.

The game shouldn't rely on your opponent making a silly mistake just to stand a chance of victory. It should be about strategy and planning. You have to play many of these opponents multiple times to stand a chance of getting the card you want, so it just gets frustrating to be stomped by a deck of unbeatable cards five times for every one lucky success.

Funnily enough... all of these 'issues' have an easy solution. Add more opponents with common card rewards and low strength decks. They don't need to all be world champions you know.

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Originally Posted by Spawnie

triple triad isnt supposed to be easy... its a stragey minigame that requires alot of planning not just throwing a card with a high number to beat a card with a low number you will lose almost everytime if u resort to tactics like that

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Look at this hardcore card game, where you only can win against NPCs, which have alot better cards, because they are playing like shit, im so gud at this game.

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Originally Posted by RathSkybreaker

Once you get 30 cards you can use more rare cards, go do primals, go farm content like garuda hard, go buy packs of cards, the npcs with the plus rule are at least beatable. QQ

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Primals are all 3 star+.

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Originally Posted by Luvbunny

I think all these complainers need to realize one cold hard fact: this game IS NOT to be played for ONE WEEK and to be done with everything 100%....

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That is entirely besides the point. The issue is not the lack of progression speed, but rather the limitations imposed on using certain cards.
Personally I'm in the amusing situation where all the cards I've earned are 3,4 or 5 star cards.
Leaving me to use a deck of 4 starter cards with only one new card.
One time my only 5 star got swapped to my opponent, leaving me with the interesting situation of 4x 1 star and 1x 3 star, up against 4x 5 stars, and 1x 4 star.

Can't say I much like the restriction on higher value cards.

It has been said there will be new cards in the future. New cards. Future. Maybe you hardly can beat some npc today, but you will, in the future, most likely.

Let's make a parallel with raids: in the past, Twintania was the ultimate raiding challenge, today is 'just' a "know the strat" battle. Let the overpowered triad NPC of today be the Twintania of the past ;)

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Originally Posted by Spawnie

in TT in ff8 was harder since you lost you good cards if lost a match with all the QQ threads atm id wish they implemented that feature in to this update aswell lol

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lol what, TT in ff8 was easy. You could prune out terrible rules, field all your strongest cards at once and steamroll everyone. If you lost a card just win it back or save scum, all the best cards you didn't have to win from opponents anyway.

I wish it was more like ff8 tt so I can get rid of chaos and random.

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Originally Posted by Kenji1134

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He has a point here, we need at least another lvl of rarity allowance.
Max we got currently is 1 4-5 star + 4 3 stars....which raises the question of who in his right mind will use 1 4star + 4 3 stars?

4 stars are used right now until you get something better and becomes useless.
They could add a final rarity level. If you don't want to make it 1 5*+ 4 4*, make it 1 5*+ 1 4*+ 3 3*or 1 5* + 2 4* + 2 3*

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Originally Posted by DemonFury

no i have a total of 18 cards and i get the same issue it will not let you put in more than 1 2 star, 3 star, 4 star, or 5 star card in your deck you are only allowed to have 1 of those cards with 4 1 star cards to make your deck where as all teh npc's can have any card combination there is and 90 % of the npc's have all the power house cards such as bahamut, odin, ifrit, titan. ramuh, ultima weapon ... its almost impossible you you have a 1% chance on actually beating one of these npcs and gor help you get an npc that has only random rule cause randomly your cards will be the crapiest you have in you collection where as teh npcs do not have the crappy cards at all they only carry the good cards there as they only get good cards out of a random draw..

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You need 30 cards, not 18 cards
And 1 rare card is all what you need to beat a NPC with the Plus rule. And math of course.

It needs some time.
I'm on 21 cards and can still get cards from Plus NPCs, silver & gold boosters (farm King Elmer for MGP) and from dungeons/primals.

IMO enough options to get to 30 cards within 15-25~ hours.

I got in my two 1st Silver booster 4Star Lahabrea and Minfillia + the Cid from an Ixal = 3x 4Star.
I said wow! Now the fun starts.

/trying to save my new deck. What!? To many Rare cards? But the NPCs having ONLY rare cards! D:<
/trying to save my deck with 2 rare cards! Woahh... still "to many" rare cards? -.- Triple-Triad-NPC: Hahahaha, I have 5 rare cards!
/lost interesst totaly
/bye bye once so good card game back on FF8

Edit: also... cards should be Tradeable! >_>

I was doing some HM primals in hope I get a card, after like 20trys. but some1 got a card(Shiva) and said "lol.. I dont even like this cardgame" Card got waisted. <.<

Kind of hope they change the deck system from "Only one rare card" to "Only X number of stars allowed"; So currently you can have four 1* cards and one 5* card = 9* maximum total. You could also have one 3*, two 2* and two 1* since it would be the same total of stars.

Not too sure how balanced that would be though. Fully accept them giving NPCs the advantage they have, because the AI is too easy to beat without it, PvP is the only concern and I guess I can understand the limitation for that, since it would result in the exact same issue Wolves' Den had (veterans are overpowered with rare cards/morale, new players get put off after being crushed).

I did pretty well with a deck that had Amal'ja, Ixal, Moogle, Coeurl, and and Chocobo until I got better cards. Amal'ja, Moogle, and Chocobo all have 7s on at least one side and are easy to get.

Also the point of running primals or dungeons for cards is to get to 30 cards that you own. Even if you can't use them when you get them, that's still adding cards to your deck. And then when you hit 30 cards you can start using the rare cards you have.

It takes a lot of luck. Sometimes it's when you get lucky and win against an NPC. Sometimes you get lucky and get a decent card from the Bronze, Silver and Gold packs. There's a big hump at the beginning but once you get over it, it's much more fun.

I have 48 cards right now. Reaching the 30 mark is quite easy if you know which NPC gives what card and how to beat it using a 4 or 5 star card on top of the other 4 1star cards.

The big problem lies with the later difficult NPCs that fully ignore the Random rule *coughcoughRowena/Landanelcoughcough*.

With the Random rule you are still forced by your restrictions, handicaping you more because you are likely to draw your worse cards anyways while the examples above, Rowena and Landanel, both have powerhouses of 3, 4 and 5 star cards that have 2 or 3 sides with a 7+ giving you little to no option of winning unless they play something dumb and you got lucky with your own draw, which is... like... 0.00000001%.

Bare in mind, I will say I got lucky myself and on the few times I've beaten both of those two I got Gerolt and Louis from Rowena and Titan from Landanel. The latest one thou still has 2 cards I'm missing, yet his random rule just makes me wanna puke and die before I attempt more rarely wins against them.

As it stands right now, Random should either ignore the star restrictions for the player, or give those NPCs with forced Random to have a bigger pool of cards and affect them too so that the matches can be more even... or completely one sided too in some cases.

Keep in mind, even powerful cards have at least one weak side. You gotta force them to expose their weak sides by forcing their strong sides against the wall or their own cards. With Same/Plus this can lead to crazy combos in your favor. If you know which cards they use (easy with Open/3 Open), put your own card in a spot that makes their card powerful forcing them to expose a weak spot.

Swap is actually good because you have 1 good card and 4 crap cards while the opponent has 5 good cards. So unless they swap out your strongest card, typically you'll get 2 strong cards and they'll get your PoS card you can exploit. Also, the NPCs follow a strict AI. If you play one card, they'll always play the same card generally in the same spot so you can exploit their AI too.

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Originally Posted by Lucke

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You can't fully exploit their AI. If you play enough times, you'll see that sometimes they will do something different, which ends up bringing something new to deal with. Surely they follow some patterns, but not always.

The actual big problem as I stated are those few NPCs with their own set rule which is Random, and that fucks you up entirely because you cannot bait these guys to do something, because they have multiple cards to answer easily to what you will most likely get 99,99% of the time.