Gail and the Vortex Ld? Maybe. They probably wouldn't be in the top 3 picks for their stars for me, but usable enough. But Bella? As a staple? Really? There's probably half a dozen 3* montana's I'd take before her. If she was power +2 then you could at least say she's an alternative Sharon. But she's revenge +2. And not like there's much room for base 5 power cards either, considering you could take Oscar and even Prince Jr, neither of which are restricted to revenge and more effective with their bonus. If damage was all I was after, I'd even take Giovanni over her in a half deck.

I'm mentioning Cr's cause making Ld missions involve specific character cards would be in effect be about being lucky enough to already have the cards or having money to buy the cards for it. Remember Dudley when he was first released? How much was challenge, and how much was having cards already like Ghumbo? Or paying massively inflated prices for him? So why make Ld's be about that when you already got Cr's that do that already? What I'm saying is, leave the Ld's to draw in the general playing population. Let it include more people and draw them into the game. And for guys with big collections or looking for exclusive hard challenges, send then towards CR's instead.

Inflated prices cause players to try and guess which ld will come out, and which cards are required for the mission. This provides a new type of market play. If people buy cards before the ld comes out, happy sellings! If not you just saved clintz while getting the new ld. If you missed, oh well, better luck next time. And you say Ghumbo makes it easy. I say if you're buying, let that be that. I could buy an object that makes tasks easier for me, if the price of it inflated it depends how much money i have and how badly i want it! Not only that, but if they didn't have the money, they just wouldn't go for the card or would play in elo. Ld's can make other cards get valuable, but thats just the way i like it! Gives the game that oomph! I still feel that i should be more direct with the missions. If its gain 50 pillz, then what does Junkz have to do with it. If persay one of dudleys missions is remove 50 life with Nightmare,these are your choices: Dudley Ld(assuming you got him first time), Orlok, phylis, and Russel i belive are the only ones. Technically, dudley is free, but otherwise Orlok is cheapest. The rest are barely 1000. Sure the prices will inflate, but hey the early bird catches the worm. Last one there is a rotten egg and what not. Rewards the most active players, or just so happen to be on at that time. I feel that speculation of cr isn't very commonly used. All years had 2 pairs of crs, except this years 3 pairs. With this, it would create monthly speculations. And UR would like us to say, "let the games begin!"... Except it began awhile back O.o

You WANT market speculation and inflation? You do realise that what turns off a lot of beginners is excessive barrier to entry. Making beginners quit cause they're faced with either dumping a lot of cash on start up or being forced to play with substandard decks cause all the staples are out of their reach is a good thing how? And its got nothing to do with a strong card making missions easier. I mentioned Ghumbo cause it was a character specific mission. That is, a character specific mission meaning that you can only do that mission with the one card. Like how you did the pills mission with Vortex cause it wasn't specific. If that was a character specific mission, it would be gain 50 pills with Taham. You don't like how Cr's are about money? Well, if that was the pills mission, all the guys with money would buy up the cheap tahams and then make a killing selling them back to guys who need the card for the mission. Ghumbo got massively inflated when dudley was first released caused he had a mission. You don't even need to have the mission, only suspected. When Scott Ld got first released, people suspected Kerry was involved in the missions cause she was mentioned in his bio. Her price was massively inflated along with the rest of her clan. That put a whole clan and its staple 4* out of reach unless people were willing to get ripped off. How's that's good for getting players to stay and grow UR.

I DO want inflation, because otherwise the market is dead. Just like stocks with slight growth or decrease. With this inflation, it can make people rich, and it can make people poor. Otherwise the only thing investers will do is speculate upcoming crs. Btw, you said i don't like how cr's are about money... When... Exactly... Did i say that? I love the cr speculating. Made a killing off marco, out of the 3 cr changes i've experienced. You say people are getting ripped of from the market. Chill out, it happens, as others get lots of clintz. Thats what will happen. If somebody wants tons of kerries, let that be that. Ghumbo had a mission? Doesn't surprise me. They had the Candy Jack mission for challenge. The Ghumbo one was intentional to keep inexperienced from getting the card. This is because it was so good. Could you imagine all the newcomers had dudley, harrow, or lois? Havock would reign, and people who missed would only have a chance on eachother. I would prefer UR if they made Taham have that mission. Even if it meant me having to overpay for Taham or not getting travis. It may appear awkward, but i stand by UR. The more market fluctuations, the more interesting UR will become.

So, to sum up, you want the game to be for rich investors and all the poor or people starting out can just go get stuffed? That making a profit by inflating card prices due to monthly artificial demand to keep investors interested is more important than people collecting or trying to build usable decks? That as long as experienced market watchers make profits, it doesn't matter what happens to the rest of the playing population? Cause not sure what you'll do with your clintz when you've killed off the game by driving off the players.

Also don't really get how you keep going on about the Lds' like they're some super OP cards that unbalance the game. Dudley's not some super card, he's average. And frankly there are 4 other Nightmare 4*'s that can turn a match around with one hit unlike him. And Harrow? Yeah, I'd consider using him, but only after Striker, Marina and Quinn. And lois? Hard to go past Yayoi and Diana. Not that there are that many cat decks around nowaday. Outside of T2. But T2 you've got the cat 5*s which are just too good. So yeah, newcomers running around with Ld's is hardly Havok. Especially compared to there being no beginners if they've been driven away by manipulated markets priced out of the reach of the new players.

@kazjun

nice post!

UR needs to find that balance to keep new people coming into this game and not get curb stomped (in rooms and in the market) into hating it and leaving the game right away vs. preventing it from stagnating and driving older players away

imho.... the balance needs to be towards attracting players and not towards catering to the established players.... we are already customers.... getting new customers is more important

Oh but i have to add.. i do really prefer card specific Ld missions over generic missions. it made the wait for the Ld more interesting and forced me to use cards i never put in decks

Not positive we are quite on the same page. If UR makes a crap card go cr, where a lot of newcomers have it, it can be sold at a high price, and the cards within the clan get cheaper. Secondly, you make it appear that all the newcomers have to get the ld, and the people who have the cards they need are torturing them by putting it out of reach. Most people who quit just have fun and give up once they are at that point where most people have Ambre. There decks are still some good use in elo.

Without inflation, the market is just a rock. Cards are grounded at specific prices. If there was no inflation, i'd probably quit UR, but thats just the way it should be.

I agree primarily with wasteroftime. The game requires balanced inflation that keeps some from coming, while still retaining market appeal for those who collect. The game can't have all cards be cheap, nor expensive. The market IS an equilibrium.

Tititoro.... not sure you understand the concept of what inflation means mate

i think you are confusing some of the concepts of economies with the concept of inflation. i dont think there would be a single real world economy that wants inflation.

the market is not really an equilibrium.... because there is such a limited way to release clintz from the system (kate tax, event tax, sell cards to kate) and much much much more ways for clintz to enter the system

as for crap cards going Cr.... its still the rich that benefit greatly from that. the new player is happy he has one and feels "awesome, got 11,000 clintz for that!" Well the richer players would have more copies of it.
Good for rich player, ok for poor player, future players not so much. But what is good with making crap card Crs is it does not affect the gameplay. So newbies are not getting hammered by Jackies Blaasters and Edds and feeling that it would be too hard for them to compete.

hey but thats why we are the players and the UR have paid staff... they get paid to think about how to improve the game for old, new, rich, and poor players alike

Tititoro, maybe you're looking at this from just your perspective too much, and not so much from the wider game perspective. Look, the lifeblood of online games is having players. Ur would not still be here after all these YEARS if they didn't have a constant influx of newblood. Some older players quit, some stay, but its all the new players coming in that let the playerbase grow.

And one of the main things that draw and keep players is that they can get into the game without feeling that the only way they can be competitive is to either have been here for years, or throwing down a chunk of real cash. These are new players, they haven't invested time, money or effort into this game. They don't have they social or guild connections. They can leave at anytime and not lose anything at all. Asking them to look at a massively inflated market that is constantly in flux and controlled by existing players and asking them to pay cash up front for packs since they can't afford the market before they've really gotten into the game is a sure way to turn people off.

A more stable market, with reasonable prices is more likely to get them to stay. Knowing that prices are on trend rather thant suddenly jumping in the next day. They might not spend as much right off as the upfront method, but if you get them to stay, then you've gained a player. And one who might spend later on. Probably more than if you tried to mug them straight off. Long term payoff rather than the short term one.