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Discussions Rules and Guidelines
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But ... you probably won't believe anything that doesn't fit your narrative anyway, amiright?
About prices - they aren't high compared to other games, I'd say the pricing is industry standard. But that doesn't matter much. What matters is how much free stuff we get and how much of an impact spending money has on gameplay. This game is actually shelling out MUCH more freebies than most CCGs out there, it is just good at hiding that fact and good at making it look like every other predatory game out there.
I have never payed a cent for this game but I own every single card I need and I am sitting on 100+ wildcards (mostly higher ones) and more than 40k gold that I have nothing to spend on (I already converted my main deck into 100% gold cards). Sure, I am playing since the first expansion so I had a lot of time but this should demonstrate that you get in fact more than enough for free to not only keep up but also to catch up. An no, you don't need to play for 5 years to get to this point - I got there years ago.
You also need to realize that the competition has become fierce. Many players wouldn't get far even if they had access to all cards. Don't expect to spend some money and that will come with instant high ranks. Actually, the fact you can't do that should demonstrate this game isn't "p2w". Getting access to most of the cards you want takes some time, however, it also takes quite some time to get to know all cards, the meta, the decks, the tricks, the abilities and whatnot. If you aren't willing to take that time, to invest your your gameplay, then no pricing policy will ever be right for you!
Finally, even if you would be right, wouldn't there be enough of other players being stuck in the same situation as you? Which would mean you'd be on even footing with them?
Literally claims in march 2025 they had over 1 million active players.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/544810/view/814696363551884863
Besides you are bragging about sitting on 100+ high tier wildcards, 40k gold and a fully gold deck like it is normal for free to play players, when in reality, you got all that during a completely different era of the game. Rewards were better, the economy was not as tight, and wildcards where not trickled out like rationed crumbs. Then you turn around and act like new players can just grind their way there. That is not helpful, that is just hypocritical.
Your proof of a thriving playerbase is that you dropped to 45,000th place in ranked? Come on. Anyone who is actually playing right now knows how common AFK bots are that are sold on the chinese market for cheap with 10,000s of gold. I see one every few matches. That ladder you are using as evidence is bloated with bot accounts farming dailies, not real active players.
Then there is the "it is just about learning the meta" nonsense. When the game gives you 1/10th of the resources you need to play, no amount of learning the meta is going to save you. It is not a lack of skill it is the system being rigged in favor of those who can afford to pay for more packs or spend months grinding out a single good deck. So spare me the "skill over resources" argument it does not hold water when you are literally locked out of viable cards unless you dump time or money into it.
You had years to build up your collection under better conditions. Acting like that is still possible today just shows how out of touch you are with what the average free to play player is dealing with now.
I'm sorry but I don't think this is true. I say that because I genuinely believe that you can build viable decks with few resources. In fact I know it because I played some games on a friend's account and by then he was national level 20 or something. With the starter decks, the national level 12 decks and a few regular and limited wildcards I was able to build one solid deck for each nation and also play in the basic tournament which rewards you with wildcards for third place and higher.
Don't get me wrong, please. You are right when you say that you cannot build a number of meta decks in the beginning. You will probably be lacking too many cards to build a working discard deck, or mill deck, or Alpine deck or what have you. But you can build working midrange decks, aggro decks and ramp decks, even without special and elite wildcards. And you do not have to purchase anything with money. Buying an expensive deck in the shop will not help you at all if you cannot play it well. What you do have to do is invest some time to get better at the game and to play missions and claim national rewards. The rest is experimenting and experience.
https://steamcharts.com/app/544810
"Your proof of a thriving playerbase is that you dropped to 45,000th place in ranked? Come on. "
No, my proof is that 2 years ago I would drop to around 6000, now losing a dozen drops you to around 45000 which is another metric to see that the player base is rising. And since it's FM it means these are regular players. You claim it's bots but at that level you still don't play much against AFKs.
"Then there is the "it is just about learning the meta" nonsense. When the game gives you 1/10th of the resources you need to play, no amount of learning the meta is going to save you. " My point was that you need to learn the game anyway before you get anywhere regardless of your card pool and that it takes time. And that that time is enough to build up your card pool to decent enough levels.
"You had years to build up your collection under better conditions. Acting like that is still possible today just shows how out of touch you are with what the average free to play player is dealing with now."
Erm, when I started we had NO national progression at all, just some achievement bonuses. We didn't even have a crate! And instead of wildcards we had had a system like Hearthstone where you scrap cards into a resource and could buy cards for that resource. That system was way more convenient to use but it would NOT give you more stuff! It's more like YOU are out of touch how things were back then!
The thing is: I play constantly without paying money. When a new set hits I spend excess wild cards on the stuff I want and spend accumulated gold to buy packs. I do this for years now and the amount of gold I store is still rising! I bring this up every time one of you guys complains about how few stuff we get. You can check older threads and a year or so ago it was 30k gold, now it's over 40k and that's even though I goldified my main deck in between!
We only get 2 big expansions each year and then some smaller ones. Now do the math: Each day you get 50 gold from a mission plus 20 for the first win. That alone is 70x365=22550 Gold, which means 225 packs which means 100 packs of each big set and 25 of smaller ones. Just from the gold! Now add 52 crates, 12 end-of-month rewards, tons of national progression and all the extras you get from skirmishes, free tournaments and promotions. WHEN I SAY YOU GET MORE FREEBIES THAN YOU NEED TO IN BETWEEN SETS THEN I DO SO BECAUSE I LIVE BY THAT! I wouldn't say that without backing it up with actual numbers and experience!
EDIT: BTW, I'd love to do a run with a fresh account to see how far I get under current conditions but I am unsure if that would violate any rules. I asked Karmington but got no answer so far.
Running alt accounts is fine - this can be done on mobile, or by running the Epic or Standalone PC client. I believe there's an unofficial speedrun record of under 12 hours ( a bit over 10 I think it was ) from zero to Field Marshal : )
For some nations like Soviets, I've managed to unlock more than 75% of the Elite cards as they're my preferred Main Nation to build decks with. Not a bad ratio for doing it for free...
I actually enjoy the grind - not paying for anything provides incentive to actually play the game and progressively getting the cards you want. If I had all the cards because I bought it I would've stopped playing long ago.
It would be good if, like someone said previously, to have a choice on what you unlock for the weekly crate. Perhaps I want 2 Special Wild cards instead of a Special and an Elite so I think if the Elite crate would allow you to have a couple of selections of which rewards you want to collect that would make it much better. Because yes, Specials are hard to come by, I dont have many instances where I had 2-of a certain type. I do appreciate the fact that if you go beyond your Elite reward, the additional rewards get added to your crate for the following week. That's not how it works in other games like Warpforge40K (for instance). When the week's tally is done and you continue playing, the rest of the time you play you're not rewarded. Kards grind is pretty wild, but the rewards are actually much better than some other games.