Another suggestion to the matchmaking system

[Ginnazoh]

I propose we implement the Earthbound/Mother series battle system.

You know if you have an encounter with an enemy weaker than you, it auto wins the fight for you. I think we should have this in this game, where we use a formula of the differences in RP and level to calculate some value..then if that value is less than a set X the higher level player auto wins and the lower level player auto losses!

This was one of the best parts of the Mother series, rapid pace grinding

[Otonashi]

If the paying vets want to actually have people want to play with them, then A) they can throw away all of their cards B) they can give me free wins even though I didn't earn it or C) give themselves a severe handicap so they can't win

I fixed your paragraph for you there, demongod. I think that's what you meant to say, anyways.

Also, you really need to work on distinguishing people that are good at the game from people that just buy cards. It seems like you have this weird misconception that money equals a good player. There are paying players that still suck, and there are free players that do awesome; I have a feeling that if you ever got your way and team Alteil built a virtual Berlin wall between freebies and payers, you'd be on another crusade against about how some variety of free players kept beating you and that you shouldn't have to play against them either.

[Peralisc2]

I say we just leave demon alone, Otto. He seems to have some sort of stress or anger and lately he made a small but noticeable progress. His posts became shorter and way less anger can be found in them. I say you shouldn't make all the work and effort he put into this be in vain. Let him cheer up.

[Demongod]

No, no you didn't. And even if the Berlin wall was constructed as you say, yes, there'd still be issues in the form of "no life basement grinders" and people playing cards that either you have one of the very few and far between answers in the entire game to, or you flat out lose to them (EG Gowen Rush vs. Guardian. Either you have a merc playset or a sala soldier/sin SS, or some other not-readily-available card, or you're done).

So you're right, in a way. I'll cut to the chase though:

I want to play a game in which everyone who plays the game plays the exact same game. When a player playing Soul Calibur 4 turns on Soul Calibur 4, whether he be someone turning on a playstation for the first time in his life or the world champion, they are playing the same exact game. The character the world champion chooses doesn't have some sort of line of computer pseudocode that says "if played by *world champion*, add 20 damage to each attack. If played by player who didn't unlock all the hidden widgets, remove 20 damage from each attack".

But that effectively is what Alteil is. Players don't play the same game. There is only so far that Kurina/combat monk/highland born hunter and samurai girl will take you. Certainly they're not going to cut the mustard against a deck devoted to buffing up a guardian, and then reviving it up to six more times with three oversouls and instant revives. Add in star dragon, and you get the idea.

If paying players simply wanted to assert that they were simply paying for more "content", and that they simply wanted to support a game they enjoyed--and not for an explicit advantage some way or another over non-paying or lesser-paying players, then there are many features they could pay a premium for which have absolutely no effect on the game, such as alternate art, avatar accessories, potions of various sorts, and so on. Heck, if the players were truly altruistic, Alteil could simply add a donate button and unlock the whole game to everyone. I know that in Chris Anderson's book (Free: The past and future of a radical price), he mentioned how one author simply posted his entire book in PDF for free, and added a donate button and said "pay whatever you think is merited out of the value of the entertainment/knowledge you got" (not exactly in those words, but you get the idea).

And it made far more than zero.

[kyokaze]

But technically both you and your opponent PAID roughly the same amount to be on even grounds with Soul Caliber 4. Alteil there is no intail payment so of course everyone is on even grounds. Once one pays, unlocks a new character in a sense, then they get a bit of an upper hand. Eh whatever, I don't like analogies =.=; or metaphors ... or whatever it is ... A console game =/= alteil, one you buy and have everything on a disk, the other is free and browser based.

[Demongod]

The payment is beside the point. Hook up a PS2 controller to your PC and play it on an emu. Starcraft, Warcraft, whatever...download the thing for free, play on Lan, etc...

What you cited is precisely the problem.

"I paid more, therefore I should have an advantage."

Well, the winner is decided by a combination of advantages inside the game and from outside the game. The more factors from outside this one instance of the game influence it, the less the actual playing of the game influences who wins.

[Peralisc2]

Well said demon. That's very true, the undeniable valid truth. Now i want to add something to help people understand.

When there's a bargain, there are two parts paying a price. You pay money, the other one pays with ideas. Now the issue is which one pays a price that's too high?

If you want to remove the issue of "paying TOO much" you need to consider to also free yourself from working too much for very little money. I truly admire that author that posted his idea in a huge PDF, so he can help cleanse the world of radical prices, but he put himself at the risk of paying himself a radical price for little money. He maybe gets only 10$ and probably his ideas are worth a lot much more than that like maybe 50$!

The radical price issue strikes once again and hurts an innocent man and also a man that wants to help the world to change.

[luckysvn777]

DemonGod, you act like this is a video game, like Soul Caliber... its not. Its a card game. How can you possibly expect everyone to playing the same game, that's completely against the nature of a card game?

The more you talk, the more i think you expect this to be a MMORPG or a fighting game.. or some other game other than a strategy card game... those are completely different, and you really cannot compare the two, as much as you'd like to..

[yamas11]

All CCG's have that “pay more, win more” problem, but Alteil seems to give a harder time in being able to collect specific cards. Also, the booster packs don't guranteed at least a 3 star in each pack, which is like not getting a rare card sometimes. What other CCG has booster packs that don't guranteed a rare card in each pack?

Top tier competitive decks are in every CCG, but Alteil has it so that only the lucky players or unlucky players who have to spend $200 to get the needed rare cards are the only players who can use a top tier deck. That's probably where the major annoyance comes from for Alteil, card acquisition being very luck based or expensive, with no trading and slow process of obtaining singles adding onto that.

[Soiyeruda]

All CCG's have that “pay more, win more” problem, but Alteil seems to give a harder time in being able to collect specific cards. Also, the booster packs don't guranteed at least a 3 star in each pack, which is like not getting a rare card sometimes. What other CCG has booster packs that don't guranteed a rare card in each pack?

Alteil's booster packs are kinda like Yu-Gi-Oh!'s, where each booster pack gives you one card that isn't common. And Alteil booster packs always guarantees at least a 2* for boosters, if I'm right.