Fewer weapons in the special spins

[Xamuel]

It's frustrating getting special spins full of weapons when I've got so many of each already.  [yeah I know, firstworldproblems.jpg]  It would be fine if that happened every now and then, but it seems like weapons are all I ever get recently.  Really anti-climactic to finally fill up those circles in Gold/Platinum, only to see a bunch of weapons I've had since 1.27, and none of the amazingly fun-looking goodies that were added later.  The thing is, weapons aren't very rare, due to being so common from normal fight spins.

Of course, I realize this suggestion sounds a bit artificial.  So for a less artificial suggestion, why not weight cards in special spins by how commonly owned they are already, so that if everybody and their grandma already has 12 arsenics, for example, maybe arsenic could show up a little less frequently.

[Aneninen]

I suppose your idea about weighting cards would be hard to be programmed (if possible at all). However, you can still go for a Shard you need, by re-spinning the slots - even if you don't get anything in the end but, that is a spin after all, isn't it? If you already have 10+ Arsenics you can still ignore it as it shows up and try to get something else.
Of course, sometimes all the slots stop on the same silly thing but that's really, really rare. (Happened to me when I wanted to show my Sweetheart what Special Spin is - the result was an instant Fahrenheit, lol!)

[furballdn]

So how do we decide which card is owned by everyone? Survey? In game data of owned rares?

[Xamuel]

So how do we decide which card is owned by everyone? Survey? In game data of owned rares?

In-game data of owned rares, I was thinking.  (I assume the server keeps track of statistics like that, for detecting cheating or anomalies if nothing else...)  I just suggested the weighting idea because I know good designers (Zanz is clearly a very good one) aren't happy doing magic band-aid fixes targeting specific symptoms, and I thought something like the weighting idea would treat the root cause.

I suppose your idea about weighting cards would be hard to be programmed (if possible at all). However, you can still go for a Shard you need, by re-spinning the slots - even if you don't get anything in the end but, that is a spin after all, isn't it? If you already have 10+ Arsenics you can still ignore it as it shows up and try to get something else.
Of course, sometimes all the slots stop on the same silly thing but that's really, really rare. (Happened to me when I wanted to show my Sweetheart what Special Spin is - the result was an instant Fahrenheit, lol!)

Yeah, that's always kind of funny when it just happens to all line up, usually with some 1.27 weapon too, lol.  Yeah, you're right about respinning, and often I'll take drastic measures, like spinning in a way which would obviously be suboptimal assuming all wins were equal, just for that tiny chance at getting a shard.  That's usually futile though, if the initial spin has no shards visible then the odds of getting 3 identical shards are pretty minute.

[Xamuel]

Now that I think about it, this is really just a symptom of a deeper problem:  the "rarity" of a card is a yes-no flag which has very little connection with how rare the card *actually* is in reality (in reality, rarity values lie on a spectrum, not a black-and-white yes-no thing).

For example, Pharaoh is officially rare, and yet I think it's actually a pretty common card in practice, for the simple reason that it's very commonly won from both AI3 and also from Osiris (and it's a useful card, so you see it in arena occasionally too).

On the other hand, even though it's for sale in the bazaar, Antlion is a pretty rare card, for two reasons: first, it's nonexistent in AI3/AI5, and second, it's almost nonexistent in arena/pvp because it sucks.  So, oddly, you end up seeing Pharaoh a lot more often than you see Antlion, even though the former is supposedly rare and the latter is supposedly not.

What if special spins chose cards based not on the official rare flag but rather on what is actually rare in reality?  Food for thought.

[furballdn]

Now that I think about it, this is really just a symptom of a deeper problem:  the "rarity" of a card is a yes-no flag which has very little connection with how rare the card *actually* is in reality (in reality, rarity values lie on a spectrum, not a black-and-white yes-no thing).

For example, Pharaoh is officially rare, and yet I think it's actually a pretty common card in practice, for the simple reason that it's very commonly won from both AI3 and also from Osiris (and it's a useful card, so you see it in arena occasionally too).

On the other hand, even though it's for sale in the bazaar, Antlion is a pretty rare card, for two reasons: first, it's nonexistent in AI3/AI5, and second, it's almost nonexistent in arena/pvp because it sucks.  So, oddly, you end up seeing Pharaoh a lot more often than you see Antlion, even though the former is supposedly rare and the latter is supposedly not.

What if special spins chose cards based not on the official rare flag but rather on what is actually rare in reality?  Food for thought.

Your definition of "rare" here is "underused". "rare" in the game sense just means "can't be bought". If rare spins became underused spins, I don't think many people would like wading through 3 games in gold only to win a graviton mercenary.

[russianspy1234]

so if everybody and their grandma already has 12 arsenics, and a new person joins their game and wants an arsenic, they have to wait forever to get one?  you've been playing a while, someone who only recently started playing could have the exact opposite problem of you, getting a bunch of shards in their spins but almost never seeing a weapon.  the respinning allows you to go for what you want, so if you see a weapon, just respin the slot since you dont care about the weapon.  there are plenty of people out there who are happy to get any rare.

[OldTrees]

so if everybody and their grandma already has 12 arsenics, and a new person joins their game and wants an arsenic, they have to wait forever to get one?  you've been playing a while, someone who only recently started playing could have the exact opposite problem of you, getting a bunch of shards in their spins but almost never seeing a weapon.  the respinning allows you to go for what you want, so if you see a weapon, just respin the slot since you dont care about the weapon.  there are plenty of people out there who are happy to get any rare.

Agreed. The spins should not be biased against new players.

[Guizonde]

i beg to differ on the antlion in lvl3: the earth deck uses two of them [/hardnose]

regarding the special spin, how are the slots determined? based on previous fights? randomly selected from a "candy shop" list? or is it controlled by trollface.png? i could never figure that out.
oh, and please don't bias the spins against new players, that wouldn't be nice at all (i'd never get shards of divinity)

[ColorlessGreen]

I definitely agree that it shouldn't be weighted based on overall ownership of a card, because it will completely screw new players. However, I don't think it would be very hard (code-wise) to weight it based on your ownership of a specific card - something like starting with 7 opportunities for any given rare, and removing one opportunity to show up in a particular rarespin for every one of that rare you own up to 6?

[furballdn]

Perhaps make a 13 day cycle with each day having rates of a certain element show up more frequently?

[esran]

colorless green, i like your idea, but make it 12 or 20, not 7. otherwise how will i get 12 of every rare?