Highest Reputation Content

I know that canning the chat is a way for Pokemon TCGO to clean up a sore spot in the online game, but does it really need to go?  There are some people who don't use it, that ignore everything their opponent says, but does it really need to go?  Also, I do believe an overwhelming majority DO NOT wish the chat to be canned.  I am asking for this thing:

Please don't can the chat!

Everyone else who agrees, please post in this thread.  Perhaps we can have this decision upended.

This all sounds absolutely terrible and you MUST return our ability to:

- Disable animations.

- Click cards to play them instead of dragging.

- Spread out cards (energy, prizes, etc)

Because I'm telling you right now, people are going to be VERY angry with these changes and you WILL lose players. Listen to your fans, TPCi. Taking features away from players is ALWAYS a bad business decision.

I feel like while this visual updates look nice, they slow down the pace of competitive play for unnecessary things (attack animations, I'm looking at you) and will turn away players who like simplicity and can be provided said simplicity elsewhere.

Definitely not a fan of enforced animations and forced drag and drop. This will make even the most one-sided games last much longer, and decks like Night March and vespiqueen will be basically 5 minute breaks between turns for the opponent.

I also belive the prize cards should be spread out, especially since there's definitely enough space for that.

WELCOME TO THE

RAINBOW   FESTIVAL!

This is an exciting place where Pokemon fans can have a great time and win awesome prizes!

Owner/Host: Rainbow-XN

Co-hosts: Batny

Assistants: The_Real_Bug, Exploudftw4, rtramen

Advertiser: PotatoNoah87

Contents

- Introduction

- Rules

1. Rainbow Trivia Competition -RTC- (Registration Open)

- Rufflet Raffle -RR- (Registration Open)

2. Totodile Tiles -TT- (Registration Open)

- Paras Packdemonium -PP- (Registration Open)

3. Solgaleo Live Showdown -SLS- (Registration Open)

- Lunala Luster -LL- (Registration Open)

4. Haxorus Hangman -HH- (Registration Open)

- Smeargle Sketch -SS- (Registration Open)

5. Beedrill Berries -BB- (Registration Closed)

- Mimikyu Maze -MM- (Registration Open)

6. Arceus Champions Arena -ACA- February Cup (Registration Open)

Timetable

Friday February 3rd: Mimikyu Maze #2 5pm EDT @Pokemon Fan Chat

Saturday February 4th: Beedrill Berries #2 5pm EDT @Pokemon Fan Chat

Wednesday February 8th: Lunala Luster #2 3pm EDT @Battle Challenge

Friday February 10th: Totodile Tiles #2 5pm EDT @Pokemon Fan Chat

Saturday February 11th: Paras Packdemonium #10 5pm EDT @Pokemon Fan Chat

Tuesday February 14th - Friday February 17th: February Cup @Battle Challenge

Friday February 17th: Haxorus Hangman #20 5pm EDT @Pokemon Fan Chat

Saturday February 18th: Smeargle Sketch #7 5pm EDT @Pokemon Fan Chat

Wednesday February 22nd: Solgaleo Live Showdown #4 3pm EDT @Battle Challenge

Friday February 24th: Rufflet Raffle #15 5pm EDT @Pokemon Fan Chat

Saturday February 25th: Rainbow Trivia Competition #17 5pm EDT @Pokemon Fan Chat

Time conversion

West Coast US: -3

East Coast US: 0

UK: +5

Central Europe: +6

Eastern Europe: +7

Western Australia: +13

Eastern Australia: +15/+16

INTRODUCTION

Who we are: We are Pokemon fans with fresh ideas.

What we do: We are organising fun events for the community.

Why we do this: We want to share our passion with other Pokemon fans.

One of the best features in the Pokemon TCGO is that we get rewarded for our efforts. We get booster packs, tokens and cards to add to our collection. The feeling of it has been very satisfying for us. That's why we are trying to take it a step further, by introducing something fresh to the game. It is not only about luck or experience. It is a place where having fun really matters.

Here everyone will have a chance to win

RULES

• You have to obey all the rules.
• The owner claims the right to change promotions/rules/prizes etc. without any prior notice.
• Read the information of each event carefully before entering one (press show spoiler on each event).
• For any problems, complaints or questions please pm the owner or the assistants in-game.
• Respect each other.
• Fighting and spamming will not be tolerated.
• The assistants have a supportive role and hold the right to participate in the events since they are not informed about the questions, criteria or anything else that might benefit their participation. 
• Violating any of the rules will result in being banned from all the events.

Have fun and enjoy your time with us  

* You can participate in multiple events at the same time

* To join an event just post a message with the respective initials.

Introduction:

For a very long time, many users have questioned the integrity of the game's RNG, claiming that it is broken in one way or another. These complaints range from broken coin flips, to excessive mulligans, to bad shuffling. These claims have for the most part have had little to no data, which means that the only forms of proof we had of the RNG working correctly were the words of the Staff and common sense. Of course, some people simply refuse to believe in the authorities for some reason, so I've decided to gather a significant amount of data myself to shed some actual light on this perceived issue.

I'm going to be frank, I pretend to burry the issue of the RNG once and for all eventually. For now I will begin with a small experiment on the simplest for of RNG (coin flips) to get this rolling, but I intend to tackle the other forms of RNG when I have time, which might not be anytime soon.

The reasons why mulligans, deck shuffling and other types of random events are more complex to investigate are mainly that 1) Many time doing so requires knowledge of what ended up in your deck and what ended up in your prizes. It's possible, not too hard to do, but time consuming to do repeatedly, as I do need significant data pools to make a valid study, and 2) Perhaps more importantly than the first reason, is that the math behind calculating the probabilities of some of these is an absolute nightmare. I do not have the time to spend on doing these calculations at the current time.

This experiment will cover 2 parts mainly:

1. A comparison of 100 coin flips in each AI games and PvP games in order to show there is no significant difference between them. Most importantly, to show anyone who might be skeptical of data collected in AI games (which to be honest is a necessity, given that collecting hundreds or thousands of coin flips in PvP in a short time span is tough and very time consuming) that you do not get worse coin flips in PvP than you would in AI.
2. A collection of 500 coin flips in AI games, including the initial 100. This is to show that the spread of data is in fact more than less even at higher amounts of data.

Some Concepts I'll Use:

Before starting I'd like to point out some things that are necessary to understand my mini study.

Sampling Error and Acceptable Range​

While the values should tend to an average in the long run, there DOES exist a way of telling if small data pools correspond to a working RNG. As you'd expect, the more data the closer we get to a 50-50 split and the less data the opposite is true, and there is a mathematical way of determining if the deviation from a 50-50 split is within the expectations of a normal, functioning RNG, which is to say the Error of a sample. The Error gives us a range of values where the distribution of heads and tails is considered to be acceptable (meaning it indicates an RNG that works correctly).

To determine the error of a sample where the outcome is binary (yes or no, heads or tails, etc.), we must divide 1 by the square root of the sample size, giving us a percent of acceptable error.

Error = 1 / (S Size)^1/2

The range of acceptable heads/tails distributions is the expected average (meaning 50%, which I will be referring to in its decimal for, 0.50) ± the error.

Range: Lower End = 0.50 - Error; Upper End = 0.50 + Error

For the most part I took samples in the AI games in groups of 10 or similar, and in the PvP games in groups of 5 or similar. To give everyone an idea, the ranges from sample sizes between 4 and 12 are the following:

• 4: ±0.50 [0.00-1.00]
• 5: ±0.45 [0.05-0.95]
• 6: ±0.41 [0.09-0.91]
• 7: ±0.38 [0.12-0.88]
• 8: ±0.35 [0.15-0.85]
• 9: ±0.33 [0.17-0.83]
• 10: ±0.32 [0.18-0.82]
• 11: ±0.30 [0.20-0.80]
• 12: ±0.29 [0.21-0.79]

As you can see, this means that any group of 4 (or less) consecutive coin flips can have absolutely any result at all and it would still be within expectations. For this reason, it's extremely hard to spot any anomalies in the short run with any sampling size that is of 4 or lower.

While a 5% difference might not seem like a lot, it really does make a visible difference. For any sample size that has a range other than 0% to 100% you can tell that the vast majority of the samples will not exceed this mathematically determined range.

For the 2 overall sample sizes, 100 and 500, the ranges are as follows:

• 100: ±0.10 [0.40-0.60]
• 500: ±0.04 [0.46-0.54]

Aberrants

What I will determine as an aberrant is any sample that does not fall within the range that I established using the previous formulas. I  want to note that all of my samples are of 5 consecutive coin flips or higher, meaning that I will always have a small probability of obtaining an aberrant.

Basically, I have 2 checks for telling if the RNG is working properly or not:

> Long Run: The overall sample must be close to a 50-50 spread and within the expected range.

> Short Run: The vast majority of the small samples must be within expectations. If the aberrants are very few and far between, chances are that the RNG is perfectly normal. Sadly I do not have a formula to determine how many aberrants would constitute a "broken RNG" and how many would constitute "exceptionally good/bad luck" which could be written off by a small sample size, so this is slightly subjective. However, if the total number of aberrants is blatantly abysmal, then we can all conclude that the RNG is fine.

The Decklist and the Collection Method:

I determined that the easiest method for collecting coin flips was using AOR 20/98 Gyarados. For this purposed, I assembled a clone of my Archie's Blastoise deck with some modifications, the idea being to charge Gyarados up with Blastoise. I want to note that this decklist is not optimized for either data collection or actually playing (trying to win), and it has remnants of the original deck which do not serve any purpose here.

Part 1: AI RNG V.S. PvP RNG

I will be listing the samples (numbered in the order they were registered), the spread of each one and the total at the end. If there are any aberrants I will explicitly mark them so in a bright red text note. I want to note as well that for PvP I couldn't get a perfect 100 samples, because it's harder to manipulate the number of energies I can attach and how many times I can attack when I'm playing against actual people, assuming that they are trying to win (most of them are). For this reason I ended up with 104 flips in PvP instead of 100, but it doesn't make too much of a difference.

AI Games Data:

1) ​H:6; T:4

2) H:4; T:6

3) H:6; T:4

4) H:5; T:5

5) H:5; T:5

6) H:2; T:8

7) H:4; T:6

8) H:3; T:7

9) H:5; T:5

10) H:6; T:4

Totals Flips: 100 

Total Heads and Tails: H:46; T:54

Number of Aberrants: 0

Range: 0.40-0.60

Total Within Expectation: Yes

PvP Games Data:

1) H:3; T:2

2) H:2; T:3

3) H:2; T:5

4) H:6; T:1

5) H:4; T:3

6) H:4; T:3

7) H:6 T:2

8) H:6; T:2

9) H:4; T:1

10) H:3; T:2

11) H:2; T:4

12) H:2; T:4

13) H:4; T:3

14) H:3; T:2

15) H:3; T:2

16) H:3; T:4

17) H:6; T:1

18) H:0; T:7 ABERRANT

Totals Flips: 104 

Total Heads and Tails: H:63; T:41

Number of Aberrants: 1

Range: 0.40-0.60

Total Within Expectation: Yes

As you can see, in both scenarios the total is within expectations (AI was in the lower quarter while PVP in the upper end), and there was exactly 1 aberrant sample in all of them, although there were a couple more that cut it close (6 and 1 is close to the limit but still within expectations).

From these samples I can conclude two things:

1. RNG in AI and PvP should be about the same. In fact, my luck in PvP was better than in AI, which is not what I am trying to prove but it does serve to show that people aren't getting screwed over in their games at least. While some may still claim they do, I have mathematically proven that any streaks of good and bad luck I may have gotten (with exactly 1 exception) are within expectations, and both averages are also within expectations. This means that any data I collect in AI will be considered as a valid representation of what happens in PvP.
2. Initially, it would seem that the RNG is completely fine. To further prove this I proceded to collect 400 more samples in AI to gather a total of 500 coin flips.

Part 2: Collection of 500 Coin Flips

For the second part, I took the initial 100 flips and added 400 more. This took me a total of 50 different samples of varying sizes. The following is the list of the samples (note, once more, that the first 10 samples are the same 10 I postes in the first part):

1) ​H:6; T:4

2) H:4; T:6

3) H:6; T:4

4) H:5; T:5

5) H:5; T:5

6) H:2; T:8

7) H:4; T:6

8) H:3; T:7

9) H:5; T:5

10) H:6; T:4

11) H:7; T:3

12) H:6; T:4

13) H:2; T:8

14) H:4; T:6

15) H:6; T:4

16) H:6; T:4

17) H:5; T:5

18) H:7; T:3

19) H:6; T:4

20) H:4; T:6

21) H:4; T:4

22) H:6; T:2

23) H:5; T:4

24) H:2; T:7

25) H:5; T:4

26) H:3; T:6

27) H:7; T:4

28) H:5; T:6

29) H:7; T:4

30) H:8; T:3

31) H:6; T:5

32) H:7; T:4

33) H:6; T:3

34) H:3; T:6

35) H:5; T:5

36) H:6; T:4

37) H:5; T:5

38) H:4; T:6

39) H:6; T:4

40) H:4; T:6

41) H:5; T:5

42) H:4; T:6

43) H:5; T:5

44) H:4; T:6

45) H:3; T:7

46) H:5; T:5

47) H:2; T:9 ABERRANT

48) H:8; T:3

49) H:6; T:5

50) H:5; T:6

Totals Flips: 500 

Total Heads and Tails: H:250; T:250

Number of Aberrants: 1

Range: 0.46-0.54

Total Within Expectation: Yes

Much to my surprise, the final result was an exact 50-50 split. Anything between 230 heads and 270 heads would have been within expectations, but this time the total was dead in the middle of the range. I think it's also important to note that there was exactly 1 aberrant in 50 samples, which I think could be considered blatantly abysmal compared to the total.

Conclusions:

With this, I believed I have proven once and for all that coin flips are nowhere near to be as completely broken as some people claim. I would like to explore some more cards that require coin flips and the start of the game flip as well, but I'd like to point out that many people have claimed (incorrectly) that their coin flips for attacks and similar things are way off, which this small study completely disproves.

While we may never know the RNG algorithm (and would probably not be able to interpret it even if we did), I have now empirically proven that coin flips have shown absolutely no indication at all of being broken.

Thus, the ultimate conclusion of my experiment is that the RNG is working as expected.

I don't like the idea of Energy showing underneath the Pokemon, it should replicate the real TCG where this doesn't happen. There was nothing wrong with how energy displayed and there is no need to 'fix' what wasn't broken. Same with the changes to prize cards. I liked how the game felt like the physical game and you are ruining that.

I am also not keen on not being able to turn off animations, if you play for a long time (as the VS ladder encourages players to do) it becomes tedious.

I've noticed that Deck Manager doesn't have any animations. It's pretty boring to go through and get your cards to make a deck. I'm hoping you implement the following:

* When you go to deck manager there should be an animation showing a hand opening a shoe box and the deck boxes inside. If this is too difficult, any kind of explosion that shakes the screen is OK.

* When you mouse over a deck, that deck should take up 80% of the screen. Certainly it should be big enough to cover anything else you might want to see.

* When you select a deck to edit, there should be an animation that shows cards flying everywhere. Or maybe a buzz saw ripping through it. Screen shaking should be done here too.

* When you're editing your deck, have random cards poke up suggesting they should be removed. It doesn't matter if the card is key to the deck or not. Any random one will do. I find during the game these "poke up" suggestions are not at all distracting. I just pick on the "jumpy" card anyway and usually a cool animation comes up. Sure I probably didn't want to play that escape rope when none of my bench pokemon have energy, but who cares?

* When you remove a card, have a pokemon come over & rip it up. Machamp would be perfect. You could show his muscly arms. For adding a card, Pikachu brings it and says "Pika Pi". EVERYONE LOVES PIKACHU! Also more screen shaking here too.

* When saving the deck, don't make the name text box clear. Leave it where it is. I love trying to choose between New Deck4 and New Deck9. Also have an animation for saving the deck. Here's my idea. Team Rocket shows up and goes through their entire motto "To protect the world from devastation...". Then they steal the deck. But Ash shows up & summons Pikachu who can't fight because the balloon is lightning proof. Then Ash summons squirtle who blasts a hole in their balloon with Hydro Pump and of course they say "Team Rocket -- blasting off again!" That should happen every time I save a deck.

Thoughts?

Prize cards being stacked makes no sense and contradicts what you guys keep saying (in various contexts) about mimicking the real-life TCG, since they're spread out in real life.

Hello Pokémon fans,

As the title suggests I am hosting a giveaway.

The rules to enter:

1. You must post to this thread.

2. You must include your favourite deck and Pokémon card.

The prizes are as follows:

1st:

2nd:

3rd:

Golem EX

Most original: 1 Generation Pack 1 Breakpoint pack and 1 Flashfire pack

The winner will be posted to this thread on the 29th of July. To claim the prize YOU MUST offer me the trade in-game for a junk card and I'll accept on login.

 If you like this giveaway please leave a + rep.

I quit when I have no chance anymore too. Not because I am salty or angry. For me it would be wasting both players time to continue a match that has already been decided. In Chess the best players do it too so i don't think it is unsportsmanlike to forfeit a game. The players leaving do not know you have a challenge to complete. If you tell them before the match they might even stay and help you with it.

I do not think they leave because you are a girl btw

Deviation from the generic, REQUIRED, layout in a real TCG game creates a disturbing disconnect for me. I appreciate clean, orderly things VERY much (energy, tools, and previous evolutions I appreciate). But the changed position of the deck, discard, and prizes is unsettling for me and many of my friends that play the physical card game.
 

Animations annoy me and many others a great deal. I find it hard to believe those AWFUL, lengthy animations of the previous build are cleaned up too much in this build, but I'll withhold judgement until after maintenance.

Drag-and-drop has always been a slow and tedious feature to me, even as a Hearthstone player. The ability to quickly, concisely choose cards I want to play is important to me, especially with lengthy, item-using turns with many popular decks in the format. Unless the drag-and-drop feature has been drastically improved, it's also very tedious pulling any item card you would like to play from your hand way up to where supporters were formerly placed.

I feel like while this visual updates look nice, they slow down the pace of competitive play for unnecessary things (attack animations, I'm looking at you) and will turn away players who like simplicity and can be provided said simplicity elsewhere.

Phantom Knight Trading Community

(price guide completely out of date but use for trading with others)

How it works:

We have prices listed for everyone to use in trading with other people. This thread can be used by anyone to post offers based on our prices (does not have to be exact but we recommenced these prices) and anybody else may come and accept it or negotiate with others! This thread is 100% open to whoever wishes to look for cards or trade their own away We hope you enjoy as we make a step towards more fair trades for all!

​

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

   i. History of PKTC

   ii. Goals and Purpose

   iii. Rules

   iv. Pack Ratios

   v. Trade Request Example

2. The GX Section

   i. Standard Set GX's

   ii. Promo GX's

3. Standard Set EX's

   i. Standard EX price guide

   ii. Standard Promo EX's

4. Expanded Set EX's

   i. Expanded EX price guide

   ii. Expanded Promo EX's

5. Non-EX/GX Ultra Rare Section

   i. FA Trainers

   ii. FA Pokemon

   iii. SR Trainers

   iv. SR Pokemon

   v. SR Energy

   vi. BREAK Cards

   vii. Primes

   viii. Ace Specs

   ix. Shiny Legends

   x. Legend Pieces

6. Promo Cards

   i. Gem Promos

   ii. Promo Trainers

   iii. S&M Promos

   iv. XY Promos

   v. BW Promos

   vi. HGSS Promos

   vii. Pre-Release Pomos

7. League Cards Section/Energies

   i. Standard League Pokemon

   ii. Expanded League Pokemon

   iii. Standard League Trainers

   iv. Expanded League Trainers

8. Normal Pokemon Price Guide

   i. All sets in order from Sun & Moon to HeartGold & Soulsilver

9. Normal Trainer Price Guide

   i. All sets in order from Sun & Moon to HeartGold & Soulsilver

10. Energies

   i. Standard Special Energies

   ii. Expanded Special Energies

   iii. HGSS Era Special Energies

   vi. Basic Energies

10. Gameplay Items (In Progress)

   i. Gameplay sets

   ii. Deckboxes

   iii. Sleeves

   iv. Coins

11. Avatar Items (Coming Soon)

12. Unobtainables & Untradables

   i. Obtainable but Untradable

   ii. Untradable Cards

   iii. Untradable Gameplay Items

History of PKTC:

We started out in the fall of 2015 as a new trading company centered around getting cards for a cheap and competitive price to the people. I (9999ben9) created the company because I saw an influx of prices being too high at other companies/sources for cards, and wanted to create a more fair and transparent process. PKTC started and became popular very quickly and reached 3rd largest company to ever be in the ptcgo community and arguably the most popular for a large amount of that time. We have strived to create a more simple and accurate price guide since the beginning, and have lead the charge in making ratios and trading more simple. From the very beginning, we kept in mind our goal, "to be not just a place to buy cards, but to be a place that our community can enjoy."  We have accomplished all of this because of every single one of our customers along the way. As a result of months of thinking, I decided to change direction and move toward something that will be far more beneficial to the community. I have decided to keep true to our goals more then ever and make PKTC 100% community based. We believe now is the time we transition away from being a company and move towards being a community.

Goals of PKTC:

1. To provide an accurate price guide for the community.
2. To provide an area where players can trade with other players for a fair price.
3. To be not just a place to buy cards, but to be a place that our community can enjoy.
 

Our Purpose:

Everyone here loves the card game of Pokemon and wishes the best for the community above all else. We created this community because we wanted to create a place where a player could get everything they needed for the fairest price available. We try our hardest to find the best balance for fair values by searching on public and various other trading outlets for numerous hours each week to near 100% accuracy. We strive to serve this community by offering the best price guide possible for buying and selling cards at a fair price.

RULES:

(These rules are subject to change without notice.)

1. You must obey all rules .

2. This is an area to trade freely with others or just use as reference. Please post trade request below in an efficient and polite manner.
 

3. Please be patient. Sometimes people are not always checking or don't always have what you need immediately. We just ask for you to be patient and we hope that someone will help you out ASAP.

4. We (the founders/editors) are not personally responsible for trades that take place here. We will try to monitor what is going on to make sure people are not trying to abuse the system but there is a price guide here for a reason.

5. We ask that no self-advertisement happens here. This includes advertising for other trading companies or trading threads. We ask this because we do not want this to become a platform for selfishness but rather be a guide for fair trading in the community.

6. We advise not to trade with brand new accounts as this tactic is often used to trade for more copies of a card then necessary, or to beg for cards and claim they are "poor." While we hope the community will help out all new players, we also want to caution against the risks of people manipulating the trading community. 

7. DON'T abuse this system. We are here for the community, so we would appreciate that all of you are as well. Please do not ask to trade for or receive items for an extremely off-base price. We of course encourage people to pay a little less or a little extra if they wish to finish a trade quicker or get a good deal, but we in no way encourage scam trades or for anyone to overpay by an outrageous amount. If this happens and we find a malicious intent, it could result in adding you to a blacklist (a list of traders who we do not encourage trading with).

To search for specific cards, type Control/Ctrl+F and then type the card you are looking for.

Be sure if you are looking for our sell value to not be in the trade-in section.

Pack Ratios:

*All 5/6 card packs are half value of their 10 card equivalent

*Dragons vault only comes in 5 card packs, their value is as stated above
 

TRADE REQ. FORMAT:

Hey, does anyone have:

(Insert cards needed here)

(Total price requested for all the cards) / (Pack ratio for the packs you wish to pay with) = (Total of those packs you wish to pay with)

Total: (Insert all packs trading with here)

TRADE REQ. FORMAT:

Hey, I am looking for the following:

2 Shaymin EX FA = 52

3 Rayquaza EX RA (colorless) = 4.5

I wish to pay for these cards with Sun & Moon packs

56.5 / 0.5 = 113 Sun & Moon packs

Abbreviations:

FA: Full Art
RA: Regular Art
SR: Secret Rare
AT: Ancient Trait

HR: Hyper Rare (a.k.a Rainbow Rare)

(TBA or X) : To Be Added

Usually will be new cards or cards we are adding to the price guide. If you wish to order these cards, just ask for a price and if we have any in stock we will try to come up with an estimate

:)SUPER AMAZING OFFER:)

1 bidoof - 1000 packs

jk

If there are any suggestions or things we missed please post them in the comments below or contact me (9999ben9) over pm and I will do the best I can to address those and improve the community the best I can.

Thanks.

Welcome To:
Phantom Knight Trading Community

A new "hidden" promo card can be gotten redeeming a code, as it was Rallying cry deck (and still it is typing BWPLASMABLAST and BWPLASMAFREEZE for example).

The card to get it's the XY95 Promo Pikachu (locked)

Can be redeemed just once and the code is...

     1PIKACHU4U

Go to in-game redeeming code place or to the pokémon website: https://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-trainer-club/enter-codes?mo_ar=true

(and remember to log-in before of course so the system can know for who's the card)

Wish you all get it

I dont... I don't even want to discuss this update. I'm so appalled by everything, but I don't want to seem too dense. Nor do I have the time to write an appropriate post. 

I'm just gonna lay everything out here for now. 

- Please make it so you can turn off animations. A lot of people love dragging cards, but, a lot of people dont. I am one of the latter, and it'd be great to go back to just clicking, even if that means taking responsibility for misclicks. I didnt care for the undo feature in the past, I dont care if its gone for good. 

- Please make it so our hand stops hinting at things. I try playing a game, and I have an energy or an ultra ball in our hand that starts dancing around like it would be a good idea to play it. Maybe I dont want to play it, and maybe if I was going to play it, its still distracting, and in a way, kind of insulting. It feels like theres someone behind me, pointing at my cards telling me it'd be a good idea to play them next, and well, thats not very realistic or cool.

- THE COIN FLIP ANIMATION! Please, if you dont let us turn off anything, at least let us turn off the coin flip animation. If my opponent takes a lil while in the beginning, im forced to stare at that flipping effect in the beginning and I have really bad vertigo, and it gives me just worst headache, and it's just the worst thing to watch. 

- The prize cards being stacked. Please make it so they're spread around again. If I had my prizes stacked during a real life match, I'd be yelled at by a judge or disqualified. It also makes it so I cannot pick my prize that i wanna take, and again, not very realistic 

- Please make it so we can see energies and tools again. The symbols are really annoying and VERY FAR from realistic. While I dont like the energy blips, the POKEMON TOOL blip is horrible. its so easy to forget what tool something has on it if all we see is a little wrench, and it'd be so much easier if you could see the card themselves

I dont know, im too aggravated by everything right now, but I know its not my decision. I just know, that these features I've listed above, are really undesirable, to a lot of players, and well, everything was perfect before. Expect to lose a lot of players because of this . I'm sorry. 

It's been a week since the last update and a majority of pokemon online players are unhappy with the changes. I think as a whole we've been very clear on the main problem of the new version: the game time is too long. People are unhappy with other various aspects (stacking cards, waste of space, mouse over, loss of undo, etc.), but it's the slower game time that is overwhelmingly a problem.

This change wasn't caused by anything other than forcing the animations on all users, and changing the drag & drop functionality. In other words, you "fixed" two things that weren't actually broken. 

The increase in length of game isn't just an illusion due to a new interface. It's been proven empirically here in this forum by a meticulous user. This is an instance where gut feeling matches up perfectly with actual facts.

The people who are upset aren't a small minority of malcontents. According to the poll on this forum 93% of the users surveyed are unhappy with the changes. I would like to point out how overwhelming his number is. Also note this may not include people who have are unaware of the forum, bothered to vote, or who have quit altogether. 

We've been asked to wait & give it a try. Well it's been a week and we are still unhappy. We've waited. We've given it a try. Now the shoe is on the other foot.

DEV TEAM: What is your plan to address the increased length of game time due to the additions by this latest update?

Your post on the 2.33 update has changed since it's initial release, but it doesn't address the longer game play.

And your last response skirted the issue. You mentioned that usership is up, but this doesn't account for the expected increase due to a new set being released. You also touted that game length is slightly longer. Yet this doesn't account for people disconnecting quicker due to frustration with slower game play.

We know that the games take longer. We know this has upset a majority of players. And we want to hear from you on how this will be fixed.

Can't give my final judgement on this till I've seen the game in action, but disabling the ability to disable animation seems... a bit odd.

PTCGO: Ultimate Player of January! by Apple57485

The Pokemon Trading Card Game Online January Season of Ultimate Player of 2015 gathers new and veteran players alike and puts them into a tournament of a whole new level! 20 Players may sign up for this amazing free tournament at their own discretion.

Prizes:

Winner: 5 Primal Clash Booster Packs!

Runner-Up: 3 Primal Clash Booster Packs!

3rd Place: 1 Primal Clash Booster Pack!

In addition, the Top 12  players will automatically receive an invitation during Season 2 of The Invitational! by Apple57485!

Tournament Structure - There are three phases of The Ultimate Player!

Battle Pods: Each of the 20 entrants will be put into a pod of five, in an attempt to advance to the next phase.

Knockouts: The Top 12 Players from the Battle Pods will battle in some bracket rounds in an hope to advance to the next phase.

Finale: The Final 6 Players will play in an Round Robin Challenge in hopes to advance to the top!

Tournament Format:

January's Format is EXPANDED. All Matches will be done in the EXPANDED Format.

Battle Pod Matches are Best of 2, deck switching allowed. (Not between the 2 matches)

Knockout Matches are Best of 3, deck switching allowed. (Not between the 3 matches)

Finale Matches are Best of 3, Deck Switching IS allowed. (Not between the 3 matches)

Securing an Entry:

-> Reply to this thread below, completing the following sentence...

"I would like to join Ultimate Player of January and I understand that I will have time to complete my battles within a reasonable time frame. My time zone is: GMT (+/- ? )"

-> Only reply to this thread if you have enough time to complete your battles

-> A no show will result in a 180 day ban from my future tournaments

-> Entry fee is completely free

-> Please be sure to click the thumbs UP button down below if you would like to see more tournaments! (The Green Button)

-> NOT be on my banlist

Merry Christmas and Good Luck Trainers! May the best win!

Introduction



Beware, this text is going to be extremely long and I honestly don't expect many player to take the time reading through all of it ( or maybe I do and I simply try to use reverse psychology on you, who knows).

Anyway, over the course of the last weeks and months I tried to come up with solutions that tackle a lot of problems the game currently has, both on the reward ladder and on the forums. I should note that those are things that I personally consider to be problematic, which doesn't necessary reflect the opinion of the entire user-base, yet it is safe to say that a lot of those things are mutual annoying.

I also don't believe for a second that anything is going to change, or that any of us really has the power to change the course of this game, yet I still want to get this off my chest, because eventually I'll leave this game for good and when the day comes, at least I can look back at posts like this and say “I did all I could”.



But enough pathos for now, lets dive right in.



In-Game



Remove the current reward ladder and replace it with a monthly versus ladder



We start with the biggest issue the game is currently facing. If you like it or not, the reward ladder, as good as the intentions initially were, has slowly but steadily corrupted the whole game.

In a world were points matter more than exciting games and were racing to the top feels more like a tedious grind, than an enjoyable experience, something is clearly wrong.



If you take a look at the forums, you'll see complains about donk decks, gents and the over usage of “uncreative” top tier decks. While I personally will always defend meta decks and competitive play, I can understand that players are repelled by this environment. Add in difficulties to complete your challenges and other annoying factors and you arrive at a state of the game, that simply doesn't feel right.



Onwards to the solution ( please read the entire thing before starting your rage filled comments )



Instead of the current reward ladder, you implement a monthly ladder that initially doesn't even display the prizes. Instead we get a 3 layers system: Pokemon League, Top 4 and Pokemon Champions.

In the Pokemon League, you have to collect 8 gym badges. Prior to each badge are 3 stars ( representing the small fries you have to defeat, before you can battle the arena boss).

For every win you get a star and defeating opponents who had the advantage over you will even give you two stars. After 3 wins ( or collecting 3 stars) your next match will be an arena boss match ( you can even have a small animation “boss match!” before the start of the game).



Winning those games will reward you with the corresponding badge and also work as a save point for your progress. Why save point ? Because every time you lose a game, you'll also lose a star!

Alright, before you grab your pitchforks and try to chase me out of town, let me explain:

Losing a match doesn't feel good. We all know those long battles, that come down to the wire and we just needed one more turn, but unfortunately our opponent was faster. So, we spend all that time, gain little to no reward and even lose a star on the ladder ? What a bummer.

However, here's the catch: that's how life works, in fact that's how every other game out there with a ladder system works. You win the game, you get points, you lose the game, you lose points.



The current systems biggest flaw is the lack of punishment for running super risky decks, a donk deck or being a straight out gent. If we want to go back to a game where everyone is keen on actually playing the Pokemon TCG, we have to implement a way that stops players from carelessly throwing away games.

Yes, if your winrate isn't 100%, you'll go back and forth between the stars, until you eventually clear the gym leader, but don't tell me that something like that, finally achieving victory over many failures, doesn't sound much more rewarding than mindlessly grinding until you reached a certain number of points.

With the gym leader battles, you furthermore have a much better narrative for your games. Suddenly you don't just play any ordinary game against another player, but rather fight for your badge and the corresponding save point. This can also work both ways, because the opponent ( who's representing the gym leader) could get a small visual indicator as well, which also helps with the narrative on his side of the field.



Once you cleared all of the 8 badges ( that's 32 straight wins btw) , you move onto the 2nd stage, the Top 4. Same procedure as with the last stage, however this time you'll have to take 6 stars before each member of the top 4 and you only get a save point in the middle ( after defeating the 2nd member).

Arguably not everyone will reach this stage, hence we'll have to reconstruct the prizes a little ***** more on that later).

After clearing the top 4, you reach the final state: Pokemon Champions. At this stage the best players duke it out on the leader boards, to find out who's the best amongst them. This portion is reserved for the top 1% and in terms of prizes you are only looking and visual items ( deckboxes, sleeves and coins), alongside fame and exposure of course.

Exposure isn't something to underestimate by the way, because many of the great Pokemon TCG players also play online, but you'll hardly see them on the current “leader boards”; because they are mainly for people who grind 24/7.

Just imagine the Pokemon Champions leader board and the race to the top spots and the end of each months. Suddenly who have Ryan Sabelhaus, Chris Fulop and Jason Klaczynski, playing alongside online veterans and newcomers alike, don't tell me that doesn't sound cool.

Let's go even one step further and say that the top ranks earn points for real life TCG events ( be it the invitation to Worlds, Nationals, etc.). Suddenly you'll not only get more players to participate, but you also give players the opportunity to show their skills, who don't have a local scene near them. ( Yeah, I know the different age divisions could be difficult to handle, but I'm sure there is an way solution for that as well).



Let's move on to the prizes.



As I said earlier, I think the initial idea of the reward ladder was great. Giving beginners access to strong Pokemon and staple trainer cards, alongside packs, tickets and coins is great and we should definitely keep this trend going. As mentioned earlier, the majority of the prizes should be obtainable by completing the 8 badges ( let's say this is equal to 1000-1300 points on the current ladder). Since we're looking at a monthly interval, we should also increase the prizes a bit more.

Top 4 gives out the remaining prizes after clearing the 2nd and 4th member ( more packs / coins / tickets and an FA trainer at the end).

This means that players will have more time during each ladder, will hopefully have more fun playing ( mainly because the prizes aren't shoved into your faces 24/7) and even players with a small collection / players who play with Theme decks (which might be an issue, due to the high variance – we maybe have to implement a separate ladder for Theme decks, where you only lose a star after two consecutive loses, or something like that) are able to compete, due to the save points.



Oh, and by the way: yes, the visual implementation of this system was deliberately stolen from Hearthstone, however the main concept is as old as competitive video games it self and in my opinion the gym leader / top 4 / Pokemon champion stages fit the game perfectly.



I'm aware that you probably can't use the official gym leaders, due to licensing issues, but I'm sure you'll come up with adequate substitutes ( just get rid of those nameless cartoon characters ).



The casual mode



You want to complete your daily challenge, test out your new fun deck, or simply have a relaxing round of Pokemon, without having to fear losing progress on the ladder ? Well my friend, then casual mode is the right place for you.

Select your preferred format and deck and play a fun match against someone from around the world. Arguments can be made that this is dividing the player base, but in my opinion a game mode like this is going to be beneficial for everyone. Yes, there is a chance that players will just bring their donk decks and play them here, but I believe that a lot of players, who are running those decks currently, would switch to real decks and play on the ladder, rather than running rampage through casual for a couple of coins.

Contradicting to the point I just made, I'd argue that the casual mode should hand out better rewards for both players ( no matter if you win or lose [though you need to play the game, so no coin flip concedes for you]). This way it will be a a good opportunity for beginners to earn currency, while also provide a cool environment for people who don't like the idea of the ladder and subsequently losing points for losing the match. Again, the ladder should always give out a lot more prizes than simply playing casual for an entire month, but you don't want to alienate the pure casual community either, as they are the back bone of your franchise.



That's all for the game, the rest of this post will be exclusive for the forums.



The Forums



Alright, now we get to the real juicy stuff. Pretty much all of the suggestions I'm going to make don't require any kind of development, or restructure of the forum, they simply require the moderators to do their job and actually moderate.

I'm aware that having this forum is kind of a luxury, compared to other TPCI products, but keep in mind that you also represent the company here. This is no fan made project, but rather the official forum and I have to admit: a lot of the fan made forums are better organised, better moderated and overall much more appealing than this.



Let's start with one of the most important points, that oddly enough hasn't to do anything with the forums at all:



Tutorial



Get someone like me to write a detailed tutorial, or the likes of Pooka ( c'mon, he freaking works for you) to produce videos. No, I'm not talking about the very basics of the game, how to attach and energy and what not, I'm talking about a real tutorial / FAQ. How does the trading system work ? Why does the trade-lock exists ? How do the different formats work ? Where can I find information about tournaments in my era, results from major events and so forth ? What do I have to keep in mind when I build a new deck ? How should I spend my coins ? How does the ladder work ?



You know, questions that come up time and time again. Every day, every week, every month. Questions that won't stop, because each day new players will download the game, so the next time you see a beginner with a lot of questions ask yourself this: why do we lack the ability to simply re-direct said player to an in-depth guide, that will fulfil all of his demands ?



Onwards to the actual forums.



Separate the deck building sub-forum into Competitive and Casual



Buildings decks, sharing ideas with other players and discuss those ideas is part of the fun for any TCG/CCG. However, we really need two separate sub-forums, in order to smooth out the discussion and be able to give every player the feedback that is best suited for them ( more on this later on).

When a new user posts his first deck in the casual section, there won't be any posts that suggest adding 4 of any staple trainer card, 2 Shaymins and a set of Pokemon EX / GX, but rather comments that hopefully try to improve the deck in a frame that is manageable for said user.

Likewise, if a player seeks advice on his current meta deck, it's much easier to go into detail, discuss about certain picks and so forth.

It's not so much about being snobbish and going :”Oh, those filthy casuals should stay away from me and my glorious competitive decks”, but rather about giving the forum a sense of structure, which makes it easier to navigate and subsequently easier to moderate as well.



Rewards for active users



I can't believe you haven't used this before. What's the biggest advantage the official forum has over any kind of fan made project ? You can freaking create resources for the game. Coins, Tickets, trade-locked packs, everyone of those are mere virtual items, that can be created at your will.



We want players to create content for the forums. We want good writes to create primers for the different archetypes ( sort an an overview of the entire archetype with card choices, game plan, match-ups, etc.) and we want fun and interactive discussions. This forum should be the prime source for any information about the Pokemon TCG ( more on that later, again), but therefore we need more users, more content and, above all, a higher quality in said content.

Just imagine the following:



- rewards for reaching a reputation of X “Hey there, you just reached a reputation of 200. Thank you for your ongoing work on the Pokemon TCG forums. Take these 5 packs ( trade-locked) as a token of our gratitude".



- rewards for the number of posts “ Wow, you just reached 500 posts on the official Pokemon Tcg forum. Take these 500 coins and celebrate!”



Each month will also feature a special give away for stuff like “funniest post”, “new user of the month”, “best post – deck construction”, “best post- feedback” and so forth. You don't even have to moderate that much, just scan through the forums on a regular basis, look out for posts with a lot of reputation and find your favourite.

It's all about creating an environment where people are encourage to post meaningful content, ********* with others and overall have a good time doing so.



Have monthly writing / creative contests on the forum



Tying in with the idea of given away rewards to the users, why don't we have a monthly contest, where the contestants can win all sorts of in-game goodies.

One function that is severely underused is the ability to share decks ( mainly because everyone can use that tool, no matter if they actually have the required cards or not).

So we create a deck building challenge. Build a deck around a certain theme, write a short introduction to the deck / the strategy and then let the jury decide the winners. The main criteria here shouldn't be focused on competitive viability, but rather on the narrative of the deck.



Example:

Create a narrative deck that centres around Ash's first experience in the Pokemon league.

Create a deck that can deal the most damage on turn one, without having to attack ( none of your cards is prized for this challenge and you'll always draw perfectly)

Create a deck without a single supporter card.

Create a narrative deck centred around the evolution of a Pokemon.

Create a water based deck, using only cards from the S&M sets.



You get the idea. It's fun, it's creative, it's for everyone and you get a chance to win cool prizes on top ? Sign me in.



Other contests could include: write an exciting battle report ( they are more common in the VGC, but I'm sure you can tell an epic tale of your card adventures as well), create your own Pokemon card ( given a certain Theme), Puzzle challenge ( you are given a screenshot of a board state and you need to find a way to win the game in your turn) and many more.



The Pokemon TCG forum



Get rid of the O. Pokemon TCGO will always be an advertisement for the real card game ( and vice versa), so get those players on board. In fact, the majority of the forum already works for both games. Deck construction ? Rumours has it that both games feature the same cards. Player vs. Player ? It even says “Discuss upcoming official tournaments” so why don't we bring in the TO's / Profs. from local events, in order to promote their tournament and give players a platform to discuss / organize. They get exposure, you get new players and in the end everyone is happy.

Trainer challenge discussion ? Re-name it to beginners /casual lounge and you get yourself a nice place for beginners to be introduced to the game, have a spot where parents can socialize and where you can simply have a casual talk about Pokemon, without going full nerd mode ( sort of like the off-topic sub-forum).

Feedback forum ? Just add sub-forums for online and offline feedback and we are good to go.



Listen: You want people to buy your product, play your games, attend the events and watch the streams.

Therefore you need to ***** little more effort into all of this. Maybe you need to hire extra stuff, or reschedule your priorities, but there is no way in **** that the current product, both online and on the forums, is the best thing you guys can produce in terms of user friendliness and also in terms of market value.



I haven't gotten to the many minor issues ( weird profanity filter, canned chat and all of that), because even I won't read this entire thing ever again, so kudos to you, if you somehow survived until this point.



I need a glass of water now.



Yours truly,



Felidae_

Canning the chat is a horrible idea! Why turn off the free communication with players?

If some players are being harassed by others, then that's what mute button is for!

How do you expect for us to add players in our friends' list, when we will never have the chance to chat with them during a battle?!

Can some moderator forward this to the developers? This is really serious and i doubt half of the players know about it, because let's face it, you never advertise your forums and half of the players aren't aware of many things happening around here.