Converting Alpha Cards to Beta!
Since the beginning of the Beta release it's been our plan to allow players to combine Alpha and Beta cards of the same type. We went through a number of potential solutions at the time but couldn't find one that made sense and wasn't overly complicated to use and to implement.
As a result, we currently have players that are feeling some frustration about having partially-leveled Alpha edition cards and then having to start over with leveling up their Betas.
We've let the idea sit for a while and collected lots of great feedback from the community and have come up with a plan that we feel will address the majority of the concerns and frustrations without complicating things.
Converting Alpha Cards to Beta
In the near future we plan to allow players to convert their Alpha edition cards into Beta edition ones. We hope this will solve three problems which have been expressed by a number of players in the community:
- It can be frustrating for players with partially-leveled Alpha cards. The new cards they receive from packs cannot be used to level up their existing cards.
- Many times players accidentally purchase Alpha cards on the market instead of Beta and then are unable to combine them with their existing cards, which also leads to frustration.
- It's very cool that we're down to 40% of the alpha cards left uncombined, but the scarcity is leading to severe challenges leveling cards up completely. The scarcity helps the price, but it's also limiting utility.
Once Alpha cards can be converted to Beta cards, players experiencing issues #1 and #2 above can simply convert their cards and then combine them with their other Beta cards and continue to level them up like normal.
For the third issue, once conversion is available the Alpha edition cards should be worth at least 25% - 33% more than the equivalent Beta edition card simply because they provide that much more XP per card towards leveling.
Additionally, any cards that are converted will reduce the total pool of Alpha edition cards that exist, increasing the rarity and collectors value of the cards as well.
Conversion Mechanics
Each individual, uncombined card is worth a certain amount of XP when combined with other cards. Alpha cards are worth more XP than the equivalent Beta cards, so to ensure that the Alpha cards retain the same XP value after they are converted to Beta, they will be given the difference in XP between the two editions during the conversion process. Since you probably didn't follow that, here's an example:
An Alpha edition common card is worth 20 XP and a Beta edition common card is worth 15 XP. Therefore each Alpha edition common card will receive 5 XP when converted to a Beta edition card. This way whenever that card is combined with other Beta edition cards in the future, it will be worth the 15 XP that each Beta edition common card is worth, plus the 5 XP it received during conversion.
The end result is that the XP value of the Alpha edition cards is preserved when converting them to Beta edition, thereby providing increased value to the Alpha edition cards for leveling up.
Lastly, we will be recording and exposing via our APIs the amount of "Alpha XP" that has gone into any Beta edition cards. This will allow anyone to see if a particular Beta edition card is made up of one or more converted Alpha edition cards. That will make it possible for things like Alpha-only tournaments to also allow Beta edition cards that are made up of at least a certain percentage of converted Alpha edition cards. We're not saying that we will necessarily do that, just that it will be possible and that that information will be made readily available.
Looking Forward to the Future!
We hope you're enjoying the new game mechanics released earlier today. We're having a blast inching closer and closer to acheiving the vision of game and executing on the mission: bring more people into the Steem ecosystem and create more utility for the STEEM token!
Thanks for your support, your time, your patronage, and we can't wait to crushya out there... and now with the new changes we'll know it's you ahead of time!
Thank you for your continued support!
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Any idea of when organic leveling up (i.e. via battle) will be introduced? If it's years off, I may have to convert Α to Β though I'd prefer NOT TO.
At this point I don't think this will be happening. What we've realized that directly awarding XP to cards amounts to is infinite inflation of the card supply, which is something we want to avoid. In a traditional, non-blockchain game we would absolutely do that, but one of the key benefits and innovations of blockchain is digital scarcity, so we would like to keep that intact by only giving out packs from the available pool.
What if you could convert cards to xp? That way it would still be necessary to either buy or win cards by playing, but the xp could be applied toward any cards including alpha.
You might limit the temptation to just apply a bunch of common xp to legendaries, by making separate xp pools for your common xp, rare, etc.
Interesting idea. One consequence would be that all cards become the same price (assuming that most buyers of cards combine them for leveling purposes). For example, even if Crustacean King is much better than Giant Roc, their price would be equivalent on the market because they both contain the same XP.
I don't love that consequence.
I doubt it would be that simple, but you have a point. I'm thinking certain cards would still be worth more as you'd want to play them and not convert them to xp. But if a lot of people converted giant roc, it would become more rare and that could raise the price.
Mostly, I just want to level my alphas through playing, somehow.
This suggestion deserves more upvotes
That'd leave buying and combining alphas as the only way to level them up?
It's a pity, but if there was a way to make it work I'm sure you guys would've found it.
It would be fun if you created a set of special hero cards that can only level up through playing, one for each splinter. They would only gain xp if they are used in battle, survive the battle and win the match. You could even create a skill tree for each hero card to assign points to skills as you level the cards.
Had a very involved discussion about it on @monsterworld post... there are some benefits but one huge drawback that may make organic leveling challenging. We'll see if it can be solved.
Can you link to you prior discussion?
I think its a good solution to bridge the gap between alpha and beta cards. Since every user can decide for themself to covert their cards or not. I think this will bring a lot of dynamic to the card market and also helps with price discovery in both markets because than there is a real Arbitrage-Trade possible.
What I would like to know if you are planning to keep this strategy also for the upcoming new card editions?
For example it will be possible to switch Beta cards into the new card edition?
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Our plan at this point (subject to change) is to release all new cards in future editions, thereby making this not an issue.
Perhaps I do not get what 'all new cards' means but I believe the same issue will remain. If beta packs sell out, people will remain with below-max cards that cannot be leveled up except through market, just like now.
On the other hand, that's just how it is! I don't mind that much we all have the same rules of competition.
The issue isn't really that people will have below-max cards that they can't level up except through the market, it's really having two versions of the same card that are treated as different cards. It's more of a perception and confusion thing than anything else.
At some point there has to be a competitive cut off for people and their shortcomings. If we are going to cater to the slowest people to get acclimated to this blockchain game it will never go anywhere. All of this time painstakingly watching the market and figuring out potential advantages and risks that can be taken and rewards for upside seem to go up in dust because some people are too freaking dumb to figure out which card they are buying? I know @steemmonsters cannot necessarily take such a hard line with complaints but that is mine and a lot of other people on here that have wasted a great deal of time and money if alpha and beta cards are going to be converted or conjoined willy nilly like that. I share everyone's desire to see populations move downward but that is also why there is a market, and now people aren't getting what they want for their cards so we are going to screw over everyone who has a freaking clue of what they are doing to pacify the less informed? What next, "Summoners are hard to accumulate so people will think they need to be eliminated from the game?" Sounds harsh but that would be fairly comparable to intermingling these cards after announcing they would be segregated among each other. Here's a suggestion, click on the card or go to peak-monsters sell the card you don't want and buy the one you do. Just saying it's very dangerous bowing down to the least knowledgeable people here and having "do-overs" like this, eventually you are going to have a revolutionary game design turn into Chutes and Ladders really soon.
We get tons of complaints and feedback that we don't act on if we don't feel it's in the best interest of the overall game. In this particular case, as we noted at the start of the post, we had initially wanted alpha and beta cards to be able to be combined in some way that made sense, so this is following our initial plan.
Lastly, you say:
Can you explain how this screws anyone over in any way?
I apologize my tone is hard to convey at times over a message board. I am not overly upset by this, I also think that the best interest of the game has been a home run how the development has gone so far, I surely cannot question that it has truly been great. My only concern (maybe put in a better way) is that this is a possibly a heavy outlier of a move in the long run that is all. Having something like this change in this way on the fly is a concern of mine, but of course I know it's done with a forward plan in mind and I am confident it's being done for the right reasons. I am only one guy who tends to think that this may not be the best move going forward but I am also not developing the game and knowing everything going forward. It just caught me off guard, again being just one person if you see it as a benefit going forward in the future development of things, lol. The 'screw over' portion was that I personally was reading intent and the fundamentals of the cards going forward and crafted a strategy from that how I perceived it based on how it was originally crafted. The choice of wording I put above may not have been exactly the point I was trying to get across I was just concerned that people who didn't like their position in relation to alphas and betas that they are holding are simply calling for a fundamental reset as a holder of the cards rather than letting the market sort them out. I am not at all concerned on the intention of the change as it means very well and I appreciate the response, again just being one guy that is just my opinion. Lol, I will be a little more careful next time not to have "hot takes and sausage" so early in the morning. Thanks again for the response and this in no way changes my position in the game going forward I will continue of course to be as a big a supporter in the game of course. Best of luck, keep up the great work, and thanks again for the feedback.
I hear ya man. I will be selling all of my cards here shortly after I give my friends first dibs on them.
Oh, snap! Way to make alphas even more scarce!
I think it's unnecessary. There is a market. You can sell your alfas and with the proceeds buy the betas if you want o level up.
That's true, and it's what i've been telling people all this time, but the reality is that that's a lot of work and much more than most people are willing to do, and when they're frustrated and the only option is a project for them they just give up which isn't good for anyone. So now they have a simple way to convert their cards and they can keep combining and playing.
In effect it's more complicated to sell cards that are already leveled up instead of cards at level 1.
Isn't it simpler to just say an alpha is 20xp and a beta is 15xp and if you combine them it's 35xp
Unless i misunderstood how it works.
p.s. i think it's a great idea to convert A to B since the XP is different anyway
Comparing level 5 Fire Demons... alpha BCX is 16, beta BCX is 23
16x20=320 level 6 is 32x20=640
23x15=345 level 6 is 46x15=690
With current market prices, it would be cheaper to max the alpha than if I converted it to beta.
So I should leave it alpha?
I'm confused... haha
Beautiful upgrades!
While this does help for traction on playability for cards to create teams it’s really a bad idea for collecting. By combining you decrease the value of betas and increase the value of alphas.
I’d put peoples complains aside and just allow users to either purchase singles to level them or sell them in the open market to obtain betas. I think by combining both into betas you’re de-valuing the cards economy. Logically alphas combined will go up in value and betas become even more common.
Personally you cry babies with unleveled alphas should suck it up and combine the cards the normal way or trade/sell your alphas to betas...
That is not a good way to handle customer complaints and feedback.
Just about the first pic in intro :
The robot card is a new one ?
I never see it in the game (market or collection).
Keep going, I love the game...
There are a few monsters shown on the website which are not in the game...yet!
Maybe for Christmas :-)
Not in game (yet), but if it's more than just a meme, seems kinda op for a rare tbh
Agree it's OP as is, but that would be a really interesting card if it had a zero melee attack. (But subject to Malric's bonus and Inspire.)
Are you referring to the Alpha cards left behind (i.e. unconverted), or the ones converted to Beta?
Both, because in both cases they will have more XP.
Increased XP would certainly make them more valuable post-conversion, but I'm thinking the intrinsic value should go down after converting to beta. It will make the value of the unconverted higher, but the post-converted lower + the value of the XP add-on. So it might be a net increase, but I'd assume an alpha converted to beta is going to be worth less than a pure alpha unconverted.
This will likely be a good thing for players on the lower side of the alpha count. If their monsters are level 5 or lower, converting to beta and powering up to max should make their cards more valuable over all. In my case, all my Ferexians are nearly maxed. Level 7 summoner, levels 8 and 9 commons. I can't see their value increasing post-conversion even if I level them to max. It seems like there would be an inherent devaluation when converting to beta, especially since it requires more beta to level up than alpha.
I'm thinking long-term valuations here. That's my way of thinking.