Most of you will be unaware that PDXBaller and I had started developing a trading card system a while ago before we both got too busy to see it through to completion. There was a basic framework already in place though, and really the main stumbling block was actually designing the cards themselves. Now that this issue seems to have been addressed, we have a new trading card system in place, which seems to work alright. However, I think the current system could take on some aspects of what we had as possible improvements.
For example, the pack purchase limit seems low. If the aim is to take money out of the league economy, it's not allowing enough money to come out. It also appears impossible to actually collect all cards before they get discontinued. As a means to potentially get around this, I would suggest implementing a "coin" system where you trade ISFL dollars for coins, which are then used within the trading card economy. This was the model we had in place, because we figured it gives more freedom to adjust deposit limits and so on if you're concerned about richer users just buying a ton of packs straight away -- though I don't see the harm here, given that trading hasn't been implemented yet so there's not any real advantage to be gleaned in that sense. The idea when we talked about this currency exchange was that we could then build achievements into the system that reward players with packs and/or coins. Redeem codes were implemented to allow one-off rewards for players, too, and all of this would encourage people to engage more with the trading card system. By having this exchange mechanism, there's no need for a weekly limit. Let people exchange as much cash for coins as they want, but then if you're concerned about some users buying way more packs or whatever, just implement soft limits, by increasing pack costs beyond certain thresholds (e.g. if a pack is 10 coins, and the exchange rate is 50k per coin; 10 coins per pack up to 5 packs, then 20 per pack up to the tenth pack, 40 per pack up to the twentieth, etc etc) -- and this can easily be done automatically within the system -- to both increase the money coming out of the economy and sort of level the playing field between the richer users and everyone else because going beyond the default allowance starts to get exponentially more expensive. Sort of like how training costs in sim leagues are often *less* efficient at higher prices.
Trading itself was a controversial idea when we first talked about this concept, because some see it as a means to effectively smuggle cash between users. But if you're doing trading cards, it's kind of necessary. Now, if all cards are bought with a separate currency (coins), which can't be converted back to ISFL dollars... there's no danger of that. You can also easily prevent lopsided deals since it's trivial to assign a value to each rarity, then you can just make it so the two sides of a trade must be within a certain percentage of each other's value.
Beyond all of this, the original plan was to create a sort of "Ultimate Team" game within a game. Each card had attributes, depending on rarity and position etc. The end goal was to create a stripped down "sim" that allowed users to build their own "ultimate team" and pit them against others. The logic being that if you weren't interested in just collecting and trading cards, the competitive aspect may pull you in.
One of the other main reasons the whole thing stalled though, was that we didn't have the means to integrate the cards with the forum and automate the buying, exchanging for coins, etc etc. That should be doable now with mybb, via a login API of some sort, or simply by building the system off the back of the forum itself. When we (mostly PDX) designed the database structure, it was deliberately designed to have a single ID for users that could have been tied back to a forum user id for this reason, with the intention of tying everything together later. By having a separate site containing all the trading card stuff, it kind of defeats the purpose of the forum move imo. It also prevents some people from actually using the system. If the setup was integrated into the forum itself, it would be more inclusive as well as potentially making it more feasible to fully automate pack purchases -- particularly given the possibility of an integrated banking system on the forum -- and remove the need for posting in threads, and awarding packs on the dotts website etc etc.
For example, the pack purchase limit seems low. If the aim is to take money out of the league economy, it's not allowing enough money to come out. It also appears impossible to actually collect all cards before they get discontinued. As a means to potentially get around this, I would suggest implementing a "coin" system where you trade ISFL dollars for coins, which are then used within the trading card economy. This was the model we had in place, because we figured it gives more freedom to adjust deposit limits and so on if you're concerned about richer users just buying a ton of packs straight away -- though I don't see the harm here, given that trading hasn't been implemented yet so there's not any real advantage to be gleaned in that sense. The idea when we talked about this currency exchange was that we could then build achievements into the system that reward players with packs and/or coins. Redeem codes were implemented to allow one-off rewards for players, too, and all of this would encourage people to engage more with the trading card system. By having this exchange mechanism, there's no need for a weekly limit. Let people exchange as much cash for coins as they want, but then if you're concerned about some users buying way more packs or whatever, just implement soft limits, by increasing pack costs beyond certain thresholds (e.g. if a pack is 10 coins, and the exchange rate is 50k per coin; 10 coins per pack up to 5 packs, then 20 per pack up to the tenth pack, 40 per pack up to the twentieth, etc etc) -- and this can easily be done automatically within the system -- to both increase the money coming out of the economy and sort of level the playing field between the richer users and everyone else because going beyond the default allowance starts to get exponentially more expensive. Sort of like how training costs in sim leagues are often *less* efficient at higher prices.
Trading itself was a controversial idea when we first talked about this concept, because some see it as a means to effectively smuggle cash between users. But if you're doing trading cards, it's kind of necessary. Now, if all cards are bought with a separate currency (coins), which can't be converted back to ISFL dollars... there's no danger of that. You can also easily prevent lopsided deals since it's trivial to assign a value to each rarity, then you can just make it so the two sides of a trade must be within a certain percentage of each other's value.
Beyond all of this, the original plan was to create a sort of "Ultimate Team" game within a game. Each card had attributes, depending on rarity and position etc. The end goal was to create a stripped down "sim" that allowed users to build their own "ultimate team" and pit them against others. The logic being that if you weren't interested in just collecting and trading cards, the competitive aspect may pull you in.
One of the other main reasons the whole thing stalled though, was that we didn't have the means to integrate the cards with the forum and automate the buying, exchanging for coins, etc etc. That should be doable now with mybb, via a login API of some sort, or simply by building the system off the back of the forum itself. When we (mostly PDX) designed the database structure, it was deliberately designed to have a single ID for users that could have been tied back to a forum user id for this reason, with the intention of tying everything together later. By having a separate site containing all the trading card stuff, it kind of defeats the purpose of the forum move imo. It also prevents some people from actually using the system. If the setup was integrated into the forum itself, it would be more inclusive as well as potentially making it more feasible to fully automate pack purchases -- particularly given the possibility of an integrated banking system on the forum -- and remove the need for posting in threads, and awarding packs on the dotts website etc etc.
I impersonate a programmer for a living
Father of the League Wiki • Friendly Neighbourhood Angry Black Guy™ • NOT British
Originator of the Sim League Cinematic Universe (SLCU)
Super capitalists are parasites. Fite me.
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