Live Beta a Waste of Time

**Twio** · 04-10-2014, 12:43 AM

So I log on to the Live Beta today, aware that the merchant has no SF cards in stock and wondering how I'm even going to play. I remember that I have 20 SF boosters as part of my kickstarter reward. I go ahead and open them all, noticing that they are originally all blank with no names and that they take a few seconds to load... I do ok (5 foils and a few good epics) and I head over to the deck builder.

To my dismay, all the CotC and DP cards have the same problem as the SF cards (they all appear blank for a while before they load). Consequently I had to wait a full minute before all cards in the deck builder were visible. To make things worse, cards that had already loaded become blank again if you scroll past them then come back, making deck building extremely annoying.

Those are the technical diffiulties. Next is the real problem imo.

I look through all the cards I pulled (15 x 20 = 300 cards including heroes) and realise that I have nowhere near enough cards to even think about making a competitive SF deck. I would need another 10 - 20 packs to build one.

Basically if you want to use this server you have 3 options:
- Have pledged at least $30 - $40 to the SF kickstarter
- Have 3000 - 4000 spare crystals to buy SF packs with
- Open a few packs and hope you get the right cards which you can use as techs in your DP deck.

There are 3 reasons why I'm screwed
- I pledged all I could afford to the kickstarter at the time ($20)
- I already spent all my crystals on packs / elemental decks which I sold to be able to buy every SF card I need from the merchant, who doesn't fucking have any.
- I didn't get the right cards which I could have used as techs in any of my DP decks.

For those of you who have access to a large number of SF packs, congratulations, I envy you. I hope for your sake that there are enough of you so as not to have a repeat of the ghost-town that is the early SF beta. Ironically I expect that most of the people with access to packs will also be kickstarter backers, which defeats the purpose of this new live beta.

For those of you who don't, there is nothing this server can do for you unless you want to get your ass handed to you by people with a lot of SF cards. Stick to the live server (v2.8001).

TL;DR The merchant needs to be stocked with SF cards asap. Like now. Otherwise this server is a giant, pointless waste of time.

**jayceemp** · 04-10-2014, 12:47 AM

+1

**Gondorian** · 04-10-2014, 12:52 AM

The technical issue is due to on-demand image loading, which clearly has some issues.

As for the reasoning behind the live beta, I think you've misinterpreted what it is for. It is very much about the Kickstarter backers still, giving them the chance to play on more devices. But anyone else who also wishes to get on board with SF now is welcome to do so by spending SC on SF packs. This is Freemium model in action. Nothing has been taken away from the free players, but something extra is available to people who spend money.

**Twio** · 04-10-2014, 01:10 AM

Originally Posted by Gondorian

As for the reasoning behind the live beta, I think you've misinterpreted what it is for. It is very much about the Kickstarter backers still, giving them the chance to play on more devices. But anyone else who also wishes to get on board with SF now is welcome to do so by spending SC on SF packs. This is Freemium model in action. Nothing has been taken away from the free players, but something extra is available to people who spend money.

I, a kickstarter backer, can no longer test SF cards because I don't have enough to make a deck.

I thought this server was going to be a response to the complaints that the test server was empty. You're effectively saying that the only new players who will be able to use SF cards are kickstarter backers on other platforms (who pledged a significant amount) and people who have a lot of crystals to spend. At the same time you have to think about people like me who were on the old test server but won't be playing with SF cards anymore. Therefore the number of players using SF cards is going to be small, and eventually players will lose interest because they're playing the same 3 people over and over. Therefore we'll have the same problem as before, therefore the live beta was a waste of time.

Someone remind me what the issue was with just making a beta server where players have 4x every CotC, DP and SF card, and opening it to everyone instead of only Kickstarter backers?

**jcbow** · 04-10-2014, 01:13 AM

I think his point is he did spend money

**Shadow Mann** · 04-10-2014, 01:19 AM

this live beta is not for the benefit of KS backers: I spent 175CAD and wouldn't be able to get 4x all the SF cards...not even if they give the other bonus, where I get 1x of every SF card, including foils...I'd need to be able to spend some of my 1.7+ million gold to buy the rest (but unfortunately gold is worthless right now...I'd really like to be able to spend some gold)

**Twio** · 04-10-2014, 01:28 AM

Originally Posted by Shadow Mann

this live beta is not for the benefit of KS backers: I spent 175CAD and wouldn't be able to get 4x all the SF cards...not even if they give the other bonus, where I get 1x of every SF card, including foils...I'd need to be able to spend some of my 1.7+ million gold to buy the rest (but unfortunately gold is worthless right now...I'd really like to be able to spend some gold)

Who exactly is it for? Lol it seems to serve no real purpose at all without a merchant. I watched a few matches and haven't seen a SF card yet.

**Kip thorp** · 04-10-2014, 01:34 AM

Originally Posted by Twio

Who exactly is it for? Lol it seems to serve no real purpose at all without a merchant. I watched a few matches and haven't seen a SF card yet.

It's for you bro! The build up to when you see nothing but SF cards!
Sooo, glad I'm still in DP.

**Shadow Mann** · 04-10-2014, 01:36 AM

Originally Posted by Twio

Who exactly is it for? Lol it seems to serve no real purpose at all without a merchant. I watched a few matches and haven't seen a SF card yet.

it is to allow players the opportunity to play SF on live server across multiple platforms, but unfortunately, those players need to spend SC or money to do it...so hopefully, it's not long before they add the opportunity to buy SF cards with gold to increase the number of people who can play SF on live server.