Request: Copper subscription

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JW

Right now there's no subscription option that allows a new player to gradually become exposed to more cards. I eventually bought all sets on the previous Dominion Online implementation but did so gradually as a way to learn the cards, because I was new to the game. Per http://forum.shuffleit.nl/index.php?topic=708.0, the smallest subscription, Silver, adds 4 large sets and 2 small sets, which may be hard for a new player to learn at once.

I propose a Copper subscription. Subscribes to Intrigue, Seaside
costs about €1.00 /month or €12.00 /year
for Americans: that is about $1.05 / $12.25

The current options are:
Quote
Gold subscription
gives access to all current expansions
costs about €3.00 /month or €36.00 /year
for Americans: that is about $3.15 / $38.00

Silver subscription
subscribes to Intrigue, Seaside, Prosperity, Cornucopia, Hinterlands and Guilds
costs about €2.00 /month or €24.00 /year
for Americans: that is about $2.10 / $25.25


Jacob Marley

You also need the Potion subscription, which gets you only Alchemy...

grackel13

I think this is a terrific idea.  :)

JW

#3
Unfortunately, Stef, the developer, says that there won't be a cheaper subscription option than the current Silver package. The linked thread has further interesting discussion on these topics.

As I see it, Stef is missing that he already lets people without any subscription play as much as they want, and there's a resource cost to them as well. The Copper subscription would just be another way to draw players in and expose them to the game, while getting some revenue from people who aren't ready for the full Silver subscription experience. But it's his decision to make.

Quote from: Stef on 21 September 2017, 10:28:30 AM
8. There won't be any cheaper subscription models. That's just an economical argument - Silver and Gold are already so cheap that almost nobody will reject it because of the amount. If people don't subscribe it's because they just don't want to pay for various reasons. And people playing with less cards aren't actually cheaper to support for me then people playing with all cards (assuming those cards get implemented anyway).


Jacob Marley

But the utility of a copper subscription is limited.  Basically, it only works in limiting the card selection when you get matched with someone with a copper or no subscription.  Even players who get the silver subscription have the problem of getting matched against a gold subscription and getting lots of unfamiliar cards. 

Really, if you want to learn new cards without the pressure of a game against a live opponent, the quickest way is to play bots.  Creating a table and using the familiar cards setting is difficult as automatch for full random ranked games accounts for the great majority of the community here.

Long-term the campaign will address this, although a decent AI is needed there.  For now, the best way I can think to learn new cards is to play bots.  It's not great, but at least you can see what the cards do without any time pressure as you read them and figure them out.

JW

#5
Quote from: Jacob Marley on 27 September 2017, 12:52:03 AM
But the utility of a copper subscription is limited.  Basically, it only works in limiting the card selection when you get matched with someone with a copper or no subscription.  Even players who get the silver subscription have the problem of getting matched against a gold subscription and getting lots of unfamiliar cards.

You're correct. I had a separate and different proposal for a feature so that players who have not subscribed to any cards can avoid games against Gold subscribers, Silvers can avoid Golds if they prefer, etc.  This other feature would be important as well.

But I assume that at lower ranking levels, a substantial percentage of games are played by players who have not subscribed.  So a substantial percentage of games among lower-rated players feature only cards from the base set, and a Copper subscriber would get their preferred sets a substantial amount of the time, at least until their ranking improved.