I’d hate a “good cards from the rotating cycles made evergreen” bigbox approach. Rotation is supposed to keep the game at least somewhat approachable by new players. Having this doesn’t seem to help.
Core 2.0 (however unlikely) if made in such a way that it includes no new cards (rather just cards from Core 1.0 and for example to first cycles) would be fine. That would make it possible to rotate out problematic Core 1.0 cards (even potentially IDs!) while not forcing old players to shovel in more cash. The issue here would probably be the 1-ofs and 2-ofs again, but if those would be chosen in such a way that you don’t actually want 3x of any of the 1-ofs in a deck that’d probably be fine (obviously can be hard to predict, but so far there’s not been a competitive deck with 3x Zaibatsu, I don’t think ).
You’re assuming a lot about FFG. They want you to buy core sets so that it increases sales figures of the base game, for industry publication purposes. They sell “big boxes” that are cardboard inserts with a few cards inside.
Buying another core set made me feel like an ivory poacher, but for trees. It’s a shameful business model but I bought it. There is no reason why 3x cards should not be available except by buying 3x core sets except for avarice, market manipulation, and deception of user base.
Efficiency is the reason. It costs time, effort, and production resources to release a differently configured set of already available cards. Personally I’m happy that they’ve chosen to put their energy into things like draft sets, championship decks, and so on, rather than catering to people who want three Desperados but no more than three Sure Gambles, and who think that they’ve been personally wronged by the failure of the market to satisfy this particular whim.
(As for me, I want exactly nine Sure Gambles, six Scorched Earths, zero Cell Portals, and for all but one of my Astroscripts to have transformed into Snares on July 18th FFG HAS NO REASON NOT TO GIVE THIS TO ME, DAMN THOSE THIEVING SCOUNDRELS STRAIGHT TO HELL)
Also, who are you claiming was deceived, and how? Regardless of how one feels about the card distribution, FFG’s transparency should be obvious from the sheer volume of absurd tantrums that began raging long before the game was even released. They have never been anything less than entirely open about the composition of the core set and what decks (and how many) can or can’t be build from a single core. The fact that you don’t like it doesn’t mean you were lied to.
I think something I wouldn’t mind would be a “Upgrade Pack” that was the size of a Deluxe, but incorporated all the errata that’s come out thus far so we can have updated text on cardboard instead of errata files. Legality of the cards would be whatever the card’s normally from.
And then maybe MRP’ing some of the over/under-performing cards that need tweaks.
Maybe some new cards as well to make it attractive for people to pick up? I wouldn’t say no to a fist-full of extra Sunny cards.
Honestly, if they do a Core 2.0 I’d be shocked if they didn’t have 3x of any changed cards. They’re aware that their LCGs live and die on the goodwill and investment of long-term players. It’s a relatively small thing that would go a long way to smoothing over any grievances.
So long as there is impetus to actually have old players buy the new core, there is a marketing incentive.
So, say 1/3 to 1/2 of the hypothetical core 2.0 is not just reprints, but new cards, coupled with rebalanced core cards or future proofed cards.
Its probably not something that would make everyone happy, but it would be cool to make it a pseudo mini big box, with updated influence totals, costs and maths for those fringe cards that are just too good in the card pool right now.
Damon has said in interviews that that’s now how it works though. marketing have to worry about whether or not people will buy it; whether or not it’ll compete with previous product, etc.
whether or not a Core 2.0 will ever happen has very little to do with balance issues.
if it’s destined to receive a lukewarm reception, what’s the impetus for FFG to try to market this?
My post has less to do with balance issues, but rather trying to find reasons someone who owns everything would want it and why new players would want it.
Which is exactly what marketing does.
I was being realistic in my prediction. I think much, much more of the community is in favor of some change rather than nothing.
From my small sample size, the community would be excited about a change to the core. What exactly that change would be would require data that I cannot provide.
My post suggested a change like 1/2 “new core” as in entirely new cards and 1/2 “old favorites”.
But again, I don’t own a crystal ball that tells the future. If I did, I wouldn’t need this day job to keep running.
Changing any text on cards other than to clarify text would be a bad idea. If the card is that big of a problem, ban it and make a replacement. Having multiple versions of cards available would do nothing but lead to confusion.
A good new core set would definitely help the game. Two most important things should be:
replacing all the MWL/errataed cards so they rotate and something else stays - , let’s say Doppelganger for Desperado, Bernice Mai for SanSan City Grid, TGTBT for Breaking News, Project Beale for AstroScript, Knight for Yog, Imp for Parasite, Joshua B for Wyldside
replacing completely unplayable cards with better cards from Genesis and Spin (for example HQ Interface instead of Lemuria Codecracker)
Also a good change (although I don’t think this will happen) would be getting rid of 1-of card by either removing them (e.g. 2x Hokusai Grid instead of Akitaro Watanabe and Zaibatsu Loyalty) or adding 2nd copies (2nd Corp Troubleshooter and move some HB 3-of to a 2-of status).
This doesn’t seem quite right to me, but I suppose it is possible. It seems like there has been an awful lot of attention paid to the “runner send offs” thus far and Chaos Theory was one of those.
Not that I would complain. Thematically I like CT way, way more than Kate.
I also think CT’s ID ability is much more helpful to new players playing with a shaper deck. The extra MU lets them run the Magnum Opus econ without having to find an MU expansion, or play any of the utility programs without much concern about being able to later install their breakers.
Kate is definitely a stronger ID than CT, but is a little harder for a new player to leverage to full effect. CT, I feel is an ideal introduction to playing shaper; a powerful and straight forward ability that makes the card pool easier to play.
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