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You earn Rewards Track XP for playing Mercenaries. That translates to gold. It only makes sense that you would asked to spend some of that gold in Mercenaries. It's not like it will be a constant drain on your resources. You buy the buildings once, and that's it. You don't even have to upgrade them unless you enjoy Mercenaries enough to want to do that.
From Blizzard's perspective, gold is the only way f2p players are able to "pay" for the development of Mercenaries. I think it's completely fair and reasonable that they ask you to contribute to a new game mode if you want to play it.
Not knowing how much buildings are going to cost, I think it's very premature to complain about this now. Once you know the prices, THEN you can complain if you think they are too high.
"Why, you never expected justice from a company, did you? They have neither a soul to lose nor a body to kick." -- Lady Saba Holland
Im not complaining about the actual cost of the building because I dont know that. Im complaining about the ideology that the basic functions cost gold. Its true that you gain xp while playing the mode but there are 2 problems with that:
1. Most of the reward track xp comes from daily and weekly quests and you cant complete them in mercenaries. The new game mode will have its own quest system, but it wont reward you with xp or gold.
2. Any game mode that is not ranked standard or wild gives you less xp. All of the PVE content gives you very little xp, almost nothing. We dont know the mercenaries xp system yet, but its mainly PVE content so its safe to assume that it will be hard to get gold if you want to focus on this game mode.
These are one time upgrades, yes, but there will be more of them in the future, they have even confirmed it in the reveal video with the portal. My point is, if you need resources outside of this game mode to access its basic functions, then its not really F2P.
1. It Is an assumption. And it is a weird one. I hardly believe that there will be no promotional quests like play X games in Mercenaries and get x XP. Another question is what % of existing quests you will be able to complete in Mercenaries. Battleground players, (who play every day) can easily complete all quests even if they have to downgrade the 2500 XP one and do 900XP dailies. Not that battlegrounds-only players need a lot of XP to get that 2K gold.
2. I hardly believe that Blizzard will shoot themselves in their foot like this. This means saying "fuck off" to players who are interested only in this mode, this means a smaller playerbase. I fully expect that Mercenaries will give less XP. I will be shocked if a dedicated F2P mercenaries-only player (say 1 hour per day) will be unable to upgrade their village at a reasonable pace (Naturally, buying mercenary packs will be either a no-no for such players or they will be able to afford very few)
I think Blizzard badly miscommunicated there. They wanted to say "Hey folks, saving gold for this mode is a good idea." but it sounded like "Without a hefty sum of gold you won't be even able to start playing."
1. Getting promotional quests are an assumption and I think you misunterstood me. I didnt mean you cant complete normal quests in mercenaries because Blizzard wont allow it. I did mean you cant complete them because of the nature of daily/weekly quests. You cant play as mage/warrior etc. you cant spend mana, deal damage to enemy heroes, play battlecry cards. play weapons, play spells, use your hero power, draw cards. You cant complete the card-cost related quests either. If you look at the current weekly quests, its clear that none of them can be completed in mercenaries. For daily quests there are very few that you might be able to complete like play x games in any game mode, but its gonna be very hard to reroll into these. One more thing which im not 100% sure about, but it seems like this will be the case: mercenaries are not heroes or minions. Mercenaries are Mercs, if you look at the revealed ones not one of them uses the word "minion" or "hero", they use the word "Merc". This means that you cant complete minion-based quests either.
IMO the devs want to seperate the normal quests from the mercenaries-only quests. You cant complete the mercs-only quests outside of mercs and you cant complete normal quests within mercs.
2. At this point both of our opinions are just assumptions, we will see which one of us is right about this when they release the mode or share more information about it.
Another thread about the same topic.. Don't you get tired of it?
Det är bättre med en fågel i hand, än tiger i träd!
And I find it to be one of many pessimistic assumptions that work on a basis that Blizzard are unreasonable villains.
Main quests give only one resource - XP. No packs, no tickets, no dust, no gold, only XP. There is no "win 1 Brawl game to get 1 pack" quest. It would be weird if we got quests that read "do X in the Merc gamemode and get a resource that can't be even used in constructed Hearthstone and don't progress your reward track(progress it less)". It wouldn't work. If Blizzard wanted any daily quests in Mercs they needed a separate set of quests.
There will be new Merc-centered main quests. Yep, it is my assumption. It is a reasonable assumption. Why it is reasonable? Because
1) Since we got the XP system they add new quests even for minor stuff like keywords or types of card (play X corrupted, Complete a questline). It is logical to assume that a new GAME MODE will get quests, too. It is their way to motivate players
2) As I said earlier. Blizzard understands that there will be players interested mainly (or only) in the new game mode. If the only reasonable way to get a key F2P resource is to play another game, they will alienate tons of possible new players. Sure, just like they do now, they are likely to continue promoting ranked constructed Hearthstone by giving more XP for that (including 2500XP weekly quests) but to create a new game that can't be played unless you grind constructed would be total insanity.
The main truth is: It will be impossible to play less constructed Hearthstone and more Mercenaries and expect that it won't hurt your Hearthstone collection. But it is how it should be. It looks like some players here expected to get a new game mode AND free resources for their main game.
First of all, I dont think that Blizzard folks are unreasonable villains, if you see my other posts, usually I defend the company and I have said it more than once that I think that Hearthstone is going in the right direction (in general, I dont mean the latest expansion which has it flaws for sure). I was one of the few who was optimistic about the reward track because I did the math and it did seem fair. I have some facts and some assumptions, and based on those the new game mode seems very unfriendly to F2P players.
It is a fact that inside the mercs game mode you will get quests that will award you mercs packs, mercs coins and mercs cosmetics. If you want to progress in the game mode, this will be your main source of "income" outside of bounties which also give you mercs-specific resources. Since the game mode has its own quest system it seems reasonable that they dont want to mix it with the regular quests. If somebody is complaining about not being able to complete daily/weekly quests in mercs, the devs can always defend theirselves with the argument "but mercs has its own quest system".
Do we get new main quests for the mercs game mode? Maybe, maybe not. Your assumption is reasonable but I think so is mine. Blizzard got a chance in the reveal stream to show that they will support the game mode with new main quests or promotional quests but they didnt.
Lastly, I get it if I want to spend my resources on mercs, I wont be able to progress my normal collection at the same pace, its logical. But what stinks to me is that if I want keep normal HS as my main game mode and play mercs casually, I still need resources from the main game mode to have access to basic functions for mercs, so it hurts my normal economy even if I play the other mode casually.
Im pretty sure that mercs will be a very fun and enjoyable game mode but I disagree with the devs about economy decisions.
Think of it this way: We know you will get Reward Track XP from playing Mercenaries. That XP equals gold. That's a certain amount of gold you would not have received if you hadn't played Mercenaries. So by playing Mercenaries, you are getting gold you would not otherwise have.
If you want to be very picky about it, keep track of the gold you earn in Mercenaries, and spend only that amount of gold to upgrade your Mercenaries village. This is functionally exactly equivalent to having two entirely separate games with separate resources.
Having shared resources is actually good thing because you can play as I just described (keeping them separate), or you can choose to use gold earned in one game to augment the other game. More options = better.
"Why, you never expected justice from a company, did you? They have neither a soul to lose nor a body to kick." -- Lady Saba Holland
But why then do they even bother with having this mode on the same reward track as regular Hearthstone? Why would they go for merc packs\upgrades for gold? Why not create a separate currency if this currency can't be gained inside the game? Why not make separate Mercenary coins? Why even do it in the same client? How do they expect brand new players to play it?
I fully expect that one can start a brand new account, complete the tutorial, never play a game of Hearthstone, go straight in Mercenaries and gradually earn all the necessary gold there. Every other model is absurd and nothing in the "gameplay trailer" indicates that it isn't true. Hell, they even try to lure the WoW crowd in by giving a mount. This WoW crowd may not have even opened Hearthstone account for years or ever. "...complete the Mercenary tutorial and start the first bounty to unlock the mount..." and then stop playing because you have no Hearthstone gold to unlock anything and you don't want to grind the game you have no interest in
WTF BLIZZARD?
There is a bug in BG with the dragon healths, there is a bug in with C'Thun and still no fix after days? oO
same thing the blizzard defenders said before the release of the rewards track, we all know how that went.
To answer your questions, its called target audience. Of course they could release Mercenaries as a completely seperate game, but it wouldnt have much success. Instead we can log in to our favourite online CCG and all we should do is press a button from its main menu to get access to a whole new world.
Hearthstone has a very big playerbase and by introducing mercs as a new game mode, HS players will be interested in it because its easy to access and it seems like a part of the main game. Its a psychological thing, like I feel like Im missing something from my HS experience if I never push that button. So basically every HS gamer will try it, some will like it, some wont.
They want profit from mercs obviously, but at the same time they dont want to lose profit from the main game. Thats why they designed it this way.
Would it be so hard to tie the town upgrades into mercs achievements? Would it really hurt the mercs economy if you could spend all the reward track gold that you earn from playing mercs for mercs packs? Nope, but for SOME reason they have decided to go this way.
Actually its a good idea. I think I will do that.
And how exactly it went? I earn more gold than before the track. Oh, yes, they "upgraded it" by removing seasonal XP-granting events
About the XP gain, you can watch this video from Warshack:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8jSjG0Q-5M
He played PVE content, the first encounter gave him 7 xp the next one 8 xp and the final boss gave him 14 xp.
This is ridicolously low, just like any other PVE content.
You do understand that some players will actively avoid buying Mercenary packs? Buying mercenary packs is like paying $10 to GM to level up your D&D character without any gameplay. It is just not rewarding. I intend to buy exactly zero merc pack and may even not open free ones from the reward track and other sources.
You can rage all you want but I for one like the clean look of it and think there will be more stuff on the board when things happen as an event or something else.
Then there are 3 packs and not 1 for 130 bucks. Its a big difference. If you think you have to buy everything they bring out then you have a personal problem.
And finally why should you care? It does not affect HS. Its its own "game" in hearthstone (like BG) and will have its own quests for farm gold. You are one of the people who cry a lot but not think enough. Its not your game we get it. That does not mean that its bad. I fore one think it will be more enjoyable than HS and the mercs will retain the value while cards lose it after 2 years (if you dont play duels or wild). I for one am really exited. You can also try it out for free. But no one forces you to play it or even PAY for it.
"... but not less than (1)" is needed now more than ever!
you have a ridiculously selective memory. The current rewards track is the 3rd version after much of the community provided sustained criticism until Blizzard responded. So if you like it now you should be thanking me and those like me. If everyone was like you, then you would be stuck with the shitty first version.
This is where I'm actually torn.
I wouldn't want to buy my way out of the pleasure of advancement, as you describe, but on the other hand, the one thing Poghy has been right about in this debate (including the other thread) is that it will probably be impossible for a free player to max out every merc before the next set of Mercenaries content is released.
If I take that reality into consideration, it seems a lot more sensible to buy a bundle or three. I'm guessing diamond skins are hella expensive to craft, and legendary coins will not be growing on trees. So spending legendary coins on skins rather than upgrades seems like it will be painful.
Because epic and legendary coins are harder to get, I don't think buying packs or bundles will take you very far for those units. The only part of the game I'd "miss out on" is upgrading all the rares, which, let's face it, may not see a lot of use anyway. Having my rares upgraded quickly could actually make me more likely to use them as I hunt for the more elusive epic and legendary mercenary coins.
(For the record, I predict you will open the free ones at the very least.)
"Why, you never expected justice from a company, did you? They have neither a soul to lose nor a body to kick." -- Lady Saba Holland
Well, HS, BG and Merc are all in the same client although they are entirely different games with different combat styles, because they all leverage on the same fundamentals. Attack vs Health concept, and you get counter attacked when you attack. Similar keyword effects such as battle cry and deathrattle. Hence if you played HS, you can understand Merc and BG easier.
Cross games promotions are already available for a long time. Lady liadrin skin was given free if you have a level 20 wow account. You also get some card backs for pre purchase of starcraft expansions etc.