Two major Tribute changes to consider

JHartEllis · July 19

1) Make all decks freely available to all players. It's safe to say Tribute isn't as popular as devs hoped, and the deck fragment chase ends up being a lot of pushy negative touchpoints for players completely uninterested in it. Many that might be interested feel like they are at a disadvantage without all the decks and quickly lose interest. There would be additional non-ESO players that might give ESO a shot just for the newly accessible card game. For current Tribute players with most/all the decks, this should expand the pool of potential players and shorten queues.

2) Make all cards and actions visible to both players. This shifts the dynamic entirely to strategy and tavern choices and playing around what your opponent can do without the uncertainty of what the opponent might be able to do. ToT will continue to wither on the vine without a Spectate mode, and this makes this relatively easy as just being able to effectively share one of the player's view.

Usureki · July 20

I humbly disagree on.. basically everything in this post

ToT is pretty popular, I usually have to wait less than a minute to find a partner to play with. Compared to e.g. Battlegrounds, I don't see a problem.

1. You are playing from the same deck. If your version of the deck contains weaker cards it will be added to the same deck you are both playing the game from. If someone upgrades their card, that upgraded card will be available in a game for the other player as well. Also I find it rather cool that a "mini-game" such as ToT has such a great connection to the living world of Tamriel by having these unlockables those are also giving a sense of progression to this part of the game. Having everything available for free would throw all this to the bin.

2. While playing with open hands could be an option, I don't think it should be forced. If 100% of the cards available are visible, then the most optimal step can be algorithmically estimated, ripping the play from the game. There is a reason you don't play most card games with an open hand.

JHartEllis · July 20

Usureki wrote: »

throw all this to the bin.

This is mostly about preventing that from actually happening. I can foresee an alternative where ToT is so unpopular they essentially scrub it from the game.

then the most optimal step can be algorithmically estimated

That's true already, it just shifts the weights a bit. It makes the gameplay more about the tavern.