NationStates

Just in case you’re like me, and need to know the card rarities, here’s what I’ve found so far, ranked by rarest to least rare:

1. Legendary (Confirmed as the highest rarity)

2. Epic

3. Ultra Rare

4. Rare

5. Uncommon

6. Common

If you find some more, or see some errors in this list, let me know.

What's this based on? I'm a legendary. Does this mean I probably won't get my own card?

Topid wrote:What's this based on? I'm a legendary. Does this mean I probably won't get my own card?

It seems. 'Legendary' rank tend to be the most difficult to find.

My own card is uncommon but it haven't found yet.

Im having shower thoughts, can new nations have a possibility to become a Rare+ card?

Topid wrote:What's this based on? I'm a legendary. Does this mean I probably won't get my own card?

We’re not really sure yet. We assumed it was influence, based on how many of our Security Councillors in The North Pacific had Epic, Legendary, and Ultra Rare ranks. The issue with that theory is that one of our SC members has a lower influence than the other, but is a rank higher.

Another theory was that it is based on badges, since those are featured on the cards, but no correlation has been found there yet.

Yeah, yeah, I know, I’m the nerd here. While everyone else is collecting cards, I’m trying to solve this rarity system.

Authoring an issue seems to be a good way to boost your value a lot.

A question.. does rarity indicate how many cards there are per type? Is there just one card per nation or multiple depending on how rare one is or not?

Guslantis wrote:

Topid wrote:What's this based on? I'm a legendary. Does this mean I probably won't get my own card?

We’re not really sure yet. We assumed it was influence, based on how many of our Security Councillors in The North Pacific had Epic, Legendary, and Ultra Rare ranks. The issue with that theory is that one of our SC members has a lower influence than the other, but is a rank higher.

Another theory was that it is based on badges, since those are featured on the cards, but no correlation has been found there yet.

Yeah, yeah, I know, I’m the nerd here. While everyone else is collecting cards, I’m trying to solve this rarity system.

What about post count? Or perhaps some function of all three?

Guslantis wrote:

Topid wrote:What's this based on? I'm a legendary. Does this mean I probably won't get my own card?

We’re not really sure yet. We assumed it was influence, based on how many of our Security Councillors in The North Pacific had Epic, Legendary, and Ultra Rare ranks. The issue with that theory is that one of our SC members has a lower influence than the other, but is a rank higher.

Another theory was that it is based on badges, since those are featured on the cards, but no correlation has been found there yet.

Yeah, yeah, I know, I’m the nerd here. While everyone else is collecting cards, I’m trying to solve this rarity system.

I’m ultra rare and I have nothing to do with any region gameplay.

I thought maybe it was population, but some new countries are rarer.

Do newly created countries get cards of themselves created? Someone could make a lot of puppets and show the probability of each rarity if they don’t all get the same rarity.

Influence might have an affect. Legendary is for mods etc.

The first Galactic Republic wrote:

Guslantis wrote:
We’re not really sure yet. We assumed it was influence, based on how many of our Security Councillors in The North Pacific had Epic, Legendary, and Ultra Rare ranks. The issue with that theory is that one of our SC members has a lower influence than the other, but is a rank higher.

Another theory was that it is based on badges, since those are featured on the cards, but no correlation has been found there yet.

Yeah, yeah, I know, I’m the nerd here. While everyone else is collecting cards, I’m trying to solve this rarity system.

I’m ultra rare and I have nothing to do with any region gameplay.

I thought maybe it was population, but some new countries are rarer.

Do newly created countries get cards of themselves created? Someone could make a lot of puppets and show the probability of each rarity if they don’t all get the same rarity.

You’re Founder, Postmaster-General, found four easter eggs, might help

Oh, really? Wow, ok well my card's an epic by the way, if anyone does pull it at some point

Not sure if i'm on the right track but it seems like population and top 1% awards are the biggest contributing factors to your card rarity.

All the really high rarities seem to have 10bil+ population and several top 1% awards

It could simply be population. The rare cards I have are in the few billions, while the common ones are still at the millions.

My guess is that influence plays a part in influencing, but not outright determining your rarity.

I'm of legendary rarity yet I haven't done much other than write an issue.

Sudbrazil wrote:It could simply be population. The rare cards I have are in the few billions, while the common ones are still at the millions.

Not necessarily the case. I know of a few nations that have populations in the tens of billions, but only hover around rare or ultra rare.

Grenartia wrote:

Guslantis wrote:
We’re not really sure yet. We assumed it was influence, based on how many of our Security Councillors in The North Pacific had Epic, Legendary, and Ultra Rare ranks. The issue with that theory is that one of our SC members has a lower influence than the other, but is a rank higher.

Another theory was that it is based on badges, since those are featured on the cards, but no correlation has been found there yet.

Yeah, yeah, I know, I’m the nerd here. While everyone else is collecting cards, I’m trying to solve this rarity system.

What about post count? Or perhaps some function of all three?

It's not post count.

Bombadil is Uncommon #129,955, with 5618 total posts.

The first Galactic Republic is Ultra Rare #632,627, with 5650 total posts.

Probably a combination of stats, regional influence, nation age, and various other game-side signifiers. This is a game-side feature, keep in mind, it likely has nothing to do with out forum stats.

I quickly resurrected an old nation to try and confirm that theory. Given that a nation's forum history doesn't cease to exist if they do, it stands to reason that a nation who has posted on the forum would have a card, if said cards are generated based off of some kind of forum activity. But the resurrected nation has no card, and I suspect will continue to have no card until the next game-side update. This seems to confirm that the card rankings are calculated solely through game-side data.

What seems most likely to me is that rarity is determined by how unique your nation is. If you've been commended or condemned by the SC, that makes your nation pretty damn unique compared to everyone else. Written an issue? Absolutely. Do you have a Moderator or Mentor or Issues Editor tag? Again, the vast majority of people don't, making you quite unique. Do you have lots of national tracking stats in the 1% range? You can do the math on how unique that makes you.

Just to test everything, I've created three puppet nations to track how new nations are being impacted by the event.

For the record, the following are my nations:

Ubbub Meng
Haja Quing
Imperial Talia Hall

Currently they don't have a card, but maybe that'll change at major/minor updates, or possibly like the Z-Day there are "ticks" when everything updates. I'll keep a watch.

Can someone answer my question.. is it one card per nation or does rarity indicate how many of that nation's cards will be in circulation?

Bombadil wrote:Can someone answer my question.. is it one card per nation or does rarity indicate how many of that nation's cards will be in circulation?

Given that we can junk cards if we want, and that there are already two cards of myself in circulation, it seems to me that the rarity serves to determine how likely it is somebody will draw that card when they open a deck. So people could draw a bunch of "Camicon" cards, and keep drawing "Camicon" cards, if that's how RNJesus feels.

That would be the simplest mechanism for this game, I think.

Camicon wrote:

Bombadil wrote:Can someone answer my question.. is it one card per nation or does rarity indicate how many of that nation's cards will be in circulation?

Given that we can junk cards if we want, and that there are already two cards of myself in circulation, it seems to me that the rarity serves to determine how likely it is somebody will draw that card when they open a deck. So people could draw a bunch of "Camicon" cards, and keep drawing "Camicon" cards, if that's how RNJesus feels.

That would be the simplest mechanism for this game, I think.

Right.. I don't suppose we know the number of each.. as in if there's only one Legendary card.. there seems quite a few epic people out there.

Also.. two of you already, I'm only Uncommon but nothing.. nothing out there..

Bombadil wrote:

Camicon wrote:Given that we can junk cards if we want, and that there are already two cards of myself in circulation, it seems to me that the rarity serves to determine how likely it is somebody will draw that card when they open a deck. So people could draw a bunch of "Camicon" cards, and keep drawing "Camicon" cards, if that's how RNJesus feels.

That would be the simplest mechanism for this game, I think.

Right.. I don't suppose we know the number of each.. as in if there's only one Legendary card.. there seems quite a few epic people out there.

Also.. two of you already, I'm only Uncommon but nothing.. nothing out there..

What can I say, I'm a popular guy

Also, it's entirely possible that the rarity of a card simply refers to the odds of a card of that type being drawn, and not of that specific nation being drawn. If there are vastly more Uncommons than there are Ultra-Rares, finding one specific Uncommon card might be more difficult than finding one specific Ultra Rare.

To illustrate, let's pretend that the odds of drawing an Ultra Rare are 1/10, and the odds of drawing an Uncommon are 5/10; there are 100 Ultra Rare cards, but 1,000,000 Uncommon cards. Under those circumstances, I'm far more likely to end up drawing every Ultra Rare card before every Uncommon card.

Camicon wrote:

Bombadil wrote:
Right.. I don't suppose we know the number of each.. as in if there's only one Legendary card.. there seems quite a few epic people out there.

Also.. two of you already, I'm only Uncommon but nothing.. nothing out there..

What can I say, I'm a popular guy

Also, it's entirely possible that the rarity of a card simply refers to the odds of a card of that type being drawn, and not of that specific nation being drawn. If there are vastly more Uncommons than there are Ultra-Rares, finding one specific Uncommon card might be more difficult than finding one specific Ultra Rare.

To illustrate, let's pretend that the odds of drawing an Ultra Rare are 1/10, and the odds of drawing an Uncommon are 5/10; there are 100 Ultra Rare cards, but 1,000,000 Uncommon cards. Under those circumstances, I'm far more likely to end up drawing every Ultra Rare card before every Uncommon card.

That makes some sense.. however I deny sense and will assume that as Bombadil I'm a Godly easter egg disguised as just uncommon..

Bombadil wrote:

Camicon wrote:What can I say, I'm a popular guy

Also, it's entirely possible that the rarity of a card simply refers to the odds of a card of that type being drawn, and not of that specific nation being drawn. If there are vastly more Uncommons than there are Ultra-Rares, finding one specific Uncommon card might be more difficult than finding one specific Ultra Rare.

To illustrate, let's pretend that the odds of drawing an Ultra Rare are 1/10, and the odds of drawing an Uncommon are 5/10; there are 100 Ultra Rare cards, but 1,000,000 Uncommon cards. Under those circumstances, I'm far more likely to end up drawing every Ultra Rare card before every Uncommon card.

That makes some sense.. however I deny sense and will assume that as Bombadil I'm a Godly easter egg disguised as just uncommon..

That is something Tom Bombadil would do... and it is April Fools tomorrow...

Just picked up an Epic card from a nation that has never posted on the forums. Rarity almost certainly has nothing to do with forum activity.