Regular Card Seasons

[Waterfall State]

I am wondering if its still possible to have regular card seasons every year-two years, assuming no other tech hiccups that require more urgent attention

I am personally ok with this being delayed as long as graphs are still in need of fixing, missing posts etc.

[Sedgistan]

It's intended.

Creating new seasons isn't challenging, aside from the new design for the cards (S3 was delayed as there were significant market changes we wanted to implement first). No work has been done on design for S4 yet, but when it was discussed earlier this year, Racoda's thinking was to probably have Season 4 launch around the end of this year.

[Riemstagrad]

Good to hear!

Note: I can't speak for other players, but i wouldn't mind if the design stayed mostly the same. Most trading card games only use seasonal icons and run a decade with the same design.

This has the added benefit that we can create flags in advance. 1 week of inscription is really short to enhance puppet's flags. Well-designed flags really add to the appeal of cards imho.

[Klaus Devestatorie]

Even if we just had access to the design portal for next season's layout earlier, that'd be a huge bonus to making national cards look nicer.

[Riam]

I agree with what has been said on cards aesthetics in the lasts posts. Another thing that would improve things a lot would be an optimal space to show the nation's flag. With that I mean to design the card's available space for the flag to be closer to a horizontal rectangular shape (season's 1 style, although that's too narrow) than to a square (the case with season 2) or a vertical rectangle (the case with season 3).

Although many flags still look pretty good in Season 2 cards, the problem with Season 3 is obvious: the available space is large, forcing the flag to be magnified, which in its turn increases the cases of blurred and/or heavily pixelated images in cards when compared to previous seasons.

That being said, to choose good quality images would help a lot, if only to avoid tons of awful cards in the market in future seasons, but that's on the nation owner's hand, of course.

[The Kharkivan Cossacks]

A similar attitude to the above posts, there is also the fact that some nations have horizontal or vertical flags, so fitting in the whole flag while the card retains its normal shape could be a bit of a problem, but if it’s figured out it to still be able to show most of the horizontal flags that would be great.

[Sedgistan]

Design work is well underway for S4.

I'll raise the inscription period duration with the team.

[Waterfall State]

How will the image quality be? I remember having to change flags several times because there was a compression issue that made flags worse when I tried to re-inscribe the card

[Sedgistan]

Infinitta has been working through several iterations of S4 design with mockups, and I can confidently say they look phenomenal.

You are going to want to junk all your S1-3 cards, because they just can't compete when placed next to the S4 designs.

[The Ambis]

Infinitta has been working through several iterations of S4 design with mockups, and I can confidently say they look phenomenal.

You are going to want to junk all your S1-3 cards, because they just can't compete when placed next to the S4 designs.

That's some high praise

[The Shaymen]

Infinitta has been working through several iterations of S4 design with mockups, and I can confidently say they look phenomenal.

You are going to want to junk all your S1-3 cards, because they just can't compete when placed next to the S4 designs.

Don't be saying stuff like that, instead support the idea of gifting those cards to The Shaymen

Seriously though, this is a good update, I'm looking forward to what is to come.

[Waterfall State]

I am probably not gonna get a solid reply, but how soon(tm) is season 4

[Bilancorn]

I am probably not gonna get a solid reply, but how soon(tm) is season 4

as said in this thread, seems imminent (end of 2024-early 2025).

[Unogonduria]

It's intended.

Creating new seasons isn't challenging, aside from the new design for the cards (S3 was delayed as there were significant market changes we wanted to implement first). No work has been done on design for S4 yet, but when it was discussed earlier this year, Racoda's thinking was to probably have Season 4 launch around the end of this year.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA LET'S GOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

[Sedgistan]

I am probably not gonna get a solid reply, but how soon(tm) is season 4

Not certain yet. Still very much aiming for 2024.

The design work is pretty much done - it's down to the final minor tweaks to address particularly unusual nations. The issue is likely to be around admin time to implement the new season. Violet's done all the previous ones but doesn't have availability for it this year. We're hopeful another admin will.

[Empire of Caldrasa]

Will that mean we can't assume it'll be in November, or is that still possible?

[Sedgistan]

December seems more likely, but November could still happen.

[Bilancorn]

December seems more likely, but November could still happen.

As a Christmas present would be funny

[Ferengi Alliance Union]

We Pray that Season 3 will be a success.

[Mors Mundia]

S4 would be an amazing Christmas present from the NS team.

[Refuge Isle]

We Pray that Season 3 will be a success.

Since it's already released, wish granted ∘˚˳°(づ￣ ³￣)づ*.✧

[Ferengi Alliance Union]

We Pray that Season 3 will be a success.

Since it's already released, wish granted ∘˚˳°(づ￣ ³￣)づ*.✧

I meant 4 that was a typo

[9003]

With Racodas Nation CTEing is he steping down from being cards community manager or is he still active and present just not on that nation anymore? (or on LoA)

[Murias]

What is happening with the problem of there being so many alt nations to main nations?

[Mr Culcha-s Polcomian Artland]

Is there still a problem with "there being so many alt nations to main nations"? Was the Season 3 solution not enough?

I am a relatively new card collector, and my goal is different from that of many. I am trying to collect cards of special originality, beauty and artistry. So many of those cards come in series produced by a single individual with phenomenal creativity and taste. Really, is it a bad thing that the brilliant gems of Jeinnhezslhaunia (apparently now deceased) or the insects of World of Beetles originated in "alts"?

One card for each "main" and no others would damage the card game irreparably as far as I'm concerned. Now, of course, I don't want the Wombles to return, but I hope that Season 4 will not tighten further the restrictions that Season 3 established. I think this was sufficient to control uninteresting and repetitive card series while still leaving room for the many quite astonishing series that members of the NationStates community have developed, and are continuing to develop.