Territory Battle feedback, first impression.
I know we're just in the first phase, but I think I get the gist of it and feel comfortable enough with the format to give some feedback, at least based off my first impression.
Overall I like it, but I think there are some things that could be done to improve it going forward. Chiefly:
Allow us to do territories after their phase is over. For a mid-range guild, it's going to be tough to get 3* in a territory. That would be fine, except that eventually the phase will progress to a point where some members might not be able to meaningfully contribute anything besides Deployment. In phase 7 you can only use 7* characters for missions, so newer players won't have much to throw into a platoon or use in combat/special missions. They'll deploy and that's that. If they're allowed to go back to Phase 2 territories they might be able to swing that last star through deployment or combat missions. The goal of Territory Battles is to get us to use our whole roster, and sure they can deploy their entire roster even if they don't meet requirements to do missions, but you have to admit that that's a pretty unengaging way to interact with the event.
I'm in a guild with a bunch of players with a variety of roster depths. We took on a whole bunch of random folks, and most of them turned out to be cool so we've made some new friends from around the world. But they're lower level and have a limited roster selection. As the game goes forward they'll catch up, but for now they can only really contribute a little early on. Once we get to phase 5 and 6 they're going to be effectively sidelined. By allowing them to redeploy and repeat older missions they'll at least get to help a little. Special missions shouldn't be repeatable, but they should remain open until you attempt them. Considering as how there are only two, and one is all the way in phase 6, I don't think this is too onerous an ask.
Secondly--
Phase length. I can see benefits and drawbacks to both 24 hours and 12 hours (and 16 hours, but that probably won't happen). I feel like 12 hours to fill up platoons is really going to frustrate guilds that are spread around a variety of time zones, and frustration doesn't make for a good experience. This is especially true if you can't go back and redo previous phases once guilds start failing to fill up platoons because they needed time to organize who puts what where. So, personally, so long as it means we still get one per week, I think I prefer the 24 hour phases. The rewards are the same and the time commitment is more convenient to people who don't work a traditional 9-to-5, have long commutes (You guys are up in Sacramento, you know how bad California commutes can be--worse if you're here in the Bay Area), and/or are in weird time zones relative to the rest of their guild.
NPC Previews--
It mostly only matters for the first few runs, but it'd be real nice if we had an idea of what enemy squads we'd be up against before going in. For example, I got murdered in a round because there was one TIE Pilot and five Probe Droids, three of which were elite. So I started to think up a squad that could counter that, and when I asked for advice I heard a bunch of people saying they hadn't fought anything like that. So, point being, it'd be nice if we could get a heads up of what we're facing. Had I known I'd go up against a super turn-manipulation team, I'd have used a different squad--only it looks like if we all did that, a lot of folks would wind up with a different fight on their hands and be screwed the other way.
Ships--
At least let us deploy our ships in the first two phases. They're just sitting around gathering dust for the first 24/48 hours... If you want to put a battle some place earlier than phase 3 I'm down with that, but I won't get greedy. Players unlocks ships several levels before they unlock Guild Events, so they should have a decent enough fleet to be of use that early on.
Overall I like it, but I think there are some things that could be done to improve it going forward. Chiefly:
Allow us to do territories after their phase is over. For a mid-range guild, it's going to be tough to get 3* in a territory. That would be fine, except that eventually the phase will progress to a point where some members might not be able to meaningfully contribute anything besides Deployment. In phase 7 you can only use 7* characters for missions, so newer players won't have much to throw into a platoon or use in combat/special missions. They'll deploy and that's that. If they're allowed to go back to Phase 2 territories they might be able to swing that last star through deployment or combat missions. The goal of Territory Battles is to get us to use our whole roster, and sure they can deploy their entire roster even if they don't meet requirements to do missions, but you have to admit that that's a pretty unengaging way to interact with the event.
I'm in a guild with a bunch of players with a variety of roster depths. We took on a whole bunch of random folks, and most of them turned out to be cool so we've made some new friends from around the world. But they're lower level and have a limited roster selection. As the game goes forward they'll catch up, but for now they can only really contribute a little early on. Once we get to phase 5 and 6 they're going to be effectively sidelined. By allowing them to redeploy and repeat older missions they'll at least get to help a little. Special missions shouldn't be repeatable, but they should remain open until you attempt them. Considering as how there are only two, and one is all the way in phase 6, I don't think this is too onerous an ask.
Secondly--
Phase length. I can see benefits and drawbacks to both 24 hours and 12 hours (and 16 hours, but that probably won't happen). I feel like 12 hours to fill up platoons is really going to frustrate guilds that are spread around a variety of time zones, and frustration doesn't make for a good experience. This is especially true if you can't go back and redo previous phases once guilds start failing to fill up platoons because they needed time to organize who puts what where. So, personally, so long as it means we still get one per week, I think I prefer the 24 hour phases. The rewards are the same and the time commitment is more convenient to people who don't work a traditional 9-to-5, have long commutes (You guys are up in Sacramento, you know how bad California commutes can be--worse if you're here in the Bay Area), and/or are in weird time zones relative to the rest of their guild.
NPC Previews--
It mostly only matters for the first few runs, but it'd be real nice if we had an idea of what enemy squads we'd be up against before going in. For example, I got murdered in a round because there was one TIE Pilot and five Probe Droids, three of which were elite. So I started to think up a squad that could counter that, and when I asked for advice I heard a bunch of people saying they hadn't fought anything like that. So, point being, it'd be nice if we could get a heads up of what we're facing. Had I known I'd go up against a super turn-manipulation team, I'd have used a different squad--only it looks like if we all did that, a lot of folks would wind up with a different fight on their hands and be screwed the other way.
Ships--
At least let us deploy our ships in the first two phases. They're just sitting around gathering dust for the first 24/48 hours... If you want to put a battle some place earlier than phase 3 I'm down with that, but I won't get greedy. Players unlocks ships several levels before they unlock Guild Events, so they should have a decent enough fleet to be of use that early on.
Ceterum censeo Patientia esse meliat.
-1
Replies
RELEASE of TB
Generally speaking, the rollout was terrible. First, there was the selling of packs without the notice about the 5*/7* change. That is borderline illegal - and misleading and deceptive at the very least. Secondly, within an hour of going live on Thursday morning, servers were down for maintenance and several hotfixes and updates had to occur. Today, almost 36 hours following the initial release, there are still errors, bugs and problems. While I realize that no major software release of any kind is without bugs and hiccups, this release was clearly rushed and not ready to be launched. Better QA and communication is badly needed.
Sadly, this is not even remotely close to the first time these concerns have been voiced. Also, frustratingly, the issue is getting far worse - not improving. The leadership and whoever is making decisions about policy (5*/7* issue, when it's "close enough" to a clean build to push, communication, etc.) needs to seriously be held accountable for the recent decline.
ETA: Scratch that last paragraph. The recent modification to uphold the 5* requirement that was advertised in the promotional video and the communication throughout the process was outstanding. I was mistaken.
TB CONTENT
In terms of overall content, the depth of roster required across the guild is nice.
I like the variety of content (missions, platoon, etc.).
I do think the 24 hour window needs to stay in place. Coordination, which will be even more important in the later phases, is going to be difficult enough in international guilds - especially over a busy holiday weekend. Dropping the window to 12 hours would be a big misstep. Given the several that have already been taken by CG/EA lately, I would think this would want to be avoided.
I also like the fact that TB includes not only units, but ships as well. Obviously, how the content is balanced, I cannot speak to yet, as we aren't in phases with ship content yet. But conceptually, I like the idea.
In game guild: TNR Uprising
I beat the REAL T7 Yoda (not the nerfed one) and did so before mods were there to help
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Please put in some sort of cap on the number of times a character can be required for a platoon. Today there were two territories with two platoons, for a total of 180 characters, and we needed 11 Baze Malbuses and 12 Bodhi Rooks. Two characters made up 23 of the total slots needed, over 10%.
Unfortunately I can't check back in our Day 1 platoon requirements, but I remember thinking it was pretty Pao- and Aayla-heavy. Memory is unreliable feedback, but it's worth pointing out.
I like that the requirements are randomized, but when it skews heavily towards a single character it becomes frustrating because then the only answer is "Just farm everyone." To be clear, I *do* farm everyone anyway. But it isn't a viable strategy if you're also going to introduce a cap on the number of characters that I can personally contribute. So I guess what I'm suggesting is either:
A.) Limit the times a single character can appear in platoons in a given phase.
Or
B.) Remove (or at least raise) the restriction of 10 characters per player per platoon.