A bunch of feedback. A bunch. From Galactic War to Mk4 SoroSuub Keypad
First of all I would like to explain what is this post all about. I'm going to expose all my thoughts about SWGoH in my sheer 1-month of gameplay. I stumbled upon this game while looking for a Star Wars game, since I was pretty hyped up about the EU stuff I was reading. And GoH seemed like a good product of the SW universe. I have to say, to this day, I'm not disappointed with the game. SWGoH is most definitely one of the best mobile games I've ever played, and it has many examples of good game design other games lack.
If you've read this far, first of all thanks, I really appreciate this community. I do see a lot of people complaining on the forums but that's not the norm, and I'm really thankful there are so many people here willing to help, and that isn't exactly good game design. But still, it's a very positive factor about SWGoH. Now, I'm going to expose the parts of SWGoH I believe aren't actually compliant with the good game design that can be seen in the rest of the game.
Well, I've rambled on basically all the major topics I wanted to cover. I would like to say that I really enjoy Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, and all I want is the game to evolve, both community wise and development wise. As it's said in the Forum's guidelines, developers take every post directed to them so this post is as directed to create a discussion with the community as a post directed to the developers. SWGoH is a great game, and discussing great games and seeing them evolve is what makes them great pieces of art in the gaming history.
Thanks for your attention,
yours truly
Gonakin
- SWGoH's combat system has little RNG as of this patch:
I will take Hearthstone as an example. As any card game, Hearthstone is a combination of luck and skill, but the game is specially RNG-ish: a huge variety of cards have random effects that are very impactful. But SWGoH battle system doesn't have such a powerful RNG. Random effects most of the times, as I've experienced them, come as a bonus to your ability, not as their defining characteristic. This is an example of what I call very good game design: games depend more on your skill than in luck. That doesn't mean that luck doesn't play a role in battles. Of course it does, but there are also ways to improve your odds of an event happening (eg. Sidious leader ability giving you extra crit chance) and ways to diminish the possibility of a certain status to be applied to your hero (eg. the Tenacity stat). So, overall, the role luck has in SWGoH's combat system is an example of great game design. - You get rewarded by doing the right thing
Farming. That's basically my point here. When I started in the game, I basically just wanted to get to the highest position in arena and didn't even care about GW or getting the actual good heroes. I was farming Talia and Luke at that time. Then I discovered the forums, and I started to progress like crazy. Refreshes, GW, Arena, Cantina Shipments... the list goes on. GoH offers you so many possibilities that it is easy to get confused by what is good and what is bad. But if you know what to do, you are certain to progress faster and be prepared for the late stages of the game. I was (and still am) able of reaching top #100 in Arena, something that I would've never imagined during my start of the game. And farming the right character for both Arena and GW significantly improved my performance, beign Luminara the one I'm talking about. Had I continued to farm Phasma from GW shipments I wouldn't have to been able to get to the last battle of GW yesterday (I haven't completed one yet
). Valuing the right thing is a key to good game design, and SWGoH certainly does that. - It's easy to understand
As a new player, I knew I had to gear up my characters. I knew how shards worked, and I know how XP worked. And I got all of that from game experience and the tutorial. It's easy to maneuver and find what you need, and even before looking at any new player tips topic or video, I had basically found everything there was to find in the game. And that was a key to allowing my early progress. Another example of very good game design, as you're not lost if you play just by yourself and have never visited a forum or seen a guide. - Crystals aren't hard to come by
Many games have currencies that you can by with money. But I've never played one where the currency was so available for our daily needs. Refreshing is something I had never done, but due to the fact that I knew I could refresh again the following day keeping my crystal count the same gave me confidence to do so, and that also is a key factor in progressing through the game. So it's very gratifying as a F2P to know I can make use of the paid currency with certain confidence. - Wales don't dominate the game
Another key aspect that makes SWGoH such an enjoyable game for a F2P. I at no time see my progress been stopped by the fact that someone is putting money into the game, and that is another thing that motivates me to keep playing this game.
If you've read this far, first of all thanks, I really appreciate this community. I do see a lot of people complaining on the forums but that's not the norm, and I'm really thankful there are so many people here willing to help, and that isn't exactly good game design. But still, it's a very positive factor about SWGoH. Now, I'm going to expose the parts of SWGoH I believe aren't actually compliant with the good game design that can be seen in the rest of the game.
- The existence of Mk4 SoroSuub Keypad
This is, so far, one of the best examples of poor game design I've seen in SWGoH. Mainly because it's and item that simply goes against all of the resource management skill that is required by the rest of the game. You just dump a day worth of energy into a single mission in an attempt to get the components for the item, and Challenges help too, but then you could be investing your energy into something more useful, getting more gear for your other characters and making more progress overall. And this item is required by an absurd amount of characters. Mk4 SoroSuub Keypad basically ruins my F2P farming routine. And the fact that it is a set of gear just makes it worse, because... - Gear drop rates exist
When I go to a mission, I expect to earn the items that can be obtained in that mission. What I'm trying to say is: gear should always drop. That's the whole point of completing a "mission", is getting a reward in the end. But, of course, shards and ability mats in cantina would just be too easy to get, but they differ from gear in the simple fact that they are not REQUIRED by characters, it's just the right thing to get. Gear is a required part about a character progression, and is the best way to increase its power level, but the fact that there is a random part about it is just counter intuitive. It is as if games that have Quests suddenly stopped giving the reward item you need to complete the following quest. - Numbers during combat seem... irrelevant
As a player who is used to playing MOBAs, numbers were always present: Heal Bars, ability damages, heals, mana... But in SWGoH, I have no way of knowing mid-combat in arena, for example, if a certain attack of mine will kill of the opposing Sidious, if it's going to be a huge overkill, if he is going to die for my DoT, etc. I just don't have access to that information, as I don't have access to the math behind an ability's damage. I've heard about the "hidden" stats S-dam and B-dam, but that still doesn't help me much. Without knowing scaling and all of that I just can't optimize my strategy, and that is a very good example of bad game design. - Galatic War is just too unpredictable and OP
Yesterday, as a level 49 player, with my most powerful character beign a 4 star level 7 gear JC, in my last GW battle I face a level 53 squad of powerful Jedis, with Barris as leader. I wasn't able to beat it, but it didn't feel that like I was powerless. Today, this happened: imgur.com/LRpWvXJ. I was halfway through with my GW, and my squad was rendered useless. My top 10# in arena are, on average, level 58. I was 96 by the start of this day. I tried everything, but wasn't able to defeat this Phasma squad. And the only difference from yesterday is the fact that I leveled up and got QGJ (ps. I started yesterday in rank 100 ish). - Hard missions are just too "harsh"
It is not that they are hard to beat, is just that they are very unlikely to give out valuable results. And that is mainly due to the fact that the have they 3 times a day limit. Cantina battles work on an energy currency that requires twelve full minutes to refill a single unit. Basically, you get 5 per hour. Or, once every two hours you can do a 10 Energy mission. That makes it 12 missions a day, without any refills. Hard missions take 12 regular energy, but can be done only 3 times a day. That makes it so that farming a character who is not available in shipments or in cantina battles (Rey's state at my level) just a long, hard task. If they were at least able to be done 5 times a day it would be much more rewarding for F2P players to farm and would make resource management an even harder task, as you would have to reconcile your hard missions with your gear collection and overall progression. This differ from SoroSuub, for instance, because increasing the daily limit would make resource management HARDER, not less valuable, as SoroSuub makes it be. It would require more knowledge by the player to make the right choice. Or, basically, it would one more piece of good game design.
Well, I've rambled on basically all the major topics I wanted to cover. I would like to say that I really enjoy Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, and all I want is the game to evolve, both community wise and development wise. As it's said in the Forum's guidelines, developers take every post directed to them so this post is as directed to create a discussion with the community as a post directed to the developers. SWGoH is a great game, and discussing great games and seeing them evolve is what makes them great pieces of art in the gaming history.
Thanks for your attention,
yours truly
Gonakin
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I understand that this is a resource management game and that it should be a slower progression at higher levels but as you level up some gear slots ask for 50 of one item and it costs a minimum of 10 energy for just a chance at receiving it. I can accept spending more energy but it seems excessive to spend all that energy (say even spending crystals to refill) and getting little or sometimes no progress out of it.
You don't play chess endlessly, because we're human beings and it's tiresome. What we can do is keep playing the slot machine for a random reward chance drop. It feeds our addiction center, and that keeps the game rolling. By making people endlessly pull for twenty purple laptops or a 50 purple hair dryers is simply a form of imagined reward through reinforcement mechanisms.
That's where SIM cards come in. EA doesn't want you playing chess every time for a reward. They give you SIM cards to just burn through all your energy to endlessly play the one armed bandit. It's extremely intentional to give random drops. Basic behavioral science shows that constant rewards lets you get fed up. Random rewards are the key to getting a user base addicted. This is called "variable ratio schedule" and is one of the strongest forms of reinforcement.
Imagine a rat in a cage pressing a lever. One rat presses his lever and each time a purple laptop drops. The rat soon stops pressing the lever, knowing assuredly that a purple laptop is a lever push away. Another rat in another cage presses the lever and the RNG decides whether a purple laptop should drop. Before long the brain synapses are rigged to keep the rat pressing the lever until its paws are worn out.
I see a lot of folks on these forums justify that they spend just X amounts of cash for a game they support yadayada. That's your addiction speaking. It's just a snap away from saying "oh, I just spend some of my lunch money on the game because, why eat when you can have twenty pictures of a sorosub 4".
This game, like many other modern games, are just a virtual slot machine. The "good game design" is just how much the devs can mask the slot machine nature into tricking you to think that you are skilled and dilligent and don't have an addiction.
TL;DR: the gear drops random because it's meant to keep you shelling pocket money for fake laptops.
When they release the next level cap I'm sure your mark 5 sorosubs will come in handy. Or maybe not. RNG. Go figure.