Who Are These Made For?

Nikoms565

I put this in Event feedback, but if needs to be moved somehwere else, that's fine.

The question in the title is referring to the apparently new "norm" for character release ideas. Specifically, this multi-year (at least according to what the developers have stated and simple math) farming cadence for the four most recent characters - who is this designed for?

In the past, it was fairly obvious that certain heroes were "aimed at" veteran players (CLS, EP, R2) or p2p only (Chaze originally, early Chromium-only, etc.) or newer players (Phoenix, Rebels). But this new "cadence" seems to not appeal to anyone. Long term players (who have Nightsisters or Ewoks to an extent) who have been playing for 18 months to 2 years are definitely not interested in waiting another 2 years to finish off their respective teams. With the 900 crystal refresh, it's clear that these are not even aimed at guppy/dolphins, as even with that, it would still take a year + to 7* any of these.

Now, the obvious answer would be whales.

But new whales don't already have a NS team - and even if they did (or did crank one up quickly) they need so many other teams to play other aspects of the game (Scoundrels for Credit Heist, CLS/HRTwins + Rebels to get into good guilds for TB, Resistance for GW, a solid arena team, Jedi for Yoda, etc.) that it makes no sense for them to focus on a team that might be arena-viable at some point. Especially when there are so many other teams that already clearly are.

Old whales? First off, many that are still playing are wary of the "flavor of the month" teams. They've seen too many "mod-gate", zBarris "change", Maul meta situations to be fooled into thinking "this time it's going to last!". Secondly, the poor value of the current packs compared to previous packs will make them reluctant to drop more money for less return.

New f2p players? Clearly not. 2 years for a toon? That's not even on their radar. Many aren't sure if they'll be playing in 2 months, let alone 2 years.

Veteran f2p? Nope. Same as dolphins/guppies above. Even those who finish near the top of arena/fleet arena aren't going to blow 900 crystals/month to shorten the farm to "only" 1 year.

If this is the "new" normal, it is very concerning for the long term viability of this game, as it does not seem the game is trying to attract or keep anyone in particular. It feels more like an attempt to weaken the value of crystals and lengthen the game - and to a point that the current players will not hang around and new players will simply see the carrot as to far to even bother with.

I love this game. Please don't ruin it with this horrible new release "cadence".