I'm fine with not being able to fill every platoon. The first time around we lacked all those many Lobots, Paos and new ewoks. We caught up on Lobots, Paos and 2 of the ewoks. We will catch up on unmasked Kylo and his friends eventually as well.
+1. I wholeheartedly agree with this post. There are supposed to be challenges in the game, and not everyone should be able to finish the content each time. The guild I joined 2 weeks ago, has ~31 million GP, and I am hoping to get 12 stars. We work together as best as possible.
The problem with this is as stated by the op. Once you get these toons new toons added and the cycle repeats where the platoons never get completed. Are you finding even with a never ending incomplete platoon? Because that is how it currently trending.
Mainly just echoing the message about every other aspect of the game. If you can't beat it, just work harder.
An observation that people who are claiming it's unfair in this subforum , will be the first to reply in other feedback sections that time and hard work is needed to beat it.
It's not a question of hard work. No amount of time or hard work is going to allow you to fill these platoons. A guild without mega-whales will simply never be able to do it no matter what.
I don't disagree with what you wrote. My observation is that if one guild can finish it (and there probably is one, maybe more) it's within the realm of possibilities. At this point in time, it's out of reach for everyone else. Kind of like other aspects of the game.
Sure. But the issue is that it's not out of reach for everyone else "at this point in time," it's out of reach *forever*.
Speaking as a guild leader, I know I always feel bad asking somebody that just shelled out $2-300 for a unit to place that unit in a platoon. I imagine the players I'm asking that of dislike that they paid that much and now can't play with the unit in TB.
Although I'm not a GL, I share this sentiment. It's great when you're in a guild with some big spenders who are prepared to invest their cash into the product, for everyone's benefit. But what happens when those big spenders find that their investment hasn't been at all worthwhile... they can't use the character or ship in gameplay as it's stuffed into a platoon, but, they require a bunch of other players to stuff their investments into platoons as well or else the whole thing falls down.
If I were in their shoes I'd be thinking, why do I bother even spending?
Easiest solution as I see it is to restrict *all* characters and ships to just 2 appearances in any given phase.
agree or disagree. I just want to point out, with the accessibility of gear increased and new DS toons on the horizon (because we all know we need more for DS TB) and more toons in general coming out with TLJ in theaters. (lets not mention the possibility of lvl cap increase or 6-7 dot mods over the next year)
all of that means that the points value we will not get from closing platoons and going 6/6 in P6 on all missions will be made up at some point and without too much specific effort.
I have a couple of problems with that.
1) There is never a feeling of completing the content if we can never have 6/6 platoons. Actually my guild, 120M is filling less platoons this time than we did the last TB, when we only missed 3. That's a backwards step and it's a big reason that I see a lot of whales saying that this current iteration of platoons actually disincentivizes them from spending.
2) Getting a ton of characters to inflate GP, or getting higher quality mods, and basically brute forcing territories and combat missions, doesn't feel good. Brute forcing stars isn't a challenge. Auto'ing combat missions because you now have 7 dot mods with 40 more speed and 1000 more offense on a set isn't a challenge.
I can understand the basic, non cynical, idea behind updating platoons to include new paywall toons - it can be argued that it's an effort to extend the life of TB's. I can only hope that's the true motivation behind changing the makeup of platoons.
I saw a comment yesterday that perfectly sums up my thoughts on this and includes some of your sentiment too Kyno - "The current iterations of TB will just become obsolete when guilds get 5 power squads each and enough GP that platoons don’t matter. Will 'upsetting' the player base in the meantime be worth it then?"
On your second point, I'm not suggesting intentionally brute forcing it. I'm saying that in the natural flow of the game platoons will be "phased out" due to those factors. Yes people will use that as a way to brute force it,but it will also happen naturally for many guilds.
I am generally speak neutral on this point because while in the same boat as you (120M GP guild) we have a plan and are just working the plan, this will slow our progress but we have more than enough areas to focus on. This action makes it easier to table LS TB plans for a later time. We are happy at 42 and will start to focus on DS TB and get to a happy place there.
... I'm not suggesting intentionally brute forcing it. I'm saying that in the natural flow of the game platoons will be "phased out" due to those factors. Yes people will use that as a way to brute force it,but it will also happen naturally for many guilds.
Just be aware that right about the time you grow enough to naturally "brute force" the TB, they'll transition to a new TB (or release another one) with higher score requirements and tougher enemy squads, and you'll be right back to not being able to finish.
The thing is, in regard to discussions about getting the latest character, or finishing some shiny new content, I often hear people say things like... you have to be patient, you'll get there, this game isn't a sprint it's a marathon, and so on... And while I realized early on that it's not a sprint (that much was painfully obvious), it took me a while to figure out that it isn't a marathon, either. It's actually a treadmill race. There is no finish line... no prize for first place. Because you can put in all the effort you can muster, and if you pause for one minute, you're "behind" again. And your only reference to how you're progressing is offered as a distorted view of the guy on the treadmill next to you to compare effort and judge whether or not you're "winning". And I'm ok with that. Understanding that has allowed me to quit being stressed over a game.
Good, bad, or indifferent, I know my 41-star guild won't ever finish all the platoons. And we will likely never finish with 45 or 48 stars. But I'll keep doing my battles and collecting my rewards. For now. Because, well... why not?
Fantastic post op. And so many things well said from Great forumers.
I’m trying to go the Leef route and convince my guild let’s just forget platoons. How many guilds are filling all platoons everytime? Has to be less than 5%
If someone dropped money on wicket or talzin I’m never asking them to platoon them. Unless they are a collector (which most likely no collector will be in my guild) they like those toons and spent money on them to use them.
I agree with Jacen there has been so many great things happen in this game I hate to sound like Im bad mouthing.
I was farming lobot but honestly for what? It doesn’t matter anymore.
This is how it is now
-Guilds are not suppose to fill all platoons. -
If you can lucky to you and hope it has helps with cms. But for the majority it’s clear filling all platoons is not within our grasp.
While we all understand that CG wants to animate guilds to purhase those new toons, with such stealth addons they achieve the opposite.
It is questionable to make a long post and explanation about the first three slices but omitt the really important changes in slice 4-6...
New toons now have the label as platoon filler.
Congratulations on your 300 USD investment on Tie Slicer! Can you please put it into a platoon?
Wow, nice endurance on putting every single guild event currency into hermit yoda to 7* star it. No don’t use him in battles, please put him into a platoon - thank you!
Why should guilds start working on filling plattons, knowing that at this point it will become and endless job that can only be done with large investments - which are further necessary to maintain it? We got all the reapers and millenium falcons ready for maxing all ship platoons. What is the reward? Two new p2p ships got added in even larger quantities. Everybody understands that this is done to incentive the purchase of those toons but as mentioned above this will demotivate players.
With changing plattons and startIng to constantly add p2p toons, you can cement your current reputation they achieved from bf2. While not everything may be purely done for increased spending behaviour, which such and bad explanations, that is how such moves are looked at - and you earned that reputation and deserve it!
I'm fine with not being able to fill every platoon. The first time around we lacked all those many Lobots, Paos and new ewoks. We caught up on Lobots, Paos and 2 of the ewoks. We will catch up on unmasked Kylo and his friends eventually as well.
And by the time you catch up on unmasked kylo and friends, you'll have the same amount of unfillable platoon slots as you did before you caught up. It's a treadmill, you'll never actually get anywhere.
This whole game is a tread mill. If you accept it in other aspects of the game, you should acceot it in platoons as well.
I'm fine with not being able to fill every platoon. The first time around we lacked all those many Lobots, Paos and new ewoks. We caught up on Lobots, Paos and 2 of the ewoks. We will catch up on unmasked Kylo and his friends eventually as well.
And by the time you catch up on unmasked kylo and friends, you'll have the same amount of unfillable platoon slots as you did before you caught up. It's a treadmill, you'll never actually get anywhere.
This whole game is a tread mill. If you accept it in other aspects of the game, you should acceot it in platoons as well.
The only PVE content that was a treadmill was G War, and they specifically changed that to be static in it's difficulty.
I think the problem is a little understated here: personally I'm not bothered with completing all 6 platoons anywhere past phase 3. No big deal.
... It's completing ANY platoon past 3/4 that's got my guild stumped. Average 15*...i know we're a minority on these threads but for us the hurt is humongous. Anywhere with a silencer or actually even Kylo's shuttle is an instant forgone platoon. Guess what? 5 of that ship. Evenly distributed between 5 platoons. And the 6th? Another rare ship to tie that one up too.
Its extremely disheartening to realize that it's basically a legendary event RNG - wise to fulfil even one platoon by phase 5, yet alone unlock a platoon bonus. Just when we resigned ourselves to farming cups and lobot, this happened. I didn't see a single cup this phase!
By this point of time I'm basically telling my guild "don't even bother".
I guess I should look on the bright side; which is... Er... That they told us this now instead of waiting till we DID 7* that cup...?
agree or disagree. I just want to point out, with the accessibility of gear increased and new DS toons on the horizon (because we all know we need more for DS TB) and more toons in general coming out with TLJ in theaters. (lets not mention the possibility of lvl cap increase or 6-7 dot mods over the next year)
all of that means that the points value we will not get from closing platoons and going 6/6 in P6 on all missions will be made up at some point and without too much specific effort.
I have a couple of problems with that.
1) There is never a feeling of completing the content if we can never have 6/6 platoons. Actually my guild, 120M is filling less platoons this time than we did the last TB, when we only missed 3. That's a backwards step and it's a big reason that I see a lot of whales saying that this current iteration of platoons actually disincentivizes them from spending.
2) Getting a ton of characters to inflate GP, or getting higher quality mods, and basically brute forcing territories and combat missions, doesn't feel good. Brute forcing stars isn't a challenge. Auto'ing combat missions because you now have 7 dot mods with 40 more speed and 1000 more offense on a set isn't a challenge.
I can understand the basic, non cynical, idea behind updating platoons to include new paywall toons - it can be argued that it's an effort to extend the life of TB's. I can only hope that's the true motivation behind changing the makeup of platoons.
I saw a comment yesterday that perfectly sums up my thoughts on this and includes some of your sentiment too Kyno - "The current iterations of TB will just become obsolete when guilds get 5 power squads each and enough GP that platoons don’t matter. Will 'upsetting' the player base in the meantime be worth it then?"
This action makes it easier to table LS TB plans for a later time.
This is a big negative. It's another way of saying that the changes to platoons have made people not care about this game mode. That is definitely true of my guild.
Before this we were actually having a BLAST comparing who had a 7* CUP, or Lobot. Getting people excited to farm these under used characters was a huge accomplishment. I'd say it was a win for the devs.
Now my guild is infuriated that we are doing worse on platoons than we did before. The progress we made has been undone. We're doing worse on CMs than we did before as a result. Those of us that farmed odd toons now see that as a complete waste of time since it will take several thousands of dollars to get back to where we already were with platoons. My Lobot is useless if our platoons need 5 Wickets. And as soon as we pay back to where we were before the bar will get raised again. So exactly as you say, the effect on people who actually liked TB, and looked forward to them has been that now they are tabling it. They are hitting auto, and not caring anymore. And they see no reason to buy toons to platoon if platoons will always be unfillable. I doubt it was the intention of the devs to make players feel that way. But that has been the effect.
The TB maps are meant to be modular with new maps and challenges being added more quickly than a new raid. The Hoth LS TB map should go back to requiring the original assortment of platoon characters. Many still haven't even farmed all the Paploos, and Lograys needed. Most elite guilds haven't hit 45* yet. Give us more time to master this map, then add a new round of pay only toons when a new map comes out. Some people will pay to be the first to master the new map, but this conveyor belt of new pay toon requirements idea is over the line for most players I've talked to.
Sorry, Platoons were a failed vision the moment they came out - no one has been happy with them outside of an extreme few - this thread just highlights it from dozens of angles. From the watered down investment in a toon, to never finishing it, to the frustration, to.... ultimately, it doesn't' even matter.
I can't believe CG came up with this idea for it to.... just not matter. I assume that's why they made the rebel straffe so powerful in DS TB? To make it artificially matter more?
That's not the "fix" you needed to do.
Make up 6 - Phase level appropriate - single wave missions. Make them hard for the phase level. Make them TW style and hard, the enemy keeps TM and HP - make a guild possibly have to hit it multiple times to win that platoon mission. And, for the sake of kittens, make LS TB 4 waves instead of 6.
Already, though, someone said it. The answer is to focus on 4 power teams, that won't go obsolete every month... "Platoons" are a failed state - buy it out and start over again. Thank you.
Edit: said DS, meant LS....
So many well said points here. Platoons are diaper league. The handling of them even worse.
As much as I enjoy all the new content,tbs as whole, have been a gigantic mess.
And I find it really concerning that there hasn’t been an overall statement about them. There’s only so much Kozi can delegate and take the heat for. If devs are really reading and listening please just let us know if there are any changes coming for this. Or at the very least tell us if you plan to just change the rules in the 3rd inning again.
I think the problem is a little understated here: personally I'm not bothered with completing all 6 platoons anywhere past phase 3. No big deal.
... It's completing ANY platoon past 3/4 that's got my guild stumped. Average 15*...i know we're a minority on these threads but for us the hurt is humongous. Anywhere with a silencer or actually even Kylo's shuttle is an instant forgone platoon. Guess what? 5 of that ship. Evenly distributed between 5 platoons. And the 6th? Another rare ship to tie that one up too.
I think the way platoons work now is even worse for guilds like yours than like mine.
Platoons are the way that the whole guild contributes to the success of the individual members in the combat missions. But making platoons a set of constantly shifting and unachievable requirements means you can't do that anymore -- you can't strive to build the success of the guild by mastering platoons because you'll never be able to master platoons.
That turns the combat missions into an exercise in individual progression, and individuals in the game have an awfully large number of priorities at any given time. It makes it feel unachievable for a 15* guild. And once you do hit those 4th territories it becomes a brutal wall you know you can't climb.
My guild phase 6 needed 13 lobots, 4 hermit yodas, 3 GK, and 2 each of vet han and chewie, all 7*. If we keep complaining about hermit yoda and GK, we'll need 13 of each like we need 7* lobots.
This is a bit ludricrous. There could be a limit to the max # of any one toon that could appear in platoons. 4 as a max would suffice, given how many toons there are to choose from.
Random (read uniform distribution) does not equate to 13/180, they must be weighting certain toons higher. Our minimum lobots required across P4-P6 was 12. with 76 (12*6+4) possible light side toons. Expecting truly uniform, would be 2.4 (180/76) but with the restrictions for phoenix, or rogue one plus special required toons would remove at most 12, conservatively 18 toons from selection. so, this equates to truly uniform random of 3. so having lobot at around 4x expected every time indicates that the devs have implemented a weighting in the random pool to ensure folks farm him.
My guild phase 6 needed 13 lobots, 4 hermit yodas, 3 GK, and 2 each of vet han and chewie, all 7*. If we keep complaining about hermit yoda and GK, we'll need 13 of each like we need 7* lobots.
This is a bit ludricrous. There could be a limit to the max # of any one toon that could appear in platoons. 4 as a max would suffice, given how many toons there are to choose from.
Random (read uniform distribution) does not equate to 13/180, they must be weighting certain toons higher. Our minimum lobots required across P4-P6 was 12. with 76 (12*6+4) possible light side toons. Expecting truly uniform, would be 2.4 (180/76) but with the restrictions for phoenix, or rogue one plus special required toons would remove at most 12, conservatively 18 toons from selection. so, this equates to truly uniform random of 3. so having lobot at around 4x expected every time indicates that the devs have implemented a weighting in the random pool to ensure folks farm him.
What's next, lobot Zeta? make him useful?
At least Lobot is farmable. That is an achievable goal. Requiring even 10-20 Lobot's every time is something that can be accomplished. But constantly adding unfarmable characters is a bigger problem, because you never achieve it ever. And all the Lobot's we farmed that allowed us to complete platoons before were a total waste because we didn't have $2000 worth of Wickets.
But... Lobot? Seriously, a toon no one really uses, now brought multiple times to 7*, just to do platoons? I just can't imagine how that would feel like an achievement.
... I guess, to TL;DR it for the devs, what we're essentially trying to ask here - rather exasperatedly - is: "Throw us a bone, guv!"
But... Lobot? Seriously, a toon no one really uses, now brought multiple times to 7*, just to do platoons? I just can't imagine how that would feel like an achievement.
... I guess, to TL;DR it for the devs, what we're essentially trying to ask here - rather exasperatedly - is: "Throw us a bone, guv!"
I mean, it's a bit of an achievement because it's a hard node only farm. But yeah, I get your point. And I am currently more annoyed that so many of us got Lobot to 7* just to have him show up so rarely now.
But... Lobot? Seriously, a toon no one really uses, now brought multiple times to 7*, just to do platoons? I just can't imagine how that would feel like an achievement.
... I guess, to TL;DR it for the devs, what we're essentially trying to ask here - rather exasperatedly - is: "Throw us a bone, guv!"
The alternative is that you spend a tremendous amount of time/money for fantastic characters that you want to actually play with, and instead you draw straws to see who doesn't get to have fun because one of you has to platoon their Hermit Yoda, or Morher Talzin, or (insert hard to get/pay only toon here).
Anyone who expects platoons to just be easy, or TB in general to be easy is being unrealistic. It's supposed to take time to farm up the teams, and toons needed. So I have no issue with needing some CUPs, and Lobots to platoon. Complaining about that is a losing battle.
But it's equally unreasonable for the devs to make it so that nobody will ever complete platoons ever without spending thousands constantly. That is seriously alienating all the big spenders in my guild. There is a difference between giving us goals to work towards that we can spend to overcome faster, and forcing people to spend exorbitant amounts of money to keep from losing progress they already made/paid for.
All I will add is that it is absolutely ridiculous Hermit Yoda, and other characters not really obtainable are in the final 2 phases at least of platoons.
Platoons just serve as a means for the developers to push people into farming specific characters as they can alter the chances of the characters that show every week. Really disappointing.
These aggressive styled money tactics made my guild lose 1 long-term committed players the other day. He was a pretty good spender too. Seen a few big spenders in my arena shard quit cause of these tactics as well. We have been coerced into farming too many characters now, and territory battles in particular pigeon holed us into working on specific characters.
The thing is I just don't think this platoon nonsense is actually motivating any real spending. I think it's probably achieving the opposite -- especially with 11 new light side toons filtering into the platoons. The nonsense with Sith Fighter is truly absurd.
It's time to actually rethink this, and what it's meant to accomplish. It's a lazy solution, and CG can definitely come up with something better.
It says phases 4 - 6 will pull from ALL available units....and they are. Don't see it changing anytime soon but who knows.
It seemed awfully heavily weighted for my guild towards units that you have to pay to get to the star level required. Our platoons were filled with the new characters who cost hundreds of dollars to get past 4*. It meant we didn't complete hardly any platoons past the 3rd day, and it felt like an enormous pay-to-win or money grab by the developers.
I have no problem with the developers offering stuff for sale, and even making content that uses the pay-only heroes. After all, if you wanted a card in Magic: The Gathering you had to buy packs until you got it. Games may offer a F2P path, but they need to make money. I get that. However, territory battles doesn't seem like the place to require pay-only units. Leave that for the competitive areas, like the arena.
After reading more of the posts, I like the suggestion of platoons 1-4 only have farmable toons, and platoons 5-6 can have non-farmable toons. Seems like that would encourage people to fill the platoons rather than just discourage everyone, which is what happened to my guild this last go-round.
Replies
Sure. But the issue is that it's not out of reach for everyone else "at this point in time," it's out of reach *forever*.
Although I'm not a GL, I share this sentiment. It's great when you're in a guild with some big spenders who are prepared to invest their cash into the product, for everyone's benefit. But what happens when those big spenders find that their investment hasn't been at all worthwhile... they can't use the character or ship in gameplay as it's stuffed into a platoon, but, they require a bunch of other players to stuff their investments into platoons as well or else the whole thing falls down.
If I were in their shoes I'd be thinking, why do I bother even spending?
Easiest solution as I see it is to restrict *all* characters and ships to just 2 appearances in any given phase.
On your second point, I'm not suggesting intentionally brute forcing it. I'm saying that in the natural flow of the game platoons will be "phased out" due to those factors. Yes people will use that as a way to brute force it,but it will also happen naturally for many guilds.
I am generally speak neutral on this point because while in the same boat as you (120M GP guild) we have a plan and are just working the plan, this will slow our progress but we have more than enough areas to focus on. This action makes it easier to table LS TB plans for a later time. We are happy at 42 and will start to focus on DS TB and get to a happy place there.
Just be aware that right about the time you grow enough to naturally "brute force" the TB, they'll transition to a new TB (or release another one) with higher score requirements and tougher enemy squads, and you'll be right back to not being able to finish.
The thing is, in regard to discussions about getting the latest character, or finishing some shiny new content, I often hear people say things like... you have to be patient, you'll get there, this game isn't a sprint it's a marathon, and so on... And while I realized early on that it's not a sprint (that much was painfully obvious), it took me a while to figure out that it isn't a marathon, either. It's actually a treadmill race. There is no finish line... no prize for first place. Because you can put in all the effort you can muster, and if you pause for one minute, you're "behind" again. And your only reference to how you're progressing is offered as a distorted view of the guy on the treadmill next to you to compare effort and judge whether or not you're "winning". And I'm ok with that. Understanding that has allowed me to quit being stressed over a game.
Good, bad, or indifferent, I know my 41-star guild won't ever finish all the platoons. And we will likely never finish with 45 or 48 stars. But I'll keep doing my battles and collecting my rewards. For now. Because, well... why not?
I’m trying to go the Leef route and convince my guild let’s just forget platoons. How many guilds are filling all platoons everytime? Has to be less than 5%
If someone dropped money on wicket or talzin I’m never asking them to platoon them. Unless they are a collector (which most likely no collector will be in my guild) they like those toons and spent money on them to use them.
I agree with Jacen there has been so many great things happen in this game I hate to sound like Im bad mouthing.
I was farming lobot but honestly for what? It doesn’t matter anymore.
This is how it is now
-Guilds are not suppose to fill all platoons. -
If you can lucky to you and hope it has helps with cms. But for the majority it’s clear filling all platoons is not within our grasp.
It is questionable to make a long post and explanation about the first three slices but omitt the really important changes in slice 4-6...
New toons now have the label as platoon filler.
Congratulations on your 300 USD investment on Tie Slicer! Can you please put it into a platoon?
Wow, nice endurance on putting every single guild event currency into hermit yoda to 7* star it. No don’t use him in battles, please put him into a platoon - thank you!
Why should guilds start working on filling plattons, knowing that at this point it will become and endless job that can only be done with large investments - which are further necessary to maintain it? We got all the reapers and millenium falcons ready for maxing all ship platoons. What is the reward? Two new p2p ships got added in even larger quantities. Everybody understands that this is done to incentive the purchase of those toons but as mentioned above this will demotivate players.
With changing plattons and startIng to constantly add p2p toons, you can cement your current reputation they achieved from bf2. While not everything may be purely done for increased spending behaviour, which such and bad explanations, that is how such moves are looked at - and you earned that reputation and deserve it!
This whole game is a tread mill. If you accept it in other aspects of the game, you should acceot it in platoons as well.
The only PVE content that was a treadmill was G War, and they specifically changed that to be static in it's difficulty.
... It's completing ANY platoon past 3/4 that's got my guild stumped. Average 15*...i know we're a minority on these threads but for us the hurt is humongous. Anywhere with a silencer or actually even Kylo's shuttle is an instant forgone platoon. Guess what? 5 of that ship. Evenly distributed between 5 platoons. And the 6th? Another rare ship to tie that one up too.
Its extremely disheartening to realize that it's basically a legendary event RNG - wise to fulfil even one platoon by phase 5, yet alone unlock a platoon bonus. Just when we resigned ourselves to farming cups and lobot, this happened. I didn't see a single cup this phase!
By this point of time I'm basically telling my guild "don't even bother".
I guess I should look on the bright side; which is... Er... That they told us this now instead of waiting till we DID 7* that cup...?
This is a big negative. It's another way of saying that the changes to platoons have made people not care about this game mode. That is definitely true of my guild.
Before this we were actually having a BLAST comparing who had a 7* CUP, or Lobot. Getting people excited to farm these under used characters was a huge accomplishment. I'd say it was a win for the devs.
Now my guild is infuriated that we are doing worse on platoons than we did before. The progress we made has been undone. We're doing worse on CMs than we did before as a result. Those of us that farmed odd toons now see that as a complete waste of time since it will take several thousands of dollars to get back to where we already were with platoons. My Lobot is useless if our platoons need 5 Wickets. And as soon as we pay back to where we were before the bar will get raised again. So exactly as you say, the effect on people who actually liked TB, and looked forward to them has been that now they are tabling it. They are hitting auto, and not caring anymore. And they see no reason to buy toons to platoon if platoons will always be unfillable. I doubt it was the intention of the devs to make players feel that way. But that has been the effect.
The TB maps are meant to be modular with new maps and challenges being added more quickly than a new raid. The Hoth LS TB map should go back to requiring the original assortment of platoon characters. Many still haven't even farmed all the Paploos, and Lograys needed. Most elite guilds haven't hit 45* yet. Give us more time to master this map, then add a new round of pay only toons when a new map comes out. Some people will pay to be the first to master the new map, but this conveyor belt of new pay toon requirements idea is over the line for most players I've talked to.
I can't believe CG came up with this idea for it to.... just not matter. I assume that's why they made the rebel straffe so powerful in DS TB? To make it artificially matter more?
That's not the "fix" you needed to do.
Make up 6 - Phase level appropriate - single wave missions. Make them hard for the phase level. Make them TW style and hard, the enemy keeps TM and HP - make a guild possibly have to hit it multiple times to win that platoon mission. And, for the sake of kittens, make LS TB 4 waves instead of 6.
Already, though, someone said it. The answer is to focus on 4 power teams, that won't go obsolete every month... "Platoons" are a failed state - buy it out and start over again. Thank you.
Edit: said DS, meant LS....
As much as I enjoy all the new content,tbs as whole, have been a gigantic mess.
And I find it really concerning that there hasn’t been an overall statement about them. There’s only so much Kozi can delegate and take the heat for. If devs are really reading and listening please just let us know if there are any changes coming for this. Or at the very least tell us if you plan to just change the rules in the 3rd inning again.
I think the way platoons work now is even worse for guilds like yours than like mine.
Platoons are the way that the whole guild contributes to the success of the individual members in the combat missions. But making platoons a set of constantly shifting and unachievable requirements means you can't do that anymore -- you can't strive to build the success of the guild by mastering platoons because you'll never be able to master platoons.
That turns the combat missions into an exercise in individual progression, and individuals in the game have an awfully large number of priorities at any given time. It makes it feel unachievable for a 15* guild. And once you do hit those 4th territories it becomes a brutal wall you know you can't climb.
This is a bit ludricrous. There could be a limit to the max # of any one toon that could appear in platoons. 4 as a max would suffice, given how many toons there are to choose from.
Random (read uniform distribution) does not equate to 13/180, they must be weighting certain toons higher. Our minimum lobots required across P4-P6 was 12. with 76 (12*6+4) possible light side toons. Expecting truly uniform, would be 2.4 (180/76) but with the restrictions for phoenix, or rogue one plus special required toons would remove at most 12, conservatively 18 toons from selection. so, this equates to truly uniform random of 3. so having lobot at around 4x expected every time indicates that the devs have implemented a weighting in the random pool to ensure folks farm him.
What's next, lobot Zeta? make him useful?
At least Lobot is farmable. That is an achievable goal. Requiring even 10-20 Lobot's every time is something that can be accomplished. But constantly adding unfarmable characters is a bigger problem, because you never achieve it ever. And all the Lobot's we farmed that allowed us to complete platoons before were a total waste because we didn't have $2000 worth of Wickets.
... I guess, to TL;DR it for the devs, what we're essentially trying to ask here - rather exasperatedly - is: "Throw us a bone, guv!"
I mean, it's a bit of an achievement because it's a hard node only farm. But yeah, I get your point. And I am currently more annoyed that so many of us got Lobot to 7* just to have him show up so rarely now.
The alternative is that you spend a tremendous amount of time/money for fantastic characters that you want to actually play with, and instead you draw straws to see who doesn't get to have fun because one of you has to platoon their Hermit Yoda, or Morher Talzin, or (insert hard to get/pay only toon here).
Anyone who expects platoons to just be easy, or TB in general to be easy is being unrealistic. It's supposed to take time to farm up the teams, and toons needed. So I have no issue with needing some CUPs, and Lobots to platoon. Complaining about that is a losing battle.
But it's equally unreasonable for the devs to make it so that nobody will ever complete platoons ever without spending thousands constantly. That is seriously alienating all the big spenders in my guild. There is a difference between giving us goals to work towards that we can spend to overcome faster, and forcing people to spend exorbitant amounts of money to keep from losing progress they already made/paid for.
Platoons just serve as a means for the developers to push people into farming specific characters as they can alter the chances of the characters that show every week. Really disappointing.
These aggressive styled money tactics made my guild lose 1 long-term committed players the other day. He was a pretty good spender too. Seen a few big spenders in my arena shard quit cause of these tactics as well. We have been coerced into farming too many characters now, and territory battles in particular pigeon holed us into working on specific characters.
One?
https://forums.galaxy-of-heroes.starwars.ea.com/discussion/148957/its-time-to-talk-about-platoons-in-p4/p1
The thing is I just don't think this platoon nonsense is actually motivating any real spending. I think it's probably achieving the opposite -- especially with 11 new light side toons filtering into the platoons. The nonsense with Sith Fighter is truly absurd.
It's time to actually rethink this, and what it's meant to accomplish. It's a lazy solution, and CG can definitely come up with something better.
It seemed awfully heavily weighted for my guild towards units that you have to pay to get to the star level required. Our platoons were filled with the new characters who cost hundreds of dollars to get past 4*. It meant we didn't complete hardly any platoons past the 3rd day, and it felt like an enormous pay-to-win or money grab by the developers.
I have no problem with the developers offering stuff for sale, and even making content that uses the pay-only heroes. After all, if you wanted a card in Magic: The Gathering you had to buy packs until you got it. Games may offer a F2P path, but they need to make money. I get that. However, territory battles doesn't seem like the place to require pay-only units. Leave that for the competitive areas, like the arena.
After reading more of the posts, I like the suggestion of platoons 1-4 only have farmable toons, and platoons 5-6 can have non-farmable toons. Seems like that would encourage people to fill the platoons rather than just discourage everyone, which is what happened to my guild this last go-round.