On Territory Battles' Platoon mechanics
This post is aimed to let the Powers That Be review their Platoon mechanics in both Lightside and Darkside Territory Battles - it's not faction-specific so i chose to post it in general for some opinions and ideas that could be lingering.
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Classic Raids and the Past:
Many players complain that TB's are too hard after the first 2-3 phases.
In the beginning we all couldnt scratch the Rancor and his Warpigs or contribute fully to each hAAT phase for the greater good - these days it's more a score race between our top members and everyone is fine with it, we congratulate each other and get ideas for better squads and everyone is happy at the end of the day when rewards get reaped. It took us all time and effort to be where we are now, whilst newer and aspiring guilds are still on their journey.
Territory Raids and the Present:
As of now, we work tirelessly on required and viable squads for Territory Battles, as before.
The major difference between our classic raids and TB's are...
Right now with the current system of platooning, it feels like the player has gathered and geared/starred/modded the recommended toons for a Pit/Tank phase, but then comes the game and says: "STOP! You have to put those chars into platoons" - effectively leaving us with nothing to play with / leftovers (if potent characters are required to sacrifice) only window clicking/management. Imagine you have a Clone+Princess team for p4 in hAAT but you can't use them.
The Platoons are a lackluster because (among other things) the player wants to play with their favorite toons and squad setups (heck even experiment with them, some of us do Pit/hAAT phases with unorthodox squads because it's more fun) and not do window management.
The lingering question for me in the room, whether creating (partially impossible in DS) platoons (for quite a while obviously) really fuels players' motivation to purchase game content (chars/gear) more than when they work on squads/gear like for classic Raids - which only the dev team knows since they have the data.
Personally, i think it would have been a better choice - or still is, if that's an option - to add special combat missions with certain factions of which the combat performance has the same impact as filling a platoon of a Zone. Maybe even add End Bosses in the final waves of each "Platoon Mission" - like an AT-ST, Heroic characters from the movies, or something similar to the Nightsister altar in the Dathomir event (replenishing units until the objective is neutralized). Or add minimum gear level restrictions in addition to certain factions - that way it would even be easier to test and adjust difficulty of enemy NPC squads. Using that method, the player still would have to strengthen their squads for harder phases, but the annoying feeling in the stomach caused by unit sacrificing would be gone. If it was for me, i would remove Platoons alltogether or at least reduce their size by a v.e.r.y. significant amount. - but, that is personal wishful thinking.
Every player improves squads at their own pace and there will always be spenders="subscribers" or not. It is obvious that the game has been working so far and become even better than in its early days - without the grieving addition called Platoons. Giving people stomach ache when looking at platoon requirenments and then afterwards the even worse feeling that they cant use their favorite units in combat is the wrong path to tread upon and makes CG for one look very very obviously like money-greedy predators, and furthermore the game mode itself looses its attractiveness as an activity to do comfortably while relaxing a bit from the day.
Happy holidays to everyone!
.
Classic Raids and the Past:
Many players complain that TB's are too hard after the first 2-3 phases.
In the beginning we all couldnt scratch the Rancor and his Warpigs or contribute fully to each hAAT phase for the greater good - these days it's more a score race between our top members and everyone is fine with it, we congratulate each other and get ideas for better squads and everyone is happy at the end of the day when rewards get reaped. It took us all time and effort to be where we are now, whilst newer and aspiring guilds are still on their journey.
Territory Raids and the Present:
As of now, we work tirelessly on required and viable squads for Territory Battles, as before.
The major difference between our classic raids and TB's are...
PLATOONS and SQUADRONS
and their overall impact on each phase.
Right now with the current system of platooning, it feels like the player has gathered and geared/starred/modded the recommended toons for a Pit/Tank phase, but then comes the game and says: "STOP! You have to put those chars into platoons" - effectively leaving us with nothing to play with / leftovers (if potent characters are required to sacrifice) only window clicking/management. Imagine you have a Clone+Princess team for p4 in hAAT but you can't use them.
The Platoons are a lackluster because (among other things) the player wants to play with their favorite toons and squad setups (heck even experiment with them, some of us do Pit/hAAT phases with unorthodox squads because it's more fun) and not do window management.
The lingering question for me in the room, whether creating (partially impossible in DS) platoons (for quite a while obviously) really fuels players' motivation to purchase game content (chars/gear) more than when they work on squads/gear like for classic Raids - which only the dev team knows since they have the data.
Personally, i think it would have been a better choice - or still is, if that's an option - to add special combat missions with certain factions of which the combat performance has the same impact as filling a platoon of a Zone. Maybe even add End Bosses in the final waves of each "Platoon Mission" - like an AT-ST, Heroic characters from the movies, or something similar to the Nightsister altar in the Dathomir event (replenishing units until the objective is neutralized). Or add minimum gear level restrictions in addition to certain factions - that way it would even be easier to test and adjust difficulty of enemy NPC squads. Using that method, the player still would have to strengthen their squads for harder phases, but the annoying feeling in the stomach caused by unit sacrificing would be gone. If it was for me, i would remove Platoons alltogether or at least reduce their size by a v.e.r.y. significant amount. - but, that is personal wishful thinking.
Every player improves squads at their own pace and there will always be spenders="subscribers" or not. It is obvious that the game has been working so far and become even better than in its early days - without the grieving addition called Platoons. Giving people stomach ache when looking at platoon requirenments and then afterwards the even worse feeling that they cant use their favorite units in combat is the wrong path to tread upon and makes CG for one look very very obviously like money-greedy predators, and furthermore the game mode itself looses its attractiveness as an activity to do comfortably while relaxing a bit from the day.
Happy holidays to everyone!
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