@CG_TopHat and all the other persons that are involved in this new way of Communication
I am aware that you cant do things like that every day because you may run out of stuff to talk about but i appreciate all those important topics to be addressed
I like how you even explain the devs point of view of decisions someone may not understand (some shops not getting new things)
And i am looking forward to the raid reward overview on monday
If you can keep the goals you set for yourself regarding communication (q&a once a month, 1 Week notice for important Events and so on) i am sure even the sceptical people will trust you and your decisions again
Sadly you cant make everyone happy and some people will demand more and more and still find a lot of stuff to be mad about
But you got me ( and i am sure a lot of other People too) to be motivated again and looking forward to this new communicative cg
@cg tophat I think You forgot to mention that a year ago You wrote (or someone else from your company) the same thing and reality was different than CG promised. Year ago it was lies. Now the same words and the same lies? Players remember everything what was promised a year ago. Did You do copy paste?
Why did all of these posts take so long to come out? We've heard these promises before! We have been given a cadence time and time again and it has always changed!! Cassians ship is an amazing example of how bad it can get. And the response to that was absolutely nothing!! What assurances are you giving this time that it's going to stay to schedule?!? @CG_TopHat
How are you going to handle the new Apple policy in regards to the requirement for games to publish the drop rates from buyable packs? I am wondering. You know, your game will be removed if you don't do so. (no joke here).
As I understand Apple’s policy, there was some question over whether it only applies to loot boxes that have a specific dollar amount tied to them or also those bought with virtual currency you can earn in-game or purchase for real money. So, for example, the bundles that come with a guaranteed number of shards, equipment, ability mats, credits and droids are bought directly with real money. If they charge you some sort of “token” for the pack, like crystals for example, the policy may still allow them to keep drop rates secret even though they are selling you the tokens for real money because those tokens can also be earned in-game.
I read about the new Apple policy awhile back but never saw whether this was answered. The intent obviously seems to be transparency about drop rates, but it is ultimately up to Apple how they will enforce it.
So you're basically giving no point to the GW, Arena, FA and Cantina stores anymore? Where do non pay to win players obtain new toons? This is just ridiculous... Add characters to the stores!
Thanks for clarification on the stores, now I can spend my saved currency on getting Pao to 7* without being scared of incoming Nightsisters! Great post.
From the day the unit moves to the Chromium Pack or Fleet Pack, and Shipments, approximately four to six weeks later the unit will move to a location in the game.
These locations are limited to (at the moment): Cantina, Hard Light Side, Hard Dark Side, Guild Store, and Guild Event Store.
As per the recent Q&A we are no longer adding characters to the Galactic War Store, Cantina Store, Fleet Arena Store, or Arena Store. Our intention here is that once these stores are exhausted, they are intended to be a source of shard shop currency for our very well established players. We will update this list as needed depending on how the game changes over time.
Emphasis mine.
Currently, there are 7 nodes that lack a hero shard, though several of them contain a ship shard.
Right now, we have *at least* five characters that need to be added to normal farm location. If Holdo, Rose, Visas, Sion, and Marauder are supposed to follow the same release, and be put into 'normal' locations, that gives us 10 heroes.
Assuming CG doesn't mind doubling up ships n heroes(like with Krennic and Rey for example), that means that at *least* 3 of the above 10 are getting put into the two guild stores.
We're in April(basically) and we've had 5 new releases so far(I believe). Even if they only release one new hero(that follows this cadence) every other month for the rest of the year, that's four new ones(roughly) by Dec.
They'll likely need to update this list sooner rather than later, because they've pretty much already run out of non shop room.
Of course, they could add in a brand new shop(for who knows what, but some sort of raid shop has been suggested), depending on what else they plan on bringing to the game.
It's also possible that if they eventually increase the level cap, they *might* had new missions beyond 9(8 for Cantina).
We are also looking into potentially finding a way for new players to experience the content we’ve built in Marquee events as they begin their journey in Galaxy of Heroes.
Does this mean that players that say joined last few days of December '17 would get the opportunity to get Marquee characters they weren't around for? The Veterans, Darth Nihilus, countless others... a lot of these that were originally Marquee are hard locked for new players until they get to the 82-85 level range but have roles to play even at lower stars in squads and fleets.
I've read it three times, i still don't understand what the poin is
I'll try to summarize: Still 3 ways to release characters. Little notice (i.e. 7 days or less) for big events the first time is WAI. Marquee events will unlock at 2*, go to 3* if you complete all levels and you can buy a pack for $9.99 to go to 4*. After that you can buy the 1299 crystal packs for 5 shards (with the usual uber-tiny-microscopic chance for more) Nothing more coming to the shops. Oh, they reserve the right to change any of the above as they see fit. So pretty much same as usual for the character release cadence.
Kidding aside, while most of the communication this week has been very clear and helpful, this particular piece really isn't - especially with the caveat to pretty much change things as "needed"...which has always been the case.
In game name: Lucas Gregory FORMER PLAYER - - - -"Whale blah grump poooop." - Ouchie
In game guild: TNR Uprising I beat the REAL T7 Yoda (not the nerfed one) and did so before mods were there to help
*This space left intentionally blank*
@CG_TopHat this is awesome. I had an idea that you might consider that I think will help both the community and CG. Why not do one of the following as well:
1. List the bundles that will be available for the event on the calendar. For this month, it's Thrawn and Chimaera. I'm assuming you're going to be offering the Phoenix Bundle and the Rebel ships bundle at the time of the event, so why not put those on the calendar too? That gives people who are not as familiar with the bundles time to save up and buy them if they need/want to. I'm not saying put every single bundle for the entire month on the calendar, just those related to the big reoccuring events like Thrawn and Chimaera this month. It helps people plan and would likely make you guys more money too.
2. Alternatively, why not put the bundles for the event in the shop the first day of the month rather than just during the event? We know Thrawn and Chimaera are coming this month, so why only offer the Phoenix and Rebel ship bundle while the event is running? It's not a secret they are likely going to be available, so if you put them in the shop the first day of the month, people have time to plan and buy them.
I had a question about potential future characters! Is it possible that there are any of the amazing creatures as possible future characters? They've always been one of my favorite aspects of the universe.
Regarding the shops not being updated:
I can understand Arena and GW stores being for new players and shard shop. Arena can be a source of much needed credits and GW has always been(especially post nerf and becoming simmable) the store you got the most tokens for. I’m ok with them staying as they are. But cantina store is earned currency bought with crystals for refreshes and it can support a few new characters easily. Same goes for fleet store where zetas are so valuable farming anything else becomes a sacrifice. So if you could reconsider this and allow new characters at least in cantina store and fleet store that would be amazing.
I'm trying to give credit where credit is due here, all of these blogs have been well thought out and written. However...
we don't have any INFORMATION at all about any of the real questions yet. We have long-worded, detailed information on how certain things work behind the scenes, but ZERO concrete answers. NOTHING.
For example, @CG_TopHat , you mentioned (for the third time), release cadence, everyone is asking about NIGHTSISTER zombie/spirit. Another poster asked the question as well. There's no mention of, "hey, we messed that up, it's coming," other than a future update. Really? How far into the future.
I mentioned this in a post before, you guys have got to deliver INFORMATION- not lip service. Admit you made the mistake and what/when you will fix it. Start with this example.
Are you serious? He literally said it would be in the next content release, and that they run content releases every two weeks. They also set a time cadence on Heroic events and told us they'll start putting Legendaries into the event calendar when they've run more than two times. What more do you want from these people? They are bending over backwards trying to get more information out to us quickly, and I guarantee that the last two weeks have been hell for them between this and all the internal pressure they're likely getting on top of their normal deadlines to improve things after the Sith Raid launch.
This next part isn't directed at you, but more in general. There's definitely things in this update people won't like, but its not the developers job to make this game 100% F2P friendly. There has to be some element of motivation for players to spend money on the game, or else they can't keep the lights on, and I'll bet good money that EA hangs revenue targets on CG's head that they have no control over. I understand people pine for the old days where you paid $60 for a game and that was it, but that also meant you got a static game that never changed over time, and you had a boom bust employment cycle for game studios that resulted in generally large job turnover for their staff. If you want to expect ongoing and frequent high quality content updates, there needs to be ongoing cost and revenue in order for that to be justified. Personally, if that means I have to pay a little more than in the past overall to enjoy that experience for a long period of time (16 months for me) and it improves the lives of the people that work on these games, fair enough. If the net of that means theres some things I won't get the first time around, I'm fine with that.
I agree that communication had reached a bad stage and there was numerous areas of possible improvement, but that doesn't mean that when CG tries to make it better they automatically owe anyone every answer or giving customers exactly what they want immediately, regardless of internal roadmap and planning.
This encapsulates my opinion nicely. Though I would like a more detailed answer regarding freezing various shops, I'm satisfied with their recent answers. While any money I spend in the game has (and won't) go toward Marquee characters (outside of the $9.99 packs if the character has any existing value), I do not fault the developer and publisher from pushing this element of the game.
I've been critical of the forum communication up until @CG_Carrie hosted the Q&A. As of this moment my opinion is trending positive.
A survey popped up in game today that I really wanted to take. I set my phone down and walked away before I clicked on it. When I came back it was gone any chance there's a link somewhere to it?
So you're basically giving no point to the GW, Arena, FA and Cantina stores anymore? Where do non pay to win players obtain new toons? This is just ridiculous... Add characters to the stores!
Hi. I finished all three of those stores off as a free player a couple months ago and have been stockpiling currencies since then, waiting for a new character in any of those stores. Ever since the first Q&A they did a couple weeks back, where they announced no new characters for GW or Arena (but not Cantina, that's new info) I've been spending those currencies on characters I already own for shard shop conversion.
Free players have a bunch of places to get characters--But not so many places to get gear. Ever since they made their announcement I've been buying hella stun cuffs and stun guns and holoprojectors and mk 7, 8, and 9 eyeballs, and so on and so forth from the shard shop and just blowing my existing characters through the gear ranks.
This is a big improvement.
EDIT: Oh. As far as Cantina is concerned, buy ship building materials instead of characters for the shard shop. At least for the time-being. For a limited time they've changed the Mod Shop so that anything that used to cost crystals now costs building materials. So instead of spending 3k crystals on a gold triangle you can spend a mere 1.7m materials that you've been stockpiling because all your ships are maxed out.
A survey popped up in game today that I really wanted to take. I set my phone down and walked away before I clicked on it. When I came back it was gone any chance there's a link somewhere to it?
Do you have an iPad or other tablet? I've been getting all the pop ups on both devices, but only once per device.
@CG_TopHat Doesn’t make sense to not update the stores. Why not move Lobot or Urorororor in to these places so you can move new characters into their spot? Seems a bit tedious to have to go in and click buttons over and over just to change our currency to shard currency. Think we do enough button pressing with bronzium packs. Now it looks like we’ll be spending more time pressing buttons in all the stores just to press more buttons in shard shop. Buttons buttons buttons arrrgh ahhh all the button pressing! Thanks
The hero's journey is special content. After the first time you should all be working towards it. I have never missed a character on its second release. Farmed the vets since the first rey event and the second time I got it. It's simple. Same with cls and thrawn. R2 and Palpatine. I like the way C.G. handles the releases. It separates the committed from the non-committed. The grand masters from the younglings...
It is a good to see the communication getting better. Appreciate it.
However, I have a serious concern on the arena, cantina, GW, fleet shops not getting updated with new toons or ships or gear. What is the point of having these shops for established players if we can't farm any good or new toons from there. Also, it sounds pretty lame that ALL these shop currencies are meant to be fodder for shard shop. Why @CG_TopHat? Can you please provide a reasonable explanation for this decision?
Shouldn't it be the other way round that you put some new toons and good gear into these shops rather than making their currencies sound like fodder?
Also, hope you realise that the shard shop has only 2 good gear pieces at a time and all other gear pieces are not relevant for an established player.
If your intention is to force people to farm all the characters in these shops, you should make those toons worthy and viable.
This decision of devs also seems to hint that you guys acknowledge the gear crunch. However, it appears to be a very roundabout and half hearted way of reducing the gear crunch (I am looking at you - carbantis, droid callers, stun guns and stun cuffs!!)
I can understand why you are hesitant to update the GW store and some of the others. I would like to suggest that when add marquee toons to be farmable. You do so by adding a new tier of 3 missions in GW that can be replayable 3 times a day maybe but made very difficult and cannot be simmable. Also each mission should require certain 7* toons to play so as to keep someone who just started playing from being able to get a marquee toon without at least putting in the time. That would reward long time players and give new player something to work towards.
You sure you didnt want to write "we want money from the packs that you guys buy in panic when we give you few hours to prepare"?
You know your lower part of your back is on fire cuz of rescent release of msf?
. Also each mission should require certain 7* toons to play so as to keep someone who just started playing from being able to get a marquee toon without at least putting in the time. That would reward long time players and give new player something to work towards.
This would also mean "no money from low lvl whales that want to 7* this toon".
You guys realy dont understand that this is their job? That they need to make money?
CG is not a charity foundation.
So you're basically giving no point to the GW, Arena, FA and Cantina stores anymore? Where do non pay to win players obtain new toons? This is just ridiculous... Add characters to the stores!
You guys should play a little bit longer!
After a period of time, shards are no problem, but gear is. Now they say I can finally burn down the shop currency. This is good, really good.
Adding one character into a shop gives us a choice then you can use that currency in shard shop or buy new character. Other way it will be obligation. Point is we want choice not obligation.
So, generally I approve of most of this. Marqee events work pretty well, though I would love to see Marqees get a replay every year or so, to help newer players build up their roster with what may otherwise be hard to get characters, or give older players who may have stepped away for a while a refresher tutorial on these characters.
Likewise with Legendaries, Mythics, Hero's Journeys, and event calendar... all great stuff there.
As per the recent Q&A we are no longer adding characters to the Galactic War Store, Cantina Store, Fleet Arena Store, or Arena Store. Our intention here is that once these stores are exhausted, they are intended to be a source of shard shop currency for our very well established players.
To me, this reads very much as "We consider these particular game modes to be dead as Latin, and no longer have any faith in at least part of our game. Watch for developers to be reorganized or assigned to other projects as we prepare for that marvelous new competitor to steal our whales and undercut out acceptable profit margins. DOOM™"
I think you could do better than to abandon older game modes, whether by revamping them, or at least presenting in a more positive manner.
Furthermore, as for placement of character shard opportunities, I would suggest that many of the "nameless" characters could have their shard farms moved to standard mode light/dark side battles, in order to make room for newer named characters to be placed in Hard Mode reward slots.
People (angry): "Character release is a mess!"
CG (poker face): "This mess is now our official character release scheme"
People (extatic): "Awesome !"
Nothing has changed guys...
It absolutely has changed.
1. Certain reoccurring events will now be out on the calendar, as evidenced by thrawn and chimaera being out on the April calendar.
2. Characters offered through a marquee event will ALWAYS follow the same cadence now and characters like Talzin and Wicket that didn’t follow the cadence will now be farmable.
3. Legendary, mythic, and heroes journey now have “new” or “legacy” designations.
Those are just a few of the changes. All for the positive. Every single one of those changes helps the player base. Not trying to be a fan boy here or anything. I criticize when criticism is warranted, but at the same time it’s only fair to acknowledge when they do make favorable changes.
However, I have a serious concern on the arena, cantina, GW, fleet shops not getting updated with new toons or ships or gear. What is the point of having these shops for established players if we can't farm any good or new toons from there. Also, it sounds pretty lame that ALL these shop currencies are meant to be fodder for shard shop. Why @CG_TopHat? Can you please provide a reasonable explanation for this decision?
They did answer. They want those shops to be farming locations for new players and fuel shard shop currency for elder players (which I am fine with, thats what I was doing already anyway). Just because you don't like their explanation for it doesn't automatically make it unreasonable.
Replies
I am aware that you cant do things like that every day because you may run out of stuff to talk about but i appreciate all those important topics to be addressed
I like how you even explain the devs point of view of decisions someone may not understand (some shops not getting new things)
And i am looking forward to the raid reward overview on monday
If you can keep the goals you set for yourself regarding communication (q&a once a month, 1 Week notice for important Events and so on) i am sure even the sceptical people will trust you and your decisions again
Sadly you cant make everyone happy and some people will demand more and more and still find a lot of stuff to be mad about
But you got me ( and i am sure a lot of other People too) to be motivated again and looking forward to this new communicative cg
Thank you
As I understand Apple’s policy, there was some question over whether it only applies to loot boxes that have a specific dollar amount tied to them or also those bought with virtual currency you can earn in-game or purchase for real money. So, for example, the bundles that come with a guaranteed number of shards, equipment, ability mats, credits and droids are bought directly with real money. If they charge you some sort of “token” for the pack, like crystals for example, the policy may still allow them to keep drop rates secret even though they are selling you the tokens for real money because those tokens can also be earned in-game.
I read about the new Apple policy awhile back but never saw whether this was answered. The intent obviously seems to be transparency about drop rates, but it is ultimately up to Apple how they will enforce it.
Emphasis mine.
Currently, there are 7 nodes that lack a hero shard, though several of them contain a ship shard.
Right now, we have *at least* five characters that need to be added to normal farm location. If Holdo, Rose, Visas, Sion, and Marauder are supposed to follow the same release, and be put into 'normal' locations, that gives us 10 heroes.
Assuming CG doesn't mind doubling up ships n heroes(like with Krennic and Rey for example), that means that at *least* 3 of the above 10 are getting put into the two guild stores.
We're in April(basically) and we've had 5 new releases so far(I believe). Even if they only release one new hero(that follows this cadence) every other month for the rest of the year, that's four new ones(roughly) by Dec.
They'll likely need to update this list sooner rather than later, because they've pretty much already run out of non shop room.
Of course, they could add in a brand new shop(for who knows what, but some sort of raid shop has been suggested), depending on what else they plan on bringing to the game.
It's also possible that if they eventually increase the level cap, they *might* had new missions beyond 9(8 for Cantina).
Does this mean that players that say joined last few days of December '17 would get the opportunity to get Marquee characters they weren't around for? The Veterans, Darth Nihilus, countless others... a lot of these that were originally Marquee are hard locked for new players until they get to the 82-85 level range but have roles to play even at lower stars in squads and fleets.
I'll try to summarize: Still 3 ways to release characters. Little notice (i.e. 7 days or less) for big events the first time is WAI. Marquee events will unlock at 2*, go to 3* if you complete all levels and you can buy a pack for $9.99 to go to 4*. After that you can buy the 1299 crystal packs for 5 shards (with the usual uber-tiny-microscopic chance for more) Nothing more coming to the shops. Oh, they reserve the right to change any of the above as they see fit. So pretty much same as usual for the character release cadence.
Kidding aside, while most of the communication this week has been very clear and helpful, this particular piece really isn't - especially with the caveat to pretty much change things as "needed"...which has always been the case.
In game guild: TNR Uprising
I beat the REAL T7 Yoda (not the nerfed one) and did so before mods were there to help
*This space left intentionally blank*
1. List the bundles that will be available for the event on the calendar. For this month, it's Thrawn and Chimaera. I'm assuming you're going to be offering the Phoenix Bundle and the Rebel ships bundle at the time of the event, so why not put those on the calendar too? That gives people who are not as familiar with the bundles time to save up and buy them if they need/want to. I'm not saying put every single bundle for the entire month on the calendar, just those related to the big reoccuring events like Thrawn and Chimaera this month. It helps people plan and would likely make you guys more money too.
2. Alternatively, why not put the bundles for the event in the shop the first day of the month rather than just during the event? We know Thrawn and Chimaera are coming this month, so why only offer the Phoenix and Rebel ship bundle while the event is running? It's not a secret they are likely going to be available, so if you put them in the shop the first day of the month, people have time to plan and buy them.
I can understand Arena and GW stores being for new players and shard shop. Arena can be a source of much needed credits and GW has always been(especially post nerf and becoming simmable) the store you got the most tokens for. I’m ok with them staying as they are. But cantina store is earned currency bought with crystals for refreshes and it can support a few new characters easily. Same goes for fleet store where zetas are so valuable farming anything else becomes a sacrifice. So if you could reconsider this and allow new characters at least in cantina store and fleet store that would be amazing.
This encapsulates my opinion nicely. Though I would like a more detailed answer regarding freezing various shops, I'm satisfied with their recent answers. While any money I spend in the game has (and won't) go toward Marquee characters (outside of the $9.99 packs if the character has any existing value), I do not fault the developer and publisher from pushing this element of the game.
I've been critical of the forum communication up until @CG_Carrie hosted the Q&A. As of this moment my opinion is trending positive.
Hi. I finished all three of those stores off as a free player a couple months ago and have been stockpiling currencies since then, waiting for a new character in any of those stores. Ever since the first Q&A they did a couple weeks back, where they announced no new characters for GW or Arena (but not Cantina, that's new info) I've been spending those currencies on characters I already own for shard shop conversion.
Free players have a bunch of places to get characters--But not so many places to get gear. Ever since they made their announcement I've been buying hella stun cuffs and stun guns and holoprojectors and mk 7, 8, and 9 eyeballs, and so on and so forth from the shard shop and just blowing my existing characters through the gear ranks.
This is a big improvement.
EDIT: Oh. As far as Cantina is concerned, buy ship building materials instead of characters for the shard shop. At least for the time-being. For a limited time they've changed the Mod Shop so that anything that used to cost crystals now costs building materials. So instead of spending 3k crystals on a gold triangle you can spend a mere 1.7m materials that you've been stockpiling because all your ships are maxed out.
Do you have an iPad or other tablet? I've been getting all the pop ups on both devices, but only once per device.
It is a good to see the communication getting better. Appreciate it.
However, I have a serious concern on the arena, cantina, GW, fleet shops not getting updated with new toons or ships or gear. What is the point of having these shops for established players if we can't farm any good or new toons from there. Also, it sounds pretty lame that ALL these shop currencies are meant to be fodder for shard shop. Why @CG_TopHat? Can you please provide a reasonable explanation for this decision?
Shouldn't it be the other way round that you put some new toons and good gear into these shops rather than making their currencies sound like fodder?
Also, hope you realise that the shard shop has only 2 good gear pieces at a time and all other gear pieces are not relevant for an established player.
If your intention is to force people to farm all the characters in these shops, you should make those toons worthy and viable.
This decision of devs also seems to hint that you guys acknowledge the gear crunch. However, it appears to be a very roundabout and half hearted way of reducing the gear crunch (I am looking at you - carbantis, droid callers, stun guns and stun cuffs!!)
Best regards,
Amer
You know your lower part of your back is on fire cuz of rescent release of msf?
This would also mean "no money from low lvl whales that want to 7* this toon".
You guys realy dont understand that this is their job? That they need to make money?
CG is not a charity foundation.
Adding one character into a shop gives us a choice then you can use that currency in shard shop or buy new character. Other way it will be obligation. Point is we want choice not obligation.
Likewise with Legendaries, Mythics, Hero's Journeys, and event calendar... all great stuff there.
There is something I really, really don't like:
To me, this reads very much as "We consider these particular game modes to be dead as Latin, and no longer have any faith in at least part of our game. Watch for developers to be reorganized or assigned to other projects as we prepare for that marvelous new competitor to steal our whales and undercut out acceptable profit margins. DOOM™"
I think you could do better than to abandon older game modes, whether by revamping them, or at least presenting in a more positive manner.
Furthermore, as for placement of character shard opportunities, I would suggest that many of the "nameless" characters could have their shard farms moved to standard mode light/dark side battles, in order to make room for newer named characters to be placed in Hard Mode reward slots.
CG (poker face): "This mess is now our official character release scheme"
People (extatic): "Awesome !"
Nothing has changed guys...
It absolutely has changed.
1. Certain reoccurring events will now be out on the calendar, as evidenced by thrawn and chimaera being out on the April calendar.
2. Characters offered through a marquee event will ALWAYS follow the same cadence now and characters like Talzin and Wicket that didn’t follow the cadence will now be farmable.
3. Legendary, mythic, and heroes journey now have “new” or “legacy” designations.
Those are just a few of the changes. All for the positive. Every single one of those changes helps the player base. Not trying to be a fan boy here or anything. I criticize when criticism is warranted, but at the same time it’s only fair to acknowledge when they do make favorable changes.
They did answer. They want those shops to be farming locations for new players and fuel shard shop currency for elder players (which I am fine with, thats what I was doing already anyway). Just because you don't like their explanation for it doesn't automatically make it unreasonable.