Open letter to improve SWGOH
I’ve recently been so frustrated with this game that I’ve started to switch to competitors.
Other games have highlighted my frustrations with this game and, for what it’s worth, I wanted to add some constructive criticism to improve SWGOH.
I love Star Wars and want this game to succeed, but if things don’t improve I can’t see myself staying with this game much longer.
Anyway, the list:
1. Stop punishing people for farming wide
The PvP game modes all severely punish you for farming anything that is non meta. This means games become repetitive with the same match-ups again and again and again. Which brings me to my second point;
2. Give us a way of actually using our whole roster
Currently a large part of my roster is useless because it’s either too low geared/starred or just isn’t meta (yes, jawas that means you). Other games have modes where your roster will always have some use if you want it to (e.g. blitz in marvel strike force). It’s not perfect but at least it means you can enjoy any character any time.
3. Graphics & Gameplay
Obviously this is a technically difficult one and expensive to fix but this game has not aged well.
Characters feel wooden, don’t really interact and don’t look all that great.
If you take MSF as a comparison, characters team-up for combos and have their own finishing animations on kill. The camera angles are also far more cinematic making for a more interesting experience.
Imagine Vader having a force choke kill animation!
I’m aware MSF is a newer game and the comparison is perhaps unfair, but the difference is night and day.
4. Communication with player base
Many other games communicate with their players far more often and more positively than swgoh. The road ahead posts are often late and when they do arrive are scant in detail.
A week in on another game and I have 3 in game messages about new content and things to come. In 3 months I barely recall anything from SWGOH
5. Release cadence and power levels
Similar to communication issues, but lately I feel like the release cadence is absolutely all over the place in SWGOH.
Vader is more powerful than a Galatic Legend now... but isn’t a GL, so might get a nerf... or not. Also Jedi Luke is iconic, but not a galactic legend, but has similar farming requirements to a galactic legend, but isn’t quite as powerful the list goes on.
Please can we just get some consistency, and communication on what is going on and what is intended?
Test new releases against meta line-ups before release to avoid the release and nerf cycle.
6. Farming now takes too long
The threshold for a useful character has now increased post the intro of relics. To have a Use a team now needs to be 7* and a least g12-r4
The threshold has massively increased but the gear choke points of carbantis and stun guns really has not eased in a significant want since launch.
This means it now takes far longer to take a team from nothing to useable. I’m really not excited about a release if I have to wait a year to use it.
7. There’s nothing to do
Most of this game has become a routine of, login > sim or hit auto > repeat. Hopefully this new mode will help with this but we will see.
Just my suggestions and honestly meant to be constructive.
Other games have highlighted my frustrations with this game and, for what it’s worth, I wanted to add some constructive criticism to improve SWGOH.
I love Star Wars and want this game to succeed, but if things don’t improve I can’t see myself staying with this game much longer.
Anyway, the list:
1. Stop punishing people for farming wide
The PvP game modes all severely punish you for farming anything that is non meta. This means games become repetitive with the same match-ups again and again and again. Which brings me to my second point;
2. Give us a way of actually using our whole roster
Currently a large part of my roster is useless because it’s either too low geared/starred or just isn’t meta (yes, jawas that means you). Other games have modes where your roster will always have some use if you want it to (e.g. blitz in marvel strike force). It’s not perfect but at least it means you can enjoy any character any time.
3. Graphics & Gameplay
Obviously this is a technically difficult one and expensive to fix but this game has not aged well.
Characters feel wooden, don’t really interact and don’t look all that great.
If you take MSF as a comparison, characters team-up for combos and have their own finishing animations on kill. The camera angles are also far more cinematic making for a more interesting experience.
Imagine Vader having a force choke kill animation!
I’m aware MSF is a newer game and the comparison is perhaps unfair, but the difference is night and day.
4. Communication with player base
Many other games communicate with their players far more often and more positively than swgoh. The road ahead posts are often late and when they do arrive are scant in detail.
A week in on another game and I have 3 in game messages about new content and things to come. In 3 months I barely recall anything from SWGOH
5. Release cadence and power levels
Similar to communication issues, but lately I feel like the release cadence is absolutely all over the place in SWGOH.
Vader is more powerful than a Galatic Legend now... but isn’t a GL, so might get a nerf... or not. Also Jedi Luke is iconic, but not a galactic legend, but has similar farming requirements to a galactic legend, but isn’t quite as powerful the list goes on.
Please can we just get some consistency, and communication on what is going on and what is intended?
Test new releases against meta line-ups before release to avoid the release and nerf cycle.
6. Farming now takes too long
The threshold for a useful character has now increased post the intro of relics. To have a Use a team now needs to be 7* and a least g12-r4
The threshold has massively increased but the gear choke points of carbantis and stun guns really has not eased in a significant want since launch.
This means it now takes far longer to take a team from nothing to useable. I’m really not excited about a release if I have to wait a year to use it.
7. There’s nothing to do
Most of this game has become a routine of, login > sim or hit auto > repeat. Hopefully this new mode will help with this but we will see.
Just my suggestions and honestly meant to be constructive.
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Replies
1 - they dont punish people for going wide. There are many players out there who do not meta chase at the tip of the spear, but they know how to use and farm characters that are useful on top of getting metas later to help balance out.
Players that are "punished" dont farm for the game mode they feel they are being punished in. No not every character is going to be useful (or at least not useful everywhere), but that's the same in every game. Farming/roster development smart is never punished no matter how wide your roster is.
2 - the RA is the start of this plan
3 - that is a part of the background update that is ongoing literally right now.
4 - yep
5 - this game has multiple versions of characters, I dont think they can make a single statement like what you would want them to make.
Also with reworks and faction passes and new characters.... factions and toons go up and down in percieved power, there is no "singular way" to navigate this.
Vader is a good example of this, remove wat and/or thrawn from his team..... he is not more powerful than a GL. Also mods and strategy play a big part in the percieved power of a toon.
About the testing, yeah that has been brought up before....
6 - yes and no, the game is paced and always will be, also not everyone needs to be r7, or even r at all in some cases.
We also have another set of rewards coming to the game with the new game mode, so we can see what ends up in the prize box or store from that (not sure at this point how that will be handled)
7 - see the RA/answer #2
If you’re not farming meta teams for GAC, arena and TW you’re going to get destroyed.
Other games modes don’t really matter. Raids are so easy there’s no need to focus farm. TB are either hopelessly easy or so hard there’s little point farming for them.
2. I do think there is more that some teams can be needed for but there's also a balance needed. After all, I don't want to have to gear up for one battle every few weeks.
3. This gripe doesn't bother me personally. I'd prefer content over updating animations but I get that some people want both.
4. They definitely need to work on this.
5. It would definitely be nice to know what they have planned at least big picture.
6. This does need addressed. It isn't too bad late game when you have all the game modes unlocked. But they do need some catchup mechanics for new players and alt accounts.
My idea would be to put older characters on a rotation to be easier to get eventually.
For example a new character would start on a hard node, but then a year later move to a store. Maybe even make some really old characters be in the gw/cantina/arena store for 10 or 15 shards for 400 tokens. That way you don't have to spend your first 6 months grinding cls and can get a roster that is at least semi useful fairly quickly.
And that wouldn't break the game. A little more shard currency late game would actually help the gear crunch some too. And you'd still have choices.
7. Hopefully the new game mode addresses this. There are days where there is plenty to do but there are days where there isn't much of anything.
Today for example, we are in the join phase of gac, tb hasn't started yet, and there are a few events to auto.
It would at least be nice if they would schedule several events during the join phases so there's more to do. Then schedule less when stuff is in full swing.
Hopefully the new game mode addresses this at least a little.