GAC's big issues
In its current form, GAC has some huge issues, and I hope this can be a reasonable discussion about those issues and some potential solutions. Issues I have currently:
1. All players, regardless of GP, should have a fair chance for Kyber rewards. Not only can't newer players compete for Kyber currently, the reward structure ensures that they never will. I can't imagine how demoralizing it would be to be a new or early-midgame player under this new GAC format.
2. The most "skilled" players at every level of the game should not be forced into having only a 50% win rate, which is where this "skill" system will eventually balance out for the vast, vast majority of us. This is very demoralizing for me, and I guarantee I'm not alone.
A solution that would solve both of these issues would be to bring back GP brackets, and then matchmake based on "skill rating" within those brackets. I believe the skill rating system is a step in the right direction, but GP absolutely must factor into matchmaking somehow (there's a reason wrestling has weight classes). Curious to hear everyone's thoughts.
1. All players, regardless of GP, should have a fair chance for Kyber rewards. Not only can't newer players compete for Kyber currently, the reward structure ensures that they never will. I can't imagine how demoralizing it would be to be a new or early-midgame player under this new GAC format.
2. The most "skilled" players at every level of the game should not be forced into having only a 50% win rate, which is where this "skill" system will eventually balance out for the vast, vast majority of us. This is very demoralizing for me, and I guarantee I'm not alone.
A solution that would solve both of these issues would be to bring back GP brackets, and then matchmake based on "skill rating" within those brackets. I believe the skill rating system is a step in the right direction, but GP absolutely must factor into matchmaking somehow (there's a reason wrestling has weight classes). Curious to hear everyone's thoughts.
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I am very competitive and motivated to move through ranks as I improve my roster. But rather than weight classes I see this as a tournament style similar to football. I am happy in my league and will work hard to be promoted to a better league with better players and with better rewards, once I have earned it.
Crystals are generous even low down, I earn much more than from squad arena. And this is much more fun.
That's also how I felt, until reaching the point where I can only win 50% of my matches. I'm assuming you haven't hit that point yet, and are still winning the majority of your matches. You might move up another league or two, but unfortunately I think for everyone similar to you, Kyber will be forever out of reach.
Eventually everyone in GAC will be winning roughly half of their matches… that is the intent. No one can win or lose forever, things will balance out.
Exactly, and what's the fun in that? People who derive enjoyment from winning the majority of their GACs (which is a large portion of the player base) are going to be sorely disappointed. Myself among them.
Right, but with a long term average win rate of 50%, every victory will essentially guarantee you a corresponding defeat later on. In my opinion, it takes the spirit of competition out of the mode to know that no matter how hard you try or how "skilled" you are, you'll never do better than 50% over the long run.
Yes, hopefully the mismatches get better with time. But my original two issues will not be solved by the passage of time; in fact they'll likely get worse.
As it is now, the game rewards PROGRESS...if you keep improving your roster you will get 50% or more wins (theoretically)...and BTW, forcing a player to stay in some "bracket" is actually MORE LIMITING than the "liberal" system now in place.
I am usually beaten by rosters with higher GPs than mine, but was just beaten by one with less BUT that had a roster DESIGNED to get SEE...it had the exact necessary toons for that...nothing else...but was obviously VERY STRONG...
1. U get to budget ur teams better
2. If ur opponent did a perfect clear with a high average, u know u can just abandon the match if u screw up once, thus saving u time. Last time due to the points accumulation, u definitely have to clear the board either way if not u wont even hit aurodium.
I always find these comments funny, just play the game whenever you feel like it and use whatever you need to do to win the battle. If you know that you can solo a battle, then you don't need to go second to make sure that you actually solo it.
You completely missed his point. If your openent drops two battles or fails to clear your exec you can play much differently and do safe clears and maybe plan to two shot a GL if they have more on D than you do on O instead of trying to underman and make risky plays. Going second is a huge advantage and CG still has yet to even give 1 banner or something trivial for the first to attack and clear each zone as an incentive to attack before the last minute.
Edit: also a lot of people used to just "play (GAC) whether they feel like" until CG made it the primary source of crystals. That promotes min/maxing and decreases quality of life because of the disadvantage of attacking first is OPs point
I agree that these are legitimate concerns, but I still think it's important to factor GP into matchmaking somehow. What if instead of brackets, you could only be matched against opponents who are within a certain range of your current GP? That way you're still incentivized to grow your roster.
Your statement about "if you keep improving your roster you will get 50% or more wins" is only true if you can out-progress (i.e. out-spend) your peers.
If you can’t out-progress your peers then you’ll lose and still get 50% wins at some point, just lower on the ladder.
1, disagree. The old system was maybe too extreme the other way, where participation basically guaranteed Kyber. There was no real honor to it.
2, disagree strongly. I won about 90% in old GAC, even higher when I was actively engaged. Most matches were trivial, so wins stopped feeling special.
I think it's silly for one to call themself competitive but also expect a high win rate vs garbage opponents. Competitive people want competition, which means harder matches, which means bigger highs for wins.
In my neck of the ladder, GAC changes have been amazing!
GAC is not like squad at all. With squad and the current JMK I can climb to #1 any time I want regardless of mods, GP or most other factors (shard chats being the exception) and that would likely not change if I was in the shard with the biggest whales, I win 9 times out of 10 against any team cuz the AI is pretty dumb.
In GAC there is no way for me at 6 mil GP to compete with the whales and no way for me to catch up to them as they will always progress faster than I will. Can I get better and compete with rosters that are somewhat better than mine, sure, but it’s nothing like squad arena.
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meanwhile you get more crystals and dont have to do the same 5-10 battles at the exact same time every day even if you dont have time to do them
1. Single fleet meta. I think in a lot of GAC matches, the fights on the ground become a trivial waste of your time. If your Executor counter fails then that's at least 20 banners gone, plus the cleanup fleet might make taking down the second fleet tougher too. Executor is the one source of crystals at the moment. I am one of the fans of fleets in this game, but I actually think I'd prefer a no fleet GAC at this point.
2. Giving an advantage based on time zone or life responsibilities. Going second gives you more information. I was lucky enough to be able to go second today on my alt. It enabled me to win, as after my Executor counter failed I was behind. But I knew exactly how far behind. So I knew that for the back zone I needed an average of 66.5 banners to win. So I had to do some risky attacks that I definitely would not have attempted if I had not known exactly the count needed. And now my opponent gets a loss based on giving me info. And I just managed to get around my first point, just. Hide the scores until the end, make it a replay video so you can see each of your teams fall over in sequence, flashing up the number of banners, or 'Hold' for each battle.
And that relates in any way to my response how?
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New meta comes out in squad arena, whales get it and have an advantage for a few months while I catch up and then we are even again. In GAC, there is no way that someone sitting at 5 or 6 mil GP is ever going to catch up to someone spending thousands on the game. Comparing a single squad game mode to a game mode that requires an entire roster is silly.
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Don’t get me wrong, I’m not arguing against the changes to GAC, I’m actually enjoying them. But the dynamics of climbing (and falling) in a single squad game mode like squad is nothing like GAC, scale has little to do with it.
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