Thoughts on (Rumored) Shard Exchange
I’m a fan of the game and enjoying the balance of gameplay/grind/gambling excitement/star wars characters.
Wanted to share some thoughts on the art of the possible on the rumored upcoming shard exchange. I think it could help paying users, non-paying users and, of course, the house.
The Stem Shard.
What if you could trade-in a certain number of character shards for a Stem Shard. A Stem Shard would be a blank shard where the owner (user) would have the choice for it to be any shard of any character desired.
The different values/rarities of character shards would dictate how many would be needed to exchange for a Stem Shard. So shards from a common character (i.e. Jedi Consular) would have a low trade-in value, let’s say 10-to-1 (i.e. give up 10 Jedi Consular shards in exchange for one Stem Shard). And shards from a rare character (i.e. Lando) will have closer to a 1-to-1 conversion to a Stem Shard.
How does the house profit? Create a transaction tax. Each Stem Shard converted would cost, call it, 10 crystals. There could be different terms if you’re converting shards from a 7-starred character.
Developers could adjust over time the conversion rates depending on rarity/commonality of characters.
A kicker for the house? Create a Stem Shard pack. How much would some users pay for 10 shards of their choice!
The above was in mind for shards of un-activated characters or residual shards of activated characters. But what about the stars of already activated characters? Either, (i) prohibit their conversion (i.e. you’re stuck with that character) or (ii) allow to exchange shards and ‘de-star’, perhaps at a more unfavorable exchange ratio.
A second proposal: full open market with a crystal transaction tax. Where users trade at their discretion with each transaction costing a fixed number of crystals per side. But let’s leave the details on that for another day.
Wanted to share some thoughts on the art of the possible on the rumored upcoming shard exchange. I think it could help paying users, non-paying users and, of course, the house.
The Stem Shard.
What if you could trade-in a certain number of character shards for a Stem Shard. A Stem Shard would be a blank shard where the owner (user) would have the choice for it to be any shard of any character desired.
The different values/rarities of character shards would dictate how many would be needed to exchange for a Stem Shard. So shards from a common character (i.e. Jedi Consular) would have a low trade-in value, let’s say 10-to-1 (i.e. give up 10 Jedi Consular shards in exchange for one Stem Shard). And shards from a rare character (i.e. Lando) will have closer to a 1-to-1 conversion to a Stem Shard.
How does the house profit? Create a transaction tax. Each Stem Shard converted would cost, call it, 10 crystals. There could be different terms if you’re converting shards from a 7-starred character.
Developers could adjust over time the conversion rates depending on rarity/commonality of characters.
A kicker for the house? Create a Stem Shard pack. How much would some users pay for 10 shards of their choice!
The above was in mind for shards of un-activated characters or residual shards of activated characters. But what about the stars of already activated characters? Either, (i) prohibit their conversion (i.e. you’re stuck with that character) or (ii) allow to exchange shards and ‘de-star’, perhaps at a more unfavorable exchange ratio.
A second proposal: full open market with a crystal transaction tax. Where users trade at their discretion with each transaction costing a fixed number of crystals per side. But let’s leave the details on that for another day.
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Game used to be fun when it wasn't a grind... if I wanted a grind I would have went and played old school Everquest or some Korean MMO!
for instance, if you wanted 1 qui gon shard, you would pay 8x 1* shards of any character. creating a stem pack could work, but it's basically paying for the character of your choice, which is not a moneymaker for these types a games, which thrive on the RNG factor. dependent upon the pricing of such a pack, i'll withhold my evaluation...
i just realized the fallacy in my above statement. you could effectively farm higher * characters at the same opportunity cost as lower * characters and trade them in. disregard for now. i can't think of an effective and fair system for both CG and players
Agree. You shouldn't be able to default to farming cheap characters in exchange for Stem Shards/rarer characters. Or at least that should be highly unproductive. The ratios should be such that it would be helpful (i) to 'top off' your farming effort or (ii) get rid of post 7-star shards. The exchange shouldn't substitute farming/chromiums.
The 'fairest' system would be to both promote exchange and to have CG profit from it. Maybe lock the access to the exchange until you hit a high level?
If we could exchange shards, people would have sharper characters/teams. And the game would become more centered around how do you build your team to beat another one, and a bit less about raw grinding.
By the way, note to developers: It would be great if we could see the entire composition of a team before you engage in PvP!
There will be a new kind of shop that trade a certain amount of your excess shards (of the same character) for............. wait for it..................... packs!.
Yes, pack which contain a chance to obtain an amount of shards or gears(random, of course) and there'll be an exclusive hero that ll be available through this pack only.
I want to believe that it won't be like this but this chance is high, there might be some changes in details but it'll be roughly like this.
Just make a shipment like all the others. It resets when all the others resets and have a big variety to pick from. Shards should exchange 1-1 because when u crack a pak u pay the same ammount weather u draw 1* garbage or 4* goodies.
You just take any un-needed shards to the shipment and cash them for things u do want.
I would even argue we should be able to trade in junk toons for shards to then use them at said shipment. I (and many others) have paid good $ for crystals or paks or whatever only to get a pile of junk that just its at lvl 1 and will never get starred or geared.
Would be nice to change em in for the shards at a shipment essentially. Would feel much better about investing since you'd be able to make sure through your own choices weather you at least get something decent.
Most of the content in the forums is around what to do with shards past 7 stars and how to address the frustrations that Nonemo has.
To Nonemo, I'd say that unless they increase the star cap (which I think its unlikely), the shards are pretty useless. At least with the conversion idea, there is a chance to extract some value out of them. In other words: "you played for new shards and lost (i.e. got old ones). You can either sit on those useless shards or, for a very small fee in crystals when compared to the cost of getting the shards, you can extract some use out of them". I think that's a good trade for all around.
I just hope that the developers don't do the exchange only for shards past 7 stars, because that solves only part of the problem.
The other part of the problem is what to do with all those elite residual shards that you don't have any use for.
Let's say that you bought a pack of chromiums and got 10 shards of an elite, chromium-only character. However, you (a) have no desire to collect that character and (b) are not willing to draw dozens of additional chromiums to get that character to a competitive level, anyways. Those 10 shards on that random (if rare) character are pretty useless to you. I'd pay a few (more) crystals to convert those shards to ones that belong to a character that I actually am interested in. Even if that perceived trade was not very attractive. (i.e. 10 shards of the character I don't want for 5 of the character that I am interested in...) The exchange ratio can be set on a character per character level.
I'd be against the idea of creating a '7-star plus' club that gets you access to exclusive characters...
And how am I off topic? Have you read it carefully? I'm saying how CG will likely address that problem of past 7* excess shards based on similar games that this game based most of it contents on.
1- Extra shards post 7-stars re-dropped and current 7-stars in your collection blocked from future drops. Pro: Probably easiest solution from a developer perspective. You also get the added bonus that, if you're a big spender, you know that no drop will be 'wasted' (about that...) in unnecessary shards. Con: No way to exchange shards pre 7-stars.
2- Exchange x number of shards for a new chromium card Pro: Allows you to participate with shards that you don't value, even in sub 7-stars. Keeps RNG nature of game. Con: Need to account for different trade-in values of shards so that you don't trade-in cheap shards a hoping for valuable ones. People might want to un-star in exchange for shards. Might create complexity/confusion.
3- Exchange x number of shards for a shard of your choosing Pro: everyone can participate (not just 7-star pluses). Allows players to more effectively form their "A" team. Con: removes RNG aspect of game. Might be undesirable from developer perspective.
4- Pure open market where players trade at their discretion Pro: let the invisible hand of economics take over. Con: probably too complicated for developers to create safe/effective exchange. Can create collusion, unintended consequences.
To the structures above, you'd need to add when, how and if crystals come into play to keep the house happy....
Additional proposals?
Votes?
You're not. My bad. The quoting came off wrong. Was trying to tag you both and then write what I wrote...
Reason why, any shard at all is easy to explote, and make 75% of the characters in the game completely worthless.
What I mean? You have daka, boba, from cantina, sid from arena, lumi and phasma from GW. You want nothing else from these 3. But Rey shards can be exchanged for. Now every cantina, arena, and GW shipments will be used for nothing except shard exchange. Also just choose any shard you want from cantina that cost 8, and battles that cost 12. And everyone would have a 7* Rey in a week.
Now if they do it for packs, then I could see them doing any shard.
The pay2win guys would have a fit.
I'm sure they have "useless" players at 7*.
They would still win a lot faster.
It's not worth it for them, Luminara and Sid are fairly easy to get 7*, they rather have weaker comp, and dominate by paying than a challenge. Remember pay 2 win guys don't use strats to win, they use their money.
My personal balance would be a tiered approach
1. Chromium only characters could be "re-gambled. " Basically you turn them back in and a matching amount of shards would be returned. (With a small, reasonable crystal cost, maybe 25 or 50 max)
3. Farmable in maps 1-3 and/or "faster" farmed heroes would trade in with a higher per shard cost. So maybe 5:1 or higher.
4. Harder farms would trade in closer to 1:1 and I think 1:2 or 1:3 would be fair(ish)
5. "Last seasons" chromium only heroes could be traded also, giving f2p players access to some of the chromium only heroes, just a bit after the p2p.
The goal here is a compromise for the players and EA. You still incentivize your P2P because they would still have a reason to gamble in chromium packs and be more likely to do so knowing that they can recycle the unused shards.
For F2P players, they may potentially save up crystals for chromium knowing that it won't be a total waste. They could also farm out older chromium heroes and compete well, if a bit slower.
In my opinion, the main benefits to paying players should revolve around a faster/shorter grind and vanity options. Beyond that, the two sides need to be roughly equal.
Its not gambling if you have enough money.
I'm all for the gambling and the uncertainty. Re: rumors, I'm intrigued by what the best option is for all stakeholders: F2P, P2W and house. Also interested in forum views.
There'll probably be consensus on blocking chromium shards drops (and not be able to choose shipment shards) for characters with 7-stars.
Sounds like getting the best way to get rid of the shards for past-7-stars character will be a random re-drop.
In addition to that, I think that CG would collect extra crystals if they instituted a way to re-gamble undesired shards.
Example: I have 10 Lando shards that I'm not interested in. Instead of paying 350 crystals for a new chromium card, make it so that I could buy a new chromium card with the 10 Lando shards plus [TBD number but less than 350] crystals.
I don't see why that wouldn't work. It caters to the 'low spender' P2W player, vs the 'big spender' P2W player.
Why don't they just use the new pack formula they just created for HODA?
I pay to advance and collect not to win. Arena rank means little to me though I typically stay in the top 50, if I actually battle it top 10-20. I want all my toons and to build certain squads. I dumped a lot of money in, but none over 6* because I'm building several teams at once. If I were pay2win I'd not be doing that and would build a certain few to max.
Shard exchange I love. I suggested similiar on the 4 and 8 packs too if you unlock a useless toon or one you are not using instead of the 15 shards that often won't even move you from 3-4* you can return and redraw. You may get the toon you want, shards you want, or shards you do not want. I think exchange is an awesome idea.
yes, this does mean we can receive the same shards back out as a result, but honestly, after playing so many freemium type games, in order for the game to thrive and have any sort of lifespan more than a year would require a system reliant on RNG (notwithstanding seed and other theories players have come up with).
the problem of eliminating shards from the pool of 7* characters means that it's no longer a gamble and eventually, everyone can unlock every single character. that sounds awesome from the player's perspective, but it makes absolute zero sense for the developers to do this, as it's basically gutting their own income via spenders gambling to unlock or rank up their heroes.