A Concern for Younger Shards (The Unbeatable Race)
July 20, 2016 9:41PM
edited July 2016
Many of the forum goers and people who suggest improvements for the game are veteran players from when the game started. Lets look at a couple things that have happened since April/May:
Raids/Raid Gear
Scoundrel Event
Mods
Probably some other stuff Im Forgetting
All of these things increase the game ceiling. They are places to put resources in order to gain benefits/rewards. That by itself isn't a bad thing, its game
content. But take a look at all those things and you'll see that they are all things easily expedited and largely only able to be worked on if youre a whale. If youre on a younger shard, and youre F2P, youve probably been working on your Arena team not scoundrels. If youre F2P youre going to have to carefully manage your credits/ dont have the freedom to level/star and fully mod your teams.
At this point, Im still not exactly unhappy. P2P should get benefits, and previously, theyve had poor value for their money. But you start to get problems when you combine an increased game ceiling easily expedited by money with..... Arena.
Arena is a race, if you're competitive like most of us are. You want to get to the top as fast as you can because it will allow to hold it longer. Its kinda like a monopoly. If you get the top now you have 500 crystals, up to 300 more than your competitors, to put towards keeping your spot.
Now add this all up and what do you get? An unbeatable arena for a F2P or even small P2P in a younger shard. Old shards don't have this problem very much because even F2P hit the caps/ceilings before these changes rolled out. New shards haven't had a chance to hit the caps before, giving intense P2P an extreme credit, raid gear, and mod advantage that is simply insurmountable for a very long time. Plus the Arena crystals! And on top of this the level cap might increase on new shards at any minute!
TL;DR
The game ceiling has increased while catering to P2P in a way that makes Arena impossible for a new F2P or light P2P, unlike before.
Yes, F2P can still hit top 200 or 100. But I'm a decent player who's kept an eye on the meta and spent some
money . I cant beat anyone in the top 10 and foreseeably wont any time soon. Almost everyone in my shards' top 10 have gear 9-10 characters while 99.9% of my shard are still at 8. It doesnt seem like old times, when a F2P can easily hit number 1 as many vets like to point out.
P.S.
I would even venture to say on a side note that the level cap being at 80 is already a slight problem for young shards. Whales hit 80 before many people in my shard hit 70! Thats an extreme advantage to give to P2P when they get to hold the crown of Arena for months, making their lead even more intense.
Raids/Raid Gear
Scoundrel Event
Mods
Probably some other stuff Im Forgetting
All of these things increase the game ceiling. They are places to put resources in order to gain benefits/rewards. That by itself isn't a bad thing, its game
content. But take a look at all those things and you'll see that they are all things easily expedited and largely only able to be worked on if youre a whale. If youre on a younger shard, and youre F2P, youve probably been working on your Arena team not scoundrels. If youre F2P youre going to have to carefully manage your credits/ dont have the freedom to level/star and fully mod your teams.
At this point, Im still not exactly unhappy. P2P should get benefits, and previously, theyve had poor value for their money. But you start to get problems when you combine an increased game ceiling easily expedited by money with..... Arena.
Arena is a race, if you're competitive like most of us are. You want to get to the top as fast as you can because it will allow to hold it longer. Its kinda like a monopoly. If you get the top now you have 500 crystals, up to 300 more than your competitors, to put towards keeping your spot.
Now add this all up and what do you get? An unbeatable arena for a F2P or even small P2P in a younger shard. Old shards don't have this problem very much because even F2P hit the caps/ceilings before these changes rolled out. New shards haven't had a chance to hit the caps before, giving intense P2P an extreme credit, raid gear, and mod advantage that is simply insurmountable for a very long time. Plus the Arena crystals! And on top of this the level cap might increase on new shards at any minute!
TL;DR
The game ceiling has increased while catering to P2P in a way that makes Arena impossible for a new F2P or light P2P, unlike before.
Yes, F2P can still hit top 200 or 100. But I'm a decent player who's kept an eye on the meta and spent some
money . I cant beat anyone in the top 10 and foreseeably wont any time soon. Almost everyone in my shards' top 10 have gear 9-10 characters while 99.9% of my shard are still at 8. It doesnt seem like old times, when a F2P can easily hit number 1 as many vets like to point out.
P.S.
I would even venture to say on a side note that the level cap being at 80 is already a slight problem for young shards. Whales hit 80 before many people in my shard hit 70! Thats an extreme advantage to give to P2P when they get to hold the crown of Arena for months, making their lead even more intense.
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Replies
Veteran whales are leary of spending and new whales have no one to beat up on.
In game guild: TNR Uprising
I beat the REAL T7 Yoda (not the nerfed one) and did so before mods were there to help
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The game needs power creep introduced to more recent content so that players have a realistic avenue to participate meaningfully in end game content without having to spend six months to get there. No new player is going to stick around once they learn that all six months of grinding gets them is the ability to be six months behind everyone else.
The next raid will be a watershed moment for us, to learn whether or not the developers of this game have any desire to make this a long term project.
Daily installs have dropped.
IMO the last best time to have installed the game was in late march just before protection was added (like me!)
Guys that drop thousands on the game, u want to consider winners? Adjust your attitude. Ur a winner. Stop chasing ur own tail.
F2P may never ever reach the ceiling. Where everything is equal. By the time u get there, the bar will most likely be raised again. U aren't going to catch up, ever. WAI.
Take consolation that 90 percent of whales will eventually rage quit with frustration and remorse. A higher percentage of F2P will be around til the end.
U won't read rage quit goodbye posts from F2P players. Or disciplined booster pack minnows.
But with each added grind, the opportunity to spend to get ahead is increased. The level cap increases, mods, raid gear in shipments, etc have all exacerbated this issue.
1. Maybe this one reason why EA's goal is to make GW not 100% beatable. It has been suggested time and again that GW is designed so that focusing on arena should make GW more difficult? (I don't think it is working, though. Only two of my top arena players have a lower than normal GW completion rate!)
2. Crystal to credit exchange rate. 300 extra crystals is not as much when converted to credits. A F2P player can save max like 100 crystals a day. But makes 700k a day with GW and raids. So 300 more crystals is 400% more cyrstals for the top arena player to buy raid gear or shards. But it only translates to 30% more credits, if converted. Since mods require credits, this is not so bad of an additional grind. Also buying shards for crystals is very expensive. It has a built in winners tax.
3. Gear is still a bottleneck, and you do not need to be high rank in arena to join and be productive in a high level guild. Yes, top arena player can buy more raid gear, but raid gear seems to drop only once every two weeks? Also most of the best raid teams need marginal PvP toons.
4. Devs know what's coming next way before we do. And every thing they add, they are using it to rebalance the game, overall. They can't make things better for everyone. By necessity, each new content hurts some folks. This is why devs have a thankless job.
This just might be why so many people complain. Because they are focusing on one thing, but they don't realize why those checks are placed.
EA has metrics. They design and make tweaks to keep the game balanced, whether we are complaining or not. When we complain they do not test their patches, we might be jumping the gun. We may be the experts on what constitutes fun for us, personally. But they are the only ones that can see the entire game, accurately, by the metrics. They are looking at resources and balance and longterm stability. When they tweak GW by 73,547 credits, it is not a random number.
Sounds like you need a goal adjustment. There are players who have hit the 80 cap weeks ago and desperately need new content. Because F2Ps can't catch up in a month, that's bad?
You absolutely can compete as F2P, it's just going to take longer to hit the new stuff, like it should be
Im not really debating whether or not F2P should be able to catch up (I didnt say within a month anyway). Im just pointing out a changing climate for younger shards and I'm really focusing on april and younger. The Caps move for all shards, despite how long the players on said shards have had to reach those caps. This allows a higher ceiling for whales, creating unbeatable mega spenders. I spend money occasinally, I have better gear than 90%+ on my shard but I have little chance to beat a mega spender. Now contrast this with when the game started, the ceiling and caps were lower (like level 60 and no raid gear), so the F2P had a few months to catch up.
Now, with the ceiling so high I dont think a F2P will ever catch up. As someone who stays in the top 50 of my arena I dont think I've seen anyone who is F2P. Now, Im not saying this is good/bad. I think spenders shouls get their money's worth. I am saying that there is a change from before.
I'm 100% F2P and I finish between 20-50 in my shard (been playing since Jan 1). It's possible. I shouldn't be able to beat a guy who spent $1000+ on his team but it is possible to finish in top 50. Before all updates I used to finish top 10 but how would you feel if you were p2p and had f2pers routinely beating you. What is the point of spending then? Don't forget that is priority #1 for the devs. Keep the spenders spending.
Fact #1 I started on a new shard some time in the middle of summer.
Fact #2 I am 100% F2P. Never spent a dime on this game.
Fact #3 I am currently in the top 20, and climbing.
Fact #4 I hit level 80 about two weeks after someone else, who had 7* Grievous two months in. (I think it's safe to assume he is a whale).
Fact #5 If you think you can't make it to the top 50 because there are 50+ whales stoping you, there are F2P players such as myself laughing at you and getting 300 crystals a day.
Hope this clears up the confusion. I'll work on beating the top 10 while you post more absurd discussions.
...and by the time u max out a second squad to beat ur own squad they will release
Annakin 2.0
Lando 2.0
Wedge 2.0
B2 2.0
And u will have about 8 useless toons on your hands in the 10 days it takes for the whales to get all the new toons...
You are on a new server repost in 2 months to see how you are fairing. I started a ftp 2 weeks ago for fun. I am also in top 10 but the difference in levels between me l53 and top l59 will widen over time as it will for you. Early days skill makes alot of difference over cash but over time cash and high powered mods will overrun you in the arena. unless you have heavily invested only in a meta arena deck over all else and that's not even including the daily omegas which if you are ftp you will be 2 months behind when p2p hit cap.
And all the same, a JE droid squad can still whoop near enough anything on offence. Really don't see any issue tbh.
Edit:
I am F2P, yes (although I bought the 4 € starter pack). At first I was happy just staying in top—100. It took me some time before realizing the importance of energy refreshes and even longer time before realizing the importance of ranking high in arena to win crystals to not only sustain the 2x50 + 1x100 refreshment but also buy gear (or occasionaly shards) from shipments. I didn't enter top—10 until mid may after 2 months of playing. Today I'm competing for the top ranks and have a 7* Yoda and EP (very rare on my shard) — even though I missed out on the first day or two of the mod feist (which some people refered to as precrafting 2.0) and I see that some of my competitors have far better mods.
Still — I'm competitive and have my fun.
1 am ranked 150 or there abouts in squad areana . I get 2x 5 shards though areana shop every day . that's plenty.
That's also just upgrading toons I like rather then the META , with out spending money.
I have 3 maxed toons and plenty of 6* and 5* toons with lvl 7 gear . its awesome .
I do not complete GW every day . I like it like that. It is a challenge. Its supposed to be.
I got to lvl 76 in 10 weeks. Not from spending large but by being active, doing daily and guild activity , joining a guild and doing raids .
Yes people that pay get an advantage but they pay a lot of money for it also, and the fact is, the wales are not that far ahead in the scheme of things, perhaps they do what most are not doing properly and that's looking after your account by being active and seeking sound advise.
This game is designed for longlivity . getting all the credits and shards and droids and charactors all at once is not what this game is about.
SWGoH is more then a mobile game, its an adventure. In 10 weeks I have learned so much but even more important made a tight nit of new friends online in the guild I am In and love the convo that goes on.
I think stop focusing on what people that spend money to support the developers do,( devs are human and need food and shelter just like you do ) and worry about working on your account, your characters and your tactics .
Yes the game had had issues but they do get resolved in time. I can not imadgin how many lines of code go to make this game. It is in my opinion the best mobile phone game ever and should be appreciated , rather then taken for granted and complained about.
I know I don't care about arena. I try to stay 50-100, but dont care enough to refresh. As long as I get my daily 10 shards from arena, I'm happy.
Im collecting shards, building my toons, doing my part in the guild, and minding my own business. People want to keep themselves busy trying to be #1 in arena at payout? Fine by me, good for them.
I was p2p at the start, but realized the spending will never end. Now I just get the daily 100 Crystals.
Other free games (like Iron Force and the likes) rely on pvp competition only. That's really p2w. Swgoh has plenty of room for f2p, pvp is only a small part.
I started in july.
Plenty of content and new stuff soon!
Also I will add a comment about squad arena. I didn't like it at first but use it now to fine tune my tactic / test mods for GW . just a tip I thought I would share.