So firstly, this is not a complaint about ships in general, more about a specific shard. The following
https://www.reddit.com/r/SWGalaxyOfHeroes/comments/5f26t7/abnormally_competitive_ship_arena_shard/ was posted a short while after ships was launched and the basic theme of the post was:
Ship shards were determined by start date, player level and arena power (similar to the calculation that drives GW nodes)
The above worked for most player start dates given it would only have a slight bias towards creating slightly more active or less active shards
However, for players who started in July-September 2016, the calculation failed because it put a disproportionate amount of both active players and spenders into one shard given only players ranking high enough in their arena shards would lead them to qualify for this shard
While only CG or EA can give tangible data on shard activity, here are a few data points to give people an indication of the competitiveness of this shard:
Recently counted around 10 players with a GP above 3 million on this shard, in addition there are several more approaching this figure. The top 50 by GP would rank as a top 5 guild
Players who finish top 3 at their payouts typically have to battle up from ranks below 70 every day which often requires multiple refreshes. My worst experience was going to bed at rank five and waking up 144, others have woken-up even lower
I'm on a shard chat with north of 50 people, there are many who rank highly in their arena shards who have simply given up on this shard. Even with mass coordination, scheming and collusion, this shard has become a real source of frustration given the effort required on a daily basis to maintain rank
If everyone was in the same boat it would not be such an issue. However, because this shard took in so many active players, other shards from the same vintage are much quieter and players can seemingly hold rank only fighting a fraction of the battles. With the new crystal rewards implemented, it seems grossly unfair that certain players will be effectively inheriting several thousand more crystals a month for significantly less effort
I would greatly appreciate a response on this issue. The fair thing to do would be to redistribute players or simply place them on the same shard as per arena
Replies
Every one of us in this shard is effectively being punished for investing time and money in the game when others are allowed a much easier time in their shards.
It would be fantastic if the devs could look in to options to address the unfairness the algorithm has placed on us.
I would like to suggest a Dev contacts us to talk over options.
I'm dirkbrightblade on line chat and Dirk Brightblade in game.. I know we as paying players would really welcome a chance to give constructive feedback about this to the devs. And it may help balance the game better if a solution can be found. This has to be a good thing because we have had players quit the game because of this issue.
One day I looked at current arena rank of the fleet arena top 50. The average arena rank was 7 (remember this was a snapshot, not looking at best finish but where they currently we at one moment). The mode was 1. Standard deviation was around 5.
Basically that means the most common rank was 1st and 95% were under 20 at that moment.
My fleet is better than most in my guild, yet I struggle to finish below 500. Zeta is essentially an unattainable material dependent 100% on the fickle RNG of the ship challenge 3x per week. The now added crystal bonus is even more of a slap in the face.
I am also on that shard, it is not whales with whales. It is the most active top performing players all put into one shard together, this will naturally include a disproportionate amount of whales, dolphins and the best performing f2p players.
https://swgoh.gg/u/magulama/
I have four others (that I know of at my payout) - our combined GP is touching 15m
ironically my friend who started 1 week later than me is always on top 50 on another shard and dont even have his ships maxed.
No I do not - the problem with this shard is that it contains too many active players rather than simply being able to win. In most shards you can advance at your payout but this is like walking into a gale force wind. My solutions were to redistribute these players amongst other shards of the same vintage or simply relaunch the shards with the same players as on our own arena shards. I'm not looking for an easy shard, just not something that effectively kills the game given it requires hours of effort on a daily basis.
In conclusion, we want the same experience as the other 99% of people who play this game. How do you even compete in a shard with 22 7* chimera leads (in the top 50, can't count beyond that) in THE FIRST DAY it is available? I don't have thousands of dollars to throw at this like they do.
Lol the answer is you can't. There are a lot of 7* capital ships in the 100-200 range already.
Tons of other people just want to play the game but have to deal with harder-than-normal areas. GW, squad arena etc.
They get shouted down with ' improve your roster/ you're on that shard forever/spend more/blah blah blah
That's the game.
Play it, or quit.
You clearly are not part of this shard. I am, unfortunately. It is completely distorted and has probably 1000 very active players. It’s just plain unfair that people who played longer than us can camp at first place with a standard fleet and we have to struggle to stay in the top 500. It’s so absurd, believe me! There are tons of 7 star capital ships in the top 500 right now.
I went full F2P because of this shard with the latest update and was close to quitting entirely.
This is your reason.
Others have different reasons.
When you don't support others, why should others support you?
The top 1% want the devs to do things their way, or maintain the status quo, for their benefit. Well, they can maintain this status quo, too.
https://imgur.com/a/lIkoG
Maxed team at #289...
Or did every account (even inactives) everyone get assigned to one when they were introduced into the game?
- Only very active players would qualify for this shard given selection criteria
- Inactives wouldn't make it given ship start date
- Therefore the shard suffers from a chronic imbalance which means it takes too much time to compete on a daily basis for most players
How many active accounts are there supposed to be on a shard? 20 (just enough for crystals)? 100? 180? 420? 666?
GW takes too much time to compete on a daily basis FOR MOST PLAYERS.
I still don't see why this particular situation warrants any more sympathy or attention than other things.
Well, except for the size of your wallets.