Discussion over a one off change to your arena payout time - Was told by support to post here

Lozsta
195 posts Member
I realise that a number of you are quite happy with your payout times.

I am aware that the payout times are related to the timezone you are in when you registered.


I am aware that I could start earlier in the day and hope I hold my position but this is really not practical due to the competatve nature of my shard.

I contacted support, after reading about someone who had this done, to move my arena payout (AP) and fleet arena payout (FAP) a couple of hours later or earlier. They told me to post here with this and try and get a discussion going, as that is what has happened with the cross platform inability of SWGOH when switching Android to iOS.

My personal issue with my payout time is that it is 17:00 and 18:00 GMT (currently during the winter months). I leave work at 16:00 and then commute home. I am travelling for about 30 minutes and have stops to make on the way. Then I have family admin, a dog to walk and a child to put to bed.

This then means that the two hours which are stressful anyway after work have the increased pressure of trying to get battles done and climb the arena ladder. I realise for a lot of you that this won't be an issue as you may have a decent payout time or less commitments.

I am proposing that we be allowed to change our payout time once, so as to avoid some perceived ability to abuse the function. I would also say that given the importance of the arena that the decision on payout time should be made when you sign up with the game offering you an option and letting you know that the arena will require about an hour for each one.

TL;DR

On sign up give an option of when you would prefer your arena payouts (including a change once they realise they have chosen poorly), or a one time change for existing users to be able to choose a time where they will be able to manage their arena climb better.

Replies

  • OrpheusRobot
    238 posts Member
    edited March 2018
    .
  • I face a similar problem. Signed up for the game while temporarily working in Denmark so was put on Central European payout time. I live in the UK so my payout times are in my final hour at work and during my commute home. It would be a valuable asset if we could change our payout time to reflect our actual time zone. Even if we are allowed to only do it once it would be useful.
  • My payout times suit me but I do see the need to be able to change them. :)
    The first time could be a free option, followed by a fairly high crystal cost thereafter.
  • Emmant
    93 posts Member
    Changing payout time once or even monthly would probably not cause more problems than coordination & cooperation in order to dominate shards already is.

    While I am not opposed to an opportunity like the one you are proposing, I feel that it's slapping a bandaid on a broken arm.

    Thus, I would much rather see a rework of the concept of squard/fleet arena turning it into a system where wins/succesful defenses gives points, something like the TW structure, for individuals, which would reward performance over 24 hours rather than timing / coordination to win.

    Unfortunately I suppose we are equally unlikely to see any changes to this mode whatsoever...
  • Nope. Will just have the top locked up even more when the scheming to fit more people in for the coordinated winning and losing happens. You got locked into a time you don't like? Start over. Not everybody can get 1st. Its a game. Live with the choices you made. My payout time sucks for me, but it is what it is.
  • I already saw people creating new accounts or even stopped playing because they moved from EU to US and their old payout went to a absolute terrible time.

    There is a high need to change payout time but people should not be able to exploit it.
  • I agree. My first account, which I still play, is in Pacific time but I live in europe. Go figure how that happened.
    It would be great to be able to change as I don't stay up till 4 AM to battle it out.

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  • +1 for the idea. I'd like to have the option to change maybe more than once. (but I'll take one time)

    My issue is that my original payout time was great. But once we adjusted our clocks to 'fall back' by an hour in fall.....made things very painful. So, even a button that said 'adjust with daylight savings time' would help me out'.
  • Most of the new players don't know the mechanics behind payout times and it is only after some time you realize it can be a problem. Daylight saving time changes also add to a confusion. IMHO, one off or once per year change to a time zone (i.e. payout times) would be a great idea with minimal or no chance of exploiting the feature. Yes, probably the day you make an adjustment it will give you one more or one less payout, but make it cost 800-1000-1200-1500 crystals, for example.
  • I would propose that people should be able to change it 2 times a year. This also to accommodate for daylight saving time that happens twice a year in many countries.
  • Time zones is one thing but simple availability to play is another. Many European timezones coincide with work or dinner times (or kids bedtimes, in some cases).

    I'd very much like to see a one time change.
  • Support for this :)
  • Mike32gre
    5 posts Member
    edited March 2018
    Emmant wrote: »
    Changing payout time once or even monthly would probably not cause more problems than coordination & cooperation in order to dominate shards already is.

    While I am not opposed to an opportunity like the one you are proposing, I feel that it's slapping a bandaid on a broken arm.

    Thus, I would much rather see a rework of the concept of squard/fleet arena turning it into a system where wins/succesful defenses gives points, something like the TW structure, for individuals, which would reward performance over 24 hours rather than timing / coordination to win.

    Unfortunately I suppose we are equally unlikely to see any changes to this mode whatsoever...


    Couldn't have been said better.

    The current arena system allows for bullies to organize as a mob and keep anyone outside of their precious little group away from the top positions by ganking/stalling them.

    Whilst Lozsta's (or anyone's really) need to change his payout to fit his real life schedule is very understandable, this would allow the little mafia kids to completely take over the whole shard as hostage and never allow anyone to really climb. (By distributing all timezones to their members).

    What would really elevate the game (and eliminate the need for Lozsta to change his payout times), would be a completely different rating system, like the one Emmant proposed, or a zero-sum rating system, or ANYTHING that prevents exploit by organized mafia.

    How about you get X combats per daily reset and get to do them anytime your daily schedule allows?
    Then every hour the game calculates the highest rated players per timezone and distributes the rewards.
    You can still sell crystals to players that want to do more attempts, but they have to earn their rating by winning more consistently and not by having their buddies lockout their opponents.

    *edit for typos*

  • This seems like a good idea. Although there would likely need to be a day's "wait" to get rewards again in order to prevent abuse.
    This you have to understand. There's only one way to hurt a man who's lost everything. Give him back something broken..” -Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever
  • Nikoms565
    14242 posts Member
    Floogyman wrote: »
    Nope. Will just have the top locked up even more when the scheming to fit more people in for the coordinated winning and losing happens. You got locked into a time you don't like? Start over. Not everybody can get 1st. Its a game. Live with the choices you made. My payout time sucks for me, but it is what it is.

    Except that arena payout time is not a "choice" fir anyone. Its 6 or 7 pm local time. Starting over wouldn't accomplish anyrhing if yiu stayed in the same time zone. And traveling several time zones to install a game seems a bit impractical for most players.
    In game name: Lucas Gregory FORMER PLAYER - - - -"Whale blah grump poooop." - Ouchie

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    *This space left intentionally blank*
  • Keno21
    15 posts Member
    I would love a change as well due to work commitments. Just being pushed 1 hour back would be ideal for me.
  • Please let us change our payout times. My work schedule only allows me climb at the right time 2 or 3 days per week. If my payout was a few hours later, I would spend time climbing every single day. Seems like a win win... I get 1st more, EA gets me spending more time in game.

    Alternatively...

    Calculate payout based on the highest rank achieved during each 24 hour window. Problem solved. People can climb whenever suits their schedule that day, and EA gets more time spent in game because players would be more likely to climb on a daily basis, not just on the days their schedule permits.

    Pleeeeease :)@CG_Kozispoon
  • Nikoms565 wrote: »
    Floogyman wrote: »
    Nope. Will just have the top locked up even more when the scheming to fit more people in for the coordinated winning and losing happens. You got locked into a time you don't like? Start over. Not everybody can get 1st. Its a game. Live with the choices you made. My payout time sucks for me, but it is what it is.

    Except that arena payout time is not a "choice" fir anyone. Its 6 or 7 pm local time. Starting over wouldn't accomplish anyrhing if yiu stayed in the same time zone. And traveling several time zones to install a game seems a bit impractical for most players.

    You can manually edit the time on your phone, the game will eat up whatever you throw at it.
    How the tables have turned...
  • rawman
    685 posts Member
    edited March 2018
    No, this would drive everyone crazy in top-tier arena. It's already now hard enough to know who to fight and who not at which times. I could imagine better payout times for me too, but the downside of this would just result in total confusion.
  • Vampire_X
    1435 posts Moderator
    You can reply to answer hq as listed above but technically changing times by user is not possible much like changing a shard.

    That isnt to say it will never be but the time and effort is not an easy or short term option at this time.
    Wicked Sith Queen with the Pink Saber
  • Lozsta
    195 posts Member
    edited March 2018
    Most of the new players don't know the mechanics behind payout times and it is only after some time you realize it can be a problem. Daylight saving time changes also add to a confusion. IMHO, one off or once per year change to a time zone (i.e. payout times) would be a great idea with minimal or no chance of exploiting the feature.
    Presaria wrote: »
    +1 for the idea. I'd like to have the option to change maybe more than once. (but I'll take one time)
    My issue is that my original payout time was great. But once we adjusted our clocks to 'fall back' by an hour in fall.....made things very painful. So, even a button that said 'adjust with daylight savings time' would help me out'.
    AlexanderG wrote: »
    Time zones is one thing but simple availability to play is another. Many European timezones coincide with work or dinner times (or kids bedtimes, in some cases).

    I'd very much like to see a one time change.

    I agree the daylight savings thing would help enormously. If it hadn't fallen back to a 16:00 to 1700 for arena I wouldn't mind quite so much as I am nearly always home and out with the dog by then, and hitting the battles is easier then.
    Keno21 wrote: »
    I would love a change as well due to work commitments. Just being pushed 1 hour back would be ideal for me.

    The one time change would help then.
    Please let us change our payout times. My work schedule only allows me climb at the right time 2 or 3 days per week. If my payout was a few hours later, I would spend time climbing every single day. Seems like a win win... I get 1st more, EA gets me spending more time in game.

    Alternatively...

    Calculate payout based on the highest rank achieved during each 24 hour window. Problem solved. People can climb whenever suits their schedule that day, and EA gets more time spent in game because players would be more likely to climb on a daily basis, not just on the days their schedule permits.

    Pleeeeease :)@CG_Kozispoon

    I think this is the same for a lot of players. The payout time is during work or just after which is i,possible for CG to predict but if you are making every new users payout between 16:00 and 19:00 their local time then you almost certainly hitting work or commute time.

    I think the arena climb idea is a good one but I have thought about it many times and I am not sure how they would do it. People are already saying that a single time change would allow for the "kids" (who are probably P2W) to coordinate their climbs.

    If I had more suitable time in the day I could play at work no problem, and would probably start my climb an hour before and spend crystals to climb further.

    I stated in my initial post that I realise many people are incredibly happy with their payout time, I am not trying to annoy them, but I am certain one day their circumstances may change and they might like the chance of a one off change.

    I should add my RL friend who got me playing (**** him) is literally up the road, same country and has a 2 hour difference in his payout time to myself. His is much more convenient to me in that it is two hours after mine.
    Vampire_X wrote: »
    You can reply to answer hq as listed above but technically changing times by user is not possible much like changing a shard.

    That isnt to say it will never be but the time and effort is not an easy or short term option at this time.

    I have reached out to a CG dev and spoken at some length to them about this. There is no issue doing it. The exact word used was "impractical" now that is not "impossible" so if the system was developed to facilitate these changes then it wouldn't even be "impractical".
  • TBH it was Troll move to make the Arena default time be the typical persons commute/dinner time in the first place. But, what do I know, maybe people with jobs aren't the target audience....
    Right from the onset you get trolled over.
    Make the service cost 900 crystals an can be done once a year, the end.
    Of course, we can't even get the 5%TM on Talzin's lead fixed, or challenge gear our of Raids, or the QoL requests players ACTUALLY asked for...... so wanting something like this may as well be asking for the moon from CG.
    #AcolyteShootsTwice
  • Lozsta
    195 posts Member
    TBH it was Troll move to make the Arena default time be the typical persons commute/dinner time in the first place. But, what do I know, maybe people with jobs aren't the target audience....
    Right from the onset you get trolled over.
    Make the service cost 900 crystals an can be done once a year, the end.
    Of course, we can't even get the 5%TM on Talzin's lead fixed, or challenge gear our of Raids, or the QoL requests players ACTUALLY asked for...... so wanting something like this may as well be asking for the moon from CG.

    I was told by support to post it here, if I want it and it seems others do too, so I am doing as I am told by them. They seem pretty dismissive of a huge issue that people have.
  • This game mechanic is by far one of the most influential in course of the entire game. It should not be decided at the start of the game when you are fresh off the boat and have no idea what you are even doing with it.
    Other companies (not sure if I am allowed to post names of other companies, if I am not please edit this out, company is Steam) Also lock your account to the region you have made it in, effectively editing your purchasing options, product availability etc. This is not changeable by the user, however, they have dedicated help desks (kinda like this one) that can do it for you, if you provide proof of changing residence (they only require proof because it's a legal matter, these matters do not apply to this particular case). A system adapted to our game would be a single, player-side change where we can all change our payout times, and then have a help desk that can do it in the future should you require it.
    I hear a lot of growling about how it would cause mobing in the arena shards. Mobing is already present, in a great deal, and this feature would actually reduce it. The problem is a lot of players that care about this game are playing it for a long time and they are in older shards which do not see the same level of mobing because when they were made, the shard making intervals were a lot more frequent (it used to be a new shard every 2-3 days, then every week and now it's every month).
    I would be a lot more concerned about a man/woman who has to move 2-3 times a year due to his job, spends thousands on this game monthly and just wants to have the product he is grossly paying for.
    The bottom line is, this system was created to promote competitiveness, to enable multiple high-tier payouts trough dedication and strategic playing. It backfired, created mobs that dominate the top tiers. Shuffling the payouts can only do good at this point. And bad QoL and PR decisions has already cost CG a lot of high-paying consumers who left because of this particular problem. A X000 dollars a month spending user will simply quit this game because his job as the CEO requires him to work at the time this game forces him to play. Make the change, earn the trust of the community and a lot of revenue in the process.
  • I would also like to be able to change my payout time but not necessarily for the reasons mentioned above. I can completely agree that if you move, change jobs, etc... to where you can't compete based on your payout time that you should be able to have it changed. Your not asking to change to an easier shard or anything like that, simply to have your payout in the existing shard changed to match your current life situations.

    My reasoning for wanting to change, and probably several others above even though they don't admit it, is because of the Shard chats that have been allowed to run the arena payouts for so long. While they are coordinating through Discord, CG/EA should have a way they can suspend or ban accounts for taking part in these. And if not, then they could at least allow us to change our payout times so that we don't have to be shamed for attacking outside of when you are "supposed" to attack.

    FYI - I am in one and am in the rotation for top 10 so this isn't just someone who is mad they can't get above 100 in their shard. It literally takes all the fun and competition out of this game and I HATE it. It basically requires you to tip-toe around who you can or can't attack and if you attack at the wrong time you get shamed. Ultimately some would say simply leave the shard chat but as anyone who is in one knows, if you do this they will put you on a hit list and you will never stay in the top 20 for very long. So they have basically taken over an entire aspect of the game and require you to play a certain way. This completely goes against the competitive nature of the arena. If they aren't going to do anything about these shard chats I would hope they can at least give us a way to make arena enjoyable.
    Mike32gre wrote: »
    Emmant wrote: »
    Changing payout time once or even monthly would probably not cause more problems than coordination & cooperation in order to dominate shards already is.

    While I am not opposed to an opportunity like the one you are proposing, I feel that it's slapping a bandaid on a broken arm.

    Thus, I would much rather see a rework of the concept of squard/fleet arena turning it into a system where wins/succesful defenses gives points, something like the TW structure, for individuals, which would reward performance over 24 hours rather than timing / coordination to win.

    Unfortunately I suppose we are equally unlikely to see any changes to this mode whatsoever...


    Couldn't have been said better.

    The current arena system allows for bullies to organize as a mob and keep anyone outside of their precious little group away from the top positions by ganking/stalling them.

    Whilst Lozsta's (or anyone's really) need to change his payout to fit his real life schedule is very understandable, this would allow the little mafia kids to completely take over the whole shard as hostage and never allow anyone to really climb. (By distributing all timezones to their members).

    What would really elevate the game (and eliminate the need for Lozsta to change his payout times), would be a completely different rating system, like the one Emmant proposed, or a zero-sum rating system, or ANYTHING that prevents exploit by organized mafia.

    How about you get X combats per daily reset and get to do them anytime your daily schedule allows?
    Then every hour the game calculates the highest rated players per timezone and distributes the rewards.
    You can still sell crystals to players that want to do more attempts, but they have to earn their rating by winning more consistently and not by having their buddies lockout their opponents.

    *edit for typos*

    Here is the answer, CG/EA starts suspending or banning accounts that are taking part in these shard rotations. I am in one only because if you don't you will be put on their "hit list" which completely goes against the competitive nature of the game. I have to attack who they tell me to and at specific times of the day. How is that fun? And EA/CG does nothing to stop it. Hey EA/CG - THIS IS YOUR GAME - quit letting small groups of people control it!
  • I wish CG would be more open with their concerns/reason why they won’t allow timezone changes. This particular QOL feature change would increase enjoyment and really take a burden off players and decrease burnout among players.

    Allowing a limited number of timezone changes a year would lead to shard domination by a small group. In fact, it would help dilute shard chats power by allowing more players the incentive to move up in “off” hours and increase the “churn” in the upper ranks.

    One other incorrect notion is that allowing timezone changes would lead to too many crystals being paid out. More crystals means more players advancing which means more competition which means more frustration which means more impulse buying. It’s all relative.

    Right now you have an uneven distribution of players in payout hours. People in US Centraland Eastern timezones are competing agaist far more players for their payout hour, while players with Greenland timezones have almost no competition in their payout hour.

    Allowing limited timezone changes would have just as much on arena as in game chat had with arena, virtually zero impact.

    The only thing I can think of is that there is some vanity stat that EA/CG management tracks based on total hours logged or certain hours during the day they need to increase user logins. Let players change their payout times to times that meet their schedules.
  • EA_Cian
    971 posts EA Staff (retired)
    I am closing this thread out as it's over 6 months since it was last active at this stage. If you still think there are issues with these things, you can always start a new thread. :smile:
This discussion has been closed.