Sandbagging, the new normal?
Throughout my Grand Arena, dozens of level 1s is common place. (One player has 70 level 1 toons) This is not "focus," this is sandbagging. Now, while the devs have clearly stated that they did not want to give players a competitive advantage to not level/ gear toons (Paper Zombie), they went out of their way to create an event which gives significant competitive advantages to having unleveled and ungeared toons.
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So my question is, are the reward benefits from a new game strategy if you started a new account better to only boost important toons and leave the rest ungeared/unleveled, or to help your guild gp by building your roster out?
But, hey, finding the bright side, at least we get rewards. The brighter side would be to run this simultaneously with TW, so we get both rewards amongst both semi-flawed systems.
I used to, at the very least, put every new toon to gear IV, level 32. No longer. That method, while helpful to the guild, is totally hamstringing me in Grand Arena. I'm glad I was lazy on the last 2 months of marquees.
Really, the number of level 1 characters on one's account should be a cause for segregation.
These players chose not to spend resources to artificially inflate their GP. Instead, all their resources went into upper tier characters that provided them with value in various aspects of the game. Since this is a game of resource management, the decisions those players have made are giving them a competitive advantage in this aspect of the game.
I've got a friend who started playing over a year later than me. His GP is about 1.7M below me, but in TBs, Arena, and Heroic Sith he is almost as competitive as I am. His roster doesn't have any of those "fluff" toons leveled or geared because those would have slowed down his actual development as a player.
He didn't sandbag - he just hasn't had the gear or credits to "waste." He's an awesome player with laser focus, and now he's being rewarded for that. Perhaps your opponents are the same way.
Why, exactly, should this person feel obligated to take resources away from the characters they use to bring these guys up again?
^ THIS
It isn't sandbagging. They simply had a different approach than you did and it's benefiting them. It isn't their fault.
Other facets of the game benefit you and having a higher PG. Not EVERY aspect of this game has to be a convenient bonus for you.
I don't know about you but I'm not struggling with credits and grey/blue gear. Resource management suggests that resources are in limit supply. They are not.
Ironically, you unwittingly make my point. G8, Lvl 85 are worthless. I know. So are G1, Lvl 1. The problem is that G8 lvl 85 toons are beyond worthless, they are an active disadvantage. Once again, Paper Zombie: a G7 zombie was better than a G12. The devs said they didn't like that.
I dont know about you but putting gear on a G1 never prevented me from gearing Chewie any other high level toon.
So, your entire roster is level 85 g7?
Yes, they are. We are not given unlimited credits or energy or gear, which by definition means we must manage the resources we are given to accomplish what we want.
But, all that aside, this guy had no way of knowing even 3 months ago that GA was going to be a thing, much lease 2 years ago when Pao came out. He activated the character and then left it alone. This is not sandbagging. Sandbagging would be deliberately dropping your GP after learning that it would give you an advantage, not leaving your characters you don't have a use for alone for ... well, forever.
So if you're setting 7 teams on defense, do a match based on the total combined gp of the top 70 toons. ( 5 toons for 7 defense and 7 offense squads).
It wouldn't be perfect, but it would be better.
Advice: get over it OP. You made your choices, now deal with the consequences. It will be okay, draw on your inner strength to persevere and you will survive this ordeal. It's a game, try to enjoy it.
This.
That's what you're accusing the guy in your image of doing.
But jeez that would require work
Then came TB and we were told to build GP.
Now GA tells us to not level. I'm sorry, but I can't unlevel and unzeta characters from 2 years ago.
I'm angry, so i feel like it's justified to baselessly accuse someone else of using a cheap tactic, but secretly i want nothing more than to be able to unlevel my toons in order to have a better chance of winning.
I smile when I see rosters like this. I think to myself "this player gets it", and then I look at their mods, and I find I'm usually right.
I'm lost, here - is there some reason you can't use those characters in GA? Maybe they won't work great as a first line of defense, but for your back territories or as an attacker they're likely still fine. You have to remember that your opponent is playing the same game as you, trying to balance how many "good" teams they need to put on defense while still leaving adequate resources to attack with. If they go a little light on the attack, your "useless" Zmaul sith team might work perfectly well.
During the trial run I busted out a team of Ackbar, Princess Leia, Lando Calrissian, Wedge, and Young Lando. That's an absolute garbage team, but on offense against a similar-GP team it worked alright, because the AI is dumb and easy to beat.
hahah, i love people who use a "difficult" word in order for them to be able to explain what that word means so that the others whom are clearly not as smart as them can understand what they're saying.