SWGOH Character Shard Donations

I have an idea for a new donation system in SWGOH. I think it would be really cool to have a character shard donation set up with guilds, much like the current gear donation setup. How it could work:

1. Once a week, players could go into their character inventory, select a character they want shards for, and hit "find." Normally it shows nodes and card packs, a spot could be added next to it that says "Request" just like the "Request" button for gear.
2. The time counts down just like with the gear, except instead of 24 hours it is a full week, and instead of limiting the number of shards you can receive, you can be given as many shards as people want to give you.
3. After it is requested, guild members can go into their guild area of the main screen and go to "Exchange," where they can find both gear exchange and shard exchange options.
4. If you have unused shards of a character (no matter what rarity they are) you can donate however many you would like to the person requesting them (note, if you donate shards it is the same as donating gear: you will lose it). Any normal and marquee character shards can be exchanged, but raid shards (Han Solo, General Kenobi, and Darth Traya) cannot be exchanged, nor can Heroic and Legendary event characters (Jedi Knight Revan, C-3PO, etc).
5. If you have excess shards for a seven star character, you can donate those OR contribute them to your shard shop currency. I think we could have a new portal for extra shard inventory. Just like with mods where you can go into your inventory and sell them, you could go into your shard inventory and claim them as shard shop currency, or you could save them and donate them to people in your guild. You cannot claim currency for a shard and then donate it as well, only one action per shard.
6. At the end of the week, the shards donated to you will be given to your inbox just like gear donation.

I think this method would be beneficial for all players of the game, and make it more appealing for people who aren't as invested in the game. Guilds would be able to advance much quicker than they already can (especially low GP guilds) if people could donate shards. This would eliminate one extra character to farm. It wouldn't impact sales in the game because characters for events could (and would) still be purchased, and any other sales would still happen as people buy crystals to help farm multiple characters at once.

I think this is a great idea and would be a tremendous addition to the game. I hope you guys think so too!

Replies

  • I like the idea as I'm generally in favor of cooperative content, but I think it's unlikely to be implemented. I think it would probably lead to at least some lost revenue for EA/CG, though I doubt it would be a whole lot.

    The argument for is that if you're having people panic farm for some new heroic/legendary event, there aren't going to be other people out there who have lots of shards left over of the necessary toons, since the entire point is that you have the even before anyone can get the toons without paying for them.

    The argument against is that not everyone panic farms the same way. Some people are willing to do a little panic farming, requiring $20 or a bit more to finish off a necessary toon when the rest are completed and the event is NOW. This obviously doesn't happen the first time round, but could happen the 2nd time, possibly even later times (though if you're that far behind in character development you probably have a mid-game account and are plodding along according to your slow plan, not panic farming anything). However, with shard donation, the 2nd, smaller round of money-making off Heroic/Legendary characters could easily be reduced.

    Only EA knows how much of the money they make off H/L toons comes in 2nd and later incarnations of the event. However, if it's more than say 3-5%, taking action that could cut that revenue by (I'm just guessing) half might not be worth it even if it promotes long-term revenue by promoting long-term loyalty. Loyalty to your guild, after all, translates to loyalty to the game. And if your guild mates are good at giving you shards, you'll naturally feel a boost in loyalty towards them. It's just how psychology works.

    In any case, I support your idea, but I'm pessimistic about the possibility of its implementation.
  • Thank you much! I appreciate your thoughts on it. I definitely agree with you, and I hope that EA sees it as a long-term investment (same as you I'm pessimistic - still would be very cool). I think this could be a really good way to promote loyalty to the game and have people keep coming back. I started playing almost when it came out 3 years ago, so I've stuck with it and enjoyed it, but people who are coming in now to the game may feel so far behind that it might discourage them from continuing to play if they are not really into it. I think my idea might help out with that too.
  • Kyno
    32087 posts Moderator
    I know people like to jump to the "revenue loss" as to why ideas like this are not going to be implemented, but there are balance issues that are more likely to spot ideas like this from being implemented.

    if it was only revenue, they could simply put limitations on how many and who could be donated/accepted.

    The game is setup so you have to be farming for some time or have built a good enough team to progress through a certain number of nodes on a table to get to a character. There are also toons that are locked behind raids. They would have to limit these and have checks in place that would really limit a system like this in many way.

    it open to be abused. just make an alt account bring it into your guild and get fed meta characters before you open arena, then move over to that alt as a main account and you are ready to take over. or open up a few alts and have them built up to farm a certain toon while your main focuses elsewhere, then join the guild or bring them in to funnel you shards, basically multiplying your farming speed, by the number of alts you wish to run.

    Donations are good to help even out progress between guild members, but can't really be opened up in such a way, and I dont see them ever doing it for shards, as that is just too open for abuse.
  • I never thought of it that way. That makes a lot of sense. So what kind of checks could we implement to prevent that from happening? Obviously a shard limit, but maybe even a node limit too? Like you don't unlock the shard exchange until you've unlocked all of the light and dark side battle nodes?
  • Kyno
    32087 posts Moderator
    DarthOzak wrote: »
    I never thought of it that way. That makes a lot of sense. So what kind of checks could we implement to prevent that from happening? Obviously a shard limit, but maybe even a node limit too? Like you don't unlock the shard exchange until you've unlocked all of the light and dark side battle nodes?

    yeah, a basic limit on the shard count would definitely be there.

    raid toons would have to be out.

    maybe limiting the toons that can be requested to toons that have been activated. That might help keep the balance.

    that would allow this to at least be possible.
  • Oooh I like the idea of keeping it to unlocked characters. That's a great idea. Raid toons definitely can't be a part of it. I think it would be cool to see how this idea evolves.
  • That is also a great idea. Easily controllable.
  • I like this idea in a guild bank system, where you have to put in exactly as many shards as you withdraw... if the bank on any hero exceeds a predetermined amount, it is converted to a guild shard that can be used to purchase new shards for the bank for the guild by guild leadership
  • Iy4oy4s
    2923 posts Member
    Kyno wrote: »
    I know people like to jump to the "revenue loss" as to why ideas like this are not going to be implemented, but there are balance issues that are more likely to spot ideas like this from being implemented.

    if it was only revenue, they could simply put limitations on how many and who could be donated/accepted.

    The game is setup so you have to be farming for some time or have built a good enough team to progress through a certain number of nodes on a table to get to a character. There are also toons that are locked behind raids. They would have to limit these and have checks in place that would really limit a system like this in many way.

    it open to be abused. just make an alt account bring it into your guild and get fed meta characters before you open arena, then move over to that alt as a main account and you are ready to take over. or open up a few alts and have them built up to farm a certain toon while your main focuses elsewhere, then join the guild or bring them in to funnel you shards, basically multiplying your farming speed, by the number of alts you wish to run.

    Donations are good to help even out progress between guild members, but can't really be opened up in such a way, and I dont see them ever doing it for shards, as that is just too open for abuse.

    I think that people jump to the “revenue thing” because this is EA we are talking about, they have a long long long long history with this. With the current direction of the game, I expect nothing like this to happen. It hurts the bottom line and they have made money hand over fist without it, so what incentive do they have to start now? None, therefore, it won’t happen. Multi Bronzium is an example. I would love it to happen, but just look at history..... I understand that they have to make money, and after watching mobilegamer new video...whales are gonna whale, so it doesn’t matter what FTP people think.

    Remember the time we used to get crystals and chewie shards when the game or CG messed up?? Those days are dead and gone and that should tell you something.
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