Developer Q&A - Grand Arena Championship Changes - 12/02

Replies

  • Whatelse73 wrote: »
    If the arena changes are happening on the 8th, but GAC doesn't start until the 13th, will we be getting crystals from the arena (old) or from our new GAC positioning for those 5 days? That's 2000-2500 crystals which is a big deal for many.

    This was the major question I came away with that I’m surprised wasn’t addressed. So are we just going to be stuck with 5 days of no crystal rewards?
  • Kyno
    32087 posts Moderator
    Whatelse73 wrote: »
    If the arena changes are happening on the 8th, but GAC doesn't start until the 13th, will we be getting crystals from the arena (old) or from our new GAC positioning for those 5 days? That's 2000-2500 crystals which is a big deal for many.

    We are still looking for answers on this one, but overall the losses will be less than that, while you can look at the daily average to see what your average will be, each day will not be paying out that much, as a large portion of that comes from activity in GAC.
  • Kyno wrote: »
    Rath_Tarr wrote: »
    With the increased impact of cheating in this mode, have you considered being more transparent? I understand not wanting to discuss individual cases but perhaps publishing periodic stats: #reported, #investigated, # or %confirmed? In the absence of any feedback, the player base will remain skeptical.

    The general point is that they cannot be more transparent for legal reasons.

    This general type of display was presented, but was not discussed further.
    What, legal are worried that the % symbol will sue CG for bringing its reputation into disrepute?! :lol:
    Kyno wrote: »
    They will remain skeptical no matter what, we have seen many examples of people being banned, yet here we are.
    Have we? We have seen a couple of high profile streamers slapped on the wrist but for most players that's all they have seen. The rest is all cloak & dagger because... legal.

    It's not uncommon in my experience to run across players complaining about reporting cheaters and CG doing nothing about it. CG don't respond to the complaints directly because... legal. And CG wont publish stats because... legal.

    So in the absence of information, FUD festers and undermines confidence in the game. And with crystal income now tied to GAC that situation will only get worse.

  • Monel
    2776 posts Member
    Rath_Tarr wrote: »
    Kyno wrote: »
    Rath_Tarr wrote: »
    With the increased impact of cheating in this mode, have you considered being more transparent? I understand not wanting to discuss individual cases but perhaps publishing periodic stats: #reported, #investigated, # or %confirmed? In the absence of any feedback, the player base will remain skeptical.

    The general point is that they cannot be more transparent for legal reasons.

    This general type of display was presented, but was not discussed further.
    What, legal are worried that the % symbol will sue CG for bringing its reputation into disrepute?! :lol:
    Kyno wrote: »
    They will remain skeptical no matter what, we have seen many examples of people being banned, yet here we are.
    Have we? We have seen a couple of high profile streamers slapped on the wrist but for most players that's all they have seen. The rest is all cloak & dagger because... legal.

    It's not uncommon in my experience to run across players complaining about reporting cheaters and CG doing nothing about it. CG don't respond to the complaints directly because... legal. And CG wont publish stats because... legal.

    So in the absence of information, FUD festers and undermines confidence in the game. And with crystal income now tied to GAC that situation will only get worse.

    Look I get it, cheating is bad. But my question is do people only cheat GAC? Did they never cheat in Squad Arena? Seems to reason that people who will and or do cheat in GAC cheated in SA. Net neutral.
  • Kyno
    32087 posts Moderator
    Rath_Tarr wrote: »
    Kyno wrote: »
    Rath_Tarr wrote: »
    With the increased impact of cheating in this mode, have you considered being more transparent? I understand not wanting to discuss individual cases but perhaps publishing periodic stats: #reported, #investigated, # or %confirmed? In the absence of any feedback, the player base will remain skeptical.

    The general point is that they cannot be more transparent for legal reasons.

    This general type of display was presented, but was not discussed further.
    What, legal are worried that the % symbol will sue CG for bringing its reputation into disrepute?! :lol:
    Kyno wrote: »
    They will remain skeptical no matter what, we have seen many examples of people being banned, yet here we are.
    Have we? We have seen a couple of high profile streamers slapped on the wrist but for most players that's all they have seen. The rest is all cloak & dagger because... legal.

    It's not uncommon in my experience to run across players complaining about reporting cheaters and CG doing nothing about it. CG don't respond to the complaints directly because... legal. And CG wont publish stats because... legal.

    So in the absence of information, FUD festers and undermines confidence in the game. And with crystal income now tied to GAC that situation will only get worse.

    Sorry, I was not clear. They will not respond about investigations, because of legal issues. We dis bring up a general display, used in a different game, bit it was not discussed in any detail about if this was possible.

    There have been many posts on here and reddit of people asking what to do about a banned account.

    So while loading up Doja with information and posts about this exact topic, we saw several examples of people complaining about someone and also seeing a person of similar name, asking about what to do about a banned account later down the road.

    Again, a gernal display of numbers (as in many cases when data is presented) wouldnt be trusted, and wouldn't help people think they are doing anything differently than they are now. The speculation will always get worse, but it doesnt make it true.
  • So will there come a point where I get a 50 50 win rate and and thus 'stuck' there not able to increase my crystal income? Because at that point my opponents are going to be upgrading at a similar, if not faster rate (if they're spending money). So then I'm just stuck unable to climb the ladder any further?
  • nottenst
    682 posts Member
    edited December 2021
    Whatelse73 wrote: »
    If the arena changes are happening on the 8th, but GAC doesn't start until the 13th, will we be getting crystals from the arena (old) or from our new GAC positioning for those 5 days? That's 2000-2500 crystals which is a big deal for many.

    This was the major question I came away with that I’m surprised wasn’t addressed. So are we just going to be stuck with 5 days of no crystal rewards?

    I was under the impression that they would treat it like any other week without GAC. So, everyone would be assigned their skill level during the update and get crystals per the table. For example, those placed in Kyber will get between 180 and 260 crystals each day. Aurodium will get 130 to 170. And so forth.
  • nottenst wrote: »
    Whatelse73 wrote: »
    If the arena changes are happening on the 8th, but GAC doesn't start until the 13th, will we be getting crystals from the arena (old) or from our new GAC positioning for those 5 days? That's 2000-2500 crystals which is a big deal for many.

    This was the major question I came away with that I’m surprised wasn’t addressed. So are we just going to be stuck with 5 days of no crystal rewards?

    I was under the impression that they would treat it like any other week without GAC. So, everyone would be assigned their skill level during the update and get crystals per the table. For example, those placed in Kyber will get between 180 and 260 crystals each day. Aurodium will get 130 to 170. And so forth.

    If so they could spell that out a little more clearly.

    Would have been nice if they could have thrown us a bone and left the Arena payouts in place until the actual GAC started…guess that couple hundred extra crystals each would cut into their Xmas bonus though…
  • RTS
    682 posts Member
    nottenst wrote: »
    Whatelse73 wrote: »
    If the arena changes are happening on the 8th, but GAC doesn't start until the 13th, will we be getting crystals from the arena (old) or from our new GAC positioning for those 5 days? That's 2000-2500 crystals which is a big deal for many.

    This was the major question I came away with that I’m surprised wasn’t addressed. So are we just going to be stuck with 5 days of no crystal rewards?

    I was under the impression that they would treat it like any other week without GAC. So, everyone would be assigned their skill level during the update and get crystals per the table. For example, those placed in Kyber will get between 180 and 260 crystals each day. Aurodium will get 130 to 170. And so forth.

    If so they could spell that out a little more clearly.

    Would have been nice if they could have thrown us a bone and left the Arena payouts in place until the actual GAC started…guess that couple hundred extra crystals each would cut into their Xmas bonus though…

    They spelled it out pretty clearly in multiple posts
  • TVF
    36519 posts Member
    Firefox54 wrote: »
    Well ... this was brief and a bit underwhelming ...

    TOYST
    I need a new message here. https://discord.gg/AmStGTH
  • RTS wrote: »
    nottenst wrote: »
    Whatelse73 wrote: »
    If the arena changes are happening on the 8th, but GAC doesn't start until the 13th, will we be getting crystals from the arena (old) or from our new GAC positioning for those 5 days? That's 2000-2500 crystals which is a big deal for many.

    This was the major question I came away with that I’m surprised wasn’t addressed. So are we just going to be stuck with 5 days of no crystal rewards?

    I was under the impression that they would treat it like any other week without GAC. So, everyone would be assigned their skill level during the update and get crystals per the table. For example, those placed in Kyber will get between 180 and 260 crystals each day. Aurodium will get 130 to 170. And so forth.

    If so they could spell that out a little more clearly.

    Would have been nice if they could have thrown us a bone and left the Arena payouts in place until the actual GAC started…guess that couple hundred extra crystals each would cut into their Xmas bonus though…

    They spelled it out pretty clearly in multiple posts

    Where did they spell out exactly when Squad Arena payout would stop and GAC payout would start? Show me a source other than the one answer at the beginning of this post we’re talking about.
  • Kyno wrote: »
    Rath_Tarr wrote: »
    With the increased impact of cheating in this mode, have you considered being more transparent? I understand not wanting to discuss individual cases but perhaps publishing periodic stats: #reported, #investigated, # or %confirmed? In the absence of any feedback, the player base will remain skeptical.

    The general point is that they cannot be more transparent for legal reasons.

    This general type of display was presented, but was not discussed further.

    They will remain skeptical no matter what, we have seen many examples of people being banned, yet here we are.

    What possible legal reasons could there be from having a chart with statistics? Or having a stated policy - 1 apk usage = 1 month ban.

    These are things they could do to increase player trust, but they don’t. And we’ve seen numerous folks complain on here about reported cheaters, still cheating. We’ve seen breakdowns of cheaters being negotiated with.

    Right now they are asking for trust, when they’ve done nothing to earn trust. This is the CG model. Trust us, even though we never deliver.
  • TVF wrote: »
    Firefox54 wrote: »
    Well ... this was brief and a bit underwhelming ...

    TOYST

    was waiting for that type of comment as soon as I posted my message :)
  • I’ll accept anything but bugs
    Please no bug
  • Am im missing something here? Ive only seen 3 responses to questions an 2 of those wasnt really even related to this topic. Are they answering these questions at a later date or is tht all we get is the 3 responses?
  • Am im missing something here? Ive only seen 3 responses to questions an 2 of those wasnt really even related to this topic. Are they answering these questions at a later date or is tht all we get is the 3 responses?

    Check out the first page ... most of the Q&A are there
  • Q: A lot of us folks are lower GP who can still take #1 daily and with the new GAC change we're basically getting less crystals income no matter what. Has there any consideration been made to the people who are more efficient in squad arena but don't have the right GP yet to get better rewards with the new GAC change now?
    • A: These GAC changes are about ensuring that every Player has reason and opportunity to compete against an equal foe and earn prizes for doing so. At the same time, this creates a true ranked ladder for SWGOH -- where top Players truly are the best.

      As Squad Arena aged, new "shards" have become dominated by a few multi-million GP Players (often within weeks), excluding the majority of New Players. It became less a "catch up" mechanism than a way to be a big fish in a small pond. The result was often two Players with identical collections competing for radically different Prizes simply based on when they installed.

      These GAC changes do alter the structure of competition in SWGOH, and so there are edge cases. As we called out in the Road Ahead, the Victory and Promotion elements of GAC are where different user states are handled in both Short and Long Term Rewards. Punching your way up to Kyber is about consistently excelling vs. your peer set. If you are "strong for your GP" at launch (eg. high rank in a moderately established shard) you should have quite strong squads vs. your same-GP peers, leading to (short term) "max" rewards and (long term) Promotion to higher-rewarded leagues.
      -shortpaw

    Im sorry, but I fail to understand how a 3m gp that gets first place in his squad will ever be able to beat someone who has 6 or 7m gp. And raising your gp is something that can not just happen.
    How are you going to show some love to all these low gp people? Or are you just telling them that you dont care about them and they just dont exist for you?
  • jedilord
    337 posts Member
    edited December 2021
    maybe my questions were overseen? i´ll try it again
    • how do we get compensation and no loose-record at all (within our skill point)? if we fail because of black/blue screen, disappearing button bug, server issues, restart your app reports, error messages and so on
    • you will punish us if we don't join the GAC within the join phase (with 2 loosing battles) so why is there a join phase? why can´t we join on auto?

  • SCCH
    62 posts Member
    Please don't bring 3v3 back. If you want to spice things up to avoid the mdoe to become stale, new maps, different combinations of fleet / number of teams / number of fleets etc are more than enough. You could make a poll to see how much the community dislikes 3v3. Perhaps I'm wrong, but the poll will give the answer.
  • Ehm…. This thread is here from more than 12h and I see hundreds of questions but maybe 4-5 answers (3-4 of them without any importance)… so why are we here? 😒
  • The lack of an "auto-join" feature is unacceptable in a game the constantly block the join button with commercials. How hard could it be?
    And then there is the same old "why can't I leave/rejoin GAC" and "where is our Fleet loadouts?".
  • Vos_Landeck
    1666 posts Member
    edited December 2021

    Where did they spell out exactly when Squad Arena payout would stop and GAC payout would start? Show me a source other than the one answer at the beginning of this post we’re talking about.

    Your question was answered:

    "These changes will go into effect on 12/08 and the first Grand Arena after that will start on 12/13"

    "Players will receive a Skill Rating, League and Division the first time they log in after they reach level 85. Once they have this League and Division, they will start getting Daily Rewards, even if a Grand Arena is not currently active."

    "Daily rewards continue during the off weeks. The tables in the State of the Galaxy show the 35 day averages for Crystal rewards (4 weeks on and 1 week off) and account for this week off."

    The changes go live on December 8th. Assuming you're level 85, the first time you log in after the update, you will be assigned a Skill Rating, League and Division. You will start earning the daily crystal rewards that are given out on GAC off-weeks...which means no more Squad Arena crystals at that point.
  • HK22 wrote: »
    What steps are you going to take to reduce the time commitment now that GAC now is the main source of crystals? GAC takes a great deal more time than current squad arena and there are already a great many sources of time crunch. GAC, Conquest, LS Geo running at the same time requires a great deal of time, especially when time is limited due to the real world.

    GAC has no more or less time commitment than it already had. For everyone that already played GAC, this reduces time commitment as they don't have to mess with Squad Arena now. For those who didn't play GAC, the message is pretty clear....GAC is intended to be one of their primary game modes and if you choose not to play it, that's on you.

    What is considered full credit for a Defense or Zone? If a Zone has 4 defense squad slots is that 240 (120 for the zone plus 4 * 30 for the 4 slots)? or 480 (120 for the zone plus 4 * 30 for the 4 slots plus 4 * 60 for the max banners for 4 attacks the player can't do since there isn't a defense)?

    It's not 4 x 30. There's really no change on this other than the amount of possible banners. We already have had max banners for empty slots. I'm pretty sure the max banners have been calculated as if you solo'ed the team....whatever the highest amount that is possible from beating a team.

  • Where did they spell out exactly when Squad Arena payout would stop and GAC payout would start? Show me a source other than the one answer at the beginning of this post we’re talking about.

    Your question was answered:

    "These changes will go into effect on 12/08 and the first Grand Arena after that will start on 12/13"

    "Players will receive a Skill Rating, League and Division the first time they log in after they reach level 85. Once they have this League and Division, they will start getting Daily Rewards, even if a Grand Arena is not currently active."

    "Daily rewards continue during the off weeks. The tables in the State of the Galaxy show the 35 day averages for Crystal rewards (4 weeks on and 1 week off) and account for this week off."

    The changes go live on December 8th. Assuming you're level 85, the first time you log in after the update, you will be assigned a Skill Rating, League and Division. You will start earning the daily crystal rewards that are given out on GAC off-weeks...which means no more Squad Arena crystals at that point.

    That’s what we would assume/infer based on what’s written, but it’s not actually stated anywhere. And that’s my point. It’s something that should be explicitly stated so we’re not just guessing/assuming.

    The scenario you cited was specifically addressing a question of the transition from <85 to 85. What if as part of the transition we don’t actually get assigned a skill rating until the first one kicks off? We wouldn’t know until it happened, so it’s worth the question…

  • GAC has no more or less time commitment than it already had. For everyone that already played GAC, this reduces time commitment as they don't have to mess with Squad Arena now. For those who didn't play GAC, the message is pretty clear....GAC is intended to be one of their primary game modes and if you choose not to play it, that's on you.

    You're absolutely correct that the GAC time commitment is no different. However, before these changes (which I think are positive), you could ignore GAC if you didn't have the time.

    For example, I used to play GAC, but when they expanded the teams and added other events (Conquest), I stopped playing GAC because I didn't have the time and missing the GAC rewards weren't that significant.

    We also have a number of individuals in our guild and alliance that find Conquest to be a huge time sink to them (just lost a member after the last Conquest because of the time commitment). GAC can be a very fun event ... but the time commitment will become significant (e.g., when Conquest and GAC occur together that will be about 20+ battles a day to be completed), and now GAC is much more important than before, so missing the event has more implications. That also doesn't count for the increased importance on TW now, and the other events we still have (I spent an hour already today just on CPit battles/remodding, mod mgmt, Galactic Challenge and general game activities).

    So, there are a number of players that want to play those events, but their RL time commitments may not allow them. My point is, I -- like others -- want to play those events ... but we're running into a point where the choice comes down to real-life vs a mobile game ... not like a lot of the changes where we don't want to play an event because we don't like it.

    Long-term, while beneficial, there is the potential of all this engagement to cause burn-out among the player base (I suspect we'll lose 4-5 in the next 3-4 months just because of time commitment issues)

  • Ultra
    11449 posts Moderator
    Previously, we've had Squad Arena and Grand Arena,

    To me, it feels like Squad Arena is useless to participate in, so as far as time commitment goes, you have ~30+ minutes back in your day

    Seems like you have gained time, rather than losing it, unless you never played GAC before this change, then you are still saving more time imo since setting defenses doesn't take too long, plus you can auto set in rounds 2/3 or use third party tools to autoset your defense comps in every round

    So defense phases are giving you + ~20 mins of your day back, and on off-weeks you are saving more time

    So I really disagree with the time commitment being increased now
  • Ultra wrote: »
    Previously, we've had Squad Arena and Grand Arena,

    To me, it feels like Squad Arena is useless to participate in, so as far as time commitment goes, you have ~30+ minutes back in your day

    Seems like you have gained time, rather than losing it, unless you never played GAC before this change, then you are still saving more time imo since setting defenses doesn't take too long, plus you can auto set in rounds 2/3 or use third party tools to autoset your defense comps in every round

    So defense phases are giving you + ~20 mins of your day back, and on off-weeks you are saving more time

    So I really disagree with the time commitment being increased now

    This is exactly how i see it too. This whole thing is a time savings for me.
  • Ultra wrote: »
    Previously, we've had Squad Arena and Grand Arena,

    To me, it feels like Squad Arena is useless to participate in, so as far as time commitment goes, you have ~30+ minutes back in your day

    Seems like you have gained time, rather than losing it, unless you never played GAC before this change, then you are still saving more time imo since setting defenses doesn't take too long, plus you can auto set in rounds 2/3 or use third party tools to autoset your defense comps in every round

    So defense phases are giving you + ~20 mins of your day back, and on off-weeks you are saving more time

    So I really disagree with the time commitment being increased now

    Seconded, but for the sake of debate and the joy of nitpicking: I doubt people will entirely give up SA, because rewards, even if they’re faaaaaar smaller. So among players fully invested in the game, time commitment will be more or less the same. Probably a little less, because competition will be less fierce. However, the QoL improvement is huge, because if you want to spend less time in the game repeating the same boring battle (yes SA, i’m talking about you), you can do it without losing the best reward in the game.
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