@Harmonica1138
Yeah I agree with everything you said. I'm not trying to say there's a problem with the competency of the characters available to FTP players. It's rather quite the opposite, with the best squads consisting of the 2-3 good shipment character choices from each shipment and those characters which you can easily farm.
[ side note- I've actually gotten better characters from Bronz packs(mace, baris, old daka all 4*) than I have from the 40 dollars I spent on chromium packs(grand moff 4*,cad bane 3*, leia 2*, a few ewoks and many unusable shards distributed amongst unobtainable characters).]
The problem is that unless you are a heavy spender, there's no real benefit to buying the chromium packs.
When I first starting really getting into the game, I had so much fun thinking about all the different possible squad synergies and what characters I needed to unlock in order to build them. I believe that this experience is the main appeal of the game. Although still fun, the average player eventually realizes how greatly limited they are by the impossible shard acquisition of their favorite characters. For example, no matter how bad I want darth maul I'm not getting him to 7* without spending hundreds.
One of my ideas to fix this involves creating energy-expensive or crystal priced missions to have a chance at the shards of previously p2p-only characters. In style, these missions could be like additional hard-mode missions or they could be completely new like 5v1 boss fights(imagine fighting a rancor or something epic like that with your squad). The bottom line is, if there's a certain character I want, I'm much more likely to purchase crystals if I know that it will help me toward accomplishing my goal. Implementation like either of the above will open up all characters to everyone, while maintaining and arguably increasing crystal purchases.
From my standpoint Chromium packs need an overhaul and needs to be fixed. Check the Bugs forum and you can see it addressed in the Known Issues thread as well as a Chromium Pack thread that players are not getting full shards for characters when multiples drop sometimes. So Chromium buyers (F2P or P2P) are getting boned on them at this point.
Also, it seems the Chromium packs need to guarantee shards for characters you don't have, say at least 1 for a 4x and 2 for a 8x.
I am sure future updates will allow for the recycling of shards of unwanted characters at a heavy cost to shards for other characters. At least I hope so.
I have "invested" a good night or two out on crystals in this game so far. At times I feel it has been worth it and other times I have regretted my decision because of how terrible the packs can be.
Also, it seems the Chromium packs need to guarantee shards for characters you don't have, say at least 1 for a 4x and 2 for a 8x
....
I have "invested" a good night or two out on crystals in this game so far. At times I feel it has been worth it and other times I have regretted my decision because of how terrible the packs can be.
Amen.
Yeah, I had a real bad chromium 8 pack drop that I blabbed about in another forum, but won't repeat here. Let's just say the one character it activated was Courascant Underworld Police. Low grade characters should at least start out with 3*, not 1*.
They need to have a guarantee of a new character, and a more intuitive drop that can look at your inventory and provide some needed shards. How about some gear too?
I not buying any more crystals until there is more positive feedback.
What CG can is, is follow what some Japanese games are doing:
Each pack starts with a box of character pulls i.e. 20 4*, 50 3*, 100 2*, 500 1*.
You keep drawing from the box until all the characters are pulled. This means that you can get lucky and pull 11 4* right from the start (I am sure that is not possible even for Japanese games), or keep pulling until the box is empty to get all your 4*.
This way, the developers right from the start have an X amount they want to earn from characters, and focus on developing gameplay content, or more characters for the new box of pulls.
This is probably the most ethical way of doing gachas (as they are called in Japanese games). It is not an industry standard outside of Japan, but the most fair to all sides.
Based on my experience with other games, the moment premium characters gets accessible, the income from random packs die. At this stage of the game, I doubt the developers will want to do that. It also alienates their early paying players.
It could happen probably 6 months down the road, and they roster the old premium characters out, and rotate in new ones. I am sure paying players hate having 2000 extra shards of Leia.
From most players, income from the 'random' packs is going to die eventually regardless because of their terrible inefficiency at delivering long term viable squad members. In my opinion, they should implement the missions as I stated in my above post to make all characters available to all players. It is important to completely get rid of any competitive advantage being given to players who pay. (As a competive gamer, I've always hated the need for categorizing two different player groups when talking about skill).
The motivation to pay shouldn't come from getting an exclusive advantage against those who don't but rather it should be to save time when building the squad you want to build. If they want to add more motivation to pay money then they can add new character costumes and customizable lightsaber/weapon appearances. There's a whole range of things they can get money from that don't involve stepping on those not willing to chuck in more money. If the game is fun, people will pay.
Based on what I have seen from games of these type, dont hold your breath saying "[The feature] will die eventually..."
The point is that it makes money, and it is a revenue stream that they will gladly embrace. Marvel Future Fight uses the same sharding system. I suspect the progression of this game will be very similar, simply because of how much that is earning.
Games like this do quite well actually because despite the hundreds of thousands of people getting nothing from all sorts of packs, there are still others that get valuable stuff. So in short, its all associated with risk. You get nothing means you took the risk and got rekt. Sometimes you get somthing that would make you end game material immediately.
Granted, CG slaps you in the face by giving you shards right from the start, but my point is that you get shards as well. And its the same starring system. Only MFF is more grindy, but also more generous with shards.
Based on what I have seen from games of these type, dont hold your breath saying "[The feature] will die eventually..."
The point is that it makes money, and it is a revenue stream that they will gladly embrace. Marvel Future Fight uses the same sharding system. I suspect the progression of this game will be very similar, simply because of how much that is earning.
I don't doubt that it's making a ton of money. I've never spent a dime on a mobile game but I spent 40 bucks on this one. But I didn't spend that money because of their chromium pack model. I spent it because I enjoy the game and I thought that the pack would allow me to build my desired squad significantly faster.
Regardless, I'd argue that my proposed method would make even MORE money, AND keep more players happy.
Even though this is a mobile game, one should note that accessibility is the key difference that differentiated league of legends from every other moba out there. The game and ALL its characters were free and accessible to everyone.
Unfortunately for both the players and the company, all this might not look very important because the game is already making money and there really isn't much fun competition out there in mobile games. Oh well, I'm still happy that they have given what they have and I'm sure that the game will gradually improve as more and more people become aware of the amount of money it will take to actually make their desired teams through chromium packs. I just wish CG would address it sooner and focus on optimizing the play experience, of course with the knowledge greatest money flow will follow from that.
If you roll a 4* character you already have, you should receive all 80 shards... Not 32.
Let's start with that.
I like that idea; not gonna happen since other games give only a fraction of that, but I like it.
For everyone saying the game is overpriced, my suggestion is to play other games. I find the pricing to be fairly competitive industrial wide. Comparing this game to League of Legend is pointless; different platform and concept. Comparing this to mobile games of the same sort would be better.
A typical mobile game of the same sort typically cost about 200-300 USD before a top tier character/card drops. Now that, is price gouging.
I just hope the developers keep their current practice and release new characters in packs, and can be farmed. If not, have a rostering system so that I don't have live with my hundred of Qui Gon shards =x
@Velvethunder
All gameplay differences aside, If you agree that the reason for LoL's success completely hinged on the paying to save time rather than paying for a competitive advantage then it would be naïve to not consider the possibility that this could apply to other platforms and games as well.
Also, I'm sure there's a large group of gamers who agree with me when I say that most mobile games suck. So, with all due respect, comparing prices and styles to other "competitive mobile games" is pointless if they truly want to make something that can also encapsulate the people who are just waiting for something worth spending money on. Mobile games are missing a huge crowd of gamers and this game has a perfect opportunity to capitalize on that.
LoL sells cosmetic items. That's it. No time saver (well, I guess you can pay to open characters sooner but it's really reasonable... like $2-5 on bi-weekly sales tops). It's MOBA. Same with Heroes of the Storm.
I actually like their models the best for freemium. You actually don't need to buy a thing but you are incentivized to through ethical means. Basically, they say 'look! We just made a stupidly awesome looking skin. Want to buy it so we can make more?' To which the masses say, 'Yes, please!' and throw money at the screen.
That's a real choice not a psychological mindscrew like multiple currencies (energy, can energy, arena tokens, gw tokens, etc.) and gaming systems designed around pushing towards purchases using manipulation and time gates. Do we really need all that or can I just buy some good characters with a reasonable way to upgrade them?
Then again, a homeless guy I know started a GoFundMe page about 10 hours ago and has already made over $5k from it. Whales gotta migrate I guess. Good on 'em.
I have purchased five 8 packs. I unlocked 6 total characters. Maul and Leia my 2 top pulls here.
My 3 single chromium purchases (2 on a new account) Rey, Leia, Aayla.
Good times.
Just let me farm up my Maul and Leia at a slow rate. Would 100% fix the game for me.
@Kaylik considering how much I didnt enjoy LoL, and moba in general, I am glad this game isnt like that. I am not even playing this for pvp. I am playing this for the pokemon effect. Reason why I still log on and buy character packs for Marvel Future Fight, but couldnt be bothered with the pvp.
Hence, every game has its niche. Mobile games are not going to be like LoL, in the near future, and in this format. It would be naive to compare apples to oranges. That said, the developers shouldlet its playerbase have a good idea what it wants the game to be. If this game wants to be like LoL, at least I can quit early in the game and cut my losses
@Velvethunder
Maybe I'm not being clear. Literally the ONLY thing I'm referring to when I brought up LoL is the model by which the game makes money. That's it, period.
I'm agreeing the point that @ThePedroKid just made. The only reason I referred to it at all is because I wanted to provide a tangible example of the success of that money making model. It's possible to hate LoL and still be in favor of psychologically straight forward purchases.
Chromium exclusive toons will drive players away once they realize what is going on and the cost associated with maxing them. Shelling out loads of money should only give you a speed advantage in reaching the top of the power curve and vanity items. Anything more will **** players off, who would otherwise bring paying customers.
People who argue otherwise or think the Star Wars IP is too big to fail should check the track record of Star Wars games. One example is Star Wars Commander, another mobile game, that crashed and burned due to price gouging and poor development/communication. It should've been a sure fire hit. A Clash of Clans clone with a Star Wars skin? How can it fail..... Then we can look at SWtOR, a game I close beta tested from the second round of invites. The game was an utter disaster as a result of not listening to, initially us testers, and even later, the live player base.
If enough of the non-whale player base, meaning and including those who are total f2p up to those willing to spend x dollars on packs/crystals, feel as if they're not valued by the suits unless they're willing to throw entire pay checks at the game, they'll move on. Once the bulk of the player base is gone the whales will eventually get bored of only playing each other. The game will feel lifeless, cause it is. Inevitably they'll move on as well. Anyone who has played any sort of competitive game has seen this cycle.
Actually...if you look around, many top pvp teams are F2P constructions. So, I would agree it is pointless to open packs at the moment. They developers did not give pack characters advantage that F2P cannot beat (sometimes easily).
If you have to spend, spend on refreshes.
Too **** true.
I got the extra crystal bonus from Samsung and bought a few (I think I've spent like $15-20 ) crystal packs.... I ignorantly spent them on the 8 card chromium pack and got jack-****. A bunch of shards for characters I'll never get and no complete characters.
I'm now lv 50 with 11 on my team and of all the bronzium packs i've had, I've only received 3 characters from them and they were for ones I already had so that translated into only 7 shards each time.
Tell me how a complete character worth 15 shards (at 1-star) only nets 7 if you already have them and then 10 hours of game time and 40+ bronzium packs leads to rarer characters with a single shard?
those 1000 crystals I used for garbage easily would have farmed Lumi at least 3-4 levels early on and 2 levels later.
Love the game, and I am completely fine with some characters being chromium only, but I would love if there was like a free chromium pull every 48 hours or something. Other games have something like this and its always a nice surprise to see it available.
BTW I've spent like $60 on packs so not opposed to spending money on a game I enjoy and play everyday, but if lucky, free pulls would allow players the chance to grab shards of toons that could help boost them to the next star just slightly quicker.
I think the point was character shards. The OP wants a way to get more even if it's slow. Yes bronzium drops shards but 99% are lame and 1 shard every few days for me. At this rate I will have greedo or Snowtrooper unlocked in.....17 years, I can't wait!
If you don't fool with the free one, does it just stack on top of that?
I guess basically I'm asking if the free one (5 ) a day counts or is your savings from grinding missions? If you don't open daily do you miss out on the 5 free?
Replies
Best idea ever
Also, it seems the Chromium packs need to guarantee shards for characters you don't have, say at least 1 for a 4x and 2 for a 8x.
I am sure future updates will allow for the recycling of shards of unwanted characters at a heavy cost to shards for other characters. At least I hope so.
I have "invested" a good night or two out on crystals in this game so far. At times I feel it has been worth it and other times I have regretted my decision because of how terrible the packs can be.
Amen.
Yeah, I had a real bad chromium 8 pack drop that I blabbed about in another forum, but won't repeat here. Let's just say the one character it activated was Courascant Underworld Police. Low grade characters should at least start out with 3*, not 1*.
They need to have a guarantee of a new character, and a more intuitive drop that can look at your inventory and provide some needed shards. How about some gear too?
I not buying any more crystals until there is more positive feedback.
What CG can is, is follow what some Japanese games are doing:
Each pack starts with a box of character pulls i.e. 20 4*, 50 3*, 100 2*, 500 1*.
You keep drawing from the box until all the characters are pulled. This means that you can get lucky and pull 11 4* right from the start (I am sure that is not possible even for Japanese games), or keep pulling until the box is empty to get all your 4*.
This way, the developers right from the start have an X amount they want to earn from characters, and focus on developing gameplay content, or more characters for the new box of pulls.
This is probably the most ethical way of doing gachas (as they are called in Japanese games). It is not an industry standard outside of Japan, but the most fair to all sides.
Possibly boost the 12 shards to a higher amount based on if you own the character and the current star level on it.
Or allow us the opportunity to farm for any character we open.
Or a shard exchange that's at least 2:1.
Something has to change honestly...
I love this game but I wish I could strategize with all the characters in my box, not just the ones at high stars.
If shards from packs were only responsible for unlocking characters and not advancing them as well I'd have much less of an issue with them.
From most players, income from the 'random' packs is going to die eventually regardless because of their terrible inefficiency at delivering long term viable squad members. In my opinion, they should implement the missions as I stated in my above post to make all characters available to all players. It is important to completely get rid of any competitive advantage being given to players who pay. (As a competive gamer, I've always hated the need for categorizing two different player groups when talking about skill).
The motivation to pay shouldn't come from getting an exclusive advantage against those who don't but rather it should be to save time when building the squad you want to build. If they want to add more motivation to pay money then they can add new character costumes and customizable lightsaber/weapon appearances. There's a whole range of things they can get money from that don't involve stepping on those not willing to chuck in more money. If the game is fun, people will pay.
The point is that it makes money, and it is a revenue stream that they will gladly embrace. Marvel Future Fight uses the same sharding system. I suspect the progression of this game will be very similar, simply because of how much that is earning.
My tons of early Bullseye shards is proof ;o
Afaik you only get shards if you already own the character at the same star you open it at.
It's not the same as possibly opening 1/8 of a character and only unlocking 1 whole character in an 8 pack.
Granted, CG slaps you in the face by giving you shards right from the start, but my point is that you get shards as well. And its the same starring system. Only MFF is more grindy, but also more generous with shards.
I don't doubt that it's making a ton of money. I've never spent a dime on a mobile game but I spent 40 bucks on this one. But I didn't spend that money because of their chromium pack model. I spent it because I enjoy the game and I thought that the pack would allow me to build my desired squad significantly faster.
Regardless, I'd argue that my proposed method would make even MORE money, AND keep more players happy.
Even though this is a mobile game, one should note that accessibility is the key difference that differentiated league of legends from every other moba out there. The game and ALL its characters were free and accessible to everyone.
Unfortunately for both the players and the company, all this might not look very important because the game is already making money and there really isn't much fun competition out there in mobile games. Oh well, I'm still happy that they have given what they have and I'm sure that the game will gradually improve as more and more people become aware of the amount of money it will take to actually make their desired teams through chromium packs. I just wish CG would address it sooner and focus on optimizing the play experience, of course with the knowledge greatest money flow will follow from that.
Let's start with that.
I like that idea; not gonna happen since other games give only a fraction of that, but I like it.
For everyone saying the game is overpriced, my suggestion is to play other games. I find the pricing to be fairly competitive industrial wide. Comparing this game to League of Legend is pointless; different platform and concept. Comparing this to mobile games of the same sort would be better.
A typical mobile game of the same sort typically cost about 200-300 USD before a top tier character/card drops. Now that, is price gouging.
I just hope the developers keep their current practice and release new characters in packs, and can be farmed. If not, have a rostering system so that I don't have live with my hundred of Qui Gon shards =x
All gameplay differences aside, If you agree that the reason for LoL's success completely hinged on the paying to save time rather than paying for a competitive advantage then it would be naïve to not consider the possibility that this could apply to other platforms and games as well.
Also, I'm sure there's a large group of gamers who agree with me when I say that most mobile games suck. So, with all due respect, comparing prices and styles to other "competitive mobile games" is pointless if they truly want to make something that can also encapsulate the people who are just waiting for something worth spending money on. Mobile games are missing a huge crowd of gamers and this game has a perfect opportunity to capitalize on that.
I actually like their models the best for freemium. You actually don't need to buy a thing but you are incentivized to through ethical means. Basically, they say 'look! We just made a stupidly awesome looking skin. Want to buy it so we can make more?' To which the masses say, 'Yes, please!' and throw money at the screen.
That's a real choice not a psychological mindscrew like multiple currencies (energy, can energy, arena tokens, gw tokens, etc.) and gaming systems designed around pushing towards purchases using manipulation and time gates. Do we really need all that or can I just buy some good characters with a reasonable way to upgrade them?
Then again, a homeless guy I know started a GoFundMe page about 10 hours ago and has already made over $5k from it. Whales gotta migrate I guess. Good on 'em.
My 3 single chromium purchases (2 on a new account) Rey, Leia, Aayla.
Good times.
Just let me farm up my Maul and Leia at a slow rate. Would 100% fix the game for me.
Hence, every game has its niche. Mobile games are not going to be like LoL, in the near future, and in this format. It would be naive to compare apples to oranges. That said, the developers shouldlet its playerbase have a good idea what it wants the game to be. If this game wants to be like LoL, at least I can quit early in the game and cut my losses
Maybe I'm not being clear. Literally the ONLY thing I'm referring to when I brought up LoL is the model by which the game makes money. That's it, period.
I'm agreeing the point that @ThePedroKid just made. The only reason I referred to it at all is because I wanted to provide a tangible example of the success of that money making model. It's possible to hate LoL and still be in favor of psychologically straight forward purchases.
People who argue otherwise or think the Star Wars IP is too big to fail should check the track record of Star Wars games. One example is Star Wars Commander, another mobile game, that crashed and burned due to price gouging and poor development/communication. It should've been a sure fire hit. A Clash of Clans clone with a Star Wars skin? How can it fail..... Then we can look at SWtOR, a game I close beta tested from the second round of invites. The game was an utter disaster as a result of not listening to, initially us testers, and even later, the live player base.
If enough of the non-whale player base, meaning and including those who are total f2p up to those willing to spend x dollars on packs/crystals, feel as if they're not valued by the suits unless they're willing to throw entire pay checks at the game, they'll move on. Once the bulk of the player base is gone the whales will eventually get bored of only playing each other. The game will feel lifeless, cause it is. Inevitably they'll move on as well. Anyone who has played any sort of competitive game has seen this cycle.
Too **** true.
I got the extra crystal bonus from Samsung and bought a few (I think I've spent like $15-20 ) crystal packs.... I ignorantly spent them on the 8 card chromium pack and got jack-****. A bunch of shards for characters I'll never get and no complete characters.
I'm now lv 50 with 11 on my team and of all the bronzium packs i've had, I've only received 3 characters from them and they were for ones I already had so that translated into only 7 shards each time.
Tell me how a complete character worth 15 shards (at 1-star) only nets 7 if you already have them and then 10 hours of game time and 40+ bronzium packs leads to rarer characters with a single shard?
those 1000 crystals I used for garbage easily would have farmed Lumi at least 3-4 levels early on and 2 levels later.
BTW I've spent like $60 on packs so not opposed to spending money on a game I enjoy and play everyday, but if lucky, free pulls would allow players the chance to grab shards of toons that could help boost them to the next star just slightly quicker.
Idk I'm probably just being greedy.
If you don't fool with the free one, does it just stack on top of that?
I guess basically I'm asking if the free one (5 ) a day counts or is your savings from grinding missions? If you don't open daily do you miss out on the 5 free?