While math is solid, not all players are math-conscious. What counts for F2P games is psychology and here math works AGAINST this game. While it is no doubt the intent of the CG to induce players to pay money to bypass the 'cruelty' of math and tediousness of farming, I think this game will eventually lose most of its playerbase due to low chances of gaining materials to get ahead. There are plenty of other games which offer cheaper and easier gratification.
Thanks to all for the constructive posts. @GenghisDon - True, we don't know the odds. But they are relatively easy to figure out here. The last game I played featured a lottery-only method of getting the best stuff where the odds were so poor you literally could try hundreds of times to get 1 drop. There, it was truly impossible to figure out anything (part of why I left). @Baggodix - No, I am too crazy to be a shrink. @Mythov - The problem there is that then people get bored. Even though many of us claim we hate the RNG, there's a small part of the brain that gets a "reward rush" when we get a drop, so that in many cases when things become guaranteed, they get dull. This is why so many people keep buying chromium packs after getting junk in them and knowing that even if they pull a good character, they can't level it up.
As soon as they start manipulating the odds based on how many good or bad pulls you got -- even if in our favor -- all the conspiracy theorists will pick up their torches and pitchforks and go to town.
Has CG said the odds are constant or just that they have not manipulated them? Could it be that your odds fluctuate based on some algorithm?
I ask because I had an 0 for 12 today trying to pull shards from hard levels. The odds of that happening are about 1:130 if the pull rate is 1/3 . So pretty unlikely, but certainly not impossible. But this is the 2nd time this has happened to me in the past week. The odds of that happening are about 1/2800 I think (I wasn't too careful about this part of the calc, though it seems reasonable). Am I just unlucky or could your odds fluctuate? What exactly has CG/EA said on the matter of odds?
Falling for the gambler's fallacy, I thought I would try 3 more for today. Another 0fer, bringing my daily pull to 0/15 and the odds of that to 1:438. Not bothering to calculate the weekly odds, but I am thinking that the odds are not constant
First, congrats on having the patience to write a long, well thought out post where 95% of people already understand it, won't believe it no matter what or won't read it. I'm sure there's a few that gained some important insight that they'll be able to use for generations of games to come.
All the drop rate stuff reminds me of Diablo II. People would swear up and down that killing Andarial with an Amazon during a full moon with a browser in the background showing the Blizzard webpage would give you a better chance of getting a SoJ.
Has CG said the odds are constant or just that they have not manipulated them? Could it be that your odds fluctuate based on some algorithm?
I ask because I had an 0 for 12 today trying to pull shards from hard levels. The odds of that happening are about 1:130 if the pull rate is 1/3 . So pretty unlikely, but certainly not impossible. But this is the 2nd time this has happened to me in the past week. The odds of that happening are about 1/2800 I think (I wasn't too careful about this part of the calc, though it seems reasonable). Am I just unlucky or could your odds fluctuate? What exactly has CG/EA said on the matter of odds?
CG has said that odds are constant. Could streaks are a MUST in a random serie. If you never experience streaks of 0-15 from time to time, THEN you can be sure that chabces are rigged and drops aren't random
CG has said that odds are constant. Could streaks are a MUST in a random serie. If you never experience streaks of 0-15 from time to time, THEN you can be sure that chabces are rigged and drops aren't random
So they have said they are "constant" rather than "unchanged?" 0/15 days are inevitable, but on average they should occur about once in 438 days, or over a year. I have playing for less than 4 weeks, so could be just that I am unlucky.
So they have said they are "constant" rather than "unchanged?" 0/15 days are inevitable, but on average they should occur about once in 438 days, or over a year. I have playing for less than 4 weeks, so could be just that I am unlucky.
Remember that odds like that are only accurate across a large population. With thousands of people playing, it is nearly guaranteed that many of them will have 0/15 days, and those are also the people most likely to come to the forums and post about them, which makes them seem more common than they are.
I've been farming Geo Soldier the last few days and have had not great luck either. Each day has been below average. I had a 0/10 or so streak today also and at one point was something like 3/25. It happens.
First, I can't believe this was given a sticky. Not sure what point the devs are trying to make here.
Second, let's say the drop rate is 1 out of 3, and that, over 1 billion sims, you get the drop 33% of the time. That's great. Sometimes you'll get 3 in a row, other times you'll get 0 out of 12, but over the long haul, you get 1/3. Great.
If the devs know that this causes people to be upset (and, judging by the various message board posts, it does), because we only remember the 0/12 and not the 5/6 times, then why not make it so that the drop happens always 1 out of 3 times? So, if you get a drop on a sim, then you know it won't happen on the next 2 sims.
This is pretty much how it worked in the games CG is blatantly copying GOH from, Heroes Charge/Soul Clash. In those games, everyone knew that, out of 3 sims, they were guaranteed to get at least 1 drop. And no one complained about the drop rates because we all knew what to expect. In both the GOH way and the HC way of handling drops, people ended up with the same number of drops after 100 pulls, but the HC player never experienced any frustration over it. Random anything is such a bad idea in games in about 95% of instances. I honestly can't understand why CG would make this decision when it comes to drop rates, other than hoping players get frustrated and spend money on gems to refresh.
^this. most mission either you got none or you got one
1-d LS is good example of how reward/droprate supposed to be, you get 2 or 3 heatsink mk1(or nothing) it is much better. . . .i think
not to mention calculator mkIV use 20 to make a single item and stage 6 LS has lot MK I item on it(for what?, lower mission has it even such low cost energy and better droprate)
and last, i want to ask that whats the point of multiple mission to had same character instead go with one mission/one toon with 9 or 6 try limit, i wish that all character are possible farming and added that already present in the game, like ewok warrior and such
Introduction
We’ve all experienced it: you sim 6 nodes to get a shard and none drop. Or you buy a 120 energy refill and try 15 times to get a purple bit and get none of them. And it always seems to happen at the worst time, such as when you only need one more item. It’s infuriating, and it makes it seem like the game is bugged, or even nefariously programmed against your interests.
The CG developers have denied any sort of manipulation of the odds. And when I look at numbers over a long time I believe them. So what’s really going on here? A combination of phenomena: random numbers are weird; probability is hard to understand; and people’s perceptions are colored by biases they often don’t realize they even have.
I hope the following helps some of you understand what’s going on here. Please don’t view this as me lecturing from on high, incidentally, because I’ve fallen prey to all of these things myself.
Random Numbers are Weird
People do not understand random numbers. In fact, people are so bad at understanding them that humans cannot generate truly random numbers. (Try it yourself: attempt to come up with a list of 10 random numbers between 1 and 10. You will find that after the first couple, you will be thinking about what number should come next. You will be influenced by what the previous numbers were. The results will not be random. In particular, humans will tend to “distribute” the numbers to something that seems random, fearing that duplicates are not “random enough”. As an example, I just used a computer to randomly generated these numbers: 1, 1, 2, 4, 3, 3, 4, 5, 8, 4, 3, 1. No human would generate a sequence like this because there are so many duplicated numbers, and all but 1 is 5 or below, so it seems “unrandom”.)
A major confusion comes in the form of believing that if a random chance has a particular value that this means you should always, or usually, get the stated percentage. So if there’s 1/3 chance of a shard dropping from a hard mission, simming it 3 times should always or usually give 1 shard.
The truth is that random numbers are unpredictable and do not tend to follow consistent patterns (see the example 10 numbers above). Long stretches of uneven results are not only normal, they are expected. In the case of a 1/3 chance of a shard and 3 hard missions, the chances of getting exactly 1 shard are actually less than 50%. More than 50% of the time, you will get some other value (0, 2 or 3).
Streaks are also entirely normal with random numbers. This is what makes people think that there are bugs, or the game is cheating against them. Here’s an example. Yesterday I decided to keep track of enemies in GW/Arena when Old Daka was on the team to see how often enemies self-revived. The nominal odds of this are 10%. At one point, I experienced a streak where there were 7 self-revives out of 25 kills in only 5 games. That’s 28%, almost triple the expected number! But then later on, I had another streak where there were only 2 self-revives out of 43 kills, which is less than half the expected value. These streaks are entirely normal.
Wow that's a really interesting way of looking at it.
Loved the casino analogy. Playing this game sometimes feels like I'm gambling
So I guess this is your long way of saying not to be so negative about what you get?
and that if you're not as emotionally attached then you will see the rewards for what they really are?
I'm not good at maths but would it still be better having the shard rates independent of each other rather than the 1/3 chance?
I mean even if you only get like a 30% chance of getting a shard each time, that gives me more peace of mind than all these randomly occurring number. At least you'll eventually get something with the 1/3 chance.
Everything you say above is true, however since I have stopped farming gear and shards via the character find screen, i.e. going into the item I needed via the character gear screen, and then using sims my drop rates have increased drastically.
Now what I do is go via the character screen, find out where the item is i.e. light side 5A hard, and then manually go to light side battles and select. I'm fairly sure EA have lower odds if you go via the character screen and lower drop rates.
The last item you need, drop rate is lowered 100%. Why? Because they want to use the force and force people to buy more crystals **** obviously. Just like the **** AI system
Also people **** act as if EA doesn't have the power to help players with better drop-rates and that we should accept their 'customized... aka rigged' system, sad
SOLUTION? Guarantee item drop after less than 5 tries for the items you didn't get but that won't happen for a while or never
SOLUTION? Guarantee item drop after 5 tries for the items you didn't get but that will never happen because that will affect EA's money flow on this game
It amazes me how people are so okay with accepting and supporting rigged no, 'random FIXED' low drop rates just like everything else is 'okay' shows how weak-minded you are. It's these EA admins trying to settle down the complaints of their trash/rigged drop system, just like how they're trying to justify AI's never attacking Obi-Wan no matter what kind of fight you're in until he's the only one left, I would rather have Obi-Wan lose his 'If You Strike Me Down' in exchange JUST SO the AI will acknowledge Obi-Wan even **** exists to spread damage within 5 characters, most useless skill EVER since AI and EA logic is nearly programmed to never let Obi-Wan die, like.. why add a skill that won't ever be used in their 'fixed chance of 1 in realistically maybe 20'? Kappa ?
oh let me guess, probability and random chanceS?
Wrong because out of 100 games with Obi-Wan in your team, there will be 1 fight when AI will aim for Obi-Wan to die before another toon.. but that's only if they're the last two ones left alive 4Head
SOLUTION? Allow AI enemies to acknowledge Obi Wan exists so they don't interpret it as a 5v4 fight especially in Arena and also GW or simply NERF the skill itself by adding GENEROUS probability % to EACH INDIVIDUAL buff or just toss the skill and rework it into something else. Plez guarantee item drop after 5 tries OR **** SHOULD BE LESS for the items you didn't get but that will never happen because they 'THINK' that will affect EA's money flow on this game but to me it seems like an awesome short-term solution!
Oh also congratulations on your 'analytical assessment', and people like to gamble? Okay well I can only imagine that as a gambler that has $1000 for gambling funds, being able to take my time doing smaller $20 hands throughout a few hours WITH occasional $50+ hands is actually more fulfilling and the wiser choice as opposed to the even lower odds of winning by betting 10, $100 hands on black jack less than an hour, how fun is that for the vast majority of gamblers
Because that's exactly how it is because in other words, gambling 12 energy for average 9 attempts is fun? Whoa must be super high rollers who get lucky all day!
It's actually scary to see people say how much FUUUUUN they have gambling for 9 more or less attempts for shards, so fun... OMG SO FUN! I'm just SOO surprised we don't see World Series of Poker players all over this game! Also you can't really relate it to gambling because in real gambling, you can have the balls to go all-in, double down or whatever but.. not in this game. That would actually be cool, 30 energy for up to 3 blue/purple items in that level! whoa! Kappa
Also why are people complaining and making THE WORST EXCUSE 'oh people will get all the characters' if they increase drops, as if that's a bad thing? LOL yeah okay I bet those are the same EXACT people who are complaining about Poe FOTP Dooku Sideous and still wonder why the META is LIMITED to a pool of what, 20 toons MAX, if even that.. 15
Oh and then after that you need even more shards than what it cost to make the character but that's still not nearly as important as getting gear level 8, sure all the super dedicated few who started since the beginning have excess amounts of whatever, even more with P2W players who have been sitting at 60 for a long time but those people are the minority.
Cool it's a new game, yeah they also FLOODED THE **** out of it with 80% of characters that are 'useless' that nobody want to use or can even use to experiment different team comps.. again very limited meta for past few months and people have been complaining especially veterans.
It means more work for the Devs which EA doesn't want to spend extra money on because they'd have to balance out the insane amount of characters they dished out while coming out with NEW, upcoming content since the game still lacks serious depth.. you would think with the insane amount of money they make every day that they would seriously invest more in to this game for end-game but again it's EA so don't hope for too much any time soon.
Here EA take another 100 barrels for all the tears including mine
So sad how low the drop-rates are to the point where it's too scary for people to invest in a random toon to see if they're good with a certain team comp because with every single investment in a toon comes all the credits to level, equipment lvl 8 to grind and shards.. just if you're curious about how different toons synergize and have to rely and refer on some **** Word Excel spreadsheet on end-game stats instead of a ton of possible youtube videos showing off a few characters you were thinking of investing in.
With ANY mobile game with similar turn-based fighting style that adds PROBABILITY % with evades and turn meters and even with end-game stats, you can never GUESS or even know the potential of hundreds of different team comps.
It's amusing because all of the players are 'trapped' with these characters of less than 15 toons because the majority have already invested in certain characters and to bail out on them would be a total waste of credits, droids, shards, energy, days, weeks months and EXPENSIVE to start-over with a few character replacements
Allowing higher drop-rates to shards would help because the ARENA META will change and help dethrone all the "VERY SIMILAR OP team comps that all fight within themselves in their own very limited clique of what 20-people out of the hundreds in their ARENA SERVER" and they wonder why end-game ARENA is lacking content all over the forums? LOLL maybe because you're always using the same 5-15 characters whatever, going against the same 5-15 characters out of the many that nobody will EVER touch so there's no diversity in ARENA while we wait for new content, because this drop rate overall makes things TOO RISKY TO INVEST IN.
Congratulations to the very few who have all gear/stars MAXED within 5-10 characters through F2P/P2W but that's still boring since you see same the characters over and over, ally or foe while very slowly grinding a few other characters for all MAX GEAR/LVL/SHARDS 4Head that can potentially work around your very limited composition, amazing
I've played this game for the few months it's been out and have already invested some money and probably will continue to support this game because it has A LOT OF POTENTIAL but the core values in obtaining character and gear are abysmal to be able to explore MORE characters until EA figures out a way to balance all 72 and more incoming this month or next? 'toons'
I'm looking for a solution not read some crap about oh just suck it up because things are perfect with the 50+ characters that are untouched META and some details on EA's reason why RNG should remain '''fixed for low chance, but still random! drop rates''' until maybe one day they hire extra devs to work on balancing issues aside from strictly working on the new content but then again how can there be a balance of characters when nobody's using them meaning they probably have to resort on some character overhauls.
BEST WAY TO QUELL THE COMPLAINTS OF P2W or players who invested a lot of time or some money in their very limited amount of characters is simply ignoring them like you have done so well, so far and allowing increase drop rates for shards and equipment for players to EXPLORE so people don't feel CHEATED in their investment within their very limited amount of characters and compensate with better graphics for fights Kappa
It also amazes me how the the rank 1's even bother to complain when they're usually getting all the crystals as if they deserve it for their 'AMAZING skill in making sure they're rank 1 within the next fight by 6pm since they have the right amount of characters that are maxed to switch and replace their 'STRATEGIC COMPOSITION' against the SAME 'STRATEGIC ENEMY'
This is the sorriest excuse of them not wanting to boost random drops whatsoever because again they THINK it'll impact their money in such a negative way lmao
After some bad and very bad Cantina days (and 1 very very bad) the last 2 days I was farming Kylo the RNG caught up and it started raining shards. The last 2 days I went something like 50% and 70% drop rates and ended up with 204 shards / 591 tries. The last two days upped the average drop rate form 30% to 34%...I was very happy.
Light/Dark have been all over the place day to day but generally average out to ~33%.
The OP is right in some ways, if the RNG hits at bad times it really bothers you, that happened to me (what seems like) quite a few times but then sometimes it rains.
I think part of the issue is not knowing what the drop rates should be, I had assumed that Cantina shards dropped 40% of the time because that is what I was getting for Chewie and Taila (yea I know i messed up early) but once I moved to Kylo I was getting 30%. When you assume 40% and get 30% you except several good days to catch up, so when you get 3 days in a row of 5/36 when you are 17 away from a star up it burns into your memory.
@Randall - It happens to me too, and it upsets me too, and it makes me start wondering if the drop rates really have changed... even though I wrote that long thing!
Large sample sizes really are important.
This morning, working on Geo Soldier... nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.... 2 of my first 19 were shards, something like 1/3 of what it should have been.
Got frustrated, but kept going. Got a few more drops. A few more. When all was said and done, 16 out of 44, which is actually above average. Which means I went on a 14/25 run.
Patience, hard data and sample sizes matter a lot.
I needed two purple laptops. Spent 700 energy. Got 1.
Even if the RNG is at 10%....the probability of this happening are astronomically small
Assuming you were doing 8 energy battles opposed to hard mode (16 energy), the prob is about 1:1000 or so at 10% drop rate. Purple gear drop rates are too low. I have only been playing this game one month. For those who have been here since launch, i admire ( but can't understand) your patience. The game, after a while, is essentially pressing the sim button dozens of times.
Replies
@GenghisDon - True, we don't know the odds. But they are relatively easy to figure out here. The last game I played featured a lottery-only method of getting the best stuff where the odds were so poor you literally could try hundreds of times to get 1 drop. There, it was truly impossible to figure out anything (part of why I left).
@Baggodix - No, I am too crazy to be a shrink.
@Mythov - The problem there is that then people get bored. Even though many of us claim we hate the RNG, there's a small part of the brain that gets a "reward rush" when we get a drop, so that in many cases when things become guaranteed, they get dull. This is why so many people keep buying chromium packs after getting junk in them and knowing that even if they pull a good character, they can't level it up.
As soon as they start manipulating the odds based on how many good or bad pulls you got -- even if in our favor -- all the conspiracy theorists will pick up their torches and pitchforks and go to town.
I ask because I had an 0 for 12 today trying to pull shards from hard levels. The odds of that happening are about 1:130 if the pull rate is 1/3 . So pretty unlikely, but certainly not impossible. But this is the 2nd time this has happened to me in the past week. The odds of that happening are about 1/2800 I think (I wasn't too careful about this part of the calc, though it seems reasonable). Am I just unlucky or could your odds fluctuate? What exactly has CG/EA said on the matter of odds?
All the drop rate stuff reminds me of Diablo II. People would swear up and down that killing Andarial with an Amazon during a full moon with a browser in the background showing the Blizzard webpage would give you a better chance of getting a SoJ.
CG has said that odds are constant. Could streaks are a MUST in a random serie. If you never experience streaks of 0-15 from time to time, THEN you can be sure that chabces are rigged and drops aren't random
So they have said they are "constant" rather than "unchanged?" 0/15 days are inevitable, but on average they should occur about once in 438 days, or over a year. I have playing for less than 4 weeks, so could be just that I am unlucky.
I've been farming Geo Soldier the last few days and have had not great luck either. Each day has been below average. I had a 0/10 or so streak today also and at one point was something like 3/25. It happens.
Second, let's say the drop rate is 1 out of 3, and that, over 1 billion sims, you get the drop 33% of the time. That's great. Sometimes you'll get 3 in a row, other times you'll get 0 out of 12, but over the long haul, you get 1/3. Great.
If the devs know that this causes people to be upset (and, judging by the various message board posts, it does), because we only remember the 0/12 and not the 5/6 times, then why not make it so that the drop happens always 1 out of 3 times? So, if you get a drop on a sim, then you know it won't happen on the next 2 sims.
This is pretty much how it worked in the games CG is blatantly copying GOH from, Heroes Charge/Soul Clash. In those games, everyone knew that, out of 3 sims, they were guaranteed to get at least 1 drop. And no one complained about the drop rates because we all knew what to expect. In both the GOH way and the HC way of handling drops, people ended up with the same number of drops after 100 pulls, but the HC player never experienced any frustration over it. Random anything is such a bad idea in games in about 95% of instances. I honestly can't understand why CG would make this decision when it comes to drop rates, other than hoping players get frustrated and spend money on gems to refresh.
1-d LS is good example of how reward/droprate supposed to be, you get 2 or 3 heatsink mk1(or nothing) it is much better. . . .i think
not to mention calculator mkIV use 20 to make a single item and stage 6 LS has lot MK I item on it(for what?, lower mission has it even such low cost energy and better droprate)
and last, i want to ask that whats the point of multiple mission to had same character instead go with one mission/one toon with 9 or 6 try limit, i wish that all character are possible farming and added that already present in the game, like ewok warrior and such
fanboys bible
Well done
Loved the casino analogy. Playing this game sometimes feels like I'm gambling
So I guess this is your long way of saying not to be so negative about what you get?
and that if you're not as emotionally attached then you will see the rewards for what they really are?
I'm not good at maths but would it still be better having the shard rates independent of each other rather than the 1/3 chance?
I mean even if you only get like a 30% chance of getting a shard each time, that gives me more peace of mind than all these randomly occurring number. At least you'll eventually get something with the 1/3 chance.
Now what I do is go via the character screen, find out where the item is i.e. light side 5A hard, and then manually go to light side battles and select. I'm fairly sure EA have lower odds if you go via the character screen and lower drop rates.
Also people **** act as if EA doesn't have the power to help players with better drop-rates and that we should accept their 'customized... aka rigged' system, sad
SOLUTION? Guarantee item drop after less than 5 tries for the items you didn't get but that won't happen for a while or never
It amazes me how people are so okay with accepting and supporting rigged no, 'random FIXED' low drop rates just like everything else is 'okay' shows how weak-minded you are. It's these EA admins trying to settle down the complaints of their trash/rigged drop system, just like how they're trying to justify AI's never attacking Obi-Wan no matter what kind of fight you're in until he's the only one left, I would rather have Obi-Wan lose his 'If You Strike Me Down' in exchange JUST SO the AI will acknowledge Obi-Wan even **** exists to spread damage within 5 characters, most useless skill EVER since AI and EA logic is nearly programmed to never let Obi-Wan die, like.. why add a skill that won't ever be used in their 'fixed chance of 1 in realistically maybe 20'? Kappa ?
oh let me guess, probability and random chanceS?
Wrong because out of 100 games with Obi-Wan in your team, there will be 1 fight when AI will aim for Obi-Wan to die before another toon.. but that's only if they're the last two ones left alive 4Head
SOLUTION? Allow AI enemies to acknowledge Obi Wan exists so they don't interpret it as a 5v4 fight especially in Arena and also GW or simply NERF the skill itself by adding GENEROUS probability % to EACH INDIVIDUAL buff or just toss the skill and rework it into something else. Plez guarantee item drop after 5 tries OR **** SHOULD BE LESS for the items you didn't get but that will never happen because they 'THINK' that will affect EA's money flow on this game but to me it seems like an awesome short-term solution!
Because that's exactly how it is because in other words, gambling 12 energy for average 9 attempts is fun? Whoa must be super high rollers who get lucky all day!
It's actually scary to see people say how much FUUUUUN they have gambling for 9 more or less attempts for shards, so fun... OMG SO FUN! I'm just SOO surprised we don't see World Series of Poker players all over this game! Also you can't really relate it to gambling because in real gambling, you can have the balls to go all-in, double down or whatever but.. not in this game. That would actually be cool, 30 energy for up to 3 blue/purple items in that level! whoa! Kappa
Also why are people complaining and making THE WORST EXCUSE 'oh people will get all the characters' if they increase drops, as if that's a bad thing? LOL yeah okay I bet those are the same EXACT people who are complaining about Poe FOTP Dooku Sideous and still wonder why the META is LIMITED to a pool of what, 20 toons MAX, if even that.. 15
Oh and then after that you need even more shards than what it cost to make the character but that's still not nearly as important as getting gear level 8, sure all the super dedicated few who started since the beginning have excess amounts of whatever, even more with P2W players who have been sitting at 60 for a long time but those people are the minority.
Cool it's a new game, yeah they also FLOODED THE **** out of it with 80% of characters that are 'useless' that nobody want to use or can even use to experiment different team comps.. again very limited meta for past few months and people have been complaining especially veterans.
It means more work for the Devs which EA doesn't want to spend extra money on because they'd have to balance out the insane amount of characters they dished out while coming out with NEW, upcoming content since the game still lacks serious depth.. you would think with the insane amount of money they make every day that they would seriously invest more in to this game for end-game but again it's EA so don't hope for too much any time soon.
So sad how low the drop-rates are to the point where it's too scary for people to invest in a random toon to see if they're good with a certain team comp because with every single investment in a toon comes all the credits to level, equipment lvl 8 to grind and shards.. just if you're curious about how different toons synergize and have to rely and refer on some **** Word Excel spreadsheet on end-game stats instead of a ton of possible youtube videos showing off a few characters you were thinking of investing in.
With ANY mobile game with similar turn-based fighting style that adds PROBABILITY % with evades and turn meters and even with end-game stats, you can never GUESS or even know the potential of hundreds of different team comps.
It's amusing because all of the players are 'trapped' with these characters of less than 15 toons because the majority have already invested in certain characters and to bail out on them would be a total waste of credits, droids, shards, energy, days, weeks months and EXPENSIVE to start-over with a few character replacements
Allowing higher drop-rates to shards would help because the ARENA META will change and help dethrone all the "VERY SIMILAR OP team comps that all fight within themselves in their own very limited clique of what 20-people out of the hundreds in their ARENA SERVER" and they wonder why end-game ARENA is lacking content all over the forums? LOLL maybe because you're always using the same 5-15 characters whatever, going against the same 5-15 characters out of the many that nobody will EVER touch so there's no diversity in ARENA while we wait for new content, because this drop rate overall makes things TOO RISKY TO INVEST IN.
Congratulations to the very few who have all gear/stars MAXED within 5-10 characters through F2P/P2W but that's still boring since you see same the characters over and over, ally or foe while very slowly grinding a few other characters for all MAX GEAR/LVL/SHARDS 4Head that can potentially work around your very limited composition, amazing
I've played this game for the few months it's been out and have already invested some money and probably will continue to support this game because it has A LOT OF POTENTIAL but the core values in obtaining character and gear are abysmal to be able to explore MORE characters until EA figures out a way to balance all 72 and more incoming this month or next? 'toons'
I'm looking for a solution not read some crap about oh just suck it up because things are perfect with the 50+ characters that are untouched META and some details on EA's reason why RNG should remain '''fixed for low chance, but still random! drop rates''' until maybe one day they hire extra devs to work on balancing issues aside from strictly working on the new content but then again how can there be a balance of characters when nobody's using them meaning they probably have to resort on some character overhauls.
BEST WAY TO QUELL THE COMPLAINTS OF P2W or players who invested a lot of time or some money in their very limited amount of characters is simply ignoring them like you have done so well, so far and allowing increase drop rates for shards and equipment for players to EXPLORE so people don't feel CHEATED in their investment within their very limited amount of characters and compensate with better graphics for fights Kappa
It also amazes me how the the rank 1's even bother to complain when they're usually getting all the crystals as if they deserve it for their 'AMAZING skill in making sure they're rank 1 within the next fight by 6pm since they have the right amount of characters that are maxed to switch and replace their 'STRATEGIC COMPOSITION' against the SAME 'STRATEGIC ENEMY'
Light/Dark have been all over the place day to day but generally average out to ~33%.
The OP is right in some ways, if the RNG hits at bad times it really bothers you, that happened to me (what seems like) quite a few times but then sometimes it rains.
I think part of the issue is not knowing what the drop rates should be, I had assumed that Cantina shards dropped 40% of the time because that is what I was getting for Chewie and Taila (yea I know i messed up early) but once I moved to Kylo I was getting 30%. When you assume 40% and get 30% you except several good days to catch up, so when you get 3 days in a row of 5/36 when you are 17 away from a star up it burns into your memory.
Large sample sizes really are important.
This morning, working on Geo Soldier... nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.... 2 of my first 19 were shards, something like 1/3 of what it should have been.
Got frustrated, but kept going. Got a few more drops. A few more. When all was said and done, 16 out of 44, which is actually above average. Which means I went on a 14/25 run.
Patience, hard data and sample sizes matter a lot.
Even if the RNG is at 10%....the probability of this happening are astronomically small
Assuming you were doing 8 energy battles opposed to hard mode (16 energy), the prob is about 1:1000 or so at 10% drop rate. Purple gear drop rates are too low. I have only been playing this game one month. For those who have been here since launch, i admire ( but can't understand) your patience. The game, after a while, is essentially pressing the sim button dozens of times.