Cover slots v hero release

Unknown

Cover slots get more expensive the more you have right? And we get about 2 new characters every month or so? This leaves me sorta concerned.

If things continue as is, we're going to get to a point where each new character costs quite a bit to add a new slot for. PVE events, and to a lesser extent PVP events, are structured to greatly benefit having the new characters, as well as other randomly selected (usually 3 star) characters.

So, we're supposed to have an increasingly wide selection of characters, but the cost of cover slots was priced initially when there were way fewer characters. The prices are fairly steep once you've been playing the game for a while. I'm currently at 500HP a slot and I've dropped A LOT of 1 and 2 star characters already.

After a while, it's just going to be a slog to earn enough HP to buy those covers. The alternative, having to spend money every few weeks to add a slot for a character seems like a pretty exploitative monetization method.

I'm concerned that this will be what leads me to quit 6 months down the line, not any of the other things the forum usually laments.

How do others afford those slots AND shields AND buying covers? I'm living week to week here and I'm on a budget!

orbitalint

I can't speak for everyone but I'm a F2P player with a good stable of 3* players. I place in the top 25-100 for all PVP's with top 10ish in PVE depending on if I need a cover or am pushing for the new guy. I have been growing my HP reserves for the last few months without worry about roster expansion for new characters.

For me, I've never bought a cover with HP. 1200 HP is a lot of shields or 2 roster spots. I'm probably more patient with characters than most but I enjoy the game enough to let 3* covers come when they come. I have a roster to be casually competitive and I can snag covers when I need to. I also only shield once in PVP towards the end of a torny and sometimes not at all, if I don't need the cover. That'll build up some HP, depending on if you get to 800 or not. Lastly, I play the heck out of PVE when there are multiple sub-events and I get a lot of my HP from there.

To each his own but I'd say cut back or even stop buying covers with HP and you should be able to rack up your HP that roster expansion isn't an issue. Get LT to a playable state along with a few of the other top guys and you should be able to slowly get the covers you need for everyone else through the various events.

Hope that helps.

Unknown

Thanks for the response orbitalint. It was a little bit of a rhetorical question.

I'm F2P, and I only rarely buy shields, and only once bought a cover (and regretted it eventually). Lighting rounds are out for me as I've got a full time job and a 5 month old (gotta find the time between responsibilities), but I do play most events and make enough to buy those slots. I've got enough to buy Fury and Beast when I get the covers.

The problem for me though is these slots aren't getting any cheaper, and at the rate the new covers roll out, it's going to be real tight soon, and later untenable to make enough to keep up with the new characters. And those new characters are critical to play in PVE if you're casual. Those are the juicy nodes that allow you to play strategically to try and place for the good rewards--HP included.

I'm afraid once I'm pushed out from being able to compete with those required nodes, it's a sad road to quitsville.

JamieMadrox

I have to agree with you. I've got every character and my last slot cost me 600HP. I'm not F2P, but I'm not as P2W as some other players are and I could definitely use every HP I can get.

orbitalint

Jamie Madrox wrote:

I have to agree with you. I've got every character and my last slot cost me 600HP. I'm not F2P, but I'm not as P2W as some other players are and I could definitely use every HP I can get.

So, I can solve that issue right now - if you lose Yelena and Bagman, you save 1200 HP for beast and whomever comes out next, bam. You're welcome

But seriously, I guess I made some roster choices since the beginning that kept the HP spending low except for shielding and roster spots (semi-serious question, do you have a heroic token addiction?). Those two, bullseye, moonstone, and venom aren't on my roster but everyone else is, which saved me a boatload of HP. I mean, if I'm in a HP jam, I can still unload 1* Hawkeye too.

scottee

Also, by the time you have all characters, you should be approaching usable 3* characters, which makes earning HP in PVE subs and PVP progression/placement rewards a lot easier. I'm completely F2P and just opened a lot for Beast. I think I have 42 slots now. And I've bought one cover when I maxed Sentry. If you play regularly pretty regularly, I think it's not hard to always have enough HP for slots. I eventually started building a surplus which is why I've spent some on a cover, and spent a good amount on shields to win specific covers I wanted. Even at 600 hp a slot, 1200hp a month isn't that hard to come by.

SnowcaTT

I put the a suggestion in yesterday over here: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=15005

From there:

Just added my Beast, and tested the "More space for heroes" button: my next one costs 650HP. For the next character the developers add, the playerbase must pay more than half the price of a 3* cover!

I have exactly -ONE- of each character available on my roster, 48/48. The HP cost for roster slots needs to be scaled down as characters are increased.

I then further suggested a hard upper cap after a certain number of roster spaces (perhaps after 40 each slot costs 500hp). I haven't been playing enough to know if it was always 650 after 48, but I sort of think they set the price for covers at some point and never changed it. Now it needs to be scaled as they are quickly adding more characters, or the "roster diversity" they want won't be possible.

ThatOneGuyjp189512

i can verify once you get past 70 they get crazy, i'm at 77 slots and to open new ones is 1k HP per #puzzlequestproblems

Unknown

With the amount of HP you can earn, this isn't really a problem. If you're a free player, you should have to choose if you are using your free HP for slots, or shields, or covers. You can't have it all, but there is ample opportunity to get enough HP to open slots for new characters.

Unknown

I wouldn't mind if they cap the roster expansion at 500 HP or so but it's really a luxury. It's not like I use more than about 5 of my guys regularly plus whoever is required by the event.

Unknown

Unless something unexpected happens, this game is going to continue to get new characters. These new character require new slots (which you can't opt out of buying unless you also opt-out of PVE) and slots require an increasing amount of earned/purchased currency.

So no matter if you think 500-1000HP is a reasonable amount of currency to earn/buy in a month, the price is still going to increase past that amount, and not in the far off future. How much HP is reasonable to earn/buy a month 6 months from now?

The cover slot cost can't continue to scale this way indefinitely if events continue to require an inclusive roster. It's unsustainable from a player perspective.

Unknown

Phantron wrote:

I wouldn't mind if they cap the roster expansion at 500 HP or so but it's really a luxury. It's not like I use more than about 5 of my guys regularly plus whoever is required by the event.

It's not really a luxury if any given event could require any 2* plus character. An event a bit ago require 2* Captain America. That dude got tossed a long time ago.