FREE Roster Slots (Or Reduced Pricing)

Mawtful

This seems a bit radical, but what if each character came with its first slot free? Or some variation of that? You roster includes a free slot for each specific character?

What I'm getting at is, if you want to have duplicates, you have to buy additional slots, but if you're just filling out your collection - that is, having a diverse roster - then you've just got to worry about getting covers, and not juggling storage space.

So everyone would have a "Rocket Raccoon + Groot" slot in their roster, only RR+G can fit in that slot, then once it's full if you want a second, you'll need to pay for the privilege.
Taking this a step further, these duplicate slots could have a scaling cost depending on the rarity of the cover. Want to buy a second 4* Thor slot? Well that's going to cost a lot more HP than buying a second Yelena slot.

This will also make it clear exactly which characters are missing from your collection, and might even encourage people to push harder in events where those characters are up for grabs.

IamTheDanger

Mawtful wrote:

This seems a bit radical, but what if each character came with its first slot free? Or some variation of that? You roster includes a free slot for each specific character?

What I'm getting at is, if you want to have duplicates, you have to buy additional slots, but if you're just filling out your collection - that is, having a diverse roster - then you've just got to worry about getting covers, and not juggling storage space.

So everyone would have a "Rocket Raccoon + Groot" slot in their roster, only RR+G can fit in that slot, then once it's full if you want a second, you'll need to pay for the privilege.
Taking this a step further, these duplicate slots could have a scaling cost depending on the rarity of the cover. Want to buy a second 4* Thor slot? Well that's going to cost a lot more HP than buying a second Yelena slot.

This will also make it clear exactly which characters are missing from your collection, and might even encourage people to push harder in events where those characters are up for grabs.

That's similar to what I suggested. If something like a "free roster slot" token was given as the top progression award in events that released new characters, but only new character events. All other slots still cost the same.

PuceMoose

I'd be happy with a one free roster slot reward every season (to everyone who participated in the season, regardless of leaderboard rank), and a cap of 500 HP on price. With the rate of new character releases there would still be an incentive to buy new slots, and 500 HP feels fair to me, based on the HP that can be gained from regular play.

babinro

DuffManOhYeah wrote:

Will you vets feel complain that the newbies get reduced roster slot pricing? Would you ask for a refund?

Of course they would.

They were relentless when the alliance change went through and several people threatened to quit if action wasn't taken. Considering we've ALL spent hp on roster slots you can expect the demand for refunds to be 10x more. Don't get me wrong...I don't say this to discourage a solution to the roster problem. I just say this as a matter of fact when it comes to implementing a solution.

It's hard to offer a solution to this problem. From a players perspective I want access to unlimited roster slots so I can spend all my resources having fun. From a business level this is the companies primary source of revenue in an otherwise free to play game. Asking them to deliberately handicap their main revenue stream in hopes that the decision will somehow generate MORE sales elsewhere in the game is a tall order.

Chrono_Tata

babinro wrote:

DuffManOhYeah wrote:

Will you vets feel complain that the newbies get reduced roster slot pricing? Would you ask for a refund?

Of course they would.

They were relentless when the alliance change went through and several people threatened to quit if action wasn't taken. Considering we've ALL spent hp on roster slots you can expect the demand for refunds to be 10x more. Don't get me wrong...I don't say this to discourage a solution to the roster problem. I just say this as a matter of fact when it comes to implementing a solution.

Actually, it would mostly depend on how much the price is reduced. Keep in mind that when alliance roster slot became "free", it meant that something that would have cost up to 2000 HP previously suddenly cost 0HP with less than a week notice. Anyone can see why people would be outraged.

If character roster slots were discounted by, say, 50HP across the board next week, I think the community response will be generally positive. However, if roster slots all suddenly cost 1HP next week, of course there would be an outrage.

homeinvasion

I think the only fair thing would be to give everyone 10 new slots regardless. Its not fair If the vets paid all this money for slots then others get them free, same as the alliance change.

Unknown

Or just give one roster slot every month for free in daily rewards. Just like you do with covers!

Unknown

Reduce the price to 500 or lower please. Also, add them into daily rewards maybe replacing some of the random boost or Iso-8 rewards.

Dayv

DuffManOhYeah wrote:

Will you vets feel complain that the newbies get reduced roster slot pricing? Would you ask for a refund?

As long as my future roster slots purchases already decreased in price, no. For the people that have 100 or more roster slots, or have maxed them out even, it might be more frustrating, but I don't understand why people have that many duplicates.

Alliance slots were a limited resource in any given alliance, so those people who had already put the effort and money into increasing their alliance size when they were made free gained nothing while others gained massively. If roster slot prices are decreased or capped, especially at higher roster counts, this will benefit all players eventually. Perhaps some will benefit more than others, but even those people who have maxed slots will eventually buy more when the max increases again.

Unknown

What kind of refunds are you guys talking about? I think we're all a little caught up in the token economy here. D3 isn't giving anybody money when it hands out HP. They make it themselves. It only has value in the sense that we the players have to pay for it. They could cap roster slots at 500 and retroactively pay everyone who every spent more than that the entire amount they overpaid...and it would cost the company exactly nothing. All it would do is generate good will among the player-base and give their fans a reason to stick around.

As an example: I got 15.6 k HP as an alliance refund. That "money," combined with the fact that it's only a few days until Fury becomes a daily log-in bonus, are really the only reason I didn't quit when this game couldn't play nice with Lollipop. The devs didn't lose anything by giving me those HP, but they certainly added more reason for me to stay with them and potentially give them more money in the future.

So, would I ask for a refund if they capped roster slots? Maybe, maybe not. But it wouldn't be unreasonable to expect it, nor would it hurt the developers to issue it. It's only because this game is so relatively stingy and expensive that the idea seems preposterous.

Unknown

As shown by the alliance fiasco the players will complain if something free is given to people when they themselves paid for it. Only acceptable solution is to occasionally pass out a free one to everyone, or make slots a prize you can earn. Going back and giving everyone 50 default roster slots for free would cause riots.

Unknown

Cryptobrancus wrote:

As shown by the alliance fiasco the players will complain if something free is given to people when they themselves paid for it. Only acceptable solution is to occasionally pass out a free one to everyone, or make slots a prize you can earn. Going back and giving everyone 50 default roster slots for free would cause riots.

I'm at 53 current slots. If D3 handed out 45 "free" slots and my roster cap jumped to 98 I would be okay.

IamTheDanger

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=19116#p249840

Just to sum it all up.... changing roster price would be different from the alliance upgrade incedent. But there will be some that will complain anyway. I have over 100 slots and I'm perfectly fine with capping all future slots without giving any refunds or compensation. But, like I said, there will be those that feel they should get a refund of some kind.

However, the ideal solution for me would be in events that released new characters, but only new character releases, there was a "free roster slot " token as the top progression award in that event. All other slots would cost the same.

to D3/Demiurge, I say again, be very careful with any changes. It needs to be handled carefully.

edit, .... just to clarify, the alliance upgrade incedent was completely different from this. therefore, there should be no compensation if all slots were capped, no matter how many you have. of course that won't stop some from screaming that they are were scammed or cheated. just not possible to please everyone.