[POLL]Free Roster Slots. Cool or Not?

Unknown

Hi everyone. I just thought of making a poll to see how most of us would react if Roster Slots where suddenly free.

Personally, I'd love it because it's something that everyone can benefit from in the future. Sure some will lose more than others, but not having to worry about who to kick out of your roster completely beats that. Then again, I might be biased because I'm only at 33 slots so far.

Chrono_Tata

If it does happen, I'd be pretty annoyed but like all the other bad changes I'll roll with it. It's not something that would make me quit the game.

However, I completely disagree about this being good for the game in the long term. Having roster slots cost progressively more HP is a barrier to people building more and more repeat characters. If roster slots were free and unlimited, people would just start building, 2 X-forces, 5 Sentries, etc., etc. with no downside.

The problem might be alleviated a bit if everyone simply just get a fixed number of free slots, but I don't think that is a very good idea either.

Unknown

Awesome change for the future but I still don't love you. Sorry.

Unknown

If all roster slots became completely free, I think it'd break the economy. There'd be way too much HP floating around. Shielding and shield hopping would be the norm. PVP would become targetless and boring.

It's not like most of us are going to throw away our HP on a 1.2 % chance of getting a cover we need.

h4n1s

I would say, grant free (or reduced price) slots equal to 75% amount of all characters in game. Who would wish to have more than that amount of slots could of course pay for it with HP (300 HP each). But that's not going to happen, because I assume then would also 2** and 1* character need to be part of essential nodes rotation, otherwise people would just dump those 1* and 2* chars and reserve it just for 3*** champs, leading to limited HP sales for slots, therefore reduced revenue.

Unknown

I think giving away many slots for free is going to be impossible without a PR nightmare again. What they need to do it hand out one a season to everyone. So the cost of acquiring slots for all of the new characters isn't so bad but people still need to try to open those additional slots to collect everyone.

Pylgrim

I believe that rosters slots costing HP is actually a good way to pace progress and to encourage acquisition and prudent spending of HP. A lowering of costs across the board and a cap (around 450) is all we need. It will also generate less chagrin to the ones that already have paid.

Unknown

daibar wrote:

If all roster slots became completely free, I think it'd break the economy. There'd be way too much HP floating around. Shielding and shield hopping would be the norm. PVP would become targetless and boring.

It's not like most of us are going to throw away our HP on a 1.2 % chance of getting a cover we need.

What economy? There isn't a player vs player trade like in some games, MMOs in this game. You mean PvP is not targetless and boring now for some players? I acquire enough HP to open a roster slot for 2 or 3 of every released characters the way it is now and I never shielded in this game.

IamTheDanger

Making all slots free is Not a good idea. A lot of people forget that for the devs, this game is their job. How they pay their bills and make a living. Giving away all roster spots would hurt them more than most players realize. Ask yourselves this; is getting a big roster worth the game going bankrupt in a few months and losing it all together? Because getting unlimited roster slots and completely losing the game a few months from now is not worth it for me.

So I'll offer the same idea I have been for months. In events that offer new characters as the reward, make the top progression award a "free roster slot " token. But only in events that have new characters as the reward. All other slots cost the same or cap at 1k Hp. This way no one has to sell off an old hero to make room for a new one. And the players that have doubles or even triples still have to buy additional slots. IMHO, a cap at 1,000 Hp would be about right. Most players are still 30 or 40 slots away from that anyway. Of course it doesn't matter. Even if D3 capped at 100 Hp, some would still complain it was too high.

Come on guys, think about it like this; if you owned a restaurant that offered really good food, you would charge for it right? But if a few hundred of your customers went on an Internet forum and said how the food was really good but expensive, and that you should just give it all out for free, would you do it? Would you spend all of your time cooking food and giving it away free? I don't know about everyone else here, but I sure as heck won't, I got bills to pay. And so do the developers.

Now, in another thread, the Dec question thread, David - Hi-Fi posted that they are discussing possible solutions to this.

As to the alliance upgrade incedent, that was taking something that some people paid a lot of money for and giving it away to everyone else for free. Putting a cap on roster prices is different as everyone will get the same thing. In fact, players with bigger rosters benefit more. If all slots capped at 1,000, and my next one is 1,900, then I'm getting a 900 Hp discount. Or if they gave out occasional roster tokens. Everyone gets the same thing.

I just want everyone to remember, for the developers, this game is how they pay their bills and feed their kids. . I, for one, am very pleased with the work these guys do on MPQ and I am happy to support it.

MarvelMan

While I get that roster slots are revenue for D3, I think that coming up with an algorithm that is different than "each one costs at least as much as the previous while we release characters more frequently than every two weeks" is necessary for the health of the game.

Here is the way HP was spent in April '14:



Im sure they can figure out a way to help players and while only minorly reducing the slice of the pie. Maybe the first 10 are free, then a free slot 2 out of every 5 char releases. Make it the top progression during a char release event, add it to daily rewards. Things like that. Right now Ive been selling 1* and 2*, and Im probably one of the last to do that, which goes against the devs stated goal in roster diversity.

The players who i think REALLY feel the pinch are those just starting out yet winning a 3* (or 4*) cover and need the slot for it. Right now its clearly the better choice to sell, which means that the transition will get harder and its not a good feeling to sell a cover you know you will eventually need.

Unknown

I don't think making all the slots free is a good idea since selling slots is one of D3's main sources of income. If they don't make money, there's no game for us to play.

That being said, I think it would be nice if there were a way to score a free roster slot on occasion. A number of ideas have been bounced around this board already that I think would work. Having a free slot as a season reward would work, but I think it would be better to offer them as part of the daily login bonus rewards. I don't believe that getting a cover every once in a while through the login rewards has stopped people from buying covers, so I don't think a free roster slot every once in a while would stop people from buying them either. Just my 2 cents.

Adam12

Making them all free is unnecessary. I'd rather they make "roster slot tokens" as a reward somewhere (gauntlet?) or maybe make heroic tokens have a small chance of giving you a new roster slot. Or lower/cap the HP cost at some point.

iLL619

Chrono_Tata wrote:

If it does happen, I'd be pretty annoyed but like all the other bad changes I'll roll with it. It's not something that would make me quit the game.

However, I completely disagree about this being good for the game in the long term. Having roster slots cost progressively more HP is a barrier to people building more and more repeat characters. If roster slots were free and unlimited, people would just start building, 2 X-forces, 5 Sentries, etc., etc. with no downside.

The problem might be alleviated a bit if everyone simply just get a fixed number of free slots, but I don't think that is a very good idea either.

Good point

Unknown

MarvelMan wrote:

While I get that roster slots are revenue for D3, I think that coming up with an algorithm that is different than "each one costs at least as much as the previous while we release characters more frequently than every two weeks" is necessary for the health of the game.

Here is the way HP was spent in April '14:



Im sure they can figure out a way to help players and while only minorly reducing the slice of the pie. Maybe the first 10 are free, then a free slot 2 out of every 5 char releases. Make it the top progression during a char release event, add it to daily rewards. Things like that. Right now Ive been selling 1* and 2*, and Im probably one of the last to do that, which goes against the devs stated goal in roster diversity.

The players who i think REALLY feel the pinch are those just starting out yet winning a 3* (or 4*) cover and need the slot for it. Right now its clearly the better choice to sell, which means that the transition will get harder and its not a good feeling to sell a cover you know you will eventually need.

You could buy more roster spots if you don't use approximately 60% of your HP on cover packs.

Unknown

MarvelMan wrote:

While I get that roster slots are revenue for D3, I think that coming up with an algorithm that is different than "each one costs at least as much as the previous while we release characters more frequently than every two weeks" is necessary for the health of the game.

Here is the way HP was spent in April '14:



Im sure they can figure out a way to help players and while only minorly reducing the slice of the pie. Maybe the first 10 are free, then a free slot 2 out of every 5 char releases. Make it the top progression during a char release event, add it to daily rewards. Things like that. Right now Ive been selling 1* and 2*, and Im probably one of the last to do that, which goes against the devs stated goal in roster diversity.

The players who i think REALLY feel the pinch are those just starting out yet winning a 3* (or 4*) cover and need the slot for it. Right now its clearly the better choice to sell, which means that the transition will get harder and its not a good feeling to sell a cover you know you will eventually need.

So, I made a joke about this chart, but there was something I couldn't put my finger on. And then it hit me.

I am very sympathetic to the roster spot situation. It is already out of control for some, and only going to get worse if unchecked.

With that being said, I realized that the chart is very bad for gathering sympathy. To show my point, I did some quick editing of the chart labels. Forgive my lack of tech savvy.



Now, if someone used this chart to explain why their family was starving, I would see it as a budget control problem and not a "cost of food is too damn high" problem. I would then argue that the original chart shows that the players of MPQ could probably afford a few more roster spots, but refuse to use their resources responsibly.

Once again, the way roster spots prices are generated is very very bad. But on the other hand, there are some people who want to avoid the repercussions of their bad decisions, and are looking for handouts to make their life easier.

Just one man's opinion.

DrNitroman

Pylgrim wrote:

I believe that rosters slots costing HP is actually a good way to pace progress and to encourage acquisition and prudent spending of HP. A lowering of costs across the board and a cap (around 450) is all we need. It will also generate less chagrin to the ones that already have paid.

I agree with this^. Setting a maximum price cap should do the trick and would seem more reasonable.
As many in this thread, I'm aware that roster slot is a significant part of MPQ revenue. If we suppress this money entry completely, another money entry will mechanically be needed. I fear that we might dislike this hypothetical new cost!

Lystrata

As I stated elsewhere, I don't believe free slots are a brilliant idea for D3P - they are really great sources of store-bought HP. (I presume... it's certainly the only thing I've spent money on so far.) And fair enough - they need income. All good.

But there does need to be some sort of cost cap, or at least some connection between the onslaught of new characters and roster slots. Because right now - for my part, at least - I'm not feeling pressured into buying more HP for the new characters, I'm just feeling less inclined to buy HP that I'm perceiving myself as being 'forced into' purchasing.

Probably not the result they're after. Probably.

And yet again, we get a poll that distorts the truth. I don't think it'd be a great change, so picking one of the first two options isn't logical. Likewise, however, I wouldn't feel cheated or want my money back. The poll is set up to only give negative feedback if you choose no, and only give positive feedback if you choose yes. Where's the 'I don't think it's in the best interests of the game' choice?

Unknown

Paintsville wrote:

I would then argue that the original chart shows that the players of MPQ could probably afford a few more roster spots, but refuse to use their resources responsibly.

Once again, the way roster spots prices are generated is very very bad. But on the other hand, there are some people who want to avoid the repercussions of their bad decisions, and are looking for handouts to make their life easier.

I would imagine majority of the data comes from thousands of small time players that just play and don't even know that this forum exists, and maybe some whales. My HP spending look around 90% foo... roster slots, 9% shields, and 1% roster packs (aka I bought anniversary dailies), yet I'm still barely keep up with increasing cost.

iLL619

I would be in for free roster spots occasionally but not for people to make duplicate covers to use the roster spots

MojoWild

Just set a maximum cost for characters not already owned and I'd be good with that. I have one of everyone and a new slot costs 700 now. 500 seems like a fair cap to me. After you have one of a character, doubles could go higher.

GothicKratos

All Roster Spots being free would make a lot of things that are cool about MPQ non-existent.

A couple of things I would suggest; giving away a Roster Slot once a month in Daily Rewards (or just make it something that has a chance to drop in random prizes), Roster Spot tokens (as mentioned earlier in this thread) that can be given away in different events periodically, bundles of Roster Slots like at the start of your journey (this would encourage impatient/desperate people to buy HP, but it also feels satisfying to see those three free slots), and of course reducing the actual cost of Roster Slots.

If it were up to me to manage the way the price increase worked for Roster Slots, it would look something like this (note: incline in price is figurative, not solid numbers or percentiles);

#1-#5; Free.
#6; 50 Hero Points.
#7-#10; 100 Hero Point bundle.
#11; 75 Hero Points.
#12-#14; 100 Hero Point bundle.
#14; 75 Hero Points.
#15-#17; 200 Hero Point bundle.
#18; 100 Hero Points.
#19-#21; 250 Hero Point bundle.
#22+; Here is where I feel like they should jump in price a bit. It's hard to defend the need for more than 20 Roster Slots to transition. If you want to be a collector, you should have to pay a bit of a premium. Like most people, though, I think there should be a cap. I feel like 500 Hero Points is acceptable, but 300 Hero Points is much more fair, since you can get that usually between a PvE and a PvP. Bundles of three would be something like 1250 Hero Points is they cost 500 a piece or 750 Hero Points if they cost 300 Hero Points, like I proposed.

Or something like this;

#1-#5; Free.
#6; 25 Hero Points.
#7; 25 Hero Points.
#8-#10; 75 Hero Point bundle.
#11; 50 Hero Points.
#12; 50 Hero Points.
#13-#15; 100 Hero Points.
#16; 75 Hero Points.
#17; 75 Hero Points.
#18-#20; 175 Hero Points.
#21+; Like I said above, this is where I'd say scaling would start kicking in. 125 Hero Points and 150 Hero Points for #21 and #22, respectively, #23-#25 would be something like 350 Hero Points, #26 would be something like 200 Hero Points with #27 being 250 Hero Points and #27-#30 would be something like 500 Hero Points, from here singles would be 300 Hero Points and bundles of three would be 750 Hero Points.

Both models are forgiving to new player and players trying to get through their transition. Both models offer fair and attainable collectors status. Both models encourage people to spend Hero Points on slots in bulk. Even at the end of the second model's incline 5 slots would cost 1350 Hero Points. I feel like that's chunky enough to persuade enough people to drop 20$ here and there to get those slots for the new few events, but it's also low enough that a player that players semi-frequently can attain them without spending any money.