With lots of new chars- Roster Slot prices need adjustment

Unknown

I'd like to keep supporting the game but I see where the devs are taking this (adding a lot more 4* guys) and it's going to make me end up spending money to fill up my roster with dead weight. I already have a bunch of useless 4* guys that I would never risk selling off, and yes the new DPD 4* events should help, but the flaw is the rising cost of roster slots. For some people the roster slots already cost over 10 bucks each.

I understand the viewpoint of the devs and the psychology here. People don't want to throw away something good, so when someone gets a new 4*, they want to buy a slot so they don't lose it. But there's a tipping point. Fretting over to throw away 4* or spend ten bucks, even though I'll probably never use it, is not the fun part of the game. For myself, that tipping point is getting closer to where I cut my losses and walk away.

slidecage

will never see slot prices dropped, why cause one they make way too much money off it, but say they limited it to 500 per HP starting today no refunds you know how many people they will piss off saying they spent 1000 per slot.

im sorry but i highly doubt anyone is going Do i throw away a 4 star or spend 10 bucks. if your up in the 1000 per slot you have more then enough room for people unless your wasting your HP on sheilds.

I only put 20 bucks first week i was here for slots
then i did the 49.99 deal.. i have around 7 or 8 open slots have 74 slots overall still at the 950 per slot cost and have 14.000 hp to even buy more...

once your at 1000 per slot you should very easy be turning at least 2000 HP per month to cover the slots

also maybe they could lower the cost of slots if more people put real cash into this game but How few do why should the company lower their profits why not blame the people who play this game for free

Unknown

The question is how to keep people paying money. If they complain but still pay, devs walk away winning. If devs lose loyal customers, they lose money.

So if they changed the slots from 1000 to 500, people would be pissed. But how many would leave over that VS how many will just stop playing because it costs too much?
That's the real question. My advice is adjust the slot pricing in order to keep more people happy and playing.

Unknown

Ice, if i remember right, said they make a good chunk of change on roster slots. The bean counters will have a fit if they try and adjust the numbers.

SnowcaTT

I need to add up how much they cost again. I keep threatening to put that number in my sig, so it could read something like:

"Hey newbies! You need [30,000 - whatever it is now] to unlock every slot for characters....so far! That is [This number was well over $150 when I calculated it months ago]...so far! Things to consider before taking up this game!"

1* spots should have -always- been free. At this point, 2* spots should be free. I know some advocate for all spots to be free, but I'll remain an advocate for a -much- lower spot cost. 500HP seems to be plenty, the 1K is really excessive - and you've needed to pay that for the last couple characters if you are a hoarder and have one of each, it's already up to 1K.

They should be making a ton of money off of shields now, which you seem to need more of than ever.

Unknown

SnowcaTT wrote:

They should be making a ton of money off of shields now, which you seem to need more of than ever.

Yes, Im sure they make -tons- of money on shields, given how many people state they break even/earn more HP by PVP placement using shield than it costs.

They've come out and said Roster Slots are one of their main income sources. Don't expect things to change, and honestly, I don't believe they should, for the health of the game long term, considering how much free currency is given out.

CaptainFreaky

SnowcaTT wrote:

1* spots should have -always- been free. At this point, 2* spots should be free.

How do you figure that 1* slots are free? If I try to add a new 1* character to my current roster, it costs me 850hp. How is that free?

fmftint

IceIX has already confirmed that roster slots is Demiurge's primary source of income and not to expect a reduction any time soon


From his Line Q&A
Rico Dredd (Best) - Any chance roster slots will get cheaper? Not only in my own interest, but in a noob friend's too, he doesn't open tokens bc he lacks the HP for slots, and having to sell 3* makes him go all sad and pathetic
IceIX - We're still talking roster slot pricing. Big problem there is that it's one of our bigger money makers. So changes have to be carefully balanced so that any bean counting types don't go all Hulk on us.

windfallstar (Lat S) - Any chance of additional ways to acquire roster slots? Even with the cap of 1000hp the price hurts.
IceIX - Being discussed, yeah. Large part of that problem is that roster slots are real ongoing money-makers, so any decision there has to be run by the bean counters to ensure we don't cut off our own noses.

babinro

Roster slots costs are fine in my opinion.

We've reached a point where the free to play veteran gamers can self-sustain roster slot costs through regular play. This strikes me as perfect when looking at a free to play game in terms of something that can ultimately satisfy both players and business financial needs.

Players just need to get used to sacrificing luxury characters regardless of tier while they build their roster.
Either that or opt to spend money.

There's are plenty of non-essential characters in each tier of play so while it sucks to sell off a playable 4* such as Star-Lord...he's not vital towards transitioning.

lukewin

CaptainFreaky wrote:

SnowcaTT wrote:

1* spots should have -always- been free. At this point, 2* spots should be free.

How do you figure that 1* slots are free? If I try to add a new 1* character to my current roster, it costs me 850hp. How is that free?

SnowcaTT said that they should have been free, not that they are or were.

babinro wrote:

Roster slots costs are fine in my opinion.

We've reached a point where the free to play veteran gamers can self-sustain roster slot costs through regular play. This strikes me as perfect when looking at a free to play game in terms of something that can ultimately satisfy both players and business financial needs.

Players just need to get used to sacrificing luxury characters regardless of tier while they build their roster.
Either that or opt to spend money.

There's are plenty of non-essential characters in each tier of play so while it sucks to sell off a playable 4* such as Star-Lord...he's not vital towards transitioning.

As someone that is free to play and has 104 roster slots, I totally agree with you babinro. I'm on day 462. So if you are new to the game and want to collect all the characters, which is a personal choice, you'd either have to pay or be patient and put in the time. You can do one or the other. It is nice to have the option and ability to do both, in a free to play game.

TheOncomingStorm

I have thought about this a while. I understand why they have prices where they are at, so I'll let them do the math on those. However, I do think there are opportunities for relief.

For example, when you purchase your 50th roster slot, I do think you should be credited for 1*s (limit one per character). Therefore, if you have im35, (2) mbw, and m storm, you would get 3 additional roster slots when you buy your 50th. Same thing with your 100th, but for 2*s.

The only caveat would be is that you could not sell a 1*if it put you under the amount of gifted slots. This is needed to ensure ppl don't work the system by having all 1*s before they buy their 50th, then sell them all right after to get even more spots.

So if you had 3 eligible 1*s at the time you bought your 50th, you can never have less than 3. So if you wanted jugs or 2/5 mbw to replace 5/5 mbw, you have to get the jugs or new mbw first if selling the old one would put you under the amount of gifted 1*s.

Unfortunately, this system would probably take up too many resources to develop, but a player can dream.

OnesOwnGrief

They have already lowered the price of roster slots but I suppose it's harder to keep up if you aren't performing well enough compared to the rest of the pack. I can cover a roster slot within a week of play and not worry about having space for a new character. I do lack a bunch of 1 stars though and a couple of 2 stars like Captain America.

slidecage

aesthetocyst wrote:

slidecage wrote:

will never see slot prices dropped, why cause one they make way too much money off it, but say they limited it to 500 per HP starting today no refunds you know how many people they will piss off saying they spent 1000 per slot.

im sorry but i highly doubt anyone is going Do i throw away a 4 star or spend 10 bucks. if your up in the 1000 per slot you have more then enough room for people unless your wasting your HP on sheilds.

I only put 20 bucks first week i was here for slots
then i did the 49.99 deal.. i have around 7 or 8 open slots have 74 slots overall still at the 950 per slot cost and have 14.000 hp to even buy more...

once your at 1000 per slot you should very easy be turning at least 2000 HP per month to cover the slots

also maybe they could lower the cost of slots if more people put real cash into this game but How few do why should the company lower their profits why not blame the people who play this game for free

Hmm. Roster slot #77 (and on up to the max, #182) are 1000 each.

There are 79 characters in the game.

Oops.

81 if you count Iceman and Surfer. And more on the way, 2 more 5*s, and an unknown # of 4*s.

You seem to be missing a few, Slide.

As for reducing the cost ... They recently capped the cost at 1000. That was a big theoretical reduction. Not many players had gone beyond that point ... but yes, devs acknowledge slots are a big moneymaker. Someone has to pay the bills.

i think i got all 4 stars 3 stars (besides dino) and 2 stars really dont count 1 stars cause who really uses them.

look at roaster seems i have 74 with
2 1 stars what could be opened
a second kahn what could be dropped
extra doom with 10 covers i could drop

so that is 4

just hit 14,000 hp--- would have a lot more if i did not carry all of the 2 stars

had 3 extra eletka or whatever her name is but dont see why i needed 3 of her

slidecage

superjoust wrote:

The question is how to keep people paying money. If they complain but still pay, devs walk away winning. If devs lose loyal customers, they lose money.

So if they changed the slots from 1000 to 500, people would be pissed. But how many would leave over that VS how many will just stop playing because it costs too much?
That's the real question. My advice is adjust the slot pricing in order to keep more people happy and playing.

let see someone who put 200 bucks into the game buying slots at 1000 each and then they go Okay to help people out we are going to cap it at 500.... The people who are at 500 and put 20 bucks or around go i i can get more slots now. those who got ripped off paying 1000 each go , well if they ripped me here and the ripped me on covers i will never put another penny into the game...

so they are pissing off people who put more cash into the game then a one or two time hitter..but like i said the pt really dont matter cause by the time your hitting 1000 per you should be clearing that for free just playing

about it costing 150 bucks yea if you wanted all of the slots at one time when your starting but i say if you only buy SLOTS and nothing else the most you will put into this game is 50 bucks. if they dropped the 2 star ess for the PVE i would never had to put more then 20 bucks into this game, but with having to hold all 2 stars it made me buy all slots... i mean i got like 8 2 stars i never use besides for the needed pve, and you now need all of them with double pve = 5 star chance

Punisher5784

I always find it amusing that every time I save up enough HP to purchase a 3 or 4* cover I always need a roster slot or two for the new character(s).

Unknown

.. or split the difference and occasionally offer a slot as a daily reward or random vault prize, etc.

Or, and here's a radical thought.

Play the game and earn the HP for free to make the slots cost less.

Heck, even additionally, they already offer a slot as a vault prize, or multiple depending on how big your roster is. There is a 4 star reward that is 1000 HP.

Phumade

Overall, I don't think the roster prices are too high for the speed that you can acquire HP.

I'm actually one of those f2p players who has never spent a dime in the game. In a one sense, I was fortunate to join when it was hard to earn covers. So my character progression never really outpaced my ability to acquire hp. I can see why people would complain about the plethora of characters, but I think making judicious decisions on roster development is valid part of the meta game. After all, once the new characters exceed the hard roster limit of 184, does the complaint become "Why can't I have 200 characters"?

As I think back to my 2*/3* transition, I was pretty focused on covers that would improve characters vs. chasing new chars. I also used the new chara pve intros as an opportunity to farm hp and get covers I need vs. trying to chase the new 4*. It seems like too many players are trying to absorb too much of the game in too short of a time frame.

At the start of this season I was sitting on 10K of HP. I'm now up to 13k and I've kept up with the new character intros at a cost of 1K per slot. So I don't feel that roster slot prices are out of whack with the availability of HP. In addition, I demoted my self from a top 15 alliance to a top 100 alliance and reduced my shield expenditure to just a 3hr and 8hr shield. This was a nice sweet spot that allowed me to be HP positive. If there's a cover that completes or improves a character, I will spend the appropriate hp to earn the cover. Otherwise, I'm judicious about trying to spend 1000hp to win a cover that won't actually improve my roster.

ISO has been a much bigger roadblock in my roster development than HP

Just my 2cents.

TaoSpoons

My issue/philosophy/whatever is simply that roster slots have a vastly different value depending on what's in them. My preference would be for static roster costs at each rarity tier.

I understand this would result in an extremely high development cost for negligible direct return, however it's an ongoing structural issue with the game that they'd do well to address.

Unknown

I have no problem with the roster slot costs on their own. If you want to be a hoarder/collector, that's your choice, knowing the price of doing so. Either spend your HP on roster spots, or don't. Where the whole thing gets a bit underhanded is the required characters in PvE. In PvP events, if you don't have a character, you get a loaner. In PvE, you get sent to a page to buy tokens, which is shady as hell.

I don't want to have Quicksilver or Ragnarok or Squirrel Girl or a good 1/3 of the 3* on my roster, and I definitely don't want most of the 2* characters either, but I DO want to be able to compete for top 2 and top 10 finishes in the intro events for the new releases. If I don't have one of those essential characters, I'm screwed. In order to have the best chance at the things I DO want, I have to spend HP to keep things I DON'T, because of the way the game is designed. Which is, again, shady.

I get that they want to have some incentive for people to buy roster slots, but trust me, people will buy them regardless. It's not like they don't tap into a population of people already known for hoarding of superhero-related materials.

If they start giving out loaners for essential nodes in PvE, and they can charge whatever they want for roster slots, as far as I care. Until then, I have to keep an artificially-inflated roster of outdated and underpowered characters just to have access to the nodes I need to compete for new releases, and that. is. shady.

Unknown

Shady specially in the way they made 4*s essentials, which screws up the newer players needing slots for those.

Unknown

Just putting it out there, primarily because I never get tired of reading the same defense of roster slot prices (or even charging money for the right to retain what you "win" in general)...

Playing a game on your phone with the intensity necessary to gain 1000HP a week is not a solution, it's more akin to taking a second job to pay an unreasonably high and arguably unnecessary bill.

1000HP is too high, whether you are the grand master of phone video games, some schlub who isn't very good at them, a collector, impatient, or whatever other arbitrary rationales we choose to employ.

THREE tiers of essentials (will it eventually be four? Five?), the constant flood of new heroes, now including 5*s, the list goes on, but the result is the same. We need far more than all but the most dedicated can muster, let alone having the schedule necessary to do so.

DBC