Feedback on effort versus reward for 4*'s

wirius

Hello devs, you've made some magnificent changes to the game with shield levels and fixing low tier characters in the game. Objectively, you solved real problems that impacted all players. Generally I only suggest something if I see there is a problem for the entire community. This post will be different.

The issue I personally feel is the 4* reward versus effort needs improvement. I understand I have no idea how you make money off of how the 4* system is set up, and I do not want to make suggestions that eat into your profitability. So I'm going to give how I "feel" but then try to give suggestions that do not hurt your income.

"Feelings"

I finally finished the 3* tier, and it felt great. Almost all of my 3*'s are champed, and it took me, well years. With that out of the way, I looked toward the 4* tier and...all desire left me to continue to play the game.

The why

The effort it took me to max and champ all of my 3*'s was literally years of work. The benefit is when 3* champs are boosted, I have a blast picking which one's I'll use. There was an advantage in game of me championing them all as they would slowly gain in power, and help me transition into 4* land. Also, the games core is built around 3*'s in pvp.

The problem is all of this effort happened when the rewards for 3*'s were about 3 times as plentiful and less effort to obtain as the rewards for 4*'s now. Further, as you obtain a few maxed four *'s and increase your scaling, those 3*'s look less effective. Finally, once you have a few maxed 4*'s (I do) what is my incentive to keep playing? The game clearly points 3*'s are where the game is centered around, yet with scaling, you gain no true advantage with having more 4*'s.

Essentially I'm doing more work for characters that really don't give me much of an advantage as its safer to stay low level and use my boosted 3*'s instead (My perception)

Suggestions

I think it boils down to there needs to be some type of transition in the game to make obtaining 4*'s meaningful. There are several levers to do this.

1. Number of 4* covers available to earn/lower effort needed to obtain 4*'s currently available

Considering there are practically the same number of 4*'s as 3*'s, if you're going to keep the focus of the game the same, there should be an equivalent amount of effort to obtain an equal number of 4*'s with a full 3* roster and partial 4* roster, as it was to obtain a full 3* roster with a partial 3* roster and full 2* roster. Otherwise with scaling, I'm putting in more effort to receive comparably less reward.

You can put in 4* ddqs as dailys. I think its beyond time. Start extending 4* cover rewards to the top 100 pvp at high shield levels. In fact, use extremely high shield levels that you feel is where 4* transitioners are to mimic the rewards identically to the way 3* rewards have been for years now. Its going to take me years to max out those 4*'s if you do that, and its keeps the effort the same as the fun 3* transition. The effort to reward ratio for 3* land was fun, now that I'm in 4* land, I would like it to remain the same.

2. Give a more meaningful incentive to obtain more 4*'s

Right now, when I obtain 4*'s I'm still focussed on the 3* game for one character in pvp. PvE has no change. Why should I spend more effort for less reward and the same gameplay?

You can use shield levels to start splitting the playerbase. Perhaps at a certain shield level, the 3* pvp is replaced with 4* only pvp. NOW I have a reason to get and max my 4*'s.

Scale 4*'s up to more meaninfully match 5*'s

Have certain shield levels locked behind certain goals. For example, you can only unlock shield level 50 when you have one fully covered and max leveled 4*. Increase the number of fully covered and max leveled 4*'s for subsequent shield level unlocks, ensuring rewards are appropriately gated.

Conclusion

Ultimately however, I understand that many of these "fixes" rely on data I do not have. I do not know your profitability or player retention once they transition to the 4* tier. I trust the devs to make a good call, as they have shown remarkable progress in the games systems over the last year, and I feel they will do what's best for the game, regardless of my suggestions.