Can I get a Brigby comment on Intercepts?

VizMantis

When Shield Intercepts started, they were great! I was happy to watch the ads, I got a decent number of opportunities to do so, and the payoff in resources was fair. Then, over half the time, pressing the Intercepts button did nothing. I sent a ticket in to CS, who basically blew me off with a, "we know, we're on top of it" reply. That would have been a fine response if true, but it's been months and nothing has changed. To make matters worse, I now get almost no chances for an Intercept per day, so the less than 50% success rate hits harder.

There's a post about these issues every couple weeks that I usually chime in on. Having just been hit by multiple failing Intercepts, I figured it was time to start my own. This time, with a specific request for some commentary from Brigby, as I haven't seen him reply to any of these threads before (apologies if I just missed it).

Will this ever be fixed? Was this a failed feature that's being slowly killed off by attrition? Should I submit more CS tickets? Must I just pretend I'm playing on Steam?

carrion_pigeons

I've never seen something make people so anxious to watch commercials before.

VizMantis

carrion pigeons wrote:

I've never seen something make people so anxious to watch commercials before.

Well my official line would be that it's a broken feature, plain and simple. It was much touted on its introduction and has been left broken and unaddressed for quite a while.

But disregarding any claims of me caring about quality control,
commercials rarely pay out as it does here. The closest equivalent I can think of is Hulu has an option for an ad-free account that costs a bit more money per month. I opt to watch the ads and save the money.

I'd also add that, when it was working, it was a very good implementation of ads. They're of a reasonable length, optional, non-invasive, and gave rewards that I wanted. So yeah, I'd like to see them working again.

jredd

i had the same issues. until i re-upped my vip. now i get a decent amount of them.

they work... if you pay to make them work.

i've heard any purchase allows you to skip videos. drop 2-3$ on a bugle pittance and see what happens.

jredd

carrion pigeons wrote:

I've never seen something make people so anxious to watch commercials before.

2000 iso to (not really) watch a 30 second video is a valuable payoff for a quick break...

Twysta

I hear you need to use @Brigby to get his attention

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smkspy

Since the last update, I've been noticing less of them during sessions and the 500 iso reward being far more frequent than it use too. Along with a confirmation bias change in the rate of two stars from elite tokens, the "d3 is a grinch" theorist in me believes something is up.

D26

FWIW, I play on an iPhone and I haven't even seen an intercept in about 3 months. I honestly thought they quietly dropped it as a feature a while ago.

JVReal

I think the failure of them to play has something to do with the app being on in the background too long. I play throughout the day, so I keep it on in the background and flip back to it ever so often. When it's been in the background too long, and I play and a shield intercept comes up then just blinks out... I force close the app and then the next few intercepts play (and they are always duplicate ads). Since I don't play PVP and have no need to keep queues cached, I try to remember to force close the app between plays.

I have a feeling that maybe the ads are on a rotation and sit in your game cache, but if they rotate, and your game reaches out to the server and it asks for a certain ad, and your phone doesn't have that particular ad in cache... it just moves on... or something like that. It's annoying. I have my app set to background refresh, so it should be getting new caches, but who knows.

If you can remember, force close the app when you leave it and it should help you get more successful intercepts on the rare occasion that they show up.

broll

JVReal wrote:

I think the failure of them to play has something to do with the app being on in the background too long. I play throughout the day, so I keep it on in the background and flip back to it ever so often. When it's been in the background too long, and I play and a shield intercept comes up then just blinks out... I force close the app and then the next few intercepts play (and they are always duplicate ads). Since I don't play PVP and have no need to keep queues cached, I try to remember to force close the app between plays.

I have a feeling that maybe the ads are on a rotation and sit in your game cache, but if they rotate, and your game reaches out to the server and it asks for a certain ad, and your phone doesn't have that particular ad in cache... it just moves on... or something like that. It's annoying. I have my app set to background refresh, so it should be getting new caches, but who knows.

If you can remember, force close the app when you leave it and it should help you get more successful intercepts on the rare occasion that they show up.

I can't speak to the ads as I've always been VIP, but this makes a lot of since. I have seen other similar issues the app being backgrounded on iOS. For example I've seen times where I come back hours after playing and my characters health and number of health packs seem unchanged hours later. i kill the app and reload it and they are full. The Devs need to see if there's anything they can do to not let the app run in the background (might not be possible) because force closing everytime is a pain.

nonnel1

I've been complaining about this for weeks... no response from CS or forum officials

Dormammu

I'm not sure what the expectation is here. While I understand that Intercept rewards are nice I don't think they should be expected. Progression prizes are expected. Placement prizes are expected. Intercepts are a random thing that the developers are likely still tweaking (and will continue to do so for some time, I imagine).

I am an Android VIP user. Some days I get more intercepts than others. There are days I might only receive one intercept, and then the next day I'll get ten, but it's never occurred to me to cry foul on the forums on the day I only get one - because none of them were guaranteed prizes for achieving an in-game goal.

Publicly calling out Brigby isn't going to improve your situation, and quite frankly puts him in a lose-lose situation. If he answers you, it won't be an answer that satisfies you (his hands are as tied as customer service's). If he doesn't answer, it looks like he's ignoring you or doesn't care. My guess is that Brigby would be more likely to address your concerns to the best of his ability if you sent him a private message rather than create a post like this that only inspires the pitchfork attitude of anonymous forums.

JackTenrec

Dormammu wrote:

I'm not sure what the expectation is here. While I understand that Intercept rewards are nice I don't think they should be expected.

I completely agree, but the fact that so many people complain so much about not being able to have to watch ads for in-game rewards really underlines the fundamental imbalance in the game's resource economy.

VizMantis

Dormammu wrote:

I'm not sure what the expectation is here. While I understand that Intercept rewards are nice I don't think they should be expected.

I feel like you didn't really read my original post. My main complaint is that Shield Intercepts don't work over 50% of the time (at least for me). While the fact that the number of offers I receive has substantially reduced was mentioned, I specifically stated that this just increased the impact of the aforementioned bug. My main point is that the feature is by-in-large broken and has remained so for months.

Dormammu wrote:

Publicly calling out Brigby isn't going to improve your situation, and quite frankly puts him in a lose-lose situation.

I wasn't trying to setup some sort of bad situation for Brigby. I thought he was here to specifically address public concerns on the forum, no? I'm happy to PM him if that's the ideal method of communication, but I assume, based on CS's feedback to my ticket and repeated posts on the issue, that I'm not the only one who this is impacting. Therefore, a public response from Brigby seems ideal. I don't see how his response to this puts him in a lose-lose situation anyhow. I'm not out for blood or looking for recompense, I'm just inquiring to the status of a months-long issue. I'd certainly like to get back to where it was at introduction, but even if the reply is, "we're quietly discontinuing this feature", I'd at least like to know. I don't think such a response would look poorly on Brigby.

jredd

Dormammu wrote:

I am an Android VIP user. Some days I get more intercepts than others. There are days I might only receive one intercept, and then the next day I'll get ten, but it's never occurred to me to cry foul on the forums on the day I only get one - because none of them were guaranteed prizes for achieving an in-game goal.

Try going weeks or months without getting any. you might sing a different tune.

it's the principle of the thing. you're supposed get one a day, on your first node, and then up to 20 for the day. but when you literally don't get any. and others are getting 10-20 per day. after awhile, the people who get them consistently get a huge advantage.

i'd favor a time based system for getting them rather than a random one. you get one on your first node. then, every 15 minutes you have the option of watching an intercept. the folk who play more will get more intercepts, and those who play less will get less. take the randomness out of it, and reward the players who spend more time playing the game.

Dormammu

jredd wrote:

it's the principle of the thing.

That's just the thing, I disagree. Too many people have the attitude of 'we're entitled to intercepts'. It's a revenue generator for the developers, not a reward system for the players. In-game ads are buggy - they have to communicate with things outside the game code. A lot of games are like this, where the ads don't always work or they don't produce the reward. If it's that important, pay $10 a month (or less, any monetary purchase will do it) like I do and skip straight to the reward; no ads, no bugs, and some extra loot.

jredd

Dormammu wrote:

jredd wrote:

it's the principle of the thing.

That's just the thing, I disagree. Too many people have the attitude of 'we're entitled to intercepts'. It's a revenue generator for the developers, not a reward system for the players. In-game ads are buggy - they have to communicate with things outside the game code. A lot of games are like this, where the ads don't always work or they don't produce the reward. If it's that important, pay $10 a month (or less, any monetary purchase will do it) like I do and skip straight to the reward; no ads, no bugs, and some extra loot.

i've never had problems with ads in other games. ever. either these devs suck at it, or they need to straight up come out and admit that you need to pay to make them work.

while i would agree that they are a 'bonus' above and beyond regular game rewards, everyone should have the same opportunity to potentially get them. that's definitely not the case.

nonnel1

Dormammu wrote:

I'm not sure what the expectation is here. While I understand that Intercept rewards are nice I don't think they should be expected. Progression prizes are expected. Placement prizes are expected. Intercepts are a random thing that the developers are likely still tweaking (and will continue to do so for some time, I imagine).

My expectation is a feature that they put in the game will work. My expectation is that I am offered more than 0 (ZERO) intercept opportunities per week.

Brigby

Hi Everyone. The issue of missing or infrequent Intercepts is something that has been brought up to the developers before. They're still investigating what the cause of this is, but they're getting closer to pinpointing it.

I'm afraid I don't have much news further than that, but if I hear of any updates, I'll be sure to let everyone know. Thanks for being patient!

jredd

Brigby wrote:

Hi Everyone. The issue of missing or infrequent Intercepts is something that has been brought up to the developers before. They're still investigating what the cause of this is, but they're getting closer to pinpointing it.

I'm afraid I don't have much news further than that, but if I hear of any updates, I'll be sure to let everyone know. Thanks for being patient!

not to come across as an **** here, but mine didn't work well at all. until i re-upped my vip. now i get what i would call a normal amount (10-20 per day). obviously there is something going on there, with getting them when you don't need to watch the videos (when you pay up) and when you do.