Shard QoL Tweaks. Please post all suggestions here.

Chameleon

As posted on Discord by username "Demiurge_BeardQuest_Anthony™" 


"someone on the forums or here should start compiling a list of QoL tweaks. We aim to release these features as a "good first shot". The idea is to tweak them so that the next iteration is a little bit better
I hope no one thought they are final final at this point ><"

Please post suggestions to improve shards here.
Any other forum topics regarding this will be linked to here momentarily.

There’s a #shard_qol channel on Discord for anyone who uses that.

Related links:
https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/80481/so-to-be-perfectly-clear-everyone-hates-update-191
https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/80387/ability-to-move-shards-from-character-to-another
https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/80473/i-miss-that-yes-i-got-a-bonus-hero-feeling
https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/80475/a-suggested-change-that-would-appease-those-who-already-miss-bonus-heroes-while-keeping-shargets
https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/80383/new-interface-annoyances
https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/80386/extra-clicks-two-steps-backwards-please-fix

@IceIX can these all be merged?

EDIT: I intend to update this main post with concerns from other forum posts and LINE.  I am not on Discord but will happily add ideas from Discord here if someone shares them with me.


°You cannot convert shards to saved covers.  Posted by Rhipf
  (Editor's note: This currently causes one to have to use ISO.)

°I'd like to see an option for an occasional "shardburst", where you gain two or three times the normal amount of shards every once in a while from a token. That would still retain a little bit of the bonus hero excitement (plus they could bring back the twinkly "Victory banner" for the shardburst effect, as a nice throwback).  Posted by PuceMoose

°Colourless covers are great but character-specific shards seem to miss the mark.  Shard pools for each tier of characters would be much preferred.  Posted by too many to count or list

°Can saved covers be converted to shards?  Posted by ElReyFelix

°Wish you could buy Shards with ISO as well as HP.  Posted by Captain_Carlman

Chameleon

Bump to the top of the list in hopes of everything being suggested posting here.  Sticky?

steakleather

Thanks for the thread. First, the positive: I am happy that my actions are no longer frozen during the enemy team's turn. I can pause, click on my other member's power tabs, hover over powers, etc- all that is great.

Negative: The extra pop up window showing the shards needs to go. Very annoying, especially when opening multiple tokens. And ESPECIALLY because the yellow button is in a different place in each window so you can't quickly click through.

Steam player, btw.

Edit: Also, I'm not sure how to, or whether I even can, use shards to roster a totally new character. For example, I have 2 fully champed 3* Hawkeyes, and I have enough bonus shards for a new cover. Normally I would sell one, and use my bonus cover to immediately re-roster him. Is it possible with shards to roster a new character?

Chameleon

HoundofShadow said:

Is the QoL specific to shards or can it be non-shards related?

I was told the intent posted on Discord was specifically for Shards.

HoundofShadow

I deleted my post because I figured out it should be shards related, but you had already quoted me. Don't quote this post because I'm editing it.

1. Show the shards gained for single pull token on 1 page. It could be placed at the top or bottom bar?

Chameleon

steakleather said:

Thanks for the thread. First, the positive: I am happy that my actions are no longer frozen during the enemy team's turn. I can pause, click on my other member's power tabs, hover over powers, etc- all that is great.

Negative: The extra pop up window showing the shards needs to go. Very annoying, especially when opening multiple tokens. And ESPECIALLY because the yellow button is in a different place in each window so you can't quickly click through.

Steam player, btw.

Edit: Also, I'm not sure how to, or whether I even can, use shards to roster a totally new character. For example, I have 2 fully champed 3* Hawkeyes, and I have enough bonus shards for a new cover. Normally I would sell one, and use my bonus cover to immediately re-roster him. Is it possible with shards to roster a new character?

Yes, it is possible.  Tap "STATS AND MORE" on the character page then scroll.  RECRUIT AGAIN should be an option.

Phumade

my biggest complaint is that we need a summary view of how many shards each char currently contains.  Once you switch a few times, it becomes hard to keep track of whose closest to promotion

MathiasTCK

less clicks

shardwick

If you can collect shards and put them towards one cover for a character then you should also be able to destroy a cover that you don't want, receive shards from it, and then put those shards towards a character you do want. 

Also, the new interface is awful. Just go back to the old one.

Daredevil217

Here’s my list of concerns I’ve seen. I’m sure I’m missing some but it’s a good start to add to the OP. 

Shard UI:

• The second pop-up screen that shows up (in a different location) showing how many shards you have accumulated is annoying and slows the game down. It takes twice as long to open tokens
• There’s an extra pop up to go through when adding levels to a character that is annoying and slows the game down.
• You have to click twice now to back out whenever you add a saved cover or champ level to a character. 
• The XP Bar overlaps the rewards earned from champ levels
• There is no way to convert shards into saved covers. This adds a level of micromanaging to farming that is unnecessary.
• The graphic on the token packs is misleading. It looks like you get 18 legendary shards per Latest Legends token as you barely notice the sliver of gold behind the purple icon. These numbers should be separated to better reflect what you actually get. 

Shards themselves:

• The overall cover rates to the player base have slowed exponentially while dilution continues to get worse. We have been told that shards are coming elsewhere, but with no communication around what exactly that looks like, many are frustrated. 
• Many high level players are concerned about the increased level of micromanaging involved for those who view 3-4* characters as reward “farms”.  
• Making shards character-specific, people are concerned about “moving targets” where they spend MONTHS investing into a character, only to pull the cover they need and have to choose between spending MONTHS finishing them out for a single level/Legendary Token or abandoning progress and starting all over. 
• It is for the above reason, that all characters having feeders is more crucial than ever. Just like people were afraid to bonus someone with 5 colors they may be afraid to target someone without a feeder. Not updating feeders is trading one problem for another. 
• Making shards character specific, people are also concerned about “excess shards” sitting there after they hit their target. 3-10 shards here and there don’t seem like much, but it adds up and dilutes rewards. The game needs less dilution not more. 
• While people enjoy the “colorless” aspect, that “problem” only POTENTIALLY matters on covers 6-13 (and in some cases may not matter at all as in the case of a perfect 4/4/4 build). For covers 1-5 and 13-114, the colors do not matter.  For many, what we gave up is not worth managing those corner cases. Especially when we have saved covers and swaps to help mitigate that issue already.
• People can no longer set their sights on Bonusing the next character to give a LT/CP reward as many have done in the past. For the lower tiers specifically, there is a high likelihood of pulling that character naturally and you can’t just “switch targets” of you do, without losing progress. 
• While some of the more risk-averse players like the removal of RNG, many players see the removal of BHs as the removal of something “exciting” and miss the feeling of getting something unexpected. Some have stated that seeing the 5* progress bar inch up ever so slightly is more depressing than exciting and adds more to the monotony and grind that this game is already famous for. 

JHawkInc

Phumade said:

my biggest complaint is that we need a summary view of how many shards each char currently contains.  Once you switch a few times, it becomes hard to keep track of whose closest to promotion

Something that "kinda" looks like the store, where you can see a bunch of characters and their shards all at the same time, would be nice.

Maybe...

Roster screen shows a Cover, on the right it has the three powers on the right, number/color so you can see the power distribution, then a Support symbol if a Support is equipped. Along the bottom you have a Targeted symbol (previously the Bonus heart), the star rarity and character level, both color-coded if the character is champed or not, then the character name and subtitle below that.

Call all of that "Info Panel A". Add a button (maybe between the word "Roster" and the number of roster slots you have? or below the horizontal scroll bar at the bottom?) that switches between Panel A and Panel B. When you hit that button, the rarity and character level bars convert into a shard progress bar (so it extends from the Targeted icon across the bottom of the cover, and shows 120/300 or whatever, color-coded like the Daily Shard Offers store). Then, for grins and giggles, maybe the Support icon "flips" into a mini icon of the support you have equipped?

The button is a simple toggle back and forth between two states, and otherwise you'd scroll the roster and select characters like normal, but having two states like that lets them put more information in a small space. You could maybe convert the existing power banners into a way to indicate how many Saved covers a character has, as well. I could make a really quick and ugly mockup if anyone needs to see an example to get what I'm talking about

Regardless, a "master" overview would be nice, just occurred to me it might be smooth to integrate it into the Roster page.

ROY84

1. Put major shard increases in place of bonus heroes. Each would equate to 75% of the total amount for a cover of its tier. 

2. Increase the amount of shards you get per cover substantially. 

3. Just increase the drop rate of all token types by 50%

4. Bring back bonus heroes as it was and integrate it with the shard system.

5. Put in "substantial" shard bonuses for pve events.

Those are my suggestions. 

Bugeyed

They introduced shield clearance levels with the promise of level 10, soon to arrive.. hmm that was how long ago ?

They introduce supports, then apparently abandon it (work in progress supposedly)

They introduce feeders, to deal with dilution, then they diluted even more regularly, but have seemingly abandoned those too (yes I’ve seen the posts saying they are on hold but their record on that is appalling

They introduce saved covers, it actually worked and was an improvement

Now they bring us shards and the reaction from the community should tell them something, but $/£/¥/€ signs seem to be blinding them

1 out of 5

Shards is probably the most ill thought out concept. It seems to have 2 purposes, firstly to rush newbies to the stage where putting money into the game will have most effect, increasing revenue and secondly, to monetise the bonus hero system. 
Now we all realise it’s a business, and there is a need to make profits, but greed is becoming an issue. With weekly “weekend deals” and slowly eroding any prospects of improving the game for the senior players, Demiurge is killing the enjoyment of the game and they need to spend some serious time looking at retaining people before this game loses it completely

Lilith

With whole discreet covers, bonus or not, it was possible to Save 100 covers on a 3 or 4* character and then immediately sell a max champ and flip the new one into a max champ to replace them.

With shards capped at 9999, the maximum number of "saved" covers is now ~33 (Yes, I know I can still Save covers from actual cover pulls as well).  This results in being unable to flip Max Champ to Max Champ.  I am now required to Champ the dupe, and then keep on applying shards to them afterwards before selling the existing max champ.  The cap for shards should be set to 50000 (fifty thousand) to allow for the saving of up to 100 cover-equivalents for a 5*

Double_D_Man

I agree with almost all the above comments about the shards, but need to say this myself:

The introduction of shards has all but killed the joy of opening any tokens for me. I've put some serious money into this game and while I understand that shards are supposed to make me want to spend more (which is really greedy to begin with) they've managed to do the opposite:
I don't feel the need to buy Hp to further buy Shards to further buy a very expensive cover. 
Now everything feels like an even bigger grind. 

On every survey I've always put the "not feeling like I'm being properly rewarded for my time investment" as my main issue with the game, well they've managed to make that an even bigger problem now, to the point of me wondering whether I should continue playing this game at all.

Many say it's not finalized yet, getting shards from other places will make up for the removal of BH. Well for every second that we wait the compensation would have to be greater to really be a compensation. I don't see this ever happening here. 

tiomono

Lilith said:

With whole discreet covers, bonus or not, it was possible to Save 100 covers on a 3 or 4* character and then immediately sell a max champ and flip the new one into a max champ to replace them.

With shards capped at 9999, the maximum number of "saved" covers is now ~33 (Yes, I know I can still Save covers from actual cover pulls as well).  This results in being unable to flip Max Champ to Max Champ.  I am now required to Champ the dupe, and then keep on applying shards to them afterwards before selling the existing max champ.  The cap for shards should be set to 50000 (fifty thousand) to allow for the saving of up to 100 cover-equivalents for a 5*

So how do shards make you unable to go max champ to max champ? You are not required to champ a dupe to replace an existing character. Shards definitely slow the process you describe but they do not stop it.

I dont disagree that a larger cap would be useful to players. It is just not true to say that you are unable to do what you want and that the game requires you to champ a replacement then apply shards to get the same effect.

jamesh

tiomono said:

Lilith said:

With whole discreet covers, bonus or not, it was possible to Save 100 covers on a 3 or 4* character and then immediately sell a max champ and flip the new one into a max champ to replace them.

With shards capped at 9999, the maximum number of "saved" covers is now ~33 (Yes, I know I can still Save covers from actual cover pulls as well).  This results in being unable to flip Max Champ to Max Champ.  I am now required to Champ the dupe, and then keep on applying shards to them afterwards before selling the existing max champ.  The cap for shards should be set to 50000 (fifty thousand) to allow for the saving of up to 100 cover-equivalents for a 5*

So how do shards make you unable to go max champ to max champ? You are not required to champ a dupe to replace an existing character. Shards definitely slow the process you describe but they do not stop it.

I think they're saying they had one max-champed version of the character, and a second unlevelled copy accumulating saved covers.  Under the old system, once the unlevelled dupe reached 100 saved covers, they could sell the original and champ the dupe.  That way they don't need to invest extra iso in champing the dupe, but keep the benefits of having a max level version of the character.

If the majority of those covers are now shards and there is a relatively small cap on the number of shards you can keep on hand unspent, then this mode of play isn't viable any more.  That's assuming you can't convert shards into a saved cover...

Chameleon

While clarifying the intent of a user's post may be necessary, let's please try to keep the posts here to new suggestions. If you feel that a user has posted erroneously or need clarification I'd ask that you please message them privately.

The hope is to keep this thread neat and tidy for the devs to read through and not get bogged down. It would also be lovely to know it's being read since the need for back and forth communication with the devs is consistently posted on these forums. Consumers like to know they are being heard.

@IceIX 😉

Double_D_Man

Double_D_Man said:

I agree with almost all the above comments about the shards, but need to say this myself:

The introduction of shards has all but killed the joy of opening any tokens for me. I've put some serious money into this game and while I understand that shards are supposed to make me want to spend more (which is really greedy to begin with) they've managed to do the opposite:
I don't feel the need to buy Hp to further buy Shards to further buy a very expensive cover. 
Now everything feels like an even bigger grind. 

On every survey I've always put the "not feeling like I'm being properly rewarded for my time investment" as my main issue with the game, well they've managed to make that an even bigger problem now, to the point of me wondering whether I should continue playing this game at all.

Many say it's not finalized yet, getting shards from other places will make up for the removal of BH. Well for every second that we wait the compensation would have to be greater to really be a compensation. I don't see this ever happening here. 

Just to add a fix: I think most people would get happy if the BH is brought back and the shards would be viewed as an welcomed bonus (improvement). 

Gmax101

Nothing about this implementation is customer facing.

On the plus point, the ability to choose colours will speed up the completion of non-champed heroes... as receiving a cover for a level 5 power as a bonus was frustrating.

But the downsides are mad.

Extra clicks to do simple tasks

Wierd need to collect shards by character, opening up significant opportunities to "Waste" shards that is far more likely than "Waste" bonus hero covers.

SIgnificantly slower reward rate (yes, I know they claim that more shards will be available)

Loss of that little thrill of getting bonus heroes from the larger packs


Things I would change:

As stated above, generic shards would be a huge help, mitigating the risk of losing shards when you have finished the character

More places to win Shards would be helpful, or at least announce when they are coming and how you get them.


It just feels like this another instance of over-valuation of recruitment by development. 

MegaBee

I'd like to get shards for opening tokens for the various vaults.