Daily Shards

n1xx0n

Hi folks,

while the new addition of shards is a great and most welcome feature I personally have troubles with the daily shards. Up to now there was no way to buy 5* characters with money. While you could speed up your progress a bit with buying hps or iso you could never buy your way to 5* star land. I liked that idea very much.

Now that is different, three times a day you can buy 400 shards to a 5*. To me it seems like a big step towards pay2win which is disappointing.

Anyone else feeling that way?

Cheers!

Rhipf

There are 5*s in the H4H stores. Sure these were for CP and the only way to buy CP is as a bonus for purchasing HPs and ISO-8 but theoretically, if you are willing to spend enough money you could buy a 5* that way.

Therealsmkspy

They monetized bonus heroes, thereby adding another level of micro-transactions to the game. 

I don't like it, but the heavy monetization of the game has been their priority for the past two years.

It is what it is. Shrug.

bluewolf

Not so much a big step as another step along the same path.

The game's overall playerbase remains pretty much the same, at least for the past 4 months (based on bracket flips).  So a continual process to find new ways to encourage spending makes a lot of sense for the game.

I don't suppose you think they will stop looking for new monetization?  They won't.  If you don't like it.....well, you can quit or stop spending money, I guess.

On the plus side, shards have eliminated the ability to preview your Bonus Hero pulls, and see if the color would be useable, and change it if not.  So all the players who didn't do that are now playing a more-fair game.

Warbringa

It doesn't really change it as you could already "buy" 5* through CP as mentioned above, which is what buy clubs are all about.  All it does is make it a more direct option that allows more players to actually buy if they want to.  Buy clubs are a difficult and coordinated thing that most players don't even know about.  This is a money making game and I want to keep playing it. If you pay you should win....I have no problem with that. Most of us don't want to drop that much money on a game like this so we grind instead.  I do support the game through monthly VIP and rare small one-time purchases.  

Therealsmkspy

Warbringa said:

It doesn't really change it as you could already "buy" 5* through CP as mentioned above, which is what buy clubs are all about.  All it does is make it a more direct option that allows more players to actually buy if they want to.  Buy clubs are a difficult and coordinated thing that most players don't even know about.  This is a money making game and I want to keep playing it. If you pay you should win....I have no problem with that. Most of us don't want to drop that much money on a game like this so we grind instead.  I do support the game through monthly VIP and rare small one-time purchases.  

Agreed. I'll never fault the developers for trying to maximize profit...nevertheless, it doesn't erase my own disappointment that they completely demolished one of the few non-P2W aspects of the game.

They really need to throw us a feeder type QoL update that keeps moral up. This shard system is not doing it so far. Between costume bundles, weekend bundles, and now money BH, all I see is gimme gimme gimme and no "here's something for our customers that they don't need to fork out cash for" gesture.

Dogface

Warbringa said:

It doesn't really change it as you could already "buy" 5* through CP as mentioned above, which is what buy clubs are all about.  All it does is make it a more direct option that allows more players to actually buy if they want to.  Buy clubs are a difficult and coordinated thing that most players don't even know about.  This is a money making game and I want to keep playing it. If you pay you should win....I have no problem with that. Most of us don't want to drop that much money on a game like this so we grind instead.  I do support the game through monthly VIP and rare small one-time purchases.  

That's a way of looking at it, yeah. 

WiDoW0042

Maybe someone already mentioned this and I just missed it, but isn’t there a difference between the h4h and the new “buy” shards, the difference being that you can purchase shards 5 times in a day and that character might show up again a week later, but when a 5* enters the h4h area you can only buy one preselected cover and then you’d have to wait forever for that character to show up again.  Yes? No?

bluewolf

WiDoW0042 said:

Maybe someone already mentioned this and I just missed it, but isn’t there a difference between the h4h and the new “buy” shards, the difference being that you can purchase shards 5 times in a day and that character might show up again a week later, but when a 5* enters the h4h area you can only buy one preselected cover and then you’d have to wait forever for that character to show up again.  Yes? No?

Correct, the Heroes for Hire rotation is about a year on classics now, and just the single color.  250CP is perhaps probably far easier to save up (for me) than the HP to buy a 5 through shards, though.

Dogface

OJSP said:

Dogface said:

Warbringa said:

I do support the game through monthly VIP and rare small one-time purchases.  

That's a way of looking at it, yeah. 

I don't understand. Is there another way of looking at it?

Yes, if I buy milk it's bc I want milk, not to support the milkman.

Dogface

Sadly you miss the point. It's not about the sort of product, or it being necessary or not.

n1xx0n

Thanks for your opinions. It is nice to see that some of you feel the same way about the daily shards.

I dont think buyclubs or H4H compare to the daily shards at least not in terms of availability (as was stated above). For myself I like to support developpers if I enjoy playing their game so I got my VIP subscription as well. Beyond that there is the occasional offer that I purchase. As much as I see other ppl invest I dont think they need daily shards to make good money.

I agree about two things directly, it is business and one should not play the game if one doesnt like it. Many of us here have spent lots of time (and money) on the game and building a roster etc., so if something changes for the worse I think it is only right to speak up. At least then your opinion is known and there is a chance someone might listen to it.

It would be very interesting to see the real numbers. How many subscriptions and who buys how much in average and how it is after 1.9.1.

Rhipf

Since I made the post about 5*s "purchased" via H4H I thought I should clarify my post. I wasn't actually trying to compare 5*s via shard purchase or H4H. All I was pointing out the inaccuracy of this statement:

Up to now there was no way to buy 5* characters with money.

Does it take longer to get the specific 5* cover you want via H4H and CP? Definitely and it is way more expensive to do it that way also. All I was trying to to point out is that technically shards aren't the first time players were able to purchase 5* for money.

AWorthyChap

n1xx0n said:

Hi folks,

while the new addition of shards is a great and most welcome feature I personally have troubles with the daily shards. Up to now there was no way to buy 5* characters with money. While you could speed up your progress a bit with buying hps or iso you could never buy your way to 5* star land. I liked that idea very much.

Now that is different, three times a day you can buy 400 shards to a 5*. To me it seems like a big step towards pay2win which is disappointing.

Anyone else feeling that way?

Cheers!

No.  No one is paying to win by buying shards.  Buying shards is a way for newer players that spend to gain entry level access to the 5* tier.  The people that have paid to win have 550s that they obtained through CP primarily from buy clubs or big spending alliances.

BoyWonder1914

Is there any kind of schedule available for who's going to be offered when? Would be nice to know for planning purposes. 

MegaBee

BoyWonder1914 said:

Is there any kind of schedule available for who's going to be offered when? Would be nice to know for planning purposes. 

Not that I've seen.

bluewolf

BoyWonder1914 said:

Is there any kind of schedule available for who's going to be offered when? Would be nice to know for planning purposes. 

It’s completely random. 

skittledaddy

BoyWonder1914 said:

Is there any kind of schedule available for who's going to be offered when? Would be nice to know for planning purposes. 

Not only is it random, but it's random BY PLAYER, so everyone will have different offers each time.
For that reason alone, a schedule would never be feasible.

broll

skittledaddy said:

BoyWonder1914 said:

Is there any kind of schedule available for who's going to be offered when? Would be nice to know for planning purposes. 

Not only is it random, but it's random BY PLAYER, so everyone will have different offers each time.
For that reason alone, a schedule would never be feasible.

This isn't entirely true.  Just because it's different per player, doesn't mean their isn't a set rotation.  There are 177 characters eligible for shards.  If they were in a set rotation 1-177, then 177 people would have different offerings, but a pattern could be derived after recording peoples results for the 177 days.  More likely if there are any patterns they are by tiers, which would make the time to track a pattern shorter, while also increasing the level of 'random'ness because each player could be a in a different results in 3-6 separate rotations.

My point being we don't know for certain it's random.  All we know is that it seems random.  Many systems have come out that seems random, but a pattern ultimately emerged.  I suspect there is a pattern and it will eventually be learned, but it could take 3-6 months or more before that pattern is discovered.

The main reason I suspect there is a pattern is the devs have said they don't want the players to be able to predict, yet they keep putting in place predictable systems.  I believe they do that is the easiest way to ensure 'fair'ness is to make it not random (or spend a lot of time creating a system that is both random and has a fair yet unpredictable output).  It's quicker and easier to make it not random.  I suspect this is not random but they want us to think it's random for as long as possible (they may even change the pattern if/when it's discovered to keep it seemingly random).

Yepyep

Dogface said:

OJSP said:

Dogface said:

Warbringa said:

I do support the game through monthly VIP and rare small one-time purchases.  

That's a way of looking at it, yeah. 

I don't understand. Is there another way of looking at it?

Yes, if I buy milk it's bc I want milk, not to support the milkman.

So as much as I love your metaphor, and I do!, it's flawed. With this game, there is no milkman, no middleman. Here, you are buying from the dairy farmer directly, so your payments are directly ensuring your continued supply of milk by supporting the farmer (because you can't pay the cows and it's safe to assume you're not producing milk yourself or you wouldn't be buying it).
In your analogy, if you/everybody stopped paying the milkman for milk then he'd get another job but it wouldn't have as dramatic an effect on the farmer, who presumably has more milkmen selling her product (if there is only one milkman selling her product, then that is inefficient and she should be selling direct). You might lose access to milk in the short term, but the market would likely incentivize a new milkman to serve you or you could find another access point. But the milk would keep flowing.
Here, if you/everybody stops paying then the milk will disappear: there will soon be no more game as the farmer will find another line of work. Perhaps selling beef.
PS. For the record, I hate this BH-->shards tradeoff, so I'm not necessarily on the farmer's side here. I think they're hell-bent on destroying the game. That or they're doing a hard resource dive to plunder the mine while it's still producing. To completely mix metaphors...
Edited to pull out the extra carriage return lines.

dragonreader

This isn't entirely true.  Just because it's different per player, doesn't mean their isn't a set rotation.  

If there is a rotation it’s a weird one.  I have had 5* gambit 3 times since they started and other 5* not at all