Next SHIELD Training: Wolfsbane, MODOK, Other?

bluewolf

HoundofShadow said:

F2P mobile games' business model are pretty much straightforward: You either grind away to progress or you pay to progress.

Customers buy something because they've needs. If they don't, it's highly unlikely they will buy it. 

If you expect devs of F2P mobile games that have to pay licensing costs and royalties to come up with features or events that even casual players can complete by not spending much time or money, then I think there's a misalignment of expectation. If one continue to expect this, I think it'd be better for players to look for other similar competitors that can achieve this.

I will be concerned if the devs are not interested in monetising the game anymore. You can ask players who play Marvel Battle Lines what happens when their devs decided to stop monetising.

Your point about the devs in FTP games roster-gating events is certainly valid.  Expecting an easy route to all the content will be disappointing.

The devs will be selling stuff until the end.  I didn't play MBLines but I kind of doubt they just opened everything up for free and were surprised by the revenue drop.  They just probably didn't balance costs vs revenue etc effectively.  My understanding is that the game was very slow to play, which probably didn't help it in the modern era of infinite distraction.

The main issues with Shield Training (now) is dilution has steadily increased, making it very unlikely that you will pull a desired 4 (less than 1% chance from Legendary pulls).  And, now the hope (futile as it was on average) that you might have scored some lucky bonus heroes in order to qualify for ST is gone.  This issue is biggest on the newest people where you have had the least amount of time to pull for them, although the number of progression covers is a little higher for newer people as well.

In a way the ST is remarkably effective at motivating/aggravating people given the actual rewards are nice but not that game-changing in the long run.  You get the extra cover, which can help you get the next extra cover, but much of the time the characters you are chasing just become benchwarmers once they have been in game for a couple months or so anyway, given the extremely large number of characters.

HoundofShadow

Marvel Battle Lines is pretty generous with their gems and cards. You can also give away cards to your guild members. You can get top tier cards easily from their stores by using in-game resources. Some of the top tier cards are actually common and uncommon cards. MBL started from a place where they are generous with resources to monetising the game. I think they are the least P2W out of the few popular Marvel mobile games such as Marvel Strike Force and Contest of Champion. 

Regarding ST, the devs does require older characters in every 4-5 ST based on past history. Recently, they put the first cover of new 4* in PvP progression rewards. Gwenpool event has run twice. All these aren't big changes, but it does show that they are improving different aspects of the game slowly for different groups of players. 

As far as dilution is concerned, it's not an easy issue to resolve. How easy should players be able to cover 4* and 5* characters that they want without sacrificing longevity of the game? If casual players can easily get whatever covers of the characters that they want, I think they will face the same fate as MBL. No needs = no revenues.

MPQ has been running for six years and counting, and while this game is not perfect, I think, overall, they are pretty good. 

The entire shard and Mighty Token system has not been rolled out yet. I suspect they are still monitoring in-game data about TH before they decide how much shards to roll out into PvE and PvP. It will probably take a couple months?

DAZ0273

SHIELD Training would be understood by newer players much better if there was better communication around it. Those of us who have been here for a while remember and understand what the original concept was (even if some vary on who the target audience really is). Newer players get nothing of this so of course they think that the game is deliberately attempting to block off their progress and give them the middle finger. Simple things make massive changes but this game continuously shoots itself in the foot over silly things like this. All the Devs would need to say is "Yes you can expect to see Wolfsbane and M.O.D.O.K in ST at some point in the near future" and players will adapt and do their best. Instead we get the Scooby Doo Mystery treatment waiting to see who is under the mask and then gasping "Talos!" - the Devs would have got away with it too if not for those pesky forumites kids...

HoundofShadow

How much spoon-feeding and hand-holding is enough for new players? If the players are interested in the game, they will find all means to find the answer that they want to.
I don't see the point of bombarding new players with the history and other features of the game. Can you imagine new players going through tutorials on how PvP, PvE, MMR, RNG works before they can play the game? I will be turned off if the tutorial takes ages to finish. 

DAZ0273

HoundofShadow said:

How much spoon-feeding and hand-holding is enough for new players? If the players are interested in the game, they will find all means to find the answer that they want to.
I don't see the point of bombarding new players with the history and other features of the game. Can you imagine new players going through tutorials on how PvP, PvE, MMR, RNG works before they can play the game? I will be turned off if the tutorial takes ages to finish. 

So a line in the sneak peak saying character X and character Y will be candidates for upcoming SHIELD Training so look out for them in the shards store is too much to ask?

bluewolf

RE:  Ease of attaining characters for ST (and otherwise).

When ST started - September 2017 - there were 55 (non-Limited) 4's in the game meaning you had approx 1.5% chance of pulling a specific person from a given Legendary pull.

With 88 4's you have a 0.96% chance.  That means it was 1.6X easier (more likely) that you could pull the missing person (without a bonus hero).

September 2017 was also the last time we saw a permanent increase in in-game earnable resources.

IMO from any objective standpoint the game has made it harder and harder to get the characters you want.  Maybe that goes hand-in-hand with having so many vets around who can accelerate their resource acquisition with higher level champs etc.  Plenty of high end vets drop big bucks on bundles and things, keeping the game in business.

Newer players, though....their experience (to me) keeps getting worse and worse.

It would be nice, given the fact that shards require much more planning than BH did, if the devs got much better at early information about the upcoming Shield Trainings.  But something tells me we can only expect to (maybe) have the info a week and a half early at any given time.

Ed_Dragonrider

Actually, in ST, the latest 4* isn't the biggest problem for a newer roster player, but rather the other two requireds.
The LLLVV-cycle can help a lot, whereas trying to cover the other 85 or so 4*chars to 10 covers just so they can be ready in case they're the ones required, seems near impossible at first. For a very long time when ST came around I had more covers for the newest (4-6), then the older ones (1-3). Whenever it featured 3 vintage chars I was able to do less of the in-between nodes.

I'm not trying to say that covering the newest is not a problem, just that when it comes to newer rosters, in my experience, it's not the only problem.
And there is no rotation for who the other two featured characters will be, so no way to target those either.

Pongie

I’m in the same boat but slightly better with modok at 8 covers and wolfbane at 7 covers Still a valid question and this may be the first shield training I miss out (first of many to come). 

grumbLEGO

I’ve had sufficient covers on the newest character for most of the ST, at least by the end if not by the start. Honestly I think there’s only been a couple of times I was short, and I’ve been playing long enough that the rest of the 4*s are not only in my roster but champed, but I too am worried about getting to the 10 covers with Rahne or MODOK, especially with only 4 or 5 covers for each, which is where I’m normally at with a new release character by this point. I’ve been hoarding tokens since I realized this, but not sure it’s going to be enough.

i don’t really get high placement in PVE or PVP and I don’t really try to, but for the most part being ready for ST hasn’t been too much of an issue, I’m interested in seeing how that changes with shards. 

HoundofShadow

To keep things fair, shouldn't advance notice of who are required in shield training be made known via in-game pop-up as well so that all players have the same opportunity to plan in advance?

DAZ0273

HoundofShadow said:

To keep things fair, shouldn't advance notice of who are required in shield training be made known via in-game pop-up as well so that all players have the same opportunity to plan in advance?

Yes. Even better than the forum.

Kizik

blankcanvas said:

Sounds like there's common belief that SM2099 is going to get skipped over.

There is a thread that has all the previous ST essentials: https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/70293/list-of-s-h-i-e-l-d-training-essentials
The last few have been odd with 11/07 being all classics and Hammond being used twice (10/10 and 11/21). They did something similar this time last year so it should return to a normal schedule with WorthyCap and SM2099 being up before Wolfsbane or MODOK.
It is possible that they will be skipped but so far it looks like only the duds (*cough*Talos) have been skipped and Worthy is not a dud.