Introducing the All-New Cover Exchange System!

BlackBoltRocks

@Kiko131713 said:
TNow you should put a limit of tokens held in the LL, CL and other vaults. End with the hoarding g process. Then we will be ready for 6 stars in the near future.

I...wait...what...wow.

You do realise that for the vast majority of players, the only way to get 550 5s, which would likely require some cover swapping, which would require the player to pay 600 or 1000 HP, which would increase the likelihood of them spending real money, which is what the devs want, hence the implementation of this cover swap system...

...is to hoard?

Daredevil217

@Seph1roth5 said:
It's not even about getting on the 550 train forever. If I were to unhoard for 3 LL I really want, I could get super unlucky and get 2 to 550, and the other at like...530 with a bunch of covers on the vine. Now I have to pay 13k HP or waste 20 covers? Or suck up a roster slot with dupes that will maybe get a few champ levels in the next year?

It seems like they want to keep the 550 from being ongoing, which is why they put such a penalty on LL. Oh right, it'd be 20k HP if I wanted to do LL lol.

They shouldn't try 50 different ways to stop 1 aspect, hurting all the other ways this system could be implemented and NOT suck. Put a 1-season timer on swapping 5s or something.

I'm telling you, just park your shardget on the character set to leave Latests as soon as they enter tokens. You get massive amounts of bonus shards opening thousands of tokens and that should be enough for that character to race ahead and reach 550 long before the other two do. Then immediately make the one next to leave your bonus. Again, it sucks for going back and nabbing any metas from the past (Thor, May, Chasm, Omega, etc.) but you should be able to ride the train moving forward with minimal waste.

entrailbucket

@Daredevil217 said:

@Seph1roth5 said:
It's not even about getting on the 550 train forever. If I were to unhoard for 3 LL I really want, I could get super unlucky and get 2 to 550, and the other at like...530 with a bunch of covers on the vine. Now I have to pay 13k HP or waste 20 covers? Or suck up a roster slot with dupes that will maybe get a few champ levels in the next year?

It seems like they want to keep the 550 from being ongoing, which is why they put such a penalty on LL. Oh right, it'd be 20k HP if I wanted to do LL lol.

They shouldn't try 50 different ways to stop 1 aspect, hurting all the other ways this system could be implemented and NOT suck. Put a 1-season timer on swapping 5s or something.

I'm telling you, just park your shardget on the character set to leave Latests as soon as they enter tokens. You get massive amounts of bonus shards opening thousands of tokens and that should be enough for that character to race ahead and reach 550 long before the other two do. Then immediately make the one next to leave your bonus. Again, it sucks for going back and nabbing any metas from the past (Thor, May, Chasm, Omega, etc.) but you should be able to ride the train moving forward with minimal waste.

replies incredibly hesitantly

I do wonder if they're cutting this off right now by design. I expect the next 5* to be very strong -- I haven't seen the dataminers, so maybe I'm wrong.

If they do obsolete those old guys relatively soon, this whole thing would be much less impactful (I guess?). I'm not sure how they could even do that, but maybe it's part of this plan.

Daredevil217

Personally I’m patent. I understand that this game is a marathon. For example when everyone was rocking 1a5 Juggs and Spidey on their boost weeks (due to their boost frequency) I slogged through without my own. I wanted to wait until I had all the 1a5 characters purchased and it took forever for Hawkeye and IM to come around. Once they did I immediately 550’d everyone (because I had a stockpile of standards) and joined the masses, but was able to do so with all my pulls going towards 5* rewards.

A new meta would be the same. I’ll pull like crazy for Agatha. Wait for her to leave. Pull like crazy for Mephisto. Wait again. Then I’ll decide whether Namor is worth it or not. Once he’s gone, I’m all in on the new meta. I have enough weapons to kill most things in PVP that even if there is “something better”, I can do well enough. Even if there is some new great meta it’s not like everyone will be able to jump on it day one and I can climb off the slow to adapt people who will still be rocking Shang/Thor. Then 550 hot new meta. And I’ll be happy because if they are really meta then I’ll get use even when they are no longer featured/boosted.

I’m okay with people paying for their impatience. So I guess I’ll say that. The 550 train still works as long as you are patient and don’t need the new shiny day 1. But, that kind of goes without saying. It’s true whether the new character is good or not. You are going to have to pay to be an early adopter of any character, and I’m sure that’s going to hurt some people‘s wallets who just can’t wait to play with their toys. Which, I get. I’m impulsive in most areas in life lol. Just not here. Been around too long. If I don’t do well in this event, I’ll be back up in a month.

KGB

@Theghouse said:

@Kiko131713 said:
Thank tou DEVS for giving what more than 99% of the players wanted. A legit cover swap for all levels. Now you should put a limit of tokens held in the LL, CL and other vaults. End with the hoarding g process. Then we will be ready for 6 stars in the near future.

Hahahahahahaha.....

Let me catch my breath.....

Hahahahahahahahahahaha!

You did mean literally everything you said to be taken as a joke, didn't you?

You forgot to put in the J Jonah Jameson on your reply.

KGB

GrimSkald

@Daredevil217 said:
Personally I’m patent. I understand that this game is a marathon. For example when everyone was rocking 1a5 Juggs and Spidey on their boost weeks (due to their boost frequency) I slogged through without my own. I wanted to wait until I had all the 1a5 characters purchased and it took forever for Hawkeye and IM to come around. Once they did I immediately 550’d everyone (because I had a stockpile of standards) and joined the masses, but was able to do so with all my pulls going towards 5* rewards.

A new meta would be the same. I’ll pull like crazy for Agatha. Wait for her to leave. Pull like crazy for Mephisto. Wait again. Then I’ll decide whether Namor is worth it or not. Once he’s gone, I’m all in on the new meta. I have enough weapons to kill most things in PVP that even if there is “something better”, I can do well enough. Even if there is some new great meta it’s not like everyone will be able to jump on it day one and I can climb off the slow to adapt people who will still be rocking Shang/Thor. Then 550 hot new meta. And I’ll be happy because if they are really meta then I’ll get use even when they are no longer featured/boosted.

I’m okay with people paying for their impatience. So I guess I’ll say that. The 550 train still works as long as you are patient and don’t need the new shiny day 1. But, that kind of goes without saying. It’s true whether the new character is good or not. You are going to have to pay to be an early adopter of any character, and I’m sure that’s going to hurt some people‘s wallets who just can’t wait to play with their toys. Which, I get. I’m impulsive in most areas in life lol. Just not here. Been around too long. If I don’t do well in this event, I’ll be back up in a month.

I do more or less this with the caveat that I just end up getting the characters up to the level I want them to. Trying to keep getting 550s is pretty unsustainable unless you can somehow get a profoundly high level of LTs and CP, I'm pretty sure it's impossible outside of buy clubs. Still, you can hoard some and still get it - most 5★s aren't worth getting to 550, just spike out those you like and get the rest to whatever level you want to. 480 is still very respectable and usable when boosted, even for a toon you will use when boosted. Ones you know you won't, well, I'd still champ them for sure, but anything above 450 is gravy.

I was sitting at 734 pulls waiting for Nova to leave at 489 (probably higher than he needed to be, but I did want to keep pulling to an extent for the last few cycles.) Unfortunately I spent a lot of HP during the anniversary when I thought they weren't going to do those amazing vaults ever again. Now that they have, my best way of generating HP is to open some of those pulls... oh well. Namor is good, but he's not that good (nor is Nova that bad,) I definitely plan to max out Agatha and then we'll see how the next 5★ looks. I'm pulling from this vault every day -- more-or-less emptying it, I decide at the beginning of each day if what's left is worth pulling for 300hp each or just reset for 500. I've pulled 228 of these, but between the vault and the LTs from my pulls I'm only down to 718...

I guess this is a long way of saying the cost of the swaps doesn't really bother me and it's still extremely possible to get rolling 550s. Hoarding can theoretically screw you with bad luck, but that's a lot of bad luck, and if you've been pulling incrementally the whole time it's very unlikely to be that bad. I mean, heck, we'll see how much HP I have at the end of this (and if they immediately start up another one of these vaults,) but I don't have a duplicate Chasm and Kitty -- I can easily see rolling those covers onto someone else.

KGB

@entrailbucket said:

@Daredevil217 said:

@Seph1roth5 said:
It's not even about getting on the 550 train forever. If I were to unhoard for 3 LL I really want, I could get super unlucky and get 2 to 550, and the other at like...530 with a bunch of covers on the vine. Now I have to pay 13k HP or waste 20 covers? Or suck up a roster slot with dupes that will maybe get a few champ levels in the next year?

It seems like they want to keep the 550 from being ongoing, which is why they put such a penalty on LL. Oh right, it'd be 20k HP if I wanted to do LL lol.

They shouldn't try 50 different ways to stop 1 aspect, hurting all the other ways this system could be implemented and NOT suck. Put a 1-season timer on swapping 5s or something.

I'm telling you, just park your shardget on the character set to leave Latests as soon as they enter tokens. You get massive amounts of bonus shards opening thousands of tokens and that should be enough for that character to race ahead and reach 550 long before the other two do. Then immediately make the one next to leave your bonus. Again, it sucks for going back and nabbing any metas from the past (Thor, May, Chasm, Omega, etc.) but you should be able to ride the train moving forward with minimal waste.

replies incredibly hesitantly

I do wonder if they're cutting this off right now by design. I expect the next 5* to be very strong -- I haven't seen the dataminers, so maybe I'm wrong.

If they do obsolete those old guys relatively soon, this whole thing would be much less impactful (I guess?). I'm not sure how they could even do that, but maybe it's part of this plan.

I think they did it when they did because of the Xmas vault that everyone is repeatedly buying out for roster slots. The 5 stars in there (Okoye/Chasm/BrB etc) are meta characters so are most likely to already be at 550 so this gives players a way to swap out those covers for something else while still buying out that vault. Otherwise there would be complaints about how it's the same meta characters that they already have at 550.

KGB

entrailbucket

Ha, it's kind of funny, because I've always viewed the hoarding/meta chasing thing as impatience!

When I used to talk about classics I'd always get the "dilution is terrible! I did the math and this would only add two levels to all my characters!" answer and it's like...adding two levels to all your characters is awesome! If you do that 50 times over however many years, you'll get everybody to 550! And that's exactly how I got where I'm at -- one or two levels at a time.

Bullroarer

Some observations:

1. The Cover Exchange System is likely here to stay.

Whether you like it or not, the chances are that it's not going anywhere.

2. Just because the CES here to stay that doesn't mean that it can't be adjusted.

It's been adjusted once already, it can be adjusted again.

I'd argue that it should be adjusted again, and sooner rather than later.

3. Players are well within their rights to question the CES, its costs, and its long-term implications.

The CES represents a significant paradigm shift, for everybody. Every player has the right to speak about how it might affect them (and others).

4. The CES is another way to focus on the levelling of a few specific characters, albeit at a HP cost.

Casual players might appreciate fewer "wasted" covers of characters they don't like.

More hardcore players might appreciate the ability to accelerate the levelling of meta 2★, 3★ and 4★ characters to level 550 5★s.

I don't believe that introducing the CES was necessary but at the same time I can see its appeal to some players.

5. The change to how Latest Legends Store swaps will be handled is a separate but related issue that hasn't been properly addressed yet.

Being able to swap excess covers within the LLS and then, once all three of those characters were at level 550, outside of the LLS at no cost was a part of the game.

It might not have been a well-documented part of the game, but after being available for six years (which is 55% of the game's existence, and 67% of 5★s characters' existence) it was, whether some people liked it or not, an undeniable part of the game.

Those LLS swaps were the driving force for a lot of good stuff, including a significant amount of player spending and a fierce loyalty to the game that most game developers would kill to see.

Changing those LLS swaps and not replacing them like-for-like within the framework of the CES was a slap in the face to the many who had used it or planned to use it.

Those who were planning to use it in the near future — especially those who were diligently saving their LLS tokens and CP for years, and were planning to do so for the first time — are arguably the ones who've been hurt most by this change.

6. 99% of player opposition to the CES stems from the removal of LLS swaps.

If you replicate the old system, or something close to it, then 99% of the player opposition will go away.

7. If some changes to the LLS swaps are absolutely needed then it would be better to phase them in over time.

Ideally, the LLS swaps would go back to being as they were but if they have to be monetised (via HP cost) then it would be better if that cost was minimal/nominal and/or if that change was introduced six months or more from now, to give players time to adjust and adapt to the change.

Personally, I would be okay if swaps within the LLS were free and if those to characters outside the LLS trio were around 250 HP.

I wouldn't be ecstatic over it but I believe that it would a reasonable compromise that most players who've used LLS swaps or who planned to do so would accept.

8. If such a major change to the game is being considered in the future then the least the developers could do is consult with the player base before making it.

One sure way to turn a successful business into a failed one is to make a major change without even talking to them first.

That's a sure fire way to alienate your customers, especially your biggest customers, and perhaps even drive them away.

Being honest and upfront is far more productive, even if the news you have to give them isn't good (prices are going to have to go up, etc).

Customers will appreciate a frank conversation about things, and be more willing to absorb changes, if they understand the need for them.

The people running this game would do well to consider that approach in the future.

PS, for those that are interested in my particular situation, to understand my biases, etc, I play in a top 10 alliance and I've used the LLS swaps once in the three and a half years that I've played this game.

Via my alliance and ones like it, I know players who spend a lot, and I know players who spend nothing. Most either hate the change to LLS swaps, have concerns about the CES, or both.

None of the big spenders I know are happy with the change to the LLS swaps. Their opposition might not bother you but it should, because they're exactly the kind of players (customers) that MPQ can't afford to lose...

PPS, the one thing we all have in common is that we enjoy playing MPQ and want it to thrive.

revskip

@Bullroarer said:
5. The change to how Latest Legends Store swaps will be handled is a separate but related issue that hasn't been properly addressed yet.

Being able to swap excess covers within the LLS and then, once all three of those characters were at level 550, outside of the LLS at no cost was a part of the game.

It might not have been a well-documented part of the game, but after being available for six years (which is 55% of the game's existence, and 67% of 5★s characters' existence) it was, whether some people liked it or not, an undeniable part of the game.

Those LLS swaps were the driving force for a lot of good stuff, including a significant amount of player spending and a fierce loyalty to the game that most game developers would kill to see.

None of the big spenders I know are happy with the change to the LLS swaps. Their opposition might not bother you but it should, because they're exactly the kind of players (customers) that MPQ can't afford to lose...

Very well stated. I'm sure the contraction of spending at the top level of play is being looked at by the devs. I hope they do right by the big spenders who pay to keep the servers running and the game continuing to develop. Love this game and don't want to see it shuttered. I don't know what percentage of the the bottom line the buy clubs are but seeing that stream dry up entirely is scary as someone who wants to keep playing.

Daredevil217

It’s interesting because you could make the argument that the big spenders would love this change because it gates the free to plays from having a way to catch up and compete with them. Plus it makes it so spending gives you an actual advantage.

But the problem is MOST swaps are being done by the big spenders and not the free to play folks who are “killing the game”. Also many of the top players/spenders I’ve encountered have been happy to help out and disseminate information to those beneath them. It’s quite a welcoming community as long as you’re not a jerk and is not some super secret society. So the idea of money being a way to gate off others might not be as appealing to the upper echelon as one might think. But given I’m not in that tier, I can’t say for sure.

entrailbucket

@revskip said:

@Bullroarer said:
5. The change to how Latest Legends Store swaps will be handled is a separate but related issue that hasn't been properly addressed yet.

Being able to swap excess covers within the LLS and then, once all three of those characters were at level 550, outside of the LLS at no cost was a part of the game.

It might not have been a well-documented part of the game, but after being available for six years (which is 55% of the game's existence, and 67% of 5★s characters' existence) it was, whether some people liked it or not, an undeniable part of the game.

Those LLS swaps were the driving force for a lot of good stuff, including a significant amount of player spending and a fierce loyalty to the game that most game developers would kill to see.

None of the big spenders I know are happy with the change to the LLS swaps. Their opposition might not bother you but it should, because they're exactly the kind of players (customers) that MPQ can't afford to lose...

Very well stated. I'm sure the contraction of spending at the top level of play is being looked at by the devs. I hope they do right by the big spenders who pay to keep the servers running and the game continuing to develop. Love this game and don't want to see it shuttered. I don't know what percentage of the the bottom line the buy clubs are but seeing that stream dry up entirely is scary as someone who wants to keep playing.

The buyclubs have gone "on strike" before in response to various changes...the issue is keeping up that kind of solidarity among a decent-sized group (who are all in competition) for a long enough period of time to make a difference.

In the past they haven't been able to maintain it for very long.

revskip

@entrailbucket said:

@revskip said:

@Bullroarer said:
5. The change to how Latest Legends Store swaps will be handled is a separate but related issue that hasn't been properly addressed yet.

Being able to swap excess covers within the LLS and then, once all three of those characters were at level 550, outside of the LLS at no cost was a part of the game.

It might not have been a well-documented part of the game, but after being available for six years (which is 55% of the game's existence, and 67% of 5★s characters' existence) it was, whether some people liked it or not, an undeniable part of the game.

Those LLS swaps were the driving force for a lot of good stuff, including a significant amount of player spending and a fierce loyalty to the game that most game developers would kill to see.

None of the big spenders I know are happy with the change to the LLS swaps. Their opposition might not bother you but it should, because they're exactly the kind of players (customers) that MPQ can't afford to lose...

Very well stated. I'm sure the contraction of spending at the top level of play is being looked at by the devs. I hope they do right by the big spenders who pay to keep the servers running and the game continuing to develop. Love this game and don't want to see it shuttered. I don't know what percentage of the the bottom line the buy clubs are but seeing that stream dry up entirely is scary as someone who wants to keep playing.

The buyclubs have gone "on strike" before in response to various changes...the issue is keeping up that kind of solidarity among a decent-sized group (who are all in competition) for a long enough period of time to make a difference.

In the past they haven't been able to maintain it for very long.

And in the past there have been changes that came when that revenue stream closed. Shardmas was the last time I remember. That was under different management so this might be the first exposure to it that BCS has seen. There is an awful lot of money spent in the buy clubs every day. Turning off that revenue stream for a month doesn't seem healthy.

entrailbucket

@Daredevil217 said:
It’s interesting because you could make the argument that the big spenders would love this change because it gates the free to plays from having a way to catch up and compete with them. Plus it makes it so spending gives you an actual advantage.

But the problem is MOST swaps are being done by the big spenders and not the free to play folks who are “killing the game”. Also many of the top players/spenders I’ve encountered have been happy to help out and disseminate information to those beneath them. It’s quite a welcoming community as long as you’re not a jerk and is not some super secret society. So the idea of money being a way to gate off others might not be as appealing to the upper echelon as one might think. But given I’m not in that tier, I can’t say for sure.

I'm not sure how their treatment of the mega-megawhales has evolved over the years. There are a few names I still recognize, and I wonder if there are some new ones. There was that one player whose roster kept getting posted here a few months ago.

I will say, I knew the first ever true monster spender (he was in our alliance for a bit, we sorta taught him how to play!). This was many, many, many years ago, before the first CS swap policy was even put in place. He claimed his lifetime spend was into 6 figures, and seeing the alliance CP we got, I'm not sure he was lying by that much.

He was treated like a VIP. He had regular calls with the dev team to give his input on how the game should work. He basically had his own CS person, that he could call whenever he wanted something. The amount of cover swaps he did was insane -- he'd send us screenshots of what he got pretty regularly. I'm sure there was some exaggeration there, but there was enough proof that I believed quite a bit of it. I don't know if he was an exception when they put the old policy in place.

It's possible they ended that treatment. It's also possible it was a one-off situation for someone who was personally putting all their kids through college -- maybe nobody else has spent that much since him! I do hope they're still doing something special for the very top echelon of the spenders though.

entrailbucket

@revskip said:

@entrailbucket said:

@revskip said:

@Bullroarer said:
5. The change to how Latest Legends Store swaps will be handled is a separate but related issue that hasn't been properly addressed yet.

Being able to swap excess covers within the LLS and then, once all three of those characters were at level 550, outside of the LLS at no cost was a part of the game.

It might not have been a well-documented part of the game, but after being available for six years (which is 55% of the game's existence, and 67% of 5★s characters' existence) it was, whether some people liked it or not, an undeniable part of the game.

Those LLS swaps were the driving force for a lot of good stuff, including a significant amount of player spending and a fierce loyalty to the game that most game developers would kill to see.

None of the big spenders I know are happy with the change to the LLS swaps. Their opposition might not bother you but it should, because they're exactly the kind of players (customers) that MPQ can't afford to lose...

Very well stated. I'm sure the contraction of spending at the top level of play is being looked at by the devs. I hope they do right by the big spenders who pay to keep the servers running and the game continuing to develop. Love this game and don't want to see it shuttered. I don't know what percentage of the the bottom line the buy clubs are but seeing that stream dry up entirely is scary as someone who wants to keep playing.

The buyclubs have gone "on strike" before in response to various changes...the issue is keeping up that kind of solidarity among a decent-sized group (who are all in competition) for a long enough period of time to make a difference.

In the past they haven't been able to maintain it for very long.

And in the past there have been changes that came when that revenue stream closed. Shardmas was the last time I remember. That was under different management so this might be the first exposure to it that BCS has seen. There is an awful lot of money spent in the buy clubs every day. Turning off that revenue stream for a month doesn't seem healthy.

Oh definitely it's not healthy. The shard thing is the only example I can think of where a change was undone, though. It's just...not super easy to keep a group like that united for all that long. If the next 5* is super strong it'll put a lot of pressure on them.

bluewolf

Let’s play the game again:

Tell me what the next new super strong 5 will do that makes them worth chasing without breaking the game further.

Power creep Thor shenanigans? Another passive board shake+fires abilities with more board shake and higher dmg?

Power creep Omega? Maybe they passively resist dmg for the whole team while doing passive aoe and having an aoe stun that costs 6 ap?

Power creep May by doing the same dmg for less ap? So you don’t need to use ap boosts? Or clears at a lower character level and they work unboosted in PvP?

I mean maybe. But the tools are already in the game to win turn zero, and moving the needle gets into ridiculous areas and the devs have in the past said they don’t care to just power creep existing 5s. Making the game more(?) turn zero or impossible to win versus without mirroring a meta seems like a bad thing.

Other than something like that the top players can bide their time. The danger is for the game they get bored and less motivated and break spending habits and even just notching it down say 20% might make a big difference in the game’s sustainability.

entrailbucket

@bluewolf said:
Let’s play the game again:

Tell me what the next new super strong 5 will do that makes them worth chasing without breaking the game further.

Power creep Thor shenanigans? Another passive board shake+fires abilities with more board shake and higher dmg?

Power creep Omega? Maybe they passively resist dmg for the whole team while doing passive aoe and having an aoe stun that costs 6 ap?

Power creep May by doing the same dmg for less ap? So you don’t need to use ap boosts? Or clears at a lower character level and they work unboosted in PvP?

I mean maybe. But the tools are already in the game to win turn zero, and moving the needle gets into ridiculous areas and the devs have in the past said they don’t care to just power creep existing 5s. Making the game more(?) turn zero or impossible to win versus without mirroring a meta seems like a bad thing.

Other than something like that the top players can bide their time. The danger is for the game they get bored and less motivated and break spending habits and even just notching it down say 20% might make a big difference in the game’s sustainability.

If all of those things are true, then why would they have been spending right now?

I assumed we were talking about a group of folks who would be dropping hundreds of dollars a day right now, if there wasn't a boycott going on. Those players are probably paying for anybody strong, who'd give them any small edge.

Players who already have all the top guys, and would only pay for someone strictly better, aren't buying anything right now anyway.

revskip

@entrailbucket said:

@bluewolf said:
Let’s play the game again:

Tell me what the next new super strong 5 will do that makes them worth chasing without breaking the game further.

Power creep Thor shenanigans? Another passive board shake+fires abilities with more board shake and higher dmg?

Power creep Omega? Maybe they passively resist dmg for the whole team while doing passive aoe and having an aoe stun that costs 6 ap?

Power creep May by doing the same dmg for less ap? So you don’t need to use ap boosts? Or clears at a lower character level and they work unboosted in PvP?

I mean maybe. But the tools are already in the game to win turn zero, and moving the needle gets into ridiculous areas and the devs have in the past said they don’t care to just power creep existing 5s. Making the game more(?) turn zero or impossible to win versus without mirroring a meta seems like a bad thing.

Other than something like that the top players can bide their time. The danger is for the game they get bored and less motivated and break spending habits and even just notching it down say 20% might make a big difference in the game’s sustainability.

If all of those things are true, then why would they have been spending right now?

I assumed we were talking about a group of folks who would be dropping hundreds of dollars a day right now, if there wasn't a boycott going on. Those players are probably paying for anybody strong, who'd give them any small edge.

Players who already have all the top guys, and would only pay for someone strictly better, aren't buying anything right now anyway.

They were spending so they could use the new shiny as soon as it came out during it's "new" boost month. This change killed the ability to do that. It is a pretty impactful change to not just how they play but why they play. The change essentially took what was a free service provided to them and changed it to a very expensive service without all of the original benefits. I don't see them breaking any time soon.

entrailbucket

@revskip said:

@entrailbucket said:

@bluewolf said:
Let’s play the game again:

Tell me what the next new super strong 5 will do that makes them worth chasing without breaking the game further.

Power creep Thor shenanigans? Another passive board shake+fires abilities with more board shake and higher dmg?

Power creep Omega? Maybe they passively resist dmg for the whole team while doing passive aoe and having an aoe stun that costs 6 ap?

Power creep May by doing the same dmg for less ap? So you don’t need to use ap boosts? Or clears at a lower character level and they work unboosted in PvP?

I mean maybe. But the tools are already in the game to win turn zero, and moving the needle gets into ridiculous areas and the devs have in the past said they don’t care to just power creep existing 5s. Making the game more(?) turn zero or impossible to win versus without mirroring a meta seems like a bad thing.

Other than something like that the top players can bide their time. The danger is for the game they get bored and less motivated and break spending habits and even just notching it down say 20% might make a big difference in the game’s sustainability.

If all of those things are true, then why would they have been spending right now?

I assumed we were talking about a group of folks who would be dropping hundreds of dollars a day right now, if there wasn't a boycott going on. Those players are probably paying for anybody strong, who'd give them any small edge.

Players who already have all the top guys, and would only pay for someone strictly better, aren't buying anything right now anyway.

They were spending so they could use the new shiny as soon as it came out during it's "new" boost month. This change killed the ability to do that. It is a pretty impactful change to not just how they play but why they play. The change essentially took what was a free service provided to them and changed it to a very expensive service without all of the original benefits. I don't see them breaking any time soon.

...right, and if the new shiny is extra shiny I bet a bunch of them will break down and pay for it, despite how committed they say they are right now -- that's what I've been saying.

We'll see!

entrailbucket

Also, the "players should have input," or "there should be a players' council" things come up quite often, and my question about the idea every time is:

How do you know they're NOT talking to players, or that there isn't already a players' council, and you're just not on it?

Seriously, what if players are weighing in on all of these things, but either they're not talking about it, or they're players you don't know? What if they have a council of players that want totally different things out of the game than you do? I just read this as "they should ask me, or players just like me, for input" and maybe there's a reason they're not doing that.