Another Attempt to Punish Mercs....Here We Go Again!

Why else would they care players are getting extra ascension mats if other players aren’t complaining about it and it’s not effecting the competitiveness of the game? I look pass what they say, because again it’s business and they’ll figure anyway they can to spin greed in a positive light. (Alliance wars, hero of the month, winter specials, spring specials, vip passes, etc.) All boils down to increasing in game purchases regardless of what reason they claim it is. The game was designed to make money, no one designs a game they hope they don’t make a profit on. Which is not an issue since it’s all part of business but this change seems pointless for both parties. sg and the players will see no benefit from this.

You could at a+ tier iv

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It’s been very long time ago, but I’ve got even golden token.

Yes, they will allow. Timer allow you to fill your chest in two days (~48h15m). Titan death doesn’t prevent filling chest while timer is on. And you will get 6 rolls by killing 6 1* titans

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In 179 titan kills, top, and only, slayer, I have gotten non farmable 3* items twice. First was gloves, the second a hidden blade. It does happen, just very, very rarely.

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I’m fine to nerf mercing if SG stop to propose ascension materials for money or make the chance to buy refills during the event. (With guaranteed ascension items)

If they want people don’t “exploit” the game, then it must be for everyone and not only for who don’t pay.

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shortlist of frequent requests

more ways to get materials =/= better way to get materials.

Good point. If That’s their true motivation behind it then that’s what they should do

That question has been answered multiple times now, by multiple people, in this thread. I’ll link to @Revelate’s summary again.

Please make the effort to expand and read the whole post (#147, above). This sets out what is motivating SG (so far as we can tell). There have been more detailed discussions of this previously in the thread, so you might like to read them too. This is what you need to respond to, if you wish to argue for keeping mercing unchanged. If you don’t understand, let me know and I’ll try to explain in a different way. Because so far you have consistently failed to address the very issues we see driving the nerf.

Or if you want to embrace cynicism and assume SG is just looking to maximise revenue, regardless of player feelings, that’s fine. But then this discussion is really over, isn’t it? Because why would anyone stick with a game that was run like that? You wouldn’t torture yourself in that way, would you? I wouldn’t.

I’m struggling to understand the mechanics of what you are proposing: I think language may be getting in our way. (And perhaps my own total lack of experience of mercing.) But if your point is that there will always be opportunities to exploit systems, until those opportunities are removed, then I agree wholeheartedly. If you find an opportunity and exploit it then good on you!

I’d suggest that if such an exploit becomes widespread to the extent that it distorts the game - as it has with mercing - then the opportunity is likely to be removed. Of course, then you might find a new way to exploit the changed system. Good on you again!

I don’t see how any of this impacts on the question of whether mercing should be nerfed. Unless you are arguing that because no solution is perfect, no solution should be attempted. That would not be a good argument, however.

You’re saying that because SG are proposing the elimination of the advantage players gain by mercing, they should also eliminate the advantage players gain by paying. Why?

Because devs are saying mercing gives players an unfair advantage of getting more ascension materials than others. If that’s the case, then so does buying ascension materials when others don’t buy them. Mercing is just as much a choice and a style of play as being a f2p or p2w player is. If money isn’t behind this change, and the integrity of the game is. then not letting people buy world energy during events or ascension mats any other time would fall under this reasoning as well. Fair is fair right?

Devs are not saying that mercing gives players an unfair advantage. They have never said this, despite the fact that you keep repeating it.

I know you feel strongly about this and you may have a smart contribution to make, but you gotta get off this horse - it’s really a donkey, at best. This nerf is not about fairness. Please take the time to read and understand the basis for the change, because I’d love to read your response to it.

Because it was the model that SG has shown from the beginining.
It worked just fine for almost a year, bring in there a million people and make the game we all love and play.

The idea was really simple: money can help you have the heroes and troops, but you can’t buy your way to the top. You have to work hard, hit hard and play daily.
Now with this calendars/troops/faraon’s chest it isn’t like that anymore. You can both buy the hero and the ascension material if you want.
Or you can buy energy all the time, get all the results and the materials you want without have to worry of a fair competition.
Because if we try to score a goal, it’s useless to see who is the best player if i have only 1 shot and the other 100.
It cease the competition per se.

So all the “getting more ascension items while mercing” complaning is fine, if you are working hard to get you way in an old fashionated way persuading loyalty to a single alliance.

But if you are saying that because you want that your money are the only thing that makes a real difference, then i can’t disagree more.

If the only way to keep a bit the pace is playing a bit over the guidelines, i can’t see that as “exploit” the game.
Just doing what i can.

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I’m F2P, working hard in an “old fashioned way”, as you say, being loyal to one alliance (I’m well over 300 days with them, now). In that time we’ve never used a merc.

Edit: I just checked: I’m at 360 days! My one year alliance anniversary is next week! Gifts are welcome!

So if you’re proposing that SG dispense with all the advantages that can be bought, that would be to my advantage. Except I suspect the game runs on money and if you were to remove all the money from it then it might not run quite so well any more. So I think I want the spenders to hang around and keep spending.

I don’t see the same argument for keeping mercs.

So they feel players are getting more ascension mats than intended by mercing. Well that statement can still apply to my previous statements. So now the issue is that if it’s not done for the fairness of all or the integrity of the game or for money then why? Those are 3 reasons i think of if i was to make changes to the game. Buying ascension mats gives us more mats than game has intended as well. I’ve maxed multiple heros in recent months due to these opportunies while my f2p teammates are struggling to get ascension mats. So therefore if there is an imbalance between mercs and alliance members getting ascension mats, then it should bring up the issue of the imbalance between f2p and p2w players getting ascension mats. I’m not seeing the point of addressing one without the other. Game was intended for us to have slow progress by getting ascension mats from titans, chests, and mystic vision. Well mercs are doing that but devs feel they are doin it too well. P2w players are doing that as well but gaining items faster than others through in game purchases. If it’s not about money, then why is one a problem and the other one isn’t? Goes hand in hand. Goes back to my original statement: you can’t treat certain players different than others. What’s fair for 1 is fair for all. If they’re not singling out mercs and simply focusing on the rapid acquiring of ascension mats then p2w should be addressed as well. Idk how else to explain it.

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All I’ve heard from people here is this change is needed so it’s more fair for those that CHOOSE to sit in their alliance and never merc. That’s been the main argument from those who are against mercing.

It’s kind of funny how basically everyone who is here talking about how mercs should be punished have mostly never merc’d or only done so for 1 day.

It also amazes me how many people are sitting here stating mercing is bypassing the game mechanics the devs intended. We’ve been down this road before and that may have been a true statement at one point as the devs did try to kill mercing all together. However, after listening to their entire community and not just the top players/alliances the devs realized that mercing was a valuable add to their game…it took the about 24 hours to completely reverse the merc kill and about 7 days we got the great compromise on the titan timer. This clearly demonstrates the devs have accepted the value mercs add to the game, I mean they completely reversed an entire patch they implemented for goodness sakes

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People that don’t spend now maybe can spend tomorrow.
Or we do spend sometimes, it’s just that we spend a lot less then big whales.
Always better have more people, are there mercs or not, especially if they don’t do anything that unbalance things.

For how much i can merc, there’s no way i can keep the pace of a spender. I can assure you.
But at least i can see his/her 4ss from afar and knowing he/she is there.

Really, people who don’t constantly merc should do it for some time.
Yeah, you get more ascension items but it’s not OMGWTFLOL results that people think, and you giving up on many things so it’s not without a price.

You guys think that we have a gold mine, but it’s more a lemonade stand.
Get some money, but we don’t get rich from that.

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  1. Paragraphs are still your friends. Don’t hate them.

  2. You’ve summarised the situation pretty well. I think this means you understand the answer, because it’s pretty obvious. The “integrity of the game”, as you describe it, is certainly what is driving this nerf, because mercs are collecting ascension materials at a far greater rate than was intended. (You understand this, because you’ve described it.) So why is it okay to speed up the collection of ascension materials by paying for them? Because players are paying for them. And that money pays for me - and every other f2p player - to enjoy the game. Mercs do no such thing.

  3. To some extent I guess I’m sort of agreeing with you - players who pay buy the right to develop faster than the game’s baseline. But mercs have not paid for that right.

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Yeah, seems like you’re not really paying attention to the conversation. That’s cool - you’re welcome here anyway.

I’m almost certain most mercs still spend if they have a solid collection of 4* and 5* heros in which they need the ascension mats they are supposively acquiring faster than intended and I’d almost bet money on it that they still end up buying ascension mats since the game doesn’t give ascension mats out as freely for mercs as everyone thinks it does. Wish this issue would have just been left untouched. I feel like this issue has caused nothing but negativity and i don’t see anything positive arising from it.

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