They still have to continue with the HotMs, but oddly enough, they decided to stop making them particularly good. Instead, they’re now mostly so bad that people actually get mad when they summon a HotM.
LOL what the actual ****???
7 Likes
Eh… if your mad about pulling Hotm and making posts about being irrelevant, I think there maybe some deeper issues at foot. 
The balance they should maintain is keeping our rosters relevant. Including current Hotm.
That doesn’t mean Santa Stats, average speed with an equivalent to a slow-powered skill…
The last balance update had tons of buffs. I hope they do that again…!
There are many heroes, including new ones, who were crafted by shaky hands.
S4 heroes are being talked about like have already been released. I’ll be surprised if they are released as is, and entire rosters start getting phased out.
Literally, millions have spent months and longer developing those rosters. I just can’t believe they will abandon balance and go balls deep super creep,
After taking such dedication and pain to balance Telluria.
1 Like
Without being pro or con. I am in general opposed to any buff or nerf in any circumstance unless it is absolutely game breaking.
The gap between season 4 heroes and season 1 heroes is roughly the same difference between season 1 5 star and season 1 4 star heroes. That they have a preview of such appears to be a clear indication that this creep was by design.
I have yet to see any pay to play mobile game model that was as friendly as e&p was (I say was in reference to season 4 as a future tense) to free to play people able to at least somewhat achieve similar endgame play as pay to play as this game. In most cases the gap is instantaneous with the first, second, or third purchase. Which is not the case here.
Now…
Is there too much stuff to do? Great! Don’t do those things that bore you or waste your time. There is no requirement in this game that you must do everything. Nor is there any garauntee that you will be able to keep up with pay to play players with free or cheap to play accounts. There is no entitlement in any sense here. Many who pay also don’t get every hero they want.
Yes, it is a coming reality that you may have very low chances to beat that season 4 new meta defense with season 1 4’s and 5’s. That is by design, and the direction sg has made clear. Gone are the days where heroes of the month are very desirable. Most of the desirable hotm are from the era where those were the “chase” heroes. Now the premium portals appear to be the only place that the stronger more desirable heroes are being available. This is also their clear design path. Because it limits the population of those heroes. One in 75 or so pulls is expected to get a hotm. 1 in 333 for Loki this last s3. I in 500 for cobalt last ninja event. Furthermore the hotm is available in all summons. The population of telluria and vela are likely 10-12 times that of say, finley or jabber. I don’t agree with this approach. But it is what is clearly what SG is doing.
If your expectation is that the game affords zero benefit to paying, and that everyone should be able to win with basics always, it will vastly discourage income generation. If your expectation is that free or cheap to play players should essentially be in a seperate but less equal player pool that ultimately are unable to do anything, you get a game that loses likely 90 percent of its accounts and thereby loses pay players who no longer have competition or friends to socialize with.
But let’s be clear here. SG is not a non profit entity. And now being owned by Zynga, have revenue goals to meet, and their job is to achieve that goal, whether it’s good for the longevity of the game or not, because nobody buys a company looking for a 10 year payback period. It’s usually 3 or less. And they aren’t stupid either. They aren’t going to go in a random direction. They are doing it because historically, these premium portals are generating revenue at a higher rate, so there will be more of them. Whether it’s good for the game or not in your opinion.
1 Like
And as for my stance. Anyone who sheds tears for either
- I’m free to play and I can’t compete at the very top
- I pay to play and i need an even bigger advantage
Gets zero sympathy. I’ll think less of anyone saying either.
1 Like
Nobody denies that they are entitle to make money. However the longevity of the game means a sustainable flow of income which is much more rentable than a 3 years of benefice and then shutting the servers. Every business that succeeded have long term vision.
That is much more questionable. If they think they can milk the cow forever by not listening to their customers well then yes they are pretty stupid because there business model will crash sooner than later.
Still don’t understand while you people are so willing to defend their business models while truly it’s not in your interest to do so.
I’m not a free to play player and spend some money but not too much just enough to be reasonably competitive with skill but I very much feel for all those f2p that will dedicate time just too realize they have no chance unless they start spending and then after they will also realize that they also spend all that money for nothing cause they have to invest ten times more to catch-up but at the same times they will feel trap because they have spend so much now that it would be a waste to leave the game.
3 Likes
I’m not defending their business. Practices. I’m stating what it is. And while it may seem to make more sense to have long term goals, that is just not how it is these days. Takeovers are levered heavily, and the days of buying a company with a long term vision is long gone. I would argue in the mobile game market, it’s never existed. 3 years would likely be generous.
I am not agreeing or disagreeing with this direction of power creep.because they don’t care what I think anyway. They are going to do what they believe will generate the revenue targets they have been given. And if targetting whale spenders with all new chase heroes in portals that greatly unfavor limited spending accounts from being able to compete, that’s what they will do. Whether I like it or not or whether you like it or not. The options we have are the same. Continue as is, continue but change our individual spending habits, or quit. If enough people change habits in a way that adversely affects their bottom line, they will make changes. No amount of banter on the forums will change that
3 Likes
I disagree with your last point. Sharing opinions and feelings on the direction the game is going here on the forum is crucial to influence people to not spend or at least not spend too much on the game.
I’m also pretty sure that their are scruting the forum at least to see how their consumers feels. The vela/telluria drama started her and they did exactly what most people wanted (I’m not part of them) although it also was an easy choice for them cause it was in their financial interet to do so.
1 Like
Just as an example you test yourself. Put together a proposal for a capital investment partnership with a steady and slowly growing revenue model for a mobile game with a 10 year payback model and see if you can even get a single callback let alone a proposal summary meeting. It just doesn’t exist that way anymore.
We can agree to disagree there. Just knowing how not important customer service results are in yearly project budgeting meetings, in practice I have seen everything revolve around payback period, with few non revenue generating projects given any priority whatsoever unless they are required for compliance or CAPA purposes
And yet after Zynga purchased SG the Telly super creep was still balanced despite intensive belly aching and cries for compensation and calls for law suits.
They have shown with action that balance is still a priority.
Is it balance that is a priority, or the perception of balance?
What I mean by that is that they’ve now realised that defensive specialists can’t be overpowered, but that offense is open slather. Because you can see what you’re attacking, and why it beat you, but not what you were attacked by
So as long as they don’t create another ubiquitous defensive meta like Velluria they can sell offensive heroes without you even knowing
The new meta of Frigg Odin Ninjas on defense wont be as prolific as Velluria, as the paywall is much higher - that doesn’t make it more balanced, just less prolific
So arguably they only really need to provide a perception of balance- the s4 heroes mostly look like offense specialists for that reason
My only problem here is the latest flood of super powerful heros happened too fast. What if they released ninjas 1 by 1? In just couple of months, we got Frigg, Odin, ninjas, Vanda, now Lord Loki, few more… I feel like the game change dramatically in just couple of months. If you are not a big spender, you just find yourself lost. Having no idea what to level next, even if you have few choices. Suddenly, you feel like all the heros you summomed, which were praised as solid, seem to be obsolete.
I know powerful heros is the thing that driving this boat around. But could this ride be a bit slower? So that we actually have the time to adjust, without spending hundreds and thousands of dollars? 
Edit: this happened just 2,5 months after their release. Unfortunately, I accidentally rerolled, so I didn’t see all the dodges and counter attacks from tiles. I have no idea what team I would bring, but I imagine this battle would be almost unplayable for me.
5 Likes
I don’t exactly fit either one of those.
I don’t expect to compete at the very top, simply because I think only the most dedicated players should be at the very top of any game’s leaderboards. And by “most dedicated,” I don’t mean people who opened their wallets the widest. I think video game leaderboards should be dominated by those who are hands-down the best at playing the game. For a game like this, that usually involves a very hefty time investment. As it should! Nobody should be able to build a top team in a matter of days.
My problem is that I did invest some money into this game, and what I got in return was underwhelming to say the least.
Initially, everyone here told me, “you knew the odds were bad, so why did you buy?”
At the time that I bought those gems, I did NOT know that the odds were that bad. They don’t exactly advertise their 1.5% pull rates when you download the game. Had I known they were that bad, I wouldn’t have spent what I did.
But anyway. Second issue.
Of course it’s a for-profit game, we all know that. But the first time I read a post on here about how someone had spent more than a thousand dollars on the game and still did not get the heroes they wanted… I thought that was absolutely insane.
It’s a MOBILE PHONE APP.
They made a game? Cool. They want some money for it? Sure, of course.
… they want THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS??? From EACH player???
I’m sorry, but what? U serious, mate? Were they dropped on their heads as children, or do they think the average person is a millionaire, or what exactly?
All I’m asking for is a decent chance to pull a cool new hero every now and then without taking out a bank loan.
ADDED: and also, in your other post, you compared S1 heroes v. S4 heroes to the difference between a 4* and a 5*.
That’s somewhat accurate, but only if you’re comparing unemblemed, non costumed vanilla 4s to 5s. The game has given players the ability to make 4* heroes somewhat viable against 5s (emblems and costumes) without spending a fortune. Whereas there aren’t many ways for a vanilla 5* to keep up with the new 5s (costumes help, but 5* costumes are rare and therefore also essentially paywalled themselves; emblems don’t help, because the better 5s can stack emblems also).
5 Likes
I myself miss quite a few heroes that I wanted so much to have, such as Athena and Mitzuko for an example. 
. And these are just two, there many others that i badly miss.
Unfortunately, these two ladies hate me so much that I’ve lost hope of ever knowing them in my roster. Oh stop! 
There are still the sumoon portals like Atlantis or ToL, right? Forget it, because I don’t feel like opening my deep wallet any more and ever getting it out of the HA is more than low.
So it would be really nice if the balance and variety changed here and at this point i would open my wallet again and invest a bit, but I don’t think this will ever happen.
2 Likes
Atlantis used to give “free” tokens on top of the bought summons. Atlantis Rises used to last longer, we could farm for the cute little dragons, and Atlantis coins would drop in our monster chest loot. Now? AR duration reduced, the dragons were apparently broken in the last AR, and no more Atlantis coins from regular loot. Atlantis is now practically dead, and SG are the ones who killed it.
ToL started off as a really cool idea, but… such poor odds, combined with a difficult event that only gives you a couple of free summons for completing? 2 summons at 1.3% odds of pulling an old legendary hero?
3 Likes
I hoped HA gave more variety and balance to the game. Especially for the long time players. But it ended up being such a dissapointment. I still hope they will take another shot at it in near future.
It was the feature that would have made f2p and c2p much more competitive. But with that 5% chance it ended up being such a bust. I guess that if it’s free, SG doesnt’t put much effort into it. They just flood the game with a tone of new heroes.
3 Likes
fwiw i still like the crap out of AR with or without the free draws
but of course i would prefer it with the free draws
3 Likes
It’s still awesome for loot farming, for sure. Just a shame that they reduced the duration, took Atlantis coins out of chest loot, and bungled the sea dragon spawns in the last one.
There are still many Atlantis heroes I would love to have, but sadly, probably will never get without spending.
4 Likes
100% agreed
the dirty bastards…
1 Like
LOL… in their defense, the sea dragon thing was a mistake. Or so they say…? Still not sure why they did the other things.
1 Like