i 100% agree with your first 6, while these are common themes over time, they still remain relevant, i’d also consider
the solution for dupe heros/HA 10 was not good, only being able to queue one in doesn’t help w/ the roster spot issues (i’ve had to feed many dupes, whether S1, or HOTMs)
pull rates, always the pull rates, remain ridiculous and keep getting worse. there doesn’t seem to have ever been a consideration of mercy summons
loot - as you mention the randomized nature of LBs, but the other 4* rate is terrible too, the drop rates for color chests, war chest, rare titans, and other places it was more common have def gotten worse.
I track pulls and 4* drop rates, and either i am in the slump of all slumps, or it is just getting worse over time.
The pull rates are more apparent now because SG has basically decided after Telluria-gate that all subsequent HOTMs will be average at best (e.g. Devana, Alexandrine) and majority will be just mediocre. All the good heroes will be placed into portals with a low % of pulls i.e. 0.3% for a S3/4 hero or 0.2% for an event hero.
100% agree, every HOTM i’ve done since telluria/vela debacle, i’ve not been overly impressed at all. glenda, yang mai, clarissa, malosi, and uraeus. uraeus and malosi are the best of them. those are only ones i’ve done, i’ve gotten many/most HOTM (rueben, bertila, elradir, devana, bai yeong, chakkoszrot, grimble, malicna) and at best they are 3/70 and most are still 1/1. I’m prob ascending russell shortly (cuz my reds really aren’t good), though i am still on the fence cuz he’d be better with GM or emilio, but JF might be decent with him. I have 23 rings, 11 tomes and 7 d-blades burning a hole in my virtual pocket
I find your stat updates interesting, thank you for keeping those.
There is no perfect way to measure. The @JekylandHyde 30 cups approach is interesting, but I see people offline for 100-1000s of days with trophies so not sure how that is an accurate count either. Example over 1000 days with 222 trophies:
Retired/inactive players will still retain whatever cups they have. They represent a nice critical mass for active raiders. Can raid, and not get a revenge raid if player is inactive.
System will hive off the really dormant accounts after awhile though. There is some built in “minimum cups” formula depending on the defence used.
I think RT participation is more informative but I can’t track that now. Back to RT for awhile.
I’m not sure it really hives off dormant accounts… For awhile if you were on different software versions you couldn’t raid each other, these dormant accounts could be unraidable and stagnant in trophy count.
I like your list cause it is people choosing to participate in game content, active players… Not perfect of course, no one source will be other than SG.
I don’t think that SGG can track either due to alternate accounts. They can’t determine the exact number of active players. They can only determine number of active accounts.
Just the total damage done to the titan is all you need to see how numbers are dropping. Total damage used to be over 500 billion, this time it didn’t even break 400 billion. Over a 20% drop.
I dunno, people who actively hit might stop if they are in the desired loot tier. I hit the mythic just 5 times but probably could have gotten away with just 4 times.
Less people play → harder to get into 1%, 5%, etc. tiers.
People who don’t hit this special titan for at least 1hp (even if they are in alliances fighting this titan) are not included in final count for tiers. My best 1-hit score on it was for whole 2 days in top 10%, no matter whether I was on place no. 25k or place no. 70k.
Effort / prize ratio is too high to keep players involved.
I think one of the major factors is the effort vs rewards just doesn’t match up. When tourneys were first introduced the rewards were just crazy over done and then people complained and they scaled it back too far.
Also, whales will always have the major advantage no matter how the rewards are structured. Instead of leading to more engagement it happens to have the opposite effect to a degree.
Add on top of that the crazy sheer number of events & heroes that they’ve added just in the last 6 months alone makes it more difficult to keep up, especially if you are not sitting on at least 50 - 100 WE Flasks.
Thank you for talking openly about this… The things really started to escalate quickly for mid-range spenders like myself few months ago… Suddenly, my 250-300€ per month could not cover even a tiny portion of new content they started throwing at us. That is the moment I decided to cut back. Now my spending is just a tiny portion what it had been until recently.
Knowing it’s tough for you as well kind of strengthen my position further.
Mythic titan is my least favorite event. I do it on my main account for my alliance but even so we are nowhere near top 1k so I don’t play my two alts.
I do see player participation down… in competitive / contest based activities !
Personally, I experienced HIGH playing FATIGUE about 3-4 weeks back & when I probed further, I saw main factors contributed to that situation was:
Rushed / high time requirements to complete MANY in-game activities within short time span.
Pulls got me heroes but mats weren’t there… So won’t be able to use these heroes…
So,
I slowed down & let events pass after simply completing them.
Mythic Titan hits were regular & fine if that kept me in 1% … loot has mostly been crap & few emblems less didn’t make any difference.
Regular titan & war hits need not become pressure points & funnily, the output of these hits has been better
I didn’t need to complete quests immediately.
No pulls & zero interest in Balbar helped … though got him from 4 underwild coin pulls I did to complete the bonus chest to see if it gave 4* mat
I have seen on this forum / in-alliance, many emotional out-bursts, especially in the last 4 weeks…
&
I did contemplate taking a break too… which I am sure many from the million player base may have also experienced with varied decisions taken !
TODAY, I am now enjoying the game more than 3-4 weeks back by implementing certain practical changes viz my engagement with the game & I plan to reduce further !
November is #NoSpend & haven’t renewed my ViP.
December might be the same, unless I feel worth trying for a copy of Hanitra, if she doesn’t come from free pulls via saved EHTs, Underwild, Legend coins …
January-2022 looks to be the same…
While SG seems to have made some COSMETIC noises / actions… would like to see more practical stuff that significantly improve - galvanise a Player’s QoL …
