Subject
[Suggestion] Astral quest, astral token, & epic astral tokens or summons & swapping heroes
==Background==
How to preserve the revenue generating gacha mechanics of Empires, while reducing the role RNG plays in both player retention and most importantly boredom.
==Overview==
An Astral quest lets you pick any one 5* hero, any two 4* heroes, any two 3* heroes, any ten 2* heroes and any ten 1* heroes for a fixed gem price.
Loot drops would add Astral tokens and Epic astral tokens for all players, F2P & IAP.
Astral tokens lets you pick any one 3* hero to summon or can be used to trade with a teammate any two 3* heroes.
Epic astral tokens lets you pick any one 4* hero to summon or can be used to trade with a teammate any two 4* heroes.
With the introduction of Astral quests, 5* HotM would rotate into elemental summons, challenge event summons and legendary training after 5 months ( when next same color 5* HotM released ).
==Details==
==Astral quest==
Any hero means any hero including current HotM, past Hotm, Challenge event heroes, in fact ANY hero currently in the game.
Astral quests would only be available the last 3 days of the month.
Only a single Astral quest would be available per account per month.
You would lock in your picks for the current astral quest, but the quest would not end until the 14th of the next month. At the end of the 14 days you would be given a choice to purchase your selected heroes for 5k gems, or cancel the transaction. This has two purposes, cut down on customer service complaints, and give users who randomly summoned the latest HotM an addition 14 days head start for a total of 14- 42 days head start.
Example:
On June 28th I lock in red 5* Gravemaker, yellow 4* Wu Kong, purple 4* Merlin, green 3* Belith, yellow 3* Bane, ten 2* blue heroes and ten 1* purple heroes for my June astral quest.
I have until 0:00 July 1st to change my choices.
On July 14th I am given the option of purchasing the above heroes for 5k gems, or canceling the June astral quest.
==Astral Summon 3*==
Using an astral token, a user can pick any 3* hero to summon ( uses same base code as astral quest with restriction to 3* heroes ).
The user’s choice will be locked in for 14 days. The user can cancel the astral summons at any time.
After 14 days, the user will be given the choice of using the astral token to summon the selected hero. This is to cut down on customer service complaints “I changed my mind”, “I clicked on the wrong hero”, etc.
==Astral Summon 4*==
Using an Epic astral token, a user can pick any 4* hero to summon ( uses same base code as astral quest with restriction to 4* heroes ).
==Astral Swap 3*==
If two teammates, each have an Astral token, they can set up a swap involving two 3* heroes each ( total of four 3* heroes and two Astral tokens ).
Clicking on a Stronghold will bring up a Swap Meet menu where players can designate any swap available heroes.
Clicking on a teammate’s profile will include the button “Examine available swaps”. Any teammate can initiate the swap. The other user can accept or cancel. Players are limited to 3 attempted swaps per 24 hours. Details can be discussed in alliance chat.
Players not wishing to swap, can set all heroes to “not swap available”. Default for hero is “not swap available”. Players who are on vacation can click the “+48 hour vacation” button in the Swap Meet to let teammates know they are unavailable for the next 48 hours. Each click adds another 48 hours to the vacation.
Hero power must be less than plus 10% of the weakest hero and more than minus 10% of the strongest hero in the swap.
The swap would place the heroes, and tokens, in a quarantine for 14 days. This serves two purposes, cut down on customer service complaints, and show both users what it will be like to play Empires without the swapped hero.
Heroes in quarantine cannot be leveled or used.
Anytime during the quarantine, the swap can be canceled by either user.
Cancelled swaps return all heroes and tokens to the original user.
After the quarantine expires, if the two users are still teammates, the tokens are consumed and the heroes are swapped.
Both users are sacrificing the option of summoning any one 3* for the option to swap two 3* heroes so they are unlikely to arrange a swap that cheats one side or the other. The 14 day quarantine also gives them time to discuss the swap with others, or to check the forum. Depending on demand, a new forum category “Swap wanted” may be needed.
==Astral Swap 4*==
If two teammates, each have an epic astral token, they can set up a swap involving two 4* heroes each ( total of four 4* heroes and two Astral tokens ).
==Swapping 1.1 Option==
This is the same as the above swap, but is limited to 3* 1.1 for astral tokens and 4* 1.1 heroes for epic astral tokens
==VIP Pass & astral token==
On the first of each month, a VIP Pass holder would be awarded one astral token.
After receiving five astral tokens from the VIP Pass, a holder’s six token would be an epic astral token.
==Restrictions==
While 5* HotM would rotate into elemental summons, challenge event summons and legendary training after 5 months ( when next same color 5* HotM released ), these summons have limited availability.
Since Epic summons and Daily summons do not have limited availability, they would continue to have zero chance of summoning a past 5* HotM.
Example:
Gravemaker comes out 2018-Jun as HotM. On 2018- Nov the next red 5* HotM comes out, and Gravemaker is added to elemental summons, challenge event summons and legendary training.
5* Heroes are not available for swapping, at this time. If astral tokens, and epic astral tokens fail, better to limit it to 3* and 4* heroes. From a business view, 5* heroes make the Devs the most money from summoning, to leveling, to ascension items. Allowing the swapping of 5* 4.80 heroes would cut into that revenue.
However, if the game ever goes to 6* Heroes, the above could be adjusted. Astral quest summons one 6*, two 5*, two 4*, ten 3* & ten 2*, astral token summons or swaps 4*, epic astral token summons or swaps 5*.
==Miscellaneous==
Astral quest, astral tokens, epic astral tokens and swaps would be further enhanced by adding seasonal or challenge skins to heroes.
Example:
A clockwork version of yellow 4* Wu Kong for Guardians challenge event would increase the desirability for summoning, or in the case of duplicates, swapping for the Guardian skinned Wu Kong.
The above suggestion can be modified, or phased in slowly.
Example:
Add astral token and 3* summons but no swap
Add epic astral token and 4* summons but no swap
Add astral quest
Add astral token with 3* swap
Add epic astral token with 4* swap