Moderator Edit to Add:
Please stick to Furs topic and the thoughts and themes in it on this thread. For discussions/ campaigning about spending or otherwise please do not further detail this thread. Use the new master topic for it instead: [MASTER] NoSpend2.0 / NoSpendNovember
Happy gaming,
Guv
Hello everyone,
With the end of the newest Alliance Quest event, I have decided to finally voice my thoughts, issues, opinions and ideas about the game, schedule, pace and event structures.
First off, let me introduce myself. I spend a lot of time and money in this game and as youāve probably guessed by my name, I ranked 2nd in the AQ just behind Mystery and ahead of Antonio. I also ended a couple of times in the top 10 of the tower events and rank in the leaderboards of all 3 tiers each month during normal events. Iām most likely what most of you would call a whale, but Iāve made peace with it and Iām happy with the way I operate my account.
Letās start with the obvious, and the final drop of water that made me write this post ;
The roll based loot in Clash of Knights.
This is by far the worst thing that has happened in a long time in this game. You mean to tell me that no matter how much resources, money and time you spend during this event, the rewards are still random?
Yes, Iām aware that there was no obligation for me to spend any of this for this event. Thatās why I took a gamble and still compete for the top spot, knowing there was a possibility I wouldnāt get anything, even if the chances were low. (4% for 0 Aether III and 15% for 1 Aether III)
With that said, and Iām speaking for everyone that competed for this event : There NEEDS to be fixed rewards. As long as there is guaranteed loot that increases for each tier like every other event, Iām fine with having rolls for loot. I personally got 1 Aether III across both loot draws (Top 10 in both), I know teammates that ended in top 100 and got 0, another teammate in top 1000 that got 6, a friend in top 10 (Both) got 2 and another friend in top 1000 (Both) got 4. This is only a few examples and shows only the extreme, but itās unacceptable and it cannot remain this way. Iām personally not mad with my loot, I took a gamble and it didnāt pay off for me, but I know a bunch of friends and teammates are, because of how hard they worked and spent and the result wasnāt there.
Hereās what I have in mind for solo loot : (Rolls are Aether III/II/I)
(2 edits have been made about this. 1st being the vague way it was written, as some thought that guaranteed Aethers were part of the rolls, which isnāt the case here. 2nd being that I didnāt add every tier to include everyone that plays the game)
1st ; 3 guaranteed Aether IIIs + 5 rolls 20/35/45
Top 2-10 ; 2 guaranteed Aethers IIIs + 4 rolls 20/30/50
Top 11-100 ; 1 guaranteed Aether III + 4 rolls 15/30/55
Top 101-1000 ; 2 guaranteed Aether IIs + 3 rolls 15/25/60
Top 1001-10000 ; 1 guaranteed Aether II + 3 rolls 10/25/65
Top 10001-100000 ; 3 rolls 10/20/70
Top 100001-1000000 ; 3 rolls 5/20/75
Top 1000001-Rest ; 2 rolls 2.5/20/77.5
And for alliance loot :
1st ; 3 guaranteed Aether IIIs + 7 rolls 20/35/45
Top 2-10 ; 2 guaranteed Aether IIIs + 5 rolls 20/30/50
Top 11-100 ; 1 guaranteed Aether III + 5 rolls 15/30/55
Top 101-1000 ; 2 guaranteed Aether IIs + 4 rolls 15/25/60
Top 1001-10000 ; 1 guaranteed Aether II + 4 rolls 10/25/65
Top 10001-100000 ; 4 rolls 10/20/70
Top 100001-Rest ; 3 rolls 5/20/75
This of course includes all of the other crafting mats, ascension mats and emblems that are given out based on each tier, which I have no problems with.
Thatās my idea of how Aether loot should be given out. It would make for a much more fair reward distribution, reduce drastically the variance and still have odd based Aethers to keep a luck part in all of this.
Since Aethers are the shiny new things like emblems were 2 years ago, they need to be somewhat scarce, yes, but not completely randomly given out as rewards for such big events.
Since weāre in the event part of my post, I have to say that the change made for monthly events to have only 10 stages for each tier instead of 15 is an amazing idea as it increases the competition and completion rate, while not making it too easy for everyone. Very good change and needs to be added for every monthly event, either new or old !
I have nothing to say about raid tournaments, neither about Mythic Titans, both well structured events and Iām happy with them.
But, sadly, that is not the case with the Tower events, both Ninja and Magic.
Even if the event was every 2 months with the Tavern, 50 stages was already too much. Most people I know, even in higher alliances, didnāt even bother with. Going as far as not completing it.
And now that youāve added the Magic tower, youāve made it 75 stages AND every 2 out of 3 months ? (Not confirmed, Iām taking a guess here. Ninja>Magic>Alliance Quest)
The idea of only having to complete only 25 stages to get the completion reward is good, but that is not where the wanted loot is. The original idea was to give out more emblems, which was nice, but the new Magic tower doesnāt emphasize on that anymore, youāve basically killed the competition at the top since it has become too big of an event and youāve made it much harder for newer and C2P players to complete the tower and try to rank in the lower tiers.
Since the shedule is so packed with events now (Weāll get to that soon), I think it is fair to do something along those lines :
Reduce the number of stages to either 40 or 50, and at half of those stages have the big completion chest.
If there isnāt going to be any change like this made, then increase the number of flags and flasks for sale during the event. 50 natural flags makes it so you HAVE to spend gems to complete it and 10 flasks is not enough for us competitors at the top.
We also need more Scroll deals. Not only during Mythics but also at the start of Towers and maybe 1 or 2 during the rest of the calendar. They are too scarce to be able to compete in both mentionned events.
I have no other issue with the Towers.
Now letās talk shedule.
I love that youāve made it a 28 day calendar. It makes it easier for everyone, literally. For us to know what is coming when and for you to chain events without week long breaks like weāve had with monthly calendars.
But what is it with this absolutely PACKED schedule you guys built over time ? I remember that a developper said that they were spacing big events to let us have time to craft back resources spent, and give us time to replenish resources with AR and now VF.
There is now literally just four day offs in this monthly calendar, and the remaining 24 there are now 6 different portals to pull different heroes, 3 resource heavy events, which take 11 of those days.
It leaves us with 4 for the rescheduled Tavern.
And with the remaining 11 days we have only 5 of those dedicated to farming via AR and VF.
The remaining 4 days are for the S4 portal.
Although not everyone is going to agree about this, I would like to suggest some changes concerning this :
Reduce the monthly events to 3 days. It is plenty enough to complete and compete during this timelapse.
Reduce the the Tower and AQ events to 4 days. 5 is way too long and it is too much of a grind for the majority of players.
Reduce the Season 4 event to 3 days. Since there is no bonus is farming during this portalās timeframe, there is no real necessity for it to be so long.
Increase the duration of AR and VF to 3 days each. Itās not a big change but I believe that 3 days for both instead of 2.5 would make a big change for our resource situations and help us to craft more mats for every facet of the game.
Of course, adjusting deals in consequence of all of these suggestions is kind of a necessity to keep the lucrativity of the game, and Iām all on board with this.
Now letās talk pace :
I have no problem with power creep, since it is necessary to keep the game competitive and for the business to thrive, but the rate of new heroes that has been pumped out during the last 4 Quarters (Includes last of 2020) has been insane and way too fast.
And I mean, WAYYY too fast. For everyone, from F2P, C2P to Spenders and Whales.
Weāve had too many new events that most in the higher alliances feel the need to spend to keep the pace with the power creep that has to happen.
While I can understand that a business always wants to make more money, it also has to take care of the other side of the coin, which is taking care of itās customers.
Iām sorry to say this, but as of now it doesnāt seem like the 2nd side of the coin is being taken care of, which means itās going to get rusty sooner or later and going to break down.
Iām also not aware of the business side of it all. The why and because of doing it this way.
But having pumped out 7 new events, including season 4, in the last 4 quarters (From Ninja tower in late 2020 to now with Alliance Quest) is too many is too little a time frame.
I like the idea of new costumes for older HOTMs, older event heroes, older seasonal heroes and maybe even in the future season 2.
While I donāt know the rate at which they will be released, I do not believe it is a good idea to release costumed versions of newer heroes.
For example, Francine and Vanda were released just a year ago, they already have a costumed version and soon Krampus will have one too. One year between the release of a hero and his costumed version is too short of a span of time. Some heroes are 3 years old now (Mostly monthly event heroes like Guinevere, The Hatter, Guardian Kong and most of the 4* heroes of these events) and we havenāt even had a glimpse of their costumes in Beta yet.
I would love to have more 3* and 4* costumes for said event heroes. That would add more variety in the world of Raid Tournaments and other parts of the game where they are used and make them even more fun than they are now.
But then again. I would suggest to release them at a slower rate than whatās the norm currently. People would still pull for good costumes.
Also, Iād like for you to think of it this way, and Iām speaking for the majority here :
A slower rate of release of newer heroes and costumes would let us have more time to āreplenishā our budget for E&P, and because of the span of release (Letās take for example the Tavern) of said heroes, we would also pull at a steadier pace for longer than now, and it would allow for everyone to have more opportunities to get more shiny new heroes to level up and play with and we wouldnāt feel like our newly acquired gadgets will become irrelevant in only a few months. I believe that would make everyone happier.
I absolutely LOVE the newly added links and families to older HOTMs. A long awaited change and Iām extremely happy with it !
I believe Iāve expressed all my issues, suggestions and what Iām happy with.
I love this game, Iāve been playing it for more than 2 years and Iāve spent a lot of money to support SG and Zynga to continue in improving their game.
So far, every time Iāve sent a ticket for an issue, a bug or anything, theyāve answered me fast, kindly and theyāve always listened to me.
I really hope this can reach everyone that loves this game and the staff that works for it.
Thank you very much to all of you whoāve read this in its entirety, you have a place in my heart.
Kindly, Fur