Things need to change. My take on it and it's suggestions

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 youā€™ve 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. Iā€™m most likely what most of you would call a whale, but Iā€™ve made peace with it and Iā€™m happy with the way I operate my account.

Letā€™s 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, Iā€™m aware that there was no obligation for me to spend any of this for this event. Thatā€™s why I took a gamble and still compete for the top spot, knowing there was a possibility I wouldnā€™t get anything, even if the chances were low. (4% for 0 Aether III and 15% for 1 Aether III)

With that said, and Iā€™m 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, Iā€™m 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 itā€™s unacceptable and it cannot remain this way. Iā€™m personally not mad with my loot, I took a gamble and it didnā€™t 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 wasnā€™t there.

Hereā€™s 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 isnā€™t the case here. 2nd being that I didnā€™t 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.

Thatā€™s 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 weā€™re 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 Iā€™m 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, didnā€™t even bother with. Going as far as not completing it.
And now that youā€™ve added the Magic tower, youā€™ve made it 75 stages AND every 2 out of 3 months ? (Not confirmed, Iā€™m 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 doesnā€™t emphasize on that anymore, youā€™ve basically killed the competition at the top since it has become too big of an event and youā€™ve 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 (Weā€™ll 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 isnā€™t 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 letā€™s talk shedule.

I love that youā€™ve 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 weā€™ve 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 portalā€™s timeframe, there is no real necessity for it to be so long.
Increase the duration of AR and VF to 3 days each. Itā€™s 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 Iā€™m all on board with this.

Now letā€™s 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.
Weā€™ve 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 itā€™s customers.
Iā€™m sorry to say this, but as of now it doesnā€™t seem like the 2nd side of the coin is being taken care of, which means itā€™s going to get rusty sooner or later and going to break down.
Iā€™m 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 donā€™t 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 havenā€™t 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 whatā€™s the norm currently. People would still pull for good costumes.

Also, Iā€™d like for you to think of it this way, and Iā€™m speaking for the majority here :
A slower rate of release of newer heroes and costumes would let us have more time to ā€˜replenishā€™ our budget for E&P, and because of the span of release (Letā€™s 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 wouldnā€™t 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 Iā€™m extremely happy with it ! :slight_smile:

I believe Iā€™ve expressed all my issues, suggestions and what Iā€™m happy with.
I love this game, Iā€™ve been playing it for more than 2 years and Iā€™ve spent a lot of money to support SG and Zynga to continue in improving their game.
So far, every time Iā€™ve sent a ticket for an issue, a bug or anything, theyā€™ve answered me fast, kindly and theyā€™ve 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 whoā€™ve read this in its entirety, you have a place in my heart. :slight_smile:

Kindly, Fur

218 Likes

Really well said fur. I hope this gets the visibility it deserves.

19 Likes

Strongly agree

20 agreeable characters

14 Likes

I agree 100%! I love having new content but it is coming way too fast! I have spent more money in the last year on this game than I reasonably should have and sadly too often barely get anything. I and many others are starting to feel like it is too much to keep up with. Many have left and I think if things continue on the current path they are going to drive off so many more. I have more heroes than I can level due to the ā€œmat wallā€ and I am getting tired of doing so many summons with little to show for it. I feel like when I started back in March 2020 the pace felt right and it didnā€™t feel so overwhelming with trying for so many heroes while still missing so many already.
Hopefully the developers will start listening to the players and make things more bearable or their greed might cause this amazing game to implode on itself.

11 Likes

Doesnā€™t this explain everything?

Anyways, always glad for top players to pop into the forum and share their experience. Congrats on the second place! Thatā€™s something I could never do even if you gave me all of the heroes/emblems/etc.

This is a well written write up that addresses many parts of the games. I hope SG prints this out and has a meeting specifically dedicated to it. If the second best player takes the time to write this up how do you not specifically discuss it. These are the types of things CEOs talk about in their all hands meetings.

20 Likes

Pretty much echo everything here. You are by far and away more patient then I am with this. My rant to SG was a lot lessā€¦. civil lol.

Things need to change, and SG needs to get their act together. Iā€™ve been around for over 4 years now, and this is the worst spot this game has ever been in.

53 Likes

this is basically going to keep me away from the next Alliance Quest and any event structured this way. iā€™m going to stick to regular Challenge Events and tower events just because the loot is guaranteed. i love Mythic Titan, but iā€™m seriously scaling back my participation in that because what started out for me as good loot for a good time hitting an infinite titan turned trash very quickly. seriously: 1* battle items for top 1%?

my AQ individual loot for finishing 87th is posted in the main thread for that event, but i got no 4* ascension materials (including a farmable 3* Battle Manual) and no Aether IIIs. guess i had to learn my lesson the hard way.

ETA: congratulations on your top 3 finish! :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes: :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes: :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

9 Likes

I finally decided to post my thoughts which do not at all seem to be in the majority, but they still reflect my own preferences with the game.

First, my background. Iā€™ve been playing c2p for 21/2 years, vip, POV, gems for alliance and that is it. I have a very good roster considering my spending. It isnā€™t even close to what whales have, but I donā€™t really think about them. My alliance is not top 100, more like top 3000.

So now you know where Iā€™m at in the game and I will say that I love the loads of new heroes that have been introduced. This is what keeps things interesting for me. I am constantly challenged to use my (seriously limited) resources in alternative combinations. Raids are like puzzles to solve - how do I beat this with my bunch of stuff? More heroes to me are like more levels to the puzzle.

The second thing that I really like is the way they have packed in the calendar. Now, whenever I have some free time, there is always a challenge to work on. Youā€™re right, I didnā€™t need 5 days for AQ, I finished it in 2. But I very much liked that I could identify 2 days in my own life that I could work on it and fit that into the 5 days that were available.

7 Likes

The ā€œmat wallā€ feels like the Great Wall of China some daysā€¦

Just out of curiosity, if you have a bucketload of heroes that you cannot ascend, why do you keep doing so many summons?

6 Likes

I am new to the game, less than a year. I spend money on the game because I enjoy playing. I read your post in itā€™s entirety. I then read all of the comments/replies. In the last few weeks I felt like the game was moving faster than I could keep up with. I feel a little better now knowing itā€™s not just me. Thank you.

17 Likes

@TheFur well said and couldnā€™t agree more cheers to u my friend and congrats. :popcorn: :beer:

4 Likes

I am nowhere near the level of Fur, Greg, et al in skill or experience, but Iā€™m in the low L70s so seen a few moons.

Iā€™m a lot of an ODC perfectionist in real life and that crosses over into how I play this game. I used to complete every single quest/event/fill every chest ASAP compulsively.

The busy monthly calendar was great early on in Covid-19 as I had a lot of extra time on my hands working from home and some loss off work too. Now, the game definitely feels like it can be a time vacuum so I had to learn that it is okay not to complete every single thing all the time and monster chests donā€™t need to be completed the moment the 12 hr countdown expires.

Shaking off some of the little things/extraneous quests, etc, really helped not turn the game into a chore (which I know some folks at my past alliances felt).

Itā€™s great that you love the game, as many of us do, so if you can find a mindset of not doing every single aspect of the game that pops up, I think your enjoyment will last a lot longer.

Good luck :+1:

10 Likes

Great to see such posts from our top players. well said and totally agree with you Fur.

1 Like

I canā€™t seem to ever get the ones that I want it seemsā€¦

2 Likes

I guess this is one of the reasons theyā€™ve chosen to speed up things, because they recognised that the biggest spenders in the game really want more new herosā€¦ At the time they have announced it, I was like, really? Who needs them - a moderate spender like me has a huge backlog, I can only imagine the rosters of the big spenders.

They saw a chance to boost the revenue in the short term in willingness of (too) many players to literally jump on everything they throw at us. Iā€™m definitely not in a mood for a ā€œname and blameā€ game, but I have always felt that part of the explanation for this crazy pace is the fact that there are players who have the capacity to consume the newest game content in a month time or less, and are always hungry for more. So they took that road, while most of us felt itā€™s just too much. Some of us, including myself, completely stopped spending, because keeping up became impossible. Looks like we were feeding the beast too much. :wink:

It is comforting to know that even the players with seemingly unlimited budgets also feel this pressure. In a way, it further justifies my recent decision to just stop feeding the monster. :joy:

22 Likes

I think we all have some ā€œmystical unicorn living in a mirageā€ ascension material :joy:

For me it was tomes. At one point early this year I had 12 D-blades and zero tomes.

I saved up a stack of gems and put AL10b to work and it mostly spat out tabards, which was my second most abundant AM :face_with_symbols_over_mouth::face_with_symbols_over_mouth::face_with_symbols_over_mouth:

:stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

Over time, this feature balanced things out a lot for me and helped ascend a few more heroes.

This isnā€™t everyoneā€™s cup of tea, but it worked for me.

Good luck in your AM quests, and try holding off on summons. :+1:

2 Likes

Interesting post :+1:

As I said in a prior post, I was compulsively doing everything asap, and still do most facets of the game, but no matter how quickly I complete something (even with the odd timezone advantage) so many others are way ahead of me.

We, in general, do seem to have a voracious appetite for this game, so maybe weā€™re actually the beast that required feeding, rather than the other way round?

3 Likes

That may also be true, interesting point of view - I like it. :slight_smile:

3 Likes

I agree 100% with everything.
(Especially with the part of fixed rewards)
Last months I feel that game has become worst from a demanding job.

2 Likes

Thinking about it, a more apt description is that us and the developers are a pair of pythons trying to swallow each otherā€™s tails.

We love the game, we spend money (to varying degrees) on it; the developers make more for us, we play and spend more, they get hooked on our expenditure and drives them harder; which gives us more content, and around we go.

At some point saturation is reached for people (at different rates), and when legends like @TheFur are at the point of writing such a thoughtful and articulate post, a threshold may have been crossed.

Hopefully thereā€™s enough introspection by the developers that we donā€™t end up choking each other in a python death spiral :person_shrugging:

14 Likes