Why I am not spending more money in this game and how to win me back

General Discussion
1

Hello community and devs!

This won’t be long, nor toxic, it’s not even a complain, but more of a request. And there’s a TL;DR at the end.

I have bought some gems offers in the past. I have done the 10x pulls, but after the last Atlantis Summon event, I decided to go 100% F2P

Oh, of course I am frustrated. But now that we know how low the odds are, it’s ok… I mean, ok in the way that I can calculate the risk. And, for me, it’s not worth it. Too low, for too little.

So, how to get me back into my moderate spending allowance? Guaranteed pulls

If I buy the VIP pass (that I no longer need for I have maxed my base) I get a 2nd builder, some nice extra tickets (which I have an issue with, but I will not address it in this post) and gems. Those are all guaranteed stuff. I pay for something and I know what I am going to get.

Now, I understand the “gacha” mechanic, game theory, psychology and that this randomness is a gold mine… but it has to stop. Well, for me at least.

What I would like to see is Guaranteed Heroes, of all types, HOTM, Atlantis, Events… that would get me spending again.

How to do it? There are millions of ways. Varying from special tokens you get when you do a 10x pull, to simply giving a 5* if you do a 10x.

I don’t want to post ideas here, this thread is not for that. This is simply me saying I will not spend more money, but will change my mind if I can get value from it… and not just gambling it away.

TL;DR
I am not spending more money in the game
I will spend again if a guarantee is offered

Thanks for reading!

K

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Good writeup. I got a chuckle out of it. Hope you get your free stuff.

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If this would ever been implemented I bet it would be “at least one epic card or above” when performing x10 pulls but keeping the same legendary drop rate.

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The problem I see with this is that the moderate and big spenders would just start buying nothing but “guaranteed” pulls, and would quickly get every desirable 5* in the game.

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I don’t really see why that’s a problem. I’m free to play because I don’t like the odds, same as a lot of people. If it was guaranteed I would certainly have a much easier time spending a bit. A lot more people spending a little might be more than a few spending a bunch.

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SGG’s reaction below to OP no longer spending any money.

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I’m confused by your request. The business plan they have in place now is they want people to spend a lot of money to maybe get something, but you want them to change that plan so people only have to spend a little to get a lot, guaranteed? Keep in mind that their business plan is currently working, millions of people are spending a lot of money. Next time you are at the grocery store, make sure you tell them that you only want to spend $1.99 to guarantee a shopping cart full of food.

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At least it would be something. Or a start. Perhaps a tweak could be guaranteed 4* and higher chance for 5* (but I mean high… not that 2% shennanigan)

Thanks for the feedback!

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Ok, it’s twofold, as someone else said, this would encourage players to increase their spending.

I am not asking for free or cheap stuff, I am asking for a guarantee. If I go to a store (like you said) and take $100 with me, I will get $100 worth of groceries. No less. No more. Not a “chance to get milk… but maybe you don’t”, if I buy milk, I get milk.

Now, the price is up to the devs, if the “milk” costs me all the $100 great, but I will know I will get it

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Thanks! I think so far you’re the only one who sees the whole pucture

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1st thanks for giving a positive critic instead of… well… the other posts.

Yes, indeed “whales” could abuse this system, but there could be balancing. That’s why I didn’t include any suggestions (people tend to focus on those, instead of the main post)

But, for the sake of explaining, if SG deciedes “HOTM costs $1000 and you 100% get it”, then it will be in line with my topic. I would not spend 1k for a hero, but at least the gambling/gacha element would have a bypass. The rest is balance.

The main goal is to close a bit if the gap between p2w and f2p/casual spenders

Thanks!

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My grocery store analogy could have been better, you’re right, if you spend $100 on groceries you get $100 in groceries (I buy generic brands so maybe I will get $105). I should have used a casino analogy. You put $10 into a slot machine, you might hit the jackpot (the 5 star you were looking for), you might hit the bars (and get Thorne), or you might get the cherry (4 star), or you might get nothing (but at lease you get a 3 star in this game). The casinos won’t guarantee something. hmmm, but casinos do give comps to high rollers. Maybe SG can give big spenders some free drinks (flasks).

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The “comps” are the ascension chests that you get for doing ten Atlantis pulls.

While I seriously doubt that we will se guaranteed 5* ever, it would be nice to see the complete randomness softened in some way. I’ve suggested shards for both heroes and rare mats, which would create a sense of progression towards a goal.

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ahhh yes, that’s right, guaranteed ascension mats with those chest. good point.

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SG got to greedy when they put S1 heroes in the Atlantis summons then asked for more gems. I stopped buying then.
Remove S1 3* FROM ATLANTIS & EVENT SUMMONS & smaller buyers may return to purchasing.

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This game’s business plan is to frustrate players into spending more for the small chance of getting a decent hero. They’ll never change this mechanic to give what most of us would feel is a fair return.

They don’t understand that most of us are “collectors” and if we felt we were getting a fairer return we would spend more. I know the months that I’ve pulled a decent hero I’ve spent more but after a run of getting crap I back off.

What could work is that every player’s first 10x pull each month gives a guaranteed 5* hero. This would not break the game’s mechanics and would not allow people to hoover up all the 5* heroes but would give something small back to people. Or to change the desperately small odds of pulling 5*'s which now that they’ve published them they’ll never change.

Also I don’t know why Small Giant have so many defenders on here. Every poster who suggests a tweak to the game for the benefit of players gets ridiculed by certain people.

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I think you may be mistaking explaining why things are the way they are for defending SGG. I would love to have better odds on draws, S2 heroes in TC20, and no S1 heroes (or at the very least no S1 3*) in Atlantis. But I understand why SGG does what they do.

ETA: what I do tend to argue pretty strongly against is ideas that I think will tilt the game even more heavily in favor of big spenders.

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Me and the people who suggest tweaks aren’t thick. Its precisely because we understand how the game works that we suggest something different.
Explaining things back to us that we already know is very annoying and is de facto defending the staus quo.
A small tweak like mine would help the small spenders. One and only one guaranteed 5* a month if you spend enough for a 10x pull helps the cheap to play. You may only get Thorne or a 2nd Elkanen or you may get Joon or Sartana but you get something.

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I’m not clear that people do understand the effects of what they’re proposing.

For instance, suppose you used your guaranteed 10-pull on the seasonal gate. There are 19 5* heroes on offer including the HOTM, 16 of whom you can get for free from TC20. This moves your chance at Mother North to 2.6% from 0.33%. This has the effect of shaving a full 15 pulls off of the expected number required to get Mother North (it drops to 285 pulls from 300).

On the HOTM, you only shave one pull off of the average. So that’s closer to a wash (but still costs SGG money from the P2W).

Now, you don’t benefit the average C2P player much. 7.8% of them will hit the jackpot and get Santa or MN or Evelyn. The rest of them will get something they could have pulled for free from TC20. But you will save every P2W player an average of $40 on Mother North and the HOTM.

So, would you be willing to pay $40 for this guaranteed 10-pull, to offset the lost revenue from P2W players?

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This game lacks failstack mechanics, like many heavily RNG-oriented games do, like Black Desert Online.

■■■■■■■■■■■■, for those who aren’t familiar with, is the improvement of your chances of succeeding each time you fails. So, let’s say, if your chance of getting a 5* improves 0,1% each pull, it’s still in the luck territory but at least you know that if you failed enough something will eventually come up.

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