Most of the original separatist faction has been in the game forever. I'm assuming that because most long time players will already have the original separatists, the event will have a very steep gear requirement. Probably G11. Not necessarily "required" but necessary to win from a tuning standpoint. I also guess that if you don't have the droid army you will probably be at a severe disadvantage, since the original separatists are pretty garbage.
I'm assuming it'll either be a steep gear requirement, or massively benefit from having the new characters.
The deeply cynical side of me (which this game in particular brings out in spades) thinks that they might go with option C: both.
Can't have the riffraff getting access to something new that they want money for, so let's see who has gear 12'd their new droids...
Barring that touch of pessimism, I've got Ventress at 12, Dooku, Poggle, and the Soldier at 11, and Sun Fac and the spy at 10.
Maybe one of those can lead a squad of bugs to victory, but I think I'll hold off trying to gear them too hard until CG stops being coy with the requirements.
"Did we say separatists? We meant droid separatists! Our bad! Please insert Mastercard details here..."
Obviously Dooku would be a better leader than Ventress, but I've got her zeta'd into a pretty nasty killing machine (which, again, the popularity of the Nightsisters faction is something they'll have taken into account while tuning the event).
Forar on
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
I feel it's a safe bet they'll end up adding more separatists. Maybe give a rework or two to make some lower tier characters new life, and also inspire some open wallets for gearing them up from the 7/8'ish hell I imagine many are trapped in.
With the Geonosian Territory Battle coming, we'll presumably see special battles that require specific characters, just like the Light/Dark Hoth one does, which would be where they can further incentivize the gearing and starring of characters, regardless of their other negligible utility. Or force our hands on farming the B1 and Droideka, not that we're hurting for things to farm.
I've still got 40 shards to go on Bossk and 225 on Nest (didn't unlock her node until very recently), so the B1 is going to wait a long while in particular. I'm similarly still working on the IG and XB for the Falcon event, so at least some Droideka shards will show up eventually. Boy, that's got to annoy some folks who 7 starred that event.
Forar on
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
I decided I want Malak, so that's what my entire game focus is on.
I'm farming the character shards for the team to unlock Darth Revan, and all of my gearing efforts will be for the 17500 hard cap on GP.
Not because I want a super overpowered character necessarily (although that would be nice), but really I want him for the challenge and because his event looked genuinely fun. It looks like a solo raid event, and I want to squeeze the gameplay out. So that's my real motivation. The OP nature is just icing on the cake.
Plus, I was getting tired of my previous plan of filling in my backlog.
But because of that, Separatists and Grievous/Droids are nowhere at all on my radar right now. In order to pursue Malak, I'm gonna have to let a lot of this Clone Wars era stuff slip by. Can't farm everything.
Malak is on my radar as well, but I missed out on Darth Revan, so until I cap out Bastila (Fallen), Juhani, and Carth, I'm not even worrying about him.
Given that they need 266 shards, 280 shards, and 279 shards respectively, that's probably an 'early 2020' problem.
Or CG could put some new characters into the fucking shops.
That'd be just swell.
Adding more and more characters while lowering our ability to farm for them makes their choice to leave those as they are for years now (I think the last new things came in around Rogue One?) baffling. Not even defensible by their business model, it's just flat out 'let's see how far we can piss off our player base'.
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
I can't imagine that's more than a tiny fraction of their player base. Like Zynga's old model of catering to the whales who dropped that kind of money on Farmville and Mafia Wars or whatever.
But the secret is that the game needs more than just whales. Not even financially, but because the whales need people to beat up to feel powerful, to feel like they're getting value out of their expenditures. I'm sure some whales want to dominate for that top slot, with money as no object, but there need to be 'lesser' folks for the whales to beat upon while the Krakens dominate. It's an ecosystem, and eternally shitting on the bottom of the foodchain has an impact.
Krakens eat whales, whales eat dolphins, dolphins eat tuna, whatever, if the playerbase finally has enough of their shit, it'll have a ripple effect, even if it takes a while for the top to notice. The broad playerbase has benefits where minor expenditures can have substantial impacts, because there are so many players that a 2% increase in power can translate to a major jump. If all that's left are the big league spenders, it becomes ever more expensive to keep ahead.
Ugh. I know I'm not saying anything shocking to anyone. I think it's absurd that a "Freemium" game expects that kind of spending and that level of profit. I cannot be convinced they are spending 9 figures per year on development, but they seem to be raking in a metric fuckload of money. There's a wide spectrum of gradiation, where they could be 5% less shitty without substantially impacting their profit margins. At some point it's not just about inspiring purchases. At some point they have to realize that if their game becomes increasingly inaccessible to newer players (which the stores, as an example, can offset), then any attrition in the ranks becomes a permanent loss.
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
They're actually making the game less accessible as time goes on. Things like the move they made last night with pulling Hoth Soldier off of a node and replacing him with the Droideka. The Hoth Soldier is not a good character, but he's a legacy character and he's required for the Hoth Territory Battle. New players will need to farm him so that they can contribute to TB. And they just made it that much harder for new players by removing a source of his shards from the game.
At the very least, rotating in some new characters/ships into the stores would give people non-RNG/non-energy limited ways to catch up a little. It still takes considerable effort to gear them up, so it's not like getting to 330 shards is the beginning and end of things.
Better case, adding a few more to each shop would let people catch up to a degree, but with diminishing returns; buying those shards means not buying gear (or 'waste' shards to turn into shard shop gear), but it'd still be an improvement. Swapping them around just leads to issues like the Hoth Soldier one. They clearly have no problem with needing to scroll through page after page of a shop, it's not like adding a new row to the Arena/Cantina/GW shops would crush the system. Hell, have them rotate once a month if need be; a chance to catch up for many, but with a time limiting factor. Or change them up weekly/daily, so they've done in the past.
The whales may pay most of the bills (and buy a few yachts), but relying on them alone to the exclusion of existing players (let alone drawing in new blood) is folly.
Forar on
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
Alright this has been a successful month. R2 to 7* to unlock CLS, and now revan and also finally unlocking general Kenobi. Just need way more purple mats and 5 more omegas and I'll have revans zetas fully operational
I unlocked Revan this time, and had been saving gear for a couple months. Fully G12'd him, got his 3 zetas, and also picked up all his 12.5 gear. Gave him some pretty sick mods. I haven't tested him yet, but I'm just guessing that since I was previously running a very strong Bastila Jedi team (before the Revan meta) that I ought to have a pretty killer Jedi team now.
I do not have Jolee's zeta yet, but I should have it within the next 2-3 days. RNG depending. I've got a minimum of 2 zetas coming my way from the active TW. 3 if we win. And depending on how Sunday and Monday's ship challenges go, I could see Jolee's zeta on Sunday or Monday.
Even underpowered and geared, revan has already doubled my sith raid damage. I kind of like that the rest of my farms are long term things (this jtr farm is kind of nonsense) because it gives me plenty of space to work on gear and mods for revan.
I dislike the way they have started making specific counters.
Padme's immunity to fear makes her a direct counter to Darth Revan.
They have fallen into a pattern that each new meta team is a direct counter to the last.
zBastila countered Traya Sith. CLS+3PO direct countered zBastila. Revan counters CLS. Darth Revan counters Revan. And now Padme counters Darth Revan. It's just this big chain of direct counters, and that is not good game design at all.
I'm not expecting to get far in this event. I have 5 7* separatists, but they're all poorly geared and I've completely ignored that faction for a long time. My only good separatist is Asajj. I'm hoping she can carry to at least rank 5, but I don't have much hope beyond that.
Posts
This is one that I might actually be ready for on pure luck.
I have all the geos at 7* and Dooku at 90/100.
Their gear ain't great, but it's not terrible. 7-9
Steam ID: Good Life
I'm guessing it's going to be really hard without Droideka and B1 though.
They tune it that way wouldn't they
Steam ID: Good Life
The deeply cynical side of me (which this game in particular brings out in spades) thinks that they might go with option C: both.
Can't have the riffraff getting access to something new that they want money for, so let's see who has gear 12'd their new droids...
Barring that touch of pessimism, I've got Ventress at 12, Dooku, Poggle, and the Soldier at 11, and Sun Fac and the spy at 10.
Maybe one of those can lead a squad of bugs to victory, but I think I'll hold off trying to gear them too hard until CG stops being coy with the requirements.
"Did we say separatists? We meant droid separatists! Our bad! Please insert Mastercard details here..."
Obviously Dooku would be a better leader than Ventress, but I've got her zeta'd into a pretty nasty killing machine (which, again, the popularity of the Nightsisters faction is something they'll have taken into account while tuning the event).
B1 is g11, but doesn't have the stars.
Everyone else is g8.
Maybe some big wallops from Grevious will save me.
With the Geonosian Territory Battle coming, we'll presumably see special battles that require specific characters, just like the Light/Dark Hoth one does, which would be where they can further incentivize the gearing and starring of characters, regardless of their other negligible utility. Or force our hands on farming the B1 and Droideka, not that we're hurting for things to farm.
I've still got 40 shards to go on Bossk and 225 on Nest (didn't unlock her node until very recently), so the B1 is going to wait a long while in particular. I'm similarly still working on the IG and XB for the Falcon event, so at least some Droideka shards will show up eventually. Boy, that's got to annoy some folks who 7 starred that event.
I'm farming the character shards for the team to unlock Darth Revan, and all of my gearing efforts will be for the 17500 hard cap on GP.
Not because I want a super overpowered character necessarily (although that would be nice), but really I want him for the challenge and because his event looked genuinely fun. It looks like a solo raid event, and I want to squeeze the gameplay out. So that's my real motivation. The OP nature is just icing on the cake.
Plus, I was getting tired of my previous plan of filling in my backlog.
But because of that, Separatists and Grievous/Droids are nowhere at all on my radar right now. In order to pursue Malak, I'm gonna have to let a lot of this Clone Wars era stuff slip by. Can't farm everything.
Given that they need 266 shards, 280 shards, and 279 shards respectively, that's probably an 'early 2020' problem.
Or CG could put some new characters into the fucking shops.
That'd be just swell.
Adding more and more characters while lowering our ability to farm for them makes their choice to leave those as they are for years now (I think the last new things came in around Rogue One?) baffling. Not even defensible by their business model, it's just flat out 'let's see how far we can piss off our player base'.
CG_Carrie said that they expect people to spend in the neighborhood of 4k-5k annually on this game to be on the competitive edge. That is insane.
But the secret is that the game needs more than just whales. Not even financially, but because the whales need people to beat up to feel powerful, to feel like they're getting value out of their expenditures. I'm sure some whales want to dominate for that top slot, with money as no object, but there need to be 'lesser' folks for the whales to beat upon while the Krakens dominate. It's an ecosystem, and eternally shitting on the bottom of the foodchain has an impact.
Krakens eat whales, whales eat dolphins, dolphins eat tuna, whatever, if the playerbase finally has enough of their shit, it'll have a ripple effect, even if it takes a while for the top to notice. The broad playerbase has benefits where minor expenditures can have substantial impacts, because there are so many players that a 2% increase in power can translate to a major jump. If all that's left are the big league spenders, it becomes ever more expensive to keep ahead.
Ugh. I know I'm not saying anything shocking to anyone. I think it's absurd that a "Freemium" game expects that kind of spending and that level of profit. I cannot be convinced they are spending 9 figures per year on development, but they seem to be raking in a metric fuckload of money. There's a wide spectrum of gradiation, where they could be 5% less shitty without substantially impacting their profit margins. At some point it's not just about inspiring purchases. At some point they have to realize that if their game becomes increasingly inaccessible to newer players (which the stores, as an example, can offset), then any attrition in the ranks becomes a permanent loss.
At the very least, rotating in some new characters/ships into the stores would give people non-RNG/non-energy limited ways to catch up a little. It still takes considerable effort to gear them up, so it's not like getting to 330 shards is the beginning and end of things.
Better case, adding a few more to each shop would let people catch up to a degree, but with diminishing returns; buying those shards means not buying gear (or 'waste' shards to turn into shard shop gear), but it'd still be an improvement. Swapping them around just leads to issues like the Hoth Soldier one. They clearly have no problem with needing to scroll through page after page of a shop, it's not like adding a new row to the Arena/Cantina/GW shops would crush the system. Hell, have them rotate once a month if need be; a chance to catch up for many, but with a time limiting factor. Or change them up weekly/daily, so they've done in the past.
The whales may pay most of the bills (and buy a few yachts), but relying on them alone to the exclusion of existing players (let alone drawing in new blood) is folly.
I do not have Jolee's zeta yet, but I should have it within the next 2-3 days. RNG depending. I've got a minimum of 2 zetas coming my way from the active TW. 3 if we win. And depending on how Sunday and Monday's ship challenges go, I could see Jolee's zeta on Sunday or Monday.
I’m gonna get my FO and Resistance characters up. That includes Holdo and Rose.
I want them all at least sniffing g12 when TROS comes out.
Steam ID: Good Life
Steam ID: Good Life
Still happy that Disney dropped the “Episode #” from the titles.
Mirror matches ate going to be the same bullshit that Jedi Revan mirror matches are.
Just a shit ton of protection and health Regen.
Padme's immunity to fear makes her a direct counter to Darth Revan.
They have fallen into a pattern that each new meta team is a direct counter to the last.
zBastila countered Traya Sith. CLS+3PO direct countered zBastila. Revan counters CLS. Darth Revan counters Revan. And now Padme counters Darth Revan. It's just this big chain of direct counters, and that is not good game design at all.
Arena is the least interesting part of the game.
In GA at least, if I don't have the meta, I can still beat someone who does.
Also, double drops! I was wondering if they forgot how to do that.
So they really rushed this through QA? :P
Past that I don't care much.
I don't have a top GR squad to pair her with, and I'm not dropping money on her gear.
If I can at least unlock, I can slowly gear her and have be ready for next time.
Still have to finish for Revan/Malak, and then I'll star/gear a separatist droids team.
A side note, zCarth, zMission, Zaalbar kicks ass in 3v3.
I'm still farming shards to unlock Darth Revan though. I don't know if I'll make it by the next time he comes through.
I definitely won't make it on gear and zetas.
Speaking of zetas... they announced that they're giving everyone 20 zeta shards for May 4th.
Steam ID: Good Life
Walked the first 4.
Steam ID: Good Life
Twitch: KoopahTroopah - Steam: Koopah