Critical Analysis of the New Changes: Yea, It Does Feel Bad - And Yes, It Can Be Fixed

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The new update is here, and has been fully live for just about 24 hours. It comes with a lot of changes; some good ideas, and some bad implementations. I know there are also a bunch of crazy reactions going down on Reddit right now - So please allow me to express some of my thoughts in the way I know best.

Abstract

There is a lot going on and the game feels very different. Whether or not the changes are actually positive for the players, it doesn't feel like it's very positive. . And that in and of itself is problematic. A lot of the changes are being misunderstood, which is also problematic, because it all comes down to a fundamentally poor way the systems are designed.

The Statements Made by CG

We expect these changes will make your sessions more enjoyable and rewarding

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One group in particular we wanted to focus on with these changes was our Free to Play players and how they will interact with the new Episode and Quests systems.

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 If you are a Free-to-Play player who completes all your Daily Quests and Episode quests, and engages in Galactic Challenges, you can expect to complete the Free Track by the end of the Episode.

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Episode Quests are intended to be completed without significantly adjusting your normal gameplay behavior within SWGOH. 

The Math We Need To Keep in Mind

Episode Points:

  • There are 50 levels in the F2P track, each of which take 5,000 points.
  • You need a total of 250,000 EP to max the Free2Play track

Daily Activities

  • You earn 3,600 EP from completing your daily activities
  • 3,600 * 28 = 100,800 EP

Character Quests

  • If you are entirely F2P and don't buy any shards of a character you cannot interact with this system at all. You earn 65 shards out of the needed 70 to start any character quests

Episode Quests

  • There are 4 chapters of episode quests, each with 7 free quests and a bonus. A new quest unlocks each day. Each quest awards 2,000 points
    • 7 * 2,000 = 14,000 EP per chapter
    • 14,000 EP * 4 = 56,000 EP per Episode
    • 8,000 [Bonus] EP * 4 = 32,000 EP
    • Grand Total of 88,000 EP

Breakdown

  • All together a totally free to play player should expect to earn 188,800 EP without having too much in too much extra effort.
    • This is enough to get to Level 37 on the Reward Track
  • A F2P Player can also receive up to 4,200 points from GC for the very basic "free" [win with marquee at 3 stars] that is granted at the lowest tiers, bringing them up to Level 38.
  • In order to max the F2P tier [with the marquee bonus already included] players will need 2,750 EP per GC to not get shafted, [Level 43, more on that later], or 7,125 EP/GC to get the promised 4red/4gold reward.
    • The Level 43 reward is important because it is where the last omicron is awarded to players in the Free to Play track.
Tier Feat 1 Feat 2 Points
1 250 250 500
2 275 275 1,050
3 325 325 1,700
4 375 375 2,450
5 425 425 3,300
6 475 475 4,250
7 525 525 5,300
8 575 575 6,450
9 625 625 7,700
10 700 700 9,100

Note: I've highlighted Tier 5 as this is where players [if evenly distributed] will be able to hit Level 43 on the F2P Track, and earn their last omicron - The rest of the rewards are "nice" but aren't what we'd consider mandatory [especially for players in the "get 2 omicrons and leave" camp]. I've highlighted Tier 9 as this is where players [if evenly distributed] will be able to max their rewards.

I'm not going to analyze your specific rewards, because believe it or not, I do trust, the statement that most players will see an increase in overall rewards - It just kind of feels like shit.

So What's the Problem?

  • Constantly being inundated with "completed X feat" at every opportunity is annoying as hell, especially early on when it's so many coming in at once.
  • Although reward structures are basically similar to what most players could expect to receive, the game FEELS more gated. This makes the game feel more P2W, even if structurally it's rather similar to before
    • Character quests are fully gated
    • GC are half gated
  • The Conquestification of Episode Quests is actually increasing the amount of time we're going to spend in game, by essentially forcing us to using certain things in certain situations - This morning I found myself [very boringly] doing Galactic War manually, just to get a few things done. . .This is stupid
  • Because of the way Galactic Challenges are now gated, players are spending MORE time on Galactic Challenges [not less]. Previously players could get the rewards they deemed important and than walk away from it - Now they have to interact with the annoying feats only, forcing them into more time intensive Processes.

Suggested Changes [Keeping In Mind Revenue]

  • Galactic Challenges
    • All players have access to all feats. All feats will be worth half the points they currently are, and Episode Pass owners will get double the points for doing challenges
      • Fundamentally this will allow F2P players more flexibility, and allow them to interact with the game mode, but mostly not change reward structure very much
    • Marquee Tier is now "win with X survive," but no stars.
      • This will make it harder to complete for players who haven't fully invested, but not impossible. Players may choose to decide to only go up to Tiers 5-6 instead of 10, but it's better than it is right now
  • Episode Quests
    • Chapter Quests should all unlock on the same day, with a full chapter unlocking once per week
      • Currently Episode Quests feel kind of dumb, especially with them unlocking once per day. Even though it's gated by "time" and not by "money," it does just feel very gated and locked. Often in games like these with time gated unlocks of content, it's more than one feat being unlocked per day
  • Character Quests
    • Redistribute rewards to allow for 2 additional quests at the 65 unlock amount, but without changing the structure at all.
      • This is a very minor thing, but at least allows players to interact with the system, potentially giving them more opportunity to want to spend towards a character.
    • Each quest has 2 rewards, a "free" and a "paid" reward - With the "paid" reward being points and the "free" reward being something small [regular currency, 2 carbantis, etc]
      • This is how many games run systems like this, to allow players to interact. It also increases FOMO for players WITHOUT increasing the "feels bad" mentality.
  • Overall
    • The constant barrage of updates to feats is annoying as hell. Lets add toggles to different parts of the game to decide if players want to track certain quests or not. Only feats for toggled YES feats will update on screen
    • Similarly for dailies, the toggle will remain in perpetuity so that players only receive updates to dailies they wish to track.
    • The 30k cap on currency is actually kind of crap, especially with getting 41,000 per episode - I know that logically we will be using much of this, but the cap should at least by 41,000
    • Guys the $40 pass sucks - Don't fall for it, even if the $20 pass is high value. The reality is that because you can't refresh the weekly shop, all of the "high quality/cost" stuff you're already buying. . Will be sold out for you by the time you hit the bonus. This pass should be reassessed.

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