[quote=“Machiknight, post:90, topic:2285”]
I’m glad this discussion has taken this turn to what can be done to help.
[/quote] Me too. Thanks for playing along, guys, and thank the background noise for stopping.
Before suggesting possible solutions to fix the issues, I’d like to clarify them again, in particular the “gap” notion as I feel we all feel it’s there, and it’s too big right now, but different players perceive it differently.
THE GAP
At the moment, the big, seemingly insurmountable gap I see and experience on a daily basis is between players who have very advanced collections (all Kingdoms at Level 10, most/all troops at Level 15+) and people who are (still) far away from that. It does show in “PVP” battles, since the former’s troops have an all-around 20 or so more stats than the exact same line-up in the hands of the latter, but it also shows in terms of overall progression, as the former get constant rewards that are absolutely huge compared to those the latter receive.
There is a “pay-to-win” angle to this, as a new player could potentially throw a ton of cash at the game and buy all the Gold, Keys & Souls needed to reach those levels in a pinch (and attain VIP 10 in the process), and they would definitely leave all strictly free-to-play new players (and a lot of long-time F2P players) far behind in terms of daily rewards, tributes, and in-battle stat bonuses. The possibility is there.
However, the biggest gap is actually among F2P players (or players who gave a little bit of cash at some point, like I did, but nowhere near enough to take the P2W path). Once again, I’ll state it: 1.0.7 and 1.0.8 gave an immense edge to those who had bigger, more advanced collections at the time vs those who didn’t. The effects of that edge are still cascading on a daily basis and widening the gap between those two camps (exponentially, I feel).
@Jainus About the exponential part: sure, your progress has slowed down with 1.0.8. Everybody’s progress has slowed down with 1.0.8 compared to 1.0.7, but the less advanced the collection, the bigger the impact of this halt. My Level 275 account with only half the Kingdoms at Level 10 and half the Troops at Level 15 was impacted a ton more than your Level 700+ account with all Kingdoms and Troops at (then-)max levels, I can guarantee you that. While it was raining Gems & Keys for you with the Tribute Emissaries going overboard during the 1.0.7 era, I very rarely saw more than 3 Emissaries at once, and not that often. While I was grinding Gold like crazy to level up my Kingdoms, yours required zero Gold for that, as you were basically immune to the new Gold requirement for the most part; so you were able to assign that Gold to other things, like Guild Tasks and a ton of Keys, further advancing your collection. You also receive better static rewards from Tributes as a result, and have far bigger stat bonuses in Invades, which gives you a better shot at racking up more Gold, Souls and XP on higher difficulty levels, in turn giving you more bang for your buck, and so on and on and on. Not to mention, Ascension is something you probably already can do, whereas it’s a very futuristic, abstract prospect to me. I need those Souls for base leveling before I can even dream of making a Mythic Goblin (or perhaps Dire Wolf, in your case ^^).
This all adds up, so that your account’s progress is and will inevitably remain faster than mine even if we play the exact same amount of time indefinitely. So, if I’m chasing you but you’re going faster than I am, the gap between us is growing exponentially. Even if you slowed down a bit lately, because I slowed down even more.
We’d need creative re-balancing of rewards and progression to make up for that, at least to an extent. I quite like @Machiknight’s idea to make newly completed Quests & Challenges invaluable again. It’d be a really decent step in the right direction.
KEYS
The current system gives us a lot more keys than the previous probably ever did, especially Gold Keys. Unfortunately, we get a lot less (new) troops from these, not just because each key only gives 1 thing as opposed to 3 in the past, or because you need Glory Keys at the minimum to even have a shot at an Epic or Legendary at all, but because every other key gives you a Traitstone, or a little bit of any given resource instead of a Troop.
My best, most reliable source of duplicate troops has been The Arena for a while, and especially since 1.0.8. I actually level up my troops to Level 15 based on my Arena line-ups, now, so I can get a shot at buying the duplicates on the cheap at the end of my runs (now that the bug on the Gem price has been squashed). This works wonders for Commons, Rares and Ultra Rares and is the most rewarding aspect of my favorite game mode at the moment. It does favor players who already have all their Troops at Level 15, as they don’t have to worry about grinding Souls to reach that 1 Gem offer, they just get it systematically no matter what line-up they pick, but this is still something for which my strategy and consistent efforts DO pay off, so I’m really not complaining about that. On the contrary, I’m very thankful for this feature. Please never, ever take it away! =)
However, as far as the 12 Legendaries and the 1 Epic (Shadow Hunter) I’m still missing out on to this day, the future doesn’t look too bright. I didn’t receive a single Legendary from Chests in ages, duplicate or otherwise, only a precious few duplicate Epics, and the current Key system makes it far less likely that I ever will. Even the few Event Keys I opened so far gave me an Ultra-Rare troop at best, which I really didn’t need or expect from these.
We’d need other sources from which to hope completing our Troop collections, even temporary, difficult ones. The Epic Arena was a fantastic opportunity, why don’t we do that again? Why not even a Legendary Arena? Perhaps with an increased fee or a more costly Gem offer at the end, but at least some kind of chance to get a specific troop once in a lifetime, as opposed to opening Chests forever with your fingers crossed.
TRAITSTONES
Well, there are very detailed dedicated threads on these, notably a brilliant analysis by @Shimrra, and the devs have also acknowledged our suggestion to fix the fact that The Arena only gives Broken Spire color Traitstones at the moment, and should give random ones to stay competitive in that regard. I think either the ability to trade or a crafting tool have both been suggested as well. We’d need opportunities to focus on the Traitstone we’re missing out on, and cash in on the ones we don’t need but have piled up a ton of. Pretty straightforward.
TRIBUTES
Okay, so I’m also well aware that the 1.0.7 system was breaking the game’s ability to make money with all the Gems and Keys it showered players with maxed-out Kingdoms with, and this was nerfed for a reason. I’m not suggesting going back to that, nor would I expect the devs to.
Still, those who missed out on those incredible opportunities could perhaps be given a little more love now that they’re still struggling to reach even the currently far lower level of Tributes those with 20 Level 10 Kingdoms are currently enjoying.
Why not a random event such as “Robin Hood noticed your 4 Level 1 Kingdoms and it made him very sad, so he gathered his gang and raided a Level 10 Kingdom to give you a little something back. Here are 4 Gems.”?
TREASURE HUNT
Treasure Hunt is fine overall. I know a lot of people dislike it and/or find it not rewarding enough, but I like it. The only obvious thing it’s sorely missing at the moment, and which should be fairly obvious, is that Traitstones need to be added to the potential rewards.
LOYALTY BONUS
Here, I respectfully disagree with you guys. The 7-day loyalty bonus is punishing enough to miss even once, and it happened to me a few times in the past, just miss one day and it takes you a whole week to regain your previous level, missing out on thousands in daily bonus. I really, really don’t want to risk 4 times worse. Also, everybody would be getting this, so it wouldn’t be a fair opportunity for players with low-level collections in particular. Giant, maxed-out collection players would benefit exactly as much from that.
