This doesn’t capture the feedback about Dragonite AT ALL.
Players aren’t asking for more Dragonite, players are asking for less frustration. They are perfectly okay with receiving the same amount of Dragonite over time, as long as it can be gained and spent in a predictable way.
Perfect Runs
Consider these two scenarios:
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A complete run hands out 0 Dragonite, a perfect run hands out 100 Dragonite, at 10% chance. That’s an average of 100 Dragonite over 10 days. Players are unhappy, because most days they receive nothing.
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A complete run hands out 10 Dragonite, a perfect run hands out 0 Dragonite, at 100% chance. That’s an average of 100 Dragonite over 10 days. Players are happy, because they are making steady progress towards their goal, crafting the next dragon.
When Dungeon was released several years back we had the very same situation with Diamonds. They were initially handed out randomly like in scenario 1, then changed to scenario 2 within a few days due to the overwhelmingly negative feedback. The payout over time didn’t change, players were happy. It’s baffling that the same awful design pattern is forced on us again, that IP2 doesn’t understand why this is a huge source of unnecessary frustration and that it apparently can’t be fixed this time before hell freezes over.
Gem Dragon Eggs
Consider these two scenarios:
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Gems Dragon Eggs costs 500 Dragonite, containing 1 of 6 dragons at random. Players need to craft an average of 14 Gem Dragon Eggs to obtain all dragons, for a total cost of 7000 Dragonite. Players are unhappy, because most pulls will be duplicates, after already going through all the frustration of obtaining the Dragonite needed for crafting.
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Gem Dragon Eggs cost 1200 Dragonite, allowing players to pick 1 of 6 dragons (the same could be achieved by offering the dragons directly for crafting). Players need to craft an average of 6 Gem Dragon Eggs to obtain all dragons, for a total cost of 7200 Dragonite. Players are happy, because they are making steady progress towards their goal, obtaining all dragons.
Scenario 2 doesn’t change anything about “economy balancing”, or dragons being a “mid to end game collectible” and “long term goal”, the average amount of resources and time it takes to obtain them all stays the same. It turns the frustrating experience of crafting a Gem Dragon Egg every two month and getting nothing in return most of the time into a fun experience of crafting a missing dragon every five months.
Recommendation
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Add each dragon directly to the forge for crafting, at least until those vague future plans actually become reality. This is a server side change that shouldn’t take more than a few days. Personally, I’d put the cost at 1000 Dragonite, it doesn’t change too much and flows better.
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Hand out 10% of the Dragonite currently gained from a perfect run as part of clearing the whole dungeon. Don’t hand anything out for a perfect run (or 10% of the current amount if you want to make it feel more special), not having to deal with the trap debuffs is already reward enough. This might require a client update, it should be an easy to implement change though.
These two easy changes will make almost all complaints about the Dungeon rework go away. There isn’t any cost attached on your side. You are not handing out more or making dragons faster to get, you are just changing it from a frustrating randomfest into a fair experience that allows long term planning.