**Mastery Loadouts**
Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
The new end date will be May 1st.
Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
The new end date will be May 1st.
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1) introduce "VIP" ranks ... ie, more you spend, more VIP ranks you get (and perhaps some "bonus"es for spending .. ie more energy? access to higher tier masteries, more mastery points .. whatever ... ). Hey, fair's fair, if people want to spend, they should get something out of it . I'm a free to play, but I have no issues with somebody getting more if they spend on it ... *shrug*
2) Use VIP ranks to match things up .. (for example, total or average VIP rank in alliance, and match them with similar VIP rank for AW ... ie casual free to play does NOT fight MMX or such ... ). Clarification: you're in a different bracket - except different rewards ..
now .. back to Arena:
3) dumbest thing ever in arena is that matches 11-16 require a "specific roster" to bypass .. then once you do so, you face "easy" fights ... crazy ... dumb, and no point to it. here's what I'd do:
a) stop match ups vs other players ... throw that out .. matchups will be vs "randomly" created opponents ...
b) each arena would randomly generate the first (20? 50? not sure, this number would have to be ironed out - doesn't matter really what it is .. just that it exists) or so matchups .. and these are "fixed". Matchups would be something like:
match 1: 1*
match 2: 2* rank 1
match 3: 2* rank 2
match 4: 3* rank 1 ..
etc .. (or something like that - or even maybe based on PI)
Point is, starts "trivial" .. gets harder after each matchup .. REGARDLESS of what champs you pick ...
c) eventually .. at some point, you start introducing "nodes" to boost them as well .. you keep doing this ... the fights will get tougher ... they'll get to the point where everyone will .. eventually .. fail ... that's fine ... it's a skill contest .. who can keep the streak longer .. that's good.
d) points: either you track the player's longest streak ... or
e) you score points based on opponent: higher PI = higher points ...
f) you score points or multiplier based on your champs : for example: 6* = x2. 5* = x3. 4* = x4 . 3* = x6 . 2* = x10. 1* = x20
g) use a champ, he goes on "cooldown" for ... hours? day? not sure ... cycle them .. idea is , you use each of your champs once .. you have to plan your roster, plan your usage .. you're rewarded for using the smallest champ you can to defeat an opponent.
Solves a lot of problems .. (creates new ones ..
but I think it would be .. interesting .. to have something .. (emphasis .. something ) along this lines ..
Brackets based on VIP level ... (and perhaps summoner level) ... or such ... all champs available ... but none of this silly weird matchups that occur now .. "Oh, you're using a rank 3 4* .. ok, have an easy matchup ... oh, is that a rank 2 4*? sorry, sucks to be you, here have a rank 5 6* .. " O.o
*sigh*
(that has maked no sense .. ever )
Or create a gold arena that can be run for shards and golds so people don't NEED to grind the featured arenas for rewards.
If this were a subscription based game and there was absolutely no way for the players to spend extra money in the arena, I still wouldn't do this, so this doesn't have anything to do with making money per se.
This is an interesting idea in theory, but in practice when you make more brackets you segment the player population into smaller slices that change how the competitions work. And increasing the rewards in the arena widens the gap between the grinders and the non-grinders.
Most of the things in the game are compromises between different opposing factors, and pushing them in one direction generally makes things better for some at the expense of others. In fact, since the way all games like this are managed is through normalized difficulty and reward systems the actual rewards in the game are very subtle near-zero sum systems. In other words, give someone something and they get stronger, but everyone else gets weaker on a relative basis. Give something to everyone to try to get around that, and the difficulty of the game rises to meet the new average, and everyone actually stays the same.
This is something you always have to be cognisant about when trying to add more stuff to the game. A lot of players loved getting more 5* champs but hated adding 6* champs to the game. None of them seemed to realize those two things were inseparable.