Talked to the team. The crystal is not prepared yet. When I get the information, I will let you all know.
If you want to move the announcement schedule due to planning issues and time restrictions, that’s fine. But not releasing it because it encourages hoarding shards which is unhealthy behavior doesn’t seem real. People have been hoarding shards since it was a thing. If you want people to not hoard shards, introduce class crystals or something that will encourage people to spend shards. Or stop pumping so much trash into the crystals. The latter is the #1 reason for shard hoarding. People just want to know which pool of trash will depress them the least. I mean this in the most constructive way and I don’t mean it to come off rude.
Alright guys, just like the new Dungeons and Featured 6-Star Crystals, we want to move away from announcing them in advance, but I will talk to the team about doing it one last time... I make no promises, but hold on for a bit.
Why do you want to move away from it? What benefit is there? All it does is interrupt our ability to plan what to do with shards/rank ups. Can you please explain the reasoning behind delaying the announcements?
All it does is make people hoard crystal shards until the last minute. This has never been the intention with anything in the game, and we have made this known throughout the History of the game many times. This is not a healthy behaviour for the game.
Why does it matter to you if we save crystals for maximum benefit? I am honestly confused.
Alright guys, just like the new Dungeons and Featured 6-Star Crystals, we want to move away from announcing them in advance, but I will talk to the team about doing it one last time... I make no promises, but hold on for a bit.
Why do you want to move away from it? What benefit is there? All it does is interrupt our ability to plan what to do with shards/rank ups. Can you please explain the reasoning behind delaying the announcements?
All it does is make people hoard crystal shards until the last minute. This has never been the intention with anything in the game, and we have made this known throughout the History of the game many times. This is not a healthy behaviour for the game.
Would love to see what you guys think is an example of healthy behavior for the game. Spending thousands on cavalier crystals, for example?
Talked to the team. The crystal is not prepared yet. When I get the information, I will let you all know.
This is has to be either false or deliberate obfuscation, right? Is this statement meant to make us believe that the game devs don’t know which champs will be in a crystal being released in 5 days? Or does the phrase “not prepared yet” mean there hasn’t been final testing to make sure the intended champs are in actually the crystal?
It isn’t like everyone hasn’t known for 85 days that the next crystal would be released 90 days after the previous one.
Why hide any information is beyond me. Why wait till the day before a monthly event quest to release the information when it’s always the same? Why wait minutes before a clash type quest to announce it? Why can’t we have the information ahead of time so we can plan our game the way we want to. Otherwise we are just living by the fly in the moment. Trying to escape through a solid crystal clear window.
I understand if the item in question isn’t ready. But if it isn’t ready till the day before you want to release it, then it clearly isn’t being tested before release.
Other stuff pertaining to story lines or such kept secret or new champs etc...but why can’t we know exact details of back issues variant #2? Or the gates to the levels/chapters? We make rank up choices daily or weekly or monthly. Holding out on important information requires us to horde resources anyways.
Alright guys, just like the new Dungeons and Featured 6-Star Crystals, we want to move away from announcing them in advance, but I will talk to the team about doing it one last time... I make no promises, but hold on for a bit.
Why do you want to move away from it? What benefit is there? All it does is interrupt our ability to plan what to do with shards/rank ups. Can you please explain the reasoning behind delaying the announcements?
All it does is make people hoard crystal shards until the last minute. This has never been the intention with anything in the game, and we have made this known throughout the History of the game many times. This is not a healthy behaviour for the game.
I agree with most others. I actually need a few of the champs still in the current feature crystal but I’m hoarding crystals in anticipation of who might be in the next. If I found out that they were all champs I already had, I would open my crystals now.
But regardless, how exactly is hoarding crystals “unhealthy behavior for the game?” That statement makes absolutely no sense.
There is a TON of unhealthy behavior associated with this game—like the addictiveness that it causes and the preying on people’s desire to gamble. Actually letting them make an informed decision on one of the only things they actually can control in the game is not unhealthy from what I can see.
Alright guys, just like the new Dungeons and Featured 6-Star Crystals, we want to move away from announcing them in advance, but I will talk to the team about doing it one last time... I make no promises, but hold on for a bit.
I often defend Kabam on these forums, but I see no benefit in this change. I think many of us would like to know whether to open crystals now or wait a week, and with the increase in champ requirements, these decisions are even more crucial. Doesn't seem like the hardest thing for Kabam to do for us.
This is a great point. If champ requirements are increasingly a thing, the ability to have as much discernment as possible about what crystals to open would also seem to be something that should be...a thing
These explanations are ridiculous. If you want people to stop hoarding shards, bring back the old featured crystals. Not announcing them does absolutely nothing to change that.
These explanations are ridiculous. If you want people to stop hoarding shards, bring back the old featured crystals. Not announcing them does absolutely nothing to change that.
Huh? Everyone boarded for old featured crystals. That doesn’t even make any sense.
Letting those of us in the game (customers) decide what they want to *risk* their earned (or purchased) shards on is "not healthy behavior"? Yikes... that is a helluva take from Kabaam.
Imagine going to the grocery store thinking "I'd like to pick up some tomatoes to make chili"... then you get to the store and see that the current batch of tomatoes isn't to your liking. They're too small, or not ripe... whatever. So you decide "eh... I'll wait until the next time I'm here to get the tomatoes and make the chili", and then at that moment, a produce clerk backhands you and says "you'll buy those tomatoes now! Waiting to make an informed purchase on something you want is unhealthy for our store!"
i agree or even do away with them its not that serious, not everything need an announcement unless its something like a new event quest or a major change.
The existence of featured crystals itself encourages hoarding shards. The long delay in releasing a champ to the crystals encourages it as well. Offers encourage hoarding units, etc. People gonna do whatever it takes to improve their odds of getting something in a system of RNG.
@Kabam Miike This answer is flawed because currently, players that don’t spend on the game can’t get new champs until a 90 day rotation occurs for them to be added into a new feature crystal. This is why people save shards because they want the “new” champs that they can’t afford to pay for to get earlier. The crystal system is not in favor of the players. A good solution would to have a rotating feature crystal where every 2 weeks the oldest featured champ in the crystal gets added into the basic and the next “new” champ in like gets put into the featured. This would create a fair chance for all players and not make people wait as long as 90 days which is an incredibly long time to hoard shards and not enjoy the game to its fullest. @Kabam Zibiit@Kabam Vydious@Kabam Lyra@Kabam Porthos
Alright guys, just like the new Dungeons and Featured 6-Star Crystals, we want to move away from announcing them in advance, but I will talk to the team about doing it one last time... I make no promises, but hold on for a bit.
Why do you want to move away from it? What benefit is there? All it does is interrupt our ability to plan what to do with shards/rank ups. Can you please explain the reasoning behind delaying the announcements?
All it does is make people hoard crystal shards until the last minute. This has never been the intention with anything in the game, and we have made this known throughout the History of the game many times. This is not a healthy behaviour for the game.
@Kabam Miike then why have featured crystals at all. Why not just add the champion into the basic crystal, oh wait, that would still cause people to hoard crystals. Like many have said the logic is nonsense. It seems Kabam is trying to take away a part of the game of strategy and planning. Why announce anything early if you do not want hoarding to be apart of the game?
I respectfully disagree that people hoarding crystals is unhealthy behavior for the game. It is good for the community and is actually good for Kabam. It’s good for the community so that we have the ability to save for a “chance” at a specific champion we desire. It is good for Kabam because there’s a greater chance that players will be happy with champions they pull or at least not devastated by continuously pull champs that they have zero use for (including Miike’s BFF Cyclops). Personally I have every champ from the current featured crystal that I want (excluding Sparky but I’m not spending 5k extra shards to go for 1 champ based on the current odds of getting him from a featured). My 5* basic luck is horrible so I either open nothing but featured 5* or FGMC. Additionally, a lot of the new end game content has paths or entire maps that require a specific champ, or in some cases a few specific champs, and without that champ (or a coupe others) it is a complete wallet drain. With the 4* ban in Act 6 this issue has become even more significant. If Kabam isn’t going to announce the planned champion pool more than a few days prior to its release then we should go back to the old featured crystals that gave a higher % chance to pull a specific champ vs the current pool that has 6-8 great-decent champs and the rest are a sick joke. One last piece of advice, many in the community are getting burnt out on pulling nothing but meh or trash champs, along with the other issues in the contest. But I have seen several players on the brink of quitting until they got a really good champ and then all the sudden they were reinvigorated, back to playing on a regular basis and some even start dropping $$ on the game. Not announcing the next feature pool or figuring out a way for dedicated (paying or even F2P) to get some decent champs will significantly hurt the game and push more and more away. I kindly ask that the game team re-think this position.
Alright guys, just like the new Dungeons and Featured 6-Star Crystals, we want to move away from announcing them in advance, but I will talk to the team about doing it one last time... I make no promises, but hold on for a bit.
Why do you want to move away from it? What benefit is there? All it does is interrupt our ability to plan what to do with shards/rank ups. Can you please explain the reasoning behind delaying the announcements?
All it does is make people hoard crystal shards until the last minute. This has never been the intention with anything in the game, and we have made this known throughout the History of the game many times. This is not a healthy behaviour for the game.
Mike,
Nothing is wrong with hoarding crystals because it is called PLANNING AHEAD AND PLAYING SMART. Why would I just blow shards on the current feature or 10k basic if I really don't need any champs and i want to be smart about saving for a prestige champ coming out in 1-2 months or a god tier champ coming out soon?
I play smart and i plan ahead. This makes no sense. I'm not a 15 year old kid that just has to open everything whenever i get enough shards.
LOL this is really the dumbest decision I have ever and I hope this is just as extended April fool's joke. Soon enough we wont be able to save catalysts for rank ups, units for special deals and items for difficult challenge because it is unhealthy to save.
Guess I'm hoarding my shards an extra week. The game's health will have to deal with it.
I mean it really doesn't make any difference in the long run, was just a great way to communicate expectations. Most of the biggest crystal openings happen after hype around it has been built. Seems like that would be healthier for the game imo.
How is not releasing the upcoming pool gonna stop people from hoarding shards anyways? I almost gaurantee there are people already planning on saving shards for the pool after this upcoming one just for Human Torch lol
Alright guys, just like the new Dungeons and Featured 6-Star Crystals, we want to move away from announcing them in advance, but I will talk to the team about doing it one last time... I make no promises, but hold on for a bit.
Why do you want to move away from it? What benefit is there? All it does is interrupt our ability to plan what to do with shards/rank ups. Can you please explain the reasoning behind delaying the announcements?
All it does is make people hoard crystal shards until the last minute. This has never been the intention with anything in the game, and we have made this known throughout the History of the game many times. This is not a healthy behaviour for the game.
This was an excellent opportunity for the transparency you are always claiming to be striving for.
“Unhealthy behaviour for the game” REALLY means, the business model wants you to spend your shards/units as soon as you get them, in the hopes that when a new crystal/feature/offer drops you will buy more shards/units to purchase it.
The truth, while disappointing, could at least be respected.
Also, I don’t remember if it was the last 5* or 6* featured pool announcement, but whichever one ended up having champs that were already in the previous pool is another example of why it should be announced ahead of time, so people can point that stuff out and it can get fixed before the release of the new crystal.
Alright guys, just like the new Dungeons and Featured 6-Star Crystals, we want to move away from announcing them in advance, but I will talk to the team about doing it one last time... I make no promises, but hold on for a bit.
Why do you want to move away from it? What benefit is there? All it does is interrupt our ability to plan what to do with shards/rank ups. Can you please explain the reasoning behind delaying the announcements?
All it does is make people hoard crystal shards until the last minute. This has never been the intention with anything in the game, and we have made this known throughout the History of the game many times. This is not a healthy behaviour for the game.
Fact that players are hoarding crystals and used this strategy in the past shows that there are issues with champ acquisition in the game. Hoarding is a symptom of the problem, not the problem itself. RNG and champ acquisition is a big issue. Crystals are filled with more or less unusable champs so players have to hoard depending on what they need.
Alright guys, just like the new Dungeons and Featured 6-Star Crystals, we want to move away from announcing them in advance, but I will talk to the team about doing it one last time... I make no promises, but hold on for a bit.
All it does is make people hoard crystal shards until the last minute. This has never been the intention with anything in the game, and we have made this known throughout the History of the game many times. This is not a healthy behaviour for the game.
I don’t think your assumptions would pan out the way you hope if you tested it. I’m sitting on 135k shards Why? A run of horrible basic pulls made me want to hold off for a bit. Then new heroes looked great and here we are. If you were to announce the other 18 (since we all know Thing, Diablo, Havok, Mr Sin, New Ms Marvel, and Nick Fury are the “featured” 6) I may choose to pop basics right now.
However, waiting a week and I may think differently if Anhil and HT prove to be more worthy after facing them in events and seeing game play of Anhil later today.
I’m not sure how less information would lead to a decision being made earlier. It doesn’t seem the least bit logical. Thus, I’ll wait, and pay attention to this who get Anhil today and see what they think. Maybe another 3 months is in order.
Comments
It isn’t like everyone hasn’t known for 85 days that the next crystal would be released 90 days after the previous one.
I understand if the item in question isn’t ready. But if it isn’t ready till the day before you want to release it, then it clearly isn’t being tested before release.
Other stuff pertaining to story lines or such kept secret or new champs etc...but why can’t we know exact details of back issues variant #2? Or the gates to the levels/chapters? We make rank up choices daily or weekly or monthly. Holding out on important information requires us to horde resources anyways.
But regardless, how exactly is hoarding crystals “unhealthy behavior for the game?” That statement makes absolutely no sense.
There is a TON of unhealthy behavior associated with this game—like the addictiveness that it causes and the preying on people’s desire to gamble. Actually letting them make an informed decision on one of the only things they actually can control in the game is not unhealthy from what I can see.
Imagine going to the grocery store thinking "I'd like to pick up some tomatoes to make chili"... then you get to the store and see that the current batch of tomatoes isn't to your liking. They're too small, or not ripe... whatever. So you decide "eh... I'll wait until the next time I'm here to get the tomatoes and make the chili", and then at that moment, a produce clerk backhands you and says "you'll buy those tomatoes now! Waiting to make an informed purchase on something you want is unhealthy for our store!"
Kind of what's happening.
Edit: just saw the official word in another thread.
Nothing is wrong with hoarding crystals because it is called PLANNING AHEAD AND PLAYING SMART. Why would I just blow shards on the current feature or 10k basic if I really don't need any champs and i want to be smart about saving for a prestige champ coming out in 1-2 months or a god tier champ coming out soon?
I play smart and i plan ahead. This makes no sense. I'm not a 15 year old kid that just has to open everything whenever i get enough shards.
I mean it really doesn't make any difference in the long run, was just a great way to communicate expectations. Most of the biggest crystal openings happen after hype around it has been built. Seems like that would be healthier for the game imo.
“Unhealthy behaviour for the game” REALLY means, the business model wants you to spend your shards/units as soon as you get them, in the hopes that when a new crystal/feature/offer drops you will buy more shards/units to purchase it.
The truth, while disappointing, could at least be respected.