We wanted to clarify something as it doesn't appear we were clear in this morning's stream.
The reason 7* crystals cost 15,000 shards is because of the number of 7* shards players are generating from 6* dupes. When we looked at the data, we saw that players are currently generating more 7* shards through dupes than they were acquiring 6* shards from all sources when 6*s launched.
This is because of the way rewards have stacked across four Progresson Groups that are all currently chasing 6*s, with 6* rewards in content for Uncollected, Cavalier, Thronebreaker and Paragon players. This was the inevitable result of the longer gap between the introduction of 6* and 7* champions compared to previous rarities.
This dynamic meant that we had to change something about our plans for 7*s. We didn't want to dilute the 7* pool with lower quality champions, we didn't want to reduce the number of 7* shards players could earn through content, and we didn't want to have to ration 6* shards in content such as the upcoming Paragon difficulty Side Quest (more info on this soon).
So the only real option we had was to increase the cost of the 7* crystal. We have scaled 7* rewards to match this new cost. For instance, AW Rank 1 will still grant a full 7* crystal the next time AW rewards are updated, as was always the plan. However, the 7* shards you get for duping a 6* will remain the same, as reducing that ratio was the whole purpose of the decision to price the 7* crystal at 15,000 shards.
Short version of that post is.
We messed up the game economy again and players just have it too good right now(if we dont change the cost of 7*). Basically the same line they used for removal of revives.
In the interest of out Christmas bonuses we must make changes to the entire system.
Arguing anything but the fact that is 100% a bad change for players and kabam doing damage control because of their miscalculations is just silly
Why so angry and negative? Economy designers have done their job and deemed it necessary to make this change. Is it a great change? Maybe not, but it was needed. Yes, money can flood this l, but that has really always been the case. We should wait and see how they balance shard gains before jumping to negative conclusions
Whatever way they chose to introduce 7*s was going to have the balancing of the entire system in mind regardless, and it wasn't going to result in a pouring in of Top Tier 7*s to the masses. This has been the way with the addition of any new Rarity, and they've had a few experiences by now, so they've adjusted along the way. This whole "gotta be for money" accusation is not only getting old, it's also more and more obtuse as we go along. Money or free, the number of Shards is the same for everyone, and the people who spend were always going to have access to more. That's not going to change with 10k, 5k, or 2k costs. The game has to be balanced as it is when they're introduced, and 6* Dups are highly common now. That's about it.
We wanted to clarify something as it doesn't appear we were clear in this morning's stream.
The reason 7* crystals cost 15,000 shards is because of the number of 7* shards players are generating from 6* dupes. When we looked at the data, we saw that players are currently generating more 7* shards through dupes than they were acquiring 6* shards from all sources when 6*s launched.
This is because of the way rewards have stacked across four Progresson Groups that are all currently chasing 6*s, with 6* rewards in content for Uncollected, Cavalier, Thronebreaker and Paragon players. This was the inevitable result of the longer gap between the introduction of 6* and 7* champions compared to previous rarities.
This dynamic meant that we had to change something about our plans for 7*s. We didn't want to dilute the 7* pool with lower quality champions, we didn't want to reduce the number of 7* shards players could earn through content, and we didn't want to have to ration 6* shards in content such as the upcoming Paragon difficulty Side Quest (more info on this soon).
So the only real option we had was to increase the cost of the 7* crystal. We have scaled 7* rewards to match this new cost. For instance, AW Rank 1 will still grant a full 7* crystal the next time AW rewards are updated, as was always the plan. However, the 7* shards you get for duping a 6* will remain the same, as reducing that ratio was the whole purpose of the decision to price the 7* crystal at 15,000 shards.
Short version of that post is.
We messed up the game economy again and players just have it too good right now(if we dont change the cost of 7*). Basically the same line they used for removal of revives.
In the interest of out Christmas bonuses we must make changes to the entire system.
Arguing anything but the fact that is 100% a bad change for players and kabam doing damage control because of their miscalculations is just silly
It is clear that 6* shards are much easier to obtain. People load up on 6* shards to go for the new featured. You can see what the top players are able to obtain by seeing their channels. I am a very low level spender and still get 300,000 6* shards easily for the next featured. Are you saying allowing the players to get this many 6* shards is a bad thing? I think that is very pro player for all of us. The ramifications are that players open way more 6* crystals and get way more 7* shards than we ever did for 5* when 6* were introduced.
My guess is that players will open 7* at a faster rate than 6* when they were first introduced. This is especially true if players decide to forego featured 6* and go for basic.
We wanted to clarify something as it doesn't appear we were clear in this morning's stream.
The reason 7* crystals cost 15,000 shards is because of the number of 7* shards players are generating from 6* dupes. When we looked at the data, we saw that players are currently generating more 7* shards through dupes than they were acquiring 6* shards from all sources when 6*s launched.
This is because of the way rewards have stacked across four Progresson Groups that are all currently chasing 6*s, with 6* rewards in content for Uncollected, Cavalier, Thronebreaker and Paragon players. This was the inevitable result of the longer gap between the introduction of 6* and 7* champions compared to previous rarities.
This dynamic meant that we had to change something about our plans for 7*s. We didn't want to dilute the 7* pool with lower quality champions, we didn't want to reduce the number of 7* shards players could earn through content, and we didn't want to have to ration 6* shards in content such as the upcoming Paragon difficulty Side Quest (more info on this soon).
So the only real option we had was to increase the cost of the 7* crystal. We have scaled 7* rewards to match this new cost. For instance, AW Rank 1 will still grant a full 7* crystal the next time AW rewards are updated, as was always the plan. However, the 7* shards you get for duping a 6* will remain the same, as reducing that ratio was the whole purpose of the decision to price the 7* crystal at 15,000 shards.
Short version of that post is.
We messed up the game economy again and players just have it too good right now(if we dont change the cost of 7*). Basically the same line they used for removal of revives.
In the interest of out Christmas bonuses we must make changes to the entire system.
Arguing anything but the fact that is 100% a bad change for players and kabam doing damage control because of their miscalculations is just silly
It would be silly, for anyone who believes the purpose of the game is to hand players as much stuff as possible. Then of course, arguing anything but that these changes are bad for players, because they hand less stuff to players, would be moot.
Of course, that's not the only perspective players playing the game have. I would argue that it is the most destructive one that the game could most do without.
I keep saying this but it seems it bears non-stop repeating. Game economies have been managed this way since forever. They were managed this way back in the day when the top tier online games were subscription-based MMOs, which had no way to monetize these decisions. Anyone trying to portray obvious and universally common game economy balance decisions in conspiratorial or self-serving terms simply has no understanding of game design or game economies. Take away the monetization, and the need to adjust the 7* rarity system still remains.
With each rarity Kabam has introduced, they've made errors in judgment that might seem obvious in retrospect (and in fact, in many cases I've been pointing them out *before* they become obvious) but that are understandable in terms of responding to what they perceive as the playerbase primary points of pain. They accelerated 5* acquisition too much, in response to players feeling overfy constrained. They did this without fully appreciating how increasing shard availability would affect surrounding systems, like the original featured crystal design. That's why we don't have that crystal anymore.
If anything 6* acquisition rates were even faster, on a steeper curve. But the devs did try to make compensating adjustments for example in the way the 6* crystals worked. However, it should have been obvious to anyone observing that the 6* situation was also unsustainable. We're at the point where featured 6* crystals are offering almost guaranteed shots at new champions. I know that's what I do, and I'm opening 6* featured crystals at literally ludicrous rates.
Monetization infuses almost every part of the game, so it is impossible to discuss the counterfactual where monetization didn't matter. But these economy balancing concerns, while intertwined with monetization, aren't driven solely by them. We'd still be doing things like this with or without monetization requirements, because game economy balance is important to games. A game that gives everyone everything they want is a game that quickly adds itself to the graveyard of other games that failed to manage their economies properly.
The notion that we can simply look at what the devs are doing superficially and decide, without any evidence and with very obvious evidence to the contrary that their motives can be safely impugned is not a fair assessment either. That would be like accusing a Youtuber of only expressing the opinions that will get them the most views.
We wanted to clarify something as it doesn't appear we were clear in this morning's stream.
The reason 7* crystals cost 15,000 shards is because of the number of 7* shards players are generating from 6* dupes. When we looked at the data, we saw that players are currently generating more 7* shards through dupes than they were acquiring 6* shards from all sources when 6*s launched.
This is because of the way rewards have stacked across four Progresson Groups that are all currently chasing 6*s, with 6* rewards in content for Uncollected, Cavalier, Thronebreaker and Paragon players. This was the inevitable result of the longer gap between the introduction of 6* and 7* champions compared to previous rarities.
This dynamic meant that we had to change something about our plans for 7*s. We didn't want to dilute the 7* pool with lower quality champions, we didn't want to reduce the number of 7* shards players could earn through content, and we didn't want to have to ration 6* shards in content such as the upcoming Paragon difficulty Side Quest (more info on this soon).
So the only real option we had was to increase the cost of the 7* crystal. We have scaled 7* rewards to match this new cost. For instance, AW Rank 1 will still grant a full 7* crystal the next time AW rewards are updated, as was always the plan. However, the 7* shards you get for duping a 6* will remain the same, as reducing that ratio was the whole purpose of the decision to price the 7* crystal at 15,000 shards.
Short version of that post is.
We messed up the game economy again and players just have it too good right now(if we dont change the cost of 7*). Basically the same line they used for removal of revives.
In the interest of out Christmas bonuses we must make changes to the entire system.
Arguing anything but the fact that is 100% a bad change for players and kabam doing damage control because of their miscalculations is just silly
Treating the cost of 7* crystals the same as your outlook to buying multiple items in most of your overpriced stores in game. Why am I not suprised kabam. Smh
I dont really know why people would get annoyed by this when you dont just get 6* or 5* by duping 5* or 4*, you get them mainly from rewards, and those rewards are the ones that are going to be multiplied by 1.5x.
If getting shards from dupes for 6* and 7* was that easy, people would have enough shards to get tons of champs, and thats not the case, I think people would have right now something around maybe idk, 20k? (excluding whales) 7* shards?
And thats just by duping champs for months already, and we can get maybe 1 or 2 champs if they were 10k each, its not the case with 6* champs because we get a lot of 6* shards from other sources like rewards, store, etc, and in those sources the amount is going to be 1.5x.
So we will have to dupe 6 stars 55 times instead of 37 to get a 7 stars and dupe 7 stars 55 times to get a featured 7 stars (Titan crystal) ?
If duping 6*'s was the only way to get 7* shards, yes. 55/56 times or less for max sig 6*'s.
But you're not just getting them from 6* dupes. You'll get them in content as well. That's how you get 6* shards. Weird concept but thankfully Kabam thought of a way to get 6 and 7 star shards outside of duping champs. I don't know how they thought of it though.
So we will have to dupe 6 stars 55 times instead of 37 to get a 7 stars and dupe 7 stars 55 times to get a featured 7 stars (Titan crystal) ?
If duping 6*'s was the only way to get 7* shards, yes. 55/56 times or less for max sig 6*'s.
But you're not just getting them from 6* dupes. You'll get them in content as well. That's how you get 6* shards. Weird concept but thankfully Kabam thought of a way to get 6 and 7 star shards outside of duping champs. I don't know how they thought of it though.
There's also the belief that the majority of Players are supposed to have enough access to build a 7* Roster as soon as they're released. No idea where that originated.
So we will have to dupe 6 stars 55 times instead of 37 to get a 7 stars and dupe 7 stars 55 times to get a featured 7 stars (Titan crystal) ?
If duping 6*'s was the only way to get 7* shards, yes. 55/56 times or less for max sig 6*'s.
But you're not just getting them from 6* dupes. You'll get them in content as well. That's how you get 6* shards. Weird concept but thankfully Kabam thought of a way to get 6 and 7 star shards outside of duping champs. I don't know how they thought of it though.
There's also the belief that the majority of Players are supposed to have enough access to build a 7* Roster as soon as they're released. No idea where that originated.
@Kabam Miike won’t your ability to pace 7* rank up materials and the limited pool of champs control the pace of 7* roster development. If people have a rank 1 7* isn’t that equivalent in power to like a r3 6*? Not to mention the whole Titan crystal vs getting more 7* from 7* dupes. It just seems like even if people open 10 crystals day 1 the game wouldn’t all of the sudden be out of balance since no one can take them to rank 2 yet. Am I thinking about it wrong?
@Kabam Miike won’t your ability to pace 7* rank up materials and the limited pool of champs control the pace of 7* roster development. If people have a rank 1 7* isn’t that equivalent in power to like a r3 6*? Not to mention the whole Titan crystal vs getting more 7* from 7* dupes. It just seems like even if people open 10 crystals day 1 the game wouldn’t all of the sudden be out of balance since no one can take them to rank 2 yet. Am I thinking about it wrong?
Are you saying is that the game could in theory just hand everyone every champ at every rarity, and everything would still be fine because players would still be constrained on ranking them up?
One of the foundational elements of this game is the pursuit of new champions. That's why champion crystals are randomized. That's why they keep adding champions. The addition of new champions and the pursuit of those champions across all levels of the game is part of the engine that drives it. Rank ups are another bottleneck to roster development, but not the primary one.
Also, saying "the game wouldn't suddenly be out of balance" isn't a meaningful statement. If I set fire to one corner of your house, you don't say that having one small corner of your house on fire doesn't suddenly make you homeless. You put the fire out and then you kick me out, because you don't have debates with people asking you to judge how much of a problem is it really if they incinerate a portion of your house, nor do you debate what specific fraction of your house is safe to ignite.
The 7* rarity is being designed based on lessons learned from the 6 * rarity. One of those lessons clearly is that having a basic crystal and a featured crystal which both use the same shard currency is problematic, because it gives them only one tuning knob. Featured crystals let players target the newest champs in the game (as well as other champs that get curated into that crystal). Basic crystals are the more bread and butter crystal players can use to more quickly build up a 6* roster. But the devs have no way to speed up basic crystal availability without simultaneously accelerating featured crystal availability (short of giving out whole crystals) because speeding up one speeds up the other. By separating the bread and butter crystal and the new shiny crystal by assigning different shard currency to each, the devs now have two independent balancing knobs. They can tune one without directly affecting the other (technically speeding up 7* basic crystals speeds up Titan crystals, but by a significant attenuation factor).
A lot of players might say, yes but. Except there's no but. Players want what players want, but the game designers must serve the game first, and individual player desires second.
We wanted to clarify something as it doesn't appear we were clear in this morning's stream.
The reason 7* crystals cost 15,000 shards is because of the number of 7* shards players are generating from 6* dupes. When we looked at the data, we saw that players are currently generating more 7* shards through dupes than they were acquiring 6* shards from all sources when 6*s launched.
This is because of the way rewards have stacked across four Progresson Groups that are all currently chasing 6*s, with 6* rewards in content for Uncollected, Cavalier, Thronebreaker and Paragon players. This was the inevitable result of the longer gap between the introduction of 6* and 7* champions compared to previous rarities.
This dynamic meant that we had to change something about our plans for 7*s. We didn't want to dilute the 7* pool with lower quality champions, we didn't want to reduce the number of 7* shards players could earn through content, and we didn't want to have to ration 6* shards in content such as the upcoming Paragon difficulty Side Quest (more info on this soon).
So the only real option we had was to increase the cost of the 7* crystal. We have scaled 7* rewards to match this new cost. For instance, AW Rank 1 will still grant a full 7* crystal the next time AW rewards are updated, as was always the plan. However, the 7* shards you get for duping a 6* will remain the same, as reducing that ratio was the whole purpose of the decision to price the 7* crystal at 15,000 shards.
How many Titan shards will be awarded for 7* dupes? And how many Titan shards will be required to form a Titan crystal?
We wanted to clarify something as it doesn't appear we were clear in this morning's stream.
The reason 7* crystals cost 15,000 shards is because of the number of 7* shards players are generating from 6* dupes. When we looked at the data, we saw that players are currently generating more 7* shards through dupes than they were acquiring 6* shards from all sources when 6*s launched.
This is because of the way rewards have stacked across four Progresson Groups that are all currently chasing 6*s, with 6* rewards in content for Uncollected, Cavalier, Thronebreaker and Paragon players. This was the inevitable result of the longer gap between the introduction of 6* and 7* champions compared to previous rarities.
This dynamic meant that we had to change something about our plans for 7*s. We didn't want to dilute the 7* pool with lower quality champions, we didn't want to reduce the number of 7* shards players could earn through content, and we didn't want to have to ration 6* shards in content such as the upcoming Paragon difficulty Side Quest (more info on this soon).
So the only real option we had was to increase the cost of the 7* crystal. We have scaled 7* rewards to match this new cost. For instance, AW Rank 1 will still grant a full 7* crystal the next time AW rewards are updated, as was always the plan. However, the 7* shards you get for duping a 6* will remain the same, as reducing that ratio was the whole purpose of the decision to price the 7* crystal at 15,000 shards.
So Paragon difficulty side quest you say.... Not event quest but side quest. This is interesting. Threat Level 6? Must be 7 star shards.
So, who wants to bet 8* will cost 25k and a 10* will cost 100k*?
I honestly doubt we'll 8*'s.
If we don't eventually get 8*s it will be because the game dies. If the game continues 8*s will be as inevitable as 7*s and 6*s. Obviously it would be years from now.
Here's the thing, where's the biggest source of 6* dupes giving 7* shards? Cuz it ain't from rewards from content forming 6 star crystals, its the infinite amount of cav crystals/mythic crystals that spenders can infinitely purchase. The average endgame player probably still doesn't have every 6* champion and not every pull is a dupe that gives 7* shards.
We wanted to clarify something as it doesn't appear we were clear in this morning's stream.
The reason 7* crystals cost 15,000 shards is because of the number of 7* shards players are generating from 6* dupes. When we looked at the data, we saw that players are currently generating more 7* shards through dupes than they were acquiring 6* shards from all sources when 6*s launched.
This is because of the way rewards have stacked across four Progresson Groups that are all currently chasing 6*s, with 6* rewards in content for Uncollected, Cavalier, Thronebreaker and Paragon players. This was the inevitable result of the longer gap between the introduction of 6* and 7* champions compared to previous rarities.
This dynamic meant that we had to change something about our plans for 7*s. We didn't want to dilute the 7* pool with lower quality champions, we didn't want to reduce the number of 7* shards players could earn through content, and we didn't want to have to ration 6* shards in content such as the upcoming Paragon difficulty Side Quest (more info on this soon).
So the only real option we had was to increase the cost of the 7* crystal. We have scaled 7* rewards to match this new cost. For instance, AW Rank 1 will still grant a full 7* crystal the next time AW rewards are updated, as was always the plan. However, the 7* shards you get for duping a 6* will remain the same, as reducing that ratio was the whole purpose of the decision to price the 7* crystal at 15,000 shards.
Thx tor the clarification on the cost of 7 stars.
The stream in which Jax and Aidan presented the new 7 stars and the Act 8.2 didn't answered all the questions we could have. Maybe you could answer those questions ?
- What will be the cost to rank up a 7 stars to rank 2 ?
- When will we see this basic pool of 7 stars expand ?
- At what rate will new champions be included into the basic pool ?
- What will be the cost of the futur paragon crystal ? When will it be release ? Will it have the same odd to get a 7 stars as the Thronebreaker one for 6 stars ?
- Jax said the new Titan crystal (7 stars featured crystal) will take time to release. Can we know approximately how many time ?
- As people will start expanding their roster with 7 stars, will we see some new difficulties arrive ? AQ9 ? EQ Paragon level ? SQ Paragon level ? New content abyss like difficulty ?
- What about those exclusive champions like Scarlet Witch Sigil, unstoppable Colossus (he really need a good rework), Punisher, immortal iron fist, GoldPool, PlatinumPool, DeadPool, Jessica Jones, Thanos, Weapon X, Kang, will they get their 7 stars versions ? Will some of those available in the Black Iso Market with Scarlet Witch Sigil ?
Here's the thing, where's the biggest source of 6* dupes giving 7* shards? Cuz it ain't from rewards from content forming 6 star crystals, its the infinite amount of cav crystals/mythic crystals that spenders can infinitely purchase. The average endgame player probably still doesn't have every 6* champion and not every pull is a dupe that gives 7* shards.
It's not, it's the easily available 6*s that anyone can get in battlegrounds. You don't need to spend to get 6*s now
The introduction of a different ingame currency to acquire newly released 7* champions, can only have one motive and this motive is monetization. This is not a debatable opinion, this is an undisputed fact. If this is a good thing or a bad thing for the game or the company in itself is a different discussion and remains to be seen. But the motive behind this is one. Everyone says otherwise, sorry, either works for Kabam or is delusional.
Monetized or not, it's a good idea regardless. Now, everyone will get opportunities to get a new 7* no matter where they are at progression wise or when they decide to open a titan crystal.
Here's the thing, where's the biggest source of 6* dupes giving 7* shards? Cuz it ain't from rewards from content forming 6 star crystals, its the infinite amount of cav crystals/mythic crystals that spenders can infinitely purchase. The average endgame player probably still doesn't have every 6* champion and not every pull is a dupe that gives 7* shards.
Don't tempt DNA, they'll run the numbers telling you the average number of crystals you'd need to open to get all the champions in the basic pool. (I'll give a hint, statistically you have to open about 91 crystals to get all 24 champions in the featured crystal on average)
The introduction of a different ingame currency to acquire newly released 7* champions, can only have one motive and this motive is monetization. This is not a debatable opinion, this is an undisputed fact. If this is a good thing or a bad thing for the game or the company in itself is a different discussion and remains to be seen. But the motive behind this is one. Everyone says otherwise, sorry, either works for Kabam or is delusional.
Monetized or not, it's a good idea regardless. Now, everyone will get opportunities to get a new 7* no matter where they are at progression wise or when they decide to open a titan crystal.
How on earth do you know that "anyone" will have realistic access to Titan shards and you have already decided the above? The average FtP and low spender will have to play for ages, to be able to open enough 7* (costing 15k shards btw) crystals, in order to get enough Titan shards to open one of them. Unless by "everyone" you mean "everyone with sufficient spending through the whole year whaling events that are constantly released".
The introduction of a different ingame currency to acquire newly released 7* champions, can only have one motive and this motive is monetization. This is not a debatable opinion, this is an undisputed fact. If this is a good thing or a bad thing for the game or the company in itself is a different discussion and remains to be seen. But the motive behind this is one. Everyone says otherwise, sorry, either works for Kabam or is delusional.
Not debatable ? Undisputed fact ?
Or maybe it is not monetization but only to be sure it will take years for players to collect all champions ? 🤷♂️
The introduction of a different ingame currency to acquire newly released 7* champions, can only have one motive and this motive is monetization. This is not a debatable opinion, this is an undisputed fact. If this is a good thing or a bad thing for the game or the company in itself is a different discussion and remains to be seen. But the motive behind this is one. Everyone says otherwise, sorry, either works for Kabam or is delusional.
Monetized or not, it's a good idea regardless. Now, everyone will get opportunities to get a new 7* no matter where they are at progression wise or when they decide to open a titan crystal.
How on earth do you know that "anyone" will have realistic access to Titan shards and you have already decided the above? The average FtP and low spender will have to play for ages, to be able to open enough 7* (costing 15k shards btw) crystals, in order to get enough Titan shards to open one of them. Unless by "everyone" you mean "everyone with sufficient spending through the whole year whaling events that are constantly released".
Because kabam has already said that rewards will scale in accordance with 7* release. That would include 7* in content, eventually. Why would it be any different from 6* now? At some point you'll open a 7* monthly or more even As a ftp. Just not immediately.
Looking back at story content, 6.1 was the first chapter to give 6* shards...2k for completion, 4k for exploration. so 60% of a 6* crystal. 8.2 is the first to give 7* shards, so with the scale it would have to be 9k? For completion they give 1k. Should we believe that they initially wanted to give out 666.66 shards but they scaled it to 1k ? I want to believe, but math doesnt agree
Comments
Is it a great change? Maybe not, but it was needed.
Yes, money can flood this l, but that has really always been the case. We should wait and see how they balance shard gains before jumping to negative conclusions
This whole "gotta be for money" accusation is not only getting old, it's also more and more obtuse as we go along. Money or free, the number of Shards is the same for everyone, and the people who spend were always going to have access to more. That's not going to change with 10k, 5k, or 2k costs.
The game has to be balanced as it is when they're introduced, and 6* Dups are highly common now. That's about it.
My guess is that players will open 7* at a faster rate than 6* when they were first introduced. This is especially true if players decide to forego featured 6* and go for basic.
Of course, that's not the only perspective players playing the game have. I would argue that it is the most destructive one that the game could most do without.
I keep saying this but it seems it bears non-stop repeating. Game economies have been managed this way since forever. They were managed this way back in the day when the top tier online games were subscription-based MMOs, which had no way to monetize these decisions. Anyone trying to portray obvious and universally common game economy balance decisions in conspiratorial or self-serving terms simply has no understanding of game design or game economies. Take away the monetization, and the need to adjust the 7* rarity system still remains.
With each rarity Kabam has introduced, they've made errors in judgment that might seem obvious in retrospect (and in fact, in many cases I've been pointing them out *before* they become obvious) but that are understandable in terms of responding to what they perceive as the playerbase primary points of pain. They accelerated 5* acquisition too much, in response to players feeling overfy constrained. They did this without fully appreciating how increasing shard availability would affect surrounding systems, like the original featured crystal design. That's why we don't have that crystal anymore.
If anything 6* acquisition rates were even faster, on a steeper curve. But the devs did try to make compensating adjustments for example in the way the 6* crystals worked. However, it should have been obvious to anyone observing that the 6* situation was also unsustainable. We're at the point where featured 6* crystals are offering almost guaranteed shots at new champions. I know that's what I do, and I'm opening 6* featured crystals at literally ludicrous rates.
Monetization infuses almost every part of the game, so it is impossible to discuss the counterfactual where monetization didn't matter. But these economy balancing concerns, while intertwined with monetization, aren't driven solely by them. We'd still be doing things like this with or without monetization requirements, because game economy balance is important to games. A game that gives everyone everything they want is a game that quickly adds itself to the graveyard of other games that failed to manage their economies properly.
The notion that we can simply look at what the devs are doing superficially and decide, without any evidence and with very obvious evidence to the contrary that their motives can be safely impugned is not a fair assessment either. That would be like accusing a Youtuber of only expressing the opinions that will get them the most views.
If getting shards from dupes for 6* and 7* was that easy, people would have enough shards to get tons of champs, and thats not the case, I think people would have right now something around maybe idk, 20k? (excluding whales) 7* shards?
And thats just by duping champs for months already, and we can get maybe 1 or 2 champs if they were 10k each, its not the case with 6* champs because we get a lot of 6* shards from other sources like rewards, store, etc, and in those sources the amount is going to be 1.5x.
But you're not just getting them from 6* dupes. You'll get them in content as well. That's how you get 6* shards. Weird concept but thankfully Kabam thought of a way to get 6 and 7 star shards outside of duping champs. I don't know how they thought of it though.
One of the foundational elements of this game is the pursuit of new champions. That's why champion crystals are randomized. That's why they keep adding champions. The addition of new champions and the pursuit of those champions across all levels of the game is part of the engine that drives it. Rank ups are another bottleneck to roster development, but not the primary one.
Also, saying "the game wouldn't suddenly be out of balance" isn't a meaningful statement. If I set fire to one corner of your house, you don't say that having one small corner of your house on fire doesn't suddenly make you homeless. You put the fire out and then you kick me out, because you don't have debates with people asking you to judge how much of a problem is it really if they incinerate a portion of your house, nor do you debate what specific fraction of your house is safe to ignite.
The 7* rarity is being designed based on lessons learned from the 6 * rarity. One of those lessons clearly is that having a basic crystal and a featured crystal which both use the same shard currency is problematic, because it gives them only one tuning knob. Featured crystals let players target the newest champs in the game (as well as other champs that get curated into that crystal). Basic crystals are the more bread and butter crystal players can use to more quickly build up a 6* roster. But the devs have no way to speed up basic crystal availability without simultaneously accelerating featured crystal availability (short of giving out whole crystals) because speeding up one speeds up the other. By separating the bread and butter crystal and the new shiny crystal by assigning different shard currency to each, the devs now have two independent balancing knobs. They can tune one without directly affecting the other (technically speeding up 7* basic crystals speeds up Titan crystals, but by a significant attenuation factor).
A lot of players might say, yes but. Except there's no but. Players want what players want, but the game designers must serve the game first, and individual player desires second.
Dr. Zola
The stream in which Jax and Aidan presented the new 7 stars and the Act 8.2 didn't answered all the questions we could have. Maybe you could answer those questions ?
- What will be the cost to rank up a 7 stars to rank 2 ?
- When will we see this basic pool of 7 stars expand ?
- At what rate will new champions be included into the basic pool ?
- What will be the cost of the futur paragon crystal ? When will it be release ? Will it have the same odd to get a 7 stars as the Thronebreaker one for 6 stars ?
- Jax said the new Titan crystal (7 stars featured crystal) will take time to release. Can we know approximately how many time ?
- As people will start expanding their roster with 7 stars, will we see some new difficulties arrive ? AQ9 ? EQ Paragon level ? SQ Paragon level ? New content abyss like difficulty ?
- What about those exclusive champions like Scarlet Witch Sigil, unstoppable Colossus (he really need a good rework), Punisher, immortal iron fist, GoldPool, PlatinumPool, DeadPool, Jessica Jones, Thanos, Weapon X, Kang, will they get their 7 stars versions ? Will some of those available in the Black Iso Market with Scarlet Witch Sigil ?
Thx for reading and providing answer if you can
Or maybe it is not monetization but only to be sure it will take years for players to collect all champions ? 🤷♂️