Should The Crystal System as a Whole Be Overhauled? (Honest Take and BROAD discussion)

I'm sure many of you are aware of how many games made by North American developers are moving away from "randomness" and into more guaranteed but also more "grindy" rewards (i.e. Brawlstars, Overwatch, League of Legends, etc.). Should MCOC take a similar route? I love the feeling of landing that one champ and feeling so lucky... but is it sustainable? Most of us are incredibly unhappy with the new titan feeling too random and lackluster in the champ pool, but this brings up a larger discussion. Should Kabam remove crystals and move towards more of an unlocking based system for champs? There are so many champs that this is far from outlandish. Maybe champs get sorted some way and then some cost more to unlock than others. Idk, but I for one do not think that crystals are very sustainable, nor are they engaging for the long term playerbase. Maybe just more "wish crystal" type selectors should be implemented. I saw an interesting take with the Titan Crystal, where maybe the player selects 4 champs, then the game randomly selects 6 to be placed into the titan crystal, and then the player opens that crystal... at least this prevents months of work from amounting into a Luke Cage or unduped Thing.

Comments

WednesdayLength

They're literally doing this through limited 7 star pools and featured crystals. Besides which you Doyle be happy with a 7 star Luke Cage cause he's a monster

DNA3000

I'm sure many of you are aware of how many games made by North American developers are moving away from "randomness" and into more guaranteed but also more "grindy" rewards (i.e. Brawlstars, Overwatch, League of Legends, etc.). Should MCOC take a similar route?

Nope.

Idk, but I for one do not think that crystals are very sustainable, nor are they engaging for the long term playerbase.

It is a common observation. So common that I can recall it being made back in 2015, about nine years ago, and every year since. It is, ironically, one of the most sustainable complaints that random champion crystals is not sustainable. I expect that complaint to still be happening ten years from now.

There is, of course, some merit to the general idea that crystal random behavior has some downsides, but the developers have been making incremental adjustments to balancing champion acquisition randomness verses player agency for a while now, and there's absolutely no question that in a game like this (or any game really) you can't just rip out a fundamental foundational design block just because some players don't like it. You always have to monitor and evolve those components to deal with the challenges that come with a game that lasts for a decade or more.

And to be honest, I don't myself see some major trend away from random rewards as a design feature. Some games have them, some don't, and that's always been true. League of Legends is fifteen years old now, and although I don't play it, I don't recall hearing anything about them removing random chests from the game.

Even in this game, there are ways to target specific champions: Beta Ray Bill, Morbius, and the Deathless champs. There are things like selector crystals and nexus crystals and small pool targeted crystals like the loyalty crystal. And there are monetized ways to do so, with the advance bundles. But those are on top of the champion collection system, not intended to replace them.

The only evidence you seem to have that the game has an existential problem with champion crystals is that "most of us" are unhappy with the Titan crystal. You know what else "most of us" are unhappy with? Dying in content. I will bet more players are unhappy with dying in content than are unhappy with the Titan crystal. Is content that is allowed to kill the player also unsustainable? If unhappiness with the Titan crystal is going to kill the game due to unpopularity, dying in content is going to kill the game ten times faster.

EdisonLaw

Nah it’s good for now. Plus some champs really need to be duped like Thing