How I would design a 5* Featured Crystal
RedRooster
Member Posts: 337 ★★
First of all, let me say that I know there is stickied thread. But it's mainly 45 pages of us arguing with each other (myself included). I wanted to create something constructive.
There are a couple of things that were good about the "old" featured crystal
1) Increased chance of duping a champ. We know 9/10 duped champs are better than unduped
2) Better chance of targeting a champ of in a class that you have resources for (T4CC, awakening gems) It can't be understated that many have expiring T4CC and awakening gems they simply cannot use on any champ.
3) Better chance of targeting a champ that will fill a hole in your roster (utility, prestige)
4) Better chance at getting a new and interesting champ
I can appreciate that the odds in the featured crystal were so inflated relative to other crystals that given enough shards you could almost tailor your roster and that was not the intent of the crystal.
These are the goals of "my" featured crystal
1) Access to featured/new champs
2) Increased chance at a class specific pull
3) Increased chances at particular champs by using a limited pool
4) High rotation so you don't get a "stale" crystal
5) Reduced chance of a "bad" champ
What follows it the design of the crystal
The crystal is made up of 18 champs.
6 x Featured champs: These are 2 champs released each month for the last 3 months.
6 x Class of the Moment: This contains 6 champs from Class of the Moment
6 x Curated Champs (one of each class): This contains 6 champs picked from Kabam's datamining of "effective" champs. (No champ is duplicated from the class of the moment pool).
So for any crystal pull your odds are:
6/18 for a featured
7/18 (or higher depending on the featured) of a specific class
6/18 (or higher depending on featured and class of the moment) of an "effective" champ
Each month 2 new featured champs are added to the crystal and the 2 oldest drop off.
I would like to see the other 12 champs rotate every 2 weeks, however, for consistency I can see them sticking with a one month rotation as well.
You could tweak this approach fairly easily to adjust the odds i.e. make the curated list 12 champs (2 of each class), but I feel this kind of approach offers scope for strategy and RNG to be balanced.
There are a couple of things that were good about the "old" featured crystal
1) Increased chance of duping a champ. We know 9/10 duped champs are better than unduped
2) Better chance of targeting a champ of in a class that you have resources for (T4CC, awakening gems) It can't be understated that many have expiring T4CC and awakening gems they simply cannot use on any champ.
3) Better chance of targeting a champ that will fill a hole in your roster (utility, prestige)
4) Better chance at getting a new and interesting champ
I can appreciate that the odds in the featured crystal were so inflated relative to other crystals that given enough shards you could almost tailor your roster and that was not the intent of the crystal.
These are the goals of "my" featured crystal
1) Access to featured/new champs
2) Increased chance at a class specific pull
3) Increased chances at particular champs by using a limited pool
4) High rotation so you don't get a "stale" crystal
5) Reduced chance of a "bad" champ
What follows it the design of the crystal
The crystal is made up of 18 champs.
6 x Featured champs: These are 2 champs released each month for the last 3 months.
6 x Class of the Moment: This contains 6 champs from Class of the Moment
6 x Curated Champs (one of each class): This contains 6 champs picked from Kabam's datamining of "effective" champs. (No champ is duplicated from the class of the moment pool).
So for any crystal pull your odds are:
6/18 for a featured
7/18 (or higher depending on the featured) of a specific class
6/18 (or higher depending on featured and class of the moment) of an "effective" champ
Each month 2 new featured champs are added to the crystal and the 2 oldest drop off.
I would like to see the other 12 champs rotate every 2 weeks, however, for consistency I can see them sticking with a one month rotation as well.
You could tweak this approach fairly easily to adjust the odds i.e. make the curated list 12 champs (2 of each class), but I feel this kind of approach offers scope for strategy and RNG to be balanced.
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Comments
@Hubris_hater Let me address YOUR points.
1) I never said the new crystal didn't do that. The idea is to encompass the best of both worlds: So if Kabam's new crystal includes it, you're basically agreeing that my inclusion is a good idea.
2) I don't believe that to be true at all. A lot of players have awakening gems for other classes. How many times have we seen people frustrated to pull a cosmic or science gem but not have a champ of that class? And with Act 5 a lot of players have expiring T4CC and T2A. They don't want to wait for mystic or skill to roll around while those expire.
3) So, you claim that my crystal doesn't have enough RNG. The point is that you might see that on a particular month you have some overlap of champs you already have and would like to dupe, this could be 3/18 or maybe less, this is still less likely than what we have in the old crystal. Similarly there might just be some champs you don't mind getting.. again straight up RNG.
4) Sitting on the same champs for 3 months seems more of an issue to me. One month is a heap of time to accumulate shards. If you miss it, you wait for the basic pool, isn't that what happens already? In the new crystal, it could take months, even years for the champ you want to roll around. Sorry, your point seems ill conceived. Seems like you're trying to just pick holes for the sake of it.
5) "Bad" champ is not defined by me. You participated in a thread that clearly stated that the champs were curated by Kabam. So don't get on my case about defining "bad". That is up to them. If you have an issue, take it up with Kabam.
@GroundedWisdom That's not how RNG works? What do you even mean by that? Class of the Moment is a rotation through each of the 6 classes: Mystic, Cosmic, Tech, Mutant, Skill, Science. It changes each month. Do you even play this game?
This is still a heavily RNG crystal, no single champ in the crystal has a more than 5.55% chance of being pulled, but it addresses some of misgivings that have been voiced by many players. It also gets away from what Kabam was scared of and that is people tailor making their rosters by just throwing shards at featured crystals that have the specific god-level champ they want. This is completely different from having a 100% chance at a champ by throwing 15k shards at it.
The new Crystal is pure RNG. It's an equal chance at each specific Champ. No part of a random roll involves tailoring our Roster. We roll the Crystal if we want to take a chance, and accept the outcome. The problem with the whole subject is they made changes, and there is a general sense of entitlement. People feel entitled to determine the odds. You get a 25% chance at a Champ that is not in the Basic. That's what the extra Shards are for. Whether you want to venture that is up to you.
I don't agree with the idea because it increases the possibility to about 33.333...%, minimizes the outcome of the rest, and creates a symmetrical balance that does not exist in RNG. Classes are not equally split down the middle, as in 2 per Class. For that matter, the results would not reflect that because the outcome is still random. Either way you look at it, the Crystals are designed to meet the needs of the game, not our own personal Rosters and objectives.
How does it increase the odds to 33.33%? Are you talking about 6/18 are featured? If you're issue is that then fine make the curated part of the pool in my crystal 12 instead of 6, then this is equal to what is in Kabam's proposed crystal.
Is the issue the class portion of the crystal? So if that crystal included StarLord, HulkBuster, Rocket, Punisher 2099, War Machine and Vision? Are they all equally god like? You might get the class you want, but not have a god tier or even good champ, but the point is that you can use your expiring resources if you so choose to.
The result is determined by RNG, not that every possibility has an equal chance of occurring, which is what happens in all of their "loot boxes".
Kabam released a $1 crystal that had 2 per class? Isn't that too much symmetry by your account? Are you telling me that Kabam made a mistake? Did they royally screw up, because that crystal doesn't follow RNG? Make up your mind.
This game is a roster building game at it's core, not a fighting game. You balance your resources and do tasks to get them. If it was just a fighting game then we wouldn't need to have progressing rosters. Just accumulate champs and they stay the same forever, no leveling, no ranking.
3) Limited pool means that you should have a decent chance of getting any particular champ, my suggestion gives about 5.55%. It's not an overwhelming chance, but something that feels tangible.
It also means that there is a reasonable chance that in any crystal there might be 4-5 champs that you would be happy with, 20-25%. (guesstimate). But this 20-25% doesn't mean the same champ. Your chance of a dupe would be around 5.55%. Your chance of a specific chance dupe is 0.3% on two crystals.
5) I don't think a community vote would work. Basically you would get the same champs showing up again and again. Sure we would probably get the best champs in the pool each time, but I do believe that would unbalance the game.
We would use the same method by which Kabam were curating their lists for the 18 champs they are putting in their new crystals. Ideally, I would like to see this portion of the pool split evenly amongst the classes. The more critical part of this is that it is curated by Kabam based on their "effectiveness" metrics. We can argue about whether or not their measure of "effectiveness" matches ours, but the point is to get a decent rotation of champs that avoids the bottom tier champs. Be aware that this is part of THEIR goal with the new crystal that I've adopted.
1. THIS is a mobile game first
2. kabam is OUT to make money
3. everything is left to RNG
4. RNG leads to people wanting to spend money for higher chance (why do u think there are FGMC? cause people want those juicy 5*)
5. at the end of the day this game isnt a fan service game at the end of the day kabam is out here trying to make money, profit as u continue to play. I garantee u...if they drop even 1 or even 1/2 of a t5b people will DROP $$$$
They can still monetize a shards based crystal by offering shards in $$$ and unit deals, which I believe they've been doing for a long time now.
This was the problem with the official thread, derailed because everyone forgets to actually talk about what was proposed in the initial post.