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Please be aware, there is a known issue with Saga badging when observing the AW map.
The team have found the source of the issue and will be updating with our next build.
We apologize for the inconvenience.
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At a Crossroads...
KontraktKilla
Posts: 15 ★
I picked this game up about a year ago this month... dove right in at first and played it relentlessly... even became part of my daily and weekly planning around when the daily clock resets and new content becomes available... was hooked... and so was my wallet... i too have dumped $K's of dollars in to this game now... loved the playability and the concept the game provides... managed to make it to Paragon just before July 4th, and then Valiant by early December...
But something has caused me to quickly lose interest in it and now have to struggle just to log in to get the daily crystal... maybe it was the issue riddled AI, Parry fails, horrible RNG luck, node combos you need an advanced degree to decipher, the resource heavy content... or maybe it was the actual bad value that the banquet event was (weird because i actually defended Kabam on this as one point). but the horrible drop rates on those crystals for the price they were i think is what actually did it for me, i left the event feeling burnt and worn down for the investment i made to it (over $1K and finished in the mid 300's). The countless crystals i opened and hardly got anything premium (got it RNG right, but that **** is garbage, should have a guaranteed reward milestone after opening over 100 and not getting the top tier of reward in the crystal), but hey, your banquet crystal awarded you an event paragon crystal, oh but wait thats a critically low chance to get the top reward from that too, so you get double screwed as soon as you get something more than a T2A!!! but i get it, its all chance RNG right, yeah... and yes, i willingly played and now burnt is the feeling, and worn out is the state...
What could be causing this rapid burnout? i think i narrowed it down to a few things and some general sentiment...
Obnoxiously designed nodes: This one by far is the most exhausting and always has been... there are literally a 1,000+ nodes in the game and they are horrifically worded and genuinely have to be decoded first before you can figure out what they're trying to say you can't use or goofy mechanic you have to do so you don't lose power or health or just to be able to do damage to the AI... Over the course of the game, i found this to be particularly unnecessary. This approach could have been achieved with just a handful of nodes that are crafted to generate clear understanding. Having to have a dictionary to decode them and find out who in my roster was even able to play on the node, added to game stress overtime and i think has undoubtedly led to my current feelings on even playing the game any longer. Kabam can slash 95% of the existing nodes, simplify them, and stop with the fight structure of: Fight on one leg, with both hands tied behind your back, stay far away, but hit the opponent or you'll lose health and they'll regen, don't apply a DOT either because that effect will cause you to suffer the DOT instead, also the AI will be unstoppable and unblockable every 4 seconds, and they'll have poison and fire immunity and you can only use champions who are tech and who inflict damage by poison and fire... SERIOUSLY, like WTH? These are not fun and are not challenging... they are tiring... and painful... the more complex the node array, the less fun and engaging it is... and getting past it feels mentally exhausting, and definitely not fun... by the way all the grandmaster style fights are horrible and in the top tier of the worst things about the game...
Horrible AI: I'm not sure why Kabam keeps claiming this doesn't exist... its commented on daily multiple times a day... how do you claim you don't know? I too noticed a decidedly different AI experience around late spring early summer... the AI went from able to intercept and parry occasionally, and punish after a heavy or special, to not being able to do any of those on a regular basis... and that's not from harder levels of content, it literally even happens in arena, incursions, BG's and other modes... you used to be able to strike while the AI recovered from a special, but not now, as soon as you dash in you get wrecked. They parry issues are the same horrible interaction, the AI turtling up and refusing specials, especially when you have a node tied to them actually throwing specials... this needs confirmation from Kabam, and an active engagement from the content testers to help resolve, but at this point i only wonder if Kabam wants it this broken because, well, it costs you more revives, and hey, if they just deny its broken they don't have to worry about fixing it. win/win for them
Cost prohibitive: I'm not a stranger to mobile games and microtransactions, i've played plenty and spent plenty... what seems to be the prohibitive thing here, are the deals... i honestly feel cheated out of my money at this point (don't worry, i do recognize i spent it of my own free will). The money to value aspect just isn't there for early to mid game players and is arguable for end game players. The sales model here is just baffling, the cost of bundles don't change over progressions, but the value does. this gets infuriating to think about some times as its hard not to feel fleeced (and im sorry this is not an incentive to progress further)... how on earth do you justify selling a $100 bundle that includes a 5* player and some 4*/5* rank materials to players that are less progressed through the story mode... and sell the same cost bundle to further progressed accounts with obviously way better and far more long term viable 6*/7* access and rank up mats??? the 4*/5* bundle should be a cost relative to the overall value of those products to the game... realistically they should have been $9.99 bundles at most... and if people in early game stages wanted to spend $99 on a bundle when they're at the "proven rank" then let them have the 6*/7* at that rank too, why screw people out of value??? WHY PROGRESSION LOCK ACCESS TO IT??? (oh that s right, i know this one, its so they spend more to advance more, no F's given that spending money that early is absolutely TOILET BOWL VALUE), so then, just remove the access to the bundle if you cant blend actual balanced value and ROI at that level...why offer something that poor in value??? some poor kid bought that **** and got skeezed on by you guys for it... when i look back at all the money i invested in my roster for the cost of grandmaster crystals only to end up with an overwhelmingly receiving 3* characters (which at this point are completely useless even to brand new accounts)... why??? why fleece your players like this? the frustrating drop rates of crystals too? this is borderline predatory... i get the RNG and the "its a gamble" ****... but why as an early mid game player should i be collecting 3*'s still? or 4*s for that matter too... (i know, i know, we just don't understand how the money making scheme here works)... had i known the drastic value void in the early stages of the game i would definitely not had invested in my account then, so yeah i made a bad investment decision, because that ROI was worse than horrible... so please Kabam, enjoy the revenue i contributed to your coffers, but that love affair is over... Granted there's games out there that are far more cost predatory, but, i haven't seen many that block you from the value of the purchases. Also, why continue to sell the summoners sigil without meaningful updates to that for players in end game state to obtain value from aside from the extra storage to be able to keep just a little more of the things We've earned... theres no value to it... and such a poor move adding the express mode of arena to it as a perk... Garbage decision... Come on Kabam, why not make the sigil more in line value wise for players that earned end game progression? not just a skewed market place to trade resources, but actually add value to it. Something that every player wants to buy because the great value it provides... haven't seen one thing offered by your game that screamed overwhelming value for the players, come on make it right for those in the community that are choosing to stay with it. in fact all the things offered are just feeding the addiction of "chasing" a reward... you owe it to the players to add a marketplace in which to directly obtain guaranteed character at any rarity (not just the early access packs either) a constant market place. Anything less is poor ethically... especially after the progression scaling offers...
Lack of Character Updates: After rolling out a character rework plan, it has now largely gone away... i remember getting the developer feedback on the older character updates, that you're not interested in addressing older characters as they don't make the company money... this is a crock of ****... and a tone def stance to take... the entirety of the rosters are about 10-15% useable characters for efficient play, and since inefficient play costs the players money, so why would we use inefficient characters? so my roster sits with the vast majority of it unusable, especially anything below 6*'s which is also 99% of everything available... So even to get in and make some tweaks to older irrelevant characters that simply lack access to a DOT or immunity or just need a damage or HP bump is too much to ask? why is this the case? no way thats more than a few hours or a day or two's worth of work... hell you could even select a few community members to give info for reworking some characters as a reward and im sure they'd gladly do it for free... the obvious elephant in the room too, why are some of the most cherished and beloved characters the weakest ones? why are characters from the comics who were greatly power full in their books, nothing more than a wet fart in the game? and some of the most unknown and irrelevant ones seem to be the most overly power full ones... and i wont touch the Hercules topic too much, honestly not a fan of the character, i hardly use him, but why would you even address the community in opposition to him? "Herc it" keeps people engaged and actively enjoying the game, why would you take that from the community more than you already have by deliberately designing content he cant be used in? the statement given that it trivializes content is garbage... and that it degrades the value of the product because the time spent designing? does it really take that much time and effort to come up with the Punny names of event? to hit the "randomize" button on the rewards? hit the "make this impossible" button on the node array for the quests?
Oblivious Devs: The literal unprofessional back and forth with a player over the Hercules nerf misunderstanding... WOW is all i can say... im sure all of this will go right over your heads... The devs are just rudely dismissive of legitimate concerns of the community (the whole reason the game exists, so it can make a profit)... was the revive nerf really that necessary? do y'all already not make enough from everything else? why the energy nerf? and the endless list of other topics... i think utter transparency and honestly would do a lot to mend this... Just come out and say it... we took these things away because we "Want you to buy them with money". if that's the case then offer them at a reasonable price (and stop saying that sucking at the game should cost you money... if im sucking at the game at this point to the point i have to buy revives at pace that seen as a revenue stream to you, maybe try fixing the AI, or maybe that's the point as to why its jacked up now)... you hate these questions be cause you hate the challenge to your authority... every dictatorship does...
in conclusion, definitely taking a break that i may never come back to... at this point its a struggle just to log in everyday to obtain the daily crystal... I'm sure some of this is emotional out pouring, but there's very little being done from the inside to make the experience better in game, some minor QoL improvements, yeah, but overall, meaningful things, nah, not happening... and waiting for something to happen is hopeless. now Q up the "well you dont have to play anymore" trolls with their witty 12 year old level comments... cool comment buddy, glad you could add meaningful dialog...
if you made it this far, thanks for reading, please share your thoughts if you share some of the same sentiment... these are my opinions, im sure everyone has opinions too... share please, if you'd like to.
But something has caused me to quickly lose interest in it and now have to struggle just to log in to get the daily crystal... maybe it was the issue riddled AI, Parry fails, horrible RNG luck, node combos you need an advanced degree to decipher, the resource heavy content... or maybe it was the actual bad value that the banquet event was (weird because i actually defended Kabam on this as one point). but the horrible drop rates on those crystals for the price they were i think is what actually did it for me, i left the event feeling burnt and worn down for the investment i made to it (over $1K and finished in the mid 300's). The countless crystals i opened and hardly got anything premium (got it RNG right, but that **** is garbage, should have a guaranteed reward milestone after opening over 100 and not getting the top tier of reward in the crystal), but hey, your banquet crystal awarded you an event paragon crystal, oh but wait thats a critically low chance to get the top reward from that too, so you get double screwed as soon as you get something more than a T2A!!! but i get it, its all chance RNG right, yeah... and yes, i willingly played and now burnt is the feeling, and worn out is the state...
What could be causing this rapid burnout? i think i narrowed it down to a few things and some general sentiment...
Obnoxiously designed nodes: This one by far is the most exhausting and always has been... there are literally a 1,000+ nodes in the game and they are horrifically worded and genuinely have to be decoded first before you can figure out what they're trying to say you can't use or goofy mechanic you have to do so you don't lose power or health or just to be able to do damage to the AI... Over the course of the game, i found this to be particularly unnecessary. This approach could have been achieved with just a handful of nodes that are crafted to generate clear understanding. Having to have a dictionary to decode them and find out who in my roster was even able to play on the node, added to game stress overtime and i think has undoubtedly led to my current feelings on even playing the game any longer. Kabam can slash 95% of the existing nodes, simplify them, and stop with the fight structure of: Fight on one leg, with both hands tied behind your back, stay far away, but hit the opponent or you'll lose health and they'll regen, don't apply a DOT either because that effect will cause you to suffer the DOT instead, also the AI will be unstoppable and unblockable every 4 seconds, and they'll have poison and fire immunity and you can only use champions who are tech and who inflict damage by poison and fire... SERIOUSLY, like WTH? These are not fun and are not challenging... they are tiring... and painful... the more complex the node array, the less fun and engaging it is... and getting past it feels mentally exhausting, and definitely not fun... by the way all the grandmaster style fights are horrible and in the top tier of the worst things about the game...
Horrible AI: I'm not sure why Kabam keeps claiming this doesn't exist... its commented on daily multiple times a day... how do you claim you don't know? I too noticed a decidedly different AI experience around late spring early summer... the AI went from able to intercept and parry occasionally, and punish after a heavy or special, to not being able to do any of those on a regular basis... and that's not from harder levels of content, it literally even happens in arena, incursions, BG's and other modes... you used to be able to strike while the AI recovered from a special, but not now, as soon as you dash in you get wrecked. They parry issues are the same horrible interaction, the AI turtling up and refusing specials, especially when you have a node tied to them actually throwing specials... this needs confirmation from Kabam, and an active engagement from the content testers to help resolve, but at this point i only wonder if Kabam wants it this broken because, well, it costs you more revives, and hey, if they just deny its broken they don't have to worry about fixing it. win/win for them
Cost prohibitive: I'm not a stranger to mobile games and microtransactions, i've played plenty and spent plenty... what seems to be the prohibitive thing here, are the deals... i honestly feel cheated out of my money at this point (don't worry, i do recognize i spent it of my own free will). The money to value aspect just isn't there for early to mid game players and is arguable for end game players. The sales model here is just baffling, the cost of bundles don't change over progressions, but the value does. this gets infuriating to think about some times as its hard not to feel fleeced (and im sorry this is not an incentive to progress further)... how on earth do you justify selling a $100 bundle that includes a 5* player and some 4*/5* rank materials to players that are less progressed through the story mode... and sell the same cost bundle to further progressed accounts with obviously way better and far more long term viable 6*/7* access and rank up mats??? the 4*/5* bundle should be a cost relative to the overall value of those products to the game... realistically they should have been $9.99 bundles at most... and if people in early game stages wanted to spend $99 on a bundle when they're at the "proven rank" then let them have the 6*/7* at that rank too, why screw people out of value??? WHY PROGRESSION LOCK ACCESS TO IT??? (oh that s right, i know this one, its so they spend more to advance more, no F's given that spending money that early is absolutely TOILET BOWL VALUE), so then, just remove the access to the bundle if you cant blend actual balanced value and ROI at that level...why offer something that poor in value??? some poor kid bought that **** and got skeezed on by you guys for it... when i look back at all the money i invested in my roster for the cost of grandmaster crystals only to end up with an overwhelmingly receiving 3* characters (which at this point are completely useless even to brand new accounts)... why??? why fleece your players like this? the frustrating drop rates of crystals too? this is borderline predatory... i get the RNG and the "its a gamble" ****... but why as an early mid game player should i be collecting 3*'s still? or 4*s for that matter too... (i know, i know, we just don't understand how the money making scheme here works)... had i known the drastic value void in the early stages of the game i would definitely not had invested in my account then, so yeah i made a bad investment decision, because that ROI was worse than horrible... so please Kabam, enjoy the revenue i contributed to your coffers, but that love affair is over... Granted there's games out there that are far more cost predatory, but, i haven't seen many that block you from the value of the purchases. Also, why continue to sell the summoners sigil without meaningful updates to that for players in end game state to obtain value from aside from the extra storage to be able to keep just a little more of the things We've earned... theres no value to it... and such a poor move adding the express mode of arena to it as a perk... Garbage decision... Come on Kabam, why not make the sigil more in line value wise for players that earned end game progression? not just a skewed market place to trade resources, but actually add value to it. Something that every player wants to buy because the great value it provides... haven't seen one thing offered by your game that screamed overwhelming value for the players, come on make it right for those in the community that are choosing to stay with it. in fact all the things offered are just feeding the addiction of "chasing" a reward... you owe it to the players to add a marketplace in which to directly obtain guaranteed character at any rarity (not just the early access packs either) a constant market place. Anything less is poor ethically... especially after the progression scaling offers...
Lack of Character Updates: After rolling out a character rework plan, it has now largely gone away... i remember getting the developer feedback on the older character updates, that you're not interested in addressing older characters as they don't make the company money... this is a crock of ****... and a tone def stance to take... the entirety of the rosters are about 10-15% useable characters for efficient play, and since inefficient play costs the players money, so why would we use inefficient characters? so my roster sits with the vast majority of it unusable, especially anything below 6*'s which is also 99% of everything available... So even to get in and make some tweaks to older irrelevant characters that simply lack access to a DOT or immunity or just need a damage or HP bump is too much to ask? why is this the case? no way thats more than a few hours or a day or two's worth of work... hell you could even select a few community members to give info for reworking some characters as a reward and im sure they'd gladly do it for free... the obvious elephant in the room too, why are some of the most cherished and beloved characters the weakest ones? why are characters from the comics who were greatly power full in their books, nothing more than a wet fart in the game? and some of the most unknown and irrelevant ones seem to be the most overly power full ones... and i wont touch the Hercules topic too much, honestly not a fan of the character, i hardly use him, but why would you even address the community in opposition to him? "Herc it" keeps people engaged and actively enjoying the game, why would you take that from the community more than you already have by deliberately designing content he cant be used in? the statement given that it trivializes content is garbage... and that it degrades the value of the product because the time spent designing? does it really take that much time and effort to come up with the Punny names of event? to hit the "randomize" button on the rewards? hit the "make this impossible" button on the node array for the quests?
Oblivious Devs: The literal unprofessional back and forth with a player over the Hercules nerf misunderstanding... WOW is all i can say... im sure all of this will go right over your heads... The devs are just rudely dismissive of legitimate concerns of the community (the whole reason the game exists, so it can make a profit)... was the revive nerf really that necessary? do y'all already not make enough from everything else? why the energy nerf? and the endless list of other topics... i think utter transparency and honestly would do a lot to mend this... Just come out and say it... we took these things away because we "Want you to buy them with money". if that's the case then offer them at a reasonable price (and stop saying that sucking at the game should cost you money... if im sucking at the game at this point to the point i have to buy revives at pace that seen as a revenue stream to you, maybe try fixing the AI, or maybe that's the point as to why its jacked up now)... you hate these questions be cause you hate the challenge to your authority... every dictatorship does...
in conclusion, definitely taking a break that i may never come back to... at this point its a struggle just to log in everyday to obtain the daily crystal... I'm sure some of this is emotional out pouring, but there's very little being done from the inside to make the experience better in game, some minor QoL improvements, yeah, but overall, meaningful things, nah, not happening... and waiting for something to happen is hopeless. now Q up the "well you dont have to play anymore" trolls with their witty 12 year old level comments... cool comment buddy, glad you could add meaningful dialog...
if you made it this far, thanks for reading, please share your thoughts if you share some of the same sentiment... these are my opinions, im sure everyone has opinions too... share please, if you'd like to.
20
Comments
A.I- I'm not sure where you got they claim nothing is wrong but they tried to put out a fix but it broke other parts of the game.
Cost Prohibitive- Don't buy offers you don't find appealing. Spending is a choice.
Champion Updates- They scaled back because they were too ambitious with their original plan. The community expected every champ to get a God tier revamp. The quality of updates weren't great so they scaled back to focus on the newer champs as well one thorough champion update.
Obvious Devs- Miike isn't a dev. He's the community manager for the forums. I hate to say it but you're being overly sensitive. You're mad because Kabam made changes to things in game and Miike and Jax have to communicate it. The revive nerf was absolutely needed but judging by your first point, I understand why you hate it.
This is one of the few games where forum Mods and occasionally a few of the devs interact with people on the forums and on social media. They're constantly attacked and berated here but they still come on here and respond and give some insight. They are truly treated terribly, especially when something is happening with the game and it's out of Jax and Miike's control. But I get it, you're a "customer" so you think you can treat employees how you want but they have to bend over backwards for you.
#nerfhercules
There have been, imo, manipulative tactics to get us used to spending units on revives and energy. The one gold for the raid revive for example. Its basically free but in reality, that wall of spending on revives is broken just a tiny bit. This way it feels more natural to spend units on them. That way when the holiday hits we have depleted our units and the only option is cash. One weak year of cyber monday and banquet to get us into necro. Which again, will get us used to spending units on revives. It's pretty smart but just as sneaky and deceptive.
It's the foundation of micro transaction games and Kabam is definitely not the 1st to do this. I'm just wondering why the sudden rise of nickle and dime tactics. Even the influencers shed light and argue against kabam frequently. With out them, this game would be close to unplayable without thier guides. More than ever due to being punished for re-trying a fight till you get the hang of it.
Lastly, Kabam announcing that time isn't a viable resource in this game really got to me. It's the most valuable resource that we all have a limited amount of. Perhaps I'm being too negative here. But to me, this sounds like we don't respect you, we respect your money. If all the f2p peasants (like myself now) left at once, the game would die out quickly. Imagine battle grounds and war with such a small portion of the community left. Constantly facing the same opponents.
I've loved this game and it's community. So I would love things to get better. For the record, I'm valiant with a solid roster with decent skills.
I play casually. 30ish minutes a day over 8 years. I enjoy what i enjoy and don't play what i don't. Sounds like you may benefit from some time off.
AI, every dog knows AI is roided up but Kabam says hahha no data we have.
Diving headfirst into a new existing game, and spending huge amounts of time and money playing it to overcome the next challenge, the next obstacle, get the next champion, the next dopamine rush...
Seriously, it's like you read a book called "How to Burn Out playing a mobile game" and said to yourself "I bet I can do it faster!"😉
Seriously: Step back. Take a little time off. Even if it's just a week or so.
Go outside, read a book, etc (I don't recommend finding a new game, and starting the process all over again...)
Then come back - or don't - and join a chilled out Alliance that enjoys the game, but isn't trying so hard.
- Spend less
- Play less
- Don't try to 'keep up'
You'll be happier.
As with all good things in life, pace yourself
It's not about the destination, it's the journey
If you rush to the end without taking time to enjoy what comes in between, then you will get burnt out
My frustration and burn out isn't from, rapid progression or daily engagement, again i loved and enjoyed that stuff, it a direct result from the frustrating situations with the game which i touched on in my OP. The AI stuff and the absolute refusal to meaningfully engage the problem seems to be the worst (goes beyond recent adjustments made... the rate in which the AI refuses legitimate parries (not affected by immunities or reductions), escapes the parry, escapes the stuns mid special, parries you mid combo, throws specials impossibly quicker than you can {reaction time less than .000000001 of a sec}, reverse dashes you while they are already mid dash, these things were not an issue in the game until earlier last year, and have been routinely complained about by the community and have only been responded to by the community engagement team as (you guys are crazy nothing wrong with the AI, y'all are imagining this, STOP COMPLAINING ABOUT IT PESANTS)... and i think most people secretly agree on the excessive complexity of the node combinations (both wording and combination) that are completely unnecessary, and the attitude as of late from the community engagement team is like WTF? sympathy for them is in short supply, this is their job to engage with the community and foster the exchange of information, and they have turned kind of into tyrants... "how dare thy question my motives"... overall exchanges from them have been negative in tone and demeanor and its getting worse... i.e. see they comment about your time not being a worthy currency for them... personally not offended by that, but how the heck can you tell people that a game literally built as F2P and championed and portrayed the same way by Kabam, and in the same breath say that your engagement as a F2P is not valued because the currency you spend here is worthless to us (your time)? that is unless you dump some dinero into the coffers... and even then its still not valued... again i loved the game and a true fan of Marvel... the awful fleecing of players that do spend... yeah Kabam is a company that needs to maintain revenue, but there's a model in which is fair to do that under and a way to transmit that to the consumers of the product without degrading them...