**WINTER OF WOE - BONUS OBJECTIVE POINT**
As previously announced, the team will be distributing an additional point toward milestones to anyone who completed the Absorbing Man fight in the first step of the Winter of Woe.
This point will be distributed at a later time as it requires the team to pull and analyze data.
The timeline has not been set, but work has started.
There is currently an issue where some Alliances are are unable to find a match in Alliance Wars, or are receiving Byes without getting the benefits of the Win. We will be adjusting the Season Points of the Alliances that are affected within the coming weeks, and will be working to compensate them for their missed Per War rewards as well.

Additionally, we are working to address an issue where new Members of an Alliance are unable to place Defenders for the next War after joining. We are working to address this, but it will require a future update.

5-Star Featured Crystal Change Discussion Thread

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Comments

  • SanvondesSanvondes Posts: 13
    As long as we dont get this champ on these new crystals....
  • GanuiGanui Posts: 11
    edited January 2018
    i can see the positive in picking a pool that would guarantee 6* shards but not really useful till we find out more about their release and upcoming arena changes. hopefully the 18 in the next pool might be better and contain some of those we all want... (i already know that atman and jug and some other bottom champ will be present regularly every two weeks while champs such as voodoo, sl or aa won't make it into the "basic pool" of 18 ever.

    What i REALLY want to know now though @Kabam Miike are the odds of pulling not only a featured but anything other than a 3* out of FGMC... i spent a fortune over the last 6 months and out of 90x FGMC i pulled 89x 3* and a 4* antman... if "rare chance" means 1:1000 there is no way anyone would ever spend $ on those... if its 1:100 i must be the unluckiest person on the face of the earth... btw, I'm 0-15 in 5* pulls since october (means i have only ever pulled champs from the basic - ****- pool and never got any of the ew additions) and 0-5 in featured 5* pulls... can anyone explain those odds to me? (i call bulls$!it on the same odds to pull any given champ statement
  • TheGodfatherTheGodfather Posts: 30
    Dub wrote: »
    Dub wrote: »
    I want to see where storm or ant man are effective on any levels. The lower you to the worse they get. Storm used to hit hard before bleeders were crazy good. Now she’s mediocre at best. As far as Jane goes. If you want a good stun champ put hulk. Or put iceman or aa as chances so people’s odds of getting a decent champ are higher than like 8 percent

    I can't agree with that. Storm is a killer.

    You can’t tell me you’d be ok with pulling one of the oldest champs in the game out of a 15k shard deal over the champ your going for. I’ve had her r4 before and there’s a reason she’s not any more. She’s behind on the curb of champs.

    You can pull Storm from a Featured 5-Star Hero Crystal right now. You can also pull Ant Man, or Agent Venom, or any of the others listed here. You can also pull a lot more Champions, from Colossus, to Star Lord, to Kamala Khan. This is a smaller pool, where you know what you can get, and makes it easier to dupe any of the Champions involved.

    This dude for real?

    My guy, The community doesn't go for a featured crystal to get any of the champs you listed.

    They pay the extra 5K for an INCREASED CHANCE at getting the desired featured 5-Star champ.

    Now they will pay the extra 5K for a DECREASED CHANCE at getting the desired featured 5-Star champ. That's a fact.

    Are you sure Kabam employees play the game? and they thought this idea was an improvement to the state of the game? or perhaps, their bottom line.
  • Dub wrote: »
    Dub wrote: »
    I want to see where storm or ant man are effective on any levels. The lower you to the worse they get. Storm used to hit hard before bleeders were crazy good. Now she’s mediocre at best. As far as Jane goes. If you want a good stun champ put hulk. Or put iceman or aa as chances so people’s odds of getting a decent champ are higher than like 8 percent

    I can't agree with that. Storm is a killer.

    You can’t tell me you’d be ok with pulling one of the oldest champs in the game out of a 15k shard deal over the champ your going for. I’ve had her r4 before and there’s a reason she’s not any more. She’s behind on the curb of champs.

    You can pull Storm from a Featured 5-Star Hero Crystal right now. You can also pull Ant Man, or Agent Venom, or any of the others listed here. You can also pull a lot more Champions, from Colossus, to Star Lord, to Kamala Khan. This is a smaller pool, where you know what you can get, and makes it easier to dupe any of the Champions involved.

    This dude for real?

    My guy, The community doesn't go for a featured crystal to get any of the champs you listed.

    They pay the extra 5K for an INCREASED CHANCE at getting the desired featured 5-Star champ.

    Now they will pay the extra 5K for a DECREASED CHANCE at getting the desired featured 5-Star champ. That's a fact.

    Are you sure Kabam employees play the game? and they thought this idea was an improvement to the state of the game? or perhaps, their bottom line.

    I think you totally misunderstood my post. What this is in regards to is somebody saying that they would not like to pull a Storm from that Crystal, and I was saying that this is still possible even right now, as well as other Champions that they might now want, so this doesn't change that.
  • DubDub Posts: 12
    So are the odds of getting the feature champ you want through this crystal higher or lower now
  • VoluntarisVoluntaris Posts: 1,198 ★★★
    DNA3000 wrote: »
    Oh Miike, I don’t envy you man. They stick you out here taking bullets, this should’ve been a Friday announcement so you could hide over the weekend.

    Mike is a big boy who is on the clock getting paid. He knows what his job is every morning. I'll bet he loves this job. Being a forum mod for a mobile gaming sounds pretty easy and laid back. He gets his script from the game team and eats it. Maybe he cringed when he saw the in game message from the Grandmaster stating that this was an improvement but his job is to sell the stuff that the game team gives him no matter how nonsensical. Easy job. IMO

    I don't know about easy, but community manager/coordinator jobs have some of the highest turn over in the games industry, at least last time I checked.

    Hearthstone has one of the hottest CM's in the business .... Zeriyah

    ...and I don't like the plans for the new meh 15k 5 star crystal.

    #SaveForBlade
  • DNA3000DNA3000 Posts: 18,554 Guardian
    So next month (February) Gladiator Hulk and Killmonger come out.

    If I want them as a 5*, the only way to get them next month is from 300 unit crystals?! Otherwise I have to wait until May?!?! That’s crazy!

    Out of curiosity, why is having to wait crazy? There is no other Crystal in the game that lets you use shards for a Champion at its release, and unless you choose to purchase the Featured Hero Crystal, you have to wait until they are released in the Basic Hero Crystal to have a chance at the 3-Star or 4-Star Champion.

    The 5-Star Featured Hero crystal was an anomaly in the game that made sense with the state of the game when they were introduced, but that was a very long time ago, when you may never have a chance at that Champion again.

    Please Miike, kindly share with us what the state of the game is now, because we must be confused.

    I thought this was equal parts free to play and pay to win.

    Now, The people with the fattest wallets will be the ones with the most advantage at getting the newest 5-star champs. Meanwhile free-to-play users must wait 3 months for a chance to catch up to them. And a **** chance to boot.

    This only further exposes how important the FGMC is to Kabam's bottom line, getting the top tier alliances to shell out more cash.

    it all seems filthy.

    You really have to squeeze a specific narrative to make this crystal change somehow hand an advantage to bigger spenders they did not already have. Everything you can do, they can do more. Every random opportunity that exists is something they can execute more times than you can. Those people could go for every single featured crystal they wanted to, and almost certainly open more of them than you. If the featured 5* crystal didn't exist now and Kabam announced it, people would be saying it was a pay to win crystal because the average player can only open a few of them and can't guarantee getting the featured but the whales could easily acquire enough 5* shards to open as many as it took to always guarantee getting the featureds they want, giving them a huge advantage.

    The only game feature someone hasn't framed as an advantage to the whales is the login calendar.

    If you are a beginning player, your odds of getting one specific featured champion will be lower. But your odds of getting *a* featured champion have gone up, your odds of avoiding the lowest performing champions has gone down, and your odds of duplicating a 5* have gone up dramatically. I would bet money that for most players of the game, that's a net positive.

    The players facing a net loss overall are players that get a moderate to high (but not super high) amount of shards and do enough research to target the highest performing featured champions. I consider myself to be one of those players that could see a drop in value in the featured crystals because of this, albeit a small one. The very top players that either earn tons of shards or spend tons of money will likely see things mostly the same. Less likely to get a targeted featured, more likely to draw champions that can improve their roster if they wait for the right iteration of the crystal.

    Whales have a lot of advantages in the announced system. But they don't really have any global advantage they don't already have. Whales can spend money on units to buy featured crystals to get what they want, but not only can they do that now, they have to be already doing that now. Because they are whales: that's what whales do.

    Something else that I think will take some calculation to figure out. Because the crystal contents and its lifetime availability is something different, it is unclear to me how 6* shards factor into the value of the crystal. Even with the smaller pool of champions the current featured has a higher chance to dup a champ (because of the high chance to pull featured in the first place) than the announced crystal, but that is only after the first pull. You can't dup the featured in the first pull (barring things like pulling twice on the initial and the rerun) so the actual chance to generate 6* shards is complicated by the number of times you're likely to open the same crystal. You're less likely to open the current featured more often than the announced one because the announced one spreads out the odds of getting what you want across more than one champion. Over longer periods of time, I think it will be strategically possible to decide on when to open featured crystals based more on the likelihood of generating 6* shards than on which champions you are likely to pull. And that also is an effect it is not obvious to me if it slants towards some players disproportionately more than others.
  • LayermonkeyLayermonkey Posts: 24
    Guys they had to make this change because of Apple's new rules regarding truth in probabilities. There was some unknown increased chance on featured crystals before that was not made clear in-game. Now it's crystal clear what the chances are. So they couldn't have a featured crystal with every champ known to man in it because no one would do it.

    They had to reduce the champs you could pull to something manageable, and they're giving themselves some leeway as to what champs they will be in the final decision in case we freak out too much about any one champ in particular. Like Ant Man, who sucks.

    Apple's decisions regarding probabilities will also promp a change in "featured" 4* crystals as well. Either it will be something like what they're doing here or they will post the probabilities where you buy the crystal.
  • DNA3000DNA3000 Posts: 18,554 Guardian
    MikeHock wrote: »
    DNA3000 wrote: »
    DNA3000 wrote: »
    khehmist wrote: »
    khehmist wrote: »
    Too bad Apple didn't start requiring transparency in communications, maybe the announcement would have looked more something more like...

    Due to Apple's new transparency mandate we're changing the feature crystal drop rate (for the champ you were hoping to get) to the worst of our old manipulated drop rates, for everyone, no matter how much you spend.

    Let it be known to all app stores that we will respond to any attempt to influence our business to the benefit of their customers in a way that will continue to make our revenue a priority far above all others.

    Forget about apple already, you cannot buy 5 star crystals with money. You can buy units and use them for crystals, but I can see the legal loophole.

    Nope. Apple mandated transparency, then Kabam changed the system and confirmed feature crystal drop rates for the first time in history. No chance that's a coincidence.

    Kabam has said nothing in this thread they haven't said before many times.

    They have never given a drop rate. Here for the first time ever we have been provided a drop rate. Unprecedented and not a coincidence.

    This is absolutely and unambiguously objectively false. They've always said that the odds of pulling any particular champion from the basic crystal were identical, that the odds of pulling any particular champion from the basic pool from the featured crystal is identical, and that in general the odds of pulling any particular champion of the same type from a crystal is identical. They are saying the exact same thing here: the odds of pulling any particular champion from the new featured crystal is identical. Because the number of champions in the new crystal is fixed at 24, that means the odds are approximately 4.2%. They can't quote a number like that in most other crystals because the number of champions is different at different times, but that number is zero additional information for anyone capable of doing basic elementary school math.

    How can the odds or drop rate for any hero in the basic crystal remain the same when, over time, new heroes are added to the crystal ?

    I'm not sure if this is a serious question, because it is directly answered in the post you're quoting. The answer to your question is they cannot be, and no one ever said they were. Kabam has said that the odds of pulling any particular champion in the basic crystal is always identical between champions, not identical to those odds at a different time when the contents are different. That's why I explicitly said They can't quote a number like that in most other crystals because the number of champions is different at different times.
  • Q26Q26 Posts: 2
    Hey I have a question kabam Mike. Because the 6 star pool will be limited will we have featured 6 star crystals that work similar to the old 5 star featured crystals?
  • Mmx1991Mmx1991 Posts: 674 ★★★★
    Just talked to the team, and they are comfortable with sharing the list of Champions we plan to include in the first Featured Champion Crystal. It's important to note that this list could still potentially change a little before the release, but the selected Champions are based on empirical data showing their effectiveness as 5-Star Champions in both Alliance Quests and Alliance Wars.

    Beast
    Storm
    Cable
    Cyclops (New Xavier School)
    Thor (Ragnarok)
    Taskmaster

    Agent Venom
    Hawkeye
    Modok
    Sentry
    Void

    Ant-Man
    Mordo
    Thor (Jane Foster)
    Loki
    Juggernaut
    Hela
    Phoenix
    Ronan
    Venompool
    Nebula
    Punisher (2099)
    Civil Warrior
    Doctor Octopus

    Bold Text denotes Featured Champions.

    With the exception of 1 or 2 champs this list is trash.

    Consistently good regen: Doc Ock, Nebula (maybe, and only if you get hit).

    Double immune: Nebula

    Bleed immune: no one

    Poison immune: Ronan

    Power control: Hawkeye, Doc Ock, Civil Warrior

    Defense: Juggs (needs to be duped and 5/5MD), Mordo

    Ability accuracy reducers: Civil Warrior

    Shrug off Debuff: Agent Venom



    Nebula is mediocre.
    Ronan sucks.
    Hawkeye while still has good utility is replaced by Magik and Vodoo and OG Vision, etc..
    Juggs get torn through with Blade tho he's decent.
    Civil Warrior ability reductions pales in comparison to Archangel, Voodoo, etc..
    Agent Venom is a tough defender in very low tiers but has terrible offense.


    No offense but nobody wants any of the champs listed except for Doc Ock and maybe Hela.

    Terrible utility champs, poor double immunes, terrible regen, barely anyone worth taking into AQ or AW, defensively or offensively. Your team must be getting their information from map 2/3 players who don't know how to evade Cyclops' beams and are forced to use their Antman's and Ronans.

    What is this, early 2016?
  • NightCrackerNightCracker Posts: 157
    Dub wrote: »
    Dub wrote: »
    I want to see where storm or ant man are effective on any levels. The lower you to the worse they get. Storm used to hit hard before bleeders were crazy good. Now she’s mediocre at best. As far as Jane goes. If you want a good stun champ put hulk. Or put iceman or aa as chances so people’s odds of getting a decent champ are higher than like 8 percent

    I can't agree with that. Storm is a killer.

    You can’t tell me you’d be ok with pulling one of the oldest champs in the game out of a 15k shard deal over the champ your going for. I’ve had her r4 before and there’s a reason she’s not any more. She’s behind on the curb of champs.

    You can pull Storm from a Featured 5-Star Hero Crystal right now. You can also pull Ant Man, or Agent Venom, or any of the others listed here. You can also pull a lot more Champions, from Colossus, to Star Lord, to Kamala Khan. This is a smaller pool, where you know what you can get, and makes it easier to dupe any of the Champions involved.

    This dude for real?

    My guy, The community doesn't go for a featured crystal to get any of the champs you listed.

    They pay the extra 5K for an INCREASED CHANCE at getting the desired featured 5-Star champ.

    Now they will pay the extra 5K for a DECREASED CHANCE at getting the desired featured 5-Star champ. That's a fact.

    Are you sure Kabam employees play the game? and they thought this idea was an improvement to the state of the game? or perhaps, their bottom line.

    I think you totally misunderstood my post. What this is in regards to is somebody saying that they would not like to pull a Storm from that Crystal, and I was saying that this is still possible even right now, as well as other Champions that they might now want, so this doesn't change that.

    Correct, we could still get one of those champs, such as Storm. However, the chances for going for the "featured" champ have been reduced from what the community believes to be roughly 20% to ~4%. Now I know you could argue saying that getting one of the featured champs is 25% (6/24) but considering we currently have a sub featured pool already, the chances are similar from this point of view. So realistically we are losing the increase chance of pulling a specific champ, but keeping similar odds of getting a featured champ (from the last 6). I am looking at this from a math point of view, regardless of who the other 18 champs are because it seems we are paying the same amount for the same odds of getting one of the six featured champs but losing the increased chance at the specific one we are trying for.
  • GargameshGargamesh Posts: 66
    Apache wrote: »
    can you buy the 5 star featured crystal with units or only shards?

    This crystal is replacing the currently available 15,000 Shard Featured Hero Crystals.

    Trust Kabam to take something good and to turn it to sh*t... -.-

    People were able to go directly for what they actually want, of corse they couldn't leave it like that...people were too happy with that, right?!
    Of corse we needed a bigger chance of getting something else then what we actually want...thank you -.-

  • GroundedWisdomGroundedWisdom Posts: 36,191 ★★★★★
    Dagonelle wrote: »
    So the new featured crystal is just a new version of the basic crystal that costs 5000 shards more?

    What’s the point? The only way that the new featured crystal is better than the old one is if the old featured crystal had odds worse than 1 in 18 which is what the new one is. I’ve got to say I’m disappointed

    The original Featured Hero Crystal had one purpose, and that was because it was originally the only chance you had at a 5-Star Champion, and potentially meant that the Champion would never come around again. This has changed, and that means that this Crystal has run its course.

    5-Star Champions are coming to a place where they are now added to the regular Champion pool at the same consistency as other rarities.


    Riiiiiiiggghhhtttt.....

    And it has zero to do with Apple's new rule on disclosing rates in drop boxes...

    Not really. The rate of the Featured has always been in favor of the Players. Estimated around 20%. Now it's about a 4% chance. There is no logic that supports the connection.

    What’s your opinion on this?

    To be honest, I'm still having coffee, digesting. I think it's a varied range of Champs in the pool. Better chances to Dup, which means more 6* Shards. If there are 6 Featured Champs in the Crystal, that's actually a 33.333...% chance at a Featured. That may lessen the chance of one specific Champ, which is why people may be upset, but I think it's time to even the chance. The Featured has had a higher probability for a long time. Personally I don't see anything objectionable. I don't agree that it's connected to Apple.

    Edit: That's a 25% chance to pull a Featured. I was thinking there were 18 in the Crystal. Still more than we estimated. Just not for one specific Champ.
  • DNA3000DNA3000 Posts: 18,554 Guardian
    My guy, The community doesn't go for a featured crystal to get any of the champs you listed.

    They pay the extra 5K for an INCREASED CHANCE at getting the desired featured 5-Star champ.

    Now they will pay the extra 5K for a DECREASED CHANCE at getting the desired featured 5-Star champ. That's a fact.

    Anyone who does that is an idiot. But that's not the reason to buy the new featureds. You buy them if the value of the crystal is worth 50% more than the value of a basic crystal. There's lots of ways to calculate or just intuit by feel what that is. If you don't feel the crystal's value in total is better than the basic crystal, then you wait for the next one or buy basics.

    Even the current featured crystals are not something I just buy because the odds are better. They have to be better enough because ultimately it is all about value, not about mindlessly pursuing one goal.

    If players are just opening featureds because someone else told them to Pavlovian-like, then my recommendation is when the change happens just buy basics. Even I'm not likely to buy the first iteration of the new crystal, because the value proposition doesn't seem worth it to me relative to the premium. But that's no different than me passing on other featured 5* crystals to save for Iceman, or Sparky, or Blade. Sometimes the value is worth it, sometimes it isn't. It is just going to be a little harder to decide if the value is worth it in a crystal with 24 equal chance champions. But if I do buy one, it won't be because I'm spending an extra 5k for a decreased chance at a featured. It will be because the value of the crystal taken as a whole is worth my shards.

    That's the only good reason to open any crystal.
  • GargameshGargamesh Posts: 66
    Is there any logic to who the 18 other champs will be? Such as will they follow a pattern of previously released champs or will they simply be chosen by Kabam?

    There is no Pattern. They will be chosen by the team, but we're taking extra care to make the Crystals more interesting for you all.


    Let me translate that for you real quick:
    "more interesting" means you now have a better chance on getting a Luke Cage instead of the featured you were hoping for! How exciting...
    ...who didn't want the chance of getting what you actually want reduced so you actually have a higher chance of getting Garbage Tier Champion instead. Wow, so much more interesting... -.-

    They take sh*t and tell you it's gold!
  • Hulk_77Hulk_77 Posts: 782 ★★★
    So, @Kabam Miike, what happens when no one buys this crystal? I'm sure you guys have numbers for this, and let's say you guys average selling X featured crystals every 3 months right now. Towards the end of this first crystal's 3 month run, when you compare how often it sold to X and see that it is X/47 or something like that, will you then take that solid feedback and re-direct? Because you'll be lucky to sell 2% as much featured as you used to with the crummy contents of this crystal. I realize that is my opinion, but I'm someone who has bought A LOT of featured crystals and there is a 0% chance I buy any of these.
  • GroundedWisdomGroundedWisdom Posts: 36,191 ★★★★★
    People earn their Shards the same way, with the exception of a few Offers. How they spend them is really not that consequential. I don't believe it's possible that NO ONE will buy it. However, I don't think it makes a difference to them whether you purchase a Basic or a Featured.
  • This is pure garbage. They flooded the feature crystal with garbage champions that no one wants.
  • CuteshelfCuteshelf Posts: 747 ★★★
    LiquidButt wrote: »
    @Kabam Miike

    Maybe i missed it but how often does this crystal get "refreshed" ? like how often do the 18 champs get changed?

    There will be a New Crystal every 3 Months. This Crystal will feature the 6 newest Champions, and another pool of 18 Champions as the Base Pool.

    So another pool. This means none of the 18 in the first pool will be in the 2nd pool?

    Watch out! Someone pooped in the pool.

    “and then a big brown shark came....!”
  • CuteshelfCuteshelf Posts: 747 ★★★
    I would suggest.. best option would be to get the voting done to choose the 18 from base pool.

    I say just reduce the size of the pool.

    Add 6 champs monthly: 2 new, 4 old. Easy peasy.
  • Trask21Trask21 Posts: 4
    edited January 2018
    Confused about Blade:
    Blade will be added to the regular pool on the 16, then the Blade FEATURED Crystal at 15k Shards will be available on the 23 or 28 (I forget which date)??

    Yes i've been saving Big time!

    He will not be added to the regular pool on the 16th. We have caught up the regular release schedule, and Blade will be added to the 5-Star Basic Crystal at the same time his 3-Star and 4-Star version are added to the Premium Hero Crystal.


    When will he be added? I was excited to open 100k in Feb to try for him in basic and put the rest in his featured. This is really cramping my plans man. I'm not even sure what to do now with 180k saved.. Just throw it all at blade? Ugh

    I give you props for replying to so many comments on here and I do see a few good things about this new crystal like being able to dupe more to farm 6 star shards or how we can still pull garbage in current featured crystal but 15k may be steep for the chances. Maybe if yall just put all decent champs in one of them I will spin a few but I can tell you right now I am not wasting my time on GM crystals.. all of your crystals we can buy are a **** shoot almost a scam. I hope y'all consider increasing the odds especially since most pay real money for these and $100 for a bunch of three stars may have someone one suicide watch or at least rage quit watch.

    Again thank you like for your time please relay to the team that we can pick better champs that have real use in AQ and AW.

    Ps. I'm with you on Cyclops if he wasn't so easy to evade. Sp bias 1 with 1 bar of power he could merk noobs.
  • This is not an increased chance to get the featured champ as advertised. This is a decreased chance to get the champ and an increased chance to dupe an awful chat.

    For those of us, who saved for 6 or 7 months to target champs that will help us with content, this intentionally deceptive manipulative and dishonest attempt to nerf 5 star feature shards puts us further behind the top players.
  • Raise your hand if you saved up feature crystals for an increased chance to dupe Ant-Man instead of landing a champ like Blade, Ghost Rider, Ice Man or Mephisto.

    *** No one in chat raises hand! ***
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