Buying Characters Directly

I am an experienced Contest of Champions player. I got the game in late 2015, and have seen most of the characters in the game cycle through arenas, crystals, and finally into the common circulation of Premium Hero Crystals and star-specific crystals. Now, I'm experienced, but I don't have enough time, champs, or money to spend hours upon hours in arena to get the 4 star characters I want. I have enough champs to get the 3 star champ basically at will, but only a couple 3 stars are in my top 16 at this point (5 for quests, 8 for AW, 3 for AQ) and they'll be gone completely once I rank up a few more of my new 4 stars. This makes it a waste of time for me to take any time at all in the 3 star arena. However, when I buy someone's character crystal 2 or 3 times, don't get them, wait awhile for them to be in the Premium Hero Crystal, and not receive that character for 3 months, it's frustrating. For example, I love Ghost Rider. I'd requested him long before his actual release. He got into the game, and I was super pumped. I bought his crystal a couple of times with no results. I figured I'd just wait till he was in the Premium Hero Crystal. I'm not sure exactly when he got in the crystal, but it was a few months ago. I've been hoping for him for a long time, but never quite landed on his awesome flaming skull. My friend, however, who has a much newer account than me, has him as a 4 star. He's actually his top champ. Search up Bwkkkk. I was kind of annoyed. About a month later, he got him again as a 3 star. Now I'm just mad. I wasn't willing to put in the time in arena to get him as a 3 star since the time and effort wasn't worth him never being really used, but that doesn't mean I don't want to at least test him out. My friend has let me use him for a few fights, but he's not going to let me take his phone for a day to look at all of his abilities, buffs and debuffs, fighting moves, etc etc. I just think that, approximately 3 months after a character enter the Premium Hero Crystal, you should be able to buy them directly. 20,000 4 star shards for a 4 star, 10,000 3 star shards for a 3 star, and 1,000 premium shards for a 2 star (5 stars shouldn't be included since they are the top tier of champ, 1 stars are the lowest tier). If this was implemented, it would earn Kabam fans and the $$$ that all companies are after. People would either grind harder or buy more Daily Cards to get the characters they truly want, like I would for Ghost Rider. This solution would definitely benefit both the players and Kabam. What do you think?
-CrusherOfDreams

Comments

CrusherOfDreams

Please comment and let me know what you guys think! If it's a good idea, why do you think so? If it's a bad idea, what needs to be changed to make it good?

Wolfe

It took me 6 months of spinning to finally get Hyperion. No offense Crusher, I like you but I'll be really pissed at you if you can just buy a Hyperion off the shelf. Probably never gonna talk to you again.

Deus Wolfe here by the way and hello.

CrusherOfDreams

Wolfe wrote: »

It took me 6 months of spinning to finally get Hyperion. No offense Crusher, I like you but I'll be really pissed at you if you can just buy a Hyperion off the shelf. Probably never gonna talk to you again.

Deus Wolfe here by the way and hello.

Hey Deus. Okay, that's exactly my point. It's stupid that with so many characters, you can't be able to choose at least a few to get. I get that it would seem unfair if you earned a guy and then everyone could just buy him, but that's the point. You shouldn't have to rely entirely on luck to have someone you like. If some guy who loves Drax got the game, and never got Drax, it would just turn him away eventually. You can say that it would only motivate him to work harder, but after awhile, it's just not fun anymore. Working hard to see if you'll be lucky isn't going to work forever. There needs to be some assurance that you can have a say on who you get. Plus, a 20,000 shard fee per 4 star guarantees that you won't be able to get insane amounts of chosen characters. Probably only a few would be actually chosen due to the high price, and those few would differ for everyone. I don't like Hyperion personally. I love Wolverine, though. Some hate Wolverine. Views differ on who's good or cool, therefore this would help everyone without giving any clear biases towards a certain few characters.

CrusherOfDreams

A 10 random for 1 specific seems like a good deal for those who have many characters already, and just want to use a few guys for fun. Let me know if you agree.

DNA3000

CrusherOfDreams wrote: »

A 10 random for 1 specific seems like a good deal for those who have many characters already, and just want to use a few guys for fun. Let me know if you agree.

Unfortunately, I disagree. I'm not opposed to selling champions on some absolute grounds, but creating this option changes something fundamental about how champions are gained, and the context in which people who have played the game for a long time view the value of champions and the effort put into acquiring them. It is bound to strongly conflict with many of them and can undermine their view of their in-game efforts. To me, that's not worth tampering with to add this feature.

Miamizo

CrusherOfDreams

DNA3000 wrote: »

CrusherOfDreams wrote: »

A 10 random for 1 specific seems like a good deal for those who have many characters already, and just want to use a few guys for fun. Let me know if you agree.

Unfortunately, I disagree. I'm not opposed to selling champions on some absolute grounds, but creating this option changes something fundamental about how champions are gained, and the context in which people who have played the game for a long time view the value of champions and the effort put into acquiring them. It is bound to strongly conflict with many of them and can undermine their view of their in-game efforts. To me, that's not worth tampering with to add this feature.

I can't disagree with you here, but did this not occur when shards were introduced and odds for 4 stars were increased? I started a thread complaining about the work that vets had to put in compared to newer players, and was repeatedly told it was just the evolution of the game. If veteran regret can't be a reason to not include features like shards, which aren't necessarily bad, but different, then it can't be a factor here, either. See my point?

CrusherOfDreams

Anyone else have comments on this idea?

Sirnoob2

I don't really like the idea of buying champs one thing that made me a my friend fall in love with this game vs others was the fact that gathering these champs was a challenge and not everyone
Is running around with the God tier champs

CrusherOfDreams

Sirnoob2 wrote: »

I don't really like the idea of buying champs one thing that made me a my friend fall in love with this game vs others was the fact that gathering these champs was a challenge and not everyone
Is running around with the God tier champs

The high price would limit how often you would even be able to buy certain champs.

Sirnoob2

CrusherOfDreams wrote: »

Sirnoob2 wrote: »

I don't really like the idea of buying champs one thing that made me a my friend fall in love with this game vs others was the fact that gathering these champs was a challenge and not everyone
Is running around with the God tier champs

The high price would limit how often you would even be able to buy certain champs.

I've seen how much people grind high price would mean nothing
People would do what they normaly do with 5 stars and simply save

Dave2442

These crystals are completely by chance. I popped open my Winged Crystal and I got a 4* Archangel. Getting the selected champion in a crystal is extremely hard to get. The odds are already against you if you only buy 5. Another thing to add is that before you pop or spin your crystal the game has already selected a champion that you will receive. There are ways to get passed these rigged crystals but DON'T BUY THEM.

CrusherOfDreams

Sirnoob2 wrote: »

CrusherOfDreams wrote: »

Sirnoob2 wrote: »

I don't really like the idea of buying champs one thing that made me a my friend fall in love with this game vs others was the fact that gathering these champs was a challenge and not everyone
Is running around with the God tier champs

The high price would limit how often you would even be able to buy certain champs.

I've seen how much people grind high price would mean nothing
People would do what they normaly do with 5 stars and simply save

If they have that many 5 stars, then their 4 stars wouldn't matter.

MatthewCSanchez

What if they had crystals for a month and that in each week, you could buy a crystal of the element or class. Like first week, only tech, then mutant and so on.

CrusherOfDreams

MatthewCSanchez wrote: »

What if they had crystals for a month and that in each week, you could buy a crystal of the element or class. Like first week, only tech, then mutant and so on.

What do you mean? My point is that, at a point, it's not fun trying to randomly pull a character anymore. I still don't have a Ghost Rider. I don't have a Captain Marvel. I don't have many characters. I want Ghost Rider badly. I don't care what it takes. If someone wants a character badly enough to spend ten times the normal amount to get them, then they should be allowed to.

MayhemEffect

My first thought.... Ahhhh use paragraphs. long wall of text.

Second thought and more on topic. Directly buying characters, with rare exceptions will throw off the risk rewards process in making it to easy to get the right tool for the job. People will buy the 5 to 10 they feel they need and then not care anymore.

XMEN1994

When i first started playing, i thought that i could buy characters. I was so disappointed to find out that you get characters randomly. Game basically forced me to use characters i dont even like or care about. My first 4 star pull turned out to be none other than Red Hulk, i died a little bit inside. Fast forward to endless arena grinding to get 3 star champions. Made me walk away from MCOC ( a stupid decision on my part ). Lost many months of progress.

Fast forward a couple of months, and i find Transformers Forged to Fight on play store. The game mechanics were similar. Soon i was back to playing Contest of Champions. I have not played Transformers ever since that day.

So once upon a time, i would have agreed with your idea. Believe me i understand how you feel, i felt the same, back then.

If Kabam did this, let's say if they did, it would be a big slap in the face to everyone who worked hard to build their roster. All that time spent grinding arena's would be for nothing. If you want specific champions, you got to work hard to get them. I didn't get it back then, but now i do.

CrusherOfDreams

XMEN1994 wrote: »

When i first started playing, i thought that i could buy characters. I was so disappointed to find out that you get characters randomly. Game basically forced me to use characters i dont even like or care about. My first 4 star pull turned out to be none other than Red Hulk, i died a little bit inside. Fast forward to endless arena grinding to get 3 star champions. Made me walk away from MCOC ( a stupid decision on my part ). Lost many months of progress.

Fast forward a couple of months, and i find Transformers Forged to Fight on play store. The game mechanics were similar. Soon i was back to playing Contest of Champions. I have not played Transformers ever since that day.

So once upon a time, i would have agreed with your idea. Believe me i understand how you feel, i felt the same, back then.

If Kabam did this, let's say if they did, it would be a big slap in the face to everyone who worked hard to build their roster. All that time spent grinding arena's would be for nothing. If you want specific champions, you got to work hard to get them. I didn't get it back then, but now i do.

I've worked hard to build my roster as well, but let's be honest, no one ever has ALL the characters they really want. With how high the price is, it wouldn't make it worth it to anyone who didn't already have a very large roster. Yes, it may lead some of us veterans to regret the work we put in, but that can NEVER be a factor, here's why:
When crystal shards came out, 4 stars were much easier to access. This was extremely unfair to those of us who'd had the game for a long time. New players were getting 4 stars faster than we had gotten 3 stars. Now, crystal shards was a great idea, but it definitely did make me and others angry at how easy things were after we'd already worked so hard. Kabam obviously isn't factoring how is veterans "feel" about things, which may or may not be good, I'm not sure myself, so that can't stop them here. Do you get what I'm saying?

CrusherOfDreams

MayhemEffect wrote: »

My first thought.... Ahhhh use paragraphs. long wall of text.

Second thought and more on topic. Directly buying characters, with rare exceptions will throw off the risk rewards process in making it to easy to get the right tool for the job. People will buy the 5 to 10 they feel they need and then not care anymore.

Yes, and? They would have to grind and maybe even spend money to get there. That's how video games work. Everyone has differences in who they think is the best of the coolest in the game. Many love Magik. I do too, but I wouldn't buy her. Opinions differ, which is why top champs differ. This would work for that reason.

CrusherOfDreams

I only have 17 4 stars. This wouldn't help me that much yet. By the time I hit 25 or so, it might. Of my characters, I've duplicated my Captain America and Black Bolt. Those are the only ones I've duplicated outside of the free awakening gems we got with 12.0. I don't use either of them, yet now my Cap is in my top 4. I'm pretty mad that I dropped 125k Scrap on a duplicate of a guy I'll use in Arena only. People need some form of a guarantee, no matter how high the price. Heck, I'd be fine if this was implemented with a price of 100k shards per chosen 4 star. It's just something to work for once you have a large enough roster that it's worthwhile to go for.

0_hood_0

Would symbiote spider man and venom be better off with tendril based attacks or with their default attacks?What do you guys think?

CrusherOfDreams

0_hood_0 wrote: »

Would symbiote spider man and venom be better off with tendril based attacks or with their default attacks?What do you guys think?

This is way off-topic, bud. Did you post in the wrong thread?

Aakash

What if we could trade our champs? For ex: I have a R5 Iceman and my friend has a R5 Voodoo. I want Voodoo more and he wants Iceman. I guess trading would help everyone

Riegel

Aakash wrote: »

What if we could trade our champs? For ex: I have a R5 Iceman and my friend has a R5 Voodoo. I want Voodoo more and he wants Iceman. I guess trading would help everyone

I can't see trading happening due to the ability to dupe a champ. If you could stack multiple of the same champ without duping maybe, but we are passed that already.

superunknown012

MayhemEffect wrote: »

My first thought.... Ahhhh use paragraphs. long wall of text.

Second thought and more on topic. Directly buying characters, with rare exceptions will throw off the risk rewards process in making it to easy to get the right tool for the job. People will buy the 5 to 10 they feel they need and then not care anymore.

Completely agree here and it's the main reason why I feel like we won't see this any time soon. No matter what updates happen there are always a select few champs that can run most of the game. Everyone would just go the route needed to most quickly acquire those specific champs and then we'd all be clearing everything instantly and **** when there's no new content (not that it doesn't happen already but this would exacerbate the problem tenfold.)

Aakash wrote: »

What if we could trade our champs? For ex: I have a R5 Iceman and my friend has a R5 Voodoo. I want Voodoo more and he wants Iceman. I guess trading would help everyone

This I can get behind. As long as there was a sort of point-value system created that would ensure fair-ish trades that can't be taken advantage of (ie - 2 4* dupes for 1 5* or something along those lines.) Beyond that, why stop at trading champs? I never got behind the gifting badge idea requiring you to buy items, crystals, etc to send to fellow players. Why cant' we gift and/or trade items in our inventory as well?

CrusherOfDreams

superunknown012 wrote: »

MayhemEffect wrote: »

My first thought.... Ahhhh use paragraphs. long wall of text.

Second thought and more on topic. Directly buying characters, with rare exceptions will throw off the risk rewards process in making it to easy to get the right tool for the job. People will buy the 5 to 10 they feel they need and then not care anymore.

Completely agree here and it's the main reason why I feel like we won't see this any time soon. No matter what updates happen there are always a select few champs that can run most of the game. Everyone would just go the route needed to most quickly acquire those specific champs and then we'd all be clearing everything instantly and **** when there's no new content (not that it doesn't happen already but this would exacerbate the problem tenfold.)

Aakash wrote: »

What if we could trade our champs? For ex: I have a R5 Iceman and my friend has a R5 Voodoo. I want Voodoo more and he wants Iceman. I guess trading would help everyone

This I can get behind. As long as there was a sort of point-value system created that would ensure fair-ish trades that can't be taken advantage of (ie - 2 4* dupes for 1 5* or something along those lines.) Beyond that, why stop at trading champs? I never got behind the gifting badge idea requiring you to buy items, crystals, etc to send to fellow players. Why cant' we gift and/or trade items in our inventory as well?

This was an idea I had, but it was shot down. I think it would work for some things like ISO-8 and gold, but Mastery Points and other things wouldn't work. As far as the idea that everyone would just rally around a certain few, this would never happen. Opinions differ widely on who is the best champ to have. Some say Mordo, some say VooDoo, some say Wolverine, some say Gambit, some say Star Lord, the list goes on and on. With how high the price is, people wouldn't be able to get all of the good champs at once, only a few of their favorites. If someone can get 4 star shards quickly enough to choose all of the good characters in the game, then they're obviously going to have a roster of 5 stars as well, so their 4 stars wouldn't even be their top champs. They'd just be fun guys to use in arena or easier quests in their free time, which was the whole point to begin with.

Fel_95

Really bad idea. Already came out a couple of times in the past and it was always ditched by both kabam and playerbase. Seems unfair towards older players and favor the spenders even more.

You can get champions directly through the arena, where skill, time and patience rewards you. Far better than just buy said champion directly.

CrusherOfDreams

Fel_95 wrote: »

Really bad idea. Already came out a couple of times in the past and it was always ditched by both kabam and playerbase. Seems unfair towards older players and favor the spenders even more.

You can get champions directly through the arena, where skill, time and patience rewards you. Far better than just buy said champion directly.

Ghost Rider isn't in arenas. There's only 2 champs in arena at a time. This is simply an alternative. Instead of grinding insane amounts over 3 days, chill and get what you want after a few months. There is no guarantee that dropping a few million points in arena will even get you the character you want. The fans of this game have no guarantees of certain champs outside of quest exploration on Normal difficulty for that 3 star. Lots of recent updates were unfair to older players. Take shards for example. 4 stars are now more common than 3 stars use to be, but veteran complaints were ignored for the progress. Kabam can't flip-flop on us now. That can't be a reason to ditch this idea.

Sirnoob2

superunknown012 wrote: »

MayhemEffect wrote: »

My first thought.... Ahhhh use paragraphs. long wall of text.

Second thought and more on topic. Directly buying characters, with rare exceptions will throw off the risk rewards process in making it to easy to get the right tool for the job. People will buy the 5 to 10 they feel they need and then not care anymore.

Completely agree here and it's the main reason why I feel like we won't see this any time soon. No matter what updates happen there are always a select few champs that can run most of the game. Everyone would just go the route needed to most quickly acquire those specific champs and then we'd all be clearing everything instantly and **** when there's no new content (not that it doesn't happen already but this would exacerbate the problem tenfold.)

Aakash wrote: »

What if we could trade our champs? For ex: I have a R5 Iceman and my friend has a R5 Voodoo. I want Voodoo more and he wants Iceman. I guess trading would help everyone

This I can get behind. As long as there was a sort of point-value system created that would ensure fair-ish trades that can't be taken advantage of (ie - 2 4* dupes for 1 5* or something along those lines.) Beyond that, why stop at trading champs? I never got behind the gifting badge idea requiring you to buy items, crystals, etc to send to fellow players. Why cant' we gift and/or trade items in our inventory as well?

Abuse trading will lead to abuse i know for a fact I personally would just pray to rng Jesus and re roll my stuff on a dummy account till I got x champ to trade plus if u guys thought the underground account sales market was big now trading champs would end up exploding it

Kaboom

i agree. but limited to 1 champ per user to prevent changes to this game fundamental, structure and design.

e.g
lets make it like this, GR are only available the 1st week of november each year. for those who are interested can buy him that time. 2nd week of november is SW, for those who already buy GR cant buy others champs. with terms 1 users 1 champ for life (only 4* n 5* champs )

the price must be from units or battle chips with reasonable amount.