Thoughts on SH game-design decisions

drboondigga

I'd say they are investing more time Into chains of darkness and as they said  being an indie company has limitations, mostly  resources, time and money

garzos

drboondigga replied at 2015-2-27 04:27
I'd say they are investing more time Into chains of darkness and as they said  being an indie compan ...

i don't see chain becoming a succes

Feanyar

drboondigga replied at 2015-2-27 04:27
I'd say they are investing more time Into chains of darkness and as they said  being an indie compan ...

Its not more work to make a revenge raidevent (old disci as enemy, old item as reward) over a revenge island-trio.
Its not more work to make a monthly arena UR thats actually useful.
Its not more work to make ranged/melee items as reward over 3(!) healer items in a row. Items which proc-skills seem to be broken btw - but thats just a sidenote. ;)

@abababa, Thrill & cuddle:
Yes, you might argue about point C. Its among the lower of the issues I listed. Thats why it's C, not A or B. ;)

But I still think its out of balance somewhat. You ask why ppl would go for top50 rather than just get a few and wait till they come into shops? I can tell you: Because its months after the event that the cards go public in shops. And another couple of weeks or even months until you see them often enough to buy em. And by then better cards might've been in events already - completed for those who go top50. Thats a big advantage!
And things only get worse with more cards being added to the shop pool. Maybe I'm just unlucky - but it took me almost 3 months to complete my 1st UR from mare, while clearing it daily and checking shops 2x per day. You got 4 Befa since he was released? Lucky you - I got one... And there are many, many more I wish for. Enough to keep me busy for a year or more at this rate. Especially if finally some elemental balance is added towards the game and new cards are being released.

You say that its wrong to put great cards like Teffy&Lamia into mare? I disagree. Its right to put them there! You want your players to have goals they drool over and play for. They earned them by playing successfully after farming mare for >1month per disciple! Delaying it too much beyond that point is just frustrating. Its not in the hand of the player anymore to get what he wishes for. Its just a matter of luck. And if luck bites you in your butt... well... congratz on spending a month or two without a change to your deck.
The problem with Lamia of Teffy isnt that they're great, or that they are availible. The problem is that even after all those months since they went public there is nothing better in sight. That is the reason why people tend to say "oh, whatever... i dont care, I already got lamia&teffy!". That, and the fact that liquid is most favoured due to WB being fire only. And thats the reason why games like these need a tiny little bit of powercreep. ;)

The way things are right now, for alot of players things are tedious and frustrating. If someone plays a game he wants progress. Not everything right away - having everything instantly and then nothing to do would be just as bad. But slow but steady progress! Thats what motivated people - it's a psychological issue.
Without new cards that are actually desireable (Point B), events for nice equip to improve the discis you already got (Point A) and a sluggish collection of already availible cards even though u already earned the currency you need (Point C) this progress comes to a standstill: Both to the newbies who are stuck with FA+whatever teams and to the veterans and whales who have almost nothing left to hunt for - nothing they want anyways...

Jason27104

Yeah I agree with a and b and as for c I think it's fine the way it is now. Arena shop and mare seem to provide two solid ways to improve. But the healer crap gear and revenge islands have been miserable. I feel like tokay isn't even commenting on it bc he knows it's a bush league move and he has no good defense.

Spira

The game concepts are cool, but some just need some fixes.

Raid bosses aren't that exciting for me, for example. I barely summon bosses and my friends kill them all in one second. There aren't even EP rewards, which makes it lame for those who don't get high ranks anyway. So i skip them.

Removing the SR from arena it's like removing an option to new players. Why don't we remove them from the game instead since the power creep makes them obsolete? (sarcasm) I mean... we all got SR once to progress in the first stages of the game, and some were hard to drop. If you guys can't remember that you're too old!

I mean... there's nothing wrong having them there, cause the real problem is the UR availability. You guys want to pick the cards you really want from there, and not wait just because a "wild SR appeared" after the reset.
This problem is the same as the Isla Mare shop. With the increasing number of cards available, it will become harder and harder to get the ones we want. The best way to counter this isn't to remove cards from there, but to make a higher pool of buyable cards for every reset, not just 3.

Now let's go to the real problems of Spicy:
- Lack of organization
- Poor decisions

The meta is now on a unbalanced state created by the messy organization on the card/events released. The "misterious guy" don't want/care enough to provide decisions to counter the meta, and keeps aggravating the issue with more of the same. This applies to the fixes on IM/Arena shops as well.

Sanz of Time

abababa replied at 2015-2-27 03:38
I disagree with the "C". I know it takes months to complete a card but that's the reason of a Collec ...

That's why he's not asking for a free-for-all, full availability for all the cards. He's just asking for a third slot and allowing all the cards into all of the slots. It's going to increase availability, but there's still that element of random luck that plays in cause now you have a whole 3(!) chances to get the card you want, twice a day. It's two extra chances a day, not an open shop for whatever you want.

Sanz of Time

Garyoakcar replied at 2015-2-27 04:25
Why oh why are SRs and URs indistinguishable? Anyone else find it absolutely absurd that whenever Sp ...

Yeah, they should be their own category of card, but what would you do? Make them r5, and make NE r6? What happens if you NE a SR, do they become r5? Maybe if they made a dark gold border around the SR (tarnished gold vs the pure gold of the UR)

Sanz of Time

Spira replied at 2015-2-27 06:34
The game concepts are cool, but some just need some fixes.

Raid bosses aren't that exciting for me, ...

Bingo, the SR's don't need to go anywhere, and the Arena is the perfect place for a newbie to build a solid deck for their level of IM. If anything, they should reduce the price of SR's (cause UR>SR, obviously, why pay the same price?).

Therex67

B) New UR Design (esp. featured monthly)

I'm beginning to doubt they really strategically think about stats, element, skills before they decide. It could all be a random algorithm they use to save personnel resources. They roll the dice and another liquid archer without stream, dps, or sensible skills rolls out - so bi it. Better luck next time. I really don´t hope this is the case

C) Mare/Arena Shop: Card availability.

I can’t agree more. I’ve suggested in the past for a transparent schedule so you waould know exactly when your card comes up – but no-one really liked that idea. To go even further would be to let them be available all the time. I could live with that. Planning would still be necessary.

Spike13

"From a players perspective, raidevents are much more beneficial and fun. Why? You can play the game and spend hope however you want. You will spawn raids and can use rood to kill those. Having a raidevent ongoing is an addition to normal gameplay"

Actually not, and for a very simple reason. They usually fail to make it possible to spawn a decent number of raid bosses, so you actually get a week of island event and a week of NOTHING AT ALL called raid. Unless your "friend" are actively playing but not partecipating in the event (not killing the bosses).

So at the moment normal island event (the one where you can get the equipment reward) is way better than raid event

"Lava Myst. was already very situational in its use. Whether to buy or to skip was discussed at lenght in the forums."
Lava Myst is freaking strong. If buy it or not was discussed because if you don't have it is less competition, so there wasn't any interest in explaining how strong it is. When you go beyond a certain level you aim to several extreme strong situational card, not to a medium all rounder. Lava is that kind of card.