User blog:DutchRits/A few observations of "Covert Operations," a.k.a. "Bleed them of their Energon Recharges"

Okay, a few points I'd like to post here, especially since using IE makes you unable to post in the forums, I guess. I see a couple topics have already been b!tched/griped/complained about in the forums, but I'll mention them for completion sake. First, the good:

- Tier Rewards: I'm overjoyed to see that there are Lvl3 (Rare) cards in the rewards, as well as one of the non-Event/Episode Lvl4 (SR) cards! THAT is the way to reward casual players! Those cards will be USEFUL to new players, but won't get close to making the team of an experienced player. Well done! EXCEPT...that you (Mobage) made them the Tier 3 & 4 rewards, respectively, which means that in order to get Elite Soundwave you have to finish in the 1k-5k range, while SR Soundwave (complete with weapon) can be had from 5k-17.5k. {facepalm} Suggestion: you could have included other Autobot rewards (Rewind? Steeljaw?) that would have kept with the event theme, and dropped SR & R Soundwave down a bit further to better reward the "free players." (Elite Soundwave isn't exactly an OP'd card). I'd draw the "line in the sand" around 25k-30k (the top 1/3 of the player base) but that's just me.

- Accessible in-event rewards: I was SO stoked to see Laserbeak, Ravage and Soundwave available during the event, and the evolution cards are pretty friggin' sweet. Others have alluded to the potential for combiners, so I won't go there. Nor will I address the "pay for chains" aspect. I applaud you, Mobage, for finding a way for people to pay a modest fee (money or time) to get a legitimate reward from/during the event, rather than forcing players/collectors to pay exorbitant fees for a mere chance to get a card. The first step to understanding that you have a gambling problem is to ADMIT that you have a gambling problem.

- Space Bridge Tiers: Finally, the space bridge a bit more palatable to the pocketbook! Well, except for the guaranteed Blaster. More on that below. But 100 coins for one card is more than reasonable. I went through the first two loops and got an Evolve Eject with each "guaranteed character" draw. ($1 + $3 + $5 + $1 + $3 + $5= $20).  Although, in the past I've gotten two characters for spending that kind of cash (I got Episode Warpath and Episode Hound with my four guaranteed cards last event).

- Event context: GREAT JOB providing a bit of background to the event, going so far as to describe the mission(s) and expected bad-guys in each area. It's WAY better than the 2-4 word descriptions ("Secure the Base") of the levels in the regular campaigns. I LOVE the Easy/Med/Hard campaign maps, too.

-Captures: Excellent addition, but it needs some tweaks. I've played a bit of GI Joe: Battlegrounds and was surprised you didn't incorporate the ability to capture more than one card. Just going for the boss was kind of a head-scratcher. Then there's the capture probability, especially on the higher levels...I won't go there, except to advocate for increased chances based upon Player Level and Deck Power. Maybe an extra 1% chance for every 100 levels, or +1% for every 1k of Deck Power you have over the recommended DP for the level?

- Team bosses: Along those lines, GREAT idea, having us fight boss teams! That's how other events should have gone rather than simply fighting a level 8 version of the same boss. Please, sir, may we have some more? Now, getting my arse handed to me by a team of three characters ranging from C to UC to R cards is disheartening, at best. Why not throw in a SR non-event (or previous event!) card to spice it up, rather than just increasing the previous card's stats?

Now for the not-so-good/needs improvement:

<p style="text-align: justify; line-height: 15.75pt"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica', 'sans-serif'; color: #d5d4d4; font-size: 10pt">- Holy Bloated Episode Points, Batman! Wardeal won an event a short while ago with 87 million points. I don't know how he did it, nor do I want to (but I have some suspicions.  BTW, thanks for all the Help Requests, bud!  You helped keep me in the second reward Tier). But that's awesome. In this event, however, 87 million points would put him in 115th place with 1d, 4h to go (as of the time I write this). On top of that, the Episode Point Rewards top off at 10 million. Um, I had that beaten by the end of day-2. (Full disclosure: I paid for Energon Chains to more easily get Soundwave, Ravage and Laserbeak, so it was easier to top for me)  Either adjust how many points people are getting for the event bosses or increase the Episode Point Reward tree. Maybe put another Autobot tape in there (Ramhorn? Ratbat? Overkill? Sugfest?) as a raid card, like in previous events, and space out the other point rewards.

<p style="text-align: justify; line-height: 15.75pt"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica', 'sans-serif'; color: #d5d4d4; font-size: 10pt">- Autobot event: if it's an Autobot event, why are there 3x Decepticons with X2/X3/X5 bonuses, but only two Autobots? Confusion abounds.

<p style="text-align: justify; line-height: 15.75pt"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica', 'sans-serif'; color: #d5d4d4; font-size: 10pt">- Tier 1 & 2 Rewards: Prowl & Nightbeat? Prowl I can understand, kind of, but he's NOWHERE in the "fluff-text" for the event, nor does he fit the "theme." It would have made more sense to put Eject & Blaster here and made Prowl/Nightbeat the Raid Cards. As for Nightbeat...WTF? He's a HEADMASTER! Like, beyond G2 type of character. You haven't even included all the G1 guys, yet! Mirage would have made more sense here, from a "stealth" standpoint (tie in to Ravage, too, from the old-school G1 comics). But there are SO many other G1 characters that fans are dying to see: the Protectobots, the Wreckers (Roadbuster & Whirl!  Just take my money, now!), Triple-Changers (3-step evolution cards?), Frenzy & Rumble (I know previous event...but that didn't stop you from having Shockwave, Cyclonus, and Scourge in multiple events, right?), etc.

<p style="text-align: justify; line-height: 15.75pt"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica', 'sans-serif'; color: #d5d4d4; font-size: 10pt">- Did I mention the capture rate? It sucks, and I understand why (bump it up and REALLY see the point totals soar!) but I think you could up the capture rate and reduce the point rewards for a capture. I mean, should you REALLY be getting 82k points for capturing Rare Megatron on Hard Level 10? I mean, that's only ~15k more points than the reward for a Level 8 boss in previous events, but whatever.

<p style="text-align: justify; line-height: 15.75pt"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica', 'sans-serif'; color: #d5d4d4; font-size: 10pt">-Space Bridge Tiers: $50 for guaranteed blaster? Really?!? How 'bout $10 for an ethereal, electronic card that will be obsolete in a few episodes? I mean seriously, do you understand the concept of what you're charging for these cards and its impact to the player base? Less is more...

<span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Helvetica', 'sans-serif'; color: #d5d4d4; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">That's all for now, but I reserve the right to add to the list. In short, great job on this event, Mobage...seven new cards, plus a couple bones for the players, new campaigns, etc....just please take a few pieces of constructive criticism to heart.

<span style="line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Helvetica', 'sans-serif'; color: #d5d4d4; font-size: 10pt; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA">-DutchRits