Board Thread:Game Discussion/@comment-11590835-20130828220718

Hey folks. I wanted to type up a follow up now that the episode is over on my test of how the game is progressing now in light of the changes to it over the last month, and the introduction of “Ruby medals” for standard campaigns.



First, I wanted to refine my primary grievances with the game that I posted a month ago when I put the game down as it stood then.



 1. Power creeping: Overall nothing really seems to have changed here. Mobage is introducing T2 awards that are based more on defense values and HP, and reserving T1 awards for the larger and larger attack values. These are slowly going higher and higher as time goes. I give them some pass on this…as they have to keep people wanted to stay in the game week to week. Some solutions to this issue to appease the players will be written below

 2. Cheats: For the most part I think the cheating is out of the game after going through this episode. The android duplication issue is almost totally negated by the rubies being put into the game … you’d been a fool to run the paid space bridge … even cheating it … instead of just being patient with the rubies if you want a T1 or T2 run. Some more solutions to this below.

 3. Pay-To-T1 : This is still generally an issue to a large part, but is somewhat lessened. Having patience and dedication in time to get rubies takes some of this out. Costs for a T1 run are dramatically decreased, but still high.

 4. Gambling: Almost totally removed at this point with the rubies. Mobage needed to show that someone could compete well without going the space-bridge-dance…and I believe they have proved that with the rubies being put in the game. The only issue…all the “I got all alts / I got all bots” problem that some experienced with the rubies. Some solutions to that below. Keep in mind - this was not done for you, it was done to cover their butts legally. It’s simply a coincidental positive for us.

 5. Price : For a T1 run, we have gone to $300-$400 for a solid T1 run…to, is done smartly, about $120-$150 a run (getting 600-750 battle cubes, and raking in 200 more in farming and points rewards). This is around 3 or 4 times as cheap as it was before, but it’s still stupidly high. Solutions to this below. Taking pride in a T1 win is like saying you make more disposable money than others, or can’t control your impulsiveness with money you shouldn’t be spending. Is it a fair game when people hat can’t afford to “win” a T1 card ‘lose’ because they can’t pay? Solutions below.

 6. Game play Issues : Same old here…the ‘mini games’ are mindless and need a total overhaul. The babysitting for sniping is annoying and will burn out players quickly.



General observation:

At least how “A Thin Blue Line” was set up this time around with the new rubies system, you’d be a fool to have gotten raid cards via the paid for space bridge as long as you had a T2 deck on the first day (yes, most didn’t know this till the episode was days in). The package deal was also generally a folly to buy considering how easily you could farm up rubies (especially on the first day, most of which I missed as I was sitting out until I heard about the rubies). If the system stays as it was for the next ‘standard event’…I recommend for T3-T2 players, and possibly T1 players to go for 2 full “x3” cards via rubies and   put them in your “x3” slots. Get the 3rd “x3” card from the points rewards. At that point, work (1 cubing the whole time) on getting at least one, but ideally 3 “x5” cards for the next day’s bosses. After that, go straight into the “x7” tries. I was able to do this – it was just very time consuming. I ended up with a 4x7, 5x5 deck at the end of the event, and was able to stay in T1 burning 700 battle cubes, and buying a 150 pack of which I spent through 100. I ended up with an extra 13 half-x3 cards at the end burn the rubies that I had also to use as upgrade fodder.



Solutions to problems for Mobage and the players:

Power creeping : Mobage could first off go to a subscription service like most all online games are like WoW, WoT and so on. This doesn’t mean that they still can’t have things to buy in the game, but they could flatten out their revenue as well as stop the power creeping this way. When someone has a solid deck, they should feel the rewards of that for a long time to come…and yet mobage could still rake in some income to keep the game going. In being a “premium”, mobage could offer free “coins” every week, battle cubes and other things, and make available special cards or a special premium card slot in your team, or other ideas.

Cheats, exploiting, and other fun : Kill the looping bridge. Make the paid for bridge be $1 a guaranteed episode card…no progression. Throw in 4 “randoms” with each run…no escalations or increased chances of getting episode cards. The progressing “looping” bridge invites exploiting. Kill the package deals for battle cubes. Make the cubes reasonably priced to start with (I would propose at the most 5 cents a cube, less for buying more cubes at a time), and possibly here - have an upper limit of how many cubes can be spent every day. This could reward the people dedicated to the game and that take the time to use the max cubes a day – yet also limit how much time needs to be spent every day on the game leading to burn out. Mobage...you’d rather have someone paying less and playing less every day for a year, then the 2-3 month turn around that you are seeing with most gamers playing this game.

<p class="MsoNormal">Pay-to-place : The best way I can say to fight this still (and yes I know, it’s a radical idea) is to have episode rewards ALL come from points. No more ranks and placing to get rewards. If you want to take the time and are dedicated to the game…you get up to the ‘T1’ line reasonably after crossing over the other lines in lower levels. You can still show a board of where everyone is in points…you can still have shared boss fights that people jump in together… but stop the “my wallet is larger than yours” crap. Put up reasonable lines to cross to get rewards, and give them to all that hit those levels. Players will learn quickly that it’s fine to have it this way, yet they still can show who’s the best player within the system of the game via a rank that can be seen by all on the boards.

<p class="MsoNormal">Gambling: Put the ability to get raid weapons into the ruby system also. Put in the ability to burn 2 of the same side of a card into getting one of the other side of a card to kill people’s frustrations, or just convert all cards to evolve cards for all campaign styles.

<p class="MsoNormal">Price : As stated above, the prices need to come down a lot more in this game…the costs are just not reasonable for people in comparing this game to other applications out there and other online games. Mobage…you should be aiming for $20 or so an epp at the most per player, and you need to put in ways to limit how much can be spent by any one person to even out the game. As it is now, the game is simply not fair to people that can’t pay a lot, and we all know it. I take no pride in being a top finisher because of money spent in the past. I take pride in trying to drive change in game for the better of all.

<p class="MsoNormal">Game play issues :   Man we need some good mini games that are more than mindless pressing missiles. There’s so many mini card games that they could put in the game to get awards of various types. Getting R1-3 cards is not a reward worth a crap…and the games to get them are junk. If you want to keep your base Mobage…make the game fun where someone actually wants to play them for their own sake. Relying on the competition thing to provide the fun just doesn’t cut it long term. Stop thinking short term profits…think long term sustainability and flattened guaranteed revenues.

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<p class="MsoNormal">Other suggestions:

<p class="MsoNormal">Expand the bases space to “basically” unlimited. What the heck is the point of the base limitations? I see no profit to Mobage for doing so…and it only frustrates the user base to no end in having to burn hard earned cards they would rather keep.

<p class="MsoNormal">Program in the ability to flick some switches (one for each level of cards) in a metal space bridge run to just convert R1, R2, and R3 cards to weapons and transformers medal (equivalent value). Doing the dance of running the bridge, then going to “upgrade” other cards with cards gets very old and repetitive quick. Wouldn’t it be nice to run all your medals in one bridge, and have out as a result a pile of upgrade metal and ONLY R4+ cards that happen to pop up? Then you can just use the metal to upgrade a card (which is the fun part) and be done with it. The more repetitive crap you make someone do in a game...the older that game gets in a hurry.

<p class="MsoNormal">Clans in some way?

<p class="MsoNormal">Show a Tier reward cards weapon when the episode starts.

<p class="MsoNormal">Make a statement guaranteeing what odds are for anything out there…odds of a R4 card, odds of what things drop…stating that odds of getting any one side of a card are always the same…etc.

<p class="MsoNormal">Put in one R3 card an episode with an episode bonus. Put in one R4 ‘elite’ card with a bonus. Make one past reward card an episode have a bonus. Put in a special battle slot where you can put one of these cards if you have it (a 10th place or more?). Randomize what cards get this bonus every episode which could mean that the same elite card could even get a bonus for 2 episodes in a row….

<p class="MsoNormal">Bring back energon rewards for at least the 3rd level boss.

<p class="MsoNormal">Make the battles more interesting and with some sort of interactive strategy. “Critical hits” doesn’t cut it.

<p class="MsoNormal">That’s all for now...Anything else anyone or any discussion on anything above?

<p class="MsoNormal">StarscreamG1 <ac_metadata title="Post “Thin Blue Line” Evaluation 8/28/13"> </ac_metadata>