Board Thread:Game Discussion/@comment-9477730-20130626210143/@comment-10214922-20130627151104

BumbleDil wrote: Masarujasu wrote: YoungBoomski wrote: Yeah its a ploy, by mobage, to force players to spend, spend, spend. And people will, some wont. Not necessarily. Remember we are not aiming for score targets, just relative rank. So players don't need to kill L8 Galvatron if they know nobody else is. Players can spend 6 cubes to kill him if they know other players are doing the same, even if it means all their cubes run out twice as fast. The relative ranks stay the same and it's only the total score that is lower. The only people who need to spend are the ones trying to make a push on the last 1 or 2 days and that means accelerated points gain is required. Most of the top 100 is already decided by day 4 - they only need to maintain the same pace as their neighbours, and they control the pace by seeding the bosses. If they choose not to seed it doesn't affect them. That's why there are many periods where there are no L8 released - quiet times. Can imagine this being a frequent scenario in the events, which is why I think there ought to be a special bonus for the top 10/20. For instance, special leveling cards, more transmetals or guaranteed improved drop rates for episode cards on the space bridge in subsequent events. There needs to be more incentive for the heavy hitters at the top to keep playing so the seeds won't dry up. Sometimes I wonder if this just promotes that linear gameplay where people blindly plough their cubes into the last day or two because the L6/L8 bosses are taken for granted and it becomes a mindless points factory. And if that happens, again everyone thinks they are getting more points and having more fun but ranks stay the same and rewards are distributed to the same players.

I have said earlier that I'd like to see other mechanisms that promote more cube spend. But if the only motivation is to spend cubes to get points to get rank to get reward cards then the same behaviour will always result in the same outcomes. I think there needs to be an alternative reward that is awarded in a fundamentally different way from top rank rewards that allows competing behaviours to result in varied outcomes. Something based around assistance.

This isn't a game of skill but it is a game of strategy - and the main part of that strategy is reading the episode pace and understanding player's motivations in different rank tiers. But all the motivations are about cube to point conversion. Making choices about when and how you spend your cubes is the key thing currently that makes this game interesting - choices determine your outcome. However this is also perpetuating only the above outcomes. There needs to be another choice that is equally beneficial to players but based around an additional reward system.