I've been intentionally playing casually since about September, although I was rather hardcore before that. I've been noticing a few trends in the campaign events that are beyond confusing, however: Problem #1) Event Themes and Encounter Factions: As I write this, the current campaign is Five Faces of Darkness Part 2 [1] and the episode bonus in combat is for an Autobot Weapon Match. The bosses are Decepticons, and in the "Shoot the Incoming Missiles" mini-game it is Ramjet that is flying around. So why the hell am I fighting Autobots during the Enemy Wave Encounters?
Impact: Audience perception is that Mobage/DeNa doesn't give a crap about the details. Last year when Frenzy [2] appeared during a Decepticon Campaign Event (which made him appear to be fighting for the Autobots), it prompted an apology and hasty fix from Mobage. So what gives now?
2) Enemy Wave Encounter & Boss Rewards: It wasn't long ago when if you managed a capture of a card following a successful Enemy Wave Encounter it gave you x3 Transmetal [3]. Also, whenever you successfully captured a boss you were rewarded with x10 Transmetal. Now not only has the boss reward been removed, but the Enemy Wave Encounter reward is only given for select captures.
Impact: It's already difficult enough upgrading cards. Now that Mobage is giving away Ultra Rares like candy and relegating Super Rares to obsolete obscurity, it means that there are multiple cards that need upgrading during and after an event. Even getting the post-event rewards is now a hassle, as the x100 Transmetal awarded won't even get one Ultra Rare card to max, let alone MTM'd. Taking away the ability for players to grind out some Transmetals during the campaign while simultaneously taking away the modicum awarded for boss captures is yet one more "middle-finger" to the players. It's also a blatant move to force players to purchase Transmetals on the Space Bridge.
3) Ruby Medal Awards and Spacebridge Costs: Remember when Ruby Medals were the greatest thing ever? When Mobage was so afraid of the pending lawsuits over being a gambling application (re: Spacebridge) that they were implemented? Then remember the plethora of Grimlock [4] [4] that resulted from the glut of Rubies? Well, now I see that Mobage has reduced the awarding of Rubies while also putting the Spacebridge Ruby Rewards well out of the realistic range of all but the most zealous players. 2k for ONE pull?!? Seriously?
Impact: The pendulum is swinging the other way, apparently, but it's only a matter of time before the player pool evaporates. The first few months this game was on iOS saw event player totals routinely over 60k, and my check over the last couple of events was that it had shrunk to 15-20k. This transparent attempt to force paid draws on the Space Bridge is simply Mobage going back to their old business model while giving lip service to the claim of "this is not a pay-to-play game." Message to Mobage: Your model is NOT working and you are driving away players.
That's all for now.
-DutchRits
P.S. This intermittent crashing by the game is more than annoying. Especially when it happens during a fight against bosses or enemy waves, since it affects what you get as awards. This NEEDS an immediate fix, and a batch of rewards to make up for the unaddressed error.