2 Likes
No, just make blueprints directly purchasable through ice, a higher amount of essence or opals which makes that currency less useless.
Rare and epic mystery chests and blueprint chests should be delet since the silver and gold chests are the same thing.
3 Likes
well thatâs one way to fix it.
but assuming theyâre not going to get rid of RNG chests and even if you could buy blueprints, the problem remains:
No feeling of a progression system, which the old system had.
So they make blueprints purchasable, which leads to you having every skin under the sun. what next? there is no ânextâ. you have it all.
The old card system, as slow as it was to progress, there is always âsomething moreâ⌠thereâs always the grind for more cards.
Anyway⌠thatâs my thoughts on it.
1 Like
Mystery chests have such horrible value. Not only do they not contain content from the most recent update, but the gulf between good drops and horrible drops is so wide so as to make the ICE value extremely hard to justify. If you get duplicates of everything in an epic chest, then youâve probably only received 60 or so opals, a worthless amount of essence (discounting its already low utility), and glory which also lost its value once cards became a thing of the past. Itâs symptomatic of whatâs been going on at SEMC for years: introduce new and shiny (and expensive), abandon old and boring, and keep trying to sell you both at a premium.
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Nah, the cards system has its own problems. It limited the amount of skins that can be created, and the sense of progression was really only for the tier 1-3 skins. It was good at first when there were really little skins, but that means every hero can only have 3 skins that followed that system, and any other skin for the same hero would require another set of cards, which became a complete mess after they made skins that can only be crafted with 1 specific card. Then common cards became completely useless for the new skins and then there was a conflict of the old card system and the new card system⌠Yeah its not good.
I feel like the recolored skins is a great idea but can be implemented in a better way.
I really like how battlerite does it where they have a base skin(obtainable via âopalsâ or gambling) and every skin has a few color variations which are obtainable only through âgloryâ (not available in boxes and obviously a lot cheaper)
1 Like
What I meant was that heroes, which are the main component of the game are free to unlock. But the cosmetics shouldnât necessarily be free. The things that I meant a f2p person shouldnât complain about is cosmetics. If something like game modes, hero balancing or pay to win occurs, then everyone has the right to put their points forward. This is pretty much how all the games(not just some moba on mobile, I literally mean most of games on PC, Xbox , ps, and mobile) work. Now it is up to developers, how they want to handle the cosmetics.
I feel like you didnât grasp the point of the post. If you only consider your whale demographic, you are setting your product up for failure when the whales no longer come to feed. Youâve structured your entire model around monetizing anything and everything that youâve driven away the casual player who could have been converted to a paying customer. You made them feel marginalized, as though if they werenât spending, then they werenât welcome.
3 Likes
I fully agree with you as the f2p players end up promoting the game if they like it. Iâm also f2p but periodically spend sum cash that I earn from âgoogle opinion rewardsâ, so Iâm not actually spending any cash.
that doesnt work.
there are a handfull of mobile mobas out there to choose from and many mobas started to give players a chance at free skins in the past few years.
vainglory needs to get the players to stick to the game, play more than they actually wanted and, most important, play so much that they start to buy stuff âbecause they play and love the game so muchâ.
as gameplay doesnt do this atm and probably never will, because you cant solve the toxicity, offering grindable cosmetics is a great way to keep players in the game. dont forget that the paying players get the free rewards as well and the better they are, the more likely they will stick to the game.
the old card system was great in that regard and if semc would have sticked to making the le/se skins ice only it could have worked.
of course it is, but that doesnt mean that i cant say how bad they handle them compared to the past.
if semc continues with their current ways, they will start to lose their old players (they dont get anything worthwile, trolls are ruining the play experience, casual is unplayable and blitz is degenerating fast, as more and more high talent level users appear, the rng boxes are really bad for players who own a lot) and they wont hold their new players (other mobas are shorter, more fun, less complicated, the prices for stuff are ridiculous, so much to learn, mm cant sort the quick learners from the slow ones, casual is unplayableâŚ)
btw, cosmetics in vg were never available for free (exept for a few instances with the reza skin atm and others). they always costed you at least your time. 3-4 months for one t3 skin and you didnt have enough glory for heroes left. 3 wins every day in 3v3 during that time. ~200h play time, but it worked insanely well. it also worked to get me to buy some ice.
6 Likes
And BP basically pays for itself. (Provided they donât change the price the next season!)
The last I actually spent on VG was back when Moon Princess Celeste and Snow Monster Joule came out. These two were the only skins I bought with ICE/real money. I really liked the design and felt that those were skins worth my money even though I never really played those heroes. The fact that multiple skin recolors come out at the same time also devalues the skins for me and locking these skins behind RNG makes it worse. Thereâs no reason for me to gamble for that 5% chance or whale out on the launch day super sale. Itâs just too expensive.
The new skins just donât appeal to me now as I have most of them at either Legendary or SE already and thereâs no point other than cosmetic appearance. Like the recent Summer Party Catherine, sure the ahem physics is appealing but I already have WW SE so Iâll give it a miss. Itâs just another SE.
The card crafting system was getting too messy and confusing for newer players so I understand why they changed it. I also read somewhere that SEMC said people were not spending on the card boxes so they needed a new way to sell skins. Enter Opals, which made another mess/currency.
Battle Pass is a good move as it sells skins. But this only targets newer players. Older players would already have lots of skins unless they want to keep up to date/collecter/whale/support SEMC. But if they canât keep their players as a whole it all comes to naught.
Right now, the only incentive for me to playing is just to get sunlight to lvl50 for the BP rewards. They tried to do events but most of them are negligible. Bring back Crazy 8! Oh wait, no more crafting system.
2 Likes
yes it was. but this is completly semcs fault. instead of actually revamping the whole system to allow for actual standalone skins without making them too cheap (the t3 lyra was the cheapest t3 for quite some time, as you could get it without unlocking a t1 and t2), they went the lazy route.
the also should have changed the sunlight gains long ago, or add an incentive to own multiple skins for one hero or to own as much skins as possible in general.
1 Like
I think there was a whole thread about the skin issue on the old forum and a whole debate about that.
SEMC did not plan to have many skins per hero, evident from having a progressive skin system. Selling skins was their only income source and it wasnât doing well.
Then they made LE skins and wanted to release more skins and give their designers the freedom without being tied to the progressive system. They needed to do something and this was the best they came up with. Maybe they shouldnât have named that Lyra skin as a t3 skin and problem solved.
SEMC is still pretty generous though. Thereâs multiple ways to get things for free just by playing the game though it does take time to actually get what you want or get it instantly with cash.
(btw, this is derailing from the topic)
About changes to the sunlight gains, what kind of change? Give out more sunlight per skin? Or incentives? They did give out a better reward at every 5 levels the higher you level up and end season rewards too.
Owning multiple skins now is just for collecting purposes. I doubt they can give out an incentive to get multiple or all the skins on a hero as theyâll definitely keep releasing more and more. What about Lorelai who has no skin right now? Itâs unfair for Lorelai players.
atm, as soon as i have a t3 or equivalent skin for one hero, i never âneedâ another skin for this hero.
if you have one of the three top end Krul skins, the cyber krul wont bother you at all unless you really want to collect all his skins or just really prefer them to his older ones.
this is bad for selling skins. players that played long enough or actually put a lot of money into the game have less reasons to pay or grind for new stuff.
with incentives i mean an actual reason to buy multiple high tiered skins for a hero or even to buy a new t1 skin, even though you own a t3 skins for that hero. the current sunlight bonuses only try to get you to use and buy t3 skins and nothing after that.
this has less to do with the sunlight rewards and more with the way you can gain sunlight.
some ideas:
- sunlight is based on the highest skin you own for a hero, not the skin you use
- get bonus sunlight if you own 3 or more skins for the hero you use
- get 10% more sunlight per game, if you own 30 skins, 20% for 50 skins and 30% for 100+ skins
- get extra keys and chests (the f2p ones, not mystery or bp) as sunlight level rewards, if you own enough skins of a certain skin collections (like: own 4 school days skins and get a silver key at level 20 extra etcâŚ)
While I completely understand your reasoning, Iâm not sure whether additional Sunlight bonuses work as an incentive.
While it might entice some people to buy more skins, it also undermines the systemâs purpuse: To give people a sense of progression, and ultimately make them play more.
I could see the appeal for people with little time on their hands - but those who spend a lot of time with the game, and have managed to collect a variety of skins, would reach lvl 50 mid-season and feel like thereâs nothing more to achieve.
This one has no drawbacks, though, and I would greatly appreciate being able to use my favourite skins, without feeling like Iâm being punished for it:
well, instead of sunlight, you could easily give other bonuses.
extra glory, extra signs in the loading screen, exclusive charm emoji (one who does homework for the school day skins, a demon for the nether skins, exclusive deals for new stuff etcâŚ)
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Tch. I was going to suggest this.
At the VERY MINIMUM, skins you already have one colour for should get a discount.
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For the systems part, the old one was a lot better. I could grind, destroy cards and buy needed cards for exact skins I donât have. RIght now? Have close to 100 000 essence and from the 10 skins I donât have, not a single blueprint dropped for one of them (shock, right?), i.e. right now I need to be lottary type of lucky to get a skin unlock for free while I could have grind it before.
Edit: Also a personal note: I spend a lot of money (embarrassing lot) and it was mainly because I was clearly unlocking things for free, felt the system fair (grind time/unlock) and that the game deserves my money. Didnât spend a single dollar after around 5vs5 release and started to feel less motivated to spend around the first lootboxes rng thing like a year ago, more so around December with a lot more rng and golden ticket fail and now I donât feel any desire to give them any money.
Fair system retain old players better and spenders too. The current one will maybe give them slight short time burst of money, but in long term it will kill the game via no enough money spend.
This is personal opinion why I stopped spending money and how a fair system AND better ingame experience (balanced matches, fast starting matches, etc) are a strong points in game success. VG in the past hit those for me, now it doesnât hit any of them. 
4 Likes