Interesting. I guess I’ll chip in my thoughts.
- Thought No.1: Battle Pass.
This one is a bit tricky. I don’t mind it nor do I feel the need to say to players to “Buy it! It’s actually great!”
I think it’s a 50/50 case for me at least. I was on the fence until the recent Sunlight Events kicked in. I sat on around nearly 3K ICE (a good portion of it came from pass Battle Passes and the level 40 reward for levelling one’s account).
I find the monetisation scheme for Battle Pass (current one) is ok, but deceptive depending on the person you ask.
Like, some already reach Level 100 Sunlight and are now missing out on all the benefits the current and upcoming Events are bringing. Some pulled trigger and bought the Battle Pass, reaping the benefits of the Events. Some are indifferent.
I guess it all depends on how the rewards are spread out and how fast a person grinds. A Casual (like maybe an hour to 2 hour a day type of player) may find the progress through the Battle Pass and Sunlight grinding much easier.
I still think that this Battle Pass has a good degree of benefits to it, but I still don’t like the final reward being a Krul skin because I absolutely hate playing against this undying pest.
To me, as someone who only spend an occasional amount of ICE and has wizened up to not impulse buy, a lot of stuff can be get for free in the game if you put at least some time into it.
It may seem that the Free Pass is shitty, but it’s at least clearer than when the Sunlight Wheel was in use. It doesn’t reward players with much, but I feel that is ok because other things compensate that a little bit. Other things being ads, Quests and some Events.
There’s also a very generous start for newer players, considering what is given to them by simply doing the ‘Road-To-Ranked’ Quest line and Logging In for seven days.
Some F2P stuff are really RNG that’s feels like it’s screwing you half the time and rewarding unbelievable stuff another. What I meant by this is the Keys, Metal Chests (I call them this because Gold, Silver, Bronze) and what these chests drops.
Believe me that the RNG in VG is a cruel mistress. I’ve gotten the Sunny and Baby Kraken set almost completed from just opening those Chests. Only one of each left, which by some chance happens to be the Happy Face ping, lol.
In relation to F2P stuff, Opals are on a very, very slow drip I feel. You can really easily get them consistently from watching adds. Coupled that with the Metal Chests giving Opals on an random basis, a player can feasibly get a 1000 Opal skin within half a year or so.
Other F2P stuff I rarely see being talked about is the level up Chests. They are pretty ok, with the final being quite good. However, without an Exp Boosts via the All Access Pass; the grind can get quite real. Once players reach Level 40, they may feel a bit empty because the level doesn’t go up anymore.
I like the ones where they just ask you to do one thing like “Win a 3v3 Match” and is more solo orientated. The guilds ones are ok, though most can’t really feasibly challenge the top Guilds in a region. The others like win streaks, use this hero with their Talents etc. are tolerable but not likeable because the grind is exhausting.
- Thought No.4: Metal Keys & Chests drop rates.
Like I said: RNG in Vainglory is a cruel mistress. Personally, I don’t mind since getting the occasional drop of these items feels fair to me at least. Maybe because I have too much stuff already unlocked and does not desire much of the stuff. A lot of them are accidental unlocks too or unlocks from keys I got for free.
- Thought No.5: Blueprints or Skin Crafting System.
I fee the current one is the best, simply because it reduced clutter and has streamlined the quality of skins (no more Tiered lines where some of the skins in the line or all of them are shitty).
The older system I feel had to go because it was choking the creativity of the skin creators as well as populating the drop system with too many clutter of cards.
I know people really want the old system back, but I feel it’s time to move on.
Personally, I’m indifferent. I grind specific hero Talents because I like Blitz and getting those Talents to a high level is a necessity to keep my teammates alive.
Additionally, I grind them now with a sub-goal in mind, which is to turn the Daily 5 Talent Chest into a Glory dispenser.
How is that possible you may ask?
Well, when a Talent is maxed, the Daily Talent Chest cannot dispense the Talent Coin that has been maxed. It will not dispense the other Talent Coins of the hero because if it did, it will eventually run into the problem of not being able to dispense the Talent Coins at all and it will also make grinding Talent Coins a bit easier.
So, in place of the maxed Talent, the Chest will dispense Glory based on the roll it gets.
The exchange rate of the Talent Coins to Glory via this chest is as follows:
1 Rare Coin = 7 Glory.
1 Epic Coin = 330 Glory.
1 Legendary = 1980 Glory (an estimate since I have not been able to confirm it yet).
A Talent does not have to be leveled up to be considered maxed out. Just getting the total Coins needed to reach that max level is sufficient to trigger the compensation system.
It’s an ok trade I suppose. If they ever remove Talents, I don’t really mind. Preferably they compensate or refund entirely if they ever did so.
- Thought No.7: Charms, Pings, and Hats.
The drama that unfolded because of poor communication tainted the appeal of Charms. I don’t like the fall out from that.
They should have made a short Event or the like to encourage players to buy the Charms, with a great discount of course.
It would have been ok if they just communicated things properly.
Pings are quite cute. I like Sunny and Baby Kraken sets. They don’t do much other than for players to show off. I haven’t bought any nor completed any yet though.
It’s a hit or miss product I feel. Some like it, some don’t others are indifferent.
They do make nice rewards from the Metal Chests though.
Hats… well, if they made it so that they were outright purchasable via ICE, that would have been ok for me. But they aren’t and are locked behind another layer of RNG in the form of Materials Chests.
Another hit or miss product to me. It’s like the Opal situation as getting the right Material is dependant on luck and scarce.
They feel like hats, cute and funny; but are disliked by a good portion of the community because of fear of graphics demands on older phones, breaking lore immersion (which I find funny, considering lore in game is not applicable considering you can make two heroes appear and pair up mortal enemies), being locked behind Opals which are scarce to begin with etc.
The new heroes are ok in my opinion. Nice kits, looks, and balance (bar a few like Anka).
Personally, I really only pay attention if the hero has a theme I like (can we get a werewolf soon? Pretty please!), is a Captain hero ( I’m a Captain main, in a bathing suit. Stunning everything, it’s fucking fantastic! Catherine, lol), or has great potential value in the skin department (something akin to the level of Trick or Treat Malene).
Overall, SEMC has a tolerable monetization scheme. Not really liked, but not really something that seems very forced/must have.
My best wishes to them that they are able to stay afloat with it and keep making stuff for VG despite all the negativity thrown their way.
Hope you all like reading this!