Capital Games Team
I must say...now that I actually see most of these changes live, I have mixed feelings. I think the QoL improvements are great - the visual and practical organization of quests, galactic challenges, marquees, etc. are actually a big improvement. Simplifying some of the dailies is welcome, though I would have preferred keeping the squad and fleet arena requirements separate to ensure I remember both - there's no big reminder up on the screen that I have something to do there like there is for the different energies.
The problem for me, as a F2P player, is that I'm feeling more left out of the game now. It is perfectly acceptable to me that I progress more slowly through the game because I'm not spending money - that actually suits me, as I'm not in it for the competition. Lots of games have a F2P/VIP model, and that's fine with me. I understand that some things are going to be out of reach for a long time, etc, and it actually makes it all the more exciting when I finally unlock something I've been working at for months. A key part of that experience though is that I always feel like anything is POSSIBLE, eventually - that there isn't any part of the game that I can NEVER get to, in theory at least, given enough time and focus. The Conquest Pass content was an exception that I could overlook, and limited time marquee event tiers that I couldn't do weren't really a big deal either. They were just little side events that I could ignore. Now however, the Episode Pass content and the changes to galactic challenges are front and center, and are taking that feeling of unlimited possibility away.
Even if the difference is economically roughly equivalent (not saying it is - I'm not going to do the math), the FEELING is that there is this whole part of the game (half of the galactic challenge feats w/ their rewards simply feeding into the Episode Track, Character Quests almost in their entirety) that I can't even engage with unless I spend money investing in every new character that comes out. These aren't just quest lines that I can wait to get to in 6 months or a year when I finally get those characters upgraded - they are limited-time events and will continuously be replaced with the next new character that again won't be eligible for me. For galactic challenges, one of the best parts was seeing how far I could get with ANY of my squads, knowing that I'd at least get a few points for beating another tier, even if I didn't have the intended squad for that GC powered up enough. Today, I tried the new GC formula for the first time: after my Rebel Fighters petered out on Tier IV, I was excited to beat Tier VI with a different squad, only to be severely disappointed to realize that I got absolutely NOTHING for it. There's hardly any point in even trying with other squads now. Without spending money for an Episode Pass or to rank up Huyang, the best I can do after my Rebel Fighters give up is to try to get the Remove Turn Meter feat on another tier or two. Instead of a nice challenge and creative test for my entire roster w/ tangible rewards for success, GCs now just feel like another task to complete.
I'm not calling it quits yet, but these changes, which I really wanted to like, just took a bit of the joy out of the game for me and my partner. I know, I'm not paying for the game, so who cares what I think - but, without the many F2P players, this game doesn't exist. It's why people spend money - to be stronger than other players. Without lots of F2P players to be better than, the spending will also decline. I'm concerned that unless CG corrects some of this, the game will now start to fade.
