Re: Game Balance and Matchmaking - We want your feedback!

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@Marine_CorporaI wrote:

I’ve learned to stop caring on what league I’m in. When you do so, all you’ll do is frustrate yourself.  Continuing to climb when your units are low is foolish. Because once you get there and lose repeatedly because your units are 3 to 4 times lower than everyone elses, you’ll then come on here to complain how the game isn’t fair and make stupid posts as if the game should find you nonexistent players with level 6 and 7 units in Masters. There aren’t many. People with units that low are in Platinum. Thats why you face guys with level 11’s up to 13’s in Masters. 

Speaking for myself, I can get to Tiberium with level 12 units. But what happens when I do? I’ll face level 14’s and 15’s and lose repeatedly.  So since I’m not paying to upgrade my units, I’ll stay at Masters until my level 12’s become 14’s and 15’s for free. 

Or I can climb and then come on here to complain like a child. 

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So I’m quoting myself here to illustrate the point. I just made Tiberium because there are only a few days left. Here is my first matchup. My level 12’s going against his level 15’s and 14’s. Take a wild guess who won? I couldn’t do a thing. 

It’s foolish to continue climbing when your units are so low. So when I get kicked back to Masters in a few days, I’ll remain there until my units are at level 14’s and 15’s. 

Or pay to upgrade. There are three things that people have done once they hit the wall. Some quit. Some waited to upgrade and played events and collected crates, and finally some paid. This game is a business. They aren’t going to let you upgrade for free quickly. 

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@TegliG wrote:
@rifleSimComplete events, complete bounties, complete free cloning chambers, collect convoys....Challenge matches can be won.

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And how I am supposed to complete events when it chooses my opponents for the events again based on my current league? Here there are not even Challenge battles - the game drops you again somebody with much higher level units and when you expectedly get obliterated it still decrease the number of remaining fights for the event.

Yes, completing bounties, cloning chambers and collecting fuel is quite doable as neither of these require if you to win the battle. But I believe there is something very, very wrong to enter a fight with no intention of winning it, just to rush a given high level unit for the bounty and then leave. 

Yes, challenge matches CAN be won. I win about 5% of mine. But for the rest 95% pushing your tactical and micromanagement skills to the limit, plainly outplaying your enemy and still getting kicked in the @$$   just because his units being on the cap - it's quite disheartening.

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@Marine_CorporaI wrote:

Or pay to upgrade....This game is a business. They aren’t going to let you upgrade for free quickly. 

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So, in other words, just another pay-to-win $hit of EA? I am perfectly aware that the company doesn't invest in developing the game for a charity so they do expect some revenue from it. But to claim the game is free, while actually playing it is not, is hypocrisy of high level! 

I've played MMO games with varying intensity for the past over 20 years and I have seen many ways to generate income without heavily impacting the gameplay. Remove of advertisements, various skins and avatars, time-saving features and so on. Look at DotA, not even browser based, and still completely free. You can buy plenty of skins, music, sounds, level decorations, etc., but not a single weapon or hero upgrade. At the same time the game generates one of the greatest incomes in the industry.

Or, if you are really convinced how good your game is, then put a subscription fee after, let's say a month of trial, and if the people really like to play it, they will pay and be happy to play at even conditions.

But yes, there were also plenty of examples, where a game claims to be free, but you can buy resources, units, upgrades and everything with real world cash, thus the balance going to the rich, but not to the skilled. Seems this game is another of the mentioned scams.

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@rifleSim wrote:

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@Marine_CorporaI wrote:

Or pay to upgrade....This game is a business. They aren’t going to let you upgrade for free quickly. 

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So, in other words, just another pay-to-win $hit of EA? I am perfectly aware that the company doesn't invest in developing the game for a charity so they do expect some revenue from it. But to claim the game is free, while actually playing it is not, is hypocrisy of high level! 

I've played MMO games with varying intensity for the past over 20 years and I have seen many ways to generate income without heavily impacting the gameplay. Remove of advertisements, various skins and avatars, time-saving features and so on. Look at DotA, not even browser based, and still completely free. You can buy plenty of skins, music, sounds, level decorations, etc., but not a single weapon or hero upgrade. At the same time the game generates one of the greatest incomes in the industry.

Or, if you are really convinced how good your game is, then put a subscription fee after, let's say a month of trial, and if the people really like to play it, they will pay and be happy to play at even conditions.

But yes, there were also plenty of examples, where a game claims to be free, but you can buy resources, units, upgrades and everything with real world cash, thus the balance going to the rich, but not to the skilled. Seems this game is another of the mentioned scams.

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When did this game claim to be free? It surely doesn’t in the AppStore description. 

I’m not paying and I’m winning. I fluctuate between a 45 and 60 percent win rate. I made it to Tiberium on this account without paying  anything except 20 bucks many months ago to level up a unit to try it out. That’s it. It was a waste of money since I don’t even use that unit. I should have just been patient and waited. 

If you do not want to pay, you can always lose on purpose to keep yourself in a league until you level up your units. But many do not want to do that. I stayed in Diamond for a few months until I reached level 11 on 6 units with one faction. Then I went to Masters. 

It’s kind of foolish to expect to make it to masters with level 6 and 7 units for example and expect them to match you with players from Gold League that have units that low. There are very few in Masters with units that low so who do you expect to face?

If you understand the tactics of the game then you’ll realise it takes a year to level up to get into masters league. And only if you put aside the poor attitude and realise you can earn everything for Free! And upgrade all the way to level 15 units. Probably would take about 3 years to level 15. So just remember you play to upgrade faster not pay to buy a unit.

you truly don’t understand pay to win games if you call this a pay to win game. It’s just pay to upgrade faster. 

yes I agree it’s truly frustrating around tier 8. But it’s a wall you have to push through. And yes it’s considered a pay wall. But can be broken WITHOUT paying a cent. 

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@rifleSim wrote:
@Marine_CorporaII don't know what's the game's price in AppStore, but on PlayStore it's definitely free. My win rate, when still facing beatable opponents, was quite good too - that's after all how I got in Masters, right? But the described by you strategy - loosing on purpose so to stay in low league, just proves my statement that this is a pay-to-win game. If you don't want to pay, then you are forced to lose so to be able to play at all.

As for what is foolish, I'd use this qualification for a matchmaking system that takes into account only the points of the players, bit not their level which is in direct relation to their units level. You can't expect a fair fight between lvl 30 and lvl 60. In any normal MMO game you can attack players only within a given level range from yours. Even in the ELO system used in chess and adopted by many others, if you play with somebody, who is fat beneath you, you can lose points even in case of a victory. Or maybe the ELO creators are fools too?

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Mostly all games are free now to download and play with in app purchases. That’s how they make money now. There really aren’t anymore pay once games that are worth anything anymore. It’s the newest model that makes the most money. Even Call of Duty does it. Would I rather pay once? Of course. But I’m not in charge of that. 

I agree with you about the matchmaking. The whole league thing and matchmaking due to medal count alone sucks for us. But I understand why they do it. It’s a business. They have to make it where you want or need to spend money. You wouldn’t spend a dime if all you got matched with was level 8 units all the time like you have. Why pay to move up to level 9 when it doesn’t matter?

So if we want to play, we have to play within those parameters or just quit. And those parameters are that we pay to level up now or wait to level up for free. That’s it. Complaining about it isn’t going to make the CEO of EA just make the game totally free and pay his developers and IT guys out of his own pocket for charity.

You can actually control your own matchmaking by losing on purpose when you get to the top of Diamond league and bring yourself right back to Diamond 3 and keep doing it until you level up your units for free. But since you don’t want to do that then paying is your only option if you do not want to keep losing. 

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@rifleSim wrote:

And how I am supposed to complete events when it chooses my opponents for the events again based on my current league? Here there are not even Challenge battles - the game drops you again somebody with much higher level units and when you expectedly get obliterated it still decrease the number of remaining fights for the event.

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Actually, events have a level cap. For some of them this is as low as level 6, sometimes it is 9 or 10, but usually it isn't higher than that. So if your opponent has level 13 or even level 15 units, it does not matter in an event, because they will not be able to use their units at that level.