Rainbow Star Concerns

I somehow missed this thread but I have to agree wholeheartedly. I love this series and am constantly telling and showing people how much fun it can be. 

To be honest, I don't mind having different currencies and as a former MMO raider, I'm used to it, my issue with them is that so many go obsolete. Right now for me and many others; coins, sheriff badges, marshmallows, and tacos are all pointless, so earning them feels empty and unsatisfying. For how much I loved the free roam zones when I first got into Founders, once you've finished them, they really lose their value. We had this problem with the gnomiverse in GW2 too, but that was a smaller, more specific area, so having this same problem here just feels worse. 

The current optics aren't great. Selling the Feastivus pack and adding Rux's store to the game while there are critical issues looks terrible. Some of us are still loving the game and want it to do well but it is a frustrating place to be and for a game that requires a healthy population to do well, especially with no private matches that we used in GW2 since only certain modes were heavily populated after awhile.

I also love the idea of a community panel that would help them interact with us and get our feedback directly. PopCap don't feel like 'ivory tower' devs like some games do, but they do seem to need a little more eyes on the ground, as it were.

What I would like to see in regards to the paid currency/Rux situation:

• Let us know what the rotation schedule is and/or keep items for sale longer. FOMO is often used to make people feel forced to spend money but it creates a lot of resentment and is not a consumer friendly practice. 
• Allow us to exchange in game currencies for rainbow stars. Having all these currencies that we can't do anything with is a bad place to be in. Even after hitting cap in GW2, I could spend regular stars to buy rainbow stars for the chests and to enchant OPs stations. That wasn't ideal but at least it was something.
• Increase in game rainbow star rewards. It's a total of 150 I think from the prize map that's intended for an entire month and the weekly challenges don't give many at this time. This should be greatly increased.
• Have events in the free roam regions that give rainbow stars. This would have the double effect of making them remain relevant and provide us with the currency we need for Rux. Even simple stuff like "Defeat a free roam region boss for 5 rainbow stars" or stuff like that would help.

At the end of the day, no one denies that you need to make money off the game, but when people feel forced to pay they grow to resent that and will eventually quit. MP shooters are a large market with a lot of competition, and the PvZ IP is a big reason some of us play, but if you want to expand and keep a playerbase, you have to avoid alienating people. I've said it before but the number one reason I quit Overwatch for good is the horrible loot box system in that game, we don't want that here.

I want to stress that I want the game to succeed. I want to play it often and enjoy it and want to see lots of people doing the same. I love the PvZ IP, the silliness (realistic shooters are often boring), the effects, etc. I quit WoT over the need to spend more money for gold rounds to compete at high tiers so if people like me that really love the game even with its faults end up angered over the Rux store and other issues, those with less love for the IP are going to be much more likely to give up and move on, you have to get this right.