I get the concern and it is definitely a risk, but the game has a history of shifting crystals to a new game mode. That is how Fleet and GAC got their crystal income in the first place. People freaked and said everyone would leave the game when Squad arena lost its crystals. Now GAC is the main reason many people keep playing.
People will follow the crystals and if you got 150 crystals a day and 1000 crystals to win a TW in "TW Aurodium" then players will be engaged. It is also why the game mode should be revamped if they do it, to help with the engagement.
It would also help lower some of the burden I hear other players complaining about like the time investment of the raid and mirror matches making an hour long fleet climb a hassle. I think removing the linearity and how monotonous fleet climbs can be will help retain players and lighten some of the load.
To be honest too much Crystal is already tied into GAC with poor matchmaking. To follow up with fleet Crystal moving into TW the matchmaking would have to be massively improved, becomes reliant on your guild performance and would not prioritise fleets enough.
I also question how sound your claim is that GAC is the reason most play. I see a lot of lazy play where players wait out to do the one battle or least battles possible, have switched to a very passive game style of very heavy defence to do minimum on attack or miss multiple battles. This suggests that rather than being a main reason to play, players are participating mostly because they just want the rewards and tolerate the mode. Even in various guild chats those who are genuinely excited about GAC seem to be in a minority because of the time sink and matchmaking.
Squad arena was a lot more straightforward shards were somewhat related to when you joined allowing new players to do well. The currency got spread out and became determined somewhat on size of roster in comparison to having the latest meta squad. This meant many squad arena climbers lost out whilst those with bigger rosters gained. I don’t think moving crystals worked out well then. And think it will just be reducing income on players who have heavily invested in fleets for Crystal income to reward larger guilds (some players whom have very poor investment in fleets) with another boost based on length of play and size of roster.
I didn't say most people play the game for GAC, I said many. That is a very different word and does not call out a majority. There are communities within the game that follow streamers about GAC, so many people do care about GAC.
You are right that the matchmaking would need to be improved. Sandbagging for wins does not feel good for the people they get paired against. I have no idea how I would go about fixing that.
I am not going to argue the pedantic difference between many and most both imply a significant portion.
Players will care about whatever mode crystals settle into, not necessarily enjoy it. You remove crystals from fleets some players will not spend the 40 mins to an hour climbing everyday as it will not be worth the effort anymore. There are also communities for any other challenges in game, galactic challenges, conquest, TB missions etc. But to keep the game progressing, crystal income needs to be fair to reward player effort regardless of stage in game. Most of these mode’s intrinsically reward more to larger more advanced rosters.
Key problem for me in TW and GAC is win/loss. I get rank 1 90% of the time and when not usually top 5. It’s unrealistic to expect that win rate in TW or GAC. I climb everyday about 4-8 battles in a space of 1 hour a day but I am guaranteed a return on that time investment. TW is a 24 hour event 4 x a month but if I were to lose I get poor return on time investment. If I win my opponent gets poor return on time investment. Whilst in my shard in fleet I am the only one who climbs in my PO, there is no threat to mine or someone else’s rewards.
Therefore a much fairer system to remove crystals from fleet is to reward activity across game either in feats / battle pass points. Players could complete by battles completed across the game which could include fleet wins, arena wins, GAC/TW/TB/Conquest manual battle wins. This ensures all players can be rewarded for active gameplay in whatever mode they enjoy, not just the large rosters with tilted advantage in certain modes. They could reward up to 400 crystals based on the amount of activity that day. So busy days with GAC, TB and conquest are passively done, reducing additional time sink. Quieter days may require fleet arena, squad arena or manual energy battles to complete without other ongoing events.
I would welcome that suggestions of yours (rewarding activity across the game) with open arms if it ever gets implemented. We have so many events in the game right now, a lot of them often running at the same time, but at least we can spread them throughout the entire day. With Fleet Arena, and pre-change Squad Arena, you have to spend a specific hour of the day fighting the same players over and over again every day. For me, most of the time, I have to do one or two battles a day, but there are also times, especially lately, where I have to spend practically the entire hour on FA.
The suggestion you made, if it ever gets included, would still allow players to compete in FA if they want to or whenever they/we don't have much to do in-game, while freeing up at least an hour from our day and allowing us to do something else - have dinner, relax a bit after a hard day's work, to say nothing about if you have to go to a party (speaking from personal experience, my FA payout is from 6 to 7 PM, and there have been times when I have to, emphasis on have to, it's not as if I want to, go to a relative's 50th birthday party, a cousin's engagement party, or whatever else, don't I suffer enough). You have nothing to do, just play a few battles in SA, FA, or cantina throughout the day, you're done. You have to worry about TB, Conquest, Raids, etc., every time you win a battle you make progress toward more crystals at the end of the day. Win-win.
