A simple fix to the “whaleboard”

Not true. stars do have an effect- in that you will get more mats to increase your error level the higher the star tier you are on, so you will move up quicker.

I'm mostly f2p (passes only) and have get the toons to 6* each time via saving for the 12999 packs. Im not top spot but gaining 500 in rewards already. Even "just" getting the 5999 pack will get you into 300 a day. Its a decent boost to either r10 mats or just to get the LSTs.

Sooooooo, you may be aware of the Loot Box system that EA employs in FIFA, and the huge backlash they got for Loot Boxes in Star Wars BattleFront 2.  Well, this is no different.  There are reams of news articles and opinions about EA's P2W and incentivizing pay models, but the fact is, the bean counters at EA have spreadsheet after spreadsheet on player transactions.  They are not going to partition any game between Kraken, Whales, Dolphins, Guppies and F2P.  This game simply makes too much profit.

EA/CG has made tons of money off this game in the 10 years it's been around, to the tune of $2 billion US dollars.  Just in 2024 they made $88 million dollars on this game alone!  If there is one thing EA knows how to do, it's monetize a game and get players to part with their cubits.  Your simple fix would actually hurt the game and benefits EA/CG in no way, and the game would become stale very quickly.  

Just choose to enjoy the game at your own pace.  If you started the game in 2017 and you have the crystal income, then you should be pretty far along in GP and owning GLs and Conquest toons.  You should also have a stash of Kyrotech and other mats to level the era toons right up and slap decent mods on them to where they are at least R5-7 and competitive.  

If your goal is to move up the ranks of your Era Leaderboard, Stars have no effect. Only Era level of the toon matters, plus learning the kits so you can get an advantage on the "auto battle" folks - you know.... strategy.

Please explain how this p2p / f2p differential is any different to those that already exist in the game? 

And if you could also explain how grouping spenders together in Coliseum leaderboards would be good for the long term future of the game, I’d be grateful. 

You're punished if you don't spend?  That's a different take.

Except it’s another punishment for free to play. There’s a crucial difference between rewarding those who spend and punishing those who don’t.

So you want to introduce a mechanic that disincentivises spending by removing one of the principle benefits of spending? I’m sure the devs will get right on that. 

I quite like the new Era system in this respect. If a player is going to spend to the extent that it makes a big difference to where they’d end up if they spent nothing at all, they’d have to spend a pretty sizeable chunk of change (or blow through a significant amount of stashed crystals). This makes the decision very easy for me and I’m sure many others. 

What's the point in whaling if you can't use your large blubbery fins to smash around the codlings?  The whole idea of P2W is paying to 'win'.  

There is a bright-side though.  The more the whales pound their fins, the longer the electricity is kept on for the F2Ps.

If you have been playing since 2017, how are you this naive?