Concerns and Hopes for SWGOH
I have been playing everyday for years, love this game and have some concerns. My list of concerns has be growing and I need to get them off my chest. There is only one major issue and I will start with that.
Game freezing and support responses
My game freezes in pvp frequently. I lose grand arena, tw, squad and fleet arena battles daily. Early this week it happened 4 times in one day. This has lead to me getting lesser rewards. I wrote an email and got a response that thanked me for my email with no solution. I wrote a post that was commented on. Someone thought I was using an old phone. I wanted to respond (since my phone is new), however my post was moved to "bugs" and the ability to respond was disabled. The person who moved it did not leave a link. I cannot find my post in "bugs". When I try to make a new post in "bugs" or "issues" there no "post" or "summit" button. Only a "cancel" or "preview" button. So I have no clue how to get this issue resolved. I don't even understand how to see my post or make a new post in the "bugs" or "issues" section (no "post" or "summit" button and no notifications).
I am very frustrated in how this issue has been handled. However, I have had issues in the past that where handled very fast. I once was unable to access my account. Once I emailed, the email responses where as fast as text messages and the issue was resolved very fast. Happy with prior experiences but not happy with the handling of my current freezing issue.
P2P
I understand the game needs to make money and there is an insane amount of free content. If you do pay (supporting the game and all the free players) then you do certainly deserve an advantage. SWGOH handles this very well (i know others disagree).
My concern is with the price of paid items. Notice that there are items in the store for a hundred + dollars. Some of these items only provide a slight chance of providing the content that makes the purchase worth the price. For the cost of 2 or 3 of the more expensive bundles, one could purchase an entire brand new game console and the most popular game. By that standard, the paid content is incredibly overpriced. Other mobile games are supported with micro-transactions. "Micro" is the key word. A single guaranteed gear component or shard should be available for few cents, not part of a $15 to $150 bundle with a bunch of other stuff you don't need. How about a "build-you-own" bundle where for a fixed price a player selects a collection of items he or she needs. This way the low price per item is appreciated because all items are desired.
Character Progression
Gear tier progression is far to heavily concentrated on a few gear pieces. For example: I have 67 toons that all need Mk 5 A/KT stun gun prototype (some in multiple slots). At 1st I thought this was due to my own farming habits. However, i have talked to members of my guild and they see the same issue. I have been farming the same few nodes for a long time and the need for this item just grows. The need will not diminish because that gear will be needed in the next gear tier also. At my current drop rate, I could farm the same nodes (that have no other gear I need) for years and not get all the needed Mk5 stun guns.
This is not good for the game, simply because it is boring to farm the same nodes day after day after day. With all the gear content in this game, it is silly to allow this to continue. This is me begging the devs to reduce the reliance on this gear piece. Possibly by excluding it from future toons, increasing drop rates for it and providing it in more rewards. There are so many gear pieces and nodes, why does every toon need the same items? This is the most boring aspect of the game...returning to the same nodes every day for years.
Quality of life
Some QoL suggestions.
filter only allows one selection. What if I want to filter for rebels who are also crew? Or leaders who are also scoundrels? Just allow the selection of multiple items on the filter list with a Boolean operator selection. Simple.
GP???? It would be nice to use GP as an indication of relative strength versus other squads. However, it is useless for this, because of the huge gap in GP for dominant OP squads. For example: 70k Brood Alpha led Geo squad can beat many 100+k squads. Similar is true for JKR and DR squads (at much higher than 70k of course). An accurate measure of relative strength should not be like this. Consider altering a squad's GP by not including unused leaderships and increasing each member's GP contribution based on how well they synergise with the used leadership
In the set-up phase of TW and GA deployed squads should not be locked in until the timer runs out. If we make a deployment mistake, we should be able to edit deployed squads
More of the same
It is clear form teaser posts that the devs put a lot of effort into new content. However, once delivered it is often more of the same. Clearly they have fallen into a pattern (maybe they don't realize it). New content is often new toons or reworks where the effected toons are made necessary because they are either un-beatably OP or just required in particular events and game modes. This just creates an arms races where news toons and reworks get more and more powerful. Is this sustainable? Is this fun? To spite special themes, new game modes and events often have the same in-game play requiring the same battle tactics once in a fight. Just more of the same. There are other options. There are other ways to make old toons viable and new ones desirable. There are other ways to provide interesting new content. Here are some suggestions:
top dog: Imagine a game mode where a player selects a full squad. But when entering battle, only 1 (maybe 2) toons enter per opponent. If a toon is defeated, it is replaced with the next toon in the squad but the winner remains in battle until he/she is defeated. At which time that toon is replaced. The winner is the one who defeats all replacements. This is just like a drill I would do in high school wrestling. This would increase the desirability of less synergistic toons and inspire new tatics that rely less on synergies. Synergies are not bad (they r great) but such a game mode would bring new depth to the game and value to under used toons.
faction fights: A defender selects or is assigned a faction then produces a squad composed of just that faction (all jedi, or all FO for example). The attacking squad must be composed of a nemesis faction that opposes the defending faction in cannon. For example: if the defender uses FO, the attacker must use resistance. Of course, at first everyone would defend with a faction whose cannon nemesis is under used in SWGOH. This would encourage the development of all toons without the need to make every new toon and rework OP.
Fleet raid: I just wanna see a fleet raid. Possibly attacking the death star.
War engines: Star Wars is full of heavy battle machines like the AT-AT. What if a guild could purchase these with collaborative tokens (like raid tokens). Gearing them would be a huge collaborative guild effort using thousands of unused gear pieces. They would be owned by the guild, not any individual player. Guild officers could then deploy them in territory wars giving squads in the effected sector special options. For example: a troop transport deployed to attack may give an attacking squad the chance to escape battle and be reused elsewhere. If deployed in a defending sector during set-up, this could add another slot for additional defender squads. A fully geared and fully upgraded artillery unit may severely damage every defending toon in every squad in a single sector before a squad even attacks. The possibilities are endless
Real stakes: a battle that requires an ante of gear, shards and/or crystal. Winner takes the pot. Loser gets nothing.
Real PVP: a battle where a player's phone searches for nearby players. Once connected they have a real PVP fight. Must use a chess timer to prevent delay of game and provide appropriate ends in the event of disconnection.
This list could be a mile long. I have tonnes of suggestions. You may not think any of these are viable. These ideas may be bad so there is no point in putting a huge list here. Their viability is not the point. I just want the devs to realize that there must be ways of adding content that differs from simply making every new toon and rework OP and that new game modes should be new game play - not the same play with a different theme.
Game freezing and support responses
My game freezes in pvp frequently. I lose grand arena, tw, squad and fleet arena battles daily. Early this week it happened 4 times in one day. This has lead to me getting lesser rewards. I wrote an email and got a response that thanked me for my email with no solution. I wrote a post that was commented on. Someone thought I was using an old phone. I wanted to respond (since my phone is new), however my post was moved to "bugs" and the ability to respond was disabled. The person who moved it did not leave a link. I cannot find my post in "bugs". When I try to make a new post in "bugs" or "issues" there no "post" or "summit" button. Only a "cancel" or "preview" button. So I have no clue how to get this issue resolved. I don't even understand how to see my post or make a new post in the "bugs" or "issues" section (no "post" or "summit" button and no notifications).
I am very frustrated in how this issue has been handled. However, I have had issues in the past that where handled very fast. I once was unable to access my account. Once I emailed, the email responses where as fast as text messages and the issue was resolved very fast. Happy with prior experiences but not happy with the handling of my current freezing issue.
P2P
I understand the game needs to make money and there is an insane amount of free content. If you do pay (supporting the game and all the free players) then you do certainly deserve an advantage. SWGOH handles this very well (i know others disagree).
My concern is with the price of paid items. Notice that there are items in the store for a hundred + dollars. Some of these items only provide a slight chance of providing the content that makes the purchase worth the price. For the cost of 2 or 3 of the more expensive bundles, one could purchase an entire brand new game console and the most popular game. By that standard, the paid content is incredibly overpriced. Other mobile games are supported with micro-transactions. "Micro" is the key word. A single guaranteed gear component or shard should be available for few cents, not part of a $15 to $150 bundle with a bunch of other stuff you don't need. How about a "build-you-own" bundle where for a fixed price a player selects a collection of items he or she needs. This way the low price per item is appreciated because all items are desired.
Character Progression
Gear tier progression is far to heavily concentrated on a few gear pieces. For example: I have 67 toons that all need Mk 5 A/KT stun gun prototype (some in multiple slots). At 1st I thought this was due to my own farming habits. However, i have talked to members of my guild and they see the same issue. I have been farming the same few nodes for a long time and the need for this item just grows. The need will not diminish because that gear will be needed in the next gear tier also. At my current drop rate, I could farm the same nodes (that have no other gear I need) for years and not get all the needed Mk5 stun guns.
This is not good for the game, simply because it is boring to farm the same nodes day after day after day. With all the gear content in this game, it is silly to allow this to continue. This is me begging the devs to reduce the reliance on this gear piece. Possibly by excluding it from future toons, increasing drop rates for it and providing it in more rewards. There are so many gear pieces and nodes, why does every toon need the same items? This is the most boring aspect of the game...returning to the same nodes every day for years.
Quality of life
Some QoL suggestions.
More of the same
It is clear form teaser posts that the devs put a lot of effort into new content. However, once delivered it is often more of the same. Clearly they have fallen into a pattern (maybe they don't realize it). New content is often new toons or reworks where the effected toons are made necessary because they are either un-beatably OP or just required in particular events and game modes. This just creates an arms races where news toons and reworks get more and more powerful. Is this sustainable? Is this fun? To spite special themes, new game modes and events often have the same in-game play requiring the same battle tactics once in a fight. Just more of the same. There are other options. There are other ways to make old toons viable and new ones desirable. There are other ways to provide interesting new content. Here are some suggestions:
This list could be a mile long. I have tonnes of suggestions. You may not think any of these are viable. These ideas may be bad so there is no point in putting a huge list here. Their viability is not the point. I just want the devs to realize that there must be ways of adding content that differs from simply making every new toon and rework OP and that new game modes should be new game play - not the same play with a different theme.
