Conquest - Just Can't Anymore... :(
I loved Conquest so much when it first came out. It felt like it really could live up to the promise of giving a use to the huge collections of toons that so many of us have cultivated (I have 10M+ G...
Forum Discussion
@PlayerJ
Yes. You don't need to explain it again.
This is incorrect. We all understood what you said, we just disagree. You're assuming that if we understand we will automatically agree with you, but this is simply not the case.
Maybe? But that's not something that most players care about. As long as the game is taking in a sufficient amount of money that it's profitable, then CG will not shut it down. I worry more about the game being fun, because if the game is not fun, then no one will purchase anything and the game is doomed. If the game is fun, past experience shows that the wealthier players will support it.
Not every aspect of the game needs to be monetized, and if you want character shards for cash, it's already easy to purchase packs whether you're playing Conquest or not.
You're new here, so I won't hold it against you, but I was actually arguing that newer players should be given ways to accelerate progress years before you started playing this game. Why? Not because there's a division between newer players and older players. There is a difference, of course, but that's not important. What's important is that new players have to be given hope that they can eventually participate in the cool activities that were end-game when they signed up. Take the Krayt raid for instance. In order for a player that joins the game today to be able to participate meaningfully in that raid requires more time than the raid will be the featured raid. But it will still exist in a year, and a year is probably all you need to put together a couple reasonable teams and have some fun.
The new Territory Battle is worse. To meaningfully participate you need to have multiple r5 toons just to donate to Ops missions, and then 15 more r5 toons with very specific limits on which toons you choose to make sure that you end up with 3 teams with synergy -- and that's all just to participate in one battle per planet on the very first day. The cost gets much steeper if you want to participate on Kashyyyk or the Haven medical station. It could easily take 20 months before you're participating in at least one battle per planet on all the r5-r7 planets.
Now, I've been playing for much longer than 20 months and my roster is going to continue to grow and become more powerful over the next 20 months. Someone who starts today won't catch up to me. And I don't want them to.
But I do want new players to look at the coolest end-game content that's offered today and think, "Yeah, I could stick with the game long enough to reach and play that content." If you don't offer new players that hope, there's little reason for them to stick with the game. After all, CG is advertising the newest content, right? If you don't get to play the newest content, then they aren't advertising to you.
So, yes. I want new players to "catch up" to the current end-game content.
But also? Since I started advocating for that, CG has brought out many ways to make it easier for new players to eventually reach end-game content. The Hyperdrive Bundle did not exist when I started advocating for "catch up" mechanisms. Now it does.
And guess what? The Conquest Pass might not benefit new players, but the Hyperdrive Bundle does not provide much benefit to established players. The earlier you purchase the HDB, the more value you get. Likewise you can purchase Faction Packs, which give a good dollar value for new players, but the more characters you have completed in a faction, the less value you get, since you're more likely to get shards of characters you have already taken to 7 stars.
And, of course, you can work on characters that are accelerated -- meaning that the shards drop at twice the normal rate -- and that are available in stores. End game players have already purchased all the GW and Squad Arena toons. There are many ways for newer players to increase the number of 7* characters in their rosters. Conquest doesn't have to be yet another way, nor does the conquest pass. Free characters and shards for purchase are everywhere. There's no need to change Conquest for that purpose.
Nope. It won't happen that way. Because Conquest isn't the only game mode. For end-game players, there simply aren't very many characters left to pursue. I only have 3 characters still locked, and only 3 unlocked characters at less than 7 stars. In the next 3 months there's a hard limit to how many characters I can unlock or complete, and it's a half dozen. There are players more advanced than me who already have GL Leia or Jedi Knight Cal Kestis (or both). Over the next 3 months they have even fewer.
But as a new player you can easily gain 1 new character every 11 days just from the GW store alone. That's 8 characters in the next 3 months doing nothing but playing GW. Add in characters from the Squad Arena store, from the Fleet Arena store, from Guild Tokens, and from Guild Events and new characters are positively racing forward with new characters far faster than is possible for older players.
The truth is that if you think that established players are widening the gap, you don't know how to play this game. Listen to the people who would like to help you and you can easily fill out the Jawa faction and many others.
And that's fine! As a beginner, Galactic War gives you the shards you crave. Maybe go for that.
In the meantime, be assured that not every game mode is for every player. I pay almost no attention at all to Grand Arena and float between Kyber2 and Kyber4, with more time spent in K4 than K2. On the other hand, I spend a great deal of time working with lots of players from lots of guilds helping them crush the KAM and Reva special missions in LSGeo TB and RotE TB. Why? Because that's where I have the most fun. The vast majority of people that I help aren't in my guild. Helping them win a special mission won't earn me any shards or any other rewards.
I do it because I can, and because it's fun.
It's not bad that you presented your critique here. If you're new to the game you're also new to the forums and you couldn't have any way of knowing whether your perspective has been represented here before (though it has). But now you've presented your critique, and people do understand it, and it's up to CG to decide to implement it.
Instead of telling people who disagree with you that they just don't understand, you're probably better off not worrying about the fact that different people have different ideas about what makes the game fair or balanced, and focus on finding your own fun. You can't control CG, and you certainly can't control other forum commenters, but you can control that.
I tried my best to explain the Beginner experience of Conquest.
Yes. You don't need to explain it again.
Some people understood what I said.
Other people will never understand which is a real pity.
This is incorrect. We all understood what you said, we just disagree. You're assuming that if we understand we will automatically agree with you, but this is simply not the case.
- The lack of rewards for Beginners in Easy Mode which makes any monetary purchase of the Conquest Pass nothing short of a joke.
The game will lose a large portion of money due to early game players not wanting to buy the Conquest Pass due to lackluster rewards.
Maybe? But that's not something that most players care about. As long as the game is taking in a sufficient amount of money that it's profitable, then CG will not shut it down. I worry more about the game being fun, because if the game is not fun, then no one will purchase anything and the game is doomed. If the game is fun, past experience shows that the wealthier players will support it.
Not every aspect of the game needs to be monetized, and if you want character shards for cash, it's already easy to purchase packs whether you're playing Conquest or not.
- The character imbalance which is creating a division between New Account Players & Old Account Players
Players in Hard Mode are getting Characters
Players in Easy Mode are getting Nothing
You're new here, so I won't hold it against you, but I was actually arguing that newer players should be given ways to accelerate progress years before you started playing this game. Why? Not because there's a division between newer players and older players. There is a difference, of course, but that's not important. What's important is that new players have to be given hope that they can eventually participate in the cool activities that were end-game when they signed up. Take the Krayt raid for instance. In order for a player that joins the game today to be able to participate meaningfully in that raid requires more time than the raid will be the featured raid. But it will still exist in a year, and a year is probably all you need to put together a couple reasonable teams and have some fun.
The new Territory Battle is worse. To meaningfully participate you need to have multiple r5 toons just to donate to Ops missions, and then 15 more r5 toons with very specific limits on which toons you choose to make sure that you end up with 3 teams with synergy -- and that's all just to participate in one battle per planet on the very first day. The cost gets much steeper if you want to participate on Kashyyyk or the Haven medical station. It could easily take 20 months before you're participating in at least one battle per planet on all the r5-r7 planets.
Now, I've been playing for much longer than 20 months and my roster is going to continue to grow and become more powerful over the next 20 months. Someone who starts today won't catch up to me. And I don't want them to.
But I do want new players to look at the coolest end-game content that's offered today and think, "Yeah, I could stick with the game long enough to reach and play that content." If you don't offer new players that hope, there's little reason for them to stick with the game. After all, CG is advertising the newest content, right? If you don't get to play the newest content, then they aren't advertising to you.
So, yes. I want new players to "catch up" to the current end-game content.
But also? Since I started advocating for that, CG has brought out many ways to make it easier for new players to eventually reach end-game content. The Hyperdrive Bundle did not exist when I started advocating for "catch up" mechanisms. Now it does.
And guess what? The Conquest Pass might not benefit new players, but the Hyperdrive Bundle does not provide much benefit to established players. The earlier you purchase the HDB, the more value you get. Likewise you can purchase Faction Packs, which give a good dollar value for new players, but the more characters you have completed in a faction, the less value you get, since you're more likely to get shards of characters you have already taken to 7 stars.
And, of course, you can work on characters that are accelerated -- meaning that the shards drop at twice the normal rate -- and that are available in stores. End game players have already purchased all the GW and Squad Arena toons. There are many ways for newer players to increase the number of 7* characters in their rosters. Conquest doesn't have to be yet another way, nor does the conquest pass. Free characters and shards for purchase are everywhere. There's no need to change Conquest for that purpose.
If you play the above situation out over the course of days, weeks, months, & years, The impact becomes extreme.
It will start off with Hard mode players getting 1 Character while Easy mode players are getting 0.
Than it will begin to amplify from 1 to 5 to 10 to 20 meanwhile the Easy mode player will remain at 0.
Nope. It won't happen that way. Because Conquest isn't the only game mode. For end-game players, there simply aren't very many characters left to pursue. I only have 3 characters still locked, and only 3 unlocked characters at less than 7 stars. In the next 3 months there's a hard limit to how many characters I can unlock or complete, and it's a half dozen. There are players more advanced than me who already have GL Leia or Jedi Knight Cal Kestis (or both). Over the next 3 months they have even fewer.
But as a new player you can easily gain 1 new character every 11 days just from the GW store alone. That's 8 characters in the next 3 months doing nothing but playing GW. Add in characters from the Squad Arena store, from the Fleet Arena store, from Guild Tokens, and from Guild Events and new characters are positively racing forward with new characters far faster than is possible for older players.
The truth is that if you think that established players are widening the gap, you don't know how to play this game. Listen to the people who would like to help you and you can easily fill out the Jawa faction and many others.
If the game doesn’t change Easy Mode, It seems my course of action as a Beginner is straightforward.
I will treat Conquest with disdain and indifference.
And that's fine! As a beginner, Galactic War gives you the shards you crave. Maybe go for that.
In the meantime, be assured that not every game mode is for every player. I pay almost no attention at all to Grand Arena and float between Kyber2 and Kyber4, with more time spent in K4 than K2. On the other hand, I spend a great deal of time working with lots of players from lots of guilds helping them crush the KAM and Reva special missions in LSGeo TB and RotE TB. Why? Because that's where I have the most fun. The vast majority of people that I help aren't in my guild. Helping them win a special mission won't earn me any shards or any other rewards.
I do it because I can, and because it's fun.
It's not bad that you presented your critique here. If you're new to the game you're also new to the forums and you couldn't have any way of knowing whether your perspective has been represented here before (though it has). But now you've presented your critique, and people do understand it, and it's up to CG to decide to implement it.
Instead of telling people who disagree with you that they just don't understand, you're probably better off not worrying about the fact that different people have different ideas about what makes the game fair or balanced, and focus on finding your own fun. You can't control CG, and you certainly can't control other forum commenters, but you can control that.
