Forum Discussion
MasterSeedy
3 years agoNew Veteran
Kit interactions are tremendously complicated and the costs of blowing a counter are high against many (but not all) opponents.
As a result, you're encouraged not to use your own characters creatively and see what happens, but to follow an exact counter plan using the same character, turn order (which means similar mods) and strategy as someone else who made a youtube video and told you what to do, step by step.
Now, no one has to do this, but that's what we're encouraged to do. With Conquest as well. With rotating modifiers to layer on top of already complicated kit interactions, this only increases the pressure to follow the instructions of someone else to get your rewards.
But you know what watching videos, remodding your characters, and then pushing buttons exactly as instructed isn't? It's not fun. And it's not a game.
I have to say I'm tremendously relieved that you won't be buying datacrons and their upgrade mats using needed gear (like Carbantis) which would have worsened the crunch that we're supposed to see alleviated. CG, you did well to listen to feedback and undo that mechanism.
That said, the game is less and less about playing around and more and more about doing what you're told. Ultimately we're going to get to a place where the people who want to play a game (rather than watch youtube videos and then press buttons on cue like a worker on a production line) will need to not care very much about whether they win or lose the current GAC or TW or whatever because we can play around one GAC and remember those lessons for the next, since the dynamics of the next may be very different with Datacrons expiring and being newly issued.
And, okay, I don't really care about GAC or TW much anymore. I play because I really enjoy the KAM mission specifically and to a lesser extent the TBs which are still challenging while also still being beatable by different compositions. I can develop the characters and skill to defeat those things myself in a way that lasts from month to month. I can see the challenge ahead of me and work to overcome it using my own brain and my own creativity and whatever time I feel I have to devote to the problem. But what happens when we need a LOT of players who don't care much about winning or losing so that it becomes worth it to play around with characters instead of using Guild-Leader-ordered counters or whatever? I'm worried that if we're required to stop caring about winning or losing in order to be able to play the game for ourselves, that not very many other people will be able to find one thing in the game, like I have, to keep them coming back when the rest of the game loses its lustre.
I had hoped that Conquest would be that place where you can use many different, inventive squads, but it, too, has become formulaic with the feats being too prescriptive.
Changing metas is fine, but this creates a meta that changes frequently and unpredictably and, most importantly, in a way that doesn't allow you to learn permanent lessons. I remember, after all, the Grievous nuke team. I remember taking DR/Malak against JKR. They're not meta anymore, but I still remember the battles which means I can still use those tactics.
With datacrons, the meta isn't just temporary because new things were introduced. The meta is temporary because your current abilities will be drastically different in 3 months from what they are today. You won't be able to say, I beat team X with squad Y 5 months ago, so i know I can do that today. That's how a changing meta worked before: new squads might be the bests, but the mechanics of previous matchups didn't change if you happened to want to attack that same defense with your old, familiar option on offense.
With datacrons, we move more and more towards a future in which the game is only played by a few Krakens who have every character available and don't mind losing money to have some fun experimenting. The rest of us will just be pushing buttons, one after the other, as we're told.
As I said, I'm glad this doesn't hurt the gear economy -- that was a good change. But at its core datacrons push us every closer to a gaming experience that deemphasizes the elements that are most fun and emphasizes the elements that are most like the worst part of our everyday jobs.
Doesn't that seem like a bad trade?
As a result, you're encouraged not to use your own characters creatively and see what happens, but to follow an exact counter plan using the same character, turn order (which means similar mods) and strategy as someone else who made a youtube video and told you what to do, step by step.
Now, no one has to do this, but that's what we're encouraged to do. With Conquest as well. With rotating modifiers to layer on top of already complicated kit interactions, this only increases the pressure to follow the instructions of someone else to get your rewards.
But you know what watching videos, remodding your characters, and then pushing buttons exactly as instructed isn't? It's not fun. And it's not a game.
I have to say I'm tremendously relieved that you won't be buying datacrons and their upgrade mats using needed gear (like Carbantis) which would have worsened the crunch that we're supposed to see alleviated. CG, you did well to listen to feedback and undo that mechanism.
That said, the game is less and less about playing around and more and more about doing what you're told. Ultimately we're going to get to a place where the people who want to play a game (rather than watch youtube videos and then press buttons on cue like a worker on a production line) will need to not care very much about whether they win or lose the current GAC or TW or whatever because we can play around one GAC and remember those lessons for the next, since the dynamics of the next may be very different with Datacrons expiring and being newly issued.
And, okay, I don't really care about GAC or TW much anymore. I play because I really enjoy the KAM mission specifically and to a lesser extent the TBs which are still challenging while also still being beatable by different compositions. I can develop the characters and skill to defeat those things myself in a way that lasts from month to month. I can see the challenge ahead of me and work to overcome it using my own brain and my own creativity and whatever time I feel I have to devote to the problem. But what happens when we need a LOT of players who don't care much about winning or losing so that it becomes worth it to play around with characters instead of using Guild-Leader-ordered counters or whatever? I'm worried that if we're required to stop caring about winning or losing in order to be able to play the game for ourselves, that not very many other people will be able to find one thing in the game, like I have, to keep them coming back when the rest of the game loses its lustre.
I had hoped that Conquest would be that place where you can use many different, inventive squads, but it, too, has become formulaic with the feats being too prescriptive.
Changing metas is fine, but this creates a meta that changes frequently and unpredictably and, most importantly, in a way that doesn't allow you to learn permanent lessons. I remember, after all, the Grievous nuke team. I remember taking DR/Malak against JKR. They're not meta anymore, but I still remember the battles which means I can still use those tactics.
With datacrons, the meta isn't just temporary because new things were introduced. The meta is temporary because your current abilities will be drastically different in 3 months from what they are today. You won't be able to say, I beat team X with squad Y 5 months ago, so i know I can do that today. That's how a changing meta worked before: new squads might be the bests, but the mechanics of previous matchups didn't change if you happened to want to attack that same defense with your old, familiar option on offense.
With datacrons, we move more and more towards a future in which the game is only played by a few Krakens who have every character available and don't mind losing money to have some fun experimenting. The rest of us will just be pushing buttons, one after the other, as we're told.
As I said, I'm glad this doesn't hurt the gear economy -- that was a good change. But at its core datacrons push us every closer to a gaming experience that deemphasizes the elements that are most fun and emphasizes the elements that are most like the worst part of our everyday jobs.
Doesn't that seem like a bad trade?
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