[MEGATHREAD] Road Ahead: June 2022 - Datacrons

A new set of datacrons each month will keep us on our toes every gac and help keep things fresh. There are enough factions each time so we can try to reroll for a faction we already have geared up. It will prevent us to use our roster exactly the same way gac after gac, which could become boring pretty fast when the only change is a few new units now and then. So it looks promising and should be fun. On top of that we don’t have to choose between datacrons and gearing characters are it uses separate currency and as the flow of datacrons will be limited, it will not be a time sink to manage them.

I’m not opposed to datacrons in concept. The only element I dislike is the dismantling of them after a few seasons. How about instead of dismantling datacrons they become deactivated. Deactivated datacrons can be used in future seasons when those squads or characters are around. This would still give seasonal motivation to grind squads that will give a known ROI in the future. The current system doesn’t motivate me to gear or spend, but I might if I had a character that I knew would be awesome once a GAC every few months. I play this game as a Star Wars fan and collector. I do not like content that is temporary.

bull crap, that's all i have to say

"rangojr;c-2365852" wrote:
I'm convinced CG is trying to shut down the game to focus on LOTR. However, given the money people have spent in game, they can't just shut it down. Instead, they've create a system that nobody can understand and nobody wants. Their goal is to drive people to quit the game in droves so by the time they are done they can close down the game without having to worry about people who spent money on it.

Yeah basically this. It is clear CG has checked out a long long time ago. They don't care about the game or their players anymore. Might as well move on. Those Yacht payments must be rough now days.

My first question: when will the remainder of the gear economy changes be implemented?

My second question: does CG have a plan for managing the expanding complexity and time burden of this game? One of the biggest frustrations I have with SWGOH is the amount of time required every day for an advanced account to complete all the necessary activities to simply keep up. Conquest and the increased importance of GAC have turned this from a game you could play for 20 minutes a day, into a game requiring a significant investment of time to complete all the relevant activities. Datacrons seem to make this problem worse, by significantly increasing the complexity of GAC, forcing you to spend more time researching your opponent and preparing for matchups. I understand some players will enjoy that increased complexity, but for many others with limited time to play it can become a real burden. Is there a plan in place to address this?

Please for the love of god don't make Conquest a necessity to be competitive in the game...
Conquest is my least favorite game mode and it takes so much time to do, losing GAC and a potential income would really grind my gears and push me away from the game as a whole...
Don't let it affect GAC please and if it has to, please don't force us into conquest.

Agree with so many hear that we should've had the Gear changes addressed first, before adding something that consititutes a massive investment.
Overall not really a fan of this idea, feel it adds even more time spent staring at the screen trying to theorise your next move and how to attack an opponent. adding something else into this that is completely RNG is not ideal, and takes away from the skill based matchmaking they have been so keen to try and implement (even though there are flaws there too). If you get a really rubbish roll from the datacrons and your opponents get a more optimal roll then you are screwed for 3 months, or you have take a hit for another month and try and spend loads of time and resources getting a reroll or another data disk up and running.
Like politics in the UK. its the wrong Tax (feature) at the wrong time.
They need to replace Doja ASAP as he was the only reason things actually got better with this game, as he actually communicated with us and addressed some of our concerns. Crumb and Tusken aren't doing this, granted tusken is on loan from DSA, so it really compounds the fact that Swgoh has a systemic problem in that they cannot pay people to smash their heads against the wall when it comes to collating feedback for the higher ups to ignore.
Honestly, i have enjoyed a long time on this game, but like so many others, we're getting burned out, and close to quitting

"rangojr;c-2365852" wrote:
I'm convinced CG is trying to shut down the game to focus on LOTR. However, given the money people have spent in game, they can't just shut it down. Instead, they've create a system that nobody can understand and nobody wants. Their goal is to drive people to quit the game in droves so by the time they are done they can close down the game without having to worry about people who spent money on it.

Issue with this is that Star Wars is a much bigger name compared to LOTR. don't get me wrong, i love LOTR and would be into a game like that, but solely because CG is developing it, i won't be playing it, absolutely no point in getting shafted by the same people twice. CG don't know how to keep a community happy, partly because they are subservient to EA, and anyone who is actually good at their job gets sniped by another company that will be nicer to work for

The descriptions of datacrons is so long. This is something they obviously put a lot of work into given all the mechanics. Past Road Ahead posts have had videos or they have worked with content creators. For this big of a rollout, they did "nothing".

So, I am left to read it on my own and it sounds horribly complicated and unnecessary. So I look for videos that might be positive. No, none. So I come here and read the comments. There are usually a few CG apologists putting a positive spin on things. Not really seeing any positive.

Not only did this Road Ahead lack any real new content other than datacrons, the way they are rolling this out, shows a complete lack of care about how the community receives this. They will make these changes, and they do not care if you like them or understand them. They only need 5% to 10% of the player base to spend on them, and they will be financially worth it. If the changes destroy the game for half of the player base, it does not matter.

This Road Ahead is the clearest signal that CG is no longer focused on SWGOH. They have another launch to work on and this game is going to slowly die if we do not complain loudly.

So far not a fan.

There's been so many other cool ideas on the boards, why this?

Could anyone see the potentials of these ideas?

• a Raid for ships. Yes it's just like Rancor and Tank, but with a different skin. Ships are barely used in a game called Star Wars.
  
• how many existing playable characters are eligible to be pilot for a starfighter or a ship? We've seen them in movies, or games, or comics, or in a TV series piloting one. Kit Fisto gets a Delta-7, GM Yoda gets an ETA-2, Magnaguard gets a "Xanadu Blood", Veteran Han and Chewie, Kyle Katarn, Sith Empire Trooper, Asajj Ventress, Dengar gets The Punishing One, Bad Batch, Count Dooku, Lando and Chewpio gets a new Falcon, etc
  
• introduce "Speeders" with a new gameplay style similar to ships.
  
• random events that require 1 or 2 or 3 underused characters. Similar to Galactic Challenge. Imagine an event where you must use Ugnaught & NS Acolyte; or Jedi Knight Guardian & NS Initiate; or Lobot & Ewok Scout. That'll force people gear up these underutilized characters, and have a possibility to get decent (not premium) rewards. CG must have data on the usage of every character in the game.
  
• give us a 2nd Mace Windu. Change the name to the existing to "General Mace Windu" to keep with the capital ship. While the 2nd one can be called "Jedi Master Mace Windu", and he can get his purple ETA-2 starfighter.
  
• try a Hoth TB 2.0: where it's 12 Phases in 6 days (12 hours each); keep Platoons as is, instead of 1-2 Combat nodes per section, make it 4 or 5, and increase level of difficulty, but not the point of a Geo TB, and increase the threshold for stars. Can only do this if your guild got max stars in Hoth TB 1.0.
  

There's plenty of ways to monetize the game without killing the fanbase, or changing the fundamentals of the game.