One-time timezone change

Baby steps. Let them figure this out.

"Macattack9;d-169472" wrote:
Hey devs, I appreciate what you are doing by allowing people who have moved long distances to do a one-time time zone change.

My question is, why not just allow every player to do a one-time change? There are other legitimate quality of life reasons to want a different arena payout time (it's during dinner/family time, you work during that time, etc). I just don't see how a one-time-only time zone change would allow for significant abuse. Yes it would allow people to escape heavily-trafficked payout times, but so what? Currently, people in less populated payout times have had that advantage for years. A one-time only time zone change for all would be fair and be a significant QOL improvement for many.

Thanks for reading!

Agreed there are many reasons that would make a specific time very difficult for some people, but I think they are trying to make sure no one games the system right off the bat. I'm hoping, if all goes well with this, that they might make it an option for everyone, but I'm certainly not holding my breath.

I do really think that in the future they should have a message that allows players starting to pick their own payout time like "Please now pick your time to receive prizes everyday! Prizes are awarded once per day based on your current rank at that time of day. Default 6pm for your standard (non-Daylight Savings) timezone. Pick a time that won't interfere with school, work or precious family time, but still allows you to be online! Please pick carefully you can only choose this time once."

The idea (I guess) is not to allow everyone to choose their own payout times (which can be abused) but to let people have their payouts / refreshes / bonus energy at the approximate same time of day as everyone else — which is only fair.

Yeah, I just don't see how a one-time switch can be "abused" or can be used to "game the system" really. Specifically how would people abuse this one-time power? Maybe you'd get a better payout time with less competition, but the total number of payouts wouldn't change.

"Macattack9;c-1547903" wrote:
Yeah, I just don't see how a one-time switch can be "abused" or can be used to "game the system" really. Specifically how would people abuse this one-time power? Maybe you'd get a better payout time with less competition, but the total number of payouts wouldn't change.

A shard chat that has 50% or more of it's people 2-3 POs moves people around to then have them spread out to 8-10 POs.

The odds of a shard having an active person in every PO hour is not likely. So yes it would increase the PO.

It is possible to abuse, well beyond that, as a group of a smaller number could then split up hours and lock out larger number of players while keep 1st spots for themselves. This goes beyond chats that can do this now as in chats you will still have multiple people in the same hour.

Letting everyone change their timezone/payout hour is the end goal, this is the first step in what is probably a multi-step process. They are moving into uncharted territory and need to move slow. Really excited that CG is taking this seriously and acknowledging the serious issue this is causing players. Hopefully in the next 6-9 months they will expand it to more players. Definitely a great first step in the right direction.

"Kyno;c-1547944" wrote:

"Macattack9;c-1547903" wrote:
Yeah, I just don't see how a one-time switch can be "abused" or can be used to "game the system" really. Specifically how would people abuse this one-time power? Maybe you'd get a better payout time with less competition, but the total number of payouts wouldn't change.

A shard chat that has 50% or more of it's people 2-3 POs moves people around to then have them spread out to 8-10 POs.

The odds of a shard having an active person in every PO hour is not likely. So yes it would increase the PO.

It is possible to abuse, well beyond that, as a group of a smaller number could then split up hours and lock out larger number of players while keep 1st spots for themselves. This goes beyond chats that can do this now as in chats you will still have multiple people in the same hour.

Yeah, that's true that the amount of crystals CG gives out would increase as people spread out to different payouts.

As for a small group locking people out of multiple different payout hours... I mean, that's possible of course but doesn't seem too practical. You'd have to use up battles protecting people in multiple other payouts, which would lead to lots of refreshes. Plus the rest of the shard could get together and put a stop to it. Seems more likely people would spread out to various payouts and create new rotations at the top with fewer people in them.

"Macattack9;c-1548007" wrote:

"Kyno;c-1547944" wrote:

"Macattack9;c-1547903" wrote:
Yeah, I just don't see how a one-time switch can be "abused" or can be used to "game the system" really. Specifically how would people abuse this one-time power? Maybe you'd get a better payout time with less competition, but the total number of payouts wouldn't change.

A shard chat that has 50% or more of it's people 2-3 POs moves people around to then have them spread out to 8-10 POs.

The odds of a shard having an active person in every PO hour is not likely. So yes it would increase the PO.

It is possible to abuse, well beyond that, as a group of a smaller number could then split up hours and lock out larger number of players while keep 1st spots for themselves. This goes beyond chats that can do this now as in chats you will still have multiple people in the same hour.

Yeah, that's true that the amount of crystals CG gives out would increase as people spread out to different payouts.

As for a small group locking people out of multiple different payout hours... I mean, that's possible of course but doesn't seem too practical. You'd have to use up battles protecting people in multiple other payouts, which would lead to lots of refreshes. Plus the rest of the shard could get together and put a stop to it. Seems more likely people would spread out to various payouts and create new rotations at the top with fewer people in them.

I'm not saying its likely but if could guarantee 8-12 people #1 every day. I'm sure they would work together to make that happen.

If you read other threads about shard chats there are groups that do this already, and they are not all getting #1 rewards right now. So it's possible.