Hi guys! I really hope this reaches the right people because there is a major issue that me, and I'm sure plenty of other players are experiencing as well. I made my account in 2016. As far as i know: Servers and sharding group up X amount of people and keep them in a static server. That server won't ever change. As I made this account EIGHT years ago, this was before the journey guide came out with a determinative way to end game content, arena was the only source of free crystals other than daily activities obviously. NOW: I have 0 relic characters, 0 7-star ships, I'm 1.3m gp still working on the tier 2 journey characters. NOW: People on my shard have dominated the Squad, and Ship arena. RELIC 9 characters, and a leaderboard full of 7 star leviathans, which also require relic 9 characters. I will say this the kindest way possible as I'm very frustrated: Even though I understand this game takes a lot of time/money/dedication; what kind of design is this and why is this allowed? I should be put in a shard with people AROUND my GP/Time/Characters. My farm to the Arena modes will not only take 8 years worth of me being gone to be where they're at, but I'm getting punished already as my rewards will never be the same as what they are getting! and they are at the top, and probably reaped all of the benefits of having that currency anyway. I don't see a world where in a business process of any kind, that this makes sense. You are essentially forcing people that are behind, to never get to a reasonable position in the game versus their peers. I am no game designer (just a big gamer), but I am a business student in my full time occupation, and here are a few solutions I can think of, being ignorant to how much time/effort that they will take: Rejuggle every accounts server and make them similar in GP, or a small disparity in gp and reclumping everything. A complete re-design of the entire idea of the server system, and how people are clumped together. Remove Crystals from being in the top 5 fleet arena. Redistributing them to other areas of the game such as: Daily Activities, Guild Participation, Either of the galactic modes. This I think has to be the most realistic solution. This removes emphasis on having a crazy ship fleet that requires a decade to build. every player involved still gets those crystals, and this still allows returning players to have an AVENUE to be able to be on the same level as those on their shard, if a server re-design is not possible. There are SO many benefits as a student that I think would be mutually beneficial from an EA, and player standpoint. First and foremost: Returning players from X amount of time ago are not being punished These players, if they have an avenue to victory would most likely be more open to paying more money, if they knew the avenue was actually achievable. I know for one, if I had an avenue to being on the same level of people on my shard, I'd throw a ton of money at EA. Simple consumer behavior. No one wants to pay for and items that don't put them on the same competitive field. Retention of players would skyrocket. I would put filthy bets that all of these servers are 1/2 of people or maybe even 3/4ths dead. and 500-250 people are really on a given shard. All of the players that had given up, were to come back, you're currently not giving them a warm welcome. Just enticements to not come back. I really hope this reaches the right set of people/person(s). I believe this to be a serious issue that should be resolved to ultimately increase the experience from EA, and a player perspective. I've took the time to carefully explain a very common issue that I think is required to be addressed for the betterment of both parties. Thank you guys, xo

You are not "being punished". YOU left for 8 years. Now it's up to you to catch up. If arena is a priority for you, farm leviathan and climb. You can't expect cg to do that job for you. Or you can enjoy the rest of the game, and when the next meta fleet appears, farm it just like everybody else. Don't expect cg to change the whole game for you.

There were many other solutions proposed by members of the community - you’ve just chosen to ignore them, and now pretend they weren’t suggested in the first place. Never mind the fact that your complaint is not relevant to the OP’s complaint.

If you left 8 years ago, count yourself lucky. You regained your life and we can't walk away. We can't even stop while on vacation or we miss out on rewards and fall behind. My wife hates this game. She hates that my son plays it too. We need an AA group for our addiction. Live your life. Be free. Be grateful.

New players are spending. Often on rushing meta fleet for the obvious advantage of fleet climbing crystals. Your issue is leaving the game for 8 years with an account as low as 1M it may have been better to start a fresh account when you took the game up again and rushed the meta yourself. Much has been accelerated so it would have taken less time than previously.You could try to salvage the situation by raising a ticket in game and request to move shards. Not sure how likely it would be successful. But a player returning after 8 years is a real outlier to make changes to the rest of the game which promotes daily play for progress. There’s always an element of missing out when you take a pause.

At 1.3M, probably.I'm 11M on the worst fleet shard in the game (orders of magnitude more active than other shards with an extremely toxic mafia) and I struggle to get top 20 even with the meta fleet because ~30 people work together to lock me out of rewards.And the solution proposed by other members of the community is for me to restart or quit playing. lmfao.

Forum Discussion

Cohmethazine

New Novice

2 months ago

Returning players being punished, badly.

Hi guys!

I really hope this reaches the right people because there is a major issue that me, and I'm sure plenty of other players are experiencing as well.

I made my account in 2016. As far as i know: Servers and sharding group up X amount of people and keep them in a static server. That server won't ever change. As I made this account EIGHT years ago, this was before the journey guide came out with a determinative way to end game content, arena was the only source of free crystals other than daily activities obviously.

NOW: I have 0 relic characters, 0 7-star ships, I'm 1.3m gp still working on the tier 2 journey characters.

NOW: People on my shard have dominated the Squad, and Ship arena. RELIC 9 characters, and a leaderboard full of 7 star leviathans, which also require relic 9 characters.

I will say this the kindest way possible as I'm very frustrated: Even though I understand this game takes a lot of time/money/dedication; what kind of design is this and why is this allowed? I should be put in a shard with people AROUND my GP/Time/Characters.

My farm to the Arena modes will not only take 8 years worth of me being gone to be where they're at, but I'm getting punished already as my rewards will never be the same as what they are getting! and they are at the top, and probably reaped all of the benefits of having that currency anyway.

I don't see a world where in a business process of any kind, that this makes sense. You are essentially forcing people that are behind, to never get to a reasonable position in the game versus their peers.

I am no game designer (just a big gamer), but I am a business student in my full time occupation, and here are a few solutions I can think of, being ignorant to how much time/effort that they will take:

Rejuggle every accounts server and make them similar in GP, or a small disparity in gp and reclumping everything.
A complete re-design of the entire idea of the server system, and how people are clumped together.
Remove Crystals from being in the top 5 fleet arena. Redistributing them to other areas of the game such as: Daily Activities, Guild Participation, Either of the galactic modes. This I think has to be the most realistic solution. This removes emphasis on having a crazy ship fleet that requires a decade to build. every player involved still gets those crystals, and this still allows returning players to have an AVENUE to be able to be on the same level as those on their shard, if a server re-design is not possible.

There are SO many benefits as a student that I think would be mutually beneficial from an EA, and player standpoint. First and foremost:

Returning players from X amount of time ago are not being punished
These players, if they have an avenue to victory would most likely be more open to paying more money, if they knew the avenue was actually achievable. I know for one, if I had an avenue to being on the same level of people on my shard, I'd throw a ton of money at EA. Simple consumer behavior. No one wants to pay for and items that don't put them on the same competitive field.
Retention of players would skyrocket. I would put filthy bets that all of these servers are 1/2 of people or maybe even 3/4ths dead. and 500-250 people are really on a given shard. All of the players that had given up, were to come back, you're currently not giving them a warm welcome. Just enticements to not come back.

I really hope this reaches the right set of people/person(s). I believe this to be a serious issue that should be resolved to ultimately increase the experience from EA, and a player perspective. I've took the time to carefully explain a very common issue that I think is required to be addressed for the betterment of both parties.

Thank you guys, xo

dogwelder79
Seasoned Rookie
2 months ago
You are not "being punished". YOU left for 8 years. Now it's up to you to catch up. If arena is a priority for you, farm leviathan and climb. You can't expect cg to do that job for you. Or you can enjoy the rest of the game, and when the next meta fleet appears, farm it just like everybody else. Don't expect cg to change the whole game for you.
cj9lelze1mcl
Seasoned Newcomer
2 months ago
If you left 8 years ago, count yourself lucky. You regained your life and we can't walk away. We can't even stop while on vacation or we miss out on rewards and fall behind. My wife hates this game. She hates that my son plays it too. We need an AA group for our addiction. Live your life. Be free. Be grateful.
- ST3ALTHSE7EN
  Rising Newcomer
  2 months ago
  Are you....me?
iMalevolence
Rising Rookie
2 months ago
Good luck. I'm 20 months into trying to get CG to look at this issue. They've never responded and it has never been brought up in a road ahead. It has been ~1,000 days since they moved crystal rewards away from squad arena and into GAC, yet fleet arena still sucks. The shard system is outdated, it's imbalanced, and it's easy to game to the detriment of other players. CG needs to do away with it.
- Cohmethazine
  New Novice
  2 months ago
  I totally see what you're saying, I think the issue lies with the free crystals being tied to both of the arena modes at all. It's very discouraging, shoulda spent my hyperlight bundle on a fresh account.
  - iMalevolence
    Rising Rookie
    2 months ago
    At 1.3M, probably.
    
    I'm 11M on the worst fleet shard in the game (orders of magnitude more active than other shards with an extremely toxic mafia) and I struggle to get top 20 even with the meta fleet because ~30 people work together to lock me out of rewards.
    
    And the solution proposed by other members of the community is for me to restart or quit playing. lmfao.
jonamack3221
Seasoned Novice
2 months ago
I'm not saying this is correct, but CG isn't going to change the fleet arena because of the money they make. Whenever a new capital ship, or any ship for that matter, is released and becomes the meta, it forces anyone who wants to stay competitive in the fleet arena to whale on the new ship. Not saying thats a good thing just explaining.
- Cohmethazine
  New Novice
  2 months ago
  My argument is that, by making one of the changes I listed, could prove more monetary gain for EA and more customer satisfaction. Doing this seems like a no brainer to me. Who cares about the new ship or the new meta. EA wants money? Great. They could totally capitalize on their system, by getting newer players to spend like older players. This is probably the biggest thing EA can do to get new players to spend like old players. Again, awful practice of business and game design, with a platform that could have the best mobile game system, ever.
  - Rius_975518199
    Seasoned Traveler
    2 months ago
    New players are spending. Often on rushing meta fleet for the obvious advantage of fleet climbing crystals. Your issue is leaving the game for 8 years with an account as low as 1M it may have been better to start a fresh account when you took the game up again and rushed the meta yourself. Much has been accelerated so it would have taken less time than previously.
    
    You could try to salvage the situation by raising a ticket in game and request to move shards. Not sure how likely it would be successful. But a player returning after 8 years is a real outlier to make changes to the rest of the game which promotes daily play for progress. There’s always an element of missing out when you take a pause.
zakracoon
Seasoned Novice
2 months ago
I agree with everything you’re saying, but CG is in it to make money for its investors, so things like this will never change. You in their eyes have to spend a lot of money to get to where you need to be. Tbf most of my guild have now stopped playing as competitively as they used to me included, do dailies an then pop onto a baseball game thats more fun.
- Cohmethazine
  New Novice
  2 months ago
  Again, business student here, the first part of your reply feels like total bee ess to me. I listed the reasons even below why doing this benefits EA, even monetarily. People want to throw money at this game if they had a real avenue to having meta ships/toons/gls stuff like that. They're forcing themselves into a corner that actually makes LESS than what they equivalently could be making. Awful business AND game design.
  - DUNCAN1919
    Rising Traveler
    2 months ago
    You have got a "real avenue to having meta ships/toons/gls stuff like that" which is as you said in your original post: " (I'd) throw a ton of money at EA".
    
    In fact from time to time they do release packs (Lightspeed bundles) that give players a chance to catch-up at very reasonable prices compared to what initial investment on the characters in the bundles would have cost, whilst limiting their availability so EA/CG benefit from FOMO (this is clever business).
    Apart from that why should you get to play catchup easily when other players have spent years building a roster, and on top everyone should move around from their shards because YOU left the game and want all the shiny new toys others have taken years to attain?
    
    Its also not "Awful business AND game design" as SWGOH is one of the longest running, most popular and highest earning mobile games in existence, and you using being a Business Student as a reason you are right and they are wrong is quite frankly ludicrous. Like many who play I'm no fan of EA but in terms of the games business they are very good at making money, if there is a way to eke an extra $ out of players they will not miss it.
    
    Essentially the issue here is you left the game, came back feeling all entitled and were not smart enough to realise that your Hyperdrive bundle is better spent on a new account where you can progress and play against similar sized accounts.
ZanirG
Seasoned Novice
2 months ago
The design of squad and fleet arena is ancient and awful and reasonable ideas have been proposed who knows how many times at this point. If anyone from CG actually reads the forums, they've seen that feedback and ignored it. More likely, they don't read the forums and we're just talking at each other here. The only type of feedback that has resulted in any sort of remotely corresponding in-game changes have been the google forms surveys and there's never been one about fleet arena, to my best recollection.

I think you're more likely to get some kind of acknowledgement if you @ meathead on the SWGOH events discord server. These new forums are so awful to use that I wouldn't be surprised CG themselves never want to look at them. I suspect CG were pushed by higher ups at EA to consolidate and centralize and that's why the old forums, which were perfectly functional and much better to browse, were abandoned for this... thing.
riklass
Seasoned Rookie
2 months ago
If you are that far back, it would make sense for you to start over. You will get put into a new shard for fleet and arena. Given your situation, the cost for you starting over with a new account is far less than the cost of trying to catch up.
emp1009
Seasoned Newcomer
2 months ago
The normal arena is now almost completely useless. Crystals - GA; for those who "can" - the fleet. And GA depends exactly on your strength level. So this is already a question for you, why you can't implement it at all on 1.3m gp - and you have "0 relic characters, 0 7-star ships". It is not tied only to the fleet.
Doomstreaker
New Novice
2 months ago
If you dont buy the Hyperdrive pack for 55$ / € or so, you will get lost behind that's for sure.
when i started the game, i enjoyed lowbie content then i faced a wall when i wanted to improve my gameplay.
I knew i had to purchase a big thing in the shop...
And the hyperdrive pack it was.

Trust me, buy it, it's the price of a regular game nowadays anyway so if you like this game, buy it, only solution.
DarthJobbie
Seasoned Traveler
2 months ago
You arent being punished. 80% of the player base is. The number of released toons, the high kyro requirements, signal data and so on will only keep happening unless people stop buying. But content creators via patreon overhype toons so theres a vicious cycle.
You will never ever catch up.