Sandbox Mode
Hi all,
So I know this has been a point brought up multiple times by many, but I had a little time this morning to think more about what the devs have said about this and thought, why not do something constructive and actually make some suggestions? Here is what I concocted.
First lets address key points the devs have brought up (paraphrased or distilled from their original wording):
1.) We are concerned that players already spend a lot of time in-game.
- If the devs are concerned about the time required each day to play the game by players, I highly, HIGHLY suspect (and other players can confirm my suspicions) that players can feel this way when they have to spend more time playing parts of the game that are essential to their progression. For instance, spending part of the day on GA (soon to be GAC), regular arenas, then participating in TW or TB, plus everything else can get overwhelming at times. However, there are days or times when the player could be sitting in-game doing very little but behold their rosters, and having some time to play the game when their energies are spent, missions done, etc would be a FUN experience. Players will ultimately play as much as they want regardless of what the devs desire, so I don't believe that they would feel burnt out by an extra mode that doesn't impact their progression...unless the devs want players spending less time in-game for server capacity reasons, in which case they could gate the amount of time players spend playing this mode by using ally points as the battle attempt currency, giving them a useful purpose, or trying something else entirely...
2.) Creating a sandbox mode would require a lot of development time/come at a high development cost.
-Yes, this I DO believe is true, and I get it: for larger scope content, spending extra time on something should come at a profit, not an expense. Take mods for instance. Players have and can spend money or crystals to get more mods, or to slice existing mods faster, returning the time investment put into that system. However, I'm sure a fair chunk of time goes into testing the game as well, and this is where there's a potential cost saving opportunity at the development level. As the devs often state, it's very hard for them to test all permutations in aspects of the game with their relatively small testing capacity in comparison to the ocean of players out there. Having a sandbox mode that allows players to partake in two key instances of the game, arenas, and raids, means many, MANY more opportunities to discover bugs, exploits, etc, allowing the devs to have a much better understanding of how their creations are working out in the real world, and leading to a much smoother/better player experience.
Now, to my mode suggestions themselves. As I've stated above, there would be two instances the sandbox would cover (or three depending on how you see it...), arenas, and raids.
SQUAD ARENA:
-All characters unlocked with sliders to adjust. Only one squad to set to test against (a defense) on the bottom half of the screen, and one squad to select (for offense) on the top half of the screen (or vice-versa...really doesn't matter).
-Player selects their teams and then tap-holds on the character they wish to adjust. Player hits the current "Train" button to use the slider to set the character level, the "Find" button presents a slider for gear level, and the individual pieces at any given level can be tapped on to equip or unequip. For abilities, the "Character Level Required XY" part of the UI is replaced with another slider for ability level. For mods, using the current UI inside "Manage", the player uses the filter to select the mod type/attributes they would like to choose (which get highlighted and then grayed out once the maximum allowed has been selected), then sliders are placed below "Any Tier" to adjust secondary stat values (this could even be done on a new pop up). Hitting "Confirm" creates the mod and brings it into the sort list for the player to use. Alternatively, the mod is placed directly on the spot the mod filter "Slot" option pre-determined. Loadouts can be saved for future use, and adjusted by tap-holding the mod ideally). Otherwise a new mod can be created from scratch. Character configurations would ideally have a save option as well for the player to quickly test different character variations.
FLEET ARENA: Similar idea.
RAIDS: Players choose the raid they want to test. Using the "Raid Settings" button, players adjust the active phase, and enemy's (or enemies') health percentage through a slider. Using the same set of saved character configurations would help here (hence the suggestion earlier) so that players can quickly go in, choose their saved character configurations/teams, and go at the raid.
There are probably things I'm overlooking, especially with mods, the trickiest part to implement in my humble opinion, but I'd be interested to see what other people think about something like this regardless.
So I know this has been a point brought up multiple times by many, but I had a little time this morning to think more about what the devs have said about this and thought, why not do something constructive and actually make some suggestions? Here is what I concocted.
First lets address key points the devs have brought up (paraphrased or distilled from their original wording):
1.) We are concerned that players already spend a lot of time in-game.
- If the devs are concerned about the time required each day to play the game by players, I highly, HIGHLY suspect (and other players can confirm my suspicions) that players can feel this way when they have to spend more time playing parts of the game that are essential to their progression. For instance, spending part of the day on GA (soon to be GAC), regular arenas, then participating in TW or TB, plus everything else can get overwhelming at times. However, there are days or times when the player could be sitting in-game doing very little but behold their rosters, and having some time to play the game when their energies are spent, missions done, etc would be a FUN experience. Players will ultimately play as much as they want regardless of what the devs desire, so I don't believe that they would feel burnt out by an extra mode that doesn't impact their progression...unless the devs want players spending less time in-game for server capacity reasons, in which case they could gate the amount of time players spend playing this mode by using ally points as the battle attempt currency, giving them a useful purpose, or trying something else entirely...
2.) Creating a sandbox mode would require a lot of development time/come at a high development cost.
-Yes, this I DO believe is true, and I get it: for larger scope content, spending extra time on something should come at a profit, not an expense. Take mods for instance. Players have and can spend money or crystals to get more mods, or to slice existing mods faster, returning the time investment put into that system. However, I'm sure a fair chunk of time goes into testing the game as well, and this is where there's a potential cost saving opportunity at the development level. As the devs often state, it's very hard for them to test all permutations in aspects of the game with their relatively small testing capacity in comparison to the ocean of players out there. Having a sandbox mode that allows players to partake in two key instances of the game, arenas, and raids, means many, MANY more opportunities to discover bugs, exploits, etc, allowing the devs to have a much better understanding of how their creations are working out in the real world, and leading to a much smoother/better player experience.
Now, to my mode suggestions themselves. As I've stated above, there would be two instances the sandbox would cover (or three depending on how you see it...), arenas, and raids.
SQUAD ARENA:
-All characters unlocked with sliders to adjust. Only one squad to set to test against (a defense) on the bottom half of the screen, and one squad to select (for offense) on the top half of the screen (or vice-versa...really doesn't matter).
-Player selects their teams and then tap-holds on the character they wish to adjust. Player hits the current "Train" button to use the slider to set the character level, the "Find" button presents a slider for gear level, and the individual pieces at any given level can be tapped on to equip or unequip. For abilities, the "Character Level Required XY" part of the UI is replaced with another slider for ability level. For mods, using the current UI inside "Manage", the player uses the filter to select the mod type/attributes they would like to choose (which get highlighted and then grayed out once the maximum allowed has been selected), then sliders are placed below "Any Tier" to adjust secondary stat values (this could even be done on a new pop up). Hitting "Confirm" creates the mod and brings it into the sort list for the player to use. Alternatively, the mod is placed directly on the spot the mod filter "Slot" option pre-determined. Loadouts can be saved for future use, and adjusted by tap-holding the mod ideally). Otherwise a new mod can be created from scratch. Character configurations would ideally have a save option as well for the player to quickly test different character variations.
FLEET ARENA: Similar idea.
RAIDS: Players choose the raid they want to test. Using the "Raid Settings" button, players adjust the active phase, and enemy's (or enemies') health percentage through a slider. Using the same set of saved character configurations would help here (hence the suggestion earlier) so that players can quickly go in, choose their saved character configurations/teams, and go at the raid.
There are probably things I'm overlooking, especially with mods, the trickiest part to implement in my humble opinion, but I'd be interested to see what other people think about something like this regardless.
