The long-term future of the game

Question

As the same as many of you on the forums, I’ve been playing/enjoying this game for a long time now. However, I believe it is important to address an elephant in the room related to the long-term future of swgoh.

When describing this game to friends and family, I usually compare it to a card game like Magic: The Gathering. We’ve heard the Devs make the same comparison and say they are big fans of card games as well.

This is where the heart of the game lives but there is major barrier to it being a true card game. All “PvP” gameplay is reliant on AI which does not constitute real PvP.

The reason a card game like Magic is so dynamic and can be so interesting is because of the real-time counters/reactions to how your opponent acts during their turn. In my opinion, this is holding back the true potential of what this game could be.

The Devs stayed very early that it would be “impossible” to create a real-time PvP arena but after a few years of development (and millions of dollars later), it seems this should be on the forefront of the Devs radar.

How many others are looking for a true PvP experience?

Any suggestions on how it could be implemented as smoothly as possible?

Thanks Devs for all of the hard work, changes and additions to the game over the years!

archlordcalasta · Answer

I have often thought of real time PvP but only between allies and guild mates. In squad arena, not everyone gets on at the same time and so would that just make it whoever was online could be battled? Then first just never gets online for a long time and comes back with 50k crystals.

bcarry82 · Answer

"Calastar;c-1575095" wrote:I have often thought of real time PvP but only between allies and guild mates. In squad arena, not everyone gets on at the same time and so would that just make it whoever was online could be battled? Then first just never gets online for a long time and comes back with 50k crystals.You're assuming a new PvP experience would replace the existing Squad Arena and I don't think that needs to be the case. I think the new messaging capabilities opens up the possibility that a true PvP mode could be released. The development wouldn't be all that difficult, but the data usage could be prohibitive. My vision would simply have an area of the game board where someone could "enter PvP arena" and then you could choose to match based on overall GP or select from a certain number of lobbies that had specific rules on the characters used in the lobby. Or there could be a free-for-all where you match against certain people and you can chat with them to setup your own rules of engagement. It would be fun and wouldn't necessarily require rewards or wagering between players. My guess is that CG is concerned about data usage because in the game design, when you enter squad arena, AI has already calculated every possible move and counter move. This is why you can play Arena without wi-fi or cellular data as long as you're already in the match. I could be wrong, but I'd imagine the data required to send information from your phone to opponents phone and then back again with every move choice is prohibitive.

grrrrrrrrrrreer · Answer

Those are great ideas guys especially the idea of having a separate game mode!

Since the squad arena has been a staple of the game since day one, I don’t believe you could replace it without major back lash.

However, Data usage usage shouldn’t be too big of an issue since each move/counter move would need to come from a central server anyways (to prevent cheating/manipulation). RNG could be calculated after each move as the info is sent from the server to your opponent.

Serve receives move/play command then runs RNG algorithm to determine results of the turn then sends resulting info to opponent.

This may lead to longer matches in its infancy but I have faith CG could make the process fast enough eventually. Ideally turn timers would need to be 30 secs or less.

archlordcalasta · Answer

"Grrrr;c-1575785" wrote:Those are great ideas guys especially the idea of having a separate game mode! Since the squad arena has been a staple of the game since day one, I don’t believe you could replace it without major back lash. However, Data usage usage shouldn’t be too big of an issue since each move/counter move would need to come from a central server anyways (to prevent cheating/manipulation). RNG could be calculated after each move as the info is sent from the server to your opponent. Serve receives move/play command then runs RNG algorithm to determine results of the turn then sends resulting info to opponent. This may lead to longer matches in its infancy but I have faith CG could make the process fast enough eventually. Ideally turn timers would need to be 30 secs or less. "Rebel_yell;c-1575191" wrote:"Calastar;c-1575095" wrote:I have often thought of real time PvP but only between allies and guild mates. In squad arena, not everyone gets on at the same time and so would that just make it whoever was online could be battled? Then first just never gets online for a long time and comes back with 50k crystals.You're assuming a new PvP experience would replace the existing Squad Arena and I don't think that needs to be the case. I think the new messaging capabilities opens up the possibility that a true PvP mode could be released. The development wouldn't be all that difficult, but the data usage could be prohibitive. My vision would simply have an area of the game board where someone could "enter PvP arena" and then you could choose to match based on overall GP or select from a certain number of lobbies that had specific rules on the characters used in the lobby. Or there could be a free-for-all where you match against certain people and you can chat with them to setup your own rules of engagement. It would be fun and wouldn't necessarily require rewards or wagering between players. My guess is that CG is concerned about data usage because in the game design, when you enter squad arena, AI has already calculated every possible move and counter move. This is why you can play Arena without wi-fi or cellular data as long as you're already in the match. I could be wrong, but I'd imagine the data required to send information from your phone to opponents phone and then back again with every move choice is prohibitive. I think maybe reworking the squad arena to battling players in live PvP will match them by squad power and whoever wins the most battles gets the highest reward, like a tournament. The battles would not be able to be refreshed. Only a certain amount if plays a day.I like the idea of lobbies to play specific characters with people. The problem there is that a lot of people would get frustrated because of the requirements and mods required to be switched around. I don't see a problem switching mods because then people don't fight you when you are not online, making your defense viable. PvP would be hard to implement but I think it would be beneficial to the game because the players would be able to interact how they would play and not the AI. A free for all would be fun. I had the idea if sending in your team and then everyone fighting against each other in one battle, so you could create allies and beat up stronger characters or battle your friends to see who is better at the game.

maztoras · Answer

Guys...its 2018. Dont give me excuses "it hard" or "impossible" or etc. This game is 2 features short of being a stellar game... that is Mock Battles within guilds and Live PvP seperate from Arena. Yes its totally possible to do it, i can find you 100 mobile games that do this stuff easy. The point is if these devs ever wake up and realize that this game needs more then just new characters for staying power....its needs fundamental staying power. Those 2 features would do it.

At this point its a matter of the devs simply dont want to do it, and dont care for the massive request, constantly from us requesting mock battles and to a lesser extent live pvp.

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