The Marquee release structure owns bones.

"CallidusThorn;c-1602144" wrote:

"NicWester;c-1602117" wrote:

I get where you're coming from, but this is two separate issues. Your problem isn't with the marquee structure, but rather with the release cadence. If a character was made farmable immediately after it released via marquee event, for instance, you would be happy as a clam. More in line with my original point, though, is that between Chromium and Aurodium releases it's ALWAYS been this way, marquees provide a free friendly approach to that.

Except; they're not separate issues. The whole point of the marquee is to encourage people to buy the character: Show what the new character can do when powered up, give us a start, and let us know that that's all we get unless we pay or wait. The release cadence is part of the marquee structure. It's the stick to the carrot.

"NicWester;c-1602117" wrote:

I get where you're coming from here, too, and even agree that these are really appealing alternatives, but let's game it out and see what that would result in. Omega events have level restrictions, meaning that newer players can't participate and get shards, whereas marquee events are level banded with scaling difficulty so newer players will be able to participate for sure and stand a good chance of completing all tiers. Moreover, if shards are put into omega battles, unless we put more than a total of 3*-worth in a month people are going to complain that they take too long and still result in a, and I say this in their words not mine, "a useless 3* character on my bench I won't touch."

Except a good chunk of character power is gated behind omegas and zetas anyway, so these characters effectively have a built-in level restriction anyway. How many newer characters are viable without resources you can't get to invest in abilities until later in the game?

And yes, I was thinking more than 3* in total from shards for the characters across the month, as I thought obvious from pointing out before that the lack of stars on some new characters is a major hindrance to their viability.

"NicWester;c-1602117" wrote:

A faction event also seems fun and exciting, but again--new players are very likely shut out. Moreover, go through the archives and look at any time a Legendary event was released or an event that required one specific faction and you'll see dozens of "How dare you make me farm these useless characters" threads... Faction events will happen and should happen, but they're going to be Assault Battles--have that faction to earn shards of the enemy faction.

I don't know what point you're trying to make here. Short of giving out maxed characters for free, anything CG do will upset some people or other.

"NicWester;c-1602117" wrote:

Lastly, putting new characters directly into nodes and shipments if they're not going to have much of an impact is, again, not a problem with the marquee structure but rather the release cadence. But even then, you specified that they should be characters that won't have much impact, and that just won't happen. It would mean putting someone directly into shipments or nodes would be a tacit admission that the character isn't good and you can straight up skip it.

No, it's still part of the marquee structure, as the 3* limit from the event neuters characters that aren't going to have big impacts like Sion, Nest, or Bastila.

Because let's face it: characters like Range Trooper aren't on the same level as those mentioned above. Characters like Young Han only work as part of a specific lineup (And even then, not very well). This would be less an admission that the characters are bad, more a recognition that not all new characters are equal, and that some need other new characters to get the best out of.

"NicWester;c-1602117" wrote:

The point--and here I'm talking to everyone, not just to CallidusThorn--is that every solution is flawed because if you look at the criticisms people have been saying here, no one actually has much of a problem with marquee events, but rather with the release cadence or with platoons or with some other thing they don't like and they just lump it all together with marquees. No wonder those solutions are insufficient, you're suggesting them to solve the wrong problem!

I've held off to this point, but frankly you're stance here is way off. You're attempting to nullify and deflect criticism of the way CG introduces new characters by splitting their strategy into little pieces, and defining each as a separate problem, when it's the strategy as a whole that's an issue. The release cadence and platoons are the stick to the character's carrot. If the lure of the shiny new character isn't enough to get you to spend, the threat of having to wait months to use them or needing them in platoons for an upcoming Territory Battle might do it. This is not a random convergence of several variables, as your claims that we're looking at the wrong problem suggest, but parts of a combined strategy to separate the players from their money.

The marquee events are to get us to spend money on new characters. Don't even try to argue that's not the case. And the release cadence serves two purposes in relation to marquee events: It provides a delay between activating the character and getting the best out of them, and provides a delay to reward those who did spend money. Without these the marquee events would not be used, as there would be no reason to spend if the character immediately became farmable. You wouldn't save as much time, nor would you enjoy whatever advantage that character gives you for as long.

You're trying to argue that heads and tails are entirely separate outcomes, and not part of the same coin. Or that carrot and stick are entirely separate, and not both part of the same attempt to get us going where they want to lead us

Far be it from me to ever defend Nic - quite the opposite.

But if you kind of draw a big circle around Marquee's, shade it over, and kind of squint, they are certainly better then most of what we got previously. Nothing was worse then when Chaze was only available for the 0.05% of player via the Tournaments.

That's not to say I don't want something better then the strict Marquee only release - I agree with all your points - I would especially like to see a couple Nichey characters with restricted uses go direct to store. I'd like to see CG throw us a bone now and again. They've gotten terribly stingy in 2018 with fake gear, fake toons, and the pixels we use in this game.

That aside, comparatively speaking, Marquees are better for us then a number of schemes we've had in the past.