Thoughts on Omicrons
So we've talked about raid Omis costing too much before, and we've suggested 10-omi mat Raid Omis before. I was thinking about that, and also thinking about how they're valued much less in TB than GAC or TW. I was musing about that and thought I'd put a couple things down.
One thought on Omis is that they're worth what you get back in rewards. Another thought is that they're worth more if you can use them more often.
Based on the fact that there are multiple ways of valuing these things, there won't be any perfectly objective answer to their value. But there are some things we can say.
CG has the game on a 4-week cycle. I'm going to call that a month, but it's really 28 days.
During the game month, you fight 2xTB, 4x Raid, 4xTW, and 9x GAC. But the TBs include 6 different days of battles, so you get to use an Omi up to 12 times.
So use case, these are the ones that get the least use:
4x Raid
4x TW
GAC gets more than 2x the use at 9/month
TB gets 3x the use at 12/month.
The rewards are clearly best for GAC, but also an Omi used in 3v3 means that Omi has a chance to make a difference in 1/18 battles (up to 15 squad and 3 fleet total battles).
For raids, TW, and TB, if your whole guild invests that can make a difference, but as an individual what your own personal Omi expenditure is worth is diluted b/c your rewards are dependent on cooperative efforts from most or all of the guild.
Not only do these three get lesser rewards than GAC, but the difference that your spent Omi can make is almost trivial when considered alone. A guild with 49 players with a TW Omi but one player without isn't going to win more TWs than a guild with 50 players with that TW Omi.
The difference that a single Omi can make in TB is likewise very dependent on your guild and strategy, but in the best case they can (as they do in GAC) allow you to save a GL that you would otherwise have to spend.
Finally there's Raid Omis. Raids provide rewards at least as good as TW and probably better. Whether the rewards are better than TB depends on what you're currently looking for, but I would place them as vaguely comparable, leaning towards Raid rewards being worth more -- at least for where I'm at in the game. If you don't have everyone at g12, that would, I think, tilt the calculation even farther in favour of Raid rewards.
Your personal raid rewards depend on 8 attempts with the Omi applying to only 1 of them. This is better than GAC. However your guild rewards, which are the bulk of what you get, are dependent on 400 attempts, with your Omi applying to only 1 of them. This is, curiously, not that far off from the impact on TWs where the total battles to be won = 240-400, and the total attempts are somewhat more b/c of losses. So the effects are diluted, but not much more diluted than TW and probably less diluted than TB.
So Raid Omis seem to have a value based on Uses/Month that is quite low, and lower still b/c the raids sunset. But its impact on your rewards is at least as good as a TW Omi if not better. Meanwhile the TB Omis get much, much more use, but the value of such an Omi is difficult to calculate b/c no one ever gets exactly the points needed for a given star. That wastage is necessary, though, as insurance when a guild mate gets unexpectedly busy and misses missions or deployments, etc. The trick with valuing TB Omis is that they mean next to nothing if you can't get platoons filled. Deployment and Platoons are simply more valuable than winning battles.
So overall, I think it depends on how you value the fun of playing with your Omicron ability on. Just calculating by rewards Raid Omis are probably fair without considering the sunset of raids and thus a particular Omicron's utility. But the relatively rare opportunities to use them cuts down on the fun by quite a lot, and again the sunset of a raid hurts the # of uses argument as well, not just the rewards argument.
TB Omis are probably the worst in the game considering rewards, but the best in the game in opportunities to use them.
Honestly what is most surprising to me about thinking all this through carefully is that TW Omicrons are probably the worst in the game before considering raid sunsets. But in TW you likewise have sunsets as the meta changes. it's not as easy to define as with raids where the new raid simply bans the use of previous toons, but meta shifts are there and do prevent indefinite use of TW Omis.
If CG went to different pricing for different types of Omicrons the way that they have done for Omega mats on zeta abilities, a price cut on both Raid Omis and TW Omis would seem to be justified. The TB Omis give much better use value, so I wouldn't recommend that they be cut in price but I would expect that people who are more concerned with reward value than play value would continue to not activate TB Omi abilities.
I had in the past endorsed 10 Omi-mat raid abilities, but looking at things as a whole, I think I like it better this way:
12 Omi Mats = 1 Raid Omicron ability
16 Omi Mats = 1 TW Omicron ability
20 Omi Mats = 1 GAC or TB Omicron ability.
One thought on Omis is that they're worth what you get back in rewards. Another thought is that they're worth more if you can use them more often.
Based on the fact that there are multiple ways of valuing these things, there won't be any perfectly objective answer to their value. But there are some things we can say.
CG has the game on a 4-week cycle. I'm going to call that a month, but it's really 28 days.
During the game month, you fight 2xTB, 4x Raid, 4xTW, and 9x GAC. But the TBs include 6 different days of battles, so you get to use an Omi up to 12 times.
So use case, these are the ones that get the least use:
4x Raid
4x TW
GAC gets more than 2x the use at 9/month
TB gets 3x the use at 12/month.
The rewards are clearly best for GAC, but also an Omi used in 3v3 means that Omi has a chance to make a difference in 1/18 battles (up to 15 squad and 3 fleet total battles).
For raids, TW, and TB, if your whole guild invests that can make a difference, but as an individual what your own personal Omi expenditure is worth is diluted b/c your rewards are dependent on cooperative efforts from most or all of the guild.
Not only do these three get lesser rewards than GAC, but the difference that your spent Omi can make is almost trivial when considered alone. A guild with 49 players with a TW Omi but one player without isn't going to win more TWs than a guild with 50 players with that TW Omi.
The difference that a single Omi can make in TB is likewise very dependent on your guild and strategy, but in the best case they can (as they do in GAC) allow you to save a GL that you would otherwise have to spend.
Finally there's Raid Omis. Raids provide rewards at least as good as TW and probably better. Whether the rewards are better than TB depends on what you're currently looking for, but I would place them as vaguely comparable, leaning towards Raid rewards being worth more -- at least for where I'm at in the game. If you don't have everyone at g12, that would, I think, tilt the calculation even farther in favour of Raid rewards.
Your personal raid rewards depend on 8 attempts with the Omi applying to only 1 of them. This is better than GAC. However your guild rewards, which are the bulk of what you get, are dependent on 400 attempts, with your Omi applying to only 1 of them. This is, curiously, not that far off from the impact on TWs where the total battles to be won = 240-400, and the total attempts are somewhat more b/c of losses. So the effects are diluted, but not much more diluted than TW and probably less diluted than TB.
So Raid Omis seem to have a value based on Uses/Month that is quite low, and lower still b/c the raids sunset. But its impact on your rewards is at least as good as a TW Omi if not better. Meanwhile the TB Omis get much, much more use, but the value of such an Omi is difficult to calculate b/c no one ever gets exactly the points needed for a given star. That wastage is necessary, though, as insurance when a guild mate gets unexpectedly busy and misses missions or deployments, etc. The trick with valuing TB Omis is that they mean next to nothing if you can't get platoons filled. Deployment and Platoons are simply more valuable than winning battles.
So overall, I think it depends on how you value the fun of playing with your Omicron ability on. Just calculating by rewards Raid Omis are probably fair without considering the sunset of raids and thus a particular Omicron's utility. But the relatively rare opportunities to use them cuts down on the fun by quite a lot, and again the sunset of a raid hurts the # of uses argument as well, not just the rewards argument.
TB Omis are probably the worst in the game considering rewards, but the best in the game in opportunities to use them.
Honestly what is most surprising to me about thinking all this through carefully is that TW Omicrons are probably the worst in the game before considering raid sunsets. But in TW you likewise have sunsets as the meta changes. it's not as easy to define as with raids where the new raid simply bans the use of previous toons, but meta shifts are there and do prevent indefinite use of TW Omis.
If CG went to different pricing for different types of Omicrons the way that they have done for Omega mats on zeta abilities, a price cut on both Raid Omis and TW Omis would seem to be justified. The TB Omis give much better use value, so I wouldn't recommend that they be cut in price but I would expect that people who are more concerned with reward value than play value would continue to not activate TB Omi abilities.
I had in the past endorsed 10 Omi-mat raid abilities, but looking at things as a whole, I think I like it better this way:
12 Omi Mats = 1 Raid Omicron ability
16 Omi Mats = 1 TW Omicron ability
20 Omi Mats = 1 GAC or TB Omicron ability.
