Zetas Crunch

"Fellah;c-2448971" wrote:
All these maths attempting to determine if endgame players can afford to apply zetas to every new character released are interesting.

But what about the early game? Is the zeta income sufficient to keep up with the pace of building new teams? Considering the increasing availability of other gear/materials and the offering of affordable catch-up packs.

People keep talking about "catch up packs" - but the way the game is monetized, the whole idea is that few people will ever be completely "caught up" without significant spending.

Bottle necks are the life blood of this game. If it's not zetas it's going to be something else, so a better question might be - what resource do you want to be stuck behind?

I'm mostly f2p and I haven't really felt a crunch until the LSB, which I will gladly accept of that means they will keep doing LSB. It's really just about picking and choosing what zetas to give. Some zetas are nice but not necessary to make a team achieve it's highest function. I also always start hoarding once I get close to ticket farming a GL so I can apply all zetas immediately.

If it has letters, it's literal. And don't call me Shirley.

"PlayerJ;c-2449002" wrote:
A lot of things

This game is a game of priorities. You do not need every zeta upgrade and should not be applying every zeta upgrade. At 1000 (or quite a bit fewer) zeta mats per year, you're able to kit out multiple squads that will be relevant to your account's progress.

There is no crippling issue here. It's a grind, yes. A marathon, not a sprint. But it's fine.

Are people genuinely trying to figure out why there’s a zeta crunch for early game players after multiple years of CG introducing various catch-up mechanics for early game rosters without adding catch-up mechanics for zetas?

I don’t believe there is a zeta crunch but I think they should put them in the new GL currency shop. 200 a mat seems about right. If they are crunched as people say let them spend the new currency on them. Chances are people won’t buy them, just like the raid but they really aren’t that crunched. At least half of the zeta in this game are optional and a few like Darth Maul or Yoda lead are vestigial.

Yeah, you're right it's a "choice", except it's not really much of a choice at all. The gate for higher level content is not generally zetas, it's character stars and gear/relic level. To fill platoons, unlock GLs, etc. Some zetas could be considered "soft" requirements because they're necessary to get a team to function, but by and large, they're not hard requirements.

That means, for anyone who wants to progress and unlock advanced content in this game, it's not much of a choice. You have to farm new characters, you have to gear them up. Period. So that also means a certain portion of your resources have to be dedicated to those pursuits.

In addition, the math you referenced assumes that you're able to acquire every possible PvE source of zetas (minus the raid zetas, thankfully, I hope no one wastes raid mk3 on zetas). Obviously, early to mid game players don't have all the ABs and such unlocked, so the true number for those who are not at the top is lower than what was presented, plus we also need to dedicate more resources to chasing new releases while working up critical older teams.

Not sure why this is so hard for you to understand or you so insistent there's isn't an issue for some people, but you're clearly an end game player who doesn't have the issue. Good for you! Hope the air is nice up there. But it's a bit stifling down where many of us are at.

"Olddumper;c-2451726" wrote:

"KDC99X;c-2451688" wrote:
I mean, my kneejerk reaction to this is that "easily" is quite an overstatement. Let's explore.

For instance: I'm in Kyber 2 and take 1st every day in fleet arena, so my daily crystal payout is 640. But I spend anywhere from 450-600+ crystals a day in farming, between signal data, characters, conquest, so really I'm only gaining on average 5700 crystals per month from this (assuming 450 spent, 30 days), or less. Of course this doesn't include crystals from wins/losses, and weekly/season payouts, but still, the vast majority of players are earning way, way less than this.

So let's take last seasons, I went 5-4, placing first range in week 1, last in week 2, and in the 2-4 range in week 3. I fluctuated between K2 and K3 but let's use K2 numbers for simplicity:

5 wins = 4125 crystals
4 losses = 800 cyrstals
Weekly round rewards = 1350 crystals
Season payout = 2050 crystals

For a sum of another 8325 crystals per month, and a grand total of approximately 14,025 crystals over my base daily farming spend.

I also have to spend those crystals on other things, like R8/9 mats, because my guild isn't large enough to earn them in TW yet.

Yeah, I could choose to buy those daily deals instead, but it would mean sacrificing a LOT of other things, for packs that often ARE NOT a very good deal at all.

Again, not to forget that most players aren't anywhere near these crystal income numbers.

I think that's not a very good source of zetas except for maybe very end game players who already have everything else and just have crystals to burn, so I reject this premise. And if you are one of those players, you're probably not that in need of zetas in the first place, as has already been laid out in this thread.

"Olddumper;c-2451674" wrote:
I think the biggest point against this is they also frequently put zeta in your daily deals Jawa packs. I’ve seen 7 mats in the 3200 pack quite a bit. You could easily grind another 20 mats out of there each month if you made it a priority.

If you are spending your crystals elsewhere though that’s a choice. You are considering other items more crunched than the zeta and accelerating those instead. The zeta mats in the daily deals get as cheap as 450 crystals per mat and you get more goodies on top of it. At 450 per to get the 20 a month I mentioned is 300 crystals a day. That’s totally doable and gets you 12 extra. 12 is quite a few. That’s basically a whole GL and everybody else in their squad. Not to mention we already established you will get about 15 more zeta each year than the zetas on all the new toons so now you can burn through the back log at nearly 30 per year. It’s hard to call that a crunch.

Some zetas could be considered "soft" requirements because they're necessary to get a team to function, but by and large, they're not hard requirements.

That means, for anyone who wants to progress and unlock advanced content in this game, it's not much of a choice. You have to farm new characters, you have to gear them up. Period. So that also means a certain portion of your resources have to be dedicated to those pursuits.

Isn't this just another way of saying that this is a resource management game and you'll do better if you manage your resources better? That it's a choice doesn't mean that there's never a better choice. "Choice" doesn't mean "might as well use a coin flip, either outcome is just as good".

there is no zeta crunch....for me

"TVF;c-2451849" wrote:
there is no zeta crunch....for me

Finally, the main character has spoken!