Because Smilegate does listen to players. The players are what games are about, and they know this. So putting feedbacks in, giving them data what they have to optimize. So why focus on defending a system even you self don’t like, instead of trying to think a way to reduce the amount of stupid game designs to a bare minimum?
There is no problem in the honing rates after 1370 - for now. When vykas comes, we can discuss about the honingrates from 1370-1400 and so on. But currently, the amount of time you need to spend for a dead content is to much. Even 2 weeks to grind yourself out of T1-T2 are too much.
Yet I really don’t see a downside in players be able to reach more content faster.
Lets list the things to make it a bit more clear:
- We want more content - right? I would love to be able to play Abrelshud tbh. But before they can bring out Abrelshud, they need to release vykas and Clown first. … Therefore we need more players on higher ilvl … So we have 2 options:
Option 1: Waiting with the release from next content and bring it out every 2-3 months, so people can catch up in the current honing system
Option 2: Skipping unnecessary Content that just was a filler back in the days and push the playerbase faster to the desired content.
Yet to make it clear: Pushing people fast doesn’t mean people get everything gifted. We don’t talk about South Vern passes, we don’t talk about immediantly 1450+, we talk about honing upgrades, that reduce the amount of failes you need to reach f.E. 1415 from 300+ to 150~. You still need to grind, you still need to work for your stuff, but you will reach it faster than before and you will not tilt that much.
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More players in higher ilvl means more drops / more required gear / more mats. The overall price will starts to fall, gold will generated more, there will be more supporter in higher ilvl, also more people will probably continue playing the game
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Gold Seller will get a problem. First because there will be a gold inflation - which is normal - but most of the gold comes from raids. Bots can’t run raids. Well, especially if it is far easier to be ready for raids, you can also start to reduce the amount of gold sources bots have, and make them bound or change them completely (f.E. infinite Chaos Dungeon), because people don’t rely that much on it.
Second: People don’t feel pressured to buy from them, to reach current content. Why should you buy 200€ worth in RMT if you can farm for 1-2 weeks after you reached argos and get to valtan? There will be no real reason to RMT anymore. -
The game will also be more fun for your alts. I have 6 Sharpshooter. I love to play my main because he is pretty well geared… all my SS below 1370 … well… they suck. I really don’t like to play them, I also don’t run guardians with them, the experience is odd. It could be just me, but I guess there are other people around here too, that have alts/mains that just feels bad pre 1370.
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T1 and T2 is timewaste. Sorry to tell you, but I know noone (and I do know some people from the community) that will tell me, they love the way back playing t1 and t2 content. Everything you do there is pretty much useless. You barely learn anything from it and the content is more or less dead.
Downsides:
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People who were gatekeeped by the system may feel betrayed. You had to go through it, why doesn’t others.
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… I really can’t think about any more reasons what is the downside of faster upgrades… really not.
BTW: our definition of P2W is pretty much similar. I don’t think that LA is P2W also, but how you phrased that one sentence “swipe, grind or quit” pretty much sounds like P2W to me if I be honest.