Developer Blog entry from April 30th. Crafting and New Map.

Mercenary Center Developer Blog
81

There is only grind when you want to grind. 

 

Well, in some games “grind” comes naturally and you just enjoy the game and get what you need in the mean time. 

So, you enjoy the game for 4-5 hours, check the store/crafting and “Oh, I can buy/build that! I will try it tomorrow!”

Here I experienced … “I want to play PvP, but I need 10M for r15 ships.” Calculating how much I make per PvP match and waiting times. It will take me 5 days(with license) and the 50% off weekend ends in 2.

To the BORING PvE. Takes 1 day full of boredom. I have my ships, but also bitter taste for the game for few days.

I play my new ships few days/week later, cause that PvE experience made me hate SCon for awhile. 

82

Well, in some games “grind” comes naturally and you just enjoy the game and get what you need in the mean time. 

So, you enjoy the game for 4-5 hours, check the store/crafting and “Oh, I can buy/build that! I will try it tomorrow!”

Here I experienced … “I want to play PvP, but I need 10M for r15 ships.” Calculating how much I make per PvP match and waiting times. It will take me 5 days(with license) and the 50% off weekend ends in 2.

To the BORING PvE. Takes 1 day full of boredom. I have my ships, but also bitter taste for the game for few days.

I play my new ships few days/week later, cause that PvE experience made me hate SCon for awhile. 

 

This is not the game’s fault. Play the game, and be happy when you get enough stuff for something. You don’t need r15 ships to play PvP, T3 is pretty accessible, but even T1 and T2 are fun.

83

This is not the game’s fault. Play the game, and be happy when you get enough stuff for something. You don’t need r15 ships to play PvP, T3 is pretty accessible, but even T1 and T2 are fun.

Ye, Ye … You are talking to someone with full purple T3 and T4 loadout, so I know what you tried to convince me for, but still. You must have not been playing when T3 reward prices were barely enough for repairs if you die more than 2 times in 10 matches, let alone get credits for more ships. T4 was even worse then.

 

I do not say I want to buy T5 ship every 10 matches I play, but 100+ matches (with license) with 10+ minutes waiting que in T4 (Do not really like T3 anymore. Even being part of a death squad) for 4-5 min game, unless it is realistic is not time and fun efficient.

84

Seems you’ve too played a game that was deleted 2 years ago (as I see the space banana in your profile Pic). Crit Crafts made a huge grind, yet it was not really P2W. Although I agree, it would still be disturbing if they implement such a system…

 

Yep… You know what i’m talking about then…I’m really really afraid that the new mkV stuff cpuld be accesible only by crafting and that crafting could involve GS in a way or another… No moderator, dev is saying something clear about this till now… so still worrying…

85

To the BORING PvE. Takes 1 day full of boredom. I have my ships, but also bitter taste for the game for few days.

 

mhmmm

 

Dev should really increase loot drop % in PVP and raise Credits reward.

 

Give PVE loyalty and synergy advantage instead

 

This way contracts wont interfere with the business of winning PVP matches and people can grind PVE for vouchers whenever needed as that seems to be the bottleneck atm.

86

Well, in some games “grind” comes naturally and you just enjoy the game and get what you need in the mean time. 

So, you enjoy the game for 4-5 hours, check the store/crafting and “Oh, I can buy/build that! I will try it tomorrow!”…

 

 

This is not the game’s fault. Play the game, and be happy when you get enough stuff for something…

 

(ROFL) You’re absolutely right! It’s not the game’s fault, it’s the Dev’s fault for making it so grindy.

 

 

Here’s the problem. If the content players are grinding towards does not live up to their expectations, you lose players. The longer the grind, the greater the expectation that is placed on the endgame content. Make the grind too taxing and players _might _pay to skip ahead, but if all they find is ‘same-old-same-old’ with a few extra modules at the end, they aren’t going to stick around. And if players feel they have spent real money for sub-par endgame content, they are going to leave bad reviews.

 

So the real question is, what is the expectation the Devs have set up for their endgame content with the amount of grind they have introduced? Personally, I’m happy to sit at T3 and let the high rollers play in T5.

87

(ROFL) You’re absolutely right! It’s not the game’s fault, it’s the Dev’s fault for making it so grindy.

 

 

Here’s the problem. If the content players are grinding towards does not live up to their expectations, you lose players. The longer the grind, the greater the expectation that is placed on the endgame content. Make the grind too taxing and players _might _pay to skip ahead, but if all they find is ‘same-old-same-old’ with a few extra modules at the end, they aren’t going to stick around. And if players feel they have spent real money for sub-par endgame content, they are going to leave bad reviews.

 

So the real question is, what is the expectation the Devs have set up for their endgame content with the amount of grind they have introduced?

You don’t understand. You don’t need to grind! If you want a ship so badly and it takes you forever to get credits for it then you are not supposed to have it.

You are not supposed to have/fly a T3 ship after 200 battles. You can find some tips here: [http://forum.star-conflict.com/index.php?/topic/22885-tips-to-economy-and-progression/](< base_url >/index.php?/topic/22885-tips-to-economy-and-progression/) .

The main reason it takes you forever to progress is when you are not good at the game in PvP and/or PvE. So first learn to be better and the rest comes more with ease.

 

One problem I see right now is that they made PvE fairly hard especially for T3+ and without good team and ships you won’t complete it.  And yes the queue times are long especially during low population times and when you don’t queue any/Russian region and/or are in squad.

88

only thing that is grindy is the amount of loyalty vouchers needed for mk3 gear

89

only thing that is grindy is the amount of loyalty vouchers needed for mk3 gear

yeah it takes FOREVER to get vouchers… Credits are the least of my worries i have a good 10m on me at all times

90

mhmmm

 

Dev should really increase loot drop % in PVP and raise Credits reward.

 

Give PVE loyalty and synergy advantage instead

 

This way contracts wont interfere with the business of winning PVP matches and people can grind PVE for vouchers whenever needed as that seems to be the bottleneck atm.

 

This is a very bad suggestion. I don’t want to be forced to play PvE. I want to play PvP. I get enough credits in PvP for it to not be a problem, what i need more is synergy and loyalty. But would be fine with increased drop in PvP.

91

Old system was flat out better - when you earn xp for a faction, you get loyalty for that faction. Loyalty isn’t spent, just accumulated.

For example, Mk III T3 Ions might require 700,000 Wardens Loyalty, but once you have that you can buy as many as you want and don’t need to grind synergy again until you want T4 Wardens gear, or the gear of another faction.

Far better system. No need for contracts, no punishing people who fly properly (ie: have lota of ships, not just tier-rushing a single line) and less ‘grind’ because you earn loyalty the same way you earn credits and xp.

92

@fasz - trust me, no one hates PVE more than I do. Goes against my belief system. Each mission takes me closer to i-hell.

 

Vouchers are a bottleneck because you cannot grind it efficiently via PVE.

PVE is taking players away from PVP

You grind PVE to hoard credits and artifacts. And for higher tier ships, better efficiency at getting synergy per hour.

 

This is where things get F’d up.

 

Once you’ve unlocked your ships, hoarded enough credits and artifacts to get most of your mods to purple, people then take the grind to PVP.

They don’t play for objectives because that’s inefficient. You grind contracts doing the bare minimum needed. Kill 6 beacon drones ? That is basically asking you to watch enemies cap beacons and wait for it to pop drones out.

 

Winning battles used to be a big deal. Contracts got in the way of that too back then but the rewards for winning was substantially more tempting. Winning was the best way to get purples.

That incentive is now gone.

 

And a new meta of ‘Grinding vouchers efficiently in PVP’ is born.

 

So no - my suggestion cannot possibly be bad because the situation we are in is already bad.

 

Higher drop rates in PVP and tuning contracts for PVE will mean more people will play PVP ‘properly’ and you minimize your PVE time for when it is time to get them blues. And you don’t really need to do them all that much coz there’s only so many mods you need to get blue.

93

This way contracts wont interfere with the business of winning PVP matches and people can grind PVE for vouchers whenever needed as that seems to be the bottleneck atm.

Higher drop rates in PVP and tuning contracts for PVE will mean more people will play PVP ‘properly’ and you minimize your PVE time for when it is time to get them blues. And you don’t really need to do them all that much coz there’s only so many mods you need to get blue.

Hm, people finishing contracts losing you the game - i call that a forum myth.

There might be people out there farming like that, but mostly, it has little to no impact on the general brainlessnes on the battlefield.

Or is that really the majority of players, because I honestly don’t think so :confused:

 

I agree, it’s a bottleneck, but why move it to PvE? So that everybody HAS to play PvE? That would be an incredibly bad move.

 

Credits on the other hand get out of your way, especially once you got some DLCs, and/or train a bit to survive (which I really neglect, because it’s no fun to be an escapist weasel, and holding back does not win you games)

 

Not that I don’t agree to loyalty grind being kind of a real Pita.

Just don’t think, moving it to PvE would really *improve* the situation.

94

Myth or not - that is what I did to get my NAGA purple in just under 2 weeks including synergizing the minotaur to get NAGA.

 

But that distracts from the point and maybe fact that T4 is a PVE tier. You cannot beat PVE in terms of resources gained per hour by wasting time in a T4 queue. And it is a vicious cycle. People dont PVP T4 because of queue times and they PVE instead thus perpetuating the disease.

 

My NAGA is now 10/10 - 90% of the synergy was earned in PVE. More than half the time I random into the missions and guess which tier ships I join up with … T4s and T5s

queue time is almost always under 4 minutes (except a certain period of the day where everyone seem to go and do only blackwood / pirate)

 

When it is time for contracts - I go T4 = 10 minute wait. T5 does better at about 5 minutes average but with the uncertainty of gaining much synergy / credits or loot.

 

Then there is the random game mode vs contract completion types issue. Some days the match maker just wont put you in game modes you need to complete contracts. Or a bad losing streak when making any sort of kills is hard to do. Solution ? Tier down lol.

 

Tuning contracts for PVE means contract completion become something you can plan for. Minimal variables. Which translates to less time spent in PVE and more in PVP. Without the frustration of not getting the right game mode, death squads and tiering down. You play to win coz drop rates are high and you stick to your tier because queue times are shorter.

 

I dont enjoy PVE

I dont believe the contracts are fun to complete

There are too many *coins* in this game to grind for - like Jasan rightly said, the old system is better because it is simpler

I hope Devs will modify the current one to a simpler method

 

Until then - tweaking the existing contracts to make them all PVE friendly could just help with the PVP waiting times.

Even if I am wrong and assuming things in error, it will still be beneficial to all if contracts can be completed in both PVE and PVP.

 

As for giving PVE synergy advantage … guess what ?

We already grind synergy in PVE already. Might as well boost the gains lol. 

 

 

 

so short version =

 

mhmmm

 

Dev should really increase loot drop % in PVP and raise Credits reward.

 

Give PVE loyalty and synergy advantage instead

 

This way contracts wont interfere with the business of winning PVP matches and people can grind PVE for vouchers whenever needed as that seems to be the bottleneck atm.

95

…

Until then - tweaking the existing contracts to make them all PVE friendly could just help with the PVP waiting times.

…

 

Most of my T4&T5 stuff was pushed by my free synergy,  which I earn in T3 PvP - which is of course the “alternate” route - some of it by T4 PvP, and very little by PvE, where I got lousy 100+ matches or so… Therefore my Naga is just sitting there, until I have enough time to fly it. Needless to say, T1-T3 was mostly synergized through PvP, however I also started with the old system, which was indeed nicer for my taste.

But with this sentence I can completely agree tho. As long as you are not forced to PvE - but you are able to do it in a tier where PvP is harder, because of the waiting times. Basicly, Contracts should work on both the same.

 

Lets not forget, such a change would still impact all tiers, and the first tiers are clearly easier to synergize in Skirmish.

 

However, an alternate route to loyalty income would still be my favourite solution, especially since it seems still manageable for T3, but gets really hard later on. Mostly because of the prices.

96

Maybe you play differently than i do, but i don’t want to play pve at all. Not play a few pve to get what i want, i want to avoid it as it is. Now the only thing that brings me to pve is the guaranteed purple loot. If that was moved to any first win, i would never ever go to pve at all. You say lets make pve efficient so you don’t need to play it much. I say lets make pve unnecessary.

97

Agreed entirely. PvE should be for if there’s nobody online or you want a break from PvP. It should not be mandatory for acquiring the cash / loyalty for new ships / gear, nor should it be, as it is now, the only practical way to get through T4.

I’m ashamed to admit the bulk of my Minotaur and Naga synergy (and all of my Apollo synergy) came from PvE.

98

Agreed entirely. PvE should be for if there’s nobody online or you want a break from PvP. It should not be mandatory for acquiring the cash / loyalty for new ships / gear, nor should it be, as it is now, the only practical way to get through T4.

I’m ashamed to admit the bulk of my Minotaur and Naga synergy (and all of my Apollo synergy) came from PvE.

You don’t need to be ashamed when the game doesn’t really give you any other choice. I HAD to synergize T4/T5 ships in PvE (and use free synergy gain in T3 PvP) because there is no one queuing T4/T5PvP in my time zone except a few hours on a weekend. 

 

I usually played PvE once maybe twice a day to get the special loot item and do a couple T5 vouchers and put the 2x launch bonus on the proper ship. But since they made PvE harder and you can basically play only with a good team I don’t even bother playing PvE because it is a waste of my time.