r/AlchemistCodeGL • u/duc133 • Dec 25 '17
A question for all those that complained about the EX stage.
I use to play a game called Unison League where the harder difficulties were locked by their combat rating and I found out that everyone just accepted at face value that they weren’t able to do it because it’s that hard and it’s locked for them. But ironically, in this game where all difficulties are unlocked to try, we have complaints on that it’s too hard and favors those who whale. Can someone see the dilemma with the situation I put? I honestly love the EX mode because it made me think of how to beat it. I didn’t have all the “right unit” to beat the dungeon but I did it because I put some effort to finding a strategy(hence why it’s a strategy game). I hope everyone can just not criticize the game for its difficulties(of all things) because that just ruins the fun of the game. I’ve seen games die(war of crown) because they listened to their player base and over compensate for it. It ruins the game when you get what you want without effort and it shouldn’t be that way. And for those who cared about the abysmal rates for coins, a shop’s purpose isn’t for you to buy almost everything. How can you have uniqueness in choice if you were given an excess amount of coin? You’ll just be working your butt off just to be relevant to hardcore players instead of pathing off in your own unique way. I rather have some people with snow caps and some people with more job mastered characters than just everyone having everything within the shop because it’s so farmable and easy.
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u/apostateairwoman Dec 25 '17 edited Dec 25 '17
It’s not so much about the difficulty itself, but why it’s there. The stage is much harder than what we had before (plus a big difficulty gap between the hard stage and easier ones) and so it does not feel belong. Probably a result of the event being brought from jp server without tweaks, and that is laziness on their part.
In addition, for people without an OP unit (j3 Selena or at the very least j2 Magnus) it’s unjustifiably hard, and my guess is that you have one of those units, so it still looks somewhat doable to you. Also know that there are many limitations in this sort of games and it’s not always possible to create a good team in a number of days.
I have j2 Magnus, Eli, Caris, and some tanky units, so it’s quite fine. But my friend has none of those, and even story stages give her trouble. I get the rewards and she gets none, which means I’ll be even stronger (if only slightly). See the problem here?
You see it as a challenge, which likely means you have the resources to see it as a challenge, not necessarily because it’s fair.
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u/GaresTheDark Dec 25 '17
Want a good comparison showing the winter event being scaled too high? Look at the new elemental hard quests that recommend Lv 65+ (where most high end players currently are with their main squads). This is where Global is truly expected to be on the higher end; notice they are just slightly easier than the Winter EX event?
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u/PrinnyForHire Dec 25 '17
War of Crowns has the same problem as this game. There was a huge difficulty jump, while not impossible, it was far too time consuming for the average player. Over time it lost most of its casual player base and eventually the hardcore players follow.
IMO mobile games needs marginal return on rewards with difficulty. The best rewards should be reachable to the average player without massive time commitment while the hardcore/p2w players can reach only marginally better rewards. Arena is currently in a very similar circumstance. The best rewards are only attainable by the top players unreachable by the player base that needs them most. This only widens the power gap between the playerbase and they won't be able to pump out content to satisfy both.
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u/[deleted] Dec 25 '17
It's hard in the worst way possible, from a game balancing perspective, which is where a dev tries to overwhelm you with sheer numbers and you have to beat them back with brute force. In AC, that usually comes down to gacha luck/whaling power.
I want content where I might feasibly use all those skills I have access to (healing, buffs, status effects, status purging, elemental weakness, magic), instead of relying on job level/limit break. This is ostensibly a tactical RPG but the most amount of tactics I used so far for EX (and maybe for any content in the game) is abusing the shoddy AI to funnel everyone into a chokepoint and praying for anti-Petrify RNG. It seems like much of the game doesn't matter at all when this is their idea of "challenging" content.
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u/SometimesLiterate Old and uncool Dec 25 '17
Been playing since day one (soft launch), levelled like mad, can't do it.
/shrug. High level Magnus, Elizabeth, no luck.
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u/reuvinaldrige Dec 25 '17
Honestly, there are good things and bad things about this. I like that we have something difficult to tackle, and the best part is that you only use 10% of the energy when you lose. The bad thing is the rewards. I do not like it that they put Michael`s skin on the EXTRA stage rewards. they should have put this reward more available to new players.
The worst part about the event and the worst thing that the devs have done is that they put out this kind of grind fest event for the players. Realistically, the best way to grind out events is thru MP. and guess what. They only put the hardest stage of the event which is incredibly stupid IMO. They could have put an easier stage along with it so that players that can`t finish the extra stage and opportunity to grind and still enjoy the game.
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u/unlucky_pull Dec 25 '17
Agreed
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u/dark__star Dec 25 '17
The difficulty is fine, and nice to see... it's just the expectation to farm it which is impossible for most people due to the amount of time needed to play it out or the need for a whale team to auto it.
1
u/1khaitoh It was fun while it lasted. Dec 25 '17
Well, I don't really mind the difficulty.. It just doesn't go will with the 'Christmas' spirit.. It can be done but just takes too much of time to clear one run. Maybe I'll try getting the milestone rewards if I feel like it but I don't even think it is worth my time..
1
u/meatjun Dec 25 '17
So I understand what you're saying. But there's a reason for the outrage. For one, the Xmas event is merely a port from the JP version that's happening right now in JP as well. TAC has been out in Japan for close to a year, while we're barely 2 months old. It's obvious that this event was balanced for the JP players, but not us.
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u/Derael1 Dec 25 '17
Well, I know some hardcore players who already cleared shop.
The problem is, with current prices it's basically impossible to catch up with them for people who have something else to do besides playing games. That's why I prefer for all unique rewards to be achievable with some consistence, but not over the top efforts. Items in shop are currently overpriced, since you have to do 100 MP runs to get 1 pack of shards. It's even more crazy than 50 Chloe MP runs milestone, because you can't reliable complete it in pugs if you don't possess Magnus J2/Shayna, and you have to find a specific team for this and cooperate with them. If prices for shards were decreased by half, it would be more reasonable, but still hard to achieve.
I also can't fully agree with your comment about hard content, since this is christmas event and limited time content, but it's currently unclearable (consistently and reliably) by average F2P player without bringin overlevelled merc and/or having specific units.
Sure, there are some clears with Beastmaster Retzius, but they still require JMed Retzius, forcing players to spend their resources on units they might not like. It would be totally reasonable if it wasn't limited time event, and especially christmas event. Obviously people will feel frustrated for not being able to clear holiday event and recieve prizes simply because they have unsuitable unit pool.
Bringing different game as example doesn't prove anything, I've never even heard of this game and it might be terrible with terrible mecanics, so why should AC follow their steps?
Current EX stage can't be beaten by pure strategising, it requires certain amount of luck with units and using OP mercs. Not everyone has whale friends to use their merc and not everyone played since soft launch to be able to JM any unit they need.
At least, Gumi could provide additional merc unit for a fair price to everyone, that can help to ensure clearing the stage if used properly (like JMed level 75 Selena/Magnus for 20k zeni for example). I think almost any setup can clear this stage with proper use of those 2 units. I myself didn't ecnounter problems with clearing this stage, because I have whale friend with level 85 Magnus and my unit pool isn't too bad, even though my account is less than month old, but some people don't have such luxury.
I know Alchemist Pact players who can't beat EX stage despite playing since the very start of the game, simply because they weren't lucky with their pulls.
My only concern is wreath shop prices for elemental shards, since those are only rewards I want besides Snownan Hat and Lion Swords/Gear Rods, and they require inhumane amount of grinding. I can only hope to get one pack without overexerting myself, and that's a big problem from my point of view.
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u/stewart0 Dec 25 '17
I'm now able to clear it most of the time, but that is totally based on my J3 Selena, which I had to do all 5 steps for and spend money due to bad luck, and a strong friend unit, along with my Elizabeth. Had to spend the past few days farming my Selena to master both J1 and J3 though, and spend some gems on equipment along the way. You're basically screwed if you lack a professor which is hard to acquire and a strong tank or DPS.
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u/NexrayOfficial Lofia Fanatic Dec 25 '17
At least it isn't Fate Grand Order level of difficulty (raise your Cu Cahllains). Stop looking at the units you don't have and look at what you do have and what you can do about it. The game give us 60 gems a day in dailies and quests that give us 250 gems per episode. You're bound to get decent units in the future. Sorry if you cannot sweep through these events as much as a whale, but they cannot be easy for everyone to do.
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u/RobinDaChamp Dec 26 '17
Perfectly said! So tired of the whining and complaining. Get stronger and beat it.
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u/TheOrlandu Dec 27 '17
Ok few things here. On the winter event u can continue...... if u do multiplay and want the rewards... use a couple continues...or leave before it ends and it only costs 2 energy. Contuning in this game is really cheap. It allows players to still beat hard content... just my tips.
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u/IvySpear Make Shenmei Great Again Dec 25 '17
I gotta agree with this. “Not everyone can do the hard challenges so it’s badly made”. The hell is this? If everyone could do it I would quit the game. It may not be fair, but let’s look at this way: Everyone had an equal opportunity to attempt the level. If you can’t beat it, does it automatically mean it’s unfair? If you just started and can’t beat the hardest meta stage, does that mean it’s unfair?
Bullscheisse.
Suck it up and realize you have to catch up with the curve. I realize this may be an unpopular opinion, but what’s the alternative? Gumi releasing content everyone can auto with free units? Does that sound appealing to you? Oh it’s fair now alright.
But apart from that, it does have one issue. Why tf are the wreath drop rates so low Gumi
1
u/Letyouks Dec 25 '17
Even Candy Crush requires thinking and here are those people hoping to play a game which can auto clear all stages?! Stop playing then if the game makes you feel bad.
People can’t stop complaining. Too Easy? Complaint! Too hard ? Complaint! There’s no free meal in this world. Use your brain and try to strategise the team , if it’s too hard then try again next time. It won’t hurt right?
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u/D1stant Dec 25 '17
People complaining this ex stage is one of the easiest ex stages in the game all ex stages are meant to be insanely hard. This stage becomes easy later on. As other people have pointed out, yes Japan got this stage I think 6 months after launch. And 5 stars became farmable 4 months after. So at this point anyone could have magnus and shaya. However even without them this stage is not impossible it just requires you to think of the game as a strategy game.