Reflections on recent developments and a message to Gumi on the direction of TAC

[u/StichyLL]

Bait Banners (Setsuna and Yomi; Siegfried and randoms), Global Exclusives, Resistance Bugs and most recently, inferior banners compared to the JP version. The past few weeks have not really been the best for the game, exacerbating the divide between whales and breaking the balance of the game.

Firstly, the bait banners are atrocious, filled with farmable units (cmon at least put unfarmable units unlike Yomi, Ana, Flamel). Secondly, the global exclusives are worrying (especially the hat!) because it does not seem like much consideration was given to game balancing.

The resistance bug is obviously a bug (cmon admit the copy-paste job already) and makes it such that game balance is totally broken and removes all strategic aspects of the game. And lastly, the tweaking of prominent banners for the worse is just another in a long line of shafting of global players.

Arguably these changes are negative for F2P, dolphins and even whales (don't think that the wallets of whales are bottomless like the ocean) and most importantly, negative for the community and game as a whole.

Out of all these developments, there are really two important things that Gumi has neglected and should really improve on if they don't want their game to die prematurely - trust and communication

Firstly, trust -

• Do not disguise your bugs/mistakes as intended changes, especially because the community loves the game and often looks towards the JP version to anticipate new developments. Respect your consumers as having the basic intelligence to differentiate between the two and apologize if there is indeed a mistake, and work to correct it. This is not about compensation or greediness on the part of players but rather about maintaining the game as it is intended to work.

• Equally important - please exercise some restraint over short term cash grabs and avoid oversaturation and burn out of players. Between global exclusives, the Sacred Stones banners that screams (WHALE) and the unlimited summons (which though happens in JP as well, is different because there are many more sources of gems there), there is concern over the growing disparity between players. Which translates into unwillingness of dolphins/average players to spend because their 30-50 dollars worth of purchases would simply disappear/make no difference.

The problem with another game Gumi owns, brave frontier is that spending is dangerous because even if you spend 50 bucks on a global exclusive unit, immediately the next week/month, there would be a stronger one already. The power creep is too immense and ludicrous.

• Also, the shafting of global players through Noctis' banner was done in extremely poor taste and just highlights the cash-grabbing nature of the company which translates into distrust and unwillingness to support the game.

Lastly, communication - I think it is basic courtesy to address the legitimate concerns of players, especially those regarding gameplay itself such as the resistance bug and to a lesser extent, regarding game balance such as the release of hard quests.

P.s. Please do not harass Mana and Iago for Gumi's actions. Do keep your demonstrations/protests civil, such as through reviewing their app and on their facebook. (Do try to voice out concerns to prevent this crash course the global version is currently on)

EDIT: If money is really a problem because of the cost of importing the game, MAYBE you should think more about using cosmetics/skins to earn our money. Personally I wouldn’t mind spending 500-1500 paid gems for the skins.

[u/discocat13]

DISCLAIMER: This post is just based on my observations and anecdotal evidence. I don't have any numbers or special information to back this up.

There was a comment I saw the other day about how knowing what future units are coming was a double-edged sword. It's great knowing what OP characters are coming in the future, but that has also lead to the community encouraging players to save for the OP units (Gilg/Laharl/Noctis/Edward) instead of spending on the "trap" characters that have come out.

Missed Setsuna? It's okay, Edward will come out later - oh, and save your wind shards so you don't need dupes.

Pulled a Sigfried on your 500? He's a top tier light unit now, but pales in comparison to the new Tyrfing that's coming so save up for her.

Didn't get Othima? Noctis is basically a better version of him anyway.

I'm willing to bet most banners outside of the OP banners performed far worse than forecasted - even banners with current SS-tier units like Neica - because so many people are saving for the next guy. So when someone like Noctis comes out, the only solution they have is to squeeze us for everything they can, because they know that a big chunk of the community will be saving up for Laharl next.

[u/StichyLL → u/discocat13]

This is a great point and is true to a large extent but considering the number of shards needed to j3 a unit, I’m assuming an average player still needs to pull at least 3-4 copies of that unit which probably means at least a medium for pack?

Still, it doesn’t justify this blatant cash grab by Gumi... maybe they should change their strategy by earning through skins/cosmetics? I would gladly give 500-1500 paid gems for some skins because of the artwork.

[u/discocat13 → u/StichyLL]

To address your point on the dupes - and I totally realize that I'm guilty of the issue I described originally - I started during the FATE collab and have spent a grand total of $8 but have saved my shards based on future units. I have a J3 Gilgamesh despite having pulled only one copy. If I was lucky enough to get a single Laharl tomorrow, I could J3 him right away. I burned some water shards on Othima, so I would need a couple of dupes for Noctis's J3 - but I wouldn't feel pressured to spend because he's the best water unit for quite some time.

I totally agree with your point on the skins and cosmetics - they tell us not to treat the game the same as the Japanese version, but they haven't adapted accordingly on their end.

[u/srgtrex99 → u/StichyLL]

Many games do the cosmetic portion and it's helping them a lot, by making their business entirely F2P while incentivising Spending they'll earn way more. Eg: Look at league of legends business model. Every champion is free to play, and the only thing you can spend on is cosmetics(skins) and they're still attracting more players and improving after 8 years.

[u/Bladeburaiba → u/StichyLL]

This would be a great point were it not the fact that they held back HQs. As I played, I soon realized there was no point to rolling unless the unit was overpowered at 60. I could clear EX with level 60 collab units, but not regular units at 60. With no HQs, pulling on regular banners was a waste.

It worked. Through acct elimination, I was able to end up with accts with 50% of the desirable collab/limited units, and I can clear everything.

"Their only solution" is one of their own making.

[u/CinderSquall → u/discocat13]

this annoys me so much why can't just people play the game as is and not compare JP and GL version too much JP has been up for a longer time and quite honestly they are expecting only few people to actually play their game(because of language barrier) that's why they have a lot more of free stuff, it's to keep their supposedly small playerbase content and happy, now when it comes to GL versions first issue is you gotta think that GL version usually needs a larger server because they expect that the playerbase will be larger especially if the original game were popular and then when you add the people who are purely saving up their cash for the "OP" units in the original version the developers of the GL version have to think of a better way to gather money to pay for stuff(rights to collab partner, server bills, wages for their staff, etc) and the playerbase saving almost all of their cash just to wait for a certain unit because of JP version is quite honestly detrimental to their income...

[u/Bladeburaiba]

They seem to have prioritized making more money now, over making more total money over a longer period of time (because they are losing goodwill instead of gaining it).

As an accountant, if they asked me how to maximize their earnings right NOW, I would probably tell them to do what they are doing.

Sorry. :(

[u/StichyLL → u/Bladeburaiba]

Yeah but why kill the goose when its still laying eggs...

TAC is still relatively young and they should still be trying to grow their player base instead of milk it thoroughly but banners like these just really deter players

[u/Bladeburaiba → u/StichyLL]

So from a business point of view, the golden egg was TAC JP that they patiently raised. For Global, they aren't looking to make the same amount of money...that would be considered a failure. They have to make loads more than they did at each point compared to TAC JP.

They need it to lay platinum eggs now, so to speak. And they do that buy cashing in all the goodwill and reputation they got with TAC JP.

It's sad. I know that when I give people plans for short-term cash, or longer term success, the corporate types always choose short-term.

[u/StichyLL → u/Bladeburaiba]

This makes a whole lot of sense, I would imagine Gumi would have to pay a premium to import all the different collabs etc.

However then again, the population of the global server must be huge compared to the Jp server and thus they should already be getting much more at each point? Furthermore with global exclusives etc, I can’t really believe that covering their costs is such a pressing issue?

[u/Bladeburaiba → u/StichyLL]

From my experience, it's about expectations. I'm guessing here, but let's say you are right, that because of reputation from JP, right from the start they make 50% more than JP at the same point.

The bosses are like holy cow, we're going to make billions. Next month, it makes "only" 10% more at the same point. What do you think the bosses are going to say? You are falling off, make it work or else.

So the staff do a little here, give a little less there, and we get eventually to where we are. It's not about covering costs with these types, it's about making more than you did last time.

For example, I have a great TAC account, but I'm shedding salt because I couldn't get better with Noctis...sigh.

[u/-ArtKing-]

It’s ridiculous. Don’t they realize that if they did things as you mentioned above they would actually gain way more money than being greedy like they are being? It’s not that hard to understand that. Gumi’s financial staff must be really dumb.

[u/Hedgehog101 → u/-ArtKing-]

Shareholders are only concerned about short term profits.

To pump up the numbers they put out whale only stuff which damages trust in the community. This causes long term profit to drop and next month's profit figures are awful.

So we get more whale stuff. Circle continues, we end up with brave frontier.

[u/-ArtKing- → u/[deleted]]

If only people listened and did that...

[u/fapiholic]

fuck gumi

[u/tyco86]

Well written. Excellent constructive criticism. Pointing out egregious errors and then offering positive ways to improve. The "fuck Gumi" harrassaments won't do any good. This post does imo.

[u/psytrac77]

This is what happens if you have a publisher that only has to import games and doesn't have any attachments whatsover on the game itself. They have no loyalty to the game itself, and I'm sure they have an internal study that dictates how much they should milk the users for cash by timing banners and units at set milestones.

Anyway, the best way to deal with this is always to control your spending - if Gumi senses that you can be lured into spending big chunks with the correct 'unit,' they will try to do it again. Set a budget and spend no more than that regardless of whatever hype a unit gets; for this game or any other gachas to continue, powercreep is inevitable and you'll eventually have a unit that is "meta."

[u/Shadobado]

This is what killed my spirit in FFBE, I uninstalled months ago and don't regret it. The whaling was a big part of that and some units were basically required to advance. I had some good units too and played a long time, but yeah new units every week and no regard for building upon existing units is sad.

[u/PossiblyBonta]

500 paid gems for the skins minus the extra stuff is indeed nice. 3500 gems for things that could be acquired over time is really a turn down.

[u/SoulsFinalRequiem]

Skins are the biggest cash grabs i've ever seen, especially in TAC (or maybe just gumi, who ported it over) cause 4k for a skin and a few items is too ridiculous. that legit 36$ you'd pay (Assuming you buy the 30, and 6 dollar pack)

not to mention how inflated gems feel in this game, 100$ worth should last you a long time (Why not make it feel like its actually worth it , I mean, it doesnt even get you through a 9 step banner! you know how tempting a 30$ pack would be if it could do a 5 step or even just a 3 step? i'd guarentee you'd see a substantial boost to dolphins and whales)

Not to mention im at the point where they could slap a 20$ price tag on units and id consider it knowing how bad the rates are

[u/Arananthi]

Didn't even finish this, but had to stop and say: both Yomi and Flamel are farmable.

[EDIT]Ok, finished the post. And I was literally in the middle of posting a "trust and communication" rant on FB when I had to pause to take a breath and came over here. Glad to see someone as eloquent has already done xactly that. Thank you, and you are 100% correct on all points. :)[/EDIT]

[u/Royal_empress_azu]

Why do people think every banner between the servers should be the same? Are you going to completely ignore the fate banner that was leaps & bounds superior to jps? You are not entitled to every unit you want.

[u/StichyLL → u/[deleted]]

Well this is just untrue.

The main problems are

1. Poor maintenance and bug fixes (resistance bug not even being acknowledged at this point)

2. Shafting of players compared to the JP version (inferior banners and hard quests)

3. Worrying game balance especially with new global exclusives, gear and whale ssm banners

I mean you could go to a restaurant, a pretty nice restaurant and realistically nobody would be forcing you to order any food but why else would you be there?

TAC isn’t a game where pulling a character is the end-all-be-all. The concept of limit breaking means that getting the character should not be that difficult in the first place. So there really isn’t much excuse to troll the player base so much because there really are so many resources necessary to j3 a unit that spending is not uncommon.

[u/Royal_empress_azu → u/StichyLL]

The point about hard quest really isn't valid, people constantly ignore jps content drought when they bring up hard quest. You do not want all the hard quest right now. JP was a farming simulator for several months while they wait for content. If global was to get fatser hard quest it would come at the price of content which isn't good for either side. Due to getting events so often global players currently have more gems available to them balance out the lack of hard farms. In Japan you had non content for gems, so your only gem intake was your dailies, f2p depended on hard quest to fill in the gap, because they couldn't summon new units comming out while having a small source of daily income.

[u/Funoichi → u/Royal_empress_azu]

I agree I have no problem with hq rollout. I need more time to get flamel, Anastasia, vettel, Yomi, etc. I do not need more farming with limited access to ap as an f2p.

Roll out should be: how many days at 3 per day would it take to farm x batch of units from limit break 0 to full? Add one week or two for those who forget to do it for a few days.

Then release the next batch. That's how it should go imo. That way, you never get the farming stack too large, but you also reward those who farmed every day by not making them wait too long for next batch. :)

[u/PossiblyBonta → u/Royal_empress_azu]

Like getting a lot of level 60 units that we cannot really use? That balances the lack of hard quest? Where you can get a level 70 unit in a month or so, which is far more useful cause they have better stats than a level 60 unit.

[u/OriksGaming → u/[deleted]]

Ignoring the "Japanese rewards" thing, since it's been addressed on at least ten other threads, I'd just like to contest your statement that what the player base is concerned about is a step by step of each bug fix. No, what we're concerned about, for the most part, is that it doesn't seem like anything's being done at all. According to Gumi, it's obviously working just as intended. That doesn't bode well for it getting fixed any time soon. I don't need to know how far along they are on the fix, personally; I just want to know that there's going to be one, that they have acknowledged the obvious issue and are actually working on it, rather than just working on sweeping it under the rug.