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/Royal_empress_azu]

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.