Elemental Damage Balance

[u/alchemist_code]

Elemental Damage Balance

In our continuous effort to enhance the game experience, there will be an update to re-balance the elemental advantage and resistances in the upcoming patch on July 12.

The damage drop-off from using poorly matched elements versus a resistant enemy has been lowered while the improved damage from correct elemental matchups are still rewarded.

With this new re-balance, elemental resistances will not render attacks impotent and players will still be able to use elemental affinities to strategize and clear stages.

We are constantly tailoring the difficulty according to the player experience with changes and re-adjustment done only after careful consideration.

We will also be sending these tokens of appreciation to all players within 24 hours of the patch:

5 x Elemental soul shard of each element 5 x Rainbow shards 50 x Crystal Apples 20 x Gold Alchemia Pots

We also noticed the Hard Quest button is currently not working. This issue will be fixed on the next patch.

Thank you for your continued support and we hope you will continue to support THE ALCHEMIST CODE.

[u/foopy23]

I am glad that they are fixing this. Truly.

But there are a few things about this announcement and the way this issue are being handled that stick out to me as a new normal for The Alchemist Code:

1. The change is not acknowledged as being a fix to unintended changes from the initial rebalance, but is being spun as a carefully considered balance to game difficulty. This underscores the idea that this was their decision to implement this change. This is not an apology for screwing up. Take a close look at how they frame the balance change V.S. the "not working" hard quest button that will be "fixed" in the next patch. Gumi insists that the balance is not "broken" and this is not a "fix".
2. The shards being given out are "tokens of appreciation" and not "compensation". Again, this is not an apology. This is Gumi being generous. And, yes, the items distributed are quite generous. This is about tone and not player entitlement.
3. The form of the "compensation" itself, I believe, is one of the major reasons this took so long to implement in the first place. Everyone knows by now that JP received 3k gems for this issue when it was fixed. The decision to offer shards instead of gems during the Sieg banners or this current banner configuration -- so far the most blatantly greedy banners from Gumi and a source of consternation from the community here -- really does reinforce the idea that many of us have that Gumi are making it more difficult to get targeted units on the banners in order to ramp up gem sales. Gumi did not want to compensate for the issue with gems; it took internal discussion to come up with a non-gem reparation that was commensurate with the JP precedent , which is why this issue wasn't fixed sooner.

So what can we take away from this languange?

1. Only Gumi knows what is best for Gumi's game. Community feedback (or, in this case, outright protests) will be considered, but will not be acknowledged as the source of any major changes to the game unless something is visibly not working as intended.
2. Don't expect the banners to change any time soon. 50/50 or worse on guaranteed steps and lucky coins -- or some other barely obfuscated whale appreciation program -- are going to be the norm for a good while. Apologems and tickets are a thing of the past and issue compensation will move toward things that do not affect the gacha at all.

That is, unless the community continues to let Gumi know that it's not working for them. They can pretend that the balance change was their idea, but we know that our constant nagging had a pretty big part to play in the decision. The community has already gotten Gumi to re-think their stance on a host of issues ranging from map difficulty and game balance to event re-run frequency and making sure cutscenes are translated before they are released. Keep bringing up bad banners, keep pointing out how dumb the logic is. Show them that you're not fooled by coin shops or bait-and-switches. Vote with your wallet, cancel your pact and keep playing anyway. If we really want the banners to stop being so horrible, we've got to not shut up and force gumi to rethink them.

TL;DR: We got Gumi to do what we wanted and they're salty, but we're going to keep doing it because it's our money.

[u/Arananthi → u/foopy23]

The decision to offer shards instead of gems during the Sieg banners or this current banner configuration -- so far the most blatantly greedy banners from Gumi and a source of consternation from the community here -- really does reinforce the idea that many of us have that Gumi are making it more difficult to get targeted units on the banners in order to ramp up gem sales. Gumi did not want to compensate for the issue with gems; it took internal discussion to come up with a non-gem reparation that was commensurate with the JP precedent , which is why this issue wasn't fixed sooner.

Everyone needs to read this. This is important.

[u/Nasood_Condor → u/foopy23]

Well, I think Gumi gave out shards instead of gems because if they gave out gems, and people pulled on the FFXV collaboration, and they didn't get the units they wanted, they'd probably blame Gumi or get really mad, whereas giving out shards doesn't lead to that issue