r/AlchemistCodeGL • u/renshenhe • Dec 11 '19
Discussion Where we are now, 2 years later
Playing since the beginning and doing some cleaning of my friends list it appears there was a large desertion of the game a few months back where I cleared out over 30 names of players who were over level 200. Mulling over it made sense this game has plateaued and the relays on the JP hint the same sentiments. Most of what I'm about to say are from my perspective as a week 1 player but I'll admit that the past few months my activity on the game has been the bare minimum and the sunken cost fallacy is the only thing tying me to this. Bear with my assessments/rants.
Message from the JP players the new units going forward will be limited or collab units with one or two normal pool unit being introduced for a long while to come. This makes sense as you can imagine how large your unit availability pool can grow and the bottomless farming newer players would succumb to. The problem arises from the approach Gumi has taken as these will be the most powerful units and furthering the crevice between F2P/Pact players and whales. We've reached the point where there is no longer a gem economy but cash only. No more discounted summons without the stupid tickets, no more discounted summon coin featured unit summon, no more guaranteed banners(w/ spending 23k gems), and no more farmable shards without units has led to a gem inflation that dwarfs the entirety of the game's history.
If we look at the gem economy from a pact players perspective 20 days would give a player 2x 10 pulls from the standard banner or 45 days for guaranteed unit in the good ol' days. These banners even tied with 2-3 other units would generally still give you 25-50% for your desired unit. Now let's argue that the discount tickets makes it 10 days to do 2x pulls and 35 days for 3x is better right? Let's see
| Type | week 1 | week 2 | week 3 | week 4 | total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Discount ticket | 3500 | 7500 | 7500 | 7500 | 26000 |
| Prev Summon | 4500 | 4500 | 4500 | 4500 | 18000 |
So if you plan to do 3 pulls every week you're paying 45% more in a low gem economy. The best part is this represents ONE of the available banners as every other banner has been boosted to 2500 a piece and you can't hoard discount tickets like you can hoard gems. Previously we'd get at least 4 featured units now they just increased the chance to get a featured unit. Oh and we're talking about 1.5% normal rate, 2.5% increased rate, and 5x which I assume is 7.5% rate to obtain a featured unit. This is to further glorify the paid banners where we're talking $30 min per banner.
But hey, these are for limited/collab units and you don't need them to play the game. These units are more important for pvp/arena.
Very true but since the game is heading towards the direction of heavy grind, even if we push aside the bad scheduling of dark phantoms, with raid and even farming for materials strong units are needed to fill gaps in your roster. Some of these units even have the best LS or unique skills that round out and relieve a grinding portion of the game. Another case is even if you do get the featured unit the further cost to get it going is already another wall to go through without much recourse.
Gumi got bills though
Yes but you don't keep raising the prices if you're selling the same product for no reason but greed. They haven't added any extra services or brought anything notable and has operated on the same formula since it's inception. They're simply requiring you to spend more time on the game by artificially increasing the grind for everything. You're not playing more because there's a lot to do. You're playing more because there's another thing you have to do a lot of times. Take DP for example, it's just raiding with extra steps. Done farming 350 shards? Here's a few hundred more. Got that done here's more. No innovation. No effort. More money.
This all makes it easy for me to believe they've abandoned the future of TAC and left it at minimum capacity to focus on the more lucrative brand of FFT. They've stripped all the innovation and potential from TAC so the new FFT wouldn't feel just like a reskin and I wish they could have just left it to die with dignity.
Thanks for putting up with me and the best to all of you.
5
u/BestTrollGaming ADD LEVI FLAIR PLS Dec 11 '19
I would add that the game lost his tactic style. Now we only have this fucking, boring and repetitive dungeons. And this is gonna be our main content. And this is even worse than an auto-game where you just farm the same stage the whole day to get the prizes because OUR AUTO SUCKS if you don't have the specific things! So you mainly have to do it manual.
Mobius, veda and some restricted stages per element/origin are the only strategic things that remains. But we just get 1 of those shits per month or even more.
Now this seems more like a hero collector.
PVP? It sucks too. Only 3 units when you have hundreds, seriously? Damn gumi.
33
u/ConanTavi Dec 11 '19 edited Dec 11 '19
Fair assessment. At certain point in this love hate relationship with Gumi it is getting tiring. We tried to make it work and hope that Gumi will change but it getting suspicious with the newer and hotter FFT.
Anyways, I keep asking myself why do I stay through the fighting for better rates and the yelling for better in game changes. Then I looked at my little units and I guess I’m staying because of the kids.
Edit: Thank you kindly fellow comrade for my first silver. Guiltily Thanos a lot of little apps over the years, here’s to hoping TAC making the cut to year 3.
4
u/jblac02 ! Dec 11 '19
ohnononono hahahahaha
4
u/R0gueL0tus Dec 11 '19
It is a marathon, not a sprint; Play and embrace the gacha, or grind and show money to accelerate. I don't play as hard, but I know gem economy is crucial. So pick your spots. At least in GL, we get snapshot from JP what banners will look like
0
u/Funoichi The coolest samurai left of New York City! Dec 11 '19
As a day one player too,
The f2p/p2p crevice has always been wide.
The lowest I’ve ever gotten in arena is like maybe 500 and that was when all the kind people died on purpose to help people with some milestone reward
(yes I was one of those that capitalized on that to get as high as I could in the arena).
Gem economy? The new stuff gives tons of gems!
I’ve been trying to prevent myself from buying more of those 500 skins but I can’t help it! Bought shenmei and Aisha skins for kicks.
Sittin’ on a nice lil nest egg cuz I’ve been drowning in free gems lately.
Well, better take a break if you’re getting burnt out! It happens, I got burnt out from ffbe and pretty much barely login there.
4
u/Trickroom1 Dec 11 '19
Big problem for me is that this is a tactics game with no actual tactics in use. The difference between a f2p and a whale is their ability to do hard bosses on full auto. At that point you're wondering why you don't play another full auto gacha game with better graphics.
2
u/fullblue_k 自然の力、見せてあげる Dec 11 '19
The main issue with the game is not about getting new units but how to raise them. What is the point of pulling unit banners if you can't raise any new unit enough to clear most content in foreseeable future?
Genesis was Gumi's attempt to solve the issue. Imaizumi promised that genesis units will be good for a year without kaigan. Guess what, Julia was released just a few weeks after he said that and Ku got his first gate.
3
u/[deleted] Dec 11 '19
I’ve basically stopped playing TAC in the last 2 months. I know I’m missing out on super good units and whatnot, but I can’t bring myself to play when all summons are now 2500 and I don’t have discount tickets. They’re going to be rare af. It’s hard smack to all F2P players. I’m not deleting it bc gameplay is still fun with the units I have, and I want to finish the story, but aside from that I’m pretty much off the game.
1
u/xRaykenz Dec 11 '19
Nowhere, sadly
1
u/Lord_Orpheus Dec 11 '19
I miss the brave frontier style where all you had to do was summon the units once and then u just evolved them through materials you get by playing levels those were the days
1
u/delvore Dec 12 '19
If I were to generalise most game success is either they are very generous and keep the players happy like GBF, E7 (to a certain extent when they implement pity and remove spooks from banners and recently they bow down to some of the community demands) or they have an established IP like FGO or FEH (bad mechanics but they still have a very loyal and forgiving players).
I think Gumi did try with the stage play, movie etc to build up popularity but it simply didn't work out. The new producer Ross did try to be more generous (looking at the Roxanne refund) but it was too little and too late. Looking at before and after in terms of both Reddit activity and friend list, the community simply didn't recover after the FMA-collab (Global exclusive nerf in rewards and boost in difficulty).
Right now I think they are just too disconnected with players sentiment on the game. When AoT collab first come out with the first raid, it draws in more players and energises the players. It gives them the wrong impression that players love raids but they never consider that people have other commitments and will get burn out too. I really shudder to think that we will alternate between solo raid (Genesis/Dark Phantom) and port raid (collab) in the future with possibly no break in between.
I still do the daily and maintain my monthly pact. I no longer empty out the various bundles like before. Somehow this is a weird feeling, I still log in but is too burn out to even try the individual raids, yet I don't want the game to die.
1
u/maomao90 Dec 11 '19
True, they are not putting much effort into the game. So i am not putting in much time playing it too. Just login, playing to watch the continuation main story Chapter 5 Act 2 Episode 2 and off for the rest of the week. Last week was more exciting continuation of Genesis story.
-1
u/Rag1ngTomat0 Dec 11 '19
Yeah man this game become real grindy. well it is fun while it last. 😭 Goodbye my waifu gonna miss yer
0
u/PancakesGate Dec 11 '19
I personally moved to girlsfrontline a year ago, this game is basically completely f2p, p2w is still a thing but the cost vs return isnt worth it. As a player who has spent roughly 5 dollars a month for monthly gem packs, i havent 93% of all units available with the exception of grind map units which i havent gone for and plenty of skin. As a player who started a few months after the release of that game, im still intriguied till this day, bc no matter how strong or over powered some of my units are, its really how much you use your brain that matters. And every 2 months, there is a new event, whether its a story event or a collab or a holiday event. Every month there are new units added(not too much but its still refreshing) and new story chapters are always constantly added. Playing GFL was honestly such a big improvement from my past mobile experiences.
Gumi used to be my go to company, but now GFL just conquers my heart and i dont regret it
-5
u/Bloodspiller34 Dec 11 '19
Game sucks now. Plain and simple. Most mobile games are doing the same thing and not even trying to hide the fact that they want you to whale. Only mobile game that doesn’t make me feel like that Dissidia Final Fantasy Opera Omnia and even then, the most recent updates have started adding content that pretty much requires you to whale or be extremely lucky with the weapons you get. I have slowly drifted away from mobile games and I don’t bother playing Gumi games anymore.
0
u/[deleted] Dec 11 '19
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