Valiant Force Forum

It has come to our attention that the average session time of Valiant Force is getting longer as more features and content are being added to the game. We are concerned that this long session time can negatively affect our players and we hope to shorten the overall session time before more awesome content is added to the game, such as Guild Conquest which is coming soon!

Here are a few current features that we feel are time consuming and repetitive for players:

• Regular Daily Event Stages (Goldmine, Tower of Despair, and Capitol)
  We understand many players have already cleared all difficulties of these daily event stages, but still have to spend time to manually play through them even after mastering the gameplay. We want to reduce the session time here!
  • We plan to allow players to just spend 1 key but receive 3 to 5 keys worth of rewards depending on the Event Boost day!
  • In short, the time spent for 3-5 runs for each stage will be reduced to just 1 Daily Event Stage run!
• Special Event Stages
  In Story mode, players can use Express Tickets 1x or 3x to reduce the time required for farming the battles. However, Special Event stages require players to either play manually or auto play per every 5/10/15 energy depending on the chosen difficulty. We know a lot of players have suggested us to just allow the use of Express Tickets for this, but that might take away the tactical gameplay of Valiant Force in Events, making it just like “Expressing” the events. This issue will be further exasperated when players can just use Express Tickets in master difficulty during the Ladder event, which will just create mindless gameplay for players in the game. Here is a possible solution for this:
  • We plan to allow players to choose the number of tries together as 1 run. This means that players can choose to fight 1, 2 or 3 battles in 1 run, which also means that you will spend 1, 2 or 3 battles worth of energy in 1 run. Using gems to retry will also reflect the multiplier of the committed battles in post scene.
  • This will allow players to spend their energy faster in doing 1 run rather than 3 runs if they can already easily clear the difficulties of the event.
• Event Pacing : 2-week Events and Story Events
  We hear many players mentioning that the 2-week Events place a lot of emphasis on training the new heroes, causing players to have less time to revisit training their old heroes and work on the completion of Story mode. We wish to change the Event cycle so that players will have more time to enjoy their new trained heroes and have more time to manage their squad for content like Raid and also able to return to Story mode to complete their milestone:
  • We will change the Event cycle from every 2 weeks to a 2 week event followed by an all new 1 week story mode event;
  • New Heroes will only be introduced every 3 weeks instead;
  • The 1 Week Story Events will have interesting items deployed to Story stages throughout the event duration for players to obtain. Now, players can expend their Express tickets once again to complete their uncompleted milestones again. This 1 week Story event is aimed at allowing players to progress faster for their Heroes, Equipment, Runes, etc.

THESE ARE AWESOME. Thank you Devs!

How will the daily event stages affect prestige players though? For example on a Monday, I get four gold mine keys on my current prestige level. Am I correct in assuming that I will get equivalent to four runs in a single run as opposed to others havung equivalent to three runs?

Awesome, really looking forward to it!

wtf u guys rock XD keep up the good work 
love the new ui too XD whoever (or more) designed is awesome!

Awesome. Keep up the good work.

I really appreciate the devs dedication to resolve this problem in the long term, because, at least for me this running event that just started will be just as time consuming as the Snowman and Halloween events, with the biggest difference being that now we have a faster animation speed.

When ladder start, the players that will pursue competition and still do every daily thing may need to play VF for something like 4(+) hours a day, well, that's half a working day here in my country (8 working hours a day). My mobile phone needs to be recharged two times to play this amount of time in a single day (he is getting old).

Now on the planned changes, I would like to expand on that.

Suggestion 1: Make it so that we don't have any penalty by using the x3 Energy cost on events. So we will need to have 3x chances of drops, golds and any other thing too. Actually the correct way would be make every chance drop to proc 3 times, so one chest will give three times the chance for rewards (up to 3 of the same item), not just three times the chance for 1 item. 
Example: Correct: 3 x 5% chance to drop up to 3 drops); Wrong: 3 x 5% chance = 15% chance for up to one drop).

Suggestion 2: Make it so that the enemy kill count (used in may event quests) also gets multiplied by the same factor, so people don't feel like they are having a penalty by using this function 

Suggestion 3: Make it so that our item selection for the fight get multiple used the same way (every item will have up to 15 uses in menu if you choose 3x)
If you choose to spend 3x Energy, all items will need to be used on 3x quantities, if the user don't have at least 3x the item he would like to use, make it grayed so he can't use it. This is a counter-balance so that no one can have an advantage by doing a normal or multiple energy run.

Suggestion 4: I think there's a way to make Express Tickets usable in events without letting it be abused, my suggestion is as follows:
Create a Bar under Express Tickets, this bar is only visible on events (normal and timed ones), and there's a unique bar for each quest every time you clear the the event on manual you will fill this bar a little, as:

Quest 1: Normal: Every 4 Normal Runs you fill the bar completely (each run will fill the bar by 25%)
Quest 2: Heroic: Every 3 Normal Runs you fill the bar completely (each run will fill the bar by 33,3%)
Quest 3: Legendary: Every 3 Normal Runs you fill the bar completely (each run will fill the bar by 33,3%)
Quest 4: Master:  Every 4 Master Runs you fill the bar completely (each run will fill the bar by 50%)

The bar can be filled up to 3 times, making it's max at 300%

By each 100% the player will be able to use a Express Ticket, so when at 300% the player will have the option to use the Express Ticket x3 (those who have this option in their Prestige Level) having the same results as they would have with normal gameplay on the level. 

For stages when there's more things involved, like the Seraphina event where there's 5 chests with only 1 real one for each run without destroying the correct chest your bar will only fill by half the value (if Master was 50%, a imperfect clear would only fill 25%), because when you use the express ticket the game will assume you cleared it by destroying the correct chest. Again, this is to encourage people to do use the features and not feel discouraged to do so by feeling that there's a penalty for using it. This system will really help people that have less time to play the game. Like Before sleeping or some other ocasion, if you played by the day at night your bar can be at 300% and you will clear it fast and just be done with it.
For normal events it will also make the player have a day off, without needing to manual it, from time to time.

Suggestion 6: Reduce the overall Master quest difficulty by a little and add a new one, "Challenge" difficulty. This new difficulty don't drop ladder points and can't be replayed once beaten, it's a more harder quest, can even have a different layout and have a better Boss AI and even new skills, with one time only rewards. Once cleared it will be grayed out and you can't try it again. This is to avoid making people wanting to farm it for ladder. Reducing the overall master difficulty will allow for faster runs if people want to farm it on ladder events.

Suggestion 7: PLEASE, just REMOVE the retreat option for Raid, people abuse it so much that I don't get how you still haven't removed it, it creates an unfair system where people that can/want to spend all time using the retreat option chasing the best damage run to always stay on top of the guild raid and get the better raid chest. Two problems: Those players will eventually feel tired of doing it repeatedly and those who can't/don't want to do it will always feel like the game is rewarding those players too much. The retreat option remove the tension of the boss, using the so famous SDD strategy it does not matter how you design new bosses for raid, people will keep using the same strategy all over again. Removing the retreat option not only destroy those strategies that rely on perfect runs as it will also bring those players to create new strategies to workaround for each boss, as it should be intended. You can add a Training option for players that don't want to spend their keys trying new squad compositions

Suggestion 8: Add in Skill Animation Skip Option. Once activated, when hero is performing skill instead of the cut in image and animation it will proceed as a normal attack with a glowing effect followed by the name of the skill quickly displayed on screen. This will really help reducing the time spent in game and make battles even more faster. Lots of games are abandoning the those long cut-in animations (at least have an option for that).

Suggestion 9: Remove the energy cost of the normal event keys, and remove the retreat option too, so the player won't have the chance to try again for better drop results, this is encouring people to keep trying again and also affects the long time play. 

Suggestion 10: Make 10 orbs max for Arena, and create the same system as using up to 3 orbs in a fight if you win, you win by the same multiplier, the same if you lose, let the player choose the number of orbs he want to use after he sees his opponent so he can decide if he wants to give it a shot.

That's it for now, thanks for creating such an Awesome Game! and thanks for the updates!

Thank you everyone for your support!
We will keep improving and please do drop your feedback anytime, because without you knowing we always watching and listening you guys <3 

Thank you again!

For Guild Raid, we are working on it to improving the feature to perfection , i hope everyone understand and we will bring the best to all of you!

[*]Special Event Stages
 We know a lot of players have suggested us to just allow the use of Express Tickets for this, but that might take away the tactical gameplay of Valiant Force in Events, making it just like “Expressing” the events. This issue will be further exasperated when players can just use Express Tickets in master difficulty during the Ladder event, which will just create mindless gameplay for players in the game. 

[*]

Hi,

First I would like to thank the developers and all those who made a difference to the latest in-game changes. It certainly feels more polished and it has enhanced the overall gaming experience for me. To keep this comment short, in spirit of the points brought out above (quoted), I have a few alternative suggestions in addition to the proposed changes that is highlighted within the developer blog. I think most if not all of the proposed solutions are good. 

There are some lengthy explanations below but in short, here are my core points:

(A) Reduce the time needed for collection or kill target event milestones(eg: kill 50 balthor or collect 100 water essence) by reducing the targets (cut 50 to 25 for example ) or by tweaking the RNG for better drop rates such that 100% event completion can be completed in 1 week max. This helps to prevent mindless and repetitive gameplay that bores every player. More explanation given below. 

(B) An option to enter every stage without expending any energy. No drops or gold given. Such an option is in spirit of promoting tactical elements by allowing players to test out different formation for every story or event node without an expense on energy. More explanation given below. 

(C) Other areas to improve to enhance gaming experience:

1) More varied epic sound tracks for different maps.
2) Better character building that keeps players absorbed and interested in heroes ( more consistent and more memorable character traits)


Explanation: 

(A) Preserve Tactical element and prevent mindless gameplay

I understand this perspective as VF can pretty much be always remembered or referred to as the aura tile game with nice graphics/art. That is VF's current strength. Here are some areas I noticed which with improvements will help reduce session time in line with your big picture objective but are left out in your comment earlier. 

The one thing that annoys me quite alot for the existing events are the collection objectives or the kill target objectives. For example: kill 50 balthor or collect 100 water essence. IF such event milestones need to be in place, it will be better if the RNG is skewed in a way that players can complete them faster. These event milestones I know are made to be at least sufficiently tough for players to work towards getting a 100% event completion event hero. But I do not think players should be made to engage in mindless repetitive gameplay for prolonged hours just simply to get to 100% event completion. 

We already have to deal with RNG in faith and aura direction and event hero drop rate in gatcha. So I think it is fine if it is made easier for players to get the 100% event hero reward without having to deal with even more RNG from the collection n mob killing quests.  I will elaborate further later on why I think it will keep the game perfectly balanced even if it is made easier to get the event completion. 

Bearing in mind, there are really different profile of players who are willing to spend different amount of time each day on the game, semi casual players like me will really appreciate it if i can complete the event milestones that require item collection within the time frame that is required to complete the number of arena matches or daily quests (which takes about 5 days). Right now, if it feels like if i do not spend more than 4 to 5hs a day on the game, I will not be able to complete these collection milestone quests within the first few days and will take nearly the entire duration of 2 weeks just to get the event completion reward. That leaves me little time to use or build the event hero for the event. 

Although one of your proposed idea is to have an extended week for that purpose, but I feel that the time required for event completion should be shortened to at max 6 days to a week without spending more than 2.5hs a day on the event itself. Bearing in mind also, some of paying players are working, if the game has lesser elements of repetitive gameplay milestones, it will see a better retention rate. 

So why will  allowing faster event completion not disrupt the game balance? The whales would likely get the event hero from pulls or they might not need an event hero for completing quests or compete in event ladders. If most players can gain access to event hero before the ladder, you give a broader base of players a fighting chance to participate in the ladder meaningfully. Whales being whales will top the ladders or experienced players can do the same with the right planning of energy usage. This will increase your event ladder participation and more people can appreciate the use of event heroes during events.  
Competitive elements will not be disrupted this way. 


(B) Promoting Tactical element without any resource expense.

I am not sure how your company measures the success of any feature, be it the number of players actively doing them or spending alot of time on them, but here is my take on preserving and promoting the tactical element of the game. The best part of VF is the different aura and trying out different combinations. Hence players should not incur the expense of energy when trying different combinations out. In fact, when energy is required to try a strategy out, players tend to simply ask each other what is the best strategy to complete each game. Few players are doing the actual thinking. 
To promote more thinking and keeping in spirit of what the game represent, I propose for an option to switch on no energy or stamina consumption mode. This way for any and every stage, players who have the time can experiment without spending energy. There is more resource that way to experiment, creativity will be less stifled in bid to reduce resource consumption. Also players who love the game and love to spend a bulk of their day playing can play the game without any restraint. If they discover the best strategies after spending crazy hours playing, they deserve all the praise and credit. While number of players who do not have time to try and copy strategies instead will not change, the number of players actively trying out new strategies will increase. 


(C) Other comments

Lastly, although the thread title is session time and is a very urgent issue at hand, I do wish to point out a few areas that developers can kindly look into when they can afford the resources to implement. 

1) Unique epic music sound tracks for each event or more vareity of gaming music. Dont get me wrong, the music composed by the ex Square enix veteran is beautiful and is one of the main reason that got me hooked n kept me on this game. But its been more than half a year, listening to a different music sound track will enhance n provide an otherwise fresh gaming experience.

2) I think developers should consider building on the heroes's personality and make gamers feel more involved. Honestly, the story now is quite bland and their profiles are so generic, most people really just skip past the conversations. Players also are unable to clearly identify any particular hero's personality and traits and that makes players feel detached and disinterested. 
The game environment is so beautiful and every time if I do plug in and play VF, it does feel like stepping into another fantasy world, which is a great feeling, but then reality soon sets in when certain bland elements took over. Thus, I feel that improvements in the points suggested above will make the experience a more wholesome one, and I really do want to feel like how I am being taken into another world just as if how many of us feel when we enjoy a great anime. I feel VF has alot of potential for that, but the lack of a good story and more variety of music tracks is holding it back.


Thank you again for reading, Hope some suggestions may be considered. Love the game. 
Cheers,
Freydom

Woahh, i still managed to finish all of my dailies including raids.
But lesser game time is pretty much appreciated. Thanks dev!

2) I think developers should consider building on the heroes's personality and make gamers feel more involved. Honestly, the story now is quite bland and their profiles are so generic, most people really just skip past the conversations. Players also are unable to clearly identify any particular hero's personality and traits and that makes players feel detached and disinterested. 
The game environment is so beautiful and every time if I do plug in and play VF, it does feel like stepping into another fantasy world, which is a great feeling, but then reality soon sets in when certain bland elements took over. Thus, I feel that improvements in the points suggested above will make the experience a more wholesome one, and I really do want to feel like how I am being taken into another world just as if how many of us feel when we enjoy a great anime. I feel VF has alot of potential for that, but the lack of a good story and more variety of music tracks is holding it back.

I agree with most of your other points and will like to agree with this point above as well as expand on it.

Firstly thanks devs for listening and taking in feedback. Good proposed changes but...

(Sorry to be blunt)
You guys seriously need better story writers.

I got attracted to your game by the lore (first loading up the game and seeing/reading that story cutscene, looks perfect and looks like you guys have some deep lore etched out already)

Then come the story quests (which honestly wasn't as good as that initial story) that was still passable...

Then come 6 months of events which mostly do nothing to build that lore (except maybe for one or 2 like the one with Dark Lord but even that felt generic in some way - I mean, are you even going to explain why the dark Lord appeared with miu at the coliseum months from now where people may already have forgotten about that event? ). Most events feels like a Naruto filler (or worse) on repeat. Some random place that probably doesn't even have a spot on your map of Arathos have problems and some random valiant (like Naruto) with some random hero comes in to investigate (save the day).

All the units you've released, would we even see them take some part in the unravelling of the story or are they basically just there to suck our money?

Then this latest patch comes and it's suddenly 4 years later (Naruto Shippuden déjà vu)... Here's hoping that from now, you guys will be able to build a greater story (and lesser fillers) please.

Sorry to go out of topic here but I totally agree with Frey that your "story" up until now is really bland and generic