Fri Jan 05, 2018 10:06 pm
As we usher in the New Year, we are all filled with hope. New resolutions to do something about that fat a**, make more money, spend more time with family and friends, s̶p̶e̶n̶d̶ ̶m̶o̶r̶e̶ ̶m̶o̶n̶e̶y̶ ̶o̶n̶ ̶V̶a̶l̶i̶a̶n̶t̶ ̶F̶o̶r̶c̶e̶. Honestly speaking, because of this grueling past week, the thought of quitting Valiant Force did cross my mind. Like some of long-standing comrades who have left or are thinking of leaving, I felt that the game no longer cared about me and the time, effort and money I put in was just being sucked into the black hole called XII Braves and out of that hole comes not fun but hopelessness and just an endless desire to drain you dry.
So to XII Braves, trust me when I say that your Developer Blog for 2018 seriously does you little favors and you should instead focus on some of the more current pressing issues in the game that the article will touch on instead of continuing to produce content that no one really wants.
Valiant Force 2018: Yay or Neigh?
First up, let's briefly touch on the 2018 Roadmap laid down by XII Braves. Garrison upgrades: you will need more gold. Heroes Awakening: $$$. Talent Tomes: $$$. Guild Events: Use gems to exchange for energy. Min-max your equipment further: $$$. Raid 2: We seriously hate SDD and we are salty that you guys always find a way to SDD. Runes: We gonna make your current Runes suck so we can introduce new Runes so you can spend $$$ to get and upgrade them cos we are out of ideas. Arena: Ok this one I do them credit for, I indeed fo look forward to Capture the Flag and the Queen's Egg is a good addition for F2P players. Give credit where credit is due (GCWCID). Conquest: Finally. Trust me, if the Heroes Awakening, Talent Tomes or increasing the "journey of the Equipment" is anything like the current Talent system, it is all $$$.
Again, I have no qualms about spending. I understand you have to make money. I understand your daughter needs to go see Baby Shark being performed Live. I understand your wife needs that Prada bag. I understand you need to drive that BMW to compensate for whatever it is you need compensating for. I totally dig that but I just need you to do a few things for me first.
1) Please improve the rates for King's Eggs and X10 400 Gems summons.
Yes, you can argue that Valianites have been implemented so you should use them or you can argue that you have been benevolent and allowed New Event Heroes to be dropped as the stages are being cleared or you can even argue that you have included Gem rebates so people can summon more times. I totally appluad you for all the above actions(GCWCID) but I need you to understand something. Sometimes, all people want to feel is that they are the specialest luckiest snowflake in the world. My grandmother passed away the day before New's Year's Eve. A few days later, the ladder ended. I got 15th position(I'll get to that later). At that point of time, I was honestly not feeling too great about life. All I wanted was for something good to happen to me. That night, I opened 15 King's Eggs. I did 14 X10 400 Gem summons. The best I got from those King's Eggs was a measly 750 Gems and those summons didn't even give me a single Red Riding Hood. Then now you might argue maybe you were just unlucky this time round. Ok then, how do you explain the last 14 X10 400 Gem summons I did for the Snow White event. I too got no New Event Hero in those first 14 summons. Also, to pile on, I have never ever gotten a single Dark Lord ticket from a King's Egg EVER, despite having bought every single King's Egg(more than 60) since it's release. And yes, it was at that moment, I felt that this game was no longer worth it. When I was down, all it needed to do after me spending more than a year investing in it, was just give me 2 event heroes or a Dark Lord ticket and it couldn't even do so. So please, improve your rates, because the next draw might very well be my or somebody else's last one.
2) Can you just please freaking remove the stupid Level-up bundle?
The Level-up bundle has cost me at least twice important ranking positions. Once it has cost me the first position in an event ladder and most recently, my top 10 position. You keep stressing your motto is Be Valiant, Play Fair but you are not exactly setting up a level playing field. How is it fair when a player is punished because he is a higher level. The reason he is a higher level is because he devoted more time and money to your game and you are punishing him for it? Does that make sense? Does that seem fair? I'm honestly done with and excuses you can give like "You should choose the ladder you want to compete in?" or "All hands on deck for Conquest." or "This measure is to aid lower level players." Please, let me just refute all this crappy excuses once and for all so you can finally get something done. Firstly, I cannot choose which ladder to compete in unless I know all the prizes of all future ladders and I'm guessing you are not going to give out that information right? Secondly, all hands on deck for Conquest means no time to counteract Bleed SDD(I'll get to this later) or SW SDD for Raid 2 or perhaps implement Awakening. Besides, I have told you about this problem since September last year. think instead it's about what you are most salty about or what earns you the most money that drives you to make changes. Thirdly, limit the level-up package to level 1-70. All others bundles are time-based instead. I don't think any level above 70 should be considered low right? So please fix this ASAP and stop giving goddamn excuses before it negatively impacts me or others again.
3) Stop changing the content so drastically and frequently
Back when the game just started, changes to the game seemed to take a long time, months even and it gave me the feel that there was much consideration before these changes were implemented. Examples are Sven nerf, Summoner nerf and so on. These days, changes seem to happen in a matter of days or weeks. There are some good ones, like changing the costume to cost Valianites (yes I support that) and removing the Snowman achievement(GCWCID). Then there are the rest; Insignia legacy, Raid 2 changes after beta to counter SW SDD. Removal of Bleed SDD. Honestly speaking, this does not bode well for the game especially if the changes are driven by emotion. Yes, you might argue that SW SDD might make PVE a little too easy. But what about Bleed SDD. There are not many instances in which using this strategy is viable. In fact, I can probably count the number of events I used Bleed SDD with just one hand. The reason for this nerf is because you guys said before Raid 2 was released that we wouldn't be able to use SDD but someone went ahead and figured a way to. So you guys got salty and decide to do away with it. Honestly, I think the guy who came up with it was a genius and I think XII Braves was behaving like a sore loser with a move like that. Why remove something that is not a big meta changer? Just because someone made you eat your words? Recently I posted a video on Cassandra Ninja. I showed it to my guild before posting it and some advised that I should not post it for fear of a nerf. It is because of this wanton need for everything to go your way that you create this fear within your players and content creators that stifles creativity. If you continue this path, instead of putting the word "strategy" in the description of your game, you should instead add "Play it my way or no way"
Change your attitude or your game is gonna go bust.
At this juncture, the author is honestly considering how far he is going to carry on with this game. He does see some efforts the developers are making to keep F2P players around(Calendars, costume changes, achievement requirements, mailing shirts, lucky draws for Heroes) but definitely more can be done to make more of the populace happy. Regardless, the author will be back to making videos in the coming week so see you peeps soon.