[Valiant Force] From a Dolphin's Point of View
Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2017 8:15 pm
Hi, my name is JamesWong. I classify myself as a mid-spender on the game and this is my take on the current situation of the game. I will first be debunking some of the statements players have cried out about the game before moving on to some of the issues still present within Valiant Force and how it could improve from there.
Let's start with the most common complain:
1) "The developers do not listen!"
The developers DO listen. When you said Memory Crystals were hard to get, they organised a rate up event. When you mentioned that event rewards should include New Event Heroes, they included it within the 100% completion rewards plus made it farm-able from the maps itself too. You demanded they release Guild Raid. Well, they did that too(albeit a flawed one, which we will get to later on). You cried out for a chance to restore your weapon. Just spend gold to re-roll. "OMG, my Faith is not right?!" Here's a pixie for you. I'm not sure if the partial set bonus was a suggestion but if it is well throw that in the list as well. I am pretty sure there were many other suggestions that were implemented so those plus the above just goes to show that the developers DO listen! In fact, sometimes I feel they listen and care too much. So much so that, with the continued barrage of negative comments, they have entered into this state of mind. "What's the point in responding to all the hate? We have done our best to listen, to change and all we get back is persistent criticism." And that is perhaps the reason they no longer respond to any of the forum posts. I kinda sympathize when I stand in their shoes and I hope to convince some of you to see it that way too. As someone aptly put during the Loveable banning saga(which we will also get to), Give Credit Where Credit is Due(GCWCID).
To the developers: I think you are doing a great job. Please continue listening to our feedback, responding to our comments and changing the game for the better.
2) "The Gatcha rates suck"
I use 5600 Gems on Summoning every 2 weeks. I believe that the percentage to draw a 5* potential is currently 10% and the rate to draw the New Event Hero is probably 0.71%. If I consider just Valiant Force alone, I will most certainly tell you that the rates are really bad. However, I have read many of the forum posts on popular games such as Summoner's War and Fire Emblem and it seems that this game is pretty generous with it's rates as well as how you can attain gems. I recently also started trying out Dynasty Warriors. I watched a video of a guy trying to summon a Lu Bu. He must have spent hundreds of dollars only to not get the characters he wanted. Do we have such a problem? Nope. In my upcoming 5600 Gem Summoning video, you will realize I did not even get a single New Event Hero at all. That is by the way 140 units summoned. What did I do? I just went to the Shop and bought it using Valianite. Valianite was a really great idea by the Developers. It is versatile and can be used in a myriad of ways. Kudos to them for coming up with it. Again, GCWCID.
PS: I have also stopped playing Dynasty Warriors. Action RPGs' are not for me.
3) "Archers are too OP!"
My first response would be "Then why don't you create an Archer team?" And they will probably be like "I don't have so and so character or don't have so and so runes" Then shouldn't you respect the people who managed to create such a team and understand it wasn't easy for them to do so. I do not use an Archer Arena team. If you watched my video titled "Arena Legendary Milestone Achieved", you will realise that I eat Archers for breakfast. I would much rather face 5 Archers than 2 Swappers. So since the age of release of Ronan and Faye, Archers ceased to be OP. But...but Summoners are OP. Yes, that I have to agree and we will get to that.
4) "The game is too easy/hard."
To the developers: If someone complains the content is too hard, take heed of them and if too many say the same, please lower the difficulty.
To those who say event too easy: Screw you! I would like to see you complete last event Master Trial 2 with no gem usage. We are not playing Darkest Dungeons or XCOM Within. Might I suggest you try out those games for an increased in difficulty of game-play level.
5) "The game takes too much time"
Recently, someone asked me to try out a game called King's Raid sort of as a Valiant Force replacement. Like I mentioned, I don't really like ARPG. Another of my friend tried it out and told me it was actually more time consuming than Valiant Force. I don't think any game out there, be it Summoner's War, 7 Knights, Dynasty Warriors are any less grindy. I think the correct version of what that statement should be is "For some reason, I have lost interest in the game" If on the off chance you are talking about the raid, with the release of Sven, there is a way to attain at least 1.6 million points without retreating so that should very much shorten your length of gameplay time. I will be creating videos on the Raid Bosses once my schedule frees up.
Now, with all the above rebuttals, am I implying that this game is practically made out of Rainbows and Unicorns? Absolutely not. Let's look into some aspects in which XII Braves can definitely improve upon.
1) Raid
Raid was probably one of the why many people left. It led to the re-shuffling of so many guilds. New players being kicked to the kerb because they weren't hitting so and so guild requirements. Guilds disbanding as players left to seek out guilds that could kill off raid bosses. Added to that, the only viable way of dealing high damage to the boss without using an unsustainable amount of items seemed to be using the Drake Kahuna Combo which required lots of retreating and a humongous amount of RNG plus time wastage.
What XII Braves could have done better: Since it was still in Beta, they should release it only for a period of 1 week, shut it down, gather feedback, make changes, re implement it again for 1 week. Rinse and repeat till perfection.
As it stands, many people are burnt out and not many have the motivation to clear raid bosses. With the introduction of Sven, clearing all 4 raid bosses with a full team of 35 strong warriors is definitely possible. The main reason why this week's raid as well as possibly the next week's one will have no such guild clearing all 4 is because the player base is tired.
So what can XII Braves do: Lower the raid boss difficulty(the third and fourth boss) even further please. Make it not a chore but something people look forward to doing because they know they can get to the end.
2) Arena
Summoners are OP. I think that about sums it up.
To XII Braves: Please do more detailed testing before releasing new characters into the system. If you watched my arena video on "Arena Legendary Milestone Achieved", when I went up against two Talissas', both summons managed to cast spells before I even had the chance to cast anything. It's supposed to be a turn-based RPG, not I 1-turn, opponent many turns-RPG. The worst was when I went up against this team that had Ronan and Sven and Talissa. Both Summons plus Ronan managed to cast their spells before I could even do anything. I am already using a tanky combination and I can't even withstand that kind of damage. Arena should never be about one Meta alone. Before Summoners, despite many crying that Archer's were OP, there were actually 3 Metas; Archers, Swappers and Mages. Now, I just pray I can tank. So please make Valiant Force a true blue Turn-based RPG again. Thanks!
3) Events
Stop coming up with stages that cannot be completed without gems. It was the same with the last event whereby Master Trial 2 was impossible without the spending of gems. It is the same for this event on stage 52 onward. I understand that this is supposed to be Master level or a Guild event. From a Dolphin's point of view, I have spent gems to upgrade my equipment, to get Heroes leveled up and now I still have to spend gems to clear a stage. It really deters me from doing so. In the end, I did not even attempt Master Trial 2 last event. I believe you have records and I assume they will show you that only a handful of people did do it because no one seemed to respond or want to show off what Master Trial 3 was in the forums, Discord as well as on Facebook. This then begs the question, who are you creating content for? 5 individuals? A guild of 35 very passionate people but is now already disbanded?
What XII Braves can do:
As soon as you can, please lower the difficulty of Ascension Keep Level 52 onward as they will require guild-mates to just inefficiently waste their energy throwing themselves against the boss to lower the difficulty when the energy can be used instead to farm for Sven. If you do not lower the difficulty, you will create more rifts within the guilds or you will again just be designing Trials for those few individuals(whomever they are). One day, these whales will get sick of you milking them and also decide not to do them. I, as a mid-range spender, just want to upgrade my heroes and equipment and clear whatever all the Trials. I believe there are other Dolphins out there who share the same sentiment. Like I mentioned before, for those who complained that content was too easy; Screw them, ask them to clear Master Trial 2 last event without using gems or switch to Darkest Dungeons.
Guidelines for the difficulty of events: Before coming up with future events, consider this. Are there 100 players within the game that can complete this content? Are there 3 guilds within the game that can complete the content? People who spend money in the game(whales and dolphins) want to feel a sense of accomplishment. By introducing content that can only be completed via an inefficient usage of time, gems and energy will only cause more players to leave. So I do hope you consider this and execute the necessary changes.
One more point with regards to events. Do not make Normal difficulty have the ability to get more event orbs than Master difficulty. The point of playing or paying for games is to know that your hard work, your time spent is rewarded. By having Normal difficulty give more event orbs than Master difficulty, you are promoting non-strategic game-play and having players choose between competing as well as getting better loot. This two do not go hand in hand and does not make sense. Why do players have to choose? Isn't it common sense if I manual on Master(takes me 6 minutes) as compared to I auto on Normal(takes me less than 1 minute), I should be getting more of everything? I hope that XII Braves no longer puts players in such a situation.
4) Banning of people
I agree with the recent ban wave. If people use underhand methods to attain cheaper gems, they should be banned. The only sad part was that this could not have been done sooner. I know of two of my guild-mates, I would term them as whales as they were always Top 10 on the Event Leader-boards, who left because it seemed that no matter how much they spent, they could not get to the top. If Valiant Force had caught onto those cheaters sooner, they might not have left and we would still have two very impressive strategists within the game.
What XII Braves can do: From what I have heard, gem sellers use Google Credits gotten from doing surveys to purchase gems. The players then give their accounts to these gem sellers who then use the Google Credits to purchase gems for them and sell them at a cheaper price. I am unsure if these credits are different from those bought in a 7-11 but if they are Valiant Force can disallow any gems to be bought using such credits.
Final Words
I have played quite a few games(Pokemon Go, Dot Arena, Rage of Bahamut, Clash Royale, Clash of Clans, Hearthstone). In all these games mentioned, I have spent hundreds, if not thousands on them. In comparison, even after 5 months and 25 YouTube videos later, I can still say I really like Valiant Force a lot. I like how I have as much time to think as I would like before I make my next move. I like how this game allows me to go into standby mode and then resume it later. I like the way auras work as well as the character skill animations. For those who are thinking about quitting or who have quit, what game are you going to turn to that has such features and more. If you do indeed find a Turn-Based RPG recently or soon-to-be released, drop me a PM and I will check it out. In the meantime, Valiant Force, you have my support
Let's start with the most common complain:
1) "The developers do not listen!"
The developers DO listen. When you said Memory Crystals were hard to get, they organised a rate up event. When you mentioned that event rewards should include New Event Heroes, they included it within the 100% completion rewards plus made it farm-able from the maps itself too. You demanded they release Guild Raid. Well, they did that too(albeit a flawed one, which we will get to later on). You cried out for a chance to restore your weapon. Just spend gold to re-roll. "OMG, my Faith is not right?!" Here's a pixie for you. I'm not sure if the partial set bonus was a suggestion but if it is well throw that in the list as well. I am pretty sure there were many other suggestions that were implemented so those plus the above just goes to show that the developers DO listen! In fact, sometimes I feel they listen and care too much. So much so that, with the continued barrage of negative comments, they have entered into this state of mind. "What's the point in responding to all the hate? We have done our best to listen, to change and all we get back is persistent criticism." And that is perhaps the reason they no longer respond to any of the forum posts. I kinda sympathize when I stand in their shoes and I hope to convince some of you to see it that way too. As someone aptly put during the Loveable banning saga(which we will also get to), Give Credit Where Credit is Due(GCWCID).
To the developers: I think you are doing a great job. Please continue listening to our feedback, responding to our comments and changing the game for the better.
2) "The Gatcha rates suck"
I use 5600 Gems on Summoning every 2 weeks. I believe that the percentage to draw a 5* potential is currently 10% and the rate to draw the New Event Hero is probably 0.71%. If I consider just Valiant Force alone, I will most certainly tell you that the rates are really bad. However, I have read many of the forum posts on popular games such as Summoner's War and Fire Emblem and it seems that this game is pretty generous with it's rates as well as how you can attain gems. I recently also started trying out Dynasty Warriors. I watched a video of a guy trying to summon a Lu Bu. He must have spent hundreds of dollars only to not get the characters he wanted. Do we have such a problem? Nope. In my upcoming 5600 Gem Summoning video, you will realize I did not even get a single New Event Hero at all. That is by the way 140 units summoned. What did I do? I just went to the Shop and bought it using Valianite. Valianite was a really great idea by the Developers. It is versatile and can be used in a myriad of ways. Kudos to them for coming up with it. Again, GCWCID.
PS: I have also stopped playing Dynasty Warriors. Action RPGs' are not for me.
3) "Archers are too OP!"
My first response would be "Then why don't you create an Archer team?" And they will probably be like "I don't have so and so character or don't have so and so runes" Then shouldn't you respect the people who managed to create such a team and understand it wasn't easy for them to do so. I do not use an Archer Arena team. If you watched my video titled "Arena Legendary Milestone Achieved", you will realise that I eat Archers for breakfast. I would much rather face 5 Archers than 2 Swappers. So since the age of release of Ronan and Faye, Archers ceased to be OP. But...but Summoners are OP. Yes, that I have to agree and we will get to that.
4) "The game is too easy/hard."
To the developers: If someone complains the content is too hard, take heed of them and if too many say the same, please lower the difficulty.
To those who say event too easy: Screw you! I would like to see you complete last event Master Trial 2 with no gem usage. We are not playing Darkest Dungeons or XCOM Within. Might I suggest you try out those games for an increased in difficulty of game-play level.
5) "The game takes too much time"
Recently, someone asked me to try out a game called King's Raid sort of as a Valiant Force replacement. Like I mentioned, I don't really like ARPG. Another of my friend tried it out and told me it was actually more time consuming than Valiant Force. I don't think any game out there, be it Summoner's War, 7 Knights, Dynasty Warriors are any less grindy. I think the correct version of what that statement should be is "For some reason, I have lost interest in the game" If on the off chance you are talking about the raid, with the release of Sven, there is a way to attain at least 1.6 million points without retreating so that should very much shorten your length of gameplay time. I will be creating videos on the Raid Bosses once my schedule frees up.
Now, with all the above rebuttals, am I implying that this game is practically made out of Rainbows and Unicorns? Absolutely not. Let's look into some aspects in which XII Braves can definitely improve upon.
1) Raid
Raid was probably one of the why many people left. It led to the re-shuffling of so many guilds. New players being kicked to the kerb because they weren't hitting so and so guild requirements. Guilds disbanding as players left to seek out guilds that could kill off raid bosses. Added to that, the only viable way of dealing high damage to the boss without using an unsustainable amount of items seemed to be using the Drake Kahuna Combo which required lots of retreating and a humongous amount of RNG plus time wastage.
What XII Braves could have done better: Since it was still in Beta, they should release it only for a period of 1 week, shut it down, gather feedback, make changes, re implement it again for 1 week. Rinse and repeat till perfection.
As it stands, many people are burnt out and not many have the motivation to clear raid bosses. With the introduction of Sven, clearing all 4 raid bosses with a full team of 35 strong warriors is definitely possible. The main reason why this week's raid as well as possibly the next week's one will have no such guild clearing all 4 is because the player base is tired.
So what can XII Braves do: Lower the raid boss difficulty(the third and fourth boss) even further please. Make it not a chore but something people look forward to doing because they know they can get to the end.
2) Arena
Summoners are OP. I think that about sums it up.
To XII Braves: Please do more detailed testing before releasing new characters into the system. If you watched my arena video on "Arena Legendary Milestone Achieved", when I went up against two Talissas', both summons managed to cast spells before I even had the chance to cast anything. It's supposed to be a turn-based RPG, not I 1-turn, opponent many turns-RPG. The worst was when I went up against this team that had Ronan and Sven and Talissa. Both Summons plus Ronan managed to cast their spells before I could even do anything. I am already using a tanky combination and I can't even withstand that kind of damage. Arena should never be about one Meta alone. Before Summoners, despite many crying that Archer's were OP, there were actually 3 Metas; Archers, Swappers and Mages. Now, I just pray I can tank. So please make Valiant Force a true blue Turn-based RPG again. Thanks!
3) Events
Stop coming up with stages that cannot be completed without gems. It was the same with the last event whereby Master Trial 2 was impossible without the spending of gems. It is the same for this event on stage 52 onward. I understand that this is supposed to be Master level or a Guild event. From a Dolphin's point of view, I have spent gems to upgrade my equipment, to get Heroes leveled up and now I still have to spend gems to clear a stage. It really deters me from doing so. In the end, I did not even attempt Master Trial 2 last event. I believe you have records and I assume they will show you that only a handful of people did do it because no one seemed to respond or want to show off what Master Trial 3 was in the forums, Discord as well as on Facebook. This then begs the question, who are you creating content for? 5 individuals? A guild of 35 very passionate people but is now already disbanded?
What XII Braves can do:
As soon as you can, please lower the difficulty of Ascension Keep Level 52 onward as they will require guild-mates to just inefficiently waste their energy throwing themselves against the boss to lower the difficulty when the energy can be used instead to farm for Sven. If you do not lower the difficulty, you will create more rifts within the guilds or you will again just be designing Trials for those few individuals(whomever they are). One day, these whales will get sick of you milking them and also decide not to do them. I, as a mid-range spender, just want to upgrade my heroes and equipment and clear whatever all the Trials. I believe there are other Dolphins out there who share the same sentiment. Like I mentioned before, for those who complained that content was too easy; Screw them, ask them to clear Master Trial 2 last event without using gems or switch to Darkest Dungeons.
Guidelines for the difficulty of events: Before coming up with future events, consider this. Are there 100 players within the game that can complete this content? Are there 3 guilds within the game that can complete the content? People who spend money in the game(whales and dolphins) want to feel a sense of accomplishment. By introducing content that can only be completed via an inefficient usage of time, gems and energy will only cause more players to leave. So I do hope you consider this and execute the necessary changes.
One more point with regards to events. Do not make Normal difficulty have the ability to get more event orbs than Master difficulty. The point of playing or paying for games is to know that your hard work, your time spent is rewarded. By having Normal difficulty give more event orbs than Master difficulty, you are promoting non-strategic game-play and having players choose between competing as well as getting better loot. This two do not go hand in hand and does not make sense. Why do players have to choose? Isn't it common sense if I manual on Master(takes me 6 minutes) as compared to I auto on Normal(takes me less than 1 minute), I should be getting more of everything? I hope that XII Braves no longer puts players in such a situation.
4) Banning of people
I agree with the recent ban wave. If people use underhand methods to attain cheaper gems, they should be banned. The only sad part was that this could not have been done sooner. I know of two of my guild-mates, I would term them as whales as they were always Top 10 on the Event Leader-boards, who left because it seemed that no matter how much they spent, they could not get to the top. If Valiant Force had caught onto those cheaters sooner, they might not have left and we would still have two very impressive strategists within the game.
What XII Braves can do: From what I have heard, gem sellers use Google Credits gotten from doing surveys to purchase gems. The players then give their accounts to these gem sellers who then use the Google Credits to purchase gems for them and sell them at a cheaper price. I am unsure if these credits are different from those bought in a 7-11 but if they are Valiant Force can disallow any gems to be bought using such credits.
Final Words
I have played quite a few games(Pokemon Go, Dot Arena, Rage of Bahamut, Clash Royale, Clash of Clans, Hearthstone). In all these games mentioned, I have spent hundreds, if not thousands on them. In comparison, even after 5 months and 25 YouTube videos later, I can still say I really like Valiant Force a lot. I like how I have as much time to think as I would like before I make my next move. I like how this game allows me to go into standby mode and then resume it later. I like the way auras work as well as the character skill animations. For those who are thinking about quitting or who have quit, what game are you going to turn to that has such features and more. If you do indeed find a Turn-Based RPG recently or soon-to-be released, drop me a PM and I will check it out. In the meantime, Valiant Force, you have my support
