• [2018/06/22]
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Other Current state of the game

Thesmellofman

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I was really hoping I wouldn't have to post this rant about the current state of the game, I've been sitting on this months, but with the 7.0 update I feel like I need to atlest speak my mind. but here is my thoughts and opinions on the current state of the game.

Road map
The game is in a stagnant state that desperately needs attention. While I appreciate the passion behind the new Guest Stars, I fear it could become a future drain on development time. Balancing them and fixing inevitable bugs will take time that could be better spent addressing the game’s core issues.

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"Guest Stars" weren’t even part of the plan for 2023! Sure, they teased "new characters-ish" but it was so vague that it barely counted. The initial announcement lacked clarity and made it feel like more of an afterthought than a clear milestone on the game's roadmap. It wasn’t presented as a concrete or prioritized part of the game’s future at the time!

Meanwhile, there are still tons of features from the 2023 list that haven’t materialized. It’s already November 2024! Where are the Guilds? Where are the new origin stories? We’ve been waiting, and it feels like these long-promised updates have been completely neglected!


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Now here we are this year in 2024, and we still don’t have Guilds, a main menu redesign, or new origin stories! It frustrates me that they skipped major, game-changing additions for something that doesn’t even feel necessary. If the game was in a healthier state, I’d be thrilled to see guest stars, but right now, the game doesn't need this—it needs way more work before we can even think about guest stars. I understand not everything can be promised in a year but Guilds and Origin stories for example have been “coming soon for years” and got passed by Guest stars when it was just an idea the developers officially had this year.

Rift Battles
Rift Battles are widely criticized for being overly punishing and unbalanced, making them frustrating for many players. The scoring system is a significant issue, as winning only provides a slight point gain, while losing or having defenses fail can result in heavy penalties. This system feels unfair and makes progress feel unrewarding, especially when paired with matchmaking that often pits players against opponents with vastly different skill levels. The heavy reliance on defense performance, which players cannot control during the battle, further exacerbates the frustration, as it punishes even those who have put significant effort into building strong defenses.

Another major problem is the mode’s high barrier to entry and time commitment. Casual or newer players struggle to compete without fully optimized characters, making the mode feel exclusive to experienced players. Completing five Rift Battles, which requires 30 total fights, is a significant time sink, especially given the lackluster rewards that often don’t feel worth the effort. The gameplay itself also lacks strategic depth, with defenses often relying on predictable metas and limiting creativity. These issues combine to make Rift Battles more stressful than enjoyable for most players.

Players have suggested several fixes to improve the mode and address its flaws. A less punishing scoring system, such as reducing point losses for defeats or failed defenses, would make the experience more rewarding. Improved matchmaking could help ensure fairer battles, while reducing the number of required fights would make the mode more accessible to players with limited time. Enhanced rewards and allowing players to have greater control over defense impact would also go a long way in making Rift Battles a more balanced and enjoyable experience. While the mode has potential, its current implementation leaves much to be desired.

Variant Balance

Buffing and nerfing variants as often as possible is crucial to maintaining balance and ensuring that the game remains competitive and enjoyable for all players. When certain variants become too powerful or too weak, it disrupts the overall gameplay experience, making matches feel unfair or unchallenging. Regular adjustments through buffs and nerfs help to level the playing field, encouraging more diverse team compositions and strategies. This not only keeps the meta fresh and dynamic but also ensures that no variant becomes overly dominant or obsolete, which can keep players engaged and invested in the game over the long term.

Guilds

Guilds need to be a priority because they offer a way for players to connect, collaborate, and compete together, which could enhance the game's social and competitive dynamics. A guild system would foster stronger community bonds, encourage team-based events, and introduce more cooperative gameplay elements, keeping players engaged for longer periods. It could also pave the way for new game modes and challenges, such as guild wars or cooperative fights, which would make the game feel fresh and more interactive.

The problem is that the promise of guilds has been lingering for far too long. They've been teased as "coming soon" for years players have been anticipating guilds for even longer than 2023. Now, in November 2024, guilds remain a forgotten promise, constantly pushed aside for other features that don't have the same potential to transform the game. Players who have been waiting for this major addition feel increasingly frustrated as this vital system, which could breathe new life into the game, continues to be overlooked.

Game modes

Skullgirls Mobile needs more game modes to keep the gameplay fresh and engaging for both new and veteran players. Parallel Realms could be more rewarding by either making it a daily event or buffing the rewards to make the three-day wait feel more worthwhile. Currently, the limited availability of Parallel Realms can make it feel underwhelming, especially when the rewards don’t justify the time invested. By improving the rewards or increasing its frequency, players would feel more motivated to participate and better rewarded for their effort, which would keep the game more dynamic and engaging over time. New game modes and improved rewards would prevent stagnation, keeping the experience fresh and ensuring the game’s longevity.

Training mode

Training mode could also use a major overhaul. There's so much potential here. Just borrow some features from the base game’s training mode or add more additions to it so it doesn't feel so empty.

Pity system

A pity system in Skullgirls Mobile could greatly enhance player satisfaction by guaranteeing high-tier fighters after a certain number of pulls. Players often become frustrated when they repeatedly receive low-tier characters or dupes, and a pity system would address this by ensuring that, over time, their efforts are rewarded. This can also encourage spending, as players would be more willing to invest in relics knowing that they won’t walk away empty-handed indefinitely. It would also offer long-term engagement, giving players a clear goal to strive for and keeping them motivated to keep playing, knowing they are working toward something tangible.

Moreover, a pity system would provide a sense of fairness, especially for free-to-play players. These players often struggle to keep up with those who spend money on the game, and a system that guarantees rare or powerful fighters after enough pulls would help level the playing field. This creates a more balanced and inclusive competitive environment, where players feel they have a fair shot regardless of how much they spend, preventing the game from feeling overly pay-to-win.

Without a pity system, this risks alienating a large portion of its player base. Players who experience repeated bad luck with pulls may feel frustrated, leading to burnout and potentially quitting the game. This frustration could spill over into negative feedback on social media and forums, damaging the game's reputation. Additionally, the lack of a pity system can create an unbalanced competitive environment, where luck plays too large a role, making the game feel unfair and discouraging to newer or free-to-play players.

Shard Exchange

The Shard Exchange feels utterly useless and comes off as a cash grab. The system currently requires players to save up 5,000 Diamond and Gold shards within a month, which is completely unrealistic for the average player. Based on past experience and calculations, it’s nearly impossible to earn more than 2,000 shards of each type per month without heavy spending or excessive grinding, making the entire feature feel like a slap in the face to the player base.

To fix this, the shard requirements should be more accessible to common players. A better solution would be to lower the cost of shard exchanges or increase the ways players can earn shards through regular gameplay. For example, reducing the shard requirement to around 2,000 for gold and 2,500 diamond shards per month would allow more casual players to participate while still maintaining a sense of challenge. Additionally, introducing more frequent Shard rewards through daily missions, or events, would give players a more attainable path to obtaining these resources without feeling forced to spend money.

Ultimately, the goal should be to create a system that rewards player commitment without alienating those who don’t have the time or resources to grind excessively. By making these changes, the Shard Exchange could become a more rewarding and accessible feature for everyone.

Diamond Keys

I feel like Diamond Keys are in a decent spot, but one guaranteed key on the daily calendar isn't too appealing to the casual player and not many people want to grind over 60 million points on the fighter of the week challenge. I personally think Brain Drain's Experiments should offer a free diamond key per week for 100% completion of the challenge and if only you reach levels 65-70 on your account. This would make reaching the endgame more rewarding and add excitement to Brain Drain's challenge, rather than just a lackluster reward of low tier keys.

Guest Stars

As it stands, I’ve played with Guest Stars and found them to be buggy and visually cluttered. Often, when I use one, the screen freezes for a second as it registers the Guest Star. The button is awkwardly placed and, in my opinion, visually distracting. The stat bonuses are also problematic, introducing more grinding, microtransactions, and wasted time for what feels like a niche feature.

This feature comes across as rushed and poorly executed, and frankly, it didn’t need to be included in the game at this stage. There should be an option to move or resize the Guest Star button to reduce clutter, and the stat system should be reworked to be less expensive and more accessible.

Conclusion

As of November Guilds and other promised features have not been addressed, but there is the 7.1 patch but they said its a “Minor Update” which is very vague, I am hoping it will be balance changes but it could sadly just be a new monthly variants update. I am hoping the developers will have more communication with the community and so the game can be in a better state. I'm genuinely worried about the current direction this game is heading, It's sadly becoming broken promises and dull.
 
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Very solid and detailed points about the game state.


However I have accepted by now that Guilds are not going to be a thing with the way the game is currently, because let's face it if Guilds were implemented now it would feel basically like Rift 3.0 (Rift rework was supposed to be the 2.0 version but that feels like Parallel Realms is the true 2.0 IMO) with friends which as we all know Skullgirls doesn't have the best player friendly ways of communicating (ie Chat) so the whole thing will be a pain to coordinate outside of the game due to its lack of options.

I agree with most of the points in there (Training mode revamp, pity system and Diamond keys being the most requested for years) but it seems that the Devs have spent the last updates catering to the old players who, let's face it had been left in the dark with every single update until Annie's but now the opposite effect is happening, where new and early mid players are the ones being left behind and the power gap is becoming way bigger to overcome.


In short, all great ideas hopefully Devs take some into consideration