To preface this, I am by no means a highly advanced top percentage player (or even spender) on the game. This is to list a few concerns I have with the new Guest Stars release alongside other skeletons in the closet that I think need cleaning. A lot of these concerns were collated or drawn from others' concerns via the SGM official Discord Server.
So yes Guest Stars as a concept are fine by me, the assist aspect and the use of them in gameplay is interesting and is obviously very pretty to look at. It's very straightforward, you tap the button and the Guest Star does their move like any other Special Move or Blockbuster in the game, simple, fine.
(I understand a lot of other players have concern with them being basically untouchable/invulnerable as moves, but the dust hasn't really settled yet. And there's a few larger concerns I'd want looked at before fine tuning the ingame combat aspect of using and being against Guest Stars)
The deckbuilding and economic aspect of the Guest Stars seems to be done very sloppily.
- Most would say scummy (which isn't entirely untrue) but I choose to believe that this aspect is mostly just incomplete or has not been tested much. The resources required to upgrade Guest Stars, both Stardust and Canopy Coins, seem to be very costly and slow to obtain. As of this time, the Prize Fight dedicated to Guest Stars has yet to come out- but many players, including me, find it concerning that they're extremely expensive in Canopy Coins to upgrade. The fact that they come with Variants permanently associated per Guest Star's move, and the three random stats akin to regular movesets- are why so many players are so disappointed with this release.
(like yes they're very pretty but obviously there are things to improve on here)
MY suggestion to help aid in this, even slightly, is to simplify Guest Stars to individual Variants with select moves that can be equipped per character- allowing Fighters to equip a specific move from a set Guest Star Variant- or something similar to help simplify both the collection and management Guest Stars and their moves. Like if Guest Stars have like say- 5 moves total, a regular Fighter should be allowed to take 1 of 5 moves from a specific guest star's variant, move effects and all.
The removal of the three variant stats assigned to each Guest Star or moves per Guest Star
- Many of us believe that the game is already as complex or nitty gritty as it is, with the current RPG and RNG stat system in Fighters' moves and blockbusters. I kindly ask that the Guest Stars' moves or upgrades be simplified to their SA's or associated buffs, debuffs, and effects- as to make the management and use of them more enticing and accessible. Upgrades to these Guest Stars' moves or stats should be reduced to upgrading the effects they apply or use. This concern also ties in with the fact that Guest Stars currently use Gold Retakes to have individual stats rerolled, which is already an issue as Retakes and Gold retakes- as well as nitty gritty stat management, are already extremely difficult and slow to do for any player. Retake relics are bloated with several characters' individual retake points, and Gold Retakes are incredibly rare to obtain. And most often, the rewards obtained from Retake Relics often results in at best 1-2 Retakes of certain characters, this is an issue that I would like to see fixed or minimized for Guest Stars too. (I understand the plan was most likely to release individual Retakes for the new Guest Stars, but I think the idea altogether need not happen.)
The latter point is something not specifically about Guest Stars, but is more of a lingering concern the game has had for a long time. The current daily events that can be fulfilled with tickets simply do not give enough. The rewards obtained from the daily grinds does not feel like enough. Players often report that the characters' Skill Points obtained from character dailies are simply not enough to create a satisfying or fair pacing in the game's progression. Many players also report that they still somehow find silver moves in their rewards from character dailies set to the highest difficulty. The daily to weekly grind of SGM just simply does not feel rewarding to most players, even to those who consistently spend money on extremities like the Backstage Pass or various ingame offers. From bronze/silver/gold/diamond keys, to the amount of Canopy Coins earned daily, to the Skill Points and moves per character. The game has a wide array of characters to offer but so little to support any players' ability to invest or progress in the game, every step of progression of the game feels like such an incredible slog.
A suggestion many have asked for, even beyond just increasing the daily rewards- is a feature that allows players to convert keys of a lower tier into a key of a higher one by combining several duplicates of a lower tier key. Like from Bronze Keys to Silver Keys, Silver Keys to Gold Keys, and Gold Keys to Diamond Keys. Many players have reported that they receive or have an excess abundance of keys that are irrelevant or unhelpful to them, so features like Key Fusion or even the ability to trade a certain amount of keys in the Cabinet of Curiosities for items, would singificantly benefit the current circulation of ingame resources and progression.
So far this is all the key details about big ingame suggestions or changes I can think of, there might obviously be a large slew of other bugs or concerns others have. Now for more misc. changes or concerns that I would like to bring up
In-App Purchase Offers and general Ingame Relic Offers are often expensive or unrewarding
- Many players often report that they find extremely expensive or bloated prices for random one-off relic offers or resource offers for ingame things. From the theonite and Premier Relic offers available through the SGM hub to ingame ones as well. I am sure that many players can label things in detail with more specifics and screenshots but I think the pricing (in real money and ingame theonite) is kind of concerning.
Guilds (this is a suggestion for what guilds could contain, in comparison to how other games similar to SGM handle their Guild systems)
- Guilds should be created with the premise that there are events dedicated to Guild-happenings, my suggestion for those events are both Guild Rift Battles as well as Raid Boss style events for guilds.
Guild vs Guild rifts should be done similarly to how Clash of Clans' Clan wars happen (okay I might be wrong and yes I understand it's silly but stay with me here):
Guild leaders pick a guild to go against similar to the current rift menu, a Guild Rift Defense Base should look similar to the current 1v1 rifts- but each node is assigned a guild member (maybe by the guild leader or player choice- something like that) and each member gets to edit and put together their own individual node. The victory is decided by total points of how well the assigned members of the opposing guild performed against your guild's rift defense base. There is obviously much to be fine tuned or possible concerns about that but I think of all things "PvP" to do with SGM, this is one of the possibly newer and refreshing kind.
Guild Raid Bosses (I also think there should be Raid Boss style events even outside of guilds)
- similar to how Cookie Run Kingdom runs their Guilds and raid events, there should be guild-exclusive raid bosses. Like prize fights, each raid boss can have their own conditions, variants, and modifiers that encourage players to play a certain way to "get" points or kills on the raid boss. The raid boss as a gameplay mechanic could be something like a singular super powered variant (or even a team!), with various modifiers or restrictions in place- as well as individual difficulties (Beginner/Advanced/Expert/Master/Nightmare/No Mercy). And the points obtained from chipping at the healthbar or killing the raid boss should be determined by the difficulty selected, the amount of times a raid boss has been killed (difficulty should scale as a player gets more repeated successes), and maybe even the time taken to kill/chip at its HP. Think of it as like fighting a super strong boss node in Parallel Realms combined with modifiers from Prize fights or the extreme difficulty of Peacock's Master Mode Origin Story, so if your team dies in an attempt- you can go back and fight the boss with the same team. (Cookie run restricts/controls the amount of attempts you can have to kill a raid boss usually per-run of the raid event, so you can't just farm it by slowly chipping at the HP and restarting again or boost your guild up the leaderboards that way). Ideally the design of the raid boss should be killable easily with a bit of effort but not too simple that any build or team will function against it, many games' raid boss events like in CRK or AFK Journey always include a looming threat of death more often than the threat of time running out. Usually through permanent damage over time to the player or by the raid boss becoming more and more powerful as time passes.
Rift Cheaters/ This game needs a stricter or more efficient anti-cheat system
- Many top rifters and players of the game have reported their concerns about Rift Boosting. The act of wintrading or farming wins/losses to help boost oneself or someone else by helping someone maintain their position as a top player on the rift leaderboard. Rift battles themselves also need a better existing ELO system as it stands, but it doesn't help that cheaters and boosters are so abundant in the system. My suggestion to deal with boosting is to possibly apply penalties to the person that lost depending on the fighterscores of their top variants- or to add a hidden filter that restricts them from fighting the same player again and again to boost their rank. Cheaters and hackers are also super abundant as of late, I'm not sure what the solution is but it's such an incredibly big concern.
All in all these are all the largest concerns I could currently think of, I might add more in a reply but I also encourage others to choice their nitty gritty concerns as well. I really wish to critique this game in the most hollistic or fair manner that I could, and I wanted to take this chance to suggest a slew of larger changes before things become set into stone.
I really do wish the best for this game.
(I apologize for any typos or lengthy sentences)
So yes Guest Stars as a concept are fine by me, the assist aspect and the use of them in gameplay is interesting and is obviously very pretty to look at. It's very straightforward, you tap the button and the Guest Star does their move like any other Special Move or Blockbuster in the game, simple, fine.
(I understand a lot of other players have concern with them being basically untouchable/invulnerable as moves, but the dust hasn't really settled yet. And there's a few larger concerns I'd want looked at before fine tuning the ingame combat aspect of using and being against Guest Stars)
The deckbuilding and economic aspect of the Guest Stars seems to be done very sloppily.
- Most would say scummy (which isn't entirely untrue) but I choose to believe that this aspect is mostly just incomplete or has not been tested much. The resources required to upgrade Guest Stars, both Stardust and Canopy Coins, seem to be very costly and slow to obtain. As of this time, the Prize Fight dedicated to Guest Stars has yet to come out- but many players, including me, find it concerning that they're extremely expensive in Canopy Coins to upgrade. The fact that they come with Variants permanently associated per Guest Star's move, and the three random stats akin to regular movesets- are why so many players are so disappointed with this release.
(like yes they're very pretty but obviously there are things to improve on here)
MY suggestion to help aid in this, even slightly, is to simplify Guest Stars to individual Variants with select moves that can be equipped per character- allowing Fighters to equip a specific move from a set Guest Star Variant- or something similar to help simplify both the collection and management Guest Stars and their moves. Like if Guest Stars have like say- 5 moves total, a regular Fighter should be allowed to take 1 of 5 moves from a specific guest star's variant, move effects and all.
The removal of the three variant stats assigned to each Guest Star or moves per Guest Star
- Many of us believe that the game is already as complex or nitty gritty as it is, with the current RPG and RNG stat system in Fighters' moves and blockbusters. I kindly ask that the Guest Stars' moves or upgrades be simplified to their SA's or associated buffs, debuffs, and effects- as to make the management and use of them more enticing and accessible. Upgrades to these Guest Stars' moves or stats should be reduced to upgrading the effects they apply or use. This concern also ties in with the fact that Guest Stars currently use Gold Retakes to have individual stats rerolled, which is already an issue as Retakes and Gold retakes- as well as nitty gritty stat management, are already extremely difficult and slow to do for any player. Retake relics are bloated with several characters' individual retake points, and Gold Retakes are incredibly rare to obtain. And most often, the rewards obtained from Retake Relics often results in at best 1-2 Retakes of certain characters, this is an issue that I would like to see fixed or minimized for Guest Stars too. (I understand the plan was most likely to release individual Retakes for the new Guest Stars, but I think the idea altogether need not happen.)
The latter point is something not specifically about Guest Stars, but is more of a lingering concern the game has had for a long time. The current daily events that can be fulfilled with tickets simply do not give enough. The rewards obtained from the daily grinds does not feel like enough. Players often report that the characters' Skill Points obtained from character dailies are simply not enough to create a satisfying or fair pacing in the game's progression. Many players also report that they still somehow find silver moves in their rewards from character dailies set to the highest difficulty. The daily to weekly grind of SGM just simply does not feel rewarding to most players, even to those who consistently spend money on extremities like the Backstage Pass or various ingame offers. From bronze/silver/gold/diamond keys, to the amount of Canopy Coins earned daily, to the Skill Points and moves per character. The game has a wide array of characters to offer but so little to support any players' ability to invest or progress in the game, every step of progression of the game feels like such an incredible slog.
A suggestion many have asked for, even beyond just increasing the daily rewards- is a feature that allows players to convert keys of a lower tier into a key of a higher one by combining several duplicates of a lower tier key. Like from Bronze Keys to Silver Keys, Silver Keys to Gold Keys, and Gold Keys to Diamond Keys. Many players have reported that they receive or have an excess abundance of keys that are irrelevant or unhelpful to them, so features like Key Fusion or even the ability to trade a certain amount of keys in the Cabinet of Curiosities for items, would singificantly benefit the current circulation of ingame resources and progression.
So far this is all the key details about big ingame suggestions or changes I can think of, there might obviously be a large slew of other bugs or concerns others have. Now for more misc. changes or concerns that I would like to bring up
In-App Purchase Offers and general Ingame Relic Offers are often expensive or unrewarding
- Many players often report that they find extremely expensive or bloated prices for random one-off relic offers or resource offers for ingame things. From the theonite and Premier Relic offers available through the SGM hub to ingame ones as well. I am sure that many players can label things in detail with more specifics and screenshots but I think the pricing (in real money and ingame theonite) is kind of concerning.
Guilds (this is a suggestion for what guilds could contain, in comparison to how other games similar to SGM handle their Guild systems)
- Guilds should be created with the premise that there are events dedicated to Guild-happenings, my suggestion for those events are both Guild Rift Battles as well as Raid Boss style events for guilds.
Guild vs Guild rifts should be done similarly to how Clash of Clans' Clan wars happen (okay I might be wrong and yes I understand it's silly but stay with me here):
Guild leaders pick a guild to go against similar to the current rift menu, a Guild Rift Defense Base should look similar to the current 1v1 rifts- but each node is assigned a guild member (maybe by the guild leader or player choice- something like that) and each member gets to edit and put together their own individual node. The victory is decided by total points of how well the assigned members of the opposing guild performed against your guild's rift defense base. There is obviously much to be fine tuned or possible concerns about that but I think of all things "PvP" to do with SGM, this is one of the possibly newer and refreshing kind.
Guild Raid Bosses (I also think there should be Raid Boss style events even outside of guilds)
- similar to how Cookie Run Kingdom runs their Guilds and raid events, there should be guild-exclusive raid bosses. Like prize fights, each raid boss can have their own conditions, variants, and modifiers that encourage players to play a certain way to "get" points or kills on the raid boss. The raid boss as a gameplay mechanic could be something like a singular super powered variant (or even a team!), with various modifiers or restrictions in place- as well as individual difficulties (Beginner/Advanced/Expert/Master/Nightmare/No Mercy). And the points obtained from chipping at the healthbar or killing the raid boss should be determined by the difficulty selected, the amount of times a raid boss has been killed (difficulty should scale as a player gets more repeated successes), and maybe even the time taken to kill/chip at its HP. Think of it as like fighting a super strong boss node in Parallel Realms combined with modifiers from Prize fights or the extreme difficulty of Peacock's Master Mode Origin Story, so if your team dies in an attempt- you can go back and fight the boss with the same team. (Cookie run restricts/controls the amount of attempts you can have to kill a raid boss usually per-run of the raid event, so you can't just farm it by slowly chipping at the HP and restarting again or boost your guild up the leaderboards that way). Ideally the design of the raid boss should be killable easily with a bit of effort but not too simple that any build or team will function against it, many games' raid boss events like in CRK or AFK Journey always include a looming threat of death more often than the threat of time running out. Usually through permanent damage over time to the player or by the raid boss becoming more and more powerful as time passes.
Rift Cheaters/ This game needs a stricter or more efficient anti-cheat system
- Many top rifters and players of the game have reported their concerns about Rift Boosting. The act of wintrading or farming wins/losses to help boost oneself or someone else by helping someone maintain their position as a top player on the rift leaderboard. Rift battles themselves also need a better existing ELO system as it stands, but it doesn't help that cheaters and boosters are so abundant in the system. My suggestion to deal with boosting is to possibly apply penalties to the person that lost depending on the fighterscores of their top variants- or to add a hidden filter that restricts them from fighting the same player again and again to boost their rank. Cheaters and hackers are also super abundant as of late, I'm not sure what the solution is but it's such an incredibly big concern.
All in all these are all the largest concerns I could currently think of, I might add more in a reply but I also encourage others to choice their nitty gritty concerns as well. I really wish to critique this game in the most hollistic or fair manner that I could, and I wanted to take this chance to suggest a slew of larger changes before things become set into stone.
I really do wish the best for this game.
(I apologize for any typos or lengthy sentences)