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- May 5, 2017
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Hey everyone!
After seeing some of the feedback regarding our recent update to Daily Events in 5.1, we wanted to provide more context regarding our goals for this adjustment and to let you know why we made these changes and what further updates we have in store for the feature.
Effectively completing Daily Events required figuring out proper counters to challenging modifiers and match constraints, all of which are interesting puzzle boxes for progressing players through mid-game. Once you got to the point where you could clear these events comfortably however, they became a tedious slog. While you COULD use tools like Fight Assist to lessen the tedium somewhat, the previous system actively encouraged players to spend a significant amount of time (perhaps over an hour, if you’re doing all difficulties) engaging in content that - for those players - was far from compelling.
As a result, many of our mid-late game players fell into one of two camps:
1. Due to the rewards, they dutifully played Dailies every day, but saw it as boring/tedious “filler”
2. Due to the chore-like nature of Dailies, they didn’t even bother to engage with them at all
As you might expect, both of these results are Not Ideal.
We reflected on all this in context of one of the main goals regarding our recent Quality of Life updates - maximizing the amount of fun players are having per SGM minute played. If we know a certain mode or feature is dragging down the day to day experience, we want to nip that in the bud as best as possible. We would rather players spend less time playing Skullgirls Mobile every day if that means that their time spent in-game is more rewarding.
PREPARING FOR THE NEXT 5 YEARS OF SKULLGIRLS MOBILE
As Skullgirls Mobile celebrates its 5-year anniversary, we find ourselves at a bit of a crossroads. Some F2P games stagnate and coast indefinitely - slowly becoming further and further out of touch with other games on the market. Other F2P games take steps to try to improve their existing systems and economy as notable pain points arise and player expectations change, even if it comes at the risk of upsetting the uneasy balance they have struck prior (e.g. “the devils you know”).
Even though we’re 5 years in, Skullgirls Mobile still has tremendous room for growth. But we recognize that any time we attempt to make a paradigm shift, those pivots will also often come with a bit of friction.
In the case of Daily Events, we’ve made some conscious choices as it relates to the role we want Daily Events to play in each player’s journey and in their day-to-day sessions. In brief, our primary goal with the Daily Event refactor in 5.1 was to enable players to engage with Daily Events in an inviting fashion that spares them the slog in order to “make room” for players to spend time with more engaging content (e.g. Prize Fights, Rift Battles, future modes, etc).
For players who were slogging through Dailies every day, we want to allow you to earn rewards much more quickly so you can focus on other things. For players who were avoiding Dailies, we want them to become a snappy, rewarding aspect of your daily SGM routine.
CANOPY COIN SOURCES
As many of you have noted, one of the downsides of this particular approach is that - for players who were going above and beyond to maximally exhaust Daily Events prior to 5.1 - you could earn more Canopy Coins per week than you can after 5.1 (now that Daily Events are limited by Tickets).
We recognize that Canopy Coins are a resource that is in high demand, and anything that impacts the rate at which players can earn those resources for free will create a bit of friction. That said, Character Daily Events were not originally intended to serve as a primary source for Canopy Coins, and - despite the willingness for players to descend into the Canopy Coin mines to progress their collection - that is not an experience that we want to enable or encourage.
That said, we realize this creates a Canopy Coin void that otherwise needs to be filled. As such, we have some solutions for that (short and long term) that we hope will ensure Canopy Coins can be reliably acquired at a healthy/reasonable rate without creating undue, unpleasant demands on players.
UPCOMING ADJUSTMENTS
So! In light of all of that, what should folks expect in the short term and the long term?
SHORT TERM
We are going to be making two adjustments:
1. Starting Thursday (8/11/22), players will get 4 Daily Event Tickets per day (up from 3 per day)
2. Starting NOW, mid-week Medici Prize Fight events will reliably occur every Wednesday/Thursday (as opposed to every other week)
Both of these adjustments significantly increase the amount of resources (including Canopy Coins) that players are able to glean from Daily Events without significantly increasing the playtime overhead that was previously required, while also making it easier for players to spare tickets for Holodeck Hazards if they so desire.
This does not get things “1:1” with how they were prior to 5.1 from a raw “total potential Canopy Coins per week/month” perspective, but it is significantly closer at a fraction of the time investment.
LONG TERM
We are going to look into providing content for players who are primarily gated by Canopy Coins so players can choose to invest the time/energy/resources in maximizing that resource if they so choose. This rationale is similar to our decision to update Prize Fights to include Diamond Keys and guaranteed milestone-based Gold Fighter rewards.
As noted in our Roadmap, we will also continue to invest in refinements to our Move System, including the ability for players to reroll and/or enhance certain sub-stats as opposed to relying entirely on RNG, so players aren’t entirely reliant upon Canopy Coins in order to build the perfect move loadout.
In the interest of speaking to it specifically, we are NOT planning on restoring old functionality and changing Daily Event Tickets to only function as “Skip Tickets”. We know that limiting access to content that was previously freely available may rub some folks the wrong way in the interim, but - as noted earlier - we are actively looking to discourage players from feeling compelled to play through unengaging content to get the resources they need. We are confident that the current approach will provide players with rapid, sustainable access to these resources, and any tuning or adjustments we make will be within the confines of this system.
WRAPPING UP
I know there are a slew of other questions and improvements that folks would like to see as it relates to Daily Events and/or the Economy as a whole. Just know that we are listening and always looking to make the adjustments that are best for the moment-to-moment experience for every player and for the health of the game overall.
Thanks once again for all of your support - we look forward to your continued feedback as we refine the game further so it can continue to thrive for another 5 years!
<3 MightyZug
After seeing some of the feedback regarding our recent update to Daily Events in 5.1, we wanted to provide more context regarding our goals for this adjustment and to let you know why we made these changes and what further updates we have in store for the feature.
WHY WE CHANGED DAILY EVENTS
Prior to 5.1, Daily Events existed as a reliable means for players to invest time and yellow (non Prize Fight) energy to get an array of resources - including Skill Points, Canopy Coins, and Moves.Effectively completing Daily Events required figuring out proper counters to challenging modifiers and match constraints, all of which are interesting puzzle boxes for progressing players through mid-game. Once you got to the point where you could clear these events comfortably however, they became a tedious slog. While you COULD use tools like Fight Assist to lessen the tedium somewhat, the previous system actively encouraged players to spend a significant amount of time (perhaps over an hour, if you’re doing all difficulties) engaging in content that - for those players - was far from compelling.
As a result, many of our mid-late game players fell into one of two camps:
1. Due to the rewards, they dutifully played Dailies every day, but saw it as boring/tedious “filler”
2. Due to the chore-like nature of Dailies, they didn’t even bother to engage with them at all
As you might expect, both of these results are Not Ideal.
We reflected on all this in context of one of the main goals regarding our recent Quality of Life updates - maximizing the amount of fun players are having per SGM minute played. If we know a certain mode or feature is dragging down the day to day experience, we want to nip that in the bud as best as possible. We would rather players spend less time playing Skullgirls Mobile every day if that means that their time spent in-game is more rewarding.
PREPARING FOR THE NEXT 5 YEARS OF SKULLGIRLS MOBILE
As Skullgirls Mobile celebrates its 5-year anniversary, we find ourselves at a bit of a crossroads. Some F2P games stagnate and coast indefinitely - slowly becoming further and further out of touch with other games on the market. Other F2P games take steps to try to improve their existing systems and economy as notable pain points arise and player expectations change, even if it comes at the risk of upsetting the uneasy balance they have struck prior (e.g. “the devils you know”).
Even though we’re 5 years in, Skullgirls Mobile still has tremendous room for growth. But we recognize that any time we attempt to make a paradigm shift, those pivots will also often come with a bit of friction.
In the case of Daily Events, we’ve made some conscious choices as it relates to the role we want Daily Events to play in each player’s journey and in their day-to-day sessions. In brief, our primary goal with the Daily Event refactor in 5.1 was to enable players to engage with Daily Events in an inviting fashion that spares them the slog in order to “make room” for players to spend time with more engaging content (e.g. Prize Fights, Rift Battles, future modes, etc).
For players who were slogging through Dailies every day, we want to allow you to earn rewards much more quickly so you can focus on other things. For players who were avoiding Dailies, we want them to become a snappy, rewarding aspect of your daily SGM routine.
CANOPY COIN SOURCES
As many of you have noted, one of the downsides of this particular approach is that - for players who were going above and beyond to maximally exhaust Daily Events prior to 5.1 - you could earn more Canopy Coins per week than you can after 5.1 (now that Daily Events are limited by Tickets).
We recognize that Canopy Coins are a resource that is in high demand, and anything that impacts the rate at which players can earn those resources for free will create a bit of friction. That said, Character Daily Events were not originally intended to serve as a primary source for Canopy Coins, and - despite the willingness for players to descend into the Canopy Coin mines to progress their collection - that is not an experience that we want to enable or encourage.
That said, we realize this creates a Canopy Coin void that otherwise needs to be filled. As such, we have some solutions for that (short and long term) that we hope will ensure Canopy Coins can be reliably acquired at a healthy/reasonable rate without creating undue, unpleasant demands on players.
UPCOMING ADJUSTMENTS
So! In light of all of that, what should folks expect in the short term and the long term?
SHORT TERM
We are going to be making two adjustments:
1. Starting Thursday (8/11/22), players will get 4 Daily Event Tickets per day (up from 3 per day)
2. Starting NOW, mid-week Medici Prize Fight events will reliably occur every Wednesday/Thursday (as opposed to every other week)
Both of these adjustments significantly increase the amount of resources (including Canopy Coins) that players are able to glean from Daily Events without significantly increasing the playtime overhead that was previously required, while also making it easier for players to spare tickets for Holodeck Hazards if they so desire.
This does not get things “1:1” with how they were prior to 5.1 from a raw “total potential Canopy Coins per week/month” perspective, but it is significantly closer at a fraction of the time investment.
LONG TERM
We are going to look into providing content for players who are primarily gated by Canopy Coins so players can choose to invest the time/energy/resources in maximizing that resource if they so choose. This rationale is similar to our decision to update Prize Fights to include Diamond Keys and guaranteed milestone-based Gold Fighter rewards.
As noted in our Roadmap, we will also continue to invest in refinements to our Move System, including the ability for players to reroll and/or enhance certain sub-stats as opposed to relying entirely on RNG, so players aren’t entirely reliant upon Canopy Coins in order to build the perfect move loadout.
In the interest of speaking to it specifically, we are NOT planning on restoring old functionality and changing Daily Event Tickets to only function as “Skip Tickets”. We know that limiting access to content that was previously freely available may rub some folks the wrong way in the interim, but - as noted earlier - we are actively looking to discourage players from feeling compelled to play through unengaging content to get the resources they need. We are confident that the current approach will provide players with rapid, sustainable access to these resources, and any tuning or adjustments we make will be within the confines of this system.
WRAPPING UP
I know there are a slew of other questions and improvements that folks would like to see as it relates to Daily Events and/or the Economy as a whole. Just know that we are listening and always looking to make the adjustments that are best for the moment-to-moment experience for every player and for the health of the game overall.
Thanks once again for all of your support - we look forward to your continued feedback as we refine the game further so it can continue to thrive for another 5 years!
<3 MightyZug
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