Let's talk about Skill Shards

[Frost]

Hi All!

For some time I'm thinking of skill shards, how game breaking they are and the rate we get them. Right now we get 12 from playing the game (from campaign rewards) and one every 5k trooper badges. This bothers me most because they are so important yet so difficult to get, wich is ok, but they'll be even harder since with the next update trooper badges will afford new Eddies and souls from another allies. So what will we do next? Buy skill shards or save for other trooper rewards?

Let me example. Let's look at WickerDog Queen:



She needs 10 skill shards to max. If you play all your 50 troopers and if they play you, you have 50 x 25 x 2 = 2,500, wich is a skill shard every 2 days; this is not real, since you crash, your troopers crash, and not always you and your troppers play. Let's say you get one every 3 days. That takes 30 days to max WDQ. Will we save trooper badges for 30 days!??!? What about Rainmaker Eddie!?!?!

What I am suggesting here is to lower the levels of skills but increase the power of each upgrade. This way they'll still get the power and impact of the game they already have, but will make it easier to farm and have spare trooper badges for future trooper itens. Example:

Magic Charge:
Lvl 2: Damage + 10%
Lvl 3: Damage + 10%

Blast:
Lvl 2: Damage + 20%
Lvl 3: Effect + 15%
Lvl 4: Damage + 30%

That way the final upgrade result will remain the same, but the impact and power of each upgrade will be greater, rewarding more for less skill shard cost.

Why am I suggesting this? Well, to balance thing out the devs can do several things to "foce" us to buy trooper itens instead of skill shards:

1 - limit again the buy for 1 a week;
2 - raise the cost of skill shards;
3 - make it so that upgrading skills don't have any significant impact anymore
4 - etc.

IMO all of these are bad

What yo guys think can be done?

[Vaseodin]

I get your dilemma. But I have to respectfully disagree that there is a problem when it comes to skill shard availability.

I am of the belief that skill shards ARE strong and therefore should be rare. They are by no means impossible to attain.

Adding more options to the trooper store is great for everybody, as it doesn't require "pay to play". The devs could have easily just made new content available to paying players. They chose not to, because the philosophy of the game is that you can win without paying a dime. On the other hand, if you are willing to pay an arm and a leg, they give you the option to pay and gain a slight advantage (temporarily) by getting skill shards a bit more quickly.

My opinion is, if you have found a team you love and want to improve them, buy skill shards. If you haven't found the perfect team as of yet, use your trooper points for new characters. Once you have them, save up for skill shards.

I think removing the 1 per week limit was a great move and being able to purchase skill shards every 3 days is pretty darn good.

[slauki]

skillshards are going to be the most rare item in the game, when the droprates are fixed. that's why i like the idea of lowering the level which can be upgraded with the skillshards.

but i woudn't lower the level, i think it would be more reasonable to make it easier to earn the skillshards. it's totally understandable, that they are rare but when new characters and pvp comes along you will need huge amounts of skillshards, and im not willing to pay 50 bucks for 3 lousy shards. that's why i would opt for a higher droprate in the secret level or maybe even in the brave new world or in daily challanges. maybe it would also be an option to lower the costs, because of the new stuff that will be available in the trooperstore.

anyway the worst they could to is to set the limit again to once a week. this would be a pain in the ass for the most players...

EDIT: i disagree with vaseodin. the team you love won't exist when it comes to pvp. you will have to have many good chars and use them when it's necessary. sure there is a core team, but you won't be able to use it every time since it depends on the team of your opponent. that's why many more skillshards will be necessary imo...if someone pays all the money for the shards he will have a huge advantage over every other opponent, than it would be pay to win, regardless what the say.

[Vaseodin]

skillshards are going to be the most rare item in the game, when the droprates are fixed. that's why i like the idea of lowering the level which can be upgraded with the skillshards.

but i woudn't lower the level, i think it would be more reasonable to make it easier to earn the skillshards. it's totally understandable, that they are rare but when new characters and pvp comes along you will need huge amounts of skillshards, and im not willing to pay 50 bucks for 3 lousy shards. that's why i would opt for a higher droprate in the secret level or maybe even in the brave new world or in daily challanges. maybe it would also be an option to lower the costs, because of the new stuff that will be available in the trooperstore.

anyway the worst they could to is to set the limit again to once a week. this would be a pain in the ass for the most players...

EDIT: i disagree with vaseodin. the team you love won't exist when it comes to pvp. you will have to have many good chars and use them when it's necessary. sure there is a core team, but you won't be able to use it every time since it depends on the team of your opponent. that's why many more skillshards will be necessary imo...if someone pays all the money for the shards he will have a huge advantage over every other opponent, than it would be pay to win, regardless what the say.

The thing is, you can't say for sure, as we don't yet know how pop is going to work. If opponents are random, then you do just need a well rounded team vs many teams. If the case is that you can pick opponents, then yes, you will need a pretty diverse roster. But we can't say just yet if that's how it will work.

[Eagleknight]

But if they change the skillshards to one a week that will really hurt how a person can prepare for pvp. I mean they are already limited by the possible amount of trooper points one can earn and by the fact that the drop rate is nonexistent. I have got 1 in 2 months and I play everyday. No matter how they set up pvp skillshards will be a major player in the win/loss category.

[Ancient Mariner]

Can someone explain me what will change with the next updates about skillshards?
WOn't you get them anymore from troopers points?

[Vaseodin]

Can someone explain me what will change with the next updates about skillshards?
WOn't you get them anymore from troopers points?

You will, but they are adding more options to spend points on. VERY enticing things that everyone will want, which means you will have less points to spend on skill shards unless you elect not to get the new content.

[Frost]

Can someone explain me what will change with the next updates about skillshards?
WOn't you get them anymore from troopers points?

In theory, nothing will change regarding skill shards. Just my worries that with the new itens in trooper store they will be less attractive to buy or even harder to get since they can increase the value or something else to "force" people to buy the new trooper itens. So I was wondering how to keep skill shards special and gamebreaking as they are in that scenario.

[Ancient Mariner]

Ah ok thank you.
well then i don't think it's goinb to be a big deal, the fun of the game is also to take hard decisions, otherwise it would be too easy and boring.
It just takes usually 3 days to get a skill shard anyways, so if it's really needed we will just have sometimes to spend that time on a new one

[aur0ra85]

It's supposed to be one week per skill shard. The limit was removed due to a bug...