After my previous adventure into crowdsourcing the reward breakpoints (multiple the minimum tier to multiply the rewards, some tiers can only ever have 1 or 2 rewards), I wanted to do the same thing for the reward contents - however, I think that is basically an impossibility at this point.
So, my suggestion would be for NF to make the reward badges a little more transparent.
In the sacrifice rewards popup (top left of the sacrifice screen), for each badge that appears, show the minimum and maximum values for that badge. This will help people choose if they want to hold out for the next tier or if the current rewards are "good enough". Without hitting each tier individually, its difficult to see the difference between a grand and an exalted sacrifice.
This will help us, the userbase, give feedback to NF regarding the balancing of the reward tiers, which, in return, keeps us coming back and prevents us from being embittered by a bad sacrifice.
...
Speaking of bad sacrifice, I recently did a VI sacrifice and got one legendary soul. It was a four star dupe. Even if it was new, or a new five star, I had to sacrifice two five's and a few four's to get that reward.
Its a bad reward and should not have been an option. I get that you want a bit of rng involved, and thats fine, but the rewards for VI are clearly discrepant in value. 15 g/a souls feels like a bit of a distant second place after 50 reg souls. 1 legendary or 2 skillshards is a smack in the face.
I'm fine with one of those rewards being objectively better, but the remaining three should be about on par. Look at the potential reward breakdown:
50 reg souls = ~5 four star, 0.5 five star, plus the rewards from five 1500 dust sacrifices from all the three star characters. This is clearly the best reward
15 g/a souls = 1.5 four star, plus the rewards of ~two 1500 dust sacrifices from the three star characters. This is the second best, but very far behind
legendary soul (I don't know the max, but 1 is def the min) = 0.1 five star (per soul).
skill shard = skill shards are nice, but i've received two from this sacrifice, and thats way too few.
*fractions are given by percentage chance of obtaining that level
So my suggestion to balance this would be to make the bottom three (g/a. legendary, skill shard) feel approximately even so its not as much of a letdown. I'd also want to increase the rewards for them so they dont feel so far behind the top prize.
I think that 20-25 g/a souls would feel a bit better - you'll get an average of 2.5 level 4 out of it, with a slightly better chance of a five star. On top of that you'll have a bunch more dust to throw back into the machine - not as much as the top prize, but still doesn't feel like a letdown.
For legendary souls I think that 5 would be a good start. ~5% chance of a 5 star, and four more 4 star's for the pit. I could see have a variance of this, but I feel 10 would be far too many and would eclipse the top spot.
For skill shards I think a massive increase is necessary, especially at the rate that a dedicated player can obtain them. I can manage several a week, but a level VI sacrifice takes me months of obtaining souls to pull off. I think 15-20 skill shards here would feel like a decent reward.
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Basically, for balancing, ask yourself (or, NF, ask your players) which gift they would like for free:
50 reg souls
15 g/a souls
1 legendary soul
2 skill shards
Then go back and check your numbers -they're not going to be balanced at all with those rewards. If you keep repeating the question while adjusting the rewards, you'll eventually find some sort of balance where the lesser values are more or less "even".
Rant over.
#MakeSacrificesGreatAgain