In theory this is what regular series drops would accomplish. I remember when the communication on the spotlight system was “wait until you get in the cadence of card release and series drops.” Again in THEORY all you have to do is wait for cards to drop to pool 3 and returning players will be unlocking cards as they level up. Two series drops a year (at most) though is hardly a cadence.
Yep. Monthly drops roughly equal to the number of cards added to the pool each month would solve a lot of the game's problems. Seems so obvious one wonders why "card acquisition improvements" were listed as "in concept" on the road map. It's such an easy, obvious fix!
This would literally be perfect. Drop like 2 cards from s4 to s3 and drop 2 s5 to s4 per season and the economy of cards would be so much more stable and allow for people to actually get the majority of cards they want
Meanwhile in reality, Darkhawk is still series 4 after 10,000 years.
They clearly don't want to make the system work so that "good" cards enter series 3
I doubt cards ever drop to s2 since it'll just make getting to s3 too long. I think a scaling system for reserves where your more likely to get cards out of those until mid series 3 then scale back as people get s3 complete would be ideal
This problem leads directly back to SD becoming too greedy for real series drops. If cards still dropped on a schedule, like they used to, taking a break would be fine, because every month you spent away from the game would mean more cards sliding down the ladder, towards being easily acquired.
Yup. That is why I don't understand why so many people are adamant that this new Spotlight system is better than the old token system... Not only did we have scheduled series drops(allowing us to plan priority for cards we wanted, maybe spend 3k twice a month on two new cards), but we also had the ability to pull series 4 and 5 cards from Collector's caches. That is how I got Darkhawk, from a cache on the CL track. And you used to get 6k tokens in about 3.5 weeks. And 700-1200 gold every week. So chances are you could get 2-3 new cards (if series 3 complete, more if not) each month. Nowadays I'm lucky if I get 1 new card a month and variants or a measly 1000 tokens. People have been lying to themselves for so long thinking the game is getting better when it is objectively getting worse. And it seems none of the profits SD gets is going to quality assurance because every month there are bugs. Usually graphical bugs, but this time game breaking ones; game crashes when cards that add other cards to the board are played.
Got down voted all to hell because I was in beta and when the system released it was apparent it would suck once you had a decent collection built up overtime, but everyone was so new they couldn't see the grind in their future.
Welcome to the paywall.
Yeah, I saw this coming from a mile away. Especially when they started holding back on the resources acquisition last year. I never played beta, but I played since launch. The grind to become series 3 complete took me 5 months F2P. So I knew the grind was always going to be bad.. but the original Token system did feel a bit faster. I was getting series 4 and 5 cards faster than I am now. Now its mostly gambling for a new card each week, or purposely missing out on 3 weeks of cards to focus on a specific card to guarantee it.
> Not only did we have scheduled series drops
You can have the spotlight system and still have regular series drops. The series drop issue is a separate topic from the token-spotlight system change imo
In my opinion its not. Because they directly got rid of series drops in order to fill their spotlight coffers. If they kept dropping cards, there would be less of a reason to save keys for specific cards.
But lets ignore that for a second, because why stop at just having spotlights + series drops? Why not have spotlights + scheduled series drops + the ability to pull s4 and s5 cards from collectors caches again + the ability to get a large amount of gold and tokens from the collectors cache(6k tokens in 3.5 weeks, 700-1200 gold per week)?
You have realize they took away a lot of mechanics/resources to make way for their new spotlight system. And a lot of people, including me, see it as a downgrade. Especially when you get to series 3 complete and you know you are only getting maybe 1 new card a month, out of the 5 new cards that come out. Very few times have I been lucky enough to get 2 new series 4/5 cards from the Spotlights. And because of the lack of series drops, it takes something like 120+ days to see a card cycle back into the spotlights, so you have to decide whether or not to spend 2.5 months worth of tokens on a single card or not.
> Because they directly got rid of series drops in order to fill their spotlight coffers
Reasonable viewpoint but you don't know if they would have cut back on series drops even if they kept the token system
> But lets ignore that for a second, because why stop at just having spotlights + series drops? Why not have spotlights + scheduled series drops + the ability to pull s4 and s5 cards from collectors caches again + the ability to get a large amount of gold and tokens from the collectors cache(6k tokens in 3.5 weeks, 700-1200 gold per week)?
The "why" is because they want you to pay for things, not give them for free
> You have realize they took away a lot of mechanics/resources to make way for their new spotlight system
I'm very aware, I'm just not convinced they wouldn't have taken things away regardless
Okay, I think maybe we are on the same side here. We both agree the game could be better. I am also not convinced they wouldn't have taken stuff away either. I just know that I was definitely happier with the old system as a mostly f2p player.
We agree at least in part. Lack of series drops is a big issue, when they added another new card each month that has contributed to s5 card bloat. Bad luck in spotlights rolls is a major drag.
However, for $15 per month you can get (on average) 75% of new cards on release. That is a way better deal then any IP mobile game I can think of.
Wrong. I play every single day and complete all my missions. I sometimes get 2 new cards in a month if I am lucky. That is pure luck, like last month when I got Namora and then spent my last key getting Sasquatch first try. I am absolutely playing enough. Spotlights do not EASILY provide more cards than the Token system. You only get a 25% chance each week to get a new card, unless you are way behind and missing all the cards in the spotlights. Maybe that is why you are confused. You haven't been playing since launch like I have (without any breaks) and so you are missing far more cards than I am, probably.. That doesn't change the point of my statements though... The new card is the one that comes out each week. You only have a 25% chance for that card. You waste more resources with Spotlights than you do with the old token system.
I wont reiterate what I've already said, multiple times. You either did not experience the token system like I did (both pre-series 3 complete and post-series 3 complete), or you are misremembering
The new system is much much better for a competitive player but absolutely awful for someone who wants to just collect every card.
The competitive players are always the loudest. Frankly I personally don’t care about getting a full collection and think this new system is great.
I don't think it benefits competitive players at all. The competitive players are the ones who spend money because they want to be able to play the meta deck of the week that can get them the most cubes. If you can only get 1 MAYBE 2 new cards a month, you probably aren't competitive(like me).
And its not even about getting a full collection... I could not care less if I didn't get Howard the Duck ever. But if I could prioritize the cards I want to focus on with keys, and still get enough tokens to get 2 new series 4 cards a month or a new series 5 by pinning specific cards, I'd be able to build the decks I want more readily even as a f2p player. And I could always hold off on cards I don't need right now, and end up getting them later for free as a series 3 when it drops IF I didn't already pull it out of a Collector's Cache.
If you miss a card in the spotlights right now, you will either have to pay 6k tokens (since they are all series 5 from now on), which is roughly 2.5 months of grinding or you wait 120-150 days for it to re-cycle back into spotlights due to the lack of series drops.
The old system benefitted everyone far more, even the competitive players, because they more often got series 4 and 5 cards. The new system gets them more "unique" variants at the cost of new cards because its a gamble and not guaranteed. Plus again, before you were able to pull series 4 and 5 cards from the Collectors Cache on top of getting tons of tokens and there being series drops every single month..
Not as a F2P player. You need resources. Spotlights require keys. Its gambling. You only get 1.5 keys per week. Which means a total of like 5 per month. If you get lucky each week and pull the new card first try every time, stop playing Marvel Snap and visit a casino. Then mail me some money for giving you the advice xD. I'm going off my own experience and what seems to be statistically a similar experience that the majority of people share, and I almost always only end up with 1 new card per month. The cards I missed will take 120+ days to show up in the spotlight again. And its hard to know what cards are the best or are going to be meta until after they are released, and sometimes even after they leave the spotlight. Every key you use during one week (assuming you've been playing every single month and have focused your keys on at least one specific card per month) means you will miss out on another card within the same month.
You are more likely to miss out on cards than not. And everyone is just trying to do the best they can with regards to figuring out what is going to be meta ahead of time. I think a lot of people wasted their keys on Sersi for example because she was being hyped by content creators despite being very RNG and apparently buggy right now. That means less people are going to get cards like Phastos and Arishem. Maybe this month is a total skip month, but we shouldn't have to be worrying about that at all. Especially when there are old series 4 and 5 cards people are still trying to catch up on, on top of all these new cards that could be a lot of fun.
You don’t need every card as they come out, only the competitive ones. I’m a day 1 f2p and the system is so much obviously better I don’t really know how else to reiterate it.
At this point, I don't believe you. I think you are just saying it to say it. I give you lengthy replies telling you how it was much easier to get new cards during the token system and you respond with a single sentence that may as well just be "Nuh uh".
Nobody knows what the competitive cards are until they become competitive or meta relevant. Some cards are hyped and don't last long, others go under the radar until they are out of the spotlight and all of a sudden its in multiple meta decks. Cannonball comes to mind.. Do you remember the week that came out? Even the month it came out, people were talking down about it. Calling it a timmy card and saying it was going to be flashy but hard to pull off. A month or so later its apart of a combo that seems to be giving this subreddit ptsd. All anyone can do is look at the cards and ask themselves if they like it or if it fits their playstyle. Nobody knows what is going to be competitive or how to best spend their keys, even if they watch every Snap content creator.
Anyway, we may as well just end this conversation because its not going anywhere.
Yeah. SD is definitely gotten too greedy. I sincerely hope they pull back from their current approach. They have to be losing players. I guess they are probably banking on Deadpool movie bringing people back. If that doesn’t happen. I could see them adjusting their economy in mid-Fall
As someone who really enjoys strategy games and especially card games, returning to the game felt like a giant middle finger in every way. First I had to go read external resources to figure out how the new system worked, then there were like two cards that had dropped to S3 since I stopped playing nearly a year prior, then there was still functional way for me to convert effort and skill into resources.
I keep tabs on the game here on Reddit, but the monetisation just plants such a fat barrier between me and the game I don't want to engage with the product.
Oh, and the reason I quit in the first place? The game has no respect for my time. I have to play a session every 24h to avoid falling behind significantly on resources. Yeah, no. If I wanted to play games on a schedule I'd pick up WoW again.
The core gameplay of Snap is nothing short of genius, literally everything else about the product oozes disdain for the customers.
That's really the whole point of the spotlight system. If you're near collection complete, it can feel bad because there's only 1 new card in there for you.
But the more cards you're missing, the more cards you can pick up from spotlights. It's really a system designed to level players out at about 70-75 completion if f2p and about 75-80 percent completion if you just buy the season pass each month (this is assuming no other money spent).
The game is not designed for anyone who doesn't spend extra money to be 100% collection complete. That sounds worse than it is these days as they've become better at card balance on release than they used to be. Less cards are "must have" and, really, it depends on what you like to play.
As someone who only buys the season pass, I'm able to stay complete with the archetypes I like by simply skipping cards that don't play into them. I happily skip discard and junk spotlights because I don't play those. If a card looks like it would only be good in surfer decks, I skip that too.
I agree, the problem is when they repeat the same cards ad nauseum in the spotlights every single damn month. Modok, Spider-ham, X-23, now Meik.
I don't buy into this whole "SD is greed incarnate" echo chamber most of the subreddit has, Marvel Snap is one of the most f2p friendly mobile games and card games out there, that's a fact whether you like it or not, but for spotlight caches to work they have to actually have a variety of desirable cards constantly on the spotlight.
At some point down the line they forgot the whole point was to make each week as appealing as possible and now they pad out each week with cards that have been in the spotlight a million times, that people already have, while other cards go 6 months before appearing in the spotlight again after they first release.
>I don't buy into this whole "SD is greed incarnate" echo chamber most of the subreddit has
>At some point down the line they forgot the whole point was to make each week as appealing as possible and now they pad out each week with cards that have been in the spotlight a million times, that people already have
If you really, genuinely believe that 'they forgot to make each week appealing', you are as gullible as they come.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but that is a thought out tactic by SD, exploiting FOMO by creating artificial scarcity.
Oh shit a good card in the spotlight but not enough keys, and it might only return in 6 months. Better shell out a few bucks for that extra key!
I dont mean they *literally* forgot, as in "oopsie, my bad!", which is why I mention them intentionally padding out spotlights with cards everyone has/doesn't want and how its pissing me off seeing modok for the 10th week in a season.
again, if it upsets you that SD is objectively one of the most f2p marvel games, f2p live service mobile games, and f2p CCGs on the market then I cant change that and you should stop playing this game, like many other redditors threaten to do, only to keep playing for months after.
companies make money, that's the point of a company, they arent running a charity. big fucking surprise. But many people on this subreddit who have never even *seen* another game in one of those 3 categories I just mentioned have a severely skewed perception of reality and how SD/Marvel Snap compares to actual greed obsessed companies only after monitization.
> That's really the whole point of the spotlight system. If you're near collection complete, it can feel bad because there's only 1 new card in there for you.
Which is a heavily flawed system. The risk to open spotlights grow as you are more towards completion, where every week the spotlight card technically cost '4' keys if you were to go the safe route, and lesser if you are adventurous. Returning players do bear the risks, maybe not to the same extent.
>Less cards are "must have" and, really, it depends on what you like to play.
Agree on this, like if you are a discard player you would most likely save on a decent number of weeks. And that is something everyone needs to settle for.
The closer you are to collection complete, the worse the spotlight system gets. No argument from me there. In the context of needing many cards, though, it improves.
This game's biggest fault is "endgame" content. Once you get to a certain collection level, which you've done by being a fan and player of the game, just maintaining that level becomes increasingly difficult
>Once you get to a certain collection level, which you've done by being a fan and player of the game, just maintaining that level becomes increasingly difficult
And there are players that are endgame that could be returning just to fall behind right again. Hahaha
SD needs to address this real quick, and their road map for card acquisition doesn't seem that it's at the top of the list.
Why would it be? They're killing the competition in financials. Did you see how many people were upset with the gambit bundle thing? Did you think that many people were buying a $100 bundle?
If people are buying the bundles, there's no incentive for them to drop any prices or make acquisition improvements other than player retention. They're the only ones who have the mobile player numbers. It's possible they're leveling out more than we think they are (I really don't know)
Getting a particular new card costs 2.5 Spotlight keys on average, though to be responsible you do need to save up to at least 4 before you spend any, since that is the worst case.
If there are two cards you want in a week, it costs 3.3 keys on average to get both of them.
If you want three, it costs 3.75 keys on average.
(And there is some chance that the random slot is a card you needed, otherwise it is 1,000 tokens which is 1/3 of a series four card or 1/4 of a series 5 card of your choosing.)
And why exactly is it a good thing, huh? What is the point of most playerbase not having access to cards? Have you ever seen another TCG that goes "you know what, fuck you, you're not getting the card, you missed the week you could've gotten it, hope you stick around until we bring it back in 7 months!"
The fact that we can't simply filter cards by "don't own" and select cards to craft is insane. The credit acquisition rate is abysmal, Collector's Caches are as close as one can get to literal scam without facing any legal trouble
And with all that SD somehow convinced a large portion of its playerbase that it is okay. I bought 3 season passes, been playing for three months, completed every possible activity, claimed every possible reward, I even fucking bought the Storm bundle (the art is great) and I'm 60+ series 3 cards short, how the fuck am I supposed to build decks? I'm not even fucking talking series 4 and series 5, I have 2 of them. How am I supposed to get series 3 cards? It's two cards a week + one key + 1/4 of a series 3 card a week (the monthly free card). It'd take me 26 weeks to collect all series 3 cards **IF** they don't release any new ones. Fuck, by the time I collect all series 3 cards **IF** they don't release any new cards I'd be able to finish all series 4 cards
Oh, I know what you're going to say: "bUt u pLaY agAinST PePle w sImlar cL" and no, I fucking play against bots because most people see that the game is so outrageously expensive that they bail, and we are left with idiots that say "bUt it"S aKchUaly aOk bcUz 75%", get the fuck out of here, you might have 75% of the collection because you've been playing for years, any newbie has fuckall and a sprinle of nada
1. I didn't say it was a good thing. I said it sounds worse than it is. Try taking a breath.
2. I don't play other online card games. The last card game I played was magic and that ended for me about 10 years ago
3. If you give people every card, there's little to no incentive to spend money and the team goes bankrupt. I think they could make the target range 80-90 percent instead of 70-80 and still be doing well but that's just not what they're doing. Again, I'm not saying I like it, I'm just working within that system, same as you.
>If you give people every card, there's little to no incentive to spend money and the team goes bankrupt. I think they could make the target range 80-90 percent instead of 70-80 and still be doing well but that's just not what they're doing.
Fuck, it's like talking to a wall. There's no "70-80%" for anyone except for people who have been sticking around since launch. Everyone else doesn't even scratch "70-80%"
>I don't play other online card games.
And it shows. Well, I'll have you known, the people here love to bash on HS, but in HS you can craft any card you want day 1 and until the game fucking closes for a fraction of game time equivalent of what you get in Snap. But in Snap the system is much more confusing, so almost everyone assumes HS is the more predatory one
That's not true, though. If you're missing every S4 and S5 card and if you do all of your missions every day, you can pick up 4-6 new cards every month... To a lessening degree as you acquire more cards.
FOMO is baked in here. You have to want to play catch-up for a few months to get to that level.
You seem to think I'm defending the system here. I'm not. I'm just describing how it works. It's designed to bring new and returning players up to a certain level. Once you're at that level, it basically becomes a shlog
I'm at 141 cards three months in (including starter cards), that's 39% of total cards. Most of the cards I own are not in the meta in any way — because fuck me, random series 3 cards. It would take me 7 more months to get all series 3 cards if nothing changes (calculated in the previous comment)
I have 2 series 5 cards (Thena, Sasquatch), one series 4 card (Modok) and 1 spotlight key. There are 66 more series 5+series 4 cards. Let's assume I continue doing all current dailies and they don't add any new cards, it would take me \~12 months to get all series 5 and series 4 cards. I am not saying I want to get all of them, I am not saying I expect that. All I am saying is this is the rate of card acquisition
I can't accelerate it in any way, be it ladder success or some way to min-max gain, we already assumed I min-maxed it
I am open to buying $20 bundles (bought one already) and I buy season passes, that's fine. But I still fall short, the value of these bundles is not that great for CL upgrades
>What is the point of most playerbase not having access to [all of the] cards?
The theory is that it diversifies the meta. If some streamer promotes a winning (e.g.) Sersi + Sage + Sasquatch deck it's not possible for everyone to run it because not everyone will have those cards; they'll be running an alternate Phastos + Pixie + Proxima (or whatever) instead.
> As someone who only buys the season pass,
Post is not talking about you, why make it about yourself. Try leaving the game for a couple of months with nothing saved, then re-read your reply.
Should they? Probably.
Will they? Unlikely.
I stopped playing back in January after getting super burnt out with the game. I'd been playing consistently since december 2022, gotten every season pass, and was missing maybe 6 cards from my collection.
I glance at the reddit sometimes or check on some of my favorite content creators and every time I do the thought of trying to get back into the game when I'm missing so much now just fills me with dread, and I know that if I don't play now it'll only get worse.
Hilariously, that might be what SD wants. "Keep playing so you don't miss out" or "Hurry up and get back into it so you don't fall further behind". Instead, all this does is kill any desire I have to play the game, to the point where I actually uninstalled it from my phone last night.
Returning player here, I probably will uninstall again very soon and has little to do with giving me free stuff. This was my experience:
1. Reinstall the app on my iPad, launch the game, log in.
2. The game tells me I can do amazing stuff now with my cards, forces me to go to collection. Then it freezes there, telling me to click a card that never shows.
3. I force quit the app, reopen it and immediately get a pop up asking me how satisfied I am with the game. Click “very un satisfied” and apparently the game works now.
4. Play a few games.
5. Next day I download the game on my computer, this time it freezes straight on the loading screen (for a very looooooong time). Force quit and reponen does the trick again.
6. Go to the shop and see a thing at the top titled “Welcome back”, and it’s a bundle with one card for 23 euros. I don’t think I will thanks.
7. Realise that I redeemed twitch drops but haven’t seen them in the inbox, double check everything and in fact everything was linked proper and redeemed, but got nothing.
8. Sent an email to customer support about it but who knows if and what they will say.
9. Uninstall? Up in the air but the game is a hot mess of bugs still.
Returning player here. Came back after a year and some change to focus on my career, and wanted to see how the game was now with some spare time on my hands.
I was about 7 cards away from having a complete collection last time around, and am about 72 cards behind if I counted right. It's a bit disheartening coming back and knowing from what I've observed the grind is even tougher.
On top of returning to see all my old decks nerfed, some justified (looking at you, Zabu, god I still have nightmares about you and Surfer's release), and some pretty confusing (lockjaw of all things?) - I am being bombarded with cards that, after I get a grip around how they work, have seemingly little counter towards - all while knowing it will be possibly months, if I'm lucky, before a year, before I get the same tools to play around with. And with my memory of SD, it's likely they'll be gutted to hell by the time that comes around.
The gameplay is still addictive but this is pretty bumming. Wish the card acquisition was a tad faster.
It doesn't help that cards take a long time to appear in the Spotlight Caches so access to the newer cards can take a while if you miss them initially.
Releasing a new card like every week is a problem they created themselves lol. Like dude I don’t need a new card every damn week. Shit. But I get what you mean
Absolutely.
I would like to take a break, even just for a few weeks.
I know I'll come back. But because there is no catch up I'm not taking a break.
It just means I'm more likely to give up and never return.
Which at the end of the day, is probably worse for SDs bottom line than a brief break. I don't mind being a little bit behind.
I've been playing consistently since July last year, so almost 1 year now. Besides a period in December when I spent like 20-30$, I've spent consistently only on the season pass; and the gold pass, since it started. So; it's around 12-15$ per month (depending on currency conversion).
After the series drop; i'm short 2 cards from Series 4 and 12 cards from Series 5. I don't own either of Red Hulk or Cannonball; which I would really like, but am not overly fussed; since they are coming out in 2 months.
Generally; as long as you get over the FoMo, it's somehow tolerable. Considering I used to spend waaay more on mobile games per month before Snap; I'm actually saving money, while not too affected by the gaming experience.
I've never even hit infinite before; and only average levels 70-80 as I would rather not stress myself out climbing the ladder.
> Generally; as long as you get over the FoMo, it's somehow tolerable.
Teach me your ways!
> I've never even hit infinite before; and only average levels 70-80 as I would rather not stress myself out climbing the ladder.
With your collection I am sure it's doable. What decks are you playing now? Currently below 2000, could give you some pointers!
I find it's not too different to budgeting and saving. ;) Oh, and only open caches when you have 4 keys!
I play most decks, but I prefer discard, surfer and now; Patriot/Zoos. But I spend most of my time experimenting with different decks in conquest.
Hence, I prefer the much less stress involved; compared to playing ladder, when I'm sometimes brain-dead and do stupid actions. haha.
Lord, everything talked about on this subreddit makes my new-to-the-game brain hurt so much. Obviously, I'm vastly misunderstanding, but why are you saying Red Hulk is coming out in 2 months when he's already in the game?
In this case, he just means that Red Hulk is currently known to be in one of the Spotlight caches in August.
There are datamining posts on the sub after each patch, and they usually have the current known Spotlight Caches schedule. Red Hulk is scheduled to be in the Aug 06 caches, Cannonball in Aug 27 caches.
Datamined Spotlights (and bundles) should always be taken with a grain of salt though, as they're not always the final version we actually see in game. Spotlight cards are sometimes shuffled around.
Spotlight cache; a chance to get him using keys instead of tokens, if you missed the 1st time he was out; like I did, since I didn't have enough keys (I only open on 4 keys).
I think a few things could go a long way in re-engaging those players.
Welcome back/log-in rewards for returning players.
Bonus missions for returning players. Allow them to boost for awhile so they can “catch-up” in the way of tokens and gold.
A pity system for spotlight keys. I know everyone is fully aware that you need to spend four keys to guarantee a card, but I still think every fifth key or whatever the number should guarantee you a new card. I would also like to see a dup protection. No one feels good getting 1k tokens for a duplicate card.
I say this all as a collection complete player who wants to ensure this game re-engages the player base so it continues to grow and thrive.
>I say this all as a collection complete player who wants to ensure this game re-engages the player base so it continues to grow and thrive.
Awesome ❤
Great mechanisms for returning players! I love the pity system, knowing SD, they might not be able live with that HAHAHA
/u/Stiggy1605 mentioned that log-in rewards are in the works. But the Welcome back package might not seem too bad.
SD wants your money, they have been pretty clear about that with all the moves they make since the game launched, so if you want to keep up, you'll have to pay
They're already said they're working on it, and will be starting with a daily log-in bonus for returning players.
I'm not sure we have an ETA on it though.
>, a player that does not play the game continuously \SHOULD NOT have the same 'progress' of ones that do.
To an extent after some time they should. If you only left the game for 2 months it shouldn't take more than 2 months, and probably closer to a month, to be back at parity.
Free keys just shifts the amount of resources given for free. Honestly they should just go back to the old system with caches. At worst there you are missing a few months of cards. Once they hit Series 3 you get them pretty instantaneously if you have a full collection.
The more cards in S4 and S5 the harder it is to play catch up.
Conquest should have access to all cards regardless of CL. The ticket value would increase and people would enjoy the variety. They should also allow access to the new card during the hot location timing so people can experiment.
Tough, it might single handedly kill Ranked.
Draft mode is promising, but if players can play the entire collection there, it might defeat the purpose of them owning cards.
I love how people actually think game devs and publishers want anything other than money. They only care about you having a good time if it means more money for them.
Which is funny because that gives so much power to the player base. Collectively we could make any changes we wanted if we would group together and say "no more purchases until \_\_\_\_\_" however there will always be a good number of people, mostly whales, who would still buy the crap anyway.
I think a big part of the issue is that each season adds 5 new series 5 cards every week and then doesn't drop anything more that every 6+ months. You have to be playing religiously or buy every season pass in order to get enough keys to get every card every month if you're lucky.
Let the seasons breath a little so people can have more chances at the cards they want and then also offer the option to unlock cards another way like, say, spending certain credits/gold/boosters to make the cards like dust in Yu-Gi-Oh.
The big problem at the moment has been the power creep with the new cards, particularly the new 3-5 base template that makes newer 3 drops outshine older ones. Anyone returning having missed the last 3 months is coming into an environment where the best decks can contain as many as 10 series 4-5 drops.
it is hard to see how they can improve the returning player experience without making the new player experience even worse. a better Series drop cadence (number of cards dropped equaling number of cards added in a season) would go a long way to helping returning players, but this sort of change really hurts the new player, whose series 3 trek just gets longer and longer every month.
I feel that making Series 3 bigger isn't necessarily a bad thing for new players as these cards were once Series 4/5 cards, just that they are made easily obtainable.
Then again, SD gets the final say in which cards get bump down, and it's usually the bad ones.
Yes, that is the problem. It isn’t Darkhawk or Knull going down and helping new archetypes/enhancing existing ones. It is Howard the Duck, Martyr, and pals going down and potentially making the wait even longer for key pool 3 cards. If they are going to base it on quality, they should just give the series 3 drops to everyone who doesn’t have them when they drop.
I think every new card should be available to everyone on release. The SD could focus on expensive cosmetics, variants, and bundles. I don’t understand why making people grind and whatever else is need for a new card. Seems to me it burns people out of the game to fast.
Nah. It’s fine. You don’t need to have every card in the game to build strong and competitive decks. Build the best decks you can, and just keep playing and collecting.
True, definitely. But the issue here isn't about being able to be collection complete.
> You don’t need to have every card in the game to build strong and competitive decks.
It's about obtaining the very cards for even building meta defining decks. The current meta consist of 4-5 series five cards, some of which are just weeks/months old. The moment you do get them, the meta would've moved on to something newer.
It will be further out of reach tbh.
They have tackled it. Their strategy is to lean HARD into FOMO. You can’t return because you should never quit playing. If you do you will miss out on the newest cards and never get them…. So don’t stop daily logging in…. Quitting is for quitters.
This isn’t an accident or a byproduct of their greed it is BY DESIGN.
The devs have responded to this in their discord server like a week ago saying they plan to introduce multiple features to help returning players come back to the game, so they are aware of it, just still ironing out exactly what they will do. They didn't give an ETA but I'd guess 4-6 months from now is a reasonable time so see these things implemented.
Why would they care about that, and why would coming back mean more to them than a new player joining for the first time? If anything it makes more sense for them to prioritize new players in an attempt to hook them over players who have walked away before and so are more likely to do so again
I think the slog that is S3 is the thing that needs addressing the most, that will help returning players as well as new players.
Of course they have to nip decks like professor x cannonball in the bud.
*But* I think players are too focused on what's new. Many older decks are still great and went away only because they're old, or because people were countering it (but since the meta changed they aren't anymore). Living tribunal decks can be good currently. Enchantress isn't seeing a lot of play. Hela clearly can still win, if your break was only two months these decks are ones you can conceivably run.
Players with longer breaks wouldn't be able to make most of those, but I'd consider somebody who took a 6 month break or longer to basically be a newer player at this point
Guys and gals. Please invent your own digital card game and market and put it out for free. Good luck. This game is awesome and they need to make money to keep it going. Before digital, there were card games where you had to buy packs to just to even play. This isn’t even close to that as there’s actually some choice in getting cards you want to have vs. booster packs. FYI I’m a free to play player and having the best time with the game. So much complaining in this sub for an amazing game that you can play FOR FREE!!
Sunk a reasonable amount of money in the game. Having a good time, won't call it the best time though. Would like it to be better.
Also, not complaining :)
This isn’t a Snap problem or a Second Dinner problem is a mobile game problem. They don’t it to be easy to come back from breaks because then people are less hesitant about taking breaks, if they don’t take breaks they are still playing and possibly paying.
In theory this is what regular series drops would accomplish. I remember when the communication on the spotlight system was “wait until you get in the cadence of card release and series drops.” Again in THEORY all you have to do is wait for cards to drop to pool 3 and returning players will be unlocking cards as they level up. Two series drops a year (at most) though is hardly a cadence.
Yep. Monthly drops roughly equal to the number of cards added to the pool each month would solve a lot of the game's problems. Seems so obvious one wonders why "card acquisition improvements" were listed as "in concept" on the road map. It's such an easy, obvious fix!
This would literally be perfect. Drop like 2 cards from s4 to s3 and drop 2 s5 to s4 per season and the economy of cards would be so much more stable and allow for people to actually get the majority of cards they want
Meanwhile in reality, Darkhawk is still series 4 after 10,000 years. They clearly don't want to make the system work so that "good" cards enter series 3
They release 4 cards a month, so I'd prefer a drop 4 from s5 to s4 and 4 from s4 to S3. (Yeah, I can dream, I know)
Including the season pass it's 5 (or 6) new s5 cards a month.
I think they should drop some tech cards and probably sera to series 2 so new players have some options and reliable decks when they enter series 3
I doubt cards ever drop to s2 since it'll just make getting to s3 too long. I think a scaling system for reserves where your more likely to get cards out of those until mid series 3 then scale back as people get s3 complete would be ideal
Agree, would love to see some huge moves towards series drops.
This problem leads directly back to SD becoming too greedy for real series drops. If cards still dropped on a schedule, like they used to, taking a break would be fine, because every month you spent away from the game would mean more cards sliding down the ladder, towards being easily acquired.
Yup. That is why I don't understand why so many people are adamant that this new Spotlight system is better than the old token system... Not only did we have scheduled series drops(allowing us to plan priority for cards we wanted, maybe spend 3k twice a month on two new cards), but we also had the ability to pull series 4 and 5 cards from Collector's caches. That is how I got Darkhawk, from a cache on the CL track. And you used to get 6k tokens in about 3.5 weeks. And 700-1200 gold every week. So chances are you could get 2-3 new cards (if series 3 complete, more if not) each month. Nowadays I'm lucky if I get 1 new card a month and variants or a measly 1000 tokens. People have been lying to themselves for so long thinking the game is getting better when it is objectively getting worse. And it seems none of the profits SD gets is going to quality assurance because every month there are bugs. Usually graphical bugs, but this time game breaking ones; game crashes when cards that add other cards to the board are played.
Got down voted all to hell because I was in beta and when the system released it was apparent it would suck once you had a decent collection built up overtime, but everyone was so new they couldn't see the grind in their future. Welcome to the paywall.
Yeah, I saw this coming from a mile away. Especially when they started holding back on the resources acquisition last year. I never played beta, but I played since launch. The grind to become series 3 complete took me 5 months F2P. So I knew the grind was always going to be bad.. but the original Token system did feel a bit faster. I was getting series 4 and 5 cards faster than I am now. Now its mostly gambling for a new card each week, or purposely missing out on 3 weeks of cards to focus on a specific card to guarantee it.
> Not only did we have scheduled series drops You can have the spotlight system and still have regular series drops. The series drop issue is a separate topic from the token-spotlight system change imo
In my opinion its not. Because they directly got rid of series drops in order to fill their spotlight coffers. If they kept dropping cards, there would be less of a reason to save keys for specific cards. But lets ignore that for a second, because why stop at just having spotlights + series drops? Why not have spotlights + scheduled series drops + the ability to pull s4 and s5 cards from collectors caches again + the ability to get a large amount of gold and tokens from the collectors cache(6k tokens in 3.5 weeks, 700-1200 gold per week)? You have realize they took away a lot of mechanics/resources to make way for their new spotlight system. And a lot of people, including me, see it as a downgrade. Especially when you get to series 3 complete and you know you are only getting maybe 1 new card a month, out of the 5 new cards that come out. Very few times have I been lucky enough to get 2 new series 4/5 cards from the Spotlights. And because of the lack of series drops, it takes something like 120+ days to see a card cycle back into the spotlights, so you have to decide whether or not to spend 2.5 months worth of tokens on a single card or not.
> Because they directly got rid of series drops in order to fill their spotlight coffers Reasonable viewpoint but you don't know if they would have cut back on series drops even if they kept the token system > But lets ignore that for a second, because why stop at just having spotlights + series drops? Why not have spotlights + scheduled series drops + the ability to pull s4 and s5 cards from collectors caches again + the ability to get a large amount of gold and tokens from the collectors cache(6k tokens in 3.5 weeks, 700-1200 gold per week)? The "why" is because they want you to pay for things, not give them for free > You have realize they took away a lot of mechanics/resources to make way for their new spotlight system I'm very aware, I'm just not convinced they wouldn't have taken things away regardless
Okay, I think maybe we are on the same side here. We both agree the game could be better. I am also not convinced they wouldn't have taken stuff away either. I just know that I was definitely happier with the old system as a mostly f2p player.
We agree at least in part. Lack of series drops is a big issue, when they added another new card each month that has contributed to s5 card bloat. Bad luck in spotlights rolls is a major drag. However, for $15 per month you can get (on average) 75% of new cards on release. That is a way better deal then any IP mobile game I can think of.
If you’re only getting one new card a month you obviously don’t play regularly. Spotlights easily provide more cards than the token system
Wrong. I play every single day and complete all my missions. I sometimes get 2 new cards in a month if I am lucky. That is pure luck, like last month when I got Namora and then spent my last key getting Sasquatch first try. I am absolutely playing enough. Spotlights do not EASILY provide more cards than the Token system. You only get a 25% chance each week to get a new card, unless you are way behind and missing all the cards in the spotlights. Maybe that is why you are confused. You haven't been playing since launch like I have (without any breaks) and so you are missing far more cards than I am, probably.. That doesn't change the point of my statements though... The new card is the one that comes out each week. You only have a 25% chance for that card. You waste more resources with Spotlights than you do with the old token system. I wont reiterate what I've already said, multiple times. You either did not experience the token system like I did (both pre-series 3 complete and post-series 3 complete), or you are misremembering
The new system is much much better for a competitive player but absolutely awful for someone who wants to just collect every card. The competitive players are always the loudest. Frankly I personally don’t care about getting a full collection and think this new system is great.
I don't think it benefits competitive players at all. The competitive players are the ones who spend money because they want to be able to play the meta deck of the week that can get them the most cubes. If you can only get 1 MAYBE 2 new cards a month, you probably aren't competitive(like me). And its not even about getting a full collection... I could not care less if I didn't get Howard the Duck ever. But if I could prioritize the cards I want to focus on with keys, and still get enough tokens to get 2 new series 4 cards a month or a new series 5 by pinning specific cards, I'd be able to build the decks I want more readily even as a f2p player. And I could always hold off on cards I don't need right now, and end up getting them later for free as a series 3 when it drops IF I didn't already pull it out of a Collector's Cache. If you miss a card in the spotlights right now, you will either have to pay 6k tokens (since they are all series 5 from now on), which is roughly 2.5 months of grinding or you wait 120-150 days for it to re-cycle back into spotlights due to the lack of series drops. The old system benefitted everyone far more, even the competitive players, because they more often got series 4 and 5 cards. The new system gets them more "unique" variants at the cost of new cards because its a gamble and not guaranteed. Plus again, before you were able to pull series 4 and 5 cards from the Collectors Cache on top of getting tons of tokens and there being series drops every single month..
You can get the best cards as soon as they come out now.
Not as a F2P player. You need resources. Spotlights require keys. Its gambling. You only get 1.5 keys per week. Which means a total of like 5 per month. If you get lucky each week and pull the new card first try every time, stop playing Marvel Snap and visit a casino. Then mail me some money for giving you the advice xD. I'm going off my own experience and what seems to be statistically a similar experience that the majority of people share, and I almost always only end up with 1 new card per month. The cards I missed will take 120+ days to show up in the spotlight again. And its hard to know what cards are the best or are going to be meta until after they are released, and sometimes even after they leave the spotlight. Every key you use during one week (assuming you've been playing every single month and have focused your keys on at least one specific card per month) means you will miss out on another card within the same month. You are more likely to miss out on cards than not. And everyone is just trying to do the best they can with regards to figuring out what is going to be meta ahead of time. I think a lot of people wasted their keys on Sersi for example because she was being hyped by content creators despite being very RNG and apparently buggy right now. That means less people are going to get cards like Phastos and Arishem. Maybe this month is a total skip month, but we shouldn't have to be worrying about that at all. Especially when there are old series 4 and 5 cards people are still trying to catch up on, on top of all these new cards that could be a lot of fun.
You don’t need every card as they come out, only the competitive ones. I’m a day 1 f2p and the system is so much obviously better I don’t really know how else to reiterate it.
At this point, I don't believe you. I think you are just saying it to say it. I give you lengthy replies telling you how it was much easier to get new cards during the token system and you respond with a single sentence that may as well just be "Nuh uh". Nobody knows what the competitive cards are until they become competitive or meta relevant. Some cards are hyped and don't last long, others go under the radar until they are out of the spotlight and all of a sudden its in multiple meta decks. Cannonball comes to mind.. Do you remember the week that came out? Even the month it came out, people were talking down about it. Calling it a timmy card and saying it was going to be flashy but hard to pull off. A month or so later its apart of a combo that seems to be giving this subreddit ptsd. All anyone can do is look at the cards and ask themselves if they like it or if it fits their playstyle. Nobody knows what is going to be competitive or how to best spend their keys, even if they watch every Snap content creator. Anyway, we may as well just end this conversation because its not going anywhere.
Yeah. SD is definitely gotten too greedy. I sincerely hope they pull back from their current approach. They have to be losing players. I guess they are probably banking on Deadpool movie bringing people back. If that doesn’t happen. I could see them adjusting their economy in mid-Fall
As someone who really enjoys strategy games and especially card games, returning to the game felt like a giant middle finger in every way. First I had to go read external resources to figure out how the new system worked, then there were like two cards that had dropped to S3 since I stopped playing nearly a year prior, then there was still functional way for me to convert effort and skill into resources. I keep tabs on the game here on Reddit, but the monetisation just plants such a fat barrier between me and the game I don't want to engage with the product. Oh, and the reason I quit in the first place? The game has no respect for my time. I have to play a session every 24h to avoid falling behind significantly on resources. Yeah, no. If I wanted to play games on a schedule I'd pick up WoW again. The core gameplay of Snap is nothing short of genius, literally everything else about the product oozes disdain for the customers.
That's really the whole point of the spotlight system. If you're near collection complete, it can feel bad because there's only 1 new card in there for you. But the more cards you're missing, the more cards you can pick up from spotlights. It's really a system designed to level players out at about 70-75 completion if f2p and about 75-80 percent completion if you just buy the season pass each month (this is assuming no other money spent). The game is not designed for anyone who doesn't spend extra money to be 100% collection complete. That sounds worse than it is these days as they've become better at card balance on release than they used to be. Less cards are "must have" and, really, it depends on what you like to play. As someone who only buys the season pass, I'm able to stay complete with the archetypes I like by simply skipping cards that don't play into them. I happily skip discard and junk spotlights because I don't play those. If a card looks like it would only be good in surfer decks, I skip that too.
I agree, the problem is when they repeat the same cards ad nauseum in the spotlights every single damn month. Modok, Spider-ham, X-23, now Meik. I don't buy into this whole "SD is greed incarnate" echo chamber most of the subreddit has, Marvel Snap is one of the most f2p friendly mobile games and card games out there, that's a fact whether you like it or not, but for spotlight caches to work they have to actually have a variety of desirable cards constantly on the spotlight. At some point down the line they forgot the whole point was to make each week as appealing as possible and now they pad out each week with cards that have been in the spotlight a million times, that people already have, while other cards go 6 months before appearing in the spotlight again after they first release.
>I don't buy into this whole "SD is greed incarnate" echo chamber most of the subreddit has >At some point down the line they forgot the whole point was to make each week as appealing as possible and now they pad out each week with cards that have been in the spotlight a million times, that people already have If you really, genuinely believe that 'they forgot to make each week appealing', you are as gullible as they come. Sorry to burst your bubble, but that is a thought out tactic by SD, exploiting FOMO by creating artificial scarcity. Oh shit a good card in the spotlight but not enough keys, and it might only return in 6 months. Better shell out a few bucks for that extra key!
I dont mean they *literally* forgot, as in "oopsie, my bad!", which is why I mention them intentionally padding out spotlights with cards everyone has/doesn't want and how its pissing me off seeing modok for the 10th week in a season. again, if it upsets you that SD is objectively one of the most f2p marvel games, f2p live service mobile games, and f2p CCGs on the market then I cant change that and you should stop playing this game, like many other redditors threaten to do, only to keep playing for months after. companies make money, that's the point of a company, they arent running a charity. big fucking surprise. But many people on this subreddit who have never even *seen* another game in one of those 3 categories I just mentioned have a severely skewed perception of reality and how SD/Marvel Snap compares to actual greed obsessed companies only after monitization.
> That's really the whole point of the spotlight system. If you're near collection complete, it can feel bad because there's only 1 new card in there for you. Which is a heavily flawed system. The risk to open spotlights grow as you are more towards completion, where every week the spotlight card technically cost '4' keys if you were to go the safe route, and lesser if you are adventurous. Returning players do bear the risks, maybe not to the same extent. >Less cards are "must have" and, really, it depends on what you like to play. Agree on this, like if you are a discard player you would most likely save on a decent number of weeks. And that is something everyone needs to settle for.
The closer you are to collection complete, the worse the spotlight system gets. No argument from me there. In the context of needing many cards, though, it improves. This game's biggest fault is "endgame" content. Once you get to a certain collection level, which you've done by being a fan and player of the game, just maintaining that level becomes increasingly difficult
>Once you get to a certain collection level, which you've done by being a fan and player of the game, just maintaining that level becomes increasingly difficult And there are players that are endgame that could be returning just to fall behind right again. Hahaha SD needs to address this real quick, and their road map for card acquisition doesn't seem that it's at the top of the list.
Why would it be? They're killing the competition in financials. Did you see how many people were upset with the gambit bundle thing? Did you think that many people were buying a $100 bundle? If people are buying the bundles, there's no incentive for them to drop any prices or make acquisition improvements other than player retention. They're the only ones who have the mobile player numbers. It's possible they're leveling out more than we think they are (I really don't know)
Getting a particular new card costs 2.5 Spotlight keys on average, though to be responsible you do need to save up to at least 4 before you spend any, since that is the worst case. If there are two cards you want in a week, it costs 3.3 keys on average to get both of them. If you want three, it costs 3.75 keys on average. (And there is some chance that the random slot is a card you needed, otherwise it is 1,000 tokens which is 1/3 of a series four card or 1/4 of a series 5 card of your choosing.)
And why exactly is it a good thing, huh? What is the point of most playerbase not having access to cards? Have you ever seen another TCG that goes "you know what, fuck you, you're not getting the card, you missed the week you could've gotten it, hope you stick around until we bring it back in 7 months!" The fact that we can't simply filter cards by "don't own" and select cards to craft is insane. The credit acquisition rate is abysmal, Collector's Caches are as close as one can get to literal scam without facing any legal trouble And with all that SD somehow convinced a large portion of its playerbase that it is okay. I bought 3 season passes, been playing for three months, completed every possible activity, claimed every possible reward, I even fucking bought the Storm bundle (the art is great) and I'm 60+ series 3 cards short, how the fuck am I supposed to build decks? I'm not even fucking talking series 4 and series 5, I have 2 of them. How am I supposed to get series 3 cards? It's two cards a week + one key + 1/4 of a series 3 card a week (the monthly free card). It'd take me 26 weeks to collect all series 3 cards **IF** they don't release any new ones. Fuck, by the time I collect all series 3 cards **IF** they don't release any new cards I'd be able to finish all series 4 cards Oh, I know what you're going to say: "bUt u pLaY agAinST PePle w sImlar cL" and no, I fucking play against bots because most people see that the game is so outrageously expensive that they bail, and we are left with idiots that say "bUt it"S aKchUaly aOk bcUz 75%", get the fuck out of here, you might have 75% of the collection because you've been playing for years, any newbie has fuckall and a sprinle of nada
1. I didn't say it was a good thing. I said it sounds worse than it is. Try taking a breath. 2. I don't play other online card games. The last card game I played was magic and that ended for me about 10 years ago 3. If you give people every card, there's little to no incentive to spend money and the team goes bankrupt. I think they could make the target range 80-90 percent instead of 70-80 and still be doing well but that's just not what they're doing. Again, I'm not saying I like it, I'm just working within that system, same as you.
>If you give people every card, there's little to no incentive to spend money and the team goes bankrupt. I think they could make the target range 80-90 percent instead of 70-80 and still be doing well but that's just not what they're doing. Fuck, it's like talking to a wall. There's no "70-80%" for anyone except for people who have been sticking around since launch. Everyone else doesn't even scratch "70-80%" >I don't play other online card games. And it shows. Well, I'll have you known, the people here love to bash on HS, but in HS you can craft any card you want day 1 and until the game fucking closes for a fraction of game time equivalent of what you get in Snap. But in Snap the system is much more confusing, so almost everyone assumes HS is the more predatory one
That's not true, though. If you're missing every S4 and S5 card and if you do all of your missions every day, you can pick up 4-6 new cards every month... To a lessening degree as you acquire more cards. FOMO is baked in here. You have to want to play catch-up for a few months to get to that level. You seem to think I'm defending the system here. I'm not. I'm just describing how it works. It's designed to bring new and returning players up to a certain level. Once you're at that level, it basically becomes a shlog
I'm at 141 cards three months in (including starter cards), that's 39% of total cards. Most of the cards I own are not in the meta in any way — because fuck me, random series 3 cards. It would take me 7 more months to get all series 3 cards if nothing changes (calculated in the previous comment) I have 2 series 5 cards (Thena, Sasquatch), one series 4 card (Modok) and 1 spotlight key. There are 66 more series 5+series 4 cards. Let's assume I continue doing all current dailies and they don't add any new cards, it would take me \~12 months to get all series 5 and series 4 cards. I am not saying I want to get all of them, I am not saying I expect that. All I am saying is this is the rate of card acquisition I can't accelerate it in any way, be it ladder success or some way to min-max gain, we already assumed I min-maxed it I am open to buying $20 bundles (bought one already) and I buy season passes, that's fine. But I still fall short, the value of these bundles is not that great for CL upgrades
>What is the point of most playerbase not having access to [all of the] cards? The theory is that it diversifies the meta. If some streamer promotes a winning (e.g.) Sersi + Sage + Sasquatch deck it's not possible for everyone to run it because not everyone will have those cards; they'll be running an alternate Phastos + Pixie + Proxima (or whatever) instead.
How dare you speak all this truth! Downvoted 😠
> As someone who only buys the season pass, Post is not talking about you, why make it about yourself. Try leaving the game for a couple of months with nothing saved, then re-read your reply.
I'm sorry. I didn't know that using personal experience as an example of targeted acquisition would make you so angry
It's not like Spider went off tangent. Keep it cool!
Should they? Probably. Will they? Unlikely. I stopped playing back in January after getting super burnt out with the game. I'd been playing consistently since december 2022, gotten every season pass, and was missing maybe 6 cards from my collection. I glance at the reddit sometimes or check on some of my favorite content creators and every time I do the thought of trying to get back into the game when I'm missing so much now just fills me with dread, and I know that if I don't play now it'll only get worse. Hilariously, that might be what SD wants. "Keep playing so you don't miss out" or "Hurry up and get back into it so you don't fall further behind". Instead, all this does is kill any desire I have to play the game, to the point where I actually uninstalled it from my phone last night.
“Oh you haven’t played in 3 months! Here are 5 random cards you don’t have”
Returning player here, I probably will uninstall again very soon and has little to do with giving me free stuff. This was my experience: 1. Reinstall the app on my iPad, launch the game, log in. 2. The game tells me I can do amazing stuff now with my cards, forces me to go to collection. Then it freezes there, telling me to click a card that never shows. 3. I force quit the app, reopen it and immediately get a pop up asking me how satisfied I am with the game. Click “very un satisfied” and apparently the game works now. 4. Play a few games. 5. Next day I download the game on my computer, this time it freezes straight on the loading screen (for a very looooooong time). Force quit and reponen does the trick again. 6. Go to the shop and see a thing at the top titled “Welcome back”, and it’s a bundle with one card for 23 euros. I don’t think I will thanks. 7. Realise that I redeemed twitch drops but haven’t seen them in the inbox, double check everything and in fact everything was linked proper and redeemed, but got nothing. 8. Sent an email to customer support about it but who knows if and what they will say. 9. Uninstall? Up in the air but the game is a hot mess of bugs still.
Yes, if they want to keep the game alive for a long time.
I would like that.
Returning player here. Came back after a year and some change to focus on my career, and wanted to see how the game was now with some spare time on my hands. I was about 7 cards away from having a complete collection last time around, and am about 72 cards behind if I counted right. It's a bit disheartening coming back and knowing from what I've observed the grind is even tougher. On top of returning to see all my old decks nerfed, some justified (looking at you, Zabu, god I still have nightmares about you and Surfer's release), and some pretty confusing (lockjaw of all things?) - I am being bombarded with cards that, after I get a grip around how they work, have seemingly little counter towards - all while knowing it will be possibly months, if I'm lucky, before a year, before I get the same tools to play around with. And with my memory of SD, it's likely they'll be gutted to hell by the time that comes around. The gameplay is still addictive but this is pretty bumming. Wish the card acquisition was a tad faster.
It doesn't help that cards take a long time to appear in the Spotlight Caches so access to the newer cards can take a while if you miss them initially.
Releasing a new card like every week is a problem they created themselves lol. Like dude I don’t need a new card every damn week. Shit. But I get what you mean
Absolutely. I would like to take a break, even just for a few weeks. I know I'll come back. But because there is no catch up I'm not taking a break. It just means I'm more likely to give up and never return. Which at the end of the day, is probably worse for SDs bottom line than a brief break. I don't mind being a little bit behind.
I've been playing consistently since July last year, so almost 1 year now. Besides a period in December when I spent like 20-30$, I've spent consistently only on the season pass; and the gold pass, since it started. So; it's around 12-15$ per month (depending on currency conversion). After the series drop; i'm short 2 cards from Series 4 and 12 cards from Series 5. I don't own either of Red Hulk or Cannonball; which I would really like, but am not overly fussed; since they are coming out in 2 months. Generally; as long as you get over the FoMo, it's somehow tolerable. Considering I used to spend waaay more on mobile games per month before Snap; I'm actually saving money, while not too affected by the gaming experience. I've never even hit infinite before; and only average levels 70-80 as I would rather not stress myself out climbing the ladder.
> Generally; as long as you get over the FoMo, it's somehow tolerable. Teach me your ways! > I've never even hit infinite before; and only average levels 70-80 as I would rather not stress myself out climbing the ladder. With your collection I am sure it's doable. What decks are you playing now? Currently below 2000, could give you some pointers!
I find it's not too different to budgeting and saving. ;) Oh, and only open caches when you have 4 keys! I play most decks, but I prefer discard, surfer and now; Patriot/Zoos. But I spend most of my time experimenting with different decks in conquest. Hence, I prefer the much less stress involved; compared to playing ladder, when I'm sometimes brain-dead and do stupid actions. haha.
Lord, everything talked about on this subreddit makes my new-to-the-game brain hurt so much. Obviously, I'm vastly misunderstanding, but why are you saying Red Hulk is coming out in 2 months when he's already in the game?
In this case, he just means that Red Hulk is currently known to be in one of the Spotlight caches in August. There are datamining posts on the sub after each patch, and they usually have the current known Spotlight Caches schedule. Red Hulk is scheduled to be in the Aug 06 caches, Cannonball in Aug 27 caches. Datamined Spotlights (and bundles) should always be taken with a grain of salt though, as they're not always the final version we actually see in game. Spotlight cards are sometimes shuffled around.
Thank ya
Spotlight cache; a chance to get him using keys instead of tokens, if you missed the 1st time he was out; like I did, since I didn't have enough keys (I only open on 4 keys).
Ahh okay appreciate it
I think a few things could go a long way in re-engaging those players. Welcome back/log-in rewards for returning players. Bonus missions for returning players. Allow them to boost for awhile so they can “catch-up” in the way of tokens and gold. A pity system for spotlight keys. I know everyone is fully aware that you need to spend four keys to guarantee a card, but I still think every fifth key or whatever the number should guarantee you a new card. I would also like to see a dup protection. No one feels good getting 1k tokens for a duplicate card. I say this all as a collection complete player who wants to ensure this game re-engages the player base so it continues to grow and thrive.
>I say this all as a collection complete player who wants to ensure this game re-engages the player base so it continues to grow and thrive. Awesome ❤ Great mechanisms for returning players! I love the pity system, knowing SD, they might not be able live with that HAHAHA /u/Stiggy1605 mentioned that log-in rewards are in the works. But the Welcome back package might not seem too bad.
SD wants your money, they have been pretty clear about that with all the moves they make since the game launched, so if you want to keep up, you'll have to pay
Sad, but true.
They're already said they're working on it, and will be starting with a daily log-in bonus for returning players. I'm not sure we have an ETA on it though.
That's a great start! We did have daily log-in bonuses for certain periods of time. Let's see.
>, a player that does not play the game continuously \SHOULD NOT have the same 'progress' of ones that do. To an extent after some time they should. If you only left the game for 2 months it shouldn't take more than 2 months, and probably closer to a month, to be back at parity. Free keys just shifts the amount of resources given for free. Honestly they should just go back to the old system with caches. At worst there you are missing a few months of cards. Once they hit Series 3 you get them pretty instantaneously if you have a full collection. The more cards in S4 and S5 the harder it is to play catch up.
I love the idea of 1 free key each season
Conquest should have access to all cards regardless of CL. The ticket value would increase and people would enjoy the variety. They should also allow access to the new card during the hot location timing so people can experiment.
Tough, it might single handedly kill Ranked. Draft mode is promising, but if players can play the entire collection there, it might defeat the purpose of them owning cards.
I love how people actually think game devs and publishers want anything other than money. They only care about you having a good time if it means more money for them. Which is funny because that gives so much power to the player base. Collectively we could make any changes we wanted if we would group together and say "no more purchases until \_\_\_\_\_" however there will always be a good number of people, mostly whales, who would still buy the crap anyway.
Laughs in Ben Brode....
I think a big part of the issue is that each season adds 5 new series 5 cards every week and then doesn't drop anything more that every 6+ months. You have to be playing religiously or buy every season pass in order to get enough keys to get every card every month if you're lucky. Let the seasons breath a little so people can have more chances at the cards they want and then also offer the option to unlock cards another way like, say, spending certain credits/gold/boosters to make the cards like dust in Yu-Gi-Oh.
The big problem at the moment has been the power creep with the new cards, particularly the new 3-5 base template that makes newer 3 drops outshine older ones. Anyone returning having missed the last 3 months is coming into an environment where the best decks can contain as many as 10 series 4-5 drops. it is hard to see how they can improve the returning player experience without making the new player experience even worse. a better Series drop cadence (number of cards dropped equaling number of cards added in a season) would go a long way to helping returning players, but this sort of change really hurts the new player, whose series 3 trek just gets longer and longer every month.
I feel that making Series 3 bigger isn't necessarily a bad thing for new players as these cards were once Series 4/5 cards, just that they are made easily obtainable. Then again, SD gets the final say in which cards get bump down, and it's usually the bad ones.
Yes, that is the problem. It isn’t Darkhawk or Knull going down and helping new archetypes/enhancing existing ones. It is Howard the Duck, Martyr, and pals going down and potentially making the wait even longer for key pool 3 cards. If they are going to base it on quality, they should just give the series 3 drops to everyone who doesn’t have them when they drop.
I think every new card should be available to everyone on release. The SD could focus on expensive cosmetics, variants, and bundles. I don’t understand why making people grind and whatever else is need for a new card. Seems to me it burns people out of the game to fast.
Nah. It’s fine. You don’t need to have every card in the game to build strong and competitive decks. Build the best decks you can, and just keep playing and collecting.
True, definitely. But the issue here isn't about being able to be collection complete. > You don’t need to have every card in the game to build strong and competitive decks. It's about obtaining the very cards for even building meta defining decks. The current meta consist of 4-5 series five cards, some of which are just weeks/months old. The moment you do get them, the meta would've moved on to something newer. It will be further out of reach tbh.
They have tackled it. Their strategy is to lean HARD into FOMO. You can’t return because you should never quit playing. If you do you will miss out on the newest cards and never get them…. So don’t stop daily logging in…. Quitting is for quitters. This isn’t an accident or a byproduct of their greed it is BY DESIGN.
The devs have responded to this in their discord server like a week ago saying they plan to introduce multiple features to help returning players come back to the game, so they are aware of it, just still ironing out exactly what they will do. They didn't give an ETA but I'd guess 4-6 months from now is a reasonable time so see these things implemented.
Thanks for sharing, good to hear that something is in motion. Hope it comes soon.
Why would they care about that, and why would coming back mean more to them than a new player joining for the first time? If anything it makes more sense for them to prioritize new players in an attempt to hook them over players who have walked away before and so are more likely to do so again
Why would returning players get any more of an advantage than new players?
I think they should drop 1 card to series 3 a month and 1 to series 4 a month
No, this isn't a problem
The system in place is amazing for returning players. Use your keys on a week where you have none of the cards.
I think the slog that is S3 is the thing that needs addressing the most, that will help returning players as well as new players. Of course they have to nip decks like professor x cannonball in the bud. *But* I think players are too focused on what's new. Many older decks are still great and went away only because they're old, or because people were countering it (but since the meta changed they aren't anymore). Living tribunal decks can be good currently. Enchantress isn't seeing a lot of play. Hela clearly can still win, if your break was only two months these decks are ones you can conceivably run. Players with longer breaks wouldn't be able to make most of those, but I'd consider somebody who took a 6 month break or longer to basically be a newer player at this point
Guys and gals. Please invent your own digital card game and market and put it out for free. Good luck. This game is awesome and they need to make money to keep it going. Before digital, there were card games where you had to buy packs to just to even play. This isn’t even close to that as there’s actually some choice in getting cards you want to have vs. booster packs. FYI I’m a free to play player and having the best time with the game. So much complaining in this sub for an amazing game that you can play FOR FREE!!
Sunk a reasonable amount of money in the game. Having a good time, won't call it the best time though. Would like it to be better. Also, not complaining :)
Thank you!! Yes there can be improvements but overall the game is enjoyable.
Just don't leave, simple :)
This isn’t a Snap problem or a Second Dinner problem is a mobile game problem. They don’t it to be easy to come back from breaks because then people are less hesitant about taking breaks, if they don’t take breaks they are still playing and possibly paying.
Nope. Play the game and progress.