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A modest proposal for addressing portal dilution
John Luck Pikkard
✭✭✭✭
in The Bridge
It’s been said many times before that portal dilution is a problem. While it’s great that new characters are added, it also makes it less likely that you’ll get the ones you need. Personally, I only need two of the 4-star characters currently in the portal. At the same time, I have over 60 legendries at 1/5 stars, not all of them in portal, but you get the point.
The premium pull no longer feels like the major reward it is supposed to be. It’s the final threshold reward in events (except for re-runs) and even if you finish, for example, the diplomat collection, which requires immortalizing 60 diplomats, you only get one premium pull. So it should be something really special. Yet for most of us in this forum, a premium pull results in somewhere between 600 and 1,000 honor and replicator fuel from useless schematics. I don’t know about you all, but I have enough other stuff to use for the replicator, I don’t really need schematics for that. And since there’s no real value in finishing most ships, schematics are not a great reward IMHO.
Most suggestions for addressing this that I’ve read so far on this forum are shut down with a comment along the lines of “DB/TP will never do it, because then players will pay less.” So my proposal, while certainly in need of some fine tuning, takes this into account. And it’s a very simple solution: Split up the premium portal into a “medium reward pull” and an actual “premium pull”. The two would work like this:
“MEDIUM REWARDS” would contain all cards from the first two years plus all 3-star cards plus all schematics. Every year, cards from another year will be added. One pull still gets you ten cards/schematics with the same probabilities as the current premium pull, but it would cost less. I’m thinking 350 dil. It would be great for players who don’t want to pay much (or at all) and only have very little dil. It may even be of interest to some long time players who still have some unfinished “decrepit legendries” clogging up their crew slots.
The new "PREMIUM REWARDS" would still cost 650 dil and have all the new 4- and 5-star cards, but you only get five cards per pull. One will always be a behold with the same probability for a “begold” as the current pull. Since there are no schematics in this one, you’d get a maximum of 1,000 in honor or 1,350 if you airlock the legendary.
I think this would make premium pulls much more desirable and make it a reward actually worth getting. Plus, I for one would be willing to buy more dil or special offers than I am doing now. I’m curious to see what the rest of you think.
The premium pull no longer feels like the major reward it is supposed to be. It’s the final threshold reward in events (except for re-runs) and even if you finish, for example, the diplomat collection, which requires immortalizing 60 diplomats, you only get one premium pull. So it should be something really special. Yet for most of us in this forum, a premium pull results in somewhere between 600 and 1,000 honor and replicator fuel from useless schematics. I don’t know about you all, but I have enough other stuff to use for the replicator, I don’t really need schematics for that. And since there’s no real value in finishing most ships, schematics are not a great reward IMHO.
Most suggestions for addressing this that I’ve read so far on this forum are shut down with a comment along the lines of “DB/TP will never do it, because then players will pay less.” So my proposal, while certainly in need of some fine tuning, takes this into account. And it’s a very simple solution: Split up the premium portal into a “medium reward pull” and an actual “premium pull”. The two would work like this:
“MEDIUM REWARDS” would contain all cards from the first two years plus all 3-star cards plus all schematics. Every year, cards from another year will be added. One pull still gets you ten cards/schematics with the same probabilities as the current premium pull, but it would cost less. I’m thinking 350 dil. It would be great for players who don’t want to pay much (or at all) and only have very little dil. It may even be of interest to some long time players who still have some unfinished “decrepit legendries” clogging up their crew slots.
The new "PREMIUM REWARDS" would still cost 650 dil and have all the new 4- and 5-star cards, but you only get five cards per pull. One will always be a behold with the same probability for a “begold” as the current pull. Since there are no schematics in this one, you’d get a maximum of 1,000 in honor or 1,350 if you airlock the legendary.
I think this would make premium pulls much more desirable and make it a reward actually worth getting. Plus, I for one would be willing to buy more dil or special offers than I am doing now. I’m curious to see what the rest of you think.
18
Comments
Also, about the premium rewards idea, maybe something like this would be nice as a reward during events if the threshold reward table was extended like it is for rerun events.
The fact is TP does not view Premium Packs as valuable. It's the generic free add-on that is a step up from merits/trainers they give out. You could make these Super Premium Packs, but then TP would continue to give out the old packs where they currently have Premium Rewards.
Most experienced players are not spending DIL on generic Premium Packs anyway. They spend DIL on special packs with guaranteed rewards. The only use of Premium Packs is the free packs given out. So in effect you already have your two tier system, the normal Premium Packs and the special Tuesday/Event Packs.
There is the issue of the huge pool for premium and tiny pool for basic. If you actually want or need a low crew for some reason, you are more likely to get it. Each addition makes it harder to get a specific crew. With less than 100 in one portal and about 700 in the other, it does feel unbalanced.
There are three tiers for shuttle boosts, why not three for crew? 3* crew and ships, older 4* and 5* Crew and ships, and maybe some upper level components or an equipment crate we can open later would fill it out.
New 4* and 5* ships and crew in the top portal for, say, two years. They could even do a retro special pack every three months of ships and crew moving into the lower portal. It would be a cheaper pack, but more targeted.
Even if the premium packs are not seen as a top reward, wouldn't it still be good if a new great reward was added to the game?
And yes, you can spend your dilithium on special or tuesday pack, but at least so far they haven't been offered in any special offers such as the ten for ten. Those deals are limited to the regular premium packs and they are just not worth it any more. If there was a new top tier pull, I'd consider buying those again.
Two immediate thoughts and please don't take this as dismissal of your idea:
1. The 490 dil packs that we seen during mega events are a partial remedy. You can hunt down old legendaries at a discounted price. I'd like them to be cheaper still.
2. How does giving away more, for less dilithium, not negatively ffect WRG's revenue?
A counter suggestion, which I don't think is a new idea and certainly not mine - Put year 1 legendaries in the loot table in voyages at 10hr and beyond. Perhaps with a low drop rate, but enough to make players want to advance their voyage crew.
The 490 packs are great, but you can go a long time until one comes along that really helps you. And they haven't been included in the special deals, such as the 10 for 10 deal, which brings me to your second point. The current premium pulls are not something I want to spend money on anymore. If a new top-tier premium pull came along, I'd consider spending money on them again. They'd also make the premium track of the campaign more interesting. So in that sense, they could make WRG more revenue.
It doesn't have to. I don't think campaigns negatively affected their revenue, in fact they probably convinced a lot of people to spend 10 more $/€ a month or to even start spending money on this game for the first time.
If done properly discounted packs with old legendaries and a less diluted portal could also convince people to purchase more dilithium or to start spending again, especially if there should be pack offers for those too, like the 10x10.
Some players probably don't spend (more) on the game because they wouldn't do it anyway, but for a lot of us it might just be a matter of not being willing to spend money on something that has a 99% chance of being completely disappointing.
Splitting the card pool into regular and premium packs will IMO help BOTH pools.
- Players who need the stronger, newer cards will be much more likely to chase cards in the premium packs without fear of getting a Shinzon/Kai Opaka/Tosk begold.
- Players who have solid rosters and want to chase older cards for Collection/collecting purposes will be emboldened to do so by the cheaper pack prices; and players trying to complete ships will also have an easier time chasing schematics by having them be in the cheaper packs.
I'll keep an eye on this thread, but I like what I've seen so far, great idea @John Luck Pikkard
Like the 490 ones during mega events, but with decrept crew in them and to the 350 price you suggested. Those could also be sold for money in LTOs.
According to my high school economics teacher, the way that supply and demand work should apply here. If you lower the price, more people will buy. The goal of the TP sales team is to maximize profit by finding the sweet spot based on how many people will buy the product at the highest price possible.
For example, if 100,000 players will buy (on average) 100 packs for 1 dilithium each, then the company sells 10,000,000 dilithium. Now, if only 10,000 players will buy (on average) 10 packs each for 650 dilithium each, then the company sells 65,000,000 dilithium. Then let's say that 20,000 players would buy (on average) 15 packs each at 490 per pack, then the company would sell 147,000,000 dilithium. Obviously these numbers are made up. I have no clue how many players buy at what prices. But as the price goes up, fewer people buy and the ones who do will buy less. As the price goes down, more players buy and also buy more packs. As has been illustrated above, at a certain point more packs seem unnecessary, so they start to lose value and players cap out on what they are willing to buy, even at low prices.
From the thread that preceded Decrepit Legendaries™ (not really trademarked, I just love that emoji) to RaraRacing's recent revival with the more marketable name Legacy Legendaries to this thread, it has become apparent that players are placing less value on premium pulls than 650 dilithium. With that being the case, it would make sense to either add value to the product (ie. filter out older, stat-creeped cards) or lower the price point of the product. Players have been advocating for separate pools for newer cards and older cards since probably before my Decrepit Legendaries™ thread. It only stands to reason that one would have a higher price point than the other. It would be up to TP marketing to set that price point to maximize profit. I do like how players have made suggestions. It gives an idea of where they would be willing to buy in.
Very long-winded way to say it, but TP can lower prices and increase profit. Maybe. It is also possible that the sweet spot of 650 hasn't moved and forum players are just not an accurate representation of the community at large. It is also possible that other marketing factors apply. For example, would 490 packs sell as well if there weren't an overpriced, diluted 650 pack sitting right next to it, making the 490 pack look like a real bargain? Who knows?
I'd like to clarify something about your "premium rewards" pack idea. When you say "have all the new 4- and 5-star cards", do you mean the ones currently in-portal, or literally all the new ones up to the date of opening the pack? If it's the former, ok then, and ignore the next paragraph.
If it's the latter, that sounds a lot like the concept of Elusive Treasures. In fact, your premium pack structure is essentially a 50% version of ET. IIRC, the Dil price on Elusive Treasures is 11,000 (or 6500) - whichever it is. You're suggesting a much lower price point than DB/WRG has used in the past for an equivalent mechanism. I suspect that won't fly for them (but as noted by PrimeLorca, none of us know what the internal metrics say about the sweet spot for selling packs).