[Derclaw]

https://www.raidersofthebrokenplanet.com/community/index.php?topic=1317.msg6234;topicseen#msg6234

"...we wanted as much variety per character as possible."

If you want variety stop forcing people into playing what they dont like, remove loot rolls and make playing game feel like you are achieving something.

I know that you are proud bunch and want to stick to your "unique ideas" - but loot rolls, affinity lock (previously antagonist lock) for crafting and the fact that everything in this game is bloody random-random-random (random cards, random weapons, random antagonist spawn) - you cant work towards any goal, just play and hope that today you will make some progress.

Thats horrible feel when you spent like 2-3 hours grinding faction points - then you waste ALL of them on roll, dont get cards you want - and now you are at the same exatc spot as you were 2-3 hours before - you literally just wasted your time playing the game.

Same for weapons - yeah you got lucky - got into mission you wantyed, got capable people, managed to finish the mission, go the blueprint... and now its 25% ON TOP OF ALL THAT, unless you have understanding teammates... but then you need to get lucky 3 more times to get gun for everyone.

Why are you so adamant at keeping all those mechanics, when people whine about how bad they feel about them? You dont want people to feel bad about your grinder-game rewards.

If people feel bad about your grinder-game rewards - the first thing you should do is to make people feel good about them, otherwise there is no point in grinding - cause 95% of time you are frustrated by results.

No ammount of numerical changes and convoluted progression that was uncalled for will change the fact that it feels bad to miss a roll, and it feels bad to waste potentially unlimited faction points and never get card you want.

Now you cant even get weapon, craft it and have fun with it - oh no. Cause once you get one of your weapons upgraded - you are activley gimping yourself if you use unapgraded one. So you need to get weapon BP and then get weapon BP again and again and again and again till your Forge is maxed.

You reduced the grind for characters but you disproportionnaly increased grind for weapons and faction points. And in the long run even reduction in character cost came with huge gold sinks like "hur-dur pay 40 000 credits to restore aleph" and stupid ammount of credits you ask for 3 game EXP boosts.

Your game was on a fence of being enjoyable vs annoying before - not it has firmly dropped to the "annoying as hell" side.

Stop insulting your players with changes you make and options you provide. We are not stupid.

[ZooL]

yes, exactly my point.
I have the feeling that mercurysteam is too proud to admit, that their loot/progression system SUCKS.
They really feel like a proud bunch that is so focused on their "unique" ideas that they don't realize how bad they are. I am also 100% positive that they lack the experience in making f2p games.

But bottom line is this: if you make a grind heavy game, you need to make sure every hour spent in the game feels like progress, even if it is just a little progress. But like OP already sad, in this game you can spend hours and not achieve anything at all because the random screws you over. that's just horrible design. and if mercurysteam fails to see that, maybe its time to realize that they are not fit to make f2p games.
to make things worse, they already tanked HARD with the game. it performed so bad that i was surprised that they could even afford to continue developing it. now they do this "big overhaul" and still the loot/progression system is shit. if you only have so few players, you should do everything to make them happy. you just cannot afford to treat your small playerbase like this. if changes in the progression mean that they will burn through your content alot faster then you hoped they would, so be it. at least they had a good time and will recommend your game. now you just frustrate the few people you have. i for example told all my friends on steam (and i have a lot of people how ask me if they should a certain game, since i always give honest opinions) that they should stay away from this as far as possible until you can make real progress when playing the game.

[LordDraco3]

I'll agree the 40k life restore option is junk. Did anyone playtest that idea with a real account that earned gold the normal way? That's a LOT of gold just to have a slight chance at beating a mission that might recoup 2k to that ONE player that spent it (because any reward split that isn't 2-2 is silly, barring the uncommon blueprint drop).

The cost of x2 boosters is really high. 1.5x aren't terrible and I use them to ensure my switch to antag affinity goes smoothly, though cheaper would be better with how much I spend on remaking guns now.

Everyone hates the blueprint rolling, that has always needed to go since day 1. The drop rate is frustrating, but lots can be done to fix it... if the current system remains with rolling, just make a blueprint appear every time, or double the current chances, or put something else in the "no blueprint" slot like a booster(s), or small amount of mercury points, or anything besides what currently has to be dealt with, a constant barrage of "Shame.....well better luck next time" from Cortez.

[MonsieurSamson]

I feel like the drop rate for BPs is ok. But I really hate having to compete with teammates to get them.
That's the most frustrating system I've ever seen in a game.