I THOUGHT they were making challenge changes to benefit us

When I saw they were going to one challenge a week I thought....finally they listened to the users.
People had complained about:
Never getting a break
Having to grind through too many easy challenges
Having to get on all the time if they were going to maximize stars
As it turns out, the challenge just lasts almost twice as long, there are even MORE easy levels to have to get through, you have a chance to get almost twice as many stars so you still have to get on all the time...and as an added bonus....the rewards got lessened and because you can get much further than before, the gas is even more expensive
I'm not sure how this answers any of the reasons people were quitting the game.
People had complained about:
Never getting a break
Having to grind through too many easy challenges
Having to get on all the time if they were going to maximize stars
As it turns out, the challenge just lasts almost twice as long, there are even MORE easy levels to have to get through, you have a chance to get almost twice as many stars so you still have to get on all the time...and as an added bonus....the rewards got lessened and because you can get much further than before, the gas is even more expensive
I'm not sure how this answers any of the reasons people were quitting the game.
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Wait...you have inspired me to help others on the board with this school of thought.
For those of you who have had problems with:
Gas costing too much -- stop using gas
Collecting experience points for upgrades takes too long -- stop upgrading
Survivors disappearing -- stop looking for them
Upgrades taking too long -- don't look at the clock
Help...I'm homeless and live under a bridge -- just get a good job
I am addicted to crack -- just say no to drugs
Ok...I think we can shut down the message boards now
I have said it before and I'll say it again before your thread gets shut down and/or I get banned again. The one challenge per week change is a good idea but it was implemented in such a non-player friendly manner. If crate payouts were more evenly scaled and an option to skip useless lower level grind missions were worked into it for higher level players then the 1 challenge per week thing could have had a chance to be successful. As it stands now it is and will remain a major source of contention for many who play this game.
What is delt with, is a disjointed and somewhat unbalanced, always changing, game expierence...
Join the club in increasing levels of frustration...
Any guess who might " now " be on my list, ( in 2017 )
1. Never getting a break? Are you joking? Now we get two full days off instead of NO days off. Your'e just wrong here.
2. You're also completely wrong about grinding more. There was a DIRECT reduction in the amount of times we're having to play challenge maps. At 240, twice a week, if you assume no bonus stars that's having to play 160 challenge maps per week under the old system. Now we're going to get stopped around 330 total stars, which is 110 per week under the new system. That's about a reduction of 30% in grinding over the entire week.
3. This is no change over the old system. Maximizing your gas is part of the meta of this game. Without it the game wouldn't be the same, and it's not logical to expect it to change.
It seems to me like you're just complaining to complain without any real basis or understanding. All of your points are seriously flawed.
Zoson's YouTube | Zoson's Video Vault
Errr... Is that reasoning, a standard company line of pre written responses...
Any guess who might " now " be on my list, ( in 2017 )
The only thing that didn't change for the better and wasn't basically directly asked for by us players was the reduction in overall trade good reward amount. The new challenge system is almost exactly what we asked for.
Zoson's YouTube | Zoson's Video Vault
Within that small part of this game, what you wrote is simplisticly correct...
But the total dynamics of that part of the game, has become massively un satisfying...
Any guess who might " now " be on my list, ( in 2017 )
Zoson's YouTube | Zoson's Video Vault
@zoson......I'm sure that doing the math for the period of a week's time, you are correct. But I also know how it FEELS during the challenge itself.
If you want to do right by your guild and get as many stars as you can during this new challenge, you have to:
A. Get on more often than before
B. Churn through even more easy, levels than before that present no challenge except challenging you as to how many levels you can get in at work without your boss seeing you
C. Get in even fewer levels at a time because with the increasing gas prices at higher levels
So, while the one challenge a week gives you a couple of days off that we didn't get before, it makes the days DURING the challenge even more boring, painful and tedious.
Your points B and C are contradictory and basically say the exact opposite of each other. One is you have to play more, the other is you get to play less. Again the only fact here is we're playing more than 30% fewer missions over an entire week now than we did before.
The only message that I can really take away here is you're implying that people who are low level should not benefit from the challenge. Removing the lower level missions would hurt new players.
Again, you're also letting your *feelings* misguide you from what is actually the reality. with 50 fewer maps per week that we have to grind through, we're spending less gas and less time on the challenge.
Zoson's YouTube | Zoson's Video Vault
let me try this....
You have a 40 hour a week job working 5 days a week.....so over 4 weeks, you spend 160 hours a week working and you get 8 days off. It costs you $10 a day to get to and from work....so $200
Your company says...hey we are doing you a favor because you asked for something better. We are just going to have you work 15 hours a day including weekends for 10 days straight. Oh and even though you have the same amount of money to spend each day, it's going to cost you $50 a day to get to and from work on the two weekend days. As an added bonus....what you do at work during those 10 days has just become twice as boring.
You say...hey...this is really not that great....im soooooooo tired....this work is so boring and seems to last twice as long....I'm getting sick from being worn down.....because of the extra cost to get here on weekends, that week, I can't take my family out do do anything fun and they're unhappy.
They say, quit whining....it DOESNT last twice as long, it just seems that way...you are actually spending 10 hours a month less at work than you were before...you spend $20 less a month on transportation. Instead of 8 days off a month, you get 18. What's the problem? We are awesome!
So...in this case...math doesn't outweigh how it feels.
I know a lot of people are frustrated still but I think this is a step in the right direction. If they would make some more adjustments then it will definitely be a move and not just a step in the right direction. My biggest complaint right now is the lower levels are sooooooo boring to do over and over till I get to the levels where I have to actually pay attention. Since NG did listen to the outcry (It looks like a majority of players prefer one challenge a week but clearly not all of them) to go back to one challenge, it does show that they are willing to make changes.
To me it looks like the next question isn't will they make more changes to the challenge system to help us with the grinding but how long before the next changes to help players with the grinding.
If that actually happens you and I should donate all of our gold to Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign
The reason I play the challenges is to earn trade goods/ crates ( the Stars are just an added bonus for my guild) How is it a good thing that I'm earning less?
The reduction in cool down time is useless. When I have some spare time to play I'm being limited by the gas prices & have to stop after 15 minutes to let my gas refill.
Even worse, I now have to play the same boring challenge over & over instead of a new challenge every few days.
These are TRUE things about the new system
Less overall gas spent
Less overall missions run
About equal high level missions
Less TG rewards
More time off
The Undying Suvivalist--Founding Member and Prezident of the Empty Memorial Club
2725 Deadly Missions Completed Prior to the End of The Deadly Era
Nightmare Club Member--All 14 Episodes of Story Complete on Nightmare Mode (lvl 19 survivors)
I guess this is a good thing,- I can start doing something more productive & less boring with my time.
@zoson having been made a " Content Creator ". and it is understandable that he is proud of the recognition...
His voice, in showing the positive improvements of this game, are a benefit to NextGames...
Yet his attempts to pontificate on, the small points of improvements, and in essence say " I did the math that proves, NextGames gave us what we wanted "
and thus...
" your complaints, are not of substance "
is condescending... ( thanks zoson... )
zoson is entitled to his opinion... As am I...
Any guess who might " now " be on my list, ( in 2017 )
If anything, the overall reduction in gas cost caused by the direct reduction in number of challenge missions we have to do per week would INCREASE the amount of XP you can earn. You have more gas available to do exploration missions for XP now than before, because you had to spend a LOT more gas doing challenges in the two challenge per week system.
The only valid argument I've heard is about variety. I cautioned in many threads before about going back to one challenge a week causing a lack of variety. Yes, all the low level maps are front loaded now, instead of some coming at the beginning of the week, and some coming at the end of the week. But again, the number of low level challenge maps we have to do has remained relatively unchanged. It could be argued that man, the end of the challenge is so much better! It's much more interesting! I get half a challenge of interesting high level maps! Oh wait, that's exactly the same thing as before... Just they're all lumped together now. Which is again, what we asked for.
The primary things that people asked for were:
1. A break from the challenge like we had before. (achieved)
2. More level appropriate chances at loot for all level players. (achieved)
3. Less overall commitment to the challenge. (achieved with >30% reduction in commitment)
4. Rewards more in line with level. (achieved, but in a bad way that reduced overall reward amount)
Zoson's YouTube | Zoson's Video Vault
Oh wait...now I remember. Because even though I get a couple days off a week, I have to work harder on the days I don't have off.
When players were asking them to go back to one challenge a week...they weren't saying, go back to one challenge a week but one that costs me more gas than before...one where I have to kill more zombies than before.....one where I have to grind through the same level 14 times instead of 8. They were simply saying....go back to one challenge like we had before.
So you can make all the comparisons of this vs 2 challenges you want...I've seen the math. But compared to what people were asking for, this isn't even close.