Upgrading weapon level: Will it ever happen?
Maebalzurakin
Member Posts: 50
Has any of the Developers ever previously commented on this subject? If they haven't, could they?
I really don't mind the endless chasing of gear even though it is a bit of a grind. It seems as soon as I get my team equipped with legendary weapons that are maxed out, they up the character level and I get to do it all over again.
However, I think that any paid 'unique' weapons should have an option to upgrade it to a higher base level. My opinion is that the current system actually hurts sales. I would pay the $20 for that unique and awesome weapon if I could actually use it for longer than a few months. Right now buying them seems pointless.
Of course I would prefer that all weapons were upgradable. Even if the cost was 10,000,000 exp.
I really don't mind the endless chasing of gear even though it is a bit of a grind. It seems as soon as I get my team equipped with legendary weapons that are maxed out, they up the character level and I get to do it all over again.
However, I think that any paid 'unique' weapons should have an option to upgrade it to a higher base level. My opinion is that the current system actually hurts sales. I would pay the $20 for that unique and awesome weapon if I could actually use it for longer than a few months. Right now buying them seems pointless.
Of course I would prefer that all weapons were upgradable. Even if the cost was 10,000,000 exp.
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This is the case especially for players who aren't at max level. I used to be 2 or 3 levels away from max level, and whenever there was a sale, I realized nah. its not worth buying because im not at max level yet. This current system hurts sales greatly especially for the earlier new players and the more level they keep adding- the bigger the gap will be in which their sales drop.
so all the player (in the same guild or not) can sell their weapon for tomatoes or xp
that's really useful and I'm sure it'll stop grinding
Bottom line this is how they rack up 4Q profits.
Not likely to happen.
Myself and others have suggested an option to "purchase" an upgrade token, a few bucks, that would increase the max level of a piece of gear by one.
This is the best compromise I think, since more people would buy unique gear if they could then pay a smaller fee to recycle it. Kind of end up being like when you trade in an old game to buy a new one.
Probably still won't happen tho. The +/- on revenue not motivation enough to push it.
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We're at a point where the council upgrades are expected to be around 3x per year, and this year, we are actually behind schedule for that. We did one in March, and now another in October. So I understand the "planned obsolescence" perspective, but I take some exception to the "useless in a month" comment. It has always been our stance that a weapon one level under max is still useful; they do not suddenly stop dealing damage to the enemy.
As an aside, I want to point out that we do get requests from players around 6 weeks after a council upgrade asking us to do it again as soon as possible. This is just to show that there are players who want there to never be an end to the upgrading and leveling process; for a lot of players, that is one of the most fun parts of the game.
However, I digress. It is true that equipment bundles area big part of our economy, and a big part of how we keep the game running. We need to be extremely careful about any change we make that would jeopardize the long-term life of the game. And if equipment had no caps, then a huge portion of all the rewards we place across the game become essentially moot. On the other hand, there is a lot to be said for finding the perfect piece of gear, or getting something special from a bundle, and wanting to keep it in your arsenal for as long as possible.
Personally, and not speaking as an official announcement or indication of a feature in development, I'd like to make an item like an "Upgrade Kit" that would take a fully-upgraded piece of equipment and restore it to "like new", but with the base level increased by one. I would imagine that we could make a limited number of these earned through gameplay [maybe in an event like the Summer Campaign], and then offer additional kits on the bundle shop. That way, equipment rewards are still relevant, spenders can get more if they want, and players can carry that favorite version of Daryl's crossbow all the way up from the Chapter 1 rewards through to the end of the game, if they want.
This is the version of the idea that I have advocated for and added to our feature request wishlist, and I'm sure it will change somewhat as we work on it. If you have feedback on this idea, I welcome it here, in the "Ideas" part of the forums, [where I think it has been mentioned before], or in a PM. But I hope this does show that we are aware of the request, and we do think there is something to be done about it, but a combination of a need for lots of caution and other, bigger feature priorities have kept it from happening up to this point.
Thanks for the question!
Please note: Development is a fluid process, and suggestions and implementation take time and iteration. Any discussion of future features, deadlines, updates, balance changes, and such should be considered prospective and subject to change.
You make sense as always
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We know they aren't useless.
But when most of us spend actual real money on a piece of gear, we have an expectation that it is one of the very best pieces of gear in the game. And when an update comes out, and people can find better gear for free...? Yeah, it sucks.
I think you guys know that. And if you could push the upgrade kit, well, that might alleviate it some.
Oh and, March - October was an ideal time without a council upgrade for me.
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Generally when I consider something obsolete its more of a time factor. (And "random variable factors" that gives me the perception of buyer's remorse, either in spending XP on them or real money to buy them, and then finding a better one later or by the time I get around to actually upgrading them a new council update is around the corner.)
Whenever a new upgrade comes around. The first thing I do is getting survivor training ground up and then train survivors. Can't use a level 25 weapon if you don't have a level 25 survivor first. This ultimate results in "XP" in demand and going to level 24 toons -> 25 first. And I have many survivors right now at 24 waiting to get upgraded.
Whenever I find a weapon lvl 25 or level 24, if it doesn't have ideal stats, I'm not going to bother putting XP into it. Upgrading any weapon takes up basically 2x-3x the amount it takes for me to upgrade a survivor (almost). And then later I find the ideal weapon or stats, the XP feels wasted into weapons that is getting replaced (either by a newly found ideal trait, a bundle that is going on sale at a great price that I might consider getting.)
The Time Factor here is the big issue. It takes almost 2+ days to get any sort of XP to upgrade something. I will generally only be able to upgrade 3-4 solid weapons for my main team during any council period. And usually I pause on any weapons upgrading during a new council update period if its not the ideal weapon- and focusing on more survivor upgrade first. I'll generally stick to the current level 24 weapons I have but not invest in any new level 24 upgrades knowing that I might find an ideal level 25 at any moment. And the 3 upgrade of XP usage will feel wasted. When it's all said and done, a new update rolls around 4 months later. I usually end up skipping a whole level for some weapons.
XP-> into survivors never feel wasted. since you will always need them leveled. I rarely scrap my survivors, as they can be used as pawns even if I don't want to focus their pink stars. But leveling them at least lets them use the current level weapons.
XP-> into weapons usually feels wasted because of various factors that can make you feel like you wasted XP. either by a new update. or finding a new perfect one after you had just started upgrading it 1 notch or 2 notch up.
With the upgrade Kit Ideal, I think that might really help with my Weapons problem and decision making.
#1: Weapons that obsolete every council upgrade and thus some people buy them once again with a council upgrade, or from
#2. Weapons that last more one level so more players are more willing to buy them initially because they are less afraid of them obsoleting quickly.
The only way to answer that question is to experiment and offer at least one weapon that is automatically leveled up at least once with a council upgrade. I'd be tempted to try it if I were them to see what the sales would be like. I'd try selling one auto-leveling weapon, maybe with a slightly higher price for the weapon with one automatic level up.
There are advantages for NG with #2. With the number of users going down in this game every quarter, the more sales they can make sooner the better off they are. They are not going to get a repeat buyer anyway if a player quits the game, so eliminate that initial hesitance to make that sale. An auto-leveling weapon might actually work to keep some players around longer.
This shouldn't be that hard to do from a development perspective, even if they had to run a database batch job to level up every weapon purchased with this auto-leveling characteristic.
I can't believe that there are requests for another update 6 weeks after. If you want a weapon/armour for each of the 6 classes it takes over 30 days of upgrades alone! And that's after you get enough supplies for your buildings and then find stuff worth upgrading
https://forums.nextgames.com/walkingdead/discussion/40263/wild-walking-is-actively-seeking-new-members"
When I'm spending my money, I like to know I'm spending it on something that last.
Like I maxed out buying survivor slots because I know that will last and you can't go wrong with that.
When I play games that offer storage purchase, I always spend on increasing the storage space. I don't hesitate or think twice.
Anything that becomes obsolete or throw away or limited use and charges etc. I rarely spend on that and think twice before even considering spending.
I have already bought quite a few gas booster.
However, I do not dream to buy weapons that will then be scrap.
That upgrade kit really makes sense on both sides. Players/company
In most mobile games 0.01% of the player base, a.k.a. "the whales", support 99.99% of the other players, who are playing for free or just purchasing small boosters 2-3 times a year.
I don't know if you have a marketing department who drives these decisions, but I suspect
a token, sold at the right price, might allow you to generate more income in total. Every token represents a lost weapon sale to a "whale" who now doesn't have to purchase it, However, the token sales in addition to making weapon purchases more attractive to a larger portion of your players might greatly exceed the income you lose.
1.99 is a good price now and then if I want to do a gas unlimited day. 4.99 was okay then cuz it was for an extra slot as well with full supplies. (gold, tg, radio and randomized weapon was NOT the reason for me to buy the bundle.) After getting a junk gold weapon, I started realizing that weapons buying with randomized traits was the worst thing I could spend on. And especially now realizing they also become obsolete.
I think NG should rethink how they're doing bundles and what to offer players. If they started offering more 2.99-3.99 bundles, I'd think about spending more often. Smaller pricing that has multiple purchases long term probably nets them more money. IMO.
We are constantly optimizing the shop offers to improve our performance, which keeps us sure that we can continue the game for as long as we all hope. We are constantly using the data to make sure that we are offering the things the players want most.
Please note: Development is a fluid process, and suggestions and implementation take time and iteration. Any discussion of future features, deadlines, updates, balance changes, and such should be considered prospective and subject to change.
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Is that something NG can affect, I've read that it's Google and Apple that controls international pricing. NG sets a price, the two companies don't make changes to the base price, only conversions.
Is this wrong?
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$15 is currently about €12.8 - we would most likely be charged around €17, though, which is roughly $19.80.
I believe VAT is 19%, so roughly $16.5 is what would cover that, so about €14.10.
If that is on Apple or Google and companies can't set different prices for different markets, they have a very weird conversion tool (that seems to simply hate Europeans
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I've read it too. But not officially from NG staff. So as it stands, its just opinion in a forum, which may or may not be correct in this context.
The fact that the price setting seems lazily done suggests that it isn't a Google or Apple thing. $1 is not even close to £1, yet that is how the bundles are priced.
So it should get a NG response really. It definitely can't be tax related. The difference is too big.
I am suggesting NG need to deal with it either way. If Google are ripping off their customers, they have an ethical duty to take Google to task, on overpricing their bundles in certain countries. Otherwise, it is a case of. The price NG set being incorrect for some countries and they would need to deal with that.
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But I've posted on this subject many times before, and like @WalkerRon I've never spent much on the weapons because I started the game 'late' and buying expensive items is something that makes no sense if you're leveling as fast as you can AND skipping levels where possible. I'm midway through leveling my 21's to 23 and expect I'll be leveling from 23 to 25 as soon as I can after the next council upgrade.
Then, after 15 months of playing the game I'll finally be in a position where it makes sense to buy gear - that's a whole lot of wasted customer potential.
Has this idea been completely thrown out or is it on the 'for later' shelf?
(Yes, I might simply be clueless)
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No idea if that would work - and no idea if that would even be legal.
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