And not just me.
There are many who dislike this random-drop-advance only path … because it’s not the game they signed up for and were enjoying before 3.0.
They - like me - have tried both paths, and don’t like this new one with which the devs have replaced the old one.
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So why not simply have both paths.
In fact, the devs have signaled – perhaps because of how wide-spread the outcry against this new gacha-style PQ3 has been – that they may very well intend to support both paths.
Which, I think, is smart of them, provided both paths can realistically be pursued. They shouldn’t have taken out the rarity-upgrading path in the first place.
And, thus, my suggestions on this forum ever since 3.0 dropped, that (a) the path should be restored and (b) some thoughts on how that might be done.
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I’m well-aware of the path you outline. It’s obvious.
And if it remains the only path for advancement, I – and many like me – will cease playing and supporting PQ3. Quite a few - even some well-established end-gamers - already have.
Because it isn’t fun any more. Not to us. We don’t like this new path. We don’t want to play if that’s the only reasonable way forward any more.
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So just offer both. The old rarity-upgrading one and the new gacha-farming one.
More customers. More income.
Not like I’ve ever suggested taking away the gacha-style gameplay. No … that’s what 3.0 did to us. Was a bad choice.
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Not at all.
All my suggestions have required minimal work to make “advance rarity” work seamlessly within 3.0. Not a whole second parallel game, but a parallel track within the existing game.
In fact, my original suggestions were a smaller coding change – just tweak the honing mechanic a little, extending it to include improving rarity level – than the “follower based” rarity-improvement scheme it sounds like they’re actually going to implement (if they implement anything at all.)
So, clearly, this small development team does think it worthwhile to restore that mechanic. Or so it seems. Not surprising, if so, given the level of outcry when they took away that mechanic with 3.0 and implemented an entirely new gacha advancement scheme. … Talk about a whole lot of coding!!
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Obviously. Nor have I suggested otherwise.
In fact, that’s what the devs (or management) are probably assuming would happen – that they’d lose a whole lot of their existing customer base, who discovered they were now playing a very different game from the one they liked and stuck with …
… but that they’d attract a whole set of new (and, presumably, higher-paying, or so they must hope) set of customers to what is, arguably, a very different game.
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I have suggested that – if that indeed was their plan – that it was a bad plan on 3 counts (discussed in greater detail elsewhere):
- It unnecessarily loses existing customers on a gamble that they will be replaced
- By going “gacha” style, it puts PQ3 in direct competition with more popular and successful and established “gacha” games, making it that much harder to attract those putative new customers
- It creates the “mid-gamer doldrums” which even players who don’t know the previous game will suffer.
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#3 above is essentially the observation that, once a player gets over the novelty of the game, figures out its mechanics and how to advance within it, a player’s going to want to start building up well-coordinated gear sets to be able to take on higher enemies / PvP / KD.
And those players are going to quickly discover – whether or not they were around before 3.0 – that, because they’re stuck waiting on random drops – their ability to advance further is very limited.
Yes, there is that tedious “path” you describe – and one of the major flaws of that path (especially for mid-gamers) is that it makes the advancement experience tedious, dull, and boring.
Because – unlike before, when you could make regular gear improvements towards the end-goal of mythic, and feel good about it at each step – now it’s entirely dependent on waiting for good drops, and, in the 99 (or whatever) percent of the time that you don’t get one, it’s negative reinforcement. … It’s what creates those doldrums, making the grind even more frustrating and dull than it was before. Very bad psychology.
And this isn’t just me theorizing, or reporting my individual experience (though it’s that too) … it’s the experience reported by a whole lot of people both on these forums and in-game chat.
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You seem so worried that the “development team” can’t handle re-introducing or supporting gear rarity-improving, as if they were incompetent coders, or unable to make substantive changes.
But they’ve already shown they can make big changes to the game … that’s exactly what 3.0 was!!
I have every confidence that they are perfectly able to re-introduce gear-rarity-upgrading into a post-3.0 game – especially as that would require substantially fewer changes than 3.0 itself actually made.
I mean, just from a coding and artistic and support POV, PQ3 is a really good game.
I have major quibbles with some of the new game mechanics, but not with the development abilities the game demonstrates. … That’s part of why I enjoyed playing it, and why I’d like to see it return to something I enjoy and would be willing to invest time and resources on.
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And, from the sound of it (though Jeto was rather ambiguous), the dev team may even already be planning on doing this – whether because it was part of an original plan or in response to the huge outcry against this particular aspect of 3.0, who knows.
If so, I’d hope thoughtful player feedback – like the sort I"ve tried to give – would be welcome.
And, if so, I hope that they re-implement it in a balanced and meaningful way, not just some expensive end-game frill, so that they really do attract a wider customer base and enrich the game experience.
Doesn’t matter what “path” there is to advance, or which path you prefer, if the game proves to be unprofitable and is abandoned as part of corporate downsizing!
