So first, my comment was sarcasm, to be clear. I’m well aware of that systems are often incomplete when they are implemented but (IMO) you are putting an incredibly positive and quite frankly too generous gloss on what has been put forth to date and their thinking behind it.
For starters, the question is what function does gear play in the life cycle of the game. Is it supposed to be an item that you acquire and through long painstaking playtime investment develop into a personalized piece of gear that you keep at its highest rarity? or is gear more akin to a Diablo-style loot fest that you grab, upgrade, and then easily toss aside when a more attractive version of the piece comes along. Given the various Perks (I assume that’s what they are called, perhaps Affects) and Mastery associations that could possibly be on gear and (at least for now) the inability to change those, it’s quite possible that a player might evolve a piece of gear to Epic or beyond and be dissatisfied with the Perks or color and want to attempt to “improve” the gear by finding and evolving another. Under the prior system of requiring additional copies, that was theoretically a possibility but given the rarity of drops, it’s hard to get beyond Epic with any regularity so it would be an arduous process. On top of that the vault limitations made the possibility of hoarding gear in a Diablo like fashion virtually impossible. So what are the devs “telling” us about how they think gear should be interacted with in this current system iteration?
So according to @Cyrup, the previous system was creating difficulties for players in acquiring resources needed for upgrades and evolutions. In the previous system, many of us were able to do evolves from Rare to Epic but it was clear that it would be exponentially difficult to continue further evolves due to the rarity of drops and the limited vault space. Now I don’t know if my Cyrup translation services are working currently, but what I just read was that 0.35 has introduced a system that recognizes those challenges (“the problem is going to get worse”) and made “signficant changes”. So again, as I work on my ability to understand English, what previously existed was a system in which players were able to evolve some gear but with increasing difficulty at further rarities. In it’s place was put a system in which players literally can at the current time and foreseeably for the future have no expectation of evolving A SINGLE PIECE OF GEAR. How can that be? Wasn’t the system that was put into place supposed to be a response to the difficulties that players were facing in the matter of evolving gear? When you acknowledge these difficulties and say, we therefore have replaced that system with something else, is not the implication that you are improving the environment for the players?
@Lyrian you seem to be a knowledgeable individual and I respect what you post but honestly you are giving them too much credit. We were literally told:
So let’s see, using my English reading skills (regardless of the various translation services that I may or may not possess), the first listed means to acquire relics is by completing Dungeons. The second means is by salvage, which is a “small chance”. Additionally, “another primary way of obtaining Relics” is forthcoming. So! We can infer that completing dungeons is a “primary way” of obtaining relics. It was listed first! It can’t be salvage, that’s just a “small chance”. Clearly the Battle Pass is not a “primary way” of obtaining relics. So now, I, the player, am led to believe that the old system was too difficult, even though evolves were happening at earlier rarities, much less so at higher rarities. The new system is being implemented to address these difficulties. We are told that the new system utilizes Relics and the “primary way” to get Relics is by completing Dungeons. Hmmmm! I guess using my limited vocabulary set and reading comprehension I would infer that relics might have a similar frequency to gear drops that were needed in the old system. Or maybe they might have a similar frequency to scrolls/runes which are also needed in the evolution process and also drop with regularity from chests. But lo! instead, Relics appear to have a drop rate so low that after 5 days, we literally have just a handful of instances of their appearance. Now we know:
“Very Rare”! That’s certainly not what I expected of the drop rate of something that is a “primary way” to acquire something. Does that mean that the other “primary way” of acquiring Relics will also be “Very Rare”? and I think I agree with @Tacet here:
So here we are. I shouldn’t need a @Salty translation service when:
I think it’s fair to say that my ability to read and translate is working just fine. What is absent is the ability to communicate honestly about changes that are being made and how they will affect the player. I’m addressing this seriously because I often use humour to try to deflect from what otherwise would be a contentious response. But let this post be very clear. I’m not amused. And I don’t need a translator. I have 3 decades of experience in both project development, assurance, and as a game player. What I see is disappointing and quite frankly an embarrassment so far in terms of communication. It is early access; systems are going to be subject not just to change but to reimplementation; that is not unexpected. What is expected is that if you make significant changes that restructure entire elements of game play, that you be honest about how that will affect the player. At the end of the day they are trying to make a product that will in theory be financially viable using the mobile gacha model. I have no issue with that. But as a player, I should have some idea what my actions in the game will lead to. In the previous system I understood how to evolve items and what effort that would take. In the new system which was introduced to address “difficulties” I have absolutely no ability to know the level of effort required to evolve an item and from what has been communicated so far, no idea what that will look like in the future. That is not a failure of me to translate, that is a failure of design and communication.