Achievements and "Pay-To-Win"

[Prinny]

Ill have a say in this matter, jsut choose your achievements wisely and put the best ones in the gold slots.
Laharl has always ran with all 6 of them and the most benefit comes from the +10 size and 250 hp by far.
Nura and Yuki both run with 2-3 achievements and so have Shikii and Jinrou, they have been upgraded to 4-6 since they participate in the bloodgames.

Nate tweaked the cost for the last 2 achievements from 12 a week to 6 which cuts into the costs majorly and ive been happy with that, if you are doing anything about the trophies than make the third one optional for both gold and trophies but not more than that.

[Narol]

Laharl is ranked 32th in Primus with 6 achievement slots and was in the top 25 yesterday if I remember well...

With 4-6 slots, Shikii is ranked 46th and Jinrou 64th.

With only 2-3 slots, Yuki is ranked 73th and Nura is 74th (amongst 75 gladiators in Primus)

Again, your example just prove my point, Prinny... Knowing how good a trainer you are, I'm sure your glads other then Laharl would have been ranked much higher if they all had the 6 slots active !

[CaineDeSoulis]

and prey is 14th and has NEVER had achievements 4,5 or 6 active. 3 was activated for +8 luck to see if it affected tavern missons. and she is a former champion.

[Narol]

Prey is very good, but Caine with 6 active slots is ranked 9th and ahead of her... I bet that Prey would be in the top 10 and maybe champion again with the 6 slots too !

So you prove too my point, dear Caine.

Guys, you don't seem to realize that the game has become tougher with the recent changes as a lot more gladiators have reached Primus and that it's almost impossible to stay long at the top without all the bonus you can get (achievements, purple items, races...)

Purple Items and Races are one-time costs so a patient manager can save trophies to buy them and catch up someday, but achievements are a regular weekly cost and ultimately make the difference all things equal aside...

[Prinny]

With only 2-3 slots, Yuki is ranked 73th and Nura is 74th (amongst 75 gladiators in Primus)

Again, your example just prove my point, Prinny... Knowing how good a trainer you are, I'm sure your glads other then Laharl would have been ranked much higher if they all had the 6 slots active !

Im a crappy trainer :P
Have you ever taken a good look at Nura and Yuki? their builds are far from complete and Nura's gear is still around lvl 29,30 exept for his weapon lol
In addition to that they joined Primus only 2 days or so ago :P

Also I run 4 humans, so I dont get that great bonus to health like a trug or the extra damage a dunder has. only a small crappy bonus to attack power :P

[Narol]

Humans need more love, definitely...

I would suggest an increasing bonus when they level up, +20 in offensive power being nice at low level but not very useful at high level.

Something like :

+ 20 at level 1

+25 at level 10

+30 at level 20

+35 at level 30

+40 at level 40

+50 at level 50

[WheelDraw]

I'm new and have mixed feelings. First, I think if a game is fun it doesn't matter much if you have a shot at winning. If a guy wants to play no-pay (and he couldn't play unless somebody was paying) what's the big deal if he can't win? Enjoy the game for what it is, enjoy your achievements relative to what you have to work with (think one of the minnows in the EPL being thrilled to avoid relegation...their goals and their fans' expectations are and should be quite a bit different from say a Manchester team), and that's that. On the other hand it does seem like the best way to handle the pay stuff is to make it about extras not core game-play. Use it to buy a custom avatar, to speed your way through leveling, to open up an unplayable class (that is balanced with the other classes), to have a bigger stable, etc. As far as which individual gladiator wins an individual fight it would be nice to see that as a completely level playing field.

[bugua]

this is what the dev keep working on the game

[MrEpik]

I just started playing a week ago, so take my points for what is worth (very little).

I think the basis of "fair" Free-to-play is money doens´t buy power. Even if this power is very tiny.

"Quality of life" things are totally fine purchable with trophies only, the scribe, auto-heal/repair, 100 energy are all good examples of quality of life.
But i think that for everything else, there should be a gold option, even if very high.

Things like a Purple tier weapowns, stable upgrades and archivement slots should have a gold option IMHO.

I won´t put a value on those, as i´m yet to reach the higher tiers, so idk how much gold you guys can net a day, but it should be something high enough that would make spending money very atractive, but not a necessity.

And i hear what you top guys are saying, those things are not a necessity to reach the top, but just by the fact that they give power, even if little, take the fairness out of F2P, as this "little " advantage can decide the winner in a close game (for what i understand you were saying).

So 2 equal gladiators, in both stats and strategy, will not have the same strenght, because one is able to buy all purple items goodies and 6 arch slots...
Even if the "poor" one can win once in a while, most of the victories will go to the "rich".
That´s not fair-play.

Look at the LoL business style, that F2P at its finnest.

[CaineDeSoulis]

After running a couple of months in relative silence. I've been able to maintain the 25 trophy bi weekly investment in the memberships. AND run a constant auto heal/auto repair. I've Still managed to save 129 trophies purely from just playing every morning and not spending compulsively. Granted Sedris is among the elite killers in the pits earning a lot of trophies from him. Sedris has made top 10 a couple of times same with caine and prey. (they seem to get stuck at number 7-8 :P) partially because my commitment to the resistance. the great thing about the current system is the flexibility it has. If I want to spend X dollars and "COMPETE" with the best there is I can do that in a matter of hours. If i want to take it easy and let my gladiators grow naturally I can do that.

The initial investment in a great stable is quite high as the stable upgrades are expensive but for the most part very much worth it. The Stable Slots for instance i would suggest ALL managers actively pursue gaining 5 gladiators. equipment slots for the most part i would get at least a few. Death Sickness and armory upgrades are a GREAT value for the long term tho i think i would stop at 5/6. Memberships and are a great value I highly suggest them. Achievement slots.....Well they will help you win but are not as good in the value to cost ratio. but I Dont see them as something you would use every day. more like something you can pump to win particular fights or something to experiment with .

Pay to win? maybe but for the most part i think its matchup's and stratagy's that win battle not the amount of money you throw at a gladiator. but if you got those 2 things figured out it a little extra "insurance policy wouldn't hurt" ^_^