Post by Forum Administrator on Dec 18, 2016 21:58:31 GMT -8
Post December 2016 Major Patch Review™ Soccer Spirits
(27th December 2016)
It has been ~3 weeks since the Dec' 2016 major patch. The patch changes have more or less settled/sunk in for most people.
Similar to the March & July Major Patch, we will carry out an objective review of all the changes & new features.
March Major Patch Review: soccerspirits.freeforums.net/thread/311/march-changes-review-soccer-spirits
July Major Patch Review: soccerspirits.freeforums.net/thread/419/major-changes-review-soccer-spirits
Been thinking about how we should review this patch since it is a crucial patch to the survival of Soccer Spirits.
Post Major Patch Bugs/Fixes
This major patch is probably the best in terms of major patch bugs/fixes.
There wasn't any long-lasting bug that affects game-play
Except some irritating "Did you know" notifications everytime you collect a special card from daily rewards.
However, although this is good news, this is purely the minimum standard expected to be done for any patch/updates in future.
Good job nonetheless. Bigball has finally carried out a major patch without any major bugs ;shake
Post Major Patch Events
X'mas events, New Year events act as a build-on for the major patch events to grow the Soccer Spirits population.
Either through bringing back returning players, attracting new players or retaining current players.
Hence, we will be reviewing these as well.
First of all, post major patch events, there were the:
Rewards from the post major patch events were mostly satisfying.
However, it was not as generous as the previous July major patch, despite being in the festive month of December.
Returning player referral event was badly designed, with many people not being able to get the rewards (2100 crystals & three 5* littres).
Instead, players resorted to buying/using alts to get these rewards.
This resulted in the unhappiness of many players due to the widening gap between players who could obtain these rewards versus those who are unable to.
Overall, these 5 events still did succeed in pleasing current players and bringing back players to stay and try out the new content etc.
Soon after, we have the X'mas events to build on the success of the major patch events.
X'mas Events:
These events are undoubtedly lack-lustre from the perspective of X'mas events.
If it was a normal monthly event, these 2 events will be acceptable.
But for Christmas, players would have expected Bigball to be more generous & exciting with their events.
And not events where you still have to do club matches during X'mas to get the rewards.
Hence, the X'mas events was a poor build-up of the success from the major patch events.
Instead, we will be looking forward to the New Year Events now.
What do players expect from New Year Events?
Lastly, developers in-charge of designing the events, should understand the difference in expectations of the players regarding a festive event versus a normal event.
Christmas events and New Year events, shouldn't be treated like that of a normal event.
More needs to be done to address those expectations unless lowering the players' expectations of festive events is what the developers want.
Players will then start to be less excited/hyped towards festive events because it's not going to be some generous events to look forward to.
Instead, they will be looking forward to generous festive events in other games instead.
Improvements/Changes to Current Content + New Content/Features
To be honest, most of the improvements are immensely positive.
Most players termed these improvements as QoL (Quality-of-Life) improvements.
Live PvP
3 weeks after the introduction of Live PvP, it has proven to be a success.
Despite the lack of rewards, the player-to-player interactions component has been successful in motivating players for this content.
The participation for Live PvP are mainly between players rank >90 above and mainly normal mode.
Normal mode is mostly used to try out team formations and also for duel purposes.
Ban mode is less popular due to the high level of requirements of the cards owned/acquired (mostly between whales/p2p).
Contrary to initial predictions, live pvp actually turned out to be useful and enjoyable for current and returning players.
Club Match
Club match, since its release, has not been a popular content.
Less than 1% of the actual SS population actually plays it.
Because it used to be time consuming (5v5) and the level of difficulty is extremely high.
Reason being, club match-making mechanism matches you up against the top 5 players of the other club and against clubs nearby your ranks.
So if you are within the top 100 clubs, you are most likely going to face opposing clubs of 5 SSS teams, galaxy league level.
In addition, the rewards sucked. So barely anyone does it.
But with the new changes (3v3, better rewards, easier match-making), the participation rate of club match has shot up greatly.
Improved Club Match Rewards
The club match rewards are improved in few ways, introduction of Irene, lowering of item prices and gold rewards.
The cost of powering up a SUIT to +5, is lowered from the initial 1600 (4 x 400 points per powerup) points to:
There are a few points regarding the club personal scout that we want to bring up.
First, the drop in the total cost to powerup a suit to +5 is only 25%. It could be lowered further.
Reason? This brings us to our next point.
Even if you used every free balls, and 1v3 all your club matches/perfect victories, it is not possible to purchase everything in the club scout.
Similar to event scout, the design should be that if you were dedicated and played all your free balls, you should be able to buy everything.
Hence, either lower the powerup cost further or lower the prices of other items.
Otherwise, everyone is going for SUITs and powerups and the other items serve no purposes (excluding the manager).
New Grind (Superior Teamwork)
What we will be reviewing about this new feature is the level of grind relative to players' enjoyment of the game.
The most time consuming concept about this new feature, is the RNG to obtain the bonus stat that a player needs.
For an average player, it will probably take a few days to complete one set of superior teamwork (30 > 60) and reset if necessary.
To complete it for all of one's key players, its doable.
But now? If you want to get the right stat for every player that you own, its close to exhausting, impossible.
The good news is, now all teamwork questions contain a +3 answer (as compared to previously, some only contain +1 answer max).
AND the whole set of +3 answers for all players teamwork questions, can be found at:
This new grind, has become more of a chore and frustrating task, as compared to before due to the randomness of the bonus stat given.
It is doable but it has become a chore and frustrating task.
When you design a game, you want to make the tasks/grind enjoyable for your players, not a chore or a torture.
With the +3 answers cheat-sheet, it has taken some burden off the players' shoulders but fundamentally, it shouldn't be as such.
Proposed Solution:
Balancing & Legendaries' EEs
With regard to balancing, we are glad that Bigball heeded our advice during our July Major Patch Review that "less balancing is more".
soccerspirits.freeforums.net/thread/419/major-changes-review-soccer-spirits
While still addressing some of the community's concerns in the current major patch.
It has definitely become tougher for rainbow/hybrid teams to compete against mono elemental teams now.
But that's the whole idea of STARBURST, for mono elemental PvP teams to be the new trend.
Whether if some of the aces are broken and need fixing, it takes time to tell because:
Utility Strikers' Nerf
This nerf basically works such that the stacked actives only work upon shooting.
Many people have been complaining about Vonchi doing 3k+ steals from enemy backlines
OR their whole backline dying to enemy striker.
This balancing addresses these concerns.
Season 3 Legendaries EE
From the EEs, we can see that developers are cautious with the EEs of these legends so as to not break the game with their EEs.
The improvements to Jiho, Felix, after their EEs, have been underwhelming as perceived to a huge extent by many players.
It's not a bad thing from the players' perspective to be cautious towards the balance of the game with the EEs of legendaries.
But from the revenue perspective,
But if a legendary is too broken and it spoils the game for the rest of the players who cannot obtain it, it would cause the game population to decline.
Once again, it is a delicate balance to create a legendary EE that is so OP that everyone wants to buy it but still not spoil the game for other players.
How do we do this?
The key will be to have a counter or to improve the skills that is unique to the legend that has already been in game.
For example, improving Felix revival cooldown to 50%, or improving Jiho totem to 30% pen power/crit damage.
These are skills that are already in the game and increasing by a marginal value will be satisfying but yet not game breaking.
These 2 new legends are the epitome of game-breaking.
But since they cost 1500 DS to purchase, the spread of these 2 cancer will be slow but will eventually get to most people, complaining and asking for their nerfs.
Secret/Unannounced Changes
After the major patch, we have noticed that stats of 6* players have dropped.
For players who clear endgame content like us, it is not possible to hide these changes from us.
Could it be because of Stone Nerfs? Managers? Ace changes?
Nope. (was using silla ace, same stones that were untouched by nerfs, same managers etc)
Most likely it is because of the changes to the equations which stats (action speed, reflexes etc) are derived from.
OR the stats of the players have been reduced directly.
If you remember the stats of your players, you could easily check it out yourself.
*Such unannounced changes are not welcome
When any game-related changes is made, make sure not to forget to announce it to the players.
Other Possible Areas of Improvements
*There are many possible areas of improvements... We will add more as we go along...
Conclusion
This major patch has been successful to a medium extent in reviving the game and bringing back old players.
However, the lack of compounding X'mas events to follow up on the success was disappointing.
The game is improving in the right direction and the momentum is looking good for now.
The question is, how much are the developers willing to give, to keep the momentum going, to grow the game?
The more you are willing to give, the more you can take back eventually.
But if you are not willing to give, there will be eventually nothing left for you to take back.
(27th December 2016)
It has been ~3 weeks since the Dec' 2016 major patch. The patch changes have more or less settled/sunk in for most people.
Similar to the March & July Major Patch, we will carry out an objective review of all the changes & new features.
March Major Patch Review: soccerspirits.freeforums.net/thread/311/march-changes-review-soccer-spirits
July Major Patch Review: soccerspirits.freeforums.net/thread/419/major-changes-review-soccer-spirits
Been thinking about how we should review this patch since it is a crucial patch to the survival of Soccer Spirits.
- Post Major Patch Bugs/Fixes
- Post Major Patch Events
- Improvement/Changes to Current Content
- New Content/Features
- New Grind
- Balancing (Stones/Aces/Utility Strikers' Nerf)
- Legendaries' Extreme Evolution
- Secret/Unannounced Changes + Possible Areas of Improvements
- Conclusion
Post Major Patch Bugs/Fixes
This major patch is probably the best in terms of major patch bugs/fixes.
There wasn't any long-lasting bug that affects game-play
Except some irritating "Did you know" notifications everytime you collect a special card from daily rewards.
However, although this is good news, this is purely the minimum standard expected to be done for any patch/updates in future.
Good job nonetheless. Bigball has finally carried out a major patch without any major bugs ;shake
Post Major Patch Events
X'mas events, New Year events act as a build-on for the major patch events to grow the Soccer Spirits population.
Either through bringing back returning players, attracting new players or retaining current players.
Hence, we will be reviewing these as well.
First of all, post major patch events, there were the:
- Returning Player Referral Event
- Presty's 7 days of Presents
- Event Scout
- 2X Gold/Experience/Penguins
- O/X Club Match Quiz
Rewards from the post major patch events were mostly satisfying.
However, it was not as generous as the previous July major patch, despite being in the festive month of December.
Returning player referral event was badly designed, with many people not being able to get the rewards (2100 crystals & three 5* littres).
Instead, players resorted to buying/using alts to get these rewards.
This resulted in the unhappiness of many players due to the widening gap between players who could obtain these rewards versus those who are unable to.
Overall, these 5 events still did succeed in pleasing current players and bringing back players to stay and try out the new content etc.
Soon after, we have the X'mas events to build on the success of the major patch events.
X'mas Events:
- Jiho Club Match Event
- Login Rewards Event
These events are undoubtedly lack-lustre from the perspective of X'mas events.
If it was a normal monthly event, these 2 events will be acceptable.
But for Christmas, players would have expected Bigball to be more generous & exciting with their events.
And not events where you still have to do club matches during X'mas to get the rewards.
Hence, the X'mas events was a poor build-up of the success from the major patch events.
Instead, we will be looking forward to the New Year Events now.
What do players expect from New Year Events?
- 40% Stone Power-Up Discount Event
- 2x Elementals/Swirlies/Penguins/Gold Event
(Not sure why Bigball is holding back on these events; it used to be a bi-weekly thing in 2015 before 1st Anniversary) - More generous events like Presty's 7 days of Presents
OR soccerspirits.freeforums.net/thread/420/august-major-patch-gifts-event
OR soccerspirits.freeforums.net/thread/459/animal-farm-event-match - Event Scout
Lastly, developers in-charge of designing the events, should understand the difference in expectations of the players regarding a festive event versus a normal event.
Christmas events and New Year events, shouldn't be treated like that of a normal event.
More needs to be done to address those expectations unless lowering the players' expectations of festive events is what the developers want.
Players will then start to be less excited/hyped towards festive events because it's not going to be some generous events to look forward to.
Instead, they will be looking forward to generous festive events in other games instead.
Improvements/Changes to Current Content + New Content/Features
To be honest, most of the improvements are immensely positive.
Most players termed these improvements as QoL (Quality-of-Life) improvements.
- Ability to use Clubmates as Friend ace in PvE content
This is a change that many players asked for, either to increase friendlist or make clubmate ace usable as friend ace.
*10/10 - Stackable Special Cards in lodgings
This basically solved the lodgings issues that many players faced in playing the game.
It also allowed players to farm resources more freely, without having to worry about inventory spaces.
*10/10 - Improvements in Lodgings UI (User Interface)
This was one of the feedback/review that we did during the March Major Patch Review.
soccerspirits.freeforums.net/thread/311/march-changes-review-soccer-spirits
This change might take time to get used to but it definitely requires less user actions to transit between special cards/elements etc.
*6/10 - Uniques in Scouts
There are 2 ways to look at this.
Previously, the option to evolve unique from rare stones for free, was taken away.
Now it costs 2100 GP to scout one unique.
So this alternative provided to us, in the cost sense, is inferior to the previous way of obtaining unique.
However, when unique is in scout, we are able to control which to choose to buy; so it works like a unique pick and gives the players more control on which unique to get
Less RNG but at a higher cost.
*6/10 - Player Book Modifications
Previously, we are able to see which players we have EE-ed at the top at one glance.
Now, with the new change, it's harder to observe which 5*/6* that you've not EE-ed and which you have EE-ed.
We would rate this a negative change.
*3/10 - Ability to acquire Managers from Dimension Shop for a whooping 750 Dimension Stones (DS)
A 1800 GP manager is not worth to purchase for 750 DS.
Otherwise, we would all like to convert our 1800 GP to 750 DS.
The only exception is probably Lucy due to her low appearance rate on scouts.
The idea is good but the price is wrong.
*2/10 - 3* Mera added into CoD Gatekeeper Champion Match
Should have been done long ago
*8/10 - New Extreme Evolution (EE) Materials (Cupie, Sparky, Klaon)
The new functions of these EE materials provides an alternative for various functions (+99 clover, weather immunity changes etc).
*8/10
Live PvP
3 weeks after the introduction of Live PvP, it has proven to be a success.
Despite the lack of rewards, the player-to-player interactions component has been successful in motivating players for this content.
The participation for Live PvP are mainly between players rank >90 above and mainly normal mode.
Normal mode is mostly used to try out team formations and also for duel purposes.
Ban mode is less popular due to the high level of requirements of the cards owned/acquired (mostly between whales/p2p).
Contrary to initial predictions, live pvp actually turned out to be useful and enjoyable for current and returning players.
Club Match
Club match, since its release, has not been a popular content.
Less than 1% of the actual SS population actually plays it.
Because it used to be time consuming (5v5) and the level of difficulty is extremely high.
Reason being, club match-making mechanism matches you up against the top 5 players of the other club and against clubs nearby your ranks.
So if you are within the top 100 clubs, you are most likely going to face opposing clubs of 5 SSS teams, galaxy league level.
In addition, the rewards sucked. So barely anyone does it.
But with the new changes (3v3, better rewards, easier match-making), the participation rate of club match has shot up greatly.
- Now you no longer face top 5 teams of the other clubs.
It is possible to meet any teams from the other clubs.
So it's much easier now. - New special manager, Irene as reward
- Lowered club match rewards scout prices
For club match score, its a delicate balance between the requirement of strength and activity.
The old system was the extreme towards team strength, coupled with time-consuming 5v5, made club match distasteful for most players.
The new system, is better, less time consuming and also prevents the situation where a club of AAA teams can be #1 because they are active in club match.
So now its more balanced, more playable for most players.
However, it's hard to determine if the increased participation in club matches will continue.
Irene, events, 3v3 + better rewards contributed to this increased participation.
But when the events, irene hype are gone, it remains to be seen how many people would actually play club match, just for the suits + powerups.
The old system was the extreme towards team strength, coupled with time-consuming 5v5, made club match distasteful for most players.
The new system, is better, less time consuming and also prevents the situation where a club of AAA teams can be #1 because they are active in club match.
So now its more balanced, more playable for most players.
However, it's hard to determine if the increased participation in club matches will continue.
Irene, events, 3v3 + better rewards contributed to this increased participation.
But when the events, irene hype are gone, it remains to be seen how many people would actually play club match, just for the suits + powerups.
Improved Club Match Rewards
The club match rewards are improved in few ways, introduction of Irene, lowering of item prices and gold rewards.
The cost of powering up a SUIT to +5, is lowered from the initial 1600 (4 x 400 points per powerup) points to:
- 1 (+1 to +12), 2 (+2 to +3), 4 (+3 to +4), 8 (+4 to +5) x 80 points per powerup = 1200 points
- A 25% drop of the cost to powerup a SUIT to +5
- A 50% drop of the cost to buy a SUIT (600>300 points)
There are a few points regarding the club personal scout that we want to bring up.
First, the drop in the total cost to powerup a suit to +5 is only 25%. It could be lowered further.
Reason? This brings us to our next point.
Even if you used every free balls, and 1v3 all your club matches/perfect victories, it is not possible to purchase everything in the club scout.
Similar to event scout, the design should be that if you were dedicated and played all your free balls, you should be able to buy everything.
Hence, either lower the powerup cost further or lower the prices of other items.
Otherwise, everyone is going for SUITs and powerups and the other items serve no purposes (excluding the manager).
New Grind (Superior Teamwork)
What we will be reviewing about this new feature is the level of grind relative to players' enjoyment of the game.
The most time consuming concept about this new feature, is the RNG to obtain the bonus stat that a player needs.
For an average player, it will probably take a few days to complete one set of superior teamwork (30 > 60) and reset if necessary.
To complete it for all of one's key players, its doable.
The joy of completing teamwork previously was, you could do this for all the 5* players that you own.
But now? If you want to get the right stat for every player that you own, its close to exhausting, impossible.
The good news is, now all teamwork questions contain a +3 answer (as compared to previously, some only contain +1 answer max).
AND the whole set of +3 answers for all players teamwork questions, can be found at:
This new grind, has become more of a chore and frustrating task, as compared to before due to the randomness of the bonus stat given.
It is doable but it has become a chore and frustrating task.
When you design a game, you want to make the tasks/grind enjoyable for your players, not a chore or a torture.
With the +3 answers cheat-sheet, it has taken some burden off the players' shoulders but fundamentally, it shouldn't be as such.
Proposed Solution:
- When you reach 60 teamwork, you are allowed to roll for a random bonus stat with gold.
This provides a gold sink and is less frustrating than resetting teamwork back to 30.
Balancing & Legendaries' EEs
With regard to balancing, we are glad that Bigball heeded our advice during our July Major Patch Review that "less balancing is more".
soccerspirits.freeforums.net/thread/419/major-changes-review-soccer-spirits
- For example, community complaints w.r.t to Angela, Elaine, Vonchi
These players were touted to be broken and needs nerf.
But the truth was, people are still getting to Galaxy League without these players and beating other players with these players along the way.
However, we do agree that having these OP players definitely made it easier to reach Galaxy.
While still addressing some of the community's concerns in the current major patch.
- Stone Balancing
Nerf of ardor critical damage, EBM, Shard of Balmung (SoB)
This was what most of the community was asking for.
It has definitely become tougher for rainbow/hybrid teams to compete against mono elemental teams now.
But that's the whole idea of STARBURST, for mono elemental PvP teams to be the new trend.
Whether if some of the aces are broken and need fixing, it takes time to tell because:
- There is no clear trend of a mono STARBURST ace that is leading the meta at the moment.
Utility Strikers' Nerf
This nerf basically works such that the stacked actives only work upon shooting.
- It basically affects/lowers a striker's ability to kill the whole enemy backline while holding the ball
AND - It lowers the utility striker's damage to steal from enemy backline
Many people have been complaining about Vonchi doing 3k+ steals from enemy backlines
OR their whole backline dying to enemy striker.
This balancing addresses these concerns.
Season 3 Legendaries EE
We understand that legendaries are not classified by seasons.
What we meant here is, Jiho, Felix belongs to the 3rd batch of Legendaries released.
And season 3 sounds nicer instead of batch 3 legendaries.
What we meant here is, Jiho, Felix belongs to the 3rd batch of Legendaries released.
And season 3 sounds nicer instead of batch 3 legendaries.
From the EEs, we can see that developers are cautious with the EEs of these legends so as to not break the game with their EEs.
The improvements to Jiho, Felix, after their EEs, have been underwhelming as perceived to a huge extent by many players.
It's not a bad thing from the players' perspective to be cautious towards the balance of the game with the EEs of legendaries.
But from the revenue perspective,
If a legend is not broken/OP, who would buy it?
But if a legendary is too broken and it spoils the game for the rest of the players who cannot obtain it, it would cause the game population to decline.
Once again, it is a delicate balance to create a legendary EE that is so OP that everyone wants to buy it but still not spoil the game for other players.
How do we do this?
The key will be to have a counter or to improve the skills that is unique to the legend that has already been in game.
For example, improving Felix revival cooldown to 50%, or improving Jiho totem to 30% pen power/crit damage.
These are skills that are already in the game and increasing by a marginal value will be satisfying but yet not game breaking.
Presty & Jibril
These 2 new legends are the epitome of game-breaking.
But since they cost 1500 DS to purchase, the spread of these 2 cancer will be slow but will eventually get to most people, complaining and asking for their nerfs.
Secret/Unannounced Changes
After the major patch, we have noticed that stats of 6* players have dropped.
For players who clear endgame content like us, it is not possible to hide these changes from us.
- This is easily noticeable because we need to sync the action speed of players etc.
For example, Luka's action speed has dropped by 2~3 after the major patch
Could it be because of Stone Nerfs? Managers? Ace changes?
Nope. (was using silla ace, same stones that were untouched by nerfs, same managers etc)
Most likely it is because of the changes to the equations which stats (action speed, reflexes etc) are derived from.
OR the stats of the players have been reduced directly.
If you remember the stats of your players, you could easily check it out yourself.
*Such unannounced changes are not welcome
When any game-related changes is made, make sure not to forget to announce it to the players.
Other Possible Areas of Improvements
- Match Forum
Currently, match forum is unable to store more than a certain number of latest articles.
As observed from White Guardenia match, latest articles on the same day, were removed once the match forum reached a certain limit.
This defeats the purposes of the match forum to help players with formations recommendations to get the boss. - Teamwork Questions
Doesn't proc after Colosseum of Trials (CoT) matches - Club Master Scout Points
If we are not wrong, club check-in used to give club master scout points.
Now it's changed to give club personal scout points.
Hence, club master scout points are growing slower than ever.
The master scout is pointless if we don't get points to purchase the items.
Conclusion
This major patch has been successful to a medium extent in reviving the game and bringing back old players.
However, the lack of compounding X'mas events to follow up on the success was disappointing.
The game is improving in the right direction and the momentum is looking good for now.
The question is, how much are the developers willing to give, to keep the momentum going, to grow the game?
"Give and Take"
The more you are willing to give, the more you can take back eventually.
But if you are not willing to give, there will be eventually nothing left for you to take back.
fuck this game .-.