The State of Heroes

[Shiki]

On 19.10.2018 at 6:01 PM, Ice Dragon said:

People who do move around in the summer must be superhuman or something.

Also, there is snow on the winter banner Paralogue maps, so that argument doesn't really work.

On 19.10.2018 at 5:55 PM, Ice Dragon said:

The context of her release. Unlike regular Tharja and the Halloween units, winter Tharja has the seasonal context of winter, and the obvious association with that (for people living in temperate climates) is "it is cold in winter".

You should do some workout. Helps you to get away from Heroes and build up your savings.

Also your Tharja argument doesn't answer the Halloween one. Myrrh, Niles and Dorcas wear pretty casual stuff and not far removed from their own clothes (with Dorcas being basically naked). Or what, does Candy make you heavy or something? What about Sakura then? The girl craves for the stuff.

Especially the former is even more infuriating in regards of Garon who is clearly more qualified than her being an Armored Dragon. A Manakete in robes is more armored than a massive slime monster in full plate armor.

On 21.10.2018 at 9:28 PM, Ice Dragon said:

I personally find the Duel skills an acceptable way to handle the situation as long as the follow-up is handled well, which is exactly what my last-last post highlights. Perhaps not the best option at their disposal, but certainly not one that physically cannot work out in the end.

Based on the new banner that doesn't seem to be case tbh.
They clearly felt the need to introduce Colorless Infantry over Red or Blue which are far more in number than any other color.
It is also alarming that so far only the Muspell units have these skills. Considering we don't have any Blue units and no Green Flier among the antagonists I'm afraid we will have to wait a long time.

On 22.10.2018 at 9:36 AM, Ice Dragon said:

So let's rephrase the question since you seemed to want to be a smart-aleck about it: What makes you think a third Arena mode will not result in player burnout or complaints to that effect?

By not playing the older modes. Simple as that, really.
People already don't invest in Arena because it's not fun and requires heavy investment, even more so Arena Assault because that one is tedious.
If a 3rd Arena mode is introduced that is actually fun and worth the effort, why do you think people would shun it? It's a completely different case than say Forging Bonds which immediately strikes as less-rewarding TT.

A bit of a late response I suppose.

[Ice Dragon]

6 minutes ago, The Priest said:

Myrrh, Niles and Dorcas wear pretty casual stuff and not far removed from their own clothes (with Dorcas being basically naked).

Myrrh and Niles fall in the same category as the Valentine characters, wearing clothes that are harder to move around in and drag across the ground. Dorcas is clearly hindered by the fact that he doesn't want to drop any candy.

And seasonal units clearly have more liberties afforded to them.

 

7 minutes ago, The Priest said:

Especially the former is even more infuriating in regards of Garon who is clearly more qualified than her being an Armored Dragon. A Manakete in robes is more armored than a massive slime monster in full plate armor.

Garon isn't a slime monster in Heroes, though.

I don't see any reason Garon doesn't make sense to be an infantry unit. Unlike all of the non-seasonal armored units (other than Tiki), he's not weighed down by a heavy weapon or a giant shield.

 

25 minutes ago, The Priest said:

Based on the new banner that doesn't seem to be case tbh.
They clearly felt the need to introduce Colorless Infantry over Red or Blue which are far more in number than any other color.
It is also alarming that so far only the Muspell units have these skills. Considering we don't have any Blue units and no Green Flier among the antagonists I'm afraid we will have to wait a long time.

I've already addressed this over the fast few days.

 

26 minutes ago, The Priest said:

By not playing the older modes. Simple as that, really.
People already don't invest in Arena because it's not fun and requires heavy investment, even more so Arena Assault because that one is tedious.
If a 3rd Arena mode is introduced that is actually fun and worth the effort, why do you think people would shun it? It's a completely different case than say Forging Bonds which immediately strikes as less-rewarding TT.

No, because the older modes would still exist and would still give out rewards. The problem is not that players would shun a third Arena mode, it's that there would now be three Arena modes that need to be cleared each week for their rewards instead of just two.

To my understanding, players don't like leaving rewards unclaimed if it is within their power to claim them.

[Shiki]

4 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Myrrh and Niles fall in the same category as the Valentine characters, wearing clothes that are harder to move around in and drag across the ground. Dorcas is clearly hindered by the fact that he doesn't want to drop any candy.

And seasonal units clearly have more liberties afforded to them.

Which proves my point that they are not even trying.

Also your reasoning doesn't make sense either if you consider the Bride units. I'm 100% certain that Wedding dresses are much harder to move around than any of these.
Honestly at this point I'm even surprised that they are not giving every Seasonal the Armored tag. Clearly your reasoning is enough to justify any of this nonsense.

6 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Garon isn't a slime monster in Heroes, though.

I don't see any reason Garon doesn't make sense to be an infantry unit. Unlike all of the non-seasonal armored units (other than Tiki), he's not weighed down by a heavy weapon or a giant shield.

That, we don't know. Due the lack of lore in Heroes, it's definetly ambigious what our Garon actually is.
But considering his voice lines and his transformation it's pretty safe to assume that that is the possessed Garon; who is always a Slime monster.

So Grima in his Robin attire or Tiki with her cloak definetly make more sense as an Armored unit than Garon in his entire plate armour who doesn't even have the excuse of a having horse like Walhart to be a mounted unit. I mean it isn't like his cape alone could flatten poor Tiki.
Never mind the fact that we even have a direct comparision for him in form of Arden, who was drawn by the same artist. Compare these two and try to tell me again, that this doesn't look like an Armored unit.

Also oversized weapons or giant shields isn't even a good argument. Giant weapons are everywhere among Lances and Axes, the Hammer alone dwarfs most unique weapons in sheer bulk. Giant shield isn't a common theme either, not even the half of the Armored roster has a shield.
I already mentioned Grima and Tiki who clearly have less weight than King Full Armor here. Even considering their Dragon sprites Garon's is almost twice as large as Tiki's so even by that point he is clearly more qualified (even though his dragon form looks like an oversized turtle).

[Eilanzer]

2 hours ago, bottlegnomes said:

I'm not sure about the exact scoring for each tier anymore, but that should be doable if they each have a couple of merges depending on what range you're looking to aim for. My team is a +0 Brave Lyn, +1 Sigurd, and +10 Reinhardt which should average out to about 4 merges a piece, and that lets me stay in 18.5 pretty easily. All the units you listed are a bucket above the relative equivalent on my team, and I'm usually pretty comfortably in the group that moves up to 19, so you could probably get away with fewer merges since those are all somewhat difficult units to merge.

good to know, but mine is Like+1/Sshar+4/Aver+2 if im not mistaken...putting them together, i dont think they get close to your Rein+10 team. But that gave me a lil hope to use a fun team that i like using only one +10 5* 

^^

[XRay]

2 minutes ago, Eilanzer said:

good to know, but mine is Like+1/Sshar+4/Aver+2 if im not mistaken...putting them together, i dont think they get close to your Rein+10 team. But that gave me a lil hope to use a fun team that i like using only one +10 5* 

^^

I run Reinhardt, BH!Lyn, and Olivia. All are 5*+10 and I score somewhere between 3,670 to 3,700 and bounce around in Tier 19.5. I am currently rank 2,375 in Tier 19, so I think you can definitely bounce around in 19.5 with a little more merges.

[Ice Dragon]

1 hour ago, The Priest said:

Also your reasoning doesn't make sense either if you consider the Bride units. I'm 100% certain that Wedding dresses are much harder to move around than any of these.

None of them drag on the ground.

 

1 hour ago, The Priest said:

Honestly at this point I'm even surprised that they are not giving every Seasonal the Armored tag. Clearly your reasoning is enough to justify any of this nonsense.

Every seasonal unit since New Year that isn't armored has been mounted, in a swimsuit, in a wedding dress, a dancer, or a super bun-bun pal. And pretty much all of those are reasons not to be armored.

 

1 hour ago, The Priest said:

But considering his voice lines and his transformation it's pretty safe to assume that that is the possessed Garon; who is always a Slime monster.

He walks on two solid legs, has two solid arms, and his beard isn't melting.

 

1 hour ago, The Priest said:

Never mind the fact that we even have a direct comparision for him in form of Arden, who was drawn by the same artist. Compare these two and try to tell me again, that this doesn't look like an Armored unit.

Arden has a massive shield and much bulkier armor with fewer articulated joints.

 

1 hour ago, The Priest said:

Also oversized weapons or giant shields isn't even a good argument. Giant weapons are everywhere among Lances and Axes, the Hammer alone dwarfs most unique weapons in sheer bulk. Giant shield isn't a common theme either, not even the half of the Armored roster has a shield.
I already mentioned Grima and Tiki who clearly have less weight than King Full Armor here. Even considering their Dragon sprites Garon's is almost twice as large as Tiki's so even by that point he is clearly more qualified (even though his dragon form looks like an oversized turtle).

So, I ended up doing some additional research and found some more interesting things:

• All of the non-seasonal armors in Heroes are armors (weak to armor-effective weapons) in their original games except for Zephiel, Hardin, Robin, and Tiki.
• Zephiel's King class has 5 movement range, which is the same as the movement range of promoted armors.
• Hardin's Emperor class in FE3 has 5 movement range, which is the same as the movement range of promoted armors.
• Hardin's Emperor class in FE12 has 6 movement range, which is the same as the movement range of promoted armors.
• Garon's Nohrian King class in FE14 has 6 movement range, which is the same as the movement range of promoted infantry.
  • The Blight Dragon class in FE14 also has 6 movement range.

That leaves Robin and Tiki to be accounted for. Robin is obviously armored for two reasons, one being that his dragon form in combat is huge and the other being that it's the only means to fairly inflate his stats as a game mechanic. And that's ignoring the fact that he has zero movement range.

Tiki is obviously armored for at least the latter reason as well. It can be noted, however, that Tiki's Mamkute class in FE3 is a "slow" unpromoted infantry class, having only 5 movement range instead of the usual 6 (Archers, Clerics, and Pirates are the only other unarmored unpromoted classes with this movement range), so it could technically also be a nod to her human form's low movement range in her origin game ("origin game" since Heroes is desperately trying to pretend FE1 doesn't exist).

 

So Garon is actually an infantry unit in his source game. Who knew. (I think someone actually did mention it before his release.)

Edited October 26, 2018 by Ice Dragon

[Baldrick]

1 hour ago, Eilanzer said:

good to know, but mine is Like+1/Sshar+4/Aver+2 if im not mistaken...putting them together, i dont think they get close to your Rein+10 team. But that gave me a lil hope to use a fun team that i like using only one +10 5* 

^^

Looking at the calculator, a team of LIke+1/SSharena+4/Sheena+10/4* Askr unit, all with earth blessings, will give you a minimum of 712 per match, more if you have a 5-star bonus unit. That should be enough to get you to Tier 19, maybe Tier 20 depending on how good your bonus unit is.

[Shiki]

18 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

None of them drag on the ground

... did you take a look at Ninian or Sanaki? That's a very long dress and it covers their entire leg (thankfully in case of Sanaki). Only Tharja's dress doesn't reach all the way but that one exposes almost everything down there, so ... she didn't count for that in the first place.
Clearly if they didn't give them a Pegasus they would be Armors.

19 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

that isn't armored has been mounted, in a swimsuit, in a wedding dress, a dancer, or a super bun-bun pal.

What I'm saying is they could just tag the Armored trait on to anyone with your reasoning. Why bother with other movement classes at this point? Looking at the Halloween and Valentine banner it's pretty obvious that these will sell better than anything else because they are going to be meta-defining.

29 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

He walks on two solid legs, has two solid arms, and his beard isn't melting.

*slow clap* Surely that means we need to drive this point home by IS releasing literal Slime Garon so everybody gets the difference.

30 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Arden has a massive shield and much bulkier armor with fewer articulated joints.

And he lacks a massive cape that will hinder his movement. Garon's armor is clearly more ornate as well which makes it heavier.

44 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

The Blight Dragon class in FE14 also has 6 movement range.

Fair enough. That's a good point.

33 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

That leaves Robin and Tiki to be accounted for.

... why are we suddenly making exceptions?
1. Size-wise Garon's Dragon form is pretty big, too. You only see half of his entire sprite. If we take this literally Grima is just a dismembered head so what makes him Armored again. Also your point regarding Grima's movement gets thrown out of the window with female Grima just flying around.
2. Using movement from FE3 doesn't work because that would be inconsistent in regards to her regular form who is clearly stated coming from Mystery of the Emblem.
3. BST is just an argument for selling the unit though and doesn't have anything to do with the aesthetics. They could have changed Tiki's sprite something unique instead of ... well painting the regular sprite gold.

If IS is trying to make Seasonal Armors they should at least give them the approriate looks or properly allude to that. There are Armors that you can buy into their class and still retain the seasonal theme. I already mentioned Henry and Jakob but Chrom is another good example because he is slugging that huge sack around which is clearly heavy (even though it is just his weapon but it is reflected on his art).
But someone like Dorcas or Niles don't really fit into that. Arguments like "their costume drags on the ground" or "having to take care of the candy" are clearly highlighting the issue here that there is only weak justification for their Armored status. Like if you really want to sell the idea of Dorcas taking care of candy make him carry several sacks of candy on his body like a true Viking should.

However you don't seem to take this seriously at all, so you do you with your Armors.

[Ice Dragon]

4 minutes ago, The Priest said:

... did you take a look at Ninian or Sanaki?

They fly, which overrides everything else.

 

4 minutes ago, The Priest said:

Clearly if they didn't give them a Pegasus they would be Armors.

Which is irrelevant because they do, in fact, have pegasi.

 

6 minutes ago, The Priest said:

And he lacks a massive cape that will hinder his movement. Garon's armor is clearly more ornate as well which makes it heavier.

Nothing about being ornate makes it heavier than being not ornate. The materials used and the amount of material used obviously matter more to the armor's weight than how visually appealing it is.

Furthermore, the weight is on your shoulders and belt, which are typically much better at carrying weight than your arms are.

 

10 minutes ago, The Priest said:

... why are we suddenly making exceptions?

I'm not. These are the two that need more than just a bullet point's worth of explanation.

 

10 minutes ago, The Priest said:

1. Size-wise Garon's Dragon form is pretty big, too. You only see half of his entire sprite.

And only Grima's head fits on the screen. Grima is much, much, larger than Garon.

 

11 minutes ago, The Priest said:

Also your point regarding Grima's movement gets thrown out of the window with female Grima just flying around.

Flying overrides everything else, as previously mentioned. (So does having a horse, for that matter.) There is no "armored flying" movement type in this game in the same way that there is no "armored cavalry" movement type.

 

12 minutes ago, The Priest said:

2. Using movement from FE3 doesn't work because that would be inconsistent in regards to her regular form who is clearly stated coming from Mystery of the Emblem.

Narcian uses an axe despite being clearly stated to be from Binding Blade. Draug and Sheena both have weapons they cannot equip in Mystery of the Emblem. There are a number of characters that have their classes modified to be aligned with how the class functions in more other games in the series instead of maintaining the original class's traits.

It shouldn't be a surprise when we get an alt of a character with traits from their original game if their first version used a retconned version of the class.

 

16 minutes ago, The Priest said:

3. BST is just an argument for selling the unit though and doesn't have anything to do with the aesthetics. They could have changed Tiki's sprite something unique instead of ... well painting the regular sprite gold.

Is there something about gold-plated Tiki that prevents her from having her stats inflated?

Grima and Tiki can be argued to deserve inflated stats due to their canonical strength in lore. Both are beings who have enough power to single-handedly destroy the world. For the purpose of gameplay balance, they obviously can't make Grima and Tiki actually capable of destroying the in-game world, but it can still be justified that they take a class that gives them superlative stats.

 

19 minutes ago, The Priest said:

However you don't seem to take this seriously at all, so you do you with your Armors.

Why exactly should I take seasonal characters seriously again?

They exist to be entertaining and to fill out gameplay roles that are not adequately represented in the main series. As long as the class choice vaguely makes sense, I have no compulsion to question it.

[Interdimensional Observer]

4 hours ago, The Priest said:

(with Dorcas being basically naked)

I haven't paid any attention to the new Halloween seasonal. *Looks at artwork* Well I guess it's for the ladies? Nonetheless, I'm reminded of Awakening's Berserker attire. Not bad, but at the same time knowing this makes it feel a little lazy. To look to the bright side again, nobody playable in Awakening was a canonical Barbarian/Berserker, so at least the design is being used for something.

 

Also, I keep misreading this topic title as the "Slate of Heroes".

[Ice Dragon]

5 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I haven't paid any attention to the new Halloween seasonal. *Looks at artwork* Well I guess it's for the ladies? Nonetheless, I'm reminded of Awakening's Berserker attire. Not bad, but at the same time knowing this makes it feel a little lazy. To look to the bright side again, nobody playable in Awakening was a canonical Barbarian/Berserker, so at least the design is being used for something.

He's dressed up as a minotaur. He even has a tail.

[Shiki]

Not commenting on the other points because it's pointless with you but:

4 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Is there something about gold-plated Tiki that prevents her from having her stats inflated?

Just saying but you realize that is not what I meant in the context of this discussion, right? You know, the discussion about aesthetics?
To make it clear fo you (because you clearly didn't get the point); if they want to make Tiki an armored unit and give them their inflated BST for whatever unholy reason, is it too much to ask to give us at least something else besides a gold-colored dragon sprite? Like this?

Spoiler

They are clearly capable of making unique sprites like Ophelia so is that too much to ask? Like this is what I meant with being lazy.

2 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

To look to the bright side again, nobody playable in Awakening was a canonical Barbarian/Berserker, so at least the design is being used for something.

Well, there is always Mustafa. It's not like most villains in FEH were playable.

[Ice Dragon]

3 minutes ago, The Priest said:

To make it clear fo you (because you clearly didn't get the point); if they want to make Tiki an armored unit and give them their inflated BST for whatever unholy reason, is it too much to ask to give us at least something else besides a gold-colored dragon sprite? Like this?

I think everyone agrees that they were lazy with the battle sprite. But the quality of her battle sprite has exactly zero bearing on her stats.

[Interdimensional Observer]

6 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

He's dressed up as a minotaur. He even has a tail.

Oh, the Minotaur. Which, so I heard, was born when King Minos of Crete refused to sacrifice his favorite bull to Poseidon, in response, Poseidon made Minos's wife fall in love with the bull, she got in a cow costume, the bull comes over, and MOOOOOOOOOO! ...later out pops the Minotaur. 

 

1 minute ago, The Priest said:

Well, there is always Mustafa. It's not like most villains in FEH were playable.

If we get to the point where we have to insert one-time generic bosses, even memorable-ish ones, then I need Schaeffer. Has a skill that makes him automatically redirect attacks aimed at him to Staff units allies or enemies alike within two spaces. And as his Special, Babyguard- keeps enemy from attacking by dangling a baby in front of self.

 

To contribute to the topic at hand ever so slightly to make my posts seem less off topic, we need more representation of the underrepresented games. I wouldn't be sitting on the sidelines for so long if they weren't underrepped.

[Lewyn]

With regard to armors people are thinking too hard about this.  They make whatever unit they want 'armored' simple as that.  String bikini, okay fine.  Poncho, okay fine.  Dressed in a peasant blue dress fine.  Here is the real disturbing thing, there are a large amount of characters that are armors in their games, yet very few of them have made it into Heroes. Instead we get many seasonals and such of non armor characters made into armors.  Oh hey there is Lyn again, there is Ephraim, wait were they armors?  Nope.  Oh there is Tharja, anorexic desert mage and bulky armor are the same thing yo!  You know she goes to the gym with Arden?  

So why do they do this?  Armors are the ultimate whale bait.  Unfortunately most armor characters in the series are male, and usually gruff huge males....which makes sense.  Not easy to fight in heavy armor.  Women that look like lingerie models are also strong whale bait (and draws in general to the largely male teen/20s playerbase).  So they combine the two.  Throw in some of the most popular males like Hector and Ephraim, make them armors.  Robin too.  There you go.  

On Legendary Tiki and dragon units they require much more work than non dragons.  Cause not only do you need the Human form sprite/art then you need the dragon sprite as well.  So I can see why they did the lazy way which is unfortunate, they could have at least added some of that fur on the gold palette swap.

 

[Eilanzer]

3 hours ago, Baldrick said:

Looking at the calculator, a team of LIke+1/SSharena+4/Sheena+10/4* Askr unit, all with earth blessings, will give you a minimum of 712 per match, more if you have a 5-star bonus unit. That should be enough to get you to Tier 19, maybe Tier 20 depending on how good your bonus unit is.

interesting that even a 4* could get that much...I will try to use a 5* tough at least in one character to push what i can and use the other two spots to something fun.

Sheena i think would not work in this comp because the debuffs S.sharena do are good with a mage at her side, so i need to go back to the theorycraft with what i have.

Tks for all the help guys, i will stop here because the talk is already too far from the main topic. Sry @The Priest

[daisy jane]

Lucky Crit made a video about this (well akin to this)

 

it touches on the orbs and the lack of different modes. 

[Jingle Jangle]

Would the amount of free orbs be better if the orb packs were increased in size by 40%? So the the new bundles are

• 3 to 4
• 10 to 14
• 23 to 32
• 35 to 49
• 48 to 67
• 75 to 115
• 140 to 196

That way there is more bang per buck. Thoughts?

Edited October 29, 2018 by Jingle Jangle

[daisy jane]

50 minutes ago, Jingle Jangle said:

Would the amount of free orbs be better if the orb packs were increased in size by 40%? So the the new bundles are

• 3 to 4
• 10 to 14
• 23 to 32
• 35 to 49
• 48 to 67
• 75 to 115
• 140 to 196

That way there is more bang per buck. Thoughts?

maybe in mulitples of five?
like 5, 10, 15, 25, 35, 45, 75 100 and 200?
the 3 never made sense to me. 

[Jingle Jangle]

27 minutes ago, daisy jane said:

maybe in mulitples of five?
like 5, 10, 15, 25, 35, 45, 75 100 and 200?
the 3 never made sense to me. 

In a system of 5 and a bundle of increase of 40% the orbs packs will be

• $1.99=5
• $5.99=15
• $12.99=30
• $19.99=50 
• $26.99=70
• $39.99=115
• $74.99=200

The orb per dollar price will be in the system (using US pricing) will be

• $2.51
• $2.50
• $2.31
• $2.50
• $2.59
• $2.88
• $2.67

I have no idea why the orb packs have those numbers, 3 orbs is too little to get anything.

 

 

[XRay]

I am going to rant a little.

4 hours ago, daisy jane said:

it touches on the orbs and the lack of different modes. 

1. Lack of Interesting or Standout Modes

I agree that most Events and Special maps are just not entertaining anymore and it can be outright frustrating for a few modes/maps.

Events:
Voting Gauntlet: Fire Emblem Heroes players need sleep? The time commitment is draining, and the multiplier makes it worse. I want Voting Gauntlet to return to its popularity contest roots and remove the multiplier. Grand Conquest's time format is also much, much better; instead of making players feel guilty for sleeping, stamina and Conquest Lances are a nice way for players to disconnect from the game.
Tempest Trials: Chores are not fun. The grind did improve a lot and it is not too bad in my opinion, but it is still grindy. The rewards are really nice though.
Tap Battle: This is a nice diversion. While it is not fun for me, I think it is the only time limited mode that is executed properly and I do not really mind playing it.
Grand Conquests: This is one of the better executed modes. Some improvement I can think of is: 1) allow players to dump all their stamina and Lances at once; 2) allow players to permanently "freeze" friends' representative so players can avoid shitty SP builds when updating the representatives list; 3) give new and/or free players an easier time by making the stat boosts available on all maps instead of only on some.
Forging Bonds: Tempest Trials but worse. It is just as grindy and not very fun. The conversations are nice, but the rewards are lacking.

Special Maps:
Grand Hero Battles: I am not a huge fan of Infernal or Abyssal, and while the mode is technically fine, the higher difficulties feel like a slap in the face for new and/or free players. The only reason I can stomach the higher difficulties is because I am a dolphin with access to 5*+10 units and a diverse Barracks; for new and free players, the higher difficulty maps can be extremely frustrating to solve, especially if they have poor Barracks management on top of lacking diverse tactical experiences. Free units are nice though.
Bound Hero Battles: It is basically Grand Hero Battles but with worse rewards.
Rival Domains: I think this is fine. However, similar to Grand Conquest, it would be nice to make it easier for new and/or free players by giving a stat boost and Grand Conquest effects to the movement type being highlighted.
Relay Defense: The first time this came around, this is absolute trash. The second Relay Defense is much, MUCH better, so that is good. Again, it would be nice if they could make it easier for new and/or free players by giving units a stat boost and Grand Conquest effect.

2. Very Limited Player Interaction

In terms of communication in general, this is not a big deal for me since I am obviously part of an online community, but I imagine that it can be kind of lonely for players who want some level of interaction, but maybe not as much interaction as joining an online forum. An in-game guild feature or chat feature easily solves this in my opinion, as it can provide a minimal amount of communication necessary for coordination for Voting Gauntlet, Rival Domains, Relay Defense, and Grand Conquests.

In terms of game play, I agree that not having more co-op experiences is a huge missed opportunity. While sharing units is nice for a handful of modes, it would be even nicer to bring that feature into more modes. It would also be good if they can utilize the friend's list in additional ways beyond sharing units and greeting Feathers.

I think the custom messages is a great idea. If Nintendo does want to deal with dick jokes and stuff like that, they could do something like in Runescape where underage players can still communicate with other players, but through a modified chat system where they can only communicate via conversation templates.

I am more skeptical of his raid boss idea or anything that requires real time cooperation.

3. Lack of BST and Arena Scoring Fairness

I agree that is more of a scoring issue than BST itself. BST is fine, but having Arena scoring factor in BST is a bad idea in my opinion. He is more tolerant of SP and bonus scoring though, of which I am not.

4. Less Communication and Samey Schedule

I am going to disagree and I think their level of communication is fine, and having a relatively predictable schedule is a good thing. They might not have an English Twitter account, but they do have a Japanese one, and I think that is sufficient. I do not think Japanese and English players have interests and concerns that are so different from each other that they need an additional Twitter account just to hear our complaints.

I do agree that it would be nice to be able to earn additional Castle backgrounds though. Oh, and it would be nice to let players disable the extra EXP boost for more efficient SP grinding.

5. Orb Droughts

I am going to strongly disagree here and I think the current rate of Orbs that they hand out is fine and quite plenty. Giving players more Foci should not also automatically equate to more free Orbs. It is up to free players to manage their priorities. I am not opposed to giving players free Orbs, but we are nowhere close to a drought and I think this is blown way out of proportion and the first 3 points are far more important to address.

Edited October 29, 2018 by XRay

[Baldrick]

10 minutes ago, XRay said:

Relay Defense: The first time this came around, this is absolute trash. The second Relay Defense is much, MUCH better, so that is good.

I'm curious, why was that? For me, I didn't notice any change.

[TheWill]

Lucky Crit nailed some things on the end, although the clickbait title and thumbnail don't help his cause since the actual video is quite reasonable. 

[XRay]

7 minutes ago, Baldrick said:

I'm curious, why was that? For me, I didn't notice any change.

Okay, it probably is not much better for new and/or free players without a lot of 5*+10 units, but the lower HP on enemies makes it much easier to make efficient sacrificial trades if you do have merged units.

I guess it is ultimately still a mess and it is not really that much better for most players, but it is much definitely better for dolphins or players who can befriend dolphins.

At the same time, I guess it is not really that bad since there are free guides out there that everyone can copy unless the player is really new or if they are really dense and fuck up their own Barracks despite the fact that it is widely recommended to keep at least one copy of every free unit you have.

Edited October 29, 2018 by XRay

[Baldrick]

7 minutes ago, XRay said:

At the same time, I guess it is not really that bad since there are free guides out there that everyone can copy.

New players do miss out on the satisfaction of beating the mode on their own, but I don't think it's such a bad thing so have a mode good for fish and their friends. Just make all the newbie-friendly rewards for the lower levels and have things like accessories at the higher levels.