So the “fix” of making the retro period 4 days instead of 7 has been done to make sure that players don’t benefit from accidentally extended periods of retro availability and get, say, some iDoom covers and shards when ascending 3 Doom months after iDoom was released. Oops, players might have fun finding an easter egg that gives them a few extra covers out of the hundreds they need to ascend and level the character.
This game is insanely diluted with 364 characters and you’re making it harder to take any advantage of ascension (and a double dip if you happen to be have two copies ready to ascend) by shortening the window to just 4 days. You can just say you don’t like players getting extra covers for new characters if they decide to favorite the dupe, then ascend and get those extra covers.
You have already implemented a policy of not telling us feeders until the character is released so we couldn’t move favorites to someone and get rewards from them before the new rewards change happens and double-dip there.
On the one hand, I get it. It’s a business and you sell digital goods and making it possible to get more digital goods for free with some savvy and knowledge means maybe, in some bean counter’s mind, we spend less on covers later.
But I assume most players NEVER spend cash directly on covers alone, as your constant production of costumes suggests, and most people are looking for a package of goods to get them to open their wallet that’s more than a few covers for a new character. (like a costume bundle, that’s more appealing as a purchase than just say 1 cover for the new 4 alongside some other stuff I can get anywhere. Or maybe a solid chunk of HP. Or a support. etc. the non-habitual whales are picky spenders)
And ascension etc means your total lifetime need for covers for a character is far more than the few you might get from a double-dip, whether it was from knowing a feeder pre-release and focusing, or focusing post-release for one single week and seeing if you can get a few extra covers from the ascended copy.
It is FUN to champ a character fast, within the window of release. But you want to make it harder and make the game less fun and turn the screws to try to force purchases.
It will NOT make me change my purchase behavior around the character and their covers. I’m not about to spend cash on simply covers for a new character as there are hundreds of them to worry about. No matter how good they are, I won’t. I do spend on costumes I like and some other high value cover bundles.
This whole thing just demoralizes me a bit more.
