Fundamentally, I think the Roster Slot system is misconceived. The primary lever that the game uses to signal accomplishment to new players is giving them new covers, especially new covers of new characters. By charging for roster slots, this primary method of making people happy and eager to play MPQ can instead become frustrating. The current system is thus a huge barrier against player retention. Adjusting prices is only a band-aid obscuring the core issue that uncovering a new character should always feel good- I shouldn’t be coming home today dreading the fact that I just won an Iron Fist in PvE.
But clearly D3 has done the math and thinks that the revenue from roster slot purchases is worth more than the harm to the player experience. And given I’ve paid cash for roster slots in the past and likely to do so in the near future…who am I to argue otherwise?
Correct me if I am wrong, but there are 63 released characters in the game, and slots cost 1050 at #81. There may be a fair number of players on the forums that have this many slots (and a few have posted in this and the Q&A threads), but I would not go as far as “many”. And certainly not across the full player base.
A time vs money perspective: If you want to play the game past a certain point, the amount of time you have to put in to ‘stay competitive’ increases. This means if you want a 60th roster slot for free (in addition to the other 59), you better be working your tiny kitty off to win hp off every sub, every main event, every pvp, shield sim, and ddq. If you’re not doing that, then you either have to forgo the roster slot or pay up. People at lesser roster slots don’t have to do as much to ‘stay competitive’ at their range because they haven’t gotten out as much from the game.
Clearly the developers don’t think there is a problem but won’t say so because it gains them nothing. I… have to agree with the developers, despite being a cheapwad.
You can read my post, but short answer is they don’t care to fix this issue. They have dodged it in the last 3 Q&A’s. They don’t want to say they aren’t doing anything because they don’t want to start riots, but the lack of input on this issue tells me they have no plans on doing anything about the ridiculousness of the roster prices in general let alone the ever increasing costs.
I would think a simple solution to this that would keep the influx of new players, transitioning players, and the stalwarts happy would be to set roster slots in tiers and pay HP to advance them (which would effectively keep their profits rolling in).
Tier 1(One star characters): 50 HP per slot
Tier 2(Two star): 150 HP per slot
Tier 3(Three star): 400 HP per slot
Tier 4(Four star): 800 HP per slot
But the catch is you can’t just switch out slots, if you want to ditch your IM35 for an X-Force it’ll cost you 750 HP to upgrade. Need that Blade cover, but can’t afford 400 HP, ditch your 2 star HT and pay 250 HP to upgrade.
This would help new players get their One stars to start, which is their biggest hurdle. Transitioning players can buy some slots outright, but keeps prices down when replacing lower tiers with higher ones, and caps what you have to spend on new slots. Profits continue to be solid, because I can no longer just drop a lesser character for a better one, I have to pay to get the better roster.
How would the general public feel about this system? Better or worse than current? Where are you at in the game? I’m a 2-3 star transitioner and I personally think this system would level the game a bit.
+This would unintentionally mitigate the problem of new players throwing away their cover maxed 1* for a single 3* cover and not realizing their mistake until too late.
-I think it would be way too burdensome for a new player to pony up 400 HP for a 3* cover they win in their second week because they’re in an easy bracket. New players would likely throw away all their 3*'s and 4*'s.
±? I think it would prevent d3 from getting new roster slot profits until much later.
It would suck to have Devil Dino as an anniversary reward, and then be expected to pony up 800 HP for this joke slot.
?How would you handle downgrading slots?
Side point: the biggest thing they mentioned in the last QA is that they will probably be dropping the 2* drop rate from PVP, so as to not ‘burden’ new players with too many covers.
I don’t see anyone saying this; to win a lot of hp, you have the other problem of having enough time and roster strength to do it. People with tons of time who win lots of HP will say they worked for it, and I can’t really argue too much about that. Unfortunately, most of us aren’t blessed with as much leisure time.
My HP flow has been positive the last few seasons, but now I’m super cheap when it comes to using my HP. I’m only at 51 roster slots so my costs aren’t too crazy (650 IIRC), but I’ve stopped using HP to buy covers altogether.
I am assuming they meant that in 2 weeks, you can earn 28 tokens with an expected return of 364HP. With 2 weeks being the expected amount of time between new character releases
I wonder if they had a flat buy-out on roster slots if it would increase sales. Say for example you could spend the current HP price for your next roster slot - or fork over $1.99 in real money to unlock the slot. Free to play folks could still get by, and those who don’t mind spending a little could save their HP for training covers & shields, or, one week a year, buying Anniversary tokens.