This is getting frustrating. Here’s an (incomplete) list of everything this app needs an internet connection to do
Start Up
Opening a pack
Any purchase
Loading Activity hub (after start up, before I can do anything else)
Opening any screen from the menu (profile, events, vault, crafting…ect)
Opening an event screen (from Activity Hub or the Events page)
Leveling up a walker
Converting dupes
Crafting
Viewing card inventory
“claim match”, whatever that means
Finding an opponent
Starting a match (after finding an opponent)
Random times during some matches
Ending a match
Claiming ribbons from a match
Re-loading the event page
Getting progression rewards
Story mode
Editing a deck
Saving an edited deck
Now some of these make sense. Needing an internet connection to open the app and make purchases absolutely makes sense.
But why does everything else require an internet connection to function? Most apps that do not have direct PvP (such as this one) don’t require any internet connection once you open the app except for finding an opponent (if they are like this app where you play against other users’ stuff without actually competing against another human). It’s baffling to me that every time I try to view a different page I need a connection and 2 minutes of loading (if its a good connection, more if its bad).
This seems to be the cause of all the slowdown, which is one of the top reasons people are leaving the game.
To make matters worse, when I started playing this game most of these things did NOT require a connection at all (especially the match play ones. Back then once you saw your opponent’s picture you didn’t need a connection until you reloaded the event page)
Right. Things like Story Mode shouldn’t require internet to access. However since they’ve made it abundantly clear that they.never.plan to improve or expand story mode, I doubt they’ll be making that change anytime soon
They did that when they started having issues with cheaters. They made everything require discussions with the server to thwart the hacked Android builds. Back when Quick Battle meant something and the rewards there were important.
@FindingHeart8 - when have they stated that story mode is dead? Just curious since I can’t recall reading that.
@Mburn7 - as Grizzo stated cheaters is most likely the cause, but since the handshake functionality has always been pretty shaky (see what I did there? ) I sincerely hope that it is part of the stated MLU (midlife upgrade).
Yeah, I thought I had read the opposite, at one point, that that was something they had in mind to improve/add upon. Not that they’ve delivered on that, yet, but…
Yes. To my knowledge, that’s a big reason there are additional loading steps. Now that’s not to say we wouldn’t want to improve where we can. It’s just a matter of figuring out how to do that with the resources available and without compromising the original reason they were implemented in the first place.
As for Story Mode, it is still something our team plans on doing in the future. We just need to find the right time to be able to work on that content.
It was never directly stated, but it has been an ignored topic, despite being presented many many times in the monthly Q&A almost going back to since Octagon started.
Here’s one of Oktagon’s responses below, to the question of Story Mode, from a previous Q&A Session:
Any news about Story Mode?
We plan to modify and expand on how Story Mode works, along with a major overhaul of the first-time user experience. We are taking a Planeswalker-centric approach to this. Keep in mind that it’s still a work-in-progress, and this may change during development.
Ah, well I stand corrected! Looks like it was briefly mentioned at some point. What was the date of that comment @Brigby? Checking to see if there’s any hope of followthrough here
Don’t look for it any time soon, mon ami. What has been stated more recently (by us players more than them) is they still have Core 2020 to get out and still have to prep for the next expansion already getting ready to come out on paper.
If they are able to do that and work on the story and fix the current bug list, then they’re hiding “ringer” developers, somewhere, that they don’t use every day.
Back then only the top players got the rewards… 95% of the rest got jack squat especially if you were a new player. Hibernium missed the mark by a mile in that regards. Today the reward system is larger than it ever was and the earnings are there. The obvious difference is that back then you got one big fat reward with one event …QB. Now that is spread over many events to change things up and keep things interesting and with greater earnings. Ya want 'em… play for them. simple as that. We have events that reward a mythic, dupes give a fair amount of orbs for crafting. We have events that give large packs and jewels. We have events that reward crystals and runes.
I say that they did in fact do something about this.
internet needs for me is anything but the matches. I can play, receive rewards and start another match fairly easily on cell data. But to move around the app from crafting to card library and so on… yeah… I need the internet wifi for faster loading.
Cell data is still internet. Most other apps like this I can do most things on airplane mode after the app starts up (or when I’m stuck in a subway tunnel). That’s why I’m frustrated about this, because if I have no cell signal I can’t do anything
A lot of the things make good sense. Like opening packs, purchases, etc that modify your server-based account state. Match fetching and turn in also make good sense as that information and updates has to be fetched and written to the server.
The during match play alway-on requirement doesn’t make sense to me (only in the context of cheat detection?) and is something I would like to see removed… because I can’t play the app during my subway commute for this reason. If I only had to connect at the start and end that could happen during the station stops and I could happily play between without a “Connection lost: Retry?” window overlaying/blocking interaction with the match. Animations continue behind it, so I know it should be possible.
) I sincerely hope that it is part of the stated MLU (midlife upgrade).