#Too Many Unskippable Cutscenes (not story)

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

toxic sequoia
#

I'm noticing lately that I'm less and less motivated to log in. Currently we're in 2x with 2x stamina consumption which is a great improvement to double drops. and I'm still barely involved.

A big part of that is just how much of the game you spend IN the game but not playing the game

I just knocked out ethernet rally for this cycle and so much of it is so easy that I'm blasting through on auto but with way more tapping than farming.

Most of the stages are so easy that the choice of what to deploy is mostly inconsequential, I think I did like 1/3rd with like 3 units and often one being a Val with no gear for the Atk up.

But there are so many of these stages that even though it's easy, I'm stuck with keeping the game open and maintaining progress with just thoughtless taps until we get near the end.

I understand that the mobile game market--especially turn-based strategy rather than real time skill games--often involves a lot of autoplay after some decision making, but Ethernet specifically is, in my opinion, an especially and egregiously boring and time consuming version of this. If it was the only example, it might be okay just still a dreaded but rewarding part of the gameplay loop. but so many other gamemodes are like this. I've actually missed a lot of union boss daily runs because I put it off for so long I just forget to do it. 5x is nice but not a solution. Let us fire off a team and then tab out on mobile. UB, PT, Ethernet should be able to auto through a few stages in a row and let us collect when we come back, then troubleshoot whatever stage we got stuck on and continue. Same with the bosses, one of em took 22+ minutes which i "got done" while I did my kid's bedtime.

I know some play on PC and then tab out of the app and come back when they think it's done, but is that really a good way to engage with the game on your PC? Just go to another tab for a few minutes?

Maybe it's because of the other games that I play, and being an ex-CE raider/M+ WoW player, but this just feels like a really uncreative and unengaging set of chores to have in the game.

Gameplay that is less about playing and more about decision making can be okay if you're not slaved into it this way.

Farming is also a problem but less so because:
You solve the puzzle for each boss
You deploy your chosen recipe after you decide how to spend your stamina for the day
The only problem here is the number of times I need to check my phone in the day to keep the farm going. The limit makes sense early on so you can be motivated to troubleshoot less consistent and slower teams, but at some point it becomes too much.

This is gonna sound dorky to people not mature enough to realize this is an issue, but checking phones too often is already a problem for a lot of people. Once I've decided how to spend stamina for the day that should be just about it. 4-5 times a day is okay for resource management/spending stam. 15-20 not so much and this is just about the farming part. Way too many chores in the game that we have to keep our phone unlocked to continue with, and many of them feel like (hopefully, because god help this game if these are all in the game long term) uncreative filler and you really didn't have to ship the game with this much unengaging content for us to continue to test this game for Eastern release.

The RNG is whatever, the lattice econ I get, you don't want us to experiment with units rn and that's fine and all. but a lot of the pve chores I'm very surprised to see they even shipped in the state they're in; that someone signed off on this for repeatable content that is barely optional (I do just simply not do a lot of things because of how unfun they are with no regard for lost resources).

Gently holding my breath for full launch to see what changes are made, but half-assing in the mean time. This game has great potential but the fact that this game shipped with some of this leaves me concerned for what it will be reduced to.

low wing
#

great post! Agree with almost everything you wrote here.

And it would be so different if it felt like we were making substantial progress towards building characters. But progression is so slow, and there's always the lattice problem. No matter how much you grind, you'll always be gated by the extremely low lattice rates.

I find myself theory crafting so much stuff, but never being able to try it. You're so right when you said that "you spend so much time IN the game, but not playing it"

toxic sequoia
# low wing great post! Agree with almost everything you wrote here. And it would be so dif...

if the lattice rate continues after full launch and they keep doing two RGB banners at a time after they said weeks ago they were going to do one character every three weeks that's gonna be another problem. I don't understand the devs wanting us to not experiment with characters and instead roll the dice hoping the character we invest in stays meta long enough for it to be worthwhile. but if this is just a pre-CN-release rate I understand that, just wish they'd make that clear instead of making excuses and lying to us about the rate of banners.

tiny cliff
# toxic sequoia I'm noticing lately that I'm less and less motivated to log in. Currently we're ...

Yea 💯 they really need to add a sweep to Ethernet rally very soon

Phantom theatre should be a weekly thing with 7x the rewards instead of an awful 5 minute cut scene every day

Union Boss also needs a redesign. Monday-Wednesday you have to attack it twice if you're clearing each phase quickly, and it's not good gameplay by any definition. It's just another pointless cut scene

The ideas are good, but in practice it's a bad experience and it will 100% eventually irritate everyone enough to the point of moving on to another game. People will put up with it for varying amounts, but all the mindless busywork will be one of the main things that people stop opening the game for

toxic sequoia
# tiny cliff Yea 💯 they really need to add a sweep to Ethernet rally very soon Phantom the...

trimming the requirements for each event would be a great step, especially if they did something close to what you suggested for everything I'd like that a lot, but boring gameplay is boring gameplay, how many weeks would that buy the average player before they burn out? once you've solved the puzzle it's just a cutscene and even once a week is too much. maybe I'm asking too much when turn based games aren't skill based but instead knowledge/mgmt/strategy based and that is hugely limiting when facing AI, but maybe the devs are also asking too much by trying to come up with chores that don't feel like chores in a repetitive turn based game.

I'm guessing these issues are even harder to ignore for the people who have money to spend on these games. Most of us are not content creators or have mommy/daddy money. We have income that we have to do something for, usually on top of other responsibilities lol. I'm a dad*2 + married + own a house and going back for my degree in ele engineering. and because of these problems I've stopped spending money completely until I see how they're going to change it before a different game comes out that I wanna try and I really only have time for one.

I'm rooting for XD but I'm having a hard time playing the game while we wait, lately.

tiny cliff
low wing
#

same boat

toxic sequoia