I want to talk about implants removal from another perspective
So far I've been asking the devs to try and justify their decision on charging players to swap around implants. But I'd like to share why it might be so hard to justify it instead, or why I'm upset I can't freely swap around my implants.
Reason number 1: Simply put, fun. Something I really had fun doing in this game was playing around with different builds, finding what works for me and sharing with the community. Going on discord, Reddit and YouTube and talking with everyone I can about it. And I say had fun doing not because it isn't fun anymore but because I can't do it anymore. Many people including myself refer to this as experimenting.
Reason number 2: Freaking rocket mortars. This is related to experimenting. I've seen enough people complain about rocket mortars being overpowered. I've made a few complaints myself. I hate the weapon. But the deal is, I don't know if the data reflects that opinion. But one thing I do know is, I can't play around with my stuff to find out what works against the rocket mortars lusers with implant, if anything.
I know you have implant removal discount. I've complained already this isn't enough for me. I'm sure you've seen similar comments but experimenting was done day by day. There's more too. It really just feels like a cash grab, for multiple reasons.
First of all, you'd put yourself at a disadvantage even daring to swap a single implant if it's not during a discomy, rather than spending the a-coins on an important upgrade. Some people might want to make it up by purchasing a-coins. Or you're indirectly pressuring people to spend money. Second, indefinite discount timing. It feels like you're trying to test our patience and get people to unwisely spend unnecessary resources on implant swapping by having no set schedule on discounts.
Finally, it's still not affordable to experiment even during a discount. This has to be a paragraph itself. I explained already how removing implants without taking advantage of a discount isn't affordable. 90% off is huge, until you swap around implants 10 times. Now you're spending a-coins on something you can't afford to. I can't speak for other players, but I don't take advantage of the discount to experiment. Instead I swap implants for bletter versions. I optimize my pilots solely for weapons. It allows me the freedom to swap weapons between mechs at least, but it still isn't ideal. I've sacrificed part of the game you added (ability related implants), to take back a part of the game it feels like you took from me for no good reason. What's more, if I want to use the same pilot with a different weapon, I'm SOL. Were I to use ability related implants like I want to, my weapons would be stuck on the same mechs all the time which is something I don't want. Basically, I feel forced to make compromises thanks to your charge on changing implants, even if you have the occasional discount that nobody ever knows when it's coming. And since I'm not experimenting anymore, I'm interacting with the community less.
I don't really need to know every reason you have to charge players for swapping implants. I'm always going to assume one of them is to squeeze $ out of people and that you saw war robots doing it and decided to copy. But most of all, I hope by sharing this it motivates you to find a solution.
