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hello

I too am intrigued to see a proper response to this post.  However, as opposed to providing nothing but riticule and foul language evidently, perhaps it would be wiser to offer suggestions and constructive criticism, while at the very least make an attempt to view this game from a buisness perspective.  I will offer my full take on this game having now put a considerable amount of time into it.

So, there is a blatant significant advantage offered to your paying clientele.  Of course seeing as in the past few weeks you've dropped several new weapons that are only attainable wirth cash purchases.  To guerentee aquiring these weapons they would have to drop 150+ CAD each time.  From a buisness perspective, why not?  THat's great income, and as long as there's a market, keep pushing the sales while being mindful of oversaturation.  So that's understandable, however seeing as some of these weapons are very useful in the meta, considering the advantage the play who pays already has over a free to play player, in my oppinion, yes, I don't think you're approaching this correctly Plarium.  I say that, admitting there may be future events you have planned that will account for this, however at the time of writing this message, several new items of content have been released into the game, avaiable to only those who are willing to pay, in my own opinion exceissive amounts of money, but this is the mobile market.  C'est la vie.  However, these paying players, from my interaction with them (80K experience, fully maxxed, top of line mechs etc.) typically are either overly competitive by nature, or are more than happy to pay some cash for the illusion they are skilled at something.  Anyone has interacted with these people, and 9 times out of 10, without the cash, their just your average Joe, albeit, likely a bit narcissistic, but I digress. 

While I might be mistaken, I would assume you need the free to play players, as they provide the game with a population.  I think it's safe to say, the vast majority can't afford to drop $100 every week or two,.  Now, of course Plarium would want to offer paid opportunities to players, as they are a buisness, and at the end of the day it's the black numbers that number.  Again though, reputation is in my experience, arguably the biggest indicator of long term success, or at the very least respect as a buisness.  The trick is finding the balance, and while it's easy to cast shade from the comfort of your desk chair, this aspect of buisness is trickier than you likely think.  

Pardon such a long post but I'm getting there.  So, if you haven't a cent in the game, ask yourself how many hours of entertainment did you get form it.  2, 4, 10?? Well from the perspective of bang for your buck, you just got several hours of entertainment to escape and have some fun for free.   Considering the price of movie tickets and concessions.  You know, it never hurts to show some recognition for the Plarium's work in creating this game.  

Although, I think you folk Plarium are teetering a little to far to the pay to win players, and realistically there's like a few simple solutions here.  First off, so while it makes sense, that eveyr derby to acquire a weapon or new mech (Arachnos for example) essentially costs you potential sales yes.  I see an easy way around this.  Offer, say, bi-monthly  derbys with a choice of award at the end.  Personally I have put a bit of money into this game, primarily on the 3-4 dollar purchases that were available for Tengu, or Stalker.  Keep that up, because 4$ is something most people can afford.  Then after the 4$ purchase is made offer plenty of options to upgrade the mech or weapon, but I believe you're already following this practice.  So offer say 3* or 4* weapons or mechs here and there, but give F2P players a chocie so that way at least they get a chance to have their most desired premium item.  I do believe Supercell is a rather successful mobile game producer and that's a feature, at the very least avilable in Clash Royale.  It's a great idea.... whats the expression?? Good artists create, great artists steal? ;)   Also, if you're going to offer the specialization events featuring a new mech only reliably available by dropping 100$ +, don't do it consecutively.  Here and there, the consumer won't likely notice or be overly annoyed.  Several in a row, ya that's a bit frustrating.  Additionally, a common requirement in specialization is 30 wins.  Again... catering paid players, that win 19 of 20 battles.  Easy to do in a couple days.  I average around 2 wins of 3 matches.  To achieve 30 wins, takes a huge commitment of time.  What is the alternative difficult task? Upgrades, that require a-coins.  Sorry you don't have the reputation of EA, it's a fine line in my opinion anyways.  IN the long run, I think you will find this practice to be less profitable as a whole, as you alienate a significant portion fo your player base.  

Now I admit again, there might be insider studies done, that show mobile games have a short half life, and the best practice is to make as much cash as quick as possible before the game fades into obscurity.  I get it, it's kind of the way of the world in so many ways, but this game is awesome, and it's just kind of a waste.  

Lastly, I certianly hope you are adressing the apparent issue of matchmaking being based upon experience.  I can't imagine you wouldn't factor in power rating as the primary factor in your algorithms.  If you aren't, I can only assume the person behind the decision is incompetent or lazy.  Judging by the outcries on these forums, that would be my fundamental priority.  

Now some of these issues I've been reading about, for example the bots getting in the way.  I'm not a coder, but before you go screaming bloody murder, take into consideration that I can't imagine pathfinding and AI is easy to program.  So be patient in that regards, and at the very least, instead of complaining, account for it.  Recognize the patterns the AI follow and just avoid the siutation.  Honestly i don't even think it's all that bad.  But ya I imagine implementing a choose your reward event would be a bit easier, so while I can't speak for the player base, at least that idea, or something of a similar nature shows some sort of appreciation.  Perhaps offer a legendary implant even, that way it might get some of the heat off your back as you can turthfully say, you could have chosen a legendary implant, if you catch my drift.  Then you could also say in  6 weeks time, we will have another event where you might be able to pick something you missed last time.  Obviously it makes sense upon release of new content, don't alwyas give it away for free, but if you continuously deny new content to free to players, you're going to recieve messages of negativity such as those that litter these forums.  

Well I've been rambling for some time now.  IReleasing content is great and all, but if you're going to release so much at such a high frequency as of late, give a little, or at least maybe drop the occasional item in the experience slider.  BUT ONE MORE THING!, my last comment will be to say... seirously... who is in charge of balancing pilots, because darn.  Not saying the entire system is broken, but there's a few builds that genuinely need the nerf hammer, when encountered an over leveled individual.  I mean I don't know the gaming industry, as I'm just a lowly bartender.... but ya, you might want to look into that.  

In conclusion, I do agree though, you're most recent decisions, have made it blatantly obvious, you cater to the players who are either financially privledged, or have a sever gaming addiciton.  It's a great game, looks great, it's fun, and yes skill does play in to the equation.  

Here and there, maybe bring in a game mode where all mechs are equivalent in level.  Maybe again, similar to other mobile games *cough cough Supercell * * offer special event tournaments where player level is balanced.  ANd give those who feel short changed by your preference for cash over gamer skill, a chance to win a handful of A-coins or something, or on the contrary, give you merit to say, It Is a Skill based game, and while money helps, you're just bad at the game.  (obviously behind closed doors)

I figure htis is largely incoherent, I got a little carried away here, but there's a lot of positives you have going for you.  And I do believe some members of this forum ar ebeing a tad rude, but they have a point.  Communication goes a long way.  If it's a matter of not knowing what to say to your player base... you need to a call a meeting a.s.a.p.

Ciao!

Also I love Arachnos.  It's such a great design! Good job!

While that post is likely rather lengthy, and long winded, here's another thought here, maybe worth considering.  So It seems there is an oppinion that many feel slighted by the fact tokens arent offered for free, for a majority of crate crashes (or whatever they're called)... Well to my observation anyway it seems as perhaps you are justifying the switch to strictly tokens in which you have to pay for by offering equal odds at any reward.  Well, you have the old method of say the best reward (like the shiny new weapon) would have a 1% chance of being given out.  Well then offer free tokens again but, perhaps if the coding isn't overly complicated, give every player a free token, but use a seperate odds chart.  So if you want to pay, the 7$ for a token you get a 10 percent chance at picking up the Disk Launcher 16, but give every one a token in which the odds are 1%.  That way you're likely not missing out on too many sales due to the RNG.... and more importantly, by giving at least a slight chance of picking up the new weapon, that's enough to keep most players satisfied.  I will acknowldge that yes on occasion you give away tokens.  I got lucky and picked up the Gauss Rifle 6.  Not for me, but to each their own.  Obviously the Long Arm 12 is going to be a bit coveted, so sure make it's odds to receive like .09 or something, and if you like the other idea.  Post an ""arachnos derby" down the road where after a grind they have a chance to pick up one of those uber weapons.  i.e.  If tyou want every weapon, you're gonna pay for it, but if there's one in particular you really want... well with a bit of a grind and effort, here's your chance.  I don't know if these are good ideas or not, as I have no experieince in the video game industry, but these don't seem like too bad of ideas in my mind.

Since this post was made:

It took a month to get a response of any sort, and the response was completely lackluster. Did not follow my instructions at all. Not 1 concern addressed in this post.

Seems there was a debate behind the scenes, what was discussed we don't know but was likely related to this post.

Only 1 change related to things mentioned in this post and that's a silent addition of value back to event crate rush tokens.

This post was spammed by some troll.

One of our community managers is gone for unknown reasons, and we have a new one who seems to have taken on the duties of the CM who's left.

game continues to be p2w and stupid ass bots now spawn with almost fully upgraded legendary implants. heck new players see pilots before they even get to use em most of us don't even have 1 useful legendary implant let alone 3

i