List of grievances and goodbye
To the mech arena team,
I have to say I'm beyond disappointed, even beyond angry with the choices you've made for the mech arena. I wanted to enjoy the game, but I can't. I can't in good faith continue to play and hope things get better anymore, because every time there's an improvement there's a giant step backwards, or two or more. And every time there's a big issue and the community gets upset the devs go "oh we're collecting feedback and determining what to do". And 99.99% of the time what they do is NOTHING! At the same time they say they don't even intend to change it in the first place because their actions were "necessary" (my butt). So thanks for telling me I can screw off, getting my hopes up, and throwing those right back in my face several times over. So here's all the reasons I'm quitting.
Obtaining implants: Obtaining implants is a pain in the backside and always will be with that stupid shop system you have going. You've heard the complaint already. Implants available for purchase with resources are scarce already. Then there's the implants you can only get from crates unless you pay. And I'm not going to sugarcoat this, I expect no arguing for for the MA team to really understand, that's directly pay to win.
Implant removal: Never should have costed a thing in the first place. When the issue was initially raised, devs said it was necessary for balance because having free implant swapping would somehow disadventage some players somehow (seemed bull). And all evidence points to it was. Because I do not recall one single player complaining about being at a disadvantage while being able to freely swap implants. When pressed on the issue DEVS STONEWALLED IT until the grade update when the cost was temporarily suspended. And now that you're bringing it back because "balance" like that was believable before. What makes you think it's believable now?
A-coins: The in game availability of a-coins for all players has been waning ever since our daily and weekly challenges changed. I've put in numerous complaints. The community has complained en masse again and again. Content creators complained repeatedly. ZERO results ever. And not a peep from plarium. It looked like there was relief at some point with a-coins through ads every day. But I recently found out not even everyone gets a-coins from ads. So that doesn't even freaking count, great. And now you remove the 400 that everyone got from vault blitz and only decided to give a-coints to the top 3 players. On this issue once again the players complained and you said "we're collecting feedback and analyzing what to do". 4 weeks later the new playoff that's replacing vault blitz is back again and NOTHING CHANGED! That's the biggest (excuse the language please) "fuck you" you could give us as players. You shouldn't need feedback to know what to do. WE TOLD YOU SEVERAL TIMES OVER DON'T MESS WITH THE A-COINS ECONOMY WE'RE JUST GOING TO TELL YOU WHAT WE HAVE BEEN THAT WE NEED THE A-COINS AND ARE UPSET THAT YOU'VE REVOKED THEM! BUT YOU PEOPLE NEVER LISTEN EVER!
Mishandled balance issues: Up until we started seeing problems with overpowered weapons, mech arena had been good on balancing isssues, buffing mechs that needed it. Once we got pilots things changed. Rocket mortar broke the game. And for months and months simply let the community discuss the issue ourselves until the grade update came out. And only when the grade update came out was the rocket mortar no longer OP. Except it's still unfair mid game. During that time the rocket mortar was OP, EM rifle was also released. INSANE damage capability, short reload and AIM ASSIST? A recipe for breaking the game, and break the game it did. This weapon stayed broken after the grade update too because it didn't have its damage output hampered by the grading system. When it came? Way different than anyone expected. We said increase reload time, you lowered the double damage chance and removed the auto-aim. Now people are upset because the weapon didn't work like it used to. And after this NERF you just now won't do balance changes either way unless absoltuely necessary because of the EM rifle NERF upsetting players.
Dismissal of issues: On numerous occasions issues have been raised in the community only for plarium to dismiss them. For example, staight up pay to win matchmaking. Raised shortly after the launch of the game, when matchmaking paired people of similar XP together, devs straight up denied this mechanic was pay to win, despite it giving a distinct advantage to paying players in which they were enabled to bully lower SP players in their own XP bracket with their paid for higher level gear. As well, the issues with obtaining implants had been dismissed TWO SEPARATE TIMES by plarium reps saying first "our developers don't believe the system is pay to win" and another "the implants in the shop are generated automatically for you".
Excuses: The crap excuses you make for your decision making are always shocking, because you know they're excuses and it's easy to tell. Like I already mentioned your excuse for charging to swap implants. "To make the game more fair." Except people only thought it was unfair they couldn't freely change implants. And the excuse is back with the charges after several months of no charge even though nobody bought it before because it's bullcrap and you know it which is why you went silent on the push back before the indefinite length implant removal discount. And now you're trying to avoid balance changes excusing it with the fact that your poorly executed EM rifle NERF didn't go well.
Silence on issues: The amount of time devs tried to avoid the implant removal issue before any response was given is horrendous. And with a-coins you only spoke once we complained about vault blitz, but I didn't include in the title of my post that I was complaining about a-coins specifically, so I get the feeling that might have something to do with it. Afterall, you can't avoid the topic if you don't know I intend to talk about it. Over 2 years and what gets you to break your silence is the topic being raised in a thread in which it's not immediately obvious that's the problem.
Arguments: I've had two arguments so far with plarium reps since launch over unfair systems in the game. And I anticipate there may be more with the modifiers update. It's always when I mention how something disadvantages non-spending players. Of course I don't sugarcoat things. I call pay to win for what it is, pay to win. I don't use the term lightly, but whenever I do use it plarium reps view it as an invitation to argue unless the argument's already had. And I recall from being in a clan that my clan leader had complained about reps being argumentative.
Un-anounced new features: First with the introduction of pilots, which was brought into the game with no announcement, has been a total negative for the game. It broke balance and greatly increased the price and/or time invesment needed to compete, as well as put non-spenders or low budget spenders at a disadvantage and easily the worst update in the game. Now "modifiers" appear to be in the game, unannounced and not asked for, sure to be the next pilots update. Another new feature further complicating things, increasing the investment needed to compete again, and bringing this game closer to what I said since the beginning I don't want it to be. That being war robots.
Worse than war robots: This game is going down the same exact path as war robots. Might as well call it war robots 2. I said 2 years ago I don't want this game to be like war robots and I've said it since. 1 war robots is bad enough. Actually, because you make resources less available at the same time as increasing the investment needed to compete, this game is shaping up to be worse than war robots. Congradulations you topped the company that earned the moniker "pigsonic".
Well I'm not playing war robots, and I'm certainly not playing a game that's worse. Looking forward to how you respond to this. I'm sure it'll be as lackluster as all of your responses. Not that I care, I'll wait and see if the game gets good once again. But I don't anticipate it. And one of these days, it's gonna be the last straw for mech arena. It may already be that day if there isn't at the very least an addition of 400 a-coins to the objective phase of playoff events or some way to obtain the missing a-coins SOON. But as soon as I know it's the last straw, I'm not going to be polite and I'm dragging the game's reputation through the all the filthy mud plarium created pissing all over the grounds for a great game.