Community Portal Sticker Problem and Possible Solution

[Final_Zidane]

I was playing today and something started to bug me. I was looking through my sticker book and noticed there are 505 CP Stickers. Now, it has bugged me for awhile but today I got curious and decided to look into it. Each mystery portal allows the ability to get 6 CP stickers (1 from the 10 chest, 2 from the 30 chest and 3 from the 50 chest) and is available once a week. I found the number of weeks to complete the set is 84! That's over a year and a half of doing mystery portal every week and collecting 90 stars per portal. Am I the only one that finds that unreasonable?

The game is already about a year and a half old, anyone starting when the game went on sale would be collecting into year 3 of the game's existence. Judging by GW1 I don't think there will be much of a community by then. I really think there should be sticker packs that can be bought with rainbow stars and offer CP stickers. As it is, Rainbow stars are used for very few things and once a player gets Torchwood and Hover Goat there is little reason to do community portals beyond the 90 stars required to open all the week's chests. So, why not offer sticker packs that have 1 sticker for 20 stars or 2 for 40 stars. I selected the number 20 so that it is still a worse deal than the worst chest. (Which weirdly is the 50 chest, you would think more stars for a bigger quantity discount, but no.) This way it is only useful to people who have already spent 90 stars in that week. I should also point out that unlike the similar Infinity Time Packs these would not be able to be limited time packs. This is because unlike coins, rainbow stars has a set maximum. so, unless you can spend them as you earn them the system falls apart.

Adding a CP pack in exchange for Rainbow Stars would make the grind for the CP stickers far more reasonable. (Infinity Packs were added for Infinity Time but in the long run the grind for Infinity Time is tiny compared to CP Stickers. Shouldn't the larger grind have packs too?)  It would also give something to players so they don't feel like they are wasting 100's or even 1000's of Rainbow Stars as they level or seek out Scrumptious Boss Hats. Alternately, coins could be used since every portal match also gives coins at the end. If they are coins then people could pay for the packs with money, earning EA more revenue. I personally don't like the idea of being able pay to get the stickers but, if that is the only way it can happen, so be it. (I would rather it be earned in game. Plus coins have so many other uses but, Rainbow Stars are hardly used.) Either way, I hope to see CP sticker packs in some capacity in the future.

[newmanbr]

Time gated content for CP stickers is way too long for this game.  Also note that the CP stickers are 2 different types, Yellow and Blue chests give you set items (144 of those) and Red chest gives classic items (361). . So it will take 120 weeks to get them all if just getting them from portal events and Yellow and Blue Do not give classic items.  There is also the 9 legendary hats that only RUX sells (and has not yet) and he has not sold one for 3 months now so they are stalling big time.   Another note is rainbow stars is a terrible currency for CP packs because there is limited time to get them and can only hold 50 of them,  Coins would be much easier for everyone.

[Final_Zidane]

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@newmanbr wrote:

Time gated content for CP stickers is way too long for this game.  Also note that the CP stickers are 2 different types, Yellow and Blue chests give you set items (144 of those) and Red chest gives classic items (361). . So it will take 120 weeks to get them all if just getting them from portal events and Yellow and Blue Do not give classic items.  There is also the 9 legendary hats that only RUX sells (and has not yet) and he has not sold one for 3 months now so they are stalling big time.   Another note is rainbow stars is a terrible currency for CP packs because there is limited time to get them and can only hold 50 of them,  Coins would be much easier for everyone.

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I'm not sure where you found the breakdown but, thanks for the info. If you are indeed correct about 120 weeks then this is far worse than I thought. (That's over 2 years!) I agree RUX is also a big problem but I was hoping to cover one topic at a time.

I want to address the Rainbow Stars as currency. I get that they are "limited" but remember that players have 4 out of 7 days per week to earn them. (Excluding community event weeks.) I also understand that being limited to 50 at a time seems low but, the idea is to leave the portal and buy packs then go back in. It isn't much different than it is now for chests and character locks. The reason I favor Rainbow Stars is the relative uselessness after 90 per week. For example, I leveled 6 all-stars this last weekend and burned over 1000 Rainbow Stars. Also consider I burned several 100 Stars hoping to find a capable group for Sasquatch. I know these are extreme as most people wouldn't be able to do that but still. Heck, I might have a complete CP set by now if Stars were the currency. With RUX items being highway robbery (when they actually show) and sticker packs becoming more stingy as people get near completion, coins are a very precious thing. Opposed to Rainbow Stars which are right now going to waste. Don't get me wrong, if coins is the only solution I will gladly take it over nothing. But, I still think Stars is the better alternative.

And yeah, some of the time gates in this game are awful. I could spend less time on an MMO and they have a reason to keep me around. (Since, I pay monthly.) I wonder what EA's excuse is.

[pandareno1999]

Personally, I've given up entirely on the idea of filling the sticker book due to this.  I'll keep buying, because what the heck else am I going to do with the coins?  Anyway, yes - adding a sticker pack at some point would certainly be the solution, and having them cost rainbow stars makes sense.

[Final_Zidane]

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@pandareno1999 wrote:

Personally, I've given up entirely on the idea of filling the sticker book due to this. 

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Its so sad to see a statement like this. (I am slowly getting to this point myself.) The sticker book  was one of the primary reasons playing GW1 was so fun. The fact that a player could give up on filling the book in GW2 says some very serious things about the game balance. If nothing else, I really REALLY hope they take a serious look at this issue before GW3. (I'm not sure I am up for another round of this.) Though, I should like to think EA would address the issue in GW2. (Who knows, maybe one day even RUX will be less brutal.)