Hello World,
My name is Solid Shake. I am no jedi, But i do have some ideas for this loot crate thing [even though its not even that bad].
Here are my ideas and I hope they are taken a bit seriously even though i am no one special, just a gamer. I will have a TL;DR at the bottom.
I have spent most of my life inside video games. starting with atari as my very first system. "it was at my grandmas house though" I love video games. I have a deep passion for them. I have played thousands and thousands of hours of various types and genres of games. on PC and on consoles. It is my medicine to escape reality and really be some place different.
Loot boxes are nothing new, and to be honest the first game that i feel ever lit this wick is clash of clans. yes, for mobile. the top grossed mobile for years over angry birds.
I have played loot crate games. I have played really well built ones [overwatch] and i have played terrible terrible ones [archeage].
if you have ever played a F2P MMORPG you KNOW, that battlefield loot crates are in fact, not that bad. That is not to say that they are good, BF2 crates are sporadic, yet simple and so close to "manageable" where no one would really care that they were their if they didn't want them/need them. I wouldn't go as far as most people and say "EA is the worst, we need to boycot them" or "this is so pay to win it's not even funny"
most of this fiasco is thanks to youtube reviewers with big subscriber numbers. It only takes ONE "famous" person to complain about something, then you have hundreds of thousands of people following what they say just because they said it.
The BF2 beta was fun, and it showed how everything would work, including loot crates, and leveling up. For me, what i dont get is people are saying that you need star cards to unlock weapons, when actually that is not the case. If you play assault, and kill 50 dudes, you get the next weapon unlocked. easy. and yes you can get them in crates as well. kinda weird in my opinion.
SO. how can we fix this problem. I have a serious proposition that may help EA out:
Step 1. remove weapons from crates. the ability to unlock weapons through progression has always been in battlefield and makes you want to play "that one last game" to unlock that weapon you really want.
step 2. Take away the 3 types of crates, and just make it one crate for everything. we don't need to have 3 options, and with a bigger catalog of stuff to obtain in one crate will take down the "this is totally pay to win" because odds are now greater to get epics and stuff. or whatever purple cards are.
step 3. remove credits from crate and remove crafting mats completely. Let us obtain multiples of cards, and upgrade through a "copper, silver and gold" style. 10 commons turn into 1 rare, 5 rares turn into 1 gold etc.
step 4. add extra levels to more powerful cards. the ability to unlock and use all at lvl 20 is pretty low. spread it out so we want to keep playing.
step 5. add a cosmetic catalog to crates. Im not talking about paint jobs, or "skins". I mean equitable items, for example. in star wars battlefront, we got to create a custom character, as well as unlock special characters. for storm troopers, it would be cool if we could unlock the orange shoulder pad for heavy class. or even republic decals for stuff. their are so many items in star wars that could be used as cosmetics.
step 6. Make a loot crate a set dollar amount. example, 1.99 for one, 3.99 for 5 etc etc. this is the style of overwatch i think. spending money for in game currency is a gross MMO type of thing, and no one likes it. ever. we just want to pay for what we want. if we want one crate, we buy a crate.
step 7. each individual player needs to get their own credit amount per match based on a percentage of your final score.
step 8. balance the cards. for every action, their must be an equal opposite reaction. example, if you equip a card on an assault class that does "faster fire rate and more damage" make the reload time slower, or make your regeneration slower. example of space battles ive seen are combination of cards that make you shoot faster, do more damage per hit and have faster turning. all of this comes with no consequences and makes you a space god. these NEED to be balanced and have negative effects.
step 9. make locked heroes cheaper and remove them from crates. they aren't extremely high to be honest, but it does take a lot of grinding. i have two options for this one. you could either lower the cost and/or have a difficult challenge or set of challenges to do to unlock that hero. It would also be nice if the hero score was staggered, instead of everyone being 6000, and then randomly 8000 because that character is in the new movies. raise and lower the points from weakest to strongest by 250 - 500 points.
final step 10. loot crates absolutely NEED to be guaranteed when you gain a new player level. and repeat when a level cap is hit on a rotation bar. "destiny does this." another added bonus would be a crate drop when you level up a class as well. Keep the challenge rewards the same.
overall EA. you made a really good game. it sounds like star wars, it feels like star wars. and the campaign is like star wars. [even though we wanted a true empire story] it still reminds me of the star wars i grew to love. i am a fan of all of your games. even andromeda, and i hope this list helps guide you from a consumers prospective.
we need balance in the force
TL;DR
1. remove weapons from crates.
2. remove 3 crate types and only have one.
3. remove credits from crates, remove mats entirely and "fuse" cards copper to gold style.
4. add higher levels to more powerful cards.
5. add a cosmetic catalog, even if small.
6. make loot crates a set dollar amount.
7. give round credits based off personal total score.
8. balance cards with negative effects.
9. make locked heroes cheaper and removed from crates.
10. loot crate when you level up [through player, and classes]
Thank you for the time to read this if you did. may the force be with you.
-shake-
