The Gacha machine, revisited.

[Dave from work]

EDIT and UPDATE #3:

And now, they've apparently backtracked on the removal:

Source:
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-removes-official-after-video-games-rules-spark-turmoil-sources-2024-01-02/

Meaning, you shouldnt be surprised to find the gacha-machine still kicking and selling you weapon/armor blueprints on game-release.
Regardless of what the devs have been saying.

Underneath, you'll find previous edits and the original post.
Do not quote or engage with ME, unless you've taken the time to read it in full.
This is not an "attack" on the devs or an attempt to spread panic or pre-release negativity, These are my my expressed concerns about the game having played it extensively.


BIG EDIT #2:

Apparently the Gacha is getting removed / reworked due to China now regulating online spending and cracking down on "chance-based sales".
How we'll be getting the gear that was previously locked behind the gacha still is not clear.

"Online games will now be banned from giving players rewards if they log in every day, if they spend on the game for the first time or if they spend several times on the game consecutively. All are common incentive mechanisms in online games."

Source:
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-issues-draft-rules-online-game-management-2023-12-22/


The Original post:

Sunk around 120+ hours into the beta and hit lvl 50 at this point and one thing has been bothering me somewhat.

The Gacha machine.

Now, for those who didnt get Beta access, I'll explain.
There's your standard currency I forgot the name of used to shop at NPC shops etc, then there's Stardust and there's a premium currency.

Starchrome = Premium currency
Stardust = Endgame crafting material , everything worthwhile needs this stuff.

This premium currency is readily earned by completing journey goals, there are goals for your personal journey, and there's goals for your world interaction and exploration.
There's also a seasonal boss-journey that will give you this premium currency.
They did a good job of giving you these as a reward, I will say this.

With Starchrome you can buy cosmetics, or gamble at the gacha-machine.
(The gacha is an unlockable, placeable item for your base that looks like an arcade cabinet.)

Now, I'll paraphrase the devs "Yes there is premium currency, but it's cosmetics only."

The issue I have with this is, the gacha doesnt just unlock cosmetics, it let's you gamble for weapon blueprints.
(most rolls costing 500 a pop)

And the weapons are quality tiered like in RPG, blue, purple and orange.
(rare, epic and legendary)

These also have affixes/perks attached to them, some a lot better than others.

Now, I've completed my personal journey, and i'm around 80-90% into the world journey goals, and so I've likely sunk around 12000 premium currency into the gacha.

8000'ish currency got me a few cosmetics and a truckload of blueprints for misc. guns.

Blueprints I could use to upgrade guns like the Pioneer Ak to 5* LONG before I was lvl 30.
(They're usable on other weapons of the same "category" though at reduced upgrade Exp. Using identical blueprints gets you more experience.)

There's also the fact that the gach-machine keeps track of how many pulls you've done on the current Gacha-event, where reaching the goal pulls will GUARANTEE you that event's main drop.

This can be a legendary sniper one day, and a legendary assault-rifle, bundled with armor pieces the next.

I can't be the only one who sees that this doesnt fall under "cosmetics only"?
And while it'll likely be fairly expensive for players to buy, let's say 50k premium currency to spend on the gacha machine, just to be guaranteed the blueprints needed.
We all know, someone will.

Running around early game with a legendary assault-rifle or full-auto shotgun, in a game where you can engage in pvp pretty much from the onset, is a bit of a departure from "cosmetics only"?

I dunno, the game's fun anyway.
But couple this with an active warband with access to the contested pvp areas where they have around 8 pumps churning out "stardust" at a pretty high rate, and you have a recipe for VERY early game domination with little to no resistance for a long time in game.

One of my warband members is running around with 20k+ stardust in his inventory, AFTER maxing out both his armor AND weapons:

https://imgur.com/QDu8y5X

(the HARD to get (If you play PvE that is..) materials you'll need to upgrade pretty much everything, including the crafting of the best healing, best ammo and best explosive items in-game.)

In other words, Solo PvP players, this game isnt for you unless you play on the pvp ZONE only mode.
You're going to have a BAD time unless they nerf the pump outputs.

I dunno, it just strikes me as an odd thing to say that the premium currency is "cosmetics only" while there's clearly a way to buy yourself better gear than what you can get in the basegame.
Because legendary blueprints, as of now, dont drop outside of the gacha machine.

Like, why not just come out and say that instead of being disingenuous?
Gamers tend to respond better to transparency, instead of being treated like fools.

The game is fun, and fresh, and I'd rather see it succeed than being subjected to angry people who will rightly feel misled.

[Here]

Your concern is founded ... and you have seen the future.

[HeartPurity]

ya and the worst part is there is no way to farm legendary apart from wish machine, wish machine is the only way for us to get legendary and to get Starchrom, we can only cleanse the seed, but t1 seed = 30, t2 seed = 40, they give very little while you need 500 for just 1 pull

[MacGruber]

yes yes.. peel back that curtain and show us the ugliness hiding behind.

[InvalidShortcut]

Developer and publisher is chinese NETEASE inc., what did you except.

[Dave from work]

Originally posted by InvalidShortcut:

Developer and publisher is chinese NETEASE inc., what did you except.

It's not about what I was expecting.
I'm just sharing my observation, so that you can be better informed.

[Dave from work]

Bump for visibility

[DragoVnxXiao]

i hate gacha machine so much, i have terrible luck.

[moonfeast]

netease game, what did you expect

[Dave from work]

Originally posted by moonfeast:

netease game, what did you expect

Again, It's not about what I expect.
It's about making sure YOU know what to expect.

[Zugs]

if you can "roll" for any ingame item im out. Cosmetics are fine. ANY in game item

[stefanescu_serban]

Jeez...When the developer was interviewed by KingGothalion he said clear and simple ...THERE WILL BE NO Pay to win ing. They just go for Cosmetics...you can buy even now in cbt by pressing esc and there is a Shop ...Also a streamer closed to dev team said that will be MUCH easier to get Starchrom when game will be live. So i understand you liked this game , as i do...and if its that so...why in the God's name you start to throw mud on game and devs long before its release ?
Personal i rather have a small p2w game instead of f2p...On f2p games will be an overwhelming nr of kids with nothing else in mind but to ruin gaming pleasure for other players...leaving for ex damn msges everywhere , even on quest items.But yea...thats me

[Dave from work]

Originally posted by stefanescu_serban:

Jeez...When the developer was interviewed by KingGothalion he said clear and simple ...THERE WILL BE NO Pay to win ing. They just go for Cosmetics...you can buy even now in cbt by pressing esc and there is a Shop ...Also a streamer closed to dev team said that will be MUCH easier to get Starchrom when game will be live. So i understand you liked this game , as i do...and if its that so...why in the God's name you start to throw mud on game and devs long before its release ?
Personal i rather have a small p2w game instead of f2p...On f2p games will be an overwhelming nr of kids with nothing else in mind but to ruin gaming pleasure for other players...leaving for ex damn msges everywhere , even on quest items.But yea...thats me

Maybe go back up and read the top portion.

And throwing mud? what do you mean?
Nothing I said was nonconstructive or untrue.
Did you even read ANY of it?

And if you did, are you SURE you understood the context??

You CAN question and critique something you like.

[Wynaught]

Here's the issue partially of removing the wish machine, if this is to keep from people farming controlling sections in order to obtain loot, we've seen and possibly participated in games where hoarding a section, dungeon or mob spawn to get something, preventing others from progressing, happens. I assume by allowing it to be in something you can still farm to get the points to try your luck at hitting the correct muppet on the head to get the schematic pieces you want, it still had a fairness element in that.

I am wondering with the wiping each season if this will prevent somehow people from being able to hoard these pieces. otherwise I see it like every other game that comes out, you will have the big eggplant swingers bragging of their PVP skills until launch, then all of them going on to different servers so they don't compete with each other, & roll everyone for a season and then get bored and leave for a new game or the people get tired of the one guild/clan/warband that lumps together and so they leave the game, which then has the same folx cry merge servers, I'm so bored, I consumed the whole game in a weekend without showering so fix it for me, I'm trying to chase that dopamine. And the game dies....

[Here]

Edit the thread a million times and the future will still be the same.

[Dave from work]

Originally posted by Here:

Edit the thread a million times and the future will still be the same.

Yeah I guess I should have just left it unedited without this info so that people would call me dishonest instead:

The post ( As of latest edit this can likely be dismissed due to the policies changing, I'll leave the post as is for transparency's sake):

"Apparently the Gacha is getting removed / reworked due to China now regulating online spending and cracking down on "chance-based sales".
How we'll be getting the gear that was previously locked behind the gacha still is not clear.

"Online games will now be banned from giving players rewards if they log in every day, if they spend on the game for the first time or if they spend several times on the game consecutively. All are common incentive mechanisms in online games."

Source:
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/china-issues-draft-rules-online-game-management-2023-12-22/"

English is not my first language, so you'll forgive me for editing spelling mistakes, yeah?