Battlegrounds …

Multiplayer Discussion
1

I skipped playing Battlegrounds for most of the last year, but the return of quests and the event got me to play BGs once again, and I wanted to explain to the devs why I do not spend money to support the format and I why I do not put any effort into trying to rank up in BGs.

1). As a mobile player, what I can accomplish in a turn is gated behind waiting on very slow animations to resolve before a new action can be initiated. Consequently, mobile players are at a severe disadvantage, especially when playing nagas or any strategy that requires many actions per turn to succeed. For this reason alone, I don’t bother trying to competitively rank up in the battlegrounds.

2). I also strongly disapprove of how obviously significant the P2W advantage is for the Battleground Season Pass is by doubling the amount of Heroes a player has to choose from, since over half of the Heroes are pretty bad by comparison to the best ones.

The F2P baseline should probably be three heroes to choose from instead of just two, and the Season Pass should Just give the advantage of one more additional hero to choose from.

Consequently, since I have no incentives to rank up, BGs for me are about the individual match experiences and not about climbing the ladder. For players with a like mindset, this means that if they are not offered a hero that they like to play, they can just concede the match and go fishing for a better hero. They can do the same thing for matches that don’t include their favorite tribes to play, and they can also concede on turn three if they are offered only bad quests and conditions to complete them, rather than suffer through a very uphill battle they are unlikely to win.

For many players, all of these factors renders BGs into a casual alternative to occasionally
play just to break up the repetitive monotony of playing some of the other modes, and this is very evident by the number of players of that regularly concede before turn one even begins or the number who have conceded before turn 5 is over.

And then there are the periods where the Battleground conditions are so awful that I cannot even be tempted to play them casually.

2 Likes
2

Definitely not “significant” and it would depend on your mmr. Only in the upper ranks does every choice determine if you’ll climb or lose mmr.

BGs take up a looot of memory, so I can’t imagine how well a phone will play this game as more and more mechanics happen per round.

3

As you go higher in rank or MMR, the ratio of players with the season pass to F2P player increases.

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4

I’m sure it can be safely assumed, yes. Thus proving me correct.

5

I disagree. It is significant as it reduces the chances of choice by half.
In that, the BG heroes have very significant advantages and disadvantages. This is evident from the ‘balancing’ of some heroes time to time. Thus, by reducing the choices by half, the rational of my disagreement.

But by saying that, it does not dismiss the importance of the player’s skill.

2 Likes
6

Again, have to say it isn’t significant as you can get an additional 2 bad heroes. It’s not a guarantee you’ll get anything good. Just a chance, which again, I will say doesn’t matter in lower ranks.

I will say it fluctuates at higher, non-casual mmr since it is a big RNG game, every choice you make matters.

7

It’s twice the chance to get powerful heroes. Twice the chance.

You can’t dismiss double the odds as nothing.

4 Likes
8

i skipped a season was bored with it. just started again and its been fun, but going downhill pretty soon Two heroes hasn’t been an issue till now… the rng of the heroes doesnt feel random when i keep getting repeat heroes lol. Hitting the heroes that i like every three days suxks, when i play a few hours a day.

xcuse my babble. :joy:

9

I don’t. I just don’t think it’s game changing as “significant” would imply.

“Advantage” is better

11

I stopped reading at this point. Look it’s hard enough to play regular HS on a mobile phone. Battlegrounds is 100% not to be played on a phone. On an I-pad or something like it sure but a phone is just not compatible with the playstyle of BG’s.

2 Likes
12

I never find Kally when I’m looking for him lately. Such bad luck.

13

I can dig this. I barely use my PC anymore.

This argument is weak at best. It’s like saying “DOOM (1993) should have included not one freeware episode, but TWO freeware episodes.” Free to play is the trial version of the game and if you want the full experience, pay for it. If you don’t want the full experience — like I said, I dig your reasoning here, the mobile client is kinda crap — then don’t pay for it.

In short, you should have dropped point #2 in its entirety and just said you’re not going to pay money for a mobile game with cross-platform PVP when the mobile client puts its players at a disadvantage. That’s a perfectly reasonable position.

2 Likes
14

The 2/4 → 3/4 Hero Choices for F2P is a fair argument,
BUT … you have to take into account that there is no other way for Blizzard to make money off of BG other than the Season Pass.

There is nothing to sell in BG other than cosmetics (something which is not important to everyone), so they need a reason to push people to buy the Season Pass other than cosmetics alone, because a completely F2P BG would not be able to support its livelihood.

This is where your “pay-2-play” wall comes in, but it’s not really a wall is it?

It doesn’t completely stop you from playing, but one COULD argue that you are playing with a disadvantage, and he would probably be right.
…

If you want to play BG competitively it is somewhat expected of you to be willing to spend some money on the game, now if you don’t want to play competitively then 2 Heroes will suffice … that is how they see it and honestly, it kind of makes sense.

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15

I dont see any reason why 4 heroes is part of the season pass. They can just as easily let 4 heroes be f2p and have the money you pay be purely for cosmetics.

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16

and make 99% less revenue? :joy: sure. they could…

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17

It’s probably not that drastic. But 60%ish is still, well, most. Chia’s suggestion still gets all the :joy:

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18

The problem with the whole p2win notion is that you don’t win anything, except some cosmetics.

19

forum etiquette #1 - exaggeration… is a must

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20

its P4S if you ask me. I may pay for some extra serotonin sometimes … who knows. :innocent:

21

I just paid $5 for Halls of Torment. Infinitely more value, and fun, than anything I could get from Bliz Bux.