Honest feedback from a new player

I see a few times in your post that you mention things along the lines of, "for the price of this game" or simply reference to this game costing money. As the game stands right now, you don't need to spend a penny on it. There is nothing that someone who puts money into this game can get over someone who doesn't other than time spent getting it. I myself have spent $10 on this game, but it was only as a way of showing my appreciation for the fun I've had in it. Not in any way did I do it because I felt I needed to in order to excel or advance in this game. You do not, at all, need to spend any real money in order to be competitive.

Thanks for taking the time to read my rather lengthy rant . My point wasn't that you need to spend money it's that if you do choose to spend the pricing system is very high compared to other games, especially since the game is still lacking Many features.  Gold should really be about half of what it is or run specials every so often Etc.  but again this isn't a huge issue because as you pointed out you really don't need to spend money, and with their pricing structure I'm sure a lot of people aren't. 

Ok, in that case, yes. I agree 100%. I remember when I first took a peek at what real money could buy, probably a day or two after I started playing, and thinking to myself, "Self, I don't think you get enough for your money." Months later, when I understood the game much better, I took a look at the store and thought the exact same thing.

Thanks Killin, for throwing your opinion out there... it was a thoughtful and thorough post.

Firstly, the money issue...

I do agree, as someone who budgets away money to spend on games I enjoy (I dislike ads and like to support companies that have need of it, so I am one of those that will spend if I feel the desire to) that they have very bad sense of value.  As it stands, I will get premium to get the extra silver and will occasionally buy gold.  But I would, without a doubt, pay for packages or special deals that had decent to good content.  One of my favorite Strategy games just started doing that and people in my clan that normally never spend, broke down and did it. 

But considering the lack of major items to spend on, I think Pix expects(ed) that the upgrade times are going to be the biggest item to get people to spend.  They get rather long for a game that is based on a 10 minute match in an arena, rather than the long term game play of other games that have very long upgrade times.  If I am impatient, I will speed up an upgrade, but to be honest it's not as often as I could.  The reason being:

Getting enough silver for the higher upgrades is tough, so no need to speed build anything once I got to around level 8 weapons... Since I don't play, usually, more than 5-10 matches a  day, I usually get enough silver for the next upgrade by the time I am done, then by the next session the upgrade is done and I can start another (Or will be very close).  Now, I know they get ridiculous at levels 11 and 12 so I may speed them up, but overall, I don't unless I am itching to get a new bot or bot config going and need a weapon to be a certain level.  Maybe if they decreased the Silver cost of upgrades the upgrade times would be sped up more on average...

However, I get so much enjoyment out of this game that I could conceivably spend 2 x as much and not feel guilty.  I won't, just because there is no need... but I could.  Hopefully, Pix will jump on that bandwagon and offer things like:

1. the "Rhino Plasma Pack" that would have two level 5 mags and 2 level 1 Tarans for X amount...
2. the "Galahad Right Handed Smack" youtuber StewPendous used that moniker for this loadout LOL, 1 Level 1 Orc and 2 Level 5 Pinatas for Y amount.
3. the "Scout Hanger" Have 3 light robots (Say, 1 Stalker and 1 Gep and 1 Cossack) that come pre-equipped with weapons needed, but just not leveled up.

These are just examples but it would definitely sell, especially if WSP weapons/bots are included since for new players those take a while to get enough WSPs for.   And since you would still have to upgrade them, it wouldn't be a super shortcut.

They have offered similar deals, like last time, but there wasn't much to choose from.  You could buy 2 mags for... i cant remember exactly, but maybe 1.99 each? Or a Stalker for, I think 7.99, or a Patton for less than a dollar.  I don't know how many people jumped on that when it happened, but I know it had to have some success.  But it was too... IDK... limited.  Personally I would rather them sell the weapon packs like I gave an example of above. 

What about you?  Being a much more varied gamer (judging from your self description in the OP,) what would make sense to you for them to sell in packs or even single?  What would keep the Free vs PtP dynamic balanced?

Chat... I hate every game's global chat I have played.  But one game had a global chat, and one that came with the Premium package that allowed you to chat in a place that only people who payed go to... that was kinda cool... but still, it devolved into trash talk and personal attacks and trolling more often than not.  I think the addition of the squad chat that they added a couple of updates ago was a good move... currently that is the only way to communicate with people outside your clan in game.

Tiers... AMEN.  IF there was any sort of help for new players (hell, many old players too) when it comes to understanding what to level, when to do it, and how much it affects the MM, a LOT of the issues that people rant about would be cleared up.  Of course, there is always the 10% of people who never read anything, never listen, and go about their business in blissful, yet willful, ignorance.  Whether in real life or the game, that seems to be the case

Maps... I don't know what to say about that, as I enjoy all of the maps.  I am an anomaly, apparently, though.  I play differently on every map.  Sometimes I play differently on the same map than I did the day before.  I like changing up my hanger and keeping it varied, so I always have a fresh game to play.  I think that being able to adjust for maps would be a good answer though.  People have mentioned being able to choose from preset hanger configs as a solution... I like that idea.

Stats... I think they used to display more stats (like deaths, for instance) at the end of the battle in the early stages of the game, IDK why they stopped.  And yes, the average stats that show on your profile are a false narrative if you like to use a different hanger to drop tiers.  I would like to see Beacons Capped added to them, at the least. 

Clan Searching... I, again, agree.  If we could look at the members and load-outs for clan members, while we are still all green and noobish, it would help with figuring out what to level.  Plus, I am just curious what people run.  I tend to sit at the after action screen for a few minutes, even now, studying what folks use since, other than places like this forum, it is almost impossible to get an idea of what the average player that one goes against runs.

Hope my Novella of a reply wasn't tldr...

Again, thanks for the post!  Welcome to the game and the forum!

Agreed. I've always thought that their monetization methods were chaotic and just plain weird. Who buys premium, just to get the silver? It's nice, but why pay for it?

The best example? The last sale had a Patton for .15 USD. Think about that. I bought one because it was ridiculous. $.15 won't cover the credit card processing fee they have to pay just to sell it, unless is some weird Russian currency magic. At $.99 that might even make sense. 

This is what happens when programmers try to make money I guess. They speak code and not so much speak marketing.

I used to play Battle Nations religiously before it died. It had, I think a pretty good monetization method with bi-monthly sales, and exclusive units. So each month there would be a new unit that costs gold and each month there would be a sale on gold at half price. 

As a rule, I never spend real money on a phone app game in order to stay competitive or "win." I do, however, occasionally spend real money on a phone app game as a show of appreciation for the game itself. Yea, this game is free, and there is absolutely no need to spend anything on it. It was just my unspoken, "Thank you. Fun game."

The thing that confused me, was on day 1: I was offered one package and on day 2: I was offered another package...
Consistency and persistence is key, it costs *nothing* to keep those packages available for longer and there was no way in hell I was going to throw down money on a game, when I was still deciding if I would play in a week's time. There is a big difference between getting SOME money and NO money, I think the company expects people to throw down $$$ quickly all the time. When it would be very easy to trickle constant small amounts from smaller, high frequency sales.
All they have to do is make one week, x2 or x4 value on store purchases and they would have enough figures to make a permanent decision.
Putting together random packages every fortnight/month would be of little difficultly to implement as well.