Improving the Free-to-Play System

[[S2]DivA]

Hey Guys and Gals,

About a week ago, we made a post identifying some of the weaknesses we see in our current F2P Hero Rotation System. Here they are again for quick reference:

• When 10 heroes are used per game, a pool of 15 heroes does not offer much variety from game to game.
• Because of the limited pool, game modes like SD and Banning Pick are problematic and require work-arounds (tokens and passes).
• A new player may lose access to a hero that he's become familiar with, adding another hurdle in the learning process.
• Moreover, when the F2P heroes rotate, the heroes that new players become accustomed to playing with and against get replaced as well!
• While players have access to 15 heroes each week, they have ownership of none of them. This means they can not unlock avatars for any of these heroes without first unlocking the hero.

Since then, you guys have been overwhelmingly helpful with 8 pages of Forum responses full of feedback and suggestions. Thanks so much for putting time and thought into ways to improve the gameplay experience for new F2P players! A lot of you had great ideas, and it was pretty cool and vindicating to see that some of the ideas we were bouncing around internally were espoused by you guys as well. That said, we've considered a bunch of things internally as well as read through and considered each and every one of your suggestions, and this is the gameplan that we're thinking of moving forward with:

1. We will expand the Free Hero Pool from 15 heroes to 30 heroes.
2. We will carefully craft a balanced (10 of each attribute) pool of 30 heroes, taking into factors such as difficulty to play and hero roles.
3. The Free Hero Pool will no longer change from week to week - it will remain completely static. Furthermore, it is no longer a "Free Hero Pool" - F2P players, new and old, will simply start the game OWNING all 30 chosen heroes.
4. We will refund any Gold or Silver Coins players have spent on the 30 chosen heroes.
5. We will start work on the code changes necessary to run all of the modes that you currently need tokens/passes for without them, and have any modes that randomly select heroes do so from ALL of the heroes available to a player (the base 30 + whatever he unlocks).
6. After that functionality works, we will remove passes and tokens. 30 heroes is enough to run any of the modes, even if no player has any additional heroes unlocked.

What we like about this course of action is that:

• It addresses all of the issues presented directly and elegantly.
• No rotation means there is a defined "Starting Hero Pool" that players can learn and pick up the game with, without having to learn how to play with and against a new set of heroes every week.
• It creates a very simple system, made even more attractive in that it allows for complete removal of the cumbersome tokens/passes mechanic.
• It is a simple, perfect base from which to implement potential additions such as an Upgrade-to-Legacy fee or a subscription model to access the rest of the heroes in the future, should we decide that they are beneficial to the new player experience.

As welcome, we ask for and welcome your feedback - what do you think, guys?

[[VGG]SmackTrickz`]

damn lack of rotation sucks

better off with 20static and 10 rotated ;p

edit
reasoning:

1/ rotation gives a trial period for player to test new heroes which further encourages him to buy it eventually [win-win for you]
2/ more variety

[[xAC]unally]

No rotation? Sounds really dry and boring.

[[oNgN]Snorvalpen]

Nice. like it

[ju1c3]

agreed, you need static and a rotation or it gives no reason for players to buy new heroes if they never get to try them.

[Nordoix]

Will the prices on alt avatars and unlocking heroes increase?

[[ddx]ctrLaLtQQ]

Should do 30 standard and +10 rotation. THAT is the best option, you have the ones you can learn and at the same time, you also have +10 to try out each week.

[[RCT]IsmaelVera]

Perfection. Now we are different from LoL in a good way.

[ekre]

Sounds boring, as said above, 20 static and 10 rotating would be much better.

[Pinkisnub]

woot woot S2 doing work

[[HBH]Lostdreams22]

i believe a 10 rotation and 20 static would be a solid system, And I know my friends all look for differences between Hon and LoL, and a improved F2P should definatley be one. thanks S2

[[JACK]Mysterymagic]

I feel this is a very good step in the right direction, and it provides free to play users with a good-sized hero pool for new players to learn a good amount of heroes, as well as have a good amount of variety from 30 different heroes. However, as mentioned, it might lead to some bland play after the player has played through all 30 heroes, but by the time the player would have played that much, they will most likely have enough to buy more heroes. So, it does have some strengths and weaknesses, but I think it seems like a good system overall.

Maybe 20-30 static and 10 rotation sounds good too.

[[YOGS]Gunzilla]

This seems like a really good idea, and i love that you are listening to your community more now.

I do think it will be different with no rotation, but i think it will be good

[WannaBMW]

I like the above idea of 20 static and 10 rotating (or with different numbers, but just the concept). The games won't be much more exciting than seeing the same heroes from a 15-hero pool. At least with the 15-hero pool, that changes weekly. But under this new proposal, we'll see the same 30 heroes forever, week after week...

And also the point above, who's going to buy heroes if they never get a chance to try them? I sure wouldn't.

[[Pr4F]Fawlink]

damn lack of rotation sucks

better off with 20static and 10 rotated ;p

edit
reasoning:

1/ rotation gives a trial period for player to test new heroes which further encourages him to buy it eventually [win-win for you]
2/ more variety

Nice idea!!

[[PonE]Erdrick]

Indeed. Keep some rotation in there, as the above posters have suggested. It lets the new players try out some new heroes before buying. 30 and 10 rotation or 20 and 10 rotation, whatever. Something along those lines.

[[cTi]Shaddix]

potential additions such as an Upgrade-to-Legacy fee

HELL NO! Please not! Then we Legacy players will have almost nothing left since F2P model was implemented... First you took our money (30$ for game) and now you are slowly removing all our benefits we gained from (Pre-)Purchasing the game... That sucks

[hendubz]

I agree with SmackTrickz - including a rotating pool, even if it's smaller and purely to bolster the existing, permanent F2P hero pool would add variety and give F2P players the opportunity to try out new heroes in competitive situations when they came around. I can appreciate that this would likely be harder to balance, however. Maybe rotate them on a bi-weekly or monthly basis rather than weekly?

Great to see you taking players' suggestions on board though

[Extintion]

20 standard heroes +10 rotation is better

[[WSHH]GayCarlWhite]

This is an awesome idea, I support it 100%