Initial impressions of 4.1

First off this update didn't cause any major compatibility issues with my device so that's a huge bonus there.

I like the relocation of achievements, it's not a major change but still nice.

Training - Having x/x training levels completed is pretty cool but again not a major change. Training options for Teal items look ok but we will have to wait and see how effective these items are at a competitive level.

Not showing ship levels on prebattle screen.
This is neat since now you can't easily identify the weaker ships to target first, it requires a little more awareness during the battle to find those weak links.

As a flare user the debuff cleanse isn't too bad but again we will have to wait and see how it works at higher levels.

Guardian - The ship is aesthetically pleasing and I love the new color. I haven't (and probably won't) used this ship yet but I have battled quite a few of them so far. They aren't too difficult to take down but they are still low level so they might be a bigger challenge in the future. I'd rank them right next to fixer on the target priority list simply for their team buff capabilities.

Event rewards - Ship pieces, the price went up by 50% but so did the total ship pieces for the common reward. Really no change there. "Perks" All guardian items and perks which kind of sucks for those of us who will not be using it. All my coins will be going to ship pieces

Item piece drop rates seem to have increased but I'll need a bigger sample size to be sure, it could've just been a lucky day.

That's it for now, I'll update again after I play more.

 

Decimal values displaying properly - I knew my items were getting better with each upgrade so this didn't really do much for me.

"Shared" Ship pieces - Wasn't really an issue as I already own the interceptor.

Daily Deals relocation - I get why they did this, to increase visabilty of offers. The market pages feel a little cluttered now but I'm sure we will get used to it.

Removal of autopilot and cancel from hud - Once again no change for me since I had them off screen anyway but I'm sure this will benefit other players.

Block list has changed - I'm actually not sure when this was since I hardly visit this area and I only have one player blocked lol.

Overall it's a pretty good little update although I do wish there were balance changes and changes to coin distribution but we can only expect so much at a time.

 

Here is one thing you did not note about the ship pieces. The rewards for level 2 and 3 went down significantly. This looks like a nerf to the ship pieces to me overall. Yes the common went up to 100 but the medium went down 200 pieces and the 1% reward dropped 2k pieces. I don’t see where an additional 35 pieces makes up for the loss of 200 and 2k pieces. Now if they raised the chance of getting he 3k pieces to 5% I can understand the change but now we get less pulls for our coins and overall less pieces for our coins.

 

That's true but I'm sure it's just because it's a week long event, they will probably reset to normal values for the regular events.

 

IIRC it used to be 0.5% chance for 5000 Pieces, now the top is 1% chance of 2k pieces. Still a nerf.

 

Actually the new ship piece box structure is about a 35% nerf. Here is the rough math.

Old box: 20 coins for for 39.5% chance for 65, 10% chance for 500, 0.5% chance for 5000 for one of the ships. Times 2 for the two ships
Expected total ship pieces (ignoring kind)
(65*0.395 + 500*0.1 + 5000*0.005) * 2 = 201.35 pieces / 20 coins = 10.0675 pieces per coin

New box: 30 coins for for 40% chance for 100, 9% chance for 300, 1% chance for 3000 for one of the ships. Times 2 for the two ships
Expected total ship pieces (ignoring kind)
(100*0.4 + 300*0.09 + 3000*0.01) * 2 = 194 pieces / 30 coins = 6.4667 pieces per coin

I guess they felt that people were progressing too fast at leveling the ships with all the events

 

You have a 1% to get 3k, not 2k. The chance increased but you only lost 2/5 of the peices.

 

I personally don't mind the change to pieces at all. From the hundreds if not thousands of coins I have spent on pieces I have only ever gotten the 5k one time.

With the change I might get 3k more frequently than I got the 5k (which really if you get two 3ks in the amount of time it took to get 1 5k it's actually a buff) and I'm fine with that.

Just guessing here but I'd say about 95% of my pulls were the most common (lowest) prize so with that prize increasing in value it'll take less common pulls for each upgrade.

 

This is what people fail to realize. Well said.

 

I'm liking it so far.. not fought or had a guardian on my teams as of yet. Otherwise, it seems to be playing a touch smoother

 

Event matchmaking also seems a tad better but that could just be because of the underleveled guardians.

 

Oh yeah, the mustard yellow on utility items is ugly lol.

 

Isn't it always like that?

 

They are, but I've always hated the fact that it was easy to miss the difference between a Legendary item and a Yellow item because both include significant yellow. So I'm good with the change. Maybe it would have been better to make Legendary more of a gold and leave Yellow items a bit more yellow.