[Feedback Polls]: Players’s opinions and thoughts on the Friendship Refresh

[Kira]

First of all, welcome to the post and thank you for taking your time to check it out :-).

I wanted to make this post in order for us as a whole to be able to voice our thoughts on the Friendship Refresh to PerBlue, but in a way that give them clear metrics and data to work from. It has now been 2 weeks, so I thought we now have had enough time to test out the changes.
By making these polls I hope it will easier for us to show what we think of the Friendship Refresh and allow PerBlue being more easily able to collect the data and use it reference wise.

The 3 first questions polls here are the most important ones, but I have made some more questions that will be in the second comment in this post for those who want to give more detailed feedback to PerBlue.
The polls will be shown as Pie charts. (That way it is completely anonymous in case wondering).
.

In terms of the friendship system refresh has it improved your experience in the game or worsened your experience you have in the game?

• Improved experience.
• Indifferent.
• Worsened experience.

Considering the Friendship mission story content removal specifically has it impacted your experience in game in a any way?

• Positively.
• Indifferent.
• Negatively.

The Friendship Campaign map being removed and now only being able to find friend campaigns though the Friend Finder, has it made it harder or easier for you to find the specific Friend Campaigns you are looking for?

• Easier.
• Indifferent.
• Harder.

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It will be interesting to see what the results will be, and thank you for voting if you have.

However before going on to the next post and the other questions I will like to add a little extra poll. A poll for letting people show PerBlue what kind of player type of population we have in the game:

• Achiever
• Explorer
• Socializer
• K!ller(PvPer)

You can check my post on the Player Types here:

Community fun: Player types

Hi, I thought it could be fun to ask what kind of player types people here are and share opinions between us how we go about the game and such. Happened to start some talk about player types in a private group chat where each of us saying what type we are, so thought it could be fun to expand it out into the forum itself so more people can join in if they are interested :-). The Player Types: Achievers: One who enjoys the competitive aspect and/or completionist aspect. Seeing their overall pow…

If unsure what player type you are, think about how removing the part you find the most fun.
For Achievers removing all stats and progress related numbers for example, for Explorers removing all story content and/or fight/counter strategies, for Socializers removing all chat functions and for K!llers(PvPers) removing all options to challenge other players and be better.

A little overview of the comment order:
Comment 1: Main post, Comment 2: Extra questions, Comment 3: Analyzation of feedback so far, Comment 4: Poll reaction post, Post 5 and forward: people’s comment.
So if you want to skip all the extra posts, just to post 5.

So yeah, I hope you all will enjoy taking part in the rest of the polls as and yeah, hope we can have some good discussion in the comments as well :-).

[Kira]

Here are the additional polls that can give PerBlue further feedback and more easily see exactly what we think about each of the Friendship refresh changes and implementations.

Friendship Campaign question polls:
We can now preview friendship disk before meeting the requirements, how do you all feel about that we now can get to know what a disk gives without having to check online or ask other people?

• Helpful and convenient
• Indifferent
• Preferred old challenge

What do you all feel about that we now can equip the disks right after clearing chapter 1 compared to having to go through all 8 chapters to get the disks?

• Helpful and convenient
• Indifferent
• Preferred old challenge

How do you feel about that friendships now automatically unlock, compared to before when it were tied to a specific level?

• Better
• Indifferent
• Worse

In terms of the aspect of automatically unlocking friendships, how do you feel about unlocking friendships yet in some or many cases not being able to actually do the Friend Campaign?

• Fine
• Indifferent
• Unsatisfying

We do know in the 2.4 update we should be getting a power up system or at least something that will help our characters more likely clear higher leveled campaigns, however I wonder would we prefer the enemies’s level to be lowered instead? So what do we all prefer lower enemies levels, or a power up system?

• Power up system
• Indifferent
• Reduce enemies’s levels

In terms of the memory reward distribution in the friendships, I wonder how you all feel about it compared to how it was before?

• Better
• Indifferent
• Worse

To those who have the VIP13 perk that makes you skip the first chapter of the friend campaigns, how do you feel about the fact that you aren’t able to see the story transition/action text even if you can read the dialog on the wall?

• Happy. (Saved stamina)
• Indifferent
• Sad/Unsatisfied. (Missing out on the beginning of the story).

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Friendship Missions question polls:
If possible would you like the Friendship mission story content reintroduced into game, even if no new mission story content or less new missions compared to before per friendship? (I imagine the reintroduced Friendship mission system would be separate from the power missions, so won’t affect those who aren’t interested in the story content like before).

• Yes!!!
• Yes
• Indifferent
• No

Do you consider the Friendship mission story content one of the main reasons why you like/liked Disney Heroes so much?

• Yes
• Indifferent
• No

Is the Friendship mission story content a main part of why you play(ed) Disney Heroes and a major part of why you made sure to check the game regularly in order to see if you unlocked new story content from the missions?

• Yes
• Indifferent
• No

If PerBlue decides to bring back the Friendship mission story content, but you would have to pay a bit in order to access the Friendship mission story content, how much would you be willing to spend in order to have the Friendship mission story content again?

• 1-5 Dollars, low
• 5-10 Dollars, medium
• 20 Dollars, indie game
• 40 Dollars, AA game
• 60 Dollars, AAA game
• Not paying

On to the new mission features, what do you in general think about new mission system in general?

• Good
• Indifferent
• Worse

When comparing the old and new mission system which of them do you find the most intuitive?

• The new mission system
• Indifferent
• The old mission system

Compared to before do you think you are earning more or less Memories now?

• More
• Same
• Less
• Unsure

Compared to before do you think you are earning more or less Disk Power now?

• More
• Same
• Less
• Unsure

Would you be up for buying story packs of 5 fully featured story missions from 1 to stage 5 for 1-3 dollars? (Helping PerBlue to justify making more Mission story content).

• Yes
• Indifferent
• No

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[Kira]

An analyzation of the player feedback for the Friendship refresh so far up until this post:
Based on the player feedback I have observed the Friendship refresh seems to be a relative success in functionality, but at a high cost in other areas.

A fair amount of people want the Friendship mission story content back in the game, some also expressing an overall a decrease in their interest in the game since the Friendship mission story content was removed from the game. While they may not stop playing necessarily, they may engage in chat less and the game overall, usually doing the minimum which would be doing the dailies.
This may lead to long terms consequences we don’t know about yet.

The removal of the map in Friendship Campaign mode based on what I have seen, seems to have been received a bit mixed, some expressing that they preferred the map and others that they prefer the list. The main drawback to the list only UI(User Interface) would be the fact that it isn’t possible to search up specific characters/friendships like in Friendship Missions. If the character searcher could be implemented I think the friendship list would be fixed.

The new Friendship disk unlock, I think the reaction so far from what I have seen is mixed.
While many seem to agree on that it is nice to not have to level up the characters all up to see what the disks offer, however not actually being able to clear the chapters is however frustrating. However, Polaris has told us that in the 2.4 update there will come a power up system for Friendships, so the issue of not actually being able to clear the friendship campaigns should become less of an issue most likely.
Based on the feedback I have gotten when asked it seems like people would rather prefer if the enemies’s levels to be lowered and as such be more easily clearable for all players, even if newer players may need some extra time to level up enough.

This is the feedback from people I have seen so far. It will be interesting to see the votes show feedback wise and how similar or different they might be.

[Kira]

Poll Reaction post:
Need to wait some days so that people have time to vote on polls.

[Tilarta]

My major disappointment with the Refresh is running into many roadblocks due to the enemy teams being so far above my team level.

For example, I tried to get to the end of the Kim/Joy Campaign with only an underlevelled Captain Amelia to help.
Have not yet succeeded and gave up trying.
Also tried for a few others (Angel and Jumba specifically), they failed even harder.

So I think enemy difficulty needs to be reduced a lot to make campaigns actually playable/completable.

Additionally, allowing us to choose the assisting hero instead of choosing some character randomly who is not effective would improve the system a lot.

[Lucas1999]

I wanted to make this post in order for us as a whole to be able to voice our thoughts on the Friendship Refresh to PerBlue

What a great idea! Thanks for making this @Kira

Because there are many questions, I will try to be selective in my remarks…

In terms of the friendship system refresh has it improved your experience in the game or worsened your experience you have in the game?

To start in general, I would say that the system is improved for me as an mainly Achiever, partly explorer. Getting the disk early and equiping them for more characters has been a real pleasure!

The Friendship Campaign map being removed and now only being able to find friend campaigns though the Friend Finder, has it made it harder or easier for you to find the specific Friend Campaigns you are looking for?

Since I already mostly used the friend finder, not much has changed. For the future, I would like to see more options to let the campaigns show: on rank of the hero for example.

What do you all feel about that we now can equip the disks right after clearing chapter 1 compared to having to go through all 8 chapters to get the disks

As noted above, Iove being able to equip a disk early. However, finishing a campaign has become less interesting. It would be nice if a bit more memories could be added to the campaign, so you would finish the campaign by two-starring the disk.

In terms of the memory reward distribution in the friendships, I wonder how you all feel about it compared to how it was before?

In my case, it might be the case that i earn more memories now, due to the removal of the badges for the costs. Furthermore, the idea of having them in the campaign too is great.

Friendship mission story content

On this topic, I would say it is sad they destroyed those stories, but it was not the best story content within the friendship system. The friendship campaign is story-wise of a much higher level and that is luckily preserved.

new mission features

The new system is more clear and makes it easier to combine certain missions, because only two heroes are needed.

Some might say it delivers way less in terms of rewards, but because I was always low on some badge that was asked, it did little missions before. Now that cost has removed, and I am able to run missions as everyone else.

Thanks for reading all!

[Filadae_Djaq]

You know, decreasing the level of enemies in the campaign would do basically nothing. If anything, ranks should be decreased. Ranks can increase any stat in a hero’s stat set. Levels only affect skills.

[Lucas1999]

This would indeed be the reason I would be mostly for a power-up system. I would assume it being simular to invasion power-up, that is increasing everything for the hero you are using

[Em_Kay]

I’d like to note that my comments are from a free-to-play perspective ~

In terms of the friendship system refresh has it improved your experience in the game or worsened your experience you have in the game?

I think it’s a good change - gives players something “new” in the game to play around with, even though the idea of friendships is old.

The Friendship Campaign map being removed and now only being able to find friend campaigns though the Friend Finder, has it made it harder or easier for you to find the specific Friend Campaigns you are looking for?

I think the map looks a lot less cluttered. Before, I felt there was way too much to do since literally every chapter had a ton of friendship campaigns on it. Currently, I feel that scrolling through the list is still a bit messy, but currently, I know which hero I want to work on a disk for and just go to the hero’s friendship page for the campaign.

how do you all feel about that we now can get to know what a disk gives without having to check online or ask other people?

I feel that it’s a time saver. Instead of spending the time to check other resources outside the game, I can just check in-game.

What do you all feel about that we now can equip the disks right after clearing chapter 1 compared to having to go through all 8 chapters to get the disks?

Makes worrying about the campaign a lot less stressful. Before, it always ended up being a struggle in Stage 7 or 8 because some heroes used to fight weren’t leveled up enough to win the fights. In addition, there’s always been uncertainty on which weaker hero to work on to win that specific fight. (And if that weak hero is not exactly useful in other game modes, it seemed like a waste of resources!) Now with disk unlocked at Stage 1, we only need to worry about working on 2 heroes to unlock the disk - in my opinion, saves time and a ton of resources.

How do you feel about that friendships now automatically unlock, compared to before when it were tied to a specific level?

Definitely a lot better for those with XP drink shortages

In terms of the aspect of automatically unlocking friendships, how do you feel about unlocking friendships yet in some or many cases not being able to actually do the Friend Campaign?

I like how the friendships are automatically unlocked. Even though my power may not be high enough to fight in campaign, I do like to see what I’m up against to try to gauge how soon I’ll be able to attempt it. Also, even if my heroes for campaign are low level but close to the power of the heroes I’m fighting in campaign, I do like to try and run the fights manually since I’ll have better control - in many cases, it’s worked better for me.

In terms of the memory reward distribution in the friendships, I wonder how you all feel about it compared to how it was before?

I like receiving free memories for completing stages of the campaign as now I do not rely on solely shop and missions.

On to the new mission features, what do you in general think about new mission system in general?

I like how the missions auto-run. It’s a time saver, and I end up earning a lot more disk power as a result. In addition, I like how the missions don’t cost badges to start since I used to have to farm badge bits only for mission use. Moreover, when running missions that require hero chips (memory missions), it’s convenient that the mission screen gives a notice when you are out of chips.

[The_Dude_LXXVI]

A few points.

1. I have been known to select a toon to level up based on the possibility of beating it with the main friend. The new system allows me to improve that decision process.
2. They specifically claimed that the refresh would not make the campaigns easier so I don’t think it’s fair to include the difficulty of campaigns as a negative to the refresh however considering the new META that we are dealing with to overcome a fight. I’m hoping update 2.4 is fixes one of the major issues of the game by having selected resources to take down a Maximus or even kristoff even if your not under powered.
3. I’m happy that I’m not dealing with trying to sort through possible missions to run since the supporting toons aren’t tied up in missions.
4. I’m happy that I don’t have to run through an endless quantity of missions for days on end just to get five disks.
5. I’m happy that I’m not burning through both chips and badge bits to get through these missions. What 6. I’m happy that I’m not checking missions every minute to claim and re-run along with grinding for badges as needed.
6. I’m not happy about is that I cannot run as many as I could before.
7. I think the new mission system however could use some type of cue. Possibly where one can appoint a mission to repeat automatically where another could have auto repeat turned off while active allowing us to add a different mission to follow. This way we could organize them better.
8. I think the map section is easier to use once you get used to it. The issue is it needs improvements on sorting and filtering options.
9. I really like the fact that I can review my chips and disks in the missions menu.
10. I do not like how the disk quantities are not updated until you claim them.
11. Disk power is bleak. One reinfection cleared a day got you the same amount.
12. I do not like the fact that there was no compensation for missions in progress after the cut over. Many weeks/months of manipulating missions and burning resources to get to level four (for example) wasted.

[Kira]

First thanks to all of you who voted and/or commented, really appreciate it ^^.

It is a bit much to me to individually answer everyone even if I would like to, but I can try to answer the most important things :-).

In terms of reducing the enemies levels in the friend campaigns I actually meant rank as well, like lower the level the lower rank, so I didn’t intend just the levels to go down, beside the rank can’t be higher than what the level allow as in the character’s main level. I assume enemies can’t be level 100 and have R14 rank wise, since you unlock new rank tiers as you level and badge the character at level 100 the max rank is O2-3.
Of course the skill levels could be adjusted as well to be scaled like us players has, but that is something the campaign system as a whole should take a look at rather than just the Friendship campaigns.

Based on what I see you all who have commented seem overall positive to the Friendship refresh, even if there are some parts you would like improved like lower leveled characters not being able to do friendships together due to the enemies’s levels being higher.
The Friendship campaign list UI should get a better filtering option, which I do agree with and they could probably do something like they do in missions where you can click on the character you want for a mission.

I see that you all who commented on it mostly seem to like that the missions now auto-run, which I agree is convenient, but at least to myself personally has a lot less personality to it than when the missions had story content. As a person who specifically switched between friendship missions as I completed them in order to be able to access more story content, I definitely feel that my overall interest for Disney Heroes is down.
But yeah, not going to deny the new mission system’s convenience and I am sure it will help many people and it is nice that we don’t have to pay badge bits anymore :-).

I personally overall don’t mind that we can unlock friendships early, but I do think that the friendship story missions would be have a nice thing to be able to while you waited for your characters to get strong enough to do their Friendship campaign.
This way you get to have something story related to look forward to while you level up the characters to be strong enough to take on their Friendship campaign.

Also in terms of Friendship campaigns I have noticed that it seems to give you pretty new badge bits and likely not based on the original map placement of the Friendship campaigns on the map. This is my view is overall pretty nice, even if I technically prefer the old map navigation wise I do like that we can get pretty useful badge bits while doing the friend campaigns. (Level 200+ in case wondering). (And I didn’t think about make any questions in regards to this, but oh well).

Overall I would say the friendship refresh benefits mostly the Achievers and K!llers(PvPers), secondly Socializers and Explorers less interested in the Friendship mission story content, but do really impact negatively the Explorers who mainly play Disney Heroes for the story content like the Friendship Mission story content.

A bit later than thought in terms of replying back, but yeah have been fun reading all your comments and commenting back :-).

[Jody_Caviness]

Thanks for this post, and I hope PerBlue finds it useful. Like you, I’m unhappy at the loss of story content, but overall feel the new system is an improvement. In order:

The main thing I liked about using the map to access Friendship Campaigns is that it showed me a whole lot of options at once; sometimes, it would remind me of a campaign I hadn’t thought about but was now ready to try again. On the down side, frequently I would have active campaigns not show up on the main map view because four or more would be located in the same chapter, and sometimes a certain campaign would be completely inaccessible because of the number of other campaigns cluttering the screen in that chapter. On the whole, I think it’s a positive change, even if I haven’t completely adjusted to relying on the campaign list or going to a certain hero for their campaigns.

I didn’t answer the poll about what type of player I am because I feel I’m a mix: 50% Explorer, 30% Socializer, 20% Achiever.

When it comes to unlocking friendships as soon as you have both of the heroes involved, even if neither one is anywhere near strong enough to get through the campaign, it doesn’t bother me; it’s not like the campaigns are any harder than before. I don’t think it would be very fun if they made the campaigns so that you could finish them as soon as you got the primary hero somewhere in the orange ranks, but I’m not sure if having the campaign at about the server max when it’s introduced is ideal either, as that means lower-to-mid-level players are locked out of getting friendship disks for the newest, best heroes for several months.

Even acknowledging that a lot of the Friendship Mission content was mediocre, especially after they got shortened from 8 entries per “story” to 4, I do miss them a great deal; at the very least, they contributed to the feeling of this being a Disney game instead of a generic autobrawler. What I really miss, though, are the conversations between the friendship heroes that were unlocked at certain friendship levels; I thought those had some of the best writing in the game. I’m not sure how much I’d be willing to pay to access that content again or get new story content, as that would depend on my finances at the time, but it’s something I would consider.

With the new mission system, I feel I’m earning somewhat fewer memories than before, but on the other hand I’m getting more memories for disks that I’m most interested in evolving, since I’m no longer running into situations where, say, Quorra is needed for both the Tron/Kevin and Gizmoduck/Duke missions. On the whole, it’s a tradeoff I’m willing to accept. (I do still think it takes too long to farm memories for heroes below roughly R4 ranks, and would like to see the numbers tweaked to speed things up at that end of the scale.)

While I never kept track of how much disk power I got daily under the old system, I suspect for people who were working at getting as much as they could from the system, it’s gone down under the new system, if mostly for the lack of new reinfections. That’s one area of the new friendship system that could use some boosting, even if I doubt the difference is as extreme as some of the complaints are claiming.

However, finishing a campaign has become less interesting. It would be nice if a bit more memories could be added to the campaign, so you would finish the campaign by two-starring the disk.

I have noticed I’m less motivated to finish a campaign unless I know I’ll be using the disk regularly, so I like this idea; knowing I’d end the campaign automatically with a two-star disk would easily be motivation enough.

[Tilarta]

I am glad to hear the enemy difficulfy is being downscaled.
I feel it would bring more fun to the game if we could simply start advancing the Friendship disc without having to grind stamina/badges/xp potions to raise up characters unnecessarily to get through the battles.

I hope what is added is a smart algorithm that scales the enemy team to the player team, so it’s a fair fight.
That way, they’re not dealing with a massively overpowered team they can’t defeat.

[Filadae_Djaq]

I am glad to hear the enemy difficulfy is being downscaled.

It’s not though…

[The_Dude_LXXVI]

seems to give you pretty new badge bits and likely not based on the original map placement

I didn’t want to mention this in fear of a bug update

[Kira]

@Jody_Caviness I personally mainly go through the character UI rather than the Friendship Finder UI I think, since for me it is kind of unappealing to scroll through a long list like how the Friend Finder UI is now. While it is true that I can favorite friendships in the Friend Finder and as such more easily find friendships, I still got to say that I prefer the aesthetic of the friendship map.

Ah I see and up to you if you want to vote in terms of the player type poll, but I can say that I am a mix as well, I am an Explorer kind of player first and foremost and Socializer and Achiever secondly :-). Since I am an Explorer kind of player mainly I voted Explorer.

My idea for how to go about friendships would be that Friendships would be at level 120-130 max as that’s around the time Red skills releases, that way it is possible for newer players to get friendships in not that long. For higher leveled players they could maybe scale up the level for the characters they have high leveled, but not needing to spend a lot of resources on those they have lower leveled. While of course that would be better when we had the Friendship mission story content and actually having a reason to try and unlock friedships for characters we otherwise wouldn’t necessarily try to unlock friendships for.

I really like the friendship missions stories that went up to the end at 5 stags with good and satisfying conclusions to their stories, but yeah when the friendship mission stories they felt more unsatisfying for me like not having enough content to really feel meaningful.
When the stories went up to stage 5 and had satisfying conclusions and felt meaningful, but yeah when the friendship mission stories got cut down to up to stage 3 they unfortunately didn’t feel as satisfyingly.
I can say that I at least would be willing to spend 20 dollars to get the Friendship system back since it is permanent content, rather than content that gets old in the same way as characters getting outdated. Buying 5 additional friendship stories for 1 dollar is something I would also be up for, 5 characters getting 5 friendship each I would be up for buying for 5 dollars as well :-).
It is permanent content that doesn’t change in power and as such something I rather spend my money on permanent content than content that gets old due to power creep.

I think the new power mission system is okey even if slightly uninteresting as it is wait some hours and then collect. But yes, I agree with you that is nice to be able to need just 2 characters for missions and such more easily able to choose related missions :-).

As for Disc power and memories I can’t really comment on as I didn’t follow how much I got.
In terms of the friend campaigns I in general feel less motivated to do things other than some dailies after the Friendship mission story content got removed. But yeah, I should probably try to do some Friendship campaign more.

@Tilarta The enemies’s levels aren’t actually getting decreased, it is we who are sharing ideas there.

What we know we should be getting in 2.4 if things goes as planned would be a sort of power up system for friendships. I don’t really know anymore than that, so we will have to wait and see.

@The_Dude_LXXVI Ah I see, but I don’t really see why they should change it, and if they do change it they could instead do older medals that you really need a lot of, though either way on this wouldn’t be too bad. Just in general having a higher chance of getting something you need would be nice :-).
If anything a bug can become a feature or to say a Quality of Life improvement, so hopefully they will let us either get newer badge bits or older badges that we need.

[Tilarta]

@Kira
Thank you for clarifying.

But still, I think this is something that has to be Done, imagine you’ve just gotten two blue characters to unlock a relevant Friendship Disc, start the campaign and instantly get obliterated by a full team of high level Reds.

Here is an example (from one that is currently frustrating me):

[Kira]

Yeah and I agree with you that is frustrating that we can’t get try even try out the friendship campaigns on the new automatic unlocks, however it is something they should be taking care of to some degree at least as we know we are getting a power up system of some sort.

Whether it like Invasion or something else I don’t know, like for example a bonus for every friendship campaign you have completed if not also/or how many friendships you have unlocked in total. Right now we just have to wait and see.

I assume the 2.4 update might be next month or if early later this month, but yeah at least with 2.4 if it goes as planned we should be getting a power-up system for friendships of some sort.
So yeah, in terms of the underpowered characters and high leveled enemies we just have to wait to reserve our judgement to after the 2.4 update or to say when the friendship power-up system launch.

Hope this explanation helps clarify even more :-).

[The_Dude_LXXVI]

I think part of the issue which some of us may not realize is time. There are many that have been playing this game for a year or two so the friend system and expectation may be different. Under the old system as you progressed you would unlock a friend campaign in time. The new system removes the time component so a young player may not be in a position where they already have a collection of toons that they used and developed over time. The system refresh wasn’t supposed to remove the level of toons required to do the campaign. It was supposed to save resources to unlock the friends. They indicate a difficulty level (easy, medium, hard) for each campaign. Maybe this needs further clarification. Where they indicate a recommended player level/rank to complete.

[Tilarta]

@The_Dude_LXXVI
Honestly, it changed nothing in terms of playability.

From my perspective, unlocking the campaign without needing to level means absolutely nothing if the first Chapter of the Friendship Campaign itself cannot be defeated.
You still don’t get the Disc.
And you still have to spend the stamina to rank up the characters via badges to where they can fight the enemies on equal terms.
In the example I linked above, Angel and Miguel need to be raised to Red 7 from Orange 0 and Purple 3 respectively.
So as far as I am concerned, nothing really changed, the campaigns are just as unplayable as they were before.