PerBlue increases skill cost once again!

[Sauron]

Hello fellow players!

I come here today to talk about something I found out last night and got me pissed off!

The old players remember THIS INFAMOUS UPDATE that brought a price increase to the skill cost from level 86 onwards. The reason PerBlue used to justify the increase was “to balance the game”.

Before this update, the gold cost for upgrading skills increased at a rate of 1k for each new level, but after the update it started to increase at a rate of 3k for each new level.
[Example: from skill level 86 to 87 and from 87 to 88, we’d have to pay 65k and 66k, respectively. But after the update the prices went to 67k and 70k, respectively]

It doesn’t seem like a big difference, but we are here until now and we can see the huge amount of extra gold we had to spend. The difference is of 19.320.00 for each hero.
Considering we have a total of 88 at the moment, we have to spend 1.700.160.000 - ALMOST 2 BILLION GOLD!

Last night I was updating my Excell spreadsheet with my gold income and heroes skill level and I noticed that PerBlue made another increase in skill cost, but this time THEY DIDN’T SAY ANYTHING to the community!

Back in Jan 2019 when they made the first increase, the CONTRARY MANIFESTATION OF THE COMMUNITY made so much noise that @Polaris said that our feedback would be considered in the future, as you can CHECK ON HIS OWN POST.

After this most recent mute increase, now the skill upgrade cost increases 6k from one level to the next after level 140, which means we have to spend 3.060.000 extra gold for each hero, a total of 269.280.000 gold to max all the 88 heroes from level 140 to 155.

Again, it may not seem much at the present moment, but this increase will make the price grown exponentially once again.

After increasing the skill costs once before, after making super expensive red skills in terms of gold and heroes chips, after making diamonds deals useless, after taking away the stackable deals, now PerBlue makes significant changes in the game and don’t event let us know…

What is the justification now??? @Polaris @Elliot

EDIT: As @Yunno pointed out, the increase starts at skill level 131. That adds another 47.5M gold when considering all the 88 heroes

[Sauron]

I’m waiting for a position here, guys @Polaris @Elliot

[CassandraRae]

[Insert unsaid comment about how PerBlue only cares about its customers money here]

There is 0 justification. Just more opportunity for grabbing cash.

[Emitz]

@Sauron What is the difference in total gold cost of upgrading a hero (old price vs new price)
I’m just trying to figure out if this really happened, i didn’t notice an increase in cost but then I didn’t look for one when I upgraded my latest heros using the slider.

[Sauron]

@Emitz

The difference from old price (after the last increase) and the new price is:

Skill level 140 price should be 229k, but it is 259k instead. And it should increase by 3k each next level, but it increases by 6k. So the old VS new price is like this:

LEVEL	OLD PRICE	NEW PRICE

| 140 | 229K | 259K |
| 141 | 232K | 265K |
| 142 | 235K | 271K |
| 143 | 238K | 277K |
| 144 | 241K | 283K |
| 145 | 244K | 289K |
| 146 | 247K | 295K |
| 147 | 250K | 301K |
| 148 | 253K | 307K |
| 149 | 256K | 313K |
| 150 | 259K | 319K |
| 151 | 262K | 325K |
| 152 | 265K | 331K |
| 153 | 268K | 337K |
| 154 | 271K | 343K |
| 155 | 274K | 359K |
|_____|______|______|
|TOTAL|3.750K|4.515K|

The difference is 765k for EACH skill color. So the difference to upgrade every skill (excluding red) is 3.060.000 per hero. We currently have 88 heroes, so it comes to an increase of 269.280.000 gold.

And that difference will only grow bigger!!!

It1s ridiculous that we didn’t even get a heads up! It’s over 1/4 billion extra gold for 15 skill level!

EDIT: sorry for the table being a little messed up. I’m not very familiar using it on discourse.

[Winterbotton]

Do you have a in-game screenshots that can prove this point? This will help A LOT with this.

[Sauron]

An in-game screenshot of what? You just have to open the game and see the price of the skills lol
If you have a hero with skills above 86 and below 140 you can see that it grows 3k per skill. At 140 it costs an extra 33k when compared to 139 and it starts to grow 6k per level after 140.

EDIT: @Winterbotton we are in the same server, btw

[Sauron]

Exactly!

I wonder how many players they already lost because of all those absurd changes to the game.

Diamonds are nearly useless nowadays.
There are no stamina deals worth it anymore.
Hero chips are ridiculous and the only heroes offered by diamonds are those who have red skill available.
The amount of heroes chips needed for upgrading red skills are a joke.
Solo deals instead of the old stackable deals and so on…

The idea of the game is impresive! People all around the world love Disney, of course the game has a huge public! Not listening to what this public has to say is a BIG mistake and will lead to the end of the game eventually

[PawpsicleSticks]

Well, the feedback was indeed considered, if they did this silently. The immense backlash after the first time made people start quitting, which had a negative impact on PB’s profits. By not announcing this new scheme, they’ve minimised the damage it will cause. And instead of losing income, there’s just this topic, with a meager 7 likes and 10 replies.

Now, I’m definitely not saying this is ethical. Far from it. This feels shady. Player trust is only a myth, right?

[Sleeping_Beauty_IX]

Seems we just can’t get away from inflation, even on a game for entertainment!

[CassandraRae]

And yet, 0 response. Because they know its true and don’t want to address their grand scheme to screw the players over. They have no good excuse for this. Great customer service guys. I applaud you on your lack of consideration for the players. I’ll be sitting back and watching this backlash whip them in the face eventually. And I will keep replying to this so it stays on the forums for others to see. It’s time that our words matter.

[Musketeer]

This game still exist just exist because it’s Disney, familiar faces for each generation, and also some people meet here new friends.
Game itself and how it’s treated by producer is really terrible.

[Sauron]

I couldn’t agree more with all of you!

And yes, let’s keep this post alive and let’s spread the word. This was a really nasty move to make on us COSTUMERS!

[Pipsqueak]

It’s the weekend, this was only up for a couple of days before that. Polaris is away at the moment and would probably want to check this out themselves.

Sure this change is unwelcome, but unless it was applied retroactively (and not just at the time & nobody noticed) then there’s really not a lot to complain about.

The game progression is not set in stone and it’s totally up to PB to control - if it was applied to level 140 at the time, they didn’t really have to announce it.

If it was added retroactively though after level 140 had already been surpassed… that’s totally different and yes it absolutely should’ve been announced.

[Emitz]

If it was added retroactively though after level 140 had already been surpassed… that’s totally different and yes it absolutely should’ve been announced.

This is the point. From what Sauron is saying, this change appears to be a retroactive change but let’s wait and see what PB have to say.

[Friend_Ratigan_II]

Yeah we shouldn’t raise pitchforks and torches just yet but we do deserve an explanation about how this change balances the game, especially with all the new heroes coming out. Since so many heroes are being released and they increased the gold requirement, I think it makes the game way more unbalanced.

[Sauron]

@Pipsqueak @Emitz
Not saying it was applied retroactively, I’m saying I’ve only noticed now
In any case, I have to disagree with both of you. There’s a pattern since day 1 of the game. When this pattern was changed we got an announcement to let all the players know another pattern was being set after skill level 86.
This time we got another change on the pattern but no announcement was made. In any case, I don’t believe this is the most honest way to treat your costumers. A quarter of billion gold increase for 15 levels is insane.

[Pipsqueak]

The difference though, is that those adjustments were made to levels we’d already seen - the level cap was 105, and the adjustment was applied to levels 86+.

Of course, that merits an announcement because it is a deviation in expected behaviour from what previously existed.

Where there is no guideline and no pre-existing expectation (there is assumption, nothing more) there’s no real obligation for them to specifically announce the change in cost - it would just be seen as the natural progression of the cost as levels increase.

I do agree that a heads-up would’ve been nice, and of course I’d much rather they left it at the same scale (or even less!) but unless it was added retroactively I don’t think it’s entirely fair to lambast them for not announcing it.

[Sauron]

@Pipsqueak
I still can’t agree with you. They do have an obligation to mention it since they announce ANY change on the game. Not only addition like the new heroes are announced, but every minor change is too.

It’s a sign of good faith to at least make it public that once again the skill price’s gonna change. Considering everything else was announced for the past 620 days or so, it is a lack of respect not to mention this specific point to the community.

In any case, it’s just both our points of view. No biggie

[Pipsqueak]

okay

either way, hopefully someone can clarify when this change was made, and more importantly the reasons for it! There can’t be many people who can afford these skill costs for their main hero pool.