New SOS system has destroyed game balance.
Visterking
Posts: 1 ✭✭
The new sos update has made it nearly impossible to collect traces without using excessive potions even on the easy traces.
All benefits recieved from leveling (I'm currently level 33) have been removed and the items given for the new sos system aren't nearly enough to get back to a balanced game play. Nothing I've seen in the system adjust the starting difficulty in traces like we recieved from leveling prior to the update.
It was already difficult to accomplish the high house XP task before. (It was already skewing to favor higher level players that prestiged their registry pages already) Now it's nearly impossible.
I don't see how a new player would want to stay playing if they can't collect anything.
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You are right, levels have changed for one level up (low->medium, medium-> high, etc), which would make it really hard to play for new players. I am level 44 and I splurged on lot of lessons (Mastery and Deparatarue denial), which is now putting me at same level as foundables were previously (actually if you take a lot of Mastery you are actually catching foundables faster), but this is not an option for new players (who don't have any books to spare). There are still few things where my mastery level is very low in such cases catching foundables is much harder than it was before...
Only solution I see would be that until player has reached certain level (20 for example), levels for him/her should be the old ones.
I am level 40 and it is quite easy to collect traces. I do use slightly more potions than before, but keep in mind that there are many buffs available now for both catch rate, departure rate and mostly importantly potion strength and brewing time. It takes me no time to brew a simple Exstimulo Potion and through certain (easily achievable) buffs my basic Exstimulo Potion is as effective as a Strong Exstimulo Potion. The SOS training was a good addition and have many the game more balanced if anything.
VISTERKING I have also been a little discouraged with the reduced return rate. However, the others are correct that the general and family mastery and reduced brew time potion lessons do help. The basic extimulo potion can be greatly improved fairly early in the tree and if some brew time reduction is added, return rate gets better. I still remember when I began in January not even getting to the bonus round, much less completing it. I am not someone who spends money on games, but I remember one day when I spent quite a bit buying enough potent extimulo potions to return enough Harry and Hermione Foundables to complete the challenge! Someone just beginning won’t suffer the reset of return rate we did so will not be disappointed. If you haven’t yet, spend some time here in the forum or on social media reading about the trace charm. I have found this to be the most fun of SOS. To be fair, I have had to spend some restricted books on a couple of the lessons (wizards still working through their professional tree will have to decide if they want to spare them), but placing a trace charm on a fluffy and getting 4 (number dependent on lessons learned) other emergency Foundables to try for is like Christmas come early! Those extra XP and high value fragments help complete high value images which generate many Ministry Manuals. Hang in there. Besides, who wants to rush to level 60 anyway - then what? May your traces be steady!
I came back to the at level 29 one month ago, I'm now 36.
I haven't see any difference pre to post SOS update in difficulty and departures: the one easy to catch remained easy (even if the UI says differently) and things that used to run frequently keep running (snitch, mandrake, etc).
If anything, when I want to catch something, a regular exstimulo (which is super cheap to make) upgraded in the first book (super cheap to buy too) is now extremely powerful.
This is my anecdotal experience, but in my whole community, no one feels is hard to catch anything post update...
@Wanjan Since you are level 40, you got a lot of books for beginning (I was 43, and I got I think 3000 field guides, about 400 mm, etc), so you could advance your SOS tasks (mastery and DD) , and then higher levels are not a problem. But new player, wouldn't have any books for advancing SOS tasks (even if he/she knew how), so until he/she could advance him/her-self sufficiently, traces would be very hard to get... Much harder than for us when we started.
It was like it was first few days when new version of game came out. Traces were already on higher level, but we didn't have any SOS training yet, so fragments were harder to catch and they escaped much faster...
@AndyRozman of course, I think I was level 39 when I got the update but I do not remember what I unlocked first. I understand your point, I just think that we are lucky that we can play at our own pace and that we are not pressured into level up quickly. Traces will always resist and depart but at least they are always available. I would have more issues with event traces than normal ones since low-level players would be more time-constrained than high-level players when playing event.
Nonetheless, the SOS Training added a lot of buffs and interesting features, like more charges for Exstimulo Potions or Field Charms, which are in my opinion a great addition: players have the freedom to unlock what they want and they have lots of unlocking to do (three trees!), which would keep them busy for quite some time. I feel like HPWU is very much a game in the making if you take a look at the updates that drastically changed the game recently, therefore comparing initial-release WU to present WU is hard. Anyway, there are things I do like about the SOS implementation (such as the mess with currencies) but all and all, I do think it is quite balanced.