Pity System?

Rewarding some rhythm for every roll is a decent solution when it comes to making it easier to unlock skins, and something I did consider. The reason I didn't go with it, is that I'm afraid it would be too powerful, especially when it comes to limited time avatars, as it would be easy to save up the rhythm for when the avatar drops, and then just buy it with rhythm. It would also make avatar tokens less interesting, as you would use rhythm to unlock your avatars more often. What I want with the pity system is to make it more interesting to roll in the ticket system, as you know you're guaranteed to get the skin at a maximum after X rolls. It's no secret that this is also partially to make it more rewarding to buy tickets, especially when you want to roll a limited time avatar before it rotates out. While I would love to give away game content for free, I do need the money from sales to continue growing the game, and just rewarding more rhythm most likely wouldn't make buying tickets more interesting.

Rasmus Egerod Leth

Why not just make it so every roll gives some extra rhythm even if it's not a dupe. that way there's no new currencies or progress bars, you're not punished if you get lucky, and it's not very complicated.

Tuner89

Awesome to hear you like the idea so far. The rhythm system worked better when there were fewer avatars, as you rolled duplicates more often. Which is part of the reason I want to look at a pity system now, as the rhythm system doesn't do enough currently. As for seasonal and limited time skins, I'd still like to keep them limited to the time period they're available in. So I imagine that I'll make it, so you can't gain point towards them (if you have them targeted in the pity system) after they rotate out (you either have to wait for them to be back, or switch away from them). This is mainly due to business reasons, as it give more of a reason to buy tickets, so while I would love to make them more accessible, I do also need to make money to keep growing and improving the game (got some existing news on this front soon). Through, I wouldn't want people to get surprised about their target rotating out, so I'll probably add a warning about it before you select any limited time skin as a target.

Rasmus Egerod Leth

Agree with a lot of what has been mentioned so far! As much as Rhythm is a "baked in" pity system, it is hard to get a lot of, especially if you play somewhat casually. I think it would be awesome to have a skin to go towards and build up to. Though I do wonder how seasonals would work with this. With them only being around for 3 months, you may not have the time to get them. Unless the pity system would let you get seasonals at any time of the year but you could only target them during their season? (Similarly, Halloween/Christmas skins fall into this question.) Either way, I appreciate that you're considering ways to help players get the avatars they want, especially as the roster has gotten quite large and is still growing.

KitsuneofDreams

Actually did consider the first issue you mentioned in the design, but looks like I messed up the description (corrected it now). The idea is that you only get double points from using avatar tokens, when it's for the target in the pity system. That way you don't get punished for using tokens, as the points you lose from changing in case you rolled the target, would have been the extra points for using the tokens. As for a rhythm pity system. It's an interesting idea, but I'd prefer the system interact more with rolls, to give a guarantee of getting a specific skin after X amount of rolls. Just giving the skin value in rhythm would be to powerful (as you can spend it on anything) and wouldn't give the "guarantee" feel I'm looking for with the system, as it might just feel as another reward.

Rasmus Egerod Leth

I feel like I wouldn't use this system as intended. If it takes 200 pulls to get a legendary Miyu skin, but I get her 180 pulls in, I will feel like i've wasted 90 pulls that could have been used towards pity for another skin. To avoid this, I can see myself avoiding using avatar tokens on Miyu banners and even using tokens on other character banners to lessen the chance I would get her legendary ahead of schedule. Typing this out feels really silly (clearly I have played too much gacha and my brain is fried), but I'm almost certain this is how I would operate. I'm also curious to know how you see a pity system alongside the existing Rhythm system. It is true that the more skins that get added means Rhythm acquisition becomes much harder (especially for new players), but to my knowledge, every skin today that can be pulled through gacha can also be purchased with Rhythm. Could a pity system solution be adding additional ways for users to get Rhythm (such as, say, awarding 5 Rhythm every 10 pulls)? (Apologies if some of this has already been discussed in Discord, I haven't kept up with the convos there!!)

lyrical

Haven't worked out the exact number yet, but I imagine the target will be around the mid-hundreds. Need to run the math, but I'd want to design it to be the fallback for when you're unlucky rolling and not the common way you unlock the skin

Rasmus Egerod Leth

I think this format is pretty fair, I've had several full rolls using avatar tokens that straight up didn't even give me a basic skin for the avater picked. How many rolls do you think would fill up the progress bar?

Veronica V

seems chill ngl