Spark Run!

[Optimus_Pig]

@lewie4

Instead if improving some TFs, why not just make the Spark Run less difficult?

The flying pig swarms for example, while not as ridiculously lethal as when the Spark Run was first introduced, are still deadly and difficult to kill.

Generally speaking, why  are all types of pigs so much more difficult to kill in the Spark Run than in regular runs?

[JestaCat]

“why are all types of pigs so much more difficult to kill in the Spark Run than in regular runs?”

+1 this.

[FortressMaximus]

*most* transformers are too weak to be of any use in the spark run.   There are relatively few good ones.  But there also isn’t much point in boosting a bunch of weak bots, since you can only use 5 in the spark run anyway.   I suppose that boosting them would make regular/event runs better.  The bigger issue is that sparks are still so relatively hard to come by in relation to the numbers needed to promote someone to usefulness that you’re locked into whichever handful of bots you choose to promote.  if the competitive balance between bots gets shaken up, then there should be a short term ability to reallocate sparks.

[Lewie4]

@optimuspig

Spark Run is intended to be difficult so that only the best players are able to reach, and beat, level 300. Not all threats are able to be killed with all characters, some are better to be avoided.

@jestacat @optimuspig

Pigs are harder to kill based on the difficulty that is chosen when entering a spark run.

@fortressmaximus

This is the issue that I’m looking into at the moment. I’d like to see a greater variety of characters used to keep things interesting :)

 

What are people’s general feelings towards the spark run? Good, fun feature or annoying daily grind?

[JestaCat]

@lewie4

Thanks, but at what point do they become this difficult in the rest of the game? It doesn’t seem to align.

 

Regarding the rest of the point you’re asking… As others have said it’s not just about the function of the bot, there’s also the promotion factor… No matter how useful (let’s say Bumblebee) becomes tomorrow I won’t start using him until I can get him on promotion scale with my other bots – why drop from 175%+ to 10% to use another bot?  Earning gems and spark is hard enough for long time players.

 

I suggest you look to increasing reward tiers for the Pig Lab and reducing the Pig penalties in the Shockwave Spire. Increased gems/sparks/tokens in the Steel Crates would be beneficial too.  You gotta actively feed the economy to get it growing!

[Lewie4]

@jestacat

I believe these are more difficult (at higher levels), than any other part of the game

[Optimus_Pig]

@lewie4

For the amount of reward (or lack thereof), it’s definitely an annoying grind.

We don’t even earn any coins or pigs out of it.

 

[FortressMaximus]

I don’t mind the difficulty,  but do get tired of using the same bots every day, and think it should be worth more than the current max of around 2500/day at level 300.  Would like to try out some of the newer characters,  who seem like they would be good,  but it would take forever for me to promote them high enough to use.  I’m on level 300, have been for a while,  and my spark run lineup are all at or near full promotion at this point.  And I’m hesitant to invest heavily in a different bot, especially after the whole ultimate megatron thing.

[GrimLockdown]

@lewie4

Maybe the only interesting thing about spark run is that it is a bit more challenging than normal runs. You need good all around TFs for spark run, i.e. ones that can kill flying pigs, WMTs and destroy all blocks and other stuff to maximize points (and in the end, sparks). I usually only need two – Blaster and Hound. There are other good ones, e.g. Dead End. Nautica is also a very good TF but she can’t kill WMTs.

And then there is the promotion issue. If it costs 278,550 sparks (equaling almost half of a year) to fully promote a TF I won’t be trying any new TFs – be they normal or super awesome.

I’m getting full sparks once or twice a week but I would prefer about 50 % of the runs.

[tek]

@lewie4

maybe to make spark run more exciting, throw in a boss pig or unicron occassionally, random bonus popup targets that give something like a steel or gold crate would (hit the flashing bonus pig and win a kewpie doll or something like that), add  minigames?, have a fork in the road to pick different paths? something random that changes things up.

[Lewie4]

Thanks for the feedback guys! Make sure to include it in the survey so the team can see what you want!

 

Survey: https://forms.gle/aJvQf1TX4Gr1GWWm9

[MillForce2k]

@lewie4 Do different bots score differently? Meaning that I will receive x points if I destroy a WMT with Blaster, but will receive y points if I destroy it with Dead End. My biggest issue with the Spark Run is that I can completely destroy everything, but only occasionally get full sparks and many times just barely getting 4/5 sparks.

[Lewie4]

@millforce2k All bots score the same by default. Bots will score more based on promotion (spark level) and by the total bonus of all the bots taken into the run (more slots filled = more spark earned)

[MillForce2k]

Ok, thanks @lewie4. I run five fully promoted bots. I did happen to get full sparks today.

[Asen_77]

@lewie4 I want to ask – if there is a different points from Gold blocks at Spark Run. I mean if you blow Gold Blocks into one area you get some points, but if you blow gold blocks into middle levels ( caves ) it seems that we get more points from gold blocks. For one more example – if I have cave with big amount of gold blocks ( something like 8-10 pcs in cave ) and other cave that have only three gold blocks ( most of the time caves are like this ) it seems that when you blow big amount get some points, but when you have three again you get points that are look similar ( fulfillment of the bar points at the top of the screen ). Is there difference in points for gold blocks in different areas in Spark Run?

 

As I write on the survey, I will prefer to see more different bosses even harder for kill, but killable ;).

 

As other players mention – we hardly will start to promote one bot from zero, as we already have 5 bots and max promotion bonus with sparks, so probably could think something like there to try different bots into spark run without loosing our advantages with promotion, so we can decide to change our bots. Also if you are informing us is there going to be more sparks promotion, as we already get 4-5 times new promotion levels, so players that get 5 bots on current maximum level, are collecting sparks, so if you place new level, we could use sparks for this new levels. So if you inform us that for next levels we will need for example 100 000 k sparks ( from current maximum to new one at this moment per bot ) and this will be placed let’s say in 6 months, we could do some planing and to use our sparks in more bots for example. As we don’t know what is going to happened in future, we are just collecting sparks and this moment and didn’t spend them for some small promotions. For me will be interesting to hear your opinion about that’s?

 

I will also say, will be interesting to have as additional other small games and more chances for win into Shockwave spire. Most of the days I get 2-3 pigs before level 10. I played this type of game in other AB games, and there seems better chances for higher levels to reach! I am playing this game from the beginning and will prefer more new things to keep us involved and to keep our interest into game !!!

[pandaczar12]

@lewie4

If you want people to use different bots in spark runs… make a different bot every day give a higher than max promotion to encourage people to use them. Make it the OP bot that appears first.

[JestaCat]

@pandaczar12 ‘s suggestion is good.

If not in the Spark Run, have the featured character in the Daily Challenge – where they currently are zero promotion so I never use them – even to see what they’re like.

[Optimus_Pig]

Anyone else notice that Alpha Trion’s earthquake effect doesn’t activate in the Spark Run?

[cuxdavide]

@optimuspig i noticed it time ago, you must use it for first if you want the earthquake, but when it die and swap to others bots the screen will continue to shake until the end :D not really confortable but what i can say… :D

[FortressMaximus]

Is Breakdown the same way–do you lose his strikebot effect in spark run?

[VaBeachGuy]

@fortressmaximus

Yes, if you use him as the first bot, you’ll have the strikebot capability, but if you use him in any other position, you lose that ability. I would assume that this is true of all bots that have those special abilities.

[FortressMaximus]

@vabeachguy, thanks.  Interesting.

[deindiaan]

Guess breakdown is a nice one to use in spark run then! Would like to try him too… But unfortunately mine has 0% promo… So maybe latrr..

[Asen_77]

Doesn’t happend to me from a very long time

 

[cuxdavide]

i destroy 99.9% of things in the run but can’t reach full score… they should add something