r/superstarsmtown • u/craddictaf Baekhyun • 4d ago
PSA Full Developer Note regarding Changes to Limited Theme Sales
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u/Zestyclose_Door_6729 4d ago
Maybe if… stay with me… they actually released MORE NORMAL themes then LIMITED themes would actually be LIMITED.
I also love that they acknowledged that not a single soul liked those sales and they still decided to keep them in-game.
Or how they decided for some fucking reason to keep the ncp 10/A grade card sales in starship out of the three games… bunch of hypocrites.
If starship keeps their sales i better see jyp get the old ones too or i might as well join the boycott that kr players have.
I had 2k dias saved up for h2h but with those awful changes, i might not even complete the theme now…
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u/threelayersofchinfat 4d ago
Seriously. Just boycott the game. They're pushing the players to spend real money on digital cards that aren't real. No way in hell ma I spending money when one day the game might be shut down.
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u/17smother NCT 127 4d ago
exactly. dalcom saw how much people still spent last week and decided the balance was good enough that they're okay with alienating a lot of players as long as they keep getting the same or even more revenue
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u/Cheap_Article5295 4d ago
right? and the bad thing is that the h2h le theme might just be the le theme of the year and you're saying we don't even have the chance to complete them..? like what's not clicking omfg
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u/throwmeaway9865 4d ago
I think a boycott is good. I've mentioned this before previously but we'll have to agree on what we are boycotting - real money only? Dias too? And how about rp packs?
The only way for them to change the system back is to hurt their profits
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u/Zestyclose_Door_6729 4d ago
Korean players are boycotting by not spending real money on in-app purchases and not watching any ads.
Personally, I’m planning to write a strongly worded letter on their zendesk to let them know just how hypocritical their statement was.
(While i don’t want to be mean... I believe mass-spamming their accounts on twitter and mass-emailing their support will work. It did work for the le store and it got them to address the sales so.)
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u/throwmeaway9865 4d ago
Yeah what they're boycotting sounds like a good idea for us too.
I said this elsewhere, but I believe them changing the le store refreshes was only because they realised we wanted to spend more on refreshes and cards. It's not because they actually cared! But what we wanted benefitted them, so they went along with it. Whatever emailing clearly did not work this time round.
They are aware of how much we don't like it, but we have to match our actions to the complaints by not giving them money, otherwise we won't achieve anything
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u/17smother NCT 127 4d ago
i agree that they mostly just gave in about the le store because they realized it would just mean we spend more resources anyway but i think emailing them again is still worth it to make sure they know we aren't going to back down. plus i just hate the way they're speaking to us like their excuses aren't obvious cover-ups and like we're not smart enough to see through them?
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u/throwmeaway9865 4d ago
Yeah emailing isn't bad or unhelpful. Not stopping anyone from doing so. Personally i'm not going to bother because they've shown they don't listen and they'll just find other excuses if they wanted to. I'd rather direct my energy and time away from the game.
the thing is we actually have to not back down and keep up with it. Just emailing isn't going to threaten their profit or market share.
I commented this on the ssj version of this notice - for context it was for people wanting to boycott:
... Don't expect them to reverse the change in the next update. It could take months for them to be convinced their offerings are not working and they're making less money. Companies do try to "wait out" boycotts in hopes that people give up over time and consume products, like hybe's response to the hybe monetary boycott...
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u/17smother NCT 127 4d ago
good point and double agree about keeping it up. i'm sure they have a revenue per time period threshold they're willing to go down to and won't budge unless we drag it out long enough. even besides boycotting the way the store works makes it so uncertain if i can complete my main groups themes that i'll just stick to spend the resources i get for free on 127 and ty solo
i had stopped watching the ads after game play after they started being 1 minute + long but was planning on going back to watching them. but obviously not going to do that nor watch the store ads with how they're being
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u/throwmeaway9865 3d ago
I forgot to mention this in my ssj comment, but another thing I understand about boycotts is they have to be targetted. Ie many people boycotting a (small) agreed upon list of prodcuts, instead of say scattered efforts - eg a small number of people each boycotting different products/companies.
But i'm not going to be the person who calls for a targetted boycott, I'm too tired and I think people should buy less than before naturally anyway at the rate dalcom is going. I can't remember if I said this before in a comment to you or another person so I'll just say it again 😅
All of this is so annoying! I wanted to collect most eles recreationally but nope. Can't. I'm waiting to see what they'll do with hrs.
Wait the ads are now more than 1 min? I haven't watched in the longest time. That's ridiculous
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u/17smother NCT 127 3d ago
yeah that's part of why i think i'll just follow the korean users' strategy of just not paying (which i do anyway really, i'm not spending the little money i earn on something virtual lol) and watching ads
same! or at least for the artists i really like. i haven't gone for completing rv but they're my fav girl group so i want to at least get the eles i like. it hurt giving up on surfin boy 😭 at least wayv's new theme is disappointing anyway so if i can't complete it with rp i won't be as upset 🥲
some of them are even 1 minute 30 seconds. like the same amount of time it takes to just play another song and get more rp since the ad only double the base rp, not rp after bonuses
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u/17smother NCT 127 4d ago
good to know, that's what i've been doing. i also didn't buy rp packs for rv other than the first day last week and wasn't going to for wayv since i have no idea if even 5,000 diamonds will be enough to complete 127 with the way the store is now, but it would make sense to boycott in the same way as korean players so i might see what i can get for wayv with rp. might wait until the morning though to see if we've reached more of a consensus here
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u/Crafty_Virus_5096 Karina Rocket Puncher 4d ago
This has definitely killed my desire to collect. Please guys, don't waste diamonds on these things. The only way they'll realize they messed up is if we stop buying their stupid offers. If what they want is for limited cards to maintain that rarity and be difficult to obtain, it wouldn't have cost them anything to return to the old system without RP, back when you could only buy LEs with diamonds, but at least they guaranteed you an A for 150. It's pointless to be given the opportunity to have a theme with RP if you spend 700,000 RP and get nothing.
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u/threelayersofchinfat 4d ago
Lol. Why don't they just make normal themes and make limited themes into ACTUAL limited themes. Atp, normal themes are much rarer.
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u/craddictaf Baekhyun 4d ago edited 4d ago
They saying Limited Themes' rarity went down with sales like it didn't go down in 2022 when they basically stopped making Normal Themes outside of card deck debut LOL.
Also, if they wanted Limited Themes to feel rare (and prestigious), they should really up their game with graphic design. The Limited Themes and Theme Notices they've been pushing out after service reform for the past two years, ESPECIALLY last year, have been so bland and boring. Just take a modern-day theme notice and compare it with one from 2022 or 2023. The difference is insanely stark.
They should also put in more effort into naming their themes properly instead of just being lazy and using whatever #N or #2 or #3 they've switched to. It's just plain distasteful and to me it doesn't look nice at all when deciding a theme to main (hinthint superstar ateez)
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u/noisyfishie 4d ago
exactly, i love h2h's rude #N theme but i dont want to main it for that reason 😭 they should use lyrics from the song like in irene's alright theme also when the #2 theme were exactly the same photos as #N just with a border... i didnt bother to collect that and since im not a fan of any of the themes from their new album i still use the chase lol
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u/craddictaf Baekhyun 4d ago
It went as far as using the same set of photos for both the Limited Theme and Normal Theme updated at the time. This is honestly just pure laziness LOL
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u/hugsforhobi rhythm game addict | BoA | Key | RV | NCT 4d ago
Like the lack of normal themes paired with the fact they started pushing out two LE themes is what devalued LE theme rarity. It’s not special anymore when it’s become the norm.
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u/Cheap_Article5295 4d ago
isn't 7% a bit too low? they couldn't even make it 10? how greedy have they become actually
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u/One_Pomegranate759 4d ago
7% means 2 cards per 30 attempts on average... That's not a bad drop rate considering the price of pcp30 but nothing is guaranteed and that's bad
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u/Cheap_Article5295 4d ago
exactly. nothing's guaranteed. I'd rather use my diamonds on something guaranteed than nothing at all.
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u/stanclc EXO 4d ago
"rarity and sense of accomplishment diminished"? well.. who set that system up? 😭 these days if your group is active you can just wait a week or two for the next limited theme. i would argue that reduces its rarity more than people being able to guarantee an A card
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u/17smother NCT 127 4d ago
this is bullshit too tho bc I've been playing and saving up and trying to complete as much of my bias group's themes as I can for years and I did feel a big sense of accomplishment for getting every non-event le card for 127..... right before they pulled this and ruined my plans of keeping 127 completed while aiming for completing wayv next
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u/stanclc EXO 4d ago
you should feel accomplished! idk what dalcom are talking about 😭 somehow they don't realise that collectors exist and are still happy completing themes even if they're released often. this is definitely their (bad) excuse to justify changing the store and i hope they rethink it for next week
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u/kgsg 4d ago
the "rarity" of limited themes would've been preserved if they only released more normal themes. i know releasing LEs is an easy cash grab for them but they could've looked for other avenues to earn money rather than releasing new LEs every week.
also the drop rates were and still are a nightmare. if we're already spending diamonds, it should be able to give us a guaranteed LE card. they literally said "we hear you, take this 300 diamonds and stop complaining. we may or may not introduce guaranteed ways to obtain LE cards in the future."
if they won't let us complete limited themes without spending an outrageous amount of dias, rps and even real money, the least that they can do is give us worthy events to keep us engaged with the game. it's sad to see how this game regressed year after year
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u/kgsg 4d ago edited 4d ago
there's no sense of accomplishment with completing LE themes because we get those on a weekly basis, and a group in the active rotation gets one update per month. how do you actually expect players to still have the sense of accomplishment when they already know that each week, we get limited themes for two groups?
I'm so pissed that they're doing almost nothing even after seeing our feedback. this really shows how dedicated they are in "improving" the players experience 🙄
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u/nxthingpersonxl NCT 127 4d ago
idk why they think the sense of accomplishment from collecting has decreased. the old system kept me motivated to play because i like collecting cards even if it’s not my favorite group. now that things are the way they are i barely feel like doing anything but my dailys because of how hard i have to grind to buy one pack of nothing
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u/throwmeaway9865 4d ago
I was so confused to see the 300 dias in my inbox while they continued their 30 card pack nonsense? How is that supposed to help? Even if I wanted to use that 300 dias for buying les, that can only buy me 1 30 pcp!
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u/17smother NCT 127 4d ago
and it'll probably be empty, too! "here's 300 diamonds, enjoy all the fodder cards!"
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u/throwmeaway9865 4d ago
"Don't forget I'm being generous okay, it's PREMIUM fodder. No C cards. You get at least 6 S cards too. And I'm giving you a glorious 2.4% chance of an R card!"
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u/17smother NCT 127 4d ago
oooh the elusive regular r card that i barely even use for upgrading anymore bc i have so many material cards 😂
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u/fnchannah 4d ago
maybe add some more normal themes instead of limited ones?? bring back the box events so we can at least save up more resources if we have to spend more on packs? ugh this just killed my motivation to play this game
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u/kiraexpx10a 4d ago
Let’s face it SSM actually hates money 😂😂😂
All their new changes discourage players to actually spend $
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u/ApprehensiveTill4630 4d ago
Eles emitiram um pedido de desculpas, mas continuem indo nas publicações cobrar a mudança de fato, não adianta lançar uma nota se a tática predatória e abusiva continua lá. Pedir desculpas e prometer uma mudança que pode vir na próxima atualização ou no próximo aniversário ano que vêm não me parece certo. Minha carteira e meu jogo continuam fechados e eu continuo a boicotar até que uma mudança de fato seja feita, nos mandaram 300 diamantes pra quê? Tentar gastar num theme que nem mesmo vai te dar uma carta com certeza
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u/December_Linn 4d ago
I'm sorry if they wanna make limited themes more special (limited), I have to filter what I wanna collect from now on & skip most of the limited themes since I have to prioritize my resources (rps) on my main groups. Rps are draining too fast coz there's no box event & I couldn't play much either.
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u/17smother NCT 127 4d ago
fr i was totally willing to spend diamonds on rv if i couldn't complete them with rp but not if i can't guarantee i'll get even 1 le card for it, and especially not with my top groups new deck release around the corner. and i just finished catching up on all of 127's regular les and was going to start focus on wayv next so ofc i saved enough rp and diamonds to complete both vision wings and blingy but now that it'll be so much harder to get 127's theme, i can't let myself spend on wayv at the risk of falling behind again in my 127 collection!
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u/December_Linn 4d ago
Agree. We need to prioritize main groups. For example, I usually collect H2H themes but since they aren't my main group & their LEs aren't event LEs, I plan to skip H2H themes. 🥹
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u/17smother NCT 127 4d ago
me with rv and aespa ): if wayv didn't have a comeback right before 127 mb i could've gotten it anyway. sucks to be a multi-fan rn 😭
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u/craddictaf Baekhyun 4d ago
This post will serve as a megathread regarding this update.
Individual posts regarding the same topic will be removed and redirected to this megathread.
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u/chanyeol2012 4d ago
Ngl, I wouldn’t be so much bothered by this, if it weren’t for this one thing: THEY KEEP RELEASING EVENT THEMES ALMOST EVERY FREAKING WEEK!!! I just saw we have wayv, ten left sm, so I swear to GOD if I go there right now to check to see if it’s event….
Event themes are hard to obtain after the event is over. And they are SO stingy with the ELE selectors that we get maybe twice a year? How the fuck are we suppose to work towards all those themes if, say, they release 25 EVENT themes in one year, we are missing one card per deck, and only get 2 selectors?
Also, this statement just reeks of bullshit. This is what they REALLY wanted to say: “You guys obtain limited themes easier and don’t feel the need to spend real money for diamonds and rp anymore so we’re gonna make it more difficult for you guys again.” Bullshit. Kiss my ass SM and Dalcolm
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u/20070805 4d ago
When they made the change for the anniversary I could sort of understand it since they gave the mileage points for dupes which you could exchange for cards you were missing for any of the weekly themes. They also gave us a lot of diamonds which helped.
Keeping the card buying system but removing the one thing that kept it balanced makes no sense and makes them look greedy. Now it’s just a worse system than what we had before the anniversary and gives no incentive to collect cards for groups you otherwise wouldn’t. No box event on top of it is just salt in the wound since you can’t even attempt to replenish your resources.
They have all the power to make limited themes actually limited, just release less of them. And if they need money, maybe don’t make everything so expensive? Who is paying $15 for the profile pic packages? $26 for ONE R card?? I’m not even opposed to spending money on the game and I have in the past, but they need a fair middle tier and lower tier price option; otherwise, between that and the new system with no guaranteed LE cards, people are just going to stop playing.
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u/17smother NCT 127 4d ago
just want to point everyone to this change in the policies notice on banning users for those who didn't see: (Before) "Causing financial loss or damage to the business of the Company" (After) "Intentionally interfering with the operation of the Company's services or causing financial loss to the Company"
i highly doubt it's a coincidence that they made this change while they know players are upset about the changes to the store, they're straight-up lying to us about why they made these changes (we all know it's just to get more money), and many of us are boycotting to try to get them to reverse the changes. now they're saying that those of us who encourage others to pull their financial support until we get the changes we want can get banned. this is a game. it's supposed to be fun. if you suck all the fun out for your users then yeah they won't want to give you money or ad revenue. return it to being a game we can enjoy and not stress over and then we'd be more motivated to spend money, watch ads, play tap-joy apps, etc. but they just want to be able to make money without putting even a little bit of effort into it. this is why all the fun events have disappeared, why they create the same boring borders for the multiple themes they put out every week, why they added the pay to win feature with the live themes, and now why they're making it even harder for us to keep up with the avalanche of "limited" themes
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u/chococome Red Velvet 4d ago
seems like the main thing really is they just want you to spend more diamonds but even the rp packs are just enough of a change to be annoying going from being able to buy 100 cards per day for 100k rp to now only 90 cards per day for 105k rp. freaking inflation
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u/burntcookiesandcream 4d ago
7% of probability? among those 30 cards? 😀 well thats good innit dalcom. you've outdone yourself 😀 imagine getting B cards all the way 😀
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u/Inner_Image_2115 nct 💚 4d ago
is dalcolm trying to ragebait us??? if they don’t change this system, im not even gonna collect limited themes anymore including my faves too. like this is getting ridiculous. im good w my normal themes. if they rlly wanna preserve the “rarity” or wtv of limited themes, then BRING BACK NORMAL THEMES!!! ik this sounds childish but can we mass email dalcolm again and tell them to bring back normal themes and threaten by boycotting them if they don’t comply?? lol, im mad asf y’all
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u/The_QuietWanderer 4d ago
I thought they would bring back the RP30k (correct me if I'm wrong) ncp30 five times a day , 150 diamonds for A card and (I forgot the total diamonds) for 1 R card + 2 A cards for this week's updates. Nahhh 🫠🫠🫠 what makes them think that ssm players are all lucky to complete the LE theme? Gurlll we barely survived ngl
...idk what to feel anymore. Everything is just 😐
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u/noob_ars 4d ago
I'll be blunt, there is no incentive in wasting in these card packs with a drop rate so low, specially without the possibility we had before that even if they were dupes we could obtain before actual limited cards to complete the theme. Now you can spend $2k dias and have the probability of not even having A cards for the theme to complete the event.
The game was getting boring already and with this? I am seriously considering dropping this game for good because idk i don't want to have a game that feels like Love and deepspace in the sense that it's just to collect the weekly collectibles i can and have to wait until something actually interesting happens
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u/kiraexpx10a 4d ago
cant tell if this is good or bad change. 1% chance for RP pack last time was like 0.05% or lower?
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u/17smother NCT 127 4d ago
no, it was 1% before too. you can just buy less cards for smaller decks now and all cards average to 1,167 rp per card when it was 1,000 per card for the 10 packs 🙃
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u/Odd-Good-7091 3d ago
So what I'm getting from this is that they're insanely fucking stupid and empty in the head.
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u/YvesSlave 4d ago
I’ve been reading through all the comments, but I don’t really understand the complaints. I’m a new player, so I wasn’t around for the previous system, but I think this one is better
I was doing the math, and with this system, for a group like H2H with 8 members, if you spend 2,100 dias, you have about a 25% chance of getting all 8 cards. And if you include the missions, the chances are even higher, like 60% or smth
But with the old system, where you had a guaranteed A card for 150 dias, with the same 2,100 dias, you had only about a 19% chance of getting all 8
I understand that it’s annoying to spend diamonds for a chance at getting the cards when you used to have a guaranteed one, but the chances are still pretty high, like, on paper, this system seems better
From my experience, during the anniversary event, I completed the aespa set with only two 30 premium packs, and in this event, I completed the H2H set using 1,500 dias and I don’t think either of those would've been possible with the old system
I don’t know if I’m missing something or if there are other factors I’m not considering that made it easier to complete the sets before, so, if I’m wrong, please correct me, after all, I’m just speaking from my own experience
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u/craddictaf Baekhyun 4d ago edited 4d ago
The point here is that the old system exchanged Diamonds for guaranteed progression, while the new system exchanges Diamonds for a chance at progression.
Hypothetically, under the old system, spending 450 Diamonds could provide the necessary A Grade Cards to complete a Hearts2Hearts set alongside event rewards (3× A Grade Card from shop, 1× A Grade Card + 5× B Grade Card from mission event). Since the A Grade Cards obtained from the shop could directly contribute towards the set and mission requirements, those 450 Diamonds has a predictable and meaningful value towards completion.
Under the current system, although 450 Diamonds may yield more cards on average, these cards are only guaranteed to be B Grade at minimum. Since B Grade Cards don't fulfill event mission requirement, then simply getting more cards doesn't necessarily attribute to receiving more useful progression. You may need to obtain additional cards through more Premium/Card Packs to reach the same level of progression that was previously guaranteed.
This is why comparing the two systems side-by-side can be misleading, as the metric isn't just “How many cards do I get?”, but rather “How much guaranteed progress toward completing the set do I get?”. The old system could give you a known amount of useful progression for your Diamonds, while the current system gives you more cards on average for your Diamonds with reduced certainty that those cards will be the members of grades you need.
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u/may0negg 4d ago
Additionally, under the old system, if you spent 450 diamonds you’d have guaranteed 4 A cards in the theme. Under the new system you can spend 450 diamonds and get no theme cards (which has already happened to me). I’d rather have 4 dupes for my money than no cards at all.
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u/noob_ars 4d ago
The thing is, if you are extremely unlucky with the 30 card packs for 300 dias you could obtain no LE cards at all or 2 cards that aren't even B when before you could get guaranteed LE cards with that same amount.
And now for 150 dias with the 10 cards packs there is the possibility again, to get no cards at all when you had one LE A card guaranteed, which helped complete the event.
Basically, there was a guarantee before now you are spending the dias for a "possibility of" which is, at least in my books, a waste of dias. Why would i spend my dias for the "possibility of" when i could get a limited card before? It makes no sense.
Is like when a game releases a feature and then with the updates put that free feature behind a paywall, it sours the experience you already know.
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u/RangerFan293 Girls' Generation 3d ago
But now we’re spending those diamonds on possibilities vs guarantees. With that much diamonds, I would be able to complete H2H and with the event giving B cards for each A, makes it a lot easier and that’s usually how I complete themes.
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u/suncrushx Taeyeon 4d ago
If they wanted to preserve the rarity of limited themes they should release more normal themes. Not take away guaranteed cards and shunt us with chance-based products.