I realize there is nothing more frustrating than dedicating a great deal of time and effort into Events and not receiving Rewards that meet and exceed your expectations. Rest assured, we are always trying to make improvements to the game and we're delighted you have all taken the time to share your feedback with us!
I sincereley appreciate your passion for Transformers: Forged to Fight, and I have been reading your comments in this thread with lots of enthusiasm. While I can't promise that any changes will be implemented straight away, your ideas are definitely giving us something to discuss when considering what changes to make in future updates.
So we can get the most out of this discussion, please share with us any improvement suggestions you have about Milestone Rewards. I hope you will give us your ideas on how many 4-Star shards you would like to see for reaching Milestones in Arenas. I would also like you all to consider the impact that making significant changes to Milestone Rewards could potentially have on the game going forward. At present, 4-Star Shards are a valued Item but if they were to become too readily available, it would essentially mean that all players gain more 4-Star Bots. The rarity of these Bots would then be reduced because so many people have them. This is just one potential knock-on effect from increasing the availability of rare Items such as 4-Star Shards.
As mentioned, we look forward to hearing your thoughts on this topic, and hopefully with constructive collaboration, this thread can lead to some great ideas being created to help make the game even better!
Heres the problem - you guys want 4* bots now to be as rare as 5* Champs were in MCOC about a year ago. But the current content in the game does not support that level of rarity and in turn, makes the game less fun. Can a super skilled person beat some of the hardest content in the game using just 3* bots? Probably. But you are talking about a skill level thats pretty rare, and should not be considered a "norm" for any average player.
The fact is, is that you guys can limit 4* progression in other ways besides limiting crystals. Just look at MCOC and see that only within the last week, players were finally able to r5 their 5* Champs....yet 5* Champs have been around for years.
I think you are going to hear a lot of the same but - IMO, the system that was in place before, was great. I think you guys should focus less on limiting how many 4* bots players can get, and more on how quickly they can rank them up. Gold and ore are still huge factors to contend with, as are rare upgrading materials. Most average players will only be able to get to r2 on most of their 4* bots, which is about the equivalent of a maxed out 3*. So, the bottleneck is already there....you guys just have a bottleneck before another bottleneck - which is pretty annoying.
And arenas need to be more FUN. Right now it feels like im rushing to do everything. Why are all of the arenas only 1 day long? Make arenas last more than 1 day, while offering players both rank and milestone rewards. Players need instant incentives to feel like they are actually accomplishing something...which is what milestone rewards are for. They push the player to keep playing to try and earn those rewards they know they can get. Rank rewards are just icing on the cake and give the player extra rewards for doing as much as they did compare to everyone else. When EVERYTHING is rank rewards, the motivation to even try gets diminished exponentially. Think of a system where you only received rewards for fighting and exploring story mode quests the day AFTER you completed the maps. Sounds silly right? Thats essentially what arenas are right now....only worse because your progress is being compared to everyone elses, and the rewards you receive dont feel like they reflect the time and effort you put into it.
it would essentially mean that all players gain more 4-Star Bots. The rarity of these Bots would then be reduced because so many people have them. This is just one potential knock-on effect from increasing the availability of rare Items such as 4-Star Shards.
I highly doubt anyone sees this as a problem?
You made a map that requires a wide selection of bots but in turn, only want us to have a very limited selection of those bots?
Seeing as I started early, I have build up a pretty Nice Stock of bots but if you truly intend for people who started within the last 4-5 months to play, then you need to start handing out more 4* bots.
And the fix?
Possibly bring back the milestones that people have been pleading and begging about since you removed them.
I honestly do not know what effect it will have other than happy players.
But then let us say, anyone who has a problem with people getting too many 4*, feel free to flag this post lol.
I actually enjoy the 1 day "flash arenas" much more than the old 3-day ordeal, since I can pick a day here and there to go all out for that specific arena, and it allows for a greater variety of arenas to be run.
I agree on the r2 4* thing, only two of my 7 4* are R3, and it will be months (unless I get lucky with a holiday or SL crystal) before I have T3 to rank any more. That being said, I don't mind that bottleneck so much because the two R3's I have are absolutely unstoppable monsters compared to their R2 brethren.
My biggest reason to bring milestones back is that I could always look at a specific reward tier, look at the points required, and go "Okay, that's what I'm working for". It made arenas more fun because I had a guaranteed reward to look forward to, and a goal in mind beyond "grind as hard as I can and hope for the best"
I think that as far as 4* shards go, I'm not sure where the balance should be between feast and famine. I got 3 of my 4* bots in about a month and a half under the old system and it opened the gate to a lot of the high end content I needed to obtain more 4*, sort of a "you need some to get some" situation.
I know it likely won't happen, but even a single free 4* crystal (Just the crystal, no ranking materials) for a Christmas/Anniversary/ event would crack open the door for a lot of players to enjoy more of the game, and that would lead (in my mind anyway) to more participation in arenas as well.
I’m not going to write a massive paragraph because what @CandKane@Danhansen@Stitch626 and others have wrote pretty much says what I believe about this problem but I will give a good and fair suggestion for what the new milestone rewards could be (for crystal bounty, just ask if you want me to do a suggestion for other arenas).
I’m not going to write a massive paragraph because what @CandKane@Danhansen@Stitch626 and others have wrote pretty much says what I believe about this problem but I will give a good and fair suggestion for what the new milestone rewards could be (for crystal bounty, just ask if you want me to do a suggestion for other arenas).
I’m not going to write a massive paragraph because what @CandKane@Danhansen@Stitch626 and others have wrote pretty much says what I believe about this problem but I will give a good and fair suggestion for what the new milestone rewards could be (for crystal bounty, just ask if you want me to do a suggestion for other arenas).
I think this should be a fair milestone system, opinions please.
haha 1 day of crystal bounty give more then a hard spotlight mission exploration, why play spotlight
Well think about lower end players who can’t get the high rank rewards, we need something to work for not for something to be disappointed with. If you get 200 shards x4 (average rank rewards for average players) for rank rewards and 600 shards x4 from milestones that’s 3200 shards, plus the hard spotlight exploration rewards makes it 4200 shards, I’d say 2 4* crystals with a little extra is a good amount for a months worth of work
At present, 4-Star Shards are a valued Item but if they were to become too readily available, it would essentially mean that all players gain more 4-Star Bots. The rarity of these Bots would then be reduced because so many people have them.
Getting a 4* is just the beginning of the story. All those upgrade materials require a lot of grinding time, which is what you want: a wide participation in Arena (gold, high level sparks), Raid (high level sparks), Daily Missions (T2C) then potentially purchasing T2C offer. However, not getting 4* bots kills all incentive to play.
I’m not going to write a massive paragraph because what @CandKane@Danhansen@Stitch626 and others have wrote pretty much says what I believe about this problem but I will give a good and fair suggestion for what the new milestone rewards could be (for crystal bounty, just ask if you want me to do a suggestion for other arenas).
I think this should be a fair milestone system, opinions please.
haha 1 day of crystal bounty give more then a hard spotlight mission exploration, why play spotlight
Well think about lower end players who can’t get the high rank rewards, we need something to work for not for something to be disappointed with. If you get 200 shards x4 (average rank rewards for average players) for rank rewards and 600 shards x4 from milestones that’s 3200 shards, plus the hard spotlight exploration rewards makes it 4200 shards, I’d say 2 4* crystals with a little extra is a good amount for a months worth of work
I think those milestones expecting a full 4* crystal and change for everyone is unrealistic. You want to entice players to participate but that doesn't mean you give away the yacht.
In milestones, I would say 300-400 shards total per arena. Then, you get the rest from how hard you wanna grind for rank.
With rank rewards and the other avenues available to earn 4* shards, such as raid shop, alliance events, special crystals and special missions, the average player should get anywhere from 2000-2500 shards a month.
Remember, you can still grind for feature bot chips for another 4*
I don’t understand the rationale behind wanting to limit the 4* bots. Even if we have all the 4* bots, resources are still limited as to which we rank up. It would force players to choose who to invest in and really allow us to “dig deep into our roster” cos we have a deep enough roster. A game is meant to be fun and a big part of fun is playing with the bots we like. One of our best players has quit in frustration from lags and also due to inability to pull long-released bots like OG OP. I still don’t have a Mirage while my team mates who don’t like Mirage are duping theirs like crazy. If you want to limit 4* shards, can we at least have the option to choose which bot we want when we have gathered enough scraps of 4* shards?
I’m not going to write a massive paragraph because what @CandKane@Danhansen@Stitch626 and others have wrote pretty much says what I believe about this problem but I will give a good and fair suggestion for what the new milestone rewards could be (for crystal bounty, just ask if you want me to do a suggestion for other arenas).
I think this should be a fair milestone system, opinions please.
haha 1 day of crystal bounty give more then a hard spotlight mission exploration, why play spotlight
Well think about lower end players who can’t get the high rank rewards, we need something to work for not for something to be disappointed with. If you get 200 shards x4 (average rank rewards for average players) for rank rewards and 600 shards x4 from milestones that’s 3200 shards, plus the hard spotlight exploration rewards makes it 4200 shards, I’d say 2 4* crystals with a little extra is a good amount for a months worth of work
I think those milestones expecting a full 4* crystal and change for everyone is unrealistic. You want to entice players to participate but that doesn't mean you give away the yacht.
In milestones, I would say 300-400 shards total per arena. Then, you get the rest from how hard you wanna grind for rank.
With rank rewards and the other avenues available to earn 4* shards, such as raid shop, alliance events, special crystals and special missions, the average player should get anywhere from 2000-2500 shards a month.
Remember, you can still grind for feature bot chips for another 4*
Good point, I’ll edit my milestones suggestions. Forgot about the shards from raid store.
You see, when the movie was out everyone joined this game, 4* bots were viewed as once per few month thing, smart players grinded extra hard to get them and ensure exponential growth going forward.
Now it evolved to once per month expectation for casual effort, I agree with Manthro, you want to step ahead of the herd, you should be stepping up the effort.
I don’t understand the rationale behind wanting to limit the 4* bots. Even if we have all the 4* bots, resources are still limited as to which we rank up. It would force players to choose who to invest in and really allow us to “dig deep into our roster” cos we have a deep enough roster. A game is meant to be fun and a big part of fun is playing with the bots we like. One of our best players has quit in frustration from lags and also due to inability to pull long-released bots like OG OP. I still don’t have a Mirage while my team mates who don’t like Mirage are duping theirs like crazy. If you want to limit 4* shards, can we at least have the option to choose which bot we want when we have gathered enough scraps of 4* shards?
I agree. The pool of bots has expanded so much the last couple months it is really hard to get and dupe the bots you want.
You see, when the movie was out everyone joined this game, 4* bots were viewed as once per few month thing, smart players grinded extra hard to get them and ensure exponential growth going forward.
Now it evolved to once per month expectation for casual effort, I agree with Manthro, you want to step ahead of the herd, you should be stepping up the effort.
“Stepping up the effort” lmao. Mate some people do all the arenas they can they can, some staying up all night, and we still get crap rank rewards. Not everyone can afford to buy their way out of the game
You see, when the movie was out everyone joined this game, 4* bots were viewed as once per few month thing, smart players grinded extra hard to get them and ensure exponential growth going forward.
Now it evolved to once per month expectation for casual effort, I agree with Manthro, you want to step ahead of the herd, you should be stepping up the effort.
“Stepping up the effort” lmao. Mate some people do all the arenas they can they can, some staying up all night, and we still get crap rank rewards. Not everyone can afford to buy their way out of the game
For the record, you are getting crap for your efforts because 2/3 of the player base isn't even running a single arena round to qualify for rewards.
If those players can be attracted back to the crystal arena with some reasonable milestones as discussed, you will notice an immediate impact to which bracket you land in.
I’m not going to write a massive paragraph because what @CandKane@Danhansen@Stitch626 and others have wrote pretty much says what I believe about this problem but I will give a good and fair suggestion for what the new milestone rewards could be (for crystal bounty, just ask if you want me to do a suggestion for other arenas).
I think this should be a fair milestone system, opinions please.
haha 1 day of crystal bounty give more then a hard spotlight mission exploration, why play spotlight
Well think about lower end players who can’t get the high rank rewards, we need something to work for not for something to be disappointed with. If you get 200 shards
You see, when the movie was out everyone joined this game, 4* bots were viewed as once per few month thing, smart players grinded extra hard to get them and ensure exponential growth going forward.
Now it evolved to once per month expectation for casual effort, I agree with Manthro, you want to step ahead of the herd, you should be stepping up the effort.
“Stepping up the effort” lmao. Mate some people do all the arenas they can they can, some staying up all night, and we still get crap rank rewards. Not everyone can afford to buy their way out of the game
He's in a top rank alliance, if he doesn't buy his way then he'll be kicked. Honestly, there will always be a bottleneck somewhere, we just gotta pick our priorities.
You see, when the movie was out everyone joined this game, 4* bots were viewed as once per few month thing, smart players grinded extra hard to get them and ensure exponential growth going forward.
Now it evolved to once per month expectation for casual effort, I agree with Manthro, you want to step ahead of the herd, you should be stepping up the effort.
“Stepping up the effort” lmao. Mate some people do all the arenas they can they can, some staying up all night, and we still get crap rank rewards. Not everyone can afford to buy their way out of the game
I will try to provide some a tip as I used it always: you dont have to stay up "all night", do arena in batches. Time it so that when bots are recharged, you spend less than 20 mins to use them all, repeat after recharge period. 20 mins break from whatever u r doing in the day during a 3 or 4 hr cycle isnt much to ask yea?
I approached this game like Pension, I tried very hard and grinded when most dont want to at begining of the Forged to Fight, I have enough assets in the end to stay "higher" and relax, exponential growth is true in this game. Sudden boost of rewards to Everyone does not narrow this "gap", new entrants of enticed new/low players will pushes you to a higher bracket so you too can look down and say "look im doing better than those guys", its not wrong no one wants to be at bottom.
I spent total $7.50 on this game in entirety, I know many will think "you prob spend all day evry day", if that new excuse comfort you sure.
For the record, you are getting crap for your efforts because 2/3 of the player base isn't even running a single arena round to qualify for rewards.
If those players can be attracted back to the crystal arena with some reasonable milestones as discussed, you will notice an immediate impact to which bracket you land in.
I'm what you call a casual player, so please forgive me if I'm missing something. I really want to get further in the game, but haven't been able to score a 4 star bot. I'm not getting jack for crystal shards, and the Bumblebee "training" mission is hard as hell, to the point that my bots aren't beefed up enough to get through the unbalanced gauntlet--to win a 4 star bot to be able to play the damn level in the first place.
And getting Bumblebee, my favorite Transformer? Seems like a pipe dream at this point. Is it me, or has the game gotten more akin to highway robbery in the past month or two.
I'm what you call a casual player, so please forgive me if I'm missing something. I really want to get further in the game, but haven't been able to score a 4 star bot. I'm not getting jack for crystal shards, and the Bumblebee "training" mission is hard as hell, to the point that my bots aren't beefed up enough to get through the unbalanced gauntlet--to win a 4 star bot to be able to play the damn level in the first place.
And getting Bumblebee, my favorite Transformer? Seems like a pipe dream at this point. Is it me, or has the game gotten more akin to highway robbery in the past month or two.
4* Bee challenge is hard as frozen stone lol but I’m saving energon, I believe 309-515 will be needed for me so that’s worth it for a 4* crystal and other good stuff. I can see Kabam making positive changes like crystal arena all week. Bee’s gauntlet was rather disappointing because you can’t grind the 4* shards so average players can’t expand their 4* roster for more points in arena which means less 4* shards.. it’s a vicious cycle but I feel like it will come to an end soon. The 7 day crystal arena could see a return to milestones so let’s hope things get better!
because 2/3 of the player base isn't even running a single arena round to qualify for rewards.
If those players can be attracted back to the crystal arena with some reasonable milestones as discussed, you will notice an immediate impact to which bracket you land in.
To give additional some numbers on this, Samsung devices with game launcher/tuner installed have some data tracking on games. Within that set roughly 10k play tftf, with an average of 5 logins a day and 10 minute play times. Mcoc has 133k this week (a bit higher than normal) with 1hr+ play times and 12x logins a day.
For me, there are three issues with 4* shard availability:
1. Putting all the 4* shards into just two days / fortnight of arena and 1 day of raids means if you happen to be busy that day you're out to dry
2. Rank rewards with no milestones removes one of the main channels of upwards mobility. Someone with 29 4* bots will outrank someone with 1 every single time, but if the person with 1 is able to hit all the milestones, at least they can get into the 4* shard reward range. If 4* shards are only from rank rewards, the door is permanently closed to anyone outside when the system began
3. There are some 4* shards from the 7 day events, but at least for raid ascent, the MS is set absurdly high. I'm in a top 10 alliance and we definitely wont get even half way toward the final MS. You'd have to have 18 people treating the game like a full time job to get there. That's crazy
The main way I get 4* shards these days is forging 3* bots. That's fine I guess, but you've got to have a 4* bot to begin with if you want to be able to forge 3* into something
If I were changing 4* shard availability, I'd consider keeping the total number available per month constant, but spread them out over more events, making a fraction of them available to people with a full team of 3/, or consider slightly increasing the number available while decreasing the payout of sig programs at the top ranks of that arena.
Comments
I realize there is nothing more frustrating than dedicating a great deal of time and effort into Events and not receiving Rewards that meet and exceed your expectations. Rest assured, we are always trying to make improvements to the game and we're delighted you have all taken the time to share your feedback with us!
I sincereley appreciate your passion for Transformers: Forged to Fight, and I have been reading your comments in this thread with lots of enthusiasm. While I can't promise that any changes will be implemented straight away, your ideas are definitely giving us something to discuss when considering what changes to make in future updates.
So we can get the most out of this discussion, please share with us any improvement suggestions you have about Milestone Rewards. I hope you will give us your ideas on how many 4-Star shards you would like to see for reaching Milestones in Arenas. I would also like you all to consider the impact that making significant changes to Milestone Rewards could potentially have on the game going forward. At present, 4-Star Shards are a valued Item but if they were to become too readily available, it would essentially mean that all players gain more 4-Star Bots. The rarity of these Bots would then be reduced because so many people have them. This is just one potential knock-on effect from increasing the availability of rare Items such as 4-Star Shards.
As mentioned, we look forward to hearing your thoughts on this topic, and hopefully with constructive collaboration, this thread can lead to some great ideas being created to help make the game even better!
The fact is, is that you guys can limit 4* progression in other ways besides limiting crystals. Just look at MCOC and see that only within the last week, players were finally able to r5 their 5* Champs....yet 5* Champs have been around for years.
I think you are going to hear a lot of the same but - IMO, the system that was in place before, was great. I think you guys should focus less on limiting how many 4* bots players can get, and more on how quickly they can rank them up. Gold and ore are still huge factors to contend with, as are rare upgrading materials. Most average players will only be able to get to r2 on most of their 4* bots, which is about the equivalent of a maxed out 3*. So, the bottleneck is already there....you guys just have a bottleneck before another bottleneck - which is pretty annoying.
And arenas need to be more FUN. Right now it feels like im rushing to do everything. Why are all of the arenas only 1 day long? Make arenas last more than 1 day, while offering players both rank and milestone rewards. Players need instant incentives to feel like they are actually accomplishing something...which is what milestone rewards are for. They push the player to keep playing to try and earn those rewards they know they can get. Rank rewards are just icing on the cake and give the player extra rewards for doing as much as they did compare to everyone else. When EVERYTHING is rank rewards, the motivation to even try gets diminished exponentially. Think of a system where you only received rewards for fighting and exploring story mode quests the day AFTER you completed the maps. Sounds silly right? Thats essentially what arenas are right now....only worse because your progress is being compared to everyone elses, and the rewards you receive dont feel like they reflect the time and effort you put into it.
I highly doubt anyone sees this as a problem?
You made a map that requires a wide selection of bots but in turn, only want us to have a very limited selection of those bots?
Seeing as I started early, I have build up a pretty Nice Stock of bots but if you truly intend for people who started within the last 4-5 months to play, then you need to start handing out more 4* bots.
And the fix?
Possibly bring back the milestones that people have been pleading and begging about since you removed them.
I honestly do not know what effect it will have other than happy players.
But then let us say, anyone who has a problem with people getting too many 4*, feel free to flag this post lol.
I agree on the r2 4* thing, only two of my 7 4* are R3, and it will be months (unless I get lucky with a holiday or SL crystal) before I have T3 to rank any more. That being said, I don't mind that bottleneck so much because the two R3's I have are absolutely unstoppable monsters compared to their R2 brethren.
My biggest reason to bring milestones back is that I could always look at a specific reward tier, look at the points required, and go "Okay, that's what I'm working for". It made arenas more fun because I had a guaranteed reward to look forward to, and a goal in mind beyond "grind as hard as I can and hope for the best"
I think that as far as 4* shards go, I'm not sure where the balance should be between feast and famine. I got 3 of my 4* bots in about a month and a half under the old system and it opened the gate to a lot of the high end content I needed to obtain more 4*, sort of a "you need some to get some" situation.
I know it likely won't happen, but even a single free 4* crystal (Just the crystal, no ranking materials) for a Christmas/Anniversary/ event would crack open the door for a lot of players to enjoy more of the game, and that would lead (in my mind anyway) to more participation in arenas as well.
1. 500 premium shards
2. 1000 premium shards
3. 1500 premium shards, 250 3* shards
4. 500 3* shards, 25 4* shards
5. 750 3* shards, 50 4* shards
6. 1000 3* shards, 75 4* shards
7. 150 4* shards
8. 300 4* shards
Keep rank rewards the same
I think this should be a fair milestone system, opinions please.
haha 1 day of crystal bounty give more then a hard spotlight mission exploration, why play spotlight
Well think about lower end players who can’t get the high rank rewards, we need something to work for not for something to be disappointed with. If you get 200 shards x4 (average rank rewards for average players) for rank rewards and 600 shards x4 from milestones that’s 3200 shards, plus the hard spotlight exploration rewards makes it 4200 shards, I’d say 2 4* crystals with a little extra is a good amount for a months worth of work
I think those milestones expecting a full 4* crystal and change for everyone is unrealistic. You want to entice players to participate but that doesn't mean you give away the yacht.
In milestones, I would say 300-400 shards total per arena. Then, you get the rest from how hard you wanna grind for rank.
With rank rewards and the other avenues available to earn 4* shards, such as raid shop, alliance events, special crystals and special missions, the average player should get anywhere from 2000-2500 shards a month.
Remember, you can still grind for feature bot chips for another 4*
Good point, I’ll edit my milestones suggestions. Forgot about the shards from raid store.
Now it evolved to once per month expectation for casual effort, I agree with Manthro, you want to step ahead of the herd, you should be stepping up the effort.
I agree. The pool of bots has expanded so much the last couple months it is really hard to get and dupe the bots you want.
“Stepping up the effort” lmao. Mate some people do all the arenas they can they can, some staying up all night, and we still get crap rank rewards. Not everyone can afford to buy their way out of the game
For the record, you are getting crap for your efforts because 2/3 of the player base isn't even running a single arena round to qualify for rewards.
If those players can be attracted back to the crystal arena with some reasonable milestones as discussed, you will notice an immediate impact to which bracket you land in.
I will try to provide some a tip as I used it always: you dont have to stay up "all night", do arena in batches. Time it so that when bots are recharged, you spend less than 20 mins to use them all, repeat after recharge period. 20 mins break from whatever u r doing in the day during a 3 or 4 hr cycle isnt much to ask yea?
I approached this game like Pension, I tried very hard and grinded when most dont want to at begining of the Forged to Fight, I have enough assets in the end to stay "higher" and relax, exponential growth is true in this game. Sudden boost of rewards to Everyone does not narrow this "gap", new entrants of enticed new/low players will pushes you to a higher bracket so you too can look down and say "look im doing better than those guys", its not wrong no one wants to be at bottom.
I spent total $7.50 on this game in entirety, I know many will think "you prob spend all day evry day", if that new excuse comfort you sure.
Just my cents, dont grill me
P
Exactly.
And getting Bumblebee, my favorite Transformer? Seems like a pipe dream at this point. Is it me, or has the game gotten more akin to highway robbery in the past month or two.
4* Bee challenge is hard as frozen stone lol but I’m saving energon, I believe 309-515 will be needed for me so that’s worth it for a 4* crystal and other good stuff. I can see Kabam making positive changes like crystal arena all week. Bee’s gauntlet was rather disappointing because you can’t grind the 4* shards so average players can’t expand their 4* roster for more points in arena which means less 4* shards.. it’s a vicious cycle but I feel like it will come to an end soon. The 7 day crystal arena could see a return to milestones so let’s hope things get better!
To give additional some numbers on this, Samsung devices with game launcher/tuner installed have some data tracking on games. Within that set roughly 10k play tftf, with an average of 5 logins a day and 10 minute play times. Mcoc has 133k this week (a bit higher than normal) with 1hr+ play times and 12x logins a day.
1. Putting all the 4* shards into just two days / fortnight of arena and 1 day of raids means if you happen to be busy that day you're out to dry
2. Rank rewards with no milestones removes one of the main channels of upwards mobility. Someone with 29 4* bots will outrank someone with 1 every single time, but if the person with 1 is able to hit all the milestones, at least they can get into the 4* shard reward range. If 4* shards are only from rank rewards, the door is permanently closed to anyone outside when the system began
3. There are some 4* shards from the 7 day events, but at least for raid ascent, the MS is set absurdly high. I'm in a top 10 alliance and we definitely wont get even half way toward the final MS. You'd have to have 18 people treating the game like a full time job to get there. That's crazy
The main way I get 4* shards these days is forging 3* bots. That's fine I guess, but you've got to have a 4* bot to begin with if you want to be able to forge 3* into something
If I were changing 4* shard availability, I'd consider keeping the total number available per month constant, but spread them out over more events, making a fraction of them available to people with a full team of 3/, or consider slightly increasing the number available while decreasing the payout of sig programs at the top ranks of that arena.