User blog:Misdirected/The New AP System is Actually Better-ish.

Yep. You read that right. Before you burn me at the stake, let me justify myself.

Now, before AP was scaling, starting at an abysmal number, and gradually increasing in abysmal increments until you hit 100, and voilà, you magically had roughly 100 AP.

Now, everybody's on an even playing field. In theory. In actuality, the new players got gimped a little harder than before, but not by much. It all comes down to perspective. And boss missions. We're also excluding Boss Zones, Brave Aura, Nightmare Rift, and Trials of Ages.

 Look at it this way. Before, missions would cost as little as 8 AP, upwards to 20 AP. AP generated at a cost of 3 minutes/AP, which was a half-decent rate, until you had about 100 of it. Then that wasn't the best thing ever. In perspective, an 8 AP mission took 24 minutes to generate for, and a 20 AP mission took a whole hour to generate for. This meant that if you wanted to run a later mission, you would have to wait an hour to do so. Fun. Fun as juggling a pair of hairy ox bollocks.

Now look at the new AP system. 30 minutes per 1 AP point, which means that it's valued in perspective to former costs. In the low level starting missions (the first two or three zones, mind you), this is a bad change. 8 and 9 AP in the old system was cheaper by 6 and 3 minutes, respectively. However, once you get to 10 AP, this changes. If you view the old system to the new system, 1 AP in this system takes 30 minutes to generate, which is the same, that's right, the exact same as 10 AP of the old system. To put it into pseudo-math:

1 AP [NEW] = 30 Minutes = 10 AP [OLD]

After that point of hitting on an equal ground, the new AP system only gets more efficient. By the time you've reached the 20 AP zones, you've gotten 100% more efficiency out of your AP without even doing a bloody thing. I honestly don't see why people complain so much.

TL;DR: New system is 100% more efficient end-zone, about the same start-zone.

 Moving on to the next topic at hand for this: AP Potions.

Overall, this change has made AP potions more fair between the level 30 and the level 130. Before, the restoration rate of them green majikal pot was heavily weighted towards higher-level players. Mini-pots restored a rounded half of your AP, which meant that someone with 60 AP got a whole lot less out of it than someone with 120 AP, because they would have to chug two of the exact same item in order to achieve the same numerical result as a higher up player. Same applies for normal, tradable-sharing-is-caring pot. Personally, I think that later game players should have the absolute advantage of being more dedicated and player longer, but if they wanted to go for a more balanced system in favor of the casual or new players, I can see why they did it. This system, however, does not solve card and raid deck cost equality. No Japanese card game with EVER achieve that one.

TL;DR: New system means pot equality.

The real gripe people have about this system, which I found quite humorous, was that "I have to wait 2.5 hours to actually do anything!" Sure, that may be true. Before, you would have waited 1 hour for 20 AP, 2 hours for 40 AP, and 2.5 hours for 50. If you were already "mid-game" per se, this isn't a change at all. Again, gimping the early players. Late game players would have waited longer, so I don't know why they complain. Another plausible cause is the officially implemented "All Out" system, which allows you to spend all 2.5 hours of AP in one place. However, this doesn't really feel all that satisfying, apart from acknowledging that you give five times the reward. On a flip note, this gives people with less time to sit on their phones a better time, as they can run one mission, cash in, and get out of dodge and go about their lives. Since the changes, I have done nothing BUT All Out mode. I personally find this method great for power-loyalty or power-grinding Grimores, as you can effectively get 2.5 missions done in the time for 1 mission (okay, so I did get Brave Aura involved. I'm sorry.), which is a pretty sweet deal if you want to chug pots for days and get all your units maxed quick. In the case of loyalty, this is a huge yes. A 3-star unit takes 10 AP to max out. A 4-star unit takes 15 AP to max out. A 5-star takes 20 AP to max out. A 6-star takes 34 AP to max out. These rates, if you compare them to the earlier rule of 10 AP[OLD] = 1 AP [NEW], are gloriously better rates. A 10 AP mission from before would not have netted you as much loyalty as a 1 AP mission does now. I've managed to power level plenty of cards and cash out for medals, which got me enough medals to buy my first Sraosha in a matter of days. It got me there so fast, that I wasn't even 100 before I had the medals to afford a Sraosha.

TL;DR: "All Out" feels less satisfying, therefore leaves people unsatisfied. Makes social and/or real life easier. Makes power-farming loyalty and/or Grimores far more efficient. Go buy your Sraosha.

<p class="MsoNormal"> <p class="MsoNormal">This just about wraps up my thoughts on this whole change. Overall, the big TL;DR is going to be:

<p class="MsoNormal">New AP system is better for ease of life and digital benefits, but it just doesn't feel that way.

<p class="MsoNormal"> <p class="MsoNormal">If any of my math is wrong and/or you do not agree with my thoughts, and/or you hate my guts, feel free to discuss, because that's what the comment section is for. Oh yes, I just shamefully advertised my comment section. I am a criminal.

<p class="MsoNormal">Don't forget in your discussions, that I did exclude ToA, which is definitely worse (5 AP[OLD] to 1 AP[NEW]), boss zones (which have lost efficiency due to their 2 AP[NEW] nature), Nightmare Rift (which I was too lazy to math for, so I'm not sure on) and Brave Aura (which is only more efficient if the old AP cost exceeded 40 AP, which was seldom the case, meaning those got less efficient in slight sense.)

<p class="MsoNormal"> <p class="MsoNormal">I have this habit of making polls, so I'm going to make one two.

<p class="MsoNormal">

<p class="MsoNormal">How did you feel about the new AP system before?

<p class="MsoNormal">Love it!

<p class="MsoNormal">Don't care.

<p class="MsoNormal">Hate it.

<p class="MsoNormal">Not satisfying.

<p class="MsoNormal">

<p class="MsoNormal">

<p class="MsoNormal">How do you feel about the new AP system now?

<p class="MsoNormal">Love it now!

<p class="MsoNormal">Still love it!

<p class="MsoNormal">Still don't care.

<p class="MsoNormal">Still hate it.

<p class="MsoNormal">Hate it now.

<p class="MsoNormal">Not satisfying, no matter the math.

<p class="MsoNormal">Your math is wrong.

<p class="MsoNormal">

<p class="MsoNormal">