Changing Crate Rotation for a Better UX

With the addition of the Summer Events 4th crate, non-event crates have been put on hold in terms of obtainment for a whole fortnight. Whilst this makes sense in giving players the opportunity to purchase the limited time crates, it ultimately hurts the user experience as it forces players to wait for cosmetics they might desire more than those from the event crates.

This was somewhat manageable during previous events as there was at maximum 2 event crates allowing 1 non event crate to be bought or looted naturally for each three day period. But now that all future events will be getting a whole new crate each year this issue will only compound as events go on.

I generally haven’t been a fan of the crate rotation system in regards to paid crates. If someone wants to spend money on something, they shouldn’t have to wait to do it. I understand wanting to add variety to the free to play players experience, but as crates continue to be added this issue will only continue to get worse.

There are many creative ways to alleviate/completely fix this and I’ll be suggesting some below, but I feel this issue should be presented now so that come Halloween we aren’t dealing with this again.

Possible Solution One:

Make the rotational crates “discounted crates”. Allow all non-event crates and all event crates during an event be purchasable at all times. Change the three displayed crates to not only be the crates that are in the general loot-table, but also “Discounted Crates”. The discount could be minimal 5-10%, multibuy Buy Five get one free, etc. You could also limit the amount someone can purchase per day or that can be purchased at the discounted rate total to stop it from being exploited.

Pros:
- Players feel rewarded and incentivized to spend on crates when they are in rotation.
- A more price conscious spender can get more for their money if they are willing to be patient.

Cons:
- Complicated to develop taking dev time.
- Open to causing inflation in the economy.

Possible Solution Two:

Increase the amount of crates displayed at Founders Fountain. Simplest solution would be adding another 2 crates so that even during events there can be a healthy rotation of crates whilst having the event crates be purchasable too.

Pros:
- More freedom for players to be able to purchase the crates they want.
- Less of a wait for crates to enter rotation during non-event periods.

Cons:
- Can make spawn and UI’s more cluttered and difficult to use.
- Has a more “p2w” server vibe by having crates take up a good portion of spawn.

These are just some quick solutions I thought up, the team is smart enough to find and ORified way to alleviate this problem but I know that this needs to be suggested now so that it can be considered for the Halloween Event.