So why level 166?

Nonce Equitaur 2
Nonce Equitaur 2 Posts: 2,269 Chairperson of the Boards
edited July 2014 in MPQ General Discussion
The new level cap for 3* characters is 166, after the Level Shift change. CLXVI. 10100110. Why that particular number? with an extra 3, we'd have 169, which is 13^2, fitting with the max 13 covers. In hexadecimal, a6. It would have made more sense to have a level cap of 211, or d3.

After some research for puzzle-related items with 166, I figure it has to be because there are 166 hexacubes, the different shapes that can be made by joining 6 cubes. Apparently the puzzle solver of choice for those is burr tools, which can slap those shapes together.

Or maybe because it's a centered triangular number. There's also the astronomical centaur 166P/NEAT, and asteroid 166 Rhodope.

Or perhaps they just lopped the D off of DCLXVI.

Comments

  • LordWill
    LordWill Posts: 341
    Is there really ever any good reason for anything they do?
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    LordWill wrote:
    Is there really ever any good reason for anything they do?

    Money grab? Although I am not sure that applies here
  • Nonce Equitaur 2
    Nonce Equitaur 2 Posts: 2,269 Chairperson of the Boards
    I dunno ... maybe their chief guy is really obsessed with some site like puzzle will be played, and has been fitting various polycubes together trying to get them into a match three game somehow, and he sat up bolt upright in bed a few nights ago screaming "Hexacubes! There are 166 hexacubes! We have to get the number 166 in the came somehow!" So he called up the rest of the d3 staff at 3 in the morning to brainstorm ways of making the number 166 really important.
  • HailMary
    HailMary Posts: 2,179
    The change from 85, a somewhat nice and round number, to 94 is even weirder. At least 141 was already awkward.

    94 - 85 = 9 = 3^2
    166 - 141 = 25 = 5^2
    ... but then the squares pattern is broken for 4*s. Sigh.

    Changing caps to 95 and 170, or 100 and 175, would look a lot better.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    Well... I think the question would really have to be ... why 141 in the first place?

    Adding 25 seems like a nice simple number, and happens to be one of my favorites... which D3 probably knows.. because they're all up ins my facebook! icon_eek.gif
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    I think the problem is with they start from the base levels.

    6 turned to 15; 15 turned to 40; 30 turned to 70.

    In order to keep the same level scaling, they didn't want to change the gain per level.

    I suppose the alternate (better?) solution would be to have them start at weird numbers, 16 and 44, so they end off at 95 and 170.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    It seems like adding a few levels and making the top 50/100/200/300 would make for a very sensible progression, but the level caps have always been weird.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    It looks like when Ice posted the tile match values it increased 141 from strong color 60, to 166 strong color 70. The number is round, just not the number you are looking for.

    I assume its the 3rd color because strongest color is 67.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    My theory was for power-upped feature heroes.

    A *2 powered up gets to 141 like an old *3 had as level cap?
    And a power-upped *3 under the new cap becomes 250?

    (shrug)
  • Kiamodo
    Kiamodo Posts: 423 Mover and Shaker
    So if we have a maxed out 141 will they automatically become 166?
  • HairyDave
    HairyDave Posts: 1,574
    Kiamodo wrote:
    So if we have a maxed out 141 will they automatically become 166?
    Doesn't matter what level they are - 3*s get an extra 25 levels and 2*s get 9 more.
  • IamTheDanger
    IamTheDanger Posts: 1,093 Chairperson of the Boards
    I was wondering why the 1* stayed the same. They were weak to begin with, but with the right covers and boosts and a lucky board, 3 level 50 could beat 3 level 85s. But now level 50s have to take on level 94s? How are those characters supposed to be of any use at all.

    This post is not a complaint, I really am asking, why did the 1* get left out of the level increase.

    JJ
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    JCTthe3rd81 wrote:
    I was wondering why the 1* stayed the same. They were weak to begin with, but with the right covers and boosts and a lucky board, 3 level 50 could beat 3 level 85s. But now level 50s have to take on level 94s? How are those characters supposed to be of any use at all.

    This post is not a complaint, I really am asking, why did the 1* get left out of the level increase.

    JJ

    Well, that's the entire point - they want to reduce the ability of 1* chars to beat 2*s and 2* chars to beat 3*s, so players are forced to move up to the next "weight class"
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    I just thought it was a nice round number.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    viewtopic.php?f=13&t=118

    It used to take 40/50 covers to fully unlock character abilities. Each cover also unlocked the next level. Regardless of rarity the cap was 50. But a 3-star at level 50 was what we see as 141 now. Likewise with 2 star and level 85.

    Apparently it made sense to them to divide the levels in that manner. So with their change it makes the max level seem much more random.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    I think maybe they didn't even think about the final numbers and added some round numbers to level totals, since the aim was to balance the level disparity between characters of different rarities. They added more levels to 3*s than they did to 2*, so that 3*s with less covers will have more levels compared to 2*.
  • Spoit
    Spoit Posts: 3,441 Chairperson of the Boards
    KevinMark wrote:
    I think maybe they didn't even think about the final numbers and added some round numbers to level totals, since the aim was to balance the level disparity between characters of different rarities. They added more levels to 3*s than they did to 2*, so that 3*s with less covers will have more levels compared to 2*.
    Working as intended

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