Eliminate skip tax for shielded players

Colognoisseur

Bugpop wrote:

Colognoisseur wrote:

reckless442 wrote:

The MMR is so ridiculously out-of-whack that trying to find opponents worth points is becoming harder and harder. I just spent 700 ISO trying to find a match against an opponent that I knew was unshielded and was close to me in points, so would have been worth 24-25 points. Instead,I got the same two opponents worth 13 and 14 points amid dozens of 3- to 5-point matches. That system just doesn't make sense. When you have enough points to shield, you have to pick your matches carefully so that you can get points in the 2 to 3 battles between shields, particularly because any loss is usually worth 30+ points. Having to burn thousands of ISO to find matches is extremely frustrating and feels like a huge money grab by the developers ever since they expanded the MMR range.

The solution to this would be to eliminate the skip tax when a player is shielded. The shields cost HP, so the player is paying for the privilege of being shielded so there is a fairness element in not making the player also burn ISO. In addition, a shielded player can only queue three opponents at a time so there is a limit to the benefit he or she gets from avoiding the skip tax. Plus it is a fix for the bug that occurs when you pass 1400 and start getting matched with opponents with scores from 0 to 200, opponents who should be far outside the ordinary MMR range.

You realize this probably only has an effect on <0.5% of the entire player base? You want the devs to fix a problem that only exists when a player gets above 1400 in PvP? A score which has no tangible benefit other than being able to say you can score that. Plus by achieving that score you are earning thousands of ISO which you are choosing to spend so you can have an unusually high score. Yes the devs are lining their pockets with the money spent by overly competitive players scoring greater than 1300 point in PvP because they can.
There are many things within this game which I would categorize as a money grab, this is so not one of them.

In a nutshell, you point out that the problem only affects a small minority of players, and you doubt it's a money grab. It sounds like you believe the problem to be players attempting to achieve unusually high scores. I am wondering if you feel the developers should leave the current system in place.

The issue I have is that it's easy and permissible to exploit certain game mechanics (Tanking, Shield Hopping). The developers "necessary evil" stance makes it difficult to compete unless I also take advantage of the exploits. I think it's unreasonable to suggest that players at the top need to deal with it. If exploiting game mechanics is necessary to rise to the top ranks, then it becomes relevant to every player. The message is that the way to win isn't by playing the match-3 game. The way to win is by exploiting game mechanics and playing as little as possible. In order to more easily secure a win (and earn more ISO) one must lose in order to win (tanking). It's a liability to spend too much time matching tiles. Coordinate shielding with allies to facilitate quick victories and obtain unusually high scores (shield hopping).

I think everyone should play the version of MPQ they want to play but this "problem" only affects very few players. Those who are skipping at scores above 900. Once you get above 1300 in any PvP there is nothing to get other than a 4* cover as someone will have to show me a screen shot of a recent PvP where sixth place was over 1300. I know I play for much less than 1300 per PvP and I've been finishing first pretty regularly since the end of Season 1 and haven't been out of the top 5 in I don't remember when. Plus we are talking about spending iso here and every one of the players we are talking about should be earning well over 100K in iso a week through normal game play. So any "cash grab" over iso is a moot point as no high scoring player is spending money on iso.

If your version of enjoying MPQ is shooting for the highest score you can make that is great but the cost of doing that is skipping like crazy, and tanking. It is a choice how you spend the iso you earn; to score high or to level up characters. In either case the devs do not need to "fix" something that is purely voluntary and it is most certainly not a cash grab.

As for the way to win being exploiting game mechanics you have to define the win conditions. For the huge majority of players it is getting a new cover and winning some iso to level them up none of which the skip tax has much of an effect on, MMR has an effect on that much more. For those of you playing to be #1 the win conditions are different and paying the iso price and the tanking price and the shield hopping price is what it takes to compete for that. Again the devs do not need to step in to save you from yourselves. There is a strategy to score high which only involves money if you excessively shield hop because there is not enough HP in-game to fuel that. The OP is all about iso costs being reduced and that there is plenty of in-game and does not need to be changed.