Unstable ISO-8 - July 18-24

yogi_

HairyDave wrote:

I still hate this last hour sprint - it's ridiculous.

Totally agree.

There has to be some sort of way around this.

Move to more of a progression system?

mohio

First congrats to everyone on surviving that scaling clusterkitty.

Congrats immortal rage and S.T.E.A.L.T.H. well-earned top 2

Congrats Flashgordon88 and Arkon4, holding off BubbleBoy, Reckless, 00001noob00001, and a few other heavy hitters is not an easy task.

and Congrats to Thieves Guild (99th) and WrathOfAsgard (100th) for sneaking in that top 100 placement.

Hope everyone placed more or less where they wanted. At least it's over!

Unknown

mohio wrote:

First congrats to everyone on surviving that scaling clusterkitty.

*snip*

Hope everyone placed more or less where they wanted. At least it's over!

Right now I want sleep!!!!!

Unknown

yogi_ wrote:

HairyDave wrote:

I still hate this last hour sprint - it's ridiculous.

Totally agree.

There has to be some sort of way around this.

Move to more of a progression system?

Prodigal Sun is the only event I can think of that didn't have a last hour sprint since it was before the 2H 24M refresh with no rubberbanding, so finishing all your missions with 11H 59M to go is the same as finishing them all at 1M to go. But that system is too exhausting in its own way too especially if the 2H 24M system is in place, since you spend most of the event worried about what if you somehow missed a refresh and that'd put you way back, and it'd probably create more problem than it solves without having mission refresh time on server time since you'd just have a ton of people complaining that they missed one refresh and now have no chance of finishing in top whatever, which is quite valid.

yogi_

Phantron wrote:

Prodigal Sun is the only event I can think of that didn't have a last hour sprint since it was before the 2H 24M refresh with no rubberbanding, so finishing all your missions with 11H 59M to go is the same as finishing them all at 1M to go. But that system is too exhausting in its own way too especially if the 2H 24M system is in place, since you spend most of the event worried about what if you somehow missed a refresh and that'd put you way back, and it'd probably create more problem than it solves without having mission refresh time on server time since you'd just have a ton of people complaining that they missed one refresh and now have no chance of finishing in top whatever, which is quite valid.

I know this changes it all together, but what if you got rid of the individual place rankings all together? Perhaps kept them for alliances.

Or did you just answer that. Just mulling over your comment... I think I see what you are getting at, but there has to be some sort of way around it all.

Mawtful

Managed to make it all the way up to #27 in my bracket, from about #300 this morning (~5 hours ago). If I'd given myself time for 1 or 2 more matches I think I could have taken top #20, which would have been nice since my alliance doesn't place in top #100.

The Red CapA progression reward was needed, but I think I'll take a good long look at prog rewards for the next PvE before I jump in. If this is going to be the new normal, I'll just play for the last ~2 hours.

Unknown

Wobby wrote:

Finished my last mission about 8 seconds too late... Would've nabbed the #2 spot from EvilSomGoku.
Oh well. I'll never put ISO into 4* Wolverine. Bring on the. Ms Marvel.

Sorry Wobby, I was grinding and didn't check until I noticed I hit #2. I saw you there and stopped playing with a few minutes left and was hoping you could overtake me as I saw you could use the wolvie. I wish I had noticed earlier and stopped for ya.

Unknown

Reading the posts, guess it was my imagination. Thought rb had been turned off or lowered at the end.

Unknown

yogi_ wrote:

Phantron wrote:

Prodigal Sun is the only event I can think of that didn't have a last hour sprint since it was before the 2H 24M refresh with no rubberbanding, so finishing all your missions with 11H 59M to go is the same as finishing them all at 1M to go. But that system is too exhausting in its own way too especially if the 2H 24M system is in place, since you spend most of the event worried about what if you somehow missed a refresh and that'd put you way back, and it'd probably create more problem than it solves without having mission refresh time on server time since you'd just have a ton of people complaining that they missed one refresh and now have no chance of finishing in top whatever, which is quite valid.

I know this changes it all together, but what if you got rid of the individual place rankings all together? Perhaps kept them for alliances.

Or did you just answer that. Just mulling over your comment... I think I see what you are getting at, but there has to be some sort of way around it all.

The problem is that from the player's point of view it is not obvious to us whether the last hour madness, which everyone seems to hate, is bad for the company's bottom line. Sure everyone hates it but we don't really know if the perception of having a chance keeps players more engaged. In Prodigal Sun I had enough of a lead that I can get #1 without doing the last refresh. If Prodigal Sun events become common, would people get discouraged when you figure out you have no chance of catching up to the top X halfway through the event? I tend to think getting discouraged at top X being way ahead is no worse than thinking you had a chance and drop to #100 in the last hour, but that's just my opinion and I certainly don't have any stats to back that up.

Unknown

stephen43084 wrote:

Reading the posts, guess it was my imagination. Thought rb had been turned off or lowered at the end.

In this event people are clustered extremely close together unlike normal events, so even if you're sitting at #50 you might only be 2000 points behind and won't really have much of a rubberband to work with.

Unknown

Mawtful wrote:

Managed to make it all the way up to #27 in my bracket, from about #300 this morning (~5 hours ago). If I'd given myself time for 1 or 2 more matches I think I could have taken top #20, which would have been nice since my alliance doesn't place in top #100.

The Red CapA progression reward was needed, but I think I'll take a good long look at prog rewards for the next PvE before I jump in. If this is going to be the new normal, I'll just play for the last ~2 hours.

Only TaT and Unstable Iso have the structure of 'nothing you did prior to the last 12 hours matters'. Even Heroic Oscorp gave relatively little time for the main bracket rubberband nodes such that you're unlikely to have enough time to completely undo the lead built up prior to that.

yogi_

Phantron wrote:

stephen43084 wrote:

Reading the posts, guess it was my imagination. Thought rb had been turned off or lowered at the end.

In this event people are clustered extremely close together unlike normal events, so even if you're sitting at #50 you might only be 2000 points behind and won't really have much of a rubberband to work with.

This is exactly what I spent my last hours battling. Gaining points just didn't move me anywhere. Very unusual.

Rusalka

Well, that was brutal. Ended up just barely hanging on to 100th place with 61K. That's a hell of a lot of work for one CM cover.

Ah well. I got what I really needed -- the blue Cap cover. Plus, I pulled a green HT and a blue Falcon from tokens, so I can't say the even was a waste. But I'm ready for a nap now.

Unknown

For some reason thought there was another 12 hours to go, and didn't mind that work was heavy and I was going to get a late lunch until I logged in and realised that I'd just missed the ending of the event. Whoops.

Outside the top 200 (after grinding into top 25 before bed) but at least I got all the progression awards (and then some) and still get a Ms Marvel cover from my alliance. Yay alliances!

over_clocked

Phantron wrote:

Only TaT and Unstable Iso have the structure of 'nothing you did prior to the last 12 hours matters'. Even Heroic Oscorp gave relatively little time for the main bracket rubberband nodes such that you're unlikely to have enough time to completely undo the lead built up prior to that.

What about Heroic Juggernaut (both instances)? Heroic Venom we had once I believe, and at least it had 4x 'subs': 2 Normal rounds and 2 Hard rounds.

HailMary

Congrats to S.T.E.A.L.T.H. for going #2! Only 23 points short of #1, too!

Xeonic-Ice

Something really needs to be done about these PVE slogs. So many hours of effort goes into them and you really don't know how well you're doing until it's over. In PVP, a fraction of the effort can get you three or four 3* and two 4*.

I managed to keep 4th by playing a few missions throughout the final day and ended with 63.7k points. When the scaling gets so high at the end, that's the only way to guarantee points. If you wait too long on the final day, you just don't have enough time to clear several times.

Unknown

Xeonic-Ice wrote:

Something really needs to be done about these PVE slogs. So many hours of effort goes into them and you really don't know how well you're doing until it's over. In PVP, a fraction of the effort can get you three or four 3* and two 4*.

Personally, I think that part of the problem is that the events drag on for so long. If they did three consecutive short events, each of which rewarded a single color cover, I think it'd be a lot more bearable.

They also need to do something to reduce the need to repeatedly grind nodes, of course. To be honest, I'm not really convinced that having competitive PvE events makes any sense.

Nellyson

Tinykitty this event!!!! I was ranked 15th with 3 hours to go. Guess where I finished. 202 and out of a 3* captain marvel!!!!! This rubberbanding **** has got to go!!!! I worked too ducking hard the entire event, just to have all my work count for nothing! Fix your **** D3!!!!

yogi_

Muspel wrote:

Xeonic-Ice wrote:

Something really needs to be done about these PVE slogs. So many hours of effort goes into them and you really don't know how well you're doing until it's over. In PVP, a fraction of the effort can get you three or four 3* and two 4*.

Personally, I think that part of the problem is that the events drag on for so long. If they did three consecutive short events, each of which rewarded a single color cover, I think it'd be a lot more bearable.

They also need to do something to reduce the need to repeatedly grind nodes, of course. To be honest, I'm not really convinced that having competitive PvE events makes any sense.

Agree. This grinding was horrible and do not usually do it to that extent.

Sadly for us, it's easy for them to just throw on a multi-day event and let it be.