The joke is no longer funny; end death brackets.... now!

Unknown

There have been numerous posts this season regarding the change in sharding and the reemergence of death brackets.

Either you think we have all been pulling your leg for the past 3 weeks, or someone just finds it hilarious to bring such misery to the players. What was the point of having a break between seasons and a lesser reward for this season to make the game more fun and less stressful, if every PvP was going to be a death bracket?

I understand MMR is complex and will probably always need to be tweaked.

However, sharding is something that could have been corrected shortly after it was evident at the beginning of the season that it was not functioning as intended. The worst part is after it was working horribly in season 1, it was fixed in seasons 2 and 3.

With all the task with you have on your plate, why would you break something that was finally working correctly? More importantly, since you already have the correct formula from the last two seasons to fix it swiftly, why would the feature be left broken for an entire season?

Bowgentle

Yeah, an answer to that would be nice.
I'm not holding my breath, though

Unknown

Bowgentle wrote:

Yeah, an answer to that would be nice.
I'm not holding my breath, though

This was what ICEIX said earlier this season http://www.d3pforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=13231&p=194600&hilit=+shard#p194600

It did not address why sharding went to working better in seasons two and three, to the dumpster fire it has beocme this season.

MarvelMan

Just to clarify. Its not "sharding" its SHARTING.

Unknown

I think doubling the rewards would fix this easily. I don't see more than 7-8 people in my brackets fighting for top 5 anyways, so why not just give 3 covers to top 10, 2 covers for top 50 etc?
Oh wait...

Unknown

Would someone explain what the problem is? It seems like everyone is just mad that they're being matched up against people their own weight class instead of being able to beat up on noobs. If this isn't the case, my apologies.

Unknown

I think it's just that the last couple rewards have been for newer characters and it's getting near the end of the season. I expect if the next pvp offers Loki or Rags we'll see much lower scoring rounds.

Unknown

"&#91 wrote: »

"]Would someone explain what the problem is? It seems like everyone is just mad that they're being matched up against people their own weight class instead of being able to beat up on noobs. If this isn't the case, my apologies.

It's not about who you play individual matches against, but who you share brackets with.

Unknown

gobstopper wrote:

"&#91 wrote: »

"]Would someone explain what the problem is? It seems like everyone is just mad that they're being matched up against people their own weight class instead of being able to beat up on noobs. If this isn't the case, my apologies.

It's not about who you play individual matches against, but who you share brackets with.

To clarify further, there are brackets full of forumites that 1100 points won't get you top ten in, and others full of noobs where 600 will win the thing.

Unknown

Wish it went back to the simple timed join brackets so that it was just pure luck again rather than D3 putting me in a bracket with maxed out teams. My top 10 is full of those 1100+ and the leader at 1600+

Unknown

Ben Grimm wrote:

gobstopper wrote:

"&#91 wrote: »

"]Would someone explain what the problem is? It seems like everyone is just mad that they're being matched up against people their own weight class instead of being able to beat up on noobs. If this isn't the case, my apologies.

It's not about who you play individual matches against, but who you share brackets with.

To clarify further, there are brackets full of forumites that 1100 points won't get you top ten in, and others full of noobs where 600 will win the thing.

Case in point, I''m in a happy bracket with THREE X-Men and three commanders from CareBearStare, Dormammu and Olympus. Something tells me my 1278 points won't net me the 5th place I need while a teammate is 5th with 800 something points in a bracket where the first one is 900 something.

Unknown

One of my alliance mates. There is still 8 hours to go and they are all creeping up. This is so dumb. bring back time based brackets!!!

Unknown

ok so i was right. people don' want to fight people in their own weight class. they want to be placed in brackets with more noobs. got it.

Unknown

"&#91 wrote: »

"]ok so i was right. people don' want to fight people in their own weight class. they want to be placed in brackets with more noobs. got it.

That only makes sense if noobs fight for noob covers and not the top covers

Unknown

"&#91 wrote: »

"]ok so i was right. people don' want to fight people in their own weight class. they want to be placed in brackets with more noobs. got it.

Nice phrasing. My turn.

1. Players don't want to be penalized for spending their time playing the game. If someone works hard to develop their roster and earns better characters, it is not right other players who have not done the same are given rewards because they don't want a challenge. What is the incentive for obtaining covers and iso to level characters, if the players are going to penalized for doing so. In practice, this encourages players to not play and not level up characters. This should be the precise opposite outcome that bracketing is intended for.


2. No one is asking to be put in a bracket of noobs as you call them. The problem is that players are no longer being bracketed in a fair, random, or neutral manner. Stronger players are being grouped together. The result is more stress and less fun. Players just want a fair opportunity to compete. When players cheat this opportunity is taken away because certain players have an artificial competitive advantage. I do not understand how this is different when the "game" brackets players in a biased manner (the outcome is influenced by other factors aside from entry time). The result of this bracketing technique is the same as a player cheating. It creates an environment where certain players have an artificial competitive advantage.

3. There were not these complaints the last two seasons, by newer rosters or more developed ones. People are just asking to a return to those types of brackets.

4. The newer rosters are also in these death brackets, not just veteran ones.

Edelkin

Want something to complain about, try losing 5 of your last 6 fights against teams you beat ALL the time. Bring in Wolverine....No green no red. 3 green AP the WHOLE fight. Two fights in a row. Just a wall of black and yellow tiles, oh and those annoying TU's. Use Hulk.....No green or red. Just a wall of black and yellow tiles again. Use Ares, Same thing. Anytime things start to look good it's an endless cascade or PERFECTLY timed TU by the other team to kill the character that had finally just got enough AP to do a power. This game is unplayable at times, but seems to be working actively against me to make sure I can't get the purple Deadpool that I was cheated out of while finishing in 6th place in the pve while the server outage took my last fight away that would have put me in fifth place. I am glad that they gave me those 750 iso to make up for it (3-2star covers from thier generous packs). Bout time to call it quits. No even a pretense of randomness in these tile layouts. Whatever character you bring in, there is no combinations to match thier abilities.

hex706f726368

"&#91 wrote: »

"]ok so i was right. people don' want to fight people in their own weight class. they want to be placed in brackets with more noobs. got it.

You are correct. You don't understand the issue.

BTW, if anyone thinks this isn't intentional, you are probably being gullible. It's my belief that sharding was intended to increase shield hopping. Most of the time, I've either noticed 6-7 people vying for top 5, or in even crazier death brackets, 12-14 vying for top 10. This induces the people on the fringe to attempt to shield hop to either maintain their position or move up into the next reward bracket. Not sure if this is generating any extra revenue for D3 yet, but I think it's likely.

I'm sure D3 knows how people are most likely to spend their HP, and they're creating the environment that fosters that behavior the most.

HailMary

"&#91 wrote: »

"]ok so i was right. people don' want to fight people in their own weight class. they want to be placed in brackets with more noobs. got it.

If death brackets give out double the rewards or notably more valuable rewards, I'll gladly intentionally enter a death bracket for covers I want.

However, they don't. Oh, and regardless of bracketing, veterans are still very much fighting their own weight class. During my final climbs, I pretty much see an unbroken field of maxed Sentries stretching to the horizon, with only the occasional maxed Patchneto team sticking out like a retiree at a Justin Bieber concert.

Edelkin wrote:

Want something to complain about, try losing 5 of your last 6 fights against teams you beat ALL the time. Bring in Wolverine....No green no red. 3 green AP the WHOLE fight. Two fights in a row. Just a wall of black and yellow tiles, oh and those annoying TU's. Use Hulk.....No green or red. Just a wall of black and yellow tiles again. Use Ares, Same thing. Anytime things start to look good it's an endless cascade or PERFECTLY timed TU by the other team to kill the character that had finally just got enough AP to do a power. This game is unplayable at times, but seems to be working actively against me to make sure I can't get the purple Deadpool that I was cheated out of while finishing in 6th place in the pve while the server outage took my last fight away that would have put me in fifth place. I am glad that they gave me those 750 iso to make up for it (3-2star covers from thier generous packs). Bout time to call it quits. No even a pretense of randomness in these tile layouts. Whatever character you bring in, there is no combinations to match thier abilities.

This happens to all (or at least many) of us. I've had times when unmaxed teams have wiped my top-tier L166 teams multiple times in a row, and it royally sucks. Just today, an alliancemate of mine wipe his pristine, maxed Patchneto team against L94s due to massive AI cascades. Sometimes the game just doesn't like you, but its moodiness always passes.

morgh

Anything that actually forces multiple people to go over 1300 is plain silly and unreasonable...

mjh

so the #1 guy in my bracket is over 1900pts with over 5 hours to go, tell me how it makes sense for me or most people to be competing with him?

Of course he is in one of the X-Men alliance.

Top10 is all 1000+ for good measure

OnesOwnGrief

sms4002 wrote:

One of my alliance mates. There is still 8 hours to go and they are all creeping up. This is so dumb. bring back time based brackets!!!

That is some FABULOUS shield hopping at work there. This actually has nothing to do with skill but your reservoir of Hero Points. Though here's the thing, due to how well they did all of the previous 3 seasons, it just fed into itself. The top gets higher while the lower ranks are pushed further back. Seen this coming since the beginning of shields.