How the Hulk scoring system works ?

Unknown

I can't beat the final showdown. Tried 4 times now.

85 Thor 73 wolvey and 15 punisher

This last effort I got past rag with everyone alive and wolvey at 80% and healing and punisher at 320 hp and Thor full health.

I then whittled down juggernaut but stupid venom webbed me and then jug crashed and headbutted wolvey and the collateral damage took out punisher. I then 4 matched to load up Thor yellow and it was thor vs venom.

Hit him with yellow and got half the green filled. Half red filled also. I matched red and he snared me. He whacked me good with a 4 match then I came out of it and hit him with red and was 1 away from filling yellow. He then devoured me and I went from 4650 health to zero.

The end.

Unknown

Misguided wrote:

dannyshan007 wrote:

repeat this 2 more times.

And that wasn't even necessary. I'm pretty sure I'm going to squeak past 50k and I did very little grinding missions to zero once, let alone twice or three times. I *did* do a little bit extra this morning to push my rank up this morning, because the post Bainee made yesterday about wanting your rank as high as possible at the last checkpoint made a lot of sense, but I still had points left on the table then too.

I agree it wasn't necessary, just be safe. Acutually, I grinded 2 cycles most of the time, alway placed top 50 at the moment when mission closed off.

Unknown

Here's the post I was referring to, btw

Unknown

Do people like this rubber banding system?

Or are they just wrapped up in how to game it and aren't thinking how ridiculous it is?

Maybe sports should do this. Let's play basketball and if I get up by 10, the baskets I make will count for you until we are tied. Then if there are 2 minutes left in the qtr my baskets count twice as much but you aren't allowed to play. Then the scoreboard turns off.

Unknown

I think the system is ****. I've been playing other games during the day, playing this much less since it punishes me to play more.

Unknown

Worldrevolver wrote:

Do people like this rubber banding system?

Not particularly, but it beats hours of senseless grinding. It also beats the end being a complete crapshoot like the Hunt was.

I think the biggest problem right now is a lack of consistency/predictability as they tweak the formula. Players don't know what to expect, which is the main source of agitation. I think the majority of people here would be ok if they felt they lost "fair and square" but there is a sense of playing a game without knowing the rules, which leads to people thinking they got screwed.

Unknown

Worldrevolver wrote:

Do people like this rubber banding system?

Or are they just wrapped up in how to game it and aren't thinking how ridiculous it is?

Maybe sports should do this. Let's play basketball and if I get up by 10, the baskets I make will count for you until we are tied. Then if there are 2 minutes left in the qtr my baskets count twice as much but you aren't allowed to play. Then the scoreboard turns off.

A basketball game doesn't last for 9 days. Without rubber banding, you're asking players to grind mercilessly (see the original red iso 8 event). Might be more transparent, but it is not healthy at all.

eidehua

Worldrevolver wrote:

Do people like this rubber banding system?

Or are they just wrapped up in how to game it and aren't thinking how ridiculous it is?

Maybe sports should do this. Let's play basketball and if I get up by 10, the baskets I make will count for you until we are tied. Then if there are 2 minutes left in the qtr my baskets count twice as much but you aren't allowed to play. Then the scoreboard turns off.

There is no need to be upset

Right now there is very little point increase due to rubberbanding going on, what rank you end up at the end of this event (barring refreshes) is what you deserve.
Sure there are some issues with rubberbanding, but what's not to love? It allows casuals to catch up to the leader, but not overtake him. Sure they still have to work some kinks with the system, but it seems to be working as intended.

I believe you don't know what rubberbanding is actually doing with your analogy.
Here is a good post on what it is doing:
http://www.d3pforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1480&start=380#p21922

You can't shoot past the leader. People are only shooting past you because they were supposed to. (They didn't do event yet)
The only issue is if you did all missions when they just opened. There will be some point increase due to rubberbanding as the leaders get their points.

Also don't be upset about the punisher reward... only about 40 some people got it right now.

Unknown

Worldrevolver wrote:

I can't beat the final showdown. Tried 4 times now.

85 Thor 73 wolvey and 15 punisher

This last effort I got past rag with everyone alive and wolvey at 80% and healing and punisher at 320 hp and Thor full health.

I then whittle down juggernaut but stupid venom webbed me and then jug crashed and headbutted wolvey and the collateral damage took out punisher. I then 4 matched to load up Thor yellow and it was thor vs venom.

Hit him with yellow and got half the green filled. Half red filled also. I matched red and he snared me. He whacked me good with a 4 match then I came out of it and hit him with red and was 1 away from filling yellow. He then devoured me and I went from 4650 health to zero.

The end.

I beat it with a similar team. If you can, try and get wolvie a few more levels. Playing a few rounds of the other events should do just that. Punisher does nothing...his only use is as headbutt fodder if you get unlucky @that lvl. What boosts are u running and how is your wolvie/thor built? I used +3 all +3 red/yellow and +20% dark avenger. As long as you play cautiously, have a little luck, and down rag fast enough you should be okay. Sounds like you got pretty close that time. It all comes down to holding onto your red so your greens put out more tiles, blocking reds/green to a lesser extent, and using mjolnir when you have a weird board. Same process, but having your thor/wolvie nit optimally built at 5/5/3 and 5/3/5 respectively is a huge disadvantage. Gl.

Also, rubberbanding would make the end of blowout basketball contests more exciting. Afterall, at the professional lvl they are really just playing for other ppl's amusement. Games like darts use a form of rubberbanding in "precise finishes" that allow ppl.behind to catch up...so its not unprecedented. Personally I like the rubberbanding. It means ppl don't have to grind every second of the day to win. A little intelligence and a little luck beats out pure numbers of hours spent which I think is far more enjoyable for everyone compared with an event devoid of rubberbanding. Either way, your issue here is more with not playing.the ending "right" than the rubberbanding itself...just like ppl felt with the last event. It's always been the second to last segment to be the most important, and that hasn't changed. I guess you will know for next time though. And a red punisher and maybe a 4**** wolvie isn't really worth worrying about anyway. Heck, I've hit all blanks except a blue spidey on all my packs so far..enough wolverine/cap to.build a second of each at this point lol. I am sure there are plenty that did better in those pack pulls I should be major jelly about. Heck, I am sure there is someone who played for 45 min.total.somewhere who pulled back.to.back blue spidey who I should be loathing right now lol.

Beast1970

I'm sitting at 49757 and currently #299. Without a refresh, I won't hit 50K and I'll be amazed if I stay in the top 300. I'm feeling betrayed, hurt, ripped off... Oh wait, nope, I'm not. Thanks to this event I now have a maxed wolvie, tons of ISO, a free Hulk, and wonder of wonders, at least 8 new Bagman covers! It would be nice to get the Punisher cover, but I can't complain as I worked hard and won one previously, and actually got one from a cover token. I'm also pretty sure I have read plenty telling me the wolvie cover for the top 300 isn't a very useful one either, regardless of the number of stars. I will be surprised if I drop below the 1500 level, but if I do, so be it. The rewards for this event have been incredible, and I felt the same about the Hunt. I haven't been a top player and have benefitted from the journey more than the placement awards, and can't really figure out what all the angst is about. I dumped a little money into the game to support the devs, not enough to build a team and I've just been patient and taken what comes my way. Finally got my second Rag cover from the daily rewards, and hoping to get more from normal play. With all that, I don't think hovering near the 300 mark is all that bad and I'm just happy to sit back and receive the equivalent of hundreds of dollars worth of HP, ISO, and tokens from this event for free. (But still praying for a magical reset to get my last 243 for Frank...)

Unknown

BTW someone mentioned before that the standards were coming out as heroics for the last set. Sadly I probably played too late and they fixed the bug.

Nemek

Worldrevolver wrote:

Do people like this rubber banding system?

Or are they just wrapped up in how to game it and aren't thinking how ridiculous it is?

Maybe sports should do this. Let's play basketball and if I get up by 10, the baskets I make will count for you until we are tied. Then if there are 2 minutes left in the qtr my baskets count twice as much but you aren't allowed to play. Then the scoreboard turns off.

I'm on the fence about it, overall. You may not have been around for the first PvE event, but there wasn't any rubberbanding in it - the formula was pretty simple - the person who grinded the most won the top spot.

We often 'blame' Polkio for it (where IS Polkio?!), since he and his wife were playing for what must have been 6 hours a day (which, at the time, seemed pretty unbelievable...but sadly, not as much anymore), and absolutely demolished the field. But, we really don't know if his run-up was even close to the reason why rubber banding was implemented.

So, why did it change? And is it for the better? Here are my thoughts...

Why rubber banding is better:

• You don't need to play constantly to win. I think there was probably a concern about people playing TOO much. Burn-out on a game isn't an unreasonable notion, and if you're "forcing" players to play ridiculous amounts of time for (relatively) small rewards, you're just forcing them to quit. Since the top players are likely the ones that spent the most money and most likely to really grind, they'll likely be the first people burnt out.
• More strategy, less brute force. MPQ is, after all, a strategy game. The developers are geeks that like the idea of smart plays being key to victory and figuring things out as events play out should be a goal for any player.
• It's more accessible to the average or low-level player (99% of the playerbase). Generally, a player likely only has a couple of hours a day to really devote to MPQ (and that's a hardcore player!), due to work/school/family/sleep. Having missions refresh every 8/10/12 hours (or whatever it is), means somebody could play an hour before work and then an hour before bed, and still be pretty close with the rest of the pack.

Why rubber banding is worse:

• Rubber banding is SUPER time-of-day dependent. To play optimally, there are a couple of very important times you need to be playing, much like the regular PvP tournaments. If you don't realize what those times of day are or have other life obligations, then you could be screwed. This is probably my biggest gripe.
• It's not intuitive to people that don't spend a lot of time reading the forums (either for patch notes or for other player input.) This leads to quite the vocal reaction we see on these forums when these events end.
• Related to the above point, if you don't know the system well, you can be falsely led to believe you're doing better than you are. At any point during a rubber banded event, you could be in 1st place for the entire thing. But...are you really truly the statistically most likely person to finish 1st based on that? No...probably not. But, some people believe it and then feel cheated later on.

Overall, I think rubber banding is a better system, as controversial as it is on this forum. But, I can see the allure in dumbing down the system just for the sake of reducing the amount of complaints. Because, after all, if enough people complain and leave the game...then there isn't a a game anymore, anyway...no matter how good the system really is.

Spoit

Elementalor wrote:

BTW someone mentioned before that the standards were coming out as heroics for the last set. Sadly I probably played too late and they fixed the bug.

Yeah I missed it too. I'm sitting on 11 heroics anyway

Unknown

So is it over??? I'm just sitting here and watching my rank go lower and lower. Can't do anything more....this was exhausting and confusing!

Unknown

Thanks soenottelling.

I guess the journey is the most important thing here. And yes it was fun. And I did level up my wolvey quote nicely and got a bunch of tokens. So yeah...bright side...

KidInsomnia

Worldrevolver wrote:

Thanks soenottelling.

I guess the journey is the most important thing here. And yes it was fun. And I did level up my wolvey quote nicely and got a bunch of tokens. So yeah...bright side...

Yeah, as someone who was SUPER pissed after the last event, I'm sitting a little higher than 1200 with 7 hours to go. If the worst case scenario is that I only get one Hulk cover I think I'm pretty okay with that, but I think I actually stand a ghost of a chance of staying under 5000 having beaten the 100 and 140 mission.

I also totally whiffed the second to last set of Subevents, so I'm okay with an unoptimal finish.

If that's how it shakes out, though, my Wolverine went from 55 to 72 over the course of it, so that's certainly something worthwhile. ;D

Unknown

Looks like I will end up a couple of hundred away from 50k unless rubber banding comes out of nowhere (don't see how it could). Kind of bummed because I was pretty sure 1k would be obtainable in the final round so didn't kill myself in the last round. Had to depend on rubber banding to keep me in the running due to holiday activities. I think it worked pretty well even if I could have done better if I had more time. Still not sure what I want my punisher build to be. I'm 2/3/3 so that red would have committed me to maxing out red if I used it. Now I can procrastinate a bit more in my decision . Not sure I'll use Punisher (or Hulk for that matter) other than when forced to anyway. Even buffed he was not so great this week. A maxed black spitting out an damage tile every round sounds cool though. Of course that seems to be the hardest to get. Will wait as long as I can before finishing but I suspect that there will not be much movement in rankings this round.

Unknown

Spoit wrote:

Elementalor wrote:

BTW someone mentioned before that the standards were coming out as heroics for the last set. Sadly I probably played too late and they fixed the bug.

Yeah I missed it too. I'm sitting on 11 heroics anyway

I just pop mine as I get them. Less disappointing if I don't get anything good and more exciting if I do!

Unknown

Great post Nemek.

Lots of good posters in this forum in general. Quickly becoming one of my favorites to visit.

I am just sitting here watching myself slide down the leaderboard. Now 1406. So I will be out of top 1500 in about 45 minutes.

I am just going to enjoy it I guess. Forecasting I end up somewhere in the 3000's

Unknown

Assuming two players are capable of beating the same missions, the guy who played more will always win even with rubberbanding, but rubberbanding keeps the difference smaller than it'd be. In fact, since rubberband only depends on the top score, what really matters is that you're playing right after the overall leader just finished his missions, since there isn't going to be a major jump in score until his score refresh again, so you might as well get your games out of the way. You don't have to know who is the exact score leader. Just start playing when you see the top score suddenly went up by a noticeable chunk (say 2K).

The only issue is that since you don't know for sure when the missions reset (most likely 8 hours, but easy to lose track), this means you could lose out if you did your missions early, and then weren't able to get one last set in before time runs out. There should be a timer on the mission that lets you know when you can do it again so you can make an informed decision on whether to wait for the very end (to maximize the rubberband effect), or just do it ASAP (because doing a mission twice is always better than just once no matter what the overall leader score is).

In the end the person who grinded the most still wins in this system, but the system means if I grinded twice as much as you do, my score might be only 1K more than yours instead of double your score. Note that here I'm talking about the exact difficulty for both players. If you're able to grind some of the 3Xlevel 245 missions while other people cannot, then you can indeed pass up someone who grinded more, but that's because you're able to do missions that are worth more.