"The Gauntlet" is wonderful

wirius

D3, the fact I don't have to grind nodes and the reward structure make me want to cry tears of joy. Yet I am a man. And do men not cry? For you d3, I will.

babinro

I absolutely LOVE this PvE structure.

- Going about the event at your own pace without having to worry about time zones and real life getting in the way = WIN
- No level scaling = WIN
- No need to endless grind nodes = WIN
- The option to still grind nodes for covers/ISO by choice = WIN
- Multiple 3 star covers as reward = WIN
- Plenty of variety in matches along with challenging matches that promotes roster diversity = WIN

My only potential concern is the reward structure for 1 star and 2 star players.
Do the node levels scale back for their roster enough for them to at least reasonably obtain 1 *** cover? If not, this is a problem.

That concern aside I really hope this format becomes the new norm in PvE.

SandsTheMan

I just wanted to echo the sentiments of this thread: it's a beautiful thing to play through each node once, maybe stop after 10 minutes and realise I don't have to do it x times before I go to bed to maximise refreshed points, and also it makes no odds where in the world the player is!

Unknown

A few suggestions to improve The Gauntlet :

- make sure that each time you clear a node you get 1/4 reward. Getting 20 ISO for clearing a lvl 200 node is not rewarding enough,
- make sure the Scaling is not too high (Simulation 23 is lvl 251 for me now, too high). I shouldn't need to use Hood/Sentry/Boosts to clear a node in PvE,
- leave the Gauntlet a whole season so that we have the opportunity to clear all the rewards.
- replace the Prologue with the Gauntlet for those who have cleared all the Prologue nodes and they are all green,

Unknown

Really, really great concept guys. Selfishly, I also like that it rewards veteran players for having veteran rosters that they've worked hard to develop. No sharding, no scaling, no "participation trophies". You just hit the wall that your roster reflects you should hit, while giving you the opportunity to snag some covers/iso/hp along the way. Thank you.

babinro

arktos1971 wrote:

A few suggestions to improve The Gauntlet :

- make sure that each time you clear a node you get 1/4 reward. Getting 20 ISO for clearing a lvl 200 node is not rewarding enough,
- make sure the Scaling is not too high (Simulation 23 is lvl 251 for me now, too high). I shouldn't need to use Hood/Sentry/Boosts to clear a node in PvE,
- leave the Gauntlet a whole season so that we have the opportunity to clear all the rewards.
- replace the Prologue with the Gauntlet for those who have cleared all the Prologue nodes and they are all green,

I agree completely with the guaranteed node rewards rather than getting 20 ISO on your second clear because of poor RNG.

I respectfully disagree with the other suggestions though. I have no problems with scaling getting tough if you have a suitable roster for it. There's no reason why PvE should be strictly easier than PvP all of the time. If we have to use the occasional boost to push through nodes that's fine. If we need to boost through the last 15 nodes than that's a problem. Ideally, ultra challenging nodes should be along the optional paths and they should offer higher rewards to compensate.

I would be extremely disappointed if gauntlet stuck around the entire season. This would turn something new and exciting into something stale and without challenge. Shield sim has this problem in that it's just a passing distraction when there is nothing else to do and you have health packs to spare. Gauntlet format best fits the PvE event structure IMO. Put the time pressure on the players to complete these events in a few days and then introduce a new one. If this gauntlet stuck around an entire month then it would get boring quickly.

Unknown

arktos1971 wrote:

- make sure the Scaling is not too high (Simulation 23 is lvl 251 for me now, too high). I shouldn't need to use Hood/Sentry/Boosts to clear a node in PvE,

There are nodes where that does not always work my current road block is a 26K HP Juggs who lands bone crunching Headbutts. I am sure I can beat it with boosts but trying not to.

Unknown

babinro wrote:

I absolutely LOVE this PvE structure.
My only potential concern is the reward structure for 1 star and 2 star players.
Do the node levels scale back for their roster enough for them to at least reasonably obtain 1 *** cover? If not, this is a problem.

That concern aside I really hope this format becomes the new norm in PvE.

Without a Punisher rostered and player's can't earn many of the covers, period. That's a huge problem. I trust the level scaling to be within reason, as it's solely based on roster, so as long as there is a Punisher, BP, and GSBW on the list to clear the required nodes I wouldn't doubt a could get at least the BP cover.

The best solution for this is a "The Guantlet" event that keeps a running tally of points, and has 3 subs, and not 3 separate events that have to be full cleared to get the cover reward.

Unknown

if they can address the reward a bit then it will be perfect.

there should be still away to gain more event tokens like offering one in the 1st sub, two in the 2nd and three in the 3rd as progression. The combined 2 offered in this entire event is a joke compare to previous PvE's

Not sure why they put a better 3* cover in sub 2 and two weaker 3* in the 3rd sub. Im not complaining since I needed BP blue and got. I'm still having mix feelings about introducing 3 different 3* cover instead of a 3 covers of the same feature character as in the past. I guess having 3 different colors is a better chance for most people will be needing at least one of them instead of instantly turning off people whom have already have maxed covers.

all in all well done

CrookedKnight

Yeah, I'd like to see more opportunities for event tokens (granted, this is something that is an issue with many of the competitive PvEs too) and a scoring structure that doesn't lock you out of the 3* rewards for lacking required characters. I'm still having more fun with this than with pretty much any other past event, though. So yay!

Unknown

babinro wrote:

I absolutely LOVE this PvE structure.

- Going about the event at your own pace without having to worry about time zones and real life getting in the way = WIN
- No level scaling = WIN
- No need to endless grind nodes = WIN
- The option to still grind nodes for covers/ISO by choice = WIN
- Multiple 3 star covers as reward = WIN
- Plenty of variety in matches along with challenging matches that promotes roster diversity = WIN

My only potential concern is the reward structure for 1 star and 2 star players.
Do the node levels scale back for their roster enough for them to at least reasonably obtain 1 *** cover? If not, this is a problem.

That concern aside I really hope this format becomes the new norm in PvE.

I noticed sub 3 there is indeed scaling as it jumped from lvl 177 to 187 on sim 36

turul

Just adding my voice that I dont like Gauntlet as much since i get less rewards. (No ranking based rewards)

Gauntlet map is fine, it still should be competitive so I also get more rewards.

Unknown

turul wrote:

Just adding my voice that I dont like Gauntlet as much since i get less rewards. (No ranking based rewards)

Gauntlet map is fine, it still should be competitive so I also get more rewards.

It can be quite competitive once they normalized the difficulty so that certain rosters don't have a disproportionally easier/harder time, and to get rid of stuff like boosts and balance The Hood so that he's not nearly mandatory on anything higher than level 250. At that point beating the nodes at all would indeed be quite challenging and you can easily run into a case where 3 days is not enough to finish all the nodes. Right now all the high level node is still just bring boosts, bring The Hood, don't do anything outrageously stupid and hope they don't get super lucky and it'll usually work, so that's not much of a basis for competition.

Unknown

I think there is a balancing issue

I have already lost to sim 37 (3 times) using Ldaken/Sentry/Lthor and AI is only level 187. yet I look at top 2 player who finished this 3rd sub, both have a 2* roster. So where is the incentive to have a better roster when it becomes more difficult to play?

i get it if they want everyone to spend on health packs and boost. but when you still cannot beat a match boosted and with full health, something is clearly wrong here.

_RiO_

Great concept, EXTREMELY flawed execution.

The entire progression reward structure is essentially worthless until you reach the end of the second and third runs of the gauntlet. By the time you reach midway on the second run, opponent levels will have scaled to far beyond what anyone with a 2* to 3* transitioning roster can logically handle (i.e. discarding the occasional case of 'stupid luck'), which makes the 3* reward covers unreachable. The same 3* reward covers of past characters for which exactly that transitioning player is fighting. The gauntlet in its current iteration only works for players that have overpowered combinations, deep rosters of fully leveled 3*s or are just starting out with the game and run through the event with extremely reduced opposition levels.

As always, count on Demiurge to take a great concept (a concept offered on these forums many, many times, but always with warnings attached regarding difficulty levels and risk vs reward) and then **** it up.
::Salutes::

Also; as has happened before, I'm sure their metrics on player engagement for this type of event will be misinterpreted as the event structure itself not being fun enough for players, and before you know it, we'll be back to the PvP-masquerading-as-PvE status quo with the gauntlet idea permanently binned.

Unknown

silverrex wrote:

I think there is a balancing issue

I have already lost to sim 37 (3 times) using Ldaken/Sentry/Lthor and AI is only level 187. yet I look at top 2 player who finished this 3rd sub, both have a 2* roster. So where is the incentive to have a better roster when it becomes more difficult to play?

i get it if they want everyone to spend on health packs and boost. but when you still cannot beat a match boosted and with full health, something is clearly wrong here.

I'm guessing that node will be at least level 350 if not 395 by the time I get to it, and it's probably harder for me to beat a 395X3 team even with a max roster (not even if Daken's regen can be overcome at that level). The difficulty is too arbitary. I'm fine with better roster not offering a meaningful advantage but this event is likely much harder if you've a strong roster, and that's just backwards.

Unknown

_RiO_ wrote:

Great concept, EXTREMELY flawed execution.

The entire progression reward structure is essentially worthless until you reach the end of the second and third runs of the gauntlet. By the time you reach midway on the second run, opponent levels will have scaled to far beyond what anyone with a 2* to 3* transitioning roster can logically handle (i.e. discarding the occasional case of 'stupid luck'), which makes the 3* reward covers unreachable. The same 3* reward covers of past characters for which exactly that transitioning player is fighting. The gauntlet in its current iteration only works for players that have overpowered combinations, deep rosters of fully leveled 3*s or are just starting out with the game and run through the event with extremely reduced opposition levels.

As always, count on Demiurge to take a great concept (a concept offered on these forums many, many times, but always with warnings attached regarding difficulty levels and risk vs reward) and then tinykitty it up.
::Salutes::

Also; as has happened before, I'm sure their metrics on player engagement for this type of event will be misinterpreted as the event structure itself not being fun enough for players, and before you know it, we'll be back to the PvP-masquerading-as-PvE status quo with the gauntlet idea permanently binned.

The level scaling is insane for those with a developed roster (like me). This is pretty much the pre nerf Spiderman level of scaling except you don't have Spiderman or Magneto anymore. Even The Hood falls to the power of guys dropping 1K+ match 4s and 500 match 3s, though at least he gives you a chance because nobody is going to survive an AP consuming move at this level.

It's probably intended for those nodes to be challenging, but the scaling makes the challenge rather arbitary. People are reporting nodes seem to just get harder over time for some reason that's not related to community scaling, so some people may have lucked out while the nodes are easy for whatever reason while another guy is going to be looking at 395X3 and wonder what's the point of this event.

babinro

silverrex wrote:

I think there is a balancing issue

I have already lost to sim 37 (3 times) using Ldaken/Sentry/Lthor and AI is only level 187. yet I look at top 2 player who finished this 3rd sub, both have a 2* roster. So where is the incentive to have a better roster when it becomes more difficult to play?

i get it if they want everyone to spend on health packs and boost. but when you still cannot beat a match boosted and with full health, something is clearly wrong here.

I've only made it to Sim 33 (level 244 goons) and got wiped despite using AP boosted Patch/ Falcon / OBW.

You really have to earn these covers. I've been wiped out more in this PvE than any other PvE and I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. This isn't designed to give easy access to rewards you have to fight for it...you just don't fight against other people this time around. Back in the day 90% of the matches would be a complete joke due to patchneto lockdown. Now we've actually got to try especially when you can't sentry bomb.

They 'might' need want to tweak the levels but I still stand by my statement that having a legitimately challenging PvE isn't a bad idea. Especially now that we can all get several 3* covers and not just the top 150 out of 500 or whatever the case was before.

Unknown

arktos1971 wrote:

A few suggestions to improve The Gauntlet :

- make sure that each time you clear a node you get 1/4 reward. Getting 20 ISO for clearing a lvl 200 node is not rewarding enough
- make sure the Scaling is not too high (Simulation 23 is lvl 251 for me now, too high). I shouldn't need to use Hood/Sentry/Boosts to clear a node in PvE,
- leave the Gauntlet a whole season so that we have the opportunity to clear all the rewards.
- replace the Prologue with the Gauntlet for those who have cleared all the Prologue nodes and they are all green,

Getting 20 ISO for clearing a lvl 200 node is not rewarding enough

This is the bane of all PvE. 20 ISO is not even a reward.

Unknown

What is harder, a maxed roster fighting 3X395 guys or a 2* roster with a handful of low cover 3* fighting 3X185? Well it can go either way but you're crazy if you think those two are equally difficult. Having a legitmately challenging encounter is good but only if it is fair to everyone. As you get to the finale bracket there's a wild leap of faith assumption on balance. My guess is that the finale nodes probably scale something like (highest level non 4*) * (1.? to 2.?) + (roster level over 166 * some constant) and it'd be ridiculous to assume such a generic formula can possibly be fair to everyone.

Unknown

I still like the idea for The Gauntlet, but boss creep definitely sucks a lot of the fun out. If difficulty is based on my roster in the first sub, I don't think every sim should increase a couple levels for every node I beat. The finale would be plenty hard if they were at the level 100 or so I started at, but adding 60-70 levels by sim 34 just makes it too hard.

If they are going to creep the power of each node up, then have my roster bumped +30 for Villians, +60 for Heroes, and +90 for the Finale. As it is now, I'm already punching above even the max boosted character on my roster by 20 levels. Also I'd like it if only the character you face is restricted, losing all my storms, thors, bw, or wolverines takes almost all the damage dealers out for a transitioning roster. OBW would be a great help on that mBW node, same for cStorm against mStorm.