New feature: Shields

GuntherBlobel

I welcome this (although I was so unhappy before, any solution might have made me happy). We'll see how it works, and hopefully it gets tweaked over time to make the most people happy. I only get unhappy with this game at times, because overall, I really enjoy it (it has so much potential, too)! I don't mind putting a few bucks into a game that I enjoy this much, for shields or whatever... Probably shields... since I'm finally getting to the point where cover packs aren't helping.

That said, they do need to return to the 800 break-even point scoring, if they haven't already with this patch. Otherwise, the Progression awards will still be unreachable, even with shields. You simply can't progress when you can get attacked more frequently that you can attack someone else... please tell me they realize this.

Unknown

I the sheilds are free and I can reach 1200 points man that's great. Oh wait since they didn't fix the points system how are you getting to 1200 points. Have you tried to get that high in points. Lol it won't happen buy 10 sheilds it still won't happen. But the sheilds are free you say how long do you think that's going to last before the cut back on hp given away. A week maybe two this is a way to increase making money lol. And the best point that f2p is the beast lol that's the best. There is no beast here lol grinders feed the beast high ranking players feed the beast not casual players I know hardcore grinders how gladly spend 200$ a month on their fav games. What's making those guy spend its called annilation of the other players. That doesn't even exist in this game any casual free Player can show up and win with little effort and these sheilds just cut that very little effort in half. Feed the beast indeed feed it dust from the bones of this currently busted game

DirigiblePilot

I wonder how this will pan out for newer players... it could make tournaments even more unplace-able for them, as everyone will simply lock themselves at a high point total, rather than the fluctuating centers there are now.

Unknown

DirigiblePilot wrote:

I wonder how this will pan out for newer players... it could make tournaments even more unplace-able for them, as everyone will simply lock themselves at a high point total, rather than the fluctuating centers there are now.

It could. But I don't think it will make a huge difference. They have the same tools available to them. If they don't have the ability to reach those higher point totals, then their chances of placing high were pretty low to begin with, because unless you get a bracket that's not competitive at the end, point totals still seem to be high 600s, low 700 hundreds sometimes. Placing in the lower tier of rewards will still be possible, I think, and will give them the 2* covers they need to further their progression to where they can compete for the high placement awards.

Unknown

If shielded people can still be attacked this will feed a lot of points into the system as we can hit high point targets over and over again.

Go shielded bagman go!

On another note, while this solves the problem of keeping my rating, do I still have to play to obtain it? It would be so much easier if I could buy the first 500 points for 200 HP and just let me go on from there. Better yet, how about a win button for 2000 HP?

Or ... fix the huge kitty point system!

Unknown

forgrim wrote:

DefectiveChicken wrote:

This concludes the period in which players like myself could contend seriously in PvP events.

and what type of player are you

One whose credit card is well-hidden.

Let's apply logic, shall we: The casual player should have very little use for shields. Why? Because:

-- They need every HP they can get their hands on.

Right now, for instance, I'm at 350 HP per new cover slot, and new characters will trickle in over time that'll require those slots. Power upgrades are either 500/1250 directly, an indeterminate amount from random pulls, or from placing well in events, most of which are direct PvP. If I want to build my covers up to where I have a reasonable chance of placing well in events, I need to either burn every HP I get on slots and upgrades or bust out the credit card. Spending 50 HPs to win an event prize of 50 HPs isn't very smart, especially when it certainly isn't a guarantee of getting that 50 HP back because others will be using the same strategy.

-- Shields aren't going to be very useful for them in most circumstances.

So I pile up some points, wait for three hours before the end of the event and snap on the shield. I win, right? Maybe an intermediate prize that likely won't be worth the HP investment. By definition, if you're frozen in place (no attacking, no loss when defending) you're losing ground to those who are still playing the event and earning points. It's hard to imagine anyone who'll rack up an insurmountable lead while unshielded because they'll be crabbed back down all the while.

It's not going to freeze your base level of points; if I'm at 650, use a shield and come back two hours later, I'll still be at 650. But if I then attack someone so as to go after a 700-point prize, three players with 15 each could attack me ten seconds later and yank me right back down into the low 500s. This renders shields not all that useful for the climb up to useful progression levels unless you _keep_ using them at intervals, which will get expensive fast.

What does this leave? Bursts. Build up some points, use a shield, find some tempting targets, hit them as quickly as possible while hoping to avoid being seen, use another shield, repeat if time remains.

But wait! you say. If you need your HPs for slots and upgrades, and you're not buying more HPs with cash, where do you get the HPs for all those shields?

The answer: You don't. And thus you lose to the whales that can afford to burn through shields repeatedly.

...Can I blame the devs for seeing Clash of Clans commercials on TV and thinking "I, too would like to make money like that?" Nope. If the balance between free and paying players was where they wanted it, they wouldn't be implementing a HP sink like this. But it appears to tilt the balance towards paying a bit more than I'm comfortable with.

Unknown

i feel like the shields will help for those tourneys that end at like...5am for some of us.

just how shields in CoC help you sleep better knowing you won't get attacked

Unknown

Even though I'm not gonna use them (I don't even use boosts), I think this is a good idea.

Unknown

There is simply not enough information yet to know how this will actually impact the meta or scoring in tourneys. We can extrapolate all we want, but until the patch goes live for everybody and we all begin playing with the new mechanic there's just no way to form an intelligent judgement.

It seems that people are conflating their opinions of the current scoring issues with this new mechanic. It's helpful to note that last minute retaliations were a thing long before Hood-style scoring was. I lost 1st place many times at the finish both before and after the current scoring issues due to a stockpile of retaliations, and I'm happy to see them experimenting with ways to shake up the end-of-tourney meta.

Plenty of time for rage later if it's actually warranted. Extrapolating and speculating is fun, but anyone claiming to know for certain how this will play out before the fact is being ridiculous.

Purty_Hawkeye

But doesn't that depend on how many free vs. paying players there are? What's the percentage? In another post someone said it was 10% pay for the other 90%. I don't know if that is accurate but let's say it is. Based on The Hulk numbers we have 60K-ish active players so 6,000 freely spending players if the 10% number is accurate. If those same 60,000 are playing PvP that's 120,000 500 man-brackets. Assuming perfect distribution of the 6,000 pay for play people there are still 114,000 brackets where there will be no pay for play people involved. Even then if they take the top slot because they spend the resources to get it that leaves the other high tier rewards open to many. Even if the percentage is 20% which seems high to me that would still only be 12,000 people with the resources to protect a No. 1 ranking....maybe. Still seems like a lot of room for those who don't want to pay and are strategic in using their shields to make some headway. Plus if there is an optimal strategy to help fix the placing you want then you won't be spending 500/1250 HP on a cover you'll be earning it for the cost of whatever shielding you need to keep your position.

Unknown

Assuming you gain points for hitting a shielded target (if not this would be really dumb), the usage of shield is simply to be contrary to whatever the majority of your MMR bracket is doing. That is, if most people aren't shielded, you should be shielded (once you've a good rating). If most people are shielded, you shouldn't be shielded (because you can just keep on attack the shielded guy with almost no risk of retaliation).

The more people that are shielded, the more likely it is for people to obtain the high PvP progression rating. The question is who's going to be the first guy to shield.

Unknown

Purty Hawkeye wrote:

But doesn't that depend on how many free vs. paying players there are? What's the percentage? In another post someone said it was 10% pay for the other 90%. I don't know if that is accurate but let's say it is. Based on The Hulk numbers we have 60K-ish active players so 6,000 freely spending players if the 10% number is accurate. If those same 60,000 are playing PvP that's 120,000 500 man-brackets. Assuming perfect distribution of the 6,000 pay for play people there are still 114,000 brackets where there will be no pay for play people involved. Even then if they take the top slot because they spend the resources to get it that leaves the other high tier rewards open to many. Even if the percentage is 20% which seems high to me that would still only be 12,000 people with the resources to protect a No. 1 ranking....maybe. Still seems like a lot of room for those who don't want to pay and are strategic in using their shields to make some headway. Plus if there is an optimal strategy to help fix the placing you want then you won't be spending 500/1250 HP on a cover you'll be earning it for the cost of whatever shielding you need to keep your position.

o man, there's more brackets then people playing!

(ie the math is so off lol)

Unknown

ihearthawthats wrote:

Even though I'm not gonna use them (I don't even use boosts), I think this is a good idea.

Sheilds are the perfect fix for broken points. I hadn't realized I'm going to grab my credit card and reward the dev right now. By putting my credit card back in my pocket. This isn't a fix it isn't a good idea it's not even a response to the forums problems or request. If you think sheilds are the fix the you hate this game. Sheilds will fail to make a difference and 100% of sheild users will be on here crying next week about how they still can't win and still can't get past 600 points. Sheilds lol yea that'll fix it. Wake up

Unknown

Necrofessor wrote:

Sheilds lol yea that'll fix it. Wake up

Dude, you've been ranting and raving for the past 4-5 posts in this thread. Why don't you let the system flow and then see how it plays out? Then you can have a little mini-meltdown in a thread of your own that details the flaws in the new system.

Unknown

Toxicadam wrote:

Necrofessor wrote:

Sheilds lol yea that'll fix it. Wake up

Dude, you've been ranting and raving for the past 4-5 posts in this thread. Why don't you let the system flow and then see how it plays out? Then you can have a little mini-meltdown in a thread of your own that details the flaws in the new system.

I just blocked him. Yay foe list. He's been getting less and less coherent. I'm not sure why he hasn't just quit yet.

Unknown

Honestly, if you could already place 1st, I don't see why you still couldn't. If a top player uses a shield, that's one less top player to attack you. This helps players even who don't use shields from seeing -100s after a fight.

Unknown

This is game is becoming Pay 2 Win.

This update sucks. Even if we get enough Hero Points, this only rewards high level players, not newcomers or mid level. I repeat: This update sucks.

Unknown

Can we all agree to lay off posting our judgements here until we at least get some patch notes with some information? This is getting ridiculous. Speculation is fine. Discussion is good. Saying this game has been ruined or this is the worst idea ever just makes us sound stupid. If the patch notes confirm your fears, or if you have tested the feature extensvely and you think it is horrible, then your comments will be justified. Until then, lets give the devs a dash of credit and assume that maybe, just maybe they know what they are doing a little better then we do. After all, it is their job

Unknown

someguy321 wrote:

This is game is becoming Pay 2 Win.

This update sucks. Even if we get enough Hero Points, this only rewards high level players, not newcomers or mid level. I repeat: This update sucks.

Hey, you're not someguy! Are you his Dark Avenger imposter?

Is there going to be someone called ToxicAlan logging in and posting about this game?

Unknown

Y'all are right you should wait and see I won't be. Retreading this thread and some others it's clear this games going no where good bye you won't have to listen to my complaints anymore at least.