New feature: Shields

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forgrim wrote:

this is a classic example of our schooling system failing us.

I would promise to do better when I become a teacher, but I'm going into history not math. Plus I took logic for my math requirement so I probably wouldn't be much help anyways.

Purty_Hawkeye

I just can't resist but now the numbers show this could significantly tilt towards P2W.
120 Brackets with a 60K active player base
If 10% P2W= 6,000 players
Assuming perfect distribution they could conceivably occupy the top 50 spots across those 120 brackets.

I also wonder if this was the reason they increased the cost of health packs because it seems if it is cheap enough that 10% will spend to win no matter what. These Shields might just be cheap enough to spend $2 to ensure a >1000 point total where you could lurk shatter the shield as soon as you were passed grind away and then slam the shield down again.

My wife is still chuckling at me so I'm probably still wrong.

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Kyosokun wrote:

soenottelling wrote:

That said...50 hp Is still too expensive for my blood

What would you pay then? It's about as cheap as anything costing HP in the game can cost (I guess could be 25, be the only thing to be sold for that little). $5 would get you 12 shields. 6 if you wanted the 8 hour one, 3 if you opted for 24 hour.

I am coming from a non-paying real money mechanic standpoint. I avoid spending money in games for the sake of competition. I could easily AFFORD to blow 100+ dollars on a phone game but it hurts the sanctity of the competition for me the moment I do that. From that standpoint, the main way you make hp is from events. If you now have to use 100hp to keep a top score you no longer earn any hp. For me, its not so bad, but for ppl starting the game anew... The ppl that keep the game going...they won't be able to place well without spending money is the worry. No hp means no cover slots.

It's all how you look at it though, as you can say you'd never get the top 10 without the shield so the 100 hp reward is due to the shield...so its okay. I see it as ppl basically losing 100hp every tournement that they didn't before (as I assume more ppl will have to use shields now and the ppl sleeping will still be passed by ppl who get JUST above them and throw on a 50hp shield.

From a "paytowin" standpoint...what's that, a dollar or two? I have no idea how others see their money so I cannot comment I guess. If they find it fine, then good for them. I just feel there will be plenty of ppl sending on shields and still coming away unhappy..but this time down a dollar or two to feel that way.

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Some peoples already have shields up. We need to see if they can be attacked...

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Microtom wrote:

Some peoples already have shields up. We need to see if they can be attacked...

Mr Sulu, lock phasers on target and await my command.

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You get 50 HP for participating in most PvP tournament. If you can somehow turn that into a *** cover that's generally more than a good deal. Of course if you screwed up you'd be behind, but that's for screwing up.

Honestly the best use for the shield might be to shield when you're about 200 points below a particularly good progression reward (probably a *** cover). This allows people to beat you up to approach your points (or even surpass it), so then you can actually have enough high rated opponents to hit the rewards. Of course, this plan would be foiled if nobody was playing during the time you're shielded, but there's got to be risks.

Overall I think this is good because it'd also encourage people to play more at all times. That is, you want to be playing as much as you can and hit the shielded guys to bring the overall points up, because this is the only way you can possibly hit those 900+ progression rewards. Further, this would also combat the last minute sniping deal, in the sense that if you got a bracket where everyone is sitting at 1200 points in top 100, it'd be pretty much impossible for a guy to join at the last minute to come anywhere near the top just due to the sheer gap in between.

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Phantron wrote:

Overall I think this is good because it'd also encourage people to play more at all times. That is, you want to be playing as much as you can and hit the shielded guys to bring the overall points up, because this is the only way you can possibly hit those 900+ progression rewards. Further, this would also combat the last minute sniping deal, in the sense that if you got a bracket where everyone is sitting at 1200 points in top 100, it'd be pretty much impossible for a guy to join at the last minute to come anywhere near the top just due to the sheer gap in between.

That all sounds fairly reasonable except...

First off, once you drop or break your shield you're going to start losing points too. Those people that were attacking you to go up in rank? They're still going to be attacking you (it'll just be different people... or maybe not, since players may notice who isn't losing points and use that as "free" points, even if it's a declining reward). So even if you are able to attack shielded people who are now above you, you'll be losing points faster than you gain them, just as you do now.

Secondly, it means you have to use more than one shield per tournament in order to stair-step upwards, presuming you can even gain points despite the above.

I hope it works out as you suggest -- at the very least it may end the last minute sniping -- and my fears are wrong. I'm willing to see how it plays out. But I'm really disheartened to see that they implemented this and didn't roll back the changes that were made in mid Decemeber to PvP scoring in general.

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Microtom wrote:

Some peoples already have shields up. We need to see if they can be attacked...

In Matchmaking I either can't see if anyone has shields, can't seem to find anyone with a shield icon, or they aren't showing up as an attack option. I don't think enough people have them up yet. It would be kind of pointless in the Top shot Tournament right now to put up a shield

Purty_Hawkeye

Y'know I'd really like to see a set of Patch Notes since it has been six hours since it was released and someone should be home at D3 by now. Really appreciate IceIX and hope he gets home soon. ElectroBlast will probably have it up in another couple of hours and hopefully there will be enough info to help us understand how they work.

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Zathrus wrote:

[ But I'm really disheartened to see that they implemented this and didn't roll back the changes that were made in mid Decemeber to PvP scoring in general.

To be fair, with no patch notes and without a lot of testing I don't think we know what they have done or havent done. And I believe that the current messed up tournament scoring may be a bug. I think IceIX was surprised when he saw comments about it on the forums and said they didn't change anything. It would require a patch and with low staff availability over the holidays it couldn't be fixed quickly. Someone can correct me if I'm remembering that wrong though

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Purty Hawkeye wrote:

Y'know I'd really like to see a set of Patch Notes since it has been six hours since it was released and someone should be home at D3 by now. Really appreciate IceIX and hope he gets home soon. ElectroBlast will probably have it up in another couple of hours and hopefully there will be enough info to help us understand how they work.

Hopefully they patched so many things and addressed/fixed so many issues that its taken 6 hours to type it all up

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the moose wrote:

Microtom wrote:

Some peoples already have shields up. We need to see if they can be attacked...

In Matchmaking I either can't see if anyone has shields, can't seem to find anyone with a shield icon, or they aren't showing up as an attack option. I don't think enough people have them up yet. It would be kind of pointless in the Top shot Tournament right now to put up a shield

Have u...downloaded the update? Just making sure..

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I wrote in about the wonky scoring and customer support thinks nothing is wrong.

Purty_Hawkeye

soenottelling wrote:

the moose wrote:

Microtom wrote:

Some peoples already have shields up. We need to see if they can be attacked...

In Matchmaking I either can't see if anyone has shields, can't seem to find anyone with a shield icon, or they aren't showing up as an attack option. I don't think enough people have them up yet. It would be kind of pointless in the Top shot Tournament right now to put up a shield

Have u...downloaded the update? Just making sure..

I see the guy in second place in SHIELD training with the icon but nobody in my Double Shot bracket has one up yet. We need to know if there is anyone in any bracket with a shiled icon up because then we can start skipping to see if they show up on anybody's matchmaker list.

Unknown

Not really fan of it, but anyways I hope they at least add fatigue of a sort to it....meaning you cant spam the shield. For example you are shielded, you hit someone and reshield again. Or even shield runs out and you hit someone and then reshield. That is if there is no such thing present already.

EDIT: Beside no quick reshielding maybe also 30% gain penalty for first 5 or so minutes out of shield. I mean if you attack from shield or just as shield ended within 5 minutes of it.

Basically to make sure it is not exploited too much.

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the moose wrote:

To be fair, with no patch notes and without a lot of testing I don't think we know what they have done or havent done. And I believe that the current messed up tournament scoring may be a bug. I think IceIX was surprised when he saw comments about it on the forums and said they didn't change anything. It would require a patch and with low staff availability over the holidays it couldn't be fixed quickly. Someone can correct me if I'm remembering that wrong though

Patch notes are in the Apple App Store now. Don't know about Android.

And yes, IceIX did say nothing had changed, but once I provided actual data they could look at he stopped saying that shortly after, and then said that it would require a client patch. And yes, there was low staff availability, etc. but we've now had the client patch... and if it was apparently dropped in without notice, then, as a developer, I find it questionable that it couldn't be removed in short order as well.

To be perfectly fair, however, it may not kick in until the next tournament starts after the patch. It may even need to be the next set of tournaments. We didn't notice the broken scoring until the start/end of a weekend tournament after a patch. So it may not show up as being fixed until this weekend's tournament (or, at best, the restart of the Double Shot midweek, but that could fall under the same scoring rules as the first round).

So I guess that, barring any dev input, we'll have to wait until this weekend to see for sure if scoring was fixed, or if this is the new normal.

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Edit: multiple post

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Am I only newbie who first aims to expand his roster with HP and only after that to start trying to get 3* cjvers? I mean, what is good from them if you don't have place for them? Seems like waste of time, energy, nerves and time.
And if you're shooting for 3* covers, you should have at least solid 2* team, meaning you're not even close to newbie anymore. From that point of view I don't see how shields break balance or discourage new players.

Purty_Hawkeye

GEFPenst wrote:

Am I only newbie who first aims to expand his roster with HP and only after that to start trying to get 3* cjvers? I mean, what is good from them if you don't have place for them? Seems like waste of time, energy, nerves and time.
And if you're shooting for 3* covers, you should have at least solid 2* team, meaning you're not even close to newbie anymore. From that point of view I don't see how shields break balance or discourage new players.

That was exactly my thinking when I started too. All my HP went to cover slots until I had 29 then I started levleing up the better characters until I was competitive enough to keep moving up for the bigger rewards. The open question is will the Shields change the ability for a new player to do this. I was able to place highly because of the free-for-all nature of the last hour of many many PvP tournaments and that might change dramatically.

Unknown

So in other words, wake up at 3am, play 3 hours, get lots of points...Put up Shields and call it a day?