Fix S.H.I.E.L.D. Simulator Awards for Transitioning Players

TMurphyNYC

I think that the S.H.I.E.L.D Simulator awards are basically useless for a transitioning player.

If you are just starting there are a bunch of 1* covers in a scoring range that is achievable.
Arguably they should add some ** covers at the high end of the new player scoring range.

If you are a seasoned player there seem to be some useful *** awards at the high end of where these players can score.
That seems fair, although maybe they could add some sort of **** progression award at the high end of seasoned player scoring range (especially now that *** to **** transition seems like a real thing).

But, for ** to *** transitioning players, you are kind of stuck in limbo.
The *** awards are at levels that are just not realistically achievable, especially when you start seeing almost all maxed *** opponents once you get over about 1500.
Even above 1500, which takes a fair amount of effort & probably shielding, that is when you START seeing ** covers.
I would argue that players scoring over 1500 in the S.H.I.E.L.D. Simulator most likely have fully covered ** rosters, and even if they stretch to over 1500, they are likely getting an award that is only useful as ISO.

I think that it would be a fairly easy fix to layer in some of the less rare *** covers, or maybe weaker powers of *** characters into scoring ranges that transitioning players can achieve. It doesn't seem to hurt other players (* couldn't get there and *** would likely use the awards as ISO), and it would make the S.H.I.E.L.D. simulator actually useful for transitioning players.

FaustianDeal

If you are a transition player and think they are useless; imagine how established veterans feel looking at that pile of progression awards...

I've mostly given up on getting anything good out of Simulator. It is for collecting a small amount ISO, helping get over season progression thresholds earlier, and finally to lock in a better season placement prize.

Its sad, but in a similar vein to how we are forced to view tokens.
* standard token = 100 ISO
* heroic token = 250 ISO
* event progression token = 250 ISO

(there is some rounding error in there due to the odd 3* drop when the RNG makes a mistake... maybe round up and make the standard token = 101 ISO?)

TMurphyNYC

FaustianDeal wrote:

If you are a transition player and think they are useless; imagine how established veterans feel looking at that pile of progression awards...

I've mostly given up on getting anything good out of Simulator. It is for collecting a small amount ISO, helping get over season progression thresholds earlier, and finally to lock in a better season placement prize.

Its sad, but in a similar vein to how we are forced to view tokens.
* standard token = 100 ISO
* heroic token = 250 ISO
* event progression token = 250 ISO

(there is some rounding error in there due to the odd 3* drop when the RNG makes a mistake... maybe round up and make the standard token = 101 ISO?)

I hear you for the most part, but at least this season's 2400 award of Gamora should be useful to most seasoned players.
She is new enough that most won't have her maxed yet.
But, a transitional player can't realistically get to 2400 - or to 2300 where the 1st *** award appears.

Unknown

TMurphyNYC wrote:

I hear you for the most part, but at least this season's 2400 award of Gamora should be useful to most seasoned players.
She is new enough that most won't have her maxed yet.
But, a transitional player can't realistically get to 2400 - or to 2300 where the 1st *** award appears.

I think the question is, are the 3* rewards ever within reach of players who need them? Or, conversely, want them.

I've never tried for top prize there, and I don't know how high the top alliance players take their scores, but it seems to me that getting anywhere near the top would require a really powerful roster. Does it get easier by the end? Are there reasonable targets for reasonable points, or will it be X-Force and SuperThor all the way down?

As for making the prizes better, I think they should do away with all the characters and replace them with tokens: standard for the 1*s, heroic for the 2*'s, and some new token with a guaranteed 3* for the top.

FaustianDeal

Vertigozooropa wrote:

TMurphyNYC wrote:

[...] some new token with a guaranteed 3* for the top.

These would be so nice...

An interesting question is how do you price them for individual sale? The old tokens they used to sell for lightning rounds used to have a guaranteed 3* villain in them (nothing else)... I want to say those could be had for 1,100 each or a 5-pack for 5,000 (with the 5-pack containing 1 of each villain [colors unknown]).

The singleton got a 10% discount over just buying the card outright to account for the variability, and the 5-pack was volume pricing, or to account for the person who had a finished Doom, but needed cards for everyone else, I don't know...

Point is there is a historical precedent for something like a 3-star token. I think having more of them with smaller groups of heroes/villains in them allows them to charge a higher price (a token with every 3* in it has a dangerous quantity of variety in it, where a token with 5 possibilities could fetch a higher price.)

This analysis also causes me to think the pricing for the existing heroic token seems way too high. 400HP might seem like a reasonable number because it is a 20% discount off the price of a 2* card purchased outright, but there are so many cards in there - the only people who should 'buy' a heroic token are the ones who are still in the 1-2* transition (and even for them it stops making sense once they gain the ability to beat seed teams in lightning rounds and start getting random cover drops).

I am not saying that the 'mythic' token (3*+) should be priced @ 400 instead of the heroic, but the heroics should be lower, and the 'mythic' token should be priced on an inverse scale relative to the number of heroes in them at any one time.

Well off topic though, sorry for the digression.

wymtime

The shield simulator was originaly placed so new players could go and get covers to build their roster and be introduced to PVP. D3 got people to go back into the simulator by making it apart of the season to help people achieve the progression rewards. To give out more rewards they would need to take it out of the season rewards, because if you score 1500 in the shield simulator you get some HP, but you would also score better in the season as well which would give you better rewards.

I am not saying that we should not get better rewards for the Simulator, I am just giving my opinion as to why the rewards are what they are.