Battles without honor or dignity

fight4thedream

"A Pyrrhic victory is a victory that inflicts such a devastating toll on the victor that it is tantamount to defeat. Someone who wins a Pyrrhic victory has been victorious in some way; however, the heavy toll negates any sense of achievement or profit (another term for this would be "hollow victory")" - Wiki P. Dia

i stand before you a victorious, broken man.

i pushed myself to the extreme to achieve that blue cover dream. And i ask myself: was it worth it?

Was it worth running through those rings of hell, health pack after health pack as Team-Up surprises robbed you of your HP and stole your victory?
Was it worth the countless ISO used to fund your boosting, the HP used to keep you going, just to maintain your lead?
Was it worth staying up those ungodly hours to try and get as many clears in before exhaustion set in?
Was it worth sacrificing your winter vacation, your precious time, your sacred sleep just to ensure victory?

i can't answer that question. not now.

But what i can say is that this was the least amount of fun i have ever had playing this game. The ironic thing is that i actually like the Simulator. it was one of the first events i participated in as a n00b and i have fond memories of it.

But i realized i am not the same player i was yesterday. Yesterday this game was a simple diversion, something else to do when i had some free time. Today it is my chain and i feel it's pull every 2.5 hours.

But no more.

i have to take better care of myself. i've sacrificed my gym time and other interests to try and be the best. but i won't continue like this. it's not a healthy path that i've set on.

i'm not walking away from the game, i still like it a lot and think it's fun but i am definitely dialing it back a bit. Having now gone hard in both pVp and pVe, i can say without question that pVp is much more enjoyable for me. However, the shield changes concern me.

i was never one of those mighty players that dared to dream of breaking records but they have my respect. If you pay attention to how they talk about their accomplishments, you can feel the pride and joy the took from the experience. i don't think i have ever heard anyone on these forums speak fondly of their victories in pVe.

And the reason for that is that you have to play pVe to the extreme if you want to succeed and you essentially do it alone. sure you might get an encouraging word from your alliance mates, but they can't help you. Your enemies may curse you, but they can't stop you.

However, they can chase you. They can push you to play more than you want to play. Miss one refresh, risk dropping down a rank or two. Yes the decision to play or not is ultimately up to you, but i ask does this situation sound fun to you?

The devs told us the reason they implemented True healing is because people were doing tedious Prologue healing and it detracted from the fun of the game. So i ask them: Do you think trying to hit as many 2.5 refresh times in a 36 hour period is not tedious?

The devs told us the reason they are implementing 8 hour cool down times is to prevent players from cutting down on sleep to shield hop. So i ask them: If you are concerned about players getting sleep, why don't you make 8 hour refresh times for pVe?

Don't get me wrong, i know the devs mean well and have a lot on their plate as is. But i am concerned with the direction this game is heading. In the last Q&A, they mentioned that they intended to keep pVe competitive and they were considering a single (hopefully non-competitive) player mode. They also stated that they would be increasing the number of 4* and were going to make the transition from 3* to 4* smoother than from 2* to 3*. But they made no mention of how they intended to rectify the current 2* to 3* transition problem nor with how to deal with player burn out.

And of course these problems are only the tip of the iceberg.

What i want to focus on though are these three issues:

* Issues with the current pVe structure
* The 2* to 3* transition
* Shields

Issues with the current pVe structure
To be honest, i probably got the short end of the stick this time around and ended up with a few other strong players looking to shoot for the top so we ended up pushing each other a lot further than any of us wanted to go. Apparently, dudes/dudettes in other brackets had it easier. Be that as it may, there are significant issues with this pVe that i believe the devs need to take into consideration for improving the overall game experience:

*Refresh times: 2.5 hours encourages extreme forms of play. In order to do well, you have to try and hit as many refreshes as possible. Obviously, the choice to play or not play is ultimately up to the player but if the player chooses not to play then he or she receives lesser rewards, and if a player chooses to play optimally, he or she risks being burnt out. pVe with such low refresh times becomes a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. Ideally it should be a win-win, where all players get something of value for whatever amount of effort they put in. 8 hour refresh times would be great, but i suppose 4 or 5 hour refreshes would also be a significant improvement.

*subs: as has been stated many times before, subs should be set to 24 hours, no more no less. It makes choosing a time slice easier and reduces the repetitiveness of the event. On a personal anecdote, due to the 36 hour subs of this event, i could not play the last hour of the second sub and the first couple of hours of the last sub which promptly saw my 20,000 pt lead vanish and me drop to 2nd place. Not cool but what can you do?

*scaling: now honestly i am on the fence about this one. According to the current meta-game, pVp is the vets playground while pVe is supposedly for the rookies and those lost wandering the deserts of transition. Scaling ensures that the Vets take quite the beating while those still too young to fly on their own get a nice cushion. Honestly, i don't want to take the one area of the game that non-Vets can excel at away from them.

However, this wouldn't be an issue if there was a proper system in place that eased the transition (i.e. other game modes, rewards, etc.). The problem is that there are three ways to acquire 3* covers in this game:

1. pVe (competitive)
2. pVp (competitive)
3. tokens (luck)

None of these are very conducive for a 2* player that likes the game but does not have the time or money to play. i've already gone into why the current pVp structure needs to be changed (viewtopic.php?f=7&t=20613&start=40#p268046) but let's take a more comprehensive look by consider the current pVe structure.

In order to do well in pVe you need to basically two things:
1. the essential characters
2. time and will the play (and if it comes down to it resources)

Is pVe actually 2* friendly? Yes and No. Yes, because usually vets are not interested in going through the grind for all the covers, they know they just need at least one for the next pVe and depending on what kind of bracket they get and RL situation they may or may not shoot for Top 10 but usually won't have much trouble getting two (plus the alliance cover) covers. However, looking at pVe's that have anything to do 4hor and you will see that, when it comes down to it most vets are willing to put up a fight and compete. Most of the people in my Top 10 were either vets (a couple dudes already had 5 blue 4hor covers but were still pushing hard, can't blame them though since it is her most useful cover) or people with optimal pVe rosters (i.e. many cover maxed 3*s but left underlevelled one would assume to keep their scaling down. Hell one of the main reasons i don't level max my X-Force is because i assume it will mess up my scaling, the other is it's too ISO cost prohibitive but i digress).

The real reason 2* players perform better at pVe is because they don't have to deal with ridiculous scaling but if the rewards are good enough, then 2* players may find themselves out of luck. This will be especially true if the format for releasing 4* is the same as it is now.

The main issue with scaling for those that have developed rosters is that it feels like you are being punished for playing the game. In most games, you have a choice between easy, normal, hard, deadly modes but in this game there is no choice, it is decided for you. It is demoralizing to see a player with a significantly weaker roster keep or out perform your roster simply because they have it "easier".

Rubberbanding: As someone who has used and abused rubberbanding in the past i find myself at an impass. Let's be clear hear: rubberbanding is an unfair mechanism. It basically requires there to be players that are unfamiliar with the mechanic or those that cannot play at the end of a sub/event. If everyone were to try to use the rubberband it would break and winning a pVe would simply be a mad dash to the finish line. On the other hand, there is the grind. Using the rubberband helps keep El Senor Grind away. But the real issue is: Why do players use the rubberband? Of course sometimes due to their schedule a player can't perform optimally all the time so having the rubberband helps keep them in the race. But i bet more than not, it's simply because they don't find the event fun and feel the less they have to do it the better.

Believe me when the rewards are good, the subs are short, the ISO is flowing and the HP is dropping like mana from the skies, people will play. When it is a 7 day slog fest, with long subs and too many nodes, people will try to find a way to game the system. Have the devs not noticed the bracket reporting system that has blossomed in the events thread now?
(And no i'm not advocating for the removal of such threads, they are available for anyone to see and are necessary considering the current problems with time slices and bracketing)

Finally one more issue i wish to point out before i suggest potential solutions is that even if a 2* player is able to acquire Top 2 status and win all the covers in a pVe event, that player will still be unable to cover max a 3* player unless they are very lucky or the devs pull a Steve Rogers and 3* covers rain from the sky in a short period of time.

Under the current format, a Vet can win 3 (or 4 if you're in a good alliance) covers in pVe, at least 4 (if not 5 covers) in pVp and then wait until the next season for another pVp featuring the character (so in total 3 events to cover max a character give or take token pulls or alliance status). However, if you are a 2* player you can win 3 (or 4 if you're in a good alliance) and maybe 1 (or 2) in a pVp and again 1 (or 2) in the next pVp (give or take luck and alliance status)

For the sake of the argument let's just say you are a 2* player in a decent alliance, that gives you a total of 8 covers in 2 months. So you need 5 more covers to cover max your character. However, it is highly unlikely you will get anything more than one cover in pVe again (they may have one cover as a progression award but that becomes a matter of when) which puts you at 9, they might feature the new cover as a top prize in the SHIELD Simulator but let's be honest how many 2* players are going to be able to make it that far? Zero, right? So you have to hope that you you will at the very least have to wait another month or two before cover maxing the character and hope the devs don't vault your character *cough* Colossus *cough* You also have to hope that you don't get overlaps of colors you already have maxed.

And this is only for a dedicated 2* player. The real problem with pVe is that in order to do well you have to play to the extreme (or be very lucky and clever). And if a player continues playing to the extreme but the rewards do not coalesce into a playable character then guess what? Burn out ensues.

The key to improving the pVe experience
I won't go so far as to say do away with competitive pVe since there are those that like it and the devs seem keen on sticking to it but i believe there should be two kinds of pVe: competitive and non-competitive and that they should switch between the two. i think i have played through three straight competitive pVe's and although i haven't burned myself out despite my exhaustion i know that to continue playing this way is a recipe for disaster.

We need more than just the Gauntlet.

To be honest, i'm surprised at the devs reticence about offering more non-competitive pVe considering the popularity of the Gauntlet among the forumers. However, the Gauntlet isn't really 2* player friendly. Most of the good stuff lies in the last sub which most if not all 2* players will have difficulty reaching. I think a great solution would be to offer mini-games that are fun but challenging for 2* player rosters and only offer older 3* characters like Patch, Punisher and Grey Suit Black Widow. Something like the Ten Rings where you face off against the Mandarin in a race to collect 10 of each AP color. Who ever reaches the goal first wins and 1* Iron Man is a required character.

For competitive pVe, things get a bit more complicated. i would like to suggest offering three different modes easy (for 1*-2* transition players), normal (2*-3* transition players) and hard (3*-4* transition players) where the scaling is per-determined and equal for everyone. However, considering the current fiasco with time slices and bracketing i fear such a system would spread out the player base too far that brackets would never fill at least not at 1000 people. Maybe they would have to shorten brackets to 100 or 200. Whether that is a good thing or not is subject to debate but what is clear is that if the devs plan on using the current format to release 4* characters it will have serious repercussions in the already problematic 2* to 3* transition.

Shields

Finally, i would just like to briefly comment on a recent experience i have had with shield hopping. i am not a major shield hopper. i shield hop only when there are prizes on the line that i want and i go no further than necessary. With the 2.5 refresh times and the high difficulty of the Hard sub, i was finding it difficult to do both pVp and pVe. i didn't bother playing much of the Category 5 pVp (i even contemplated not playing it at all), gave Top Gun a fair go since i'm building a second Patch and did a Hail Mary for Top 5 in the Cage Match pVp. But considering the amount of time it took to clear the playable nodes in Hard sub (roughly about an hour), the 20 or so minutes it took get through Normal sub and the climb for pVp, for better or worse i literally played the game for 5 hours straight. yes, i luckily managed to shield hop my way to top 5 (i believe i used 2 3 hour shields in about a 2 hour time span) but if the cool down system had been in place that would have been a pipe dream.

Let's just be honest, the new system is in place to cut down on excessive scoring. i won't prognosticate on whether it will have an overall positive or negative affect on the game, as i fall into the camp of those that believe True Healing was good for the game (despite the double nerf to my favorite super-hero Spider-Man). So i am willing to take a wait and see approach. But i am also aware that it does make it that much more difficult for a player to perform well in both pVe and pVp at the same time. And maybe that's a good thing. i don't think people should be playing this game for 5 hours or more a day (at least not on a regular basis).

Ironically, i had planned on updating the "Thanks for listening and caring" thread i had made (viewtopic.php?f=7&t=17193) since we have seen a lot of great stuff come through since October (time slices, third powers, DD buff, etc) but i just couldn't find the time while trying to keep up with the 2.5 refresh time. Hopefully i will be able to get to that soon.

Once again, i've said too much about issues that are beyond me. But as the title of my post suggests, there is no honor or dignity playing pVe to the extreme. i suppose whether the effort was worth it or not will all boil down to whether i can cover max 4hor. Hopefully i will be able to do that sooner rather than later.

As always, the devs have my thanks and support. The game is still fun, but too much of anything is never a good thing. please focus less on churning out new characters and more on creating new content (game modes, vanity titles, single player mode). Really stoked about Dr. Doom's new ability! But remember, constant competition is wearying. Allow players to take a break and play at their own pace every now and then.

Best wishes to the devs, Hi-Fi guy and everyone on the forum for the new year. Hoping 2015 brings on bigger and better things!

A true believer,
fight4thedream

TLDR: Playing pVe to the extreme isn't so much fun so be prepared if you are trying to be number one (or two). Please no more 2.5 refresh times and fix the 2* to 3* transition problem before unleashing the 4* upon us. I'm on the fence about shield cool down times. Let's wait and see. And for the love of all that is wonderful and good, someone Free Willy. Happy New Year!!

Unknown

I for one think what Hitler did was wrong.

Unknown

I'm just wondering, hoe long did it take to type this? It took forever to read. Gauntlet can be finished by a 2* player, it just really hard. More non-competitive pve would be a step in the right direction for mpq. Like the idea with mandarin and collecting ap! So, you could do a challenge where you go against devil dino and beat him in x turns. Beating a 19k health character would be a great challenge and reward could be a low tier but useful 3* cover (daredevil, Loki, psylocke, human torch)

Unknown

ark123 wrote:

Nobody cares.

Nobody cares that nobody cares.

Unknown

Playing PvE too much is the player's fault and I'm currently engaged in a situation that looks pretty close to yours, but D3 should not be the enabler of crazy stuff. You can't do anything too crazy in the Gauntlet because the mode is setup such that being crazy doesn't offer meaningful advantage. Even if Gauntlet was ranked the worst that can happen is some kind of mad spending binge trying to get the top placements but at least after that you'd still be done.

That said despite all the complaints about stuff being too hard, they're obviously not hard enough for separation to occur in the top 5 or so range. They really should consider some kind of 'extra ultra hard' tiebreaker, like say a bunch of missions with fixed team requirements (the node decides who you use, but the characters levels are yours) and no boosts/TUs that's used to break ties between the very best players. Not sure how they'd determine when to use this, but ideally you'd want people to settle the virtual ties. Even as bad as the scaling gets in Simulator hard, there's still pretty close to virtual ties in the top 5 range after accounting for sleep patterns, and if you eliminate the grinding advantage then it'd just be the first person to clear wins and that's no good either.

Using Simulator Hard as an example, what should happen is that after you clear SImulator Hard for a certain number of base points the game will just stop offering you normal nodes and give you a bunch of ultra hardcore nodes instead and you cannot place lower than anyone who isn't doing these nodes. After you clear Simulator Hard say a combined 4 cycles there's no point to prove that you've the ability to abuse game mechanics and chug down boosts while maintaining an unhealthy schedule, so the game should immediately take away all these things so people can actually rest. I can imagine an 'ultra hardcore' version of all the nodes that can only be cleared once every 12 hours. They'd all pose unique team requirements on top of the usual over the top enemy stuff. For the purpose of calculation, your point in that sub should be equal to a relatively large number (say, 200K in the Simulator Basic hard bracket) plus whatever the extra hard nodes are worth. These nodes should be unlocked around half point of the sub and only if applicable (for example, Simulator normal doesn't need an extra hardcore mode because it's just not meant to be hard).

evil panda

How long would this post have been if you didn't win...

Unknown

You couldn't get one more point? Slacker

ClydeFrog76

The fact that you wrote that much after admitting that you just had the least amount of fun ever on an event is almost as depressing as the guy who crashed his car playing.

What the heck is wrong with you people? It's a **** game. Stop treating it like it's meth.

kensterr

Wow! I see my name here in the screenshot.

To tell the truth I gave up on switching the #1 spot with the OP on Saturday. I would go to sleep at #1 and wake up in the morning seeing him at #1 everyday before Saturday. What's the point of spending ISO and HP on boosts to get #1 spot when I already bought the last blue cover for Thorita?

So I went out shopping with friends, celebrated birthday dinner with my aunt, bought some Marvel comics which was on sale at Comixology and read them, and did many other things. I just picked up my phone to play whenever I feel like it rather than grinding every time a node refreshed. And during the last few hours of Simulator I had a nice relaxing foot massage.

Conclusion? Any placing of Top 10 to Top 50 is good enough in the future for me, unless it's Emma Frost, X23, Scarlet Witch, Phoenix or Spider-Woman in her old spandex suit

Ducky

Unknown

If you go for top 2 - you should expect at least this much

Unknown

DuckyV wrote:

I skipped right to the end, and thank God I did.

fmftint

I'm on your list, I slept every night, skipped rotations, played only essentials and goons. I placed higher than I expected and it didn't take anything crazy to do it

Lidolas

I enjoy most PvE events. I usually score top 100, sometimes up to top 20. I don't kill myself over it. I get full nights of sleep. I play often at work, though. I rarely grind anymore. just aren't worth it to me. Once you get over the competition aspect of PvE, it can be fun. Just forget about playing to win.

fight4thedream

Mattfal wrote:

I'm just wondering, hoe long did it take to type this? It took forever to read. Gauntlet can be finished by a 2* player, it just really hard. More non-competitive pve would be a step in the right direction for mpq. Like the idea with mandarin and collecting ap! So, you could do a challenge where you go against devil dino and beat him in x turns. Beating a 19k health character would be a great challenge and reward could be a low tier but useful 3* cover (daredevil, Loki, psylocke, human torch)

it took about three hours i think. it always takes me forever to write lol i actually wrote it the night before but decided i would sleep on it before posting. the reason it is so long is that i don't like to criticize the game without offering ideas and solutions. and of course i sprinkle in my own personal experience.

i think beat devil dino in X turns would be cool! this is what i am talking about, i believe evolving the game past pure competition into mini-games and a viable single player mode would do wonders for player retention.

Phantron wrote:

Playing PvE too much is the player's fault and I'm currently engaged in a situation that looks pretty close to yours, but D3 should not be the enabler of crazy stuff. You can't do anything too crazy in the Gauntlet because the mode is setup such that being crazy doesn't offer meaningful advantage. Even if Gauntlet was ranked the worst that can happen is some kind of mad spending binge trying to get the top placements but at least after that you'd still be done.

That said despite all the complaints about stuff being too hard, they're obviously not hard enough for separation to occur in the top 5 or so range. They really should consider some kind of 'extra ultra hard' tiebreaker, like say a bunch of missions with fixed team requirements (the node decides who you use, but the characters levels are yours) and no boosts/TUs that's used to break ties between the very best players. Not sure how they'd determine when to use this, but ideally you'd want people to settle the virtual ties. Even as bad as the scaling gets in Simulator hard, there's still pretty close to virtual ties in the top 5 range after accounting for sleep patterns, and if you eliminate the grinding advantage then it'd just be the first person to clear wins and that's no good either.

Using Simulator Hard as an example, what should happen is that after you clear SImulator Hard for a certain number of base points the game will just stop offering you normal nodes and give you a bunch of ultra hardcore nodes instead and you cannot place lower than anyone who isn't doing these nodes. After you clear Simulator Hard say a combined 4 cycles there's no point to prove that you've the ability to abuse game mechanics and chug down boosts while maintaining an unhealthy schedule, so the game should immediately take away all these things so people can actually rest. I can imagine an 'ultra hardcore' version of all the nodes that can only be cleared once every 12 hours. They'd all pose unique team requirements on top of the usual over the top enemy stuff. For the purpose of calculation, your point in that sub should be equal to a relatively large number (say, 200K in the Simulator Basic hard bracket) plus whatever the extra hard nodes are worth. These nodes should be unlocked around half point of the sub and only if applicable (for example, Simulator normal doesn't need an extra hardcore mode because it's just not meant to be hard).

i think it's clear we both understand that we are ultimately responsible for the amount of time and effort we put into the game but, whether intentional or not, the current game format is set up to encourage excessive play.

You make a great point that the current format does not go far enough the differentiate roster strength and i think your idea about unlocking ultra hardcore node after reaching a certain amount of points would definitely help keep play interesting and hopefully less grindy.

evil panda wrote:

How long would this post have been if you didn't win...

i don't think it would actually have been any longer. hell, i might not have written anything at all. i have "lost" to a 2* player recently in pVe but i understood that the player put in the time to win it. Only lately have i started really pushing for the top in pVe and having finally reached it i felt rather empty about the experience. kind of like climbing a mountain with hopes of a beautiful view at the top but once you reach the summit, you just find a cold and desolate place.

Rio_D wrote:

You couldn't get one more point? Slacker

lol

ClydeFrog76 wrote:

The fact that you wrote that much after admitting that you just had the least amount of fun ever on an event is almost as depressing as the guy who crashed his car playing.

What the heck is wrong with you people? It's a **** game. Stop treating it like it's meth.

i don't know if my experience with extreme play is comparable to our fellow player that crashed his car but if you are familiar with my posts you will find that i tend to write quite a bit, whether i am having fun or not. i employ exaggeration and poetic license while also trying to hit on relevant issues regarding game play and user experience.

i mean the worst thing that occurred due to my extreme play is that i forgot to take the garbage out and will have to wait until Saturday. i think a better analogy would be a child who has binged on his or her favorite flavor of ice cream and now has super brain freeze and a bad stomach ache. but that's just me.

kensterr wrote:

Wow! I see my name here in the screenshot.

To tell the truth I gave up on switching the #1 spot with the OP on Saturday. I would go to sleep at #1 and wake up in the morning seeing him at #1 everyday before Saturday. What's the point of spending ISO and HP on boosts to get #1 spot when I already bought the last blue cover for Thorita?

So I went out shopping with friends, celebrated birthday dinner with my aunt, bought some Marvel comics which was on sale at Comixology and read them, and did many other things. I just picked up my phone to play whenever I feel like it rather than grinding every time a node refreshed. And during the last few hours of Simulator I had a nice relaxing foot massage.

Conclusion? Any placing of Top 10 to Top 50 is good enough in the future for me, unless it's Emma Frost, X23, Scarlet Witch, Phoenix or Spider-Woman in her old spandex suit

haha it's good to hear from you since i see you every now and then in both pVe and pVp. it's actually just around the point that you stopped pushing for the top that things started getting less interesting and more frustrating. smart move on your part

and since we're sharing our experiences outside of MPQ, during the event i went to the movies twice, had my butt kicked in Smash Bros by my best friend almost every night, i dominated in ping pong, cleaned my room, lost my back up cell battery during the clean and created another mess looking it for it, learned how to cook chicken parmesan pasta at my best friend's home party, spent some time teaching my little brother Japanese, and of course other fun things plus i went back to work from Saturday.

but i agree, i will be shooting for Top 10-50 from now on depending on the prizes.

DuckyV wrote:

raziel777 wrote:

If you go for top 2 - you should expect at least this much

it seems there is much i still have to learn.

fmftint wrote:

I'm on your list, I slept every night, skipped rotations, played only essentials and goons. I placed higher than I expected and it didn't take anything crazy to do it

oh believe me i am aware top 10 was a walk in the park. usually when i play pVe i play the same way. it's a much healthier and more enjoyable experience.

Lidolas wrote:

I enjoy most PvE events. I usually score top 100, sometimes up to top 20. I don't kill myself over it. I get full nights of sleep. I play often at work, though. I rarely grind anymore. just aren't worth it to me. Once you get over the competition aspect of PvE, it can be fun. Just forget about playing to win.

This. i totally understand what you are saying and agree. Like i mentioned, the Simulator is actually one of my favorite pVe events. However, the issue is the way 4* characters are distributed. The reason i shot for the top was for 4hor. i am not in a Top100 alliance so i cannot hope to get those season rewards. Which leaves me with player awards for pVp, pVe and token pull luck since i have no interest in buying covers. But with the recent shield cool down changes and time slice issues, it looks like hitting the 1300 progression mark will be challenging at best, next to impossible at worst. Which now leaves two options: Placing first in pVp or placing in the top 2 of pVe. So i decided to try my hand at playing pVe to the extreme and have come to realize it is not my cup of tea. pVe is enjoyable for the most part when played moderately.

However, the devs have stated that they intend on releasing more 4* characters this year and under the current award distribution model it won't be much fun trying to get them in a reasonable F2P way. In theory, if you are playing at the top tier level you will be able to achieve 7 or 8 covers (the initial 3 covers for the pVe release, plus one if you rank 1, plus the alliance cover and the three covers you get from season awards). That leaves five or six covers for you to get to cover max the character.
Before the time slices and shield changes, this wasn't so big an issue. But now we currently have slices where it is impossible to reach 1300 and with the shield changes you are going to see points drop even further.

So with all this in mind and with a blue 4hor dangling on the line during my vacation time i decided to give it a good go and see what it actually took to be number one. i didn't go full extreme, i cut back on sleep about an hour or two but never did the 2.5 hour timer thing. However, having reached the top it felt very anti-climatic. Why?
1. My 4hor is sitting at 6 covers so is nowhere near usable.
2. i actually know very little about the character. Had this been Black Suit Spider-Man, Silver Surfer or Gambit, i definitely would have been ecstatic to get their covers. But i know next to nothing about Thor: Goddess of Thunder. She is a new character whose identity we know nothing about. i look forward to learning more about her and her adventures but currently there is very little to work with. We just know she has cool powers and for some players that is good enough, i know, but after this experience i realized my limits when it comes to how far i will go just to get the next “hot” thing that has no real meaning outside the bounds of competition in this game.
3. There is no kind of title or achievement system that records player feats. It would have been nice to have this achievement marked in the chronicles of fight4thedream in game so that other players can see what has been accomplished.

In the end, i am responsible for the amount of time and effort i put into the game. And i guess i've come to my answer: playing to the extreme for a character i don't really know or care about and can't soon play with in a reasonable time frame is not fun for me, even if she is the second most powerful character in the game.

For now, i will go back to playing the patience game and waiting for more reasonable opportunities to complete my 4hor. Obviously, the devs are aware of this potential problem with 4* distribution thus the “We are going to make the transition from 3* to 4* transition smoother” comment in the last Q&A but it still leaves the question of what will be done about the 2* to 3* transition up in the air. If nothing is done about it, i can’t see casual, new players continuing for very long which is overall bad for the game.

i know player acquisition is a huge priority for the game but retention should follow right behind it. Pure competition is a recipe for burn out. Vets can deal with it somewhat by taking it easy on pVps and pVes where they already have the covers but if for the large pool of 2* players it must be hella frustrating. i mean let’s be honest a vet taking it easy can range from skipping an event totally to putting up an 800-900 score for the ISO and HP. They can do that because they are already established and they know they have the means to compete if the situation calls for it.

Sure you can say a 2* player can take it easy but they won’t see much progress and there will come a point when they don’t see much point in playing since they can’t progress to the next tier.

That’s why i think non-competitive mini games that offer older characters like Punisher, Patch, Grey Suit Black Widow and so on would be great since they would give 2* players a way to get 3* covers and would put a little bit more ISO in Vets pocket while hopefully offering a different way to play the game. (Take my 10 rings example where the point is not to annihilate your opponent but find a way to get 10 AP of each color before the Mandarin does)

i love this game and want it to continue to grow and do well. true, there are those that can endure the pVe grind and i tip my hat to them. but for the vast majority of the player base the grind is not very enjoyable so offering new modes of play is arguably just as important as making new characters.

i hope the devs realize this sooner rather than later. but as always, they have my gratitude for making a wonderful game and great characters. i just hope they remember that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link so to speak. And i believe the two weakest links are the dearth of non-competitive content and the 2* to 3* transition problem.

Unknown

Bravo! Nice write up. I just hope the devs are reading it but mostly likely not because they really don't care what the vets think.

Oldboy

Totally agree with the OP. Glad you wrote it so i could thumbs up the post. This happened to me for the Simulator as well. I burned out in the previous PVE and i just couldnt continue in the Simulator (i was in top 5). Took a few days off, did some other stuff and now playing only when i feel like it. Found some other games as well and now split my free time between them. Managed to hit top 25 in the Simulator when i came back to play a few games.

Unknown

You wrote, taht the devs are coming with a new pve mode, and you hope that it is going to be non-competitive. I hate to break it to you, but I believe that was the "endless" nodes that they introduced. And thats it.

Just quit the game like I did when I realized it was controlling my life.
It will be better that way.

Arimis_Thorn

ClydeFrog76 wrote:

The fact that you wrote that much after admitting that you just had the least amount of fun ever on an event is almost as depressing as the guy who crashed his car playing.

What the heck is wrong with you people? It's a **** game. Stop treating it like it's meth.

This always amazes me when people fall back on the "it's just a game" argument.

Stay with me here, because this may blow your mind.

For some people, it's NOT just a game. I'm not saying that it's healthy, but some people simply do not relate to Games the way you do. In some cases, it's a bona fide addiction. In others, maybe it's tied to some driving sense of refusing to be beaten. Who knows?

But to casually throw away someone else's experience with "it's just a game" is spectacularly lazy.