Upcoming Changes to Versus Rewards

Demiurge_Will

Starting with the Versus event that begins tomorrow, 1/27, we'll be lowering the score it takes to reach some progression rewards.

Before this change, progression rewards in Versus looked like this:
* 25 - A Standard token
* 50 - 100 Iso-8
* 100 - All-AP boost
* 200 - 250 Iso-8
* 300 - An event token
* 400 - 25 Hero Points
* 500 - A 2-star
* 600 - 25 Hero Points
* 700 - 1000 Iso-8
* 800 - 50 Hero Points
* 900 - An event token
* 1000 - 1000 Iso-8
* 1100 - A 3-star
* 1200 - 1000 Iso-8
* 1300 - A 4-star

After this change, they’ll look like this:
* 25 (unchanged) - A Standard token
* 50 (unchanged) - 100 Iso-8
* 100 (unchanged) - All-AP boost
* 200 (unchanged) - 250 Iso-8
* 300 (unchanged) - An event token
* 400 (unchanged) - 25 Hero Points
* 500 (unchanged) - A 2-star
* 575 (down from 600) - 25 Hero Points
* 650 (down from 700) - 1000 Iso-8
* 725 (down from 800) - 50 Hero Points
* 800 (down from 900) - An event token
* 850 (down from 1000) - 1000 Iso-8
* 900 (down from 1100) - A 3-star
* 950 (down from 1200) - 1000 Iso-8
* 1000 (down from 1300) - A 4-star

A little bit about the reasoning behind these changes:

After we introduced a cooldown timer between shield purchases, we began analyzing data about how this changed scores. We looked at the percentage of players reaching particular scores, the number of matches they had to play to get there, and the number of Hero Points they spent on shields to get there.

When we looked at players reaching the progression rewards at 500 points and below, we found that cooldowns didn't have a measurable impact. There was a modest impact on scores between 500 and 700 points. The impact increased as we looked at the hardest-to-reach rewards. After cooldowns were introduced, the 4-star reward was earned by a third of the players who earned it before (though the Hero Points spent and the number of matches it took didn't change as much).

These changes restore the percentages of players that earn the 4-star (at 1300/1000) and the 1000 Iso-8 reward (at 1200/950) to what they were before cooldowns. It looks like a few more folks will earn the rewards from the 50 Hero Points reward (at 800/725) through the 3-star reward (at 1100/900) than did before cooldowns were introduced - these were a little harder to reach than they'd ideally be before.

A couple other interesting facts from the data we looked at: Slightly more players are using shields now than were before cooldowns were introduced (we think this is because the change makes placement rewards more competitive). The number of Hero Points it takes to top the leaderboards (and the number of Hero Points it will usually take to reach the 4-star reward after this change) is less than it used to be.

All of this is looking at the experience of players as a whole - depending on your exact circumstances, you might have a harder or easier time reaching the 4-star reward, or use more or fewer shields, than you did before cooldowns even with this change.

Looking forward to hearing what you think after you've had a chance to play it!