[POLL] How do you plan to use shields? (double priced)

Nemek

Skyedyne wrote:

Microtom wrote:

Skyedyne wrote:

Since day 1 of shield release, I have never seen any reason to use them. Even at half the original cost in LR's, I didnt. There is really no incentive for me to use them, so they could be free at base level or cost 1000 hp, I have never had that feeling of "ohmygod I must use a shield now, now, now!".

If I get attacked, so what? Chances are that person will shield when they get high enough anyways, then I just attack, get boosted even higher, and rinse/lather/repeat. I utilized the same retaliation mechanic prior to shield introduction, and it works good enough.

If no one uses shields, then no one get good rewards. You might freeride your way up without buying one, but that's just that, a freeride.

Which loops right back around to my original statement. If I can get a free ride to the top, especially in the "dying" hours of the tournament and still get the prog prizes, what's there to make me want to buy and use a shield? I still get the same prizes as the person shielded next to me, without the worry of... well, wasting HP on it to begin with.

We'll see at the end of this tourney, but I suspect the number of free rides given out will be pretty small. The increase in price alongside a (probably) temporary backlash will make it so very few people will be shielded in this tourney, so rising really high at the end will likely be very dampened.

Unknown

The point total certainly are way lower this time around, though I suspect that's more due to the change where high rated people are no longer immune from being seen by lower rated people.

turul

So it turns out there is small usage of costy shields.

There should be one shield, active until breaken by fight, for 50 or 100 HP

Unknown

To me shields was an easy attempt at fixing the scoring system. But now the scoring system is facing problems all over again since the price increased on shields. Every change and update it feels like the devs just want our money. This is a mobile game, not gta5.

Unknown

Unity wrote:

To me shields was an easy attempt at fixing the scoring system. But now the scoring system is facing problems all over again since the price increased on shields. Every change and update it feels like the devs just want our money. This is a mobile game, not gta5.

Haha, I found it funny that you mentioned GTA 5 since it was released without a competent online component for weeks XD

Unknown

The change to higher players being seen just prevents guys that broke away from the pack from effortlessly continue to score due to not being able to be seen by most players. The points generated by shields is still the same overall. It's just distributed to all the players now instead of the few that broke away from the pack. Therefore, to hit the high progression rewards require everyone to be playing a lot to generate enough points from shields to bring everyone to a high score, not just a few guys who happened to get lucky.

Of course since people are lazy and don't even really understand how this concept works most people will just not be playing and wonder why nobody ever got a high rating. Right now, the only way to get the high (1000+) rewards is if everyone played constantly throughout the entire tournament. The days where you can free ride your way to 2400 is over.

Unknown

Jax2k wrote:

How about "don't plan to use shields if double priced."

I was about to post exactly that, but the I thought I'll check the replies first.

In my bracket, until 10 minute ago I was able to see the top 20(I was #15) and no one had shield. Now, the only one with a shield is #2 with 823 points. #5 is at 383. I think yesterday same hour most in top 10 were shielded. What is happening in other brackets? I think most will try their luck the last 3-4 hours and shield if they get high enough. I will probably sit this one out, or try to get to 500 for the HP tomorrow. I won't even try it now with so few at 400+ (I assume this is happening in other brackets.)

Unknown

Personally, I was looking forward to trying to get #1 in my bracket this time around. As someone who is still at the beginning of 3* progression, I haven't had any opportunities until now. But with the new pricing on shields, there's no point in grinding, and I'm sure someone will have a quicker team to beat me if I wait until the end. It's very disheartening.

Unknown

Funny as the joint changes end up totally undoing what we thought the purpose of the shield was. Which I assume was to A. Allow ppl.to reach higher progression totals and B. Allow ppl go play at earlier times than last 3hrs of a tournement. Now your best bet is to play during last 3 hrs and just not use a shield, or pop a shield if you get into first place with at all of a comfy margin. Of course they also increased the progress rewards to compensate for how easy it was after shields came in...and so I would hope after this nerf to the game's enjoyment they would subsequently lower it down.

I will either be A. Not trying. Or B. Only trying during the last few hours and pop a shield if I get a good enough lead. A single 100-200 hp shield I can afford..more? Not so much...I don't want to be earning negetibe hp in the tournement if I don't have to. Now how can a new player even attempt to compete? I mean...unless they lightning round luck into a "diabolical" type tier or something.

I.think.talking.positive about any changes makes the devs decide to change it to be honest lol. So next time something good happens...just don't say anything At all. Progress rewards are obtainable? Say: "Ehh, pretty hard to get. Probably.not.worth the effort but if you spend enough money you can get them." Lol... Otherwise its nerf city population us.

Unknown

Phantron wrote:

Of course since people are lazy and don't even really understand how this concept works most people will just not be playing and wonder why nobody ever got a high rating. Right now, the only way to get the high (1000+) rewards is if everyone played constantly throughout the entire tournament. The days where you can free ride your way to 2400 is over.

So not wanting this game to be my whole life is lazy?

Spoit

Back in the day we ground out the last few hundred points to 1k 10-15 at a time. None if this fancy shielded leap frogging. And heaven forbid if you were going for 1.2k, where sub 10 point battles were the order of the day

Nemek

Spoit wrote:

Back in the day we ground out the last few hundred points to 1k 10-15 at a time. None if this fancy shielded leap frogging. And heaven forbid if you were going for 1.2k, where sub 10 point battles were the order of the day

Yeah, it's interesting how just a taste of high progression rewards changes mentalities so quickly.

It used to be that 1100 was really really good, 1200 was super impressive, and anything more than that was god-like. Then there were around three tournaments where things got kind of crazy and scores inflated massively with shields. Now that we're back down closer to the original scoring levels, it's panic all around.

Unknown

Phantron wrote:

The change to higher players being seen just prevents guys that broke away from the pack from effortlessly continue to score due to not being able to be seen by most players. The points generated by shields is still the same overall. It's just distributed to all the players now instead of the few that broke away from the pack. Therefore, to hit the high progression rewards require everyone to be playing a lot to generate enough points from shields to bring everyone to a high score, not just a few guys who happened to get lucky.

Of course since people are lazy and don't even really understand how this concept works most people will just not be playing and wonder why nobody ever got a high rating. Right now, the only way to get the high (1000+) rewards is if everyone played constantly throughout the entire tournament. The days where you can free ride your way to 2400 is over.

The problem is that this requires the people at the top to be the people that have enough HP to afford the shields, otherwise they'll lose their points really quickly when someone far below them hits them for 50 points.

In the two hulk tourneys and the first Ares, I was a front runner even though all the HP I've had in the last two weeks is entirely from events. I spent some money early on in this game, but kinda blew it. I haven't spent any since. The HP I used for shields in those two tournaments came from the surrounding PvE events. I would start early get to 800ish points, and shield for the night. This lets people pull up, and then I would go for the next big milestone and shield again. This system benefit the front-runners for the effort they put in and gives them more opponents later, while it benefit everyone else trying to catch up.

The new system really hurts the front-runners. The cost of shields is too high to keep using like this, and they damage they'll take unshielded is far to great. The HP you would put into a shield benefits everyone else far more than it benefits you in this system.

Unknown

Nemek wrote:

Spoit wrote:

Back in the day we ground out the last few hundred points to 1k 10-15 at a time. None if this fancy shielded leap frogging. And heaven forbid if you were going for 1.2k, where sub 10 point battles were the order of the day

Yeah, it's interesting how just a taste of high progression rewards changes mentalities so quickly.

It used to be that 1100 was really really good, 1200 was super impressive, and anything more than that was god-like. Then there were around three tournaments where things got kind of crazy and scores inflated massively with shields. Now that we're back down closer to the original scoring levels, it's panic all around.

The difference? Now it costs 200 hp or so per a tournement, while still no longer being able to reach the 4**** progress rewards while also getting knocked around with -50s all the time. It's not the same. My only hope is that the progress rewards are ridiculous because they didn't want to/have time to code in New progress rewards. What worries me of course is that they DID change other progress rewards besides the 4****..scraping the "cannot do so" idea. Still expect the 4**** to drop somehmwhat based on TOP .scores in this event though.

I do think some of the shielding could have used a slight revamp. This was not it.

Unknown

I got first in round one of the Ares tourney and had fun the whole way. I was skeptical of shields at first and voiced criticism, but found them in the end to be a fairly successful addition. I attribute them with securing my rank. I'd never managed to get first before, only top five. That feeling of achievement and my new (unexciting) Patch Wolvie were worth 200 HP.

With the new changes in matchmaking combined with the doubling in shield cost, I thought I'd give them the benefit of the doubt and try my hand this round. Utter fail. Frustration is about all I've gotten. I look back on the past few hours and I realize that I can't even say I enjoyed myself at all. Can't even get to a rating high enough to justify buying a shield. If the devs don't see the mess they've made and fix it, I can't see myself making any real effort in tournies anymore. I have enough things in real life to frustrate me. I don't need a game to add more. And that's unfortunate because my primary source of enjoyment in the game were the tournies.

Do they even realize that a 24 hour shield costs 4 dollars if you were to buy the HP yourself? How is that acceptable?

Derethus wrote:

The new system really hurts the front-runners. The cost of shields is too high to keep using like this, and they damage they'll take unshielded is far to great. The HP you would put into a shield benefits everyone else far more than it benefits you in this system.

Exactly what I was trying to say, except with less words.

Unknown

pumkin wrote:

Do they even realize that a 24 hour shield costs 4 dollars if you were to buy the HP yourself? How is that acceptable?

This...
I didn't even use shields to boost my rating, I only used them because 90% of the tournaments end while I'm at work, so I use the 24H shield the most.
With the old pricing/progression rewards, I was able to break even or gain a small amount of HP with a good placement.
Now there's no way I can afford them in the long run, which means I'll have to choose only a limited amount of tournaments to play in. Since there is not much else to do in the game anyway... this will probably kill it for me.

Unknown

I voted for not trying too hard but its a combo of that and #1. I didn't use shields often before. . A 3hr or 8 hr once a torney that's it. Last round I made a run on last day to abt 1300 and was 1st in a low bracket by 600 pts. Shielded 8 hrs to go. With 4 hrs left qiwi made a tun to 1900 snd shielded. I could of attempted but I said why? IW was not that important to me so I was fine with my top 5 finish and enjoyed my day...moral - play more casual. There is no incentive to be king of the ant hill since t he devs will nerf or alter game to make sure everyone is close to even to make u wanna spend to distance yourself only to pull the restraint back.

Unknown

yes, no way to get high rating without shielding, I used an 3 hr shield to get green punisher, that's all i gonna spent this time around.

As for the placement, there will be better tornament than this health pack sink one. (damage and HP boosted 300% is insane!!! and to place well, you need 85 lvls of iso)

turul

Looks like the right strategy was to grind early and secure the score with a 24hrs shield....

Unknown

join the tourney very late. maybe 8 hours before deadline and try not using shield.
except when u really2 need the reward.