Downgrade Your Reward

Unknown

So here I sit, at 8:30 PM on Wednesday night, knowing I have three hours at most before I go to bed, and looking at the 5-and-a-half hours remaining in the Divine Champions event.

I'm currently ranked #50 in my bracket and that's a precarious balance. If I climb 4 more ranks, I'll be in danger of winning a Punisher. If I slip 25 ranks, I won't get what I'm in this tournament to win - the blue cover for OBW that I have been chasing for weeks. Every day I drop 100 HP on the Daily ** Deal, but nothing. Every Heroic token I cash in, every random draw I take, I hold my breath and end up selling another Modern Hawkeye or Classic Storm. And now that prize is there, dangling, and the balance I need to secure it is even more delicate than the battle for the top few spots.

If I were gunning for the Punisher, I could still be at it, fighting my way up through the roster and amassing points, building my lead and then popping a shield before bed with a decent chance of holding my position overnight. But I'm not. I'm after a high mid-range tier prize with a 30 slot window. Just 11 points more than I have now and I'd be out of Black Widow land and into Punisher territory. 20 points less...just one decent loss...and the Blue Cover slips my grasp once again.

This means I'm not playing the game, even though I want to. It means I'm not gaining progression rewards, even though I'd like them. If I pop a shield, chances are the ratings will push me out of the tiny window I'm trying to remain within. I would so much rather be playing to win instead of wasting this much energy on remaining mediocre.

So, I'm suggesting the option to downgrade your reward. If I were to qualify for a Punisher cover, then I would like to be able to forfeit that cover and redeem it for a lower level prize. After all, I have already demonstrated my ability to earn it...why force a player to walk a tightrope to secure a prize of lesser value?

As players begin maxing more and more of their roster, I suspect the desire for "missing" covers will become more of a driving factor than placing #5 or #10 for something they already have. Those people won't be playing the game as intensely as they would probably like, which harms enjoyment and lessens the addictive nature of rolling from one match to the next. And if people are hanging back, the battle at the top becomes less competitive as well. I'm not saying the battle for the middle will ever be more coveted than the top, but there will be those of us who need the mid-tier prize more than the top, and those people may begin glutting the median with scores that differ only by single digits and rarely increase.

But with the ability to downgrade our reward, suddenly there's no reason for anyone to hold back. The battle for top dominance can be about the thrill of competition for some and about grabbing that top 1% brass ring for others. In short, it adds more ferocity to the fight by taking the leash off some of the dogs who are watching from their marked territories and wishing they could play.

Unknown

+1'd. I've gotten some Villain covers I didn't particularly want when I was gunning for a diabolic token, and it's REALLY tentative on what'll happen when you're at that ranking (1-2 attacks can drop you out of the top 50 or 100 even).

Unknown

I was going to post this suggestion myself (and for the very same reason... I ended up with a black Punisher cover at 42 in the last 2 minutes ).

I very much agree that getting a higher rank should enable you to choose any reward from a lower rank. It doesn't make sense for a player to be "punished" (see what I did there?) for getting a higher rank. The UI to choose the reward could just be similar to the Event Rewards UI, except with a "claim" button added for any rank lower than what you ended up with.

Unknown

Why not just hand out the cover rewards of all ranks below yours? Would need some minor reshuffling, for the current tournament rankings would look somewhat like this:

1: Wolverine (red)
2 - 5: Punisher (red)
6 - 15: Punisher (green)
16 - 45: Punisher (black)
46 - 75: Widow (blue)
76 - 150: Widow (black)
151 - 200: Widow (purple)

ISO and HP rewards wouldn't sum up, just like it's currently handled for first position. Overall, rewards wouldn't really increase much, the top 45 players would receive some additional Widow covers they are likely to sell for 125 ISO each. Not a big deal.

Unknown

Yeah that would be a major improvement and trivially implementable. So chances are slim.

Unknown

If you have been putting 100hp in daily in irder to hope to get the cover, why not just spend 200-300more and buy the skill? Oh and just outta curiosity, did to manage to get it?!

Unknown

pasa_ wrote:

Yeah that would be a major improvement and trivially implementable. So chances are slim.

You really REALLY nailed it: in this insane game, if something is a major improvement and trivially implementable, we are doomed. We may add a 3rd factor to the equation: heavily requested (so don't speak about this too much ). They prefer to keep testing new flawed/frustrating/inscrutable PvE and PvP system on us (hello, "Thick as Thieves" )

Unknown

Moghwyn wrote:

Why not just hand out the cover rewards of all ranks below yours? Would need some minor reshuffling, for the current tournament rankings would look somewhat like this:

1: Wolverine (red)
2 - 5: Punisher (red)
6 - 15: Punisher (green)
16 - 45: Punisher (black)
46 - 75: Widow (blue)
76 - 150: Widow (black)
151 - 200: Widow (purple)

ISO and HP rewards wouldn't sum up, just like it's currently handled for first position. Overall, rewards wouldn't really increase much, the top 45 players would receive some additional Widow covers they are likely to sell for 125 ISO each. Not a big deal.

Brilliant, absolutely brilliant!

Unknown

I was thinking a bit more on this: a ** cover is sold at 125 ISO. So this change should sound like written above minus 3*125 ISO. So anyone not interested in the 3 covers is getting the same after sell. And who is interested have a little more fun. I guess for quite many people who can place for *** covers have most ** redundant, but occasionally can put them to use, while IMO chances are slim he'd obtain them by other means with more spend.

So this change would have insignificant impact on material offered as prizes while add a deal of positive experience. Also trivial to implement.

Unknown

This.

I'd be very happy with just the ability to be able to select the reward of a lower rank. There would be no need to change ISO or coin reward just the ability to select the cover relevant to your rank or that of a lower rank.

I've been in a few tournaments where I havnt cared about the rewards in the 2-45 bracket but i've played for and achieved a top 10 position because Im competetive. Technically I'd have been far better off having placed much lower and won a cover I could use and benefit from, leaves a bit of a sour taste in the mouth that could have been easily avoided by allowing the option of taking a "lower value" reward.