What If... PvEs Felt WORTH The Grind?

Seasick Pirate

[DISCLAIMER: This is a What If...? topic. This means I'm not asking for, or even wanting, anything mentioned herein. This is solely meant for fun, hypothetical conversation and speculation.]

Today, I was trying to think what would make PvEs more enjoyable and interesting. Here's what I came up with:

• Placement rewards for each sub are replaced with what we now have for event placement (top 150 = 1 cover, top 50 = 2 covers, etc.).
• Remove the placement rewards for the event and only give progression rewards.
• The amount of progression rewards are then tripled by extending the scores. The rewards themselves don't have to be spectacular - a couple extra tokens, boosts, and iso-8 is fine. The last two progression rewards would be the "top 150" character second to last and the "top 2" 4-star from that event for the final.

For me, this would make PvEs feel worth the time, effort, and devotion. Being able to win (earn - not lucky with a token) and play with a new character before the event ends would make me want to play harder.

Having a 4-star placement rewards at the end of each sub is overkill so that should probably be limited to the last sub only. Also, the "featured/new" character should be essential in the final sub, limiting 4-stars to REAL winners. This also makes obtaining the "featured/new" character more desirable early on.

The last couple progressions should be difficult to obtain, requiring the player to start immediately and do some grinding to achieve.

Obviously, all events would have to be be altered to accommodate this new structure. Subs would each probably be 36 hours each, making ending times balanced.

Again, to be clear, I'm not asking for these changes. My mind was wandering while playing and I wanted to share what I came up with.
With that said, how would you feel about these changes? Would this make PvEs less monotonous to you? Anything else you would do to tweak or improve this idea?

Unknown

I like it. I always hated pve but since I wanted IF I didn't intend on grinding but found myself in top 10 after the first subs and felt kind of like I was in the position to place so why not. But as the grinds keep going and you win these subs...the hp is nice the token is lame...I feel the same way, I could just as easily get IF covers in pvp without this horrific grind. If they were to change the rewards to something like this I think it would help, maybe even offer a midpoint reward like a 3* cover so it wouldn't be after every sub...but I don't know, like the idea though.

NorthernPolarity

This actually happened in the PvE Patch was released. I ended up with enough covers to cover two full patches, and I'm pretty sure Demiurge realized after the PvP that maybe allowing veterans to fully cover their new character after a single event wasn't the best idea. The problem with this idea is that Demiurge doesn't want to significantly increase cover handouts, so any idea like this would have to give out the same amount of covers as an event gives out now, which is like... 1/5th of a cover for top 150? Doesn't really pan out in practice unfortunately.

Unknown

Nothing is worth the grind besides bragging rights

NorthernPolarity

Mattfal wrote:

Nothing is worth the grind besides bragging rights

4or was worth the grind. Everything else... not so much.

Seasick Pirate

This is a pro-player fantasy, for sure. I didn't exactly have Demi's best interests in mind when thinking of this, haha.

Being able to nearly fully cover a character with this did occur to me, and my first response to that wouldn't be a popular one. I thought this would actually allow for the release of characters at a faster pace. Event endings could alternate weekend and mid-week times, but each event introduces a new character.

Player fatigue would probably become a bigger issue in the case, with the stress of winning being relentless. Not to mention the HP required for roster slots would quickly become devastating for most players. So yeah, this is hardly a solution, just a cool thought to have for a fleeting moment.

Unknown

As it stands PvE is the biggest waste of your effort/time in this game. The idea of playing 6 straight days for a "chance" at 3 covers on a character is ludicrous. Not to mention you're fighting in most cases overpowered enemies that eat health packs and then your PvP scores suffer. Don't even consider the fact that a lot of matches end with only 20 iso which makes the venture even more insane. Sure from time to time you'll get a 1k iso match but 10 matches in PvP easily returns more than that. Also you have to consider the massive amount of people with only lvl 94 rosters who are solely there to ruin PvE for you. It only takes 150 of those guys to ruin your entire bracket. You'll play 20 matches to touch what they make in only a few matches and ultimately they'll win the PvE. The bragging rights of winning a PvE fade nearly instantly when the newest hottest character drops only a few days from when you won the last one. Now you're face with the issue of how to put 10 more covers on him before some guy whips out his debit card and swipes it for a 100$ assuming he already has the iso in the bank. It's a cool idea but not exactly a solution. A good solution would be for the game to recognize players that have 60 roster slots, 10+ covers on every 3* but only have lvl 94s and shatter their gameplay by pitting them against the same super scaled enemies the next guy faces with similar roster coverage. I can't help but think how hilarious it would be to watch them all rage.

Spoit

What if.....pve nodes gave a small amount of ISO the first time you completed them. Like, say, 200 ISO a node

SnowcaTT

If every 1000 rotated 500 iso / 25 HP / 500 ISO / Heroic token - then it would be worth grinding past the progression (which is only occasionally worth getting to in the first place).

Unknown

Mattfal wrote:

Nothing is worth the grind besides bragging rights

135 days in, I'm at this point. I just can't spend 2+ hours anymore grinding down all nodes before sub end. I did that for Starlord for 5+ days - #1 for a worthless 4*. I don't even care about waking up at 2AM to play optimally; the 8 hour refreshes were a godsend. But it always ends up for me you hate life, you don't progress as quickly IRL, you schedule RL things around a game. Can't do it anymore.

What really killed it for me was the 2 subs at the same time. No thanks. When youre talking about grinding 18+ nodes to 1 for #1, late at night, before bed, after gym....having to wake up next morning for work. Burned out!

Unknown

NorthernPolarity wrote:

Mattfal wrote:

Nothing is worth the grind besides bragging rights

4or was worth the grind. Everything else... not so much.

4thor wasn't worth the grind unless you spent money on covers or had a maxed xforce. Neither of which are options for me. So she sits on my roster at lvl70 with 2 covers

Unknown

3uphoria wrote:

As it stands PvE is the biggest waste of your effort/time in this game. The idea of playing 6 straight days for a "chance" at 3 covers on a character is ludicrous. Not to mention you're fighting in most cases overpowered enemies that eat health packs and then your PvP scores suffer. Don't even consider the fact that a lot of matches end with only 20 iso which makes the venture even more insane. Sure from time to time you'll get a 1k iso match but 10 matches in PvP easily returns more than that. Also you have to consider the massive amount of people with only lvl 94 rosters who are solely there to ruin PvE for you. It only takes 150 of those guys to ruin your entire bracket. You'll play 20 matches to touch what they make in only a few matches and ultimately they'll win the PvE. The bragging rights of winning a PvE fade nearly instantly when the newest hottest character drops only a few days from when you won the last one. Now you're face with the issue of how to put 10 more covers on him before some guy whips out his debit card and swipes it for a 100$ assuming he already has the iso in the bank. It's a cool idea but not exactly a solution. A good solution would be for the game to recognize players that have 60 roster slots, 10+ covers on every 3* but only have lvl 94s and shatter their gameplay by pitting them against the same super scaled enemies the next guy faces with similar roster coverage. I can't help but think how hilarious it would be to watch them all rage.

I LOVE the fact that 2* teams OWN PVE. That's how it should be imo. PVE is the ONLY game mode they have any chance at.

Can't do PVP, can't do LR...PVE is their only chance at progression.

Unknown

Mattfal wrote:

NorthernPolarity wrote:

Mattfal wrote:

Nothing is worth the grind besides bragging rights

4or was worth the grind. Everything else... not so much.

4thor wasn't worth the grind unless you spent money on covers or had a maxed xforce. Neither of which are options for me. So she sits on my roster at lvl70 with 2 covers

Buying 4Thor was the best thing I ever did in MPQ. Instant never have to need PVE again. Instant PVP placement. Instant flood gates of 3*, guaranteed ISO from every node in PVE with ease.

slidecage

i think when i jump into a late PVP and play my first match and ranked 2th i should earn that reward. Why should i grind in the pvp.

if you want to do this with the pve then i want that done with the pvp.

Really though i would like to see them turn PVE INTO PVP what do i mean by that. Make the PVES 3 day events tops maybe 2.5 like the pvp. I will admit i like the 8 hour refresh MORE BuT with the 3 hour refresh you mostly did not have this problem. You could grind like crazy the first 3 days of an event and just play so so the last 1 to 2 days and you would hold your spot. Now there is no way to play the PVE unless you grind everyday. I just tried this and kept my scores

When it was a 3 hour refresh i went
15, 12, 18, (then played little) 23 and ended 40th (due to rubberbanding

With 8 hour
32-45 (started playing light sat end 79th (thats right a 35 slot drop in 24 hour and that is still with playing)
i expect to be around 110 tonight and 145 at the end. That is over a 100 slot drop.

and no im not asking for an 3 hour refresh to come back so dont say im asking for one

Baddkitty

They need to reevaluate progression point tiers. Do some real math, look at previous top 50 scores...they're waaaaay beyond the last tier reward point. Which means were grinding uselessly past that point to stay on top. Figure out the max amount a sub/event can give... playing optimally or grinding nodes to zero...Which I've done and placed guest several times...with triple the points of the last reward. Look at pvp....how hard it was to hit 1300 yet there was a reward. It may be untouchable for most, but it's the highest reward fir having no life and dedicating yourself to the game lol

Oh and on a side note.... fix the iso rewards per tier..Don't make a 7tier reward LESS iso than Lower, easier, point tiier. It's stupid.

slidecage

Baddkitty wrote:

They need to reevaluate progression point tiers. Do some real math, look at previous top 50 scores...they're waaaaay beyond the last tier reward point. Which means were grinding uselessly past that point to stay on top. Figure out the max amount a sub/event can give... playing optimally or grinding nodes to zero...Which I've done and placed guest several times...with triple the points of the last reward. Look at pvp....how hard it was to hit 1300 yet there was a reward. It may be untouchable for most, but it's the highest reward fir having no life and dedicating yourself to the game lol

Oh and on a side note.... fix the iso rewards per tier..Don't make a 7tier reward LESS iso than Lower, easier, point tiier. It's stupid.

been asking for that for months but nothing has ever been done..

I mean if max reward is 70k and people are scoring 150 to 180k there should be some rewards past 70k even if it was 1000 iso for every 10k over the max

Unknown

There is no way they will move the ranking rewards to the subs. This would mean too many covers which translates to way less purchases of covers with HP. Let's face it, the only reason they have pve is to keep the addicts occupied between pvp events. Most non-casual players, who have a decent 3* roster, get an average of 3 *** covers (1 from progression and 2 from a top 50). This is terrible value compared to a pvp where1-2 hours is enough to give a top 5 and the same number of covers.

Imho, their implementation of pve is faulty. Instead of making pve a celebration where most players get all covers of a hero, who can then be leveled with hp and ISO, the aim of the devs is to push players to get the covers through tokens which are terrible value/money. So the game becomes and endless grind with players trying to place top 10 (that is 1% of a bracket) because this is the most reliable way to get all covers. Things get even worse when they release unbalanced heroes in an effort to send players in a frenzy, as we saw with IF, to get to that precious purple cover, which "surprisingly" is a reward for top 10, instead of top 50 or top 150. All that while we know a nerf is unavoidable. Of course, players have a second chance at the hero's covers in the pvp that follows soon after the pve which introduces a new hero, but even there we have seen that a cover can be as difficult to get as it was in the pve because the devs leave it to luck to determine the order of the covers in the ranking rewards. Luck is a very convenient thing for those who want to hide their true intentions, saying "It's not our fault, blame luck. Now go buy some tokens".

veneretio

I've just accepted that PvE isn't worth my time anymore. I'm glad it was around so I could grind 3* covers, but now that I have most of them, I'd rather just wait for DPDs to have what I need. I'll still play PvE for the progression rewards, but the top 50/150 stuff is just an insane amount of grinding for minimal reward. (and god help you if you put in all that grinding and you barely miss on the 50/150 you're going for... waste of a week)

Unknown

veneretio wrote:

I've just accepted that PvE isn't worth my time anymore. I'm glad it was around so I could grind 3* covers, but now that I have most of them, I'd rather just wait for DPDs to have what I need. I'll still play PvE for the progression rewards, but the top 50/150 stuff is just an insane amount of grinding for minimal reward. (and god help you if you put in all that grinding and you barely miss on the 50/150 you're going for... waste of a week)

Excellent post. I've felt the same way about PvE for 9 months now and only use it to gather ISO and tokens.

Unknown

A simple 50-200 iso for every 2000-10000 points over the top progression reward would be fantastic. Doing too many boosted grinds and PVE can quickly become iso negative, and earning more off pure points would always help.

Unknown

I think this also depends on your roster strength and 'expected' return in each of the modes. For 2-3* transitioners, sometimes grinding for 2 or 3 covers feels worth it because it's less effort and less stress than trying to get the equivalent in PVP. Sometimes it'd take 5 or 6 PVPs to get an equivalent amount, plus shields, plus careful timing.

For people who already have a maxed 3* team, and are pretty much guaranteed a 3* cover in PVP, I can see why 'the PVE grind' wouldn't feel worth it.