Why devs keep making some covers more difficult to obtain?

Polares

Devs have told us repeatedly that all covers have the same rarity, and that all should be obtainable in the same way. This is what they said, now there is reality. IF purple can be obteined just as a top10 in his presentation PvE or top5 in women of Marvel. It was exactly the same for Cyclops, and for a lot more (these were just the last two).

Right now it is 'very easy' to have 3 IF blacks (top150 PVE, progression reward, top100 PvP), but 'very difficult' to have one IF purple.

It should not be like that. They are making IF purple or Cyclops Red way more difficult to obtain, and incrementing their rarity. We know these are their best powers, but let the people get one cover!!!


PS: In this moment I have a 0/2/3 Cyclops and I will probably have a 2/0/3 IF by the end of the week

Unknown

I got a random IF from a token, it was black so mine will likely be 2/0/4! by the end of the week and if I were in a top alliance that would be 2/0/6 how awesome is that.

orbitalint

They've been like this since I've been playing. At least they rotate covers on the 2nd time they are available after PVE/PVP release, that wasn't always the case previously. I can understand the frustration but it does give us players something to pine after, which I'm sure drives playing and sales for them.

They make the "best" cover artificially rarer on release so that us suckers grind harder for it. Be honest, would you even care to try for top 10 if the release of The Hood was black and blue was only top 150? Most people would coast if they got the best cover so easily. I don't like it but don't see it as a big issue since they rotate them in eventually.

thanos8587

it is annoying. no doubt. i take some solace that cyc red should cycle in the dpd in the next 20 days. the fact that iron fist's purple is his defining ability and they make it top 10 in pve and top 5 in pvp make you have to question the common sense of things. random is not an answer. the answer is simply make it not random in the initial release. random after that is fine.

not that it really matters, three covers is only three covers regardless for most people. 3/0/0, 0/2/1, 1/1/1 all pretty much equally useless. its going to take months and at least one full 100+ day dpd cycle and some token pulls to bring them up to somewhat usable.

Unknown

Yes, but there is a pretty small window for "new powers" to be coveted as hard to obtain. Once the character gets added to the heroic token pool (which is TOMORROW, for Cyclops and Iron Fist), players will start pulling their colors in equal numbers, and the percentage of people with the "coveted rare" power will start to shoot up. I'm okay with that because the "window" in which those covers remain harder to obtain is smaller than the amount of time it would actually take to max-out that power. So not many people (big $ spenders exempted) will be running around with a 5-cover purple Iron Fist before others are getting purple Iron Fist at all from random token pulls.

Doc L

orbitalint wrote:

They've been like this since I've been playing. At least they rotate covers on the 2nd time they are available after PVE/PVP release, that wasn't always the case previously. I can understand the frustration but it does give us players something to pine after, which I'm sure drives playing and sales for them.

They make the "best" cover artificially rarer on release so that us suckers grind harder for it. Be honest, would you even care to try for top 10 if the release of The Hood was black and blue was only top 150? Most people would coast if they got the best cover so easily. I don't like it but don't see it as a big issue since they rotate them in eventually.

Hood blue was the top 150 in it's most recent pve appearance, which meant I did coast (especially with 5 yellow and black already...).

It does seem random to me, like the ease at which I got 5 yellow Rocket versus the slow climb to get (only) 4 yellow Thor as it stands. I would argue that they don't always know what the best cover will end up being, how players may adapt to use skills and so on, so hard to plan blocking the best colour skill off.

PeterGibbons316

Would you even use a 2/1/2 IF? If all three covers were given out you would see a lot more 166 IFs from people willing to drop a ton of HP/ISO to max out a new character, is that what you want? I think I'm fine keeping a rare color when a character is first released - I won't really be using him for a while, so it's nice to not have others be able to use him either.

Unknown

It's logical to make one of the best moves in the game (IF purple) the hardest to obtain. What do you expect?

orbitalint

Doc L wrote:

Hood blue was the top 150 in it's most recent pve appearance, which meant I did coast (especially with 5 yellow and black already...).

It does seem random to me, like the ease at which I got 5 yellow Rocket versus the slow climb to get (only) 4 yellow Thor as it stands. I would argue that they don't always know what the best cover will end up being, how players may adapt to use skills and so on, so hard to plan blocking the best colour skill off.

I'm talking about initial release only. Yes, the "best" cover might change but looking at the stats of IF, green was not the power cover...and that ended up being the easiest cover to get. Blade actually had some ambiguity but they do take an educated guess about which one they designed as the premier cover and put it in the top spot.

After release however, it goes into a semi-predictable rotation after that. I'm not sure where they start but after that they drop the cover by one and slot the last one in at the top or something similar. Each cover is in the easy to obtain slot at some point in 3 events of being offered. It might seem random after release if you jumped into the game after release of a particular character but they all come up eventually.

FYI, they used to make Hood blue always the top reward until we complained enough. So, I prefer semi-random over intentionally crushing our wills.

dr tinykittylove

Polares wrote:

Right now it is 'very easy' to have 3 IF blacks (top150 PVE, progression reward, top100 PvP), but 'very difficult' to have one IF purple.

It should not be like that. They are making IF purple or Cyclops Red way more difficult to obtain, and incrementing their rarity. We know these are their best powers, but let the people get one cover!!!

PS: In this moment I have a 0/2/3 Cyclops and I will probably have a 2/0/3 IF by the end of the week

Um. Pve top 150/alliance cover was green. So if you got top 150 and your alliance got top 100, then got top 100pvp for both personal and alliance plus progression, you would have a 2/0/3 IF. It's not possible to make all 3 covers alliance covers in 2 events, and his black is hardly shabby.

I hate having a missing colour on my characters myself: my Gamora was tragically lacking in black forever and Grocket yellow, but I got them (fewer than I like, but they're there) eventually and so will you.

On the bright side, having multiple covers in one power makes it much stronger and allows you to level the character more. The black especially will be nasty when you get to his pvp and that free attack tile is buffed. I enjoyed my 1/4/4 cyclops tremendously in his pvp and expect at least as much fun from IF.

rednailz

I think people's expectations are too high. I don't think the intent is for you to have a nearly fully covered new release within a week. That's kind of no fun. What's there to compete for and to long over then? My cyclops is 0/2/5 and could have been 0/3/5 or 0/4/5 if i really went crazy I guess....but I didn't think the extra time and effort for a yellow or two was worth giving up a weekend or stressing over since he's only been out 2 weeks.

Yeah, it seems the better powers are harder to get release week, as it should be IMO. Who wants to dump piles of time HP and energy into making it to top 5 when the reward is the **** power? Better prizes should be harder to get.

SnowcaTT

Got lucky to get a Yellow Groot just before the Groot deadpool daily cover, had zero before that. Finally picked up a black Gamorra last week. Still have no purple Mystique, green SG, red Cyclops, now purple IF...

I mentioned in the other thread, if D3 wants to make money maybe they should give people a little taste of what they want, so they can buy some more.

rednailz

SnowcaTT wrote:

Got lucky to get a Yellow Groot just before the Groot deadpool daily cover, had zero before that. Finally picked up a black Gamorra last week. Still have no purple Mystique, green SG, red Cyclops, now purple IF...

I mentioned in the other thread, if D3 wants to make money maybe they should give people a little taste of what they want, so they can buy some more.

It's a valid point. Can't buy your covers if you don't have the first one. My Gamora is 5 green 5 red and 0 black. My situation with groot is same as you. My only 3* from taco was a yellow groot day before his event so he's 2/4/5 now. No SG green (but I decided to sell her) and no red cyclops.

Trisul

We failed to make our requisite virgin sacrifice to the RNG gods.

dr tinykittylove

orbitalint wrote:

Doc L wrote:

FYI, they used to make Hood blue always the top reward until we complained enough. So, I prefer semi-random over intentionally crushing our wills.

The covers move around. I got motivated to look for an alliance to get my first two Hood blues when they were awards in a pve a long time ago, and I can't remember for sure now, but I'm sure I got at least one or two of the remaining three from top 25 placement in events, because I only get in top 5 when someone shieldhops to 1k progression using invisible woman and electra.

Just be patient and work on the characters you can.

orbitalint

dr tinykittylove wrote:

orbitalint wrote:

Doc L wrote:

FYI, they used to make Hood blue always the top reward until we complained enough. So, I prefer semi-random over intentionally crushing our wills.

The covers move around. I got motivated to look for an alliance to get my first two Hood blues when they were awards in a pve a long time ago, and I can't remember for sure now, but I'm sure I got at least one or two of the remaining three from top 25 placement in events, because I only get in top 5 when someone shieldhops to 1k progression using invisible woman and electra.

Just be patient and work on the characters you can.

Oh, I know they move around. Am actually trying to calm some people down since they are in a rotation. There is nothing wrong with having to wait for the good covers. Either put the work in during the PVE or crush it in the PVP to get those covers. If you don't want to do either, you need to be patient.

However, cover rotation in prizes wasn't always the case. Pre-nerf spidey blue, blue hood, pre-nerfed mags blue, they were always the top tier reward between dry spells of not offering them at all. I'm happy with the rotation and think that if you play long enough you'll get them all, just not in the first 2 days of it being offered as a reward...

Polares

For those saying that it doesn't matter because you still will need some time to max it, etc. Thing is if you start making some covers more scarce, then when you max this character is very probable that you will end up with 3 covers for that color, so you will need even more time to respec him, etc.

And maybe it is something psychological but I like to have a cover for each of the colors as soon as possible, even if he is just 1/1/1

brisashi

Considering I maxed my hood's before getting any other covers, and have gotten 4 more since, I don't really buy into the theory that certain colors for characters are more rare than others once they are in the prize pool.

When RNG is at work, user experience may vary. Its best not to attach superstition to the results.

Unknown

The exception proves the rule. The fact that cyclops and fist stand out so much is proof of the overall randomness of the cover distribution system. Moreover, if the system weren't random, they would have set the pvp rewards to be anything but purple so that would have same uproar as cyclops rewards.

Plus yellow and/or black is arguably better than red.

I actually continue to argue for less randomness and more common sense. Instead of one random for pve and one for pvp, I think it makes better sense and is more fair in the long run to have one, and only one, random selection for pve then immediately start rotating covers.

GrumpySmurf1002

New release characters are one thing. Lots of people are going to be short a particular color at this stage.

Now, a 380 day player (say, like me) with only 3 black for Black Panther ----that's a rare cover. Based on previous threads, cMags went the way of the dodo for a while too. I'm finally up to 5/3/4 on him but his covers have still been pretty rare. I'm still 3 purple on GSBW too.

I've never once thought it was the whim of an evil dev though. I just figured the RNG hates me.