Army Of One -- New Event

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wathombe wrote:

By the way, I missed most of the thread today. Is the current theory that you can't attack shielded players? I got attacked 3-4 times while shielded. I know at least one was a retaliation, but I'm not sure about the other few.

I'm pretty sure shielded players do not show up on new matchups. If someone had you on their match list and just let you sit there, you'd still be there while shielded. Any outstanding retaliation is obviously fair game too, but you'd never show up on anyone's list after that.

I started playing with around 300 points with 4 hours to go, went to 650 with 3 hour left and dropped down to 540 in a hurry and then shielded. Didn't particularly see anything weird about that, since 650 was good for #6 in my bracket and it shouldn't be easy to to pass up the guys who have been shielded for a long time and had a much longer timeframe to try for a peak rating to shield.

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Phantron wrote:

wathombe wrote:

By the way, I missed most of the thread today. Is the current theory that you can't attack shielded players? I got attacked 3-4 times while shielded. I know at least one was a retaliation, but I'm not sure about the other few.

I'm pretty sure shielded players do not show up on new matchups. If someone had you on their match list and just let you sit there, you'd still be there while shielded. Any outstanding retaliation is obviously fair game too, but you'd never show up on anyone's list after that.

In that case, how do you explain getting attacked twice by the same player with no outstanding retaliation?

Unknown

Managed top5 with a lvl15 punisher... not bad
I shielded a little over 700 because I was being attacked like crazy. Never thought it would be enough... they definitely changed something about how shields work.

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It seems as if shielded people are not proposed for fights (apart from retaliations) => low stack of 40+ points matches available (and not going down) => decrease in high scores

turul

The pvp looks like its more peaceful... and token rewatded me with IW

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Toxicadam wrote:

I started the tourney with 2 hours left. In an hour I was at 515 (only getting hit once). Normally, I would just throw up a shield and forget about the angst .. but I wanted to see how bad it was and I also thought I had a slim chance of bettering my position.

From there I started to make notes on how many attacks I got off. I was able to beat 16 people in the final 60 minutes (losing once and getting half the points on a second try). All for point totals ranging from 29-42. So, conservatively for about 32 points per. That means I earned roughly 496 points in that hour, but I still LOST 70 points overall to finish at 425 points (barely in the top 45).

The scoring is **** and goes completely against the dev's (Will?) wish for players to reach more rewards.

I have found that playing only during the last 2 hours makes it very difficult to make any progress. For me a casual player going for a top 5-30 should play making a 3 step push. Play 1 day after the event starts climbing to 250-300 points for some reward tokens. Play ~8-10 hours before the end of the event and climb to ~500 points. Finally, play 3-4 hours before the end and once you are placed in top 5-15 put up a shield. For me, in the brackets I usually play, it takes 500-600 points to place in top 15.

If you don't make this gradually and try to win fast the retaliations from early matches hurt a lot. If you play like I explained trying to win matches that give 30+ points and you make regular stops, then you are not worth too many points to the opponents and they will usually skip a retaliation. If can play in more steps, like playing 5-6 times during the event for 20-30 minutes each time, you may have even better results. I did that last night and shielded at #12 with ~530 points and managed to remain in top 15.

Also, the scoring system may have its weaknesses, but I don't see why the scoring is **** for you if you only played only 2 hours. Compared to all other guys that played a lot more. I'd say a top 45 is a good result. If 2 hours were enough for top prizes or even top 15, then most would not bother playing the rest of the time.

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Phantron wrote:

I'm pretty sure shielded players do not show up on new matchups. If someone had you on their match list and just let you sit there, you'd still be there while shielded. Any outstanding retaliation is obviously fair game too, but you'd never show up on anyone's list after that.

I don't think this is true. I opened MPQ today and I saw that even though I was shielded for the last 3 hours, I still got 4 attacks (for 0 point loss obviously). Maybe it just makes it more difficult.

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Narkon wrote:

Also, the scoring system may have its weaknesses, but I don't see why the scoring is **** for you if you only played only 2 hours. Compared to all other guys that played a lot more. I'd say a top 45 is a good result. If 2 hours were enough for top prizes or even top 15, then most would not bother playing the rest of the time.

You can't blame him for wanting to place well with minimal effort and spending as little HP as possible. He's only complaining only because he failed to place well in a bracket with other players employing the same strategy. Otherwise, he'd be singing a totally different tune.

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walkyourpath wrote:

I'm actually excited for Round 2 of this one. I've got 3 IW yellow now after Round 1 (only 2 greens left to go) and only need one green Patch cover for my desired 5/3/5 build. Placing Top 45 without shields should be very doable. Ready to actually end up positive HP after a PvP event! Not to mention I'll earn a ton more ISO fending off the mob than I did behind shields in Round 1.

I don't share your excitement, but have a similar plan in mind. Pretty much going to use this event to farm ISOs, much needed to buy boosts in PvE

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EvilSonGoku wrote:

Toxicadam wrote:

This is probably the worst PVP has ever been since I've been playing.


A complete joke and they better fix it. Because this is anti-fun.

yeah. I put up a 24hr shield yesterday for first time and never played the rest of the tourney.. I had more amusement watching the leaderboard for the last few hours as people rose to 700 only to get crushed.. I barely cracked 900 for a heartbeat and seeing X wolvie at 2400 is a complete joke.

I'm interested to know, in Round 1 did anyone:

a) Get past 1000?
b) Make significant progress past 1000? (i.e. reach Loki reward or higher)

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The Ladder wrote:

a) Get past 1000?
b) Make significant progress past 1000? (i.e. reach Loki reward or higher)

In my bracket, 2.5 hours before the finish, 13 players in the top15 were shielded with the top around 800 (I think). Everyone seemed content with top 15. Just before I shielded at 530, I was getting regular attacks and retaliations even for 20 points which, I assume, was because they couldn't find anyone other worth more points.

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The Ladder wrote:

walkyourpath wrote:

I'm actually excited for Round 2 of this one. I've got 3 IW yellow now after Round 1 (only 2 greens left to go) and only need one green Patch cover for my desired 5/3/5 build. Placing Top 45 without shields should be very doable. Ready to actually end up positive HP after a PvP event! Not to mention I'll earn a ton more ISO fending off the mob than I did behind shields in Round 1.

I don't share your excitement, but have a similar plan in mind. Pretty much going to use this event to farm ISOs, much needed to buy boosts in PvE

Right, exactly. There's fundamental jank going on here, where you need a resource to progress and you have to spend that very same resource to be able to compete in the only game types offered to players to keep them interested. Broken, broken mechanics, one obviously designed to encourage buying ISO to level, and it is too overt to avoid angering even the players that love the game most. Please put "preview edition" back on the cover screen since this game is obviously still in beta.

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Crazyeyeskiller wrote:

The Ladder wrote:

walkyourpath wrote:

I'm actually excited for Round 2 of this one. I've got 3 IW yellow now after Round 1 (only 2 greens left to go) and only need one green Patch cover for my desired 5/3/5 build. Placing Top 45 without shields should be very doable. Ready to actually end up positive HP after a PvP event! Not to mention I'll earn a ton more ISO fending off the mob than I did behind shields in Round 1.

I don't share your excitement, but have a similar plan in mind. Pretty much going to use this event to farm ISOs, much needed to buy boosts in PvE

Right, exactly. There's fundamental jank going on here, where you need a resource to progress and you have to spend that very same resource to be able to compete in the only game types offered to players to keep them interested. Broken, broken mechanics, one obviously designed to encourage buying ISO to level, and it is too overt to avoid angering even the players that love the game most. Please put "preview edition" back on the cover screen since this game is obviously still in beta.

I should say, so far during PvE I think I've made more ISO than I've invested in boosts (I've levelled Patch from 15 to 65 along the way and still have plenty of breathing room). But yeah, it is bad that the mindset I have is not focused on doing well in this PvP, but rather funding my campaign elsewhere.

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cain84 wrote:

You can't blame him for wanting to place well with minimal effort and spending as little HP as possible. He's only complaining only because he failed to place well in a bracket with other players employing the same strategy. Otherwise, he'd be singing a totally different tune.

Not really true. The others in my bracket threw up their shields in the 500+ range. I chose to see if I could fight it through until the end. So, we were employing different strategies in that regard.

I have no problem spending HP on shields and have done so in every tourney since they have been instituted. This time I wanted to see if it was still feasible to be successful without using them.

I don't think my opinion would have changed if I finished 39th, 20th or 10th. It was a pretty miserable experience which only 'paying' can relieve you of.

Unknown

The Ladder wrote:

I should say, so far during PvE I think I've made more ISO than I've invested in boosts (I've levelled Patch from 15 to 65 along the way and still have plenty of breathing room). But yeah, it is bad that the mindset I have is not focused on doing well in this PvP, but rather funding my campaign elsewhere.

Getting lucky with a few 500 ISO rewards goes a long way to funding boost costs, but the crazy new penalty to enemy levels for grinding them out is way too harsh.

Unknown

Our first was little over 800 and most of top10 was stationary shielded for long.

I was kept oscillating around 500, no real chance to progress at all in the last 10 hours. Finally found a millisec to shield up in #5 with 674 and see -150 worth of attacks within minutes, then more coming including even some from-0 ones. Could have get similar position with way less playing just turtle up earlier. Current matchmaking that offers (almost) only nonshielded peole puts every climber to mass disadvantage so it is hopeless altogether -- if the regular endless retals and 50 bombs were not enough.

During the event people reported that over 700 you have no fights over 1 pt so all you can do is drop.

Unknown

Toxicadam wrote:

Not really true. The others in my bracket threw up their shields in the 500+ range. I chose to see if I could fight it through until the end. So, we were employing different strategies in that regard.

I have no problem spending HP on shields and have done so in every tourney since they have been instituted. This time I wanted to see if it was still feasible to be successful without using them.

I don't think my opinion would have changed if I finished 39th, 20th or 10th. It was a pretty miserable experience which only 'paying' can relieve you of.

Current matchmaking that mostly ignores shielded people IMO renders anyone above 500 pts to get pulled down. I wasn't aware of this particular change until fw hours ago and kept wondering why all offers are in down points (except for the period of going back from 400).

Unknown

The Ladder wrote:

I'm interested to know, in Round 1 did anyone:

a) Get past 1000?
b) Make significant progress past 1000? (i.e. reach Loki reward or higher)

Winner in my bracket got to 839, no one else got to 800. I think there were 2 others above 700, maybe 3 or 4 above 600.

Unknown

The Ladder wrote:

EvilSonGoku wrote:

Toxicadam wrote:

This is probably the worst PVP has ever been since I've been playing.


A complete joke and they better fix it. Because this is anti-fun.

yeah. I put up a 24hr shield yesterday for first time and never played the rest of the tourney.. I had more amusement watching the leaderboard for the last few hours as people rose to 700 only to get crushed.. I barely cracked 900 for a heartbeat and seeing X wolvie at 2400 is a complete joke.

I'm interested to know, in Round 1 did anyone:

a) Get past 1000?
b) Make significant progress past 1000? (i.e. reach Loki reward or higher)

I think the new system has potential. It just needs number tweaking. Honestly, I think 1000 or so is a good number to set the top progression prize at. Grinding to 2000+ is a chore.

I ended with 650. Didn't want to climb higher because 1st place uninterests me. I think I could've potentially peaked at 800.

Unknown

First in my bracket had 912. I was second with a little over 800. I wanted to push to 1000 for the HP but I could not find any targets with more points than me. Ended up messing around trying to grind and dropped into the 700s. I wish we would get actual patch notes when something changes vs just speculation.