Should D3 Kill Seasons?

woopie

As much as I like the additional progression awards, 10 packs, and 4* cover, is it time to kill seasons?

Whether they want to admit it or not, one of the challenges to breaking PVP into tiers is what to do about season scores as scoring high in 'easy' tournaments shouldn't be counted the same as scoring high in hard ones. Seasons used to have a purpose as a slow burn where 4*s would be introduced over a ~ 3 month period, but as we've seen with 4or, Star Lord, Elektra, Prof X, and Kingpin, D3 doesn't really care about doing that anymore.

Does it make sense just to kill them altogether?

brisashi

I feel like they could do more creative events more often if they stopped the current season system.

Weeks on end of just a featured character per event is pretty dull.

Unknown

I would love to see the different events in the season. I like the season rewards, but I would like to see more events than "3 Star X" tournaments. For example, events like the divine one where the "Gods and godesses" are powered up, etc. I can see not doing Balance of Power besides offseason, since everyone is powered up, but that would really be the only one I do not want to see in season.

RWTDBurn

woopie wrote:

As much as I like the additional progression awards, 10 packs, and 4* cover, is it time to kill seasons?

Whether they want to admit it or not, one of the challenges to breaking PVP into tiers is what to do about season scores as scoring high in 'easy' tournaments shouldn't be counted the same as scoring high in hard ones. Seasons used to have a purpose as a slow burn where 4*s would be introduced over a ~ 3 month period, but as we've seen with 4or, Star Lord, Elektra, Prof X, and Kingpin, D3 doesn't really care about doing that anymore.

Does it make sense just to kill them altogether?

I don't see why the changing difficulty from one PvP to another while they tinker with MMR should be a reason to get rid of seasons. We all face the challenged together, even if they do vary some depending on what level your roster is at. Though more variety to them would be nice. The season isn't the problem here, the issue is how D3 implements changes mid-season. A few season's back they tested a change by creating a PvP event that was outside of the season and then when it completed gave everyone that participated bonus tokens (and ISO I think). This was a fantastic idea as it not only didn't effect season results, the bonus tokens as a thank you was an excellent PR move. Then for some reason they never did it again.

Since seasons are such a big part of the game, D3 needs to respect them and the people who spend a month competing in them more and start doing PvP events outside of the season to test their MMR changes.

woopie

MMR is only part of the problem though. Top alliances score high in every PVP because they need to maintain season scores and not necessarily to collect covers. This makes it harder to break into the top 100 for transition players so they don't transition as quickly as they did before. If you want to streamline the 2* -> 3* transition, vets are getting in the way so instead of pitting them against each other for the same rewards as transitioners, move them to another bracket where they can compete for things they care about (i.e. 4*s.) The other alternative is to run 2 concurrent seasons where you only get to choose easy or hard at the beginning and you're locked into it after that, but who knows how long that would take or if the server gerbils can handle it

Unknown

woopie wrote:

As much as I like the additional progression awards, 10 packs, and 4* cover, is it time to kill seasons?

Whether they want to admit it or not, one of the challenges to breaking PVP into tiers is what to do about season scores as scoring high in 'easy' tournaments shouldn't be counted the same as scoring high in hard ones. Seasons used to have a purpose as a slow burn where 4*s would be introduced over a ~ 3 month period, but as we've seen with 4or, Star Lord, Elektra, Prof X, and Kingpin, D3 doesn't really care about doing that anymore.

Does it make sense just to kill them altogether?

I would wager that fighting for season bragging rights is just about the only thing that motivates end-game players to spend, so I don't see how they can just eliminate that...

woopie

I'd say additional 4* covers could make the loss of bragging rights a little easier to deal with

SnowcaTT

Seasons were great to give out 4* covers occasionally - but with their 4* release rate, the seasons aren't giving them out fast enough. Once again D3, people can't buy covers until they have the covers - and you aren't getting covers to everyone anymore!

This seemed to be a way to help folks 3* to 4* transition and promote some friendly competition. But now it promotes alliance-hopping at last days with so many more (free) 20-person alliances, so many more well into the 3* range, the rewards have needed extension(to T200?) for a long time.

I've suggested two-week seasons: easier time on alliances who want to skip one, twice as fast 4* releases. But even that won't be fast enough pretty soon, with their 4* release rate.

snlf25

I like seasons. Even though I'm back half of mid game I still have a lot of anticipation for my 10 pack. It is where my transition began, all the Captains Marvel and America that I won from those tokens. They don't need to kill seasons they just need to stop ruining everything for the veteran player who is their proven cash cow on the odd chance that a filthy casual noob will spend a little cash. They also need new content and NO that does NOT mean a new character every week. Used to be characters were special now they really feel skipable because they are. Every new 4* should get a new event and everybody who plays it should get a cover, like Prodigal Son and the Hulk event.

RWTDBurn

woopie wrote:

MMR is only part of the problem though. Top alliances score high in every PVP because they need to maintain season scores and not necessarily to collect covers. This makes it harder to break into the top 100 for transition players so they don't transition as quickly as they did before. If you want to streamline the 2* -> 3* transition, vets are getting in the way so instead of pitting them against each other for the same rewards as transitioners, move them to another bracket where they can compete for things they care about (i.e. 4*s.) The other alternative is to run 2 concurrent seasons where you only get to choose easy or hard at the beginning and you're locked into it after that, but who knows how long that would take or if the server gerbils can handle it

If they were to do that then there would be a huge problem with "vets" never bothering to transition out of the 2* rosters. I mean seriously, why would you? 2* characters heal faster and cost far less so why bother spending all the time and ISO trying to get a 4 star roster to only fight other 4 star rosters when you can build a ton of Ares, OBW, Classic Storm, and 2* Thor and dominate the 2* bracket? Heck, you'd save yourself a heck of a lot of frustration as well as you won't spend months to get the covers and level a 4* to only have them nerf it a few weeks later.

The current system needs to be reworked to make it easier for newer players while still making it rewarding to play and level your roster for the vets, but putting everyone in silos based on roster level isn't the answer.

woopie

Not necessarily. If you're dominating the 1/2* bracket, you're winning 3*s. If you're winning 3*s and want to use those 3*s, well then you better move up to the next level bracket. Assuming that the hard bracket has updated progression and placement prizes (i.e. 3*s instead of 2*s) then that further streamlines the 2*->3* transition.

Obviously what's going on now isn't working quite right. Noobs are getting discouraged because they're getting stomped out of the top 100 so they don't get any 3*s. Vets are upset because there is no sense of progressions since they're stuck fighting each other the whole time for the same prizes (HM MMR). Not saying that killing seasons is the only way to solve the issue, but seeing their 'limited resources' it's easier for them.

nyark

You want an option to not play seasons? Yet another reason to use my "Simple idea to fix PVP" which I even gave it it's own thread yesterday
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=27126

Below is the basic idea but there's more discussion in that thread too

nyark wrote:

Every PVP you can choose from 2 levels of difficulty:
4* which would basically be the current PVP setup you can use anybody
3* you can only use 3* or less characters, the rewards would be slightly less good like no 4* progression reward

You could even add a 2* tier to help out the ultra-newbies if you are still worried about them

Maybe you can play both levels if you want but only 4* counts towards the season. People just choose themselves which one they want to play so no complicated coding necessary.

JamieMadrox

Either kill SHIELD Simulator and adjust season progressions accordingly, or kill seasons altogether.

KrazyKeylime

i play seasons for the 10 pack and any placement rewards are a bonus. I agree with killing the simulator and adjusting points, that thing is useless the one exception is if you need some last minute points if you missed some events.

Unknown

I love that the suggestions are either do away with seasons, or double up on seasons in some fashion. Sounds like people are getting bored with the status quo

OnesOwnGrief

Simulator offers a quick grind to 1k points. Removing it would be a terrible idea. Removing seasons would be an equally bad idea. I'm not willing to give up my 4 free 10 packs every month.

RWTDBurn

woopie wrote:

Not necessarily. If you're dominating the 1/2* bracket, you're winning 3*s. If you're winning 3*s and want to use those 3*s, well then you better move up to the next level bracket. Assuming that the hard bracket has updated progression and placement prizes (i.e. 3*s instead of 2*s) then that further streamlines the 2*->3* transition.

You're thinking like a logical gamer that enjoys the thrill of getting new characters and building them up to use them and experience everything they can in a game. You gotta stop that! The problem here is there are a lot of people who play games to win and nothing else matters. If they can come in 1st every time in a 2* bracket and the rewards they value (a #1 by their name, high ranking for their alliance, HP, and ISO) are the same across brackets and it's easier that way for them then they are not going to waste their time moving up to the 3* and 4* brackets.

To make something like that work you have to increase the value of all of the rewards (not just higher level covers) at each tier to make it worth their while to move up. That's not really a fix, that's a complete rebuild and something like that isn't going to happen when the developer is clearly committed to only spitting out new characters like pez and not providing new PvE content, fixes for existing broken characters they rushed out, or creating new events for PvP.

woopie

True. But when you see those shiny new covers sometimes you just want to take them out for a spin

Do we know anything about the skeleton crew they're running? Seems like they never have the bandwidth for anything but nerfs and new characters

esoxnepa

Jamie Madrox wrote:

Either kill SHIELD Simulator and adjust season progressions accordingly, or kill seasons altogether.

I don't think they should kill it, but strip it from the season rankings, and make it the casual training area, with no point loss from losses and no placement. A place where everyone can play any part of their whole roster, and just farm ISO to their hearts content. Do have some progression rewards as well, that everyone can earn (because of the no loss of points). The goal for the reworked shield simulator would be to keep the most casual players seeing something they can earn.

JamieMadrox

esoxnepa wrote:

Jamie Madrox wrote:

Either kill SHIELD Simulator and adjust season progressions accordingly, or kill seasons altogether.

I don't think they should kill it, but strip it from the season rankings, and make it the casual training area, with no point loss from losses and no placement. A place where everyone can play any part of their whole roster, and just farm ISO to their hearts content. Do have some progression rewards as well, that everyone can earn (because of the no loss of points). The goal for the reworked shield simulator would be to keep the most casual players seeing something they can earn.

Whatever works.

Unknown

I've got a better suggestion of what D3 can kill...

marc