dkffiv wrote: 1. Alliance cost changes. While it appears that it was generous to give them out for free, it probably helped their bottom line more by giving them away. It was pretty clear that you needed one to advance so I spent $100 during a sale to upgrade my own to the full 20 slots. I figured that the increase in covers + hp from top 100 placements would eventually pay for itself. Finding an alliance was very difficult if you weren't browsing the forums and if you weren't the best player, you'd find that you were being kicked every time you joined a new alliance. Internal analysis probably linked new player removal with people quitting so allowing players to form their own alliances for "free" was probably the best solution.
dkffiv wrote: 2. Shield changes. I'm not exactly sure why the shield changes took place. People climbing to ridiculous scores must've taken a lot of shields and the trickle down to the regular players was fantastic. It was very hard to make top 10 but 1300 was easy. I have to believe that this was on overall loss in HP (though maybe not with forcing people to buy 24 hour shields), super spender PvPers will need to chime in. Maybe seeing super high scores scared off new players? The shield changes haven't affected me too much, but the increased match length / greater effect of sniping is a concern.
dkffiv wrote: 3. Poor character releases. She-Hulk being released alongside the true heal fiasco, the Hood getting nerfed because of 4hor and MMags/Mystique getting tweaked due to Prof X's release are all glaring problems. Old characters shouldn't be getting messed up because of a new character who the average player won't be using for several months. It makes you look like amateurs, what comes to mind for me is the shadow priest nerf in World of Warcraft because warlocks were overpowered. You nerf the new problem, you don't mess with an old character who was balanced before the changes took place. If you don't like the interaction, you modify it slightly, not break one of the characters so it no longer occurs.
dkffiv wrote: 4. Nerfing of boosts. Boosts only serve to help the player as the AI cannot use boosts. As stated many times, all matches in this game favor the AI even though their "intelligence" is lower than that of the player. Even if they're dumb as rocks, they'll eventually get a really nice cascade and damage they deal to the player is permanent whereas they come back with full life even if they lose. "The game is not balanced around starting with 6 AP" is tinykitty. No one uses +3 all AP all time (and if they did they're spending massive amounts of HP). Starting with only +2 AP is a massive nerf to anyone whose abilities are divisible by 3, it doesn't reduce the number of matches you need to cast an ability unless you make a match 4. The change was done so that matches take longer and you have a greater chance of taking damage / losing. Taking damage results in increased health kit sales so this change was clearly done out of greed.
dkffiv wrote: 5. Raising the boost amounts in PvP. Supposed to promote diversity but this just elongates matches and makes you take devastating amounts of damage when an ability goes off. Done out of greed, more kits are needed to score highly.
dkffiv wrote: PvEs: Enemy of the State is a horrible event. Wolverine is locked out for nearly the entirety (who is a PvE all star on easier nodes with his healing) and the new enemies are cheap. Kaishu caltrops are mostly unavoidable damage, I frequently leave goon only fights with all characters down to 50% life. Teisatsu (I believe, you know who I mean) drop very powerful attack tiles on death, another HP suck. I do not find their design to be fun and in my mind they're only there to sell health packs.
dkffiv wrote: Health changes: More health means longer matches and more chances for an opponent to get an ability off before they die. Different health tiers aren't going to choose who I select for my team but will affect how much damage I take and thus how many health kits I'm spending. Specific characters gaining slightly more health is okay but these blanket changes just scream money trap. PvE is going to be worse as a result as well.
gamar wrote: Some good points in the OP There's a chance I'm wrong ( ) but I'm wagering that the health changes will have huge effects on who people select for their team and not much effect on length of battles and how much damage is taken (because low health characters weren't being used in the first place)
fmftint wrote: For the top .5% of the players, maybe you are right. For the rest of us, these changes are all good things. Bye
Nivrax wrote: Improving character health while nerfing the most powerful character in game? If anything it decreases need for health packs. Previously, you played Xforce + X all day long, using packs if he ever gets downed. And when they're gone, what are you gonna do? Use your other characters? But they are so, so much weaker that it's pointless. Now, having characters closer in power means when your A team gets wiped, your B team isn't that much worse. Oh, and that's PvP only. The only Dark Avenger that was buffed was Bullseye and you face them in majority of events. Having more health on characters that primarly are used to fight them means you can use them more before they need pack. And by same logic you use, having Bagnarok bad giving how many freaking events he is starrting it is working against selling health packs.
Nivrax wrote: Nerfing boosts for PvE means people who were boosting have now less advantage than those that didn't. Double so if they used HP boosts. Sure it might decrease win% for little, but looking at bigger picture, decrease community scaling at same time. And everyone is affected same.
Nivrax wrote: And finally, having to buy health packs to score well is ridiculous. PvE: 8 hours refreshes as I said, and from personal experience of someone who often score t10 and did few t2 finishes, I never needed to buy health packs (or use All AP boosts). That was both before and after obtaining fully covered Xforce. Play smart. Use right characters. Protect tiles against Ninjas. Stunner (and a prayer) against Villain+feeders. Regenners against easier nodes. Start final grind 8 hours before end instead of waiting to the very end, given how slow points regenerate now there is very little gain for waiting till last hour or two.
Nivrax wrote: And for PvP, health packs past shield cooldown changes were never issue. Anything up to 600+ can be done by regenners within hour. Anything higher require shield hops with long enough span between them your A team get regenned few times over.
Der_Lex wrote: With the new matchmaking in place, 600 in an hour with regenners doesnt't happen anymore. Both because you're facing tougher upponents right away, but especially because you'll be getting olenty of attacks/retaliations from as low as 300 points.
dkffiv wrote: Using your B team means you get attacked more. There will always be a best team and if you aren't fielding it you're going to be a target. With the new PvEs that they claim have been in the works forever (remember removing the Dark Reign tag?) more and more regular characters will be featured. Same thing with the Simulator and Gauntlet. The computer will get more out of the enhanced HP scaled to 395 than a player ever will. These changes will make you take more damage per match, the question is how low is too low to bring a character into a fight? Can you honestly say you haven't taken more damage in PvP since the scaling went up to 290?
dkffiv wrote: I've had top 1/2 finishes every PvE I've wanted for a long time. I know how PvE works, I know the math behind it. I've only needed to buy health packs a handful of times and that was due to PvE coinciding with PvP and having bad matches in one or the other. I never use all AP boosts except in very late very important shield hops in PvP (which I feel is what most people do, making the rebalancing around +6 AP utter tinykitty). Your point about slow regening of points is wrong, an extra hour or two of cooling off makes a pretty big difference. I've adapted to all the changes thus far but these most recent ones are clearly aimed at trying to put a damage tax on every match.
GuntherBlobel wrote: Is this your official rage quit post, then? If you are telling others to quit, then you could also lead by example.
Nivrax wrote: I don't get it, why did nobody screamed that they want to sold more cover packs when they increased pull rates? I mean, it's their main income source (unlike health packs) and more people might want to buy them. But no, not a single post on that. But they increase health on characters and suddenly is a cash grab. If they really wanted to make real mulah and nothing else, they could easily tweak every other 4* to have power of prenerf 4hor and Xforce, not change PvP reward structure lower (possibly making it unobtainable without already having 4* team) and just bask in cash people spend buying covers since earning them through progression would be nigh impossible. Make the final godlike tier that is available only by buy out. No unlimited shield hopping, hard/expensive to get characters getting balanced closer to 3* instead of being godlike, free 3* given daily, free alliances. You might not agree with changes, you might think they don't favour you, you might think they are going in wrong direction, but sorry, I honestly can't see them wanting to drain money from people. Because if so, they are doing exactly opposite stuff they should.