best event in a while

loroku

Haven't looked at what others are saying on this forum, but I wanted to say this event has been really fun. I haven't had a reason to play MPQ (other than 1/day for the alliance) in at least a month, probably longer. The reward structure of the game is still screwed up - you'll never fix the game until you fix its basic premise - but this event is still really, really cool. I think what I like best is that it's 100% cooperative. It's not PvP or PvP disguised as PvE, there's a sense of progression, it's hard, and you all have to work together to make it work. THIS is how a "team" game should work! Even though our alliance only has like 15 active players and we'll probably never finish it, just knowing that we have a decent shot at getting through stage 6 (for a SW cover) is still really cool. And it's neat to help my friends out and work together.

Also really, really happy you (devs) went with a NON-sexually objectified version of Scarlet Witch (at least from the pics I've seen so far). I mean, I'm sure you're mandated to follow the movie, but ever since Mystique (whose design was terrible) you guys have done a great job with the women you've been putting in the game. Here's hoping you can keep the streak alive!

Chirus

There appears to be some complaints that the event is "too grindy/repetitive" or "too hard". I personally really enjoy this event, and hope they continue to pump out more like it. I wonder if we're in the minority though. Most of my alliance-mates love this, and it's great when everyone in your alliance has a pretty good shot at picking up all 3 covers instead of the top 5 players out of every thousand.

Vinmarc43

Most would agree that, lower ennemy levels would probably make more people smile , say 25-40 lvl less and this would be great, most guys like a challenge but if that challenge becomes a grinding scenario, well negative **** will come out.
Also, I would see this event more of an individual instead of alliance base, if you have a few guys not playing, it could mean that you don't get all the rewards for something you cannot control.
But overall, it's a good event but should only be off season to fully enjoy it.

nic13

I enjoyed it very much too!

The waves were relentless, but having didifferent essentials forces you to make different teams each time so it's not too boring.

Hard, yes. Impossible? No. And this is despite me running a level 15 single covered hawkeye, unmaxed LCAP, lv74 GSBW, lv79 IM40.

Just be creative, keep trying, and have fun!

Ludaa

I too thought this was a great event! It presented a new way to win rewards, without competing against that crazy guy in another time-zone. It presented a challenge for all roster sizes and gave commensurate rewards. It promoted cooperation within your alliance, gave reason to expand it, and reason to level your toons. Lastly, the Ultron node presented a new puzzle element to the game, which it sorely needed.

Also, when we finished Round 8 I was left with 995k, so you'd think I'd be drinking the hatorade!

GuntherBlobel

I really like it. The structure works! The rewards are great! A puzzle in a puzzle game! There are so many great things here that I hesitate to criticize it at all.

But I will: I wish they would reduce the grind. They also need to mix-up the boss fight a bit as you progress. You shouldn't have to solve the same exact puzzle more times than you replay a typical PvE node.

ClydeFrog76

Got no chance of finishing it with my puny casual five person alliance and, yeah, it's a tad grindy, but I have also really enjoyed it.

The mini-me Ultrons are a great new mob type. Spaderbot himself is a bit underwhelming, but I've only faced low level versions of him thus far (see previous five person alliance comment.)

All in all, double thumbs up

Unknown

I've been saying for a while but they need to make the quality of the boss battle count more than the quantity. I'm pretty sure if Ultron isn't capped at some max health I can do a million damage to him on a decent board straight up without any trickery. The cap on his health should only be there as a sanity check to make sure people don't beat him on the first hour. Other than this issue, and that scaling always randomly beats up guys, this event is really good.

I also noticed that while there's a very generous amount of token/HP in the Quicksilver nodes, I don't think anyone would remember that if you were just slightly short of beating round 6/7/8, and especially round 6.

Eddiemon

Phantron wrote:

I've been saying for a while but they need to make the quality of the boss battle count more than the quantity. I'm pretty sure if Ultron isn't capped at some max health I can do a million damage to him on a decent board straight up without any trickery. The cap on his health should only be there as a sanity check to make sure people don't beat him on the first hour. Other than this issue, and that scaling always randomly beats up guys, this event is really good.

On the other hand the reduced health and the required grind means more loots. Oh the sweet sweet loots......

Most of my guild have had good luck with the tokens, which seem plentiful, though one poor bugger has pulled 5 Ares straight. But the extra ISO, HP and tokens available ismighty generous.

Unknown

Eddiemon wrote:

Phantron wrote:

I've been saying for a while but they need to make the quality of the boss battle count more than the quantity. I'm pretty sure if Ultron isn't capped at some max health I can do a million damage to him on a decent board straight up without any trickery. The cap on his health should only be there as a sanity check to make sure people don't beat him on the first hour. Other than this issue, and that scaling always randomly beats up guys, this event is really good.

On the other hand the reduced health and the required grind means more loots. Oh the sweet sweet loots......

Most of my guild have had good luck with the tokens, which seem plentiful, though one poor bugger has pulled 5 Ares straight. But the extra ISO, HP and tokens available ismighty generous.

I think the token rewards are really bad. No it's not I don't like the rewards, but it's literally going to a bunch of players who don't need them and often are thankless, and if anybody missed round 6 they'll remember that over anything they pulled out of the reward packs unless you got a 4* or a 2900 HP from it. The people who need it the most probably will be struggling to get past round 6 which is likely to have dominate how you feel about the event compared to your token pulls. They should really put this kind of reward in a buy-in PvE event, similar to the buy-in PvP events, e.g. '1000 HP to enter but 15 Ultron reward pack guaranteed!' Here's the weird part. I'd totally pay 1000 HP for 15 Ultron reward tokens, even though I'm pretty sure I got more than 15 already from just clearing the nodes, and yet having this offered for free isn't going give me any goodwill toward D3 if I didn't get my Scarlet Witch cover. I want to say it's players being whining that we have all these tokens and HP raining down and people still complain about it, but I think there's a legitmate gripe given the structure of this event. I think the pace of this event is too fast and it really should be supplemental content you do on your own time.

Mawtful

Phantron wrote:

Eddiemon wrote:

Phantron wrote:

I've been saying for a while but they need to make the quality of the boss battle count more than the quantity. I'm pretty sure if Ultron isn't capped at some max health I can do a million damage to him on a decent board straight up without any trickery. The cap on his health should only be there as a sanity check to make sure people don't beat him on the first hour. Other than this issue, and that scaling always randomly beats up guys, this event is really good.

On the other hand the reduced health and the required grind means more loots. Oh the sweet sweet loots......

Most of my guild have had good luck with the tokens, which seem plentiful, though one poor bugger has pulled 5 Ares straight. But the extra ISO, HP and tokens available ismighty generous.

I think the token rewards are really bad. No it's not I don't like the rewards, but it's literally going to a bunch of players who don't need them and often are thankless, and if anybody missed round 6 they'll remember that over anything they pulled out of the reward packs unless you got a 4* or a 2900 HP from it. The people who need it the most probably will be struggling to get past round 6 which is likely to have dominate how you feel about the event compared to your token pulls. They should really put this kind of reward in a buy-in PvE event, similar to the buy-in PvP events, e.g. '1000 HP to enter but 15 Ultron reward pack guaranteed!' Here's the weird part. I'd totally pay 1000 HP for 15 Ultron reward tokens, even though I'm pretty sure I got more than 15 already from just clearing the nodes, and yet having this offered for free isn't going give me any goodwill toward D3 if I didn't get my Scarlet Witch cover. I want to say it's players being whining that we have all these tokens and HP raining down and people still complain about it, but I think there's a legitmate gripe given the structure of this event. I think the pace of this event is too fast and it really should be supplemental content you do on your own time.

Further to this concept,
My alliance is currently on round 8 of ultron. Some of us have slowed/stoppped to try and let as many get the progression rewards, but since he's at 50% or less currently, I have no doubt that we'll unlock the last prime fight. Personally, I've had no problems with the event outside of not being able to access for the first ~12 hours. I was the 4th to hit 1m for progression. So I've had my fair share of tokens so far, yet currently I've only opened a Hulk, a Cage, and a lot of 2*s. I have two covers for SW from progression.

What am I trying to say here? I think tokens are really meant to be a way for players which might not get to finish round 6, 7, or 8 to still have a chance at getting a cover. But it's still just not right, is it? The alliances who do finish round 8 will have received more tokens than alliances who gets stuck halfway through round 6. And that leads to a slew of "rich get richer" complaints.

I've said before (a long time ago) that a "reward shop" would make a much nicer* way to distribute prizes. In short, no prizes are offered for progression targets, instead event points can be used to buy prizes from the reward shop. A million points buys you 3 scarlet witch covers - or probably rather 333,333 points buys you one. Rewards like covers would be limited to 1 in quantity per player, but other rewards, such as event tokens could be bought multiple times. I think you'd have a set number of guaranteed tokens (say 5), and then perhaps the rest is a lucky dip - 100,000 points and you could get another Token, or perhaps 25 HP or 500 Iso.

The sort of system allows players how cannot reach the final target to still get 1 cover of the prized new character. The players who were going to win everything will still be able to get all covers and a bunch of miscellaneous rewards, but for the middle and lower ranks, they may only be able to afford a single cover. In the end, that puts more 1-cover heroes in people's rosters, which - according to demiurge's own metrics - encourages the purchase of roster slots and additional covers.

*Note: I will admit that this model of distribution favours the players, however I think there are considerable benfits to demiurge for allowing a greater number of players to gain new characters.

Edit: I think my numbers are a bit off in my examples. Since prizes are cumulative, 1 million points in this event should generally mean that the player wins 3 QS + 3 SW covers + all previous progression rewards. So covers are probably closer to ~130,000 points each. The reality is, the actual value of points is arbitrary. Devs can set points earned and reward cost as they see fit.

P.S. Before I forget, this would also mean that players who have previously gone far and beyond the final progression in previous events, would be able to continue to spend points in the "lucky dip", so there would be some reward for continued playing. Lastly, a reward table could still be used for the final points at the end of the event - then there's a choice between holding onto points to try and take first place or spending in the reward shop.

Unknown

Mawtful wrote:

What am I trying to say here? I think tokens are really meant to be a way for players which might not get to finish round 6, 7, or 8 to still have a chance at getting a cover. But it's still just not right, is it? The alliances who do finish round 8 will have received more tokens than alliances who gets stuck halfway through round 6. And that leads to a slew of "rich get richer" complaints.

Why is it not right? If everyone gets a prize just for turning up, what is the point of pushing to do well? If someone wasn't able to get either of the progression covers my advice would be to organise your alliance better and/or get some strategy. Everyone feeling entitled and the devs catering for them is what made pvp a lot less enjoyable, don't try and kill every event with the same mentality.

Mawtful

MarCr wrote:

Mawtful wrote:

What am I trying to say here? I think tokens are really meant to be a way for players which might not get to finish round 6, 7, or 8 to still have a chance at getting a cover. But it's still just not right, is it? The alliances who do finish round 8 will have received more tokens than alliances who gets stuck halfway through round 6. And that leads to a slew of "rich get richer" complaints.

Why is it not right? If everyone gets a prize just for turning up, what is the point of pushing to do well? If someone wasn't able to get either of the progression covers my advice would be to organise your alliance better and/or get some strategy. Everyone feeling entitled and the devs catering for them is what made pvp a lot less enjoyable, don't try and kill every event with the same mentality.

Sorry, I seem to have worded a concept poorly, leaving it open to misinterpretation.
STATEMENT: Tokens are a way for players to get a Scarlet Witch cover without unlocking Reward Fight 6.
ANALYSIS: False. Tokens are too much of a gamble to guarantee a cover. Even players who unlocked Reward Fight 8 still did not receive any Scarlet Witch cover via event token.
ADDENDUM: Increasing the odds of the reward character in tokens, while descreasing the availablity of "free" tokens but increasing the availablity of reward covers means that the best players will still come out ahead AND encourage additional HP spending. This is a win-win scenario for players and developers.

As for PvP; well, this has been my best, most enjoyable season yet, so I can't agree with you on that. I only hope they bring back multiple powered up characters per week.

Unknown

They just need to rearrange the prize structure. People really care the difference between having a particular character at all or not due to essentials requiring them. Whether you'll get all 3 covers is far less important since only 1% can do that on any PvE event so if that was a big deal this game would've died a long time ago. The way the reward structure is pretty much pile of tokens for participating, 3 QS covers for various degree of individual excellence and 3 SW covers for various degree of alliance excellence. However, not hitting the SW at all is going to have an overwhelming impact on how people feel about the event and alliance excellence is something beyond the individual's control, not to mention in a game with limited pool to draw recruits from and having no in game tool whatsoever for recruiting should not place such a premium on cooperative activity. One of the SW cover should be swapped with something on the individual progression instead. It'd make no impact for someone who can get everything but now there's an individual path to get the new character that's only dependent on yourself. The event doesn't need to be any easier or any more generous otherwise, though if they want to fix scaling I'm all for that too.

DFiPL

Eddiemon wrote:

Phantron wrote:

I've been saying for a while but they need to make the quality of the boss battle count more than the quantity. I'm pretty sure if Ultron isn't capped at some max health I can do a million damage to him on a decent board straight up without any trickery. The cap on his health should only be there as a sanity check to make sure people don't beat him on the first hour. Other than this issue, and that scaling always randomly beats up guys, this event is really good.

On the other hand the reduced health and the required grind means more loots. Oh the sweet sweet loots......

Most of my guild have had good luck with the tokens, which seem plentiful, though one poor bugger has pulled 5 Ares straight. But the extra ISO, HP and tokens available ismighty generous.

For a while there with standard and taco tokens every 2* I got was a friggin' Ares. If I pulled 5 straight Ares from Ultron tokens I would straight up murder a fool.

El Satanno

I'm one of them people what thinks this Ultron event is the cat's pajamas. The co-op format, the healthy reward pool, the new enemies, pretty much makes me all happy. No, it isn't perfect, but you know what? Big deal! There is always room for improvement. Just like with the Taco thing, reinforcing what we like with positive feedback is important. I only hope that somewhere in Demiurge land the devs are listening to the constructive comments being made.

Unknown

I haven't heard many 'rich get richer' complaints because most people are grinding the **** out of this thing; It's not people just showed up and played an hour like in regular PVP. Further, newbies have a decent shot at a relatively easy 3* in the heroic which few are playing. My casual alliance will beat round 6 but probably not attempt 7, with maybe two players hitting the million mark, and also giving almost everyone in our alliance the chance at a Scarlet Witch cover.

I really doubt we'll be able to hit round 6 again for Hulkbuster though, as I doubt more than 10 of us will actually pick up the Scarlet Witch cover probably required for essentials. I'm hoping they make 1 of the quicksilver nodes Scarlet Witch essential and leave the other as is.

evil panda

Adding my voice to the chorus to say that this was some of your best work, D3.

I agree with the person who says that the debs deserve to hear positive feedback as well, so they know what we want them to continue doing (not just what they should stop doing)

Unknown

Overall, I think this was an excellent event. There were some minor issues that I had with it having the alliance being cooperative in some sense and antagonistic in others - there were a few early rounds I missed all of because they happened while I was at work - but, overall, the best new event since DDQ.

I definitely applaud the innovative thinking that led to this as well. Nothing about this event felt particularly grindy - I was always getting something for my efforts, even if it was just points - which removed the late PVE "I"m only grinding to keep pace" problem. I think introducing more mechanics like that - and more removing placement from PVE - would really serve the game well. Not everything needs to be competitive.

Unknown

I really like the event.

1. I really like that it's encouraging me to use new characters. Grey Suit Black Widow doesn't typically get a lot of play from me, but I'm finding her to be a go-to character against Ultron.
2. Having 2 of the 5 refresh pins be locked behind Quicksilver is lame. I get that he's a new character and relevant to the film, but if you don't have him (like me) that's 2 attempts at Ultron I can't make in a an 8 hour period. Considering there are only 5 refresh pins and 7 other Avengers (Iron Man, Hawkeye, Hulk, Thor, Black Widow, Nick Fury, Captain America) they cycle through why can't Quicksilver be a single static node instead of two? Then you're still incentivizing people to hope for a lucky drop.
3. Where are the Nick Fury pins? They mentioned him in the video but I've never seen one.
4. Is Falcon not an Avenger? It'd be great if he showed up in essential pins, too.
5. If I can keep him alive long enough I love taking Punisher into the Ultron fight. One-shotting him as soon as he's below 40% health is super-satisfying.

Unknown

Just realized we will not be able to look at a leaderboard and see which alliance was "First!" Would be kinda cool to see ~after the fact~ how alliances fared vs each other but glad there was no prize for doing it as fast as possible.