Suggestion: Selectable Difficulty for PvE Events

Unknown

NorthernPolarity wrote:

This is a good idea in theory, but would take too much work for them to implement in practice I think. The thing about games like this are that all the changes are incremental: adding all of this and testing it would probably be a nightmare for the devs to deal with, as they would have to have 3 separate reward systems, add a new interface to select these difficulties, etc.

Really don't think this is as bad as you think. The difficulty states already exist and they already have the code working to switch difficulty. You would need to store the state used on the mission and the subevents as well as for the tourney. Most of the work is already done it would just need to be cut and pasted or some new classes written inheriting functionality depending on how things are setup. They of course would have to add a drop down list on the events for difficulty. Really don't think it is that tough.

NorthernPolarity

justaplayer wrote:

NorthernPolarity wrote:

This is a good idea in theory, but would take too much work for them to implement in practice I think. The thing about games like this are that all the changes are incremental: adding all of this and testing it would probably be a nightmare for the devs to deal with, as they would have to have 3 separate reward systems, add a new interface to select these difficulties, etc.

Really don't think this is as bad as you think. The difficulty states already exist and they already have the code working to switch difficulty. You would need to store the state used on the mission and the subevents as well as for the tourney. Most of the work is already done it would just need to be cut and pasted or some new classes written inheriting functionality depending on how things are setup. They of course would have to add a drop down list on the events for difficulty. Really don't think it is that tough.

I'm under the impression that with most types of games like this, new features need to be mostly unobtrusive in order to actually be implemented. While this feature wouldn't be hard to implement in the absolute sense, it would take a lot more work than doing something like tweaking the current system to make levels scale per level instead of across the board or something like that. Remember that you need to come up with 4 different loot tables, and then probably do some calculations for each of these tables to make sure that X% of players (which are now partitioned based off of difficulty) are getting a particular type of cover, etc, etc. It ends up being a lot more work than just flipping a couple of existing switches in the current system. It doesn't really generate any new revenue for them either since there isn't really anything new that the players can buy or things like that. You could argue that it increases retention, but I think they have more pressing retention features (such as respeccing) that needs to be implemented. I'm guessing that they're going to band-aid pve with a simpler solution instead, although this idea is definitely really cool for something to look at down the road (which like most other cool features, will never get implemented).

Unknown

NorthernPolarity wrote:

justaplayer wrote:

NorthernPolarity wrote:

This is a good idea in theory, but would take too much work for them to implement in practice I think. The thing about games like this are that all the changes are incremental: adding all of this and testing it would probably be a nightmare for the devs to deal with, as they would have to have 3 separate reward systems, add a new interface to select these difficulties, etc.

Really don't think this is as bad as you think. The difficulty states already exist and they already have the code working to switch difficulty. You would need to store the state used on the mission and the subevents as well as for the tourney. Most of the work is already done it would just need to be cut and pasted or some new classes written inheriting functionality depending on how things are setup. They of course would have to add a drop down list on the events for difficulty. Really don't think it is that tough.

I'm under the impression that with most types of games like this, new features need to be mostly unobtrusive in order to actually be implemented. While this feature wouldn't be hard to implement in the absolute sense, it would take a lot more work than doing something like tweaking the current system to make levels scale per level instead of across the board or something like that. Remember that you need to come up with 4 different loot tables, and then probably do some calculations for each of these tables to make sure that X% of players (which are now partitioned based off of difficulty) are getting a particular type of cover, etc, etc. It ends up being a lot more work than just flipping a couple of existing switches in the current system. It doesn't really generate any new revenue for them either since there isn't really anything new that the players can buy or things like that. You could argue that it increases retention, but I think they have more pressing retention features (such as respeccing) that needs to be implemented. I'm guessing that they're going to band-aid pve with a simpler solution instead, although this idea is definitely really cool for something to look at down the road (which like most other cool features, will never get implemented).

Not a big deal to add a few tables a good developer can handle this stuff it isn't hard. This is minor stuff if you have worked as a developer. This isn't corporate financial software its a game. If was adding a table to an Oracle Database in financial app then I would agree. Any time software is improved it will help to keep players and this would definitely be an improvement.

Unknown

I believe the PvE event difficulty scales to your roster.

I play 2 accounts, 1 on Steam (my main), and another on my phone, Android.
I noticed the PvE opponent levels are different. I have a weaker roster on my phone and I remember the opponents were lower levels compared to my Steam account opponents.
Anyone else notice this?

TheVulture

I think what they fundamentally need to do (if they are determined to continue on this PvE route despite 2 terrible implementations back-to-back) is just detect up-front which difficulty they are going to put a player into - super-low or super(-super)-high - and just drop players into a bracket of players doing the same.

I don't think giving generous rewards to new accounts is the core issue (though ideally rewards should scale to some extent), as much as the problem is giving almost all the rewards to new accounts while simultaneously making PvE unfun for anyone with a developed roster.

Unknown

perhaps the rewards proper (covers, boosts, etc) could stay the same for all levels, but have a multiplier on ISO portion of rewards for harder difficulties. It seems ISO is the real currency in the game.

Normal mode as is;
a heroic mode targeted to mid-to high (say total team level of ~160) with say, a 2.5 multiplier on ISO rewards, enemies at +75 level from normal
a legendary mode targeted to high level players (say total team level ~250+), with 5 x multiplier on ISO rewards, enemies max level

as higher level chars. need more ISO to level -that would be the reward to the increased risk