POLL: Community scaling off in Prodigal Sun PVE

Unknown

Interpreting the poll results:
Most players like the change because scaling is lower.
Most players do not see a change in placement and no change in playtime. I'm just guessing here but casual players play on their own schedule and do not necessarily play more even if they can, while hardcore players were mostly beating all the nodes despite high scaling so it doesn't affect them any way.
Some players that couldn't handle the high scaling could play more than before, likely resulting in a playtime and ranking increasing.

I voted top 2 PvE, and I personally saw less playtime required, this is because instead of having play hard nodes 4 to 8 hours before event ends to optimize health pack generation, the new lower scaling combined with 10 health packs meant that I don't need to do that anymore.

I was also tempted to vote that my ranking went down (even though it hasn't), because it seems like more people could now play optimally (grinding everything to 1) so that the top 3 or 4 players in a bracket are more closely tied in score. It took me a few super optimal subs (>96% possible points earned) to finally get a decent lead (3k pts, or about 3% of total score) on #3.

lukewin

Davyx wrote:

Interpreting the poll results:
Most players like the change because scaling is lower.
Most players do not see a change in placement and no change in playtime. I'm just guessing here but casual players play on their own schedule and do not necessarily play more even if they can, while hardcore players were mostly beating all the nodes despite high scaling so it doesn't affect them any way.
Some players that couldn't handle the high scaling could play more than before, likely resulting in a playtime and ranking increasing.

I voted top 2 PvE, and I personally saw less playtime required, this is because instead of having play hard nodes 4 to 8 hours before event ends to optimize health pack generation, the new lower scaling combined with 10 health packs meant that I don't need to do that anymore.

I was also tempted to vote that my ranking went down (even though it hasn't), because it seems like more people could now play optimally (grinding everything to 1) so that the top 3 or 4 players in a bracket are more closely tied in score. It took me a few super optimal subs (>96% possible points earned) to finally get a decent lead (3k pts, or about 3% of total score) on #3.

In this post,, I said

lukewin wrote:

Will be interested to see how PVE will be with no community scaling. I think Will and Kabir are being very paranoid about how bad it will be. The changes might allow more people to try to contend for prizes, although they will probably complain that they will have to play more to keep up with everyone. I think anyone that is playing the current PVE, that is in the Top 5 or Top 10, already know that people are willing to grind for rewards, so I don't see too many problems at the top end. If they only turn off community scaling, and not personal, or adjust initial levels based on rosters (reset personal scaling), then you'll probably see the vets complaining that the 94 rosters have an unfair advantage. So, there won't be anything new regarding complaints / feedback.

I agree with your interpretations. At the top end, I don't think players are grinding that much more, so most of the tops of the leaderboards are staying consistent. I have less than a 300 pt lead over #3, because I wasn't able to grind the end of a sub due to network connection error on my end. It ate up my buffer and put me in 3rd until I clawed my way back this morning. I think at one point, I was under by ~1500 pts. My overall playtime is probably the same, or less, because that missing time was made up by grinding all the nodes to single digits to make sure I held on to #2 going into the last sub. Most of the other subs, I've been 2 hits away from grinding them down to 1, not a full 16hrs 2 hits, but 2 hits nonetheless.

I will say it seems to be more fun / morale boosting, because wiping on a node is demoralizing. If you clear all the nodes in a sub without wiping or burning all your healthpacks, I think you feel more satisfied regarding PVE. This is especially true, if you PVP as well, because your resources (healthpacks / character health) aren't as scarce. This is a combo of the healthpack increase and the community scaling being off.

The casual players, as some have stated, are able to play when they want, and don't have to stop playing because they're scaled out. The only factors that should stop you from playing, is time and effort, that you don't want to put forward. The game shouldn't be a factor to keep you from playing, which it seems like community scaling did for some people.

slidecage

Did they turn it back on or is thunder mount always a pain.. 2 stage on each line is 110+ 2nd is 200+ and the 3rd is 280 .... I never fought anyone over 110 in all of the other subs

Malcrof

slidecage wrote:

Did they turn it back on or is thunder mount always a pain.. 2 stage on each line is 110+ 2nd is 200+ and the 3rd is 280 .... I never fought anyone over 110 in all of the other subs

Did you pump iso into anyone in between subs?

slidecage

Malcrof wrote:

slidecage wrote:

Did they turn it back on or is thunder mount always a pain.. 2 stage on each line is 110+ 2nd is 200+ and the 3rd is 280 .... I never fought anyone over 110 in all of the other subs

Did you pump iso into anyone in between subs?

nope i was stupid enough to do that once and will never again

also i though there was a sentry cover at the end of this dont see it

lukewin

slidecage wrote:

nope i was stupid enough to do that once and will never again

also i though there was a sentry cover at the end of this dont see it

It's there. You have to open the node by playing some of the other nodes.

TxMoose

lukewin wrote:

slidecage wrote:

nope i was stupid enough to do that once and will never again

also i though there was a sentry cover at the end of this dont see it

It's there. You have to open the node by playing some of the other nodes.

wish they'd rng the color on that one and the hulk one. let me guess - red?

lukewin

TxMoose wrote:

wish they'd rng the color on that one and the hulk one. let me guess - red?

Yup

slidecage

lukewin wrote:

slidecage wrote:

nope i was stupid enough to do that once and will never again

also i though there was a sentry cover at the end of this dont see it

It's there. You have to open the node by playing some of the other nodes.

found it i did not see the nod up by the ess.

150 levels when im level 88 sounds like fun

Unknown

lukewin wrote:

slidecage wrote:

nope i was stupid enough to do that once and will never again

also i though there was a sentry cover at the end of this dont see it

It's there. You have to open the node by playing some of the other nodes.

Are we talking the second-to-last sub or the last?

DBC

slidecage

Drummerboycroy wrote:

lukewin wrote:

slidecage wrote:

nope i was stupid enough to do that once and will never again

also i though there was a sentry cover at the end of this dont see it

It's there. You have to open the node by playing some of the other nodes.

Are we talking the second-to-last sub or the last?

DBC

last sub there is a nod up by the 3 ess nods. you beat that nod then the sentry nod opens up.

Lee T

It didn't change much on my side but it felt like a tougher fight nonetheless. I'm a t150 player and it seems the lack of community scaling gave an edge to the guys who usually ends up behind me. While usually some nodes were out of my reach by the end of a sub, thery'e all playable here. The downside being that I must play them in order to keep my ranking because they're playable by everybody behind me too.

Further proof that it's not really a PVE, more of a PVP vs E.

IReallyHatePVP

Here is the single biggest Statement on how CS being switched off affected the latest Story (PvE) event:

I placed second with no in my roster, and not a single one of my nodes ever became "Deadly".

Final Assessment: it may need some tweeking, but this was most certainly a change in the correct direction.

simonsez

Lee T wrote:

thery'e all playable here. The downside being that I must play them

Quote of the day so far.

I really hope no one else is going to criticize this scaling experiment because it makes them have to play.

GothicKratos

This is absolutely an improvement. Community Scaling has always seemed ridiculous to me (though I understand it on a theoretical level).

Stick to this guys, and tweak personal scaling and rubberbanding to achieve whatever curve you want players to sit on.

MarvelMan

So I started late, barely did anything in the second to last sub and did one clear through the last sub so far....until I got to The Final Choice. In what world should that START at 292 and be classified as "Normal"? Not to mention it blocks my main PVE go tos (SuperSteve, SheThor and XF).


Anyway, I would say I like it so far but without grinding I dont really notice a difference.

Unknown

It felt mostly... unchallenging. I guess after awhile you start getting used to having crazy scaling and only being able to use one or two teams. Undecided whether I like this better or not. Prodigal Sun is a funny one to test it on too, being unable to use many of the better heroes like Thor or Panther on nodes.

TxMoose

daibar wrote:

It felt mostly... unchallenging. I guess after awhile you start getting used to having crazy scaling and only being able to use one or two teams. Undecided whether I like this better or not. Prodigal Sun is a funny one to test it on too, being unable to use many of the better heroes like Thor or Panther on nodes.

on top of that, not getting normal play out of the player base because its for beast...

Unknown

TxMoose wrote:

daibar wrote:

It felt mostly... unchallenging. I guess after awhile you start getting used to having crazy scaling and only being able to use one or two teams. Undecided whether I like this better or not. Prodigal Sun is a funny one to test it on too, being unable to use many of the better heroes like Thor or Panther on nodes.

on top of that, not getting normal play out of the player base because its for beast...

yeah, part of me think beast prizes and 7 day prodigal sun was their attempt to sabotage their own 'no scaling' test.

....T-T

IReallyHatePVP

MarvelMan wrote:

So I started late, barely did anything in the second to last sub and did one clear through the last sub so far....until I got to The Final Choice. In what world should that START at 292 and be classified as "Normal"? Not to mention it blocks my main PVE go tos (SuperSteve, SheThor and XF).

*snip*

I want to say I empathize, but sadly, that is simply the nature of Prodigal Sun; it rewards those with strong villains in their roster by having them smash through hero opponents, instead of (effectively) every other event, where its the other way 'round.

I also think the next story event is going to give everyone a clearer picture(and much stronger opinions.... ) on the effect of zero CS.