The FAQ Project

GothicKratos

There's some information in the raft I compiled awhile back that might be of some help. A lot of it is kind of outdated though.

Howzat

colwag wrote:

More of a fun tip then a FAQ but

"What tiles does the AI try to match? Why did the AI match it's own countdown tile?

The AI has two critiera for a match.

1. Does it make a 4 of a kind?
2. Does it power up one of my abilities?

So, in order, the AI goes for matches that are:

1. 4 of a kind in a color that powers up their abilities
2. 4 of a kind, other
3. Match 3 that powers up their abilities
4. Any remaining match

Because of this, the AI tends to ignore enemy and friendly special tiles, and miss out on cross 5 of a kinds. Any cascades caused by the AI's matches are not created by any cheating, but are just dumb luck.

I know there was a thread where a dev stated the above, but the statement "powers up their abilities" is not completely accurate.

1) TU tiles are 1st priority until the AI has used their TU ability.
2) AI will match a color it has as a passive ability, instead of a color it has an active ability. It is not strictly related to color strength either.

fight4thedream

Quick update: Updated the draft with the questions and answers provided by the community. Currently at 34 questions. Feel free to add more questions or give more answers. We have some questions that lack answers but you are also welcome to provide answers for other questions if you feel the answer provided is not sufficient.

Will look into including links to the most useful posts on the forum and get down to organizing and formatting the FAQ once we finish collecting questions.

Nightglider1 wrote:

fight4thedream wrote:

5. Why did I only get 2* from 10-pack?
All tokens have percentages listed in-game. 2* have a higher draw rate from Heroic tokens than any 3* and 4*. In such instances where you have only drawed 2*, know that Lady Luck was not with you that day and prepare proper sacrifices to RNGesus to avoid said bad luck.

Not to be "that guy," but the bold, italicized, underlined word should be "drawn."

Be that guy! I appreciate the extra eyes for editing. And thanks to everyone who has contributed to this project! A lot of good stuff, please keep it coming!

beyonderbub

Can someone explain in full what rubber banding is and examples of how it works in PVE?

mohio

beyonderbub wrote:

Can someone explain in full what rubber banding is and examples of how it works in PVE?

It's changed so much over the course of the game I'm not sure anyone knows exactly what it is right now. Also it's still fairly weak. That said I'll take a stab:

Rubberbanding in PvE : First off, rubberbanding is both a global phenomenon, and also a localized one. Before that gets too confusing, what I mean is that it occurs over the scores in an entire time slice (global), but ONLY the scores for the current sub-event are effected (local). So, being only 3k behind your bracket leader doesn't mean you won't see any rubberbanding because the leader for your time slice might actually be much further ahead. Similarly, being 20k behind your leader in the main bracket doesn't mean you're going to see heavy rubberbanding since it's based off sub-event scores, and not effected at all by main event scores.

From what I can tell, rubberbanding seems to kick in around 10k behind the global points leader. I imagine this varies by sub, since subs have varying base point totals. So, it might be something like 2.5x base value, and it just so happens that most subs are worth close to 4k. It used to be that rubberbanding would then increase node point totals linearly from 1x, all the way to 10x, depending on how far behind you were (full rubberband was generally something like 30k behind maybe? I forget the exact values). Now that rubberbanding is much weaker, and no events have any rubberbanding on main event nodes, generally speaking you will see a small amount of rubberbanding around 10k behind the leader (maybe 10%-20% increase in points), and if you're way behind (20k+) you might see up to 100%-200% increase in node value. I assume this increase is linear depending on how far behind that 10k mark you are. These large numbers of rubberbanding are quite rare and mostly only seen in an event like EotS where wave nodes increase sub event points and that 3k wave node will be worth 10k+ since the leader is at 40k and you're on 0. Also potentially any 2-day sub events if there are a substantial amount of points, there could potentially be significant rubberbanding towards the end of that sub.

Unknown

Can someone explain Line? Or is that more of a PM thing to do?

Unknown

deiXide wrote:

Can someone explain Line? Or is that more of a PM thing to do?

I second this request, both as an actual question right now and as a beneficial inclusion in the FAQ.

GothicKratos

If you guys PM me I can help you out. I'm not sure how the big guys feel about 'officially' supporting outside communication. I'll look into it.

rossmon

Sundance2112 wrote:

deiXide wrote:

Can someone explain Line? Or is that more of a PM thing to do?

I second this request, both as an actual question right now and as a beneficial inclusion in the FAQ.

Explanation is easy. LINE is an app that is essentially a modern instant messanger combined with a chat room. A lot of alliances use it, and it makes it easier as one can have rooms for various subjects, as well as having discussions and such.

Zombionicdoom

Excellent guide thank you. That's answered a lot of my questions I thought would remain a mystery forever. Going to post the link on my alliance chat. Cheers

drcassino

Why am I losing so many points in PVP?

A common complaint about PVP is that players will often win a battle, but during that battle, they will be attacked, and lose more points than they gained from winning the battle in what is certainly a frustrating experience. This generally happens when a player has exceeded the equilibrium score for their team. In general, a team's equilibrium score is the score at which they have about as many points as other teams of similar perceived difficulty. When a team is at its equilibrium point in PVP, it can remain unshielded without being attacked very often. Because players enter PVP events at different times, players can expect their equilibrium to increase over the course of the event, with lower equilibrium points early on, and higher ones later.
If a team has a score above its equilibrium score, it can expect to be attacked until it has lost enough points to bring it back down to its equilibrium level, and, because changes in scores are not communicated instantly to other players, it will likely be pushed below its actual equilibrium score. The speed with which this happens also depends on how far along the PVP event is: the later it is in the event, the faster teams will be pushed down to, or below, their equilibrium score. Players can maintain a score above their equilibrium point through the use of shields.
So, when a team is sitting unshielded at its equilibrium score ("floating," in game parlance), then engages in a series of battles to increase their score, necessarily taking them above equilibrium, they can expect to be attacked, and brought back down to, or below, their equilibrium score. Depending on how late it is in the event, and how far above their equilibrium score they are, they may be pushed down in less than the amount of time it takes to win a single battle, especially if the battle drags on.
Players can minimize the likelihood of this happening by (1) limiting the length of battles above their team's equilibrium point, especially late in the event (a fast retreat is often less damaging than a drawn out win), (2) making PVP runs relatively early in the event, avoiding the last 8 hours, during which other players will be especially active, and (3) using shields judiciously, making sure not to float above equilibrium for very long. This does mean that shields are required if players want to have a final score much above their equilibrium point, and the more conservative a player is in their PVP strategy, the more shields will be required.

drcassino

Why am I getting 20 ISO as a PVE reward, when there are other rewards available?

Every PVE and Prologue node has a small number of possible rewards for a successful battle. Each time you win the battle, you have an equal chance at any of the rewards shown. However, once you have received a reward for that node, that reward is replaced by the minimum reward of 20 ISO. As such, the next time you beat the node, there is a chance that you will receive 20 ISO, rather than one of the rewards that had yet to be given out. If there are four possible rewards for a node, and you have earned three of them, there is a 75% chance that you will receive 20 ISO for completing the node rather than the one remaining reward. This means that it is possible to play a node dozens of times without receiving all of the possible rewards, though it's not very common.

TimGunn

I would like to know more about character order and how it effects things. I'm wondering if it plays into tie situations, for example the Flash and Green Lantern both deal 71 per black tile matched. Which character is the one making the match for me? Is it based on character order? Or hit points?

TimGunn

Howzat wrote:

colwag wrote:

More of a fun tip then a FAQ but

"What tiles does the AI try to match? Why did the AI match it's own countdown tile?

The AI has two critiera for a match.

1. Does it make a 4 of a kind?
2. Does it power up one of my abilities?

So, in order, the AI goes for matches that are:

1. 4 of a kind in a color that powers up their abilities
2. 4 of a kind, other
3. Match 3 that powers up their abilities
4. Any remaining match

Because of this, the AI tends to ignore enemy and friendly special tiles, and miss out on cross 5 of a kinds. Any cascades caused by the AI's matches are not created by any cheating, but are just dumb luck.

I know there was a thread where a dev stated the above, but the statement "powers up their abilities" is not completely accurate.

1) TU tiles are 1st priority until the AI has used their TU ability.
2) AI will match a color it has as a passive ability, instead of a color it has an active ability. It is not strictly related to color strength either.

Yes, i find this phrasing misleading. Would re-phrase 2 as "Is it one of my strong colors?"

jffdougan

TimGunn wrote:

I would like to know more about character order and how it effects things. I'm wondering if it plays into tie situations, for example the Flash and Green Lantern both deal 71 per black tile matched. Which character is the one making the match for me? Is it based on character order? Or hit points?

By default, the character making the match is the one whose damage in that color is the highest.

If multiple characters are tied, then position on the team selection makes a difference. The center character will be chosen first, if possible (for example, the featured character in a PVP event). The left character will be second, and the right character is "shielded" in the event of ties.

Quebbster

jffdougan wrote:

TimGunn wrote:

I would like to know more about character order and how it effects things. I'm wondering if it plays into tie situations, for example the Flash and Green Lantern both deal 71 per black tile matched. Which character is the one making the match for me? Is it based on character order? Or hit points?

By default, the character making the match is the one whose damage in that color is the highest.

If multiple characters are tied, then position on the team selection makes a difference. The center character will be chosen first, if possible (for example, the featured character in a PVP event). The left character will be second, and the right character is "shielded" in the event of ties.

While this is correct, it should also be noted that there are hidden decimals for the damage, so even if two characters have the same displayed damage there may be a hidden decimal causing one to have higher damage. If you have them positioned correctly and the one in the back still tanks, a hidden decimal is probably to blame.

drcassino

Quebbster wrote:

jffdougan wrote:

TimGunn wrote:

I would like to know more about character order and how it effects things. I'm wondering if it plays into tie situations, for example the Flash and Green Lantern both deal 71 per black tile matched. Which character is the one making the match for me? Is it based on character order? Or hit points?

By default, the character making the match is the one whose damage in that color is the highest.

If multiple characters are tied, then position on the team selection makes a difference. The center character will be chosen first, if possible (for example, the featured character in a PVP event). The left character will be second, and the right character is "shielded" in the event of ties.

While this is correct, it should also be noted that there are hidden decimals for the damage, so even if two characters have the same displayed damage there may be a hidden decimal causing one to have higher damage. If you have them positioned correctly and the one in the back still tanks, a hidden decimal is probably to blame.

Finally, the order of the characters also determines the order in which their passive abilities fire: center, left, then right. If one match would lead to two characters firing off passives, the character earlier in the order goes first. This can occasionally be important. For instance, Dr. Octopus' passive creates attack tiles whenever an enemy special tile is matched. The Falcon's passive strengthens the team's special tiles (including attack tiles) upon a yellow match. So, if you were to match an enemy's yellow special tile, and Falcon went first, he might not have any special tiles to strengthen. However, if Dr. Octopus were in front, his passive would fire first, giving Falcon attack tiles to strengthen.

alaeth

colwag wrote:

...

Because of this, the AI tends to ignore enemy and friendly special tiles, and miss out on cross 5 of a kinds. Any cascades caused by the AI's matches are not created by any cheating, but are just dumb luck.

It also means you can force the AI to match 4 (such as to break a Daredevil trap) by avoiding matching it yourself.

morph3us

Is there an action order within each turn in the game?

The order of actions within each turn is as follows:

1. Passive abilities activate
- this includes abilities like Scarlet Witch's Arcane Incantation, Luke Cage's Unbreakable, and Iron Fist's Exquisite Technique.
- This step is skipped on the player's very first turn of the game, which is why these abilities activate for the AI Turn 1, but not the player until Turn 2.

2. Goons generate AP (if present)

3. Countdown Tiles tick down

4. Active turn
- the active player (or AI) get to use abilities
- the active player (or AI) gets to match a tile
- matching a tile moves onto the next phase

5. Attack tiles activate
- This includes hidden attack tiles, like Elektra's Ballet of Death.

6. Turn ends
- priority hands over to the other player

I tend to think of 1-3 as the Start phase, 4 as the Main phase, and 5-6 as the End phase. Most of this stuff is more a technicality, but it does explain why IF/Cage/SW don't get a tile placed until Turn 2 for the player. It's also a bit relevant if you're thinking about a character like Human Torch, where you have two similar abilities (Flame Jet and Inferno), in terms of when the abilities actually hit for damage.

Edited as per black sheep's suggestion, and for clarity.

BlackSheep101

morph3us wrote:

4. Active turn
- the player or AI gets to match a tile

Should probably mention ability use here.