The FAQ Project

drcassino · November 2015

What's the deal with double-tapping?

In PVP, "double-tapping" refers to hitting the same player twice in a short period of time (triple, quadruple or higher orders are also possible, though less common). While this is allowed in game, it is viewed by some players as a breach of decorum, or as unsportsmanlike. As such, players who engage in double-tapping may find themselves targeted by the alliance of the player they hit in an organized retaliation. Such retaliations may extend even beyond the current event, as some alliances, especially those centered on PVP, maintain "hit lists" of desired targets. If this occurs, the points lost because of the targeting will likely outweigh the points gained through the double-tapping, making it unadvisable, especially if the double-tap targets a high end PVP player, or one in a high end PVP alliance.

What's the deal with sniping?

Towards the end of PVP events, players shooting for high scores will typically be shield-hopping: spending most of their time behind shields in order to maintain scores above their equilibrium, then battling in short bursts before shielding again. The purpose of this strategy is to minimize the likelihood of lost points due to retaliations or losses. If a player is hit, and loses points, during one of these unshielded periods, they refer to the perpetrator as a "sniper." The attack may have been random, but the term properly applies to a player who notes an unshielded competitor in rankings, and purposely attacks while that player is unshielded, rather than queing the hopping player, and attacking after a shield is put up. Doing so may be seen as underhanded and unsportsmanlike, as well as being bad for the bracket, since the points lost by the attacked player will likely be greater than those gained by the attacking player, resulting in a net loss of points for the bracket (alternately, attacking a shielded player results in a net gain of points for the bracket, as the attacked player does not lose points from behind the shield). Players who are, or are perceived to be, snipers may find themselves targeted by the individual or alliance that feels wronged by their behavior. So, while doing so is allowable within game, and may result in a higher relative placement in the shard, it may not be advisable because of the potential long term consequences of doing so.

dsds · November 2015

The decimals on the color attack values on characters that resolve a tie are really a bug in the system. There is no way for a player to see the decimal value or to determine who breaks a tie unless they come to the forums. When explaining this, it should state that this isa bug because there has got to be a better way to tweak the system.

I understand that this bug is not easy to fix, but don't explain as something that is working and done on purpose. A bug is a bug.

Also I think we should put in the FAQ what current bugs there are in the system, so people don't keep asking and pointing to it and being surprised by them in game.

Quebbster · November 2015

dsds wrote:

The decimals on the color attack values on characters that resolve a tie are really a bug in the system. There is no way for a player to see the decimal value or to determine who breaks a tie unless they come to the forums. When explaining this, it should state that this isa bug because there has got to be a better way to tweak the system.

I understand that this bug is not easy to fix, but don't explain as something that is working and done on purpose. A bug is a bug.

Also I think we should put in the FAQ what current bugs there are in the system, so people don't keep asking and pointing to it and being surprised by them in game.

I don't think it really is a bug but a remnant of the old system where you could apply up to 20 covers in each color. There are hidden decimals, and they can affect the game even if they are not displayed.

stochasticism · November 2015

Here is an FAQ kind of question I have always wondered

What level will characters be boosted to with different boosts?

I can think of 4 different boosts that are applied.

1) Featured PvP/Essential PvE boost: varies by character * rarity. Not sure of the function applied.
2) Weekly boost: Again, varies by * rarity, a different function as compared to 1)
3) Lighting Round boost: featured characters get 50% of their current base level tacked on.
4) New character boost: Again, different than the first 3.

Anyone know exactly how these all work?

binarypillbug · November 2015

stochasticism wrote:

Here is an FAQ kind of question I have always wondered

What level will characters be boosted to with different boosts?

I can think of 4 different boosts that are applied.

1) Featured PvP/Essential PvE boost: varies by character * rarity. Not sure of the function applied.
2) Weekly boost: Again, varies by * rarity, a different function as compared to 1)
3) Lighting Round boost: featured characters get 50% of their current base level tacked on.
4) New character boost: Again, different than the first 3.

Anyone know exactly how these all work?

PVE essentials are a fixed number increase, depending on rarity. Uncommon is +56, Rare is +94, Legendary is +90. I think new characters are the same; it seems to be +75.

PVP essentials are 75% bonus, at least for 3*. Weekly boosts are some kind of complicated formula.

You also forgot about reinforcement boosts. I'm pretty they're the same as weekly, though.

dsds · November 2015

Quebbster wrote:

dsds wrote:

The decimals on the color attack values on characters that resolve a tie are really a bug in the system. There is no way for a player to see the decimal value or to determine who breaks a tie unless they come to the forums. When explaining this, it should state that this isa bug because there has got to be a better way to tweak the system.

I understand that this bug is not easy to fix, but don't explain as something that is working and done on purpose. A bug is a bug.

Also I think we should put in the FAQ what current bugs there are in the system, so people don't keep asking and pointing to it and being surprised by them in game.

I don't think it really is a bug but a remnant of the old system where you could apply up to 20 covers in each color. There are hidden decimals, and they can affect the game even if they are not displayed.

It is totally a bug. The decimals do nothing in the game. And you can't see them. Ok maybe it's from the old system but it's a bug that migrated from the old system then. It's not something that is random, and it's not something that helps the game. In fact it ruins the game a little bit because you can't figure out what the strongest color is. To be honest, even if you search the forums, I don't think you will find these decimal numbers for the specific level of a character. It's definitely not game breaking, but we should label it as a bug so they fix it.

When you activate an ability like taking out the enemy team's strongest color, you should be able to tell which color it is (maybe they fixed this by indicating the color in brackets in the description of the power, which further points to the decimal system as a bug). Otherwise the ability should just say take out a random color which would make it a completely different ability altogether and wouldn't be as strong because without knowing the decimal number you can't determine which color it takes out so might well just say random color.

Lemminkäinen · November 2015

How does match damage get lowered in cascades (if you make more than one match in a move, match damage per match goes down but I'm not sure of the formula)? Anyone know?

Unknown · November 2015

Lemminkäinen wrote:

How does match damage get lowered in cascades (if you make more than one match in a move, match damage per match goes down but I'm not sure of the formula)? Anyone know?

It goes down 20% per match, like first match does 100 damage, second does 80, third does 64, and so on.

However, this does not effect

tiles, so a long cascade with them out can really destroy a player.

If you got a strength 100

tiles out, that 3 match combo above would do 200, 180, 164, and so on, never going below 100.

drcassino · November 2015

colwag wrote:

Lemminkäinen wrote:

How does match damage get lowered in cascades (if you make more than one match in a move, match damage per match goes down but I'm not sure of the formula)? Anyone know?

It goes down 20% per match, like first match does 100 damage, second does 80, third does 64, and so on.

However, this does not effect tiles, so a long cascade with them out can really destroy a player.

If you got a strength 100 tiles out, that 3 match combo above would do 200, 180, 164, and so on, never going below 100.

Just to put this into FAQ format:

Why do subsequent matches in a cascade do less damage than the initial match?

This is primarily an issue of game balance: if every match in a cascade did the same amount of damage as the initial match, one good cascade could wipe out a team. Under the current system, it still can, but it's much more unlikely. After the initial match, each subsequent match in a cascade has its damage discounted by 20 percent. So, a match that would have done 100 damage would instead do 80 damage if it were the second match in a cascade, the third match (if it would have done 100 damage as an initial match) would do 64 damage, and so on. In the unlikely - but still possible - event of a cascade of 18 matches or more, additional matches will do just 1 damage.
While this seems to limit the effectiveness of creating cascades, large cascades are still potentially game changing because they allow the team to quickly accumulate large amounts of Action Points, allowing for the use of character skills. Additionally, any strike tiles on the board apply to all of the matches in a cascade. So, in the earlier example of a three match cascade doing 100, 80 and 64 damage (for a total of 244 damage), the existence of a 100 point strike tile would lead to damage of 200 +180 + 164, effectively reducing the discount on damage, and resulting in 544 damage.

PeeOne · November 2015

rossmon wrote:

Why do countdowns vary or give wrong numbers?
Countdown tiles trigger in a left to right, top to bottom manner. Starting at the top left, each tile in the each row is checked, and the countdown is lowered by 1, triggering if it reaches 0. After it triggers, this process continues. If the effect of a trigger lowers another (already checked and lowered) countdown tile to a position that hasn't been checked, it can lower again. This is frequently seen with Daredevil's stun, as it activates and creates another countdown tile from a random tile. If that tile is located lower than the first, it will get checked immediately.

How did Hood (or Gorgon, or others) get his ability so fast? (goes with cheating)
A character paired with the right goons (non-moving characters) can gain AP very quickly. Goons gain AP each turn in their specific colors. When they have enough, they cast their ability. If there is more than one character who uses a color then it can be up to the RNG which power is used.
If hood is paired with muscle, or Gorgon with his red ninja, they develop AP very quickly; and if the goon doesn't use their power then Hood or whoever can use his power very quickly.

I just noticed you signature - wasn't sure how to ask so threw this into the thread - you ditched the silver surfer to make the game more playable?? I'm running the gauntlet and my node are 3 times higher than others in my alliance - is having the surfer why??? I was under the impression the game was rebalanced because of the legendary covers - anyone have the same impression??

_Ryu_ · November 2015

PeeOne wrote:

rossmon wrote:

Why do countdowns vary or give wrong numbers?
Countdown tiles trigger in a left to right, top to bottom manner. Starting at the top left, each tile in the each row is checked, and the countdown is lowered by 1, triggering if it reaches 0. After it triggers, this process continues. If the effect of a trigger lowers another (already checked and lowered) countdown tile to a position that hasn't been checked, it can lower again. This is frequently seen with Daredevil's stun, as it activates and creates another countdown tile from a random tile. If that tile is located lower than the first, it will get checked immediately.

How did Hood (or Gorgon, or others) get his ability so fast? (goes with cheating)
A character paired with the right goons (non-moving characters) can gain AP very quickly. Goons gain AP each turn in their specific colors. When they have enough, they cast their ability. If there is more than one character who uses a color then it can be up to the RNG which power is used.
If hood is paired with muscle, or Gorgon with his red ninja, they develop AP very quickly; and if the goon doesn't use their power then Hood or whoever can use his power very quickly.

I just noticed you signature - wasn't sure how to ask so threw this into the thread - you ditched the silver surfer to make the game more playable?? I'm running the gauntlet and my node are 3 times higher than others in my alliance - is having the surfer why??? I was under the impression the game was rebalanced because of the legendary covers - anyone have the same impression??

5* do effect your scaling! Read this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=33297

drcassino · November 2015

[From Ice's response on another post]

Why do I keep getting 20 ISO from PVE rewards, when there are other rewards available?

Most PVE nodes have four possible rewards. On the first pull (that is, the first time you beat the node), you have a 25% chance of receiving any of the rewards. On the second pull, and all of the subsequent pulls, you have a 50% chance of getting 20 ISO, and a 50% chance of getting one of the remaining rewards (making a 16.7% chance of any particular remaining reward if just one has been pulled, or a 25% chance of each remaining reward if two have been pulled). This process can be frustrating for many players, as there's a chance that a reward may not be pulled even after the node has been beaten 5, 10 or even 20 times.

Unknown · November 2015

fight4thedream wrote:

43. How does match damage get lowered in cascades (if you make more than one match in a move, match damage per match goes down but I'm not sure of the formula)?

It goes down 20% per match, like first match does 100 damage, second does 80, third does 64, and so on. However, this does not effect tiles, so a long cascade with them out can really destroy a player. If you got a strength 100 tiles out, that 3 match combo above would do 200, 180, 164, and so on, never going below 100.

Quickie typo alert: the answer above is missing the word "strike".

PeeOne · November 2015

So I read the FAQ's and then all the posts in this thread... The is a question about vet brackets and noob brackets....

But what is a bracket - I've noticed other threads devoted just to counting bracket sizes...

What's it all about??

drcassino · November 2015

PeeOne wrote:

So I read the FAQ's and then all the posts in this thread... The is a question about vet brackets and noob brackets....

But what is a bracket - I've noticed other threads devoted just to counting bracket sizes...

What's it all about??

When players join an event (either by entering an event already in progress, or pre-registering, by selecting a time slice for an event that has not yet started), they are grouped based on the time at which they entered. Typically, events have 500 or 1000 players in a bracket, and these brackets fill sequentially as new players enter. As such, when one bracket reaches 1,000 (or 500) players, the next player to join becomes the first player in a new bracket, which will hold the next 1,000 (or 500) players. This process is complicated somewhat by the distinction between veteran and starter (noob) brackets: to avoid unfair competition, players with less developed rosters are bracketed separately from those with more developed rosters, meaning that there may be two brackets for any slice of an event filling at any one time.
For players concerned with placement rewards, there are sometimes benefits to joining brackets strategically. By waiting for a new bracket, players may avoid stiff competition for top placement rewards. Additionally, brackets that open up towards the end of an event may not fill, giving players a much better chance of receiving placement rewards (if there are only 50 players in a bracket at the end of an event, all 50 would receive the top 50 placement reward). Such brackets also give early joiners in them a head start on gathering points. These potential benefits lead top players to pay close attention to the current size of brackets, using forum posts of out of game communication to share information about them.
Note that some brackets may have slightly more than the normal number of players (1001, or 1002, for instance) if some of the players in them have been "sandboxed," or removed from the general population because of actual or suspected cheating.

PeeOne · November 2015

drcassino wrote:

PeeOne wrote:

So I read the FAQ's and then all the posts in this thread... The is a question about vet brackets and noob brackets....

But what is a bracket - I've noticed other threads devoted just to counting bracket sizes...

What's it all about??

When players join an event (either by entering an event already in progress, or pre-registering, by selecting a time slice for an event that has not yet started), they are grouped based on the time at which they entered. Typically, events have 500 or 1000 players in a bracket, and these brackets fill sequentially as new players enter. As such, when one bracket reaches 1,000 (or 500) players, the next player to join becomes the first player in a new bracket, which will hold the next 1,000 (or 500) players. This process is complicated somewhat by the distinction between veteran and starter (noob) brackets: to avoid unfair competition, players with less developed rosters are bracketed separately from those with more developed rosters, meaning that there may be two brackets for any slice of an event filling at any one time.
For players concerned with placement rewards, there are sometimes benefits to joining brackets strategically. By waiting for a new bracket, players may avoid stiff competition for top placement rewards. Additionally, brackets that open up towards the end of an event may not fill, giving players a much better chance of receiving placement rewards (if there are only 50 players in a bracket at the end of an event, all 50 would receive the top 50 placement reward). Such brackets also give early joiners in them a head start on gathering points. These potential benefits lead top players to pay close attention to the current size of brackets, using forum posts of out of game communication to share information about them.
Note that some brackets may have slightly more than the normal number of players (1001, or 1002, for instance) if some of the players in them have been "sandboxed," or removed from the general population because of actual or suspected cheating.

WOW!! Thank you for such a great explanation! I always wondered how many people would be playing if there were only 1000 people at the time.. Didn't know there were multiple 1000's

I just start up and play - never looked into things this much!

PeeOne · November 2015

Another question - about shielding in versus... What is the cool down period about?

morph3us · November 2015

PeeOne wrote:

Another question - about shielding in versus... What is the cool down period about?

Why are there cool down periods on purchasing shields in Pvp?

The cool down period was implemented to try and limit excessively high scoring in PvP. Prior to the implementation of shield cooldowns, there was no limit to the number of shields you could purchase within a given timeframe (which lead to terms such as the 2 cent shuffle, where a person would repeatedly cycle through 3 hour shields to try and climb as fast as possible). The other reason provided by the devs with regards to the shield cooldown periods was that the original intention of shields was to provide players with a break from gameplay in PvP, whilst protecting their scores, and the cooldown period is in keeping with this.

Since this is an FAQ thread, I'm going to refrain from adding my own personal commentary about the effectiveness of shield cooldowns in achieving those goals.

Edit: Found the original post from the devs stating the reason behind the cooldowns:

Some of the thinking behind this change:
• "Shield hopping" is still possible but very limited. High-scoring is fun, but Shield hopping generally requires a large amount of out-of-game communication that not all players have access to. We asked ourselves this question: "Would you Shield hop if you didn't need to in order to reach a high score? If not, that's a sign that a change is probably needed."

• This change helps level the playing field. Players that don't have the Hero Points to spend on Shields, either through being in a top 100 Alliance or purchasing currency, will not need to worry about someone simply outspending them by using hundreds of Hero Points to Shield hop for a win.

PeeOne · December 2015

morph3us wrote:

PeeOne wrote:

Another question - about shielding in versus... What is the cool down period about?

Why are there cool down periods on purchasing shields in Pvp?

The cool down period was implemented to try and limit excessively high scoring in PvP. Prior to the implementation of shield cooldowns, there was no limit to the number of shields you could purchase within a given timeframe (which lead to terms such as the 2 cent shuffle, where a person would repeatedly cycle through 3 hour shields to try and climb as fast as possible). The other reason provided by the devs with regards to the shield cooldown periods was that the original intention of shields was to provide players with a break from gameplay in PvP, whilst protecting their scores, and the cooldown period is in keeping with this.

Since this is an FAQ thread, I'm going to refrain from adding my own personal commentary about the effectiveness of shield cooldowns in achieving those goals.

Edit: Found the original post from the devs stating the reason behind the cooldowns:

Some of the thinking behind this change:
• "Shield hopping" is still possible but very limited. High-scoring is fun, but Shield hopping generally requires a large amount of out-of-game communication that not all players have access to. We asked ourselves this question: "Would you Shield hop if you didn't need to in order to reach a high score? If not, that's a sign that a change is probably needed."

• This change helps level the playing field. Players that don't have the Hero Points to spend on Shields, either through being in a top 100 Alliance or purchasing currency, will not need to worry about someone simply outspending them by using hundreds of Hero Points to Shield hop for a win.

Thanks for this but what specifically does it do - does it mean I can't buy another shield in that cool down time??

binarypillbug · December 2015

PeeOne wrote:

Thanks for this but what specifically does it do - does it mean I can't buy another shield in that cool down time??

You can't buy that specific shield again in the eight hours. If you bought a 3 hour shield 5 hours ago, you couldn't buy another 3 hour one, but you could buy an 8 or 24 hour shield.

As far as I know, shields are seperate between events as well, though the only time I could see that being a factor is when the season is about to end.

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