January Community Video: Champions Feature

OneLastGambit

Ruinate wrote:

OneLastGambit wrote:

jobob wrote:

DFiPL wrote:

Jesus Christ.

No, it hasn't "increased dramatically." You've been given a content expansion and relative to what you have spent or need to spend to max the characters you've got, champion costs are a pittance.

You are almost certainly going to make those champion costs back in champion level rewards, never mind increased placement or progression rewards from a stronger roster.

Your ISO stash has not been devalued. It doesn't take a "significantly larger amount of ISO" to play the game.

There may well be issues unforeseen with this feature but ISO devaluation/inflation is not one of them. This isn't tough stuff, champ.

Umm... yes, it has increased DRAMATICALLY. You are counting just the championing fee, but completely disregarding the cost of ISO required to go to max level.

I highly doubt you are going to make back the hundreds of thousands in ISO it takes to bring a couple very usable characters up to max level so that you can champion them. Again, I hope I am wrong, but I don't see it happening.

It hasn't increased, the iso cost to max your character is the same as before. they haven't suddenly added to the iso cost (apart from the one time fee). What you mean is YOUR iso cost has increased because YOU decided to stunt your growth on purpose. The devs didn't do anything to your game, you did it by not playing the game as it was intended to be played. Also this shouldn't really be an issue for a soft-capper because if you are not spending your iso on levelling to the max like the rest of us then you had to have been saving it right? Where else could it be going?
You must be sitting on a mountain of iso anyway.

This is not true for all soft cappers. If you play a lot you can progress so fast that you acquire all the covers but not enough iso. My 3* are parked at 145 and lower because I have 4*'s that I need to feed. Now I need to play catchup and it's going to suck.

Perhaps that's my misunderstanding of the term soft-cap - I thought this related only to players who capped by choice. People who are capped because it's the max or have no iso to upgrade I consider hardcappers. Apologies for any confusion caused

jobob

OneLastGambit wrote:

It hasn't increased, the iso cost to max your character is the same as before. they haven't suddenly added to the iso cost (apart from the one time fee). What you mean is YOUR iso cost has increased because YOU decided to stunt your growth on purpose. The devs didn't do anything to your game, you did it by not playing the game as it was intended to be played. Also this shouldn't really be an issue for a soft-capper because if you are not spending your iso on levelling to the max like the rest of us then you had to have been saving it right? Where else could it be going?
You must be sitting on a mountain of iso anyway.

So I purposely stunted my growth by spreading the ISO around instead of putting it all on a few characters?

By leveling up everybody I am not "playing the game as it was intended to be played?"

I've got ~40k ISO in the bank. You act like that just because I would rather have 5 or 6 200-level characters than 1 270 is some sort of abomination.

Is my opinion biased toward the way that I built my roster? Sure. But it still sucks that I can barely take part in the new system unless I alter the way I level the characters. I just wish it were built more for everyone- including people who like to bring up their whole roster and use all the characters- than it is for the people who like to take a single character all the way to the max and move onto the next. And I don't see why people have a problem with me saying this.

JVReal

jobob wrote:

OneLastGambit wrote:

It hasn't increased, the iso cost to max your character is the same as before. they haven't suddenly added to the iso cost (apart from the one time fee). What you mean is YOUR iso cost has increased because YOU decided to stunt your growth on purpose. The devs didn't do anything to your game, you did it by not playing the game as it was intended to be played. Also this shouldn't really be an issue for a soft-capper because if you are not spending your iso on levelling to the max like the rest of us then you had to have been saving it right? Where else could it be going?
You must be sitting on a mountain of iso anyway.

So I purposely stunted my growth by spreading the ISO around instead of putting it all on a few characters?

By leveling up everybody I am not "playing the game as it was intended to be played?"

I've got ~40k ISO in the bank. You act like that just because I would rather have 5 or 6 200-level characters than 1 270 is some sort of abomination.

Is my opinion biased toward the way that I built my roster? Sure. But it still sucks that I can barely take part in the new system unless I alter the way I level the characters. I just wish it were built more for everyone- including people who like to bring up their whole roster and use all the characters- than it is for the people who like to take a single character all the way to the max and move onto the next. And I don't see why people have a problem with me saying this.

If this is the situation you are in, and you are not purposely under-leveling your characters, then you are just not ready to use the champion feature yet. It's that simple. When you are ready to use it, you will enjoy it. Until then, continue on as you were. It's like my 14 year old complaining about not having a car yet... she doesn't even have a license to drive, why is she worried that she doesn't have a car.

jobob

JVReal wrote:

jobob wrote:

OneLastGambit wrote:

It hasn't increased, the iso cost to max your character is the same as before. they haven't suddenly added to the iso cost (apart from the one time fee). What you mean is YOUR iso cost has increased because YOU decided to stunt your growth on purpose. The devs didn't do anything to your game, you did it by not playing the game as it was intended to be played. Also this shouldn't really be an issue for a soft-capper because if you are not spending your iso on levelling to the max like the rest of us then you had to have been saving it right? Where else could it be going?
You must be sitting on a mountain of iso anyway.

So I purposely stunted my growth by spreading the ISO around instead of putting it all on a few characters?

By leveling up everybody I am not "playing the game as it was intended to be played?"

I've got ~40k ISO in the bank. You act like that just because I would rather have 5 or 6 200-level characters than 1 270 is some sort of abomination.

Is my opinion biased toward the way that I built my roster? Sure. But it still sucks that I can barely take part in the new system unless I alter the way I level the characters. I just wish it were built more for everyone- including people who like to bring up their whole roster and use all the characters- than it is for the people who like to take a single character all the way to the max and move onto the next. And I don't see why people have a problem with me saying this.

If this is the situation you are in, and you are not purposely under-leveling your characters, then you are just not ready to use the champion feature yet. It's that simple. When you are ready to use it, you will enjoy it. Until then, continue on as you were. It's like my 14 year old complaining about not having a car yet... she doesn't even have a license to drive, why is she worried that she doesn't have a car.

Yeah, and that's a problem. It should be for all users, including vets like myself who have leveled folks evenly.

emaker27

It sounds like the middle class, 3* players, will be squeezed by this change at least in the short term. 2* users will be able to advance to 144 much faster than 3* can advance past 166.

Maybe a month after the Champions release, 3* teams will legitimately get beaten by 2* and 4* teams; getting squeezed from both tiers.

ZootSax

MarvelMan wrote:

Phumade wrote:

notamutant wrote:

In the long run, higher star characters are generally still going to be better than lower ones with higher levels, due to more powerful skills. See the difference between the two Captain Americas. The two star version will still stink even with 100 levels more than a nonboosted 3 star one.

Are you so sure about this statement? Lower tier characters scale fantastically well. Don't believe me I got a Juggy "headbutt" to show you.

But I'll take your statement at face value and say that, "I'll be really curious to see the stats on a champion 2* cap at (144), vs 166 3* cap.

To add to this, what about when 2* Cap is buffed and 3* isnt? Isnt that a lvl 250 vs lvl 166? Lvl 250 OBW/Ares are SCARY.

In Balance of Power, when 2* Cap is scaled to Level 270, his red only does 1,891. When cover-maxed, 3* Cap does that by about Level 90-100, I believe.

Tony_Foot

So how does this help me? 2-3 star player. 250ish days game time. Most of my 3 stars are on average 10 covers. I opened a 5 star and ever since I have been getting nothing but 166 matches in pvp. So I can't champion anything but 2 star, TBH I need to be saving iso for 3 stars and so now I get to look forward to being matched against even higher opponents moving away from me faster than I can gain?

For me champions only needed to be in 4 stars to close the gap on 5 stars for those very advanced in the game. I will give it a chance but I think this will end up pushing me away.

TxMoose

Tony Foot wrote:

So how does this help me? 2-3 star player. 250ish days game time. Most of my 3 stars are on average 10 covers. I opened a 5 star and ever since I have been getting nothing but 166 matches in pvp. So I can't champion anything but 2 star, TBH I need to be saving iso for 3 stars and so now I get to look forward to being matched against even higher opponents moving away from me faster than I can gain?

For me champions only needed to be in 4 stars to close the gap on 5 stars for those very advanced in the game. I will give it a chance but I think this will end up pushing me away.

work those level 94 2*s up and they'll help tackle those 166s before you know it. obw, ares, storm, daken, axwolvie - all should be very strong championed, especially when boosted.

JVReal

Tony Foot wrote:

So how does this help me? 2-3 star player. 250ish days game time. Most of my 3 stars are on average 10 covers. I opened a 5 star and ever since I have been getting nothing but 166 matches in pvp. So I can't champion anything but 2 star, TBH I need to be saving iso for 3 stars and so now I get to look forward to being matched against even higher opponents moving away from me faster than I can gain?

For me champions only needed to be in 4 stars to close the gap on 5 stars for those very advanced in the game. I will give it a chance but I think this will end up pushing me away.

If you are in the 2* to 3* transition I'd sell the 5* and stop pulling legendary tokens. Or hold out and see what this scaling fix will be... if you can hold out that long.

I'd focus on maxing your 2* and championing them. Work with what you have, don't fret over what you don't have... because unless you plan on whaling stuff, there isn't anything you can do about it, it will come eventually.

Getting rid of the 5* will drop you back down to being matched with your actual roster level which is where you want to be for competing. Champion 2* will help you reach a little higher in PVP until you can get token rewards and pull the 3*s you need along with DDQ. you just have to pace yourself realistically. I'm almost totally done cover maxing my 3*'s but only about a little more than 1/2 way through max leveling them...and I've been playing for just over a year. I have only 3 nearly cover maxed 4*'s and nowhere near having them leveled because I'm not done ready for that phase yet. Championing your 2*'s while you build your 3*'s is what you need to be focused on for now. Baby steps.

Dayv

aesthetocyst wrote:

2Cap is the exception, not the rule. For whatever reason, his abilities start in the tank and scale feebly.

Contrast with 2Daken, Moonstone, Ares (gosh, we all love playing against them boosted, finally its our turn! (outside of BOP)), CStorm, 2Wolvie, and to a lesser extent 2Thor, MnMags, 2Marvel and Tiny Torch.

2s in general scale very well.

This is probably part of the reason you can only take 2*s up to 144. That, and the fact that 2* covers drop like rain.

TxMoose

at 144, the top 2*s are on par with nearly all the 166 3*s (other than the obvious fist/cyke/cage/etc). boosted to 200 they will actually start to be able to tackle some 4*s - maybe struggle with jeanbuster or icebuster, but if ares and obw are boosted same week, look out. they will definitely be able to be inserted into 3* lineups. and I'm betting we see 144 2*s nearly as soon as we start opening tokens - week tops.

SnowcaTT

TxMoose wrote:

at 144, the top 2*s are on par with nearly all the 166 3*s (other than the obvious fist/cyke/cage/etc). boosted to 200 they will actually start to be able to tackle some 4*s - maybe struggle with jeanbuster or icebuster, but if ares and obw are boosted same week, look out. they will definitely be able to be inserted into 3* lineups. and I'm betting we see 144 2*s nearly as soon as we start opening tokens - week tops.

The problem with that is the vets still get the most tokens, they'll be the ones with the 144 2*'s first, and they'll be the ones...with 166's that are boosted or 270s. I think it will happen, but we won't see tons of high 2*'s right away.

It actually probably will slow down transition - the 2*'s will be putting ISO to champion and possibly maxing more 2*'s so they don't throw away the covers they are most commonly receiving.

jobob

DFiPL wrote:

No, it hasn't. Do I need to try this in another language? Nicht wahr. Pas vraiment. I can keep going.

Your ISO costs have. Not. Increased. The cost to go from 94 to 166 or from wherever the hell you are to 166 HAVE. NOT. CHANGED.

They are the same as they ever were. What you're feeling now is the pressure to actually LEVEL from where you're at to 166 because 'no fair new feature i wanna play too!' But your costs haven't changed! What's changed is your motivation. Or, possibly, the addition of resentment because now you feel like you have to do something you never previously felt any desire to do.

We can do a few more languages if you think it will help you understand, but I kind of think you are so locked into a particular mindset that it won't make a difference. I'm tired of beating my head against a wall, though, so I'm to the point of "agree to disagree."

The point you're actually arguing? "God, Mom, why do I have to eat my peas to get a cupcake for dessert? YOU'RE SO UNFAIR."

The point I am arguing is that everyone should get a cupcake after eating their peas, not just the ones who ate them a certain way. I suppose in this analogy your argument is "God, Mom, maybe I ate no carrots, but I ate all my peas! My big brother only hate half his peas and half carrots! IF YOU GIVE HIM A CUPCAKE TOO YOU'RE SO UNFAIR." Haha, I like you, you're silly.

DFiPL

jobob wrote:

DFiPL wrote:

No, it hasn't. Do I need to try this in another language? Nicht wahr. Pas vraiment. I can keep going.

Your ISO costs have. Not. Increased. The cost to go from 94 to 166 or from wherever the hell you are to 166 HAVE. NOT. CHANGED.

They are the same as they ever were. What you're feeling now is the pressure to actually LEVEL from where you're at to 166 because 'no fair new feature i wanna play too!' But your costs haven't changed! What's changed is your motivation. Or, possibly, the addition of resentment because now you feel like you have to do something you never previously felt any desire to do.

We can do a few more languages if you think it will help you understand, but I kind of think you are so locked into a particular mindset that it won't make a difference. I'm tired of beating my head against a wall, though, so I'm to the point of "agree to disagree."

You do realize I'm sitting on 39 3* characters, and the closest any of those is to 166 is 141, right? Okay, maybe you didn't: I'm sitting on 39 3* characters with levels ranging from 114 to 141. I have, oh, 320k ISO in the bank. That's enough to level 3 of those 39 to 166, or to raise everybody about 5 levels (which is what I've been doing heretofore).

So, y'know, I think I'm probably in a reasonably strong position when I say "your ISO stash has not been devalued." I know your position because that's exactly where I am (if perhaps with a few more levels than you have? I don't know). And, yet, I'm capable of looking at championing and going 'ayup, there's something pretty cool waiting for me when I get where I'm going" instead of "man my 320k ISO is worthless now because I...still have to spend exactly what I needed to spend before to get to the same place I was going anyway before I can do the new thing? Or something?"

You may regret your previous leveling choices because the new feature has you feeling like "if only I had allocated differently so I could use this right away." And that's a perfectly valid way to feel!

But regretting past choices because it defers your ability to play with the shiny new toy does not mean your resources have been devalued. I really don't know how else I can put this before you realize that. Nothing has changed with respect to your journey to 166 save perhaps that maybe you now feel like you have to go to 166 where before you were at a level you were comfortable with. That is literally the only potential change in your status vis à vis 166.

Then, once you get there - assuming you were heading there anyway - there is a modest cost to unlock a new feature, and it's a cost you will ultimately recoup either directly or in equivalent goods. But the key here is that there is no change in your journey to 166. It is literally impossible for there to be any devaluation of your resources without a change occurring on that level.

Maybe you feel like you "wasted" previous resources on characters you might have deferred investing in had you known this was coming. Maybe that use of resources feels "devalued" to you now. And, again, that's a different matter, and a valid way to feel. Not a feeling I'd agree with, personally, but that sense of "devaluation" is much, MUCH more subjective.

Your ISO stash being devalued relative to the costs to get to 166 is pretty straight up objectively not a thing, though. There is no way you can twist that to make it a thing, except with a slavish devotion to being a martyr.

You do you, though.

The point you're actually arguing? "God, Mom, why do I have to eat my peas to get a cupcake for dessert? YOU'RE SO UNFAIR."

The point I am arguing is that everyone should get a cupcake after eating their peas, not just the ones who ate them a certain way. I suppose in this analogy your argument is "God, Mom, maybe I ate no carrots, but I ate all my peas! My big brother only hate half his peas and half carrots! IF YOU GIVE HIM A CUPCAKE TOO YOU'RE SO UNFAIR." Haha, I like you, you're silly.

But...you haven't eaten your peas. Neither have I. I'm still working on that. My carrots (or is it corn? What are the 2* in this analogy?) have been consumed and I eagerly await the dessert that follows, but the peas? I'm still working on that. Others who didn't have a months-long break in the middle of their play have gotten their 3* to 166 already, and so will be ready for their cupcake as soon as the feature unveils. Well, sorta; they're probably not going to have both 7,500 ISO per 3* AND 100 covers in that character ready to go, but, y'know. They get to take their first nibbles whenever that goes live. But they've gotten to the point where that's useful. I'm getting to that point. I've been doing so slowly, because my fear is that upjumping 2-3 3* and letting the rest follow along behind would bork my scaling in a way I really didn't want to face.

That was a choice that I made, and despite it meaning 3* championing is still in the distant future for me, it's a choice I'm comfortable with.

And that choice didn't devalue my ISO stash any more than you leveling YOUR 3's evenly devalued YOURS.

Unknown

DFiPL wrote:

Your ISO costs have. Not. Increased. The cost to go from 94 to 166 or from wherever the hell you are to 166 HAVE. NOT. CHANGED.

True, but short-sighted. Let me pick up the baton in this here bitchslap-fest...

Costs have not increased, but value has decreased relative to other players with more ISO (specifically: enough ISO to play the championing game). Rich players (whether literally whales or just vets) used to have the same limitations as poor players (ftp or transitioners). But now they don't ... not really (eventually all things are equal opportunity, but the "transition" is multiple years so consideration is deserved while things are imbalanced, imo).

Rich players are no longer limited to pushing up 4*s and waiting to pull 5*s. Now they can keep pushing up their 3*s and even worse: they'll want to target those 3* rewards with more effort because of this opportunity. So poor players can only pay ISO to try and max their characters, but rich players can do that with their 4*s, as well as champion their 3*s, as well as reap the rewards of championing those 3*s because they can actually get additional covers that the poor players can't.

Due to cover frequency, one assumes that 2*s will be max-championed first, then 3*s, then 4*s, and that's true but it misses the point that the max-leveling ISO cost is a pre-requesite to championing and therefore all those too "poor" to play get stomped on even more. Once they're at an even greater disadvantage, then they hit the 2nd problem, which is inability to get extra 3* covers for their own champions because those places are being taken by folks with 60 or whatever extra levels of already-championed 3*s.

It's a game-theory blind spot from the devs. "Championed 2*s will be able to compete with 3*s now! Yay another method for progression and transition!" But they failed to recognize that championed 2*s won't be competing with 3*s anymore, they'll be competing with championed 3*s and additional 4*s due to the champion rewards.

Due to ISO disparity, the 'haves' who can participate will get more powerful more quickly than the 'have nots' who are trying to compete with them. That's the big problem. It's not just about getting covers and paying a small fee, it's about already having enough ISO to max level more future champions. This isn't an incentive to stop soft-capping, it's a reward for already being a whale or vet.

(OK, it _is_ also an incentive to stop soft-capping, but it sounded better that way

udonomefoo

Sundance2112 wrote:

Due to ISO disparity, the 'haves' who can participate will get more powerful more quickly than the 'have nots' who are trying to compete with them. That's the big problem. It's not just about getting covers and paying a small fee, it's about already having enough ISO to max level more future champions. This isn't an incentive to stop soft-capping, it's a reward for already being a whale or vet.

(OK, it _is_ also an incentive to stop soft-capping, but it sounded better that way

The 'haves' already have maxed 4s and partially complete 5s. They will champion characters for fun, and the small cp and hp rewards, but they will not be taking OML out of their lineup to put in a 144 OBW. This changes very little for them. Yes, they will get some maxed to the new max faster, but they still won't really use them much, if at all.

DFiPL

Sundance2112 wrote:

DFiPL wrote:

Your ISO costs have. Not. Increased. The cost to go from 94 to 166 or from wherever the hell you are to 166 HAVE. NOT. CHANGED.

True, but short-sighted. Let me pick up the baton in this here bitchslap-fest...

Costs have not increased, but value has decreased relative to other players with more ISO (specifically: enough ISO to play the championing game). Rich players (whether literally whales or just vets) used to have the same limitations as poor players (ftp or transitioners). But now they don't ... not really (eventually all things are equal opportunity, but the "transition" is multiple years so consideration is deserved while things are imbalanced, imo).

Rich players are no longer limited to pushing up 4*s and waiting to pull 5*s. Now they can keep pushing up their 3*s and even worse: they'll want to target those 3* rewards with more effort because of this opportunity. So poor players can only pay ISO to try and max their characters, but rich players can do that with their 4*s, as well as champion their 3*s, as well as reap the rewards of championing those 3*s because they can actually get additional covers that the poor players can't.

Due to cover frequency, one assumes that 2*s will be max-championed first, then 3*s, then 4*s, and that's true but it misses the point that the max-leveling ISO cost is a pre-requesite to championing and therefore all those too "poor" to play get stomped on even more. Once they're at an even greater disadvantage, then they hit the 2nd problem, which is inability to get extra 3* covers for their own champions because those places are being taken by folks with 60 or whatever extra levels of already-championed 3*s.

It's a game-theory blind spot from the devs. "Championed 2*s will be able to compete with 3*s now! Yay another method for progression and transition!" But they failed to recognize that championed 2*s won't be competing with 3*s anymore, they'll be competing with championed 3*s and additional 4*s due to the champion rewards.

Due to ISO disparity, the 'haves' who can participate will get more powerful more quickly than the 'have nots' who are trying to compete with them. That's the big problem. It's not just about getting covers and paying a small fee, it's about already having enough ISO to max level more future champions. This isn't an incentive to stop soft-capping, it's a reward for already being a whale or vet.

(OK, it _is_ also an incentive to stop soft-capping, but it sounded better that way

Most of that is legit - championing increasing the 4* players' desire to go after rewards that 3* transitioners need is, perhaps, a consequence that SHOULD have been foreseen, that wasn't. Maybe that's why the placement rewards were tweaked to make more 3* covers available? Preparatory to championing?

But none of that devalues the ISO that the lower-level players have. Because nothing that veteran players might do in their pursuit of their own champions has any direct impact on the ISO costs felt by the lower-tier players. Those were always there, and have not changed.

That the "rich get richer" might be a fair complaint. It's a complaint others have levelled. But it's not the complaint jobob made. His complaint was that his ISO stash is now worth less (or worthless, depending on where you put the space) because 2* have 50 more levels and 3-5* now have an additional hundred levels they can add.

But as I've explained over and over (and over and over and over again, apologies to Phineas and Ferb), stretching the level cap of the character without a concomitant rise in overall ISO leveling costs isn't devaluing ****. If anything, the ISO stash is worth more - you're ultimately getting more levels out of the character for the same ISO you were always going to spend.

As I've said here and elsewhere, I'm not arguing that this is a perfect feature with no potential pitfalls and that anybody who can't recognize its perfection is a fool.

I'm saying that of all the things you could conceivably point to as being potentially problematic, the devaluation of ISO costs isn't remotely one of them. It's a phantom problem. It doesn't exist.

Spencer75

Who's gonna be the first person to spend 200K to max a 5 star?

And let's not pretend it can't happen.

Unknown

udonomefoo wrote:

The 'haves' already have maxed 4s and partially complete 5s.

True, and I agree this won't really change how those players impact 'poor' players. But again we're back to the ISO shortage problem. There is a large class of 'haves' that can max most of their 3*s and are trying to build their 4*s but can't due to lack of ISO. There is also a large class of players that can cover but not max level their 3*s due to lack of ISO. Those two groups just got split apart because the 4* transitioners now have extra ways to improve their rosters and gain other benefits, while the 3* transitioners do not. (making the reasonable assumption that 2* championing benefits are lesser than 3* championing benefits)

It'll all be about how quickly the bar moves in terms of the 4* transitioners championing and over-levelling their 3*s. If championed 2*s really get a chance to compete against un-championed 3*s, then everything looks great to me. But I don't see it going like that, especially since the 4* transitioners can keep getting 3* covers faster than the 3* transitioners can, and are now rewarded even more for doing so!

DFiPL wrote:

I'm saying that of all the things you could conceivably point to as being potentially problematic, the devaluation of ISO costs isn't remotely one of them.

Fair enough for me.

Gari

Ruinate wrote:

OneLastGambit wrote:

jobob wrote:

DFiPL wrote:

Jesus Christ.

No, it hasn't "increased dramatically." You've been given a content expansion and relative to what you have spent or need to spend to max the characters you've got, champion costs are a pittance.

You are almost certainly going to make those champion costs back in champion level rewards, never mind increased placement or progression rewards from a stronger roster.

Your ISO stash has not been devalued. It doesn't take a "significantly larger amount of ISO" to play the game.

There may well be issues unforeseen with this feature but ISO devaluation/inflation is not one of them. This isn't tough stuff, champ.

Umm... yes, it has increased DRAMATICALLY. You are counting just the championing fee, but completely disregarding the cost of ISO required to go to max level.

I highly doubt you are going to make back the hundreds of thousands in ISO it takes to bring a couple very usable characters up to max level so that you can champion them. Again, I hope I am wrong, but I don't see it happening.

It hasn't increased, the iso cost to max your character is the same as before. they haven't suddenly added to the iso cost (apart from the one time fee). What you mean is YOUR iso cost has increased because YOU decided to stunt your growth on purpose. The devs didn't do anything to your game, you did it by not playing the game as it was intended to be played. Also this shouldn't really be an issue for a soft-capper because if you are not spending your iso on levelling to the max like the rest of us then you had to have been saving it right? Where else could it be going?
You must be sitting on a mountain of iso anyway.

This is not true for all soft cappers. If you play a lot you can progress so fast that you acquire all the covers but not enough iso. My 3* are parked at 145 and lower because I have 4*'s that I need to feed. Now I need to play catchup and it's going to suck.

you cannot claim that you are both playing a lot and then have no ISO? Those two statements contradict each other.
Are you playing Pve? Are you playing LR? ddq gives 5k a day. That's way better than what us vets had to go through.