Ribbon System is Completely Broken

Unknown

Is it just me or is this aspect completely broken?

Let me elaborate: I have all planewalkers maxed out to level 50. When I go to fight other players, there is nobody higher level than I am so in return, I can't receive more then 1 ribbon after a battle. This is a complete disadvantage to someone who has maybe level 1 planewalkers with good cards and when they win battles they get more ribbons. I fought 2 quick battles right after the update. The leaderboard showed everyone as "tied" with 0 ribbons when I started. After I finished the 2 battles someone already had 8 ribbons.

So you're telling me, I don't get rewarded equal because I have high level planewalkers and it takes longer for me to battle (because of higher opponent health) and I get rewarded less ribbons.

This makes no sense at all. No incentive to level up planewalkers or spend money. I simply can't compete with lower level players even if I spent all day battling.

THIS NEEDS TO BE FIXED.

Let me know what you think and tell me if this seems to be true or not. Thanks.

Unknown

As a level 43 Chandra user, I agree.
Edit - Finally completed first battle, after losing twice and the game crashing. Got +1. -_-

Unknown

Agreed. This is what I've been saying in Suggestion about weighted wins. There needs to be incentive to play high-level PWs.

Unknown

Yup. You definitely need to have low level Planeswalkers to compete in the events right now.. Level 14 max. I think my Jace is only Level 2 so I'm going to see how the results happen there.

There are many things wrong with this game. This is a big glaring problem.

Unknown

I am greatly benefitting from the broken system by running a low level Chandra. I agree it is broken.

The_Leftist

I'll agree that the ribbon system needs to be scrapped. It's already an advantage that lower level planeswalkers with good cards get quicker wins. I didn't level any walkers past 45 but I imagine having a 50 would be very frustrating.

I would recommend removing the ribbon system, and making each event planeswalker specific (red walkers for events with red card prizes) so that while lower walkers get faster wins, higher level walkers can play more as potions would be used rather quickly and higher level walkers regenerate much faster. To balance this, create an additional event that lasts longer than 3 days with no limit, with perhaps card packs, runes, and gold prizes so that anyone can play something other than story mode at any time.

I would also like to see PvE with walker specific conditions. Thus would give more people a reason to level up their other walkers as well, as a level 20 Liliana would have very little chance of defeating PvE with 170hp+ enemies

Rogan_Josh

So what you're all saying is that players who haven't maxed their planeswalkers should be denied any chance of significant prizes?

Please bare in mind that your high level walkers can play more matches continuously, have less risk losing to a bad first hand, and generally have access to their powers. on the other hand having access to decent cards far outweighs the benefits of a leveled PW in terms of effectiveness.

a better solution is to manage brackets better, so you're not in the same bracket as people with significantly less developed PWs.

honestly i'm not sure how i feel about the ribbons yet. we're never going to get a perfect matching system in a game where some people are more powerful than others. And we'll always have some people who will manipulate the system for their benefit to. we just have to wait for exploits to present themselves and have the devs patch these problem areas.

Unknown

Rogan Josh wrote:

So what you're all saying is that players who haven't maxed their planeswalkers should be denied any chance of significant prizes?

Please bare in mind that your high level walkers can play more matches continuously, have less risk losing to a bad first hand, and generally have access to their powers. on the other hand having access to decent cards far outweighs the benefits of a leveled PW in terms of effectiveness.

Firstly, not a single person said people with low level PWs shouldn't be able to get rewards. The concern is that intentionally not leveling up your PW is a better strategy of getting ribbons than leveling it up, which is stupid. Level literally shouldn't matter at all, and its a mechanic that makes no sense in the game currently.

Secondly, the entire concept of ribbons is dumb for one simple reason: it has absolutely nothing to do with skill. Presumably the point of the leader board is to show the most skilled player, or the efficiency of everyone's deck. The level of opponent you get is basically random within your given level range. I literally have intentionally not leveled my Jace, and at level 1, I fight someone with a level higher than 1 maybe once every 10 games, at which point I get 2-5 ribbons for winning that match with no additional effort whatsoever. Say someone else gets luckier and faces higher level opponents than me in the same period of time. If we both win the exact same amount of matches at the exact same rate, they will have more ribbons than me. That makes NO sense.

Ribbons should be given out 1 per win, period. OR given out as bonuses based on preset criteria that actually challenges you to play strategically, like "dont lose any creatures" or "dont lose more than X HP" or "win in less than X rounds." Or even better, they could make it so that you get ribbons based on the rank of the person whose deck you beat, so winning against top ranked players actually means something, and serves to show your deck's progress. Something like that would make 10x more sense than the current system, which, accepting that I will sound like a total jerk for saying so, is unfathomably dumb, and I honestly cannot believe they actually went with this system.

Unknown

I started playing as Lv. 20 Nissa (Managorger Hydra- horrible, yet Green's best 8-drop -_-) and now I'm climbing quickly.

loroku

InfiniteGXT wrote:

Ribbons should be given out 1 per win, period. OR given out as bonuses based on preset criteria that actually challenges you to play strategically, like "dont lose any creatures" or "dont lose more than X HP" or "win in less than X rounds." Or even better, they could make it so that you get ribbons based on the rank of the person whose deck you beat, so winning against top ranked players actually means something, and serves to show your deck's progress.

Yeah, I'm guessing there basically is no MMR right now since this is the very first event, so although your last example is the best, it will take a while before this can be meaningfully accomplished. In the meantime it seems like "all battles give 1 ribbon" is the best compromise, since that gives high level PWs the advantage they have earned (more HP) but otherwise doesn't limit the game.

Rogan Josh wrote:

So what you're all saying is that players who haven't maxed their planeswalkers should be denied any chance of significant prizes?

No, they're just saying it shouldn't be so obviously easy to "game" the system by cupcaking (intentionally underleveling) your account. It took most players all of 5 seconds to figure this out, so it's just weird they would even make that part of the game.

Unknown

This is what I said before the update: don't level up PWs until you see what the QuickBattle system is going to be like in 1.3.

It's as before - for quick, reliable wins you need low-level Jace, Chandra or Gideon with some good cards. But it is just luck whether you get drawn against a higher-ranking PW and get more ribbons.

Unknown

Craigantlet wrote:

This is what I said before the update: don't level up PWs until you see what the QuickBattle system is going to be like in 1.3.

It's as before - for quick, reliable wins you need low-level Jace, Chandra or Gideon with some good cards. But it is just luck whether you get drawn against a higher-ranking PW and get more ribbons.

I'm planning on keeping Gideon and Jace low. Not sure about Liliana.

Jaymar30

I completely agree with InfiniteGXT's suggestions above.

For the next update, a re-evaluation of the ranking system on the QuickBattle leaderboards needs to occur. I am in the same boat with Planeswalkers in the level 20s and out of 70 or so matches, I have probably only received 5 to 8 ribbons that were greater than +1. There seems to be no incentive to level up Planeswalkers. Can I downgrade?

I really like the idea of taking the Planeswalker level out of the equation completely. Have ribbons be based on preset criteria, such as: winning without taking damage, winning in a set period of time, etc.

Overall though, I have to say that update 1.3 has been fantastic (this issue aside).

loroku

Thinking about it more, there can't be any MMR - because there's no penalty for losing. There's no difference between someone who played 50 games and won 25 of them and someone who played 25 games and won all of them.

Don't get me wrong - I love playing this way because it's much more fun. But I agree that means the level-difference thing needs to go.

Rootbreaker

It looks like they hotfixed the ribbon system. Rewards for quick battle are always 3 ribbons now, whether fighting someone below you or 5 levels higher. Mana Runes rewards are still rewarded with the same level they were before. (100 for 2 above, 250 for 5 above, etc.)

Unknown

Agree totally!

Unknown

Will they retro scores? I hope. The math is easy enough.

Rootbreaker

I imagine if they were going to they would have already. There's only a few hours until the first quick battle is over, but there'll be no shortage of them in the future.

loroku

Yes, I can confirm the 3 ribbon thing as well. Unless this was part of the plan to suddenly make the last ~5 hours super competitive, I think it's a good change.

Unknown

Best solution to balance would be to have level 50 characters get 2 ribbons for wins.

i have a score of 251 at the moment with 128 wins. All with sub level 50 characters (because they kicked Jace in the nuts, and he was my only level 50 character)

This allows twinks and maxed level champs to be balanced.

Unknown

kore wrote:

Will they retro scores? I hope. The math is easy enough.

Apparently not.
Good change, though.