A proposal for scaling Iso-8

Pogo

[I am aware that there is currently a topic in which people are debating whether or not Iso distribution needs to be changed further, and to what degree. I originally began drafting this post as a reply in that thread, but as it became more elaborate I decided to spin it off into its own topic so it wouldn't get lost in the tides.]

I am certain that this must have been suggested dozens of times already, but if enemy strength and health values can scale based on your roster levels, why couldn't Iso payouts scale using a somewhat similar function?

The numbers I've picked in the sample haven't been carefully balanced, they're just there for proof of concept.

Iso reward "objects" would still come in predetermined chunks, but there would be more possible values.
At the low end, 100/110/120/130/140/150 would all exist, every tens place until you got up to, say, 200.
Then 225/250/275/300... until 500
Then 550/600/650/700... until 1000
1000/1100/1200/1300 --
then it's just rinse/repeat at 10x the value of an earlier set.

For the scaling part, determine what level value will be used. If it's average level of top 3 in the roster, then great. I'll use that for the sake of example. Say that for a given player, that level turns out to be 102 (Boosted characters do not affect scaling for purposes of this calculation, it uses true levels). Pull values from a table that assigns (we'll say) 7 possible Iso denominations for a given scale-level.
Suppose at lv 102 the values are as follows:

A:120
B:225
C:400
D:650
E:1100
F:5,000
G:10,000

Where A-E are all assigned as varying rarities of node or progression reward, F is a difficult one-shot node; G is top Taco vault.

The values would vary based on whatever level they were being scaled to, but the "letters" would maintain their usage for every player.

At the time of implementation, values A-G would basically have to be defined for every scale-level from 1-450, which would be a pain for somebody, but the scaling would have to be subtle and not every value would necessarily increase at every level up.

It would require a lot of new objects being added to the game, I guess, but it would be cleaner than trying to make a variable number that displays your projected winnings before you enter the node.

Plugging prizes into new event progressions and nodes shouldn't be any more difficult. For an example node in some future PVE event that hasn't been created yet:

Reward 1: Standard token
Reward 2: Standard token
Reward 3: Storm (Classic) Blue
Reward 4: Call [Iso set "A"] (which would appear to the player as the actual Iso value)
Reward 5: Call [Iso set "A"]
Reward 6: Call [Iso set "B"]
Reward 7: Call [Iso set "C"]

Ideally, joining an event would lock your values for any rewards given as a part of that event.

For example:

• Join a week-long PVE event at scale-level 102
• earn several PVE node/progression rewards, scaled to 102
• Level some characters up, pushing scaling up to 166
• Join a PVP event with scale-level 166
• earn several PVP rewards, scaled to 166
• Play more of that PVE event the next day, earning rewards scaled to 102 because that's how you began it.

Additionally,

• Values in DDQ nodes & vaults would be locked at first node attempt, held stable until the savory/sweet rotation.
• Values in a Lightning Round would only be locked during the duration of that round, not the entire multi-day span.
• Possible exception for Seasons (but not for season-contained events), just because Seasons are so long