Changing the 'challenge' - idea melting pot

Unknown

OK, going to say right off the bat I don't have all the answers. I have a few ideas (mostly around PvE, but one or two for PVP), but I'm betting the hive mind will come up with more / better. (And then D3 will listen and put them into action, woo!)

PROBLEM:

With time / experience comes more powerful roster, coupled with an improved ability to play. To counter this player hyper-ability, "difficulty" is scaled by increasing the level of the bad guys to the (I wish I could have it) holy grail of 230.

However, this is only "difficult" in one of two ways. It either raises these matches into the "not a snowball's chance" for some players (hence the complaints!), or because of the increased duration of the matches there's an increased risk in the power players making an error of judgement and losing control.

Crucially, the bottom line is you can't make match 3 more difficult. It is what it is, unless you change the core mechanic, and let's take that option off the table right now.

What the current situation has led to, sadly, is *shock* *horror* boredom. The top / experienced / capable players can still beat these matches - it just takes an awfully long time. I've seen players quoting fifteen minutes or more, and frankly, match 3 doesn't really stand up to that kind of grind.

We need to take a different approach...

BASE SOLUTION:

So, my basic premise is we get rid of community / individual scaling as the mechanism for increasing difficulty. I think it causes more problems than it solves. In PvE where you have a territory with, say, six nodes, the levels should increase at a fixed rate with the node numbers, for example: 30, 70, 110, 150, 190, 230 for nodes 1 to 6. In theory, if we get the option for improvement right lvl 230 is no longer relevant, so you could do 30, 60, 90, 120, 150, 180, or similar.

Either way, my working assumption for this thread is that we're agreed that moving scaling levels don't work. You don't have to agree - go start a thread of your own! - but hey thanks for reading this far. 'Preciate it.

So. I'm more of a 'carrot' guy than a 'stick' guy (b'bye scaling stick! Don't let the door hit you on the way out!) What I believe we have to do is find new challenges which incentivise players to play exceptionally well. I.e. Set up rewards / achievements, and make that where the challenge is.

Which brings us to...

OPTIONS:

Here's some starters for ten. Take my lumpy coal and turn it into polished diamonds, forumite hive mind!

- Fastest Node Win

This could be implemented in various ways. It could be fastest node clear per sub-event, per node per sub-event, or other. Maybe one random node per sub. There could be a visible leaderboard so you know what your target is. Prize - 3* cover! That would work if it was one node per sub. If it was implemented for each node, the prize could be 1000 ISO.

(I know there's an element of luck in getting the right board / cascade etc, but that's part of the fun!)

- Two char challenge

Optional hard challenge for those brave enough! Opt to take on an entire sub with only two chars. Complete each node twice in order to win.... Well, whatever. 3* again? 2500 ISO? Other? (All other sub prizes / points would still stand, of course.)

- One Star challenge

Variation on above, but opting to take on the sub with one star covers only. (Clearly the sub would have to have at least 2 high enough nodes to make this a significant challenge.) 2500 ISO is your reward for successfully revisiting old favourites.

- PvP one: RAMPAGE!

This one is simple. Person who accrues the most consecutive wins, wins the prize! The Rocky Balboa of all PvPers. Attacks against you don't count. Skipping and / or losing a fight you initiate ends your run. Shielding... I can't make my mind up. Probably OK. This requires a serious award, for the serious player. 5000 ISO or a 4* cover at least.

- PvP two: Heroic Run!

Similar to the above, but of benefit to all. The recent implementation of the ISO bonus for not skipping was a great change. But I think a trick was missed. I think it should start at zero, and then for every successful win increase by 10. So, if you manage a run of ten wins, you'll get a 100 ISO bonus for that one. 20 = 200. And so on. Shielding / skipping / losing a fight you initiate all reset you back to zero. This gets the risk / reward balance right IMHO. (If there's an ISO economy worry around this, maybe cap it at 150, or 100.)


Right, that will do for starters. (I might add more later.) Be gentle now!

Unknown

It's probably easier to simply have a limited roster as a function of a node. As we can see, when Spiderman is removed from the available choice, people need to be much more creative to come up with a winning team. Currently this is done by giving Spiderman to your opponent, but I think it shouldn't be too hard to add restriction on a node-by-node basis. For example one battle you might be limited to villians only. Another might be Avengers only. Yet another one can be female only.

Unknown

Phantron wrote:

It's probably easier to simply have a limited roster as a function of a node. As we can see, when Spiderman is removed from the available choice, people need to be much more creative to come up with a winning team. Currently this is done by giving Spiderman to your opponent, but I think it shouldn't be too hard to add restriction on a node-by-node basis. For example one battle you might be limited to villians only. Another might be Avengers only. Yet another one can be female only.

We're not looking for easy! We're in solutions mode here.

I agree, limiting the roster is a good way to mix up the challenge. Simulator was great in that regard. I don't have a useable Spidey (I'm assuming I'll get ten covers the day aftert he nerf hits), but it forced me to do without several other go to chars of mine, and appreciate some others more. I think I use my roster better because of it.

If you're a fan of the comics, then a Secret Invasion "prequel" episode (or two, or three) strikes me as having all sorts of possibilities for this.