Playing for Nothing

GrumpySmurf1002

Clear #8 of the regular nodes, clear #2 of the waves. Lots of time, lots of nothing to show for it besides some points.

I'm only mildly annoyed by the scaling of EotS, but playing a node twice for nothing sure sucks the motivation out of doing it again.

wymtime

GrumpySmurf1002 wrote:

Clear #8 of the regular nodes, clear #2 of the waves. Lots of time, lots of nothing to show for it besides some points.

I'm only mildly annoyed by the scaling of EotS, but playing a node twice for nothing sure sucks the motivation out of doing it again.

You are not amused by all the critical boost you got from the first 7 clears, not to mention the cost of AP boosts you probably used to get them?

Oh and don't forget the health packs used and drain on your family because you are grinding down a node 8 times.

stowaway

This has always been my problem with Enemy of the State. Wave nodes are an interesting challenge, but they take longer and they're more health-pack intensive (especially against the Hand). 1,000 iso or a recruit token are nice prizes, but they should be upped now that the other nodes are 7/7, especially since the recruit token is just 250 iso more often than not.

A regular "hard" branch node gives 500 + 250 + 100 + 100 + 70 + standard token + "hahaha you're still playing this game" boost. That one-time payout isn't looking so sweet in comparison. Make them one-and-done, or give them repeatable rewards that degenerate with each clear.

madok

Heck, I would be happy if it just gave its prize every time we played those wave nodes with this new scaling.

GrumpySmurf1002

wymtime wrote:

GrumpySmurf1002 wrote:

Clear #8 of the regular nodes, clear #2 of the waves. Lots of time, lots of nothing to show for it besides some points.

I'm only mildly annoyed by the scaling of EotS, but playing a node twice for nothing sure sucks the motivation out of doing it again.

You are not amused by all the critical boost you got from the first 7 clears, not to mention the cost of AP boosts you probably used to get them?

Oh and don't forget the health packs used and drain on your family because you are grinding down a node 8 times.

I haven't played #8 in any node yet, but I did clear the waves just cause that's where the points are for final progression. Hated every minute of it, but my bracket is light.

Also I never boost PvE. Spending Iso to farm Iso seems dumb.

HaywireII

I've been taking the wave nodes through 8 runs and it is taking hours. Having to be strategic about stunning ninjas and dealing with their countdowns takes a long time. Also waiting for my health packs to regenerate after I roll around in caltrops for a few rounds doesn't help either.

If I don't get to the 25 CP progression I'm going to be bummed because it takes so long to grind out the wave nodes that I don't have time to grind out the iso reward nodes.

Calnexin

I spent time grinding out the Beast essential node last night to get T50 placement. Probably took 45 min to finish through to the timer, then I did one more because it was still worth more than the most difficult node in the path. I'd taken top 50 in the first 48 hour sub, as well, with a lot of extra time and basically burning out most of my roster in each grind attempt.

I wish I'd done something more productive. Grinding down the other nodes for Iso, or maybe getting more sleep, would have served me better. Yeah, I got some HP out of the efforts, but now that it's workdays I know for a fact I can't maintain that position to earn the 10 CP bonus.

I think the whole concept was to level the playing field so that reward became based on overall effort rather than timing. But from what I can tell, despite griping on the boards, the playerbase is still competing in earnest. Total time input vs Awkward timing - in either case, the really devoted players will still take the top prizes.

AE_Fios

I don't know what everyone is complaining about...I've had a great time with this PVE.

Clear every node once a day, watch the level of the ninjas scale up. Laugh. Done with PVE until the next day. Catch up on other things. Probably finish 800th or so, oh well. That helps with future scaling anyways, save 30+ hours and a lot of hassle.

The people bashing their heads against the wall grinding this awful PVE event only have themselves to blame. Nobody is forcing you to play it. Playing only provides them with positive data about the potential changes anyways. Just go do something else.

Escape2victory

I like one of wymtime's suggestions. Set amount of ISO for a clear which diminishes over subsequent clears; you'll know what your getting. I play largely for ISO at the moment as decent Placement has become a thing of the past. Give me a certainty, not chance. There's enough chance in the game already. Performance related pay is where it's at.

rkd80

Clear 7/7 and walk away. Do not play the wave nodes more than once. D3 wants data, show them the data. Clearing it beyond 7 times simply show that there are crazy people willing to do crazy things and D3 literally had no ramifications.

If you are one of the people coming on here complaining how much it sucks, but then playing what you dislike you are part of the problem.

Polares

rkd80 wrote:

Clear 7/7 and walk away. Do not play the wave nodes more than once. D3 wants data, show them the data. Clearing it beyond 7 times simply show that there are crazy people willing to do crazy things and D3 literally had no ramifications.

If you are one of the people coming on here complaining how much it sucks, but then playing what you dislike you are part of the problem.

And survival nodes? Just once? We are not going to get the progressions completing the survivals just once...

They need to lock survivals to just one completion, or have just one survival x sub, but 3, all of them super hard now for no reward is crazy.

GrumpySmurf1002

Polares wrote:

rkd80 wrote:

Clear 7/7 and walk away. Do not play the wave nodes more than once. D3 wants data, show them the data. Clearing it beyond 7 times simply show that there are crazy people willing to do crazy things and D3 literally had no ramifications.

If you are one of the people coming on here complaining how much it sucks, but then playing what you dislike you are part of the problem.

And survival nodes? Just once? We are not going to get the progressions completing the survivals just once...

They need to lock survivals to just one completion, or have just one survival x sub, but 3, all of them super hard now for no reward is crazy.

Pretty much this. As I said, I haven't done more than 7/7 on the regular nodes. But the only way to get to the progression is to bang your head against the wall with the wave nodes.

That said, as I suspected might happen, it was a lot more difficult to get through the sub during the work week, so I didn't. Once I'm sure I won't get the progression anyway, I'm sure as excrement not doing the waves more than once.

JackTenrec

rkd80 wrote:

Clear 7/7 and walk away. Do not play the wave nodes more than once. D3 wants data, show them the data. Clearing it beyond 7 times simply show that there are crazy people willing to do crazy things and D3 literally had no ramifications.

Considering the damage that gets dealt even in early rounds, I'd be surprised if I get to 4 or 5/7 before my health packs and second (and third) bench runs out.

puppychow

aesthetocyst wrote:

Is your time and sanity worth $20? If you must have some CP, go hit a 20 buck buy club and call it a day.

IS there a Benjamin Buyers' Club? If so, where do i sign up?

GrumpySmurf1002

aesthetocyst wrote:

Players complaining about not getting progression in this test...it's ONLY 25cp.

You gotta have a serious case of "gotta have it all fever" to think grinding this mess is worth it.

Is your time and sanity worth $20? If you must have some CP, go hit a 20 buck buy club and call it a day.

In comparison, grinding this makes minimum wage look like a royal pension.

Whether or not this event is worth it, with the old system, 48 hour subs and waves have the same issue of rewards not matching the grind.

For this event, it's not about 'gotta have it' for me; I've missed plenty of PvE CP before and missing this one won't kill me. This is a system that will be the new norm at some point, so I'm running it like I would a typical PvE, trying to clear the rewards and in doing so clear the progression. The difficulty and time requirement is such that I'm done soon, but doesn't make it any less annoying that the effort previous goes unrewarded, heck it might make it worse.

rkd80

Polares, correct - you will not hit progression. Such is life.

Playing this event for anything more than the provided 7/7 is ludicrous. I would even say that 7/7 is sometimes not worth it, that stupid critical boost is still a slap in the face after getting adamantium slashed in the face for 7.5k damage.

Play the minimum and walk away. I expect a majority of people to fail to reach progression and D3 should theoretically look at that and conclude this test was a fail.

simonsez

GrumpySmurf1002 wrote:

Whether or not this event is worth it, with the old system, 48 hour subs and waves have the same issue of rewards not matching the grind.

True, but the problems in this event are greatly exacerbated by the heightened difficulty, and extra clears associated with "optimal" play.

This event has completely demotivated me. Spending more time, on more frustrating matches, for fewer rewards, can't possibly be a recipe for player engagement. And I fully expect a report from Hi-Fi telling us what a success this test was, because they didn't like players spending so much time on PvE. "We don't consider grinding for 3 hours to be 'fun', and far fewer people are doing that now". So yeah, congrats on serving up **** most everyone hates too much to bother with.