PVE Scaling Feedback & New Test : Prodigal Sun

TxMoose

for what felt like the same effort (i.e. time) that consistently got me 20-50 placements, I'm struggling to stay around 100. I'm not adding a bunch of time to what I'm going to put into it, so it is what it is. I hate the new version. I'm on pace to barely make cp progression where I used to hit it late day4 or early day5 on past 7-day pves. I find myself getting the top 6 nodes to the timer but usually running out of time before I get to farm the bottom 3 nodes out. it all generally takes longer and I just don't feel the need for me to commit any more time to the game than I already do.

Keegan

Crowl wrote:

DuckyV wrote:

So I just checked my t10 overall.

6/10 are 2* teams.

3/10 are 3* teams.

1/10 is an actual vet roster with 4* teams.

So much for getting high end rosters to place well. Working as intended?

Swap the 2* and 3* teams and that is what I am seeing in my event too, I wonder how much of that comes down to apathy over 7 day events when you have a high-end roster, the lack of interest in the 4* covers or the actual pve system itself.

My t10 has 7 3*s, 2 4*s, and 1 2*.

BlackSheep101

After the time I had hitting top 100 in The Hunt for a Howard cover, and hearing what others experienced in the same event, I'm forced to conclude that unless you're able to hit an optimal schedule, top placement relies too much on a lucky bracket draw. If they switch to the new format permanently, there will still be plenty of people willing and able to put in the hours at event open and close to ensure a top 10 finish. My life doesn't work that way, so I'm happy if I can get a good amount of ISO, tokens and CP for the time I'm willing to devote, and I'll take a 3* cover or two for champion levels.

If Prodigal Sun is the level of difficulty I can expect in every event, things will be fine. Might be a little harder on weeks when I don't have a usable boosted 4*, will be a lot harder when OML is locked out, but that was already the case. If they conclude that they've turned the dial too far toward easy, then we'll have to wait and see what the next iteration looks like.

Alkyoneus

I wanted to give this event a chance, but I think I've just been playing too long at this point and my interest level has been nil. I played enough to get the CP in both nodes the first 2 days and I just sort of stopped caring on day 3. Its the same thing as before, just a new paint job, and I don't need anything from the events beyond ISO, HP, and the progression CP; unfortunately, I don't have the stamina to play a 7 day event for 3 hours a day for 1 progression 25CP reward that will inevitably give me another TAH cover. I'd rather save my playtime for Lightning Rounds each week to get more ISO for my woefully underleveled toons.

TheWerebison

Day 4 of my captivity.

I find myself regretting the choices I have made with my life, specifically the one where I told myself grinding 9 nodes 6 times a day at any time of my choosing would be a simple task. By day 3, my once-sound mind began to feel the strain caused by the endeavor, but I shrugged it off like a champion. There were worse punishments.

Now I feel my life essence waning as I toil away, forcing myself to press ever onward. My crime was despicable, to be sure, but I begin to wonder: is my penance too harsh? Was it folly to put my faith in the developer? Was I wrong in believing there was enjoyment to be gained from attacking the same node over and over and over again, for the same meager rewards, and the only difference between each fight is that it gets a little bit harder? I sob and bury my face in my hands. No, my penance is not too harsh for believing thus; it is not harsh enough.

Wiping my tears away, I glance out the window. The brilliant sunlight shines upon deep fields of greens and yellows. Freedom. How I miss it. Somewhere out there, my wife will even now be taking the children to the park, as we used to do of a Monday afternoon. My dearest Martha, I will be with you again, one day. I just have to earn that damned 25 CP.

TxMoose

Keegan wrote:

Crowl wrote:

DuckyV wrote:

So I just checked my t10 overall.

6/10 are 2* teams.

3/10 are 3* teams.

1/10 is an actual vet roster with 4* teams.

So much for getting high end rosters to place well. Working as intended?

Swap the 2* and 3* teams and that is what I am seeing in my event too, I wonder how much of that comes down to apathy over 7 day events when you have a high-end roster, the lack of interest in the 4* covers or the actual pve system itself.

My t10 has 7 3*s, 2 4*s, and 1 2*.

mine:
6 = 3* players
2 = 3* players with a couple of pvp 4*s leveled
2 = 4* players

not the normal mix I see. and not what you'd expect with the stated purpose of "providing an advantage to leveling your roster"

AE_Fios

Great news D3! I have quit my job, dumped my girlfriend, and abandoned all my family and friends! Now I can sit home ALL Day and grind nodes for you! I know this was the thing holding this game back, people weren't playing PVE ENOUGH! Now I can play PVE all day, every day! I haven't figured out how I'm going to get food yet but I think I should be able to finish top 20 now and get all the valuable critical boost rewards!

Here's an idea! Why not get rid of the timer all together???? 24 straight hours of grinding (or until I eat a bullet) infinite clears for placement rewards!

All of the great ideas that get presented here daily, and you pick out the most important one! More grinding, same rewards, harder nodes! Nailed it! Great work!

Spiritclaw

I like the new system, but admittedly I play without much regard for placement. What I like about it is that I can sit down and play when I want, and not have to worry about timing effecting my score. If you move the placement rewards into progression, you'd have a PVE much more distinct from PVP. And as long as I'm wishing, more ISO would be nice!

Nick441234

TheWerebison wrote:

Day 4 of my captivity.

I find myself regretting the choices I have made with my life, specifically the one where I told myself grinding 9 nodes 6 times a day at any time of my choosing would be a simple task. By day 3, my once-sound mind began to feel the strain caused by the endeavor, but I shrugged it off like a champion. There were worse punishments.

Now I feel my life essence waning as I toil away, forcing myself to press ever onward. My crime was despicable, to be sure, but I begin to wonder: is my penance too harsh? Was it folly to put my faith in the developer? Was I wrong in believing there was enjoyment to be gained from attacking the same node over and over and over again, for the same meager rewards, and the only difference between each fight is that it gets a little bit harder? I sob and bury my face in my hands. No, my penance is not too harsh for believing thus; it is not harsh enough.

Wiping my tears away, I glance out the window. The brilliant sunlight shines upon deep fields of greens and yellows. Freedom. How I miss it. Somewhere out there, my wife will even now be taking the children to the park, as we used to do of a Monday afternoon. My dearest Martha, I will be with you again, one day. I just have to earn that damned 25 CP.

That, my friend, is genius.

Escape2victory

My thoughts on The Prodigal Son 7 day event.

Scaling fine, any node I care to repeat a few times e.g to get CP is doable. No real health pack worries. Great.
Decent Placement and 25CP progression ? ... Christ on a bike, what the hell is going on?
Taxiiiiiii !!

mazerat

I was at a festival all weekend so was waking up around 10:30a and grinding my DDQ and Prodigal Sun nodes until 1p--six clears of everything except Rulk (who I don't have). Under the old system I'd be doing one grind at night and a few when I woke up so I'm probably better off with this system.

I feel like this system is very time intensive but also very easy. My roster at the start was four champ'd 2 at 127/119/118/117. For scaling, I have a 0/0/1 Howard at 145 (boosted), 0/0/1 Daisy at 140 (b), 2/2 Doc Ock at 134 (b) and a bunch of other stuff below level 100. I'm on sub-4 and my hardest node caps at 66/67/67. For everything except the Doc Ock essentials, I'm using a 1/0/5 Ares at 91 (b), a 1/4/1 Gamora at 95 (b), and a 3/5/5 OBW at 118 (because everything was dying too quickly for me to use powers otherwise and this lets Espionage trigger on all three colors) and I'm just stomping everything. I use maybe 1-2 health packs total over my 6 clears.

As little fun as Juggs or Carnage or Hood + feeder nodes are, at least it's sort of a challenge. Right now I feel like I'm playing Clicker Heroes for two hours for as much actual effort is going into my clears. Also, despite six-clearing almost everything (i'm still working on day 4 and didn't fully clear out day 1) I'm ranked 221 so I'll probably quit once I get the CP--just like last test. I honestly don't get it, Mr. Fantastic is terrible but apparently the MPQ player base really wants to grind this easy stuff 24/7. I can't fault d3 for doing what makes money but I don't find this appealing at all and may move on if this is the new norm for PvE.

adamdivine

So 15 pages in and do we have one response from a red? How about just telling us what is the commitment required to get the CP going forward? Or addressing the issue of the new method being even more boring than the old one. People would be so much more understanding with anything but the silence we receive.

BlackSheep101

They didn't comment on the previous tests except to clarify what was intended and what was a bug. Why would they start now?

mpqr7

Remember in the past when they would give us treats for testing, such as extra event tokens, CP, double ISO.. something? I miss those days.

revskip

Keegan wrote:

Crowl wrote:

DuckyV wrote:

So I just checked my t10 overall.

6/10 are 2* teams.

3/10 are 3* teams.

1/10 is an actual vet roster with 4* teams.

So much for getting high end rosters to place well. Working as intended?

Swap the 2* and 3* teams and that is what I am seeing in my event too, I wonder how much of that comes down to apathy over 7 day events when you have a high-end roster, the lack of interest in the 4* covers or the actual pve system itself.

My t10 has 7 3*s, 2 4*s, and 1 2*.

Yeah, I'm not seeing that dynamic either. In my bracket (slice 5 vet) top 10 are:

Seven 4*
Two 3*
One 2* (me)

I'm the only one in the top ten without a least a couple of 5*s as well. Most of the 4* guys have multiple 4*champs, a couple have two 4*s and 1 has just Hulkbuster champed. I missed quite a bit on the first day maybe did 2 full clears and a couple extra on the CP nodes. The rest of the week I have gotten check marks and stopped. I am sitting at #7. #1 has about 15K more than me and has champed Bobby, champed 4Cyke and a OML with 4/4/2.

I wouldn't mind seeing end of event data for the top ten in each of the brackets.

Dauthi

If you are looking for feedback, here is what I would do to solve this problem. The game needs to be stream-lined similar to other mobile games today whose model demands little time. I don't think any encourage 4 - 5 hours of play for any rewards, if your model demands too much time like this, players won't be able to fit it into their life.

This could be fixed by bracketing into tiers for newbies/mid tier/veteran players. Story and competitive PVE should be separate. All stories should be like the gauntlet, you play it once, get your progression, and move on. The nodes can be repeatable for those who would like to read the story again, but would offer no rewards.

Competitive PVE should look like PVP and have 3 nodes. One node any 1* and up roster could beat, one only 3* rosters and up could beat, and one only 4* rosters and up could beat. The higher the difficulty, the more points the nodes would give, giving veterans an edge if they choose to play. I think you had the right idea with 8 hour refresh times, so every 8 hours veterans could hit all 3 nodes. A problem with this model could be players playing optimally and clumping together, to solve this I would make all PVE's 7 days with no sub events, because the longer an event the more likely it is someone will accidentally miss a node or clear.

With only one grind at the end, and 3 nodes every 8 hours, I feel MPQ will finally feel like other mobile games you can pick up and play casually while still retaining rewards.

mazerat

Update: 6 clears of everything in sub-4 minus Rulk gave me 18840 points and took about two hours. I'm in 198th. Top has 30k, and 10th has 28k. Napkin math puts 7 clears of all 9 nodes at ~25k. This seriously feels like it's just rewarding whoever spends the most time chained to their device rather than roster or skill.

bOmbast

Difficulty level is alright now. In the latest sub, my easiest node started at 45, 92 after 6 clears - hardest started at 95 and ended at 189 (my 3* transition roster has best unboosted character at 168, best boosted at 214). No complaints there. Even at the hardest level, it feels easier than the hardest nodes in the Howard event (no Kingpin/Muscle combo obviously helps).

Not sure hos this resonates with the devs' original intention of making the new pve all about "the challenge" though...

The time required however... 3 or 4 clears is relatively fun, then the fatigue sets in. Can't remember if I made 4, 5 or 6 clears on the first sub, but have been hitting 6 in every sub after that. With 67000 points at present I should make the 25 CP progression fine, but man, it really is a time consuming process. I don't really play for placement, but I really feel for the ones that do. Even with 6 clears on all subs, I'm at #123 (by the way, the top ranked player in my bracket has just made the 104 000, with a roster with two characters above lvl 80...).

So: Difficulty seems fine, time requirement and reward structure does not.

udonomefoo

mazerat wrote:

This seriously feels like it's just rewarding whoever spends the most time chained to their device rather than roster or skill.

That's how it always has been, it's just amplified now. Scaling makes it not about roster and skill has never been a consideration.

Not sure how you even would test skill in a match 3 game. Increasing the difficulty just makes it more about board luck. Yes, there are basic good moves and bad moves, but beyond that it's all luck.

mazerat

udonomefoo wrote:

mazerat wrote:

This seriously feels like it's just rewarding whoever spends the most time chained to their device rather than roster or skill.

That's how it always has been, it's just amplified now. Scaling makes it not about roster and skill has never been a consideration.

Not sure how you even would test skill in a match 3 game. Increasing the difficulty just makes it more about board luck. Yes, there are basic good moves and bad moves, but beyond that it's all luck.

That's totally fair. I guess I'd just feel better about struggling to beat Hood three times in 24-hours than roflstomping a Black Panther half my level six times. Like one simulates effort?