[PVE] scaling [Merged Thread]

fmftint

A while back, the first scaling test, the devs said that there were situations where not leveling your roster seemed better and they were going to fix it so leveling is always the best option.

Demiurge, when you look at starting points for each test event, do you feel you've accomplished that goal? With the Gauntlet it doesn't feel like leveling was a good choice

Smudge

As an added bonus, the boosted characters this week, particularly the 3* characters, are terrible.

Good luck stomping 15k+ health opponents down with Beast!

Dragon_Nexus

JackTenrec wrote:

I have a 3* roster and have some serious doubts that I'll be able to even finish the first sub, because the enemies are already scaled above the level of my boosted characters, and the boosted team is not particularly top-tier, either.

I feel people like you are getting screwed the hardest.
D3 has decided to bump the scaling up much higher than before mere months after a blanket nerf of all 2* and 3* characters. So you're fighting harder fights with characters who are weaker than ever.

This week I'm screwed in PvP because the three 4*s I have at max level are not boosted. Makes me an easy target, especially if I just bring in my 3*s, which is basically an even easier win.

JackTenrec

fmftint wrote:

A while back, the first scaling test, the devs said that there were situations where not leveling your roster seemed better and they were going to fix it so leveling is always the best option.[*]

[*] Assuming you just won the lottery and can buy a Galactus-snack worth of ISO, because there's no way to actually earn what you need to level your characters that way in-game. [**]

[**] Particularly since scaling means you're going to get beat down before you can even collect that 70 ISO reward. [***]

[***] Did I say 70 ISO? I meant critical boost.

Crowl

Dragon_Nexus wrote:

I feel people like you are getting screwed the hardest.
D3 has decided to bump the scaling up much higher than before mere months after a blanket nerf of all 2* and 3* characters. So you're fighting harder fights with characters who are weaker than ever.

I think everyone is getting screwed, it should not be complex, spending time and/or money to improve your roster should ensure that the game either gets easier or at worst is no harder than before.

In theory, keeping it at the same level would be fine as to offset it not getting any easier you would at least have a much deeper roster to use, but of course that option is swiftly booted out due to the scaling requiring you to ignore 90% of your roster anyway.

hamsingame

Just had to winfinity 300k HP worth of psylocke, IM40 and Rocket/Groot because it's a bit of a toss up whether I can win with three maxed 5*s. I'm sure that's the way the game is meant to be played.

Breadsticks

The major problem with this game is it's looked at from what I can see by the devs as a mobile app. In reality, this game should be managed in all aspects like a collectible card game like magic the gathering.

If it was then the balance between how many characters are at each star rank would not be so out of wack. This in turn would fix the scaling issues since the emphasis wouldn't be on having more higher starred rosters. In addition, star limits for a team with a larger randomized selection before the fight would help.

I'm going into 3 months of play and I have 7 champed 2* two 5* with only three covers between them and no maxed 3* with the highest being bulk and storm close to 13. That's not even remotely strong enough to get me thru the first sub.

The way I see it since I've spent money they don't care if I don't play anymore. They've made a good amount of money off me and you and satisfying us matters not if someone else replaces us.

The catch up mechanism in this game sucks. World of Warcraft figured out that when you get down to it players hate grinding. Therefore, you have to limit it at much as possible. New and vet players want to play end game content. You have to have ways for new players to at least catch up to end game content within 60-90 days. Vet players have to be able to experience the full breadth of end game content without an endless slog that doesn' reward what they've already committed. If you as a player feel increasingly frustrated that the work you put in isn't rewarding and ultimately aggravating, you will quit.

rollx

I really like this game. Maybe it's just the nostalgia because at the end of the day, it's just a match 3 game. I like the strategy and theme that are involved also. I also enjoy being a part of an alliance and getting to chat with people on a daily basis. My alliance and I have had a lot of fun, shared photos, discussed worldly stuff. But this new scaling, this has me beat. I play this game to relax. It's not fun anymore. Sure, I have a decent roster, and a buffed 4* cyclops doesn't hurt. But when I'm limited to using 5 characters out of my 70+ I have, it isn't fun. Many other 3 match games don't have the advantage of the versatility and range MPQ has. This is a game where you get to pick your heroes/villains and pick your powers. Manage your AP, destroy the opponent with unique abilities, etc. But when you make the scaling so out of hand you are pigeonholed into only play with maybe 5 out of the 100 characters you could have, what once gave the game it's charm fades quickly and it becomes like any other 3-match game.

I've considered making a new account and starting fresh so that I can play with the lower leveled characters again. I miss busting out my 1* iron man, 1* storm, and 1* spider man team. That was fun. I miss playing with my 2* team going through nodes. Hell, I can't even really play with my 3*s anymore since this scaling is out of hand. But why bother? That shouldn't be a solution to the problem.

Please devs (and people who work with them that see this). Make MPQ great again!

Tatercat

At Sim 21, the middle of the Alpine Tactics, is a "Deadly" classification fight, which for me is lvl 345 Bullesye/IM40/S. Witch. I didn't even know they had a "Deadly" classification, I just thought Hard was the upper limit. Even the start node in Global (Sim 29) with 369 lvl symbiotes is only a "Hard"

I've probably encountered Deadly before in Gauntlet not noticed it, but surely it wasn't in the middle node of the middle sub? I don't mind fighting above my weight class like this, but isn't that what the 3rd sub is for? Or is that where the next tier is, the "We Hate You, Buy More Health Packs" classification?

This has got to be a glitch right? An over estimation of what was intended? I'm going to treat it like a glitch and submit a ticket in the app. Maybe if they get enough of those, it will sink in.

UPDATE: Just wanted to note, the scaling in the Civil War event didn't bother me. I knew they would do that 24 hour scaling bump again, but by that time my alliance had already reached Round 7, and the high level fights I was facing seemed appropriate for that level - tough, definitely burned health packs and lost some fights, but fair for the 7th round of an 8 round event. But on this Gauntlet, I don't know what the thinking is here, if it was truly designed like this.

theo199

Shame on you devs. We all should get that Iceman cover for free.

__Adam

In past gauntlets I generally tapped out somewhere in the 3rd sub; in this one i could barely clear the first. My roster has advanced a TON since the last event and I'm literally less than half as effective as before. That's more than disappointing.

Due to the dev's incompetence* in balancing scaling I've decided I'm not going to spend my LT or CP for at least the next 6-12 months. Instead I'm going to champion all of the 3* and save ISO for when they finally figure it out.

*This isn't just me flaming; I got a SS cover a while back and it literally broke the game for me for MONTHS. Fool me once...

kaelad

It's gotta be a bug. Was hoping to see conformation of that this morning, hopefully soon we'll see some official response.

Bryan Lambert

First Loki essentil node, first sub.

Three enemies ten levels higher than my maxed, lightly champed Hulkbuster.

Difficulty: "Normal".

Even if one of the three is Bagman, that's just stupid. I'd be fighting three dudes leveled higher than my top character for half of the progression points I need to get to the 100 ISO progression reward. That 100 ISO would, when combined with the BEST possible node reward (a standard token that grants a 3* cover that gives me a 1,000 ISO championing level reward, an incredibly unlikely proposition) would provide me with about half of what I need to move my Teen Jean from an unusable L177 to an unusable L178.

Seeya, Gauntlet.

loslupus77

Dear Devs,

what have the players without winfinite- or 4hor/IM40-teams done to you that you hate them so much? You don't seem to reflect much love to other players either when you have seven possible (most of them ****) rewards on nodes that are almost impossible to finish even once. I've been facing deadly (way over my payscale) teams since the end of Wilderness and using three teams since then (would be just two if not for one node) and even then it's been mostly about being lucky, very lucky.

At the moment I'm on Sim 35, just waiting for health packs and teams to heal. Since Gauntlet has lots of time left, I'm sure I will finish it some time. But fun has left the building long time ago. I could tolerate the un-fun if the rewards were great but that isn't the case. But daddy needs more iso to champion 4Pool before his cover expires, so what else choice is there.

ZeiramMR

My highest characters for Gauntlet are my three 4* champions and two boosted characters (all ranging from levels 274-278 post-boosts). By node 11, I am looking at level 310 enemies.

Clearly a bug with scaling and not an intended choice.

amusingfoo1

I'm not catching up on this whole thing, but I do have a few thoughts. I was asked by alliance mates what my scaling was. I hadn't looked yet, but started poking around, and here's what happened.

First few were pretty standard, but it quickly started going up 50 levels per node.

Have seen screenshots from friends of enemies at 4-500th level. No thanks. I'll catch up on my sleep for the next few days.

Iceman is my favorite 4*, and I have him championed, but he isn't nearly worth that much effort.

Compared notes with a few friends. This is going to cost us a lot of ISO and hp. Even if I did it, it will give 10-20k less ISO, 4-500 fewer hp, and will cost the 40-ish cp I would have gotten out of a normal PvE event (node rewards, (almost) daily top-10, and max progression). And I'll bet that the event that runs concurrently with the end will be a god-awful heroic. Whee.

fmftint

Here’s word from Demiurge:
“The difference between this matchmaking system and the old one is in how we calculate your rating and the ratings of the teams you come up against. Ratings now take into account power upgrades and the ways different characters and rarities upgrade their health and damage. The hope is that the new ratings are a more accurate estimate of teams' power, and that weird strategies like not leveling up your characters are no longer helpful

This quote is from the first scaling test announcement.
YOU ARE FAILING TO ACCOMPLISH YOUR STATED GOAL. In many ways you're making things increasingly worse

TheOncomingStorm

Y'all are missing the point. If mpq is still doing stuff like this after all this time: either they don't care, they don't understand, or we don't understand.

None of those options bode well. Ever tyne optimist, even I, after all this time, have given up. What once was a great game with promise, is now great only to a point game that will never live up to its true potential.

ProfessorGumby

Stax the Foyer wrote:

Okay, who let demiurge_humperdink use the scaling slider?

Borrowing this from the CW thread, since it is the funniest/most clever/most fitting thing I've read on this forum in quite a long time.

Cheers!
- PG

DaveR4470

A little late to the party here.... but yeah, I'm more than a bit dismayed by the Gauntlet scaling.

My understanding to this point (Day 598) was that Gauntlet was designed as, more or less, a FIXED linear challenge, with the three sub-events representing the tiers of characters expected to be able to clear the event given the fixed scaling. So Wilderness was scaled so that 1*-2* teams could compete effectively, with a robust 2* team needed to complete the entire subevent; Alpine Tactics was for 3* teams, and Global Domination was for 4*-5* teams. The node within the overall event that you could successfully reach was a gauge of your roster strength -- so Gauntlet was like a "thermometer" where you could take the "temperature" of your roster and see how hot you were.

This, though..... is not that at all.