Keep Offseason Weird!

The Bob The

I just hit 1300 in Children of the Atom (WHEN was the last time they ran that one?), an event in which I wasn't expecting to clear 1K. This is due in large part to having a lvl 310 OML and 255 Phoenix with a few covers in her, with props to XDP as well. "Hey, dig this jerk and his rosterbrag," right? Bear with me.

There've been posts about how boosted 5*s aren't fair, and I get that, but I think the devs are threading the needle pretty well with this (I led with my personal experience so you could discount my opinion early and get on with your busy day). Between this and the last two Balance of Powers (Balances of Power? Balance of Powerses?), it's dawned on me that the Offseason is peak time for weirdos. Look at what we get:

- Team specific PVP (X-men, Avengers, Guardians/Black Vortex, Pretty Ladies of Marvel)
- Balance of Power, a PVP that emphasizes quantity of covers rather than level
- That one where you have to have a 1*, 2*, and 3*, I don't remember the name, it's been a while

These are weird events! They are going to benefit people with specific covers in a way you can't fairly do in the regular season. Yes, yes, I know, those team-specific ones can be rough if you don't have the boosted 5*s, but two things: 1) If you do, it's INSANELY fun for those who don't regularly roll with their low-level 5*s (I was tearing down OML/Phoenix teams left and right! That never happens!), and 2) It lets us roll with gimmicky oddball ideas without costing individual/alliance performance in the regular season. You don't even have to shield once you hit your progression goals (although I did because I'm dumb).

So, to the question of fairness. Fairness is wonky in the offseason because battles are tilted in a different way towards different kinds of rosters (yes, I know, 5*s). So let's see even more weirdness come out, so an even greater variety of rosters can get a chance to do well. Some suggestions:

- Team-specific: Spider-verse should happen - god knows there's enough of them. You could probably pull off a Wolverine (and Daken and X-23) one too, though I don't know what you'd call it. Or Hulks!
- Tier-specific: Only 3*s? Only 2*s? This would be an interesting way to backdoor tiered PVP for the regular season as well.
- Smaller teams: One-on-one probably wouldn't work, but maybe two-on-two?
- Just plain weird: This gets a bulleted list...

• Pool-based: How about a set pool of hit points or levels that your characters have to fit into? So you can run that beefy 5*, but the amount of points remaining only leave you with enough to run two 1*s alongside him.
• Team combat: All your characters need to be from the same team (Fantastic Four, Avengers, Team Cap, etc.)
• Color specifics: Must play a rainbow team? Or each character must have a featured color (e.g., "Back in Black")?
• Inversion: 5*s get dropped to the max 1* level, 1*s get boosted to the max 5* level. Dogs and cats, living together!
• Religion-based: All characters on your team must share the same religious or otherwise cosmological worldview. Okay, I haven't thought that one out.
• Art-based: I dunno, all the characters with masks, or mustaches, or blonde hair. Ooh, everybody with green skin gets boosted! It would make no sense. THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT.

That's a lot of stuff, I'll grant you. Maybe a third offseason event? Roll them out over time? Point is, offseason makes you do weird stuff, and if you don't wanna, there's no penalty for sitting it out. Seems like a good time to mess around. What suggestions do you guys have?

Malcrof

How about the opposite of BoP, call it Imbalance of Power.. all chars level 15, basically a cupcake war! Would be mad fun to farm iso, and very easy on the time crunched.

TheWerebison

I'd like to see a boss battle. Hearthstone does this. Basically you control one of the Alliance event bosses, and you fight another one. There's only 4 bosses in the game right now, so not much variety, but I'm sure there will be more.

Oh, or take control of a boss fighting a team of playable characters! Or waves of them, if they make you powerful enough to do that.

udonomefoo

The Bob The wrote:

[*]Pool-based: How about a set pool of hit points or levels that your characters have to fit into? So you can run that beefy 5*, but the amount of points remaining only leave you with enough to run two 1*s alongside him.

Oooh, I like this one. It would prob boil down to oml + mbw + someone to tank blue but I'd like to try it.

OneLastGambit

I think the idea of using off season to slowly bring in tiered PvP is a great idea. Then it can be tested without the forum moaners all frothing at the mouth because their season is ruined by one PvP.

Calnexin

The Bob The wrote:

I just hit 1300 in Children of the Atom...

There've been posts about how boosted 5*s aren't fair, and I get that, but I think the devs are threading the needle pretty well with this

I have a personal beef with OML being considered part of the X-men universe. He's not. He's post-X-men. All other iterations of Wolverine qualify. OML is a different beast.

LegendReborn

Combined arms (the event forcing a team of 1*, 2* and a 3*) was one of my favorite events awhile ago. It always came off as the more fair Balance of Power event (before they buffed everyone to 550) since old Balance of Power meant that you'd be facing Juggs 99% of the time.

The Bob The

I guess the conundrum is now there's five tiers of play, but would it really be so bad to make 4/5*s sit one out?

ORRR they could introduce a player-side wave! Five vs. five, one of each tier, you pick the order! Lead with your biggest threats, knowing backup will be laughable, or start with the little guys to whittle 'em down and hope for a lucky punch?

TxMoose

to me the game has moved far enough along where combined arms should be a 1-2*/3*/4* (or 4-5* on that last slot). the 1/2/3 setup would be quite boring now after the nuclear nerf hammer.

Hendross

Malcrof wrote:

How about the opposite of BoP, call it Imbalance of Power.. all chars level 15, basically a cupcake war! Would be mad fun to farm iso, and very easy on the time crunched.

Everyone to 15!

Dayv

The Bob The wrote:

Some suggestions:

- Team-specific: Spider-verse should happen - god knows there's enough of them.

There's less tier distribution than there is for the Children of the Atom and Earth's Mightiest Heroes events, though:

A quick count (probably a mistake or two in these numbers, also throwing in Nefarious Foes):

CotA:
1* -- 1
2* -- 4
3* -- 13
4* -- 6
5* -- 2

EMH:
1* -- 3
2* -- 5
3* -- 18
4* -- 9
5* -- 2

NF:
1* -- 3
2* -- 5
3* -- 10
4* -- 5
5* -- 1

Spider-Verse:
1* -- 2
2* -- 1 (and it's Bag-Man)
3* -- 1
4* -- 4
5* -- 2


Yeah, Spider-Verse isn't really "there" yet for a decent PvP event, IMO. You have one decent and one recently nerfed 1*, a 2* widely considered to be the worst character in the game (so bad that they took him out of all token pulls -- and put a Legendary Token in his champ rewards for the real masochists), one formerly incredible now heavily nerfed and generally low-tier 3*, and after that it's a 4* and 5* game. Even there, it's the lowest number of 4* in this comparison.

ClydeFrog76

Really good ideas, OP.

Which pretty much means we'll never see them.

PuceMoose

Fun ideas! I miss the "Women of Marvel" (or whatever it was called). I'd love to have a boys vs. girls sort of event, where you picked a side at the start and rewards would be different depending on the gender chosen. Certain troops would be available to both sides (like Vision, Rocket & Groot, etc.)

Malcrof

DayvBang wrote:

[
Spider-Verse:
1* -- 2
2* -- 1 (and it's Bag-Man)
3* -- 1
4* -- 4
5* -- 2

in 3* Land we also have Doc Oc, So that makes 2!

ThatOneGuyjp189512

Malcrof wrote:

How about the opposite of BoP, call it Imbalance of Power.. all chars level 15, basically a cupcake war! Would be mad fun to farm iso, and very easy on the time crunched.

seeing a level 15 OML would be very amusing to me

Piro_plock

ThatOneGuyjp189512 wrote:

seeing a level 15 OML would be very amusing to me

Well, we already had some very low level 5* in early side nodes in Civil War:

Eddiemon

Calnexin wrote:

I have a personal beef with OML being considered part of the X-men universe. He's not. He's post-X-men. All other iterations of Wolverine qualify. OML is a different beast.

Except he's not. Spoliers post secret wars below.

After Secret Wars recombined the Universe OML was dropped into the new universe, so while the original Wolverine is still an adamantium popsicle, OML has joined one of the Xmen teams.

Dayv

Moderator note: arguably, this belongs in Suggestions and Feedback. However, it's generating some fun discussion and new ideas in General right now, so I'll move it after the next season starts, as this thread quiets down.

mpqr7

I love fighting very low-level 5*s and 4*s in PVE. Not so powerful now, are you!!

Seriously, every time we get to fight non-Dark Avengers in PVE, I get a big thrill!!

Even though they're very tough, I enjoy Gauntlet and Simulator PVEs, because for once I get to fight some of the 100 or so non-Dark Avenger characters! Variety is the spice of life!!

The Bob The

DayvBang wrote:

Moderator note: arguably, this belongs in Suggestions and Feedback. However, it's generating some fun discussion and new ideas in General right now, so I'll move it after the next season starts, as this thread quiets down.

Thanks! You're probably right, I just figured it'd be more fun for general chatter. Maybe I'll put a similar post up in suggestions as an idea for the next contest.

Pinko_McFly

Malcrof wrote:

DayvBang wrote:

[
Spider-Verse:
1* -- 2
2* -- 1 (and it's Bag-Man)
3* -- 1
4* -- 4
5* -- 2

in 3* Land we also have Doc Oc, So that makes 2!

I think you could add in the Human Torches as he is seen as Peter's buddy, as well as Daredevil and 3* Punisher since they are also street-level New York crime fighters.
So that would be one more 2* and 3 more 3*s (5 total).