New Mission Difficulty Test: Enemy of the State *Updated
Comments
-
One "like" that I haven't seen yet - scaling on each node being independent from the others.
I know that this has been a component of all tests, not just this one, but I wanted to show it some love. There are a lot of scaling complaints, but this should not be one of them.0 -
Managed to finish 3rd place, cleared it in 6 hr 18 mins.
The 6+ hr clear included RL commitments, driving to a function, and then bringing my Wife back home.
I only really started to do the grind at at the 4th mark. When I started I was actually 7th overall, with the 5th place about 20k in front of me. Was really nervous so I boost in all my matches (r/y dmg boost and +2 p/b Ap). And I still have to heat up the dinner and take care of my baby while my Wife had dinner (and hearing her complaining about me and my mpq, which is fully justifiable considering my lack of attention).
2 hrs later I managed to clear all the sub and lock down my 3rd spot. I didn't really keep track of the second spot, but I think he finished it 45 mins earlier than me. The 4th place took another 20 mins after my clearance.
Though I narrowly missed out on 2nd placing I am still happy because TOP 5 was my initial target. The last cover will allow me to champ my x23 (finally!). Also happy that I got several usable 3* covers from the vault and also the LT!
Will I do it again? I don't know, it is really tiring to commit to 4-5 hrs clearing all the nodes. The good thing is that in the earlier subs I could spread out my clear. But the final sub was a mad rush and was extremely stressful.
What I like
- iso is higher than usual, and that is great!
- the pace of clearing the subs are more leisurely than usual, since I can clear across 24 hours. This doesn't apply to the final sub though, the final sub is a mad rush.
- I like the mix of hard nodes and easy nodes. Keep that up.
what i don't like
- the number of clears required is quite substantial. Is it possible to tweak it such that the players only need 3-4 hours to clear all the nodes?
- when the first sub opened, the main map node was grindable. That cause some people to miss it, and they were immediately out of the running for top spots.
- the end of pve grind is stressful and frantic. While the earlier subs were self paced, the end of pve wasn't. I don't have any solution for this but I definitely don't like it.0 -
aesthetocyst wrote:Scale the rewards.
Feeding a roster that can handle level 400+ scaling on 70 isos is a farce.
"Congrats! You just whipped 1281 levels worth of goon! Enjoy this 2* reward!"
So much this, just finished my 5th clear of the wave...critical boost was my reward, still no token...I want my two star token!!!!
Oddly enough, this is the best I've place in a pve since the first Antman pve (not growth industry).
Though other than the first 48, people are seriously over playing the amount iso we got.0 -
I initially thought I would hate the test. The eight hour refreshes actually work well for me allowing to regularly finish top fifty, which satisfies me.
Going into I knew I would not be able to grind each node to zero at the beginning of each sub. I did once and finished third, but I had to make some sacrifices to my schedule to accomplish it, proving to myself I can't do it again....ever....says my wife. I finished top fifty most days and in the overall event. I'm curious if this is because of players boycotting the event.Cthulhu wrote:- What did you like
- What do you wish was different
The iso injection was appreciated. There seemed to even be more iso in the progression rewards. Am I right?
The addition of rewards for additional wave clears was an improvement, even if it buried the tokens. I plan on clearing as many times as I'm rewarded so why do I care if I get the good one first or last? Remember when you weren't guaranteed one of the advertised rewards?
Easy nodes are a plus and in the same breath individual node scaling is a great idea. I shouldn't be penalized on the hard nodes for being efficient on the easy ones.
I applaud the attempt to allow players to play on their own schedule.
I don't understand how people feel the playing schedule has been solved. Even if it doesn't impact you personally, it's undeniably still present. And devs, come on. You really think you can eliminate the optimal grind schedule without going straight progression? I don't care if it's straight progression or not. But, just stop.
The scaling got brutal. I didn't hate it, but I could see where some would. I feel it was meant to separate us which would help reduce ties. Problem is it didn't eliminate them. I respect that if someone got there first, they wanted it more than I did and deserved it. But I don't have to like it.
Overall, probably the best test so far. You can keep everything the same as in this test and go back to the eight hour refresh and I'd be just as happy.0 -
Likes:
No timers, more opportunities to play the same nodes for extra points. I never felt that I had to do a bunch of full clears to get my progression rewards, instead I could choose between a few wave nodes or grinding out a ton of easy nodes.
More rewards is always good.
Larger selection of powered up characters.
I thought the calling was good, but it did get difficult. While that's not necessarily a bad thing, it gets frustrating in wave nodes. I'd rather fight 3 300+ than 6 waves of 250s.
Dislikes:
A lot of those extra rewards were 70iso, or critical boosts. I did not like having to play a hard node 15 times to get one lousy CP or recruit token.
Ranked PVE. It's time to get rid of it. Replace the personal placement with alliance progression. It doesn't need 5* rewards, but 4s would be welcome. And it can be ridiculously high, requiring everyone to get full points for a guaranteed 5*. Alliance progression brings people together and makes them play more, and more covers coming in means more money to devs/publisher.
I think if you're going to stick with the 9-15 clears per node, you need to double the special rewards, or at least the event recruit tokens. Double the amount of rewards in the Vault too, so the odds are the same but we have a chance at getting 2 Jean Grey covers or LTs.
Finally, stop focusing on making it harder, and make it more fun. More rewards is great, impossibly hard is no fun, especially if you've been playing for almost 3 years and have a sweet roster. That sort of dedication should make you able to take down the greatest of foes with less effort than someone with a couple level 94s and 6 3s with 2 covers each.
You're on the right track but you're not there yet.0 -
smkspy wrote:Though other than the first 48, people are seriously over playing the amount iso we got.
This is a good point. The iso increase wasn't a complete solution to the iso shortage. But I will take all that is handed out.0 -
What did I like?
- Compared to the old system, nothing really. The extra iso wasn't really worth it since the scaling was outrageous (mine capped at 475).
- In a vacuum, if the scaling was toned down by ~25% and all rewards were shifted to progression only, I could deal with it.
What didn't I like?- Scaling.
- Rewards not scaling with the levels of the opponents.
- Time required to fully complete a sub since matches took a lot longer than normal due to inflated levels of enemies.
- Ties
Overall, if this system (or anything like it) gets implemented as a competitive mode of PvE play, then I will be done playing PvE competitively. This felt more like the last running of the gauntlet than your typical PvE events.0 -
Good:
*The concept of "play when you want"
*Some easy nodes
Edit: *That you're able to accept that there was something (several things) wrong with the existing system and try to revise it into something the community actually wants.
Bad:
*Too many clears, combined with
*Nasty scaling leads to
*Too many lame rewards (boosts? 70iso? After spending ten minutes killing a 12k health Gorgon and his feeder pals?)
Ugly:
*Ties. Everyone who has the same score and put in the same effort should have the same placement. That's how it works in every other thing with rankings like this. If that means there's a hundred people in 1st place, so be it.
*What should have been "play when you want" was instead "free up 4-5 hours RIGHT NOW or don't even bother"
What we need isn't more sub-par rewards, but fewer clears for better rewards. Drop the 70 iso, replace it with 150. Boosts are... fine, but increase the cap substantially and increase the amount of boosts rewarded.
The Rocket and Groot variation was actually fine with me. It took some effort/time but not a ridiculous disruption to actual life.
Just drop the minimal points to 0, adjust the available total rewards (over 5 or 6 clears, not 15) to roughly the same as this test, do something about the ties, and it'll be great.0 -
Good:
-Iso 8!!!! Iso 8, everywhere!
-Time flexibility
-Max progression
Bad
- Some rewards were a little cheap, like critical boost on a 6 wave nodes, which bring us to...
- Having to clear waves nodes 9 times
- Scaling on some nodes getting too rough, I think this is the first event that I had Deadly nodes
Overall a good test, at least for me, but the tie problem seems to be the biggest problem0 -
For me
Pros:
I really enjoyed being able to play when I wanted to here and there throughout the day.
for me the scaling was enjoyable (although ridiculous) towards the last few clears.
progression was easy to achieve at my own pace.
cons:
there were far to many clears to be done.
Scaling started to easy making the first clears up to the point reduction matches redundant.
last 3 matches the scaling was already off the charts and painful( only enjoyed doing it once)
wave nodes took way to long and need a drastic reduction in total clears
suggestions:
*I suggest to reduce the amount of matches needed to clear each node. Either start the scaling a bit higher or have it ramp up faster.
*Remove the reduction in points all together. it only makes that last clear feel painful because you don't get as much.
*Make sub rewards more varied and rewarding and make it so the winner of an event is the average placement from their sub events rather than the sum of their points.
Overall:
I really liked it a lot. I got to play as much as I truly wanted at my own pace and I didn't have to wake up in the middle of the night and disturb my household. It just felt like I played each node about 3-4 times more than I wanted to.0 -
If they're insistent on giving us boosts at least make them color boosts
edit: And I'm gonna add...improve the vaults on these events. 18 tokens that I either fought relentlessly for or paid 100 HP...what did I get? Three 3 stars and 15 2 stars. That's some **** **** right there.0 -
The good:
Overall scaling didn't seem too bad
Play when I want
I made the full progression without killing myself
The bad:
Placement awards sucked. I usually finish top 50-100, but only managed top 300. People were doing serious grinding past final progression.
Felt like a lot of grinding. For some reason, I was a little bored. I also felt that I spent more time playing that I'd like to have.
Top missions scaling was way hard at the end. I'm mostly ok with that, but it made getting the good awards (CP, event token) difficult/impossible at times
Two day event meant 15 clears to get all awards on some missions. OUCH - especially on CP nodes.
There's a lot of good comments in other peoples feedback. I'd like to see some changes made and another test or two before this gets implemented.0 -
Hard to say anything that hasn't been said regarding likes and dislikes, but here goes. Disclaimer: This test has drained me of energy/caring for MPQ right now, but I will be honest.
Likes:
- Playing on our own schedule truly is nice. I don't care for the 8 hour timers even if I've never been an "optimal" player.
- Getting at least some type of reward for each clear was nice. See dislikes for more information.
Dislikes:
- Despite getting rewarded for playing each node multiple times, I don't want to play each node 9-15 times.
- Real life commitments get in the way of my job. Wait sorry, no, I meant this game. Because of real life commitments, I missed clearing the Jean Grey essential node 3 times on the second to last sub event and missed out on any chance for X-23 covers. Sapped any desire to play the final sub when combined with the sheer intensity of each grind wearing me down. Not that 8 hour clears are any better, but it's hard to play when I want when the best rewards are still held to playing to an intense grind schedule.
- Progression topped out at what, 116,000 points? I'm almost at 200,000 points not yet having bothered to play through Nick Fury Rescue? What the hell is wrong with this picture?
- Having to clear wave nodes multiple times.
- Scaling hitting almost 100 levels above my level 271 top character is stupid. I can still beat the scaling and clear all the nodes over the course of the day; what is the purpose of trying to scale a mid-tier roster into oblivion?
- Because of the sheer number of clears required to collect rewards and try to keep up with the Joneses, after slogging through the most difficult nodes 9 times each (or FIFTEEN TIMES), playing the trivial nodes became the opposite of fun. I looked at those nodes and thought, "Do I really want/have to play through those, too?" I like trivial nodes; making me hate them is bad.
I'm trying to transition from 3* play to 4* play. I have nearly 30 3* characters championed at this point, one 4* (Thor) championed, and only Invisible Woman max covered in the 4* tier with Nick Fury and XFW nearly at that point. Unless you count Google Opinion Rewards which seem to stop coming in before I reach $20, I have zero disposable income right now. $5 here and there from the Google Rewards doesn't get me even one CP, so whaling into 4* is infeasible. I would like 4* covers. PvP MMR has me running against boosted champion 4* characters even when my own champ 4* isn't boosted by the time I hit around 800 points in an event, so PvP isn't a reliable source of 4* covers. What does that leave? PvE. Story. Whatever you feel like calling it.
I want to play your game. I have supported the game on the rare occasion that I have the financial means to do so. I like your game in spite of some of the snark you may see in my posts; I promise. It is fun for me. You need to give your players more appreciation besides "Here is VIP! Pay us more money and you can get a couple more lottery tickets to advance your roster!" The easiest way to do it would be roll a couple more progression tiers out there. The fact that people can more than double top progression points and see no further rewards outside of placement is ridiculous.
Meet Rocket and Groot was the best test to date. It was the closest to "this feels right" out of all the tests. Despite still playing on a schedule and people being able to grind 20 point nodes ad nauseum, I had fun in that test, and I actually felt myself longing for that play again after the format returned to the old style. This event? If you implement anything close to this, I might actually just stop playing. PvP is too far out of reach for me in veteran brackets to do well consistently.0 -
So, things I liked:
-
Scaling seemed "better" overall
I liked having a fixed number of times to run a node instead of weird "8 hour shifted runs"
I think that 4+3 seemed about right for number of runs, though I could deal with 5 + 3
Thinks I didn't like or wish were changed:-
Scaling + number of runs on the 48 hour sub were ridiculous. It's bad logic that because you have more time you can win harder fights
Scaling seems off on survival nodes
Scales too high for the last couple of runs in the 6 + 3 nodes. Again, would be better at 4+3 or 5+3
Felt really weird that it scaled "one more time" right before it's worth less points. Could have done without the final scale
At this point, just move the placement rewards to progression rewards and call it good. "Racing to tie" seemed really odd, and I would LOVE a non-competitive, progression only PvE system (Similar to Gauntlet but with all the cool stories and without the ridiculous difficulty of Gauntlet). I'm totally in favor of a system where time invested = rewards instead of "time put in at really odd hours, then bursty here and there" = rewards.
0 -
- What did you like
- Playing schedule-free*. Not being punished in terms of points for one long play session at the end of the day, or instantly replaying a fun node is great! The alternative of even semi-scheduling my game time ranges from being frustratingly Byzantine to a deal-killer.
- Scaling was good. My highest characters, not boosted, are level 175 3*s.
- Progression seemed okay. (I'm assuming the "~3 clears per sub for max" rule of thumb was in effect. I couldn't play for a day and didn't have the essential 4* this time.)
* Whether it's by scaling, time commitment, or both - I'm not typically going to play nodes more than 3, maybe 4 times per day. As such, what happens after that: whether points regenerate or not, what scaling looks like - is not directly relevant to me. That said, I'd still ideally like to see a system that works acceptably for all my fellow-players, and works well for the majority.
- What do you wish was different- The "More Missions....and More Rewards!" at this current number of missions and range of reward values - is unwelcome. As stated elsewhere, it only serves to dilute the better rewards. I'd prefer a smaller pool. During the uncommon times I want to grind beyond that, doing so for points-only, or a minor amount of iso, is acceptable.
0 -
I Liked:
having a reward for every single hit of the node. This is obviously pure psychology because a reward of crit boost at the end of a 6 wave gorgon node is not rewarding in any sense, but it does feel like every hit would grant me a reward rather than just hitting the node beyond its current reward just for more points, which may or may not put me on a better place.
Wished was better:
9 and 15 clears are too much for competitive players. By the second last and last subevent, I was genuinely physically exhausted to try and hit all the nodes and waves. I actually stayed up late just to hit the last subevent for fear I might miss top 5,and I woke up groggy and stuff. This just won't do. If you are maintaining this system, please reduce the number of clears. It's too tiring even for competitive players like myself.
scaling might need a tweak. On the last two days I cheesed the final wave nodes with gorgon by using Charlie's Angels. It was the only way I could tolerate trying to down a 20k Gorgon and like 30k ninjas 6 times! I'm not sure if that was intended game play.
Overall I'd say this is a step in the right direction. Just needs more fixing before going live.0 -
Uhm, am I stupid or something? I don't understand at all why so many people praise the "play when you want and get full points". I've read that full clears take about 6hrs. That's 6hrs in 24h period. How is that "play when you want"? If I wanted to do a full clear, my day would look like that:
Sleep - Work - Play MPQ
With no time for anything else. Repeat next day. Am I missing something?
Anyway, one of my final thoughts about the event:
After 15+ hrs of grinding this event I'm placed around rank 350. Most likely my reward will be 2* Cap cover and 500 ISO. That feels just as insulting as critical boosts. On top of that I really feel sorry for people who maxed progression, spending that amount of time for few 4* covers.0 -
A full clear of the last sub pretty much meant all day playing. I cleared the entire board and came in 14th. 14 people all with the same tied score, I sent in a ticket asking for my first place rewards.
Devs, this was your design fault so you should make it right for your customers.0 -
Liked
*The flow of ISO
*The low scaling start
*The slow increase in scaling for trivial nodes
*Play when you like.... But only if you don't want placement
Disliked
*The scaling jumps on easy/normal nodes 30 levels at a time against 4 in trivial.... Doesn't compute
*Not really 'play when you like'.... If you want placement you had to complete in the first 5.5 to 6 hours
*Tied placement - I placed 3rd with a 3* roster against 1 & 2 who had 4* champions and 5 stars heros
*vault and tokens pulls were appalling!!!
*More than likely not related BUT while this event was running I noticed that during DDQ vault pulls didn't land me any health packs... I usually get 2 a week - including today the day after EotS wrapped up - coincidence or somehow turned off in the hopes of buying health packs????0 -
The fixed score for the event. It was nice to have a final goal - good to know there is such a thing as "done".
Relatively low top progression. I think I hit it sometime during the 3rd sub. Very nice.
No timers and I really could play when I wanted, at least for every node except the last which became a race (more on that below).
The rewards. This was neutral because even though we got more rewards as a whole it was because there were more nodes to complete. They were not better - just the same ones we usually get, only more of them.
Time requirement to complete all nodes. This needs to be reduced to about 6 clears per node not 9 as it was for the 24hr subs.
Last node became a race. When everyone is tied and speed is the tiebreaker that makes the last day the only important day. To have a 7 day event come down to a speed run in the final sub is poor design, unless of course your goal was to make PVE a marathon of grinding with an addition sprint at the end - then you have succeeded.
Way too much time to complete all the nodes. (i.e. Wave nodes)
Seriously, WAY TOO MUCH time to complete all the nodes! (i.e. Insanely scaled up wave nodes)0
Categories
- All Categories
- 44.8K Marvel Puzzle Quest
- 1.5K MPQ News and Announcements
- 20.3K MPQ General Discussion
- 3K MPQ Tips and Guides
- 2K MPQ Character Discussion
- 171 MPQ Supports Discussion
- 2.5K MPQ Events, Tournaments, and Missions
- 2.8K MPQ Alliances
- 6.3K MPQ Suggestions and Feedback
- 6.2K MPQ Bugs and Technical Issues
- 13.6K Magic: The Gathering - Puzzle Quest
- 508 MtGPQ News & Announcements
- 5.4K MtGPQ General Discussion
- 99 MtGPQ Tips & Guides
- 424 MtGPQ Deck Strategy & Planeswalker Discussion
- 299 MtGPQ Events
- 60 MtGPQ Coalitions
- 1.2K MtGPQ Suggestions & Feedback
- 5.7K MtGPQ Bugs & Technical Issues
- 548 Other 505 Go Inc. Games
- 21 Puzzle Quest: The Legend Returns
- 5 Adventure Gnome
- 6 Word Designer: Country Home
- 381 Other Games
- 142 General Discussion
- 239 Off Topic
- 7 505 Go Inc. Forum Rules
- 7 Forum Rules and Site Announcements