Is non-timed pve the answer?

udonomefoo

We keep talking about progression only story mode, and that sounds great, but if you have to spend 6 hours per day to reach those progression targets is that really a good way to go?

What if we took away the timers from story mode. I'm not talking about the refresh timers, I'm talking about the timers that dictate when an event begins and ends. Allow players to truly play at their own pace and progress through events and progression rewards as they can.

As it is right now you either go all out every day and get 25 cp and some covers or you don't and basically get nothing. Make it so you can finish all rewards from an event, even if it takes you a month to do it. Or you can do it at the current pace too. They'd have to leave minimum times, so you can't move on to the next sub for a min of 24 hours, or people would blow through entire events in a day, but that's it.

Any downsides I'm not thinking of? I'm sure it will never happen because of required effort and it goes against the psychological manipulation effects the game is based on, but it seems ideal to me.

BlackSheep101

People will blow through everything right away and then complain they have nothing to play until the next event opens.

udonomefoo

BlackSheep101 wrote:

People will blow through everything right away and then complain they have nothing to play until the next event opens.

Already covered that.

They'd have to leave minimum times, so you can't move on to the next sub for a min of 24 hours, or people would blow through entire events in a day, but that's it.

Even without that my response would be: SO? Go farm sim for iso. Go play another game. Go outside. Talk to a live person. Why build the entire structure of the game around the few "MPQ IS LIFE" people.

smkspy

I want a new prologue type story. It could be about civil war and simply be a re-skinned prologue, but have it as a stepping stone for 3 to 4 star players. Introduce a new 3 and 4 star only tokens while releasing a new chapter once a month.

The most fun this game ever was was in the beginning with the prologue and I was developing my 1 and 2 star roster. Now stuck in no man's land where I'm championing my 3 stars and praying that every LT pull isn't a 5 star because I still need 4 stars.

mpqr7

It would be nice to be able to truly play at our own pace. I rarely have 5-6 hours/day available to play a game... (what full-time job/family at home person does? apparently many lol, but not me.. oh and I also like to sleep at night).

It's frustrating that I get punished pve after pve for only making it 3/4s of the way to the 25 cp reward, so I miss out on any hope of making actual progress. I'd rather have the option of stretching pves out so that I could do one over 1-2 weeks and get the max prog when I'm actually available.

And sure, people who want to play 5-6 hours per day can do more pves and win more 25cp prog prizes, but at least I'd get to win one instead of only winning iso and making it to around the 3* cover prize or slightly higher.

OneLastGambit

Do you just have all the events open all the time?
If so then this app would take up a massive amount of memory wouldn't it?

Do you get rid of all the events and turn it into one big story mode? If so this would require a massive amount of programming time for the devs and would possible mean most of pve being unavailable until this is changed.



The biggest issue you have is that with this system there is a finish line. The devs (and player base even if they don't want to admit) don't want the game to end. Its a cycle of continuous play.

Of course there is still PvP but what about those who don't like PvP? There are plenty.

udonomefoo

OneLastGambit wrote:

Do you just have all the events open all the time?
If so then this app would take up a massive amount of memory wouldn't it?

Do you get rid of all the events and turn it into one big story mode? If so this would require a massive amount of programming time for the devs and would possible mean most of pve being unavailable until this is changed.

My intent that I didn't explain very well, is that the events are still linear and in a pre-determined order.

Say we start where we are with EoTS, it runs for a minimum of 7 days with the player deciding when the sub flips to the next one with built in minimums. So you can't "skip" sub 1 until 48 hours has past, etc. This way, I can play at my own pace and green check everything or get what I want and "skip" to the next one once the minimum time has passed.

Next event: the hunt. If I play along at max pace, the hunt will start 7 days after EoTS, if I'm slow, I can take up to a month to finish it. Everyone sees the same event rewards and the same sequence of events, they just aren't all playing them at the same time.

You're probably right about the memory issue, but how much memory can it really take when the events really are just references to a sequence of characters and levels.

I'm sure there are lots of other problems with players all playing different events at different times, but like mpqr7 said, I'm just tired of making it 50-75% of the way to good rewards and getting nothing useful each time other than iso and a trickle of cp because I can't play 5 hours/day and wouldn't want to even if I could.

Natsufan01

aesthetocyst wrote:

5. After the player has attained certain milestones in progress, they have the option of replaying chapters at a higher level of difficulty, for a level tier of rewards.

This would be good. Allow players to go through the prologue again, but with higher difficulties and more rewards. My thoughts are, have progression rewards similar to the Gauntlet. Each clear of a node gives you so many points, slowly earning progression rewards for an area. Once the max progression is received for an area (all prizes are obtained for each node), the nodes all unlock and are 50% higher in levels. Each node then gives 50% higher rewards (iso, hp, standard tokens bumped up to heroic, etc) and progression rewards reset. Do that again and again until you're facing level 400 or so enemies, but clearing progression for each area is rewarding 5* covers, not just LTs. The only issue with this is winfinite or stunlocking teams winning earlier than your roster should be able, but I would think they are imperfect enough that it would still be hard to go against that high of a level. And also, that would take several clears for each area, meaning a lot of time invested. That would still mean only the ones who work hard get it quickly, otherwise those who aren't as hardcore would get it at a more appropriate pace.

carrion_pigeons

Just stick all the old events in the prologue, and let people pay 75HP to move from one sub to the next (in linear order).

Now no one can farm them all day every day (without paying), but the content is there for anyone who wants it, for any amount of time, and progression rewards can be achieved over the course of several weeks for those who want it at that pace. Also, HP would have a reason to exist again and the whole thing is naturally monetized.