How to TRULY remove timers but retain Competitive PvE

babinro

If D3 is set on keeping PvE a competitive driven format with placement rewards then I think a small adjustment to the current 'ties' system is all it would take.

When it comes down to it PvE is not decided by difficulty but rather efficient clears at the right time(s). This has been true for both the current PvE system and all of the tested PvE systems.

So how do we let people play when they want?

TRACK THE MATCH TIME OF IN GAME BATTLES AND SUM THEM UP TO DETERMINE PLACEMENT

You still have the 'ties' point system working in the background with this system. So all of the scoring changes in the most recent PvE test are in tact. The change I'm suggesting simply removes the need to grind on D3's clock and lets you play whenever YOU want.

It doesn't matter if you took 23 hours to finish the whole clear or rushed through it as soon as sub opened. What matters is the time it took to complete all battles from the moment you clicked on 'FIGHT' to the moment the word 'VICTORY' came up on the screen.

Want to take this system a step further?

Let the game show us our time and list those times in the leaderboards.

Example:
#1 (player name) 259122 Clear Time: 1 Hour 45 Minutes
#2 (player name) 259122 Clear Time: 1 Hour 48 Minutes
#3 (player name) 259122 Clear Time: 2 Hours 05 Minutes
#4 (player name) 259122 Clear Time: 2 Hours 08 Minutes
#5 (player name) 240000 Clear Time: 1 Hours 30 Minutes
#6 (player name) 240000 Clear Time: 1 Hours 35 Minutes

Naturally you'd let let players see their personal current time in the current Sub for reference.

Ludaa

So, sort of like racing game time trials(plus points)! The trouble would then be how scaling helps or hinders different rosters complete a lap. Quite a few OddJobs out there can grind insanely fast. I suppose it allows for more hope of placing highly though, which is good. Scaling is too ugly an issue, but the idea of time trials in mpq is pretty neat.

Times would have to be tracked by their servers to keep it legit though, no?

brisashi

I often play this game while working when there is down time. Sometimes I need to pause a game part way through a match and come back to it later. I'd get terrible placement if they implemented something like this.

cardoor

I would like a skill based (instead of time based) system because I sometimes get distracted in the middle of a game. What if the difference in levels between the rosters was calculated as a score?

For example the node has 3 lvl 200 opponents and you use 3 lvl 100 from your roster to defeat them.

200x3 = 600
100x3= 300

600-300 = 300 points

Add the difference up for each match during the event and whoever had the most difficult matches will win ties.

babinro

brisashi wrote:

I often play this game while working when there is down time. Sometimes I need to pause a game part way through a match and come back to it later. I'd get terrible placement if they implemented something like this.

A valid concern but as you correctly point out the game can be paused.

I can't imagine it would be difficult to also pause the timer when the game is paused.

Pylgrim

While initially seems fairer that what we had, it again greatly factors chance in the outcome. You can bet that 5*, 4* and 3* players whose draws blessed with say, OML, Hulkbuster or Iron Fist will breeze through the nodes compared to those that got Silver Surfer, Nick Fury or Beast (i.e. still good, but terribly slow characters). And among the former, the prizes will go to those who had the higher amount of helpful boards and cascades, etc.

Trilateralus

babinro wrote:

brisashi wrote:

I often play this game while working when there is down time. Sometimes I need to pause a game part way through a match and come back to it later. I'd get terrible placement if they implemented something like this.

A valid concern but as you correctly point out the game can be paused.

I can't imagine it would be difficult to also pause the timer when the game is paused.

That seems like something that would quickly be abused.

hodayathink

Pylgrim wrote:

While initially seems fairer that what we had, it again greatly factors chance in the outcome. You can bet that 5*, 4* and 3* players whose draws blessed with say, OML, Hulkbuster or Iron Fist will breeze through the nodes compared to those that got Silver Surfer, Nick Fury or Beast (i.e. still good, but terribly slow characters). And among the former, the prizes will go to those who had the higher amount of helpful boards and cascades, etc.

No matter what competitive system we have, the people that have lucked into better characters are going to be at an advantage to the people who haven't. If we're going to stay competitive, that's just something we're going to have to deal with.

I do think this would be a decent solution if they stuck with the "no timers ever, top points will always be the same for everyone" format of this PvE test. But I also am pretty sure that someone would figure out how to game it (i.e. opportune pauses).

TxMoose

Pylgrim wrote:

You can bet that 5*, 4* and 3* players whose draws blessed with say, OML, Hulkbuster or Iron Fist will breeze through the nodes compared to those that got Silver Surfer, Nick Fury or Beast (i.e. still good, but terribly slow characters). And among the former, the prizes will go to those who had the higher amount of helpful boards and cascades, etc.

actually I think this would benefit soft-cappers more than those who leveled OML or OML and phoenix. top node scaling towards the end was brutal and took forever to finish matches. witch/jean can take out some cd goons, but when their health reaches 40K+, it takes some time. this would reward risk takers who get lucky with fast teams and would promote lots of healthpack usage. because right now, coming out clean is more important than speed (except for the last sub on the test and the grinds of the t10). actually the current test had this kind of reward system in place, but all that counted was that last sub. and the clock didn't stop between matches. this would also have the side effect of limiting my experimenting with lower characters on lower nodes. if I want to get the flavor of my 8-cover 4* sitting at level 70, I can currently use him in 3 of the nodes available to see what he's like. that would not be smart in this system and basically restrict my roster to the 6-8 best characters for the event. that sounds awful boring.

LuciferianX

Hello.

Sorry.

This doesn't really work for a game where pausing is the norm, or some people think their way through rather than match anything, or just... prefer not to rush. Add to that processing speeds, connection speeds, etc. and you have a recipe for a thousand variations of "I was off by 4.2 seconds because #reasons." Second, it isn't good (as was noted) for people who are 3/4 transition players (me) and those who have Championed 5*s.

I try not to dismiss anything out of hand, but I just don't see this being beneficial. I stand by what I said before.

Rework PVE so it's actually 'PVE' and not 'PVP with goons.' Let people play with their own teams, at their pace, and reward them for being in the game and the environment, instead of punishing them for not sacrificing slices of their lives chasing too quick releases.

Ugh. I'm starting to repeat myself.