Enemy Of The State Test: Some Early Results

David [Hi-Fi] Moore
David [Hi-Fi] Moore Posts: 2,872 Site Admin
edited June 2016 in MPQ General Discussion
Hi, everyone.

Thanks so much for participating in the Enemy of the State mission difficulty testing. We know testing isn't always fun and we thank you for joining in, providing feedback, and helping to improve the game.

Demiurge wanted to provide some details regarding scoring and compensation. Please note that there is a ton of data for the devs to analyze now that the test has concluded and they are just beginning that process. Here's word from Demuirge_Anthony:
    "Hey all, Thank you to everyone that participated in the latest run of the Story event Enemy of the State. This is our 5th run of the new mission difficulty system and we have come a long way since the first run of it back on March 17th. In this latest run of the difficulty system, we tried out a system that made each mission worth a finite amount of points. Looking at the feedback from this event, it looks like a lot of players felt that this system was successful in creating a 'play at your own pace' experience. A few hyper competitive leaderboards had players that tied at the top score and we wanted to share some numbers about those. We had well over 100,000 players participating in the event. Out of those players, 329 people earned the maximum amount of points available. Out of those 329 people, 285 people did not get first place despite earning the maximum amount of points available. There was also 30 people who did not get the top 10 despite earning the maximum amount of points. There was no indication in-game to players what would happen in the case of a tie, so we would like to make it up to these 329 people and award them with 3 additional X-23 covers on Monday. Some players received a higher-than-possible score in sub-chapters and that played a role in placement in that sub-chapter. This bug did not impact the total score for the event, and we'll be investigating it. We continue to look at the results and feedback and will share more details about what happens next. Thank you again for your participation and feedback on the new mission difficulty."
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Comments

  • Nightglider1
    Nightglider1 Posts: 707 Critical Contributor
    That's cool.

    How about an across the board "thank you" of some ISO and HP for playing a test event?
  • TxMoose
    TxMoose Posts: 4,319 Chairperson of the Boards
    thank you david, but I'd like to disagree with Anthony's statement:
    it looks like a lot of players felt that this system was successful in creating a "play at your own pace" experience.

    there are loads of posts indicating otherwise. the tie issue made it exactly NOT 'play at your own pace'. I guess it depends on your definition of 'a lot'.

    nice touch on the bonus to those who did the whole thing though.
  • udonomefoo
    udonomefoo Posts: 1,630 Chairperson of the Boards
    Nightglider1 wrote:
    That's cool.

    How about an across the board "thank you" of some ISO and HP for suffering through so many clears of wave nodes?

    Fixed that for you. icon_razz.gif

    Edit: good show by the devs to give this compensation and to announce it quickly and with some numbers. A lot of us are numbers nerds, give us moar stats!!
  • Meander
    Meander Posts: 267 Mover and Shaker
    Some may throw shade at this announcement, but I think its a nice gesture. As one of the 329/285, I know they didn't have to give me more covers, and I'm grateful that they are.
  • hodayathink
    hodayathink Posts: 528 Critical Contributor
    TxMoose wrote:
    thank you david, but I'd like to disagree with Anthony's statement:
    it looks like a lot of players felt that this system was successful in creating a "play at your own pace" experience.

    there are loads of posts indicating otherwise. the tie issue made it exactly NOT 'play at your own pace'. I guess it depends on your definition of 'a lot'.

    nice touch on the bonus to those who did the whole thing though.

    A lot of posts from like .5% of the population (they're literally saying that less than .3% played everything to completion, and even if you say double that were intending to and got caught up at some point that's still only .6%). And with the bonus they just announcedd, technically everyone who finished the whole thing, no matter what they placed at, got the 3 4* covers. So it turns out you could play at your own pace.
  • simonsez
    simonsez Posts: 4,663 Chairperson of the Boards
    TxMoose wrote:
    thank you david, but I'd like to disagree with Anthony's statement:
    it looks like a lot of players felt that this system was successful in creating a "play at your own pace" experience.

    there are loads of posts indicating otherwise. the tie issue made it exactly NOT 'play at your own pace'. I guess it depends on your definition of 'a lot'.

    nice touch on the bonus to those who did the whole thing though.
    If they decide to always award ties like they ended up doing here, it kind of is "play at your own pace". But otherwise, you're right, having to play 5 hours straight as soon as the last sub opens is way worse than anything the current system has ever forced us to do.
  • xdogg
    xdogg Posts: 334 Mover and Shaker
    Thank you very much! I had to work the last day and ended up #11 with max points, I was hoping you would do something like this icon_e_biggrin.gif
  • carrion_pigeons
    carrion_pigeons Posts: 942 Critical Contributor
    edited June 2016
    Frankly, if you just do that: run every PvE just like you did, with 3x covers for max points guaranteed, I'd be happy with that.

    I mean, I still want it to be less grindy than it was, but it wasn't that far off, and I could live with it if you didn't break ties.

    I mean, it's possible that the strong set of buffed characters had a lot to do with my feelings, and a weaker set would have me feeling a lot less charitable, but overall I was happy and that deserves to be communicated.

    Also, good to know that only .33% of the MPQ population is insane. :p
  • Phaentom
    Phaentom Posts: 111 Tile Toppler
    TxMoose wrote:
    thank you david, but I'd like to disagree with Anthony's statement:
    it looks like a lot of players felt that this system was successful in creating a "play at your own pace" experience.

    there are loads of posts indicating otherwise. the tie issue made it exactly NOT 'play at your own pace'. I guess it depends on your definition of 'a lot'.

    nice touch on the bonus to those who did the whole thing though.


    I have to agree with this as well.
  • carrion_pigeons
    carrion_pigeons Posts: 942 Critical Contributor
    I spent a lot of time grinding in EotS, and actually enjoying it to some degree despite the general awfulness of ninjas and wave nodes.

    When The Hunt started, I joined up thinking, "maybe PvE isn't so bad after all". Immediately after completing the first node and seeing the timer stop me from doing it again, I went "meh" and quit. Just totally sucked my motivation out of me.

    Just some feedback.
  • emaker27
    emaker27 Posts: 285 Mover and Shaker
    aesthetocyst wrote:
    simonsez wrote:
    If they decide to always award ties ...

    ... then that would make PVE progression only ... at the top at least.

    ... and 'perfect' scores would explode.

    If the current percentage for perfect scores is at .3%, what would qualify as an explosion? I'd still expect a very low percentage in which the top progression award would be handed out.

    At a minimum, it'd be a great test to run in order to prove either stance right or wrong.
  • Stax the Foyer
    Stax the Foyer Posts: 941 Critical Contributor
    The feedback and the gesture is appreciated. Is feedback planned for some of the other aspects of the test, particularly the scaling and the overall node amount?

    I'm not asking for this today or anything. (In fact, I'm impressed that this decision and feedback came so soon). I'm just curious as to what other topics might be addressed as well, since there was quite a bit of feedback on other topics as well.

    EDIT: Thanks in particular for providing the numbers. It was always nice when Ice used to drop little data tidbits like that, and it gives me a lot to chew over in terms of feedback and suggestions.
  • fmftint
    fmftint Posts: 3,653 Chairperson of the Boards
    Just to be clear, ALL 329 players who had max points will get 3 additional X23 covers?
  • Xrethx
    Xrethx Posts: 6
    Yay now my x23 can 2/2/2.

    Thanks for the bonus.
  • Jwhitmire36
    Jwhitmire36 Posts: 52 Match Maker
    emaker27 wrote:
    aesthetocyst wrote:
    simonsez wrote:
    If they decide to always award ties ...

    ... then that would make PVE progression only ... at the top at least.

    ... and 'perfect' scores would explode.

    If the current percentage for perfect scores is at .3%, what would qualify as an explosion? I'd still expect a very low percentage in which the top progression award would be handed out.

    At a minimum, it'd be a great test to run in order to prove either stance right or wrong.

    I agree it would be a great test if people know up front that max points would be rewarded with all covers no matter the rank. I know for me personally the 5ish hour grind at one time turned me away and others as well based on the feedback here. There was also a post stating that a number of top alliances boycotted the event.

    I'd like to see this test run again with guaranteed max point rewards on a 3 or 4 day event, IMO the numbers will increase quite a bit.
  • Arphaxad
    Arphaxad Posts: 278 Mover and Shaker
    "...it looks like a lot of players felt that this system was successful in creating a 'play at your own pace' experience."

    This is not true. The only way this system creates a 'play at your own pace' system is if it is progression only. Because of placement reward it became a race to finish, which is not 'play at your own pace'.

    I would like to see a dev speak on the idea of progression only rewards. Tell us if this is something they are considering or not. Either way let us know where story mode is heading.

    Also, is there a chance that the tests show a change is not going to happen. Is there a chance that we keep the current system going forward?
  • DarkWalkerWP
    DarkWalkerWP Posts: 29
    That is really awesome. I did full clears on every node except the last day. When I saw crit boosts, 70 and 100 iso rewards for 5 and 6 wave nodes I threw my hands in the air and said to hell with it.
  • Vhailorx
    Vhailorx Posts: 6,085 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited June 2016
    Thanks for the data and the update demiurge! More communication is always appreciated!

    If I can drill down into the data a bit more: what percentage of the 100,000 participants were in a bracket with at least 1 perfect score? And what was the median number of perfect scores in each bracket?

    It seems to me that the total number of perfect scores is not unreasonably high. But if the vast majority of players are in brackets where most or all of the top 10 slots will have perfect scores, then the 4* rewards really need to be pushed down to the top 10% or so,*** rather than the top .3%

    ***to be honest, I have thought that since 5*s were announced, so i am probably biased when it comes to evaluating test results icon_e_wink.gif

    And for my comments on the test itself:

    This is better than the earlier tests, but difficulty should be tuned down a bit, grinding should be reduced a bit, placement awards should be much worse, and prog rewards should be much better.

    Iso should also be doubled across the board. It's much better for new players to have iso biting a hole in their pocket than for everyone in 3* land or above to be desperately starved.
  • cydude808
    cydude808 Posts: 17 Just Dropped In
    That's wonderful news, and greatly appreciated. It does raise another question though, if we all tied for first aren't we entitled to the top placement sub rewards?

    I know it sounds like splitting hairs, but that's a good amount of cp, hp, and event tokens.
  • alphabeta
    alphabeta Posts: 469 Mover and Shaker
    Good that you are doing something about the ties but and for me it's a massive but

    What about those of us who contacted CS about the tie situation and where told that nothing would be done.

    I'd cleared first 4 subs perfectly but consistently missed t10 because in a play whenever you want system others playing earlier won.

    So having already felt cheated by the test and giving up at that point (was way past progression) I now get a double blow that the good faith actions I took of the back of information from CS turn out to have robbed me of the rewards I thought I was working towards and was told I could not attain.

    I have been directly lied to and am furious - this sort of thing was anticipatable by a dumb 4 year old and yet not by the developers of this game or their CS reps?

    I know you won't care if I rage quit but if you continue to treat paying customers like this don't be surprised when you rapidly run out of paying customers

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