Beginning impressions for Ultron

2

Comments

  • PeeOne
    PeeOne Posts: 237 Tile Toppler
    We have just entered round 5 but I'm locked so can't help for a few more hours...

    I haven't lost a health pack on the boss node... Yet

    IM40 GSBW & the third on rotation.. Lcap, BP, SW, Capmarv, Thor

    My major gripe is the event start time for us Aussies it started 2 or 3am so by 7am when I woke up we were in to round 3

    My other gripe is that only 14 alliance members have played and I can't see who hasn't - including at least 1 commander who I can't boot out

    In civil war and I think in ultron past you could still look up the alliance leaderboard it's not available this run
  • Darknes21
    Darknes21 Posts: 321 Mover and Shaker
    A scrolling leader board would be great! But so far so good.
  • MarcusGraves
    MarcusGraves Posts: 495 Mover and Shaker
    It's some real **** that he can move tiles now, for some reason the board end ups reshuffling almost EVERY time I fight him and it's completely unacceptable that when the board shuffles bombs can be moved to the bottom of the board which is a giant middle finger of nothing you can do about it.

    Don't ever give him tile movement again, the bombs being so lethal was to compensate that fact that he couldn't, can't have both.
  • alphabeta
    alphabeta Posts: 469 Mover and Shaker
    I'm agreeing with the Op

    Rewards aren't amazing so volume of people beating it should be an issue to demiurge but this change has fundamentally altered the nature of the game play and most importantly for me removed the fun from what was a unique elements of ultron's appeal.

    Now he's just like all the other bosses - and therefore fits perfectly with the diet of rinse and repeat pve - will clear r8 sometime tomorrow but it won't have been as enjoyable as I expected when ultron was announced and it's another opportunity that has been passed up to reengage me with a game my heart is drifting out of rapidly after 2 years of fun.
  • GuntherBlobel
    GuntherBlobel Posts: 987 Critical Contributor
    edited July 2016
    I'm of two minds about Ultron matching the board. I loved the original Ultron concept, but I'm also enjoying the new concept well enough. I thought that the matching would make Ultron much less fun and less accomplishable. Instead, my success rate has been similar to before and I do like the challenge in finding alternate teams.

    His matching has forced me to try teams with virtually no board control, which means that I am trying new strategies. As much as I liked the Ultron boss as a Puzzle, I think we all found our best solutions a couple a runs back. It was at the risk of being stale.

    Edit: My opinion will probably change as soon as Ultron's bombs can one-hit kill a character.
  • dokiy
    dokiy Posts: 238 Tile Toppler
    My alliance is into round 7. At this level Ultron's bombs do 15K damage each. Two bombs takes my fully leveled HB down to nothing. Yikes! Not a fan of Ultron being able to match now.
  • mpqr7
    mpqr7 Posts: 2,642 Chairperson of the Boards
    Here's my thought about Crit Boosts for Ultron.

    I think it's actually not so bad that there's one Crit Boost prize, because the other prizes are all very good (CP, 500 ISO, 250 ISO). So you have a 1/8 chance of getting a bad prize, and then once you get it, you have a 100% chance of getting a good prize. That's actually pretty cool.

    Assuming Ultron doesn't wipe me out too many times, hopefully it shouldn't be too hard to get to the top cp prize.

    I also like the that it's streamlined to one single sub, instead of two different subs with second-boss battles. It makes it simpler.. you hit the alliance points, you get the alliance prize, you don't then need to fight a completely different battle to win that prize.
  • Uthgarprime
    Uthgarprime Posts: 202 Tile Toppler
    Him moving the boards sucks big time. Its like someone at this company gets paid to come up with ways to screw the player base. I had the game won til Ultron got to move the board and kill my last character with a bomb that dropped. How is that fun or challenging, you lose cause you made it harder. Any time these morons say fun and challenging, translate that to harder for no other reason than we gave out too many rewards last time so now you need punished. Every time they have said those words in a post, the exact opposite has been true.
  • SnowcaTT
    SnowcaTT Posts: 3,486 Chairperson of the Boards
    We just started round 7 this morning. I made a match with (Max/Buffed 4*) HulkBuster, which was the last possible match and shuffled the two-bomb board. One bomb went to the bottom, and went off. Which cleared the path to the second bomb going to the bottom, which went off. And then Ultron got to make a match.

    HB went from full health to ~500 in one move. A big health 4*. Any 3* would have died, any non-buffed 4* would have died.

    ...there are still two rounds left to fully clear with this. I worried about Ultron making moves, and I was right to worry about it. Assume I won't be able to fully clear this evening after PVP, simply won't have the health packs to do both events.

    Terrified about seeing the sub scaling in half an hour - if they were left as trivial I'd be wasting many/most health packs to do the Ultron clear. But they -never- stay as trivial....
  • grunth13
    grunth13 Posts: 608 Critical Contributor
    So we are in Round 7 now. I did my clear with OML/GR/XDP (XDP and OML championed, GR is 245 boosted with ideal covers) and it was touch and go. Boards are empty of black, purple or red. Have to let OML get hit with a bomb so that XDP can hit back (you get hit with 15k, you hit back with 8k...not the greatest trade off) and hopefully get enough purple to fire XDP purple. That was my saving grace...had a 4 match of black all with XDP countdowns which downed ultron. I left that match with 15k on OML health. I find OML/PHO/SW does the best for me...quick and easy. I do appreciate Ultron matching half of his own bombs, because things would be much harder otherwise.
  • GrumpySmurf1002
    GrumpySmurf1002 Posts: 3,511 Chairperson of the Boards
    Vhailorx wrote:
    GrumpySmurf1002 wrote:
    Basically every counter in the strategy thread has worked for me so far. Yes I have a relatively strong roster but he doesn't seem any more difficult than previous iterations.

    I take all credit for your victories if you mean my strategy thread! icon_e_wink.gif

    But I do think we should remember that boosted 4* champs are absurdly powerful relative to anything in the game when Ultron ran last time. And there are at least two quite good boosted champs this week. Hard for true 4* players to gauge his difficulty before rounds 7/8. How are 3* rosters faring?

    You can take credit, but nothing in there I didn't already know icon_e_smile.gif

    I haven't even used my 390ish HB or XDP yet.

    It's been either Cap-IM40 with either a green user (GSBW, IW) or Goblin (lvl 255, 0/1/1 - just there to fortify IM's CDs that form near the bottom) or PX-SW-GSBW. I'll break out Pun later when he has more health, but the board moving I'm finding helps more than hurts. He matches away his own bombs constantly.
  • Dragon_Nexus
    Dragon_Nexus Posts: 3,701 Chairperson of the Boards
    Question:

    Why are the bosses still massively bumping up in scaling over time rather than progress?
  • Polares
    Polares Posts: 2,643 Chairperson of the Boards
    Scaling is through the roof again, from level 50 enemies to 340 in just one step.

    It is really incredible, Devs don't learn, they make the same mistakes over and over and over again. I really don't understand it, any fun the event had is now in the trash. Is it that difficult to raise the difficulty progressively? Or depending on which round we are? (in my alliance we are still finishing round 6)

    If round 7 bombs do 15k, how are round 8 bombs going to be? 20k ?!?!?!?

    YOU HAVE TO LOSE all over again icon_e_sad.gif
  • grunth13
    grunth13 Posts: 608 Critical Contributor
    Polares wrote:
    Scaling is through the roof again, from level 50 enemies to 340 in just one step.

    It is really incredible, Devs don't learn, they make the same mistakes over and over and over again. I really don't understand it, any fun the event had is now in the trash. Is it that difficult to raise the difficulty progressively? Or depending on which round we are? (in my alliance we are still finishing round 6)

    If round 7 bombs do 15k, how are round 8 bombs going to be? 20k ?!?!?!?

    YOU HAVE TO LOSE all over again icon_e_sad.gif


    22389 to be exact.
  • TimGunn
    TimGunn Posts: 257 Mover and Shaker
    yeah i never get why they make the sentries so hard - the boss is supposed to be the hard one!!

    In normal PVE it is 3 easy, 3 medium (w/ required char) and 3 hard

    But in boss PVE it becomes 5 hard (w/ required char) and 5 hard, starting on day 2.

    How does that make sense?
  • grunth13
    grunth13 Posts: 608 Critical Contributor
    Also, Ultron has started to not match his own bombs...SURPRISE!!!
  • KGB
    KGB Posts: 3,189 Chairperson of the Boards
    Pretty sure scaling is set something like: Trivial/Easy/Normal/Hard and we are now on Easy for day 2.

    I base that on fact my sentries also were at L43 but now they are L110-120 range and my roster average is 100ish. In regular PvE events nodes at L110-120 range for me are marked 'easy'.

    Tomorrow Normal will be another jump to the level of boosted characters (in my case L170-180ish).

    As mentioned countless times scaling should be set based on Round (1-2: trivial, 3-4: easy, 5-6: normal, 7-8: hard) so casual alliances like mine where some players have yet to play aren't scaled out before they even start. These are the events where having a top alliance/dedicated players really matters because you can get into round 7 by day 1.

    KGB
  • cyineedsn
    cyineedsn Posts: 361 Mover and Shaker
    KGB wrote:
    Pretty sure scaling is set something like: Trivial/Easy/Normal/Hard and we are now on Easy for day 2.

    I base that on fact my sentries also were at L43 but now they are L110-120 range and my roster average is 100ish. In regular PvE events nodes at L110-120 range for me are marked 'easy'.

    Tomorrow Normal will be another jump to the level of boosted characters (in my case L170-180ish).

    As mentioned countless times scaling should be set based on Round (1-2: trivial, 3-4: easy, 5-6: normal, 7-8: hard) so casual alliances like mine where some players have yet to play aren't scaled out before they even start. These are the events where having a top alliance/dedicated players really matters because you can get into round 7 by day 1.

    KGB

    My enemies are rated as "Normal" today in round 6, so I don't think this is the case .
  • SnowcaTT
    SnowcaTT Posts: 3,486 Chairperson of the Boards
    SnowcaTT wrote:
    We just started round 7 this morning. I made a match with (Max/Buffed 4*) HulkBuster, which was the last possible match and shuffled the two-bomb board. One bomb went to the bottom, and went off. Which cleared the path to the second bomb going to the bottom, which went off. And then Ultron got to make a match.

    HB went from full health to ~500 in one move. A big health 4*. Any 3* would have died, any non-buffed 4* would have died.

    ...there are still two rounds left to fully clear with this. I worried about Ultron making moves, and I was right to worry about it. Assume I won't be able to fully clear this evening after PVP, simply won't have the health packs to do both events.

    Terrified about seeing the sub scaling in half an hour - if they were left as trivial I'd be wasting many/most health packs to do the Ultron clear. But they -never- stay as trivial....

    And...yep, was right to worry. I got "lucky" for 2/5 Ultron clears and didn't need health-packs. Needed them for all the subs though! "Only" used 7 health packs...on round 7!

    I really enjoy these events day one, and really dread that day 2 scaling jump. Glad I'm 100K from progression already.
  • CNash
    CNash Posts: 952 Critical Contributor
    grunth13 wrote:
    Also, Ultron has started to not match his own bombs...SURPRISE!!!

    Ultron behaves like any other AI opponent and will prioritise matching colours for his powers. If there's a black, blue or green match available, he'll take that first, and in that colour order if there's more than one potential match. The AI literally does not see special tiles when making this calculation.

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