How to determine which characters need retooling

mpqr7

There must be a way for d3 to see which characters are being used the least. Those should be the characters who get made more powerful or fun.

SnowcaTT

Should be incredibly easy.

% owned / %played daily.

OML = 1. That's a problem!
Pyslock = 0.04 That's also a problem!

stochasticism

SnowcaTT wrote:

Should be incredibly easy.

% owned / %played daily.

OML = 1. That's a problem!
Pyslock = 0.04 That's also a problem!

Let's call your metric usage ratio, or UR. An even better metric in my mind is,

UR_b / UR_u

where UR_b is the usage ratio when the character receives a weekly boost and UR_us is the usage ratio when that does not happen. Regardless of tier, giving a character a weekly boost should definitely increase their usage. If it does not it indicates design flaws to the point where even boosting the character doesn't make people think they can use them.

mpqr7

Also I don't think any nerfs should be applied. Only improvements.

The Herald

I have a flow chart!

Is it Totally Awesome Hulk?

No: Good.

Yes: Feel bad about not fixing this character yet.

BigRussian

SnowcaTT wrote:

Should be incredibly easy.

% owned / %played daily.

OML = 1. That's a problem!
Pyslock = 0.04 That's also a problem!

Damn I just championed Psylocke a couple weeks ago, am I the only one who did?

jackstar0

I would think going by Season Simulator teams would be generally revealing. People seem to generally not waste time with sub-optimal teams when they make their climbs.

DFiPL

BigRussian wrote:

SnowcaTT wrote:

Should be incredibly easy.

% owned / %played daily.

OML = 1. That's a problem!
Pyslock = 0.04 That's also a problem!

Damn I just championed Psylocke a couple weeks ago, am I the only one who did?

Psylocke's first two 4* cover champion rewards are Deadpool (4) covers. Black, then purple, and I need both.

You better believe I championed her.

SnowcaTT

I have all 3*'s champed, so yes on Psylock.

My example -was- going to be Ragnarock, but he does see play in LR's....if only they rotated again, all 3*'s would see slightly more play!

Quebbster

aesthetocyst wrote:

mpqr7 wrote:

There must be a way for d3 to see which characters are being used the least. Those should be the characters who get made more powerful or fun.

Of course they can. D3's reps here have posted before which characters are in the most matches, and which abilities are fired most often, etc.

So the data is there, but the trick is in the interpretation.

Yeah, I remember when IceIX said Sentrybombing was not a concern for the devs as only a small fraction of the player base used Sentry. That small fraction was pretty much everyone interested in competitive PvP...
But hey, Sentry did get fixed so he didn't dominate PvP anymore! ...I guess too many players started relying on him then...

Polares

Quebbster wrote:

aesthetocyst wrote:

mpqr7 wrote:

There must be a way for d3 to see which characters are being used the least. Those should be the characters who get made more powerful or fun.

Of course they can. D3's reps here have posted before which characters are in the most matches, and which abilities are fired most often, etc.

So the data is there, but the trick is in the interpretation.

Yeah, I remember when IceIX said Sentrybombing was not a concern for the devs as only a small fraction of the player base used Sentry. That small fraction was pretty much everyone interested in competitive PvP...
But hey, Sentry did get fixed so he didn't dominate PvP anymore! ...I guess too many players started relying on him then...

The problem is that fixes usually mean nerf. You take the strongest ability of the game WR and convert it into one almost nobody uses anymore, I even respeced Sentry to 5/3/5 and never looked back.

We also get some buffs, some like xforce or IM, but most of the time they are like IW (three times buffed already and still no good) or Elektra.

I said it over and over again, Devs should do incremental changes, and should do them more often (this second part is important, like every season not every six months). All the games I know work like this, FOR A REASON. So Chulk black is never ever triggered, lets change "fewer than seven" to "fewer than eight" to see what happens, etc. Some chars need to be rethinked but most of them can be fixed just like this (Chulk need to be rethinked completely )

TLCstormz

That is all common sense, thus, they already know it and are just purposely not doing it. lol

DTStump

Some characters are going to be better than others, that seems clear to me. Hard to balance everything.

In the first three tiers, I am completely fine with everything. No characters are too good, and I think even the worst characters have their uses. Especially for newer players, which is what the 1*, 2* and 3* tiers are mostly for.

In the 4* and 5* tier I think there may be a few things to fix/improve. Most notably .

simonsez

stochasticism wrote:

Let's call your metric usage ratio, or UR. An even better metric in my mind is,

UR_b / UR_u

where UR_b is the usage ratio when the character receives a weekly boost and UR_us is the usage ratio when that does not happen. Regardless of tier, giving a character a weekly boost should definitely increase their usage. If it does not it indicates design flaws to the point where even boosting the character doesn't make people think they can use them.

Or it could mean that the character is so good, people are using it even when not boosted. IF, SW, IM40, RHulk come to mind...