Season XXXII: Highlights & Changes

Bishop

Well let's hope that works out for you guys

Merrick

I was sad to see that they didn't break the CP up like they did in PVE. Put 5 CP somewhere near 600, another 5 at 1k, and the last 15 at 1200.

SprintingGoat

I don't get how people are concluding that the 'AI will choose their defensive team'...

The statement, whilst not brilliantly worded, seems to me to be fairly obvious in what the new mechanic will be.

If you win a match with team 'x'and then win a match with team 'y', where team 'y' is "significantly weaker" than team 'x'... then team 'x' will remain as your defensive team.

The only ambiguity surrounds what the Devs will deem significantly weaker... but given the mechanic is clearly aimed at cupcakes, i'm tipping that it will be a large enough gap that the aforementioned Winfinite technique would not work.

If not, they can always 'tweak' the algorithm accordingly.

Either way, bit early to be panicking about not being able to throw out your favored defensive team just yet.

dlegendary0ne

Vhailorx wrote:

The last change that is coming to Season 32 is a slight change to how defensive teams work. Starting with Fist Bump, your strongest team will remain your defensive team. If you win a match with a significantly weaker team, your defensive team will still be your last strongest team. We have also reduced the scores required to achieve progression rewards. We have also adjusted how points are gained and lost to reduce the amount of points lost from losing a battle or being attacked.

And ANOTHER question for demi.

Isn't it a little disingenuous to call this a "slight" change?

Defensive teams aren't just some small niche thing in PVP. They literally create the universe of possible opponents. Completely changing the way the that universe is populated, and doing so without offering any details on the new system, is a massive change to bury at the end of a long list of changes with less than 48 hours notice.

This. Also, if the point of all of these changes is balance, yet the advantage is given to those with the strongest rosters (aka the big spenders because they have maxed 5*s), doesn't that clash with the concept of balance?

At least before, everyone had a chance at making progression. It just required team work and coordination with your alliance. That's a good thing and it made for an awesome experience!

But this new change seems to make players adopt a "every man for himself" philosophy, and that sucks all the fun out of the team aspect.

We need more info for sure, but this does not sound like a good change so far.

MrCrowley

Carnage got a sneaky nerf. I just champed him last season and now he is ****.

And guess what? If I want to recoup my investment, the option is to completely sell him, losing 13 covers I dont want to lose.

We should be allowed to pick our defensive team, but make that with some limitations if you want. If we have champed 4s, allow champed 3s to be in the defensive team, but no worse.

If you still get CCs they will be much harder to exploit in bursts. No longer you can squash 5 teams in 5 min.

Bishop

PX,gsbw,sw isn't anything compared to Winfinite Phoenix,PX,sw.

Astralgazer

Our prayer is answered... with more questions. Say, I climb SHIELD Sim by using attacking minded team, e.g. Gamora, SWitch, IF; then swap SWitch with Hood for the last fight before I call it a day. Would the game consider my attacking team as stronger? Or will it accept my defensive team as stronger because I have Hood at higher level than my SWitch? How does the game factor in the synergies between character for attack and defense?

What if I swap my whole attacking team with unboosted CMags, IF and Luke? Those three is on the very top of my skip list unless I have three boosted attacking characters on my team. Would these unholy trinity be considered weaker or stronger?

Anyway, kudos for getting rid of the baguette!

The Viceroy Returns

Crazy thought, but why don't they just let us decide who our defensive team is explicitly, instead of hoping and wondering who it will be? That seems like it would be a lot easier to implement, and be way less confusing. The will need some method for us to see who our defensive team is anyway (they had better!), so may as well go the rest of the way and let us set it too. I don't want the game to determine something this important for me automatically and with voodoo under the hood wizardry.
Practically EVERY mobile game that has asynch multiplayer like this, where an AI of some kind controls another player's roster/whatever as the opponent, does this.

Sure, it might still lead to lots of OML and/or Phoenix (and maybe Silver Surfer with his upcoming Buffs), but at least there's the chance that other teams might make an appearance. This auto deciding of who the "Strongest team" is surely will for those that have both maxed or above level 350 or so.
Good thing I still have a functioning Charlie's Angles team I guess...

scottee

I'm not sure why people are saying they don't get to pick their defensive team. I don't read it that way at all. It sounds to me like this is specifically targeted at cupcakes.

Starting with Fist Bump, your strongest team will remain your defensive team. If you win a match with a significantly weaker team, your defensive team will still be your last strongest team.

It sounds like everything works exactly the same unless you try to insert a defensive team that is weaker by X amount.

For example, if you're using a mix of champed 4*s and boosted 3*s, you'll be able to switch freely and the last team you win with will be your defensive team.

If however, you try to insert a defensive team that is, say 50% lower in levels than your previous defensive team, it will revert to the previous defensive team.

I would guess that the tolerance levels wouldn't trigger if moving between 4* and 5* tiers, or 3* and 4* tiers, but only the placing of moving from like 4/5* tiers down to 2*.


I moved up my mmr to fight in 5* and boosted 4* land, and I don't expect anything different. It's always a slog fest and I've barely seen a cc in the last 4 weeks.

Magic

I've never hit 1.3k (probably would eventually but my playing time is much lower now and I get most of it in PvE when i can clear when I want for max progression... don't care for placement). I have seldom encountered a cupcake as I don't use line to add an extra layer to the time consuming game. I was always happy to find one as it meant my ride to 1k would be easier but it was none the less doable without them. So for me there is no real loss in the new system (if we understand it correctly, we might need a bit more information):
1. Lowered progression - means my main target will require a bit less play. Would the scores be much lower and I won't hit it? Or maybe the 100 less points for CP is the one thing that I need to jump on the PvP ride again?
2. Less losses of points - my key plus here. Not sure how it will work but sounds good to me. I i don't have to worry about loosing 200 points while i try to reach 1k with 37 point fight. We will see.
3. Defensive team being your strongest - I expect this to be the strongest by lvl average you are using in the event. If so - fine by me. I will just stop using my underleveled OML for first couple of nodes and ride my strongest team. I do it anyway. I would seldom switch say IM40 for Hulkbuster to pair with Iceman. I do it when I want to float. It seems like it should work now as well. Unless your best team is the one you use the most in the event. In such case I will have to look into it more.

tl;dr version - I expect net positive from the suggested changes.

Thom Merrilin

Since d3 is killing "mechanics" being abused when are u going to kill off softcapping? Cos those guys have it easy in pve. Ontopic i cant wait to see how quickly i decide to quit cos all i see really will be OML/PNX now.

DTStump

As someone who never really enjoyed PvP and certainly doesn't like the idea of coordinating on LINE to get an edge over people who don't even know about the app...

Tony_Foot

Thanks for making me free to play again! I have two 4 star champs and can't get near 1k except in fistbuster boosted events. I was a shield hopper, it cost me. Not anymore

Quebbster

DTStump wrote:

As someone who never really enjoyed PvP and certainly doesn't like the idea of coordinating on LINE to get an edge over people who don't even know about the app...

I'm more like this:

(I do enjoy PVP but don't use Line. I did bake occassionally though...)

The Herald

Vhailorx wrote:

And another question for demi: what is the value of a defensive character like carnage now? If he can't be thrown into a defensive team at just before shielding, then what purpose does he serve in the game? He is **** for climbing or grinding.

You stick him with ThingPool and switch to winfinite

Although Teen Jean is probably better here since everyone will be playing with glass cannon AP accelerators.

MrCrowley

People who have not used ccs in the past forget that because of ccs especially in shard 4 the PVP scoring is OVERALL higher. That means your enemies have more points than they should have if there were no ccs in place ---> you get to a higher score hitting A-teams because you can still beat teams that have 1k scores.

The dreadful scenario will now be that you cant find beatable targets going for 1k after you climb to 800. Every match will take long and you are visible to the whales you will whale on you (pun intended). You cant climb to 1k fast enough to reach it.

Polares

Vhailorx wrote:

SnickerDog wrote:

You can say I'm incorrect - but I'd like to see how well you do with gsbw/px/featured 3* vs high level 5*s who will take out your team in 10 moves with just match damage.

Boosting +2 purple, you only need to make 3 purple matches to get the cycle started. It won't be perfect, but it will give weaker rosters a shot against 5* teams.

OML heals almost 5k every turn, and the three chars don't have that much life, so I don't think it will be that easy. And you also need to consider how long you will need to kill the team, winfinite is very effective but I don't know if it is the fastest team in the world. But in general, the change might make combos in general much more useful that is completely true (we still really need to see the extents of 'strongest team').

Vhailorx wrote:

And the larger point remains true. There are many characters that create powerful combos in the hands of a smart player. But are vulnerable on defense because of low health or stupid ai usage. The price of using those teams just dropped hugely. As did the value of defensive characters.

But, is this bad? It is not 'our fault' that the AI is so dumb and can't play correctly most of the combos. And in the end, you will be able to use more teams to climb, which is what most of us want. Maybe not more diversity in defense, but at least more diversity when playing.

Vhailorx wrote:

It's too early to say for sure if the net result is positive or negative. But it's a huge change to make in-season with little warning/explanation, and no testing.

I think a short season of just 10 days is the best time to try something big like this. Much better than in between seasons were all scores are much lower and in a normal season. In fact I think this is probably the best time possible.

Vhailorx wrote:

And since players all tend to level the same strong characters, it seems very likely that this will also result in less opponent diversity in PvP.

But it is already like that, you basically see 5s, and buffed 4s or 3s all the time, I don't really think this change is going to affect diversity at all. Do you see any not champed chars playing in PvP ? Because the only ones I see are high levelled 5s, but never 4s or 3s. The system now already has almost no diversity. Players will use for defense their buffed chars, like they do now.


I think we need a bit more info to really see the extents of the change, and see if it is an improvement or not. I am specially intrigued about the reduction in points when we are attacked. And it was obvious cupcakes had to go, as someone else said the big problem was that they allowed their existence for too long, and now there are players who improved their rosters a lot because of them, and some players that couldn't and won't in the future, they should have get rid of them a long time ago (now there is some people that expects to get to 1300 in every PvP even with very week rosters). Coordination in LINE is still a very big asset, so I don't think it will affect that much people using LINE, probably just the weakest rosters. But we will see... Maybe they will have to lower more the progression rewards.

ammenell

so does this mean i play/win once with my highest chars with the biggest possible combined health pool, then I play everything with my best team, while everyone has to beat my “highest“ team?

this works for both sides, so I constantly have to beat the very same teams because everyone will play at least one match with their 5*s?

that cant be right ... right?

madsalad

UNC_Samurai

The reason people were exploiting defensive teams, was because it's damn near impossible to make progress above 1000 in PvP unless you're running champed 5* characters. As soon as you get above 800, you become a giant target. You win a match for 30 points, but lose 60 in the process.

Maybe instead of focusing on defensive exploitation, the developers should reduce point losses.