What are progression rewards for?

The Herald

The anti cupcake players seem to hate the idea that weak players are cheating their way to better prizes.

So I've got a broad question:

What are personal progression rewards FOR?

They always struck me as being what you get for playing the game. They are PERSONAL progression.

But they also seem to be treated as an extra layer of competition. That preventing people from getting them in PvP is part of the contest.

What do other people think?

Should they be achievable through play? Or are they an extra layer of competition?

GurlBYE

This is a lot of threads about the same topic.

They are currently different for pvp and pve.

pve rewards are for effort put, with time and who you have rostered.

pvp is a delicate blend of using shields and a roster check based on the current meta.

Pve is reliant on your roster and grinding

Pvp is a reflection of the points available in bracket. Pvp points and therefore progression are currently a limited resource.

From here it's the dev call on what they want progression to do for the player. The system currently can't support characters of power levels so widely spaced apart. As it stand the majority of players, (especially those not on the forums, simply won't see much progression higher than 300-500 due to the way systems are implemented.

ESPECIALLY the queuing system combined with pvp progression being effect by each individual battle.

Fightmastermpq

PvE Progression: How much you are willing to play.
PvE Placement: How much more (and how much faster) you are willing to play than others.

PvP Progression: How strong your roster is and how much you are willing to spend on shields to progress beyond your roster strength.
PvP Placement: How much you are willing to spend on shields throughout an entire event to compensate for having a weaker roster than others.

There is a lot of overlap in PvP progression and placement these days with top placement scores being very close to top progression scores, but there doesn't have to be. Progression scores can be achieved early in the event if placement is not desired.

The Herald

Entitlement has come up in the forum debates, usually in straw man arguement as each side screams over the over (cupcakes have been a powder keg topic O.o).

I have to say, I DO feel entitled to personal progression. I do feel that if I spend my time playing this game, I should get to progress.

Having looked at the other side of the arguement, I can see how this annoys some people. That progression track is something you don't earn for showing up but have to fight for. I disagree up to a point (progression should be FOR progress TO progress) but see what they mean.

It would be nice for the devs to send word down.

Is progression something we should he hitting, so the system will be tweaked?

Or is it an additional competition track, and PvP is working as intended right now?

At the moment this is a flame heavy game philosophy war between players, when we could just get a statement of intent so we know where we all stand.

Astralgazer

In my personal experience, PVP is now better. Maybe it's the loss of cupcake, maybe it's the new progression reward scheme, maybe both. But I know can hit 575 comfortably, effectively getting a 4* cover every other event; which is waaay better than what I got in the previous iteration of PVP. And FYI, I never cared (and still not) for placement.

And now I spend HP on PVP. Not on shield, I have always hated shields; but on rainbow boosts. It's fun, because I use them to climb and gain rewards. True, it's also a form of gaining advantage over my opponent. But victory still comes down to choosing the right pairing, luck of the board and my skill. We all know boost advantage only goes so far.

So, at least for me, the new progression reward scheme is "works as intended".

UNC_Samurai

Progression rewards are important for transitioning players; when I was a 2-3 transitioner back in the winter of 2014/15, I could reliably hit 300 and 400 to snag the event token and the HP, but I would inevitably get knocked back down below top 100 (in those days, it was harder for newer players to stockpile HP for shields). Those rewards are important to give players extra chances at 3* covers.

simonsez

The Herald wrote:

They always struck me as being what you get for playing the game.

I never saw them as simply a participation trophy...

BassMuffinFIve

simonsez wrote:

I never saw them as simply a participation trophy...

That is exactly what they are though. No one would play this game if it was simply Bejewled. We play for the sense of progression.

xidragonxi

I think ultimately the problem is that PVP should ONLY have placement rewards and PVE should ONLY have progression rewards. Otherwise you're muddling the definitions of the events. This is what causes the friction in both play-types.

D26

xidragonxi wrote:

I think ultimately the problem is that PVP should ONLY have placement rewards and PVE should ONLY have progression rewards. Otherwise you're muddling the definitions of the events. This is what causes the friction in both play-types.

I think the best way to play depends on if I'm playing PVE or PVP. Meaning:

If I am playing PVE, I'm playing for progression rewards. Placement is just gravy/ extra rewards.

If I am playing PVP, I'm playing more for placement and competitive, and progression rewards are just extra.

Ultimately it comes down to the player'a expectations and mind set. If you play everything purely for the competition and want every reward from every event, this will be a shockingly frustrating game.