Alternate Universes....for new players

bbigler

I've been thinking about this idea for some time and I thought this would be a good time to present it. Since our recent poll is showing that most of us do not recommend this game to new players, I have an idea that would solve the problem of new players being literally years behind everyone else in the game. You simply start an "alternate universe" of the game which only contains people that have joined the game recently (since the start of that "universe"). This way everyone is on a level playing field and starting from scratch with 1* characters. The most dedicated players will be at the top of the leaderboards instead of the most veteran players. After a certain amount of time (like 3 months) you then close the pool of new players for that universe and start another one.

I've seen/played this game mechanic in the mobile game: Hobbit - Kingdoms of Middle Earth. These alternate universes would also be open to any player in the game that wants a fresh start, instead of constantly competing with people that have played twice as long as them with rosters twice as strong. I like the idea of a fresh start because you can bring all of your MPQ wisdom with you to the alternate universe and avoid making the mistakes you did the first time. You would already know which characters are the best ones and how to defeat certain enemies. You would already know all the little tricks to give you an advantage in the game. It's like re-living your childhood but with an adult knowledge base.

I think this would be good for new players and older players that want to start over. I realize that there are pros and cons to this, but let me get your thoughts first.

Please Note: I realize that SHIELD Clearance Levels are meant to put players on an even playing field for placement, but I think that mechanic is not working as well as the devs hoped it would. One problem with it is that you can increase in Shield Levels without actually leveling up your best characters. 2* farming is an example.

smkspy

Nice idea, but these guys can't even get SCL to work properly...timed periods of pooling new players and graduating them into the larger pond seems impossible. I'd say...

Make progression faster with increased cover odds, maybe even completely eliminate the 1 star tier to do it. The game meta has long passed this tier and it really only blocks progression since just everyone ends up deleting all but one of their original roster anyways. The 1 strong tier is a major stumbling block in the current game.

Apply SCL to the prologue and make it replayable. The game desperately needs a continuous single player mode where people can without the pressure of pve or pvp.

I would say make SCL means something other than glorified rewards for pvp, but I have no solution as you said, even people without appropriately developed rosters can rise to level 8. I mean, I am level 8 with champed 4s and all 3s, and feel that mmr is still too brutal for fair competition in pvp. There just will never be a way to catch up for anyone that isn't a whale or is a year one player in that mode.

dr tinykittylove

They used to have this with noob brackets... then vet players tanked to run amuck in the noob brackets. Then they created cls... vet players can now tank without tanking...

On the flip side, I did creat an alt account to revisit that noob feeling a while back. I missed my crazy vet roster terribly and the fun roster decisions - keep a one cover Peggy or 3 cover Flaptain? Roster Thing or Fury?.... no fun!

broll

Honestly if they expand SCL to include scaling and MMR changes by level you'd essentially have this. I really hope that happens, but I'm not optimistic.

spatenfloot

broll wrote:

Honestly if they expand SCL to include scaling and MMR changes by level you'd essentially have this. I really hope that happens, but I'm not optimistic.

No, they need to narrow the ranges for clearance levels and place a maximum limit for the lower levels. Right now the first 5 levels are meaningless. Adjust the rewards for 7 and 8 upward and raise the CL required for each level. Too many players are bunched together.

kobu

Yeah...the way forward is to improving the SCL so we finally get set difficulties (not roster scaling) and players partitioned off to the levels they should be playing against, and getting appropriate rewards. Roster catchup is a related, but different issue.

And none of that addresses my biggest concern with recommending this to new players, which is that this game is a time sink of crazy proportions and little payoff that new players just can't comprehend when they are starting out going through the prologue.

Phumade

kobu wrote:

And none of that addresses my biggest concern with recommending this to new players, which is that this game is a time sink of crazy proportions and little payoff that new players just can't comprehend when they are starting out going through the prologue.

LOL every game I've ever played is a crazy time sink starting back to Wizardy 1 and lots of pen and paper. Everyone's got to find their own sense of fun in their preferred playstyle

kobu

Phumade wrote:

kobu wrote:

And none of that addresses my biggest concern with recommending this to new players, which is that this game is a time sink of crazy proportions and little payoff that new players just can't comprehend when they are starting out going through the prologue.

LOL every game I've ever played is a crazy time sink starting back to Wizardy 1 and lots of pen and paper. Everyone's got to find their own sense of fun in their preferred playstyle

Wizardry is peanuts to this. So are even most ARPGs and MMOs. It's entirely possible to pick up WoW, or ESO, or PoE, or D3, or (on and on), and reach an end-game state well within in a month. You can still find things to do, sure, but you aren't literally years away from where other players are at. Of course you can get there in a month of playing MPQ, you just have to spend the equivalent of a small nation's GDP.

Lampo

kobu wrote:

Phumade wrote:

kobu wrote:

And none of that addresses my biggest concern with recommending this to new players, which is that this game is a time sink of crazy proportions and little payoff that new players just can't comprehend when they are starting out going through the prologue.

LOL every game I've ever played is a crazy time sink starting back to Wizardy 1 and lots of pen and paper. Everyone's got to find their own sense of fun in their preferred playstyle

Wizardry is peanuts to this. So are even most ARPGs and MMOs. It's entirely possible to pick up WoW, or ESO, or PoE, or D3, or (on and on), and reach an end-game state well within in a month. You can still find things to do, sure, but you aren't literally years away from where other players are at. Of course you can get there in a month of playing MPQ, you just have to spend the equivalent of a small nation's GDP.

Well, you are not here to win, you are here to have fun.
There is actually NO SENSE in getting bigger and bigger, since your enemies will be always proportioned to your team, so fighting a node at level 5 is difficult as much as at level 150. (the only exception is DDQ)
Slow your pace and have more fun. It's a game, not something mandatory