Shards of Power (c) nitymp

buscemi

I find myself quite enjoying the new Nodes of Power! It's been a solid deckbuilding *and* playing challenge and whilst, yes, there is a large degree of randomness which my logical brain would prefer was not there, it does ratchet up the tension in games quite nicely.

DISCLAIMER: I haven't badly lost a game yet to a completely random event like my opponent dropping an Olivia on turn 1 in the blue node, so I reserve the right to throw a hissy fit and chuck my toys out of the pram when it happens.

Back to the feedback, tho:

1) This is not Nodes of Power!!! Nodes of Power was my all time favorite format before... no secondary objectives, 5 different planeswalkers for lots of variety, plenty of room for sideboarding in your deck against known opponents. It's was the only place in the game that allowed you to let your decks completely off the leash, and reward you for playing purely for win % with no other considerations. I mean, yes, that fell by the wayside eventually, what with the massive ties for first place, and speed of play becoming of greater and greater importance. But I'd really like to see my old favorite Nodes of Power back again. The problems that it suffered from were not insoluble (I still hear that deafening silence from the dev team about matchmaking), and solving them in this way by introducing these fun/difficult/punitive/random objectives has turned it into a very different event. Let's give this event a new name, and one day, maybe we can have the old Nodes of Power back? My friend nitymp, who gave me express permission to use his name in this forum [citation needed], suggested Shards of Power. I like that name.

2) Total games = 15. That's a pretty low number. Some of us want to play the game some more! Now personally I really like the new 8 hour respawn times because I get a bit more free time back (and I can just play my alt account if I want to double the number of games I play), but I know they're not universally popular. That's a debate for a different thread tho. What I'd like to propose is simply more games: Instead of starting the nodes at 1/3, letting us play only 5 games at the start, and 15 games total, how about starting them at 3/5, letting us play 15 games right away, and 25 total?

3) Secondary objectives. This has been discussed in this thread:
viewtopic.php?f=31&t=56050
My friend madwren, who gave me express permission to use his name in this forum [citation needed], hit the nail on the head I think, with this comment:

madwren wrote:

There is absolutely no value in making lower tiers compete for the same objectives as higher tiers for drastically reduced rewards. It's ridiculously punitive.

This is so true. A player starting in Bronze will struggle to play a Conclave Naturalists by turn 3; whereas Platinum players can sometimes cast a Deploy the Gatewatch on turn 1.
So why not have different secondary objectives for the different Tiers? Bronze Tier could get something like the following:
'Optional' Objective 1: Win the game in 20 turns or less
'Optional' Objective 1: Win the game in 12 turns or less
Platinum Tier could keep it's 5/10 wins objectives (actually 10 is a bit high for Platinum, I bet hardly anyone is dropping that), and the rest of the Tiers could be weighted in between. Doesn't that give everyone a shot at completing some challenging but not impossible objectives at all levels of play?
HOWEVER!! This system I think would also require dropping the number of ribbons which players get for completing at lower Tiers. If a team full of Bronze players overtook my team of Platinum players on the leaderboard, I don't think I'd be very happy (spoiler: I really wouldn't).

Kohlrah

Yes to the original post!

Nodes of Power was my all time favorite event, too. I didn't like seeing so many people tied for first, but whatever this new Nodes of Power is makes me want to stop playing in events altogether.

I really do like the concept and challenge of this new event by itself, but please do not kill off the original Nodes of Power!

My biggest complaint with the original NoP was that I would get paired against decks that were clearly not made for that event, making for really boring and easy games. I like the challenge of going against a deck with mostly mythics that have great synergy, even if my deck has fewer-if any-mythics.

I know "fix matchmaking/pairings" has been said many times on this forum (I'm a long time lurker), but really... That would solve a lot of the problems that are present with this game if players in each tier faced off against similarly powerful decks. I really wouldn't care if I faced off against the same handful of players.

And in my opinion, these new objectives per event are not good solutions to the large first place tie dilemma. I feel like I've been robbed when I first join these new events and my decks aren't close to having the right cards to get those extra points--making me redo my deck and completely missing out on any chance to make top ranks because of the slow start.

My patience is wearing thin with events.

Mainloop25

I agree with all of these points. The fun part about Nodes of Power was the free-for-all may-the-best-deck-win aspect of it. The new objectives just make it feel like a different version of Terrors in the Shadows, minus Enraged. Would love to see an event without objectives return.

bk1234

It's just another day at the office when D3 is fixing what isn't broken and ignoring what is.

NOP wasn't my best event, but it's definitely my favorite. I not only enjoy the things you mentioned; building my most insane decks and side-boarding, I also really enjoy seeing what everyone else has out together.

It reminds me of going to a Friday Night Magic, where you play old friends with familiar decks.

Like Sarkhan (who isn't my best but is definitely my favorite) I quite loved it just the way it was.

Here is my feedback.

--There is very little opportunity for success in this event for lower tiers. (See my post "If I were new I'd quit") This is a bigger problem than what I mentioned in that post though. One of the things about this game is players can be very successful after a few months of play. With an average win rate over 85% in the top 10s and reduced rewards for the people who need them the most it's going to take much longer for newer players to get to a competitive level. As a top 10 team leader, I've taken a lot of pride in the fact that my team doesn't look at tier or number of cards -- with a good win % a player at any level can hop in. But we know D3 likes to booster elitism so this option is out.

-- O-M-G. I am so bored. 15 nodes in a PVP coalition event, really? This should clearly be a personal event-- oh but regardless-- 15 nodes??? We do actually like to play this game, you know?

-- I know you like shteev, so do I, but stop literally doing everything he says! Could you have placated him with any more "less than" objectives? Every "updated" event is a steady stream of "less than" objectives. What about the rest of us? I rather like some of the "x or more" objectives -- as long as they are logical.

Solutions
1. This is not NOP -- rename it and make it a personal event.
2. Bring back NOP as it is-- no timer or charge or rule changes. Coalition events as a whole should not be on An 8 hour timer-- especially starting with lower charges.
3. Either / or objectives for all PVP events.
2. When shteev suggests something, Brigby puts it in a new post with the title "does anyone else agree".

buscemi

There is a downside to being me, you know. If I'd have started threads with titles like 'Dear D3/Hibernum: You are the grinch' or 'Way to booster elitism, D3', they'd just have been quietly deleted from the forum without a word....

bk1234

buscemi wrote:

There is a downside to being me, you know. If I'd have started threads with titles like 'Dear D3/Hibernum: You are the grinch' or 'Way to booster elitism, D3', they'd just have been quietly deleted from the forum without a word....

There is a downside to being me, too -- the physical anonymity of this forum doesn't offer the masses the perfect balance between my adorableness and my sharp tongue. Without the whole package I'm frequently misinterpreted.

AettThorn

I just really, really want them to show you what the node objectives are in-game BEFORE you put a planeswalker there. Choosing Garruk to go into my Green node, and only THEN finding out that the goal is to summon few creatures made me realize I had just screwed myself. Can people go to the forums and find stuff out ahead of time? Sure. But they shouldn't have to. If the game was set up correctly, they wouldn't need to in the first place.

Heck, letting us see what the node objectives are in-game before the event even begins would be fantastic, so that you could set up your decks ahead of time.

bk1234

AettThorn wrote:

I just really, really want them to show you what the node objectives are in-game BEFORE you put a planeswalker there. Choosing Garruk to go into my Green node, and only THEN finding out that the goal is to summon few creatures made me realize I had just screwed myself. Can people go to the forums and find stuff out ahead of time? Sure. But they shouldn't have to. If the game was set up correctly, they wouldn't need to in the first place.

Heck, letting us see what the node objectives are in-game before the event even begins would be fantastic, so that you could set up your decks ahead of time.

We post them in Slack. If you're looking for a new coalition or just want to check out the community, send me a PM.

Nitymp

AettThorn wrote:

I just really, really want them to show you what the node objectives are in-game BEFORE you put a planeswalker there. Choosing Garruk to go into my Green node, and only THEN finding out that the goal is to summon few creatures made me realize I had just screwed myself. Can people go to the forums and find stuff out ahead of time? Sure. But they shouldn't have to. If the game was set up correctly, they wouldn't need to in the first place.

Heck, letting us see what the node objectives are in-game before the event even begins would be fantastic, so that you could set up your decks ahead of time.

They are intending to do this : viewtopic.php?f=31&t=55958&p=610445&hilit=short+term#p610445

AettThorn

Nitymp wrote:

AettThorn wrote:

I just really, really want them to show you what the node objectives are in-game BEFORE you put a planeswalker there. Choosing Garruk to go into my Green node, and only THEN finding out that the goal is to summon few creatures made me realize I had just screwed myself. Can people go to the forums and find stuff out ahead of time? Sure. But they shouldn't have to. If the game was set up correctly, they wouldn't need to in the first place.

Heck, letting us see what the node objectives are in-game before the event even begins would be fantastic, so that you could set up your decks ahead of time.

They are intending to do this : viewtopic.php?f=31&t=55958&p=610445&hilit=short+term#p610445

I understand that. But how many events are going to go by before they get to this?

madwren

Excellent post.

I do give kudos for the devs for trying. Likewise, the difficult objectives did loosen up the ties a bit, which is a positive. That being said, if they're going to continue using these objectives, they need to try to eliminate RNG from the equation. It simply isn't fair that a person can lose progression because their opponent Moons their creatures (counting as a summon), or Descends on their own board (counting as killing creatures). I'm also not a fan of suffering less than 10 damage, which I managed to succeed at, but only because I didn't face a Koth with a first-turn cascade Olivia.

Those situations aren't about deckbuilding.