Unstable ISO-8 Rerun 4/1 - 4/7

Unknown

NorthernPolarity wrote:

Phantron wrote:

The Don generates 2 black AP a turn and Trap uses 10 black, so it will usually be used over Devour/Payback Mission though it's hardly guaranteed.

The numbers for the mission points needs to go up by a factor of 5 for the high point rewards to be even remotely obtainable. Round 4 of Simulator Basic was significantly less than 100K put together for even the highest scoring people.

The highest scoring people in this event doesn't even mean much: with rubberbanding first place is always only going to be a thousand points above most of the pack that do even one clear a day. This event structure is just very poor in general: single main means that rubberbanding negates any leads you could get in earlier rounds, making it futile to try and extend your lead in the event, and the lack of subs means that less awards are handed out in general. I'm thinking about doing a poll after the event for people to voice whether or not they liked the event: I'm thinking that if the devs have a concentrated thread for feedback, they'll think twice about rerunning events like this given how most of the playerbase probably dislikes it compared to what we've had before.

The rubberbanding is no different than other events. While an event like Simulator Basic does allow you to build a lead over time, R4 is worth close to 50% of the total points so it's still pretty much not settled at the competitive areas until the end. That is, if you're #3 shooting for just a top 10 finish it is indeed well settled before the event ends, but if you're going for top 2, it's far from over for you or the 2 guys ahead. The problem is that these missions are actually pretty trivial overall so that there's no point to grind for a lead because anybody can beat up the 3 230X3 goons and then easily catch back up, so you might as well not bother. Even the villian fights are relatively on the easy side, as we have no Ares and relatively few apperances by Daken, and we also have Patch and OBW as buffed heroes.

Unknown

Skyedyne wrote:

TheUnwiseOne wrote:

Anyone have any idea when the nodes will change this time? Will it be in 2 hours or another 12?

My guess is it will be midnight EST.

I'm banking on this so hopefully I don't miss out on a refresh... Speaking of that, how does it work with the refresh? Say I am grinding the missions right to the refresh of new missions, do my new missions start out at full points or not? Seems like if you did a couple high point missions right before the new ones come out you could get maybe a little bit of a lead.

Bowgentle

sms4002 wrote:

Skyedyne wrote:

TheUnwiseOne wrote:

Anyone have any idea when the nodes will change this time? Will it be in 2 hours or another 12?

My guess is it will be midnight EST.

I'm banking on this so hopefully I don't miss out on a refresh... Speaking of that, how does it work with the refresh? Say I am grinding the missions right to the refresh of new missions, do my new missions start out at full points or not? Seems like if you did a couple high point missions right before the new ones come out you could get maybe a little bit of a lead.

Yeah, the new missions start at full stacks.
But there's no point of doing them right away - you need to give people time to build a lead again to let rubberbanding do its work once you do make your move.

So the best strategy should be to grind however much you want right before new nodes appear, then do nothing until about 14 hours before the next set, then do a full clear, and then again grind an hour before new missions appear.
Or even just one clear an hour before the switch, but that might be cutting it close with the scaling.

The problem with there being so little points between rank 1 and 250 is that you _need_ to be able to play during that last hour - if not, you just wasted 6 days of your life and might even miss out on Torchie, even though you sank a lot of time into this PVE.

Unknown

Phantron wrote:

NorthernPolarity wrote:

Phantron wrote:

The Don generates 2 black AP a turn and Trap uses 10 black, so it will usually be used over Devour/Payback Mission though it's hardly guaranteed.

The numbers for the mission points needs to go up by a factor of 5 for the high point rewards to be even remotely obtainable. Round 4 of Simulator Basic was significantly less than 100K put together for even the highest scoring people.

The highest scoring people in this event doesn't even mean much: with rubberbanding first place is always only going to be a thousand points above most of the pack that do even one clear a day. This event structure is just very poor in general: single main means that rubberbanding negates any leads you could get in earlier rounds, making it futile to try and extend your lead in the event, and the lack of subs means that less awards are handed out in general. I'm thinking about doing a poll after the event for people to voice whether or not they liked the event: I'm thinking that if the devs have a concentrated thread for feedback, they'll think twice about rerunning events like this given how most of the playerbase probably dislikes it compared to what we've had before.

The rubberbanding is no different than other events. While an event like Simulator Basic does allow you to build a lead over time, R4 is worth close to 50% of the total points so it's still pretty much not settled at the competitive areas until the end. That is, if you're #3 shooting for just a top 10 finish it is indeed well settled before the event ends, but if you're going for top 2, it's far from over for you or the 2 guys ahead. The problem is that these missions are actually pretty trivial overall so that there's no point to grind for a lead because anybody can beat up the 3 230X3 goons and then easily catch back up, so you might as well not bother. Even the villian fights are relatively on the easy side, as we have no Ares and relatively few apperances by Daken, and we also have Patch and OBW as buffed heroes.

Well, first off I'm not convinced that the progression rewards are unobtainable yet... isn't 2.5 days left about the time in every event where we get a mechgouki thread complaining that the progression rewards are way too high and then most of the forumites end up getting them anyways? I think 100k will be reachable, 160k probably not, but frankly the previous couple of PvEs where the very top rewards were well within everybody's grasp were a departure from the norm.

It also might be nice if each day, or every couple of days, there was a one-time node that gave a 3-star cover, 2500 iso, or a super-soldier token, just to spice it up a little. But the biggest complaint I've had about PvE events is the subevent structure makes it so you have to play on a strict schedule. This event doesn't have that. And people constantly complain about grinding, and aside from the last day or two, you can play missions for node rewards or leave them and just go for rubberbanding, depending on your taste. Rather than playing a dozen matches every twelve hours on the dot and not at all besides then, I can pick up the game whenever I want, play two or three matches, and put it down, which is really nice - I can just enjoy playing the game instead of fretting over gaming the system, at least until the last day.

I'm not sure I'd like it if every event was like this, but having a more casual event like this every now and then instead of all long, high-stress events is great for the game, IMO.

Unknown

gamar wrote:

Rather than playing a dozen matches every twelve hours on the dot and not at all besides then, I can pick up the game whenever I want, play two or three matches, and put it down, which is really nice - I can just enjoy playing the game instead of fretting over gaming the system, at least until the last day.

I'm not sure I'd like it if every event was like this, but having a more casual event like this every now and then instead of all long, high-stress events is great for the game, IMO.

total agreement. I really appreciate the more "pick up and play" feel of this event rather than having to manage my play schedule to life. Don't really pay attention to refreshes or whatever, whenever I pick up the game, I play a few rounds, and it's back in the money tiers. Well, back in the covers tier, anyway, but that sounds more like taking a nap.

NorthernPolarity

gamar wrote:

Phantron wrote:

NorthernPolarity wrote:

Phantron wrote:

The Don generates 2 black AP a turn and Trap uses 10 black, so it will usually be used over Devour/Payback Mission though it's hardly guaranteed.

The numbers for the mission points needs to go up by a factor of 5 for the high point rewards to be even remotely obtainable. Round 4 of Simulator Basic was significantly less than 100K put together for even the highest scoring people.

The highest scoring people in this event doesn't even mean much: with rubberbanding first place is always only going to be a thousand points above most of the pack that do even one clear a day. This event structure is just very poor in general: single main means that rubberbanding negates any leads you could get in earlier rounds, making it futile to try and extend your lead in the event, and the lack of subs means that less awards are handed out in general. I'm thinking about doing a poll after the event for people to voice whether or not they liked the event: I'm thinking that if the devs have a concentrated thread for feedback, they'll think twice about rerunning events like this given how most of the playerbase probably dislikes it compared to what we've had before.

The rubberbanding is no different than other events. While an event like Simulator Basic does allow you to build a lead over time, R4 is worth close to 50% of the total points so it's still pretty much not settled at the competitive areas until the end. That is, if you're #3 shooting for just a top 10 finish it is indeed well settled before the event ends, but if you're going for top 2, it's far from over for you or the 2 guys ahead. The problem is that these missions are actually pretty trivial overall so that there's no point to grind for a lead because anybody can beat up the 3 230X3 goons and then easily catch back up, so you might as well not bother. Even the villian fights are relatively on the easy side, as we have no Ares and relatively few apperances by Daken, and we also have Patch and OBW as buffed heroes.

Well, first off I'm not convinced that the progression rewards are unobtainable yet... isn't 2.5 days left about the time in every event where we get a mechgouki thread complaining that the progression rewards are way too high and then most of the forumites end up getting them anyways? I think 100k will be reachable, 160k probably not, but frankly the previous couple of PvEs where the very top rewards were well within everybody's grasp were a departure from the norm.

It also might be nice if each day, or every couple of days, there was a one-time node that gave a 3-star cover, 2500 iso, or a super-soldier token, just to spice it up a little. But the biggest complaint I've had about PvE events is the subevent structure makes it so you have to play on a strict schedule. This event doesn't have that. And people constantly complain about grinding, and aside from the last day or two, you can play missions for node rewards or leave them and just go for rubberbanding, depending on your taste. Rather than playing a dozen matches every twelve hours on the dot and not at all besides then, I can pick up the game whenever I want, play two or three matches, and put it down, which is really nice - I can just enjoy playing the game instead of fretting over gaming the system, at least until the last day.

I'm not sure I'd like it if every event was like this, but having a more casual event like this every now and then instead of all long, high-stress events is great for the game, IMO.

Great post. The spicy mission rewards that you were talking about are present in the more recently designed events such as simulator and brotherhood: I think the lack of them in this event is just because of how these mechanics didn't exist when this event was originally run. In terms of throwing up a casual event every once in a while, I think that personally for me, 3 day subs such as Simulator and Heroic Juggs were at a good place of casualness. Due to rubberbanding, you didn't need to join until the last couple of refreshes and grind until then, and you got a lot more subevent rewards. It does feel nice to not have to worry about grinding this event constantly though: I was completely swamped with work thursday/friday and couldn't play this event outside of doing each mission once, and I was still able to catch up on the leaderboards today. I feel bad for the people that are constantly grinding since I don't feel like I deserve to be ranked this high compared to them, but I guess they should have realized the futility of grinding to maintain first long before today.

DrNitroman

gamar wrote:

having a more casual event like this every now and then instead of all long, high-stress events is great for the game, IMO.

I'm not a great fan of "high-stress events" neither. However, this one is not only casual, it is also less interesting.
I don't know how are your brackets. I'm ranked 50 with about 30,000 (won 250 iso yeah!), #1 has 32,000. I played quietly each node once or twice but now it seems pointless to continue playing today. Nodes have very low points and I'm not sure that we can really hope a significant increase of points later.

So, stressless but rewardless?

NorthernPolarity

DrNitroman wrote:

gamar wrote:

having a more casual event like this every now and then instead of all long, high-stress events is great for the game, IMO.

I'm not a great fan of "high-stress events" neither. However, this one is not only casual, it is also less interesting.
I don't know how are your brackets. I'm ranked 50 with about 30,000 (won 250 iso yeah!), #1 has 32,000. I played quietly each node once or twice but now it seems pointless to continue playing today. Nodes have very low points and I'm not sure that we can really hope a significant increase of points later.

So, stressless but rewardless?

Yup, thats the trade-off you get for making the event more casual. If you allow everyone to catch up easily, that means that people can just slack off and ride rubberbanding to victory for progression/placement awards. You should think of being rewarded for doing the event through first time mission completion iso bonuses: use those to motivate your clear during each day, and just dont worry about grinding for placement/progression (until the last day) since those will just naturally come.

DrNitroman

NorthernPolarity wrote:

You should think of being rewarded for doing the event through first time mission completion iso bonuses: use those to motivate your clear during each day

To be fair, I'm actually happy to hoard several 500 iso rewards to feed my rooster.

It's just that I usually don't have many time to play during the week (as most of us, I guess), and as I had nothing particular to do this saturday... hum, well... today I could have grind (ground?) much more consistently

Jathro

gamar wrote:

... I can pick up the game whenever I want, play two or three matches, and put it down, which is really nice - I can just enjoy playing the game instead of fretting over gaming the system, at least until the last day.

I'm not sure I'd like it if every event was like this, but having a more casual event like this every now and then instead of all long, high-stress events is great for the game, IMO.

While I certainly can appreciate not feeling the NEED to play, there is nothing in this event that satisfies a WANT to play in it's current form. At least not if I want to be competitive (and who doesn't). It's the weekend - I have free time - yet there is nothing available to me, unless of course I want to screw up my refreshes or rubberbanding.

I want to play, yet I can't. Shouldn't a game offer something to entice you to play at all (or at least most) times?

Unknown

In Simulator Basic people were projected to finish with around 247K rating, which is 3K short of the 250K reward. That is certainly possible to make up.

Right now even if you doubled everyone's score you'd still be nohwere close to the 93333 progression reward. Sure it is always possible, especially if tomorrow all the missions are worth 1000 points base, but it sure isn't possible right now. Assuming the rubberband is based on the overall bracket leader, you can pretty much see that the main bracket leader simply doesn't have a lot of points.

I'm not opposed to reward being hard to obtain, but when nobody can obtain them, there's no point to even have them in the first place.

Unknown

Oi, Jadcho! Watch it!

Unknown

Jathro wrote:

gamar wrote:

... I can pick up the game whenever I want, play two or three matches, and put it down, which is really nice - I can just enjoy playing the game instead of fretting over gaming the system, at least until the last day.

I'm not sure I'd like it if every event was like this, but having a more casual event like this every now and then instead of all long, high-stress events is great for the game, IMO.

While I certainly can appreciate not feeling the NEED to play, there is nothing in this event that satisfies a WANT to play in it's current form. At least not if I want to be competitive (and who doesn't). It's the weekend - I have free time - yet there is nothing available to me, unless of course I want to screw up my refreshes or rubberbanding.

I want to play, yet I can't. Shouldn't a game offer something to entice you to play at all (or at least most) times?

How about grinding pvp for iso in the meantime? And if you are worried about mmr rising you can always retreat your unused roster+loan char to death either in the event or prologue pvp and then do it all over again.

I too have enjoyed the relaxed pace and goon fights for a change, especially as wolw was highly contended event.

Yay, I graduated to technician!

Unknown

Interruptor wrote:

How about grinding pvp for iso in the meantime? And if you are worried about mmr rising you can always retreat your unused roster+loan char to death either in the event or prologue pvp and then do it all over again.

PVP with Cap Inaction is mind-numbingly dull and time-consuming. Best to just get some fresh air for a few days.

Unknown

Ghast wrote:

Interruptor wrote:

How about grinding pvp for iso in the meantime? And if you are worried about mmr rising you can always retreat your unused roster+loan char to death either in the event or prologue pvp and then do it all over again.

PVP with Cap Inaction is mind-numbingly dull and time-consuming. Best to just get some fresh air for a few days.

This event is pretty dull

Copps

The new cap would be quite powerful in this event fully covered but the event itself isn't hard enough to make me feel the need to buy the covers.

Unknown

Just had an awful run vs. 200s Maggia, Bullseye and Daken

My Thor died just as he got a full charge for call of the storm, and all I had was a level 38 Loki and Level 117 boosted OBW...
35 minute stalemate of match -> healing and heat -> match -> healing and heat ->etc....

Unknown

Well, at this point, my bracket is led by someone with just 34K ponts, and the first cap is 93K, so with 2 days to go, he'd need to average 30K a day to get there. That'd be a pretty screwed up points distribution.

Unknown

Same here.

Leader in my bracket just reached 34k. I'm sitting in the low 33's and don't really have the heart to be grinding 100 pointer or less nodes to make up the few hundred points of difference at the moment.

Less than an hour from the 48h mark and the points in this event have not ramped up at all yet. With only two node refreshes remaining (assuming 24h cycles), the points on the back end of the tourney are going to be ludicrous.

Watch the pattern for the points cycle be something like --> First five cycles [35k total aggregate] + Sixth cycle [35k for this cycle alone] + Final cycle [ 3 * (35k) = 105k] to reach the higher progression tiers. 35k + 35k + 105k = 175k theoretically possible for the event.

I personally hope that its not that bad, but who am I kidding at this point?

NorthernPolarity

Hey MTGOFerret/Ghast, if you guys stop grinding I will. Lets stop this endless cycle and truce it up!

Er... shouldn't it have switched missions by now?