I wish Story was less boring to play :(

The Herald

It's got resources that I want in there, so I put up with it, but it's frequently a drag X_X

And as for trying to place? Anyone who wants extra prizes badly enough to give up their job, education, and/or family enough for that is welcome to them.

I find it rare I can bring myself to green tick an event for the experience points.

Anyone else feeling less than engaged here?

Mr_Sinister

Yep I said this just yesterday to my alliance. Standard PvE is a drag and I'm barely getting through the minimum over 24 hours.
The boss events are perfect. Challenging and minimal time investment. Standard pve should be turned into an "at your own pace" prologue like event that switches out every month. Rotate stories, create new ones, serialize it and that would be awesome. There's so much potential and it's wasted.

Tony_Foot

I enjoy it more than pvp these days but I never go for placement. If I can eat through it with a quick team I do 4 clears and go for top progression. If it's a slog I just stop at the 4 star like today.

Just take the 4 star and CP and don't get too hung up on placement and it's fun.

wirius

They need to lower the number of clears. Make it 5 clears, and the first 3 give full points. That way you can get full progression with a lot less time invested.

Jexman

It is super boring but I doubt it's in their financial interests to change much at this point. When we all quit it'll die, but until, Dark Avengers 4eva...

Tatercat

Honestly, I think it’s just these 7 day events that make PVE such a drag (and I say that as mainly a PVE player in a mainly PVE alliance). Even if you have the boosted characters champed for that event/week, more than 3-4 days using the same characters against the same enemies just gets tedious, no matter how easy it might be for your roster.

I know people don’t think the rewards are fair for a 7 day event vs a 3-4 day event (same top progression, etc etc), but I think the simple fact of getting any end of event rewards every few days rather than once a week helps it make the grind seem a lot more “eventful”. I’m trying to save a 4* cover from dying on the vine, but man it was hard to wake up and go through the same clears on a 5th day of something (or anything).

mpqr7

I'm in the same boat. I love getting tons of ISO from story mode, but I don't have 1-2 hours on the weekend to do it, and even though it drives me nutz, I'm spending most of my weekday work train commute time trying to break 1200 in PVP, or at least hit 900+.

I'm finding there are other games where you can make some progress without needing a multiple hour daily investment.

4 x 9 = 36 minimum battles per sub is a lot... 2 minutes per battle, that's over an hour. Plus there's battles #5 and 6, as well as any single-battle nodes.

stowaway

Tatercat wrote:

I know people don’t think the rewards are fair for a 7 day event vs a 3-4 day event (same top progression, etc etc), but I think the simple fact of getting any end of event rewards every few days rather than once a week helps it make the grind seem a lot more “eventful”.

I agree. Yes, it's dumb that a week with two 3/4 events gives better rewards than one with a single 7-day event. But really it's just a week of feeling like I'm slogging through the same old "story," such as it is. I don't even mind using the same characters: I just championed Punisher Max, so I'm having fun using him for what amounts to the first time ever. He's awesome. And he goes well with 4Pool and IM40.

Iso-8 Brotherhood in particular suffers from stale design choices that are as old as the game, and a "story" that doesn't feel like it has any storytelling to it. And it just gets more tedious with each passing sub. Oh, we're in Colombia now? Really? And the Dark Avengers are here? Wow, they're everywhere! If we went to Hawaii for a vacation sub halfway through the week, the Dark Avengers would be there too! But also Hood and Doom are here this time. . . because they just are, it doesn't have to make sense, shut up and clear your nodes.

Slothkins

Agreed. This current event is such a slog. Fighting the dark avengers is already about the most un-fun thing ever, multiplied by having to do it over an entire week. It's a good thing I had to spend 8 hours in a car this weekend with nothing else to do, otherwise there is no way I'd have played as far as I have. That said, I'm still stopping at the 4* progression.

Bondidude

wirius wrote:

They need to lower the number of clears. Make it 5 clears, and the first 3 give full points. That way you can get full progression with a lot less time invested.

3 clear seems to me like the magic number. About the time I've done a node 3 times, unless it's just goons getting blasted by Strange, I'm done. Too many times I've done 3 clears, thought to myself "That was the last one right?" and then groaned as I realized I had to clear that node one more time to get to 4.

Though more than anything these 7 day events, and having so many so close together it feels like, has been a real slog. Even when we're on the 3/4 day schedule you get a break on the first days because I usually join day 1 for a late flip and get some bit of a breather. Then we've had, what, 3 7-days in a month? It's just too much.

carrion_pigeons

I never liked that PvE forces you to repeat the same nodes over and over and over. I think it's exhausting and boring and I *always* fall asleep during the easy nodes. This event isn't as bad as Hulk, but it's way down there.

Design-wise, I see the appeal of making people do a node that gradually gets harder and harder. You go into a node, see what it's about in practice, and then have to gear up for the real clash on the 4th clear once you have your bearings. It makes sense, and if the story was built to establish that narrative, it wouldn't even be that unfun. But instead we get multiple nodes with no story at all, just mindless, endless grinding, and the ones that do have dialogue just repeat the same stuff over and over. Imagine if a node were some kind of tactical objective in the story, and each time you started a node the dialogue was different, and acknowledged that prior clears had happened. There is so much storytelling potential there!

I also hate that PvE has to be competitive, but that's not going away anytime soon. I love Gauntlet, and honestly think that that's a better model for PvE than anything else in the game, but even Gauntlet is so...primitive. If they could make events where the goal only needed to be to succeed once on each level, then people could afford to lose more often, and there would be more room for design experimentation. As it is, they can't design anything that deviates much from the norm, because people hate the combination of grinding and learning at the same time. You have to separate the two.

acescracked

The Herald wrote:

...
And as for trying to place? Anyone who wants extra prizes badly enough to give up their job, education, and/or family enough for that is welcome to them...

Herald thanks for looking out for us poor souls who give up everything to place. We are all uneducated, jobless and with no family. I'm thankful for free Wi-Fi at Starbucks since I'm homeless.



(reality) play pve about two hours every sub flip on pves I try to place in. T10 any I feel like playing. Though, I don't give up anything you listed above. Now I don't watch much TV or play other videogames. Maybe Herald you watch too much TV? Interesting how you post about your issues with pve while throwing a dig at people who know how to place t50, t10, whatever.

Calnexin

The Herald wrote:

And as for trying to place? Anyone who wants extra prizes badly enough to give up their job, education, and/or family enough for that is welcome to them.

I've been on holiday break from Christmas until today. Yesterday's Iso8 I 4-cleared close to start, green-checked everything with 7 hours to go, then did 1 more clear of the three highest value nodes just before end - BARELY made T50. Placement for top prizes is impossible if you're not close to optimal. If you want to place in the larger event you need a 2-3 hour chunk of time surrounding each sub start. I can't accomplish that in anything but the 11 pm timeslot, and when I've tried I fall asleep in the attempt.

I try to 4-clear, and often stop once I reach the 4* cover. That last 15 CP is a long hike with trivial prizes inbetween.

Smudge

I've started hitting that point, but I think I've uncovered the cause. PvE got to be substantially more fun as I've crept into having 11 4* champs now, but it's been a drag lately.

What's made it so mind numbing? Too many repeats of the Dark Avengers.

ISO-8 Brotherhood is the 5th Story event in a row (Galactus excluded, he doesn't really count) now that the DAs have been the primary featured enemy. We had The Hulk, Juggernaut Heroic, The Hunt, Unstable ISO-8, and now ISO-8 Brotherhood.

Sure, these events feature maybe Doom, Magneto, Kingpin, or Juggernaut here and there for "variety" if you can call it that, but after bashing my head against overscaled Rags, Moonstone, Daken, Venom, Juggs, Bullseye, et al since December 8th (!), I'm tired of it.

I love Story, and I'm not a fan of PvP. I think having two DDQs (essentially) running over the top of Galactus helped contribute to the burnout, but I agree with the sentiment of feeling exhausted by it. If we swapped it for something a little more compelling... shoot, at this point, I think I'd take the hell of Simulator, DPvMPQ, or Gauntlet over this nonsense. Stop making me fight these jokers!

My typical play is 4x clears every day with maybe green checks if I feel like it. I've completely skipped two days of ISO-8 Brotherhood, which is not like me at all.

Pope Belligerent

Smudge wrote:

... shoot, at this point, I think I'd take the hell of Simulator, DPvMPQ, or Gauntlet over this nonsense.

Your wish is granted!

Pongie

mpqr7 wrote:

I'm in the same boat. I love getting tons of ISO from story mode, but I don't have 1-2 hours on the weekend to do it, and even though it drives me nutz, I'm spending most of my weekday work train commute time trying to break 1200 in PVP, or at least hit 900+.

Funny that you mentioned this. Back when it was 8hr clears, my to/from train commute was my prime pve time. Now, I'm playing pvp during then too.

The Herald

acescracked wrote:

The Herald wrote:

...
And as for trying to place? Anyone who wants extra prizes badly enough to give up their job, education, and/or family enough for that is welcome to them...

Herald thanks for looking out for us poor souls who give up everything to place. We are all uneducated, jobless and with no family. I'm thankful for free Wi-Fi at Starbucks since I'm homeless.



(reality) play pve about two hours every sub flip on pves I try to place in. T10 any I feel like playing. Though, I don't give up anything you listed above. Now I don't watch much TV or play other videogames. Maybe Herald you watch too much TV? Interesting how you post about your issues with pve while throwing a dig at people who know how to place t50, t10, whatever.

I know how to top 5.

I did it once, grabbed some RHulk covers I needed.

IT WAS BORING.

It is boring and time consuming, being my point.

If I watched more TV, I would probably be able to play more Puzzle Quest. I play on commute, grab some games in work, and polish stuff off watching TV after work. That's actually an alarming amount of time wasted on a mobile game. What am I getting for it? Not even green ticks in PvE, 900-ish in PvP, DDQ done.

The mind boggles at how much time it would take to commit to high placing in PvE. Although with a cool character release starting I get to try and find it X_X

phiwalker

I've been playing for about...maybe 6 months now. And last week I said this week was my final one for awhile. For this very reason.

It's boring. I'm still low on the totem of having good people, and certainly no 4*'s beyond maybe 2 covers. So it takes me about 2 hours to do the 4/6 clear. Sometimes 3.

If I grind them down to 1, it takes another (overall total) maybe 2-3 hours. Faster than some, slower than others.

What annoys me is you give us a 7 day event that consists of SEVEN 24 hour subs. So we have to do this 7 days in a row. That's just giving a middle finger to your fan base that wants not only diversity, but a more relaxed playing experience.

It's almost always the same on top of it. Main part, finish requirements, then do 9 nodes, 6 regular, 3 character specific. 4/6 for progression rewards and more to try and place. I'm still on the ISO Brotherhood since I always join the 2AM slice. But I'm about done. It's not fun and feels like a chore.

If this was maybe once or twice a year okay, but this is what 3 or 4 in the last month or two. That's ridiculous.

The boss rush events, I would welcome over this.
Heck, the events we have where the alliance works together and takes the boss down should be your default event. It's more laid back, easier to manage with scheduling, and actually makes having the alliance fun, and promotes working together.

Instead of 7 days events of
1 day sub.
1 day sub.
1 day sub.
1 day sub.
1 day sub.
1 day sub.
1 day sub.

That's annoying to type, let alone play.

If you're going to do a week long event, put two 2 day subs in there at least. 3 would be perfect.
2 day sub
2 day sub
2 day sub
1 day sub to end on.

I don't care about ISO shortage, nor the covers I get, nor that I have 15 Daken in my inventory because I can't get his last purple.
I care that the events are boring, and repetitive, time consuming over being fun.

I like others have put money into this game, like my completion, more than some, less than others, but I don't want to walk away from the game.

It's just not fun to play.
And having the 4th week long event with seven 24 hour subs in recent memory is making me want to wash my hands of this.

richterbelmont10

Story is boring and tedious. I read the dialogue many times and I now skip them all, even the hilarious Deadpool. I'm sick of fighting 2* Daken and 2* Bullseye. Playing every node 4x is boring and annoying. Sometimes I try to use different characters to make things interesting, but it doesn't work. It just makes the fight last longer!

Saeva

phiwalker wrote:

I've been playing for about...maybe 6 months now. And last week I said this week was my final one for awhile. For this very reason. It's boring. I'm still low on the totem of having good people, and certainly no 4*'s beyond maybe 2 covers. So it takes me about 2 hours to do the 4/6 clear. Sometimes 3. If I grind them down to 1, it takes another (overall total) maybe 2-3 hours. Faster than some, slower than others. What annoys me is you give us a 7 day event that consists of SEVEN 24 hour subs. So we have to do this 7 days in a row. That's just giving a middle finger to your fan base that wants not only diversity, but a more relaxed playing experience. [...]

The boss rush events, I would welcome over this. Heck, the events we have where the alliance works together and takes the boss down should be your default event. It's more laid back, easier to manage with scheduling, and actually makes having the alliance fun, and promotes working together. [...] I don't care about ISO shortage, nor the covers I get, nor that I have 15 Daken in my inventory because I can't get his last purple.
I care that the events are boring, and repetitive, time consuming over being fun. I like others have put money into this game, like my completion, more than some, less than others, but I don't want to walk away from the game. It's just not fun to play.

While more boss events in addition to PvE would be fun there's already a game mode for people who only want to play a few matches at a time, an hour or so a day, and don't care about ISO shortages, cover progression, or anything except a lack of diversity in game play:

PVP.

In PvP you rarely see the Dark Avengers unless Ares or Daken are Boosted, you have the challenge of working with and/or around of required character, and you can progress a few matches -- 10 or 15 minutes -- at a time if you choose. It's exactly the less time demanding, less repetitive gameplay you're championing for without sacrificing a gameplay mode that plenty of players enjoy or, at least, willingly play for the reward scheme.

For those of us who do need ISO to build and Champ our 4 s, for those of us who do want more 4 covers that are easily accessible through straight game play, and for those of us who want to spend time actually playing a game they like there's PvE. It works out pretty balanced, in the sense of offering two options for two different types of players with different goals and/or desired gameplay experiences.

I don't want a "more relaxed playing experience" from this match-3 game because I can get that from, oh, nearly every single other match-3 currently available on Android. I went through probably 20 match-3 games trying to find one that was less relaxed and more involved before I found this game and I know I'm not the only one.

There are plenty of problems with this game and all the repetition is certainly up there -- everyone, including t10-t50 PvE players like me, are sick of the tinykitty Dark Avengers -- but crippling a play mode that already exists instead of adding a new play mode, as the recent survey suggests might happen, isn't going to help anyone.

Though, for the record, even with 6+ Champed 4 characters PvE still takes 90-120 minutes to get through 4x play because as your roster grows so does your scaling. It's not going to get easier or quicker. So, if you're not having fun you might want to walk away for a while, yes, or switch over to trying at PvP and Season Sim. And if that's still too much commitment, that's cool. I suggest switching to Blossom Blast, Genies & Gems, Super Monsters Ate My Condo, Pastry Paradise, Best Fiends, Sugar Smash, Farm Heroes Saga, etc. There's many, many casual match-3 games out there, after all.

Philly484

The only thing that has become boring is the far and few between of new PVE content they add. While I have been playing for little over 2 years, I am fine with the PVE mechanics as they are now, but do wish for a lot more story development. I think now the game has taken off, probably a lot better than what the devs anticipated, They have a lot of new story lines they can work. I would personally like to see a Secret Wars event and I hope the previous poll that D3 had was an elude to this story line. Plus there def needs to be a conclusion to Dr. Strange story as it just ends and you get nothing as to what happens to Kaescillius.