Fixing scaling/MMR traps via deploys

philosorapt0r

So, one of the surveyed-about possible upcoming features is some sort of 'deploy' system, where characters are sent off to do missions (presumably in the fashion of Final Fantasy Tactics, Marvel: Avengers Alliance, etc.) for some eventual reward.

Now, one of the most common complaints/regrets voiced is people who are unhappy that their scaling (or MMR) is too high for them to effectively use a large portion of their roster, who are effectively locked-in to always using their highest-star characters. When 5* players are wistful for *heroics* because it is their only opportunity for scaling low enough to use most of their roster, it's clear that the game would be more fun if there were a way for players to intentionally lower their scaling. Of course, it wouldn't really work to let people have low scaling while having high-level characters, since the game would just become face-roll easy.

What if the upcoming deploy/mission system were set up to let you deploy/lock-out as many of your characters as you choose (on an event-by-event basis, perhaps, if scaling needs to be tied to the event, rather than calculated on-the-fly), and then scaling were determined by your available characters (ala heroics)? Then there would be a simple fix for anyone whose roster development has made their game less fun through scaling. Wish you didn't have a 375 OML and Phoenix forcing you to use them every match? Just deploy them, and play with your 3/4* scaling again (but on an even footing with 3/4* players). Your 270 Mr. Fantastic and Elektra are your only boosted 4s for an event, turning your scaling into a nightmare since you still don't want to use them? Just lock them out.

It would take some new interface work, but (a) we know the team is already looking at new features like this, and (b) the appeal of the game comes from interesting team variety, and 5* scaling + the glacial rate of developing a broad 5* roster means that players are basically stuck playing the first 5s they level over and over and over. (Yes, the same is true with the first high-level characters at any tier, but 3* and 4* transitions happen in a way that means the time from having one champ to having 6-10 is relatively short, whereas it might be 6 months of CP hoarding before one can develop another 5*, let alone a roster deep enough for an interesting range of team choices.)

Is there a downside I am missing (other than development cost) to making this new system into a roll-your-own-heroic/set-your-own-scaling like this?

amusingfoo1

The only big problem I see is player confusion, particularly for people just learning the game. Perhaps that could be alleviated via only opening it up as a feature in events at, say, CL7.

adamdivine

I like it. I have said for a while that we need some sort of locker to place toons in that remove them from our scaling. Maybe the deployment system would fill this function