Is Boss Event Side Node Time Based Scaling Necessary?

GurlBYE

What are some of your opinions on it?

This is the one aspect of boss battles that makes no sense.

Every other part of boss battle events encourages participation by as many members of your alliance as possible, on as many levels of roster, but this one.

You gain points for partial completion of the boss You can use multiple variations of a character when it's applicable The rewards are based on alliance progression (well besides the 5 star boss rush, but let's just not revisit that at all in any capacity)

However for no apparent reason, every single 8 hour segment of the event, basically makes each side node more and more tedious, limiting options in an event type that is famous for favoring about 5 team combinations.

Boss events already have no SCL levels and the ISO was pitiful.

I just simply cannot wrap my head around what makes these nodes scaling a good thing, especially when they often require at least 1 to 2 4 stars, which if you have 1 cover, become deadweight anyhow.

It'd be a very different matter if you could use anyone you wanted on these nodes. But at the moment its the one thing that consistently gives me the idea that if you play later in the event, you may as well not bother, nodes get more tedious, and if your roster isn't up to par everything is just a giant health sponge before the actual "challenge" comes.

I personally would rather the events start and end consistently instead of ramping up with no real reason. We're here for the boss anyhow.

revskip

What method would you prefer to gate the rewards behind? Remember that the devs have a percentage of players who they want achieving maximum rewards and that they are creating the event in a way to have roughly that many players get there. Outside of leveling the side nodes what would you do to make it so that x% of the player base gets to the top tier rewards.

The top alliances will all defeat both sides of the event regardless of scaling. The most casual alliances would struggle to finish round 5 on either side regardless of scaling. Getting that sweet spot for everyone else is a tough ask if you don't use the scaling as a gating mechanic.

Mind you I'm not necessarily saying that the amount of rewards the devs are offering up are commiserate with what the player base wants, just what they are comfortable with giving out.

Dragon_Nexus

I've made a topic like this a while ago.

I don't know why they can't apply the scaling, but simply increase the base level of the minions depending on which round you're on.

So if, for example, my scaling would add 50 levels onto a minion, start round 1 with all the minions at base level 10, so I'm fighting level 60s. It's round 1, it should be easier. Then add some levels to the base level for each new round, so maybe round 2 has base level 30, so now they're level 80. Then round 3 they're 50 bumped to 100. Round 4 is 90 bumped to 140, and so on and so on.

I'm guessing scaling doesn't work by simply adding a set number onto a base number but works instead through an equation that scales exponentially (so 10 would bump up to 20, but 30 might bump up to 80 for example). You can still do that, just make the base level increase gradually.

In every single boss event I've complained about the stupidity of increasing the scaling based on time because that's when they *think* you'll have hit a boss round high enough to warrant such scaling. But instead if I started doing Team Cap instead of Iron Man I'm fighting a level 200 boss surrounded by level 302 minions. Whut?

StarScream

The scaling is horrible. Pulling and 0'fer against Black Panther, ***Iron Man, and ****Hulk. That is sad. To make up for it, make the rewards better. 140 iso at 325500 is a slap in the face. 250 at 465500 is a kick to the huevos. At least give elite tokens.

The good news is another event starts tomorrow. I won't even have to think of how much more outrageous the scaling will get. Too bad too because I wanted that first Squirrel Girl cover.

fmftint

The scaling curve has been altered greatly since the last boss event, Galactus Hungers, so the devs are at least trying to get it right. My first thought would be they didn't test with higher levelrosters... Again

Pants1000

If it was based on the level you're on, then people could do the side nodes on IM then switch over to Cap for the boss, or vice-versa. People would also complain if they were a weaker member of their alliance and the alliance was on round 7/8.

It's really not that different from a normal PVE where half of the nodes are easy, and the other half are scaled close to the players level. It's just different because they're split based on time rather than all on the screen at once.

One option would be to have the 5 nodes scaled like a normal PVE, so every 8 hour round had easy and hard side nodes, but then some people would complain that the side nodes are too hard at first, when the boss is still a pushover.

Personally I'm fine with it as-is. I'd rather the devs worked on more important things rather than changing this to something else that would probably get just as many complaints.

Dragon_Nexus

StarScream wrote:

140 iso at 325500 is a slap in the face.

Can we just agree as a species not to say "slap in the face" any more? It's so over used and it's bordering on meaningless at this point...

StarScream

Dragon_Nexus wrote:

StarScream wrote:

140 iso at 325500 is a slap in the face.

Can we just agree as a species not to say "slap in the face" any more? It's so over used and it's bordering on meaningless at this point...

No.

Dragon_Nexus

Pants1000 wrote:

If it was based on the level you're on, then people could do the side nodes on IM then switch over to Cap for the boss, or vice-versa. People would also complain if they were a weaker member of their alliance and the alliance was on round 7/8.

Thing is, that's an issue *only* with Civil War. All other boss fights don't have the flip flop problem since they're just one boss and one set of pins.

jredd

is this why my round 3 side nodes for cap are up to 350? after my round 7 side nodes for im were at 350?

round 3 cap boss is level 200. makes no sense.

Akari

aesthetocyst wrote:

Necessary? Without scaling this wouldn't be an MPQ event. This game sold its soul to scaling years ago.

The problem isn't the scaling itself, it's the degree.

Barely halfway through the event, and the scaling 'ceiling' is up to 432. And will go higher for the highest rosters.

I think you worded it wrong. The level scaling isn't the problem... it's the exponential growth that enemies get when they're overscaled. Looking at Moonstone with her 50-60k HP is a clear sign of this. It's not as bad as the Mindless Ones were in the Strange event, but it's still absolutely ****.

smoq84

The idea of time based scaling is insane. Boss is scaled up between the rounds and so should be with support battles.
In actual form players with lower rosters can play only for the first 24 hours regardless of the current round.

mpqr7

You can have it scale, but there should be a max somewhere that's not so ridiculous. Fighting opponents with 30,000 to 40,000 hit points, doing 8,000 aoe damage is a bit much. And it was probably worse for people with even higher rosters than mine.

madok

mpqr7 wrote:

You can have it scale, but there should be a max somewhere that's not so ridiculous. Fighting opponents with 30,000 to 40,000 hit points, doing 8,000 aoe damage is a bit much. And it was probably worse for people with even higher rosters than mine.

I ran into a 2* storm that did a 10,000+ wind storm. I WANT that on my team.

JackTenrec

smoq84 wrote:

The idea of time based scaling is insane. Boss is scaled up between the rounds and so should be with support battles.
In actual form players with lower rosters can play only for the first 24 hours regardless of the current round.

I have one of the best rosters in my (admittedly very casual) alliance, and I could not beat about 40% of the side missions by the end of the event where we were trying to just push over the line to close out round 5. I've got just about everything 3* champed (except for new characters like Strange and Thanos) and exactly two 4* champs (Cho and Fury) and I was facing level 300-320 side missions. If I ever got to the boss fight, I could clear it with ease, but I burnt through all of my health packs just trying to beat the IW/IF/Nova fight -- and it was a freaking wave node.

GrumpySmurf1002

mpqr7 wrote:

And it was probably worse for people with even higher rosters than mine.

I was facing 55k+ worth of Quake/RHulk/HB as the second wave of a node where the first set of characters didn't have an active purple and only one active red. Basically got insta-smashed by a 12k Earthquake repeatedly.

I couldn't clear the last refresh waves, Phoenix along with a 65k+ Hulk to deal with is just mean, especially when you have to use a 3* as a featured.