Strange Sights Event Updates (2/10/17)

Brigby

Hey Everyone,

Below is a list of changes that have been done to the Strange Sights Story Event since the last time it was run:

• Updated Artifact Vaults

o Requires completion of the last mission of a Sub-Chapter to Unlock. o Each Vault...

- 21 Items - 1 Mordo (Master of the Mystic Arts) cover - 1 Doctor Strange Cover - 3-Star Covers, 2-Star Covers, Iso-8, and Elite Tokens

• Reduced scaling on Sentry minions to be in line with other minions.
• The story now branches correctly from day to day. You can now find out how it ends!
• Kaecilius

o Completion of this mission now gives 3,500 Iso-8 o

Shape Reality: A passive that creates 1 Strike tile each turn
o Forbidden Power: Deals damage plus additional damage for Kaecilius' Strike tiles. No longer destroys strike tiles when fired.
o Invincible: Prevents all Damage to Kaecilius. Damage is dealt to Kaecilius whenever any of Kaecilius' Strike tiles are matched (by you or by Kaecilius himself).

- Damage is dealt to Kaecilius multiple times if multiple tiles are matched at once.

Punisher5784

Brigby wrote:

• Reduced scaling on Sentry minions to be in line with other minions.

• Kaecilius

o Completion of this mission now gives 3,500 Iso-8 o

Shape Reality: A passive that creates 1 Strike tile each turn
o Forbidden Power: Deals damage plus additional damage for Kaecilius' Strike tiles. No longer destroys strike tiles when fired.
o Invincible: Prevents all Damage to Kaecilius. Damage is dealt to Kaecilius whenever any of Kaecilius' Strike tiles are matched (by you or by Kaecilius himself).

- Damage is dealt to Kaecilius multiple times if multiple tiles are matched at once.

Great changes!

Sentries, they should actually be lower in scaling than other minions since they can move tiles unlike a normal minion.

As far as Kaecilius, does the node still lock if we cannot beat him or can we keep trying? I would hate to miss out on the much needed Iso.

mpqr7

Now, you can use Mr. F instead of QS to beat Kaecilius!

stochasticism

How much will pulls from the 21 item vaults cost?

Skrofa

Is there a difference in total points depending which door we go through first?
(Might be a silly question, but, oh well)

fmftint

Ultron Sentry scaling was in line with other minions, it was their health/power curve that was out of line.

Bowgentle

fmftint wrote:

Ultron Sentry scaling was in line with other minions, it was their health/power curve that was out of line.

We know they have a problem with words, so I'm willing to believe that they fixed the issue.
We'll see soon enough.

CNash

Was the ending created along with the rest of the story when it was first run last year (and it not playing was a bug), or was it an oversight and has now been added on to the existing event? Enquiring minds want to know!

Crowl

Brigby wrote:

• Kaecilius

o Completion of this mission now gives 3,500 Iso-8 o

Shape Reality: A passive that creates 1 Strike tile each turn
o Forbidden Power: Deals damage plus additional damage for Kaecilius' Strike tiles. No longer destroys strike tiles when fired.
o Invincible: Prevents all Damage to Kaecilius. Damage is dealt to Kaecilius whenever any of Kaecilius' Strike tiles are matched (by you or by Kaecilius himself).

- Damage is dealt to Kaecilius multiple times if multiple tiles are matched at once.

Bleh, shame that tile destruction still doesn't work on them, it would have allowed us far more flexibility in our choice of teams.

Vhailorx

The change list looks pretty good (though you had to take the LT out of each vault?!)

Hope everything runs smoothly this time, and I hope the event has an ending worthy of all this pent up suspense!

waywreth

This looks great so far. I was really disappointed to get to the end last time and not have any kind of ending (yes, I actually read them). I'm hopeful these changes make it a fun event.

Brigby

Punisher5784 wrote:

As far as Kaecilius, does the node still lock if we cannot beat him or can we keep trying? I would hate to miss out on the much needed Iso.

stochasticism wrote:

How much will pulls from the 21 item vaults cost?

Good questions! I'll reach out to the developers, and let everyone know what they say when I hear back from them.

JHawkInc

Brigby wrote:

Punisher5784 wrote:

As far as Kaecilius, does the node still lock if we cannot beat him or can we keep trying? I would hate to miss out on the much needed Iso.

stochasticism wrote:

How much will pulls from the 21 item vaults cost?

Good questions! I'll reach out to the developers, and let everyone know what they say when I hear back from them.

Could you also ask what will happen with sub events and their rewards?

Last time things were a little crazy. Since you get to choose the order you do sub events, it really screwed up the rewards system. Compare to, say, Hearts of Darkness. End of day 1, first sub event ends, an alliance's 20 scores are added, placement determined, awards given out. Easy.

But Strange Sights has three sub events going on at the same time. So at the end of Day 1, you have Day 1 ending for everyone at the same time like normal, but depending on which path you picked in the game, you're either in Day 1a, 1b, or 1c. These scores are calculated separately for alliance scores, which can vastly alter placement for the individual days themselves, depending on how the individuals in the alliance pick their paths (the event is described as "pick your own path", but the reality is that the alliance will do better together if they all pick the same paths, in the same order, and you are punished for picking your own path if it deviates from your alliance).

Basically, it's weird and wonky and didn't appear balanced well. The "solution" last time was for every placement reward to be the same, so sub event placement didn't matter, and you got the same awards each day regardless of placement (so 15 players in the alliance going for Day 1a got the same rewards as 4 players completing Day 1b, and 1 player completing Day 1c, regardless of how well they did; then the process repeated for days 2/3, adding up that every player that played the event, across EVERY alliance in the game, got the same placement rewards for the sub events each day).

Of course, the devs called this a "bug" at the time. The reality is that the system wasn't set up for some people to be completing different sub events on the same day, and it wasn't all ironed out in time for Strange Sights to launch. We were worried about it as an alliance family, and the "all sub events have the same rewards "bug" thing" balanced it out last time.

Have they fixed this situation for the upcoming run? Or are the sub event alliance placement rewards going to be the same across all placements like last time to avoid the discrepancy altogether? (and by that regard, what would the alliance placement rewards be for the SUB events?)

They tried something new last time, and it was awesome (shame we haven't seen more Mindless Ones in the game since the first run of Strange Sights, really and truly), but it wasn't fully polished out, the devs called the fix a "bug", and never actually addressed any complaints that were raised, in regards to the sub events.

The posted changes and improvements are appreciated and welcomed, but it feels odd to complement the new lamp and better lighting when there's still an elephant in the room crushing the sofa, you know?

zodiac339

mpqr7 wrote:

Now, you can use Mr. F instead of QS to beat Kaecilius!

And, sir. The swapping powers are different colors, so Mr F and QS can be a swapping team.

Pwuz_

zodiac339 wrote:

mpqr7 wrote:

Now, you can use Mr. F instead of QS to beat Kaecilius!

And, sir. The swapping powers are different colors, so Mr F and QS can be a swapping team.

And Bagman makes 3!

Who says that Bagman's got no place on a team? Not me.

Lampo

Pwuz_ wrote:

Who says that Bagman's got no place on a team? Not me.

Reality does.

CNash

Bagman counts as a member of the Fantastic Four for the purposes of Mr. F's yellow, too!

LLohm

I wish for a reset vault button ... please make it so.

shimmeryphil

While the changes sounds good, are the two Dr Strange covers up for grabs through progression really both yellow? Because that's what the preview shows.

hodayathink

shimmeryphil wrote:

While the changes sounds good, are the two Dr Strange covers up for grabs through progression really both yellow? Because that's what the preview shows.

Ever since the start of clearance levels, the 2 3* progression covers have always been the same color. The only reason people don't notice it more is because they either have the characters champed or, in the case of the first runs with Thanos and Strange, they have so few covers that they can use both of them anyway.

Quebbster

hodayathink wrote:

shimmeryphil wrote:

While the changes sounds good, are the two Dr Strange covers up for grabs through progression really both yellow? Because that's what the preview shows.

Ever since the start of clearance levels, the 2 3* progression covers have always been the same color. The only reason people don't notice it more is because they either have the characters champed or, in the case of the first runs with Thanos and Strange, they have so few covers that they can use both of them anyway.

Yup. My 3/3/1 Strange certainly isn't complaining about two more yellow covers, but I can see why it would be a concern for others.