What if we all did S.H.I.E.L.D. training for a week?

Unknown

So the problem with S.H.I.E.L.D. training is there doesn't seem to be enough people pushing for the higher ranks, and there is a shortage of points available once you reach a certain score. The top player right now has ~1400 so you can't really progress much further than this because the point rewards dry up. What if we got a large number of people to make a coordinated effort to play for a period of time? Could we increase the pool of points available and make the higher progression awards attainable?

kalex716

People just use it to tank their scores so in other more lucrative Events they get matched up with poorer opponents (because all pvp is linked).

If they fix this "tanking" mechanic/loop hole, it might grow in points.

Unknown

There would have to be an influx of players at the bottom if we wanted to inject points into the system. Otherwise, the peeps at the top just feed off each other. It's very much a pyramid scheme.

And to what end? It would be a massive coordinated effort to get the points up and for what? The first 3* cover isn't until 2400. The ISO isn't even all that appealing until 2100. Like it or not, the Training is going to be a place to slow-tank and get the occasional ISO when nothing else is going on.

Unknown

Even that top player would have to push for almost another 1,000 points before he got more than a trickle of iso. Even if we did coordinate to push the points higher, for the time and effort to get 1,000 points in SHIELD training each of those players could grab themselves a load of HP and a bundle of 3* covers in Lightning Rounds and normal PVPs

Unknown

300HP, 2 Spidey covers, 3 GSBW covers, a bunch of ISO.

My understanding is that PVP is not a zero-sum game. That is, more points are awarded to the winner than are lost by the loser. So the more people playing, the more points are available.

I guess from the lack of enthusiasm so far, this idea isn't likely to get a large following

Unknown

Unless you have a deep roster of lvl 141s, grinding out high level SimTraining rewards would just be disastrous on your persistent MMR, and make it really difficult to win prizes in timed events.

Unknown

Wait technically many people are using the simulator. And if it is not zero sum everyone tanking over and over should be adding points back into the system with each retreat?

Unless it is zero sum and the only way to add points is add more bodies into the mix. Hmm, this might be an interesting study...we need to know more

Unknown

It's not zero sum under 500 points. It's zero sum above that. So most of what we were doing would be zero sum. Those of us at the bottom retreating (I'm under 100 points at this point) are actually doing more to inject points into the system then your plan would.

Unknown

Ahh but if we all tank down to sub 500 we will need to go back up or else all the points generated at the bottom will stay there

Unknown

Ben Grimm wrote:

It's not zero sum under 500 points. It's zero sum above that. So most of what we were doing would be zero sum.

That's the real limitation of the system then. The top scores are basically determined by how broad the user base is below 500 points.

Unknown

Cryptobrancus wrote:

Ahh but if we all tank down to sub 500 we will need to go back up or else all the points generated at the bottom will stay there

The points go to whoever we tank against, so that might be all over the place.

In any case, the amount of collusion you'd have to do to get this to the point where you get some pretty good covers is probably way, way more trouble than it is worth. The thing they really need to do is remove point losses from losses in SHIELD, and that way they become long-term goals everyone can aspire to. The unachievable rewards are pretty good, but they're not game-breaking or anything.

Unknown

A long time ago I played up to 1000 points. Besides the rewards all it did was to put me into MMR Hell.
This was relatively early in my playing days, so was a major setback for tournament PVPs.
My 1* team facing only maxed 2* teams and better. Thanks SHIELD training!
The next useful cover for me is at 2400 points anyway.
I am now on a grand total of 20 points.
You can guess what happened in between.

Unknown

When shields first came out people colluded indirectly to help each other reach the top awards. For a while, you could put in a tank team and it would still show up, and shielding did not remove you from the visible player pool. For a week or so we were all leapfrogging each other up to the top Black Widow awards. Back then there were a bunch of 500 HP nodes rewarded as well...the true prizes.

With the changes made to shielding now, this is no longer a viable strategy, and since all the 500 HP rewards were removed, there is no incentive for players to grind to the top, not to mention now that we all have a better understanding of how MMR works SHIELD training is probably the last place you want to play to ruin your MMR rating

Unknown

I made it up to 2400 about a week after S.H.I.E.L.D. shields were no longer a thing. Spent an evening grinding 1pt matches before saying tinykitty this tinykitty in the tinykitty tinykitty.

Unknown

tbh Shields are much more interesting when you can still see and hit shielded players. Maybe you can't hit a tank team anymore so why not allow shielded people to be targeted

uuddlrlr

The top scores were a lot higher when shields were allowed.

So no veteran players spend their time in SHIELD training in between events?

Unknown

uuddlrlr wrote:

The top scores were a lot higher when shields were allowed.

So no veteran players spend their time in SHIELD training in between events?

Not really. We usually have enough events going on to keep me occupied.

Dormammu

uuddlrlr wrote:

The top scores were a lot higher when shields were allowed.

So no veteran players spend their time in SHIELD training in between events?

I didn't even know there still was a SHIELD training area.

Unknown

uuddlrlr wrote:

The top scores were a lot higher when shields were allowed.

So no veteran players spend their time in SHIELD training in between events?

It's a total waste of time. I'm not sure why it's still in the game. I suspect they don't want to remove it without cooking up a replacement system, but the game would be better off with it gone. It doesn't ease newbies into pvp. 2 day events are just as challenging and give better rewards. It's of no interest to vets beyond tanking. It's just bizarre they keep around an introductory pvp thing that makes the game look worse than it is.

Pwuz_

The rewards are so unobtainable right now. If they took away the point penalty for being attacked (just in Shield Training), or at least lowered it, it would allow people to reach those rewards again.

I mean, it is "Training," right? Why such a harsh penalty?

New plan in honor of this thread. I'm just going to start throwing away everyone in my roster starting from the bottom at whoever is below me in SHIELD Training. If I can't make it to the top, I'll make it to the bottom instead!