Why are certain ability covers alliance-only?

Zifna

I think most people are unhappy at the fact that you can no longer get 3 3*** covers as a solo player, but even if you want to mandate large alliances for success in this game, it seems needlessly punitive to make the same color cover the alliance reward time and time again. Why not rotate it?

Unknown

They're trying to force people into large alliances. Pure cashgrab.

Unknown

Yeah, it sucks. My Cap is sitting at 3/5/3 and a bunch of extra yellows. When I saw the second round of heroics not alternate colours it was the first time I've ever contemplated quitting.

My alliance has been good in the past but I think just combined with a "horrible" event and "horrible" prize, there was complete apathy (in quotes because Cap is actually my most anticipated hero). I was ready to 141 Cap day 1, but now I'm pretty disappointed.

I don't mind progress being slowed, but this is effectively being stopped completely if there's no way to win certain covers at all.

Unknown

It wouldn't bug me as much if they were better about rotating covers, but I'm getting these tremendously lopsided characters due to this. My LazyCap is 2/5/1. My LazyThor is 0/3/3. My Hulk is 5/2/2, and liable to get to 5/3/2, where I haven't gotten a black cover since the original second run of the Hulk event. Of all the LazyCap events we've had (and we've had at least 5), only one has let solo players get blue covers.

Unknown

Ben Grimm wrote:

They're trying to force people into large alliances. Pure cashgrab.

My alliance is 20/20 so even that is not a guarantee. Only top 100 get it, so 2000 people if my math is correct.

Unknown

ihearthawthats wrote:

Ben Grimm wrote:

They're trying to force people into large alliances. Pure cashgrab.

My alliance is 20/20 so even that is not a guarantee. Only top 100 get it, so 2000 people if my math is correct.

Exactly. 20-person alliances aren't even guaranteed covers yet. They'll "let" you expand them to 25 soon, and there will be a rush, and then 25-person alliances will start getting left out. This is a goldmine for D3.

Unknown

If they increase the size limits again, with all the work we have been putting in to get our alliance up to competitive size, I would figuratively cry and then literally hand my alliance spot over to someone else and enjoy the freedom of not playing for a while.

Unknown

This disparity is exacerbated by the fact that it's one of Cap's best covers (especially with the 3* upgrade), and that it basically needs to be at 5 to be effective. I really want to have a 3* Cap in fighting form, but I'm not going to blow 5k Herobucks just because they decided to make his blue power an alliance exclusive.

This is exactly what people were worried about happening when alliances were mentioned; the game being restructured so that competitive alliance play becomes mandatory to advancement. A very ill omen.

Zifna

Ben Grimm wrote:

It wouldn't bug me as much if they were better about rotating covers, but I'm getting these tremendously lopsided characters due to this. My LazyCap is 2/5/1. My LazyThor is 0/3/3. My Hulk is 5/2/2, and liable to get to 5/3/2, where I haven't gotten a black cover since the original second run of the Hulk event. Of all the LazyCap events we've had (and we've had at least 5), only one has let solo players get blue covers.

Yeah, you are telling me. My Hulk is 3/2/0, and the black ability is the one I want most anyway. =(

It is really making me have negative feelings toward this game. Extreme anti-fun.

Unknown

Ben Grimm wrote:

They're trying to force people into large alliances. Pure cashgrab.

It's always about the money.

Same reason Kentucky pulls in five all-americans every year.

Same reason I drag myself out of bed every morning to stare at an excel spreadsheet for 10 hours.

***

It's not all bad though... when I was in Puerto Rico for a bachelor party, didn't play a single node for four days. Came home with a hangover that lasted longer than my trip, but woke up to blue cap covers, and a boatload of iso and HP I had only partially helped to earn.

Hit the forums, find some like minded people who are willing to outlay a bunch of HP upfront for long lasting benefits that a strong alliance provides going forward. If you're too casual for spending HP, then missing out on a cover shouldn't bother you : )

Unknown

Nah. We're not complaining about missing a single cover. We're complaining about missing the same cover every time. An important distinction.

OnesOwnGrief

<.< I wish Hulk Green was an alliance only award... I've been sitting at a 5/0/0 hulk since the start of the last hulk event.

HailMary

There was one event (or two?) where yellow Shieldbro was the alliance cover reward, but yeah, we could use more color rotation.

As for Hulk, we've only seen two Hulk-rewarding covers with alliance rewards. They could very well switch it up for a future event.

Unknown

HailMary wrote:

There was one event (or two?) where yellow Shieldbro was the alliance cover reward, but yeah, we could use more color rotation.

I don't think this is true. His initial release through PvE had his blue ability as an alliance reward. Each Venom round and Bad is Good have done the same. That only leaves one PvP tournament paying out in Cap'n unaccounted for, and I'm pretty sure it had the exact same prize structure as Bad is Good. I know, for instance, that I came in top 25 and got a single red cover for it.

Unknown

Sorry, my memory has failed me. Best There Is did indeed offer yellow as alliance and blue as top ten. Apologies.

Unknown

For me it actually feels like it spreads out the rewards. In the past you only got that one coveted cover if you were in the top 5 or whatever. Giving alliance rewards (to the top 100 alliances no less) spreads out that third cover to a much larger group of people.

Unknown

I'd love to see a general policy of full rotation... for each sequence of three events with a character as the prize, each color should get one turn as the lower individual prize, one as the higher individual prize, and one as the alliance prize. Then repeat. The advantage to being super competitive as both an individual and an alliance is you get everything faster, but less hardcore players can still slowly work up their array of covers by placing, say, top 50 in a bunch of events.

Zifna

rabscutle wrote:

For me it actually feels like it spreads out the rewards. In the past you only got that one coveted cover if you were in the top 5 or whatever. Giving alliance rewards (to the top 100 alliances no less) spreads out that third cover to a much larger group of people.

Kind of irrelevant if getting it or not isn't entirely in the player's control, don't you think? At least from a frustration perspective.

Let's put it another way - lets' say D3 decided to double the number of third-covers they handed out, but decided to hand them out 100% randomly. Participating in an event at all gave you a shot, but nothing you could do would make getting the cover any more likely or possible, when previously you could put in a lot of effort and get the covers you really cared about. Would that feel positive to you?

To elaborate, let's say an event is handing out covers for Gray Suit Black Widow, a character I'm not really focusing on. I likely won't bust my butt too much to get to the top of the charts - the covers will probably go to people who really want them. Conversely, if an event offers more Magneto covers, I'll definitely put in more effort and have a pretty good shot at getting them. Giving out more covers to people who don't necessarily care about them doesn't seem like a positive move, especially because you could finish first in your bracket and REALLY want the covers and still be SOL.

Unknown

rabscutle wrote:

For me it actually feels like it spreads out the rewards. In the past you only got that one coveted cover if you were in the top 5 or whatever. Giving alliance rewards (to the top 100 alliances no less) spreads out that third cover to a much larger group of people.

In theory, more people get it, and, for new covers, that's probably where it ends most of the time. But for covers for established characters, it's probably getting fewer covers into the hands of people who need them - plenty of alliance people, very especially in the top alliances, are going to get covers they have no use for, and they're just going to sell them. That means, functionally, more people are getting the covers, but fewer people are actually getting usable covers. How much of SHIELD do you think needed the GSBW cover that was the alliance prize, for example?

HailMary

Zifna wrote:

Kind of irrelevant if getting it or not isn't entirely in the player's control, don't you think? At least from a frustration perspective.

Let's put it another way - lets' say D3 decided to double the number of third-covers they handed out, but decided to hand them out 100% randomly. Participating in an event at all gave you a shot, but nothing you could do would make getting the cover any more likely or possible, when previously you could put in a lot of effort and get the covers you really cared about. Would that feel positive to you?

It's still effort-based. It's just that the focus of the effort has changed from 100% individual scoring to maximizing individual score + consistency of team scores + resource investment in alliance ability.

Bacon Pants

AsianInvasion wrote:

Ben Grimm wrote:

They're trying to force people into large alliances. Pure cashgrab.

It's always about the money.

Same reason Kentucky pulls in five all-americans every year.

Same reason I drag myself out of bed every morning to stare at an excel spreadsheet for 10 hours.

I don't know about you, but I love starring at excel spreadsheets! The headache at the end of the day...not so much.