S.H.I.E.L.D. Season 1

Unknown

kidicarus wrote:

sms4002 wrote:

Bowgentle wrote:

Aren't you all glad we get another PVP to fill those boring, uneventful final 2 1/2 days?
Aren't you?!?
And probably PVE starting tomorrow. Which rounds out the "light PVP schedule" that is the end of season 1.

It must be really horrible for new players to enter a game and _not_ see 25 event tabs, thinking 'wow, this is active. I'll stick around and play!'
At least I assume that's the reasoning for all these events, getting new players hooked.
Because they sure aren't making regular, old-time players happy with that schedule.

It's the death brackets that are going to kill the older players...

Well, as an older player who doesn't need a 1st place price, and a substantial majority of the placement prizes, I prefer to be in a death bracket because at least then I won't take away covers from people who actually need them. For me, the competition definitely makes the pvp events more 'interesting'. The trouble with weighted bracketing is that the algorithms unfairly penalises people who end up in the same death bracket as me.

PVP was already becoming stale before the introduction of Seasons and for me, the seasons have been great for seeing how far I can push myself as a player. I know it's just match 3, but figuring out how to game the ever changing meta game has been one of the most fun aspects of this game. Before seasons, I rarely broke 900 - I could tank and more or less 'choose' an easy bracket, bulldoze my way through 1* teams and still take a nice 4* cover home as a trophy. In many ways I'm glad I can't do that anymore.

So fast forward 1 month, I've stopped tanking, I constantly break 1300 points and I'm playing against teams that are more 'worthy', and I'm enjoying myself more. And all that without spending a single cent in real dollars in the last month or so. So in response to bowgentle - it really is fun to hit 1100 just because I can.

edit: just for the record, I would rather they have ended s1 today rather than extending it.

)
I agree...even on the edit (unless we get rewards as well ). Though, I don't think ppl who usually placed top 1-5 are the players penalized, so you and me wouldn't have a problem with the change. Heck, all that really.changed is I constantly.get an extra 3*** min or an extra 4**** max due to progression rewards. My second xforce is being built faster than my first by far...its already up to 3/2/3. The negative? I HAVE to do that to place well...but I still can with using 150-375 (get 200-250 of it back in a PvP)hp. Looking at.some ppl' screen shots, I think I take for granted that I have 13k hp saved. Some don't even seem go have 200...and so shielding for events is a real mindbender as they might need the hp for a new chara ter or something...as opposed.to deciding if they want to build 2 or 3 bagmen like I am doing.

THOSE are the ppl.this is hurting, as they are placing 8-20 where before they got 6-10 usually. They can't say "ooh, ill just shield hop.again" because they have no hp until they receive thier placement reward and anything they built off pve is used to unlock.the slot for the character they probably.just newly won via said pve. The unlucky ppl getting in the 600-800 range are pretty screwed too...as they end up being fodder with little.chance to compete until they get thier roster up.

I think the death brackets don't kill older players as much as they hinder older players with certain expectations (and aren't co.spidering the progression rewards as useful). That being because they used go gain hp every event, and now fo GOP ten hou kinda need go use 75 hpinimum, and as much as 225 for some just to place...which depending on your alliance means you are netting negative hp...removing what I calculated to be fine before the msot recent changes to easily net ppl enough to buy required new roster slots. Now you are having to decide between winning or having hp for slots....so unless you are in shield or another top order (in which case...you probably aren't part of the concern group here anyway) you ar going to have to "pick your shots" much more...while for the last 8 mo.ths or whatever ppl haven't had to do that.

Also, notice the huge nerf to pve hp if this new tinykitty format stands (from last heroic) ... 2 subs instead of 4+, less iso, still oddly impossible progress rewards (I honestly feel only reason they haven't moved PvP rewards is due go "being busy" ...so maybe pve Jang the aided one). Heck, let's just nerf recent hp nerfs in general:

-Removed hp from.selling covers
-made sub events longer
-made sub events give more tokens instead of more hp.
-hp reward lowered from 50 to possibly 25 for logins.
-lr tokens nerfed...2 seperate times....
-hp can no longer buy you a 100% chance at a hero you don't have.
-(no way to confirm if drop rates were lowered or not when they finally went public.with drop rates)
-shields in general.
-moving/decreasing/abolishing hp progress rewards in both PvP and pve.
-lowers net gain of hp for top 2 alliances when they "balanced" the reward.
-changed mmr to allow lower lvl ppl to find you.
-changed mmr again to make it so EVEN LOWER lvl ppl could find you.
-made shields makd you invisible...thusly lowering your chance go get positive def points.
-made +3 all boosts cost hp.
-death bracket forcing shielding
-anything else I missed..I am sure I did.

This really is only the next step in that hp nerf...I assume thier goal was to finally make a situation where the "problem" or roster slot or winning was an actual issue. Not so bad that you have to buy hp to do ANYTHING. But bad enough that you feel like you li.da should buy something. So players who didn't wasn't hp on covers and things are in a much better situation than those that did. I fully expect that rich poor difference to become more and more apparent too..not less.

And to be clear, I don't think death brackets are fair without some compensation for being part of a "elite" bracket. I also was SURPRISED the game was so f2 p more than anything though. ThThe fact they keep slowly creeping towards "normal iap service" is neither surprising nor totally unwarranted. Getting used to water when you e been drinking wine from a goblet for months can be hard. More so when you thought the days of goblets and roast beast wouldn't end and all of a sudden they end abruptly with no warrning as a steal patch and you wish you hadn't bought that 3*** cover RIGHT before realizing you'd start needing a small store of hp.

Side note: I don't think they will change..and there r too many to say death bracket. So I am going to call them something else...mmm, elite bracket sounds nice but there is an elite tournement. What about...veteran bracket? That sounds okay...I'll sleep on it. Any opinions on the name Vetertan bracket? Vet bracket?

kidicarus

The game has seen so many changes over the last few months in terms of matchmaking and bracketing and I'm not going to lose too much sleep over the periodic changes that they make. Until they create veteran brackets or veteran tournaments, I think reverting the changes to the random time based one is probably as fair as you can get for newbies, mid-tier and vets alike. If the vets are stomping over the transition and 2 * teams, then that's where they belong. This would at least incentivise lower tier players to improve their rosters and they wouldn't be demoralised because the MPQ sentinels adapted their algorithms and moved the goalposts.

I know that the prize for winning the season is just extra 10k iso, but being on the same playing field as many of my early MPQ heroes *the ones whose rosters and scores I looked up to when starting the game" has been the most fun part of the season.

Unknown

I pretty much agree with soenottelling. The thing that bothers me the most isn't even that I constantly have to fight death brackets. It's the effort vs. reward discrepancy.

I have a steam new account just to check what brackets it lands in. So on my main account I had to spent 500 HP on shields + use 4 rounds of full boosts just to get into the top 10 with 1100+ points. My steam account repeatedly gets into brackets where about 700 points nets you first place.

I could slap my bigkitty on the keyboard for half an hour without looking at the screen and still get 700 points. The relations are just way off.

kidicarus

finwe wrote:

I pretty much agree with soenottelling. The thing that bothers me the most isn't even that I constantly have to fight death brackets. It's the effort vs. reward discrepancy.

I have a steam new account just to check what brackets it lands in. So on my main account I had to spent 500 HP on shields + use 4 rounds of full boosts just to get into the top 10 with 1100+ points. My steam account repeatedly gets into brackets where about 700 points nets you first place.

I could slap my bigkitty on the keyboard for half an hour without looking at the screen and still get 700 points. The relations are just way off.

The amount you spent on HP to get 1100+ points is cheaper than the 1250HP you would have spent buying lazy daken's cover ala carte. You would probably not be able to replicate that on your steam account.

Unknown

Yes, I wouldn't be able to get to 1100 progression on that account. But I'd say that's a reasonable trade-off for getting into top 10 with overwhelming 487 points. Like I said effort vs. reward seem too skewed for me.

HairyDave

Anyone in Psykopathic & Jozier's bracket happen to know what the top 50 cut-off is? I'm sitting 75th and I don't know if smashing Shield Training is going to be worth the effort or not.

Unknown

So, I can see the Season 1 still going, and also a results banner for it. Looks like it has and hasn't ended at the original end time?

Unknown

SamBC wrote:

So, I can see the Season 1 still going, and also a results banner for it. Looks like it has and hasn't ended at the original end time?

Schrodinger's Season 1.

We can't tell if the event has or hasn't ended yet until the box opens.

Unknown

kidicarus wrote:

finwe wrote:

I pretty much agree with soenottelling. The thing that bothers me the most isn't even that I constantly have to fight death brackets. It's the effort vs. reward discrepancy.

I have a steam new account just to check what brackets it lands in. So on my main account I had to spent 500 HP on shields + use 4 rounds of full boosts just to get into the top 10 with 1100+ points. My steam account repeatedly gets into brackets where about 700 points nets you first place.

I could slap my bigkitty on the keyboard for half an hour without looking at the screen and still get 700 points. The relations are just way off.

The amount you spent on HP to get 1100+ points is cheaper than the 1250HP you would have spent buying lazy daken's cover ala carte. You would probably not be able to replicate that on your steam account.

This is almost true. You start spending HP when you decide to go for the 1100 reward, but there is no guarantee you will make it. Add the many hours, stress and frustration caused by a crazy AI which just gained +5 on all color AP from a single cascade and set you back 50 points (25 from not winning and another 25 from losing), and the 1250 for the cover is beginning to look like a better deal. I managed to get the cover after I spent 450HP (4x75 + 150), but I didn't even end in top 10 with 1113. I still consider myself lucky since I was never hit while I was unshielded. Every time I shielded though I was hit for 35+ 1-2 minutes later. Lucky indeed.

Right now a top 25 in season depends a lot on the bracket the game put you in. In our alliance (#34 in alliance season leaderboards) I am 1st in season score with 13220 and that is not enough for a top 25. My rank ranges from #35 to #25 after I finish a pvp. At the same time other alliance members are relatively safe in top 20 with 1-2K less. During this season I spent at least 1-1.5K HP just to keep close to the top of my bracket, but if you think about it, it's not really worth the time and even the HP. A 10-pack will give 1-3 ***. Assuming you have already 6-8 *** with max or close to max covers, the chances you will pull something you need are extremely low. This is the last season for me. Next time I will try to gain 700-800 points to help the alliance, but no way I am spending HP to hunt ranking.

Unknown

I think what would help (burnout) next time is rewarding the players that are scoring 1000+ each PVP a juicy progression reward to shoot for. Another Fury cover or perhaps a 3 star cover of our choice.

Grinding isn't so bad when you have something to look forward to. In this event, people had reached the last (small) reward too soon and then were faced with grinding more events with little in compensation (aside from the Dakan PvP).

Unknown

Toxicadam wrote:

I think what would help (burnout) next time is rewarding the players that are scoring 1000+ each PVP a juicy progression reward to shoot for. Another Fury cover or perhaps a 3 star cover of our choice.

Grinding isn't so bad when you have something to look forward to. In this event, people had reached the last (small) reward too soon and then were faced with grinding more events with little in compensation (aside from the Dakan PvP).

Switching up the progressions may be a decent idea, especially within the PVP tourneys.

For one thing, the 2* cover at 600 really needs to go given that they're now handing out covers like candy with PVP wins.


Within the season itself, maybe a second 10-pack of covers or a big stash of HP could be worth it.

Eyris6

Teke184 wrote:

Toxicadam wrote:

I think what would help (burnout) next time is rewarding the players that are scoring 1000+ each PVP a juicy progression reward to shoot for. Another Fury cover or perhaps a 3 star cover of our choice.

Grinding isn't so bad when you have something to look forward to. In this event, people had reached the last (small) reward too soon and then were faced with grinding more events with little in compensation (aside from the Dakan PvP).

Switching up the progressions may be a decent idea, especially within the PVP tourneys.

For one thing, the 2* cover at 600 really needs to go given that they're now handing out covers like candy with PVP wins.

They're handing out 1* covers like candy; 2* are more rare, and of course, it's not guaranteed which one you get. Pushing to 600 is doable even with a non-maxed 2* roster, and if it's a cover you need, having the guaranteed reward even if you can't place well overall is great. And if you don't, it's another 250 ISO, which is probably what would be there instead anyway.

HairyDave

Eyris6 wrote:

They're handing out 1* covers like candy; 2* are more rare, and of course, it's not guaranteed which one you get. Pushing to 600 is doable even with a non-maxed 2* roster, and if it's a cover you need, having the guaranteed reward even if you can't place well overall is great. And if you don't, it's another 250 ISO, which is probably what would be there instead anyway.

It's luck of the draw - I've already thrown away another max covered CStorm and Moonstone (and at least two Juggernauts) and AWolvie wouldn't be far behind. I can't be the only one getting that many with how the RNG treats me on normal token pulls

Unknown

HairyDave wrote:

Eyris6 wrote:

They're handing out 1* covers like candy; 2* are more rare, and of course, it's not guaranteed which one you get. Pushing to 600 is doable even with a non-maxed 2* roster, and if it's a cover you need, having the guaranteed reward even if you can't place well overall is great. And if you don't, it's another 250 ISO, which is probably what would be there instead anyway.

It's luck of the draw - I've already thrown away another max covered CStorm and Moonstone (and at least two Juggernauts) and AWolvie wouldn't be far behind. I can't be the only one getting that many with how the RNG treats me on normal token pulls

I've gotten enough covers of all 1s to do a full build of them and the same is true of most 2s.

Surprisingly, the 2* I'm seeing the least of appears to be Bagman.

Unknown

Ok is anyone else getting a rewards pending for season one? Apparently I have one event says my player rank is 272 o f 5000 but I still have my actual rank of 255 when there is 1 full day left (season one versus shows up twice for me but once is pending for rewards)

Unknown

Pamizard wrote:

Ok is anyone else getting a rewards pending for season one? Apparently I have one event says my player rank is 272 o f 5000 but I still have my actual rank of 255 when there is 1 full day left (season one versus shows up twice for me but once is pending for rewards)

Yes, everyone experienced that. When the Dakan event ended last night, it posted up that graphic instead. So, those results (you see) would have been where you were at 12am EST.

Just ignore it, the real ending is in a few days still.

Bowgentle

Pamizard wrote:

Ok is anyone else getting a rewards pending for season one? Apparently I have one event says my player rank is 272 o f 5000 but I still have my actual rank of 255 when there is 1 full day left (season one versus shows up twice for me but once is pending for rewards)

It's the same for everyone.
They extended the season, but didn't change the actual code.
Pretty much par for the course for a company doing server maintenance without taking the servers offline completely.

Unknown

Bowgentle wrote:

Pamizard wrote:

Ok is anyone else getting a rewards pending for season one? Apparently I have one event says my player rank is 272 o f 5000 but I still have my actual rank of 255 when there is 1 full day left (season one versus shows up twice for me but once is pending for rewards)

It's the same for everyone.
They extended the season, but didn't change the actual code.
Pretty much par for the course for a company doing server maintenance without taking the servers offline completely.

These people would probably have a guy out on the wing of a plane in mid-flight screwing with the engine.

Unknown

HairyDave wrote:

Eyris6 wrote:

They're handing out 1* covers like candy; 2* are more rare, and of course, it's not guaranteed which one you get. Pushing to 600 is doable even with a non-maxed 2* roster, and if it's a cover you need, having the guaranteed reward even if you can't place well overall is great. And if you don't, it's another 250 ISO, which is probably what would be there instead anyway.

It's luck of the draw - I've already thrown away another max covered CStorm and Moonstone (and at least two Juggernauts) and AWolvie wouldn't be far behind. I can't be the only one getting that many with how the RNG treats me on normal token pulls

Luck of the draw is exactly why the guaranteed 2* needs to stay imo. I for one have not gotten more than 5 2* since this was implemented, and I play a lot of pvp matches, since I'm constantly fighting my way up, am pushed down, do it again, etc. I sold dozens of 1*, but very very few 2*.

Unknown

Did anyone actually get season rewards, or is it just a display error?