Scaling Tied To S.H.I.E.L.D. Clearance Levels (5/25/17)

Mekuh

And it's reasons like this why I've decided to quit this game. The final straw for me was the fact that you put high CP and HP to the far back of progression goals. Now this? And you decided to test it out on this PVE event.

No thanks.

zodiac339

adamdivine said:

I do not understand the reasoning for wanting the scaling to increase, esp for high level rosters. Under this system, no longer will 5* rosters see underlevelled or softcap rosters being able to compete in cl8 (which is the way it should be). It will still be a race (but it was before), but the race is now a sprint instead of a marathon. I understand the frustration of some lower level rosters getting scaled out of cl8, but unless you are not even in champed 3* land, cl7 is perfectly doable. Maybe you will not get as high of placement, but progression should be fine. If you are not in 3* champed land or higher, then those upper clearance levels should have never been open to you in the first place and that is the fault of the developers and where the blame should go. But this change will only make the game better and hopefully clear a pathway for them to open cl9 and cl10

The frustration of lower level rosters getting scaled out of SCLs is because SCLs were made with the intention of providing players rewards for where you are. To give appropriate rewards to continue building. Static enemy levels that go far beyond what players with access to the SCL can actually face undoes the intention of allowing players to build what they have.

galaxypolice22

Ok so the higher level enemies push me back to level 7, I'm fine losing some progression rewards my only gripe is you have to get top 50 to get a 3* cover? 

Crowl

Bowgentle said:

PVE never scaled fairly for high level rosters, which is exactly what this test is trying to correct.
And tons of people with high level rosters know exactly how to play PVE - which is what you see in CL8 now that we're all on even ground with enemy levels.

Given that progression into high level rosters is rng-based then it did actually make sense for them to not screw over everyone who had simply been unluckier with their LTs, they needed to tone down the scaling for 5*s so that it was actually a level playing field unlike now where 5* rosters have things drastically easier.

Riguez

Just to update, for me in SCL8 also the highest three nodes (non-essential) capped at 323 (6th node), 313 (5th node) and 308 (4th node).

The 4* Essential (Gwenpool) capped at 307.

So, yeah, moving to SCL7 if this ends up staying.

bluewolf

Riguez said:

Just to update, for me in SCL8 also the highest three nodes (non-essential) capped at 323 (6th node), 313 (5th node) and 308 (4th node).

The 4* Essential (Gwenpool) capped at 307.

So, yeah, moving to SCL7 if this ends up staying.

I have the exact same caps with SCL8.  Running 4* champs:  Cyke, Gwenpool, Medusa, Star Lord.  Gpool boosted to 384, other 375-377.  Very manageable matches overall.  Helps having solid 4's to use, of course.

VizMantis

I've been hearing similar cap numbers from my alliance.  If that's the case, SCL8 is almost exactly the same as my current scaling levels.  So why does it say the cap is at 400?  Is it going to get harder on day 2/3?  

I play the last slice, so I haven't started yet.  But I was planning on dropping to 7 to avoid the +75 level enemies.  Now it sounds like I should stick to 8, if it's pretty much the same scaling I'm used to.

jamesh

From what people are reporting, it sounds like they screwed up the level increases for CL8.

Looking at the diagram at the start of the thread, the 4* essential node should be starting between levels 230-250, and scale up to between 330-350 after four clears.  Level 307 is well below that range.

I suspect that they've accidentally set CL8 to increase nodes by 15 levels per clear instead of 25 per clear like they announced.  That means all the hard/essential nodes will end up 40 levels easier than expected.

ntcplanters

So, within the past few weeks or so, we have been told, "I am going to make it harder for you to get your 150 HP per PVE for Rank 8 (they pretty much took it away), and, on top of that, we are going to make playing harder in general. Thanks for being loyal and playing!" Yeah, because harder = more fun. I have enough stress in my life. I do not need it coming from MPQ!!!

Moon Roach

Maybe they're running a test.  For some CL8 peaks / piques at 400, for the rest it's lower, and they're looking for engagement metrics to inform a decision tree matrix (*) as to which option they're going to implement long-term.

My roster of almost all 4* championed, no 5* above level 300 will be testing CL8 out when slice 5 opens in 4.5 hours.

(*) This may be meaningless, I heard something like it in a meeting once.

VizMantis

Moon Roach said:

Maybe they're running a test.  For some CL8 peaks / piques at 400, for the rest it's lower, and they're looking for engagement metrics to inform a decision tree matrix (*) as to which option they're going to implement long-term.

So you're suggesting they're basically running the same test they did to set the HfH price?

hodayathink

Moon Roach said:

Maybe they're running a test.  For some CL8 peaks / piques at 400, for the rest it's lower, and they're looking for engagement metrics to inform a decision tree matrix (*) as to which option they're going to implement long-term.

My roster of almost all 4* championed, no 5* above level 300 will be testing CL8 out when slice 5 opens in 4.5 hours.

(*) This may be meaningless, I heard something like it in a meeting once.

Or maybe, since I don't think we've had one person come in and say that they're seeing higher than 323 in CL8, they decided at the last minute to tone it down a bit for everyone for the purposes of this test?

Moon Roach

VizMantis said:

Moon Roach said:

Maybe they're running a test.  For some CL8 peaks / piques at 400, for the rest it's lower, and they're looking for engagement metrics to inform a decision tree matrix (*) as to which option they're going to implement long-term.

So you're suggesting they're basically running the same test they did to set the HfH price?

Yes.  In a tongue-in-cheek way and not at all seriously.

Moon Roach

hodayathink said:

Moon Roach said:

Maybe they're running a test.  For some CL8 peaks / piques at 400, for the rest it's lower, and they're looking for engagement metrics to inform a decision tree matrix (*) as to which option they're going to implement long-term.

My roster of almost all 4* championed, no 5* above level 300 will be testing CL8 out when slice 5 opens in 4.5 hours.

(*) This may be meaningless, I heard something like it in a meeting once.

Or maybe, since I don't think we've had one person come in and say that they're seeing higher than 323 in CL8, they decided at the last minute to tone it down a bit for everyone for the purposes of this test?

Or maybe, they're running a completely different test to see how many people they can scare down into CL7 or even lower, and it was a bluff all along.

This is fun.

pabasa130

Feedback! 

Background: I am squarely in 4* territory with 37 champed 4*s, and no usable 5* (best is 5bp at 1/5/5). For this event my highest level character is Gwenpool at 397, boosted, followed by 4cyc and Medusa. 

I am mostly competitive, placing top 10 in most events, top 20 otherwise. I play efficiently on fresh brackets around 4-5 hours after slice 1 opens. 

Before entering: I was worried. I usually joined scl8 for the extra 4* covers, but reading that the new scl8 will have such a high cap, I was concerned. For comparison, in DPvMPQ, my highest level nodes were around 330-350. But I figured, oh well why not some extra challenge. I've also read that my 5* alliance members were happy that their scaling would be lower (they faced 450s).

The initial grind: the hardest nodes for me started hard! I didn't take note of the starting level but I felt the first two hits were harder than previously, especially for the 4* essential. As I did the last two hits however, it mellowed. After checking, I was pleasantly surprised that the node capped at 330 and not 400! Phew! So it looks like individual scaling is still in effect, and not just determined by my SCL. I could still be competitive even while being (sorta) soft capped. The only noticeable change for me was the initial two hits, which were harder than previously. It was however still tolerable. I still managed to end my initial grind at 7th place, behind a bunch of 5* teams that were probably faster at grinding due to nodes being easier has before. 

Thoughts so far: knowing that my max difficulty didn't go up was a big sigh of relief. The increase in the initial grind however was tolerable. My issue however is that it felt like the increase in difficulty was not befitting of the reward, since I had an easier time before the change. I guess that if I did drop down to SCL7, then the reduction in difficulty means that the rewards would be in tandem with the effort.

Again this is mostly a psychological matter. I would have preferred slightly more rewards to pair with the new higher difficulty, but it is only because this test scenario gave me the same rewards for more effort compared to previously. I suppose 5* players see it differently, as they spend less effort for the same rewards. 

I will update this to after I finish my end slice grind. 

Thanks! 

zulux21

so far my thoughts are pretty positive on this.

it's the first time I have ever cleared all nodes 6 times.

the stuff being capped at SCL7 is nice.

and so far I am not seeing a huge increase in 5* rosters, but I will see where I end up after the first round finishes.

Pongie

Was contemplating joining scl7 too, but then an alliance mate joined scl8 and said the levels capped out at 326. Liek someone suggested earlier, it could go up for each sub to 400. I think this is ok. Was afraid that it was going to be 400 from the first sub. 

escart85

I entered cl8. I dont have any champed 4s but a few are at 11-12 covers. My surprise was to see 3 nodes at fixed lvl35 and the 4th one starting at 254. The Last non-essential node will cap at 323 probably because after 3 clears its at 314. Nodes with fixed levels were dropped in favor of the current pve system. I dont want to have to choose scl7 because thats not how it was setup in the game. You can reach a clearance level by playing the game and earning exp points. This change would have lock ppl out of cl8 unless they champ at least 3 x 4* or sth i dont know. Feels weird having to downgrade and lose rewards after almost 2yrs of playing the game

vinsensual

I'll wait out joining in case the first course of action tomorrow is gonna be a hotfix to scl8 scaling.  Precedent has been set that scaling gets locked in once you join an event though.

zodiac339

Went with SCL8. My top 5 go from 288 to 283 (4* Champs). So the cap of 323 on final mission is just a couple levels under what I usually face. Ended my initial 4 clears in 58th, surrounded by epic rosters. That was sad, but not unexpected. Personally, I hope this doesn't become the way of things, since it was nice having some part of the game where I could compete. Progression prizes are decent though.