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

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Comments

  • Tee
    Tee Posts: 231 Tile Toppler
    Seems like the test has been mostly successful. Main issue people are having is not getting enough notice before they were already involved in the event.

    Out of curiousity, what do you actually lose from going to SL7 from SL8? It's a few hero points and CP ya?
  • Beer40
    Beer40 Posts: 826 Critical Contributor
    Tee said:
    Seems like the test has been mostly successful. Main issue people are having is not getting enough notice before they were already involved in the event.

    Out of curiousity, what do you actually lose from going to SL7 from SL8? It's a few hero points and CP ya?
    Yes, and a 3* Psylocke cover.
  • AlluAllu
    AlluAllu Posts: 86 Match Maker
    I wonder, if rewards from CL8 got moved to CL7 and CL8 got new rewards, would that be the fair thing to do? 
  • Maceo511
    Maceo511 Posts: 67 Match Maker
    I'm enjoying this test.  I do not miss the level 460s opponents I normally face.  I'm able to use a lot more of my roster, which is nice.
  • mpqr7
    mpqr7 Posts: 2,642 Chairperson of the Boards
    I love the new scaling in SCL 8! Please keep it like this! I love matches being a few minutes instead of 5 - 10 minutes each! No more enemies with 60,000 health points!
  • RemoDestroyer
    RemoDestroyer Posts: 277 Mover and Shaker
    I would much rather play down a level or two than I'm used to if i can get slightly less rewards for much less play time. Maybe I don't deserve the placement rewards yet at the higher levels if i can't compete with the stronger rosters
  • Bryan Lambert
    Bryan Lambert Posts: 234 Tile Toppler
    I hope they're taking away from this test what Im taking away from it - a clearer picture of what kind of rosters define each clearance level and relative difficulty, especially when it comes to the difference between CL7 and CL8.

    The way it's seeming to me in practice is that the CL7 difficulty level can be managed with a decent but small election of champed four-stars, whether they're boosted that week or not. So CL7 should be for people early in the four-star transition, who don't have great odds that their best characters will be boosted for the event.

    CL8 as implemented in the actual test is quite manageable with boosted, low-champed 4's, possibly with a support 3 (I tore through it with boosted 4clops, boosted Gwenpool, regular IM40, for example). Funnily enough, the difficulty they settled on is virtually identical to my old scaling, which was a nice surprise. The point being, if you have enough champed 4's that the odds of a few of them being boosted for the event are high, CL8 is manageable.

    CL8 as proposed in the initial test of the post probably would require champed, boosted 4's with quite a few levels pumped into them, or developed 5-stars (not necessarily champed, but 10 covers and some levels umped into them, again, to be manageable, by which I mean you can do four clears to start / 2 clears to end without burning through your stock of healthpacks / not going nuts on boosts. 

    Given this, the CL7 rewards are probably right where they need to be, the CL8 rewards aren't as helpful as they could be with completing a 4-star roster or building a 5-star transition, and as we all knew, the rewards were ridiculously unsuited for the original CL8 difficulty level. 

    If their goal is their stated one - to use SCL's to provide roster-approprate rewards to players at different levels, I hope they use the data from this test to calibrate the rewards, because I think they're closer to this goal than they've ever been before.
  • Sm0keyJ0e
    Sm0keyJ0e Posts: 730 Critical Contributor
    Please make this permanent! LOVE the new changes!
  • Fightmastermpq
    Fightmastermpq Posts: 995 Critical Contributor
    One thing that I hope doesn't get lost is this....

    There are two groups of people that are high enough to play in SCL8, but are playing down to something lower.  The first is people that can't handle the scaling, the second is people that can handle the scaling but don't feel as if the small increase in rewards is worth the additional effort.

    IMO SCL 7 rewards and scaling should start closer to SCL5, with more granularity up through SCL8.  Really make all the various 4* and 5* players think about what level of risk they want to take for what rewards.
  • MarcSpector68
    MarcSpector68 Posts: 45 Just Dropped In
    In addition to my earlier comment above. I think they made the easy nodes too easy and the hard nodes too hard still.  Even going down to CL7 im finding the required and hard node enimies are alrwady at the level of my highest level.4 stars aftet only 2 clears. The power curvevstill needs a littke tweeking.
  • Stax the Foyer
    Stax the Foyer Posts: 941 Critical Contributor
    This is how PvE should have been all along.  There are still tweaks to be made, but actually being able to choose your difficulty is fantastic.

    Placement rewards in PvE are still an odd duck, but even ignoring those completely, the node+progression rewards are great.

    CL8 should offer some shinier progression prizes, and the devs can finally make that change, because it'll go to people able/willing to face that scaling.  Until then, I'll hop between CL7 and CL8 depending on my schedule and the boosted list, playing non-competitively.  Feels great.
  • Dartmaster01
    Dartmaster01 Posts: 634 Critical Contributor
    As someone who just champed his first 5* a couple of weeks ago, this change is great. My levels went from 330 to 390, instantly making all my 4* champs worthless. I played down this time just to take a break from the ridiculous scaling (not to beat up on smaller rosters). I do think either difficulty or rewards needs tweaking, possibly both. But all in all, this is a step in the right direction.  
  • Beer40
    Beer40 Posts: 826 Critical Contributor
    I'm doing SCL 8. This seems ok on day 1. But they still did say that the enemies scale up to level 400. I'm assuming we'll see that by day 3. Not sure how many people will still enjoy it then. I think the rewards should be better than they are, but I doubt that will happen.
  • pheregas
    pheregas Posts: 1,721 Chairperson of the Boards
    stewbacca said:
    I love how everyone that were placing better than they ever should are having trouble beating levels that are still only 75% of what I used to face regularly.  Yes I run multiple 450 5* , but you shouldn't be able to beat my roster if you run a few champed 4*s. Grow your roster then try to compete with the big boys.  

    That being said, there should be a threshold from allowing people to drop too low. And open up scl 9. 
    Agree 1000% with the thresholding.  Let me bullet-point a bit and add couple suggestions:


    1) CL-Scaling based system is working well and (presumably) as intended with no unintended side effects.

    2) Increase CL rewards so as to disincentivize lower CL entry for easier placement.

    3) Cap CL entry so the big dogs don't ruin things for the smaller dogs.  Dogs gotta grow. (Maybe if your roster is going to max scale a CL, that CL should be banned.)

    4) Have placement tied to CL.  We shouldn't be actively fighting against lower/higher tier rosters.  We should be fighting our peers.  CL is a great delineator.
  • astrp3
    astrp3 Posts: 367 Mover and Shaker
    edited May 2017
    The way it's seeming to me in practice is that the CL7 difficulty level can be managed with a decent but small election of champed four-stars, whether they're boosted that week or not. So CL7 should be for people early in the four-star transition, who don't have great odds that their best characters will be boosted for the event.
    I don't think you need a 4* roster to complete all nodes in CL 7.  I just championed my first 4*s last week (in the middle of Deadpool vs MPQ). Before that, I had a 3* roster with no useable 4*s. My opponents in the hard node maxed out at level 284 (more than the current max of 260) and I was able to compete in CL7 and CL 8 (top 50 finish, occasionally top 10 if I wanted to go for the 4* cover).. With the new structure, I don't know if you would still be able to finish top 10 in CL 7 with a 3* roster, but you should be able to complete all the nodes.
  • Avalanche Kincaid
    Avalanche Kincaid Posts: 83 Match Maker
    Too easy now.  I say keep the cap but include individual scaling.  3 max 5 and you will start at the cap during initial clear, while lower level rosters will start lower and get to the cap eventually.  Black Bolt, strange, thanos will still tear through these levels so no big deal but at least will keep things interesting
  • astrp3
    astrp3 Posts: 367 Mover and Shaker

    Tee said:
    Seems like the test has been mostly successful. Main issue people are having is not getting enough notice before they were already involved in the event.

    Out of curiousity, what do you actually lose from going to SL7 from SL8? It's a few hero points and CP ya?

    For top-10 placement, I think the total you lose (placement and progression) is 1550 ISO, 50 HP, 3 CP, two 3* covers, and one 4* cover, which I find a bit more than trivial (as some have described it).
  • EleganceFlawed
    EleganceFlawed Posts: 112 Tile Toppler
    So I was super excited to finally get to level 52 and be able to do 8 and get more 3* covers from progression. Now, since I chose 8 per usual before the announcement was made, I can't even get past the second node in the starting set to trigger the rest of the event. This sucks. I don't think the scaling is right for me at all. Using my best team I get creamed by level 232 enemies.
  • Jsh2014
    Jsh2014 Posts: 87 Match Maker
    @Brigby
    this scaling is horrible is it the Devs idea to cause players to quit? I couldn't clear nodes the last one I fought I lost several times I just gave up I play for fun it is a game I don't play for the Devs to cause it to become like a job that it's losing the fun part. I never complained About the scaling when I was fighting my way up I know I made mistakes playing didn't find out a lot till later on. I didn't complain when I got my first 4* only to see the Devs to  neuter xforce w week later but this scaling is beyond disappointing it's ruining the game myself and I'm sure from others.