Difficulty Levels Based on S.H.I.E.L.D. Clearance Levels - Update (8/4/17) *Updated

zodiac339

TetsujinOni said:

zodiac339 said:

Will anything be implemented to discourage players from abusing SCLs lower than the one they are intended to play in? Minor reduction in rewards (mentioned above) won't do it. I think I'll bump the discussion in Suggestions about scaling characters down to intended level in SCL7 and lower (or SCL8 and lower if SCL9 is introduced).

That'd be a lot of new breakable engineering work to undo a benefit they just created, compared to the relatively straightforward engineering work of replacing the node scaling algorithm.

How about "that suggestion is a bad place to plan to stage a protest"?

Not sure how much new engineering it would really be. I'd expect less complex than enemies scaling personally to each player based on a roster strength average. The developers already figured out how to scale enemies down below their initial levels (facing Epics scaled down to 30 or so during certain Boss events was hilarious), and they've been scaling our heroes up at different percentages based on rarity, newness, weekly, and required status for a long time. Locking into SCL6 and having all characters being used scaled down to a maximum of 255 shouldn't take much more savvy than all the other stuff they've done.

acescracked

Yes!! I can play PVE again.

Wumpushunter

No fix for sniping yet.... This is a very bad way to run a game. Fix one system even though you have not fixed the issues it creates. SC scaling is great, letting 125 level people in CL 6 for their 2 star farms is sheer lunacy.  Just lock out characters from each CL,  8 and  9 you can play every character, 7 you can't play 5 stars, CL6 no 5s or 4 star champs except the essential 4, CL 5 no 4s or 5s. That should fix it.

shardwick

Orion said:

I obviously love this change.  The only thing I'm disappointed with is the stinginess of the 4*s in placement rewards.  4*s are not all that anymore, so why are you still gating it to the top 1% of placements?   1%!

CL9 has to be high enough so that they can give 4*s to a significant percentage of people.  Make it shield level 80 minimum and give out a 4* to at least the top 50.

Yeah, if I pretty much kill myself and play as optimally as possible I can maybe squeeze into the top 10 to get those sweet sweet 4s if I don't run out of time. Usually though I'm gonna finish probably at 13th or 14th. And that's still playing pretty optimally. So looking at the reward structure the difference in being 11th place and 50th is 500 iso. That's it. An extra 500 iso for 11-20 is laughable. For scl8 that should reward one 4* for 11-20 plus it will keep the stronger rosters from going down to scl7 because they'll think "Well hell even if I get edged out for top 10 I'll still get at least a 4* so coming in at 11th won't sting so much."

But for me the best improvement for pve would be going to a solely progression based system that has placement rewards built into progression, and bonus progression, so if you put in the effort to do all clears on every sub then you will get one 4* and you will unlock a bonus sub that has more missions, akin to ddq, where you can get even more top rewards like more 4*s, iso, heroics, tokens and cp. Plus it will give players a massive boost on quality of life because the only element of time would be finishing everything before the event ends instead of having to play as optimally as possible on daily subs or the occasional two day subs.

STOPTHIS

I really lke what I'm seeing. If they can get the new PvP system working, I might have to start putting ISO into my 5*s! Imagine that.

babinro

Love everything about these changes and how it opens up roster diversity for vets who want it.  I just wish it came out with CL9 and CL10.   Even if that feature isn't ready for pvp it could be rolled out with this new PvE system right away.

revskip

Very happy for this change.  5* players have had it brutal for a long time in PVE.  

I would like to see scl9 released and some kind of gating to keep people from dropping too far below their highest available scl and swiping placements meant for newer players but otherwise love this change!

Daredevil217

jgomes32 said:

I'm on the minority, not a big fan of this change. I believe 5* will dominate most SCL7 brackets for even faster clears/grinds and 4* will have no place to go but 6 (and there's still going to be 5* there). It's going to slow down progress for most 4* roster.

Maybe locke SCL? Can't go below your SCL level. This is just too easy. Might as well remove placement if it's bassically whoever has the biggest Thanos wins..

You're absolutely not. I hate it too. Hopefully they give us wins based progression permanently in PVP.  Otherwise, PVE progression is my only reliable shot at 4* now.

evade420

Thank you !!!!
So looking forward to this and for what comes next.
Awesome update!

DesertTortoise

I'm extremely excited about this change, even if SCL8 is just 10 or so levels easier than what I'm fighting now at the highest level. The next steps should be:

• Introduction of SCL9 and SCL10
• Update rewards between the SCLs to make sense for who should be playing them and discourage people going down SCLs for placement.

Lots of great changes lately and I'm excited to see where we go from here. 

acescracked

Wumpushunter said:

No fix for sniping yet.... This is a very bad way to run a game. Fix one system even though you have not fixed the issues it creates. SC scaling is great, letting 125 level people in CL 6 for their 2 star farms is sheer lunacy.  Just lock out characters from each CL,  8 and  9 you can play every character, 7 you can't play 5 stars, CL6 no 5s or 4 star champs except the essential 4, CL 5 no 4s or 5s. That should fix it.

Hah, you guys whine that pve even has placement rewards... then whine if someone beats you out of those placement rewards.

Ignore the placement and play progression.

Cactus_Jack_87

jgomes32 said:

I'm on the minority, not a big fan of this change. I believe 5* will dominate most SCL7 brackets for even faster clears/grinds and 4* will have no place to go but 6 (and there's still going to be 5* there). It's going to slow down progress for most 4* roster.

Maybe locke SCL? Can't go below your SCL level. This is just too easy. Might as well remove placement if it's bassically whoever has the biggest Thanos wins..

I agree 100%. I hit top 10 pretty regularly in SCL7, but that will be impossible with whales getting their first 4 clears within 20 minutes. Opening up more SCLs will be a necessity to keep things fair to the competitive 4* players. I'm glad that the whales are getting their scaling fixed, it was ridiculous. But until 9 and 10 open up, they're going to be dominating the leaderboards and an even playing field will no longer exist.

spectator

An even playing field will never exist, at least not in the way you intend it to mean

acescracked

Cactus_Jack_87 said:

jgomes32 said:

I'm on the minority, not a big fan of this change. I believe 5* will dominate most SCL7 brackets for even faster clears/grinds and 4* will have no place to go but 6 (and there's still going to be 5* there). It's going to slow down progress for most 4* roster.

Maybe locke SCL? Can't go below your SCL level. This is just too easy. Might as well remove placement if it's bassically whoever has the biggest Thanos wins..

I agree 100%. I hit top 10 pretty regularly in SCL7, but that will be impossible with whales getting their first 4 clears within 20 minutes. Opening up more SCLs will be a necessity to keep things fair to the competitive 4* players. I'm glad that the whales are getting their scaling fixed, it was ridiculous. But until 9 and 10 open up, they're going to be dominating the leaderboards and an even playing field will no longer exist.

Define whale please? Because I don't spend any $$$.

jamesh

Wumpushunter said:

No fix for sniping yet.... This is a very bad way to run a game. Fix one system even though you have not fixed the issues it creates. SC scaling is great, letting 125 level people in CL 6 for their 2 star farms is sheer lunacy.  Just lock out characters from each CL,  8 and  9 you can play every character, 7 you can't play 5 stars, CL6 no 5s or 4 star champs except the essential 4, CL 5 no 4s or 5s. That should fix it.

The decreasing rewards kind of do that already.  Yes, it is true that if a single high level player drops down to a low clearance level they may get an easy win at first place.  But (a) the prizes won't be as good, and (b) if too many other high level players do the same and end up in the same bracket they may end up fighting just as hard.

At some point they'll get to a point where they can get the same rewards with less effort and uncertainty at the higher clearance levels.

Dwarfsteel

How do these levels compare to the last test run? They seem lower in CL8 than before. Just remember the last test was an absolute unenjoyable slog. 

broll

Ducky said:

Scl 9 is coming soon, right? This makes pve waaaaay too easy for developed rosters. 

That was my hope as well.  Pretty hype about this change eitherway.  SCL8 looks like it's the right level for my roster.

spghttihead

I really hope they open SCL9 or 10 soon. For competitive PVE where you're trying to finish as fast as possible the lower levels may be nice, but I've come to like PVE for the challenge of the higher opponents (I don't play to try and place). I prefer the longer rounds as you get to play with more combos. 

DarthDeVo

Good news for players with high-end rosters, but I'm pretty sure my 4* progress just got massively boned. 

Although maybe it's a blessing in disguise. The only reason I play this game so much (OK, too much) is because I've been able to reliably get T10 or T5 in SCL 7 or 8. That's anywhere from one to three covers per event. Averaging two events per week, that's anywhere from 8-24 fewer covers per month. If placement no longer becomes a possibility, then I probably won't bother spending as much time trying.

For the life of me, I can't figure out why they don't extend a 4* cover to T20 in SCL 8 at least. Maybe they will in SCL 9, to entice people to play there. Although I think to really entice people to keep them from slumming down levels, they need to have at least one cover to T100 in SCL 10, T50 in SCL9 and T20 in SCL 8. But I think Half Life 3 will come out before that ever happens. Anyway, here's hoping they get 9 and 10 open soon. Otherwise, I'm pretty sure my good placement days are over.

In theory, I could finally put some ISO into my 5*s, but I only have two decently covered ones (although they're admittedly two of the best ones to have covered well) although that will probably ruin my PvP MMR, and I'm just now getting to the point I can fairly reliably get to 900 each match. I'd hate to ruin that and cut off pretty much the only other avenue to 4* covers now, other than the lone one I'll get through PvE progression. 

(And for the record, I'm not an intentional soft capper. I've always intended to put ISO into my 5*s, but was planning on getting the 4* characters champed/leveled first. For the most part, I've preferred to get one tier finished or close to finished before focusing on the next.) 

I just renewed VIP, so I'll give it the next 28 days. Who knows, maybe I'll do better than I'm anticipating and all this strum und drang is for naught. Something tells me it's going to be just as bad as I'm imagining though. 

Steellatch

still only T10 for 4* rewards? Not worth the effort to play SCL 8.