Forum thread.

aesthetocyst

Forum post.

broll

MPQ: The Six Million Dollar Game (cost to actually play top level)

Get used to hearing the bionic man sound effect constantly....

farlus

I like it. Simple and easy to implement within the current system. Rewards people for playing in their CL instead of encouraging dropping down just to get rewards they were already getting. Doesn't force grinding more wins to get those same rewards either.

alphabeta

This

Simply this asap while there are still some long loyal players to be had - some of the brackets last event where insane

The rockett

As always. Spot on. 

Justice Jacks

The rockett said:

As always. Spot on. 

Which means, no chance D3 listens.

STERLING21JJ

Justice Jacks said:

The rockett said:

As always. Spot on. 

Which means, no chance D3 listens.

BWWAHAHAHA!!!!

RedLion

aes, you are (quite clearly) correct, and your plan is sound, but...

My inner d3vil's advocate has this to add...What if the devs have a plan to release their super tight hold on the five-star tier? Maybe they are about to increase the 5* odds in tokens (say to 25%?). Maybe that's why they want to have a fixed amount of CP locked behind a placement wall. Maybe 6*'s are coming? 

Maybe...

Maybe...

BWAH - HA - HA - HA!!!

that guy cracks me up...

corytutor

Actually 6* isnt that absurd. We have nearly 20 5s now which is pretty close to what we had in 4s when surfer dropped. 

It would be a mistake though and id be among the first to quit

corytutor

I have a CoC account also. 

We didnt need fives then, we dont need another tier now. But as more 550s appear it may become a reality

Justice Jacks

If they go to 6s, they'll almost certainly bury the currency in the high CLs to encourage all 5-star players into them.  As they've released, CL9 already I suspect they'll roll it out to PVP as well before a 6-star tier, but would not surprise me at all if CL10 introduces us to the 6-star tier and requires shield ranks well into the 100 levels.

corytutor

Shield ranks already are 125. Needs to be bumped up 

broll

RedLion said:

aes, you are (quite clearly) correct, and your plan is sound, but...

My inner d3vil's advocate has this to add...What if the devs have a plan to release their super tight hold on the five-star tier? Maybe they are about to increase the 5* odds in tokens (say to 25%?). Maybe that's why they want to have a fixed amount of CP locked behind a placement wall. Maybe 6*'s are coming? 

Maybe...

Maybe...

BWAH - HA - HA - HA!!!

that guy cracks me up...

Same thoughts have been rattling around in my head too.  Our d3vil's must be friends.

broll

aesthetocyst said:

broll said:

RedLion said:

aes, you are (quite clearly) correct, and your plan is sound, but...

My inner d3vil's advocate has this to add...What if the devs have a plan to release their super tight hold on the five-star tier? Maybe they are about to increase the 5* odds in tokens (say to 25%?). Maybe that's why they want to have a fixed amount of CP locked behind a placement wall. Maybe 6*'s are coming? 

Maybe...

Maybe...

BWAH - HA - HA - HA!!!

that guy cracks me up...

Same thoughts have been rattling around in my head too.  Our d3vil's must be friends.

Eh, I wouldn't get all conspiratorial. 

I don't think it's conspiratorial at all.  There are a lot of factors pointing that way.

• Dilution is about to the same point 4*s where when 5*s were added.
• 5*s were added 2 years after the game launched.  So adding a new tier another 2 years later seems reasonable.
•  I addition to dilution being the same, it also seems to be a growing problem with packs (aka it needs to be addressed in some way)
• SCL based scaling change nerfs the negatives of leveling high level characters prematurely.  This was a problem for nearly two years before it was finally addressed.  It's possible it was finally addressed as their roadmap has them releasing new characters with even higher starting levels and they didn't want to make that problem worse/hurt the new tier release.

Ultimately at some point they're going to have make 5* more available and slowdown on the 4*s.  If they keep the current pace.  Here's how the tiers have grown in the last year:

Tier	Starting	Ending	% Growth
3*	40	46	15.0%
4*	41	58	41.5%
5*	10	19	90.0%

If we assume the keep up the same release cycle (or very similar) next year it would like like this:

Tier	Starting	Ending	% Growth
3*	46	52	13.0%
4*	58	75	29.3%
5*	19	28	47.4%

75 4*s and 28 5*s doesn't seem sustainable to me.  If they instead shifted their same cycle up to a new tier:

Tier	Starting	Ending	% Growth
4*	58	64	10.3%
5*	19	36	89.5%
6*	0	9	900.0%

Assuming that 4*s became as easier (or closer to) get as 3*s are now, 5*s as easy as 4*s and 6*s as easy as 5*s these numbers seem pretty reasonable and solve a lot of dilution for the entire game.

Starfury

broll said:

Ultimately at some point they're going to have make 5* more available and slowdown on the 4*s.  If they keep the current pace.  Here's how the tiers have grown in the last year:

There's nothing keeping them from just going on (and on and on...) as they do now.

Looking at LTs, a new 5* has a probability of 5% for 18 weeks, new 4* have a probability of 3.5% for 36 weeks. That's stable. Even if there's a 1000 old 4*/5*, there's always the same acquisition rate for new characters.

Older characters being nigh-impossible to get may be an ugly side effect, but nothing game-breaking. Just look at how vintage 5* are essential once every blue moon - they use them often enough to entice people to own them, yet sparingly enough so new players aren't locked out.
Problem "solved": 5* essentials introduced without having to adress dilution in Classic Tokens.

madoctor

aesthetocyst 

[snip]

I do believe that these changes are awarding more CP than in the (recent) past. See below. IF we can estimate their are 4 brackets per slice at each SCL, the brackets are awarding 16,000cp in placements. Were there 1,067 or more players scoring 1200+ prior to these changes? Back in the cupcake days, probably, but recently, based on what I see in merc rooms and on alliance LBs, I don't think so.

Problem is, this setup is too strict; zero growth in CP from SCL 5 to 8. It gives players solely focused on CP little reason to play the higher SCLs where they will face stiff competition. They will spread out and literally take the candies intended for newer players in SCl 4 and 5. The devs are not understanding just how focused competitive players are on CP. 

[snip]

Some observations

1) Are there 4 brackets in each clearance level in each shard

2) Let's not forget that the 4* cover in PvP is rewarded only in CL7/8 in progression

(Sorry quoting on mobile devices is tough)

Beer40

6* Bone Claw Wolverine. By far most powerful hero in game. One power is an AoE nuke, one creates the strongest strike tiles in game, and the other is the best true heal the game has seen.

MPQ gives players lots of avenues to spend money on this character. One year later he is nerfed due to being used in 90% of all matches. 

Being fair, MPQ offers users the ability to "sell" BCW back for different covers. For every 2 BCW covers you have (and leveled up), you'll receive 1 OML cover.

Ka is a wheel.

Lucifier

@aesthetocyst

I like your suggestion about placement rewards, it will also help low placement players even by little but it add up, also insures the vets to get at least 15cp (that been missed from progression).
at the same time because higher CL gives more cp, we will not see (or very little) very strong players in lower CL.

but your suggestion about progression rewards (even tho i like it) it is not logical, you are putting 4* cover before 100hp, event Tkn and 2500 iso, 4* cover is more valuable so should be harder to get, I think suggesting less wins might be better for dev to consider it, maybe 32 wins.

I know from before in progression rewards also 10 cp is before other less valuable rewards.

to be honest I like your suggestion (as the way you are presenting the case of PVP), and I hope I see more people use such way of presenting their idea and less sarcasm and other things.

morgh

I personally think that those suggestions are absolutely great - would move more of the hard hitters into higher SCL, would give good/decent progression throughout all the SCLs and up to no-stress placement, but I think this might be simply "too good" for D3 to agree with...

Also - has D3 actually taken any forum suggestions into practice ever?

RedLion

aesthetocyst said:

     Buuuuuuuuuut .... as players flesh out their 4s and start going for 5s, those single 4* covers aren't as important as the CP. CP (and LTs!) becomes The Only Resource That Matters™. Who do we see playing down to SCL 5 chasing placement CP already? 4* > 5* players.

This is why the future is so murky...I'm about to champ my 48th 4*, and only 2 of the remaining 4s have less than 10 covers (rogue and nightcrawler). In 2 months, my 4 star tier hits "equilibrium." Every 4* cover becomes a champ level or goes to one of the newest characters. Basically, the 4* tier becomes the new 3* tier, but with a far greater ongoing investment of ISO as upkeep. 

Now, my estimation is that a sliver of the player base (over-represented on these forums) is ahead of me and has already reached that point, but I think that group is going to explode over the next 6 months. When it does...then what? 

Like you, I only have a handful of 5*s above 8 covers, and only one at 13. That's irrelevant though. What is relevant is that there is no reasonable way to flesh out those under-covered characters. 

Faced with that scenario, pending the dangling shoe drops, the survivors of the 4* tier will either hoard CP or quit playing due to lack of positive reinforcement. Since neither of those outcomes seem acceptable, I have to believe that d3 is getting ready to drop the other shoe.  

Lucifier

@aesthetocyst

if CL9 been done as your guess, I will definitely play at CL9.