Updates to S.H.I.E.L.D. Rank and Player XP (11/7/17)

Urcookin

Starfury said:

aa25 said:

Brigby said:

Stax the Foyer said:

Brigby said:

Don’t you worry, MPQ veterans. We haven’t forgotten about those of you that have already hit Rank 125. We’ve been keeping track of all of the XP you’ve been earning, and you’ll automatically be accredited with the XP you’ve been accumulating, as soon as this change goes live.

:snip:

It's the most wonderful time of the year.

No kidding! We looked at the numbers, and there will be some players that are awarded millions of Iso-8 that day. MILLIONS!

You know that millions of iso is not really that big amount of ISO, right ?

Each 4* needs 365k iso to champ and each 5* needs like 550k. So far, the release schedule is like 2x 4* and 1x 5* every month and a half, so you need like 1.3M every 1.5 months or 0.85M iso per month just to catch up with the release.

The players who get that much retroactive xp don't need to catch up anymore

I have all 3*'s champed but if they retro all that it will help me champ my 4*'s as I only have 4* Blad3 champed.

Jaedenkaal

I'm neutral on the change overall, in terms of its impact on me. I doubt I'll care enough to start rostering all the 1*s for whatever tiny incremental advantage that would get me.

I agree that this system doesn't do any better a job at its intended role of indicating roster power level. If I sell any character, then re-roster them and level them back up to their previous level, My roster strength is exactly the same, but I have quite a bit more XP. Sure, I'll get more resources from that process that I can use to roster and level other characters... but I'll get XP from doing that too.

And all of this totally sidesteps the issue that inevitably comes up, where not all characters at the same level and rarity are of equal power level, in terms of ability to progress in the game. This issue is most magnified when one has relatively few characters at their highest tier.

MaskedMan

I still think I should be paid to play PvP as it stands.

Moon Roach

I keep 1* Spider-Man and IM35 rostered and fully levelled for Daily Deadpool and reasons.. Respeccing by adding covers gains 10 XP.

Jaedenkaal

Moon Roach said:

I keep 1* Spider-Man and IM35 rostered and fully levelled for Daily Deadpool and reasons.. Respeccing by adding covers gains 10 XP.

Oh boy. Well there you go. No need to even sell them and re-roster them.

TarjanVK

I'm basically stalled for Shield Rank at this point, except for 3* covers.  I've got all the two stars rostered and max covered, but only two 'active' - leveled and champed.  I've got all the three stars champed except 1, and some reboots for a few at 266. I've got all of the four stars rostered, with only NC not max covered, but only 34 or 35 of them champed. No 5*s max covered or champed at the moment.  I guess I'm going to have to put the remaining 4*s on pause (and melt the covers I have in my queue) and spend my next million earned ISO on getting the 2*s & 3*s up and running.  I still come out fine with 3* covers as far as XP, but I guess I might as well just hoard /everything/ until I get my 2* farms back up and running as not to waste covers/iso/xp/rewards.

Yeah.. That sure feels like roster 'progress'.  Sigh.

Bleh5

Moon Roach said:

I keep 1* Spider-Man and IM35 rostered and fully levelled for Daily Deadpool and reasons.. Respeccing by adding covers gains 10 XP.

Unfortunately, this doesn't work with characters with two colored powers (i.e., Juggernaut).

Freelancer

I must not be understanding the value of the 1* farming theory correctly...

To me, losing ISO by recruiting and fully training a 1* just to accelerate a SR level up is still a loss of ISO. It's like paying ISO for a reward to arrive sooner, rather than just waiting for XP from 2345* to get the reward with no ISO cost.

Jaedenkaal

Freelancer said:

I must not be understanding the value of the 1* farming theory correctly...

To me, losing ISO by recruiting and fully training a 1* just to accelerate a SR level up is still a loss of ISO. It's like paying ISO for a reward to arrive sooner, rather than just waiting for XP from 2345* to get the reward with no ISO cost.

True, but as long as you'll get those ISO rewards forever (or at least, with no known stop date), it's better to have them now then to have them later.

GrumpySmurf1002

Freelancer said:

I must not be understanding the value of the 1* farming theory correctly...

To me, losing ISO by recruiting and fully training a 1* just to accelerate a SR level up is still a loss of ISO. It's like paying ISO for a reward to arrive sooner, rather than just waiting for XP from 2345* to get the reward with no ISO cost.

I made the same mistake for a while until I was corrected and then mapped it out because I didn't believe the correction.  The issue arises with the idea of 'loss.'   There is no loss. 

You're either gaining 100iso (by selling) or gaining 10XP (by farming).  As long as your Shield Rank has values where 10 xp > 100 iso, you gain by farming.

Phrased another way, if 10 xp = 120iso at your shield rank, then your 1* covers effectively 'sell' for 120iso via farming.  

Moon Roach

Freelancer said:

I must not be understanding the value of the 1* farming theory correctly...

To me, losing ISO by recruiting and fully training a 1* just to accelerate a SR level up is still a loss of ISO. It's like paying ISO for a reward to arrive sooner, rather than just waiting for XP from 2345* to get the reward with no ISO cost.

It is exactly paying ISO for a reward to arrive sooner.

I think it's to do with perception.  In this case it's the perception of progress towards the next rank, even if it's at a cost, and it's of more importance because the other mechanisms for gaining XP have been removed.

After careful non-consideration my plan is to re-spec my existing 3-colour 1* as covers arrive, and just sell the 2-colour 1* covers.  Least worst of both worlds.

Doc L

To be honest, this change is how Shield Ranks should have been implemented. As stated, it feels like it’s a lead-in to people being segregated in events based on this ranking, kinda a roster ranking. Again, this is a great thing.

There’s one main issue with this, which is it feels a lot like after the horse has bolted - many are already higher than they *should be* (I mean this to be fighting in an enjoyable environment, not relating to the rewards - see next point).

There is a sub-issue, which I think is not overtly stated, which is related to the rewards per level, and what the Developers believe are *good* rewards per level of the game you are at versus what a player wants to achieve to enjoy themselves. A great example is in PvE now, where it *feels* as though you should only have a 1-5% chance to get a 4* (from ranking) if you are a 4* player. Or the 5* nodes, that would *indicate* that you are aiming too high if you don’t have them. I worry they are setting rewards far, far too low. Progress is already slow, and whilst gating is a good thing to increase enjoyment, rewards being suitable need to match this enjoyment, to make people want to keep going.

A good idea, but I worry it’s implementation is not great.

Jaedenkaal

Moon Roach said:

Freelancer said:

I must not be understanding the value of the 1* farming theory correctly...

To me, losing ISO by recruiting and fully training a 1* just to accelerate a SR level up is still a loss of ISO. It's like paying ISO for a reward to arrive sooner, rather than just waiting for XP from 2345* to get the reward with no ISO cost.

It is exactly paying ISO for a reward to arrive sooner

The point is, though, as long as there are an infinite number (or infinite for all intents and purposes) of incoming rewards, getting them faster and more frequently is the same as getting more ISO.

Killians8

Some people fail at the marshmallow test.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QX_oy9614HQ

Some iso now or more iso later if you can be patient.

Freelancer

But 200 is not infinite though, we don't know that the SR cap will ever be raised again...

I'll probably just sell my 1*s. I'll get to 200 slower, but I'll earn more ISO than with the rostering and training 1* method.

broll

Freelancer said:

But 200 is not infinite though, we don't know that the SR cap will ever be raised again...

I'll probably just sell my 1*s. I'll get to 200 slower, but I'll earn more ISO than with the rostering and training 1* method.

200 is not infinite, but on a long enough time frame the life expectancy for everyone drops to 0...  It's about scope.

Unless you're close the math still works out.  Let's say your 140.  If rostering instead of selling allows you to go up 5 levels in 5 weeks instead of 4, then you earned that 60+K reward bonus.  Unless you're like 190 or higher 200 isn't something to scare you away from this.

Warbringa

Time value of iso people.  It is one of the major currencies of this game.  I would rather accelerate my iso gain now because that date in future may not happen.  I may not be playing the game until shield rank 200 or the game may not be around by the time I reach shield rank 200. If I was entirely confident of either, I would wait as some people pointed out but I am confident of neither so I will be cycling through 1* characters for that xp.

Dayv

Jaedenkaal said:

Freelancer said:

I must not be understanding the value of the 1* farming theory correctly...

To me, losing ISO by recruiting and fully training a 1* just to accelerate a SR level up is still a loss of ISO. It's like paying ISO for a reward to arrive sooner, rather than just waiting for XP from 2345* to get the reward with no ISO cost.

True, but as long as you'll get those ISO rewards forever (or at least, with no known stop date), it's better to have them now then to have them later.

We have no certainty they will increase the maximum shield rank again.  Several players were already at level 200 immediately, it's not like it's years and years down the road.

(and, as pointed out above, this stops being of value before then anyway.  To me, it's just not worth the extra fiddle-faddle.)

Jaedenkaal

aesthetocyst said:

broll said: Unless you're like 190 or higher 200 isn't something to scare you away from this.

The iso value of xp drops below 10 well before rank 190. You should definitely be back to selling 1s in bulk by then. Long before, actually.

Right, but there's still no reason not to reach that threshold faster.

Freelancer said:

But 200 is not infinite though, we don't know that the SR cap will ever be raised again...

I'll probably just sell my 1*s. I'll get to 200 slower, but I'll earn more ISO than with the rostering and training 1* method.

It doesn't have to be infinite, only practically infinite. If you weren't going to reach SR 200 before they raise it again (or before you stop playing), and you still won't reach SR 200 now with the extra XP from covering 1*s, then as far as your play is concerned, there are an infinite number of shield levels.

broll

aesthetocyst said:

broll said: Unless you're like 190 or higher 200 isn't something to scare you away from this.

The iso value of xp drops below 10 well before rank 190. You should definitely be back to selling 1s in bulk by then. Long before, actually.

Huh, my brain was thinking it was reversed and that it only became valuable at certain level and goes up due to the ISO amount rising.  If the XP required is rising quicker I could see it dropping below.  Have you done the math on where the break even level is?