Updates to Story Event 5-Star Essential Missions * Updated (11/17/17)

ursopro

Could you pass to the developers that while they're at it making awful changes maybe do something good for once and fix multi tapping.

Thanks!

Blindman13

Punisher5784 said:

Borstock said:

I like the change. Reward those who take on the extra challenge.

But punish those who want to take it easy and spend time with family.. right.. the player's on SCL9 already receive additional rewards for the extra challenge but now it clearly affects Alliances.

How is this a punishment?  Just because someone else gets something that you don’t, doesn’t mean you are being punished. They are giving more to those who put in the time required for the higher SCL. SCL7 will still get more points than SCL1-6, so there is incentive to stay there. I have no desire to even try SCL9, but this made me go with 8 this time as I have been doing 7 for the last few events. 
I don’t think the point difference is big enough that any but the most extremely competitive alliances will kick someone for joining a lower SCL, but it will mean that alliances with more SCL9 players can get better rewards. Which is the way it should be. 

brisashi

Borstock said:

I like the change. Reward those who take on the extra challenge.

I agree with this. I have about half of the 4* roster champed and haven't moved into 5* territory yet, but I always choose CL9 and look forward to the challenge of the 5*E node.

Now my efforts will be rewarded with an easier path to the top progression rewards, which are the main reason I play PvE events.

Starfury

Borstock said:

I like the change. Reward those who take on the extra challenge.

What's my reward with this change? Extra points apply to everyone in my slice.

The only way this would "reward" individual players is if they would merge brackets in the different SCL

Starfury

Brigby said:

Hi Everyone,

We recently made some changes to the 5-Star Essential missions in Story Events. Starting in Unstable Iso-8, the amount of points a 5-Star Essential mission awards will be different for each S.H.I.E.L.D. Clearance Level that mission exists in. 5-Star Essential missions will always be worth more than the 4-Star Essential mission, but it will be worth more points in higher S.H.I.E.L.D. Clearance Levels. 

In addition, starting in Hearts of Darkness this Thursday, the difficulty of the 5-Star Essential mission in S.H.I.E.L.D. Clearance Level 7 will be reduced (starting at level 185 enemies, instead of 255) and that mission will also be worth much less points.

Rewards will not be impacted by these changes.

In Sub 2 (SCL 7) of unstable ISO, the 4* and 5* essentials worth 510 and 533 points respectively. How is the 5* essential supposed to be worth "much less points" yet still be worth more than the 4* essential?

Alsmir

Borstock said:

I like the change. Reward those who take on the extra challenge.

And the challenge is commiting even more time to MPQ?
Time =/= difficulty

Spoit

Punisher5784 said:

So basically in order for my alliance to maintain T50, everyone will need to move up to CL9.. of course next event is not only the hardest event but also a new release.. wonderful! Any other good news? 

While I admit that I only merc for new character tournaments, the last few times I merced in a top 50 alliance, just playing the optimal 7-clears put me well in the top half, usually top quarter, of the alliance scores. While I'm not sure it'd be really viable if your alliance had a lot of people missing the 5e char, the point difference from the SCLs is a hell of a lot less than what most people lose from suboptimal play. And again, optimal play isn't needed for top 50 anyway.

Blindman13 said:

Punisher5784 said:

Borstock said:

I like the change. Reward those who take on the extra challenge.

But punish those who want to take it easy and spend time with family.. right.. the player's on SCL9 already receive additional rewards for the extra challenge but now it clearly affects Alliances.

How is this a punishment?  Just because someone else gets something that you don’t, doesn’t mean you are being punished. They are giving more to those who put in the time required for the higher SCL. SCL7 will still get more points than SCL1-6, so there is incentive to stay there. I have no desire to even try SCL9, but this made me go with 8 this time as I have been doing 7 for the last few events. 
I don’t think the point difference is big enough that any but the most extremely competitive alliances will kick someone for joining a lower SCL, but it will mean that alliances with more SCL9 players can get better rewards. Which is the way it should be. 

It's a punishment since they took points away from lower SCLs, they didn't increase it for the higher ones. The way that the 5e node has been balanced before now, you could get away with just play each node 4 times, instead of 5. Now you need to cover up that gap by quintuple—maybe even sextuple, if you get leveled out of a 5e node with actual characters being fed by muscles— tapping other nodes.

//Expanded Word Truncation To Avoid Inappropriate Content -Brigby

The rockett

broll said:

The rockett said:

So I know this is gonna go off the deep end, but since you get more points in SL9 vs SL 8 vs  SL7 and so one. So you need less clears to get progression in SL9 then 8 and 8 then...you get my point.  If we apply this logic to the new WIN system for pvp would this mean you need less wins for progression if you are in SL8 vs SL7 vs SL6.... Yes I know I know crazy connection. 

It’s not crazy. The same thing occurred to me. 

@broll. Wooooo.  We agree on something. LOL. Just glad I am not the only one that had thought/seen this.  You know that will never happen but it is worth pointing out. 

PenniesForEveryone

Alsmir said:

Borstock said:

I like the change. Reward those who take on the extra challenge.

And the challenge is commiting even more time to MPQ?
Time =/= difficulty

No?  It's fighting significantly tougher enemies.  Have you ever green checked a 5* essential in SCL9?  It's one of the most challenging things to do in the game right now.  Not because it takes a long time, but because the enemies scale to level 515 and are tough to beat.

This will really effect placement in SCL9.......in a good way.  Players that are able to clear these tough nodes quickly will be very handsomely rewarded for it.

broll

Starfury said:

Borstock said:

I like the change. Reward those who take on the extra challenge.

What's my reward with this change? Extra points apply to everyone in my slice.

The only way this would "reward" individual players is if they would merge brackets in the different SCL

1.  Easier alliance placement for alliances with high number of upper SCL players.
2.  Easier Max progression in higher SCLs for those that just play for max progression.

It's certainly not a huge benefit, but there are benefits.

Pants1000

I’m surprised to see complaints about this.  I think it’s a good change, although it should have been announced beforehand.

The effect will be pretty small.  It makes it a little easier to hit max progression in higher CL’s, and it makes it so the highest alliance scores are possible from the highest CL.  It was pretty illogical for the highest alliance scores to come from CL7.

The rockett

As always, it's about the communication with D3/Demi.  Plus the next event is a new release.  To me it makes sense, more points in the higher SL to get to progression easier. If they could just roll this out a few days before so people can plan and give us the actual numbers.  

Borstock

Punisher5784 said:

Borstock said:

I like the change. Reward those who take on the extra challenge.

But punish those who want to take it easy and spend time with family.. right.. the player's on SCL9 already receive additional rewards for the extra challenge but now it clearly affects Alliances.

Those people are not being punished. If you have less time to devote to the game, you shouldn't be competing with those that have more, anyway... Punisher5784.

Borstock

Starfury said:

Borstock said:

I like the change. Reward those who take on the extra challenge.

What's my reward with this change? Extra points apply to everyone in my slice.

The only way this would "reward" individual players is if they would merge brackets in the different SCL

If you're already in SCL9, you don't get one, except that alliances you're competing against who have people in SCL7 are going to find it more difficult to beat you.

Borstock

Alsmir said:

Borstock said:

I like the change. Reward those who take on the extra challenge.

And the challenge is commiting even more time to MPQ?
Time =/= difficulty

The challenge is fighting stronger AI and competing against more competitive rosters. I don't know what you're talking about.

Punisher5784

Borstock said:

Punisher5784 said:

Borstock said:

I like the change. Reward those who take on the extra challenge.

But punish those who want to take it easy and spend time with family.. right.. the player's on SCL9 already receive additional rewards for the extra challenge but now it clearly affects Alliances.

Those people are not being punished. If you have less time to devote to the game, you shouldn't be competing with those that have more, anyway... Punisher5784.

Okay then let me put it to you this way, I am playing roughly the same amount I have always played for the past 3 yrs. Due to the many recent changes the game now requires additional playtime (5* essential, win-based PVP). For instance, prior to the SCL Levels, my scaling was inbetween 7 and 8. I always played SCL8 prior to the change but since the higher levels added nearly an hour or more to my day, I decided to move down to 7 in order to maintain my normal play time. I accepted that I would earn less rewards but you're basically saying I need to devote more time if I want to continue to compete as I always have? I would love to hear feedback since you're so full of optimism!

AXP_isme

I don’t understand why this would just apply to the 5* node. Choose one route or the other. Either have different rewards in different SCLs but have the points the same or have a single reward structure for progression and have the different SCLs provided more points in order of difficulty. This seems like a nonsensical midpoint between the two options. 

BoyWonder1914

Perhaps I'm missing something here, but I'm failing to see how making you fight much less difficult opponents on the 5-star essential doesn't offset the drop in points. If you play CL7 when you could be doing 8 or 9 for the sake of having more of your time back in your day, or fighting less difficult opponents when your 5-star is under-covered, then this change delivers on that. The people in your bracket are the exact same CL, so it's not like you're competing with people that are getting more points than you for doing that node. 

I'll admit that this throws things into a flux for competitive alliance rankings, as the introduction of the 5-star node in and of itself made alliance requirements very tricky to calculate, but I find it hard to call this a "bad" change for the people who wanted to spend less time plastered to their phone screen. I definitely don't see people complaining when they remember that they have to fight Black Bolt/Medusa/Lockjaw next event. Those extra levels and the additional health that comes with them is NO JOKE after the 4th clear, so this should mean easier grinds for that crowd too. 

PenniesForEveryone

BoyWonder1914 said:

Perhaps I'm missing something here, but I'm failing to see how making you fight much less difficult opponents on the 5-star essential doesn't offset the drop in points. If you play CL7 when you could be doing 8 or 9 for the sake of having more of your time back in your day, or fighting less difficult opponents when your 5-star is under-covered, then this change delivers on that. The people in your bracket are the exact same CL, so it's not like you're competing with people that are getting more points than you for doing that node. 

I'll admit that this throws things into a flux for competitive alliance rankings, as the introduction of the 5-star node in and of itself made alliance requirements very tricky to calculate, but I find it hard to call this a "bad" change for the people who wanted to spend less time plastered to their phone screen. I definitely don't see people complaining when they remember that they have to fight Black Bolt/Medusa/Lockjaw next event. Those extra levels and the additional health that comes with them is NO JOKE after the 4th clear, so this should mean easier grinds for that crowd too. 

I would assume that the highest scores are currently achieved by players in SCL7 - just because the enemies are so much weaker which means that the nodes can be completed faster which means more time recharging which means more points overall.  I'm sure the intent wasn't to have alliances filled with SCL7 players beating out SCL9 players in the rankings, and this change will do a good job to balance the point differential across SCLs.  

BoyWonder1914

Good point, didn't think of that. I have multiple alliance mates that always outscore me by a considerable margin despite the fact that we all play optimally to 7 clears, and I've always wondered what it could be aside from sometimes a later join.