Updates to Hulk Events and S.H.I.E.L.D. Training (11/15/17)

Brigby

Hi Everyone,

Sakaar Arena
Starting this Friday (11/17), there will be some adjustments to Sakaar Arena:

• New Chapter cover and map for Sakaar Arena!
• Sakaar Arena will switch between The Hulk Lightning Rounds and Thor Lightning Rounds
• The Hulk (Indestructible), The Hulk (Totally Awesome), The Hulk (The Main Event), and The Hulk (Bruce Banner) will be boosted in Sakaar Arena: The Hulk Lightning Rounds
• The Hulk (The Main Event) is added to the Sakaar Arena Cover store. The odds to get him will be the same as the chance to get him from his vault (1 in 80)

The Hulk (The Main Event) Debut Story Event
There are a few changes coming to new character debut Story events:

Special boosts have been removed as mission rewards in the debut and featured Story events for new characters. Instead, special boosts have been added as new progression rewards in Debut and Featured Story events. 

• The Hulk (The Main Event) Damage boosts have been added as new progression rewards at 200, 750, 1100, and 1500 points
• All Hulk Damage boosts have been added as new progression rewards at 300, 900, 1250, and 2000 points

Special boosts have also been added as new progression rewards in the S.H.I.E.L.D. Training event.

• The Hulk (The Main Event) Damage boosts have been added as progression rewards at 200 and 800 points
• All Hulk Damage boosts have been added as new progression rewards at 400 and 950 points

S.H.I.E.L.D. Training
We wanted to provide some more information on the intent behind S.H.I.E.L.D. Training, and what some of the adjustments to it are moving forward.

It's no surprise that there are players in our community who are long-time supporters of the game, veterans that have been with us since the beginning, and many players in between/in both categories. Having dedicated so much time and effort, these are the players that have worked hard to grow a large and formidable roster. 

In recognition of this, we wanted to create an extra event that allowed these players to showcase their roster strength, and gain rewards from completing these challenging missions. At the same time though, we still wanted to give other players the opportunity to participate, as an additional bonus to the reward structure players are used to.

We've heard a lot of your feedback, and we're making a couple of adjustments to have the event be easier to comprehend, and opened up more to allow for increased player participation. Please keep in mind, this is still a new event in MPQ, so please feel free to continue providing feedback, as we do take all of it into consideration.

• We've updated the background to make it easier to tell what order the missions are
• The middle row of missions in S.H.I.E.L.D. Training had its required level lowered to 94 (from 120)

Punishu777

But you still can't complete SHIELD training without champing the brand new character when there aren't that many covers available before the event ends unless you are a whale, right? So those of us who have been around for 4 years but don't want to spend thousands of dollars on a 4* we won't use in pve or PvP still can't finish...

twobites

It's good to see that the developers are listening to the feedback that was given and trying to make adjustments accordingly to reward long-term players and incentivize newer players to keep building and strengthening rosters.

It might help to understand who the required players will be for the Shield Training event. If it still requires a level 209 Nightcrawler, the newest addition to the 4* ranks who only entered packs this afternoon, then you haven't understood the challenges that many players had with Shield Training.

I was only able to get 5 covers for my Nightcrawler (0/1/4), who I have raised to the maximum possible level of 131 based on the covers I have. I have him as my only bonus hero in the 4* ranks since this afternoon and have not been fortunate enough to gain any more covers. It takes at least 10 covers to be able to raise a character to level 209, so I am only half way there. At this point, I don't see a way to get the additional 5 covers in time to be able to get him to level 209 prior to the end of the event. This is simply not an obtainable feat for a significant number of players. 

Thanks again for listening to us.

Brigby

As a completionist player myself, I can understand the frustration behind potentially not completing the entire event. It makes sense that a lot of players strive to hit max progression on every event and mission possible. 

Having said that though, the intent behind this extra event is to reward players during the process of growing their characters, while also recognizing the veterans and supporters that have strong, established rosters. This does not replace the usual events that reward covers, but rather accompanies it as an added bonus to the reward structure players are already used to.

As mentioned in the original post though, we're open to listening and reviewing feedback, so please feel free to continue sharing your thoughts!

Dragon_Nexus

I think a lot of us on the forum realised what the Shield Training was about.

what we couldn't fathom was why you'd demand a high level requirement of a character so new that the only way to meet said requirement was to spend copious amounts of monies to get the covers and ISO to reach that point. All for just one free cover.

Again, it was one of those good-ideas-done-incomprehensively things.

Bryan Lambert

Brigby said:

As a completionist player myself, I can understand the frustration behind potentially not completing the entire event. It makes sense that a lot of players strive to hit max progression on every event and mission possible. 

Having said that though, the intent behind this extra event is to reward players during the process of growing their characters, while also recognizing the veterans and supporters that have strong, established rosters. This does not replace the usual events that reward covers, but rather accompanies it as an added bonus to the reward structure players are already used to.

As mentioned in the original post though, we're open to listening and reviewing feedback, so please feel free to continue sharing your thoughts!

Ah, but are you rewarding big, broad, deep rosters? Or are you rewarding fast rosters?

The first SHIELD Training did the former, the second SHIELD Training did the latter.

THe first SHIELD Training had the majority of the nodes (and the best reward, the new character cover) available to people who’d built up their rosters gradually, over time. Only the bottom row of ISO rewards were gated to people who could roster and level a new character quickly (and we all know what it generally takes to do that).

The second SHIELD training had the majority of the nodes, and the best reward, available only to people who could roster and level new characters quickly. 

The required characters for this one will tell us what the real guiding philosophy is, of course.

iron-n-wine

Removing the level cap so that players can at least attempt it with undercovered required characters (like a Crash of the Titans) would help

I'd still fail, but at least feel like I wasnt being locked out

wymtime

Brigby said:

Hi Everyone,


S.H.I.E.L.D. Training
We wanted to provide some more information on the intent behind S.H.I.E.L.D. Training, and what some of the adjustments to it are moving forward.

It's no surprise that there are players in our community who are long-time supporters of the game, veterans that have been with us since the beginning, and many players in between/in both categories. Having dedicated so much time and effort, these are the players that have worked hard to grow a large and formidable roster. 

In recognition of this, we wanted to create an extra event that allowed these players to showcase their roster strength, and gain rewards from completing these challenging missions. At the same time though, we still wanted to give other players the opportunity to participate, as an additional bonus to the reward structure players are used to.

We've heard a lot of your feedback, and we're making a couple of adjustments to have the event be easier to comprehend, and opened up more to allow for increased player participation. Please keep in mind, this is still a new event in MPQ, so please feel free to continue providing feedback, as we do take all of it into consideration.

• We've updated the background to make it easier to tell what order the missions are
• The middle row of missions in S.H.I.E.L.D. Training had its required level lowered to 94 (from 120)

So I want to give som constructive feedback on this event.  
First I appreciate the recent string of communication and stepping back from PVP changes.  It is showing you are listening more and adjusting.
#2 as a player over 1400 days in the game I appreciate the fact that this mode would allow me to showcase my deep roster and earn rewards.
#3. The biggest issue with this event is it required the latest 2 4* in the game to be covered and leveled.  As someone with 9 5* championed I could not complete 1/2 these missions because I did not get top 10 placement in PVE for a new release character.
#4 if you are going to require a new character give us a loaner at the min level or only require a 1 cover character to take on the node.  Or only use older 4* that more players could have and have leveled.  You made a game mode where you had to have older * at high levels and 1-2 new characters at high level.  This is a really small population.

i hope you can feel this feedback is constructive and thanks for working on new events like this one.

Punishu777

@Brigby

Thank you for the clarification, but it seems a better way to structure the event would be to set the maximum level required to complete at the highest amount of covers winnable up to that point. That would be 9 if math serves me correctly (4x for 1st place pve finish, 1x for alliance from pve, 1x for progression in the next pve, 2x for top placement in PvP, and 1x for progression in the next pve). At least then it is attainable.

Punisher5784

Brigby said:

Hi Everyone,

Sakaar Arena

• The middle row of missions in S.H.I.E.L.D. Training had its required level lowered to 94 (from 120)

The biggest complaint wasn't level 120. It was the level 209 requirement.

Personally for me I did everything I could to get Rogue to 11 covers (209 max) but I only obtained 8 covers, despite earning covers in PvE (placement, progression and alliance), PvP progression and I made her my Bonus Hero and opened a ton of tokens. It was nearly impossible. 

For others, level 209 for low class 4*s such as Elektra and XFW is quite a bit of ISO. I understand it's "SHIELD Training" but alot of players would appreciate a heads up on the required characters so we can plan.

I look forward to the new changes and I hope they work out for a majority of the players

smkspy

"It's no surprise that there are players in our community who are long-time supporters of the game"

Translation, we want to reward the guys that pay us to build the newest character in one week by giving them one extra cover for the next character that they were gonna pay us for anyways.

zulux21

I appreciate you are showing signs of listening on this... but uh... just signs.

In general we were annoyed that you locked the single cover for a new character behind a huge paywall the second run.

getting a new character to level 209 the day it enters the packs is in no way rewarding players that build up a large roster, it's only rewarding players that spend a lot of money.

which I get it, you like money. but in the first run while it was annoying to have the bottom row locked out because you needed to build rogue I understood.

you should be lowering the level requirements to get the cover in general, and likely should never include anyone still in the times three odds so that people have had plenty of time to build them up.

or at the very least none of the 6 most recent additions.

it's one cover for a new character, not something meta breaking if more people can get it. It just means that if I can't finish in the top 100 of a new release event I am not completely screwed in the next event where I need the new character to do the 4* node if you allow us to get that cover without needing a character rostered and leveled we can't easily do just by playing.

dr tinykittylove

What happened to events like Growth Industry, Amadeus's inferno or the coulson or guardians events where you could get a cover as long as you can beat the nodes? 

NMANOZ

I did like the older events where you could play a number of increasing difficult nodes with the last one giving you a cover for the new character (like for Ant-Man). It gave everyone the opportunity to get it.

I much prefer the first shield training where the required characters were older ones which gave most people are much better chance of getting at least 1 new character cover.

mwc

Aaaaaaand...Nightcrawler is needed. And there goes my interest for the Shield Training once again.

bluewolf

dr tinykittylove said:

What happened to events like Growth Industry, Amadeus's inferno or the coulson or guardians events where you could get a cover as long as you can beat the nodes? 

First, even those events were not just gimmes for younger rosters. 

Two, the more characters in the game, the harder it is to spur people to develop the newest one right away. They are trying to encourage people to spend or play for an advantage sooner than later.

I like that the two vintage 4’s this time are Star Lord and Thor, both very desirable characters that many players have champed or leveled already.

Zalasta

Once again. Thanks for nothing.

Nick441234

As someone with all 2*s, 3*s and 48 of 58 4*s champed, I was only locked out of 2 nodes in the main section. I earned a good chunk of covers and ISO, so seemed a bit fairer to me this time. 

Not a fan of these silly new boosts though. How many people will ever use them? Put something more useful in progression. 

dr tinykittylove

bluewolf said:

dr tinykittylove said:

What happened to events like Growth Industry, Amadeus's inferno or the coulson or guardians events where you could get a cover as long as you can beat the nodes? 

First, even those events were not just gimmes for younger rosters. 

Two, the more characters in the game, the harder it is to spur people to develop the newest one right away. They are trying to encourage people to spend or play for an advantage sooner than later.

I like that the two vintage 4’s this time are Star Lord and Thor, both very desirable characters that many players have champed or leveled already.

First. Did anyone ask for free covers?

I'll agree Starlord and Thor are good picks for the essentials this time, and I don't really object to them rewarding people for *ahem* being a tiny little bit more dedicated to the game than average, considering that I've been *coff* lucky enough to get all the previous covers off Shield Training events without whaling tokens, but it's not like  these other more accessible events are mutually exclusive and you can't have them if you have Shield Training. Run them at different times, bring in vintage characters that younger players can't get, why not? 

stryke

Brigby said:

Having dedicated so much time and effort, these are the players that have worked hard to grow a large and formidable roster. 

In recognition of this, we wanted to create an extra event that allowed these players to showcase their roster strength, and gain rewards from completing these challenging missions.

I'm sorry but this makes no sense when the reward is locked behind having the newest 4* character at level 209 which has nothing to do with how long you've been building up your roster. 

As others have said the first shield training was fine and one I was able to complete being a long term player, even though I'm not one with a great deal of 4* champions still. 

This though... I have one cover for Nightcrawler so how exactly reward long time players?

Vhailorx

S.H.I.E.L.D. Training
We wanted to provide some more information on the intent behind S.H.I.E.L.D. Training, and what some of the adjustments to it are moving forward.

It's no surprise that there are players in our community who are long-time supporters of the game, veterans that have been with us since the beginning, and many players in between/in both categories. Having dedicated so much time and effort, these are the players that have worked hard to grow a large and formidable roster. 

In recognition of this, we wanted to create an extra event that allowed these players to showcase their roster strength, and gain rewards from completing these challenging missions. At the same time though, we still wanted to give other players the opportunity to participate, as an additional bonus to the reward structure players are used to.

We've heard a lot of your feedback, and we're making a couple of adjustments to have the event be easier to comprehend, and opened up more to allow for increased player participation. Please keep in mind, this is still a new event in MPQ, so please feel free to continue providing feedback, as we do take all of it into consideration.

• We've updated the background to make it easier to tell what order the missions are
• The middle row of missions in S.H.I.E.L.D. Training had its required level lowered to 94 (from 120)

Thank for the update Brigby,

Unfortunately, I have to disagree with the bolded statement about SHIELD Training.  It does not really reward roster strength, or at least not just roster strength.  More than anything else SHIELD Training rewards roster speed.  And since MPQ is a pay-for-convenience freemium model where spending real money is offered as an alternative to grinding in-game, rewarding roster speed is effectively rewarding $s spent. 

To be sure, other features in MPQ have also rewarded roster speed, but not on anything like the scale of shield training.  Crash of the titans requires players to collect and level 4*s to earn compelling rewards (LTs!).  But in order to soothe player concerns over how quickly we needed to get and level 4*s, demi created a cycle whereby no 4* crash would run until the character had been featured in PVE at least twice.  Shield training requires higher levels than Crash of the Titans within the first week of release. 

It is, IMO, straight up disingenuous for d3 or demi to claim that Shield training is about rewarding veterans with strong rosters.  It is about rewarding those players that spend money on the game to cover and champ new characters immediately upon release.  Please be honest with us.