Environmental countdowns should be made more fair

Dragon_Nexus
Dragon_Nexus Posts: 3,701 Chairperson of the Boards
in MPQ General Discussion
In both Snowball Fight and the Guardians of the Galaxy PvE with the geysers there are environmental tiles that do board destruction. They do 0 damage, which is good, however what is kinda lame is that any matches made during the board settling generate AP.

I just checked it with the snowballs, after one fired at the beginning of the enemy's turn a blue match was created which gave them 3 blue AP.

It's nonsense that a randomly generated hazard that's inherent to the board and not a passive the enemy generates can give them AP and a potential cascade while not benefitting the player at all.

I'd suggest one of three possible fixes
1) Make the countdown timers belong to the player. That way the player can get the benefit from them, rather than be hampered by their going off. The down side I see to this is people like Carol who benefit from timers going off. Though the same is also true if you're *fighting* Carol during these board fights.

2) Make the countdown timers neutral so any matches made after the destruction belong to neither player. This has the problem of needing a lot of coding, I imagine. In my head I feel they'd need to make some kind of invisible 3rd player that cannot act but whose only job is to make the timer tick forward and accept the AP that's potentially generated before it moves to the enemy's turn.

3) Alternate who's countdown timer it is. Example, first timer belongs to the enemy, the next one belongs to the player, then the enemy and so on, back and forth. This feels like the most fair way of handling it, leaving the possibility of AP generation down to chance. Yeah it can feel a bit lame if it goes off for the enemy and they gain AP, but the same could also happen to you.

Comments

  • Taganov
    Taganov Posts: 279 Mover and Shaker
    I'd go with 3; if the countdown timers weren't always in favor of the other team, triggering passives for them, etc. it would be a lot better.
  • spiderpool
    spiderpool Posts: 76 Match Maker
    3 is how I expected they would work in first place and imo, how they should work.  After all,  it's called snow ball fight not get barraged by snow balls 
  • MpqTron
    MpqTron Posts: 45 Just Dropped In
    I got nailed by a weaker team in snowball fight due to countdowns consistently going off for the other team and Carol buffing tiles again and again. Should at least be even 
  • Daiches
    Daiches Posts: 1,252 Chairperson of the Boards
    The CD also work for opponents powers like Carol's passive or HE's. And would you look at that. Carol is boosted this event too, even though that interaction was one of the major complaints of the previous environmental tile events.
  • Bowgentle
    Bowgentle Posts: 7,926 Chairperson of the Boards
    Daiches said:
    The CD also work for opponents powers like Carol's passive or HE's. And would you look at that. Carol is boosted this event too, even though that interaction was one of the major complaints of the previous environmental tile events.
    Clearly, they're listening.
  • acescracked
    acescracked Posts: 1,197 Chairperson of the Boards
    You wiped to my Carol then created this thread?
  • jamesh
    jamesh Posts: 1,600 Chairperson of the Boards
    Playing the devil's advocate, the defence AI is not particularly bright so giving it the benefit of the environmental countdowns at least evens things up a little.
  • chitown021
    chitown021 Posts: 15 Just Dropped In
    edited December 2017
    I thought the exact same thing. When I first heard about the snowball event I assumed #3 is the way it'd work. Both teams would randomly get countdown tiles, but no the CPU only tiles are totally cheap. I've lost several matches thanks to the cascading effect the snowball create when they go off. Even if the CPU is stupid in the way it plays it's going to kick your **** eventually if it gets a steady stream of tiles and can constantly use its powers. 

    *Removed inappropriate comment - Ducky
  • bluewolf
    bluewolf Posts: 5,736 Chairperson of the Boards
    Hey!  Double iso for a PVP!  But:  Boosted Carol+snowballs = pain.  Happy holidays?
  • Punisher5784
    Punisher5784 Posts: 3,845 Chairperson of the Boards
    We already complained about this during Anniversary with the lame Danger Room PvP but they still continue to ignore us.

    I like #3 best buy how about #4.. sort of like #2.. have a completely new type of tile that is not owned by either team. This tile deceases AFTER the players turn but BEFORE the enemy turn (like an invisible 3rd player).. neither side will collect AP or deal damage. The enemy could still have a slight advantage if a 5-match is made giving them a critical tile but that's about it.
  • chitown021
    chitown021 Posts: 15 Just Dropped In
    Okay, maybe not beaten, but the person who came up with this pvp idea definitely should get coal in their stockings. How is that a good idea to have a board with special tiles that only go one way?
  • Dragon_Nexus
    Dragon_Nexus Posts: 3,701 Chairperson of the Boards
    jamesh said:
    Playing the devil's advocate, the defence AI is not particularly bright so giving it the benefit of the environmental countdowns at least evens things up a little.
    Conversely, the meta is so passive driven that that AI doesn't even need to be bright any more.
  • Wonko33
    Wonko33 Posts: 985 Critical Contributor
    yeah Carol /Colson  gets a bit crazy if they resolve always for the same team
  • jtsings
    jtsings Posts: 278 Mover and Shaker
       I have Carol champed and was looking forward to having a PVP I could finally be competitive in (since the MMR thinks I should always be playing against the featured character and two 4* boosted champs, even though I don't have any boosted champs for that event).  However, I found this to be the least fun I've ever had in PVP.  There was one instance where there were about 2 or 3 snowballs that went off at the same time and the AP for the computer went from very little, up into the double digits for several colors.  This was not so much a "snowball fight" as it was a bully saying "hey kid stand over there and try to dodge all these snowballs were going to throw at you, good luck!". Very, very disappointing to say the least.
  • TheRealJRad
    TheRealJRad Posts: 309 Mover and Shaker
    acescracked said:
    You wiped to my Carol then created this thread?
    So you were the one using Carol in this event.
  • Spoit
    Spoit Posts: 3,441 Chairperson of the Boards
    TheRealJRad said:
    acescracked said:
    You wiped to my Carol then created this thread?
    So you were the one using Carol in this event.
    Everyone is using carol in this event. Along with either C&D or blade to generate passive special tiles
  • spiderpool
    spiderpool Posts: 76 Match Maker
    Spoit said:
    TheRealJRad said:
    acescracked said:
    You wiped to my Carol then created this thread?
    So you were the one using Carol in this event.
    Everyone is using carol in this event. Along with either C&D or blade to generate passive special tiles
    That woosh you heard go over your head was the joke

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