Upcoming Feature: S.H.I.E.L.D. Clearance Level 10

AXP_isme

Light a fire for a man and he’ll be warm for tonight. Set him on fire and he’ll be warm for the rest of his life. 

bluewolf

I am curious for newer players, how things will look at lower SCLs.

I assume shards will be pushed in there, but just 3s and 4s instead of 5s (since those start in 7).  With similar reductions in HP.

I realize that it's very easy for people who have been playing for years to make different decisions around their HP use and absorb some reduction.  We have champed everyone, or mostly everyone, or a huge % of the characters. 

But for new players they (seemingly) will be even more constricted around HP rewards - with HP being further in on PVP (harder to hit with baby rosters) and a reduction in PVE.  Shards are nice since you don't need to roster them but at the same time new people will - seemingly - feel even more spending pressure as their HP income will drop while the character count continues to go up.  (203 now, I think.)

Champ rewards (more covers) do nothing if you don't have that character champed.  The iso debt is the same as of right now - well, it grows every couple weeks.

Anyway, it seems to me that this rewards update won't be very friendly to new players.  I suppose if you're casual anyway then it doesn't matter (non-spenders are not important to the devs) but it definitely seems like this will move the pain points up in time.

DAZ0273

Well I should be able to give you some feedback because our new guy is active on Line chats with us and has been playing PvP like a mad man. To give you some perspective: tomorrow will be his first ever Alliance Boss Battle!

fiirst

IceIX said:

Test version of Infinite Pursuit, but this shows the current level scaling for SCL 10.



The shot in the original post is for a new Challenge Node available only in SCL 10. These nodes give additional rewards, but at current don't add points to the overall event scoring. We're still finalizing the rewards for these nodes to the last minute, but current expectations are things like Mighty Tokens and CP.

@IceIX what is the new shield rank cap for scl7?

ThaRoadWarrior

^where is that quote from?

Punter1

Didn't see it clarified - but are awarded shards for your favorited character at the relevant tier OR for the featured character?

I'm assuming the former as covers are still awarded which would tie to the featured character.

Anyway - as a lazy mostly retired player playing on the bus, I see myself bumping up to CL10 in PVP for the extra prog rewards (I play some PVPs but not all to 900). PVE I doubt I'll change too often, CL7 takes the right amount of time, don't fancy the extra time investment for CL10.

ThaRoadWarrior

I wouldn’t assume it’s for your favorite, I would guess it’s for the featured

Punter1

ThaRoadWarrior said:

I wouldn’t assume it’s for your favorite, I would guess it’s for the featured

OK - well glad I asked the question - @IceIX  can you clarify?

If it's the featured, it's much less exciting - just adds to shards spread out over multiple characters - particularly if you only get partially towards a cover per event then have to wait for them to be featured again.

Warbringa

Well I will probably stay in SCL 9 for PvE as I don't think I can compete in SCL 10 at those levels and the extra time it will take to make even progression clears is probably prohibitive for me.  I am excited though as it should make placement in SCL 9 slightly easier as the mega rosters will probably shift to SCL 10.  

ThaRoadWarrior

Speaking of SCL 9 - i'd like to see what happens to the progression rewards there.

JackTenrec

HoundofShadow said:

Champion rewards are not only about HP. It includes more than just HP, like LTs, 4* or 5* shards etc.

If majority of the players can't hit level 300 and above for majority of their 4*, how is it a loss? We could even use fully champed 3* as an example. It's going to take at least 3 years for your average casual player to fully champ all their 3*. Look at it another way, how are things that are unlikely to be achieved by a majority of the players considered a major loss? It's an actual loss to the top 5 or 10%, but it's a paper loss to the majority of the player.

Faster access to higher tier champion rewards overshadows the slight decrease in HP. With the increase in those rewards, your average players are able to shorten their time to hit the higher tier rewards. With 3* and 4* shards, they can champ their favourite characters faster.

You're assuming that there's a huge percentage of the player base that already has a full or nearly-full roster.  Additional shards/tokens/LTs are useless without slots to enable them, and I'm guessing that there are far more players who are still trying to scrape together HP for that new 3* or 4* than those on autopilot who are watching high-level champ rewards roll in (the alternative is hoarding, but there are certainly opportunity costs to your existing roster progress if you can only open things when you've got available HP).  If I was still in the 3* - 4* transition part of the game, this HP reduction would almost certainly end my MPQ career (and as a largely F2P player, it still might).

HoundofShadow

Given that on average, ~5% of the players spend on f2p games and HP is MPQ's main source of income, naturally, HP will be impacted. Yes, they can give shards, tokens, covers but what's the point if new players don't have HP to roster them? The point is probably to find out whether it will push them to play/spend more and get them more invested into the game.

Look, if newer players can keep up with roster slots and also get more covers for 3* or 4* by playing casually, they will quit the game anyway because there's no pressure and no challenge. Players who who expect easy paths to earning resources but are not willing to put in the effort or are not willing to pay to progress are there to make up the numbers anyway. So, it's not going to impact them.

Rhipf

IceIX said:

Cheetah1982 said:

Is there any hope of updating the tiers to balance competition. I’m of the very strong opinion players with champed 5 star characters should not be allowed to join SCL 7.

With SCL 10's release, the same 3 tier entry will exist. So players that can play 7-9 right now and are strong enough for 10 will be shifted to playing in 8-10.

Is this going to be based on S.H.I.E.L.D. rank like it was in the past (and if so what is the new cuttoff) or will it be based on actual roster strength?

If it based on S.H.I.E.L.D. rank this could be a problem. My S.H.I.E.L.D. rank has been going up since the old limits were implemented but my actual roster strength hasn't really changed that much. I was in 3* land when we were forced to limit PvP to SCL7-9 and I am still in 3* land. I have more 4*s now than I did then but I am holding them at a max level of 255. I don't plan to champ my 4*s until I have a roster that compete in the higher MMR bracket. I would also like to max champ all 3*s before moving up but might not wait quite that long.

DarthDeVo

Punter1 said:

ThaRoadWarrior said:

I wouldn’t assume it’s for your favorite, I would guess it’s for the featured

OK - well glad I asked the question - @IceIX  can you clarify?

If it's the featured, it's much less exciting - just adds to shards spread out over multiple characters - particularly if you only get partially towards a cover per event then have to wait for them to be featured again.

That's the point. They *want* you to have a bunch of shards on a variety of characters. Because, hey, did you know you can just buy shards with HP to finish them off? How convenient! 

Personally, I'm guessing they develop a set order of 5*s (perhaps alphabetical, or based on release date) and start them being featured on a cycle. I don't think they'll just reward shards for the 5* that is essential each event. 

The way things are right now, the three 5*s currently in Latest are essential, followed by two Classics, then the cycle repeats. Which means the 5*s in Latest get featured a fair amount while in Latest. But if they're giving away shards in progression/placement each time one of those Latest characters rolls around, that will take the pressure off of pulling for those characters in Latest to get them covered, i.e. will cut down on the need to spend to get them covered. And I think we all know *that* won't fly. 

I could be wrong about this, but I just have a feeling the 5* we'll get shards for won't be tied to the 5* essential at all (except for cases where they happen to overlap by coincidence).

T_REZ5000

DarthDeVo said:

Punter1 said:

ThaRoadWarrior said:

I wouldn’t assume it’s for your favorite, I would guess it’s for the featured

OK - well glad I asked the question - @IceIX  can you clarify?

If it's the featured, it's much less exciting - just adds to shards spread out over multiple characters - particularly if you only get partially towards a cover per event then have to wait for them to be featured again.

That's the point. They *want* you to have a bunch of shards on a variety of characters. Because, hey, did you know you can just buy shards with HP to finish them off? How convenient! 

Personally, I'm guessing they develop a set order of 5*s (perhaps alphabetical, or based on release date) and start them being featured on a cycle. I don't think they'll just reward shards for the 5* that is essential each event. 

The way things are right now, the three 5*s currently in Latest are essential, followed by two Classics, then the cycle repeats. Which means the 5*s in Latest get featured a fair amount while in Latest. But if they're giving away shards in progression/placement each time one of those Latest characters rolls around, that will take the pressure off of pulling for those characters in Latest to get them covered, i.e. will cut down on the need to spend to get them covered. And I think we all know *that* won't fly. 

I could be wrong about this, but I just have a feeling the 5* we'll get shards for won't be tied to the 5* essential at all (except for cases where they happen to overlap by coincidence).

I hope you’re wrong about the 5* shard reward rotation.  Having the 5e awarded as shards would be the only saving grace for the new pve reward structure.  It would ease the blow of the hp and cp loss (and no iso increase).

shardwick

Do they actually want people to recommend this game anymore? Still no fix to dilution and you want to make it even harder for newer players to progress by nerfing hp? Such a stupid decision. And I was actually looking forward to this overhaul because I thought that we would be getting a boost in iso. Haha yeah right. You don't nerf one of the most important resources in the game to encourage spending, you give players more things to spend their hp on with something like a new trade store. With that you can offer things like costumes, art covers, special token packs like 5 mighty tokens for X amount of hp, supports, shards/covers for limited characters, whale points, lv 550 team-ups, discounted character slots and even a mystery item. Imagine people buying the mystery item with their hp and then bragging on the forum  about how it ended up being a rare 250 5* shards. Orrr you could just nerf hp and make people want to quit the game more.

PiMacleod

I apologize.... I shouldve clarified...

I do NOT compete for placement in PvE OR PvP.

I do max progression on SCL 9.

Also, i aim for 4000 in PvP seasons... But not every time... Real life gets in the way. 

So, yeah... Thats why these changes dont affect me.  I'll continue to do max progression, and i'll see how long that takes me per day.  Right now, its at MOST an hour, but usually not.

DarthDeVo

And then that Heroes for Hire deal pops up for 3400 HP that has non-character specific shards that are rewarded to whoever you have targeted. 

Huh. 

Maybe that *will* be how they handle it for CL10. 🤷‍♂️

That still seems too generous to me. I guess we'll have to wait and see. 

JackTenrec

HoundofShadow said:

Look, if newer players can keep up with roster slots and also get more covers for 3* or 4* by playing casually, they will quit the game anyway because there's no pressure and no challenge. Players who who expect easy paths to earning resources but are not willing to put in the effort or are not willing to pay to progress are there to make up the numbers anyway. So, it's not going to impact them.

I don't play this game for challenge.  I play it like Pokemon -- catch 'em all and see which combinations are fun to obliterate your enemies (I mean no one is going to try to use Emma Frost if they have any notion of competing for placement, but team her up with Shuri and see how many fortified yellow repeaters you can get going simultaneously?  Hilarious)  I suspect that most of the folks who were drawn in by the M part of the PQ feel similarly.

Your positions consistently stake out a position about who "deserves" to advance in this game, and the answer is either folks who make MPQ a second job or pony up a boatload of cash.  Any of the tier transitions in this game aren't easy.  2* - 3* was a challenge, 3* - 4* was a pain, frequently seemingly insurmountably so -- and that was before 4* dilution was even half as bad as it is today.  I regularly play to progression, and after 5 years, I've got a tiny handful of barely-champed 5*, so I've put in the effort and slow progress is possible.  But what I'm seeing means further slowing of that rate of progress, when the circumstances for advancement are far more difficult than at any point where I was making that climb.  As a new player, would I be able to get to the 5* tier following the same level of effort and playstyle?  The answer is almost certainly no.

I suppose it's a valid opinion to think that F2P players don't matter in the viability of the game.  But I'm guessing that if they all disappeared, the app ranking in the storefronts would be reduced, the forums would get a lot less active than they are right now, and the non-whaled targets in PVP would plummet.

Treras

So CL10 is here and it comes with a CP/HP "adjustment" for the lower clearance lvls. Yeah it can never be just good news.

Looking forward for not being able to cover a latest 5*.