R199 New Feature: Bonus Shard Forced Timer

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IceIX
IceIX ADMINISTRATORS Posts: 4,313 Site Admin
edited April 2020 in MPQ General Discussion
Wanted to make everyone aware of a new change that we managed to data patch into R199 this morning. Being a data patch, this means that our UI change ability is limited, so for now, there's no player visible change.

Basically, the game now tracks each of the pack pulls (of each type, so one counter each for 1x, 10x, 40x). It then starts up a counter that ramps up the odds of getting a Bonus Shard pull as the player pulls more of that type, which resets when a Bonus Shard is pulled. This ramping gets extreme around the time a totaled shard pull rate would be around 100%.

Ex: Heroic 1x pack has a ~2% chance of a 3-Star, ~1% chance of a 4-Star. The chance of a Bonus Shard goes up in the background as you pull. By about 34 pulls, the chance of any pull being a Bonus is close to 100% and will be forced if it doesn't happen soon after that. Once Bonus Shards have been procced, the timer reverts to zero.

For you math people out there, an easy way to think of this timer is as a logarithmic function but one with a cutoff that just pushes it to a set limit instead of approaching infinitely.
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Comments

  • Jormagund
    Jormagund Posts: 175 Tile Toppler
    edited April 2020
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    Sounds like another positive change frequently requested in the old days of bonus heroes.  Glad to see it come in and hope to see it in evidence when I do my weekly pulls tomorrow.
    Thanks for the update.
  • tonypq
    tonypq Posts: 549 Critical Contributor
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    Seems like a nice tweak to me, good news.
  • marshall
    marshall Posts: 179 Tile Toppler
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    Thanks for this @IceIX !

    Fun methodology, so you keep the rush of beating the odds and resets for new hope of shards.

    A few questions:
    - What are the possible bonus shard outcomes? 50, more up to full cover?
    - Is this counter based on token type? Star type? Should I only pull legendaries after 20 or so pulls without bonus?
  • jackstar0
    jackstar0 Posts: 1,280 Chairperson of the Boards
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  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 9,629 Chairperson of the Boards
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    Well I got my first Bonus Shards today so this can only better news, thanks Devs!
  • Vhailorx
    Vhailorx Posts: 6,085 Chairperson of the Boards
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    This is a great change. 

    It's ~2 years later than when first requested by the players (pointing to the use of this mechanic in what seems like just about every other major freemium game).  But that snarky caveat aside, this is an unambiguously good change for players and I have no criticism.  Thank you!  Can't wait to see the crowdsourced data on how this is impacting player's subjective and objective bonus shards experience.
  • tupacboy
    tupacboy Posts: 125 Tile Toppler
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    Awesome
  • Borstock
    Borstock Posts: 2,547 Chairperson of the Boards
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    Can't say I understood all of that, but sounds all positive. Thank you for this. It is appreciated.
  • axmoss
    axmoss Posts: 230 Tile Toppler
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    @IceIX
    Will the counter reset with the rotation of Latest Legends? i.e. If I pull to 95% and wait til Immortal Hulk is in Latest, will my counter for bonus shards reset to 0 when Immortal Hulk is in?
  • IceIX
    IceIX ADMINISTRATORS Posts: 4,313 Site Admin
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    axmoss said:
    @IceIX
    Will the counter reset with the rotation of Latest Legends? i.e. If I pull to 95% and wait til Immortal Hulk is in Latest, will my counter for bonus shards reset to 0 when Immortal Hulk is in?
    Currently, no. Right now, Latest Legends would roll over as well as any other event or pack that is possible to gain more tokens/pulls for if re-run. No plans to reset counters, although that's technically possible.
  • Vhailorx
    Vhailorx Posts: 6,085 Chairperson of the Boards
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    IceIX said:
    marshall said:
    Thanks for this @IceIX !

    Fun methodology, so you keep the rush of beating the odds and resets for new hope of shards.

    A few questions:
    - What are the possible bonus shard outcomes? 50, more up to full cover?
    - Is this counter based on token type? Star type? Should I only pull legendaries after 20 or so pulls without bonus?
    1) Depends on the rarity and the pack being pulled, but generally, it's a round number portion of a cover in Shards up to a full cover, or more than one cover in the case of 10x and 40x packs. So think 50, 100, etc up to 300 for 3-Stars or 400 for 4-Stars, 500 for 5-Stars. 10x and 40x packs can pull more than that since the pull is essentially 10 or 40 1x pulls, so you have the chance for more there anyway if you would have pulled individually.

    2) The counter is for each individual pack. Standard has its own. Heroic 1x has its own. Mighty has its own. They are not linked to one another. So waiting on a Latest Legends pull because you want to pull Standards till chances are high won't work.

    Thank you for outright stating the second point.  This will prevent some heated discussions about the optimal pull strategies. 
  • gahcior2
    gahcior2 Posts: 4 Just Dropped In
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    (in the case of heroic packs) does the timer of both 3* and 4* resets when you get either of those or is It just from the tier you got the bonus shards from ? Also thanks for the update , this is a very nice change.
  • Anon
    Anon Posts: 1,455 Chairperson of the Boards
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    Excellent news!
  • IceIX
    IceIX ADMINISTRATORS Posts: 4,313 Site Admin
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    gahcior2 said:
    (in the case of heroic packs) does the timer of both 3* and 4* resets when you get either of those or is It just from the tier you got the bonus shards from ? Also thanks for the update , this is a very nice change.
    The timer is combined for any/all pulls. Past analytics of knowing *what* is pulled after the fact, the game doesn't really differentiate between pull "types", so it'd be difficult to make it know to avoid or weight specific pull types.
  • pheregas
    pheregas Posts: 1,721 Chairperson of the Boards
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    I think the only negative to this was that it happened just after pulling over 100 latest and getting zero bonus shards.  Wish I would have waited.
  • jredd
    jredd Posts: 1,387 Chairperson of the Boards
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    this should be done with 5* pulls as well
  • DarthDeVo
    DarthDeVo Posts: 2,176 Chairperson of the Boards
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    Nice little bit of news. Especially since I believe I haven't gotten any bonus shards at any level yet. 

    It's entirely possible I got some and clicked past so fast I missed it, but I usually don't go fast enough to miss that sort of thing. 
  • Projectus2501
    Projectus2501 Posts: 218 Tile Toppler
    edited April 2020
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    Great news. Small change but a good one! 
  • MoonKnight
    MoonKnight Posts: 63 Match Maker
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    IceIX said:
    gahcior2 said:
    (in the case of heroic packs) does the timer of both 3* and 4* resets when you get either of those or is It just from the tier you got the bonus shards from ? Also thanks for the update , this is a very nice change.
    The timer is combined for any/all pulls. Past analytics of knowing *what* is pulled after the fact, the game doesn't really differentiate between pull "types", so it'd be difficult to make it know to avoid or weight specific pull types.
    So if a player pulls from an LL and get a bonus 4* shard, your 5* shard bonus will reset? Am I interpreting that correctly? If that’s the case, it will be extremely extremely unlikely to get a bonus 5* shard, as the 4* rate will just be higher. 

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