Pain based economy

Yepyep

bluewolf said:

I read that a long time ago....there are somewhat surprisingly few articles about MPQ in the rest of the internet given the game's longevity.

For a time (vaulting and 50/50 Latests weighting) the roster slots were slightly less painful as you could focus on the characters you were most likely to pull.  Now we have Latests essentials weighting which sort of accomplishes something similar, but to a much smaller degree.

Anyway, the roster slot pressure was bad, got better, and is now worse than ever IMO.  I  wonder if that writer still logs in  to play.

Roster slot pressure IS the game, the monetization game. That's why the game exists: it drives all of our anxieties.

The rockett

What I find interesting is this.  If you see his PVP screen, there is listed 14,528 allys that played that event.  That means 1 person in any ally would have played 1 node in that event. 

In the season that just ended, we had 13,038 ally’s. So that means, since that screen shot, we lost 1,490 ally’s.  That is a lot.  

HoundofShadow

My initial impression was that you are probably day 300-400 player because you mentioned that you are transitioning to 4* land and you didn't seem to know how MMR works. To add another 100 slot by the end of this year is a lot. That's approximately 14 slots per month. 

In order to hit close to 200th slot, you must have rostered all 2* and above characters. Currently, there are:

13 + 1 two star characters

47 three star characters

96 + 4 four star characters 

43 five star characters

which makes it a total of 199 characters. Given your non-competitive playstyle, you will probably need another 2 years to hit 300th slot. 

I don't know how much time you spend per week on MPQ but I spend a total of 11-12 hours per week on average. This includes PvPs, DDQs, PvEs and Shield Simulator. Instead of listening to negative experiences, why not look at things from the positive sides? If you are taking more than 1 hour to clear PvEs, you are probably playing SCL 9. I'm playing in SCL 7 and I spend only ~ 40 minutes per day on PvEs.

I think as far PvP is concerned, I think you are using others' experiences as a guide, thus causing you to be so downed on PvPs. I'm being playing PvPs and I don't have problem hitting 725-800 in 2*-3* land. I'm in 4* land now and I'm hitting 1000 points. Back before SCL 10 was introduced, my best placement was top 50. Now, in SCL 10, I'm getting top 100. If you have been reading old threads, you should know by now you need to join LINE to get good placements in top end PvPs.

atomzed

It’s an interesting article! Thanks for the read!
does anyone know of any freemium games that uses a different business model? I am curious about what are the viable options out there for mobile games. 

krakenoon

This is why I don’t work in PR or management, I have an ineffective communication style.

To clear up a little, does anyone know exactly how MMR works? I know that there are ties to your shield level, top 5 in your roster and who you have slotted in your defensive team. I’m guessing there is also a tie to your points in the event you are playing, maybe season points as well? I’m not sure how it’s weighted, but also seems pretty clear that your average roster level is also a factor. Any additional insight there is welcome.

That was a pretty clear breakdown on existing characters Hound, but a few factors missing there:
1. Another 12 or so new characters by the end of the year, with more to come next year.
2. Farm slots, max champed 3s held for PvP and dupes for Strange, Thanos and the like.

3. Eventual 3* farm, made easier by shards and feeders, but still.

To be clear, it’s not that I am expecting to hit 300 slots by the end of the year, just that it’s something I will be counting down to assuming I’m still playing next year (again, long view).

While I am past day 700, there were periods of me setting the game down, just doing DDQ and not playing any PvP up until this year. I have only started trying to be competitive recently. Up until this month, I easily surpassed Hound’s weekly game time in just PvE going for more progression rewards. I probably still spend more time in PvE than that weekly amount just because my brain still isn’t trained to get an accurate quick analysis of boards. I’m not sure how much longer it will take me to get to where I can trim my open & close on PvEs to 20 mins. per. I currently have no plans to really shoot for T10 in any PvP events as I’m not interested in using LINE.

On another note, playing around with when I enter PvP and which slice has lead to me possibly getting the HP reward in the Hellcat PvP (win based).

Edit: SCL7 is also my default for PvE, but when I can handle it & the event allows, I do go for 8 if the 4* reward is really needed. I do find it pretty frustrating that the play times dictated by available slices seems to only be easy to accommodate for by school aged children, people who make their own schedules and night owls (at least in my time zone).

bluewolf

If you want fairly easy point progression in PVP and are not going to try for placement, just enter Slice 4 (the second to last slice) every event, as early as possible.  Try to grind out wins vs the seed teams (the very low level teams you sometimes see).  

There's little point in trying to time your entry to PVP if you aren't chasing placement; just go for progression.  In S4 you might even be able to hit higher points and play less matches, especially if your goal is 900 or less (the 4* cover).

A_Wise_Man

@krakenoon I could tell you exactly how mmr works but it would be a *very* long post.  I have a guide set up that I've shared in discord a few times but its about 9 screenshots worth of text.  Could share on Line or discord though. 

@bluewolf I wouldn't recommend s4 for non 5 star players.  The extra points don't help anyone but 5 star guys.  I'd actually recommend s2 or s5 for pvp for lower rosters.  Just as many 2 and 3 and 4 star guys there and placement is easier by default as a bonus.