Take a bow MPQ..getting it right pve style

atomzed

I really love this pve because of the following reasons:-
1) I get to use my full roster. Some guys said that the pve should've been a DA only roster but I disagree. Being able to field my full team means I get to experience different different team combinations. Which is more fun.

2) varied opponent team. Because they allowed us to play our full roster, they can afford to put out more difficult team. The Ht with 2 goons nodes were tough, and it forced me to be creative; I tried to bring falcon in to use his blue to deal with plasma stream. Playing against Falcon was also tough, as I experience first hand how irritating his purple can be.

This makes it so much more fun, instead of fighting the same goons over and over again.

3) Lack of rubberbanding means that I don't have to worry about final 2 hours. I was unable to play in the final 2 hours this pve but I was in top 20 in main bracket consistently. In the past I would have lost my top 20 spot, making my past 9 days effort gone to waste. Not anymore this time and I like it.

Also, no rubberband also means that I can play when I want to, instead of trying to time it to gain the max RB points. In the past I tried to squeeze games near the refresh time,.So that I can get the max RB points. With this new system, I tried to play earlier and spread my games across the 12 hr refresh rate. That created less pressure for me. Which makes it more enjoyable

atomzed

To those who prefer rubberbanding, I have a question to ask.

In which games do you have a situation where the less you play, the more competitive you are? I have not seen it in other games before. In all other games, it's acknowledged that the more you grind, the better it is for you, be it more points, more rewards, more exp...

While I acknowledged that not everyone can play as much as others, I don't think it's fair to those who put in the time to play.

Put it another way, since there's no rubberband, you can play anytime you want. Isn't that more convenient for you?

Maybe what D3 needs to think is whether it makes sense to have fix refresh rate. Maybe changed it such that the refresh rate.is individualised? That would allow people to play the way they want it.

I am not sure about the optimal solution, but I think reducing RB makes it less of a mad rush towards the end of the event, and more of a marathon across many subs. I didn't get top 50 in all the subs, but I made sure I maintain my pacing in the main. That ought to be the way the games are played.

HailMary

atomzed wrote:

While I acknowledged that not everyone can play as much as others, I don't think it's fair to those who put in the time to play.

Put it another way, since there's no rubberband, you can play anytime you want. Isn't that more convenient for you?

I think you're confusing rubberband and refresh. Also, I'd rather grind for 30-60 minutes within some sort of 3-4 hour window and do an occasional fight whenever I feel like it, as opposed to grinding 6 hours a day to have high placement.

Also, if I recall various forum comments correctly, the Thick as Thieves event (or a similar event) way back in the day had something akin to a pure-grind model. IIRC, there was a lot of fury about endlessly grinding nodes after they were already ground down to 1 point just to have even a chance at worthwhile placement.

atomzed wrote:

Maybe what D3 needs to think is whether it makes sense to have fix refresh rate. Maybe changed it such that the refresh rate.is individualised? That would allow people to play the way they want it.

How so? Refreshes are already calculated on a per-node basis from your last victory on that node. Individualizing refresh rates would be a nightmare to balance, and even if it was balanced, it'd be an even bigger nightmare to convince people that it really was balanced.

atomzed wrote:

I am not sure about the optimal solution, but I think reducing RB makes it less of a mad rush towards the end of the event, and more of a marathon across many subs. I didn't get top 50 in all the subs, but I made sure I maintain my pacing in the main. That ought to be the way the games are played.

I think the somewhat recent tweak that rbanded you against the global sub leader, instead of the global main leader, helped a lot in reducing eleventh-hour slingshot ninjas.

Even with rubberbanding, you could spread out your play pretty much across an entire refresh cycle. You just need to track which nodes you want to leave alone at which point to let them refresh. I know that's what I did, and I rubberbanded pretty hard.

HairyDave

HailMary wrote:

atomzed wrote:

While I acknowledged that not everyone can play as much as others, I don't think it's fair to those who put in the time to play.

Put it another way, since there's no rubberband, you can play anytime you want. Isn't that more convenient for you?

I think you're confusing rubberband and refresh. Also, I'd rather grind for 30-60 minutes within some sort of 3-4 hour window and do an occasional fight whenever I feel like it, as opposed to grinding 6 hours a day to have high placement.

So much this.

I wound up in a super competitive bracket (my leader tapped out at a massive 71K, my 36K was only enough for 120ish), and while I could have spared more time to grinding myself, I'd rather spend an hour plowing through all the nodes and get a decent points haul and still have time to get some PVP matches in during the same window of opportunity.

atomzed

HailMary wrote:

Also, I'd rather grind for 30-60 minutes within some sort of 3-4 hour window and do an occasional fight whenever I feel like it, as opposed to grinding 6 hours a day to have high placement.

To be clear, I had been doing what you said in the past. Play whenever I feel like it, and make sure I play in the final 30-60 mins. I usually can keep within top 20.

In this pve, I play whenever I feel like it...and don't have to worry about that final 30-60 mins. Maybe I have played more I don't deny that, but taking away the pressure element help a lot in making it enjoyable.

It may be possible that my main bracket was easy. I had 57k and was at top 20. I think I have ended with top 13. It wasn't too difficult for me to get that score by playing consistently across the 9 days WITHOUT worrying about the final 30-60 mins.

Hailmary wrote:

Also, if I recall various forum comments correctly, the Thick as Thieves event (or a similar event) way back in the day had something akin to a pure-grind model. IIRC, there was a lot of fury about endlessly grinding nodes after they were already ground down to 1 point just to have even a chance at worthwhile placement.

I don't want it to be a grind fest, but at the same time I am pointing out that people who feel that they can be in top 20 by playing in final 60 mins of the event. That was what I saw, players that play only last 2 hr and rubbeband to the top. I don't think that's fair.

And finally regarding about the refresh, there's another thread that mentioned it. We can bring the discussion over there.