PvE is obsolete, tedious, and boring. Why does nothing ever get changed?

Aweberman

@Vhailorx said:
I wouldn't mind the reptitiveness of the pve events so much if the grind wasn't 40+ matches a day (or more below cl10).

So in lieu of revamping the pve system entirely (which I have no doubt would be hard) I would accept just cutting the grind down by one or two hits.

I have felt this way for a long time. To me, there's no logic at all behind the idea of needing to hit the same node multiple times. So my preferred PVE fix would be this:

Hit each node once. The first node is the easiest (set at whatever level seems reasonable), and then it just gets increasingly harder. Maybe the last node is the equivalent of the 4th clear of the hardest node of cl10 ... but with waves; maybe you just make the opponents level 800. I don't know. But I'd like to see it be one and done.

I also understand, though, that you don't want to make it impossible to "finish" the story for players who care about that. So maybe an alternate solution would be for you to do two hits, the first of which is similar to the first hit currently, but the second of which is much, much harder (and the only way to reach full progression). Or you have the "normal" version of the nodes and finishing them unlocks the "heroic" version.

And, of course, remove the end grind, because that's also pointless and ridiculous.

MgoBlue51

Bring back the gauntlet!

Bowgentle

@MgoBlue51 said:
Bring back the gauntlet!

What for?
It'd be trivial with Shang.

entrailbucket

@Bowgentle said:

@MgoBlue51 said:
Bring back the gauntlet!

What for?
It'd be trivial with Shang.

Yep, Puzzle Gauntlet is the only way they can do this event now. The point of The Gauntlet was working out some specific team that could actually win each fight, and they were mostly pretty complicated. Now you could just bring Okoye Hulk or something to every fight, or the Kang autowin team.

BriMan2222

@entrailbucket said:

@Bowgentle said:

@MgoBlue51 said:
Bring back the gauntlet!

What for?
It'd be trivial with Shang.

Yep, Puzzle Gauntlet is the only way they can do this event now. The point of The Gauntlet was working out some specific team that could actually win each fight, and they were mostly pretty complicated. Now you could just bring Okoye Hulk or something to every fight, or the Kang autowin team.

Gauntlet also existed before they removed the pve restriction that you couldn't have a character on your team if there was a version of that character as the enemy. I remember a lot of the gauntlet nodes having deadpool as an enemy just so you couldn't bring your own dp to use whales.

Theghouse

I've never understood why story mode is called story mode and not race mode. I asked a question along this lines in the November Q&A, but it's crazy that to be competitive in story mode, you have to skip all dialogue and turn off all animations, completely removing all of the story and creative elements of the game.

I'm surprised, with the major advance in developing the puzzle gauntlet win conditions, that they have not adapted that type of idea to more game nodes.

I imagine a PVE world where each node was worth a base amount of points, and a multiplier was applied based on certain puzzle criteria when you defeated the node. For example, the node could be worth 300 points, and you get a multiplier of +5% for each AP you have/don't have, or how many special tiles are/aren't on the board, how many/few turns you can beat the node in, how much or little overkill damage you do to each enemy, to think of just a few. While some of these criteria are capped at a certain amount and would create a max score for the node, others such as overkill damage would have almost no limit to how high you could get it with the right approach (and a little luck, after all, what is RNG without it?).

Nodes would be infinitely repeatable but only your highest score would save and count to your sub score. While you would still pick a slice, it would only affect when the subs flip, you wouldn't actually be required to play at certain time to achieve optimal score.

Players who only want to play a few times for progression rewards would be able to do that with relative ease, the main objective would still be to beat each node. Players who want to grind out for top score would need to assemble their teams and supports to hit the highest multiplier based on puzzle objective. Players who enjoy hiding scores and making their last minute moves could still play on the flip time to jump up the scoreboard at the last minute. Players who enjoy playing with animations or going through story dialogue would not be at any disadvantage.

entrailbucket

It's a good idea, and one that's probably pretty doable, given Puzzle Gauntlet. But I think folks may be too invested in the current system to implement something like this, at this point.

Bowgentle

They can have that as an extra mode.
I have zero interest in having the speed factor taken away from pve, it's what makes it fun for me.

DrClever

@Theghouse said:
I've never understood why story mode is called story mode and not race mode ... it's crazy that to be competitive in story mode, you have to skip all dialogue and turn off all animations, completely removing all of the story and creative elements of the game.

Have all my likes for the remaining lifetime of the game.

Bad

If they wanted they could implement all that. Extra work and probably having to fight the game's old code.
But pve competitors? They are minority. Their opinion doesn't really matter.
They'd adapt to a new pve anyway.

MgoBlue51

I just miss the feeling of joy when I finally completed the gauntlet for the first time. I understand it doesn't fit in the current game environment, but nothing about pve truly brings that level of joy anymore.

I'm not trying to complain, I obviously keep playing just as I have done for almost 10 years now. But that doesn't mean it hasn't grown a little stale overall. I'd love something that makes me feel SOMETHING about this game, rather than just a thing to do during a lunch break or while waiting for an appointment. Same hour or so commitment per day, and then put it down for the rest of the day/night. Wake, repeat.

entrailbucket

@MgoBlue51 said:
I just miss the feeling of joy when I finally completed the gauntlet for the first time. I understand it doesn't fit in the current game environment, but nothing about pve truly brings that level of joy anymore.

I'm not trying to complain, I obviously keep playing just as I have done for almost 10 years now. But that doesn't mean it hasn't grown a little stale overall. I'd love something that makes me feel SOMETHING about this game, rather than just a thing to do during a lunch break or while waiting for an appointment. Same hour or so commitment per day, and then put it down for the rest of the day/night. Wake, repeat.

Try something different.

There's no law that says you have to play optimally, and I promise you won't even notice the difference in rewards. Change your teams up, use suboptimal but fun guys. Pick a character at random and try to win all your fights with them on your team. Set weird goals, like only casting red powers, or not using any passives. Try to get Big Wheel's speed points as high as you can. Get High Evolutionary's health past a billion.

Or go the other way! Track your timings and try to go even faster! Keep records and see if you can beat them.

If you've fallen into a routine and the routine isn't fun, do something to change it up! There's a ton of depth in this game and a million different ways to have fun playing it. There's only one optimal way to play but there are an infinite number of suboptimal ways.

JoeHandle

@Bowgentle said:

@DrClever said:
Debuffs is an interesting idea.

I guess it might hit some narrow rosters uncomfortably hard.

I'd like some new mechanics that affect scoring and require some different team building - bad Vulture has dropped a civilian out of the sky, fire a flight or web power before their repeater tile hits the bottom row to gain 300 points, lose 1000 if you destroy it. Something to make a difference to the end score that doesn't rely on coordinating externally and treating the game like a chore or a job.

There's no coordination in PVE.

Mercing, shuffling. There's coordinating of what score ends up where. But that affects alliance placement, not individual scores.

Bowgentle

Well yes, we're mercing for t11.
But as you said, nothing for individual placement.

tupacboy

Wish they somehow solved the whole flip situation. Basically if you're not available in that exact window within 5 min you're basically out from t10 majority of the time.

The only thing I could think of was maybe lowering the number for flips to 100 or something so there's a ton of flips.

Or a option to play faster since we're out of t10. We're all doing the same grind over and over, a speed option would be nice. After over 5 years of play I don't need to see the attack tiles do damage and waste time. SCL10 with speed option would be awesome

Or perhaps rank us on clearing times instead of whom is available at the same time 4 days in a row. Which with RL is tough.

just rambling now so yea

Oldman

is funny how the person who started this post says he hates pve, me on the other hand, like pve, but dislike so much the pvp of this game, i´ve seen similar games that have a much enjoyable pvp, for example, gems of war, but i know thsi will never change because that is what brings money to the devs, so many people using shields, means money and one rule is that you dont touch money.
But i agree that they can implement some changes on the pve aspects of the game to stir things up

dlegendary0ne

I enjoy PVE, but I dislike how inflexible it is. If you start an event in one time slice, you're bound to that time slice for the next 3 or 4 days, regardless of whether it's good for you in real life or not. I'd love to be able to play at my own pace and still be competitive.

The time I spend playing a particular node is really the only thing that makes it competitive, not the time of day I spend playing it. If the mode was based on the time I spent playing it, then as long as I got where I needed to be by the end of the event with faster playing time than the others, it wouldn't matter what time of day I started or how often I stopped along the way. This would even allow for interruptions while in the middle of a node. Just back out and come back when ready. I would love something like this.

Bowgentle

@dlegendary0ne said:
I enjoy PVE, but I dislike how inflexible it is. If you start an event in one time slice, you're bound to that time slice for the next 3 or 4 days, regardless of whether it's good for you in real life or not. I'd love to be able to play at my own pace and still be competitive.

The time I spend playing a particular node is really the only thing that makes it competitive, not the time of day I spend playing it. If the mode was based on the time I spent playing it, then as long as I got where I needed to be by the end of the event with faster playing time than the others, it wouldn't matter what time of day I started or how often I stopped along the way. This would even allow for interruptions while in the middle of a node. Just back out and come back when ready. I would love something like this.

Yeah no.
Then everyone retreats every time they don't get the perfect opening board.

DrClever

@dlegendary0ne said:
The time I spend playing a particular node is really the only thing that makes it competitive

This is what needs fixing.

Bowgentle

You're fine with the 550 rosters winning everything, forever?
Because that's what this boils down to.
Right now you have 550s who can't play optimal, miss hits, etc.
With this suggestion every 550 roster that shows up will crowd you out of t50.