This Last Simulator was the Best

DubbaHuss

The way this last PvE was run was the most fun in a long time. Rewards were spread out, covers for top 50 in brackets, 250 for alliances alleviated much pressure. The rubber band was enough that if one was willing to play enough they could easily maintain position, or even catch up. Match ups were fun, the teams set up were well, and the fact that there were all different levels to fight allowed me to use my whole roster in different ways. Scalinig stayed entirely manageable. Lots of ISO to go around. If you were to ask me to design the perfect way to play MPQ, it would look a lot like what we were given this week.

Unknown

DubbaHuss wrote:

The way this last PvE was run was the most fun in a long time. Rewards were spread out, covers for top 50 in brackets, 250 for alliances alleviated much pressure. The rubber band was enough that if one was willing to play enough they could easily maintain position, or even catch up. Match ups were fun, the teams set up were well, and the fact that there were all different levels to fight allowed me to use my whole roster in different ways. Scalinig stayed entirely manageable. Lots of ISO to go around. If you were to ask me to design the perfect way to play MPQ, it would look a lot like what we were given this week.

I do not agree with some of the points. ISO flow is much more reduced compared to before.
Also rubberbanding is still not on spot, I got top 75 placement after being 1st the whole event, only because I dared to sleep in the last 6 hours.
Scaling was ok.
Match ups were ok.
Event length was ok.
TOP progression reward was again unobtainable. (We got close this time, infuriatingly enough, but could not reach it).

Slarow

Disagree. I played 2 refreshes on each of the 3x2 subs, including the last refresh on each (within an hour of ending on 2/3, including the last one). Cleared all required nodes on all refreshes, and most of the mainline nodes on the others. Because I went to bed at 11:15pm (est) on the last night, I slipped from 40/40/40 to >50,>50,>50 and missed out on the second cover and two sim tokens.

PVP has shields to eliminate the blow of not being able to play the last few hours, but PVE still means you waste the entire week of grinding if you miss the last <hour of play...

Unknown

It had good potential indeed, but not used all of it.

Good:
- interesting opponent groups
- fair rubberband setting
- good run length (first sub could be 12h shorter)
- good alliance reward structure
- fair main reward ladder
- gradual reset idea

Bad:
- final progression reward point missed (should have swapped the last 2)
- mediocre sub tokens (looked even worse than useless heroics... these event tokens should have at least double rate for ***s and elevated chance for features ones)
- bad point values of main nodes -- optimal play still restricts to essentials only, that is just BAD
- rubberbanding applied only to essential nodes pushed that even further
- gradual reset rate too big (should be cut to 1/2 - 1/3) resulting insane grinding
- overboard and uneven scaling: differences between players bigger than ever seen
- more repeats due to normal/hard that is barely different

The real fun of sim would be to play many nodes with different opponents. In practice we played exactly 3 teams per sub over and over and over. Why we have 2 identical subs really? Make them either one (keeping the double prizes some other way) or better MAKE THEM DIFFERENT. If I have to play 2x3 nodes 10 times a day why not make that at least 6 distinct ones?

Scaling is as **** as ever ruining the fun bigtime -- even if buffed heroes help a lot, it is bad. Both personal and community variant sucks and after all this time it still over-prefers negligible rosters with single-cover buffed bosses.

DubbaHuss

All fair points, especially the repetitive essential nodes. As far as dropping position at the end because you can't play, that's a frustrating problem, but not a new one. Unobtainable last progression rewards need to be fixed, totally agree. I needed that blue Mags too. And sure, I too miss the first time clear bonus ISO. But overall, I was happy to play more casually and not sweat this one out, yet still obtain all covers. I think I just wrote this out because I spend so much energy complaining, I wanted to spend a little expressing some satisfaction.

DubbaHuss

All fair points, especially the repetitive essential nodes. As far as dropping position at the end because you can't play, that's a frustrating problem, but not a new one. Unobtainable last progression rewards need to be fixed, totally agree. I needed that blue Mags too. And sure, I too miss the first time clear bonus ISO. But overall, I was happy to play more casually and not sweat this one out, yet still obtain all covers. I think I just wrote this out because I spend so much energy complaining, I wanted to spend a little expressing some satisfaction.

BearVenger

I'll give Simulators and Heroics credit that they've guided me into characters and character combinations I wouldn't have used otherwise. PvE has expanded my horizons many times.

I enjoyed this for the most part. I wish there were more variety in maps, and I was confused with the node length and ending times. I've resigned myself to ticking off my wife by not being in bed at a reasonable hour every night an event is ending (i.e., every other night). I also wish I could have seen my placement after the events ended.

But by PvE standards, this was an enjoyable one.