Please fix sharding

quadiak

I'm sure this topic has been beaten to death somewhere on these forums, but since it has made it off of the front page I thought I would bring it up.

This so called sharding that was introduced part way through season 1 has virtually ruined certain events for those of us who can't afford to through $300 into immediately building a character who we don't currently have leveled close to max.

The last 2 PvP events have been a nightmare for me only because I lack both a maxed out l.Thor and Hood. I am very proud of my accomplishment in building my roster and being able to max out a few 3* hero's by grinding hard and earning it all through time and patience. I really don't mind strong competition, but how is it fair that I am forced to face a 212 Hood paired with 2 more level 141 3* covers every match, when I haven't yet earned a Hood that is worthy of competing against these match ups.

I'm really not trying to be the squeaky wheel here, and I certainly don't want special treatment, as I am confident there are many others in the same situation. I would just like to be in a proper bracket or category that would allow me to have fun in a competitive fashion.

Developers, if you can't manage to improve the categories into which your faithful supporters fit so that the game can remain fun, then please at least bring your upgrade pricing into a reasonable realm. I would have no problem dropping $20-30 on the required bits of data that would equal a fully leveled Hood for the current PvP event, but to drop roughly $300 is not now, nor would ever be a reasonable option, at least in my reality unless......maybe..... .....you could include a .......life sized action figure with purchase? Please?

HailMary

You're referring to MMR, not sharding. Sharding refers to vets getting bracketed with fellow vets, not matched up against fellow vets.

quadiak wrote:

I would have no problem dropping $20-30 on the required bits of data that would equal a fully leveled Hood for the current PvP event

I somehow doubt this is true, coming from a leader of Fluffyudders' "F2P Veterans."

quadiak

HailMary wrote:

You're referring to MMR, not sharding. Sharding refers to vets getting bracketed with fellow vets, not matched up against fellow vets.

quadiak wrote:

I would have no problem dropping $20-30 on the required bits of data that would equal a fully leveled Hood for the current PvP event

I somehow doubt this is true, coming from a leader of Fluffyudders' "F2P Veterans."

Thanks for straightening that up for me.

It still stands that something needs to be fixed because it is extremely un-funbalanced when I have to go into EVERY match serverly out gunned. I might as well be playing a pve against level 230s as trying to compete with a 5 cover hood 1\0\4.

Being strictly f2p requires patience, but it would be nice to have some fun while we earn our way to the riches of mpq. No?

Anyway, I'm not exactly sure to what you are insinuating about being a f2p veteran, and I imagine many of us have different motives as to why we are f2p. I will tell you straight up that had it not been for the outreagously high in-game-purchase prices, i would not have remained f2p past the release of wolverine patch. It was then that I realized a $20 purchase towards iso-8 would get me nothing more than I could earn in a good afternoon of lightning round farming, even a $100 Iso purchase would not have softcapped patch for me.

So using the "penny saved is a penny earned" philosophy I am making money here, unlike the whales who spend a small fortune and only get bragging rights. I would cherish the opportunity to give D3 their due support but as of yet I see absolutely no good faith on their part which shows they even want to keep veteran players on board, in fact it seems quite the opposite as if we are consuming their server space and no matter how much an individual spends to support them they would prefer the veterans leave and make room for new spenders.

HailMary

quadiak wrote:

It still stands that something needs to be fixed because it is extremely un-funbalanced when I have to go into EVERY match serverly out gunned. I might as well be playing a pve against level 230s as trying to compete with a 5 cover hood 1\0\4.

Agreed. I tank, but I think tanking being so important to the metagame harms the game in general.

quadiak wrote:

Being strictly f2p requires patience, but it would be nice to have some fun while we earn our way to the riches of mpq. No?

I'm completely F2P, and I'm still having fun. MMR is sometimes frustrating, but manageable.

quadiak wrote:

Anyway, I'm not exactly sure to what you are insinuating about being a f2p veteran, and I imagine many of us have different motives as to why we are f2p. I will tell you straight up that had it not been for the outreagously high in-game-purchase prices, i would not have remained f2p past the release of wolverine patch. It was then that I realized a $20 purchase towards iso-8 would get me nothing more than I could earn in a good afternoon of lightning round farming, even a $100 Iso purchase would not have softcapped patch for me.

So using the "penny saved is a penny earned" philosophy I am making money here, unlike the whales who spend a small fortune and only get bragging rights.

While that may have been true at the time of Patch's release, you've since made your F2P status a significant part of your identity, as evidenced by your active involvement in your alliance. That's all fine and good, but it's rather implausible that you'd give that up completely (including membership in your alliance) if only prices went down a bit. We all buy in-game stuff and bragging rights, be it through time, effort, and/or money. If whales want to spend a few hundred/thousand dollars maxing new characters on release day, I'm all for it. They get shiny things, and they help subsidize my F2P activities along the way.

quadiak wrote:

I would cherish the opportunity to give D3 their due support but as of yet I see absolutely no good faith on their part which shows they even want to keep veteran players on board, in fact it seems quite the opposite as if we are consuming their server space and no matter how much an individual spends to support them they would prefer the veterans leave and make room for new spenders.

I know for a fact that you've been playing longer than I have, and I've been playing for approx. 150 days. Sharding and the new MMR were introduced in the last couple of months. You're saying that, in the months previous, you've seen nothing that wasn't anti-veteran? Really?

And yes, we F2P players are simply deadweight. We are useful to D3 only as a potential paying playerbase, and perhaps to indirectly encourage other players to drop some cash by attacking them or competing well against them. That's it. That is the full extent of our utility to MPQ.

As for your "no matter how much an individual spends to support them" statement, pardon me if, F2P player to F2P player, I take that with a ladleful of salt. Opinions among big spenders run a wide gamut, from daveomite's general frustration with scaling and MMR* to Colognoisseur's all-encompassing contentment with the game, from reckless' specific criticisms of PVE scaling and poor cheat detection to Bugpop's general silence on all such matters.


*at least I think it was daveomite, but if not, profuse apologies to dave for the miscitation