Upcoming Change: Character Level Shift

malfunkshen wrote:

I'm in agreement with killerkoala. I'm confused as to how this is going to change anything or make a character more useful. If they raised the starting level, but left the level cap alone, that makes sense, but since everything is just raised, I don't see the difference or how this will help make characters more useful. the difference in levels between the starting and the max levels for three stars are exactly the same, 126. This might help if my 3* chars are going against 2* chars, but MMR makes sure that doesn't happen. Maybe I'm missing something in the explanation, so if I'm missing something, can someone explain how this is going to help the community?

Right now, many many players get to having 3 Level 50 1*s and never level up 2 stars. Why would they? They would have 44 levels before they even became possible replacements for their 1*s. As well, a 3* is only level 15, so they're going to take a ton of work to even get to the 1* max level. So they sit with their 1*s until they get bored with the game since there's "nothing else to do". With this change, suddenly 2*s are more viable at start, and 3*s suddenly become completely viable *and* worthwhile to level up if they get extra covers since they'll be somewhat comparable to a maxed 1*. Gameplay options open up for the people lower down on the totem pole. Repeat this process for the 2* players who look at the 70 level differential to even get started in replacing a 2* and it's a really rough sell for many players who don't see the further value. Cut that differential down significantly and suddenly that's not such a hard thing to do.

Nonce Equitaur 2 wrote:

Most forumites seem to agree that Magneto is overpowered and deserves a small nerf, but also seem to agree that he isn't being heavily overused.

He's not heavily overused in PVP. In PVE on the other hand, he and Good Ol' Tuxedo Man are by far and away the most used characters in the advanced 3* crowd.

killerkoala wrote:

Jdberia wrote:

I didn't see this anywhere, but if I missed it, feel free to reply with the link. I have 6 or 7 maxed 2* characters. Will these automatically go to lvl 94 with the change or will I have to drop more ISO to lvl up 9 more levels? Obviously, this would be less of a pain than somebody having to lvl from 141 to 166, but the question is still the same.

Characters will automatically shift the number of current levels equivalent to their rarity. This change will be retroactive, so all characters in the game will automatically be adjusted to the new levels.

from what i can infer we will retroactively gain these levels so everyone will get a bump.

Correct. You'll just see the patch come in and your 85s will be 94s via the magic of the intarwebz.

gobstopper wrote:

1. Have you considered that perhaps the reason those players have 3*s sitting doing nothing is that they don't have enough covers or ISO to level them? It is incredibly unlikely that people who play this type of game "cap out" on purpose.
2. "Players aren't getting what they should out of the more powerful characters" - How does one do this without covers/ISO and/or $?

1. Yep. We have quite a lot of players that are sitting on mounds of growing Iso-8 and maxed 1*/2* characters. Every now and then a new character release will make a couple people level one, then we see them suddenly blow the rest of the Iso-8 on leveling others as they figure out that there's a whole new world out there.
2. They don't get what they should because they don't invest the Iso-8 that they have in them when that's available. We've got a not insignificant percentage of players sitting there with 3-5 85s and a half dozen or so completely viable 3*s that have enough covers to overtake those 85s. Those same users also tend to be hoarding Iso for... I dunno, the Isopocalypse or something. Users that don't crunch the numbers or read guides simply don't realize that with a relatively minimal Iso-8 expenditure, the characters that they already have could give them a strong boost.

gobstopper wrote:

Adding 25 levels to a 1 cover Punisher is not going to all of a sudden make him competitive. Like you said, since the level shift is global, whatever "bonuses" are canceled out by the boost that everyone else has too. I would even argue that the power difference is actually exacerbated by this change, because while the level difference is the same, the level 166 has 2-3 abilities that have scaled but the underleveled 3* only has 1-2. Can you share playtest results that compare level 15 vs level 141 and level 40 vs level 166?

A Level 40 Punisher base shows a 1* holdout that these 3* characters without much of a push will be stronger than their current roster. They then have something to work for and will likely start down the path of leveling 2*s and 3*s to do so. 2* players similarly suddenly have less than half the deficit to make up to start pushing into 3* land. As for shift in power levels, a 15 vs a 141 will get thwomped more than a 40 versus a 166. Tile damage and ability damage don't scale linearly. The difference isn't night and day, but there is a tad more survivability there.

gobstopper wrote:

TLDR This change is meant to "gently nudge" players to spend $ on their "suddenly more powerful" characters.

Nope. The people we're targeting are generally sitting on hoards of unused/unusable Iso. They're not likely to suddenly buy more if they haven't figured out a use for it by now. Of course, a few weeks down the line when they're again down to normal levels of Iso-8 in the bank, who knows. Our main goal here is to get people that have stalled to realize that there's more to the game than the little tiers they've set for themselves and continue to play as a result.