Enemy Cascade Limiting (6/12/18)

Good to hear from you again, @Demiurge_Will! Thanks for the added info 

So we are now catering to the tinfoil hats who feel like they have been wronged by a fair system, by implementing an unfair system.  At least it's not a conspiracy, it's totally out in the open...
As noted, this inadvertantly acts as a subtle nerf to several characters, all for the benefit of what exactly?  There will still be mistrust, conspiracies, etc., and seeing code like this is part of the game honestly makes me less trusting of it overall.  Maybe there really is an "if im40 = true, set yellow_tile_nerf = true" statement in there somewhere.
The one positive is that if new players were actually quitting because of this, then they may stay a little longer.. until they decide that it's unfair that they pulled 4 straight red 2* wolverine covers from heroic tokens, and of course that's the only color of any 2* character they couldn't use.

crackninja said:

So we are now catering to the tinfoil hats who feel like they have been wronged by a fair system, by implementing an unfair system.  At least it's not a conspiracy, it's totally out in the open...
As noted, this inadvertantly acts as a subtle nerf to several characters, all for the benefit of what exactly?  There will still be mistrust, conspiracies, etc., and seeing code like this is part of the game honestly makes me less trusting of it overall.  Maybe there really is an "if im40 = true, set yellow_tile_nerf = true" statement in there somewhere.
The one positive is that if new players were actually quitting because of this, then they may stay a little longer.. until they decide that it's unfair that they pulled 4 straight red 2* wolverine covers from heroic tokens, and of course that's the only color of any 2* character they couldn't use.

Well, obviously. The point isn't to have a fair system, it's to have a fun system. It's hardly a new thing in video games. 

Of course, given that you complain about this change to Cascades, and then immediately put on your own tinfoil hat to complain about being wronged by a fair system (RNG draw rates of character covers), I'm not sure there's any helping you.

But here's a link to a variety of examples of this kind of tinkering, if you want to read about how other games do it. https://www.polygon.com/2017/9/8/16263050/game-design-magic-tricks

sirwookieechris said:

So we shouldn’t cater to people who feel the game is unfair? And then you go on to mention that the game must be purposefully giving you useless covers?

Sorry if I wasn't clear, I was saying that the people that thought the cascades were unfair will find something else to latch on to, such as thinking the covers are rewarded unfairly.

JHawkInc said:

Well, obviously. The point isn't to have a fair system, it's to have a fun system. It's hardly a new thing in video games. 

Of course, given that you complain about this change to Cascades, and then immediately put on your own tinfoil hat to complain about being wronged by a fair system (RNG draw rates of character covers), I'm not sure there's any helping you.

But here's a link to a variety of examples of this kind of tinkering, if you want to read about how other games do it. https://www.polygon.com/2017/9/8/16263050/game-design-magic-tricks

Again, I was expressing the next thing a conspiracy theorist might claim is rigged.  I hope none of it is rigged, and I have never complained about anything like this happening to me.
You do make a valid point that other games cheat and fudge things to make them more fun.  In a lot of cases this is done to beef up an ai that is woefully inept, to keep a level of challenge there, but yes, the game should be fun.
I guess the bottom line here is I've never once thrown my phone over a random cascade.  This seems like a waste of effort to me when there are clear and possibly easy fixes that could be implemented to make far more people happy, from the players to the devs, to customer support.

crackninja said:

JHawkInc said:

Well, obviously. The point isn't to have a fair system, it's to have a fun system. It's hardly a new thing in video games. 

Of course, given that you complain about this change to Cascades, and then immediately put on your own tinfoil hat to complain about being wronged by a fair system (RNG draw rates of character covers), I'm not sure there's any helping you.

But here's a link to a variety of examples of this kind of tinkering, if you want to read about how other games do it. https://www.polygon.com/2017/9/8/16263050/game-design-magic-tricks

Again, I was expressing the next thing a conspiracy theorist might claim is rigged.  I hope none of it is rigged, and I have never complained about anything like this happening to me.
You do make a valid point that other games cheat and fudge things to make them more fun.  In a lot of cases this is done to beef up an ai that is woefully inept, to keep a level of challenge there, but yes, the game should be fun.
I guess the bottom line here is I've never once thrown my phone over a random cascade.  This seems like a waste of effort to me when there are clear and possibly easy fixes that could be implemented to make far more people happy, from the players to the devs, to customer support.

I'm saying it's not a "conspiracy theorist claim." It doesn't matter if they claim it's rigged, or if they think it's fair, and it doesn't matter if it IS rigged or fair. It's subjective, and the point is to tweak the objective parts (whether or not it's rigged) to get the desired subjective experience (the game being fun enough to keep playing). I agree I've never been mad enough to throw the phone, but I have referred to "**** Cascades" as if it were an actual villain living within the game, off and on for the entire three years I've played this game (that was actually my first reaction to my alliance, pointing out that **** Cascades was actually being targeted with this update). 

My point being, it's not just about the crazy conspiracy people that will find something new to complain about, but the people who simply don't know what goes on under the hood. The ones that might see something, and instead of saying "this is rigged against me", would assume the system is working as intended, and instead just label it as "not fun."

I'm sure there are plenty of other changes that would be more meaningful to veterans (and even intermediate players), but the goal of this one is to keep beginners attached to create more intermediate/veteran players in the first place, so I'm all for it, you know?

Cool QoL change!(more new players=long term health) great post!(explained everything) great follow up!(demiwill!)
snarkalert...... can the team go to E3 more often?

The same fixing calculations please for unusable covers? %5/45/100 is fair.
cuz I just got #9 ValkYellow & If I have to burn another See the Math of It cover I might charge up the old iphone just to throw it off the balcony. 

I still don't understand being against a cap on enemy cascades? wouldn't this actually net a decrease in grind time?

#newblivesmatter

This seems like a problem that didn't really need fixing, as opposed to the problems that actually DO exist that are being ignored.  Please spend time on real problems, not on busy work to cater to the conspiracy theorists.

Nice change.  Will make green Ultron bots less annoying.  Also good news they are looking into doing something about Wakanda.  That event was wak (sorry, couldn’t help myself).

sirwookieechris said:

crackninja said:

So we are now catering to the tinfoil hats who feel like they have been wronged by a fair system, by implementing an unfair system.  At least it's not a conspiracy, it's totally out in the open...
As noted, this inadvertantly acts as a subtle nerf to several characters, all for the benefit of what exactly?  There will still be mistrust, conspiracies, etc., and seeing code like this is part of the game honestly makes me less trusting of it overall.  Maybe there really is an "if im40 = true, set yellow_tile_nerf = true" statement in there somewhere.
The one positive is that if new players were actually quitting because of this, then they may stay a little longer.. until they decide that it's unfair that they pulled 4 straight red 2* wolverine covers from heroic tokens, and of course that's the only color of any 2* character they couldn't use.

So we shouldn’t cater to people who feel the game is unfair? And then you go on to mention that the game must be purposefully giving you useless covers?

If their feelings aren't valid, no we shouldn't.  The point is that people have an unrealistic and non-factual perception, yet they are being catered too.  Where's the line there?  I feel the game should give me $20,000 for playing it, why isn't it catering to me?