We're Living in a State of Dilution

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  • BoyWonder1914
    BoyWonder1914 Posts: 884 Critical Contributor
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    This was one of the key reasons I felt I needed a short break from the game, yet also the main reason I regretted that break. For the longest my goal has been finishing the 4-star tier to the point that I only needed to keep up with the new releases, and then I could eventually move into 5s. RnG was all I could really rely on - earning T10 placement in all these events where newer characters kept being offered just wasn't happening. People were a lot more competitive for these events given that the return to dilution made progression/placement the only way to know for sure you would get covers for these characters. Life changes also make it hard to give T10 level effort to the game.

    So at the time I left, I had

    Domino - 5/4/3 (champed after my return, but it took several months to cover her waiting on BH drops) 
    Prowler - 2/3/2
    Bishop - 0/1/1

    My Taskmaster and Spider-Ham are looking pretty sad as well, but their limited status makes taking long to cover them par for the course. I now also have to worry about covering Magik, Talos, Namor, and Thanos. Covering just one of these guys takes forever these days, I've now got 6 characters to worry about simultaneously. 3 more will likely come out for every 1 that I do manage to champ in that time. I know one of the major issues people had with vaulting was that it gave newer players access to the 4-star tier rather quickly, and for vets with hoards they could drop a fair amount of CP and come out with Lv 340+ champs at the drop of a dime. The move to the 50/50 system seemed the perfect compromise for the vaulting method not allowing access to older characters, and I don't believe I've seen a better one since. How much longer must we wait for this to be figured out, is what I'm really curious about at this point. 
  • tupacboy
    tupacboy Posts: 125 Tile Toppler
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    throw another 4 star in... 

    hoping some answers come soon... 
  • tupacboy
    tupacboy Posts: 125 Tile Toppler
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    And now another four star.... At this rate we'll have almost 100 four star by Christmas....
  • JackTenrec
    JackTenrec Posts: 808 Critical Contributor
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    I can't look at the title of this thread without mentally turning it into a Genesis song.
  • bluewolf
    bluewolf Posts: 5,309 Chairperson of the Boards
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    tupacboy said:
    And now another four star.... At this rate we'll have almost 100 four star by Christmas....
    Let's take a look back about a year, since 5Wasp (just a bit after full dilution began).  So July 12 (Ghost) - May 16 (Rescue) we had 14 4's and 8 5's released. (Two of the 4's were Limited).

    That's about 10 months.  Basically works out to 3 every 2 months (slightly less since we had a couple 4/5/4 releases).

    We need 16 to get to 100.  6 more to get to 86 (non-Limited), the magic "less than 1% chance to pull a 4 you didn't bonus" odds.

    6 more 4's should be in place in 4 months, or late September.  By Christmas we'll have right around 90 in tokens, 94 4's in all.  So it'll be close!  But mid 2020 before #100 comes along.

    That said, while 100 sounds like a big number, 80 is already a big number.   
  • pheregas
    pheregas Posts: 1,721 Chairperson of the Boards
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    JackTenrec said:
    I can't look at the title of this thread without mentally turning it into a Genesis song.
    This is the world we live in, these are the covers we’re given. Use them and lets start matching and trying to solve this with our CP horde.


  • tupacboy
    tupacboy Posts: 125 Tile Toppler
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    Another 4star.  100 here we come... 
  • Tony_Foot
    Tony_Foot Posts: 1,713 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited June 2019
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    I don’t even read about the new ones. If I see people in alliance chat raving about someone I have a read, other than that I don’t care. I can’t get covers fast enough to make shield training a thing for me so when I get them I get them. I care about 4* releases about as much as I would a 1* release.

    30% of them I can’t even tell you what colours they use or what their powers are. I guess if I’m honest 15 of the 5* fall into that bracket too.
  • DyingLegend
    DyingLegend Posts: 1,192 Chairperson of the Boards
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    I don't think there an easy solution to the mess that is dilution.
  • bluewolf
    bluewolf Posts: 5,309 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited June 2019
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    4* Number #85 (81st in tokens) launching in 48 hours.....

    The more there are, the more players that will feel like @Tony_Foot and not really have a chance to engage with the newer ones.  It continues to make me a little sad.  See my OP on this thread.

    I assume it is concerning to the devs that new characters are greeted with a fairly loud chorus of "nice, but I can't keep up and how is this person better than X person who I already have?"

    No, there are no easy solutions.  One option that could be explored would be reduce the pace of release.  Two options:

    4/5 alternating every 3 weeks.  It wouldn't fix dilution but would allow more time to figure out the best approach while slowing the pace of things.

    4/5/skip.  Designate a 4 week skip period and on the skip week, offer more things like bundles, or untimed events that reward 4* covers, or special 4* stores or vaults.  The fact is that there is a rich and deep variety of well designed characters in the game, and I think the developers should start to lean into that and provide opportunities to pursue, use, and enjoy more of them.

    But it's a gacha game where the vast majority of players will never finish more than a smattering of 4's so maybe that's too much to expect.
  • Sm0keyJ0e
    Sm0keyJ0e Posts: 730 Critical Contributor
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    When was the last time a brand new mechanic was introduced into the game? I can only think of Wasp's Call the Swarm, which was what... nearly a year ago? It doesn't appear any new back-end development is occurring (or if it is, it's behind the scenes and has been for some time). Sure, artists are making new art for toons and re-skinning a couple PVE's, but I've been wondering for some time now whether this game is just in cash-grab mode. With no communication there's no excitement. With no excitement there's often little reason to play. And with little reason to play there's no compulsion to spend...
  • pheregas
    pheregas Posts: 1,721 Chairperson of the Boards
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    Tony_Foot said:
    I don’t even read about the new ones. If I see people in alliance chat raving about someone I have a read, other than that I don’t care. I can’t get covers fast enough to make shield training a thing for me so when I get them I get them. I care about 4* releases about as much as I would a 1* release.

    30% of them I can’t even tell you what colours they use or what their powers are. I guess if I’m honest 15 of the 5* fall into that bracket too.
    LOL.  When we just had Magik as the 4E recently, I started up the all-essential node and then scratched my head because I had absolutely no idea how she worked or what her colors were.  And she was actually champed.  I think I just used her for match damage so I didn't have to think about it.
  • cheshyre
    cheshyre Posts: 19 Just Dropped In
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    I'm not a completist. In fact, there are quite a few characters I'm actively not interested in. (I'm 

    I've discarded quite a few 4* covers.

    It would be nice if there was some kind of analogue to Bonus Heroes to flag characters I don't want, which could reduce the odds of getting their covers.

    Alternately, some way of swapping covers either within the store or with other players.
  • jamesh
    jamesh Posts: 1,600 Chairperson of the Boards
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    Sm0keyJ0e said:
    When was the last time a brand new mechanic was introduced into the game? I can only think of Wasp's Call the Swarm, which was what... nearly a year ago? It doesn't appear any new back-end development is occurring (or if it is, it's behind the scenes and has been for some time). Sure, artists are making new art for toons and re-skinning a couple PVE's, but I've been wondering for some time now whether this game is just in cash-grab mode. With no communication there's no excitement. With no excitement there's often little reason to play. And with little reason to play there's no compulsion to spend...
    Hawkeye's green probably required some new backend features.  I don't think we've seen a power where the additional attacks is conditional on downing enemies.  It might not have involved any new art, but then swarm tiles are effectively the same locked tile mechanic we've had since Bag-Man/Invisible Woman.
  • Daredevil217
    Daredevil217 Posts: 3,916 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited June 2019
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    jamesh said:

    Hawkeye's green probably required some new backend features.  I don't think we've seen a power where the additional attacks is conditional on downing enemies. 
    Isn’t that what Court Death is?
  • jamesh
    jamesh Posts: 1,600 Chairperson of the Boards
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    Daredevil217 said:
    jamesh said:

    Hawkeye's green probably required some new backend features.  I don't think we've seen a power where the additional attacks is conditional on downing enemies. 
    Isn’t that what Court Death is?
    I guess it depends on what primitives are available to build the moves.  Some differences between the two moves include:
    1. No Escape's extra damage is not passive: it only triggers if the enemy is killed via No Escape.
    2. No Escape will deal damage at most three times (so you won't be able to take out a 4+ survival node wave with a single cast).
    3. Court Death won't trigger off enemies killed via Court Death.
    It probably wasn't a huge change to the engine, but I doubt swarm tiles were either.
  • Friarbundy
    Friarbundy Posts: 118 Tile Toppler
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    “State of Dilution” is my favorite record by The Kinks.  (Admonish me to stay on topic if you must.  I regret nothing!) 

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