2020 Anniversary. Quite bad isn't it?

Polares
Polares Posts: 2,643 Chairperson of the Boards
I think we can say 2020 Anniversary is over, and I think we can also say ... it was quite bad sadly.

2019 Anniversary was also a bit meh, but I would say this one has been even worse. First we got way less tokens than on other years and almost no tokens at all if you are a PvE player. Why did I have to play PvP to get anniversary tokens? Why the different PvE events did not reward also those? Are just PvP players allowed to celebrate the Anniversary ?!?!?!

Then we got a new 5 during the Anniversary, but surprise, surprise, the Apocalypse event did not reward tokens for the Store of the new Anniversary 5 !!! **** ?!?!? 

I remember on the 3rd, 4th and 5th Anniversary we got flooded with tokens! (the original ones were also pretty meh). Also flooded with DD or Howard covers. Why are they so stingy now? This anniversary I got no covers at all for Taskmaster, didnt get any from the Vault (with my total 16 pulls), and I didn't play enough PvP to get one from progression rewards (again, why can I get Taskmaster covers if I play majorly PvE ?????).

The new puzzle mode was kinda fun the first time, but there was not that much puzzle element, just bring a strong chars, and that was it. I appreciate the effort, but probably they should force you to use some chars in particular so the puzzle element is more important.

Also, still no new feeders.

So, it is just me, or this was probably one of the worst anniversaries ?
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Comments

  • Sithforever
    Sithforever Posts: 144 Tile Toppler
    edited October 2020
    A bit of both I would say. Could the anniversary have been better? Absolutely as everyone missed the token barrage although the characters available was good I feel. I loved the Fan Favorites, and felt if you prepared for the event with CP and HP it was more fun getting stuff. Feeders are definitely a thing I want along with the majority of forum members. December is when they are due I believe. I believe the new features were nice and game mode was cool but yeah I beat the poop out of them with 5s. Having us restricted to something of a type of character set would have been fine but maybe with Covid communication is harder. That being said this is my third anniversary event and I thought it was solid but I hoarded for about a month and not everyone can or wants to do that. 
  • Dormammu
    Dormammu Posts: 3,531 Chairperson of the Boards
    I never really expect much from the anniversaries beyond the things you can expect. That being said, there would have been a couple of little things I would have done were I in charge:
    1. Tie something to getting a few support tokens. The darn things are too rare.
    2. Spider-Ham needed some love.
    3. A couple more logins of free loot. Nothing major. The recent free health packs and support token were nice and one or two additional gestures like that would make anniversary more special.
    4. A round of weekend lighting rounds (Sakaar Arena, anyone?) Normal lightning rounds are sooo tired.

    The thing that flat-out annoyed me the most was the vote they held for favorite PvE events so they could run them during the anniversary. Like running Strange Sights for the upteenth time this year feels in any way out of the ordinary.
  • LavaManLee
    LavaManLee Posts: 1,246 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited October 2020
    Dormammu said:
    The thing that flat-out annoyed me the most was the vote they held for favorite PvE events so they could run them during the anniversary. Like running Strange Sights for the upteenth time this year feels in any way out of the ordinary.
    Totally agree.  I still wonder who thinks that Strange Sights is even that fun a PVE?  Maybe it's because I'm in 5* land but I find Mindless Ones completely annoying to face.  Not hard or difficult; just annoying.  They take up so much time that they just aren't fun at all.  And they are in all three doors.
  • Loosie
    Loosie Posts: 397 Mover and Shaker
    edited October 2020
    Dormammu said:
    The thing that flat-out annoyed me the most was the vote they held for favorite PvE events so they could run them during the anniversary. Like running Strange Sights for the upteenth time this year feels in any way out of the ordinary.
    Totally agree.  I still wonder who thinks that Strange Sights is even that fun a PVE?  Maybe it's because I'm in 5* land but I find Mindless Ones completely annoying to face.  Not hard or difficult; just annoying.  They take up so much time that they just aren't fun at all.  And they are in all three doors.
    I think it's mostly the amount of tokens you get for each daily sub in that event. If your alliance has someone participate in each sub each day that's a decent haul of tokens and iso compared to other events.

    I was annoyed by the amount of 48H subs during a double ISO run.
  • DyingLegend
    DyingLegend Posts: 1,191 Chairperson of the Boards
    It use to feel more like they celebrated the community.  This year felt like a huge cash grab.

    Very disappointing anniversary to say the least.
  • Captain_Carlman
    Captain_Carlman Posts: 208 Tile Toppler
    Nothing will beat the first anniversary.  Second anniversary was just such a disaster ("You're supposed to lose!").  Every anniversary after that has just been alright and this year was no different.  Double ISO is nice and the stores were good, but everything else just kind of felt like more of the same, honestly. 
  • shardwick
    shardwick Posts: 2,121 Chairperson of the Boards
    It was underwhelming but it's Anniversary so I expected it. Didn't think they would stop giving out tokens to the Anniversary vault from pve events though. That was pretty lame. In previous years I was able to clear out my first vault and then get about 20 tokens from the second vault before Anniversary ended, this time I don't think I even got my first vault halfway finished.
  • Pongie
    Pongie Posts: 1,410 Chairperson of the Boards
    Feeders was the only thing I was hoping for
  • HoundofShadow
    HoundofShadow Posts: 8,004 Chairperson of the Boards
    It seems like how good an anniversary is depends on how many anniversary tokens one can redeem. In this anniversary, three new things were introduced:

    1) new puzzle event: There will be players bulldozing the nodes with their champed 5*, and those who use loaners or other non-champed 5* to play the node. As seen, it's up to the players to decide how they want to play the nodes.

    2) Saved Teams: It was something planned for Anniversary and I think this beats getting anniversary tokens.

    3)Taco Vault: Spicy: It looks like it's here to stay and you get one free token every 24/25(?) hour when you use 5* Deadpool.  It's equivalent to getting 40 free items every 40 to 80 days for the rest of your MPQ career. The best items in there are 4* cover, Beginner Support Token and Healthpacks. The rest is probably for those playing SCL 10 or really difficult nodes.

    We got much fewer tokens compared to previous anniversaries, but I think Taco Vault: Spicy sort of make it up in the long run if you use 5* Deadpool at least once every reset. Fewer anniversary tokens suck, but Saved Teams and Taco Vault: Spicy are pretty good permanent(?) additions to the game.
  • HoundofShadow
    HoundofShadow Posts: 8,004 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited October 2020
    PvE Tokens were replaced by Elite and Heroic tokens a few months back. They could switch it back to Anniversary Tokens temporary. But they didn't. That sucks.

    A lot of features should have been implemented in the first year: turning animation off, saved covers, colourless cover etc. People need to understand that they are not producing a game meant to be sold for retail price where you pay once and you'll have almost everything right at the start. The development cycle for retail PC games and F2P are totally different.

    The expanding bloat hits hard for completionists. For casual players, they can rely on Shards to get targeted covers. Unless majority of the players are completionists, they will be doing something about it. Back then in 2017, veterans were already saying that it's impossible to keep up unless you spend a lot of money. If you play competitively, you will be able to catch up without paying. Casual players shouldn't be able to catch up. 
  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 9,576 Chairperson of the Boards
    Oh geez, the iso race for 14th covers - I absolutely slogged my guts out to get the iso to champ Elektra and Quake one time. Elektra and Quake...desperate times indeed! As for Anniversary - I really wish we could get another chance at Boss Rush - they fixed the AP carry over via Sinister 6 - most of us made very limited progress first time around, I would be intrigued to try it again.
  • Pyram7
    Pyram7 Posts: 15 Just Dropped In
    Saved teams made it nice for me.
  • Dormammu
    Dormammu Posts: 3,531 Chairperson of the Boards
    A lot of features should have been implemented in the first year: turning animation off, saved covers, colourless cover etc. People need to understand that they are not producing a game meant to be sold for retail price where you pay once and you'll have almost everything right at the start. The development cycle for retail PC games and F2P are totally different.
    Yeah I get that. Though, full retail games aren't shipping complete these days either - lol. The internet and downloading endless patches have made developers lazy and publishers too-quick to release. But that's an entirely different topic.

    You made it sound like we got saved covers as a trade-off for anniversary loot tokens. Like the devs said 'lets take the tokens away and give them saved covers instead'. I don't think that's the case, but neither do I think one should forgive the other. Why not give players some loot? The only damage it'll do is make us smile.
  • HoundofShadow
    HoundofShadow Posts: 8,004 Chairperson of the Boards
    I was brought back to those times when there were new features or changes, it's not uncommon to hear comments stating that these features or changes should have been made available when the game was launched. So, I named a few examples which also "suffered" the same fate.

    Probably, next year we can request them to change the elite/heroic tokens to anniversary vault tokens for 8th Anniversary.


  • ammenell
    ammenell Posts: 817 Critical Contributor
    i champed Dino and taskmaster, so there's that
  • DAZ0273
    DAZ0273 Posts: 9,576 Chairperson of the Boards
    I only need one Taskmaster cover, so yeah, also not the end of the world.
  • jp1
    jp1 Posts: 1,068 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited October 2020
    Overall, it was kind of lackluster. I always appreciate double iso, so glad that was included. 

    I disagree that shards is better than bonus heroes though, it has been a net loss in almost every way from my point of view. Maybe I was just a lucky fella with BH, but it hit often enough for me (and with useful covers at that) that the occasional situation such as those mentioned above was a non-issue. 
    For me the proof is in the pudding. I’m champing less classic 5s, barely champing or certainly not champing to the same extent new 5s as they are leaving LL, taking longer to cover and champ new 4s, and having to grind and farm much more aggressively even with the inclusion of the “improved” SCL 10.

    Now, that is just my game...and it is certainly anecdotal evidence. However, I doubt I’m alone in that observation either. To be 100 percent fair, once I realized that spending was basically useless under the new system I have pulled back (a lot), still I’d venture a guess that I spend above average among those who do choose to support the game.
  • Captain_Carlman
    Captain_Carlman Posts: 208 Tile Toppler
    edited October 2020
    In my opinion, shards work better to cover 4* characters, while bonus heroes was better for 5*s.