PVE Scaling Solution

Marvel Puzzle Quest MPQ Suggestions and Feedback
1

So what if you had like a choose your own difficulty? Choose your own Scaling.

How it would work:
So you see the match of 3 enemies. You do NOT see their levels. So you would see for example Daken, Maggia Thug, and Bullseye but only their pictures but with no level.

Then you choose your team. Choose your boosts.

Then before you go into the match you select the difficulty: Trivial, Easy, Normal, Hard, and Deadly.

Then based upon what YOU select and what challenge YOU want, the rewards/points scale accordingly.

Benefits:

I’m in control of my scaling.

This eliminates the need for Demiurge to sufficiently challenge me because I can challenge myself and play how I want to play.

This eliminates the needs for scaling in its current form because if I only do the easy, then I don’t get the higher rewards, points or iso.

This eliminates people complaining about their individual PVE rating because they will be more in control of it. If they want to do deadly and get the 300+ bonus iso reward plus mega points, then go for it.

It would reward strong rosters without punishing the weaker ones. And it would give people something to strive for…

Also it allows EVERYONE to do the content to whatever degree they feel they can handle. So this way they don’t miss out on the content/storyline.

It opens the game up for more people to play how they want. A super casual player may not want to play hardcore, but at least he can still play on easy or normal and get those level of rewards which he probably needs more than a bunch of 3* characters that he won’t use for awhile.

Demiurge has already done the work of classifying the difficulty already, so they know what levels are trivial, easy , normal, etc.

I think this would be a super flexible system allowing more difficulty levels, such as Heroic, Ultra Deadly or Nightmare or whatever. So it can grow with the game. And they can revamp the current difficulty levels to break them into smaller sub sections if they really wanted to. It gives them more control over the big picture while leaving us to challenge ourselves. We choose the risk to make it equal to the reward.

This fits into their existing content easier because it takes out the guess work of super complicated formulas trying to find that sweet spot for the current scaling for everyone.

It allows players to choose their reward in a way. For example, if I am new, I am looking for 1* and 2*. As a mid level player, I am collecting 2* and some 3*. And higher level players are focused on 3* and 4*. We all know a new player will transition from 1 to 2 to 3 and so on. He should be getting rewards for where he is at. But if he says, Hey I want that 3* then he needs to do it on Hard or Deadly and probably isn’t going to get very far. So he knows he needs to work UP TO getting those high level rewards. He can still pay for packs, he can buy Hero Points and ISO and if he wants to play at a level that much higher than his, then ultimately its HIS choice.

Higher level players would stop getting undercut by lower level players.

All players would NOT have to worry when they started an event and get scaled out right away or for people in different time zones.

All players would not have to worry about other players pushing up their levels for no reason other than some evil HYDRA agent that infiltrated Demiurge and told them how great scaling would be, only to see the REAL result is to create chaos and anger.

This caters to anyone and everyone because it allows them to play how they want.

Demiurge still makes money because people are playing more, progressing, doing everything they do now. They can even offer sweeter rewards for special difficulty levels and therefore sell more health packs, more cover packs, more hero points etc.

I’m sure there are other benefits to doing this way.

Think about this and see if you agree with this and could improve upon it?

I really think this would be great for everyone.

2

Also, this doesn’t need to be implemented all at once or be all or nothing.

They could easily just make ONE node in one of the upcoming events use this new scaling system to try it out and see how it goes, get some feedback on it. They already have several other types of nodes, so I am sure they can do this. I’m not sure what they could call it. Personal Node or something.

If it doesn’t work or gets a negative reaction, they can just drop it and no harm done. Besides, it couldn’t be worse than what we have now. And implementing it slowly could help iron the bugs and glitches. Could even run a small mini event with the new scaling after its tested on a node here and there. That way it gives people a choice to play it or not and get more feedback.

So the benefit is it could be done immediately and not interrupt the current system because it could just be done to one or two nodes in an event and then hopefully replace more nodes with it. Then you could have maybe some events with ALL nodes that way and other events with none, and some events mixed of both.

3

If I understand correctly, the difficulty scaling will determine how many points get added to a player’s event score? For example, if I pick “easy” for that node I get 10 points, but if I pick “hard” I get 50 points.

I assume there would have to be mission stacks of decreasing value. e.g. the 10 point easy mission becomes 8 points after beating it the 1st time, then 6 points, etc down to 0 while on hard that node would go from 50 to 40 to 30 etc. to 0.

In that case, it could work. One could play all nodes on lowest difficulty first and then up the difficulty if you feel confident/want more challenge. At the same time, there has to be enough difference in point potential and nodes have to drop down to 0. In other words, you must not be able to grind to a better ranking by making the missions too easy for yourself.

4

Correct… Since I am not privy to all the stack points and all that, I figured they could figure it all out. But yes exactly how it would work.

Also, lets say you pick easy, the reward you get for that match might only be 20 iso. If you pick hard it might be 50 iso, Deadly might be 100 iso. So you get a reward for the match (just like you do now) but it scales to your difficulty. Want more iso? Play the next difficulty up, etc.

5

it seems like the reward system would become a challenge, then. Right now, points cumulate towards placement, with everyone (theoretically) having a chance to play for roughly the same amount of points (if you play the rubber banding right, etc), making the current reward system viable (1-2, 3-25, 26-50, etc).

The new system, where points are given based on difficulty you choose, seems like it would stack towards the richer getting richer. No one else could compete in the very hard nodes (which justifiably? give more points).

6

The difficulty is just a rich get richer scheme. Despite all the crying about level 230 and higher stuff, there’s nothing really hard about these guys. On the high end there are only two difficulties: easy and impossible. There’s almost no such thing as hard. For example take the current Heroic Venom event. Yelena would have to hit about level 300 before she’s a serious challenge because she’s Yelena. Daken, at level 150, would slap anyone without a maxed HT silly, and even maxed HT is hardly a guaranteed to beat him with any reliability. All that would happen is you’d choose like Yelena at super duper hard at level 400, which is still pretty easy because Yelena is ridiculously weak. It doesn’t really impact say, the Venom + 2 purple generator node, because that node is pretty much unbeatable at level 150 anyway and you don’t actually care if it becomes more impossible because you got Yelena to beat up anyway.

7

I approve, provided one amendment. Remove the competitive rewards from pve and make progression only (even replace alliance rewards with alliance progression).

If you’re in direct competition with other players, it would be hard to balance. But if you’re in direct competition with others, it is really just another PvP, not actually pve. Solution: actually make pve truly pve.

8

This isn’t a rich get richer, this is a more fair and balance method.

If you really look at it, a newer person doesn’t really NEED 3* characters. They mostly need 1* and 2* characters to help with their transition. You cannot do level 230 enemies without a stronger roster. In order to get that stronger roster you need rewards that will actually help your transition rather than hinder it. Why do you think they have 2* characters and recruit tokens in the PVE rewards now?

And besides, if I play more and spend money on packs or hero points etc. Wouldn’t it be fair to say that I should be rewarded more than someone who doesn’t spend as much time as I do playing in an event? People are paying for an edge now in the game. You could have spent hero points to buy some powers for Human Torch. Since people did that, don’t you think they are going to have a slightly easier time than someone who didn’t?

And again, if the lower or mid tier person really wants to play for those TOP HIGH rewards, they can. No one is stopping them.