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https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/398769/saga-incursions-fantastic-force#latest

@willrun4adonut can’t speak for anyone but myself, but I do not enjoy Incursions, so I put it off until the last minute. which, like a few others here, means it’s my own damn fault if I missed out.

at least I didn’t rope someone into running it with me and then standing them up? because it’s a shame people aggravated you that much that you stepped away from being the archangel of Incursions…

(don’t get me wrong, the ENTIRE rest of their calendar for monthly event content refreshes ona We’d., so why this needed to be over a day early is a question I’d love answered.)

Thanks for clarifying. I will say for future sagas, never wait until the last day (or even two). The timer, starting announcements, etc have been off by up to five days before.

Overall Thoughts

I honestly love the three champions at a time in theory, but I feel like this isn’t its final form. This mechanic has much more potential and I feel the selection restrictions makes player benefit a little less than.

There’s an added layer of planning and strategy, which is nice. But any benefits the player might gain from having a team of three are really hampered by the restrictions. Even Synergy use is unlikely to be a factor for the majority of occasions.

I dunno, I like it and yet also feel like it’s just not hitting the spot. Ultimately, I think this specific mechanic has a place in the game, just not here. I think I prefer the swap out every fight version.

I use this three champion version down below though, so it’s clearly not a break item for me. I just felt like it was a little less than.

I’m not pressed about the degen, it’s forcing us to use a new champion every fight - so in a sense, there’s no spiritual difference than the previous two months. The intent is the same. The application does make this version worse however - at least from the player perspective. Simply because there are now more opportunities for failure.

The Quests

The first half feels nice. A little wonky but I mention why below. I like the node combinations and moving parts.

The second half… oh boy.

Quest 1 - 3 (nearly identical)

Enjoyed them overall.

Some bugs with the selector nodes - final boss only allowed the one class even though it says you should be able to yea either or. Initial gate allows you to select both classes.

Quest 4 - 6

….

Okay, I will admit that 1-3 felt a bit too smooth.

Personally I think the difficulty could increase a tad. Don’t care if it’s the unpopular opinion, it’s true for me.

I thought the defenders were good, the amount of fights was perfect - actually in my proposal I include one more fight. I thought the nodes were good but there was just something lacking.

But Quest 4 - 6 was not it.

This is everything I hated about the first two months, multiplied and exacerbated to the nth degree.

This was not an enjoyable experience. This is not something I would look forward to every month.

And I don’t mean this in a “man, that was challenging and sucked” kind of way. I mean that as in “Oh hey… I’ve put the kettle on but it doesn’t actually boil water unless it’s being watched. Can you watch it for me? Thanks. Oh one more thing. There’s actually twelve of them and none of them will boil until one of them is boiling already.

Also… this little kid is going to punch you in the shoulder constantly. Don’t worry, it doesn’t hurt, but you can’t react or stop them and it’s always going to be in the exact same spot.

Thanks again.”

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Overall Design

I feel like you should separate all the bosses if the intent is to limit the class for the node during the path but open it up during the bosses. It also feels weird that the first three fights includes a boss (so it’s two and a boss) then it’s three fights with a separate boss, three fights and a separate boss.

As for the boss fights (all); I actually lean towards allowing only a single champion. You do the path, hit the boss, you’re limited to select a single champion, then afterwards you swap out and get three champions again.

The way it is punishes players no matter what and only serves to limit rosters even further. “Solo the boss? Nice, thanks for taking three champions with you and even though you didn’t touch the other two, discard them.” “What’s that, you needed all three champions for the boss? Glad to hear it was a challenging fight but you overcame it anyway, now use some items so you can swap your KO’d champions out and continue”

If you’re going to force us to bring three champions against the boss, the swap node after should allow for us to decide whether or not we swap, or should allow for the incoming champions to have health (maybe like 20% if swapping out a KO’d champion)

Also - am I mistaken or wasn’t our entire roster available to us the past two months? Not opposed to increased restrictions, just curious if I’m misremembering.

It almost feels like you couldn’t really decide on a direction and got caught in the middle. “More fights or fewer fights” “Maintain restrictions as are or more restrictive?”

I would prefer the way it was: swap out champion after every fight - restrictions in play - boss: fewer restrictions.

But I do give my thoughts on this segmented format below.

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Segmented Design

While I stated above that I think I prefer the swap a champion after every fight method, if you’re going to do this “select three and fight three” format then this is almost exactly what I would want it to be.

I have two thoughts for this format - in both of these options I maintain the cross fight degen, node balance and numbers of fights.

~*~

Option One

One path with Three segments and three boss fights.

Segment one - Not too much changes, champion selection is limited to two classes, the nodes work alongside as well as against your champion and thematically benefit one of the two classes but don’t overtly punish champions who go against the “node theme”

Player gets Three Champions and fights three defenders. The cross-fight degen gets put on a champion after they KO an opponent.

After the third defender is a Swap node right before the first boss fight.

Players can select three champions, now limited to one class. Fight the boss. The cross-fight degen gets put on a champion after they KO an opponent.

Swap Node after the boss is optional. Players are not forced to swap out champions - allowing them to carry over any of the three. However, cross-fight degen is still applied to any champion who KO’d the boss.

Segment two and three are identical.

Final boss after segment three defenders however limits you to one single champion, no restrictions.

All six chapters are the same.


~*~

Option Two

Identical to the above except every boss fight only allows a single champion to be used. No restrictions, but in segments one and two restrictions will clearly return after the fight.

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Rewards

For 1 - 3 the rewards honestly feel a touch too generous. As I said I do feel like the difficulty here can come up a smidge considering the rewards.

Note for what’s about to follow, I said difficulty.

For 4 - 6 you’ve more than doubled the amount of work we have to do.

More fights =/= more difficulty.

So factoring this in and comparing it to the previous Valiant EQ we are a now doing 114 fights in the Valiant EQ vs the 96 we were doing the previous two months.

Absolutely no change to rewards.

You didn’t increase the difficulty, you increased the amount of work we have to do.

You set the value for valiant AQ.

Whether or not the players feel like the rewards are generous, a rip off or right on the mark; you set the value.

Why would you then increase the amount of work we have to do by about 18% and expect that leaving the rewards as the same would be acceptable?

We asked for it to be more difficult and less tedious. Quest 4 - 6 is not just a step in the opposite direction, it’s a full on sprint.

Quest 1 - 3 absolutely hit that spot in regards to enjoyment for me. Give or take what I’ve mentioned above. Almost perfect number of fights, personally I would say increase the difficulty a bit and I think this is it.

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Well… those are summaries of my thoughts.