Arena Needs Some Work
Myradral
Member Posts: 154 ★
Ok this is going to be a rant - so if you don't want to read a rant.... exit now.
I'm tired of the SAME OLD STUFF in arena. It is absolutely boring as hell. You reach a certain "point" in each Arena - whether it is the 1-2 Star, 2-3 Star, 3-4 Star, 4-5 Star or 4-6 Star - where you have beat basically everything that they can throw at you and then it goes to the "Cable, Gwenpool, Medusa" auto-fill fights. Is this all your team can come up with? Unreal. Can't you mix it up a little bit with at LEAST putting in some heroes that are interesting? - or just make it a random hero for Kang or Thanos Teams???
Also - what is the deal with fighting the SAME SUMMONER over and over and over and over again? I get to a win streak of 7-8 in the 4-5 Star Arena. - and then that is when it goes from 6-8K heroes you are fighting to INSTANTLY 14-15K heroes. - basically where Kabam is going to do anything they possibly can do to prohibit you from advancing with your streak. WHY IS THAT?
Then there is the REVERSE of the above - you get to a win streak of 4 to 5 in the 2-3 Star Arena - and then instead of fighting summoners, it makes you fight Kang and Thanos Teams again. - obviously because my Maxed out 3 Stars wipe the floor with any Summoner I fight. - but that isn't the POINT. There is NO CONSISTENCY in this at all. It really sucked and makes the Arena GRIND 50000000% worse because it is so DAMN BORING.
And the other thing I have noticed. Let's say I have a 4-Star Rank 4 Hero fighting the SAME in an Arena. I hit the hero 20 times... and bring the hero down about 30-40% health. Great. I slip up a little... and get hit with a 5 hit combo,... and immediately I am down to 35-40% health. Where I am going with this is that there seems to be an artificial PLUS DEFENSE added to heroes you are fighting in Arena. I've been playing this game for 3 years now,.... and I know what my heroes usually hit for in questing, etc. SOMETHING STINKS. - and don't give me that garbage answer. I can sense when something is wrong with the heroes I am fighting - I am sure you can all relate to this if you have played this game long enough. - and ARENA is being manipulated by Kabam. Believe THAT.
Oh and lastly............. if a fight is not winnable, then WHY EVEN FIGHT? What I mean by this is, as an example, I go into a fight in the 4-6 Star Arena - and accidentally start it with 4 star heroes - thinking I was in the 4-5 Star Arena. Whoops. So I have like maxed 4 star heroes,... but then I am going up against 6 STARS - RANK 5. - all of them 15-17K. Awesome. But this isn't even that BAD PART. The BAD PART is that even if I play perfectly.... the UI doesn't throw a Special Attack. I taunt. I taunt more. I taunt a lot. It is about 1.5 MINUTES. Back and forth... back and forth..... nothing. Eventually I get fed-up and try and burn the hero down.... until the inevitable SP3 RED BAR OF DEATH. WHAMMO! Dead. Never hit me once. Just used an SP3 and I am dead. THIS IS TOTAL GARBAGE.
Ok rant over.
Comment if you see/feel the same way.
Thanks.
I'm tired of the SAME OLD STUFF in arena. It is absolutely boring as hell. You reach a certain "point" in each Arena - whether it is the 1-2 Star, 2-3 Star, 3-4 Star, 4-5 Star or 4-6 Star - where you have beat basically everything that they can throw at you and then it goes to the "Cable, Gwenpool, Medusa" auto-fill fights. Is this all your team can come up with? Unreal. Can't you mix it up a little bit with at LEAST putting in some heroes that are interesting? - or just make it a random hero for Kang or Thanos Teams???
Also - what is the deal with fighting the SAME SUMMONER over and over and over and over again? I get to a win streak of 7-8 in the 4-5 Star Arena. - and then that is when it goes from 6-8K heroes you are fighting to INSTANTLY 14-15K heroes. - basically where Kabam is going to do anything they possibly can do to prohibit you from advancing with your streak. WHY IS THAT?
Then there is the REVERSE of the above - you get to a win streak of 4 to 5 in the 2-3 Star Arena - and then instead of fighting summoners, it makes you fight Kang and Thanos Teams again. - obviously because my Maxed out 3 Stars wipe the floor with any Summoner I fight. - but that isn't the POINT. There is NO CONSISTENCY in this at all. It really sucked and makes the Arena GRIND 50000000% worse because it is so DAMN BORING.
And the other thing I have noticed. Let's say I have a 4-Star Rank 4 Hero fighting the SAME in an Arena. I hit the hero 20 times... and bring the hero down about 30-40% health. Great. I slip up a little... and get hit with a 5 hit combo,... and immediately I am down to 35-40% health. Where I am going with this is that there seems to be an artificial PLUS DEFENSE added to heroes you are fighting in Arena. I've been playing this game for 3 years now,.... and I know what my heroes usually hit for in questing, etc. SOMETHING STINKS. - and don't give me that garbage answer. I can sense when something is wrong with the heroes I am fighting - I am sure you can all relate to this if you have played this game long enough. - and ARENA is being manipulated by Kabam. Believe THAT.
Oh and lastly............. if a fight is not winnable, then WHY EVEN FIGHT? What I mean by this is, as an example, I go into a fight in the 4-6 Star Arena - and accidentally start it with 4 star heroes - thinking I was in the 4-5 Star Arena. Whoops. So I have like maxed 4 star heroes,... but then I am going up against 6 STARS - RANK 5. - all of them 15-17K. Awesome. But this isn't even that BAD PART. The BAD PART is that even if I play perfectly.... the UI doesn't throw a Special Attack. I taunt. I taunt more. I taunt a lot. It is about 1.5 MINUTES. Back and forth... back and forth..... nothing. Eventually I get fed-up and try and burn the hero down.... until the inevitable SP3 RED BAR OF DEATH. WHAMMO! Dead. Never hit me once. Just used an SP3 and I am dead. THIS IS TOTAL GARBAGE.
Ok rant over.
Comment if you see/feel the same way.
Thanks.
1
Comments
As to why fight if the fight is unwinnable:
there's no such thing as an unwinnable arena round. Even when you make a mistake and trip the death match (I don't even know what I was thinking there), it isn't an automatic loss. Its really really hard, but not unwinnable.
Your Hero: 4 Star R2 Un-Duped Red Hulk
Your Opponent: 5 Star, Rank 5 Hyperion
No way.... not gonna happen. UN-WINNABLE.
http://www.marvelcontest.co.za/infinite-streak/
It sounds like you’re still hitting some sour notes and you’re shunning free lessons.
1) Make Kang and Thanos Teams completely random.
2) If you fight a Summoner, you can't fight the SAME SUMMONER AGAIN for at least 20 fights
3) Fix fights where Kang/Thanos Heroes throw their specials after XX seconds........... (Cuz right now sometimes they don't.)
4) Enable you to change your heroes if the team you are fighting has more than a 10K PI Index rating higher than yours.
Sample suggestions. Easy.
The only thing that makes arena better is better rewards. Put in a 2k 5 star shard milestone and I guarantee arena will be fun again lol.
first, let's pin point the "problems" with the existing arena:
1) monotonous ... same old, same old, lather, rinse, repeat .. you just toss your biggest champs in, your smash things up, "wheeee" .. fun.
2) Matches 11-16 = requires maxed champs to force through it, or else you need to know the "gimmick" to get through it. Former isn't necessarily bad, latter, is just "dumb" coding ... as a Software developer, I'll guarantee the logic behind this was flawed/bugged from the start, but they decided not to change it, because it helps their bottom line ... ie no motivation for THEM to fix it.
3) Lack of consistency overall ... I'll finally establish a good pattern/team comp/whatever that "works" ... then next arena, "something" changes ... and I'm not facing the same situation ... (Yeah, dynamic is good, but arena is dynamic, it's flawed).
4) Inconsistent AI ... Claim you have 0 issues baiting out specials all you want .. go watch some of the "pros" on youtube ... every so often .. that AI refused to throw a special. Matches 9-12 are worst for it .. that particular AI "level" they have it on ... just "happens" to be very stingy on specials ... (I solve problem using power control champs, or ones that can eat sp3 ... but that doesn't mean the issue isn't there .. :P )
Ultimately, the way the Arena is setup, it strongly benefits those with a stacked roster. (again, not saying that's a bad thing, I'm simply making the observation, honestly and openly .. )
So how to solve this? Well, 1 idea I had was this:
a) group arena "brackets" by title. The titles are there, this isn't difficult. This would "replace" the current method of the "beginner" bracket for 3(?) months .. or whatever ... time based bracket like that is silly ... go by title ... those who have progressed, face those who have equally progressed .. and fight for "better" rewards .. (ie Uncollected rewards are much > than Conquerer, for example).
b) Stop using other player's champs ... all champs are randomly picked from the FULL pool ... and AI setup (no masteries by default).
c) Progression of difficulty of the opponents is NOT dependant on your team .. but rather followed a fixed pattern (for example, something like: (i was thinking to use * and rank, but sometimes that would create a falling scale .. so just going to list PI as an example ... again, just theory crafting .. numbers are to be adjusted to setup a "better" scale .. I'm not 100% sure what that is at this point
Match 1: PI 100 (each champ has this PI rating or close to it)
Match 2: PI 200
Match 3: PI 400
Match 4: PI 800
Match 5: PI 1500
Match 6: PI 2000
Match 7: PI 2500
Match 8: PI 3000
Match 9: PI 3500
Match 10: PI 4000 ** At this point, start adding nodes .. things like "Limber", or "Thorns" .. or whatever ...
after this match, continually increase the PI, and every 5 matches, add another node .. so Match 15 would have 2 nodes ..
Match 20, 3 nodes .. etc.
Note, there is no cap, it just keeps getting harder, and harder ... what does this do?
1) No more infinite streaks ... you may be able to get a LONG streak .. but infinite, not going to happen ..
2) Points awarded are calculated more simply. I'd suggest:
Base points: = PI of target.
Multiplier = based on * of your champion:
6* x1
5* x1.25
4* x1.5
3* x2
2* x4
1* x10
So what does that setup ?
That sets up a situation where to maximize YOUR points .. you want to use the SMALLEST champ you have that is still capable of beating the opponent ..
Heck ... considering the nature of this, I'd say, generate the random opponents FIRST, then let you pick your champs ..
First fights will be easy, you'll have your full roster ... but as you progress, you'll have less options ... and harder choices to get max points.
Final point ... once you lose your streak .. that's your score. Sure, you can try again .. but it doesn't add your points .. it simply takes the highest run you managed to make.
This rewards skill, and creativity ... just as much as it rewards a large roster.
Both will have advantages with this setup.
I think this would make things very interesting .. everyone's setup and such would be different ...
To make it more "fair" . .you could randomize the nodes up to a certain point first, then everyone uses the same nodes ... but I still like the idea of random nodes .. (or mostly random ... for example at match 10, have a short list to pick from .. no Thorns, no "No Retreat" or really tough nodes ... perhaps have those nodes (ie Aespect of War?) worth 2 or 3 "picks" .. when generating random nodes ..
This not not a rhetorical question, because it is the fundamental question of all game design. Who's your target playerbase, and how much of the game should be targeted at each individual player. Some games focus all their attention on one specific kind of player, and go as deep as they can in that direction (although most find that they "one" kind of player they thought they were targeted eventually split up into micro groups when they go deep enough). Some try to cast a wider net, but there's no way for a wide game to make every part appeal to everyone, so different parts of the game have to appeal to different kinds of players, or at least different tastes. The less you give to each kind of player the more kinds of players you can have, and conversely the more you give to each kind of player the fewer kinds of players you can have.
Right now there's almost certainly a lot of players playing the game in large part because there's a relatively simple grindable activity like the arena that generates a significant amount of rewards and even in-game currency, which reduces the need to spend. There's a difference between improving arena for those players, and changing it into something that players who aren't them would prefer, at their expense.
There's another thing to consider when making an arena replacement. Its very simpleness and almost boring nature actually reduces the chances of burnout. We saw what happened when you make a more complex, more difficult grindable game mode when dungeons first appeared. The original form of dungeons was conceptually similar to what you're describing (albeit it involved multiple players). And its complexity and escalating difficulty is what made it interesting. But it also meant the chances for players to burn out on it were far higher than in the arena. That made it problematic enough to force changes to dungeons to all but force players to take breaks from it, which meant it was no longer indefinitely grindable.
I don't think people give enough credit to how the arenas currently thread a very difficult needle, where they can be grinded by players in a way that doesn't induce wide-spread burnout and a compulsion to keep chasing in to their own detriment most of the time, but still offers enough rewards to be worth doing at all. The boring aspect of it may be a critical reason why it works at all.