**WINTER OF WOE - BONUS OBJECTIVE POINT**
As previously announced, the team will be distributing an additional point toward milestones to anyone who completed the Absorbing Man fight in the first step of the Winter of Woe.
This point will be distributed at a later time as it requires the team to pull and analyze data.
The timeline has not been set, but work has started.
There is currently an issue where some Alliances are are unable to find a match in Alliance Wars, or are receiving Byes without getting the benefits of the Win. We will be adjusting the Season Points of the Alliances that are affected within the coming weeks, and will be working to compensate them for their missed Per War rewards as well.

Additionally, we are working to address an issue where new Members of an Alliance are unable to place Defenders for the next War after joining. We are working to address this, but it will require a future update.

Analyzing Autocomplete (note: Daily Event rewards have changed)

For those who don't know, Kabam recently turned on a new feature called autocomplete that will "autocomplete" one daily event, costing you quest energy and giving you rewards consistent with that event. The events in question are the Proving Grounds events that give basic catalysts (or fragments) and the class versions of those events that give class catalysts (or fragments).

Autocomplete doesn't actually "do" a path or anything. You can think of it as just exchanging energy for rewards. The question is: is it worth it to do. And as it turns out, while looking at this I discovered something else: the events themselves have been changed. At least, I know for a fact that the T4B one has changed rewards. I haven't checked every event, but this one I caught from memory.

As of right now, this is what you get, and what the energy costs are for these events. Note: I'm only showing the catalyst rewards themselves: I've dropped the ISO, XP, and Gold rewards.



Note: T4B event also awards 320, 400, and 470 T4B fragments in map chests.

There is a lot of weirdness in the autocomplete rewards. The autocomplete for T1 class is pretty good: it costs 20 energy and gives three T1C catalysts: that's how much you'd get doing full exploration manually which would cost 22 energy. On the other hand, T2C is awful: it awards one T2C for 30 energy, but manually doing full explore costs 25 energy and awards two.

Interestingly, the T4B event is awarding more shards. Full exploration used to award 2840 shards: 650 for completion, 1000 for exploration, plus chests of 320, 400, and 470 for the easy, medium, and hard(er) path. Now it is awarding 900 for completion and 1800 for exploration. The chests appear to be the same. The new total is 3890. It takes 90 energy to fully explore, which means you can average about 43 fragments per energy point. Autocomplete is giving 1320/50 = 26.4 fragments per energy point, which is less. But the average for the original expert proving grounds was 2840/90 = 31.6 fragments per energy point. So autocomplete today is giving about 84% of the fragments per energy point than the Expert Proving Grounds was giving previously. That's not bad if you have extra energy at the end of a month.

For the record, the T4C costs 87 energy to fully explore and gives 1800 fragments for a return of 20.7 fragments per energy point. Autocomplete gives 760 for 55 energy which is 13.8 fragments per energy point. That's not great.

I think one that many players are interested in is the T3C one, since that one is notoriously stingy at times. Manually exploring costs 50 energy and gives 1960 fragments, which is 39.2 fragments per energy point. Autocomplete gives 760 fragments for 40 energy which is 19 fragments per energy point. That's very low relatively speaking.

Autocomplete is, in terms of catalysts per energy point, actually just about equal to or better than running the map for T1C, T1B, T2B, and T3B. It is worse everywhere else, although given the time savings it might still be a good thing to do, especially for players that run multiple accounts and probably don't use all the energy in those accounts.

Here's a table that calculates rewards per energy point. I've bolded where the autocomplete is either better, or close enough to be about even:



T2C seems odd to me: it costs way more than it should and returns way less than it should. Only two autocomplete options cost more energy than actually fully exploring the map manually: T2C and T2B. And T2B is forgivable as it gives four T2B catalysts - more than if you did full exploration (you'd get three). T2C gives half the cats for more energy.

And seriously, the autocomplete reward for T3B is one T3B catalyst and 2680 fragments. It only takes 2800 fragments to form a full catalyst. Who decided to give 95.7% of a catalyst?

I should really run every single event and factor in the chests, but to be honest I was only willing to do that for the T4B, just to confirm they were the same as I remember. I don't think the chests materially change things for the other events, and would if anything swing things more towards manual exploration than autocompletion.

Comments

  • StevieManWonderStevieManWonder Posts: 5,017 ★★★★★
    What were they thinking when they made this???
  • Thicco_ModeThicco_Mode Posts: 8,852 ★★★★★
    edited August 2020
    too bad about the t3cc. I hate when I have to farm it and wait five days for it to rotate and when it finally comes, here! you can have 500 frags.
  • DNA3000DNA3000 Posts: 18,558 Guardian
    ItsDamien said:

    So essentially... it costs more energy, less rewards.

    Its literally a useless feature here.

    T1-3 Basics are actually a good deal, and T1 class cats are a good deal. The others are not a good deal in terms of energy costs. They are only worth using if you literally don't have time to autofight your way through those. I can see people with multiple accounts just hitting the button to burn energy and get something instead of nothing.

    If you have the Sigil, your best bet on T3C is to autocomplete T3B, then use those to exchange for T3C. This could potentially be a big time saver for those with less time to play and don't want to waste it autofighting through either T3C or T3B.
  • Moot4LifeMoot4Life Posts: 2,132 ★★★★

    too bad about the t3cc. I hate when I have to farm it and wait five days for it to rotate and when it finally comes, here! you can have 500 frags.

    yup.
  • SnizzbarSnizzbar Posts: 2,142 ★★★★★
    ItsDamien said:

    So essentially... it costs more energy, less rewards.

    Its literally a useless feature here.

    Takes less time though, so there's a small plus.
  • Thicco_ModeThicco_Mode Posts: 8,852 ★★★★★
    do we know if there is a difference between classes? so if I manually 100% all the science ones today, will tomorrow's also be available? or do I have to 100% all for skill, all for mutant, etc
  • DNA3000DNA3000 Posts: 18,558 Guardian

    do we know if there is a difference between classes? so if I manually 100% all the science ones today, will tomorrow's also be available? or do I have to 100% all for skill, all for mutant, etc

    Once you 100% a difficulty tier for any class day, autocomplete unlocks for all classes for that tier. So if you 100% Medium for Skill, Medium gets unlocked for all classes. You do have to unlock the basic proving grounds separately, but once unlocked they stay unlocked.

    Also, another point of clarity I've been asked. When autocomplete says "Autocomplete remaining: 1" that counter is for that specific map, not that day. In other words, if you have them unlocked you could autocomplete the easy map, then the medium map, then the hard map all for the same class (provided you have the energy to do so).
  • MasterpuffMasterpuff Posts: 6,463 ★★★★★
    It wasn’t thought through enough it seems. This post is amazing by the way.
  • TimeGenesisTimeGenesis Posts: 732 ★★★
    Another great post.

    I think its great feature. A step in the right direction. Was just wondering though, do you think auto complete should only be available for those who can do itemless run for the first time?
    The reason am asking is coz, say if someone usually say uses a revive to 100% it, then the auto complete will just make it easier for them and thus Kabam losing revenue for the revive for each 100%. It's good for a progressing player.

    Kinda this way, it might open the possibility for auto completing side quests too in the future maybe.
  • DNA3000DNA3000 Posts: 18,558 Guardian

    Another great post.

    I think its great feature. A step in the right direction. Was just wondering though, do you think auto complete should only be available for those who can do itemless run for the first time?
    The reason am asking is coz, say if someone usually say uses a revive to 100% it, then the auto complete will just make it easier for them and thus Kabam losing revenue for the revive for each 100%. It's good for a progressing player.

    Kinda this way, it might open the possibility for auto completing side quests too in the future maybe.

    The announcement said that the Auto Complete option would unlock by progression title, which I'm going to lazily copy/paste rather than retype:



    I think it is very likely that by the time a player has reached those progression titles it will be relatively easy for them to complete those maps, so I don't think the itemless requirement is needed relative to the development work that might need to be dedicated to implement it.
  • Nice, and yes, you are ignoring what you would get from Chests (and the various likelihood of each level that it will be a full Cat or just more Frags).

    T1 Class and T1+2 Basic do seem worth it (maybe), depending how fast you want to just be done with it.

    Keep in mind you lose out on any Solo Class Combat Event points or 3-Day Affiliation Event (Guardians, etc) Points because you’re not actually using a champ like you are with doing Auto-Fight WITHIN the quest (with individual fights).

    Also worth noting, that if you Manually do both sides and still want to get another “Guaranteed” Cat, you can do the AUTO afterwards as well for it's stated reward (or visa-versa) as opposed to once you did manual at 100% then any future Manual runs are just for the Chests alone.
  • winterthurwinterthur Posts: 7,658 ★★★★★
    I think for Class 🐈s, will miss out on a chance for Mastery Core.



  • DNA3000DNA3000 Posts: 18,558 Guardian

    I think for Class 🐈s, will miss out on a chance for Mastery Core.

    Yes and no. You can do autocomplete, and still take a peek inside to see if there's a mastery core, and whether you want to go for it or not. You do have to do a manual run to get any rewards on the map though, including the mastery core if it is there. But "autocomplete" and manual runs are independent; executing an autocomplete doesn't actually alter the map in any way. You can autocomplete, and manually run the map in the same day.
  • @DNA3000 , regarding Full Cat “Drop Rates” from Chests, have you ever done a deep analysis of whether the Team you bring has any bearing on chances to get a Full Cat from the Chest or not ??

    As in... I always had the suspicion that when I bring a team “close to” the Recommended Strength (or even less than), that I seemed to have better luck pulling a full Cat from the Chest. As opposed to just going in with a severely overpowered team using a bunch of max 4*/5* champs against lowly 2* nodes in Level 1/2 Cat Quests seems more likely that I will just get Frags.
  • winterthurwinterthur Posts: 7,658 ★★★★★
    edited August 2020
    DNA3000 said:

    I think for Class 🐈s, will miss out on a chance for Mastery Core.

    Yes and no. You can do autocomplete, and still take a peek inside to see if there's a mastery core, and whether you want to go for it or not. You do have to do a manual run to get any rewards on the map though, including the mastery core if it is there. But "autocomplete" and manual runs are independent; executing an autocomplete doesn't actually alter the map in any way. You can autocomplete, and manually run the map in the same day.
    Understand your point.
    If want to get the Mastery Core, then need to grind for it.


  • DNA3000DNA3000 Posts: 18,558 Guardian

    @DNA3000 , regarding Full Cat “Drop Rates” from Chests, have you ever done a deep analysis of whether the Team you bring has any bearing on chances to get a Full Cat from the Chest or not ??

    As in... I always had the suspicion that when I bring a team “close to” the Recommended Strength (or even less than), that I seemed to have better luck pulling a full Cat from the Chest. As opposed to just going in with a severely overpowered team using a bunch of max 4*/5* champs against lowly 2* nodes in Level 1/2 Cat Quests seems more likely that I will just get Frags.

    I've never looked at that specifically, as I'm usually sky-high over the requirement these days. I don't *think* that has any effect, but I can't say I have any data to back that up. I can say if such an effect exists, it has to be subtle: I have lower alt accounts that do go in with close to the requirement, and sometimes even lower than that, and I haven't noticed an exceptional increase. If it is there, it isn't something I can see just off hand.

    Now, there is something I've had a suspicion about, but haven't had the time to dissect yet. I've seen some cases where I believe *gold* on the map scales to the player. In other words, it feels like the gold is set to some amount, let's say 300, but you only get that if you're above some minimum (unspecified) level. If you're under that level, you'll get something less. It isn't something you can notice at all unless you play multiple accounts, which I do, but it also takes careful tracking, which I'm not always doing. It is something on my list of things to revisit more carefully. But it is because of this that I'm not prepared to say your theory is completely bonkers unlikely.
  • Thicco_ModeThicco_Mode Posts: 8,852 ★★★★★

    @DNA3000 , regarding Full Cat “Drop Rates” from Chests, have you ever done a deep analysis of whether the Team you bring has any bearing on chances to get a Full Cat from the Chest or not ??

    As in... I always had the suspicion that when I bring a team “close to” the Recommended Strength (or even less than), that I seemed to have better luck pulling a full Cat from the Chest. As opposed to just going in with a severely overpowered team using a bunch of max 4*/5* champs against lowly 2* nodes in Level 1/2 Cat Quests seems more likely that I will just get Frags.

    is that...a conspiracy theory from a forum Guardian? *gasp!*
    jesting obviously. seems interesting, but I've never noticed it
  • Wouldn’t be breaking any listed Drop Rate rules if indeed they have it implemented that way, because Chests don’t have any listed Drop rates.

    Maybe just superstition for me, but I tend to go in with just a 2* or 3* Wolverine or X-23 depending on which level of Cat Quest it is, and if needed for Class Requirement just my lowly unleveled 1* champ of the needed Class.

    With the Regen champ I can go in well under the Suggested. But then I also make sure to not come out of it at 100% either (maybe let Wolvie fall under 50% health before beating boss).
    It's like “wow, that was a hard quest, now please give me a Full Cat from the chest”, lol.
  • DNA3000DNA3000 Posts: 18,558 Guardian

    Wouldn’t be breaking any listed Drop Rate rules if indeed they have it implemented that way, because Chests don’t have any listed Drop rates.

    There's no rule that says they couldn't, but it doesn't seem to me to be the kind of thing a game developer would want to implement without some reward balancing purpose, and I can't see an obvious one. The effects would be subtle or they'd be easy to detect, and that kind of subtlety wouldn't impact the players' progress enough in my judgment to be worth it.
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