Tier 1 alpha requirements and availability

So I’ve been building up my 5 star roster and I’ve got some pretty good champions recently and I have all the rank up materials except tier 1 alpha and it takes 5 to even rank 2 a 5 star which is a bit ridiculous to be honest but where it gets worse is that there are very few ways to get it like 100% variants like seriously 100% for 1 tier , what I propose is for rank 1-2 it should be 3 tier 1, rank 2-3 should be 4 then 3-4 should be 5 and so on. Also increase the the amount of tier 1 in event quests bc if u don’t have glory u have work hard for so little

Comments

DNA3000

If you don't have glory, you should get some glory. Seriously: even if you are not in an alliance you can still get glory by making your own alliance and just doing Map 1 or Map 2. It would take very little time and it would probably be your largest source of T1A. I made a thread about this option last year here: https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/183695/earning-glory-as-a-solo-player. In fact, this is even easier because we now have shorter AQ energy timers: it is possible to easily complete Map 2 solo without the aid of second accounts.

Arena grinders can get three per cycle, which is about 12 per month. If you can put that effort in it is decent return on time. In theory you can get 10 per AQ cycle from the glory store although most people don't spend that much glory on T1A due to the escalating costs. But earning enough glory for three or four T1A per cycle could be an additional 16 T1A per month, which is even higher than the arena option. Doing them both would get you as much as 28 more T1A per month (about).

Trevsmash04

I know u can get those that way but all I’m saying is don’t u think there should be other ways outside of aq and arena and the rank up cost for tier 1 alpha is a little ridiculous

DNA3000

I know u can get those that way but all I’m saying is don’t u think there should be other ways outside of aq and arena and the rank up cost for tier 1 alpha is a little ridiculous

The rank up costs are what they are, and although in the past I've said Kabam should probably look at that, the way they decided to address that is by making T1A way more available.

The reason why T1A is available in the arena and in AQ is because those are the two most grindable parts of the game. Their rewards come mainly in (approximately) weekly cycles. Most other content is either monthly cycle or one-shot.

Kabam isn't just going to hand everyone a giant bucket of T1A catalysts: in a game like this where resource management is part of the game, the best players can hope for is the opportunity to earn those resources, and the arena and the glory store are very good places to earn grindable resources.

Between arena and AQ essentially *everyone* has an opportunity to get a substantial amount of T1A. Arena grinders can get them for relatively low effort. Anyone in an alliance doing AQ can get a significant amount of them with weekly glory. And even solo players that want nothing to do with joining an alliance can use a solo alliance and readily soloable maps to earn enough glory to get a substantial amount of T1A. That is literally as good as it gets in this game or any other online progressional game.

Demonzfyre

I know u can get those that way but all I’m saying is don’t u think there should be other ways outside of aq and arena and the rank up cost for tier 1 alpha is a little ridiculous

Outside of Arena and AQ-
Normal/Heroic/Master EQ difficulties.
Alliance 3-day event milestones.
Daily Objective crystals.
Lesser/Greater Solo crystals
If you own the Sigil, you can trade in 4 T3B cats for 2 T1A every 7 days.

Darksniper240

It's pretty crazy...I just came back a little while ago from a 3 year hiatus and I remember when t4cc was the hardest thing to come by. Now I have 3 at max and like 5 in my overflow along with 20 something fully formed crystals waiting for t1 alphas and t4 basics.

As DNA said, even though it feels super crappy to have to spend glory on t4basics and t1 alphas instead of t5 basic and t2 alphas.

DNA3000

even though it feels super crappy to have to spend glory on t4basics and t1 alphas instead of t5 basic and t2 alphas.

It shouldn't. In the past, AQ handed out fixed rewards based on your map and prestige. Score this much points and you get one of these and two of those and three of the other thing and that's it. You did get map crystals which had some randomness to them, but the lower crystals had lower cats and the higher crystals had the higher cats. So what if you were in a higher prestige alliance doing higher maps, but needed more lower cats like T1A. Back then, you had to lower your map to try to earn the right crystals and rewards. Imagine today a Map 7x5 alliance dropping down to Map 2 because their members need more T1A. Now *that* would feel super crappy

Glory was designed to eliminate that problem. Instead of giving you a fixed reward, now you can choose how much you want. If you want more T1A, you spend more glory on T1A. If you want more T4B, you spend glory on that. People today see glory like a high end currency you are supposed to spend on only the highest end stuff, but that's not what it is for. It is for you to decide for yourself what to spend it on.

Basically, it might suck to have to pay for lunch when you want to save for a Ferrari, but that's just how it goes.

Ladpcw78

Heroic/Master EQ. Units you gain from these will almost cover it. That’s 5 per month
Plus Glory store - depending on your level - but at least 1 each rotation
Plus alliance events. Item use/villain use/event quest etc
It’s hard but it is available and every so often there’s an monthly event quest where it’s almost free. For uncollected+ this month we got 2 just for opening caskets 1-5

Tesladon

even though it feels super crappy to have to spend glory on t4basics and t1 alphas instead of t5 basic and t2 alphas.
It shouldn't. In the past, AQ handed out fixed rewards based on your map and prestige. Score this much points and you get one of these and two of those and three of the other thing and that's it. You did get map crystals which had some randomness to them, but the lower crystals had lower cats and the higher crystals had the higher cats. So what if you were in a higher prestige alliance doing higher maps, but needed more lower cats like T1A. Back then, you had to lower your map to try to earn the right crystals and rewards. Imagine today a Map 7x5 alliance dropping down to Map 2 because their members need more T1A. Now *that* would feel super crappy

Glory was designed to eliminate that problem. Instead of giving you a fixed reward, now you can choose how much you want. If you want more T1A, you spend more glory on T1A. If you want more T4B, you spend glory on that. People today see glory like a high end currency you are supposed to spend on only the highest end stuff, but that's not what it is for. It is for you to decide for yourself what to spend it on.

Basically, it might suck to have to pay for lunch when you want to save for a Ferrari, but that's just how it goes.

Well said.

TrashyPanda

Yeah, it's bad. People will argue otherwise, but their general arguments are: "It's better than it used to be", "I don't have that problem, so it must not exist", and "mcoc is a resource-management game".

1. Cool, so what's to stop it from being even better?

2. You do have that problem; frustration with the game often means we lose people, which means Kabam loses money, which means we all lose. A system where a player quits due to a few bad decisions (or bad luck) setting them back permanently is a bad system, bad decisions or not.

3. Mcoc is a fighting game with elements of resource management but, yes, it's definitely turning into a resource management game with elements of fighting --- so yeah you got me there.

So let's say we get crazy and get rid of t1a completely; what would happen? A flood of 5r3s? Oh no! Think of all the content made trivial by a Cavalier player with a roster full 5r3s, lol. I'm not suggesting this, but it's fun to think about.

There's honestly a very easy way to give an 'out' to people who made bad decisions, or were just too unlucky to pull that sweet meta. A way that would remedy frustrations from bottlenecks. A way that would be easily controlled and highly monetizable.

Unfortunately it involves one of the dirtiest, most divisive words in mcoc.

winterthur

Seems like, the discussion could go on to
- when to accept status quo and
- when to ask for change?

Off-topic, for e.g. I cannot understand how game developer did not plan to address the issue on duplicating 6-Star on max. sig.

Don't they have the data and can project this situation?

Edit: why can't T1A storage be increased?

Greekhit

Seems like, the discussion could go on to
- when to accept status quo and
- when to ask for change?

Off-topic, for e.g. I cannot understand how game developer did not plan to address the issue on duplicating 6-Star on max. sig.

Don't they have the data and can project this situation?

Edit: why can't T1A storage be increased?

Because according to Kabam 12 (15 for sigil users) t1a in storage should be enough to handle an average roster of 100+ 5*s 🤣
Seriously though they seem to not even care about the t1a problem.
At least a t1a post appears every week on the forum but it’s mostly being ignored.
The game is heavily outdated on some certain areas really.
T1a shouldn’t be a bottleneck at 2021, they used to be a bottleneck back at ‘16, the game has other higher tier catalysts to regulate progression.
T1a aren’t my problem anymore, since I’ve ranked most of my 5*s to r3+ and now ranking mainly 6*s, but it used to be the most annoying bottleneck.
P.S. No one enjoys the idea of spending 3k+ glory weekly on t1a.
I’ve done it for several months and it sucks. Also the 10 t1a you can get from glory store sometimes aren’t enough either.

winterthur

Seems like, the discussion could go on to
- when to accept status quo and
- when to ask for change?

Off-topic, for e.g. I cannot understand how game developer did not plan to address the issue on duplicating 6-Star on max. sig.

Don't they have the data and can project this situation?

Edit: why can't T1A storage be increased?
Because according to Kabam 12 (15 for sigil users) t1a in storage should be enough to handle an average roster of 100+ 5*s 🤣
Seriously though they seem to not even care about the t1a problem.

That is great for you. 👍🏻

Meanwhile, I will have to wait for two T1A arenas to be in a position to consider whether to take NF to rank 4 and to awaken him.

Which is probably not to bad to be objective. Otherwise, it will be either Isos or Gold drought for me.

DNA3000

Yeah, it's bad. People will argue otherwise, but their general arguments are: "It's better than it used to be", "I don't have that problem, so it must not exist", and "mcoc is a resource-management game".

1. Cool, so what's to stop it from being even better?

To be clear, things aren't better now just because everyone gets more stuff. Things are better now because resources have more opportunities to be earned, and because players have more agency in their rewards.

Eliminating T1A from the game doesn't add agency. It eliminates one way for players to distinguish themselves and their progress in the game through intelligent and efficient management of their account. That's no different than eliminating all AQ maps higher than map 3 and handing out the same rewards. That doesn't make AQ better, it just makes all alliances more identical.

Games are about choices, and in good games choices matter, and in games where choices don't matter people tend to get bored and leave. Far more people would leave because of boredom than leave out of frustration if you make things too easy. Given how many Marvel mobile games have come and gone, and given how few online progressional games like MCOC of any genre can be said to be more successful, I feel very confident about that statement.

Things can always be made better, but not by anyone who doesn't understand what makes the game good in the first place.

Reference

Just to share OP with few things:
1. It is easier to get 5*, meaning chance of getting good champs is increasing and thus higher requirement for rank up resources. Everyone is facing this.
2. Separate want and need, how many T1A you want in each month? 30? 40? 50? 47 is so far the highest numbers I can gather within a month. Is it enough?
3. Some ppl hate the word resource management yet it is the fact of life. I got 5* Doom, BWCV and CGR all in Dec 2020 and all of them reached 5*r5 in Jan 2021.
4. Other than catalysts, there is something called rank up gem. Have you completed those quests yet?
5. One minor point for non-arena players (but important to arena players): if everyone can rank up 5* to r2 easily, then the death matchup appearance in featured arena will gradually shift to 5*r2, meaning you need to r3 those 5* so as to fully utilise entire roster.

Lordabck

I posted same thing in past and few so called god tier players started lashing out on me that you are not clearing all the content for T1A. Please ignore such people, I feel that there is shortage of T1A can’t help it. For old resource as T1A, should be available in map 5 crystals. 5* champs requires to much T1A. We definitely need more T1A availability .

winterthur

Just to share OP with few things:
4. Other than catalysts, there is something called rank up gem. Have you completed those quests yet?
5. One minor point for non-arena players (but important to arena players): if everyone can rank up 5* to r2 easily, then the death matchup appearance in featured arena will gradually shift to 5*r2, meaning you need to r3 those 5* so as to fully utilise entire roster.

4 --> This is give up.

5 --> It could then be a tipping point to introduce 5-Star basic arena (which should be good?)

The_Sentry06

Create a daily quest where we can earn t1 alpha or something. That'd be nice.

Pulyaman

I posted same thing in past and few so called god tier players started lashing out on me that you are not clearing all the content for T1A. Please ignore such people, I feel that there is shortage of T1A can’t help it. For old resource as T1A, should be available in map 5 crystals. 5* champs requires to much T1A. We definitely need more T1A availability .

Who are these God tier people? if anything I would say there is a shortage of T4B in the contest because I am spending glory to buy those like crazy. You need them to rank up 4 star, 5 star and 6 stars. Same with T4cc. Everyone in this game has some shortage or another, that is how games work. You need to manage resources.

TrashyPanda

To be clear, things aren't better now just because everyone gets more stuff. Things are better now because resources have more opportunities to be earned, and because players have more agency in their rewards.

So it's not better because people get more t1a, but because people get more t1a? I'm pretty sure most people enjoy punching things more than micromanaging inventories, but that might just be me. To each their own, I guess; I'd just prefer they focus on the punchy-bits.

Eliminating T1A from the game doesn't add agency. It eliminates one way for players to distinguish themselves and their progress in the game through intelligent and efficient management of their account. That's no different than eliminating all AQ maps higher than map 3 and handing out the same rewards. That doesn't make AQ better, it just makes all alliances more identical.

So, "The intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment for unlocking different catalysts", basically?

and no, it's not like removing map 4, 5, 6, and 7? Lol. I honestly don't know where you were going with that, but it looks like false equivalence. I should know; I use it all the time.

Games are about choices, and in good games choices matter, and in games where choices don't matter people tend to get bored and leave. Far more people would leave because of boredom than leave out of frustration if you make things too easy. Given how many Marvel mobile games have come and gone, and given how few online progressional games like MCOC of any genre can be said to be more successful, I feel very confident about that statement.

I'm glad that you're confident, but we both only have opinions -- and you know what they say about opinions. I'm pretty confident in my own speculations, but it doesn't make me any less dumb.

Things can always be made better, but not by anyone who doesn't understand what makes the game good in the first place.

Woah there, Tiger! No need to get spicy, lol. How about you explain what makes this game good, then? Y'know, for those of us who don't understand.

winterthur

After opening a few AQ Map crystal. Now I need one T1A arena instead of 2.

Reference

Just to share OP with few things:
4. Other than catalysts, there is something called rank up gem. Have you completed those quests yet?
5. One minor point for non-arena players (but important to arena players): if everyone can rank up 5* to r2 easily, then the death matchup appearance in featured arena will gradually shift to 5*r2, meaning you need to r3 those 5* so as to fully utilise entire roster.
4 --> This is give up.
5 --> It could then be a tipping point to introduce 5-Star basic arena (which should be good?)

Under what circumstances you have such a feeling that Kabam will introduce one more arena on permanent basis? I’d say pretty unlikely as there are pile up of things being laid down in Dev Diary are yet to be delivered.

DNA3000

Woah there, Tiger! No need to get spicy, lol. How about you explain what makes this game good, then? Y'know, for those of us who don't understand.

I think someone asking this question actually wanting an honest answer wouldn't deliberately conflate opportunity and agency with quantity.

Agency in particular has nothing to do with quantity. Agency is the difference between handing players catalysts and handing players glory to buy catalysts. Even if they are handed the exact amount of glory equal to the amount necessary to buy the exact same amount of catalysts, glory gives more control to the players over precisely how much of which ones they get. They cannot use that control to get more stuff overall, but they can trade getting less of one thing for more of something else. That's the benefit of agency.

However, at the end of the day, this game is just a bunch of pixels on a screen. We don't own any of it, we don't really buy anything or even earn anything in a material sense. All we do is chase things. The only thing that gives anything in the game value is the fact that we players pursue them. All the value is relative and artificial. This game, like *all* F2P games of similar nature, is about wanting but not having. Players must somehow catch enough things to make the chase meaningful and worth pursuing, but not catch so many things that the chase becomes boring.

A lot of people think this is a fighting game. It is not. It is a champion collection game that contains a fighting game. Fighting is what gives champions value, or at least one of the things that does. But the engine that drives the game is the addition of new champions to chase, to collect, to rank up. the fighting in this game has basically been the same for the last five years. Thousands of players are not spending tens of millions of dollars a month to fight the next fight. Most of that revenue is driven by new champions and the resources they require. And it is that revenue that supports all of the rest of the game everyone plays.

winterthur

Just to share OP with few things:
4. Other than catalysts, there is something called rank up gem. Have you completed those quests yet?
5. One minor point for non-arena players (but important to arena players): if everyone can rank up 5* to r2 easily, then the death matchup appearance in featured arena will gradually shift to 5*r2, meaning you need to r3 those 5* so as to fully utilise entire roster.
4 --> This is give up.
5 --> It could then be a tipping point to introduce 5-Star basic arena (which should be good?)
Under what circumstances you have such a feeling that Kabam will introduce one more arena on permanent basis? I’d say pretty unlikely as there are pile up of things being laid down in Dev Diary are yet to be delivered.

Well, I guess the obstacle to a 5-Star basic arena is not to allow it even easier to farm battlechips and units.

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/1625838/#Comment_1625838

So, if the game developer is willing to risk given a different set of milestone rewards for the 5-Star basic, it could just happen.

Reference

Just to share OP with few things:
4. Other than catalysts, there is something called rank up gem. Have you completed those quests yet?
5. One minor point for non-arena players (but important to arena players): if everyone can rank up 5* to r2 easily, then the death matchup appearance in featured arena will gradually shift to 5*r2, meaning you need to r3 those 5* so as to fully utilise entire roster.
4 --> This is give up.
5 --> It could then be a tipping point to introduce 5-Star basic arena (which should be good?)
Under what circumstances you have such a feeling that Kabam will introduce one more arena on permanent basis? I’d say pretty unlikely as there are pile up of things being laid down in Dev Diary are yet to be delivered.
Well, I guess the obstacle to a 5-Star basic arena is not to allow it even easier to farm battlechips and units.

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/1625838/#Comment_1625838

So, if the game developer is willing to risk given a different set of milestone rewards for the 5-Star basic, it could just happen.

There is diverse opinions even in your quoted post. Whether Kabam will introduce a new Arena it is debatable but I don’t think it may happen in near future. Anyway Dev Team promised to reform the arena before yet nothing was mentioned in the recent update. Back to the topic, if they release the criteria for r2 5* then naturally we will see the likelihood of death match if you use 5*r2.

winterthur

Just to share OP with few things:
4. Other than catalysts, there is something called rank up gem. Have you completed those quests yet?
5. One minor point for non-arena players (but important to arena players): if everyone can rank up 5* to r2 easily, then the death matchup appearance in featured arena will gradually shift to 5*r2, meaning you need to r3 those 5* so as to fully utilise entire roster.
4 --> This is give up.
5 --> It could then be a tipping point to introduce 5-Star basic arena (which should be good?)
Under what circumstances you have such a feeling that Kabam will introduce one more arena on permanent basis? I’d say pretty unlikely as there are pile up of things being laid down in Dev Diary are yet to be delivered.
Well, I guess the obstacle to a 5-Star basic arena is not to allow it even easier to farm battlechips and units.

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/1625838/#Comment_1625838

So, if the game developer is willing to risk given a different set of milestone rewards for the 5-Star basic, it could just happen.
There is diverse opinions even in your quoted post. Whether Kabam will introduce a new Arena it is debatable but I don’t think it may happen in near future. Anyway Dev Team promised to reform the arena before yet nothing was mentioned in the recent update. Back to the topic, if they release the criteria for r2 5* then naturally we will see the likelihood of death match if you use 5*r2.

Yes, I can understand the concern of the "death matches" but if the game developer had "agreed" to allow a bug.,

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/1457842/#Comment_1457842

they could think of something for the 5-Star basic.

I meant they could even cap the highest 5-Star allowed at r2 if they want to.

DNA3000

5. One minor point for non-arena players (but important to arena players): if everyone can rank up 5* to r2 easily, then the death matchup appearance in featured arena will gradually shift to 5*r2, meaning you need to r3 those 5* so as to fully utilise entire roster.

I missed this the first time, but that's not how the deathmatches work. The reason why deathmatches show up at, say, R2 is not because there's not enough R2s, it is because there are too many R5s.

This is a vast oversimplification, but the details aren't as important here as the concept. Suppose you bring nothing but 5* r2s into the arena. What happens is this. Initially in round one the game says you should get an easy match, and it goes and finds some R1s for you to fight. But with each round you win, the game ratchets up the difficulty. By round 5 it finds R2s to send after you, and by round 10 its looking for R4s. And then at round 11 it wants to send R5s at you (as I said, I'm vastly oversimplifying, so these numbers are not accurate for the actual arena).

However, suppose there are no R5s for it to find, because no one has ranked them up yet? The game cannot find the match you're supposed to have. But instead of just crashing, the arena has a failsafe: if it cannot find a match up correctly, it just throws a computer generated team at you of equal strength. From your perspective you see harder and harder matchups, and then suddenly the matches get easier. You've achieved "infinite streak." At some point the game wants to send even stronger match ups at you than just three ranks higher, so even if you bring rank 1s it still cannot find any R5s to send to you. You can now bring even weaker champs than when you started. All because the game is looking for something it cannot find - champs high enough to be "correct" against your team when you have such a long streak count.

And then the players start ranking r5s. Now, suddenly the arena *can* find R5s to send after you. A team that was "infinite streak" capable yesterday because the game could not find an appropriate match up now suddenly gets a "death match" because the game can now find appropriate matches. The game wanted you to face champs +4 ranks higher and now they exist, so you get them.

The higher we rank the very top, the more the lower ranks generate "death matches." It has nothing to do with how many of those lower ranks we have. It has to do with whether we're creating champions high enough for the game to find. When we start making 6* rank 4s, if the arenas are still working as they are now the lowest teams that work for infinite streak will stop working, because the game will start finding "correct" match ups for them.