Let’s talk about the game.

@Kabam Miike I would like to talk about the state of the game, but more specifically in the aspect of alliances, Alliance Quests, and the ability of recruiting new members, or being able to retain people in alliances.

First, I’d like to start by saying I’ve been playing Contest of Champions for over 7 years straight now, since March 2015. I’ve seen the Contest undergo many changes in that time, with the addition of new game modes, changes to gameplay, features being added, etc. I would like to say thanks to the development team for some great QOL enhancements that have been recently added (although far, far later than we needed them), and Battlegrounds has been very fun!

One thing that is still far past needing an overhaul is Alliance Quests, specifically the aspect of the mechanics of how it works. I know the dev team has recently worked on overhauling some of the lower AQ maps to make them shorter and “easier” to complete, but my alliance runs Map 8x5 and being able to find / keep 30 people all working within the same or close timezones, and all able to join early / move often to keep the map movement “flowing” has still proven to be a difficult task, and as such AQ has become a dreaded chore everytime it’s getting ready to start back up.

Problems with keeping everyone organized and joining / moving (through outside communication platforms no less) and the frustrations of others when they’re stuck having to wait for the all the links on the miniboss / bosses to be cleared and open the next sections has resulted in the loss of several good alliance members either because they’re looking for a “faster” alliance or they’ve just lost all motivation to continue with a boring and tedious game mode taking up all their time, because when the links are down and the next section is finally open, then they have to stop what they’re doing in real life to jump on the game and make their movements so others aren’t stuck waiting again.

I remember taking a survey a short time (maybe 1.5 months ago), asking my preferences on how I would like to be able to run AQ. Is this the prelude to seeing some changes implemented to Alliance Quest to make it shorter / faster / less tedious?

We need something done, and we need it fast, otherwise (even more) longtime players will continue to “retire” making it even more difficult to recruit people for alliances in a already “thin market”.

Do you know how difficult it is to find (qualified) players wanting to join your alliance when you’re only Gold 1 (close to P4) Alliance War and AQ map 8x5 finishing Top 180? Let me tell you, it is HARD. At times it feels like the Contest is dying a slow and agonizing death, and there has been more focus on pumping out more and more “offers” just to suck as much money as you (Kabam) can before the final death knell.. I hope this is not actually the case.

Yes, I do realize that your dev team is most likely dealing with staffing issues, time constraints, and split focus between other projects, so we can’t just “get everything fixed” all at once, but specifically Alliance Quest has been a major source of player frustration for a long time now, and would just like to know if there’s some changes on the horizon that may keep players hopes up.

Comments

Greekhit

Replacing linked nodes with weaker ones or even remove at all some, so players can take fights linked, could be a good approach towards a more life friendly AQ mode.

Lorddrew

Recruitment is hell atm, I just made a post on suggestion on this..
We have core players from start of MCOC taking a break past few months, replacements can't keep up and our allience is in the first time dealing with high flow of players (started with 1-2 each cycle, this time around we are searching for 4 new players... and finding those 4 new.... my god it's a whole job)

Moosetiptronic

Are you running map 8 for the challenge?

If you've chunky prestige, you'd probably get 320m+ score from just map 5, have an easier life and still get top 1,700 for 1000 bonus glory and 4,400 total a week.

You get, presumably, 5,500 to 5,800 ish now; is that extra 1,400 worth it? Are the t6/t3 frags worth it?

If you're not at the top in AW, it does beg the question, why push so hard in AQ, if you don't need a battery of options for defence and attack? It could be that you are all eager to be way the bleeding edge in battlegrounds?

If not, this is a time sink game, hopefully used as a distraction and for some fun. It may be that map 8 is just not worth it, when considered properly.

GasHauler

Are you running map 8 for the challenge?

If you've chunky prestige, you'd probably get 320m+ score from just map 5, have an easier life and still get top 1,700 for 1000 bonus glory and 4,400 total a week.

You get, presumably, 5,500 to 5,800 ish now; is that extra 1,400 worth it? Are the t6/t3 frags worth it?

If you're not at the top in AW, it does beg the question, why push so hard in AQ, if you don't need a battery of options for defence and attack? It could be that you are all eager to be way the bleeding edge in battlegrounds?

If not, this is a time sink game, hopefully used as a distraction and for some fun. It may be that map 8 is just not worth it, when considered properly.

For perspective, my alliance just switched from Map 6x5 straight to 8x5 because it offered better resources, but also to try and make it easier to find replacement recruits for people that we had leaving at the time, which ties in with my original post.

And yes, part of my whole point of the post was that this game has become one big time-sink, and seems more focused on us buying “offers”.

Mauled

A 3 day AQ cycle would be a marvellous improvement but I think one of the things that’d probably be best received is slashing or removing the entry costs of AQ. Map 7 and especially 8 cost a real fortune.

GasHauler

This just one example of what I’m talking about, people getting tired, bored, frustrated with things and taking a break / retiring / cutting back. This is one of my alliance members.

Fit_Fun9329

I almost stopped reading when you immediately linked miike but hell you summarized very well. When Kabam zero started to implement QOL changes, I had the first time the impression that someone at kabam understand the needs of the playerbase. AQ comes directly out of the Stone Age.. it’s like they know but are not brave enough to do the overhaul.

FiiNCH

I think this is a well summarised post. It’s been an age since we had the last roadmap update, I hope during the next one we get a good understanding of their strategy for AQ moving forwards.

GasHauler

I almost stopped reading when you immediately linked miike but hell you summarized very well. When Kabam zero started to implement QOL changes, I had the first time the impression that someone at kabam understand the needs of the playerbase. AQ comes directly out of the Stone Age.. it’s like they know but are not brave enough to do the overhaul.

Thanks! I only tagged Miike because his was the first that popped up, and wasn’t sure in what capacity the others were involved, and some others didn’t come up in the tag list.

Krishna24

This just one example of what I’m talking about, people getting tired, bored, frustrated with things and taking a break / retiring / cutting back. This is one of my alliance members.

Add me to that list, staying away from game till it's fixed and few more of our ally mates did the same

Worknprogress

One of the major issues with AQ ever since map 6 was introduced was the necessity of having 10 available people per BG every single day. People can't even take vacations or have real life situations come up where they aren't available for a few days without having to leave an alliance and/or screw people over for a week. Lots of people are just fed up with the feeling of needing to be constantly tethered to the game.

Ironside47

Personally, I’d like to see AQ cut to 3 days, and always be Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday. It might be just me and my alliance, but the weekends are a bad time for participation; especially this time of year when people are out and about.

TheLightBringer

I was in AQ map7 alliance for a while and seriously couldn't take it anymore, I have to login while being on date or with friends or even at work, just to do my path at a specific time, I don't mind logging in daily but why does it have to be on a specific time, why can't I just do it when I have a free time on ny day, I'm playing map5 because it has the minimum amount of freedom a person can have in AQ

Lovejoy72

Interesting post. I only run an alliance of my alts, and play maybe 1-2 days of AQ to get just enough glory to keep things moving. Taters alliance (mentioned above) has gotten a lot of attention for player innovation, eliminating huge work/life struggles.

I did play in a full alliance that tried to progress the first couple years. I never could quite figure out the way to simultaneously make the challenge of an alliance and that sort of gameplay a functional part of the game for me. And I’m not smart enough to understand what changes need to be made to continue to make alliance play valuable while still being life friendly. But I do certainly hope they figure it out for you guys!

GrandOldKai

I recently started playing AQ again just to build up some Glory...

But I have to say that even though I'm only doing map 1 it rapidly gets monotonous

What could be done to make it less... monotonous?

Rap

I have several 7 year players in my alliance. Me included. It is not difficult to fill an alliance. Time zones are not even a real issue.
The issue is players trying to park a 2nd or 3rd or whatever number extra account in an alliance where they think they can collect some stuff without effort.
Then there are farm accounts which are not being acknowledged as an issue.
There are actors out there who have found a way to basically machine farm accounts
By running mods and bots. And use that process at the very least for profit at the worst to launder dirty money.
They are also one reason why players do not stay! When a vlogger reports on arena bots and battleground cheaters, and you are a new player trying to build a roster, it takes away a desire to play because you cannot win.
As for was and aqs! It is going to remain a challenge as long as new players more and more quickly that the deck is stacked entirely against them 1 by Kabam and 2 by cheaters.
Who wants to throw all they got in a war where some alliance full of cheaters can just switch on and switch off a mod to win?

Sundance_2099

I only do map 1 for the glory and a t4b each time (I'm playing solo and do 3 fights each day and finish in the ~20,000 range with enough frags for 1 t4b.) and that's tedious.

Qwerty12345

have AQ maps only require 9 people so if one person has an emergency / they can be backfilled would help a lot.

Alternately, Allow alliances to go up to say 32 people, so alliances let people have lives every now and not have to decide whether they are going to risk connection stability to do alliance content while say flying on a plane.

Lpoo

Our relatively strong alliance didn’t finish a map 5 quest yesterday in AQ. It started on a Saturday and finished on a Sunday. If the game is working and people are invested, that’s still a terrible setup for a game mode. Add in the burnout of the current state of the game, and we had 5 people try to finish an AQ map

Jestuh

Recruiting is hell because the inputs are so jacked. No one wants to play a broken game.

After over a year of “being patient” and waiting for the “big compensation” package, there’s little enjoyment left in this game and little reason to keep playing.

Almost everyone I’ve ever played with over the last 5 years has quit out of frustration and boredom.

mgj0630

Personally, I'd like to see AQ rewards be tied to individual member participation.

Our alliance runs maps 5/4/4, and nets us all 4000-4100 glory per week.

It's all well and good, as none of us are seeking to be in the end-game prestige race, but it's also incredibly annoying to not 100% map due to lack of participation, and see that the very members who didn't join AQ have been online questing and requesting energy help.

There's no sense booting these members for the aforementioned recruiting challenges.

So yeah, that's all I care about being changed at our level. If you don't play, you don't get the alliance's rewards. Join one day, you get 20% of the week's rewards, etc.

Ironside47

Agree with @mgj0630

Rewards should be relative to participation to some degree. We have a simple rule: if you join you fight. So we get people join AQ and have one fight. It’s almost like giving us the finger. I’m sick of kicking people.

Bugmat78

I'm definitely not a fan of the 5-day AQ cycle as it's part of the reason it feels like a slog/second job (but my job is better as I can take time off).

The only dopamine rush I get from the game mode is when day 5 finishes and I don't use any items. We've been map 8 in my BG since it was introduced (with other BGs alternating between 8,7 & 6) but we decided to all go to map 7 and lower this cycle due to the costs (entry, pots, revives etc) and stress (in addition to AW).

Demonzfyre

Personally, I'd like to see AQ rewards be tied to individual member participation.

Our alliance runs maps 5/4/4, and nets us all 4000-4100 glory per week.

It's all well and good, as none of us are seeking to be in the end-game prestige race, but it's also incredibly annoying to not 100% map due to lack of participation, and see that the very members who didn't join AQ have been online questing and requesting energy help.

There's no sense booting these members for the aforementioned recruiting challenges.

So yeah, that's all I care about being changed at our level. If you don't play, you don't get the alliance's rewards. Join one day, you get 20% of the week's rewards, etc.

Terrible idea. You'd have everyone fighting over wanting the best lanes for the most points. Some people can't bring counters for minis or bosses either.

mgj0630

Personally, I'd like to see AQ rewards be tied to individual member participation.

Our alliance runs maps 5/4/4, and nets us all 4000-4100 glory per week.

It's all well and good, as none of us are seeking to be in the end-game prestige race, but it's also incredibly annoying to not 100% map due to lack of participation, and see that the very members who didn't join AQ have been online questing and requesting energy help.

There's no sense booting these members for the aforementioned recruiting challenges.

So yeah, that's all I care about being changed at our level. If you don't play, you don't get the alliance's rewards. Join one day, you get 20% of the week's rewards, etc.
Terrible idea. You'd have everyone fighting over wanting the best lanes for the most points. Some people can't bring counters for minis or bosses either.

I don't disagree with that, but it's why I'm not suggesting it be tied to an individual's points in AQ. Simply to participation.

Did you join? Yes, get rewards. No, get prorated rewards for the day(s) you didn't.

Of course that could still be abused by simply joining and not fighting, but if someone has the audacity to do that routinely, it's an easy boot decision.

TimeGenesis

I agree in a way that AQ is monotonous and doing 5 days and hitting on a weekend is painful.
But question is, how would you make it less so?

This is my personal preference, I would prefer if it was 4 days and only on weekdays.
Maybe have 8 lanes with just 1 Boss, 1 section (longer lanes to balance it out). Boss have a big health pool that cam be 'boss rushed' at the end be it by 1 person or multiple players taking the health down

J0eySn0w

One of the major issues with AQ ever since map 6 was introduced was the necessity of having 10 available people per BG every single day. People can't even take vacations or have real life situations come up where they aren't available for a few days without having to leave an alliance and/or screw people over for a week. Lots of people are just fed up with the feeling of needing to be constantly tethered to the game.

So true, it’s funny because most people download and play the game to take a little break from real life as turned to (maybe has always been) one that people take break from to be fully engaged in real life. It has or has the potential to take up a significant portion of the person’s life both monetary and time consumption.

TrapKill66

Hi,

So, I am no great AQ warrior, but just to add in my own experience of AQ:
I play Map 1, me and, if I get distracted during the day, my alts, and I get about a thousand glory a week, and I look forward to doing AQ and getting Glory, because it's so simple.
There is no challenge whatsoever, but so many other aspects of this game challenge me, I like getting Glory easily. (I'm an arena addict)
Until recently I used some of my former 4 star allstar team that got me Uncollected, mostly for nostalgia. Now I run Rank 5 5 stars to make the fights go quicker.
I have often thought of joining a serious alliance and getting several thousand Glory a week, but the game MUST be fun for me, or I won't play. What I'm reading on here seems kinda stressful and 'unfun'.
Sorry to jump in on a post that doesn't really involve me, but even trying Map 2 backed up by a couple of leveled alt accounts was too much of a hassle solo...

I totally agree AQ needs an overhaul for keen and serious alliances.
My main complaint is every week it occurs on slightly different days.
Seems like 5 quests should occur on the same 5 days a week each week. Not sure why it doesn't. Mon to Fri makes sense to me. But I guess somehow an alliance could be able to set the time it kicks off? And then maybe comparative payouts would happen at a slightly later date, once all were done?
Linked nodes will always require 'collaboration' of some sort, but a way forward is needed for y'all serious AQ peeps.

Maybe different maps for different alliances, so relying on linked nodes to be removed is less necessary, and Glory payouts are different in some way?

I don't know, something needs to be done.

Good luck,
TrapKill

Badrose

Great improvement would be not to have AW/AQ during Saturday and Sunday.

Gambler1120

We talking about practice….

We’re not talking about the game!!