Alliance Quest Miniboss and Sentinel Refresh - April 2018 - Discussion Thread [Updated April 13]

Summoners,

We've just announced a small refresh of Alliance Quests that will start April 2nd. This will include new Minibosses, and a farewell to our Symbioid friends!

Read all about it, then ask your questions!

UPDATE:
We've just posted an update in regards to your feedback on Alliance Quests. This post includes some adjustments to Sentinels and Alliance Quests that will be coming with the next series (Starting April 18th). Take a look right here: http://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/62626/upcoming-adjustments-to-alliance-quests-april-18th-2018

Comments

Jbwilde

This is the second worst thing you’ve ever done. Patch 12.0’s original release before you fixed things and compensated us being the worst. I don’t even want to play AQ right now takes way too long my whole alliance is burning out. Do something. At least make it free for a couple weeks.

Ripper4566789

@Kabam Miike AQ is Garbage. Ppl I've played the game with for years are stepping down or quiting the game. I refuse to spend money on this trash you have created with AQ.

Syndicated

Keep the sentinels, but nerf them, the playable sentinel is a trash in comparison, we don't need heal Block or power drain when you are in cover.

Bosley

As a 3yr+ player with almost a 700K rating, I'm quitting after this round of AQ cause of KABAMs nonsense. No more money from me suckers!!

Maklerka

Pure bs.... now we can't use bleed champs, deep wounds became worthless. There goes our time efforts and resources with the wind... again.
You nerfed champs to made the game more versatile... what about now.... we can't use most of our champs.
Great thinking, thank you!

Bosley

Also no moderator response in over 2 weeks is just pathetic. I'd even if erase my forum account (if I could).

Spart3n

Stop testing the changes on us. Roll back the sentinels and test again, this change is garbage. If you don't fix it soon.. well I guess I don''t care.. but my wallet is closed until it gets fixed.

kbean3

The sentinels were created for extinction of mutantdom
it seems it will bring down about 70 or more percent of low to medium/high average players of mcoc as well
whales will be fine, the rest will be scalped and be marked as exterminated, maimed, mutilated, captured and killed
very much in line with the days of future past story line

unknown

This content has been removed.

Grønner

Plat2 player here, 1-2 deaths in all of season 1, have done 5 x 6 before, but I had to use items on day4 in map5. I mean wtf?! Get rid of this **** please, or increase the rewards.

MavRCK_

unavoidable damage - unavoidable abilities - unavoidable mechanics -- pls fix... and increase the gold a little pls

Thawnim

I have less and less of an issue with the Sentinels, but what really bugs me is the constant instability of the game. It crashes a lot all of a sudden. Not sure why, but it definitely does not make me happy when coupled with matches that are already harder.

unknown

This content has been removed.

GroundedWisdom

NinjaiX wrote: »

The sentinels are clearly a cash grab because obviously Kabam don't generate enough money from us!

Miike's comment about them not being ready to make changes to rewards system does not seem very believable as they can clearly makes changes to the difficulty whenever they feel like. i.e. replacing Symboids with Sentinels can't be much different from change rewards x to rewards y, if anything it would be easier! And the content is more difficult because you can only use certain champs. Unlike the symboids you can use any class and still be able to get through. Now you have to be very picky with your champs otherwise you will get wasted, timed out etc. @Kabam Miike if you honestly think the content is not harder then I really would like to see fight a skill or mystik sentinel on day 5 with over 9k prestige. Show and prove to the community that the sentinels are not harder than a symboid and we will accept that we need to get better.

For too long know we have been treated like we don't matter and this takes the biscuit!

Get your house in order Kabam, and think of the end users for once!

End Users should be able to get past Sentinels. I'm by no means Top Tier and I'm adjusted fairly well.

legendsargon

Everybody I know will be wiped out of sentinel

Sgu

Well after playing for 2 and half years I am quiting after this quest. I could do 5x5 before with out using any heals now day 4 killed in the second stage. The sentinels are the worst thing since patch 12 and for me was the final straw.

Chickenmilker

The sentinels are a more difficult/annoying fight than any of the feature champs. KaScam is at it again. Too bad there isn’t a half star rating...

DNA3000

Ace_03 wrote: »

This company is lucky, it has the most privileged I.P in pop culture and possibly gaming as a whole. Other than that, it seems none of the developers learned from the atrocity of 12.0. It's ironic, you tried to sell 12.0 as for the good of the game, for the health of the contest.

Sometimes I feel like you gave this game a terminal illness and since then you've just tried to mitigate the symptoms.

Regardless of the nerfs or the necessity of them, the game just hasn't been running the same ever since 12.0 and the difficulty never matches the rewards, if you are going to do something, do it right, not halfway and botched, like you always do... Don't spend or promote this game.

In some ways, this change is worse than 12.0. In terms of its actual impact on the game, its not a large change and players by in large will eventually adjust to the AQ change quicker and better than the changes introduced in 12.0. And I don't think there will actually be any mass protests over the Sentinels. But there is one important way in which I think the AQ change is a bigger problem. It makes players hate alliance events.

MMOs like this specifically encourage and incentivize player groups like alliances (guilds, groups, etc) because they promote engagement and player retention. The only reason alliances exist at all is because letting players group together in small groups where everyone knows everyone else and they can cooperatively work together on in-game tasks that are highly incentivized with great rewards in general makes people want to play more, and makes it less likely players will leave the game. That's why you incentivize alliance content. Its a direct tool to hold on to players. Every game developer knows this, or is supposed to know this. The one thing you don't want to do is add even a *tiny* amount of bad blood to alliance content that isn't necessary.

Sometimes it is necessary. But the Sentinels were not necessary. They serve no stated objective that has a higher priority than maintaining the engagement bonus of having alliance content in the first place. If even one player quits or is disengaged from the game because of this change, that's an unforced error. But more importantly, it probably suggests that a much wider swath of players just got engaged a little bit less.

12.0 made people angry at Kabam, and it made people quit. But it did not change the game in a way that made it harder to retain the players that were left. This change does, and it might have a measurable effect or it might not. But the long term damage to the game could be much more substantial than 12.0 was, because it plants a seed in players' minds that alliances are not about keeping people around, they are about pushing the unworthy aside. Someone should be making Powerpoint slides right now for a presentation at the next GDC called "why you should never do this." It is that obvious to me.

kbean3

This roll out is another way of Kabam telling us one way or another that AQ is not profitable for them, in fact they may have been losing money running AQ the way it had been running because people were not dying enough, people were not reviving enough, people were getting rewards and glory consistently week in and week out. Revenue was not being generated for the amount of server use AQ was using up. (At least that's my theory of what the company is thinking). Roll out the sentinels -- with one edit -- they suddenly staunch the money hemorrhage on their end and suddenly everyone realizes AQ cannot be won without cost. Apart from the weekly donations, people actually have to buy revives and a **** load of boosts and potions now just to keep going. Maybe a massive withdrawal is a strategic plan for Kabam in the first place, this is not too far fetched. If AQ is getting expensive for them to run they would rather sacrifice it. I think it is a terrible mistake and they have upset so many customers. It is a PR nightmare and no well run company would ever think of doing this sophomoric attempt at nickel and diming the loyal customers.

unknown

This content has been removed.

Speeds80

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

End Users should be able to get past Sentinels. I'm by no means Top Tier and I'm adjusted fairly well.

But like most of the people complaining here gw, you don’t run 5x5 it’s basically the mid rangers/anyone that runs mostly map 5s that this affects the most, map 3 you have lane backup and fight half the amount of sentinels each in the long run,

I think the overall feeling has drowned out you ‘shut up and get good’ kabam sympathisers

as DNA has just said its the alliances that are getting hit here, (and tbh my roster of god tier 4/55s is scraping me through with minimum items, but the up and comings that have been keeping up in 5x5 alliances without developed rosters, (and a solid income source to kabam) now are dragging weight or being asked to spend ungraciously, there is a lot of alliance damage being seen here, the strong alliance bond is what’s kept most of the spenders in my alliance for so long, we are going to run 55553 or 55533 for a while until we resettle but even doing that is risking losing the people who could be doing more and even this week we failed several map 5s, more unsettlement,

Don’t get me wrong this game is amazing how much they keep the game reasonably balanced with so much new materials, but they should have learned by now it relies so much on fine tuning and gentle tweaks, clearly this was far from that

ItsTheBroski

To me the Sentinels in AQ are just making it way harder for everyone who aren't whales (end game players) to progress in the game and grow. 95% of the alliances running map 5 are now having a much more difficult time running Map 5. The small percentage of guys that can in fact deal with this change are effected by the everyone else in the alliance who can't (obviously for the Alliances playing Map 2-4, it's just worse). Not 100%ing AQ means less Catalysts, and less Catalysts means there's a huge bump on the progression of the MAJORITY OF PLAYERS. Only a fraction of the Alliances can actually afford to play Map 6 but those Alliances have players whom have maxed out 5*s and ranked up 6*s to play Map 5-6 like a piece of cake. As a result I have seen many people decide to stop playing this game and call it quits.

The fact that you as a company is aware of all this and chose to not even bump up the rewards just a notch is very disappointing. That just shows that ALL you care about is money. I for one thought you were better than this.

YSB

Kabam Miike wrote: »

\

Ascoop24 wrote: »

Kabam Miike wrote: »

420sam wrote: »

So, you are making it more difficult yet not adjusting anything like rewards or even glory? Can I ask why? How does this benefit the players?

As we said in that post, we are working on a full refresh. We are not at a place or time where we can increase the rewards or fully refresh the mode right now.

If you aren't at a place or time to refresh the rewards then you shouldn't be at a place or time to refresh the difficulty. One should not go without the other. This is a great example of pure laziness

But how are you so sure that the difficulty has gotten worse?

Granted, Bleed and Poison champions may not be as effective in Alliance Quests as they were before, but Sentinels melt at the power of a Armor Break Champion, and a lot of the new Mini-Bosses have very common counters!

So we were all right. You made AQ rediculously hard. It’s not even fun anymore. I went from spending 2 potions a month in AQ to spending st least 20 this week and we just started day 5. I’ve got multiple long term members who are talking about it being time to quit the game. This is a money grab move. The sentenals are far too over powered and they are awkward as hell. When they were in other quests they were fine, but you’ve made them horrible for AQ.

My opinion, you’re all making map 5 so hard and costly to push people to map 6. Map 6 is easier than map 5 now. And it costs a lot more to run and pays nothing back, therefore people will have to grind more to be able to afford it.

You were finally taking some steps forward in this game with war season, new quests, another boss rush, etc. But then you made the staple, AQ, so hard it’s not even fun. It’s a chore now. I’m all for upping the difficulty a little bit, but what you all did ruined AQ. We are thinking of saying screw it and just running map 3 now. We’ve already told everyone to stop spending all money. It’s not worth it.

unknown

This content has been removed.

DNA3000

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

NinjaiX wrote: »

The sentinels are clearly a cash grab because obviously Kabam don't generate enough money from us!

Miike's comment about them not being ready to make changes to rewards system does not seem very believable as they can clearly makes changes to the difficulty whenever they feel like. i.e. replacing Symboids with Sentinels can't be much different from change rewards x to rewards y, if anything it would be easier! And the content is more difficult because you can only use certain champs. Unlike the symboids you can use any class and still be able to get through. Now you have to be very picky with your champs otherwise you will get wasted, timed out etc. @Kabam Miike if you honestly think the content is not harder then I really would like to see fight a skill or mystik sentinel on day 5 with over 9k prestige. Show and prove to the community that the sentinels are not harder than a symboid and we will accept that we need to get better.

For too long know we have been treated like we don't matter and this takes the biscuit!

Get your house in order Kabam, and think of the end users for once!

End Users should be able to get past Sentinels. I'm by no means Top Tier and I'm adjusted fairly well.

On day five, I'm going to be fighting 11.5k Skill sentinels in the immunity path of stage two. I haven't actually failed a path in AQ yet ( although I did get killed by the stage two Nightcrawler on day four because a link was still up) but I'm burning through alliance potions to keep up. Maybe you've adjusted well because you're an order of magnitude better player than I am, or maybe you've adjusted well because you're fighting Sentinels several thousand PI lower than me.

RagamugginGunner

I've had zero issues fighting these robots and I still hate the change. They are just annoying to fight and the last thing any entertainment company should do is add a feature that annoyed their customers.

Not to mention the mods blatantly lying to our faces like we're children who don't know what is and isn't hard content or that they don't have time to increase the rewards. It would literally take a programmer 45 seconds to change the glory rewards. I used to work for a major online poker company and the difference between a tournament paying $100 and $1000 was me clicking "Edit", adding or subtracting a "0" and hitting "Submit". This can't be much different.

SnakeEyes69

I find it funny the mods close & delete Sentinel threads and direct them here. Yet where are they to answer some of these questions? CRICKETS!!!! They don't give a shat. Pure $$$$$ grab. I was barely if ever using any potions or revives in AQ 5x5 now most of my stash is gone. GREEDY FACKS!!!

unknown

This content has been removed.

YSB

Instead of Kabam spending weeks “trying to find a way to fix this for us” while we spend every resource we have, I’ll do the work for them.

Here is how you fix AQ

1. Shut off sentinels awakened ability. Their ability basically gives them class advantage over any champ that doesn’t have class advantage over them. Turn it off for now so people have time to rank different champs.
2. Increase their things needed. I can’t remember what they are called. But right now at 20 their abilities work through block and at 40 their specials become unblockable. Make those numbers 40 and 60.
3. Let the points earned reflect the increase in difficulty. Maybe it’ll push some alliances into the next milestone and they’ll feel good that you gave them something.

That’s it. That will make AQ harder than it was, but not so rediculous that it’s not even fun. It’ll prevent people from quitting and this is all stuff you should be able to implement before the start of the next AQ on Tuesday.

You’re welcome. Glad I could solve the problem for you. Feel free to send me an Odins for my trouble.

BitterSteel

DNA3000 wrote: »

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

NinjaiX wrote: »

The sentinels are clearly a cash grab because obviously Kabam don't generate enough money from us!

Miike's comment about them not being ready to make changes to rewards system does not seem very believable as they can clearly makes changes to the difficulty whenever they feel like. i.e. replacing Symboids with Sentinels can't be much different from change rewards x to rewards y, if anything it would be easier! And the content is more difficult because you can only use certain champs. Unlike the symboids you can use any class and still be able to get through. Now you have to be very picky with your champs otherwise you will get wasted, timed out etc. @Kabam Miike if you honestly think the content is not harder then I really would like to see fight a skill or mystik sentinel on day 5 with over 9k prestige. Show and prove to the community that the sentinels are not harder than a symboid and we will accept that we need to get better.

For too long know we have been treated like we don't matter and this takes the biscuit!

Get your house in order Kabam, and think of the end users for once!

End Users should be able to get past Sentinels. I'm by no means Top Tier and I'm adjusted fairly well.

On day five, I'm going to be fighting 11.5k Skill sentinels in the immunity path of stage two. I haven't actually failed a path in AQ yet ( although I did get killed by the stage two Nightcrawler on day four because a link was still up) but I'm burning through alliance potions to keep up. Maybe you've adjusted well because you're an order of magnitude better player than I am, or maybe you've adjusted well because you're fighting Sentinels several thousand PI lower than me.

Careful, you don’t want to be account shaming him now do you? If grounded wisdom can get past sentinels and adjust well then that is the truth because someones experience in the game can’t de-value their opinion.