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

Kryptic81

Hey Kabam how bout you give us a break on the cost to run the maps!

Tonedef

Sentinels need to be DPS’d to death! My R4 5* Angela does as good or better than my max sig Thor and duped 4* R5 Medusa. Esspecially vs the skill sentinels. GR has been slaying everything today! He’s the new AQ God imo. Breaking up my 4* holy trinity for war is a sore spot for me though.

MarzGroove

DNA3000 wrote: »

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.

My Day 5 has 12K Skill Sentinels on the debuff immune path that I usually take. I've died in Section 2 each day except today where I died in Section 1, and my alliance as a whole has only 100% one day so far. Now, I don't care about dying or not getting 100% each day, but I do want to have fun, and so far, this change is just a PITA.

DNA3000

Kryptic81 wrote: »

Hey Kabam how bout you give us a break on the cost to run the maps!

While some players might appreciate that, I don't think that would make any difference to the majority of the players unhappy about the change. The gold, battlechips, and loyalty I'm donating to run Map 5 is a pittance compared to the cost of potions to "adjust" to the change, and frankly you could reverse the cost of maps and actually pay the players to play them and it wouldn't change my opinion at all.

If you're using potions in any quantity the cost of those in units or loyalty is probably an order of magnitude or more higher than the individual map costs. Refunding the cost of the maps would be about as helpful as reducing the energy timers.

Farwey

Seems kabam dosent care about the players

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Legendsend

The problem is and some ppl will agree and others won't but it's obvious ppl don't know what a business is. Ppl are saying it's their game and they'll do what they want and blah blah about business... I want to know what business they have... I have one... The purpose is to keep the clients HAPPY... I'm forced to keep BLUE cross blue shield, humana, Aetna, E-health and other clients happy... Your clients are your business and right now Kabam is failing it's clients

MarzGroove

Farwey wrote: »

Seems kabam dosent care about the players

I think they care about the players very much. Kabam is made up of people just like you and me who enjoy creating something folks share and enjoy.

As to why this has touched a nerve might have something to do with the AW season just ending and folks being worn out from the grind.

Northwestbrosef

I never changed my 1 star review after 12.0. only a matter of time before it happened again. Gotta give em credit, it took longer than I expected.

kbean3

While a significant portion of their income may come from the biggest players, there's a not insignificant revenue stream that comes from players that's willing to purchase 4.99, 9.99 and 29.99 offers that pop up however frequently or infrequently. When 32 pages of clients are willing to voice how upset they are and you've lost that business, multiplied by how many more out there who are so upset they can't even say publicly what they feel as it is censored, it is easy to see how many millions of dollars kabam will be losing very soon. AQ correction pain is like thorns node. They hurt us and we will hurt them back with our choice not to spend any more money until things are made right for customers

GroundedWisdom

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.

I've adjusted pretty well, yes. Some have not. I'm not saying everyone needs to "Git Gud.". I'm speaking to the statement that End-Game Users are suffering. If someone is rocking content like Uncollected and LOL, and they can't get past a Sentinel, something is amiss.
It's been the first week and they will obviously have to let this Round run its course. As for whether they will adjust it or not, I cannot say. They're not likely going to stop at this moment and adjust it. I suspect they will look at the data and not just the emotionally-charged comments. I'm just pointing out the fact that the dramatics are a bit off-scale.

[Deleted User]

Hey everyone! Wanted to drop in and let you know that we are paying close attention to everyone's feedback about the new changes to Alliance Quests. We understand that these updates have caused a shakeup to Summoner’s existing strategies and rosters. As we've noted previously, although our intention was not to explicitly increase the difficulty of the new Sentinel fights compared with the previous Symbioid encounters, we understand that the new abilities and immunities they possess require a pretty sizable change in approach, or outright prevent some older strategies.

The Game Team is keeping a close eye on the data behind the scenes to get a complete picture of how these changes have affected players across all tiers of the game. This information goes hand in hand with the important feedback everyone has given here on the forums and will help us as we move forward. Please be patient as we review this round of Alliance Quest data and determine where action may be needed.

And, as always, please be mindful of the forum rules when posting. We want to hear your feedback and criticism, but it must be provided in a clear, constructive way.

Thank you for your passion!

BigDaddyJoe

The fact that Kabam has the notion of thinking sentinels were not more difficult than the previous symbiods is mind boggling

BigDaddyJoe

Glad there’s been an update 😂

Tonedef

It’s a Festivus miracle! Kabam speaks 👌
I see two options. Neither are ideal as this is a “stuck between a rock and a hard place” situation.
Revert back to the old AQ until you are ready to release the new season. Reimbursement of units and potions could be viewed by the community as an act of good faith and could go a long way in convincing us that you didn’t make AQ substantially harder just to make a quick buck.
Leave it as it is. Increase rewards. If you bumped up fragment amounts by 10-20% and added a new “greater” gold crystal to map 5 crystals with a reasonable drop rate you would hear 0 complaints! The Sentinels aren’t as hard to beat as I first thought, but symbioids were a walk in the park in comparison to them.

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[Deleted User]

khehmist wrote: »

My interpretation of this is that “We’re looking to see if people are actually quitting the game or reducing purchase rates. If they are, we’ll figure out how little we need to change to keep our revenues up.”

How close was I Adora?

Not at all close, but you don't know me, are feeling frustrated about something you don't like happening to a game you want to really enjoy, and don't want to take my words at face value. I understand all of that. It makes me a bit sad, but I get it. The team will continue to look at both data and player feedback to make an informed step forward.

I hope you have a good evening, regardless

If you have more specific thoughts about an improvement you'd like to see to address your main frustrations with the changes, feel free to add them. If you've already posted those, thank you!

Kpatrix

Why are the sentinels awarding less points than the.symbioids were ? They should be awarding points that scale just like all the regular champs do. Instead, they cap out at less than 52k on day 5 when the champs in crystals are over 60k.

Without a doubt they are more difficult, they can do back to back L2 and L1 and with their analysis charges they can become unblockable on their specials. They should give the same points as a regular sentinel would which would fall between the highest point non boss nodes and the lowest point non boss node.

There shouldn't be a 12k point difference on day 5 between Dr Voodoo and a mystic sentinel, especially when the sentinel is a harder fight. We should see our total scores increasing, not decreasing. I really thought the addition would put guys scoring 124m up above the 125m milestone, not further away.

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Thestoryteller6

Ad0ra_ wrote: »

Hey everyone! Wanted to drop in and let you know that we are paying close attention to everyone's feedback about the new changes to Alliance Quests. We understand that these updates have caused a shakeup to Summoner’s existing strategies and rosters. As we've noted previously, although our intention was not to explicitly increase the difficulty of the new Sentinel fights compared with the previous Symbioid encounters, we understand that the new abilities and immunities they possess require a pretty sizable change in approach, or outright prevent some older strategies.

The Game Team is keeping a close eye on the data behind the scenes to get a complete picture of how these changes have affected players across all tiers of the game. This information goes hand in hand with the important feedback everyone has given here on the forums and will help us as we move forward. Please be patient as we review this round of Alliance Quest data and determine where action may be needed.

And, as always, please be mindful of the forum rules when posting. We want to hear your feedback and criticism, but it must be provided in a clear, constructive way.

Thank you for your passion!

I don't mean to target you specifically, I understand your role in the company. However, whoever it was who thought the sentinels and new minibosses wouldn't be any harder, just different, was delusional.

Why do we have poison and bleed immune nodes in quests and war? To make that node harder, right? Sentinels are bleed and poison immune. Therefore, they're harder than the symbioids, that are not.

Why do we have unblockable special nodes in quests and war? To make that node harder, right? Sentinels get unblockable specials. Therefore, they are harder than the symbioids, that are not.

Why is nightcrawler a more popular defender choice in war compared to rhino? Because he's harder to fight, right? Well, nightcrawler is now a miniboss. Therefore, the difficulty level has increased.

It doesn't matter whether some people can handle it or not. The fact is, the difficulty level has increased. The fact that the company couldn't see it before is stupid, the fact that it still refuses to acknowledge it is pathetic.

AQ is even less fun than it used to be. I don't want to play it anymore. Even if the rewards were doubled, it would be like doing a job I hated for the money, and why would I want to do that when the game is supposed to help me relax?

DNA3000

Ad0ra_ wrote: »

As we've noted previously, although our intention was not to explicitly increase the difficulty of the new Sentinel fights compared with the previous Symbioid encounters, we understand that the new abilities and immunities they possess require a pretty sizable change in approach, or outright prevent some older strategies.

I'm rather stunned by this passage because it continues to imply that Kabam believes the Sentinels are not intrinsically harder, they just require a different skill set. That's like saying the Collector is not more difficult than a Symbiod, the Collector just requires a different skill set to defeat. It makes the entire notion of "difficulty" a meaningless concept. I'm not sure how to have a rational conversation around the difficulty problems surrounding the AQ changes, if by the time we agree upon a reasonable definition of the word "difficulty" it will be our grandchildren taking over the debate.

Yarah_Dahile

Ad0ra_ wrote: »

khehmist wrote: »

My interpretation of this is that “We’re looking to see if people are actually quitting the game or reducing purchase rates. If they are, we’ll figure out how little we need to change to keep our revenues up.”

How close was I Adora?

Not at all close, but you don't know me, are feeling frustrated about something you don't like happening to a game you want to really enjoy, and don't want to take my words at face value. I understand all of that. It makes me a bit sad, but I get it. The team will continue to look at both data and player feedback to make an informed step forward.

I hope you have a good evening, regardless If you have more specific thoughts about an improvement you'd like to see to address your main frustrations with the changes, feel free to add them. If you've already posted those, thank you!

Thanks Ad0ra_

We all appreciate that it’s been taken notice of by a response. I think we all were worried that we were being ignored or put in the whingers bin. Hehe

Has impacted a lot greater than anticipated. I think we all prefer that it waited until a full refresh. Love the idea of fighting sentinels. But geez!!

Hope you and the team have a great weekend and hopefully something is in place soon.

Yarah_Dahile

Just to add - I think tone down the analysis charges. Maybe bump it up to 30 or 40.

Oh and the nullify on mystic sentinels, don’t allow them to nullify abilities from a block unless it’s from a special which is unblockable. I have been getting nullified when blocking basic attacks.

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Ruhengeri

@Kabam Miike Parry is broken and dash back is bugged. Why not focus on fixing what’s broken first before adding more difficulty to the game?? The New change to AQ is 100% unfair to us loyal players. Especially since rewards weren’t updated.

Repto23

[/quote]

Not at all close, but you don't know me, are feeling frustrated about something you don't like happening to a game you want to really enjoy, and don't want to take my words at face value. I understand all of that. It makes me a bit sad, but I get it. The team will continue to look at both data and player feedback to make an informed step forward.

I hope you have a good evening, regardless

If you have more specific thoughts about an improvement you'd like to see to address your main frustrations with the changes, feel free to add them. If you've already posted those, thank you! [/quote]

First thank you @Ad0ra_ for answering our concerns in some way. I know it's not your fault and unfortunately you have to deal with us 😅
BUT
An improvement I'd like to see is champion abilities working proporly. Mainly Nebula should be disabling all Sentinel abilities once she is above 8 or so Electro charges since they are robots. However they still gain analysis charges and active incinerate, power drain or unblockable specials. Same with Medusa, her Armor shatter should be stoping the charges building up like they were in the last event quest or if I were to duel someone that has Sentinel.

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Yarah_Dahile

Stop reading into the response. They have finally responded to the thread, it’s a step in the right direction. I’m happy with that currently. If you feel that reducing your spending will get you heard more, then do what you must. Others probably are already or leaving. I know a few that are retiring at the end of this AQ and going casual.

Just Don’t make them regret talking to us.

Yarah_Dahile

Mcord117 wrote: »

All due respect, and I do not desire to shoot the messenger, your company damn well knew what they were doing and why they were doing it. Spin is spin and I get its your role. I respect that. This is meant to drive revenues which is to be expected as you work for a for profit company. It just appears to me as short sided because you have fooled no one and are likely damaging revenue long term by continuing to violate the faith of your player base

well you’d think they know what they are doing. But previous mistakes make - they should have beta tested this beforehand. Or more simply - delay it for a full new season. We would have survived until then