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

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Kpatrix

The damage that was done to alliances is irreversible in the near future. Long time groups have been decimated and will take time to get reestablished. This is what I have an issue with. They destroyed things we built years building in less than two weeks before caving in and admitting it was a failed attempt. No consideration was given to the player base for the damage and lost units, items, and rewards. I expected more when they admitted they were wrong with their assessment, but their stubbornness is too strong.

Hopefully they will feel the effects on their bottom line for a long time to come, and think things through better next time they decide to make a bad decision that the players protest immdiately as the players are the ones supporting the developers.

teekq

Still no words from them with everyone asking an answer

DNA3000

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

They didn't intend for the difficulty to be increased as much as it was.

I'm not sure what is a more damning accusation. That Kabam did intend the difficulty to be much harder and they just went overboard, or they didn't intend the difficulty to be much harder and the developers actually can't tell the difference when they design content.

DNA3000

Another data point. Because we were down a player on days four and five we actually scored almost two million points less in this past week. However, we climbed almost a hundred places in standing relative to last week, when we climbed two hundred places relative to the previous three weeks prior to the AQ changes after scoring about ten million points less.

There are only two explanations for that happening that I believe are probable. One: even after the experience of the first week the average player in alliances in the bottom half of expert are still struggling as much or even more than the first week. Two: in general players are getting better but alliances above us are unable to score more points because of alliance disruptions (people quitting, players jumping between alliances, alliances dropping down, or alliances straight up disbanding). Those are not mutually exclusive, but I believe it is very likely that after two weeks with the current AQ configuration players are not adjusting to the difficulty at all. It will be interesting to see what happens in the third week given the announced changes. I'm skeptical they will have a dramatic impact: the changes are too small to return difficulty to anywhere near the original level. My best estimate is that scores rise maybe 10% relative to the previous two weeks, probably less. For reference, my best guess is that current scores are about 20% lower than they were before the change.

Blitzkilla420

i repeat please stick to the topic at hand and dont lower yourselves to the ONE that always has to argue against solid FACTS against whats been happening to the gameplay mechanics and modes lately.

state your facts, prove your points and dont get derailed from obvious attempts from those who CLEARLY will NEVER see how WRONG they are.

lets see how this upcoming aq will go cause kabam is really needs to make up for aq becoming what it was for 2 weeks and KABAM NEEDS to fix the bugs in the game asap to make up for a lot of ground they have lost lately

GroundedWisdom

DNA3000 wrote: »

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

They didn't intend for the difficulty to be increased as much as it was.

I'm not sure what is a more damning accusation. That Kabam did intend the difficulty to be much harder and they just went overboard, or they didn't intend the difficulty to be much harder and the developers actually can't tell the difference when they design content.

If you're trying to imply that they're incompetent because it didn't go as planned, then that would seem damning, yes. However, it wasn't the intended outcome because it's being revised. It's not that unreasonable that something needs to be adjusted after inception. As much as people expect the proceess of QA to be more, nothing is perfect.

teekq

Have you seen global? Full force recruiting lol

Snizzbar

For the love of God Jaded stop encouraging the replies.
You're BOTH derailing the thread.

GroundedWisdom

The bottom line for me is the information provided is that it wasn't intended to be that difficult. Supported by commenting shortly after that they were monitoring the feedback and data, and followed up with revisions. I happen to think that evidence supports their claim. However, I don't see any productive end to debating whether they intended it or not, other than to generate mistrust. They're making changes. Somehow people are still not happy.

Jaded

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

The bottom line for me is the information provided is that it wasn't intended to be that difficult. Supported by commenting shortly after that they were monitoring the feedback and data, and followed up with revisions. I happen to think that evidence supports their claim. However, I don't see any productive end to debating whether they intended it or not, other than to generate mistrust. They're making changes. Somehow people are still not happy.

As many people have stated...either they intended it to be this difficult or they are incompetent. Your facts prove one or the other as well. Kabam Miike was firm about how it wouldn’t be harder when this was first announced. And I know for a fact he plays the game. So if it wasn’t intended it only leaves one option. So what does team kabam say about it GW?

GroundedWisdom

Miike said it shouldn't be that much harder, before it went live. Meaning that was the intention. It didn't go as planned. I'm not sure what level people live on where it's unacceptable that things don't work out as planned unless there's something seriously wrong, but the world I live in leaves room for error.

Jaded

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

Miike said it shouldn't be that much harder, before it went live. Meaning that was the intention. It didn't go as planned. I'm not sure what level people live on where it's unacceptable that things don't work out as planned unless there's something seriously wrong, but the world I live in leaves room for error.

Room for error? This is a freemium game available to everyone. It’s a business. A company. It’s full of elite employees paid to do 1 job. That’s like saying there is room for error towards a restaurant that gives you food poisoning because their food checks went done properly. Smh.

And yes there can still be room for error as long as errors aren’t a daily trend. A restaurant would be shut down if they were constantly giving people food posioning. The only aspect that keeps mobile gaming companies in check is the people that play the game. Error after error after wrong doing can only stir up more and more hostility. As the proof in the pudding is simple. So many errors intended or not can only leave one more option on the table to describe the developers of the game, that we all love to play. 💕

GroundedWisdom

I'm sorry, I was unaware that they made mistakes on switching up AQ Syms on a daily basis. -.-

Jaded

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

I'm sorry, I was unaware that they made mistakes on switching up AQ Syms on a daily basis. -.-

Hold on a second I’m taken back by your not so sincere apology...

Putting words down that I didn’t say. I said they make errors, daily.

Blitzkilla420

STICK TO THE MOTHER TRUCKING TOPIC. WHY IS THAT SO HARD????

its on kabam to make it right not us. the changes they NOW made for AQ seem good to help fix their mistakes so its a start.

BUT the next thing they NEED to focus on is FIXING THESE UGLY BUGS IN THE GAME like for example my blocks dropping, double dashing back not working, evading out of the first hit of a special 1 or 2 and lag and controls misfiring. THIS is what we need to keep pointing to kabam to fix.

stop wasting time on who said this and who said that. arGuing With the nameless is ineffective and i dont want 48 pages worth of complaints to be closed because of derailing by an obvious and oblivious

Blitzkilla420

Jaded wrote: »

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

I'm sorry, I was unaware that they made mistakes on switching up AQ Syms on a daily basis. -.-

Hold on a second I’m taken back by your not so sincere apology...

Putting words down that I didn’t say. I said they make errors, daily.

dude just stop youre gonna get this thread closed. theres no point in debating with those who dont understand how a debate works.

Speeds80

Dear kabam For compensation can you find me 5 alliance members, uncollected minimum, reliable active, communicate well, cos that’s what I’m down now, so hard to recruit right now, such a pain in the ass, lost 2 leaders today, the damage is irreversible at this point, please stop being so clumsy with your changes

Blitzkilla420

Jaffacaked wrote: »

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

However, I don't see any productive end to debating whether they intended it or not, other than to generate mistrust.

Yet you still feel the need to carry on arguing about it in this thread with others

im gonna advise to just disagree with this person and move on. trust me. we are allowed to disagree is all.

Kpatrix

I still don't get why they can run a test during aq to see if things will be harder mid season, see how bad it went over,yet refuse to implement synergy in war during off season to see the effect it has. They NEED to do it now while alliances are crumbling instead of waiting til everyone gets back in a groove then we get stuck doing beta testing with season rewards at stake.

Synergies were always supposed to work in war, with the emphasis placed on diversity, many ranked according to this while kabam never issued a statement regarding synergies.

May be off topic but it goes to show how in touch they are with the player base.

The lack of compensation for this failed experiment speaks volumes about how much they value their paying customers.

GroundedWisdom

I'm not unaware at all. I just can't find a pitchfork to match my outfit.

TL:DR - I don't spend my energy on the Forum petitioning against the company.

General_Vis

One of the frequent complaints about Kabam is that their player base know the game more than they do and this is just another example of that. Time and again they announce changes only to be told by the player base of the consequences only to ignore them and then realise way too late that the players were right. You only have to look at the recent changes to Alliance Wars for evidence of this.

If Kabam truly didn’t expect the content to be harder (and that’s giving them the huge benefit of the doubt) then it’s worrying that they didn’t realise the impact these changes would have.

GroundedWisdom

The War situation came to a resolve because of listening to the Player Base and coming up with a compromise. They had objectives, and they listened to the feeback on wanting an element of skill. The process would have gone smoother had the majority of feedback not been "Bring back Defender Kills!", over and over. For some reason, that just equates to them being wrong for some. They were clear about their intentions then, and they were clear now.

Snizzbar

Jaffacaked wrote: »

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

Am not embarrassed or out to troll so have no reason to use a different forum name to my ign

There is no Jaffacaked in game

Edit: lol just found you. You didn't mention a space
But you have a very nice account

HENRIQUE_FORTE

Is this a forum or a chat room? Seems the later.

Back on topic, my opinion on Sentinels: they still are harder than symbiods, beggining with the fact they are immune to poison and bleed. I used to use Wolverine, Gwenpool and Voodoo...

Rockon

HENRIQUE_FORTE wrote: »

Is this a forum or a chat room? Seems the later.

Back on topic, my opinion on Sentinels: they still are harder than symbiods, beggining with the fact they are immune to poison and bleed. I used to use Wolverine, Gwenpool and Voodoo...

i use(d) 5* r4 x23, 4* r5 hulk and 4* r5 voodoo all days on map 5 having issues playing, always the network connection message and lagging, did map 5 with the new update could not finish the entire map. i play the game to play the champs and rank them up, because kabam wants us, im assuming, to play the game this way and take years to progress.

GroundedWisdom

I mentioned in a couple other Threads that, memes aside, SG and Clops could be useful. They both have Armor Break capabilities. If anyone cares to use the suggestion, be my guest. Now, before anyone clocks me on suggesting people Rank "Garbage Champs", I don't suggest anyone Rank for AQ alone in general, unless they want to. I'm not big on Ranking for any one reason alone because the game is always changing. Just thought I would give a couple suggestions that people wouldn't normally consider.

General_Vis

If the changes were made at the start of a new season we’d have a reasonable expectation that our rank up choices will be good for a longboard period and by the time the next AQ season after that starts we would have had ample time to build up more resources.

As things stand we have no inclination of how long these changes are going to last. It’s privably fair to say Sentinels will be here for next AQ but they minibosses are a complete mystery.

For example, I have a R3 Luke Cage who I could take to R4 as a Morningstar killer, but I have no idea how long she’ll be around. Granted LC isn’t exactly a bad rankup even if / when she is removed, but when resources are still scarce you want to make sure your rankup choices are the best option.

DNA3000

HENRIQUE_FORTE wrote: »

Is this a forum or a chat room? Seems the later.

Back on topic, my opinion on Sentinels: they still are harder than symbiods, beggining with the fact they are immune to poison and bleed. I used to use Wolverine, Gwenpool and Voodoo...

Actually, I find that Wolverine is a viable attacker for Sentinels, with two conditions. First, at higher prestige you will likely fight to the end of the clock and time out, which means you will have to deal with the half-health penalty. This creates a couple of complications. You need to be able to fight Sentinels well enough that you remain at or near full health consistently. If you regularly lose a lot of health, that combined with the time out penalty will probably kill you. Also, if you end the fight very close to defeating the Sentinel, you won't really have a lot of time when you try again to heal back the penalty. You actually have to make sure you don't consistently end fights with Sentinels having only a little health left. You actually rather they have enough health for you to have enough time to heal back.

Second, because you are unlikely to kill the Sentinel quickly, you are very likely to have to survive many SP2 attacks, and eventually unblockable SP2 attacks. If you can't reliably evade SP2, Wolverine is unlikely to be a viable option for you due to insufficient damage.

Voodoo is actually still a decent option for certain types of Sentinels if you use power burn. This can keep the Sentinels from using special attacks for most of the fight, and keeping Sentinels power burned significantly reduces the difficulty of the fight. Even if Sentinels were vulnerable to poison, I would still recommend focusing on power burn instead when using Voodoo.

Chicano509

RagamugginGunner 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 have time to make the maps harder you have time to buff the rewards.

I totally agree, if you have time and effort to change the content like the Sentinel-loids then the equal response should be to change the rewards. A simple adjustment like offering rank down tickets to the community for your error Kabam.

The lack of communication builds dis-trust and lack of respect for the entire community.

Chicano509