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Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
The new end date will be May 1st.
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How to Acknowledge & Reward Skill - New Title/Leaderboard Suggestion (Summoner Supreme)
DTMelodicMetal
Posts: 2,785 ★★★★★
The goal of this post is to suggest a more accurate way for Kabam to acknowledge player skills in MCOC. There's been a large amount of new and creative content released this year. AW Seasons, previously unseen nodes, Infinity Dungeons, last month's Master/Uncollected Infinity Gauntlet Thanos Boss Fight, and the addition of champion sizes have kept MCOC from going stale. Given the recent examination of terms of service violations in AW Seasons, I thought of a new way to better reward players who don't resort to TOS violations when playing MCOC competitive game modes.
Background:
1) We were told AW Seasons was designed to determine which players/alliances were the most skilled in the game. The importance of skill is at an all time high, but $ remains the most important attribute in MCOC. Examples of this are master tier AW players who go into every AW fight with massive amounts of boosts aka enough boosts to go through an odin's worth of units every 1-3 AWs. "Super skilled players" is a term used frequently on the forum - IMHO "super skilled spenders" or "super skilled boosters" are more accurate terms. Here are two fights by other players that I think are much better demonstrations of skills in MCOC:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaHIKFsmXWE&t=13s
This was posted by a master tier AW player on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh4XplKEHL8
This was posted by a member of an MCOC Facebook group
Boosts don't disqualify players from being skilled, but intercepting and not taking any damage against stun immune evade champions with special attacks that difficult to evade require a lot more skill than spamming parry and repetitive attacks.
2) Outside of AW, Legends Titles and Arena Titles are the lone criteria available for acknowledging players' skills/dedication. This year's movie event quests have had some really cool features. Prove Yourself was an awesome node addition, and this month's addition of champion sizes is an even more awesome addition that opens MCOC up to a lot of new possibilities. Despite Kabam's game design creativity with these new features, Legends Titles continue to be dominated by players who have the same 5* champions at 5/65 (Blade, Sparky, Medusa, Archangel, Iceman, and recently Corvus Glaive). I'm sure some disagree with me, but evading predictable attacks/well-time blocks (parry)/and heavy attacks are not the best ways to measure skill. Furthermore, arena titles are dominated by players who have the $ to spend refreshing champions.
Summary:
- AW Titles acknowledge which players are both spenders and skilled, Legends Titles currently acknowledge which players have specific champions at 5/65 (or a 4/55 Corvus Glaive), and Arena Titles acknowledge which players are spenders and dedicated. Skill on its own remains overlooked, here's how to change that.
Suggestion:
Create a new title/leaderboard for players that rewards skill above everything else. Marvel has certain designations for characters who are masters of their field. Dr. Strange is the Sorcerer Supreme and Hank Pym (Ant-Man) is the Scientist Supreme. Therefore, the name of this new title/leaderboard could be called "Summoner Supreme". This new title/leaderboard would operate similarly to how the Legends Titles/Leaderboard operate, with a few differences:
1) Completion time is not the only criteria used. Instead take the top 150 scores from multiple categories, with each category being weighted. For example, completion time would contribute 25% of the points total, total damage taken would contribute 50% of the points total, and the remaining 25% of the points total would be allocated to factors that change for every event quest.
2) Some ideas for factors that change for every event quest include:
- Using champions of a certain class
- Using champions that have certain tags
- Using different teams of champions based on certain synergies
- Finishing fights in different ways (i.e., Vanishing Blows style)
- Number of attacks intercepted
3) Rewards would include in-game resources not offered through exiting titles. For example:
- Top 150 players for each event quest receive a "Summoner Supreme" title and rewards that include 5 T1AC and 500K gold
- Top 5-10 players for each event quest receive a "Summoner Supreme" title and rewards that include 10 T1AC, 1 mil gold, and 18K T2AC shards
Before anyone gets the wrong idea, I'm not suggesting AW/Legends/Arena Titles be thrown away or devalued in any way. I'm suggesting that a new title/leaderboard be created in a way that players' skills are rewarded to a greater extent than ever before in MCOC. A new title/leaderboard of this type would also decrease the chance of the same champions steamrolling their way to the top 150 every month. Moreso, it would be less important for players to constantly upgrade to the newest iPhone to improve their chances of earning this type of title.
Lastly, I would also suggest this new title/leaderboard have an additional verification method to prevent players from violating Kabam's TOS to qualify for this new title/leaderboard. Mercenaries continue to devalue the integrity of MOCC, an additional verification method could help prevent this from continuing to happen. I don't know what technological methods Kabam has at their disposal, so I'm unable to give suggestions as to what kinds of verification methods would be an option.
What do you guys think?
Background:
1) We were told AW Seasons was designed to determine which players/alliances were the most skilled in the game. The importance of skill is at an all time high, but $ remains the most important attribute in MCOC. Examples of this are master tier AW players who go into every AW fight with massive amounts of boosts aka enough boosts to go through an odin's worth of units every 1-3 AWs. "Super skilled players" is a term used frequently on the forum - IMHO "super skilled spenders" or "super skilled boosters" are more accurate terms. Here are two fights by other players that I think are much better demonstrations of skills in MCOC:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaHIKFsmXWE&t=13sThis was posted by a master tier AW player on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bh4XplKEHL8This was posted by a member of an MCOC Facebook group
Boosts don't disqualify players from being skilled, but intercepting and not taking any damage against stun immune evade champions with special attacks that difficult to evade require a lot more skill than spamming parry and repetitive attacks.
2) Outside of AW, Legends Titles and Arena Titles are the lone criteria available for acknowledging players' skills/dedication. This year's movie event quests have had some really cool features. Prove Yourself was an awesome node addition, and this month's addition of champion sizes is an even more awesome addition that opens MCOC up to a lot of new possibilities. Despite Kabam's game design creativity with these new features, Legends Titles continue to be dominated by players who have the same 5* champions at 5/65 (Blade, Sparky, Medusa, Archangel, Iceman, and recently Corvus Glaive). I'm sure some disagree with me, but evading predictable attacks/well-time blocks (parry)/and heavy attacks are not the best ways to measure skill. Furthermore, arena titles are dominated by players who have the $ to spend refreshing champions.
Summary:
- AW Titles acknowledge which players are both spenders and skilled, Legends Titles currently acknowledge which players have specific champions at 5/65 (or a 4/55 Corvus Glaive), and Arena Titles acknowledge which players are spenders and dedicated. Skill on its own remains overlooked, here's how to change that.
Suggestion:
Create a new title/leaderboard for players that rewards skill above everything else. Marvel has certain designations for characters who are masters of their field. Dr. Strange is the Sorcerer Supreme and Hank Pym (Ant-Man) is the Scientist Supreme. Therefore, the name of this new title/leaderboard could be called "Summoner Supreme". This new title/leaderboard would operate similarly to how the Legends Titles/Leaderboard operate, with a few differences:
1) Completion time is not the only criteria used. Instead take the top 150 scores from multiple categories, with each category being weighted. For example, completion time would contribute 25% of the points total, total damage taken would contribute 50% of the points total, and the remaining 25% of the points total would be allocated to factors that change for every event quest.
2) Some ideas for factors that change for every event quest include:
- Using champions of a certain class
- Using champions that have certain tags
- Using different teams of champions based on certain synergies
- Finishing fights in different ways (i.e., Vanishing Blows style)
- Number of attacks intercepted
3) Rewards would include in-game resources not offered through exiting titles. For example:
- Top 150 players for each event quest receive a "Summoner Supreme" title and rewards that include 5 T1AC and 500K gold
- Top 5-10 players for each event quest receive a "Summoner Supreme" title and rewards that include 10 T1AC, 1 mil gold, and 18K T2AC shards
Before anyone gets the wrong idea, I'm not suggesting AW/Legends/Arena Titles be thrown away or devalued in any way. I'm suggesting that a new title/leaderboard be created in a way that players' skills are rewarded to a greater extent than ever before in MCOC. A new title/leaderboard of this type would also decrease the chance of the same champions steamrolling their way to the top 150 every month. Moreso, it would be less important for players to constantly upgrade to the newest iPhone to improve their chances of earning this type of title.
Lastly, I would also suggest this new title/leaderboard have an additional verification method to prevent players from violating Kabam's TOS to qualify for this new title/leaderboard. Mercenaries continue to devalue the integrity of MOCC, an additional verification method could help prevent this from continuing to happen. I don't know what technological methods Kabam has at their disposal, so I'm unable to give suggestions as to what kinds of verification methods would be an option.
What do you guys think?
9
Comments
It basically would control for many of the variables, and in particular, rng luck and willingness to spend, that can create a perception of skill.
I like my idea, maybe I’ll make it into a separate thread
@Maidril Interesting idea. Shards and units are offered in most game modes, and I explained in my post why I think completion time is not the best measure of skill. RNG luck and willingness to spend are also not accurate measures of skill, but that doesn't mean I don't think your idea would be well received.
Summarizing my OP, skill in MCOC is rewarded far less than other things like $ and having specific champions ranked up. I'd like to see Kabam do something to change that.
I think it's amazing. Simple and groundbreaking.
@Maidril also made a fantastic proposal which coincidentally is quite similar to an idea I had pondered before.
I would love to see both of ideas to be at the very least, officially acknowledged by Kabam as being something they will or will not consider worthy for possible development.
This was a positive read to start my morning. Thank you!
I fleshed it out a bit more there. With suggestions for how Kabam can profit from it too.
Two posts on this thread and you've yet to comment on my OP. I'll comment on your idea if that'll help get the ball rolling:
- Everyone using the same champions is a cool idea.
- No potions or boosts is a great idea
- Everyone using the same masteries is interesting but a lot of players won't like it. The game's is a lot harder without dexterity.
- Top 800 is a big number, I think it should lower if your idea is intended to gauge skill.
- Saying there'd be limited entries but that you can buy more entries greatly removes skill, especially if the cost is high. The biggest spenders would win over players who don't buy additional entries almost every time.
- Mercenaries would have the potential to ruin this game mode
@Maidril my thoughts on your idea. Any thoughts on mine?
The biggest issue with yours, IMO, is that it doesn’t really eliminate the biggest spender factor or the impact of RNG luck.
Someone can spend their way to the fastest time with boosts, energy pits, buying the best champs, etc.
For damage, it would require Kabam to move away from things like the chaos nodes, and any auto damage type nodes that can be negated by having the correct champion. For example, you could have 2 people with the same scores across everything except damage taken for this month - but because one of them took damage from a random degen debuff against goldpool, and the other never got a degen debuff, the latter would come out on top through no skill-related action.
On my suggestion, limited entries with the option to buy more isn’t great. However, there’s no other way I could think of for Kabam to really profit from it. I’d love for that to not be a factor (buying more entries), but they are a business.
I dont think Skill is something that can be easily tracked
As you mentioned titles are pretty much the only way to determine how experienced a person is, by giving others a hint of opponents you're able to beat.
And I feel the new leaderboard and rewards you're proposing is slightly unbalanced cuz well 150 players in the game aren't the only skilled ones. And the top 150 will just be dominated by the same guys regardless of others being skilled.
I'm not really sure how to put my thoughts to words but the other guy's idea feels fairer.
Everyone gets the same set of champions,at the same rank, once the fight starts, masteries won't be available and players will fight against a boss.
Here, all players are on equal grounds. It doesn't matter what tier in war they're in and what not.
It means nothing to me, and when recruiting I've encountered some of these "Legends" get snippy with me when I turned them down on various criteria, using their Legend title as a trump card - or, trying to at least.
I love the ideas in this thread, and truly hope Kabam implements some of these ideas in the near future. The aspect of having everyone have equal footing with having to use the same provided champs is such a common-sense thing.
@Maidril Thanks for the feedback, I'll address your points individually:
1) Certain nodes couldn't be used for this type of challenge. You mentioned the chaos node, other nodes like starburst, flare, and this month's Micro-Reflect and Size Matters nodes wouldn't be viable under the circumstances I put forth in my OP. One way to handle this would be to create a new "difficulty" for the monthly event quests (Summoner Supreme difficulty), like how Kabam created the "Uncollected" event quest difficulty last December. Or create entirely new quests for this challenge.
2) This challenge idea does not spending as a factor, that's neither possible nor profitable for Kabam. However, it does put greater value on skill as a factor than all other current game modes and challenges. Completion time contributing only 25% of a title run score would mean all the boosts in the game would help contribute to only 1/4 of the points possible for this hypothetical title. Damage taken contributing to 50% of a title run would mean less popular champions could potentially be better options than the current 5+ that everyone uses for legends title runs.
Luke Cage, Red Hulk, Sentinel, and Killmonger would be great for this type of challenge because of their damage resistance and invulnerability abilities. Iceman would also be a good choice for his triple immunity and Ice Armor abilities, so current popular choices for title runs aren't entirely neglected either. To be clear, by damage taken I meant total damage taken over the course of a title run. Champions with limitless regeneration make a lot of content easy, this proposed mode would take that into consideration.
3) This proposed title would be profitable for different reasons:
- First, more players would be capable of competing for this title. Having 25% of the possible points being allocated to factors that using champions of a specific class/champions with specific tags/champions with specific synergies would place substantial emphasis on having a large roster. Additionally, it is still impossible to get more than 10+ 5* champions ranked up to 4/55+, so even the game's biggest spenders would be at a disadvantage if this challenge were to reward bonus points to say both science class champions and champions who have the Thunderbolts synergy because more players than not don't have Red Hulk at 4/55+ or at 6*.
- Second, T1AC and gold are still considered bottleneck resources to many players. More importantly, all players consider T2AC and T2AC shards to be highly valued resources. This challenge would aware all of those resources.
Hope that better explains my OP
@Jh_Dez Good points, skill can't be easily tracked. I explained in my response to Maidril why I believe my OP's challenge design would in fact reward skill more than all other existing game modes. 4/55+ or 6* champions are needed for title runs, assign more points to specific champions/classes/synergies/tags and even the game's biggest spenders would be at a disadvantage under certain circumstances. All the $ in the world can't buy more T5BC shards, and T2AC shards are still rarely offered in both $ and unit deals.
@roastedbagel We've had multiple "legends" players join our alliance and then get kicked because it was obvious they paid a MCOC Mercenary to earn their legends title. It's hilarious when you see a legends title player lose all their attackers in their first few nodes. Hopefully additional player verification methods are possible, it's very difficult to otherwise keep players from cheating.
@Jh_Dez That's why those variables would contribute to a low % of possible points. Think of it like this:
1) 25% potential points goes to completion time, so variables like having the right champions to steamroll legends runs and having the fast device to run MCOC aren't enough to win this title by themselves
2) 50% potential points goes to overall damage taken, so the only variables that would give advantages here would be using champions that have high block proficiency or using champions that are resistant to damage taken or can become invulnerable to damage for any amount of time. IMO this is currently the best way to measure player skill. This would give new meaning to ranking/leveling up champions like 6* Cap WWII, Red Hulk, Killmonger, Sentinel, and Luke Cage. Watch the 2nd video I posted above, using Black Panther the way that player did against Classic Spider-Man with stun immunity and unblockable sp1 nodes takes immense skill.
3) 25% potential points would go to alternating factors. An example of this could be:
- 5% potential points from using champions of a certain class
- 5% potential points from using champions with a certain tag
- 5% potential points from using champion teams that have a certain synergy
- 5% potential points from a type of vanishing blows
- 5% potential points from intercepting attacks
This would bestow greater importance to ranking up a larger variety of champions but would do so in a way that points attainable from these factors would not be nearly enough to win a title.
Let me know if any of this seems confusing
Also an interesting idea. Care to comment on the OP?
Very well said. One entry is enough, more would give players an unfair advantage.
A title that rewards having a greater variety of champions ranked up would encourage more spending. Deals that include rare rank up resources would gain even more value.
This is genius!!! Make it a separate post!