In regards:
“ * We’re changing how we scale opponents in City Watch matchmaking . This is a first step in a larger effort to improve the experience in City Watch. To try this out, we’re only releasing this on servers 2 and 22. We want to monitor the data and player feedback to see if this is having the positive impact we want.”
I HATE it!!!
Plus you made additional changes this last update that seems to have only made it worse!
I used to be able to play around with different teams and work on my collections. Now I can barely squeak out wins with my top 6/7 chars.
It is almost unplayable now on easy. Easy should not scale to a difficulty where 45 stars is a longshot and finishing it is not a certainty. I read on forum how it’s supposed to get harder as I get stronger but what’s the point of having medium, hard , etc? How is it even possible?
What’s the point of making it so hard? How could it be a positive experience having this much struggle? So now I have been forced out of CIty Watch by my own roster becoming too strong; what is the point of a roster building game if it’s better not to? How can I build my roster if I cannot complete basic game modes because your MMR follows some seemingly irrational function? How can I complete any particular challenge? This week is beat every enemy with Zurg…how?..when he gets wiped by enemy gonzo first turn on about half the levels=not possible=not a challenge =not fun.
It was like you decided out of some abstract notion that players want to fight the same thing over and over even more, so built a quasi- lightning round node picked from arena/coli lineups and think this will be some kind of fun node? But then said lets have no consideration how AI scaling sets the powers at levels that no player could ever have: purple skills that WAAAAAAAY outperform a player build. Add non-linear jumps in difficulty between levels to make it sour at every step. No wonder CW raid tix are held in such esteem- save me from this daily nightmare of pure consternation!
If there is a problem with top end players being bored or whatever the issues were (what are the issues exactly?) then enact your “improved” MMR on hard or wherever they play and put a scaling cap on the lower difficulties. The game is already impossible to gain headway on the leaderboards and to make it now even harder on newer rosters will only alienate engagement. Unreasonable grind = churn.
Suggestion: Have a set mob list based on district (brutes and pirates along the water, skeletons and goblins at amusement park, feature the villains more) so that as the map randomizes which districts are cleared that day there is a mix-up in what you face but you can still build teams to respond to those particular challenges. have a level cap regardless of playerpower. 50 for easy(3*),75 for med(4*), 100 hard(5*) etc. Easy shouldn’t have 5 star characters or orange nothing.
Please take a look and consider your newer players. Modes like this that become unpleasant chores will quickly squash that flow that hooks the newbs. It should be fun like in the story- the chars are going out on random watches with each other and getting to know each other.
This existing paradigm will have me quit this game long before I would have because it is simply broken and playing with a broken toy doesn’t last bery long at all.
Rant about overall scaling below
In general the scaling seems totally broken; you cruise along limited by level to unlock more of the maps then there is a plateau point where your roster growth is just totally stopped, then after a period of stagnation you can make a few levels gain and full stop. grind for a month making minor incremental improvement and back to a scaled wall. This isn’t fun.
Team building creativity and observable progress was what drew me to this game. But If I have to shift gears and focus on either my own Mr.I( or Pooh apparently) or teams devoted to stopping him at the expense of my favorite characters then you have created a zero-fun loop where players are only showing up to protect their VIP “investment”, exclusively using whatever is the meta, and exploiting every player loophole just to min/max challenger seasons, which should NOT be a long term sustainability plan.
It is beyond frustrating when the next chapter in a friend mission is just not possible; not almost-able-to but fully leveled and full skills and still absolutely no way for forseeable future. It is beyond off-putting when a new friendship campaign is unlocked and they cannot even clear the first node of the first chapter. Whats the point of having an unlock threshold at all if its irrelevant to the challenge?
Team trials : Blue? Fuggetaboutit- I have had to pour so many wasted resources into Felix to eke some kind of workable healer but still goes down in one punch that I pretty much hate him now; even watching the movies I was annoyed with him - not the desired emotion to get someone to engage.
There is a point where Invasion becomes unplayable, I feel like its around 150ish where suddenly your whole line-up is wiped in a series of one shots, where as just prior : some strong attacks and some boosts could be impactful. I was unable to clear a ward fight despite being 250,000 power greater and using every single boost: A WARD fight! Why create hurdles like this? Why throw a spanner into the works to mess up the flow? How is this a good experience to have these opposition teams that ramp well past a players comparative ability?
The engagement wall should not be scaling in a game with limited energy. Crystals/ Gold/stamina are there for this purpose ; lvl 50 characters should be fighting approximately lvl 50 characters within a margin of error that is reasonable, achievable and consistent. Passt devs- just cuz someones player level 50 doesn’t mean ALL of their characters are fully maxxed. Let us play the game until we need to purchase more diamonds to buy more stamina- not have energy piled up because; there is no point in trying to clear new levels, no point in getting stomped on by a mamabot, no payout for friend missions, no chance of finishing my collections…no incentive to keep trying.
I really think this is a super awesome game and I have spent more than I care to admit because the play experience has been great, the engagement from the devs is admirable and the depth of game-types is there to keep me engaged throughout the day (war/invasion/cw/campaign/arena etc etc) the variety of characters is exciting, the flavor text for some of the interactions is spot on (Calhoun is brilliant!), the art on the badges and the deep dives have made me more than once while watching a movie go A-Ha! That’s where it came from! (Mrs. Nesbitts Chapeaux!), the architecture to continually improve is complex and well thought out to keep me working on friendships and mods and stars and powers… it’s a lot to work with and therein lies some of the fun: There is a beautiful ebb and flow to fleshing out your roster but it seems like each one of those parts stops functioning because of scaling spikes in difficulty. (#flattenthecurve)