"Toxic" Rank Feature Preview

[Samm]

Overview

We have some exciting updates to share with you about the upcoming Toxic Rank (name pending) feature! We teased this feature’s a while back and today we’d like to share more details on how the feature is going to work, give some context around the decisions that have been made, and hear your feedback on all of it! We have not begun development on this yet so the feedback you give us now will be crucial in shaping what the feature looks like when it’s finally in your hands.

Our Goals for the Feature:

• The primary Goal of this feature is to improve the health of our Level Scaling Stats
• Just to make sure we’re all on the same page, when we say Level Scaling Stats we mean:
  • Normal / Fantastic Crit
  • Crit Damage
  • Armor / Reality Negation
  • Tenacity
  • Evasion
• We want to improve the access to these stats for all Heroes while reducing the long term maintenance of the system as a whole on our end
• Other Goals include
  • Giving you control to choose the Level Scaling stats you think are best for each Hero
  • Making it easier to understand the expected value of the Level Scaling Stats on each Hero

Some Context Around Our Primary Goal:

• We’ve known for a long time that the way our Leveling Scaling Stats are given to Heroes was not ideal in several ways
  • Some Heroes don’t get any of these stats, or not enough of them to matter
  • Some Heroes have stats that don’t synergize well with their kit
  • Additionally, using badges as the primary way to maintain the health of these stats is very difficult to do on our end and not sustainable long term

Now that you have a better idea of the problems and goals we’re focused on we want to give you more details on how the feature will actually work. The current design for Toxic Rank has 1 new Stat and 3 main phases. Each will have more information about how they work below.

New Stat - Ambition (name pending)

• This is a new stat that will be added to the game and will only be added to Heroes when they reach their first Toxic Rank
• During combat, Ambition will only add Levels to a Hero when it’s Level would be used to determine the effectiveness of a Level Scaling Stat
• For example a Hero that has 200 Normal Crit would not Crit a Level 100 Enemy who also has 100 Ambition:
  • 200 - (100+100) = 0% Chance to Crit
• Note that Ambition will only apply to the effectiveness of Level Scaling Stats
  • It will not affect other skills that check Levels for success or effectiveness

Phase 1 - Level Off

• Each Hero that reaches Toxic +0 will be granted enough Ambition to reduce the effectiveness of all non Toxic Heroes’ Level Scaling Stats to 0% against them

Phase 2 - Create a Subclass!

• This is where the fun begins!
• Once you promote a Hero to Toxic you’ll be able to customize them by creating your own Subclass
• You do this by choosing the Leveling Scaling Stats that you think work best!
• Do you want to turn Jake Long into a glass cannon? You can!
  • Give him Fantastic Crit and Crit Damage
  • Doing so might give him enough stats to Crit 75% of the time and increase that damage 60% of the time, turning him into a Fantastic Critting, Hard Hitting, Tank!
  • If that’s not the way you would build him, no problem! The choice is yours!
• Each Hero will also be assigned a Stat Tier (1-5)
  • These will control how much of the Level Scaling Stats the Hero will gain when chosen
  • Tier 1 will have the highest stats while Tier 5 will have the lowest
  • Stat Tiers exist so we have a way to balance the system since some Heroes will be able to make due with small amounts of these stats while others will need as much as they can get

Phase 2 Cont. - High-level context on how this would affect combat

• Toxic Heroes vs Toxic Heroes
  • Effectiveness of Level Scaling Stats both ways is primarily controlled by the stats chosen for each Hero and their Stat Tiers
• Toxic Heroes vs Yellow and below Heroes
  • Toxic Heroes will have max effectiveness of chosen Level Scaling Stats (from their Subclass) + any other effectiveness of Leveling Scaling stats they already have against Yellow and Below Heroes
  • Yellow and Below Heroes will almost always have 0% effectiveness against Toxic Heroes
• Yellow and below Heroes vs Yellow and below Heroes
  • Nothing changes, Leveling Scaling Stats remain as effective as they are now

Phase 3 - Maintain

• Once you’ve created your Subclass, all you need to do to maintain its effectiveness is to continue to promote your Hero through higher Toxic Ranks
• Keeping your Hero at the max possible Rank will always ensure that you have the max effectiveness of your chosen stats

Wrap Up

We really appreciate you taking the time to check this out and give us feedback. With your help, we want to make this the best feature we can! So, what do you think? What are you most excited about? What things do you have concerns with? Please answer the survey below and give us your thoughts in the comments.

Single Question Survey:

I’m excited for the Toxic Feature.

• Strongly Agree
• Agree
• Neutral
• Disagree
• Strongly Disagree

[Marshy16]

A subclass? Thats sounds exciting, that’s like Destiny 2

[Musketeer-Endgame]

@Samm

Just to make sure we’re all on the same page, when we say Level Scaling Stats we mean:

• Normal / Fantastic Crit
• Crit Damage
• Armor / Reality Negation
• Tenacity
• Evasion

Ok… this sounds very epic and fun.

Finally, Basil will be able to get evasion and armor negation, and Vanellope reality negation, that’s all what I wanted and it eventually may become true, I hope.

I really like the sound of this.

@Samm

We’ve known for a long time that the way our Leveling Scaling Stats are given to Heroes was not ideal in several ways

• Some Heroes don’t get any of these stats, or not enough of them to matter
• Some Heroes have stats that don’t synergize well with their kit
• Additionally, using badges as the primary way to maintain the health of these stats is very difficult to do on our end and not sustainable long term

Good it’s admitted here, it was painful.

[Wilde_Times]

I really like this!! I think it can create a lot of variety in the heroes in how they function, and make some weaker heroes more viable with the right amount of stats. Of course, there probably will be nerfs added here and there to balance everything out, but I think this can be a really unique and fun way to play with the heroes that you as a player want to play as, whether they be stronger or weaker than others! Very exciting stuff for sure!! I’m looking forward to see where the game goes in the future!! Keep up the phenomenal work!!

[unique_Teddy]

So less reliant on new badges now? @Samm or will their still be badges to level up heroes or will a new method be introduced?

[CaptainBear]

Once a subclass is assigned to a hero, can it be changed? If so, how easy will it be to switch?

[Pipsqueak]

Well, this is going to take a good while to digest and produce any meaningful feedback

Initial impressions from the first few bits - “Toxic” heroes having complete protection with these stats from any hero ranked below sounds counterproductive to fair combat, and I’d really hope that hero subclasses can be changed - permanent, powerful upgrade paths are basically never pleasing in game like these, players love to tinker and would just not do it for fear of doing it ‘wrong’

(that was one of the big dampeners of Runes in DS)

I also hope that the majority of feedback in this thread is taken with a pinch of salt - the general player base are not game designers and don’t have the information or expertise to properly come up with effective solutions to these problems… I’d hope that the internal team do!

A properly planned solution based on the information provided would take weeks of concepts & collaboration to refine, not a few minutes by some casual players on the forum lol

[Darkwing_Duck_21]

Toxic should be a option it sounds great

[Kevin_LVI]

This should be pinned on every single post Samm makes lmfaoooo

I also definitely agree that more flexibility is always more fun. There being different ways to build a hero is exciting, and if you can adjust them on the fly based on a current need that’s even more exciting

[SaveElle]

Wow I’m hyped for this new major feature! I thought Yellow would be customizable, but it wasn’t. This new toxic level seems very customizable. Love it!

[Boss_Pellinore_VII]

Sounds way to complicated

[Winterbotton]

@Samm

Yellow and Below Heroes will almost always have 0% effectiveness against Toxic Heroes

This part worries me in PvE (Player vs Enemies aka normal creeps in battles outside Arena and Coliseum) will affect. Is going to be “Yellow wherever last number” the last rarity of them? Or how this will be handled in long term?

@Samm

Additionally, using badges as the primary way to maintain the health of these stats is very difficult to do on our end and not sustainable long term

I guess everyone noticed that with latest rarities but this will bring another question. What would happen with badges? They aren’t going to be useful anymore? So what we will be collecting in future chapters? New ways to get ambitions?

@Samm

Other Goals include

• Giving you control to choose the Level Scaling stats you think are best for each Hero
• Making it easier to understand the expected value of the Level Scaling Stats on each Hero

How this will be different to Mods in the game? Because this sounds like mods but applying them to different stats.

@Samm

Once you promote a Hero to Toxic you’ll be able to customize them by creating your own Subclass

What would happen if I choose “wrong” and decided to change it. There’s not way to reverse that? Or I can do it with a price?

[lucky_oswald_IX]

woooooo let’s goo

[TERZORE_VIII]

This is a finale toxic rank? Or a last heroes, I hope?

[Boss_Boo_III]

I hope this doesn’t end up translating to “be toxic or be useless”. It’s already incredibly difficult to progress even just a few characters through yellow rank without spending money as is. Been playing since a bit before Slinky was added and I still don’t have anyone higher than Y3. True I have 6 characters at yellow, but 5 of them are at Y0. I suppose if it only ends up affecting the pvp element it might be ok. However, if the pve portion continues past yellow, the game just may become wholly unplayable.

[Warrior_Sadness_XXXVI]

I can hope that this would make quite a difference.

[Ozi_swag]

I can’t wait for toxic

[CK_BEEE]

@Samm

Each Hero that reaches Toxic +0 will be granted enough Ambition to reduce the effectiveness of all non Toxic Heroes’ Level Scaling Stats to 0% against them

I dont like the sound of this. So, either we reach Toxic to compete or we don’t at all? That’s just horrible for FTP players.

Other changes are welcome but you guys need to consider the impact on low level and non-paying players. People have quit enough as it is, we don’t want to promote that trend any further

[Princess_Basil_VIII]

I don’t much like that after paying to level up a ton of heroes that new heroes come out that are much more powerful essentially forcing me to spend another small fortune just to stay mildly competitive. The game obviously favors wealthy people and that also takes the fun out of it. I find it annoying that lately a single hero at a low power can wipe out all 5 of my heroes that are all at maximum everything. It seems unfair and definitely takes the fun out of playing.

[EESAN]

I don’t understand why we all need a new Rank feature, but it has to happen, oh well, Perblue makes the choices, and the choices perblue decides to make, I am happy either way! Whoo