I think there is some concerns when people are matched up against players with MUCH higher leveled Phobies. The player with the higher stress level generally has an advantage over the other because their Phobies are tougher and they most likely have a larger selection of Phobies to choose.
In most cases this advantage is small enough to not make much of a difference. The concerns come up when you fight someone who has a MUCH higher stress level then you. When your Phobies average is level 5 and the opponent is level 15.
I would suggest to either have matchmaking take this in consideration or give more/less rewards in these situations.
Matchmaking Stress Levels
Unless I’m mistaken, the current matchmaking setup only includes your league scores. Could be beneficial to include a limit to stress levels so only match people that are +/- 15 stress levels from each other.
Rewards Match the Difficulty
If your stress level is much lower then your opponents then add a small multiplier to the rewards. Making it easier to hit the max 240 tears if you loose while also gaining a little extra EXP for each successful kill. If you manage to win someone at a much higher level (+15 stress level or higher) then perhaps you can get 400 tears as a bonus for the extra challenge.
What are your thoughts on this? How often do you run into people at much higher Stress levels?
These are good observations. We are looking at a combination. You are correct right now we look only at skill and don’t take phobies levels into account because we felt it would be fine for players with less skill to still compete with someone better using higher level units.
That said there are some matching problems right now as people spread out to where they need to sit to hit our goal. We just need to consider to not fragment match making further and produce less possible matches. Async is easy but arena needs a match fairly quickly so players are not waiting. We are hoping to be able to dial in better matching this week for arena as the player base continues to grow.
But we are considering implementing some other factors to help here.
I encounter the same issues. I have apparently been enjoying a good win rate (humble brag) and find myself matched against obvious P2W opponents with ridiculously more developed collections.
Someone routinely whips out Klepto, Noxious, Mildred, Heavo 2.0, Beauty, etc. (you get the idea), and ranging in levels 9-12. I’m here fighting with my 21 unlocked and I have one level 7 as my highest. On the maps with high key budgets, the difference is ridiculous (spot the guy turtling with Murder Wing and Stabby against the fashion show).
I go to poison to counter Dimensionals, they whip out several healer phobies when I didn’t own any against their Noxious (didn’t: TBT I actually found one just today).
You get the point. Gameplay is actually quite honorably balanced so I have a chance, but it’s a very unfair fight and it’s annoying. Unfair fights are only cool in PvE.
In effect, the message is: if you have a good win rate, you get punished by getting unfair fights, and if you still win that you will get no extra reward.
So please, if you want to mitigate the P2W aspect of the game, have matchmaking line up on collection power. It will be an important part of your identity as a game in the dirty world of mobile transaction games.
I just had a look to back up my point: I had one ridiculously overpowered opponent in mind as I fought them several times.
Checking the rankings, they have a stress level that is three times (exactly three times, that’s not a figure of speech) as high as mine. At the moment, I have to endure that a few times a day.
That’s an extreme case, granted, but yeah: unfair fight.
EDIT: another one I got several games against today is 5 whole stress levels above me. I can’t see exactly how the level cost scales up, but that’s 150+ phobie levels more. That’s more than 7 levels more per toon if they have the same number (but they will have more).
I had the same experience today. Several matches today, three new opponents in total. All three are vastly, ridiculously overpowered collections. One triple my stress level, one double, one like “only” 5-10 more.
One I have a chance to beat because they play remarkably bad. Mind you, with the power gap, it remains hard. Several phobie counters do not work anymore because their overpowered health is beyond my damage. But I have a slight chance by making the battle last and setting up good trades.
The others play decently, so I have no chance at all. Today, those matches are just going through the motions trying to eke out some quest objective progress while watching the P2W parade.
That’s not fun at all. I don’t mind losing if I get outwitted in a good battle (that’s actually fun), but this is plain boring.
So yeah, please fix this. The current system is just punishing non-whale players for having success.
This happens to me alot aswell. Usually the difference isn’t that apparent with just 2-3 levels, but if all of enemy monsters are 4-5 levels above yours it makes a huge difference. If you can’t oneshot Skull Jar with Murder Wing for example.
While this is frustrating,I don’t think it’s so big a deal. I noticed that I lost only 10 points when game ends, but when I get a win I get so much more points. After all, it is common sense that higher level creatures will be stronger than their low level versions. Otherwise you wouldn’t bother leveling them.
I think it’s a problem for any game to have unfair matches due to the vast difference in power levels of the tools players are using. I am saying it’s not a big deal for this game at least because there is no elegant way of solving it without having a big enough playerbase.
I have to say I am indeed seeing a lot of people complaining about being matched with someone that has high level Phobies, which makes them think that the game is p2w. So far this is the best usggetion to solve this concern that I have read.
I just beat someone named “Vladjimir” twice today, he is level 91 and owns literally everything. All of his units were 5 to 10 levels higher than mine.
Last season i beat “BeerPiero” who was level 80 and he was first on leaderboard.
That said, I’m not that great of a player myself. So its clearly doable to beat anyone regardless of level diference. Some people that are level 30-40 beat me all the time and I’m 69 currently.
In the screenshot I’ve “Favorite” those games so that they show up at the top of my list. (For anyone that dont know you could do that. Hold replay to favorite)
I get that, though to play against me, he had to have a high enough rating from winning games. BeerPiero was first for a whole season so he’s all the exemple you need
My point still stands that monster levels != skill. This is a game where you can out maneuver your opponent and win. If your whole strategy is to rush your enemy/base, then yeah that wont work. I take out pieces the same way I would with chess, their extra health don’t matter when I corner them with 3 piece vs one, and they don’t expect it.
I think people just see higher level Phobies and just give up or get frustrated because it wont be an easy win.
My point is pretty clear:
This is the current leaderboard
