Faction B.O.S.S + Giveaway

Really nice event, actually. Well, the event itself was nice - the boss battle itself I have some things to say about it. This time, I recruited Snoop through shards, to provide transparency for the review and hopefully disqualify me from potentially winning him here, as I'd rather someone who didn't have him to get him.

Snoop was actually recruitable at 4SB, meaning he was actually... pretty easy to get in this event. Sure, the gears are much harder to get, but the fact that you can get the poster without too much pain (I basically just perfected the tours and did all three refreshes, so I'd say the big gate was 'do you have a good HOF tech/Sasha and 3,000 cash') meant that I was already enjoying this event.

Aside from the shards, the regular rewards were much nicer this time, the free/paid split was much nicer even if all of the Dom shards were paid (though I doubt many people will care about that) and in particular the Snoop straps are really nice and didn't require a ton of spending to get at least one.

Speaking of tours, they were actually pretty rough, but I got very lucky - HOF Eddie is a freebie and if you're insane enough to level him up to 5SS like I did the tour was surprisingly doable (And maybe even lower but it'll probably take someone like 10 minutes to beat Hogan) and striker Sasha at 4SG was actually able to beat a 5SG Bayley (something I was not looking forward to fighting) with just a few props helping her out. I want to say these tours were BS, but I guess I got good or something.

What I like:

✅I like this game mode and I think it's a great addition to the game.

✅Recruiting point at 1200 shards seemed OK.

✅The other rewards also seemed fair to me.

Things to improve (IMHO):

🚀In faction boss everything boils down to speed so animations for all moves should last the same, or should be removed or the timer should not advance (or any other option that you can think of).

⏳️If player turn ends when you're in the middle of a choose move, you can find yourself with the boss doing its stuff before you choose whatever it is that you need to choose and also without the MP. If you have not been able to finish the move you should get the MP back or maybe boss' turn should wait until you finish choosing and the move is complete.

👊The ability to dodge moves by faction boss should be disabled.

❤️If health gems are not giving you health, at least they should do damage to the boss.

🏆️I also thing even if you are defeated by the boss you should at least get something for bothering and taking the time to play (maybe what you get should depend on how close you where to beating the boss).

🛡️Boss shield: I get the idea behing it but I don't like how it works. If the shield is applied every other boss turn and it takes you let's say two turns to break it (happened to me a bunch of times during this event), you may find yourself in an endless loop trying to break it and not doing any damage. It should happen only once, or at least wait for several turns once it's been broken. This way you guarantee that damage can still be done to the boss. It may also be a good idea to increase the drop rate of the needed color (as someone suggested before).

♀️Maybe a female faction boss next time?

Very Glitchy and alot of freezing. Plus nearly impossible to clear out level 10 or higher. You cant make it so you cannot beat it somehow. Was nearly impossible. This is probably my favorite event as you can play at your own pace but please fix the freezing. It is hard to spend 30 minutes in a match for you or one of your teammates to freeze making it impossible to win and a complete waste of time.

I had tons of connection issues. I like the overall idea. And I love that it doesn't take the weekend away. Its a little difficult but the connection difficulties and that dodge aspect along w his other buffs were ...frustrating. I like the game mode overall though

As a whole I really like boss battles and this one was very challenging which made it even more enjoyable. Up to Level 9 it was pretty easy with teamwork, level 10 was the perfect amount of challenge and then level 11 got tough,as it should be. We need to be able to work with our faction to come up with strategies to win. I think you guys have found the perfect spot with this one....except for one thing. Please, please, please remove the ability for the boss to dodge. There is nothing worse than having things set up and Snoop dodges 3 moves in a row and there goes the run, your time, and the other 3 teammates time.

The tour portion of this was perfect, good rewards and the fact that both could be done with free characters left it open for all to do.

As for the events both were great, the ability to get an elite plate in the Tiara for free was a nice addition for the people able to grind.

The fact that Snoop could be obtained for free was awesome, I know you guys can't make a free character each week but I do like when there is one a month we can grind for or get for 20 or less, like Rey and Riddle.

As a whole I would give this event a B+, I'd it wasn't for some connection issues and that dodge would definitely be an A.

Boss Battle was atrocious this go around. It was nearly unplayable with how often it disconnected. The dodge made it ridiculous. The previous ones were much more enjoyable.

The BOSS contest seems glitchy. Connection errors, when knocked out it doesn't return you to the Home Screen, forcing you to quit. Players not hitting Ready. If those items were streamlined and fixed t would be better.

I do like the concept. It can be fun figuring out a good strategy to win.

I also tried to find the rules on the BOSS but can't seem to find any. I am looking for what triggers the Shield from the Boss. That can be impossible to destroy, especially when down to one.

I enjoyed the contest, because it requires more teamwork to defeat the boss, but the interruptions during the battle makes the combat dynamics lose and messes up the experience.

The Contest:

*It was nice to have a 1200-shard recruit. Whether intentional or not, these feel like "you" (Scopely) are trying to make the poster more accessible.

*The talent up-ratio was woefully disproportionate to the other points methods in the Solo Event - you're offering hundreds of thousands of Solo points in tours and offers, but only 132,000 MAX if we raise HOF Talent by 22,000 - the economy is off there.

*It was weird that there was no Faction Contest to go with the Faction Boss Event.

*Since Boss Battles are still new, this really felt like a lot to ask of players on the heels of a pretty demanding Zombie Weeklong Event. Chasing after members to do the Scout Missions, and helping to educate faction members on strategy, who to level up, etc...it was just a lot.

Faction Boss:

*Some people seem to hate this game mode, I really enjoy it.

*It would be great if the player who creates a lobby could also kick someone out of it. Inability to communicate (or someone not responding) can be very frustrating and slows down the game.

*Would strongly suggest removing the "dodge" function in Faction Boss Battles (or if this is not easy to do, just avoid assigning Tricksters as future Bosses). It really impacts the experience negatively.

*The UX for many Faction Boss functions is not very intuitive - where to look for leaderboards, the addition of the nested "Battle Competition" inside the Solo Event, etc. Even the fact that there isn't a Boss Battle banner under "Events" (there is for Showdowns and Feuds).

*The descriptions for Boss Breakers still feels a bit vague - I believe there is still a lot of misunderstanding among players on what to use and when.

Enter me please

Apart from the technical issues, boss battle gets better each time around. New modes take time to get right. The difficulty level from 9 to 10 and 10 to 11 is a bit much I feel. It really brings down the excitement of people.

I like the faction boss battles. They require a team effort. I don't like getting connection issues or freezing to the point I have to restart and am no longer in the fight. The 1200 shards were attainable for a lot of players to get a new character/superstar. Keep that up. At least the players are getting something for there effort. Being able to get the character/superstar without having to put a mortgage payment or entire paycheck into it makes the effort worth it.

I honestly feel bad to see so many still complaining about the connectivity during boss battle because I thought there was some improvement this time out. That said, there's still lag and connection blips that are frustrating.

I am convinced the shield counter is glitched. I watched on several occasions where I would fire off a move, the counter would adjust, and then the cascade would match more yellows and no change to the counter. Something is wrong there. It is not instantaneous. I was watching.

There needs to be better transparency to the rewards for winning at each level and with each type. I can't keep track, very frustrating.

I've seen others talking about how easy it was to get this card...I didn't experience that at all. Barely got over half way. I hate the lack of shard bags in these events all year so far.

I, too, have always hated the dodge. Get rid of it. Both for tricksters and acros.

So, other than the boss battle this was just another lackluster event like every other one you've run this year. Boss battle, good time. It needs some work but we understand that. I hope you'll make the needed tweaks for greater transparency. Need to fix the timer issues (moves not running to completion at the end of a turn, long animations burning too much time).

Boss battle is a solid 7. Overall event, maybe a 4.

Trickster bosses just annoying. Not like on Defense the player could dodge.

Removing the points for scoring Boss coins in the Solo competition knowing that the Faction Placement included the Boss coins is brutal.

You can't change scoring in the middle of a event. If your intentions were for the Faction coins not to count towards solo, then END THE SOLO AT THE SAME TIME!

I should have achieved the final solo milestone.

Not sure how you can call a mode "Beta" yet incorporate P2P aspects.

Faction Boss Feedback…

To start, global match making was completely broken, every time you joined a party, it would give the “session has already started” and you would be stuck in the lobby and each time you clicked the ready button, the error just kept popping up, and it wouldn’t even allow you to exit the lobby. Guess that’s why it’s named Faction Boss, but I prefer to work with faction members anyway, so let’s get to the real feedback…

So let’s start with the lobby. Moving forward, if the faction boss is going to be the next latest and greatest game mode, then we need better lobby management, we should be able to create a “closed” lobby to where we invite select individuals to make it less painful for people trying to do the higher levels without low talent popping into the lobby, or actually have the Faction Bosses life scale to the selected talent for those that have joined the game lobby. A true game mode shouldn’t hold you back and keep you from playing if you are at a lower talent, this makes a lot of faction players feel like they can’t participate and it draws them away from ever playing that game mode, and eventually draws them away from playing the entire game. Structure the lobby with normal, hard, hell modes, or just plainly make the Faction Boss scale by talent level, this would generate more players and more fun all around. But we definitely need a private lobby if it is going to continue on “as is”.

Ok let’s jump to the beef of the feedback…

The Faction Boss: Definitely a challenge to find the right people to make progression, not a huge deal for anyone with a team of 5 star gold players. To where the main issue is, make the faction boss playable for more of the community, instead of the top 100 factions. You could always make it a better game mode if you allowed everyone a “Faction Boss Trial Character” completely maxed out, so that everyone can participate on equal levels, or allow them to choose one of their own characters and it ramps them up to maxed levels, this would allow more participation and a better understanding to those under talent members that can’t get pass level 3 or 4 without being carried.

The next Mechanic that needs to be addressed is the “block/evade” the faction boss was doing. The Faction Bosses shouldn’t get the regular trickster bonuses, on top of there Boss bonus skills, especially when we are on a time limit and constantly stuck multiple times with connectivity errors from your servers. Sometimes we loose 15 to 20 seconds with our characters dancing around waiting for the servers to align everyone back up, and it’s a good thing for Discord, because the entire group confirmed it did the exact same thing to them.

Also allow a ten second window at the end of the players turn, or a countdown timer to apply any skill to the board after it is played, if the game lags, or the animation runs to long, you loose being able to place anything on the gem board, so a timer, or a few second window to allow the move should keep it from auto going directly to the Faction Bosses turn.

Now the most important feedback:

Change up the Faction Bosses Shield, it should be every three moves, or have at least two different colors to break at the same time, all most all characters have skill sets that run two color sets, so why is the Faction Boss making it more difficult with just one color? But the reality is, no one wants to play this game mode for 20 minutes because the boss is constantly behind a shield, and it makes it completely unplayable for lower talent members, or anyone that does not have a character that can break a single color quick enough to ever break through the shield, it just frustrates them into not wanting to play. Quick fix, have the Faction Boss scale, and make it three turns before the boss can apply the shield again, or scrap the entire shield and make the boss have more health, and hit a little harder. The shield does allow opportunity for actual faction strategy, but it shouldn’t be so overwhelming that it makes the entire adventure seem completely worthless.

Me and my faction members were able to complete Level 9, which was quite enjoyable but it required a lot of strategy.

With a little more enhanced development, this could become a masterpiece.

~Tigershadow