Sniping sucks.

[GeorgeMTO]

19 minutes ago, Karyia said:

Well, that depends on what you consider strategy lol I consider "managing" a 3-day period like strategy. There's no such thing now.

But the real problem is that my final ranking isn't really up to me anymore 🙄 

It never was up to you. It was always reliant on snipers. It's just that with 3, there were better chances snipers would focus elsewhere compared to certain contests. The flaw with the current one day contest cycles is NOT sniping, it's that it's always disadvantageous to certain people based on their sleep schedule.

[Karyia]

Just now, GeorgeMTO said:

It never was up to you. It was always reliant on snipers. It's just that with 3, there were better chances snipers would focus elsewhere compared to certain contests. The flaw with the current one day contest cycles is NOT sniping, it's that it's always disadvantageous to certain people based on their sleep schedule.

I would say neither of us is exactly right  

On a larger period, I could (potentially) do enough to create enough difference so that I could finish in an expected ranking "interval".

Those (eventual) margins are (mostly if not always) gone.

I fully agree with your 3rd and 4th sentences 👍

Let's not forget that I can be sniping too  😅 and therefor, it would still be up to me (obviously, depending on whatever the others did)  

We can only do what is up to us, in a (now more, and further critically) restricted time period.

Having said that, IMO, the game went backwards. But that's just my opinion, for what it's worth.

[MisterCat]

So as people have pointed out, the key to sniping (no matter if you enjoy it, hate it, laugh when you steal a prize at the last second, ect) is that players know to the second when a contest ends.  It would be easy enough to set up the various contests so that they end without notice,  at a random time.  

 

For example, imagine a contest that runs for 24 hours + 0-10,800 seconds (0-3 hours) random time.  The server calculates when during the random time frame the contest actually ends, but doesn't tell anyone.  When end is reached (and only the server knows the actual time), the results are tabulated by the server but held secret till the end of the 3 hour window.   During the random window, players are free to do whatever they want, but due to the uncertainty of the actual end point they can't be certain if what they are doing will have any effect on the actual outcome.  The game plays as normal, but anything done after the secret end time has only the effect of costing resources of the player involved. 

For a cautious players, they can stop at 24 hours.  For players that want to gamble, they can continue to play into the random window.  They are essentially betting their resources against whether the secret end time has been reached.  It's up to each player  to determine risk vs reward when playing into the random time frame.  It is this random factor that will limit sniping, since it drastically changes the expected return equation.

3 hours is a bit arbitrary.  An hour might be long enough.  Depending on how the devs feel about moving contest ending times to different time zones, the duration (base + random) to keep things as they are now, or set up contests that shift the ending time around the various time zones so that everyone gets a chance to be awake/playing during the random time windows.   

 

[_shal_]

Yes, what this game desperately requires is more features based on gambling and RNG.

[Ben9]

They should change each contest to be a random duration between 12 and 36 hours so that we get a decent spread of end times that favour no region in particular.  It would add more RNG but it would give more people a fair shot at trying to win and make things a bit more interesting to have short contests too.  I agree sniping sucks in its current format but only because they end at 4am for me which is way too much effort!

[ShadowHaamu]

There is actually very easy way to fix contest sniping. Simply don't show the players score until the event is actually over. You might see the players names that happen to be in the same group as you, but not their score. 

With this everyone is equal position and have to ask themselves that " do I want to gamble here and if I do, how far I'm willing to go?" 

This would also make these contests much more stratagic, because you would actually check the players profiles for level and number of girls and make your strategy based on that. But in this kind of conclusion drawing, there is nothing certain and surprises could happen. But, like I said, everyone would then be equal here and "sniping" would become useless as no one knows anyone else scores. 

[_shal_]

Yes, blind auction contests! That totally doesn't favour whale players or anything.

Edit:

11 hours ago, ShadowHaamu said:

This would also make these contests much more stratagic, because you would actually check the players profiles for level and number of girls and make your strategy based on that. 

You should try that sometime, see how you get on in actually deriving useful information about players' likely contest handling from their profile data. Make sure you check all 49/50 opponents to be properly thorough. Then keep that up for, let's say, two weeks, and report back if it was worth the effort.

Edited February 10, 2020 by _shal_

[ShadowHaamu]

3 hours ago, _shal_ said:

Yes, blind auction contests! That totally doesn't favour whale players or anything.

Edit:

You should try that sometime, see how you get on in actually deriving useful information about players' likely contest handling from their profile data. Make sure you check all 49/50 opponents to be properly thorough. Then keep that up for, let's say, two weeks, and report back if it was worth the effort.

Well, it wouldn't be any worse than what it is right now. The currrent system also favors whale players, even more so than what I suggested. As with the current system, whales know exactly how much effort and material they need to spend to not overspend it. But with blind system, it's possible that their normal amount of spending isn't enough and they would have to think of how far to go and risk things. 

There is also added benefit. If you have this blind system and really competitive whales. they will probably have "bidding wars" where they will crossly over pay for winning prices for first few events and it that way wasting their resources and money. That will then give smarter players and even free players better chances, when these whales have wasted their chances in some events. 

 

As for keeping up with other players in your bracket are you actually saying that you already don't check the other people profiles? That you won't see your competition during say pachinko contests or most of the others? Because if you don't, it's kinda of foolish.

For these contests, it has huge impact on your chances to do well, if you contest bracket have players with over over 300 girls (my current "Minds and bodies synergy "contest have players with 375 seduced girl) or players with 200 +/- girls and what their level is. Knowing the amount of girls or players lvl can tell you, if you have any change at all to get in top positions. As if you got lots of high lvl/girl number players in your contest bracket, you will know that you might not want to waste your resources to a fight you're disadvantaged from the start. 

[jelom]

2 hours ago, ShadowHaamu said:

For these contests, it has huge impact on your chances to do well, if you contest bracket have players with over over 300 girls (my current "Minds and bodies synergy "contest have players with 375 seduced girl) or players with 200 +/- girls and what their level is. Knowing the amount of girls or players lvl can tell you, if you have any change at all to get in top positions. As if you got lots of high lvl/girl number players in your contest bracket, you will know that you might not want to waste your resources to a fight you're disadvantaged from the start. 

You forgot to also check their weekly and all time leaderboard place in all 8 categories. Repeat this for 49 players day after day ... (bonus, you can also make some calculations involving total number of girls, affection and harem level ...) but in the end this won't say you when a player will snipe and how hard he will hit.

[blaa]

I dont know what effort you put into this, but mine is pretty minimal; i check 15 minutes before it ends - if there is a reasonable price to pay, i will try it with "sniping", if not, i dont care ... not really a lot to do.

Sometime, in the villians contest, i decide it earlier because I have to choose the villian I am going to fight ... but that's basicaly it. 

And I did win a lot of them, since i am in the 361+ it got worse, naturally

[casey]

it all depends on if your the sniper or the snipee

[blaa]

Mh, just to add some fuel to the fire, my 'sniping' rewards the last 3 days:

I still think it's crazy how much more you have spend in the highest bracket to gain a good placement (for instance I had almost 100 victories in the arena but still needed to invest another 16M ymen to get a top4, top1 would also have been possible, but with another 50M to spend)

Of course I 'sniped' them all, first contest i had 100 points more (5,1k), third contest I had aroudn 100k more (3,006,xxx), and 2nd around 200 points).

Obviously I wouldnt say I sniped them, I just woke up 15-30 minutes before day change (where I was in all 3 contest number 11 tops) and started playing the game ...

If you would make a rule for the end, you should also for the beginning, maybe like everybody who hasnt committed in the first 5 minutes cant participate the whole day (irony)

[Тёмный Властелин]

19 minutes ago, blaa said:

Obviously I wouldnt say I sniped them, I just woke up 15-30 minutes before day change (where I was in all 3 contest number 11 tops) and started playing the game ...

I do just the same thing. I wake up 20 minutes before the reset and try to get top 1. Sometimes, some top players are around too, so it becomes really peculiar: who has better Internet connection, who is the fastest, who is the last, who is not greedy in the end and commits more. Sometimes server lag interferes, especially when there is Tower of Fame weekly reset - if you try to get the last hand in, approximately, 5 seconds before the reset, you may end up not being able to enter the contest page.

Sometimes I have to spend cobans to be first, refilling combativity or energy, or arena tickets. I end up getting 40 cobans less (if I refill energy, for example), than I would get if I take the second place, but I think it is worth the effort, cause: 1) the refill payment is almost free of charge (if you take the first place in comparison you being second) and you proceed with the story and get experience 2) you don't give cobans to your opponent which, surprisingly, in my case, is a huge motivation LUL 3) you win, and a win is always a win, you feel really good

It's a pity Kinkoid patched the contest system to only 1 contest a day. Watching and acting in 3 separate things, having different times and going simultaneously, was fun.

[1tst1]

I think the 26 hours idea is great, so everybody can enjoy contest and tower weeks ending conveniently in the evening, not only the Americas.

[Dr. Lust]

It's too bad there is no easy way to subdivide players into time zones so players in the same or adjacent time zones can compete on separate contests.  Divide the contest to include 4 time zones.

But to return the thread back to it's original content, yes, sniping sucks.

Edited February 15, 2020 by Dr. Lust

[Hotless]

8 hours ago, Dr. Lust said:

But to return the thread back to it's original content, yes, sniping sucks.

Not for those who snipe and win!

[Тёмный Властелин]

8 hours ago, Dr. Lust said:

sniping sucks

I disagree. Yesterday there was a money contest. The 1st guy had 10800 points - payed 5.4kk Ymens. If you don't have free Ymens, you can't snipe - that's it. To get to the 4th you had to pay 3.5kk. I thought that through and decided to aim for 5-11, cause 3.5kk is a very huge investment for me. Today there is another veteran daddy friendly contest - boss battle. If you're in the lands of the dead or magic forest, you can't beat guys who are 3-4 worlds ahead. So, it's not entirely about sniping (which is a game design feature - the contest has to start and end at some point, right?) but more about the advantage that some of the players have from the very beginning.

[jelom]

4 hours ago, Тёмный Властелин said:

If you're in the lands of the dead or magic forest, you can't beat guys who are 3-4 worlds ahead.

Contests are the only feature of the game were players are segregated by level, so there is not such great advantage for veteran players. For example you are level 192, so in your contest are only people from level 161-200. If they have 3 worlds advantage over you then you are doing poor or you have encontered one of the few whales that soon will leave that group.

[GeorgeMTO]

4 minutes ago, jelom said:

Contests are the only feature of the game were players are segregated by level, so there is not such great advantage for veteran players. For example you are level 192, so in your contest are only people from level 161-200. If they have 3 worlds advantage over you then you are doing poor or you have encontered one of the few whales that soon will leave that group.

They could also have one of those weird people who don't level up and just advance the story.

[Тёмный Властелин]

duplicate

Edited February 16, 2020 by Тёмный Властелин
duplicate

[Тёмный Властелин]

2 hours ago, GeorgeMTO said:

They could also have one of those weird people who don't level up and just advance the story.

That's the case. Now I have 2 people from Digisekai, 1 from Ninja Sacred Lands, 3 from Heroes University, 1 from Hamelin, 1 from the Land of Rituals. All of them are now top 10 in the contest and equal or below my level. I am in Magic Forest.

2 hours ago, GeorgeMTO said:

then you are doing poor

Well, I disagree. I am currently second (but that's not for a long time, I presume). I saved 19 boss battles before the start of the day. That's the strategy, right? To save energy, Tower battles (XP) and boss battles to do better in the contest next day.

Edited February 16, 2020 by Тёмный Властелин

[blaa]

36 minutes ago, Тёмный Властелин said:

 

Well, I disagree. I am currently second (but that's not for a long time, I presume). I saved 19 boss battles before the start of the day. That's the strategy, right? To save energy, Tower battles (XP) and boss battles to do better in the contest next day.

that's the strategy, i am even saving my league rewards atm since I am demoting from d3 to d2 - but so far there was no villian contest

And: I dont think you must play every contest, there are some you can easily just give up and focus on some other goals

Edited February 16, 2020 by blaa

[Тёмный Властелин]

4 minutes ago, blaa said:

I dont think you must play every contest, there are some you can easily just give up and focus on some other goals

Perhaps. The thing is that contests give tickets, and now it's almost the only reliable way to get them. Today in the daily missions I didn't get any ticket rewards at all. Tickets are VERY important. They are Ymens and items progression. And a reliable chance to get legendary girl from the champs (not any more, by the way) LUL. So, that's why I'm in the tryhard mode for the contests.