League imbalances

[sigma29]

I feel that the changes made to leagues have made competing even worse than before. Before all the big updates there were people that would camp lower leagues but now with Girls being obtainable and rebalanced rewards there are even more high level players than before in lower leagues. I am in Sexpert 3 at the moment and almost half of the lobby is over level 400.

Has anyone else found that its gotten worse lately? Kinkoid should make it that you can't demote if you are over a certain level for certain leagues.

[FinderKeeper]

Before coming to any conclusions, first I'd try asking in "how are you doing in the league" thread to gather stats and screenshots from s2-s3-d1-d2 leagues.

You may be right and people are hunting in easier leagues. But also it might point to the state of inflation of higher leagues with end-game players who push down even lvl400 players.

[Liliat]

In D1, we also have 50% of lvl 400+ players. But I've been comfortably doing Top 16-30 for months, and it doesn't get any harder so far (lvl 305~355). I should probably aim for D2 soon, but last time I tried I lost Dolly, so I'll be a bit more patient

In D1, most players are unboosted a lot of the time, so if you use (free) boosters, fights are easy.

But player levels don't really matter on lower leagues. What matters is your own ranking. Unboosted and inactive high-level players are easy wins (And if they were active, they wouldn't go all the way down to S3. Even at my level - 355 - D1 is easy, and I face 400 or 450+ every day). So, what's your typical rank? Do you use boosters? Did you awaken your girls?

[JustVisitingReborn]

I've got to agree with @Liliat. I'm sitting at level 361 (362 by the end of today). I've been in D2 for 10 weeks now and I'm very comfortably hitting 16-20 every week. There are only 23 players lower than level 400, and I'm the 3rd lowest level player this week. It will still be straight foward this week and I'll have to consciously manage my play not to promote. I'll be looking to promote possibly by the end of the year, if not sometime in January.

And while I understand these higher level players in lower leagues can be frustrating, they're not 'good' higher level players if they've gone down to squat in S3. If I can survive in D2, a player with 40 levels on me easily can too and the rewards for a 16-30 D2 finish are better than all but 1st place in S3. That tells you that either these players have taken a few weeks off and aren't actively engaged (easier to beat as they'll likely be unboosted a lot of the time) or they're not playing optimally and can't actually compete with players of their own level.

[FinderKeeper]

That's interesting. Thanks!

I wonder. How would you say: did it change recently? did those easier lvl 400+ players try to awaken their girls?

[Liliat]

Il y a 1 heure, FinderKeeper a dit :

I wonder. How would you say: did it change recently? did those easier lvl 400+ players try to awaken their girls?

In D1, awakening made it easier for active players. The lvl 450+ in these leagues don't go beyond lvl 500 girls (Probably for a lack of preparation before the patch, they don't have enough gems or books yet), whereas I got an immediate +100 level on my PvP team (And just waiting for the next Girls XP contest to reach lvl 500).

But I can imagine that it's a different story for players who don't look at the test server and/or forum, as being caught off-guard by this patch was not ideal. I was lucky enough to reach lvl 351, just three days before the patch, and then I had enough books stored to level up all important girls immediately. That made a big difference.

In general, among the Top 15 players of D1, I only see a few with properly awakened girls. For example, right now, I see 4 players (And that's already a new record ) :

- lvl 298 with lvl 450 team 👍

- lvl 379 with lvl 450 team (5/7)

- lvl 408 with lvl 500 team (3/7)

- lvl 434 with lvl 500 team

(And myself, lvl 358 with lvl 451 team)

And that's it for the Top 15 (But of course, it's a new league, so that doesn't mean much right now). So, nothing too impressive. We'll see if the next XP Contest encourages players to unlock new caps, or if they're already maxed out.

[JustVisitingReborn]

1 hour ago, FinderKeeper said:

How would you say: did it change recently?

If this question is for me rather than the OP, if I'm honest, I'm reluctant to say whether it has.

I've progressed pretty quickly imo. 10 weeks in D2 - I'd promote now if there wasn't a part of me that was still worried that I might just be getting lucky draws!

Sticking to facts rather than my conjecture - today I've had 3 wins against a level 464:

They only had a single girl Awakened beyond their level. Comparatively, I had my entire team Awakened to level 450.

3 wins agains a level 463:

Every girl was Awakened beyond their level, but the max was 472! and the team seemed to be woefully sub-optimal.

Two wins and a loss against a 458. Highest level is 461, so I suspect they were past level 450 when Awakenings came into play and haven't actually taken advantage of the increase level they could achieve. I also clearly caught them unboosted as the sim shows 12.18% win chance, when it will have been 50-60% when I played.

So, yeah, I think a lot of these players still are not taking advantage of the Awakenings. But I was managing fine in D2 prior to the Awakening system as well, so while I think a lot of these players could have rocketed ahead with Awakenings, the fact that a player ~100 levels lower than them was beating them before Awakenings suggests to me that their team choice is sub-optimal, they are not using booster or they are not using their equipment effectively

[JustVisitingReborn]

 

3 wins against a level 454 - all of their team at level 500.

That was a little lucky, given this was a 50/50 toss up, but still, almost 100 levels ahead of me......

MODS! - I can't delete the repeat screenshots below

MODEDIT: Tada! -FinderKeeper

 

[bohammettuz]

To add some anecdata, my experience pretty much mirrors JustVisiting.

I’m level 377 now, and have been in D2 for quite some time. Ever since the awakenings patch, when I pushed my PvP girls to level 500 immediately, I’ve been having a hard time avoiding promotion to D3. Effectively I have to take 2 days a week off from the league to avoid a top 15 (probably top 4, never 1st) placement.

I do play actively, and I pay attention to the colors/elements of teams, having prepared teams for 5 colors (plus a rainbow default team). I don’t use any boosters lately.

Right now 2/3 of the league members are over level 400 and 1/5 is over 450.
And 1 is below level 300.

[Kaitana]

Il y a 2 heures, JustVisitingReborn a dit :

So, yeah, I think a lot of these players still are not taking advantage of the Awakenings. But I was managing fine in D2 prior to the Awakening system as well, so while I think a lot of these players could have rocketed ahead with Awakenings, the fact that a player ~100 levels lower than them was beating them before Awakenings suggests to me that their team choice is sub-optimal, they are not using booster or they are not using their equipment effectively

I agree, but I even think that a significant number of players don't know the Awakenings, and then can't use Awakenings. I'm very surprised at how many players don't read patch notes, but it's huge, and players who read the patchnote and decide not to use gems exist too (probably because according to them there are no advantages with this system). I would add that the further down we go in the leagues, the less players are involved in the game, so the easier the victories are.

I think that's for these three reasons 400+ go down, not because they're especially bad players. They are not the first reason why I have to use boosters if a want a fair place, but can't be forgotten either.

[sigma29]

8 hours ago, Liliat said:

In D1, we also have 50% of lvl 400+ players. But I've been comfortably doing Top 16-30 for months, and it doesn't get any harder so far (lvl 305~355). I should probably aim for D2 soon, but last time I tried I lost Dolly, so I'll be a bit more patient

In D1, most players are unboosted a lot of the time, so if you use (free) boosters, fights are easy.

But player levels don't really matter on lower leagues. What matters is your own ranking. Unboosted and inactive high-level players are easy wins (And if they were active, they wouldn't go all the way down to S3. Even at my level - 355 - D1 is easy, and I face 400 or 450+ every day). So, what's your typical rank? Do you use boosters? Did you awaken your girls?

Its possible I have been getting unlucky the last few weeks, but my current level is 316. A lot of the people I am seeing are using level 450-500 girls, I tend to be using level 400-450. the issue is people are boosted a lot of the time and the extra raw stats they are getting from their levels make it hard. I can fairly consistently rank anywhere between 45 and 16 in the Brackets so I don't promote.

However it does get a bit frustrating to see such a wide disparity in power within the same bracket sometime. I tried promoting to D1 a few weeks ago and it was pretty mental so I just let myself go back down.

[Attirm]

4 hours ago, Liliat said:

(And just waiting for the next Girls XP contest to reach lvl 500).

We have one today on Nutaku. I used the opportunity to awaken a bunch of girls and complete my level 550 pyramid so I now have my first level 600 girls. I've only got 2 at the moment, but by the time next week's blessings roll around I will be fielding a full level 600 battle team.

Sitting in D3, I can see both extremes. On the one hand I see players who were grandfathered to level 500 and spent their gems wisely are already at level 650 (and you don't even need bundles to do that, just make sure to spend the gems efficiently). On the other hand I see players who were grandfathered to level 500 who are still sitting at level 500 and haven't made any attempt to use the new awakening system. Because of all the complacent players, I was able to take 10th place in D3 when the league ended this morning with my level 550 team. And I'm only getting stronger.

When I look at the testimonials of level 300-ish players who are thriving in D2, I see future D3 contenders. You guys are going to keep getting stronger, and there is no shortage of complacent players just waiting for you to overtake them. At the same time, that means these players are eventually going to end up falling down to lower leagues. My only advice is to stay on top of your awakenings. Low-level players can aim high now, but if you get complacent there's an avalanche of higher-level players who are going to come tumbling down on top of you.

[JustVisitingReborn]

9 hours ago, Kaitana said:

I agree, but I even think that a significant number of players don't know the Awakenings, and then can't use Awakenings. I'm very surprised at how many players don't read patch notes, but it's huge, and players who read the patchnote and decide not to use gems exist too (probably because according to them there are no advantages with this system).

I completely agree. My single biggest concern about the ongoing "improvements" to the game is that every new feature makes the game more complex. That raises the entry level. We need new players coming in to balance older players leaving. If the game becomes too complex and fiddly, there will be no-one left here to play against...... In that respect I think the gem system is certainly a big risk for KK.

Edited December 10, 2021 by JustVisitingReborn

[Kaitana]

yes it's a risk.

But maybe not too high, because old players avoiding gems will go down, and new players using gems will go up. In a few month competitivity will probably be restored in higher leagues (except if end-BDSM releases a new storm, who knows ?). It's good for lesser leagues too, because we see high levels there for ages, but now it's possible (not always easy, of course) to beat them, if they avoid gems (and it's frequent, those who use gems are in general competitive and often in a league fitting their level).