Marching Fire - Arcade Mode Feedback | Forums

[EvoX.]

1. Rewards need to be increased, considerably

2. A bit more uniqueness to the mode would be great, maybe add in a Breach commander or specific missions like the texts before starting imply.

3. In my opinion, although it happens rarely, only one combination of buffs/debuffs should be disallowed from happening - Unable to Parry (debuff) + All attacks are Unblockable (enemy buff). Happened only 2 times in my ~40 completed Arcade quests, but both times were just inexplicably aggravating and difficult.

[Wookiescantfly]

Having only played it on the hardest difficulty, probably because I'm insane, I found the Arcade mode a little wanting.

The Pros:

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> Incredibly challenging at times, in a fair way
> Certain multipliers force you to think creatively with the hero you're using.
> Certain encounters have potential to rile you up in the same way an intense duel with another player can
> It's a PVE game mode I can play with a friend.

The Cons:

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> By no means at all, do the rewards appropriately reflect the absurd difficulty of this game mode at the highest difficulty.
> Certain multipliers are far too strong and can make a hero you're well versed in fighting an absolute nightmare. Two anecdotal instances of this. Centurion with all attacks unblockable + all attacks stun. 2 Berserkers with a healing passive so strong that a single heavy restores half of their health or better (that is no exaggeration, I wish I had screenshots to show you what I mean).
> Due to the previously stated point, there are a lot of times where the game mode feels difficult for the sake of being difficult rather than just being a challenge to overcome.
> Being unable to stop in the middle of a sequence similar to a checkpoint system limits this game mode to being something that you have to know beyond a reasonable doubt you can commit the time to completing it without distractions or interference.

QoL changes I can suggest:

Spoiler:  Show

> Tuning the multipliers and the enemy AI just a tad so as not to completely overwhelm some of us playing this by ourselves, but also implement a system that increases difficulty based on how many players are in the match. Borderlands is an example worth noting.
> Increase the rewards for this game mode a little bit.
> Allow for 4 players to increase possibilities
> Give an option for matchmaking that has to be turned on if the player desires it.
> Give players an option to leave in the intermission between arcade stages similar to a checkpoint system with an option to resume their previous challenge when they reenter the arcade mode.

[TheScoundel]

This mode gives me no choices but finding another player to coop with. Just 30 mins ago, I tried on weekly quest and got beaten by spamming light and heavy attack, tackles and bleeding damages from 2 shamans and super-fast zone attack which take me down from kensei. LV.3 BOTS.
Taken several damages from footmen(halloween), I raged quit from mission 3. From my opinion, gear is useless.
Even you got 180, you still got same perks as 96.
Reward is unworthy, same reasons as those who came before me in this thread.

Am I not strong enough? Am I too nerd for this mode?

[Peenoise.PH]

can you just give us a matchmaking for arcade owners?

not everyone has friends to play with, and the looking for group thread is so dead

[Sano_Ichiro]

I honestly think the arcade mode itself is fun sometimes and utterly awful other times. I understand that the usual arcade quests being random in combination with the hero of choice makes it a game of luck sometimes, but I never had too much of a hard time to make it on any difficulty. It still needs some work.
For the weekly quest though... It is absolute trash. Sure, it is supposed to be for high level players. That's ok. But depending on which hero you pick, it doesn't have to do anything with skill.
Especially since it's "hand made" it feels extremely badly done. Outright lazy. The amount of time you'd have to put into it and the rewards are absolutely unbalanced.
Is there even anyone out there who made the 3rd mission with Orochi? Reading about all the people who actually made it, they just rely on ledging. And that's it. Is this supposed to be fun? Repeatedly getting beaten into the dust until you finally somehow manage to ledge them all?
Please listen to the feedback, because this is a disaster.

[Peenoise.PH]

I honestly think the arcade mode itself is fun sometimes and utterly awful other times. I understand that the usual arcade quests being random in combination with the hero of choice makes it a game of luck sometimes, but I never had too much of a hard time to make it on any difficulty. It still needs some work.
For the weekly quest though... It is absolute trash. Sure, it is supposed to be for high level players. That's ok. But depending on which hero you pick, it doesn't have to do anything with skill.
Especially since it's "hand made" it feels extremely badly done. Outright lazy. The amount of time you'd have to put into it and the rewards are absolutely unbalanced.
Is there even anyone out there who made the 3rd mission with Orochi? Reading about all the people who actually made it, they just rely on ledging. And that's it. Is this supposed to be fun? Repeatedly getting beaten into the dust until you finally somehow manage to ledge them all?
Please listen to the feedback, because this is a disaster.

I never got past the 3rd mission, those minions blocking the ledge zone is too much for my shinobi ( I only have shinobi with legend gears) not to mention those 2 shamans that is faster than shinobi and chase you before you even kill the minions blocking the way.

[NNKaliasME]

The weekly quest is just frustrating and no fun.
a random chance for a reward. You have to get lucky to get the right version of the reward for the right character. You have a better chance surviving a russian roulette with 5 bullets in the revolver and you'd probably have more fun doing that.
I'm sorry if I sound aggressive but thats the effects of your new "fun" chellenge that is frustrating. How are normal people supposed to get anything out of this weekly quests?

[Eisenwolf.]

Well, I'm going to quote myself from another thread.

The third match vs 2x Shaman + 1x Kensei is solo really tough - as assassine even more (tried it with Nuxia). I got one shaman down so far...
Those modifiers doesn't make sense at all in this matchup.

I've heard the fourth is vs. 3x Shaman's? Well then, happy Halloween LUL.


PS: Arcade Mode itself is more about abusing AI behavior and make use of glitches than demonstrating skill or technique. If the AI is literally reading my input to use it against me, then this isn't fun at all - it is just poor designed difficulty (and also shows flaws in a characters moveset or game mechanics itself). Especially when there are two or more opponents at one time who have cc in there moveset it gets ugly.

Just an idea for the future:
Remember Story Mode, where you could choose from a pool of feats?
Make it available for (solo) Weekly Quest or even for Random Quests.

[KamaKitty]

With the recent release of the first weekly Arcade quest, I was very excited to try my hand at it. In the course of about 4 hours or so, I have been able to complete the quest roughly 5 times or so as Shinobi. While I find the tailored quest and exclusive reward to be very interesting weekly content, I must comment on Chapter 3 of the first Weekly quest. With the current modifiers, I personally feel like it is nearly impossible to complete this specific chapter in a timely manner as such a low health character as Shinobi. Even with my gear score at 180, receiving massively boosted damage numbers from the heavy attacks from the Shamans in this chapter feels very unfair as a player, taking as much as 45 damage from her unblockable heavy and 56 damage from Shaman's bite attacks. Normally, the bite attack from Shaman would not be so threatening in a general game mode, but the fact that one of the Shamans possesses bleed on any attack makes the threat of an incoming bite extremely oppressive. In addition to this, the state of being out numbered by 2 Shamans results any many instances of the player being completely stun locked until they are killed even if they make the slightest mistake. As a Shinobi, the incredibly low health pool results in an almost guaranteed death the very moment the player is pounced on or knocked to the floor by the Undead Kensei in this chapter. Additionally, the inclusion of the Halloween soldiers cluttering around the general vicinity adds a very large challenge to players that struggle with this chapter as the ability to get an environmental kill is extremely difficult with the presence of these soldiers. While I personally think it is a good idea to discourage players from relying on instant-kills from the environment for this special quest, I also find that standing near the ledge even without the threat of the soldiers is already extremely dangerous due to the Undead Kensei's ability to knock down the player on top of the high likelihood that one of the two Shaman's may push the player off the ledge anyway. Additionally, as mentioned before, it feels extremely over-punishing to me as a player with 180 gear score to be taking so much extra damage during a quest that has a recommended gear score of at least 162. I feel that a difference of 18 gear score at this high of a gear level should make a big enough impact to be at least reducing the damage the player receives during these weekly quests, even if they are meant to be exceptionally difficult. Finally, I feel that the random chance to receive an effect from the weekly quest is too low if the average completion time for the quest is anywhere from 45-60 minutes. For me personally, I feel that Chapter 3 alone makes the attempts for the exclusive effect exceptionally difficult and discouraging when I can clear the other Chapters for the quest in roughly 5-10 minutes compared to the 30-45 minutes for the third chapter alone.

-Conclusions-

- Chapter 3 in the weekly quest feels extremely hard as low health Heroes, particularly Shinobi
- The modifiers for Chapter 3 specifically feel too harsh, for example, the bleed on one of the Shamans makes this chapter extremely difficult
- The AI for Chapter 3 is extremely aggressive, causing many cases of 100 - Death scenarios, which feel very unfun
- The effect drop rate is very low for a quest that has very high time investment, feeling severely unsatisfying for a player
- The high difficulty of the quest is a fun and interesting new idea, but having one chapter being dynamically more difficult as specific heroes feels very unrewarding

[p6l9zq]

Honestly the drop chances for the weekly quest rewards are way too low, like how is someone who is new to the game (like me) supposed to farm them if this quest is pretty much just possible with highend gear and a ton of skill? and IF they finally finish it, they dont even get something.., I finished it 6 times in like 6 hours now with ALOT of help from a friend who is rep 70, and i just got my drop for the first guaranteed one. Like from my experience its not even possible to get all effects in 1 week. I really like the idea of it, but i think it should be a guaranteed drop for the Hero that you used in that completion, since its REALLY hard even for veterans of this game AND we payed money for that.