I’ve seen it thrown around over the years. Not THAT often, but still there. What were the pros of such a change?
I guess Blizzard may like this if it hits a CO who needs leveling up, incentivizing players to buy them (if they’re not part of the 3 freebies), and to otherwise play more to maintain a larger player base. However, some players have also been pushing for a “random CO, but only those you already own” feature.
OTOH, the reason why there’s bonus XP for Random Missions is to ease with matchmaking. It’s a powerful push to get people to pick random, which makes it faar easier to get games going vs. if more people pick specific maps. Unlike maps that must be the same, COs must be different. You really only get 5 to 10 minute wait times just after a new CO is released, and some fans rush to try them out ASAP.
I’d normally be all in favor of bonus XP for picking random commander, but there’s one big problem with it: I predict it would lead to a dramatic increase in players quitting immediately upon the mission starting, as players who randomly get assigned one of their least favorite commanders quit to try again. This is less of a problem now because there is no benefit to picking random, so players with commanders they really don’t enjoy usually don’t pick random to begin with. But if you incentivize it, suddenly it’s a tempting choice even for players who don’t want to play 50% or more of the commanders and are willing to keep retrying until they get one of their favorites.
I don’t think it’s a problem to add this despite some people’s doom and gloom over the years. Many don’t benefit from this even now (as there are a lot player at 1k).
On the topic of more experience, players past m90 always have the choice to pick instead of random. The common anti-reason is “it pushes for players to random”. I don’t see this as a con at all because:
Many complain of poorly skilled players (part of that reason is they don’t play other commanders or even other styles).
Adding incentive this way isn’t necessarily going to make everyone pick Random (because by that same reasoning, we shouldn’t have experience in mutation - and that’s another can of worms).
It definitely improve queue times.
But I am sure this topic will be met the same way as it always have been in the past. People who quit because they didn’t get what they liked will always do that. A little 25% exp isn’t going to change their behaviour.
If we’re adding EXP to Random CO, can we finally get Random CO to stop choosing commanders I don’t own?
I’d think changing that alone would be a massive QoL change that would prompt more players to use it, since it’s been flawed like this since day one of Random CO existing.
Wait, I am confused, is Randomizer Bonus for commanders live? I just went to Co-op and went to Randomizer option for Commanders, I am not seeing a bonus there. Granted, I didn’t actually press Play.
That said, them adding a Random Commander bonus would show very clearly that they’re listening to us and trying to add content we’d like. I personally only play Tychus (and I could pull my weight with a couple other commanders) but I’d never be able to pull off a Randomizer for Commanders on Brutal – but there are many others on forums who are otherwise, and for them, this would be a great way to get more XP.
There are so many things I would prefer they fix before giving the random commander option an XP bonus, namely that it can give you commanders you don’t own. Inadvertently getting crippled like that is really not a good practice, so realistically it means you can only use the function if you own all the commanders and have them at a high enough level to play on your difficulty.
A reason for me to sometimes use random is because it kinda adds some adrenaline for the lack of a better word. I can’t plan ahead my Mastery points (so I put them to be more generally viable) and I have to start thinking of build order and such during the loading screen. It keeps things fresh for longer, but I am sad that there’s no bonus whatsoever. I played loads of allrandom Dota1 back in the day, as it really helped keeping the game more fresh, and I think using random gives you a gold bonus which is nice, at the cost of getting a hero you don’t play as good.
It’s rare, but I’ve played with allies who had lv1 to lv6 on Brutal, and they did bring up that’s what they got stuck on via Random CO. No biggie, as I was able to carry. Even though, it has made for a unique challenge at times
I now have 12 out of the 17 COs leveled up, so I reckon I could risk a random CO!
I also want to support the idea of random ot picking commanders you don’t own. How has this not been changed after so long is beyond me.
As for the bonus XP I don’t think it would affect the game either negatively or positively. Most randoms are already quite bad anyways and experience becomes rather meaningless after lv90 as well.
I believe random commander option was in the same patch as the option to play a commander you don’t own to level 5. That was clearly a marketing idea to get players to try out (and buy) more commanders.
In theory it should be meaningless. However, in practice, the fact that the player base pushed for Ascension levels shows that while XP does not confer any extra gameplay benefits, it is still something that’s sought after.
If that’s really true, then I highly doubt they’ll want to implement a feature to enable limiting to COs you already own. A feature that goes quite against their own marketing.
But those extreme guys torture themselves with sub 10min runs of maybe 3 maps where that’s possible and that doesn’t work with all commanders so random isn’t that good for them.
If it’s your observation that that’s how a lot, or some majority of them roll, then I won’t argue that.
I will say that for me, I still like getting XP even though I’m around lv200. I estimate it’ll take 3 years for me to get to Ascension at this rate, but that’s fine, as it’s really about the journey and not the destination.
I did prioritize getting XP while my Stetmann Bundle XP boost was still active, putting a hold on getting higher levels of Mutation Bounty XP and their related achievements, as well as other achievements.
But I won’t make getting XP “my job”. It’s merely part of the fun. Especially since I have plans to try some risky builds, and some Ascension leveling will be put on hold as I delve into more COs (although I only have 5 left at this point).
Same applies for picking random map… i bet most people leaving maps are those who chose random map and got one that they don’t like as much.
Here is a simple, ingenious and brand new idea to solve all random map/commander problems:
The option to veto maps and commanders from random picks.
I wish Blizz would quit b!tching around and just add the solution that already is used on ladder and tournaments for years.
For years i have almost exclusively picked random maps. Most maps i like, some i dont… i still play even the bad ones. But option to veto 3 or so maps would be so nice… and it would give Blizz and indicator, which maps are badly designed from the amount of veto’s it gets, so they can rework them.
For variety, I’ll pick specific maps. Especially with specific COs. To try out specific builds and strategies. Hell, I even ended up playing Cradle Of Death 6 times in a row to try out some builds with some decent d (my base got smashed up plenty of times )
Well, beating Scythe of Amon in like 3.5 minutes over and over does require fast thinking and, in fairness, if you are grinding to lvl 1000 as your objective, there is nothing morally worse about grinding Scythe of Amon in 3.5 minutes than Void Thrashing at like 15.
Different players have different goals, and as long as they are not cheating, if that’s how they have fun, that’s okay.
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