Fixing Battle Path repeatables

[knutliott 41]

Battle Path repeatables - the 3 missions that show up on your Profile tab within the Battle Path in-game - are wonky because they're not very well balanced.  It seems like they'd be easy to fix, so here's a proposal.

Currently, one repeatable is a "do damage" mission, one is "get kills/assists", and one is "get net XP".  Then each of those categories can be modified by additional requirements such as "use a Tier 3-6 vehicle" or "use a Sol Schreiber vehicle" or "use a Tank Destroyer".  Sometimes those additional requirements come as combinations such as "use a Tier 3-6 Sol Schreiber vehicle" or "use a Zhang Feng MBT" or "use a Tier 5-8 AFV".  AFAIK no single repeatable can ever have all three additional requirements all at once.

The problem with repeatables hinges primarily on the net XP missions, and it's caused by the fact that players are allowed to play Heroics to complete repeatables.  As everyone knows, Heroics gives the same rewards to everyone on the team, and it rewards everyone with a ridiculous amount of net XP.  Right around 23,000 for a full run of 4 missions.  Heroics can only be played using Tier 9 or 10 vehicles, which means that any net XP repeatable that can be completed using Tier 9 or 10 vehicles has been set much higher than other goals.  For example, a net XP repeatable with a Tier 3-6 restriction requires that you earn 7,000 net XP.  But one with a Tier 7-10 restriction requires 22,500 and an "open" one with no tier restriction requires 27,000.  (I may have those reversed.)

Net XP is an interesting goal because the amount you earn doesn't really change all that much from Tier to Tier.  You might average 700-750 per PvE mission at Tier 3-6, but then only 750-800 per PvE mission at Tier 7-10.  Sure, there are outlying missions both above and below those numbers, but those are about what a non-unicorn player is going to earn over time.  And they're just not that different, which means that the repeatable restriction for net XP doesn't really need to scale very much.

Damage, on the other hand, varies considerably by Tier and by vehicle class.  Kills and Assists also vary, but more based on vehicle class than on Tier.

So...

To fix repeatables and make them more balanced, I propose that the 3 main types remain the same.  Then, each type receives ONE restriction.  The damage repeatable determines the vehicle class randomly, the Kills/Assists repeatable determines the dealer randomly, and the net XP repeatable determines the Tier randomly.  Also, Heroics should no longer be allowed.  Just regular PvE, Spec Ops, GLOPS, and Random Battle.  The goal would be that it takes 12-18 missions (15 plus or minus 3) to complete any given repeatable.  If you can do 2 at once in those 12-18 missions, good for you.  If you can do all 3 at once, great!

What does this do?

1. You will always be able to find a vehicle that will let you work on multiple repeatables at once.  There may be times that you cannot find a vehicle that will allow you to work on all 3 at once (e.g. "AFV" + "Sol Schreiber" + "Tier 3-6"), but that's still better than the current system that frequently doesn't allow any combinations at all.

2. With Heroics excluded, the net XP repeatable can be smoothed out so that you aren't being required to run 30 missions if you can't find a group for Heroics.  Assuming 700-800 net XP per mission on average, the Tier 3-6 target could be 8500 XP, Tier 5-8 could be 11,500 XP, and Tier 7-10 could be 14,500.

3. Damage and Kills/Assists could also be rebalanced with the goal of being able to complete the repeatable in 12-18 missions in mind.  Damage's targets in particular would need to vary by vehicle class, as one normally does more damage in an AFV than in a LT just as an example.

Obviously, Sophie and Marat have the most complete progression trees.  Zhang Feng, Francine, and especially Oscar have holes in their trees, but that's fine.  Those are the times that you might have to use 2 different vehicles to complete all 3 repeatables.  It would still be a vast improvement over the current system.