Brigby - Limited Vaults - Can we get input?

Marvel Puzzle Quest MPQ General Discussion
1

Hello Brigby,

A few months ago, they started testing limited 20-item vaults for a chance at a specific 4* cover. Today starts Mr. Fantastic’s Blue. You may have noticed that each vault we have a discussion about and it’s always the same exact responses. I hate to continue to beat a dead-horse, but is it possible to get some feedback on these vaults?

The following complaints and rants:

Cost and Options: The current cost and structure is 1000HP for 5 pulls or 3600HP for 20 pulls. Basically it will cost us alittle more than $20 to clear the vault. We could argue about the value all day, the one consistent disappointment we mention is the removal of the Single pull. The first few vaults they tested gave you the option for a single pull. I do not recall the price but it was possible to pull the 4* without having to clear the vault, BUT it was also possible for the 4* to be the last pull. I think of the vault like going to the Casino. Let’s say I have a $100 to use, I could try to win big at the $1 and $5 slots OR I could go to the Penny slots for a lesser win. While the $1/$5 prizes are enticing, I don’t want to blow all my money right away, I want to extend my money and go to the Penny slots. Maybe I’ll win some, maybe I’ll end up spending more money than I would at the $1/$5 slots but if the casino removes the Penny slots, then I’ll stay home and use my $100 on something else. Basically players will take a chance with the Single pull (I did with Spiderwoman, the last time it was done). Buying a 20pk to clear a vault is not fun or exciting but the single pull was.

Contents and Cover: The contents have remained the same since the beginning. 1 specific 4* cover, 3 random 3* covers, 3500 ISO, 3 Elite Tokens, rest are random 2* covers. The main reason players will want this vault is for the specific 4* but if we don’t need/want the 4* then there’s no reason to bother (especially since there’s no single pull). The Elite tokens are redundant due to the amount of 2* covers, change it to Heroics. Add a couple of more 3*'s and increase the Iso (at least 5000) then it’ll be more enticing. My main issue with the specific 4* is it’s a static cover, meaning that if I have 5 blue on Mr. Fantastic, then this vault is no good to me. Two ways to solve this, allow us to reset the 4* color at no cost (at least the first reset) OR make it colorless. The devs recently tried colorless with Chulk and Howard. Chulk did not go well, BUT Howard did. The Howard cover yielded a cover we did not have 5 of. There were no reports of a 6th cover of a color, which means colorless is a success. Apply this method further with the Limited-Vault. Give us a reason for these Vaults.

Length of Time: The limited-vaults are for 7-days. Why? If I do not want it the first day, I will not want it on day 2,3,4,5,6.. maybe 7 (fear of loss) but probably not. Let’s say these vaults ran consistently each week (which they don’t!), that’s 52 limited vaults.. so if I want a black Mr. Fantastic, it is very unlikely it will cycle to his Black cover in the year 2017. Shorten the length these vaults are available. I would love a daily limited vault, 3-days at max. Are there any statistics that show players are more likely to buy the vault on day 2-6? What is the reason for such a huge length of time? I’m sure if the length was shorten, players would be more willing to buy as they needed character will cycle through faster.

We want to buy these vaults but there has not been a good reason to. I am interested in the devs feedback. I hope you can bring this up at your next meeting. Thanks as always Brigby.

A few Links to previous Discussions:
Limited Vault Poll: https://forums.505go.com/discussion/59130
Venom: https://forums.505go.com/discussion/57977
Cyke: https://forums.505go.com/discussion/57435
X-23: https://forums.505go.com/discussion/57066
Bucky: https://forums.505go.com/discussion/56800
Cage: https://forums.505go.com/discussion/56517
Deadpool: https://forums.505go.com/discussion/54712
Re-Roll: https://forums.505go.com/discussion/56098
Limited Vaults: https://forums.505go.com/discussion/56079

2

then let me beat another dead horse, don’t buy it.

¯_(ツ)/¯¯_(ツ)/¯¯_(ツ)/¯¯_(ツ)/¯¯_(ツ)/¯¯_(ツ)/¯¯_(ツ)/¯¯_(ツ)/¯¯_(ツ)/¯¯_(ツ)/¯

3

The fact that they continue should give you all the answers you need: despite what some people here are posting, people are buying these vaults.

4

Personally speaking as a 2* farmer I was more than happy to spend on the daily token just to get more 2s and grow my farm. I have bad luck from vaults anyway (and ‘Special LT’) so I don’t ever spend a lot of hp to clear the vault. Now they have removed the single pull option I don’t buy them ever. It is a nuisance screen for me now that gets in the way when I’m skipping to the screen with something useful.

5

I actually want to buy them but the 7-day length is ridiculously long and it should be a colorless cover. I know they will not comment on the cost and the single pull, which is fine.

Sure people are buying them but if they want MORE players to buy them than shorten the length so the characters cycle more and make it colorless so the cover is not yielding #6. It’s the simple tweaks that make for a happy player (customer).

6

Sorry punisher, i got a 6th purple for howard. It was randomized, but not guaranteed to be useful to the player.

7

Really? That’s the first time I’ve heard this.. ugh so I guess it did not work as I hoped. Did you actually have 5 and pulled the 6th or did you get your 6th from the PVP progression… maybe the cover generated based on you having 4 purple before you grabbed it in PVP… this makes me a Sad Pun icon_e_sad.gif

8

Great post! Thanks for leading the charge. Who says The Punisher works best alone? icon_lol.gif

I’m on board with everything in the OP. Outside of when they did the short versions with 1 pull over Christmas these have all been terrible and I have spoken with my wallet on them. I bought out most of the Christmas ones and none of the others.

9

That’d be my advice to you considering the forums are for feedback.

Let them make their feedback, and you read another thread ¯_(ツ)_/¯

10

id love to but when every 3rd thread is another “Limited Vaults Suck, Y U NO 1 PULL D3?!?, Not the color I want/need, not the character I want/need” thread where do you go? He literally cited 9 examples of that from the last 2 months alone, literally one a week. the fact they havent changed it in 2 months should make it pretty damn obvious what the answer is.

11

You give up after 2 months? #notacloser

12

5 pulls for 1k is on par with most other discounted event tokens at 200HP - excluding cheap vault tokens, so in that respect they’re not that bad value.
These vaults are also an addition to the game.
They don’t need to offer these random vaults for no reason. And on the same principle you don’t need to buy from them.
I don’t always agree with the devs… in fact I hardly ever agree with them, but in this instance they’re offering the players some extra if they want to use it. So I don’t see a huge problem with them.

Would you be happier if they just stopped offering the vaults? icon_rolleyes.gif

13

Counter arguments to your main points.

  1. its their Biz dev thats sets the pricing model of vaults etc… The decision to buy or not buy a vault a personal to each roster. 2* rosters might think 4k hp is alot but 5* players can generate that in 2 or 3 weeks.

  2. Contents and cover value is all personal to each player’s roster. You may not care about Agent Venom, but I would kill to have a minivault to buyout his 13th cover. plus its pure crazy if any of the champ levels drops cp or LT.

  3. The benefit of short term vs long term vault all depends on where each char sits on their champ levels. If you need the 4* to make 13 cover but don’t have 350k to champ it, then a 7 day vault is great for hoarding iso.

My point is that your criticisms of the mini vaults are just a beneficial to other players as detrimental to your roster.

In fact my biggest fear is that if they sped up the pace of mini vaults, then it becomes even more important to chase hp to pay for more vault pulls.

14

Beneficial?

  1. How is draining HP by overcharging beneficial to anyone… other than the devs.
  2. Sure, it varies somewhat by character and player (thought not as much as you seem to imply IMO)
  3. Again, if the prices weren’t so outrageous people wouldn’t need a week to save up for them.

What I would like to see is them change the number of slots from 20 to 21. Add a single pull option. It would be nice if they also added a reset option, even if were paid only. Short of that I’ll continue to save my HP for better values.

15

Yup, same thing for me! My Howard was 4/3/5 back then and I got another purple cover from the last node.

16

The value of HP is different to each level of of player. champed 5* rosters can play this game in a free to play HP+ style of play. The “ACTUAL” effect of high vault prices is the to slow down the players who can literally convert hp won through champ levels into various 4*/3*/2* covers. Any discount that I see will be immediately reapplied into saving to buyout an extra vault.

The net effect of lowering the costs of mini-vault is accelerating the speed at which +hp players can just buy out more vaults. Over the long term prices will just widen the gulf between those who can get max return on their their various those who can’t farm hp at the same speed.

17

Thank you for bringing this subject up, Punisher. When it comes to the specifics regarding the design choice of number of pulls, vault content, etc, I’m afraid that is information I don’t have access to.

When it comes to the duration of the vaults though, to my understanding it’s for 2 reasons:

    1. Allow players enough time, particularly those that do not log on frequently, to still be able to take advantage of the vault opportunity.
  1. Allow players enough time to accumulate Hero Points, particularly those who dedicate themselves to completing missions in order to acquire them.

Hope that helps!

18

  1. How about running more than one vault at a time ? We know that the system can handle at least 3 additional vaults at the same time during the Strange Sight PvE. This way people have more choices on which vault they want the most. If the additional 3 hit the limitation, you can skip these vault during the event instead.

  2. Can you really gain 3600 hp in one week ? Sure you can obtain 1000 hp if you play hard enough. But in the end, the only certain way to empty the vault for the cover is to hoard the hp until you have enough. Spending 1k hp with a chance of not getting the 4* at all seems like a terrible investment.

19

Players who don’t log on frequently will have a lot less HP than those who do.
A week isn’t enough time to accumulate enough HP to take advantage of them.

So…yeah. Not really convincing reasons.

20

Hi Brigby, thanks for your response. I understand you don’t have access to the information, but I was hoping you can bring this up during your weekly meetings to gain more insight. I am sure you noticed the amount of discussions regarding these vaults each week, so we would love to hear feedback if these vaults meet their expectations and if there is plans to tweak them in the near future.

  1. I agree with the above poster, if we have to have a 7-day long vault, then it would be great if we at least have options or at least give us a schedule of upcoming Vaults so we know when to expect a specific character we need.

  2. Realistically, no one can save 3600 HP per week by playing the game. For instance, I earn all the HP in PVE, PVP, including VIP/Intercept and champ rewards, and I do not acquire that much HP in a week. Therefore, if someone really wants that specific cover then they will buy the HP on Day 1… not so much on Day 5.

We appreciate everything you do here and any feedback is always appreciated icon_e_smile.gif