fun... or lackthereof

Marvel Puzzle Quest MPQ Suggestions and Feedback
1

I am going to be 100% honest, this is a whiny-baby post. So be it…

This game is not really fun for me anymore. I have been playing for around 500 days now, and my roster has basically been the same for the past 7 months except for raising levels due to ISO earned. It definitely has not changed much in terms of covers earned, except new releases.

The good: I have all the 3* champed except for strange, as I need 2 more covers for him. I have at least one cover for every 4*, and I have at least one cover for every 5* except for black widow. I have a working 2* farm going constantly.

The bad: I have been in the “transitioning” period between 3* and 4* land for months now, and I still have no 4* characters really worth using. Ice man is around 9 covers, Peggy has 9 covers (but no yellows, thanks RNG), and cyke is around 9 covers I believe. I have various 4* with 5 in a single color, and one or zero in others… and I keep getting more of that color I can’t use. The only thing that truly changes on my roster is the new release characters, which is in no way considered a good thing. I hoarded 500CP and 22 LT’s, opened them all, and my roster is still in this same boat as ever. I am currently debating just saving CP and using it to buy 4* covers. Extremely wasteful, but I would love to max cover Ice man 1000 times more than I want to get another Mr. Fantastic, or get yet another color I can’t use, or get a second cover for someone like Spider Gwen. At this point, getting a second or third cover for any 4* is not going to help me one bit right now… maybe in the long run, but not for a while.

I usually will try to play every PVE that I have time for to get the 4* reward from progression as well as the full 25 CP. I am not amazingly good at PVP, so I usually tap out at around 5k for the season every time. Scaling is not the problem for me, I can handle the game getting harder. The problem is that I feel like I am just merely running on a treadmill, never moving forward. If I stumble or slow down, I essentially fall backwards. This is a non-win situation, because you can only stand still or fall back, never go forward.

I am not claiming to have all the answers, so although I have ideas for how to fix what ails me, I will not dive into them here. I also know that I can just stop playing, and I have definitely stopped paying. But I really used to enjoy this game. I remember the first 5* I pulled, and even though my roster was not ready for that, I was elated when it happened. I remember the great events like Civil War. I enjoy the alliance I am in, comprised of complete strangers… and yet we joke around like old friends and offer in-game advice all the time. But I do not enjoy the game overall nearly as much as before. My roster feels like it is in a time warp, not getting any better. Every new release makes it harder for me to get the 4* covers I need, but the process for getting the covers I need is getting harder and harder. I could certainly play much harder, earn CP faster, and hope the RNG will help me out if I just spend CP more, in the “spray and pray” method of gaming. But that is not fun at all. Lack of reward for more time invested. It’s like when I play my PS4 online, and I can tell someone has zero skill at a game (or just feels like screwing around and acting weird or mashing all the buttons)… and then that person somehow wins. If it happens once or twice, you just laugh at it. If you can never win, you stop playing that game, save money, and buy another game possibly. I like this game enough that I do not want to just quit, but I have definitely taken a much more relaxed method of playing lately because it doesn’t offer the same joy it used to.

On top of that, we haven’t had a post in “MPQ News and Announcements” since 11/30, almost 2 weeks ago. In my heart, I hope this means something big is in the works, and they are going to announce it soon. In my head, I truly believe this to mean they don’t really care one bit, and the development team is just coasting until the end of the year. I don’t know anymore. I know I am not the only one who feels this way, and I know this entire post has probably annoyed lots of people who happened to read it all. I apologize for the ranting, I just needed to let it all out.

2

If the game’s not fun, just don’t play anymore. That’s not snark, it’s advice. If you’re frustrated, you’re probably going to keep being that way, as the FTP model kind of guarantees that RNG will always factor heavily in progression unless you pony up (and even then it’s still in the mix).

Best of luck either way.

3

I’m kind of in that reminiscing place where I am romanticizing the past. I remember how much I used to love this game. In fact, I still do like it. But the quality of life improvements seem to happen, they are great, and then they stop. Making money is more important than making us happy, and there is a feeling like the see-saw is not even close to level (more like 92-8). Granted, we are also, as players, always saying “what have you done for me lately?”, so that is also unfair. I don’t mind RNG, I just dislike the fact that RNG is also “harmful” sometimes… meaning that you played/earned/spent money, and there is no guarantee any of it will even matter. It is one thing to say “It helped, but not in the way I was hoping”, and it is another to say “that literally didn’t help at all, I just wasted [insert resource here]”

4

Just slightly above you in days at 531, so I feel like I can relate but my roster is moving well into 4 star land. 5 champed, 3 at 13 covers that I can champ, and several at 10-12 covers. On the flipside, I have a bunch 10-15 at 8 or less covers.

My play style is similar and up until the anniversery, I hardly every touched pvp. The shorten simulator got me to dabble back in it. Still, I average about 300-575 per event and my goal for seasons right now is the ten pack and completion of simulator.

Where we really differ is use of LTs and CP, I never hoarded and pulled every time I either got a token or had 20 cp available. RNG definitely played a factor, but I wonder if not hoarding was more helpful since the character pool only diluted itself as I pulled relative to how many 4 stars were available at that time which helped me to finish more four stars. So in that sense, a real case can be made that hoarding can have a negative impact on strengthening your roster.

I feel your pain though, I look at all the new release characters and it’s a kick in the teeth to know they won’t be useable for months. I too just pulled my 2nd spider gwen cover, pretty much everyone from war machine to now are unusable for me.

persinally, I think a change to LTs would really help us out. Make latest LTS include all 5 stars (older 5s at a lower pull rate than 4s) and the latest 4 stars. Cut out all those first year 4s and leave them in the classic tokens. It’ll diversify the LTs and more people will buy latest tokens when they otherwise exclusively buy classic tokens.

5

for the 3-4* transition it is extremly painful and slow. There are over 40 4* and to earn them you have to be lucky with RNG. Here is the thing you have to decide. So you want to play the way you currently are playing or do you want to challenge yourself knowing you will have a lot of potential failure to trying to reach your goal?
If you want to challenge yourself either go competitive in PVE striving for top placement to win more 4* or aim for 900 points in PVP to get the progression 4*.

For PVP you will need to shield hop, figure out the right time slice that will let you achieve your goals, use super whales to get those tough 75 point matches and be prepared to get smacked back down to oblivion if your timing is off. When you are successful you will have a rush unlike most in this game and when you fail you will want to throw your phone.

For PVE you will be making major time sacrifices clearing optimally with 2+ HR grinds of the same nodes with potential crazy scaling while one miskate and minimal points can take you away from the prize you want.

I personally enjoy PVP more as I have a bigger roster and the time required to play PVP does not have to be every day for placement. There are horror stories and great success stories from shield hopping and every event is different. It is easier in season compared to off season. I would recommend trying both and seeing how it feels and if you enjoy one over the other.

It will still be a while to get to full 4* and if you keep pulling classic LT you might get a useable 5* before your 4* are ready.

Good luck

6

I don’t understand how you can be in a time warp with the 4* progression covers they’ve added. The requirements getting the 4* is fairly low, so that’s almost a guaranteed cover every PvE with minimal effort.
From what you’ve posted, you are getting what you put in to it. Maximize your limited time. Champed 2s>champed 3s> 4* cover rewards. Those of us that play a lot can waste our time doing unproductive things and still acquire lots of 4* covers and level amazingly awesome yet useless bagman and still outpace you simply because of the amount of time we put into it. If you want to see progress be efficient in resources and time management.

7

I could really use some advice on this. I’ve changed slices a couple of times in the recent past, and once I get to ~ 400, there are no 75 point matches. The most I’ve ever skipped is ~ 1 dozen times/node, so maybe it needs to be more. If I see a match I can win for ~ 30-40 I leave it in queue.

I did that for Bangs, played a half dozen matches, and just hovered ~ 600. Every 30 pt match I won, I got smacked for 27 (sometimes twice). That was about 4 hours before the end of the slice. Spending health packs every time to keep the team healthy, I eventually just shielded and gave up. There’s an art to this I’m just not getting.

8

Since the changes to PVP you can’t really hold out for 75-pointers anymore. 45+ is a pretty good match now. I occasionally see one for 65+ but it’s infrequent.

I usually climb to 500ish early, then make a run for 900 with 22-24 hours to go and pop a 24h shield. It’s a little more costly than I’d like but it saves the headache of hopping 2-3 times since you don’t get hit nearly as much.

9

Yeah, but that’s 1-2 4* covers per week. There are 52 weeks in a year, so it might back to the beginning in a year (but probably not cause they keep growing). This isn’t a huge windfall, especially for a roster with a highest cover count of 9. If this person relied exclusively on this mechanic then in 4 years they might have that 9 covered (that assuming no duplicates). Outside of this mechanic there are 2 ways to get 4* and RNG where the chance of getting a particular cover drop bi-weekly or 3* champ rewards (which is also a grind that’s likely over 1 year).

Getting 4* has gotten slightly better, but the number of 4* is growing far faster. Hopefully SCL 9 has 2 4* in progression and reasonable chance at getting 1 or more from placement. It would also be nice to see them split Legendary tokens into 3 caps, each with exclusive characters so you choose which small pool you draw from.

10

I would like to try to read your comment in a voice that doesn’t sound extremely critical, but alas I can not… so I just assume you were trying to put me down for some reason? I dunno, man. If you were only drinking the haterade, you didn’t have to comment…

All in all, I have played this game for 4+ hours a day before, and it still didn’t matter. Even now, I play much much more than the minimal effort. I’m not just playing DDQ and then complaining about my roster. And the reason those progression rewards are helping, but not helping enough, is that getting your fourth cover of any random 4* surely helps my roster, but that 4* is still unusable. So whether my hulkbuster is at 4 covers or 5 does not matter right now. With 40+ characters in the 4* realm, that means to even get a second cover from progression is 40+ events away, which could be half a year. With RNG, that means I may never get covers for a specific character from tokens, so I must rely solely on progression rewards to earn them? If so, that will take forever to get 13 of anyone. I am not claiming to be the best player, and I never aim to be the best at video games, but I do know how to (usually) play a game in a way that will yield an enjoyable experience. Right now, it just feels like they want every small forward step for me to take 6 months, so that by the time I am at 2-3 years playing, I still won’t have a champed 4*. There is a difference between game longevity and lifespan, and making rewards feel like a mirage in the desert.

11

TO THE OP: It’s not whiney, its just burnout. I’m on day 1144, and I’ve gone through two bouts of it. Don’t be afraid to just take a break from the game for a while, just logging to play 1 match for the daily reward during your sabbatical. I’d recommend doing the full DDQ each day too, to take advantage of those champed three stars, but I understand even that can feel like a grind some days too. Don’t worry about “competing” or chasing anything in pve or pvp events.

Even just logging each day for one match will add up over time in those daily rewards, including 4* covers: there’s a 4thor on day 520 and 550 coming your way. Try work in Deadpool too for that match to build up his points. I came back after a burnout once and just whaled myself to the end of the Gauntlet once. Eventually you’ll see you’ve built up enough covers and ISO to make a leap, and that may reignite what brought you to the game in the first place.

You’ll probably have to quit you alliance, and that sucks because it seems they’re a big reason why you’re still playing at all, but its unfair to ask them to carry you just for the daily ISO alliance drop. You might be able to find a casual alliance that is doing the same tho, playing one match a day for the daily rewards.

And for what’s worth, I never really made the 4* transition until this past year, with my first 4* champ being just 9 months ago. It is slow, but its made me not mind the slow trickle of 5* covers, so there’s that.

12

Are you based in America, and are you flexible when you can play the game. It’s worth playing around with slices and when you want to make a push in pvp - things are normally pretty busy in the 3-8 hours before a slice ends, so you will struggle to move up without a 4* team.

My best times (based in the UK) tend to be early morning over breakfast, or late evening, when I figure a lot of America is asleep or at work. I find 24 hours from the end a quite fruitful time to climb up, as there is less pressure, so folk aren’t attacking as brutally.

Do things differently next season. If you have a Saturday to yourself, hunt out some 4* teams in Simulator and try and work out how to beat them with your roster, and don’t even think about the health packs (get pve out of the way first though). Try joining some events with less than an hour to go and see if you can place well. Join other events very early and see how if difficulty in climbing changes throughout an event. When you do break through to 900 (it may take a long time yet unfortunately, but it will come), as noted further up, it’s a total rush, the best the game has to offer.

Buying out 4 covers for your Iceman is a pretty expensive way to go, considering how long that can take to build up, but a couple of key ones just before his boosted week might make the difference for you to feel the progress - if you spend them on tokens that give you nothing you want and then stop playing the game as it’s no longer fun, that’s a waste of Cp. If you spend it on maxing out 1 character that increases the fun for you, and allows you to fight deeper into Pvp events, scoring those needed covers, then it’s not been wasted.

13

Was not meant to be extreme criticism. my point about the progression covers is that you are progressing, it’s just not at the top end of your roster. It’s not in the way you are looking for to be.

What I meant about what you put in is that if you can’t hit 900 in PvP, or don’t hit max in PvE all the time, progress is going to be much slower and efficiency in regards to resources becomes critical. For you, RNG has you stalled so efficient use of CP may actually be to buy covers for the 4* you have on the verge of useful. If you buy 5 classics and 4 are useless to you, it would’ve been more worthwhile to spend it on a guarantee. I don’t have have that issue, and RNG has been favorable, so spending my cp on one character is not efficient for my needs. However, I will be breaking that for quake as she is in the dreaded 5/2/5 position and pulling that one yellow is a long shot before pulling a dup blue/green.

Sorry about the confusion, was not meant to project hating.

14

if I was you, I would spend 480cp and champ iceman.
enjoy the tinykitty out of him and im40.

that sure is a high price, but at least its guaranteed fun for a while, seems like thats exactly what you need.

15

Yep, a champed iceman and IM40 along with your 3rd character of choice is pretty unstoppable.

I pair them with kamala for the healing boost and that team alone gets me through the entire simulator.

So yeah, if OP needs a quick boost using CP to get Iceman champed would definitely give a great morale boost.

I know my GF is going through the same thing as the OP to the degree that she has burnt out on the game and only sees progression through rng which has completely stalled her progression. She has all but given up besides extremely casual play when she’s not playing fallout 4.

That 4 star wall is still real and easily walked into by many players, and the “well play more” crowd should underestimate its effects. VIP, shield intercepts, and the blatant iso cons are them.

16

thank you for the clarification, much appreciated.

yes, I have felt like I wanted to just get the sure thing, mostly because I have a handful of 4* that are like 5/0/1 or something like that, and I just keep getting that same color over and over. Whether it be from 3* progression (3* cyke giving 4* cyke red when he already has 5 red), random token pulls (for some reason, ghost rider red is a huge favorite for my RNG), and progression rewards, my game seems to really love to pile it on in the worst way. I get the 25CP in PVE maybe 95% of the time, and I play very competitively for new releases just so I don’t get left behind with 0 covers for them. I understand getting better at PVP could drastically jump-start my process as well. I just often feel like the game taunts me. I just got 10 2* from my heroic 10 pack for the PVP season, I buy daily deals on most vaults (just so that I get more pulls from vaults, not a ton more, but a few) and I get well over 90% 2*. I feel like I gain enough resources, but then the game just laughs at me. I don’t know, I love Marvel and I really used to get a huge kick outta playing this game, but what was once a shiny bright light feels like it is dimming. I would love update posts from Brigby or Cthulu or someone that made me feel like my problems were about to be made easier… but silence + dumb updates seem to be the path we are on.

17

I’m about 300 days beyond you. My advice to you is: things do change once you get a couple of fully-powered 4s. It isn’t sunshine and rainbows all of a sudden, but things get easier. Clearing all the nodes to get progression awards in PvE gets quicker and easier. In the right PvPs, you can make a serious run at 1000 with some careful planning. You’ll have enough middling-covered 4s to get a feel for how they play, and have some fun with them in lower-level PvE nodes. The better you do, the more 4* covers you get. The more 4* covers you have, the more 4* DDQs you can beat. The more 4* DDQs you can beat, the more 5* covers you stand to get. And so on.

Take a break, or just play DDQ for a while. I’ve done that. I bet everyone has. Maybe you’ll see things differently, either in a more positive direction or in an “I don’t miss this and don’t need to go back” direction. Either way, you’ll be better off in the long run. Best fishes to you.