ISO flow is not the problem

Marvel Puzzle Quest MPQ General Discussion
1

ISO flow rate is not the problem most people have. The actual issue is the cost to level a 4* from 70 to 270 is astronomical.

Awhile back, they lowered the cost to level 2* and 3* characters, but they didn’t change 4* costs because there were only a handful of them.

Consider total cost to level a character from first cover to 13th:

1* 28,420 (for 3 cover characters)
2* 69,529
3* 119,919
4* 365,896
5* 551,296

Now look at the following ratios between tiers:

1/2 28,420/69,529 = 40%

Meaning, you need 2.5x the amount of ISO to level a 2* compared to a 1*.

2/3 60%
3/4 32.7%
4/5 66.4%

Using this comparison, it’s obvious there’s a staggering amount of ISO needed to level a 4* relative to the 3* tier that most of the ISO rewards were designed around.

If they brought the 3/4 ratio up to 50%, we’d be looking at full level cost of roughly 240k.

If they brought that number to 60% like the other ratios, we’d need just under 200k to max level a 4*.

200-240k ISO should only take a couple weeks to make for most 3*/4* rosters that play pve and pvp.

This change would at least allow players the ability to keep up with new character release schedule and puts the onus on the player to find covers.

From the developer stand point, no need to worry about adjusting ISO rates for rewards or ISO sales values for covers.

2

I’m not poor. It’s just that the prices for everything I need are too high.

3

I actually think he is on to something here. The main objection to more ISO being handed out evenly regardless of roster is that people in the early game would move too quickly. Repricing the 4s removes that issue, guys in the 1-2* transition still advance at the same rate, same thing with guys in the 2*-3* transition.

4

I don’t disagree. 4s are overpriced for their value. They don’t provide anywhere near 70% of the value of a 5, or whatever the ratio is. And they certainly don’t provide 3x the value of a 3* character, especially when the 3* is the only tier that gets regular use as a featured character in PvP.

But ISO flow still is a problem. 1*-2* transition speed shouldn’t be a concern now that there’s DDQ and other sources of far better covers. Throttling the rest of the game to make sure that they’re preserving a week or two of play at the 1* and 2* levels may be their intent, but it’s a silly one.

5

This is actually a good economic solutuon: if the flow of currency is restricted then the reduction in cost of goods is a good way to maintain the mpq cost of living without flooding the game with iso and devaluing the currency.

Honestly though despite this being a practical and cost effective solution (in terms of man hours not finance) it would be counter productive to their business to do so. It makes more sense to increase the amount of iso available for purchase instead <note I’m against this as I dont find mobile games to ever be value for money> as this will increase their revenue stteam.

It speaks volumes that a massive amount of players are starved of iso to the point that they’ll happily throw away days of their lives to earn it during pve but they won’t pay any sum of money for it… This should tell you something about iso prices/value d3…

6

I’m more happy to spend lots of ISO on a 5* because 5s matter. If you level up a 5 to 450, then you’ll do quite well in PVP.

However 4*s don’t matter at all. Nobody shakes in fear from my fully championed IW, XFW, Elektra, Star Lord or Antman.. probably not my Fury or Thor either (ask the dozens of people in pvp who attack me when I use them!!).

But I already championed the top tier 4s (jg, hb, rhulk, ice, cyc, etc), so I gotta champion random lower-tier 4s, which really doesn’t seem like a full 3-4 weeks of effort. It would be great if it was less effort to champion these 4*s.. the game would seem more reasonable, since they are really only useful for the champion prizes and not really for actual pvp defense (which is the only thing that matters in the current meta).

7

I’ve been saying for a while that 4* ISO costs need to be dropped by at least 33%. Twice the cost of 3* and half the cost of 5* at least makes more sense than the current system. It’s possible that I’m not cutting the cost enough with that suggestion.

8

It was a long time ago, and maybe I wasn’t playing optimally, but I remember being in the early 2*>3* phase before Deadpool’s Daily, and being completely starved for 3* covers. I would blow through 20K Iso opening standard tokens until I’d get a 3* cover, level that character and then repeat. It. Was. Hell. I would much rather have the covers and need to pick and choose who to cover than experience that again.

9

You are not wrong OP, insofar as changing the leveling cost of 4*s would accomplish most of the same things as increasing the flow of iso.

But that doesn’t mean iso flow isn’t a problem. Honestly, I don’t see any issue with flooding the 1* and 2* players with iso. They will still be cover-restricted anyway, so it’s not like their rosters will instantly get a whole lot better. And even if they did, what’s the problem with moving through 1* and 2* land quickly these days. There are still three more tiers of play, and they take a long long time build (even if iso were infinite).

10

I don’t really see 2* players complaining about not having enough ISO. Even 3* players that are still leveling 3*s aren’t really worried about ISO.

Majority of complaints about ISO comes from people that want to level their 4*/5* characters. The reason they’re ISO-starved is two-fold:

  1. new character releases faster than they can gather ISO to level
  2. 4* and 5* covers inexplicably still expire in 2 weeks.

I don’t really agree with the first complaint too much. Low covered characters just aren’t impactful and the people that can get the covers quickly probably aren’t ISO starved.

The second concern mostly stems from the feeling of wanting to not “waste” covers by having to sell them. Progression in the game is basically just leveling guys. When it takes 3+ weeks of gathering to level one 4*, it makes progression feel slow and uneventful, especially when the next cover to expire is just around the corner.

The sell rates for covers should match the proportional ISO cost to level:
A 2* cover is worth 2.5 1s
A 3 is worth 2x 2
So a 4* should be 2x 3* and a 5 2x 4*.

11

I’m ISO ISO

12

Yeah I meant whales. Not sure how quickly a non-whale could conceivably max cover a new character