It’s time for our next Dev Update of the year and after talking about some changes to our character release cadence, we wanted to shed some light on a few topics that those with a keen eye may have noticed. Most notably, certain things that are missing from our upcoming activities that would normally be a part of our regularly scheduled program.
Events and Unity Engine Upgrade
While some may see this as scaling back, it’s actually not the case because behind the scenes, the long awaited Unity Engine upgrade is in its final stages of development and we’re shifting a few dev resources towards ensuring that the project reaches the finish line as soon as possible.
These are the current parts of the game that are affected by the aforementioned shifts:
Character Releases
Starting with 5 Star Sam Wilson (Brave New World), we’ll be doing single character releases every two weeks instead of our usual 4 Star / 5 & 3 Star releases. Expect to see a 5 Star release followed by a 2, 3, or 4 star character.
Heroic Boss Events
Upcoming boss events will run as Regular versions with an updated reward schedule of support specific items.
Rebalances
On hold for now until further notice, but we still have costumes that will be released during the expected release windows.
Shard Cover Exchanges
This unfortunately will have to wait until after Unity gets shipped in order to not add any new features that need to go through another round of QA testing in both engines.
Feature Parity
In addition to the shifts in our schedule, we also need to ensure that both versions of the game are identical versions of each other. Bringing both versions of the game to parity will minimize the risk of new bugs being introduced and ensure the most seamless transition possible for you, the player.
Hopefully the above explanation helps shed some light on the current status of the game. We’ve put in a sizable investment into this modern engine upgrade and while it may not appear all that exciting, this lull that you’re seeing is actually a very exciting time for us because we’re finally near the home stretch! Unfortunately it’s always the last bits that seem to take the longest, but we’re nearing the finish line and we’re excited to see where MPQ goes beyond it - especially once we begin to tackle some QoL updates and new features!
FAQ
1. Why couldn’t you just get added resources onto the project to parallel path building Unity while maintaining the current live-ops schedule?
Considering we’re so close to the finish line, it made more sense to shift internal teams over instead of spending precious resources onboarding new hires and acclimating them to our current developments. This would’ve actually taken more time than pausing a few in-game developments.
2. When will the Unity Engine upgrade be done?
Soon! As we mentioned, we’re in the final stages, but these are also the most important steps where something new can surface and cause some unwanted cascades (pun intended) down our dev stream. If all goes well, we’re hoping no more than a few months until we return back to our regularly scheduled program.
Related, but also not. Facebook is finicky at the best of times and we’re working on keeping it up for the time being. Unity makes this easier, as Unity is pretty ubiquitous, so there’s MUCH better support for implementation and upkeep in Unity.
Funnily enough, one of our testers was specifically testing the matrix of cross play test cases today. Couple of bugs, but the vast majority of stuff went without a hitch when switching devices between the same platforms and different ones.
Nope, none of the ones planned are retros. Couple of Chroma level costumes (like for the Season Pass and such), but the ones that were planned are the “normal” full work costumes.
Thanks dor the update. I appreciate these posts to give us insights in the process and status of things.
@S0kun said: If all goes well, we’re hoping no more than a few months until we return back to our regularly scheduled program.
Have to admit that I was hoping it would be a few weeks if all goes well. Of course it won’t all go well, which is as expected, but this also reads we will have to wait quite some time still for things to change.
Most important of all to me is will this new engine give us finer control over game speed?
For example turning off animations doesn’t really speed the game up because the delay to play the animation is still there (after I fire a Polaris stun, the game still locks me out from doing anything for 3-4 seconds which is the animation time).
Also will the incredibly annoying tile placement of Mindless Ones and Sentinels moving their CDs be sped up to like 10x speed?
Too bad about the pause on rebalances though. Maybe work on them and then you guys can release a bunch when the new system comes out, and more frequently than the 1 every month or so
Are these on hold because of the new engine as well or other reasons? If its new engine related, will rebalancing be more frequent since its going to be easier to implement?
Getting the engine up to speed and being able to optimal implement future changes and releases is DEFINITLY the best investment no matter what. And again this game is, as we all now, about the long run, and all the pleasures and rewards hereoff!
Maybe it’s just too all-encompassing of a word but I’d hope one of the main reason for the new engine would also be to fix core bugs like strike / protect tiles overflow?! (and maybe un-nerf agatha3 then)
@ThisisClemFandango said:
Who doesn’t love a new costume
Retro graphics for all characters!
Not for free tho, bcs gotta eat.
Nope, none of the ones planned are retros. Couple of Chroma level costumes (like for the Season Pass and such), but the ones that were planned are the “normal” full work costumes.
This smackdown of an answer completely takes all the snark out of my original post
Nicely played ice
I look forward to buying a costume for goose that has a ball of string next to her or a pimp cane and hat for Mr sinister
@ThisisClemFandango said:
Who doesn’t love a new costume
Retro graphics for all characters!
Not for free tho, bcs gotta eat.
Nope, none of the ones planned are retros. Couple of Chroma level costumes (like for the Season Pass and such), but the ones that were planned are the “normal” full work costumes.
This smackdown of an answer completely takes all the snark out of my original post
Nicely played ice
I look forward to buying a costume for goose that has a ball of string next to her or a pimp cane and hat for Mr sinister
@ThisisClemFandango said:
Who doesn’t love a new costume
Retro graphics for all characters!
Not for free tho, bcs gotta eat.
Nope, none of the ones planned are retros. Couple of Chroma level costumes (like for the Season Pass and such), but the ones that were planned are the “normal” full work costumes.
This smackdown of an answer completely takes all the snark out of my original post
Nicely played ice
I look forward to buying a costume for goose that has a ball of string next to her or a pimp cane and hat for Mr sinister
! As we mentioned, we’re in the final stages, but these are also the most important steps where something new can surface and cause some unwanted cascades (pun intended) down our dev stream. If all goes well, we’re hoping no more than a few months until we return back to our regularly scheduled program.
. they need to be sped up too