First, i would like to thank Hi-Fi guy and the devs for taking the time to answer these questions. It gives us a better insight into the thought process that goes into the development of the game and hopefully allows for constructive dialogue and critique between the devs and the community.
There are three points i wish to address with this round of Q&A’s:
- The transition from 2s to 3s, 3s to 4s
- Single player mode and Story-mode events
- Spider-Man
[quote=“David [Hi-Fi]
Moore”]
In order to do this, we have to continue evolving the design and some of this will change what players have come to expect as the status quo. For starters, we’ll be releasing more 4s this year, a lot more. **We’re currently devoting a lot of thought to making that transition smoother than it was from 2s to 3*s.**
[/quote]
i am not against the release of more 4* characters, obviously that is the next phase for the game. However, i hope the devs realize that they need to first address the current problem with the transition from 2s to 3s. Otherwise, the rich will get richer and the poor will continue to stay poor.
As i see it, there are two main factors involved with the current problem with the transition from 2s to 3s:
- All players, from beginners to vets compete in the same events (save those lucky fresh n00bs that get sharded into the mythic baby brackets) for the same prizes. This is a problem. For example, you have player A who i shall call Tiny Tim who has been playing MPQ for 4 months, loves the game, plays semi-hardcore and has a strong 2* roster and then you have player B Uncle Scrooge who has been playing MPQ for 8 months, likes the game, play semi-hardcore and has a strong 3* roster. Then there’s a pVp event, let’s say Fatal Attraction that offers Patch as the 3* reward and 4* Red Thor cover as the 1300 progression reward. Tiny Tim has Patch at 2/0/1 and would love to get more of his covers. Uncle Scrooge already has Patch maxed but really wants that new 4hor cover. Additionally, Tiny Tim only has two 3* Daken covers, one black and one blue while Uncle Scrooge has 3* Daken maxed. Both do their very best to achieve their goal. Guess what happens? Uncle Scrooge walks away from the event with not only a 4hor cover, but three Patch covers which he promptly turns into Iso while Tiny Tim barely manages to win one Patch cover. The next Patch event will be in two months. The next 4hor chance will be next week.
Believe me when i tell you there are enough Uncle Scrooges out there to lock out most Tiny Tims from having a decent shot at 2 covers. One cover is doable with some luck , good planning, and depending on which characters a player has but at that one cover per pVp rate it would take good luck with token pulls, progression drops in pVe and about 5 or 6 more times of pVp for a player to max out a 3*. And that’s only if the character hasn’t been vaulted.
- Which brings us to factor #2: Vaulting. i understand why the devs have implemented vaulting but this system really does tinykitty the tiny guy. Obviously, if they are going to vault anyone it would be older characters BUT they have to keep in mind that besides n00bs 2* transitioning players are the least likely to have a good amount covers for new characters. Some might speculate that this is a maneuver to milk the 2* cow but i have serious doubts this is an effective way to make money. If anything, it would cause most reasonable to just stop playing. No progress = boring game.
Possible solutions:
- Ditch sharding and develop tiered events. Now that the devs have demonstrated that they are able to create restricted brackets through time sharding, this should be the next big thing! Run two pVps one for beginner and intermediate players and another for vets and hardcore players. In the n00b pVp offer older 3* classic characters like Punisher, Patch, Black Widow, etc. And make the top progression award/1st rank prize one cover of a new 3* star character. In the vet pVp keep the format as is just with new(er) 3* or 4* characters, plus increase the amount of Iso and HP that can be won.
- Increase the 3* drop rate of Heroic tokens or have a 3* token that can be won as a progression prize in both pVp and pVe.
- Instead of vaulting characters, have special increased drop rate periods where a select number of 3 or 4 stars see a significant drop rate chance.
As the game currently stands, the problem of the 2* to 3* transition has not been addressed. If the devs wish to retain the casual player, it behooves them that they should fix this problem before making it smoother to get 4*.
Single player mode vs Story-mode pVe
Numbers talk. Forumers whine. And then there is the Grind. i know there are players that enjoy the madness that is pVe, bless their hearts. But playing that thing competively is exhausting. Consider the current pVe that has 36 hour subs. If a player were to take it upon him or herself to play ideally (and yes such beings do apparently exist), that means at the very least that player has done at least 12 rounds of the same nodes, the same battles, the same dialogue. Not exactly the most exciting stuff, lemmme tell ya! Sure you can raise the difficulty scaling to spice it up but as the devs are (or should be) well aware of most vets despise this because scaling is not employed equally across the board so it comes off as punishing established players for performing well.
There are way too many issues to try and tackle when it comes down to the current pVe format and lack of single player mode so i’m just going to try and boil it down to simple points:
*problem with refresh times
*lack of new pVe material
*constant competition leads to burn out
problem with refresh times
Thankfully, the refresh time has been adjusted a smidge to 3 hours but that still begs the question of why are the refresh times so short? As one forumer mentioned in the shield update thread, if the devs are so keen to keep us from losing sleep by denying us full use of 3 hour shields, why do they set the refresh times to 3 hours in pVe? It encourages unhealthy, dangerous behavior and it excerbates the need to grind. At the very least it should be set to 4 hours so two go arounds will ensure a person a good nights sleep.
lack of new pVe material
i’ve said it once and i’ll say it again, although new characters are the life blood of the game, new game modes and material are the air that keeps it healthy and vital. Over the past year, we got i believe 4 new pVe events: Prodigal Sun, Deadpool vs MPQ, The Gauntlet and the Rocket&Groot pVe. That’s one new event every three months. And yet we get a new character once every two weeks (excluding the past 2 months). Obviously the devs like making characters, but as has been mentioned previously, with the flood of new characters it’s getting really difficult to care. No storyline or novel challenges to introduce the character. No exciting build up to the release. I mean sheesh Gamora was given Rocket and Groots sloppy seconds.
You did the your company and the community a really great favor by hiring a community manager, Hi-Fi guy, and he is really doing a wonderful job. Now i hope you do the game and everyone another great favor and hire a proper game event planner. As it currently exists, the game is too heavily skewed towards new character releases and competition. Where are the mini games, guerrila missions, and “the Quest”? If I knew nothing about Marvel, i wouldn’t know what to think of more than half of these characters. Each character should have his or her time to shine. Not just thrown at us like they were yesterday’s leftovers. i mean you totally botched the Doc Ock release (you didn’t even bother to buff Spider-man for his debut pVe, much more give us an original story). You guys can do better than that. Be creative, think of new ways you can engage the player base.
For example: Say you were going to release a 3* Sabertooth. Let’s buck the traditional pVe release and do something different. Something memorable. Let’s run a gorrila event each week where the player has a one-on-one random encounter with Sabertooth. 2* Wolverine is required. Sabertooth is scaled down just enough that he isn’t overpowered but provides enough of a challenge that the player has a roughly 50/50 shot of winning the match. i could go into more detail but i think you get the gist of it. The dialogue doesn’t have to be Shakespeare, just a generic snif snif I know this scent…Sabertooth!" “Haha Logan, long time, no see. Did you miss me?” And then respective victory scenes. If you win, you get one of Sabertooth’s covers, if you lose, better luck next time. No competing with other players, no special 3* or 4* characters. All you need is your very own 2* Wolverine and you can duke it out, mano e mano. Not only have you estabished the connection between these two for the uninitiated but you have also given players something else to look forward to during the week and a reason to keep their 2* Wolvie.
Little things like this would go a long way to freshen things up.
Constant competition leads to burn out
The only two non-competive modes in this game are the Prologue and The Gauntlet. i understand competition is the driving force and what keeps many players engaged, including myself but by golly there are sometimes when a player would like to take it easy! It’s funny how you acquire new players by offering a non-competitive mode but then offer nothing but competition (with the exception of the Gauntlet). By providing non-competitive events and mini-games you allow that holy cow the casual player to play at his or her own pace and not feel like the victory train has already left. You also give more established players a place where they don’t feel the pressure of competition and can enjoy using different variety of characters. Sure Simulator fulfills this function to some degree, but that is still tied to seasons and a player still has to deal with point losses and leaderboards.
Ideally, here is where “The Quest” of Puzzle Quest would happen. Where the player can embark on a meaningful journey that offers a variety of challenges that can’t be implemented in pVp or pVe. Holiday events, Mini-games galore. Put more of that creative muscle behind building thoughtful challenges. This game has so much potential to go from good to great that it almost makes me feel like my head will explode! (one of the other fun parts of playing the game)
Spider-Man
Finally, as the leader of the Buff Spider-Man Brigade i would be remiss in my duties if i did not address the matter of Spider-Man. First, i like to thank the devs for keeping to their word about keeping an eye on Spidey. However, i feel they may be misinterpreting the data. i use Spider-Man occasionally. Not because i have to, not because he is the most exciting character to play with but because he is my favorite super hero and i like to show him some love every now and then. i’m very disheartened to hear the devs refer to him as an average 3*. Even our very own NorthernPolarity often disparages him as being one of the most useless 3* characters. Obviously, i am biased. But one of the first things i looked forward to doing when playing this game was to play with Spider-Man. i did not get the chance to use him in his so-called “glory” stun lock days. But i think it is worth noting that Spider-Man is by and large considered the most boring of the OP characters, and the lack of offensive power plays significantly into that interpretation.
i’ll be fair, as a defensive character, Spidey actually is borderline top tier. His Spider-Sense is a worthwhile ability, and i like his stun as it is. However, it is very clear that defense takes a back seat to offense in this game. The devs have stated they try to stay true to the character’s “flavor” when the create them but i am still baffled as to why Spider-Man was given a healing power. i assume the decision was more arbitrary than anything else. They probably thought it was a good idea to have 3* healer and in the good old days before “true healing” no one was going to complain about an ability that essentially allowed you to play longer with your favorite/strongest characters. Among all the heroes Spider-Man has the most friendly image so i imagine that played a part into why he was given that power.
But then he got double nerfed.
Sure, he is not as bad as Ragnarok but he isn’t great either. He is just average. The devs said it themselves. But wait? Is Spider-Man’s “flavor” average? Do we call him the “Average Spider-Man”?
i understand the devs have a whole lot on their things to do list and am not asking for the buff to be top priority. i can wait for however long it takes. but gosh darn, i’m not going to sit idly by and let Spidey sink into “average” when he should be “Amazing”. I’m not even asking for top tier status. Somewhere around 3*Cap/Magneto/Deadpool level would be cool.
Bottom line is the reason the Devs got those average numbers is not simply a product of their design. They need to also consider the popularity of the character and fan loyalty. i’m willing to bet that the majority of people using Spidey fall into two camps:
Camp 1: Spidey fan camp. They have strong enough roster where having Spider-man contribute minimally to overall strength and they would be no worse for wear without him but they choose to use him since they love the character.
Camp 2: The i don’t have a Daken/Patch pVp climb team so i fall to Spider-Man for defensive support player. Like i mentioned, Spider-Man is a fairly decent defensive character and i can see a player that has no decent true healing character using Spidey for the climb.
i would just like to see Spider-Man be a more well rounded character and i think giving him a decent offensive ability would achieve this. it doesn’t have to be today, it doesn’t have to be tomorrow but someday. someday…
Anywhoo, i’ve probably said way too much. Thanks for all your hard work and for taking the time to answer these questions. Looking forward to the new rumored game mode coming and for Dr. Doom’s third power in the hopefully near future. Great job with Loki btw! Have a great holiday season and a happy new year!!
A True Believer,
fightforthedreamﾞ☆⌒o(*^ｰﾟ)v
