Coming in just under the wire - it’s time for the January Marvel Puzzle Quest Community Q&A!
We’re experimenting with something other than a traditional text Q&A this time around. A quartet of developers from Demiurge; Miles, Casey, Will and Kabir chat in our first video Q&A session, providing some answers and insights to inquiries supplied by forum-goers.
Grab yourself a beverage, kick your feet up and press play. Feel free to provide your feedback on how you like the new Q&A format in the forum comments section and thanks for watching!
Overall, I think MPQ was pretty successful at actually answering the questions, which was really the most lacking thing from previous Q & A’s. Anything additional after that is just really icing on the cake.
The only thing I question is the vaulting system. I’m not buying the explanation even with the apple juice analogy.
P.S. Next time, please get a better mic or something.
Trying to give some text for those who don’t want to watch (although it’s nice to have a face with the names!). Will post now and update as I go along.
#1 (1:00) Rebalance: characters worked on in two-week blocks, didn’t work on re-balance in last two weeks (have worked on several characters in last two weeks). List that they want to re-balance is similar to players: Rag’s 3rd ability at top of list, IW/Doc Oc/She-Hulk. They know there can’t be a “best”, they want there to not be a “worst”.
#2 (4:00) Roster slots: “is an issue”. Kicking around ideas - progression as a possibility. “we know we need to address it”, ideas need more work “top issue in game right now”, CEO says also.
#3 (6:00) Vaulting or updating tokens? 8:00 - why they don’t want to have two different token pools. “intend to keep character rotation in packs indefinitely, no plans to change that”. 9:00 “If there is a different way to earn tokens, it may not have to obey same rules” [obscure reference to possible future change?]
#4) (10:00, they say this is from Nonce) : mis-match of strongest colors vs abilities they use. Color Strengths/Ability sequence come from two different spots in the config - changing is very difficult. They could change color strengths to match abilities - looked into it and they don’t think it is the right answer. They are still looking into how to fix this (they like Nonce’s chart).
#5) (12:20) More non-competitive (perhaps co-op) events? They refer to the old score targets and mention how global score is really hard to calculate (depending on how much people play, which varies): they are looking at other events and “might see something in the next couple of months”
#6) (14:30) scrolling through leader board - once again they say it’s really intensive on battery life and servers.
—“We were so stressed out about this!” (regarding Q&A session, coming up on last question).
#7) (16:45) How do you determine release (Luke Cage out same time as netflix). They are getting info from Marvel way ahead of time and have non-disclosures about it, it is sometimes spoiling the upcoming comic books for them. They are worried about those posting from binary: “you are hurting our ability to launch stuff alongside the comic books”. Expect more to tie into comics and “maybe not comics”.
I like the video format as it puts a face on to the D3 employee. It is also more likely that they leak some info unintentionally, like Starlord becoming Spiderman ( like ok I get it that it was a joke, but in the long run they are more likely to say more stuff).
This was really awesome. Enjoyed the format thoroughly - it was nice to see human interaction and reactions rather than text responses. It makes it feel a lot more like we’re talking to you and you’re talking to us. Definitely would love to see this again.
Will’s discussional type responses work much better verbally than over text.
The format is good but I think the broad outcomes (aka. questions actually answered) is largely similar to the usual - character rotation staying (this is a lot more confirmed than previously), rebalances eventually, roster slots being worked on with no answer soon, etc. etc.
Also, for the record, here’s all the questions addressed;
1 - What characters are currently being looked at for rebalance?
2 - What steps have you been considering taking to address the Roster Slot/Hero Point shortage we have currently due to the increased release of new characters?
3 - Do you intend to continue vaulting characters indefinitely, or will you be updating the token system in the future to make all characters available at all times?
4 - For most characters, their ability list is in the same order as their tile-match damage. The tile match is used for “Strongest color”, which is a mechanic for many characters. However, inexplicably, for some characters the abilities aren’t given in the same orders as their damages, which makes the game more complicated and confusing. Is their a compelling reason for having these characters in a weird state?
5 - Did you consider developing more non-competitive pve events (like the Gauntlet) that could even be cooperative events (for example, when all players grind together to fill a progression bar but other fun cooperative mechanisms are possible)
6 - I’d like to be able to SCROLL up through the leaderboard, so i can see whether spending boosts/healthpacks to get into the reward slot is worth doing.
7 - How closely do you work with Marvel? Do they decide which characters you release, or influence the decision? I noticed you announced Luke Cage as the next hero on the same day they announced the actor who will play him.
I appreciate the Demiurge guys taking the time out of their busy days to do this. It is certainly nice to put some faces to the names we see, and to be able to see that the people working on the game care deeply about the game, comics, and the Marvel character base. I’m sure some people will be disappointed that they didn’t hear some of the answers that they wanted (e.g. roster slot caps, elimination of vaulting), but it sounds like the team does consider the views that we express, tries to judge the effort vs. reward of the possible things they could work on, and considers the whole of the player base (not just those of us here who are admittedly a very vocal but tiny percentage).
I at least feel like our questions were heard and put through some due diligence discussion, even if we didn’t get the answers we might have been hoping for.
They did too good a job of answering. It takes the wind out of the sails of people that are harping on the same issues over and over. Look forward to February, but since most of the big issues have been addressed, maybe an update on progress of the big issues as tentpoles, while answering other questions as filler. I think that would work well, because the issues will still be issues, but now we know where they stand on them. Maybe just a quick rundown/update on the big issues, just to keep us in the know. I will say this is a pretty big step in communicating with us, so thanks for the answers guys. I hope this isn’t the last Video Q&A. I saw the 20 min, and groaned, but as I watched, I was wanting more and wondered where the 20 min went.
So, the team seems pretty agile, but one potential downside of agile teams is the lack of long-term vision, and I totally felt that when the guys were explaining their dev cycle.
I really hope they have a little more direction than a vague “what should we work on in the next 2 weeks?”.
like ok I get it that it was a joke, but in the long run they are more likely to say more stuff).