November MPQ Developer Q&A - Submit Your Questions

[Nellobee]

What steps do you plan on taking to ease the 2->3 star transition? Taking older characters out of rotation for a season does almost nothing in this regard.

[hex706f726368]

@BearVenger

1. Do players’ token/character redemption rates in the aggregate match the published tables, and would you be able to publish the players’ character drawing rates (like quarterly)? I don’t want to sound like I get jobbed, but frequently, when I redeem tokens, well, I feel jobbed (particularly in season 10-packs and the anniversary tokens). “Token letdown” is one of the reasons I’ve dropped off in my PvP/PvE activity.

2. Along the lines of published metrics, do your revenue streams still match the numbers from your April Venturebeat journals? I found those articles interesting and refreshingly candid, and their numbers get kicked around here a lot. Are they still the same as they were 6 months ago?

Piggy-backing on #1 here a bit: Can you clarify what the % draw rate on tokens means? In a heroic token, any given


is 0.7%. How is that 0.7% broken down for each color of cover? Is that breakdown consistent across all characters? For some characters colossus I almost feel like it has to be 0.68% for yellow and 0.01% for red and black. I’ve seen the same behavior with hulk when I was hunting for red/black back in the day. Or is my sample size just so small I’m seeing things that don’t exist in the larger picture?

[jojeda654]

Why does Bullseye not have his own emblem? Venom and Moonstone are imposters, yet they have icons based on their original identities. It’s not like it’d be too hard to give him the one he uses on his forehead.

[Lidolas]

1. Avenger’s Alliance devs often say they plan their events 12-18 months ahead. How far ahead do you look when planning events? Are there any plans to coordinate with upcoming Marvel events, such as movies (ant-man, Avengers II)?

2. What are some of your favorite non-MPQ Marvel games (mobile, console, PC?)

[stevenbrule]

1. Anniversary Week was amazing and it was refreshing to get a respite from the constant complaining on the board as a result of it. Are there plans to implement any of the changes that occurred in that week on a more regular basis (I like how the new Thor is regularly playable in the event screen)? Like others, it was the first time I had tried lightning rounds in about six months.

2. I really liked the answer on the AV Club interview about coolest idea that you didn’t implement for practical reasons (i.e., Deadpool messing with App store). Can you give us another story or weird idea that just wasn’t feasible?

Thanks!

[system]

I asked this question long time ago when Ice9 answered it to the effect of “no plans for it now but I wouldn’t say it won’t be considered later”. So my question was this: Are you planning to reduce the PC version’s hardware requirements, namely graphics?

I have a netbook (LG X130) I use in the summer as I am away from my desktop. I was so bummed that I couldn’t run MPQ on it last summer. It says it doesn’t run because my netbook’s integrated graphics card doesn’t support shader 2.0 or something like that. I cannot remember exactly right now. This could be maybe done as adding a graphics option in the game under options. I am running Shadow Era (ccg, mobile and PC clients similar to MPQ and has crossplay between platforms), Pokemon Trading Card Game Online, along with some more games both new and old on it. Still games are coming out for the lower-end machines like my netbook (Cook, Serve, Delicious! and Shovel Knight from the top of my head), so I don’t know why MPQ couldn’t be tweaked a bit to support these devices.

[GrimSkald]

Is there a set rotation to the colors given out on the character’s PVP? I had thought there was, but I can see that for Storm (Mohawk) you’ve given out the exact same color set the last two times - Black for 1-100, Green for 1-25, and Yellow for 1-5.

[Punter1]

1. In PVE have you looked into scaling rewards to enemy levels more consistently? This could at least give some respite for those facing the crazy lvl 300+ goons. 20 ISO is sooooo insignificant! This is happening a little in the latest PVE with the Deadly nodes having better rewards. However it would be good to see this scaling applied to the actual higher levels rather than the relative difficulty.

EG (and very basic example) the same node for different players would show - Goons at Lvl 50 scaling = 250 ISO max reward, Goons at Lvl 150 = 500 ISO max, Goons at Lvl 300 = 1000 ISO max

This would also fit with the players ISO demands at the scaling points - those seeing higher levelled enemies need more ISO to move one of their characters up 1 level than those just starting out.

2. Any chance to have a loss-retaliation option in PVP when you lose a match? After a frustrating or close loss would be good to see the person you just lost to in your queue to try again. Points could maybe be scaled back by 1 or 2 so you couldn’t lose then win to get ahead.

[Verno5x]

Is the scope on Punisher’s rocket launcher ever going to be calibrated so that it always blows up the number of tiles that it should rather than sometimes targeting an edge tile?

[Lidolas]

@Verno5x

Is the scope on Punisher’s rocket launcher ever going to be calibrated so that it always blows up the number of tiles that it should rather than sometimes targeting an edge tile?

I sure hope it doesn’t. The tile damage is small compared to the odds of destroying friendly special tiles. I’d rather rely on Hulk, Storm or Juggs to destroy tiles than Punisher.

[Pylgrim]

@BearVenger

2. Along the lines of published metrics, do your revenue streams still match the numbers from your April Venturebeat journals? I found those articles interesting and refreshingly candid, and their numbers get kicked around here a lot. Are they still the same as they were 6 months ago?

Thanks for reminding me of those. There was lots of discussion about the infamous Dark Avengers PVP underperforming and being removed from the PVP rotation along with all other “theme” based PVPs (as opposed to character based PVPs). I wonder if they ever thought that the problem was not the format of the event but rather that the Dark Avengers team at large was composed of characters with only two expensive and unexciting abilities that just created unfun gameplay. That’s another of the downsides of having such an unbalanced collection of characters: when you divide them in groups, there will be almost inevitable groups made up of the crappy characters and others made up of the supergood ones. Guess which one the players will prefer?

[system]

My question for the month is; are you going to expand Alliance functionality more? I.e. more ranks, better chat, more sharing, and my personal peeve, the ability to demote someone.

Really there should have been 3 ranks at the onset, Commander for the one that starts the alliance, Lieutenant for those that get promoted, and Privates for the rest.

[system]

Are there plans to adjust or cap the cost of new character slots as the number of characters continues to increase (at a brisk and consistent pace)? Especially as these characters are required for pve and for a “diverse roster”.

40+ slots is no longer a luxury for folks who want 10 Juggs, now it is a requirement to be competitive.

Thanks.

[system]

@The Red Boat

Are there plans to adjust or cap the cost of new character slots as the number of characters continues to increase at a brisk and consistent pace, especially as these characters are required for pve and for a “diverse roster”?

Thanks.

Was wondering the same thing too in my earlier post

@Okin107

1. Are there any additional features considered to be added about alliances that will make them something more than just a group of people sharing the same rank?

2. Is there anything being considered about MMR and Bracketing? Ever since I got my lvl 127 LCap I have been in death brackets (5+ X-Men at 1800+ points) and I do not see half lvl 2* anymore but only 94s since the very first nodes of PVP. It would be OK if I had 2 maxed 3*, but one half way there is not such a big help in such cases.

4. Considering the new heroes coming in often, what are your thoughts on Roster Slots? Will the prices keep increasing the more we buy them?

[system]

1. Why do you guys like to prioritize so much on adding new characters instead of fixing all the old ones we already have?

2. Is it still really necessary for nodes in PVE to feature lv395 enemies? Patchneto and Spidey have been done away with, so would you please lower the max level?

Thanks.

[system]

I’m going to pick a couple that I really like from the suggestions index.

1. Any intention to bring back missing features of earlier installments of the Puzzle Quest franchise e.g. lair/headquarter, crafting, and followers?
2. Inclusion of mini-goals such as daily challenges or quests?
3. Cosmetic purchases such as alternate outfits or fight backgrounds?

[system]

@jojeda654

Why does Bullseye not have his own emblem? Venom and Moonstone are imposters, yet they have icons based on their original identities. It’s not like it’d be too hard to give him the one he uses on his forehead.

Hawkeye doesn’t have an icon either (1* Hawkeye has an H on his forehead as well). Venom and Moonstone’s icons are similar to their good counterpart. It is the same with Bullseye. I actually like both Hawkeye’s and Bullseye’s current arrow shaped icons. I think Bullseye’s particularly looks good.

[system]

I see alot of different rumors about some of the more obscured aspects of MPQ like MMR and defense teams. For example, depending on who I’m talking to, I’ve been told that winning a PvE match replaces the defense team on your PvP and also been told it does not. Same goes for interactions between Sim and LRs.

1. Are there any plans in the future to make it easier to check what your current defense team is in an event or make an official statement about how defense teams are set up across multiple events?

I also hear alot of rumors about how MMR work. I’ve been told tanking in LRs helps your PvP MMR and simultaneously been told it does not. Same goes for Simulator. There are even people concerned that PvE matches affects your MMR.

2. Are there any plans in the future to make it easier to check what your current MMR is or clarify the MMR system?

[simonsez]

@Kaigen

I’ve been told that winning a PvE match replaces the defense team on your PvP. Same goes for interactions between Sim and LRs.

I’ve been told tanking in LRs helps your PvP MMR. There are even people concerned that PvE matches affects your MMR.

Not sure if the devs will satisfy any of your requests, but in the meantime, immediately stop listening to the people who’ve told you any of the above.

[system]

I have healthpacks on the mind.

1. Is there any thought to changing the healthpack recharge system from 1 per 36 minutes (max of 5) to something else? For example, 1 per hour (max of 24).

Currently, if I get 3 healthpacks from daily supply they will go to my total and be used immediately.

2. Is there the possibility of a healthpack bank? This would allow players to save healthpacks won until a critical moment when they could mean the difference in reward tiers.

Edit: Sorry one more.

3. Any thoughts to no new character releases between Thanksgiving and New Year’s? Call it a Festivus for the rest of us, as you can release 3rd powers as PvE prizes for Loki, Rags, and Doom while letting us bank a few hero points.