Open letter to D3 (not a rage quit)

Marvel Puzzle Quest MPQ General Discussion
1

I was able to champ OML 2 seasons ago (thanks, RNG!) and am currently in the 3rd season with him. At first I was really enjoying the skills he brought to the table. But now that I am in the 3rd season with him, I’m starting to feel like I’m missing something from this game.

https://forums.505go.com/discussion/44686

Colognoisseur has an excellent post which had me thinking. Peggy Carter was my 100th unique character I’ve rostered. (I do not have Venom 1*, Yelena, Hawkeye, IM35, or Green Goblin (thanks, RNG!)). I would argue that I only use less than 50% of my roster in any given month. Figure I always have to play OML due to scaling and MMR. I am required to play 3 different 3s in a week in PVP. PVE (say there are two events a week) requires one each 2, 3*, and 4*. DDQ requires a 3* and a combination of 1* and 2*. Finally in one week, there are four boosted 4s which I can choose from. So in any given week I am playing one 5, six 4s, six 3s, four 2s, and three 1s. That is a total of 20 characters. (I am being generous because Juggs can solo a DDQ node). That means every week, I’m missing playing 80% of my roster.

Figure in the subsequent weeks that the boosted 4s, PVP, & PVE change. DDQ remains the same. So I get to use another 13 different characters. So in a month, I may only play 59 characters, 41% of my roster goes unused. I feel I’m being generous with this calculation since boosted 4s often include 4*s that are undercovered/underleveled that I cannot use.

On a new train of thought, since I have OML, my MMR pits me against lvl 390-450 range combination of Phoenix/OML teams ALL THE TIME. So in PVP, I’m ALWAYS playing OML and my best boosted 4* for the week. It seems I’m not the only one who feels this (https://forums.505go.com/discussion/45391).

I have been playing MPQ for 950 days. While at times it has been a grind or tedious, it has mostly been a fun playing experience. The problem is now I realize the vast majority of my roster goes unused until a specific character is required on a rotation that happens once a month (again, being generous).

Dear Developers,
It is time to introduce content that allows players to utilize their rosters to the fullest potential, instead of dishing out more new characters that requires players to pay to roster yet another dead character (Bucky, Kate, Jimmy, and Marc all have 5 covers which make them useless until I can find covers/ISO for them).

If I may be so bold as to recommend something that you already have programmed: RUN MULTIPLE PVPs AT THE SAME TIME.

First option: Run featured PVPs that require the player to play a team made up of the same (or less) rarity of the featured. Ex/ 5* Feature, play 5* or less. 4* Feature, play 4* or less. 3* Feature, play 3* or less. 2* Feature, play 2* or less.

Second option: Run 3 PVPs at the same time. The first PVP will feature a 4*, and players can select any character to run with that character. The second PVP will feature a 3*, but players must select a 4* or less. The third PVP will feature a 2*, but players must select a 3* or less.

Either of these options will breathe life into my roster that allow me to play characters that are on the far right side of my roster. I am seriously considering selling all my characters, recollecting their covers, and soft capping everybody at level 70. Yeah, I know, this will basically destroy any PVP playability, but at least I will be able to play any combination of 2, 3, or 4* in PVE. I may have more fun that way, especially considering the competitiveness of PVP.

(Besides, with FF BE now out, I may have less time for MPQ) (This is not a threat, just facts) I truly do still enjoy MPQ and will continue to play it. We post here with our grievances because we truly enjoy this game and would like to see it improve. You ask for our time and money (this game is the 3rd most expensive game I’ve put money into (WOW & Rock Band) and we do so willingly because we enjoy the game. Many people would just like to know that the player base is being heard just with simple acknowledgements, if not adjustments.

This is long, and I hope it is coherent and intelligible. Thanks for listening. I do enjoy this game, otherwise I wouldn’t have played for 950 days and spent money on this game.

2

Experiencing the same problem (with champed Phoenix instead of OML, the only character that matters), and have begging for your solutions even when I was running only 4*'s and 3*'s no longer mattered.

I’ve read lots of vets who won’t move up their 5*'s in fear of your issues - they want to have a more fun game, which includes using lots of characters.

I never even look at 3*'s - doesn’t matter which ones are boosted any given week, I’ll never use them. The trivial PVP’s don’t need them, and any non-trivial scale so high that I -must- use the 5*. Every PVP round I -must- use the 5*, since MMR puts me against other 5*'s -only-. It is very boring - and with RNG giving me only six covers (5/0/1!) in my next best 5*, I won’t be using -any- other character for months and months and months.

I wish upon the game - split PVP, ban 5*'s in the lower version. Make 4*/3* relevant again!
I wish upon the game - widen MMR, make variety of seen teams in PVP again!
I wish upon the game - lower scaling, make variety of usable teams in PVE again!

3

seriously speaking if youve reached the ceiling of the game, either through a massive expenditure of time or money, well you reached the ceiling. all they can do for you is raise the ceiling.

widening mmr just means letting 5s beat up on 4s.

lowering scaling in pve doesnt mean people will actually use other teams, it just means they will clear faster with their 5s.

no one is going to put away their shiny toys just to use other characters that arent as powerful. theyll continue using the biggest hammer available to them. thats what this game is. steamrolling the opposition as hard and fast as possible, be it pvp or pve.

4

I was going to bring up the PvE/scaling thing. We get 3 trivial nodes in every PvE sub, and I know some do experiment with “outside the box” teams, but for the most part people want to finish as quickly as they can and bring their best teams instead. So, you could use more of your roster on these nodes if you’d like, but it’s not really adding difficulty to the game or anything strategic as much as it’s just adding time to your play session.

5

But this is a result of the meta they have created. To be successful in PvE you have to clear as quickly as possible (at least at the top end). I don’t care for the current PvE rewards so I’m only playing for node rewards and I do use weaker teams on the trivial nodes just for kicks. But if I am going for T20 or better I have to play them as quick as I can.

I think what many have asked for is events where 5*s are locked out. Or maybe a “choose your own heroic” where you pick what characters are available for an event, the rest are locked out, and then your scaling is set accordingly.

6

IMHO- All NEW features will be implemended in MPQ THE SEQUEL.
As this one is going to finish squeezing money from the whales.

If you whant to know “WHY?” - There are posts on forum that explain problematic rights ownership between Demi, Marvel and Sega etc.

7

They don’t need separate PVP’s. They just need to make each PVP have a featured 3* and a featured 4*. Nothing else changes except that the center character can be either a loaner 3* featured (as currently), your own 3* featured (as currently), or your own 4* featured (the new change). This would breathe new life into the 4* game and make underleveled 4*'s actually somewhat useful.

This is the simplest change they could make that would have the most beneficial effect on improving the 4* game and reducing the current gap that exists between those who have OML (which I do, and I still think this is necessary) and those that don’t.

8

There are some good points and ideas in this thread. However, I’d like to see dual PvPs. It is no secret that Demi has 4 star.png
events already designed and ready to go. We get one with each new release. So why are they not the norm? I see no reason why we cant have the 3 star.png
event along beside the 4 star.png
events. And since most of the players in the 4 star.png
events will be vets or whales, they should offer better rewards. While the 3 star.png
events remain the same except 5 star.png
are locked out. That is because I think newer or casual players would be more likely to play the 3 star.png
events. And they probably will not have many, if any, 5 star.png
characters.

Either way, both events should be open to everyone allowing players to do both. This will offer more iso for everyone and better rewards for advanced players. Newer/casual players can still do the 4 star.png
event for some extra iso, they just won’t place as well as in the 3 star.png
event. I know there may be a few problems or difficulties with my idea. Maybe a few things I missed. If so, please feel free to point them out. But I think running both 3 star.png
with locked out 5 star.png
's in tandem with a 4 star.png
event with better rewards and no one locked out would solve several problems. Like iso shortage and low level rewards for high level players.

I believe that MPQ has advanced to the point where something like this will be truly beneficial. Especially since the game continues to grow. After all, Demi has an event for every 3 and 4 star.png
character. So why not let us play them?

9

I really like Future Fight’s bracketing, they have it split into 5 tiers of play: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Vibranium. You get promoted to a higher bracket if you finish in the top 20%, demoted to a lower bracket if you finish in the bottom 20%. Now Future Fight’s PvP isn’t similar to Puzzle Quest’s, you don’t lose points when you’re attacked (at least I’ve never noticed), but I still think it makes sense here. This way you get the most competitive players competing for the best rewards and people in the lower tiers compete for rewards suitable for their progression and aren’t smashed to bits by teams far beyond what they can handle. Players will still game the system or top players may take a break for awhile and dominate the lower brackets on their way back to the top but that’s happening right now anyway. Tie the quality of the rewards to whatever bracket a player is competing in and I imagine most of the complaints about PVP will end.

10

Here’s how I’d combat this issue - create a 4 tabbed system:

-PROLOGUE - once completed, you can have another go at it, but with higher scaling. All rewards reflect this as well (replace all cover rewards with ISO after the 1st run). Make it repeatable as many times as you beat the whole thing, but again, with increasing scaling each time. Maybe a cool-down period of once a season so it can’t be completely abused.

-STORY - Basically the same. Ideally with fresh content of course, but that’s a separate issue.

-VERSUS - Lightening rounds (with all 3* included) that run continuously, once every 6 hours. Also, a random PVP event always running where they can be creative with the makeup of the team composition as well as rewards - something that doesn’t feel static and predictable. After all, they do love there randomness right?

-SEASON ___ - In season PVP, Shield SIM and Season Screens

(and if I could fit a 5th tab, it would be a RESULTS tab that lets us access our results from all events played (minus lightening rounds) for like 2 weeks, but again, that doesn’t fit the narrative of this discussion)

11

I think that they should have a Loki themed PVP event where he hosts it and chooses a random 3 characters from your roster for you to use. Instead of going up against other players rosters, he generates a randomized Seed Team that is scaled to your randomly chosen team that he chose for you. Pure progression, you gain fixed points for winning and you lose fixed points when you lose.

12

I haven’t hit the ceiling. I still have 5s & 4s to cover and level.

I didn’t advocate for broadening MMR. On the contrary, I argued for for blocking out rarities in certain events.

Neither did I ask for scaling to be lowered. My point was now that I have ONE 450 5*, my MMR & Scaling do not permit me to use anything unless my one 5* is present. (Side note: I do have fun with OML/1*Spidey)

The point was that arguably 75% of my roster of 100 characters sits and rots. D3 has stated in the past that roster slots is the $ maker of the game. If that is so, then we need content that allows us to actually use these characters freely instead of only when forced to do so in 5-8 nodes of pvp/pve.

Yes, we do have the trivial nodes in pve as someone has pointed out.

13

Why are such simple concepts like this seemingly beyond the willingness or interest for Demiurge to implement? It would breathe a little life into this increasingly stagnant game. That event could run alongside SHIELD Sim for the season with a similar progression scale.

14

Tried this last night on the essentials to save health packs for PvP and wiped twice. Got frustrated and went back to Phx/OML. Hate that scaling has such a negative impact on diversity.

15

There’s a simple fix to mmr in PvP that means you can use whomever you like without getting punished…

Mmr matches based on the 3 characters you choose rather than the 3 best on your roster.

Fancy a match against a 3* team…pick a 3* team.

That way all your roster is usable all the time. And you’re still always pitched against people at your level so there’s no advantage to selecting a lower tier team except variety.

16

It’s an interesting idea but would mean a significant change to the game mechanics; you’d have to choose your team before seeing the nodes.

17

How about have heroic pvps like pve. For example the women of marvel pvp only you would only be able to select from the women on your roster and not have 1 or 2 then have oml

18

I hate to say it, but I don’t think we’ll get any new gameplay from this game anytime soon. Just the slow churning death of new character after new character.

With that said, I’d still like to see these changes or additions to a game that I make sure I play once a day:
-Elimination of placement rewards for covers in PVE (PVE isn’t PVP and we shouldn’t be competing against others for covers. This simple change will let people use their rosters instead of their health packs)
-PVP tiers (just like choosing your end time, you choose your tier. Higher tiers, higher leveled opponents, higher rewards)
-More stories added to the prologue (how about retiring all these repetitive Dark Reign storylines and adding them into the prologue?)
-Conclude the Dark Reign storyline with the introduction of the Iron Patriot (and finally wrap up a story that no one cares to repeat any longer!)
-Game mode where you have a to beat every node with specific characters assigned (this would make us use our rosters and would be a fun challenge if you ask me. It could even be a specific story where we’re following Black Panther as he hunts someone down. Then along the way, he encounters help from heroes, or unlikely team ups with villians. The stories are endless and can be completely made up! Give those story editors something to do!!)
-Tokens where you only earn 3 and 4 star characters

So those are just a few of my ideas. What are yours?

19

They did that in the early stages of the game. I remember the first run of Women of Marvel, when the only options available were Storm (1* and 2*), Black Widow (1* and 3*… I don’t remember if OBW had been released at that Point), Moonstone and Yelena. I don’t Think that was considered a success…

20

((sorry My English is not good))
I was a 3* to 4* transitional player before legendary tokens were introduced
I don’t like to shield and being very tired of grinding PVE
so 2 weeks before, my best 4 stars are championed Nick and Electra.
May be I am lucky, I collected OML and phenix very fast.
My OML is now 2/3/2 and 1/4/4 phenix
I felt it could take me a long long time to complete champion 4 star
so I decided skip 4 star and level up 5 star directly last week

Its my first week newbie in 5 star life
In the beginning, I felt so happy because I can KO boost 4 star who I skip all the time before.
The PVE became time sparing because the match damage is wonderful.
When u use Phenix purple, Its really very fast to complete PVE

However, one week later, I start to feel boring
All my played in MPQ are two option
PVP: OML Phenix and 3*
PVE: OML phenix, essential
OML phenix, Ironfist or scarlet
That’s all
suddenly, I feel that leveling 5 star make me start to think about giving up this game.
All I want now is OML and Phenix from legendary token
But as to others saying, the more I levelling up 5 star, the less fun in MPQ