Same old... same old...

Marvel Puzzle Quest MPQ General Discussion
1

I left MPQ around year and half ago. This year I reinstalled the game and started fresh all over again. Now I am around day 175, progressing the 3* transition (again).

There has been couple of new things for me when I started all over again. First - Command Points (interesting, but not that much), second - lot’s of new 3* and 4* characters (when I left, there were only few like XWolvie, IW, Elektra, Nick, Dino, 4hor…) and brand new for me where all the 5* characters. And boss fights - very interesting new content, kudos.

HOWEVER - Game mechanics nearly the same, casual player will not notice many changes. Visuals the same (if you don’t count new characters). Prologue the same. PVP system and seasons, the same (just minor change to reward system, due to LT and CP). Alliances, the same. PVEs? Mostly the same (heroics, hulk, gauntlet, deadpool…) with a very minor portion of new ones, that are in nature the same as the others. Shop prices and contents? I don’t see any notable difference. Shield hopping and similar strategies are still valid. Team ups and boosts, the same…

The inflow of new characters is heavy. The inflow only targets 4* and 5* now. There are still characters that are standing out from the rest in their * category, balance is not ideal. Characters come out quicker than any average player can cover with reasonable daily game time and reasonable $$$ investment. People still complain on the very same things as they were 2 years ago (and I don’t blame them).

People tend to use only very small portion of their roster, because
A) the game is not designed in a way that allows people having diverse roster rather early in the game
B) the roster becomes obsolete as soon as player has enough covers (and ISO) to actually level a character on some useful level
C) player doesn’t have freedom to decide what characters to focus on, since the covers distribution is heavily randomized and roster slots are limited by their cost
D) (for whales) characters are not well balanced, so there always is a tendency to use the trendy combos of OP characters for most challenges

The game becomes stereotypical (well it’s still a match-3 game after all). Interesting new challenges (like the ‘tetris’ one with Ultron) are extremely rare.

Sense of accomplishment is missing.

I think it is the right time to start really thinking about how to retain players and make the game fun again.

Make MARVEL covers more available to people, but in the same time think about new game mechanics, new interesting PUZZLES and new interesting QUESTS (see the name of the game, it’s all there!). I am quite sure it will pay back…

2

The game and player base are now too stuck in their ways to change. If the developers do anything too drastic to change things like easier ways to get better covers, or tiered events there will be uproar and pitch forks everywhere. Imagine what would happen if the store prices were altered, all those who have made purchases would be demanding refunds.

What the game desperately needs is to be rebuilt from the ground up and everyone start with a clean slate, in other words a MPQ 2.

3

One little but significant improvement could be THE PROGRESSION REWARDS on PVE
in this way, more players will have access to covers and not only 1% (10 on 1000 players)
more chances to gain covers = possibility to build up a variety of useful characters and not be forced to play with the same 6-8 characters.
There will always be the shortage of Iso to level up them, but one can use a new character in a shorter time than to wait almost six months like in the actual ways and be more disposed to spend some bucks into ISO…
but Devs seem to not hear our prays so the game will continue to feel like same old…same old…despite the 2,3,4 new characters they release each month (not needed at all) icon_redface.gif

4

This is why I’ve started playing khux and final fantasy brave exvius.. those games have a few advantages:

  1. Don’t require a solid hour+ to play. This is a relationship killer and a stress magnet. I have grown to hate the final pvp push with a passion. I want those 25 cp at 1300, but I just won’t do it any more, most times. I’m sick of sacrificing sleep and evening free time to try for that cp. It’s so incredibly stressful, because if you pause at any moment in your final push, then you lose 100+ points and never make it to 1300. It’s just terrible, and I hate it. icon_e_biggrin.gif

Even shielding, you need to constantly stress out about when the shield will expire. Want to get a good night’s sleep? Spend 300 hp (!!) for a 24-hour shield. Don’t dare place an 8-hour shield, or risk sleeping too late and ruining everything (or waking up and rushing to work, not being able to play and losing everything, etc). Also, be prepared to spend hundreds of HP per PVP if you shield more than just the final 3-hr and 8-hr blocks, which simply isn’t worth it.

  1. Give out tons and tons of items. Sure, many of the items aren’t super useful, but you’re getting all this stuff, you feel great. And many items can be combined into other items to become more powerful. Each single battle literally gives you over 10 items, so it feels meaningful.

  2. Have certain express paths to progress. On certain days and times, you can get massive boosts of experience points, money, key items and so forth. The games are generous! And yet I didn’t suddenly become top level, ie the game didn’t break. Also you randomly get great prizes every now and then, just for playing.

  3. Lots of new content. New quests and storylines added in regularly! Right now, I’m not advanced enough to be able to play them well, but it gives me something to look forward to, when I level up my characters more.

  4. Lots of non-timed content. Lots and lots of content that I can enjoy at my own pace. I could play it for hours straight, or play for a couple times per week, and that’s fine. There’s no pressure either way. It’s a game, so I can see it as a fun diversion instead of a time-required intensive job.

5

I would have to disagree with this. If they were introduce easier ways to get better covers and made more game play modes there would be a lot of praise for the devs. The pitch forks would come out if they just made ridiculous scaling to make the game more fun. A 4* PVP alongside a 3* PVP and a 2* PVP. More boss like PVE, a new PVE story, a reward structure rewarding more ISO and more 4* without more grinding would be praised. Progression only PVE would be praised. A reduction in sale prices or in game currency is not necessarily needed.

What the game desperately needs is to be rebuilt from the ground up and everyone start with a clean slate, in other words a MPQ 2.
The only thing I would say about an MPQ2 is I would want to be able to import my roster from MPQ1. I have spent over 960 days building up my roster and to start over from scratch for the same game would be frustrating and I would say why would I want to play with 2* again when I can play with 4* and 5*.

6

https://forums.505go.com/discussion/34512

Man, I wrote that almost a year ago and most of it still rings true. Sad stuff. I even tried to throw a couple of solutions in there. Tons of solutions (like the above mentioned progression only for PVE, and the oft-mentioned dual PVP’s) are tossed out all the time and seem to have wide community support - and the devs either don’t listen or don’t care.

7

Yet another thread started by someone who hasn’t realized that MPQ doesn’t exist to be fun for players.

The point of the MPQ experience is to get too invested in the game to quit, and then be psychologically manipulated into spending money on things that have no value, in our out of the game. Fun is how they hook you, they can’t let you have too much of it.

If you want to make suggestions for future design options, make sure to couch them in terms of profitability, not fun. The devs are not interested in the latter.

8

I determined a week ago that the game simply wasn’t going to improve. After just doing DDQs for months, finally decided to uninstall. Maybe it’ll be fun again one day, but I’m not waiting for it anymore.

9

i love the idea about mpq2 with no option to import my roster.

no way I start this grind again, that would drive me away for good.

10

It’s fairly clear that they lack the basic skill to fix fundamental problems ( crashing for example ), and lack any sort of long term vision ( 4 and 5 stars mixed with 3 stars, absolutely idiotic ).

Speaking of characters, the puking out of 4 star characters with the comparable difficulty in getting the covers has made the game much worse, unless of course you are on a top tier team. The game is stacked for them. Period.

Then you have the 5 stars. At their stock level, all of their powers are useless, except for old man logans healing which is unfairly powerful. Why a 3 star team has to run into such things in tournaments doesn’t make sense, unless you realize that d3 is largely incompetent.

They institute useless changes like putting a “doom plotting” message or a mystique “ap stolen” message without making positive changes.

Top it off with levels that seemingly are purposely made to be annoyingly difficult and taxing on health packs ( buffed bullseye to the moon to shut the board down, with Ares, and a passive opponent feeding them AP ) and you have a situation where it would make the most sense if you had actual moles in the organization trying to sabotage it.

Here’s an idea. GIVE US MONEY TO BECOME A VIP AND YOU CAN GET A QUAKE COVER TO THROW IN THE GARBAGE!

11

i actually think MPQ is a scientific study on Stockholm Syndrome, or an amazingly invasive eye-tracking research app (based on the number of times the match i’m staring at and planning to make gets matched away)

12

How exactly would tiered versus keep people happy? The 5* ranks would be playing amongst themselves, alliances would no longer be able to coordinate and the haves would still get more than the have nots. Also those just transitioning into a tier would just get slaughtered.

What the game desperately needs is to be rebuilt from the ground up and everyone start with a clean slate, in other words a MPQ 2.
The only thing I would say about an MPQ2 is I would want to be able to import my roster from MPQ1. I have spent over 960 days building up my roster and to start over from scratch for the same game would be frustrating and I would say why would I want to play with 2* again when I can play with 4* and 5*.
[/quote]

Being able to transfer a roster would be the worst thing that could happen. Would you be happy to play a game on day 1 of release only to find yourself already years behind others?

13

Ideally tiers would look something like this:

Tier 1: 1*/2*/3* (no 4*'s or 5*'s, possibly nothing buffed)
Tier 2: 1*/2*/3*/4* (no 5*'s, no buffed 4*'s)
Tier 3: Current

Anyone could join any tier. If you are getting destroyed in high tier, running the lower tier should help you transition. 3*'s would be -very- relevant in Tier 1, 4*'s would be -the most- relevant in tier 2 (i.e.: vets complaining they don’t use their 3*/4* characters would have a chance to use them!) Alliances could still coordinate, indeed you might have more coordination with alliances that start out by going only Tier 1, and some alliances that want to do all three tiers at once. The biggest downside would be those trying to do multiple tiers would have a healthpack issue.

14

HOWEVER - Game mechanics nearly the same

I don’t even know what to say to this other than if you read this and agree, you’ve lost perspective of life.

15

I would certainly welcome also some extra challenges. Let me share some examples:

Not roster dependent

  1. Set of nodes(with different difficulties) where the player is required to play with pre-defined team, pre-defined powers against defined opponent designed in the way that there is only small amount of possibilities to actually win the match. If you know Magic the Gathering - Duels of Planeswalkes single player challenges you would know what I speak about.

Example:
You get team composed of 1 support character (e.g. spidey), 1 tank (e.g. thor) and 1 attacker (e.g. wolverine), all at level 120, fully covered. You get to stand against other team, composed of 1 goon and 2 active opponents with same AP colors all at levels lets say 160. No boosts, no team ups. The strategy to win this would be for example based on AP denial of specific color and focusing on characters in particular order to win this. Rewards would be ranked based on amount of remaining health of the group, amount of turns taken to complete etc. (something like achievement rewards)

  1. Set of matches (with different difficulties) where the player is required to play with pre-defined team, pre-defined powers and some AP to start with, facing overpowered opponents (could be mirror of the players team, but with 50% higher levels). The goal would be to survive at least XY rounds, or win the fight with remaining XY AP of certain color etc. posibilities are endless, and again, rewarding system would be based on pre-defined achievements.

For those who would argue that this eliminates the main income of the devs, because players have no motivation to invest in their own rosters, you can bypass that by having few challenges and nodes unlockable for specific HP or CP volume.

Roster dependent

  1. Like the Deadpool Dailies, 1-2-1 fights, except not only designed for 4* players. Take 2* wolvie and put him against 3* cyclops. Or take 3* spiderman and put him solo against 2 waves of goons + dr. Octopus…

  2. Define nodes with different rules, where boosts don’t count and certain colors both match and power damage is reduced to one. This would force different team compositions, makes a player think twice before matching the 4 in a row of specific color etc.

You know, making it a bit more sound like puzzle. And if you accompany those above with some story related to Marvel universe (like the spidey taking on the octopus…) you have also quests…

16

I agree with this topic. I have been playing this game pretty hard for the last year and a half. I have a budding 4* roster and have gotten tons of enjoyment out of this game. That said, the game has become very stagnant for me. I went on a camping vacation about a month ago and so I wasn’t able to really play MPQ for about a week. Before my vacation I was on the PvE grind schedule putting in hours and hitting top 50 in PvP. Basically MPQ was a big time investment for myself.

After my vacation I turned on MPQ and looked at the same old events and the same old rewards structures and decided I really don’t want to throw myself into that time investment anymore.

I pretty much only play DDQ now, and that is whenever I don’t really have much to do during the day. I know alot of people feel like they have to keep playing just for the reason that they have been playing for so long, but that isn’t for me anymore. Play as much as you like but remember…

It’s a game, not an obligation.

17

I don’t think that’s true at aaalllll.

The forums are constantly calling out for change to mechanics or a change to the business model, for example ISO being in such short supply and so prohibitively expensive to purchase.

I think some big positive changes would be very much welcomed.