SotG2020

Marvel Puzzle Quest MPQ General Discussion
1

I’ve been thinking about posting this for a while and it seems overdue to me. A lot of unhappy people out there, I was also one until I learned to temper my expectations as the game has been in an odd state since shards.

With that said, what do you guys think of the overall state of the game “here in the future?”
Please don’t turn this into a rant post. I want to provide a little less lead feedback to the devs, good, bad, w/e.

For me, it feels like every pro has a con or vice versa. However you feel about shards, I feel it has helped me in rostering some of the 4 stars in my transition to that land. This is probably offset by the inability to champ any of them before next year and the fact that all of my high cover toons are releases since September. I hope the return of alliance events will help. Win based PvP is now under new rewards structure and again, shards are nice, but the option to not play PvP is all but forgotten to me. I will say I’ve noticed a lot more 5 star heavy rosters missing a lot of 4 stars and farms, could just be my MMR. Also, a lot of heat over the moving of CP rewards today.
The increased info in Sneak Peeks is offset by the late updates. Bonus rewards from SCL10 (which I have yet to unlock) seems to be offset with a massive uptick in the time investment. Likewise, the increase in cover/shard rewards is tempered by the overall loss of resources & exacerbated by the placement nerf. Also, there should be a lot more Mighty tokens, period.

I’m sure I’ve missed some things there, but I really wanted to get to these next points. None of the changes have helped with dilution. If anything, it has expanded to become an issue with 5 stars as well as continuing to plague the 4 stars as of the new release schedule. Slices, OMG slices… there really needs to be more and I think a number of us would be happy with an alternative that doesn’t require us to heed the master’s call regardless of our lives outside of the game.

So what do you think? What are some things that need to be addressed going forward? Where were the devs spot on & where did they miss the mark? I for one was super excited by the release of some more iconic characters as of recent, even if there are a ton missing (looking at you, spider-villains.)Have any of us threatening to quit followed through and if so, what can they do to get you back?

Finally, I see a lot in the forums from players with at least a year on me but not a lot from newer players. They’re there, just seems few and far between. Are you “you younguns” happy with your experience so far? Does there need to be more prominent links to information sources within the game itself?

2

I’m a “relatively” new player (~630 days) and am finishing up my 4*s (only about 24 covers to go!)

I really like the shard system. It helps with progress because the events awards can have a much smoother curve. Previously, if you didn’t make a threshold for placement, you got squat for 4* covers. Now you can get fractional covers (even in PvP!) I feel like that helps with dilution a little bit and is less “lumpy” than the BH system. I can basically “ignore” 4* releases. Through their regular event appearances, I’ll come out with 13 covers.

As I’m turning my gaze to 5* land, I think the increased 5* release rate is gonna make that seem way more frantic. Otoh, I ran some numbers and you should be able to tread water on 5s (gaining 13 5 covers equivalent every 4 weeks) with only 2 or 3 Legends (Classic or Latest) pulls per day. Granted, you won’t be champing every new 5* that way, but I’m not expecting to at this point.

Going forward, I think the Sneak Peek could stand to be updated more often. Some of us might be mildly obsessively tracking progress and getting that preview is very nice and might keep us around longer. (Though it sounds like it’s kind of a weird comms channel since demiurge runs the events order while this is a D3 forum?) Also, better communication of some of the changes ahead of time (PvP reward changes, for example.) I’m not sure how much of this is in D3’s hands and how much is demiurge.

I am looking forward to the return of alliance events and would also like to see some more interesting mechanics in regular PvE events kind of like the Kaecilius fight (maybe in non-placement events?) Rather than just maximizing damage output, perhaps a little more Puzzle in the Puzzle Quest.

(I imagine the folks that followed through on quitting probably aren’t going to be lurking on the boards to provide their perspective.)

3

@argle_bargle Gratz on closing in your 4s!
I will say that I am looking forward to punching down with the next PvE. I’ll have just enough shards to roster 4* Widow w/e I feel the need. (Bonus, got a cover on the vine for tomorrow)

I’m starting to get a little overwhelmed with doing every PvP in the past few months to 25 wins for the slots.

I do feel ok with tossing covers since shards came along. If I don’t need a 4 star, they can hang out in shards until needed.

4

@krakenoon Thanks! And congrats on the BW cover(s)!

Do you know about the “freebies” on PvP? If you get in at the very start, you’ll face placeholder teams of featured character plus a couple of 1-stars? If you can clear quickly, you should be good for 7 to 9 wins before you face “real” teams.

With the recent change in things gestures at the world, I’ve had more time for PvP (only playing PvE in SCL8 so it takes less time since that is more locked to a start/finish time), so the grind hasn’t felt too bad yet… (yet.)

That’s another reason I like shards is that they are another resource that doesn’t expire. I have taken advantage of shards on the 3* farm. I can accumulate 3* shards when a 3* is nearing harvest time, then when it comes time to sell them, I immediately re-roster with a few covers.

5

Oh yeah. Without those 6-10 freebies, I’m not sure I would even bother with PvP. I guess the trouble of 15 more wins after is just too time consuming to me when it takes me over an hour to clear PvE. TBF, I’ll probably be punching at where I should in DPvsMPQ, but I’ve really pushed to get BRB and failed to get him where I wanted. Time to shift gears until iHulk is about to go away.

6

In the same amount of time I got more 5*s with bonus heroes than with shards. With BH you could target more effectively and get covers faster than with shards. For instance i have almost 5000 five star shards allocated in different characters useless for months to come. Those are 10 BH covers I could have selected and even if not the correct color in the short run I would champ and inmediately get bonus levels for my hero once I got the correct covers.

Shards are probably more useful to champ a character but after that a BH should be the way to go. Now that the 5* releases come faster dilution will be a serious problem soon. The 4* dilution experience should suffice to stablish a classic store for 4s and another one for 5s.

A practice Mode where you could test teams without losing hp would be a logic tool to support doing scl10 pve and pvp.

I also am all in for a system that does not rely on clearing speed but on color combos and powers.

To make game faster both isos should disappear, is my impression that iso sales are at best marginal and only slow down player activity.

Many good ideas can be read in the forum but in the years I have played I have experienced partial implementations, reduced feedback and ever increased squeezes of the game economy.

7

From the perspective of my experiences, the game is substantially better than it was 6 months ago.

Regarding shards and the updated rewards, I’d like to affirm @argle_bargle 's second paragraph above.

Regarding SCL10 PVE, it isn’t directly applicable to me and may never be. However, the movement of players that caused does seem to have made placement elsewhere more lucrative. It’s hard to be sure.

I used to play exclusively PVE, but I’ve become pretty regular with at least getting those PVP “freebies” and then pushing to 11 wins and sometimes more.

I think many of the new 4* characters are fun. In some ways, the recent best times I’ve had in MPQ is taking my level ~188 4s, making some fun or thematic teams, and going to the shield sim. I like to think some 3/4 rosters had some retaliations that were both easy wins and fun fights for them.

Regarding the Sneak Peak and communication in general, it is nice to have, but just that and nothing more. In the game, events show their rewards and tokens show their odds. Simple. Knowing the information a week in advance rarely, if ever, changed whether I played an event or not.

I think 5* and/or uber-competitive players have their own approaches to the game, priorities, and concerns that are unique to them.

@krakenoon, I’m not sure that I myself qualify as a “youngun” to the game anymore, but I appreciate you taking the time to create this thread and draw out some less-heard perspectives.

8

I do miss BHs. It feels like I would have made a lot more progress on my 4 star roster under it.

Big fan of the free play mode idea, probably impossible to convince anyone making money on the game to develop it as it goes against spending psychology (we can get our fix without being pressured to spend).

@Halleck
So are you planning to focus on 13 wins in the new PvP structure?

Also, I find the sneak peek supremely helpful in managing my roster but that’s probably more important to someone who doesn’t spend and and has been struggling to keep up with my legends pulls chasing BRB without a decent 4 star stable. I find myself playing hot potato with covers/shards on non-meta 4s and trying to make sure I have a decent level on the 2 star when a Big E comes along with a weak 3 and a poorly covered 4. Knowing who is essential in PvE events has a defined effect on my roster as well.

9

@krakenoon The short answer is yes, 13 wins will be my default goal. 2 more wins is minor compared to the deeper changes impacting others, and I’ve been on the far-worse side of past reward shufflings. And ultimately, I try not to be afraid or regretful about skipping/quitting an event. I don’t ‘budget’ to have that CP and often the 4* shards are actually more enticing.

I definitely don’t want to deny the value of the sneak peek or be unappreciative of the effort that goes/went into it. Having to periodically do vaguely-similar things in my day job + Brigby’s position being unfilled (still accurate?), I’m just extra sympathetic on that issue.

Whether it’s by design or not, could the summation of recent changes be ‘spun’ as a rebalancing; where 5* land becomes less achievable/sustainable for many playstyles/people, but 4* land is reaping some benefits? Even if we only look at the 5/4/5/4 release schedule, most on the forum (completely understandably) cast it as an acceleration of 5* releases, but it’s also a deceleration of 4* releases.

10

It’s a catch-22 situation.

Obviously there are diminishing returns on new 4s as we have pointed out numerous times. A newer player has almost no ability to realistically chase the majority of 4s, nor any strong reason to do so given the number of them and how long the “Cycles of Need” are.

A 4 is boosted about 2.8 times per calendar year.

A Classic 4 is needed as a PVE essential approx every 2 2/3 years, give or take (barring a related movie, ha ha).

DDQ: You’ll need a 4 every 93 days, or they have a Crash every 465 days.

These numbers assume no new 4’s are added to the game…each one pushes that number further up.

This isn’t even touching on the difficulty in making the utility of a new 4 stand out from the existing meta, nor how each new one just make the problem of dilution grow which potentially demoralizesmore and more players. Go look at some app store reviews and you’ll see it’s not just forumites or Redditors complaining about the number of characters and difficulty in chasing them.

Honestly, there is no way for a person who isn’t a full-on hardcore player to really move through the 4 tier and even then I suspect you’ll still need to prioritize like crazy and end up with lots of unchamped characters with many saved covers, along with a number of shards on un-rostered people who you’d need to spend pretty seriously to catch up on.

So yes, we are getting less 4’s now, which diminishes/slows down these problems while beginning to create new problems for the top players who are in 5 land. I suppose it’s probably better for the potential long term health of the game to stop growing the 4 tier quite as quickly. I have no idea if that will all balance out in a positive way or if it’s too little, too late. Being a 5 player just feels like speeding towards burnout, for me.

11

Assuming they want to keep the 2 week cycle for releases, I wonder if they’d consider C/L/C/L/C/L in PVE for 4 stars. With Karnak being the only 4 star released un about 6 months (not sure when Worthy Cap or Juggs dropped), it’s a lotmofndead time with the north stars and karolina Deans of the game. Might even help new characters cover some classics. I probably would have quit PVP if my MMR was determined by a champ super skrull or maria hill.

At about 800 days, I think of myself in no man’s land. Not old enough to be a vet, but over developed to be new. Been iso broke on purple for over a year and 15 million in the hole. Been red iso rich for almost as long with 1.5 million and growing. Resource scarcity is my main complaint in the game now, but I also understand that there are things I could be doing (flipping 3* champs, for example) that could ease the burden.

I’m approaching the jump from 4* to 5*, I haven’t had to deal with SCL10 burnout on PVE, but have personally seen 4-5 vets leave the game from burnout. Accelerated 5* release schedules aren’t helping, and I think 4 star dilution was mainly and issue due to shield training requirements

Overall, I’m happy with my experience. Over 2 years in of hardcore daily play (max progression PVE and 900-1200 PVP), with no plans to stop or reduce play habits.

12

I have seen the problem of dilution being mentioned in one of the 4* character discussion threads since late 2015 or 2016. I joined this game in late 2017, when MEH still had the “New!” tag. Back then and now isn’t much different. It’s still “impossible” to catch up to 4* releases without spending a lot of money.

Ultimately, it depends on your playstyles and goals in the game. I’m not a completionist, so dilution has never been a huge problem for me. My goal in this game is simple: seek out characters whose abilities interest me and try to create “perfect” or awesome synergy. Ignore those uninteresting one and try to get at least one cover. As of now, I have 80% of the 4* characters champed and almost all at 13 covers. It doesn’t mean that all those champed characters interest me, but that’s a “side effect” due to my “competitive” playstyle.

I have also “assigned” goals for each mode in the game to keep my game interesting:

PvEs: for the thrill of getting the top 10 spot and trying my best not to let others take over my spot. I play this basically for the thrill. 40-50 mins of PvEs per day for 4 + 3 clears.

PvPs: Crafting good teammates surrounding the essential character, or testing the “perfect couple”, ignoring the essential characters.

Shield Simulator: creating different teams to counter meta teams.

Lightning Rounds: get 2 extra Heroic Tokens if I have the time. I think Lightning Rounds give the best ROI in terms of time spent and rewards given.

What I would like to see are:

  1. champed new 4* loaner in PvP. The next time this character is essential in PvP would probably be two or three years later. This would be the best way to find out how that character fares in PvP.

  2. Saved Teams like what our neighbour, G I Joe, has.

  3. Roster sorting.

  4. 250 CP Support Bundle with guaranteed Rank 4 Supports, or regular HP store to buy supports.

  5. Option to watch videos of opponents losing or winning against me in PvPs. G I Joe has this and I find this interesting to watch.

  6. Smarter opponents, but the devs are still not keen in doing this. It could be a good tradeoff in SCL 10: smarter opponents but fewer clears.

13

The game is…at an interesting spot right now. I personally don’t care for the increased releases of 5 stars but I get that it helps slow down the 4 star tier.

I do like the shard system as a whole and I am able to keep up with new 5s but I play cl10 pve to progression, cl10 pvp to 1.2k and also spend some on the game. If you’re still only able or willing to play in cl9 this is probably not the case. I’m still not 100% clear on why cp there (and in 8,7,etc) was cut. The extras are helping me, but I can also get them. Anyone still in 9 or below took a pay cut when cl10 came out and they still have new releases. Speed things up, sure, but add some cp/LT to the game instead of taking it away. Either way shards are much, much better than BH as far as number of covers earned. I can get at least 10-15 levels on a 3 star with shards per week. With BH it was maybe 7 at best, usually lower. For 5 stars I got about 20 total BH in all of 2019. So far this year I’m at about 40 extra 5 star covers (from favorites) due to shards. Not even close.

14

My perspective. I started mid 2018, when cries of 4* dilution were ubiquitous. I play pve for t10 ranking, first in scl4 for a while during 3* phase, currently in scl7 or scl8. Pvp till 4* cover from the moment I went into 4* transition. I found a good alliance, that eventually became a t100 alliance. I spend some money now and then on packs I like, but only the cheaper ones, which prevented the dreaded early hp drought, as I was sure to pick up the shield lvl packs.

My goal is to champ every char in the game, completing every tier (new ones being picked up in between) before turning my attention on a new tier (meaning I currently collect 5* covers, but if used I softcap them around the top of my 4* tier, which is around lvl 300). I am halfway champing the 4th tier, I have all 4* on 13+ covers, except Superskrull.

Shards were a huge improvement for my 4* tier, which might have to do with more shard progression and ranking rewards in the scl7 and more 4* shards in pvp. My collecting goal is broad, but I am an active player, which matches. (My advice, if you are a less active player, either pick a less completist goal, or get more active). I can progress well on shards. And I love getting rid of the ‘oh no, wrong color’. I got an early Okoye, but I could never use her, because she only red covers. One of first things I did when shards were there was put her on black and yellow, and now she is suddenly useful. Even better that we now have bonus shards.

I farm diligently, 2* and 3*, so combined with active play I can get enough hp, and at least enough iso to progress my champed 4* and not fall behind.

What I dislike currently is the too fast release pattern of 5*, combined with the reduction of cp awards. I don’t mind the pattern 4 - 5 - 4 - 5, I mind that they are only 2 weeks apart. Even with my active playing style I cannot always get the one necessary 5* cover I need for pve fast enough, meaning I now have to hoard cp for the special stores. I cannot play scl10 with my roster, not even for progression, and in scl7 and scl8 I cannot gain enough shards for the one new 5* cover. One is enough, I feel no need to champ it, that will come later. I feel the release pattern would be better if there were 3 weeks between each release, so 6 weeks between each 5*. Either that, or do not feature those newly released 5* in pve until they have left LL, so that hoarding for 4* players is no longer compulsory as it is now. I miss the fun of drawing classics and getting an unexpected old 5* cover to enhance my collection.

I also hope Shield Training will resume, as it is a great incentive for broad collecting 4* players.

the other thing I am unhappy about is the lack of opportunity to improve my support collection. The scarce basic tokens I can get my hand on will only give me duplicates. If for whatever reason the support circuit is canned, why not put at few advanced support tokens in vaults, so we have a sporting chance of actually improving our collection. And spend some Riso…

15

@bluewolf
I will say that as of the end of May my habits will be play PvP when I need, punch way down on PvE whenever I can & continue chasing 4 star completion. All CPs will go to LL right before Immortal leaves & I’ll have to accept that anything outside of the 5 star shards I get from pulls will be forever out of my grasp unless I drop $40 from minimal gains.

@OJSP
I can definitely notice when CL10 players are punching down, and I can’t say I blame them. It seems placement has gotten much more competitive since it’s another resource payout in a shrinking economy. It’s harder and harder to find a splice you can place in without perfect clearings unless you have a schedule that allows. More slices, please?

@itsuka7
Your roster is a bit more developed than mine. Right before changes I was a loyal SCL7 PvE player and ignored placement & PvP, even ignored Shield Sim. I would punch down to 4 or 5 when I wasn’t impressed with rewards. I would like to get back to mostly ignoring PvP and anything above SCL6 (barring meta rewards) after my last little roster push. I think I can get to a point over the remainder of the year where I have all 4 stars available & might revisit spending habits and play style.

Personally, I hope a return of events such as alliance, support circuit, and Gwenpool? will keep me playing, because the hamster wheel isn’t enough.

16

I get encouraging people to play cl10. But if that’s the case then put additional CP in 10 instead of just transferring existing cp payouts from 9, cutting 9 and below and also releasing 5s at an increased pace. I can handle 10, but my concern is for people that played 9 but can’t manage 10. Why make new stuff “good” by taking existing things and making them worse so that the new ones just look better? Why not just…idk…make the new stuff actually better?

17

To consider the CP for a moment in SCL9 PVE:

Old CP: 40 in progression
New and improved: 30 in progression
Lost: 10 CP

5’s are 1:7, but you could pull in Latests or Classics so let’s split the difference and average 22.5 cp per pull or 157.5 per 5.

We get 50 shards, or 10% of a specific 5 in 9 progression.

10 CP is 6.3% of the amount needed for 7 pulls if you split them between the two stores.

So I guess they would consider this a net benefit?

Anyway, my point is that they removed CP from lower SCLs (and you could argue they would have removed some CP from SCL10, if it existed before shards, when they pushed shards in) in exchange for shards/specific character progress.

The devs have, from the beginning, highly valued the shards and colorless covers/progress in specific characters. The champ rewards update showed that very clearly, and putting them into event rewards carried that further. So we are paying a “Shards Tax” on an ongoing basis vs prior rewards.

The counter argument, of course, is that the game is VERY diluted at this point, and even if you are getting progress towards a specific character’s colorless cover, that character is still 1/190 or so (excluding the characters you can’t earn shards towards) and the rewards cycle is extremely long (as I have pointed out earlier in the thread). So - especially on Classics - getting some shards is still just marginally increasing a very slow rate of progress. It’s kind of like if you were tasked with moving a hill with a shovel, one scoop at a time, and once every year or two they gave you a wheelbarrow to use for 3-4 days.

I am not convinced they nerfed the rewards to discourage playing down as much as they were balancing their rewards budget for the largesse of giving us earnable shards.

18

I’ve been mostly pretty happy with the game up until recently with the pvp reward change. I would like pve to be more varied though. I personally don’t mind the 7 day events. They should cycle through every event before it is used again throwing in a boss event every so often. Daily deadpool could add another node with 4* shard reward that get you a cover for that particular character at the end of the rotation

19

Other than 7 days, they basically DO cycle through all current events before running them again. That takes about 2 months. I am not sure if they will run 7-days again or not, ever.

The current shard design is to give you half a cover for a 5 every PVE in SCL 10. Does a 7 day give you two half-covers for two different 5s? I am not sure how that would even work. Or does it give you a full 5* colorless cover? Does that really sound likely? I mean maybe they would…but it doesn’t seem like something they’d be into.

For reference there are only 3 7-days they run, ever, any more. The last times they were run:

The Hulk - 3/21/19
Enemy of the State - 9/5/19
Prodigal Sun - 12/26/19

As you can see, The Hulk - man, I hate that event - has not run in 13 months (yay!).

EotS with its waves in SCL 10 sounds like an exercise in aversion therapy. The multiple tokens mitigate things a little but there would be SO MUCH HEALTH to grind through.

It would be nice if they would comment on these, I guess, and whether they would run any of them anymore. There has been a comment or two over time that the 7 day events are very unpopular.

20

I thought I recall there was a 4th 7 day event. One that hasn’t run in several years now. It’s the one where Magneto has lost his memory and teams up with the Avengers to help unlock it. The memory loss was due to Osborne blocking it and tied into the ISO8 Brotherhood story line. Can’t recall the name of the 7 day event now but the Wiki’s should have it someplace.

Personally we need more events since we’ve lost some of the the shorter ones (Wakanda/Gauntlet etc). I realize that creating events takes lots of money / time but I don’t understand why they don’t split the 7 day events into 2 parts, a 3 day Part I and then a 4 day Part 2. Then run them consecutively so the story line finishes. That way we still get those events but don’t have to deal with the 7 day nature of them.

KGB