Why were heroes released with two covers?

Unknown

I find it baffling that many characters (Doom, Rags, Loki, etc.) were released with only two covers and even more perplexing that they still haven't been granted third powers! Not only does having one less power put them at a disadvantage; their level cap is MUCH lower. (And why the heck does Rags only have two strong match colors!?)

Why do you guys think this happened in the first place? Were they all created in the eleventh hour? Did D3 think their two powers were so great they couldn't possibly take on a third? Does it somehow make sense with the characters themselves - mostly baddies? Or is there simply no rhyme or reason to any of Demiurge's character design?

Unknown

They weren't created at the last minute, they just ran out of time to get it all done. I'm sure the intention was to add those abilities as the game wore on. C.Mags, Spidey and OBW were other characters that were released without a third ability but later added in.

They probably came to the realization that they really gain nothing from adding a third ability to characters that many of their playerbase already have. So, instead of wasting time (and ideas) on those third abilities, it's more efficient to repackage them into new characters.

So, they'll tell you the abilities are on the backburner if you ask them, but I wouldn't expect them to ever appear. It's more likely if they ever add a third ability to Doom/Loki/Juggs, they will just rebrand it as a new character (like they did with Dakan).

Unknown

This might be giving too much benefit of the doubt, but I assumed they were put in as stepping stone characters on the path to a full 3* roster. With only 10 covers to collect they would be easier for advancing players to collect and max level. All three are featured lightning round characters which used to be a good transition tool to get stronger 3* covers. While they are limited by their level cap and lack of a 3rd ability Ragnarok and Doom both have health comparable to 141s and usable abilities (before Rags got beaten with the nerf bat) to keep them competitive with 141s even 115s are not preferable to them. Loki has always been a mess with weak health and very situational abilities, and as the roster exploded with newer and stronger characters, that all had 3 abilities, the 115s dropped to the bottom of the power rankings. But I would like to believe that the initial design of the characters was with a purpose in mind, regardless of how little confidence you might have in the devs after recent purposeful designs.

Unknown

You gotta figure it's worth their while to develop one power for semi-viable three stars, though. When Loki and Doom get a third and probably overpowered skill, who won't compete for the cover and line up to purchase the next four upgrades?

To me it seems like an easy way to promote roster diversity, character balance, sell covers, introduce "new" characters easily, and shut up the forumers - all at the same time.

Unknown

Why release an upgrade to a old hero when you could create a new Doom skin to go with a new skill and call it a whole new character?

Unknown

Well to date, they haven't doubled down on characters within the same star tier. I don't see them creating a new 3* Doom for that reason, or a new 2* because what's the point in two star characters anymore? They're given out like candy in any PvP event.

Doom is one of the premier comic villians. To me, you need to take pride in your work and make every character kick-****! But alas, I am not making as much as these guys.

OnesOwnGrief

IceIX already announced in the level shift thread that there is one 2* coming. It may seem like a late thing but who knows what it will do. Maybe it will have another temp or true heal ability.

ronin_san

The next character will be an X-Man, but not Cyclops, White Queen, Rogue, or Colossus. D3 has expressed interest in them. After that will be a 2* to break up the monotony.

Void and Iron Patriot are still being ironed out.

Source: IceX.

Were I to guess, I'd say Gambit. The dorks get moist at the thought of him flinging cards. I'd prefer Iceman. He has got to have a "change x tiles to blue", which would obviously synergize w/ Doom.

Unknown

Jubilee.

Dayv

I think Nightcrawler has been mentioned as a possibility before.

ronin_san

If they go the money route (hah, who knew), then Gambit is guaranteed money- spent on coins and iso.

Unknown

ronin-san wrote:

If they go the money route (hah, who knew), then Gambit is guaranteed money- spent on coins and iso.

Don't. Just...don't. I get the love for your favourite character, but throwing money at your screen like that is only encouraging the devs to half-**** it.

Unknown

Deadpool would be the ultimate cashgrab. Although I'm glad to see that devs are not THAT desperate yet. If Deadpool ever gets released I'll take that as a sure sign of MPQ running low on revenue.

Unknown

I'm all in for adding a third ability to the few 3* characters with just two abilities. What I would find more interesting is granting certain characters a fourth ability to mix up things a bit. For example the Sentry. They need to add a black ability to summon his Void persona. Now that would be rather awesome. As far as a new character, they gotta get the Scarlet Witch in. Imagine how awesome that would be. Chaos magic. Damn!

Eddiemon

Once upon a time there were less 3 covered heroes, and the 2 covered heroes formed a tier of their own. The 3 stars were also the focus of lightning rounds, so it made it easier to transition.

But since then they have added many more 3 covers, and they now are less a tier of their own and more an abberation.

Unknown

ronin-san wrote:

If they go the money route (hah, who knew), then Gambit is guaranteed money- spent on coins and iso.

I imagine Gambit will be a 4* cover, probably the reward after Nick in season 4.

And his powers will probably be like this:
Yellow power - 10 AP - Also cost an extra 100 HP. Gambit rolls a die. If the roll is a 6, throw the die to the opponent and do 1000 damage. Otherwise, the attack fails and do nothing.
Purple power - 10 AP - Also cost an extra 500 iso. Gambit draws 3 cards from the deck. If the cards are three of a kind, do 1000 damage to each opponents. If the cards are two of a kind, do 1000 damage to an opponent at random. Otherwise, the cards explode and do 1000 damage to all teammates instead.
Red power - 10 AP - Also cost an extra 50 HP and 250 iso. Gambit swipes his staff, which has 90% chance to deal 2000 damage to all opponents, but a 10% chance to deal 3000 damage to all teammates instead.

Just like how D3P removed the guaranteed covers from 10-pack, anything that's guaranteed are NOT fun. Gotta have some uncertainties in it, just like opening the boss chess after a dungeon fight in RPGs.

This sounds like a must have to me.

Nemek

Yeah, basically what others said. When the game came out, 2 cover character made up like half the lineup and represented a class of characters in a tier slightly lower than the 3 cover characters, but had the trade off of being much easier to complete.

As time went on and only 3 cover characters were released (except for OBW temporarily), the disparity between the two sets of characters became extreme, making it seem really weird.

Unknown

Here's an idea.. what if, instead of adding third powers, they raise each of the two power folks' cover caps to 7 or 8 a color (haven't done the math). That way, they will - ideally - have two really good powers and a level cap somewhere near the 3 cover characters. Hell, maybe even go past their cap as a tradeoff for one less power.

This simple change could satisfy players while providing D3 with some easy Doom/Rags revenue (and give us a reason to compete in the monthly Loki PvP).

Unknown

Nope, loki would still be broken as none of his skills scale with level...

Unknown

Well, it would result in a lesser AP cost for Trickery and more tiles swapped for the Loki shuffle, as well as a higher cap for health and tile damage.

Please note that this is not my ideal scenario for solving the two cover problem, it's my lazy scenario... which seems to fit our developers better

Unknown

Toxicadam wrote:

They weren't created at the last minute, they just ran out of time to get it all done. I'm sure the intention was to add those abilities as the game wore on. C.Mags, Spidey and OBW were other characters that were released without a third ability but later added in.

They probably came to the realization that they really gain nothing from adding a third ability to characters that many of their playerbase already have. So, instead of wasting time (and ideas) on those third abilities, it's more efficient to repackage them into new characters.

So, they'll tell you the abilities are on the backburner if you ask them, but I wouldn't expect them to ever appear. It's more likely if they ever add a third ability to Doom/Loki/Juggs, they will just rebrand it as a new character (like they did with Dakan).