Suggestion: Fire Your Level Creator

palenoue

Been playing your new content "The Hunt" and just have to say the design is terrible. The first level is sure to drive people away in droves. It's Trivial-Trivial-Trivial then *BANG* the last fight is Impossible. I've tried over ten times and never once got halfway through the fight before being slaughtered.

The next stage, Alaska, is again mostly trivial fights with only one or two decent challenges then suddenly it refuses to let me play because I don't have a Model 40 Iron Man.

What the hell are you thinking? You should identify the people who came up with this new content and fire them immediately, they are destroying any chance you have of making a profit.

IceIX

While we appreciate comments on this board, telling us to make human resource decisions based on what you see in the game is not very constructive. Please refrain from such hyperbolic statements in the future.

Unknown

The design is wonderful. You have to realise that the world does not revolve around you. Other people have stronger teams - if they make all the levels so they are beatable by you, what are the people with the stronger teams meant to do? Sit around being bored waiting for you to catch up?

Can you seriously not beat the last fight in the first part (Top of the World)? I would have though you should be able to get Iron Man, Modern Storm, and one other character maxed at 50 from the Prologue and some easy PvP ISO from the SHIELD Versus. You should have a good chance of beating it with that team.

I expect almost all players have at least one Iron Man 40 cover, they've been given out as progression rewards in recent tournaments.

palenoue

Humphrey wrote:

The design is wonderful. You have to realise that the world does not revolve around you. Other people have stronger teams - if they make all the levels so they are beatable by you, what are the people with the stronger teams meant to do? Sit around being bored waiting for you to catch up?

Yet it's okay if the game revolves around the top 1% What are the rest of us 99% supposed to do, watch them win fights we have no hope of playing?

IceIX wrote:

While we appreciate comments on this board, telling us to make human resource decisions based on what you see in the game is not very constructive. Please refrain from such hyperbolic statements in the future.

It's not hyperbole, it's a serious suggestion. The people who are making your levels now are messing up what could be a great game. Because they stick with specific levels and stars the fights are usually too easy, too hard or just outright impossible. How do you expect to make money from this game when they drive way new players who can't keep up with the top players and their 4-star characters? Hire people who understand what the phrase "Game Balance" means and you'll attract new players instead of driving them away.

IceIX

palenoue wrote:

Yet it's okay if the game revolves around the top 1% What are the rest of us 99% supposed to do, watch them win fights we have no hope of playing?

Our metrics show that a *much* larger portion of the player base is playing each of the events, but also at different times placing fairly highly in them. One of the players that ended up in 3rd in their bracket in the last Episode 1 run was running 2 1 Star characters and 1 2 Star character. The game is balanced around being a challenge for everyone which requires that some fights be more difficult than others. It is also balanced so that players that cannot complete all the content due to difficulty still have a chance through our scoring system. If we were really balancing around the 1%, every single fight would be at least the difficulty of the end of the current base defense (3 enemies at level 230). While the balancing may not be perfect and we continue to refine this, we're seeing something quite different than your gut instinct is telling yourself.

Unknown

IceIX wrote:

palenoue wrote:

Yet it's okay if the game revolves around the top 1% What are the rest of us 99% supposed to do, watch them win fights we have no hope of playing?

Our metrics show that a *much* larger portion of the player base is playing each of the events, but also at different times placing fairly highly in them. One of the players that ended up in 3rd in their bracket in the last Episode 1 run was running 2 1 Star characters and 1 2 Star character. The game is balanced around being a challenge for everyone which requires that some fights be more difficult than others. It is also balanced so that players that cannot complete all the content due to difficulty still have a chance through our scoring system. If we were really balancing around the 1%, every single fight would be at least the difficulty of the end of the current base defense (3 enemies at level 230). While the balancing may not be perfect and we continue to refine this, we're seeing something quite different than your gut instinct is telling yourself.

In other words, the only way to get ahead in this game is to be lucky enough that the POS bracketing system puts you in a bracket that you have a chance of winning, or pay through the nose to get the covers that you cannot win.

Unknown

IceIX wrote:

The game is balanced around being a challenge for everyone which requires that some fights be more difficult than others.

IceIX like I said in my other post the PvE content isn't either really fun or challenging because there's barely any enemy design to speak of when every single of them work the same way. You always have a bunch of goons who leave a bunch of cooldown tiles and let you match tiles without matching tiles back. Either that or it's the revolving door of the same bunch of Dark Avenger villains you're always fighting.

Ergo, if what you're saying is true - that the game is balanced around being a challenge for everyone - then I think you guys have got the point of balancing completely wrong. Please please please don't take this criticism the wrong way. MPQ is insanely addictive for me. But I hope you understand what I mean when I say it's not addictive as they same reason why, say, the original puzzle quest was addictive for me. MPQ is fun to me because it's competitive.

Seeing a whole variety of one-try trivial missions is not fun for me. Seeing that one mission takes the defeat of 6 soldiers before I unlock it is a completely meaningless design in itself (I skip all the story bits, so I assume that it's a story-based element) is not fun for me. Seeing a level 230x3 mission filled with enemy champions I know inside out isn't fun for me - I beat it the same way I beat all the other missions. The levels in The Hunt probably took a long time to conceptualize, write and programme and I sincerely appreciate the effort that you guys are putting in to create events that are interesting. But with the current state of PvE as it is, The Hunt just seems to me a much overwrought attempt to fix PvE which falls short for very fundamental reasons.

For now, the game should be balanced around the fact that the competitive aspect of the game is what is currently defining MPQ. The game will be more fun if the competition is fair for everyone at all levels and has meaningful rewards that people have a chance to get if they're skilled or hardworking enough. The game will be more fun if matchmaking (i.e. bracketmaking) is not completely dependent on luck.

Once again, I hope you don't take my opinions the wrong way. The effort put into The Hunt is really commendable, but as you can see from the general discussion forums, all we care about is how the point system works.

Finally, the thread title is inappropriate, and I do wish you could create a thread soliciting honest feedback (take a book from Riot maybe) so that we can express our frustrations more positively.

Unknown

zhadum wrote:

IceIX wrote:

palenoue wrote:

Yet it's okay if the game revolves around the top 1% What are the rest of us 99% supposed to do, watch them win fights we have no hope of playing?

Our metrics show that a *much* larger portion of the player base is playing each of the events, but also at different times placing fairly highly in them. One of the players that ended up in 3rd in their bracket in the last Episode 1 run was running 2 1 Star characters and 1 2 Star character. The game is balanced around being a challenge for everyone which requires that some fights be more difficult than others. It is also balanced so that players that cannot complete all the content due to difficulty still have a chance through our scoring system. If we were really balancing around the 1%, every single fight would be at least the difficulty of the end of the current base defense (3 enemies at level 230). While the balancing may not be perfect and we continue to refine this, we're seeing something quite different than your gut instinct is telling yourself.

In other words, the only way to get ahead in this game is to be lucky enough that the POS bracketing system puts you in a bracket that you have a chance of winning, or pay through the nose to get the covers that you cannot win.

I don't know about that. As of this morning I'm down to a total of 59 covers of interest (excluding * Hawkeye, **** Wolverine and invisible woman). I've never spent a cent on this game.

I think it comes down to luck me than anything. My turn around came during that one tourney that had the bug where you couldn't retaliate for a few hours. That got me my first major hp pay out and I used it to soup up my wolverine enough to keep ahead from that point forward.

Unknown

IceIX wrote:

While we appreciate comments on this board, telling us to make human resource decisions based on what you see in the game is not very constructive. Please refrain from such hyperbolic statements in the future.

I'm personally loving IceIX's humor. Are you British my good sir?

Unknown

palenoue wrote:

Been playing your new content "The Hunt" and just have to say the design is terrible. The first level is sure to drive people away in droves. It's Trivial-Trivial-Trivial then *BANG* the last fight is Impossible. I've tried over ten times and never once got halfway through the fight before being slaughtered.

The next stage, Alaska, is again mostly trivial fights with only one or two decent challenges then suddenly it refuses to let me play because I don't have a Model 40 Iron Man.

What the hell are you thinking? You should identify the people who came up with this new content and fire them immediately, they are destroying any chance you have of making a profit.

Guys, I think they may have a point. Next time, make every fight as hard as the last one is so that no one can have any fun.

Unknown

While the OP was rude, he has a point. No player particularly enjoys hitting a brick wall.

palenoue

I just get annoyed when people take what could be a great game and destroy it with badly implemented game mechanics. It needs to be drilled into their heads that knowing how to program does NOT make you a genius at game design.

Right off the bat they should have realized that fixed-opponents are a bad idea. They're either too easy or too hard 90% of the time. What should have been done is make the opponents levels and abilities variable so they reflect a decent challenge regardless of who attacks them. I bring in a 1-star ten level, the opponent is a 1-star twelve level. I bring in a 4-star 80 level against the same opponent, it's now a 3-star 110 level.

See? Easy! And there's dozens of other ways to handle this. Yet the people they're paying to create content are too stupid to figure it out. If you were running a business and had morons like this on the payroll, wouldn't you fire them and hire better people?

Unknown

palenoue wrote:

Yet the people they're paying to create content are too stupid to figure it out. If you were running a business and had morons like this on the payroll, wouldn't you fire them and hire better people?

Enough with the negativity. Your opinion is welcome. Constructive criticism is welcome. Name calling is not. Please, take the vitriol elsewhere.

palenoue

Misguided wrote:

Enough with the negativity. Your opinion is welcome. Constructive criticism is welcome. Name calling is not. Please, take the vitriol elsewhere.

But this seems to be the only way to get their attention. People have pointed out the serious flaws of their game yet there's no indication that they take these comments seriously much less doing anything to remedy the situation.

So, people who make this game, you've heard about the many problems that prevent this game from becoming successful, are you going to do anything about it? What plans do you have to make the game more enjoyable and less dead-end frustrating?

Don't give us that offensive "It's a secret" line. Nobody else is doing a game like this so there is nobody who's going to "steal" your modifications. No news organization is going to feature exaggerated headlines based on what you say about your planned improvements. If anything, giving us players some idea about what you plan to do would give you feedback useful for improving the game. Secrecy just for the sake of secrecy just means you'll be spending more time and energy on failed upgrades.

So lets hear it.

Unknown

palenoue what's your problem? Are you like this all the time, or is something going on in your life at the moment?

This is just a game, it's not important. It should not make you so angry. It's not normal, or healthy. Even if the developers make a change to the game tomorrow which leads to no new players joining, it wouldn't matter really. It would be a shame, but still nothing to cry over.

I think you should learn to relax.

Unknown

Humphrey wrote:

palenoue what's your problem? Are you like this all the time, or is something going on in your life at the moment?

This is just a game, it's not important. It should not make you so angry. It's not normal, or healthy. Even if the developers make a change to the game tomorrow which leads to no new players joining, it wouldn't matter really. It would be a shame, but still nothing to cry over.

I think you should learn to relax.

Note that there's a "Foe" option if you click on a user name. Then you stop seeing posts from that person (they get collapsed to a single line saying they're on your ignored list).

It's quite pleasant.

Of course now I'll probably wonder why nobody talks to me in a week

Unknown

Palenoue,

I guess you should just relax about it. I guess this game does make us make full use of the characters we have instead of using those same old characters.
And Seriously, I like the idea of having missions that required characters in your covers before moving to the next level. (For this I feel that they are giving advantages to those who spend time trying to get those named covers - this is a privileges for those users)


Don't get me wrong, actually I was like you, cursing and scolding on other events. Example : lighting rounds - I don't have those damn cards which force me to spend one or cover packs on it.*
But I guess they Dev also answer our unhappiness by giving us free villain cover - Dr Doom, to try and even the playing field. Yes, it's doesn't have much affect on it BUT they are trying to help us out.

I think it's quite ridiculous that to have all balanced, everyone will have those covers easier.

For the current events, yes I feel that the challenges are somehow not constantly but they do have buffed characters for us to select - which of cos you might be able to spend some ISO to level your buffed characters?
Seriously, this game really not just having the best characters you dream of BUT using the situation that given by the events and make full use of them to get your cards.
That's a event that I have no choice but to level my cap certain level to finish off some of the events that required his buffed HP / Power to push my rank up
And once you start to level those characters up, you will start to appreciate them more and learn to mix and match them with other characters and can help you out in future.

At this moment, instead of crying out on the lighting rounds and shooting Dev off. What I did was trying to build two different teams that can work hand in hand in lighting rounds so that I can spend my health pack wisely in these events . Yes, this take time and we might be losing but having to say this, we do have our advantages as we will be putting to a lower brackets of players that we might have higher chances to get those cards we need.

I hope you can think about it and create a way to make use of the situation given to you instead of complaining it.

Unknown

Zathrus wrote:

Note that there's a "Foe" option if you click on a user name. Then you stop seeing posts from that person (they get collapsed to a single line saying they're on your ignored list).

Thank you!

Unknown

palenoue wrote:

I just get annoyed when people take what could be a great game and destroy it with badly implemented game mechanics. It needs to be drilled into their heads that knowing how to program does NOT make you a genius at game design.

Right off the bat they should have realized that fixed-opponents are a bad idea. They're either too easy or too hard 90% of the time. What should have been done is make the opponents levels and abilities variable so they reflect a decent challenge regardless of who attacks them. I bring in a 1-star ten level, the opponent is a 1-star twelve level. I bring in a 4-star 80 level against the same opponent, it's now a 3-star 110 level.

See? Easy! And there's dozens of other ways to handle this. Yet the people they're paying to create content are too stupid to figure it out. If you were running a business and had morons like this on the payroll, wouldn't you fire them and hire better people?

Your suggestion kills any sense of progression or competition. Congratulations.

palenoue

Humphrey wrote:

palenoue what's your problem? Are you like this all the time, or is something going on in your life at the moment?

This is the third game in the last few months that could have been great, that I really liked, only to be ruined by bad game mechanics that the creators refuse to change. All three are failing, losing money and getting bad word-of-mouth in gaming forums, yet they still won't listen when players point out the problems. And now I see it happening here, about a game I'd really like to play and build up over a long time. I still play the original Puzzle Quest even after all these years and this Marvel version holds so much promise that's being killed by a dozen fatal wounds.

I have studied games all my life. I'm fascinated how simple rules can make for hours of fun gameplay. With real-world games the creators actually listen to their players and seriously consider rule changes for the next edition or a completely new game. Computer game creators, however, seem to treat non-programmers with disdain, which really annoys me when they ignore serious flaws that most people spot after a few minutes of play. Just look at how they are incapable of letting us know about upcoming patches until after they release it, as if giving us advance warning (so we can give them feedback) is beneath them. Who has a bad attitude now?

I have been trying to get into the mobile gaming business but since I'm not a programmer nobody will talk to me. Yet they keep hiring programmers who haven't a clue on how to design games properly and they crank out flawed games that they refuse to alter, as if the code were carved in steel and immutable. So, yeah, this kind of attitude really gets under my skin.

Puritas

Misguided wrote:

Guys, I think they may have a point. Next time, make every fight as hard as the last one is so that no one can have any fun.

+1