It's about time.

Dayv

DrUnpleasant wrote:

Jathro wrote:

As far as the 3* speculation, could "at heart" be a pun? "When it comes down" to it? Yeah, I got nothing.

You could be on to something if it's referring to Hearts as in the suit of cards. Gambit? Hmmm, another X-Men character might be overkill.

Jack of Hearts!!!

Unknown

DayvBang wrote:

DrUnpleasant wrote:

Jathro wrote:

As far as the 3* speculation, could "at heart" be a pun? "When it comes down" to it? Yeah, I got nothing.

You could be on to something if it's referring to Hearts as in the suit of cards. Gambit? Hmmm, another X-Men character might be overkill.

Jack of Hearts!!!

You've all got it wrong. Obviously the heart reference means the next character released will be Cardiac. I mean seriously, he's like the most important character in the Marvel Universe. It's an absolute travesty that he isn't in the game already. What's that? What do you mean you don't know who Cardiac is? Come on! He's super important. He's like this guy...who does stuff...with...like...hearts...I'm going to go now.

Bowgentle

I'll eat crow here: Kudos to the devs. I didn't think we'd see a substantial x-Force buff, and CMags doesn't seem to be nerfed into oblivion, just shifted to something else.
So congratulations, it took forever, but that set of changes definitely looks as if a lot of thought went into it, so time well spent.

It may not be the changes we all would have wanted, but the thoughts leading into them are justifiable.
Good job.

Dayv

kalirion wrote:

Now the purple is useless, unless you know some tricks of getting lots of 5 matches without mMags and GSBW.

It says "any time you match 5 or more tiles", not "of one color". The way I read it, doing a swap that matches two sets of three at once also counts. Not useless at all, unless they wrote it badly and your interpretation is actually correct.

Edit: Based on IceIX's comments elsewhere, it looks like my interpretation is incorrect.

Unknown

I thought a match 4 counts as '8 tiles matched', since they definitely trigger a trap that activates when matched even if the trap isn't on the color of the 4 tile that are matched.

Unknown

Phantron wrote:

I thought a match 4 counts as '8 tiles matched', since they definitely trigger a trap that activates when matched even if the trap isn't on the color of the 4 tile that are matched.

I just assumed it meant "of a single color" but if it does do all chains, all match 4s, and all crits, then Hawkeye just became a pretty decent source of damage. I know I am trying match at least 6 tiles a turn every turn.

Spoit

It might do 4-matches, but I doubt they have ways of tracking a cascade for it

Unknown

Spoit wrote:

It might do 4-matches, but I doubt they have ways of tracking a cascade for it

Well if you're looking at total matched it'd just be any cascade will trigger since that's 6 tiles there, but that seems too generous so I doubt they'll do that.

Unknown

DrUnpleasant's call on Gambit seems like a reasonable guess to me. The heart reference is not directly obvious. And in uncanny 266, gambits intro, he started off bad, but ended up as a good guy. Plus, gambit is known to be a higher in demand as a requested character. Could be wrong but it's the most convincing call i've seen yet.

Spoit

Clearly all these X-men characters are indicative of...something

IamTheDanger

It would be great if the 3* was Devil Dino. Having a name with "devil" in it, you think bad guy, but he's friends with Fury so he can't be all bad. He might even have a good heart. Of course, this is mostly wishful thinking on my part. (my knowledge of Devil Dino is limited). And they could always give us Devil Dino on this big 1 year anniversary thing ICEIX mentioned.

Then they could be nice and give us one of the coolest characters there is, Rocket Racoon. He might think he can take what he wants just because he wants it more than the person that has it, but he Really is a "good guy at heart. Really." Then there are the 2 guys I mentioned earlier. Antman, a good guy but also a wife beating A hole. Or Darren Cross. The guy that steals people hearts because he needs constant transplants.

As for the new 2*, I think it may be a female.ICEIX called new 3* as a "good guy". BUT, when he mentioned the 2* he said "that's as much like their other form". I could be wrong, but I'm thinking that Jennifer Walters is the "original" version of a "modern" She Hulk.

There are just too many possibilities at this point.

I know ICEIX is gone, but if he returns and reads this then I've got 4 things to say:

1st, thanks for the updates as well as everything else. Very much appreciated.

2nd, love the game. Addicted beyond redemption. So thanks for that as well. (the game, not the addiction, it's more the Marvel aspect anyway. Anything comic related, I have to have it).

3rd, any chance you can give us a little more than "3* that's got a good heart. Really." ? And "a new 2* that is as much like "their" other form as OBW is to MBW".

4th, you mentioned that new content is slow in being released because you guys are a small team that wants to stay lean. That's something I understand very well. I work in private security and I can't count the times that I've been called out to protect someone because they had to lay off half their workers. Just to have a couple of them take it personally and make threats or start stalking or harassing their former boss. No one wins in a situation like that. (except maybe me because I wouldn't have much of job otherwise, protection is half my income).

So i get that part. A small team can only do so much. But what if the company took on volunteers to help out. You need some programmers and designers, post on here. I have seen quite a few posts where people say they can do both, or worked in that field. I'm sure they would be willing to volunteer for a game they love. You need published authors to help with writing content, dialogue and story lines? Post here on the forum. My job gives me a good bit of free time and I've had several things published myself and I'd be willing to help out on a temporary, unpaid, volunteer basis. I have only had 1 thing published under my legal name so I'd have to give you my pen name for references. But a published author familiar with Marvel comics willing to work for free, what more can you ask for? Of course there may be legalities involved, so all volunteers might have to be like official interns or something.

This way, if, god forbid, the game started to decline no one would be fired. Just tell the volunteers that know their position is temporary, that they are no longer needed. Players are happy, you guys make more money and volunteers get something else to add to their resume. It's a win/win/win.

Unknown

I think the new 2* character will be another IM version (and I really hope it will be awesome)

_RiO_

IceIX wrote:

Basically, it comes down to the fact that we've got a relatively small team working on the game compared to most other companies that run Live Ops style games of this magnitude. It's a matter of either working on that new story chapter and the work there or putting those same engineers and designers to work on getting character buffs or into sequence updates or game modes going. We do this on purpose since we don't want to hit a situation like you see at big Live Ops mobile game companies that ramp to 200 people, lose that Top Chart position, then lay off 3/4 of the workforce. That's not fair to anyone. We don't think it's proper for the industry and we don't want it around here. That means staying lean, which is good for our current workforce. It's less good in terms of parts of teh game we can touch at once.

Do I think it's acceptable? Speaking purely as a player, and one that's sitting squarely in 3* land, no. I want more story. From a current workforce/workflow point of view? Debateable. The current things that are being worked on have a definite impact for a large swatch of the player base, many of who haven't even seen one go around of the current story, much less newer pieces.

I'll say that we definitely do want a better cadence for story releases. But I'll also say that for the last bit since Deadpool, we've had other fish to fry.

Really? This is the explanation? Really?

Story content should require very little newly engineered code, unless it involves completely new systems and paradigms not seen in prior events. And that it doesn't: for most MPQ events it's all a matter of fill bar -> (un)lock and/or (un)hide nodes. Story content even requires very little new artwork, unless it introduces a plethora of new characters. (And you probably don't want to do that because it ruins pacing to acquire characters in players' rosters.) Mostly just background material.

You need a creative writer to write the story segments and an illustrator to draw up the backgrounds. That still leaves free an entire team of engineers (that would not have been hired based on their art or writing skills...) to do what they do best and work on new code features. If an entire comic book worth of panels can be produced in under a month by a writer, illustrator, inker and letterer, then two dedicated people to create one new PvE a month based on pre-assembled character artwork panels should be more than feasible.

Getting the content into the game? That's what a content creation toolset is for. Your team did spend the effort to build one of those for the game right? Because the scenario you are sketching, I can only imagine when a lot of hand-entry work needs to be done by your software engineers, impeding their production rate on new features...

Unknown

JCTthe3rd81 wrote:

It would be great if the 3* was Devil Dino. Having a name with "devil" in it, you think bad guy, but he's friends with Fury so he can't be all bad. He might even have a good heart. Of course, this is mostly wishful thinking on my part. (my knowledge of Devil Dino is limited). And they could always give us Devil Dino on this big 1 year anniversary thing ICEIX mentioned.

Me want Dino. Me look at my Dino TU cover lovingly.

Unknown

_RiO_ wrote:

Story content should require very little newly engineered code, unless it involves completely new systems and paradigms not seen in prior events. And that it doesn't: for most MPQ events it's all a matter of fill bar -> (un)lock and/or (un)hide nodes. Story content even requires very little new artwork, unless it introduces a plethora of new characters. (And you probably don't want to do that because it ruins pacing to acquire characters in players' rosters.) Mostly just background material.

You need a creative writer to write the story segments and an illustrator to draw up the backgrounds. That still leaves free an entire team of engineers (that would not have been hired based on their art or writing skills...) to do what they do best and work on new code features. If an entire comic book worth of panels can be produced in under a month by a writer, illustrator, inker and letterer, then two dedicated people to create one new PvE a month based on pre-assembled character artwork panels should be more than feasible.

Getting the content into the game? That's what a content creation toolset is for. Your team did spend the effort to build one of those for the game right? Because the scenario you are sketching, I can only imagine when a lot of hand-entry work needs to be done by your software engineers, impeding their production rate on new features...

You're forgetting something important----licensing fees that D3 pays to use Marvel characters. I wouldn't be surprised if they have to pay $1,000,000+ for the right to license Marvel characters to use in this game. With that big suck out of D3's revenue, I'm sure they can't afford to field a big group of employees on this game. And I wouldn't be surprised if D3 uses independent contractors for various aspects of this game, like character illustration.

over_clocked

I don't really think the new 2* character will be a lazy She-Hulk just because there's some otherwise unused Jenny Walters art in the Cover Store. Captain Marvel also has quite a lot of pieces of art (and each looks different lol), and when there's an Unholy Outlaw event, the Cover Store also shows a picture of Hood unseen anywhere else outside of unlimited roster events or all-villain events, maybe, and it has been this way forever.
Hoping for someone new since rehashing older characters probably means no new purple abilities, and existing ones are all weak on weak characters or expensive on expensive or PvE-only characters, or some such, and we are going to lose Magnetic Translocation.

_RiO_

IceIX wrote:

Ben Grimm wrote:

Any idea when the backlog will be added to tokens? It's up to four characters now.

I know Fury is getting added very soon, so that's one less. Not so sure on the rest. The reason it's backed up is that we're trying to work out a way to get more characters in without pulling a Disney Vault thing where we have to remove characters to add more so that the odds stay somewhat reasonable. It could happen that Vaulting is what we go with, but we don't want to add now then have to do a mass remove later if something like that is the solution.

D3P/Demiurge:

:: Consistently disadvantages EU players on PvE events that debut 3*s with unfavorable finish times and last-minute score rubberbanding. ::
:: Does not fix the broken MMR that makes it impossible to reliably earn 3*s in PvP without already having viable 3*s in your roster or without spending hours tanking MMR down to where your opponents actually match your level. ::
[...]
:: Is considering to vault older 3*s and make them less obtainable or unobtainable. ::

You guys at D3P/Demiurge really hate non-Americans, don't you?

Pwuz_

AmusedObserver wrote:

JCTthe3rd81 wrote:

It would be great if the 3* was Devil Dino. Having a name with "devil" in it, you think bad guy, but he's friends with Fury so he can't be all bad. He might even have a good heart. Of course, this is mostly wishful thinking on my part. (my knowledge of Devil Dino is limited). And they could always give us Devil Dino on this big 1 year anniversary thing ICEIX mentioned.

Me want Dino. Me look at my Dino TU cover lovingly.

Unga Bunga.

Joker117

Spoit wrote:

Clearly all these X-men characters are indicative of...something

Well there's a few things you could be joking about but on a serious note ..avengers vs xmen is a storyline I think they used ? Could be fun to do a season thing maybe where you have to choose as an alliance for pvp and the rewards would be different ..maybe even have a every one who takes xmen side if you get x amount of points you win this and avengers same idea different "this" ..

Lots of things they could do also an xmen story , pve xmen/avengers ..so on .

I'm sure everyone knows/can imagine ?

GrimSkald

AmusedObserver wrote:

You're forgetting something important----licensing fees that D3 pays to use Marvel characters. I wouldn't be surprised if they have to pay $1,000,000+ for the right to license Marvel characters to use in this game. With that big suck out of D3's revenue, I'm sure they can't afford to field a big group of employees on this game. And I wouldn't be surprised if D3 uses independent contractors for various aspects of this game, like character illustration.

This is actually very significant. I'm sure their licensing fees are really tinykitty high. That, and they probably only get permission to user certain aspects of the character in their game - it seems clear that the comic art is not a part of the deal as they use new art for the characters in the roster and the game play. I wouldn't be surprised if their license included the likeness (appearance, powers, personality, etc.) and one comic book cover (the one in the roster.) Everything else they probably have to generate themselves. Hence how much they re-skin.