Spiderman Classic

Unknown

I Like to support, developers of games i enjoy, and am loving MPQ thus far. However i purchased spiderman classic, (***) for 500 coins (4$-ish) only to realized later when trying to upgrade this hero, that he is unable to be upgraded with iso-8 like the other heroes i have already. spiderman classic requires 50coins for each level, (at 20 levels thats 1000 coins, with 2 skills to upgrade its 2000) assuming you can get his other ability in just 1 extra draw, thats 3000 coins minimum to aquire and level up this hero. 3000 coins is more than the $20 package.

when purchasing the spiderman classic draw, i felt like i was unlocking a hero no different from the rest i have been exposed to. i dont know if all 3star are the same way, but there is no popup or notification that indicates otherwise.

instead i feel like i have been hoodwinked into 'step 1' of a ponzi scheme.

i am not asking for a refund, but there needs to be more clarity on these types on monetization methods so that your customer base doesnt feel like you are using dishonest/vague sales techniques and 'cut their loses' to play/pay in another game.

Aside from this issue the only other suggestion i have at the moment is the ability to set a pvp lineup, i have 9 heroes at the moment and cycle them around to do the story missions (allowing for continuous play instead of waiting for heals), but when i am attacked in pvp i want to be represented by my best team in combat, not whichever random unleveled heroes i was using to try and unlock all the rewards from the intro mission map.

4/5 stars! happy to have gotten in on the launch of this game! looking forward to its growth

Unknown

Yeah I am loving the game but I am NOT loving the Hero Points system. After playing the game all weekend and earning enough Hero Points to unlock one of the heroic characters, I realized that the rate that you can unlock Hero Points just by playing naturally is incredibly slow to a fault. I understand how F2P games work and that D3 and Demiurge need to earn money from in-game purchases, but I feel that the current system is really unbalanced and unfriendly to those people who are willing to put in extra time to unlock things without spending money.

Based on the fun I had with it over the weekend, I decided to spend $5 on Hero Points. Bought 3 Heroic cards and got a few more level 1 characters like Thor and Bag Spiderman (who is that and why is he so terrible, btw?), and now my Hero Points are almost gone again. Since Hero Points are really the only decent way to upgrade the Heroic characters, and my $5 worth of points all but disappeared after getting just 3 so-so heroes, I've learned my lesson and don't plan on spending anything else. If the game is updated to enable people to earn Hero Points more easily, upgrade their Heroic characters more easily, etc. then I might reconsider. But I feel like a few days worth of playing is way too early for a F2P game to get to that "You have to spend money or playing this game will be annoying" phase.

BTW, if you guys strip out the F2P aspects and put the game on Xbox Live and PSN for like $10, I'd buy that without a doubt.

IceIX

Evo Theory wrote:

I Like to support, developers of games i enjoy, and am loving MPQ thus far. However i purchased spiderman classic, (***) for 500 coins (4$-ish) only to realized later when trying to upgrade this hero, that he is unable to be upgraded with iso-8 like the other heroes i have already. spiderman classic requires 50coins for each level, (at 20 levels thats 1000 coins, with 2 skills to upgrade its 2000) assuming you can get his other ability in just 1 extra draw, thats 3000 coins minimum to aquire and level up this hero. 3000 coins is more than the $20 package.

when purchasing the spiderman classic draw, i felt like i was unlocking a hero no different from the rest i have been exposed to. i dont know if all 3star are the same way, but there is no popup or notification that indicates otherwise.

Glad to hear that you're enjoying the game. We're definitely enjoying making and running it for everyone. To note about higher rarity characters:
They have a higher effective level. If you notice, Spider-Man (Classic) has much higher Color Strengths than an equivalent level 1 character of 1 or 2 star rarity, and with each level, he'll grow at a faster rate and push his stats higher than a 1 or 2 can go at max. To balance this, we made it so that it requires the more rare Hero Points to level 3 and 4 star characters.

As for gaining Hero Points, earning them through the missions and the S.H.I.E.L.D. Simulator is intended to be a way to grow your Comic Collection space and snag a few draws out of the Heroic Comic Pack draw. Past that, the constant Weekly/Weekend Tournaments and the upcoming Episodes are a good way to continue building Hero Point stocks. Right now for example, the current Weekly Tournament rewards 100 Hero Points for hitting 750 ranking and another 100 if you finish in Ranks 201-1000. Since these featured missions are constantly cycling, there's always a way to continue to gain either form of currency in-game.

Evo Theory wrote:

Aside from this issue the only other suggestion i have at the moment is the ability to set a pvp lineup, i have 9 heroes at the moment and cycle them around to do the story missions (allowing for continuous play instead of waiting for heals), but when i am attacked in pvp i want to be represented by my best team in combat, not whichever random unleveled heroes i was using to try and unlock all the rewards from the intro mission map.

The team that is used in the Versus modes is the last team that was used in that mode. Feel free to adventure around the various Chapters, just make sure that if you want a strong lineup to have used those heroes last in Versus. Also note that your heroes in Versus always start at 100% when the opponents fight them the first time, so there's no penalty to using the same team in both modes.

Unknown

wow, thanks for the response!

the big issue with the spiderman (and im assuming all 3* and up) is just that theres no notice that they behave any different than the others, its your game and your allowed to monetize how you'd like, but it creates distrust from a perceived bait and switch.

the hero points come very slowly ingame, and to limit it to people who can reach 750 (which will likely be premium players only), seems unrewarding to the entry level player. likely to hurt player retention, killing potential sales.

also i would love to see a list of what the rewards for ranking would be, instead of getting rewards blind, motivation and transparency.

thanks for the info on how pvp work, would be great if we could see our current lineup in the main, pvp screen (5 combat choice)

thanks for the response

IceIX

Evo Theory wrote:

also i would love to see a list of what the rewards for ranking would be, instead of getting rewards blind, motivation and transparency.

For the Event Rewards: Tap your current ranking at the top of a Tourney or Event. Tap Event Rewards. That page will list any final rank rewards followed by rewards that you'll receive for reaching any given tier.

As for the other feedback, it's definitely appreciated. We're constantly discussing the evolving design of the game, and means to effectively communicate information to users is always an important thing. The goal is always to make sure that players know what information is available to see and can access it in the easiest way possible. Well, among all our other goals anyway.

Unknown

didnt realize the rewards list was already available!

thats great, not sure if i was just oblivious or if it needs to be more apparent.

Unknown

I have spent at least 50 bucks and countless hours on this game before I realized it was a ripoff (yeah, i spent at least 50 bucks - i'm a sucker)

Take Spiderman for example, i didn't mind spending to get an awesome character. But he ended up being useless, due to the following vicious cycle :

Point 1)
1) I cannot level him up without getting more upgrades
2) To get more upgrades i need to spend more money to get another spiderman card

A level 1 spiderman is practically useless in the later stages of a game. Let's assume you manage to get 3 spiderman cards...well let me repeat, a level 3 spiderman is also practically useless in the later stages of the game. And thats already after I actually paid $$$ for the benefit of having a spiderman.

Now to the other !@#!@ ripoff vicious cycle

Point 2)
1) A character is only powerful as the skills he has
2) The skills he has is dependant on the card you get

So let's use Spiderman example again. I have FIVE spiderman classic cards (dont' ask how much money i spent on this). All five cards hard the same skill (which is to heal the team). So imagine ALL the effort to get FIVE spiderman cards, and i still cannot use the stun skill. ****???

A level 5 spiderman who can only heal is also practically useless in the later levels.

Oh and the last ripoff Point 3)
What the heck is Spidey doing with only 2 skills? Heal and Stun? How was that even worth my money??????

So this is after I spent a big chunk of hard currency.. And i still find the game a ripoff. What chances does a normal player have?

Okay let me end this constructively. I am fine with IAP, i reason this like buying physical trading cards and you don't know what you get in a pack. But please do something so we don't feel cheated at the end of the day.

Unknown

Evo Theory wrote:

spiderman classic requires 50coins for each level, (at 20 levels thats 1000 coins, with 2 skills to upgrade its 2000) assuming you can get his other ability in just 1 extra draw, thats 3000 coins minimum to aquire and level up this hero.

Actually, 1-2 costs 50 coins, 2-3 costs 75, 3-4 costs 100, 4-5 costs 125, etc.

That means it's 500 for each of the covers, 1125 to raise each skill to 20, times two skills. That's 3250 hero points in total, which is somewhere upwards of 20 bucks, assuming you hit two skills in two covers, which is a coin flip as far as I can tell.

Edit: Oh, wow. Just learned that the progression for 4* characters is 200, 300, 400, etc. That means that max-skilling X-Force Wolverine (assuming you can get the 3 covers) would cost 16200 hero points, or ~$80.

Unknown

@Tesla

... wow, if this is the case it feels like they are really jamming their customers instead of creating a steady growth timeline from coins earned ingame. this not how you should monetize your game if you want it to be successful in terms of player population and total revenue, (creating reasonable prices increases velocity of sales).

i would suggest creating a third currency, a 'legendary Coin' which can ONLY be achieved by ingame events (participation, not point or percent achievement) or received at the rate of 1 a day for logging in (it would only cost 1 to level a skill) with this method anyone would be able only to level one high rarity hero daily, which will create a better balance in pvp, which is the reason presented for needed coins to upgrade characters.

this makes me sad, the game itself is great, i love both the puzzle quest and marvel ips, im hating watching the game fail at launch due to horrible price structures