Quantity vs Quality: Making MPQ More Engrossing

Puritas

I want to preface this by saying I really appreciate the effort that's been put into developing MPQ characters - even similar characters like Wolverine and Daken, or different versions of the same hero are completely unique.

The way things are though, I see two approaching problems.

• Releasing 2-3 new unique powers with every single character will become increasingly exhausting and difficult for the MPQ staff, given the nature of the gameplay.
• The rewards of the token system drastically reduce the longer you play - as you chase new releases, you fill your collection up at a rate that releases cannot come even close to, leaving you with nothing but frustrating vendor trash.

So what would happen if we had a lot more characters, with existing abilities mixed and matched so that characters were still not identical to each other, but no longer unique?

• There'd be a lot more to collect, and as new abilities are developed characters can come out in groups instead of one at a time.
• People wouldn't have to be pidgeonholed into the same 4-5 top tier characters, but could vary their teams more with more room for personal playstyle and favourites.
• Collections would go from mindlessly adding everything in the game to actual lineups unique to every player.
• More financial support for MPQ, since larger pools in token pulls would encourage players to spend more on hero coin levelling.

But wouldn't that be a lower chance to get the covers I want?
If they split up tokens by group (Avengers/Villans/Xmen/etc), you could just as easily chase specific characters, have a lower chance of getting vendor trash, and have better themed teams!

But HP levelling is too expensive!
If more players are doing it, they can afford to knock the price down slightly and still make money.

A hero with power X added to power Y would be just too OP!
Let's face it, certain abilities are vastly stronger than others at the moment. If a number of characters share the same power though, it becomes less of a "Rags is OP" and more of a "Add one of this category to your lineup".
It'll also let MPQ put adjusting skill values better into perspective if they're not just nerfing one lone card.

What about the poor feelings of the MPQ staff that have been working so hard on all these original concepts?
Just tell them they can release even more black widows this way!


Please consider this, Marvel universe has such a vast wealth of characters and art that could be used easily.

Unknown

This is a false dichotomy. Characters can be unique without lineups being so fotm-based. What they need to do is find better balance so that a few characters aren't drastically superior and players will diversify their lineups more.

Puritas

Making everything equal is a lot harder than making enough variety that everything is counterable.
Added another vote option just for you though

Unknown

Puritas wrote:

Making everything equal is a lot harder than making enough variety that everything is counterable.
Added another vote option just for you though

True, but worthwhile I think. I don't think the game would be as much fun if characters felt like palette-shifts or remixes of each other. In theory, unique skills leads to new and interesting tactics and creative combinations (but not so much when a few characters are so clearly superior).

Unknown

Balance is good. Powercreep is bad. Poll options are not really sufficient.

Unknown

I also frankly think that people don't experiment enough with combinations. The shifting nature of the PvP tourneys seem tilted towards encouraging it, but many people get hung up on a FOTM team and don't end up thinking for themselves. Also, what makes for a good character when they're maxed (at least on covers, if not necessarily in levels) versus what they're like earlier on, can be quite different.

Unknown

If the interest is in fairness the easiest way is have a scaling buff/debuff that range from 50% to 200% based on how often (or not) a character is used in its star tier. I'm pretty sure right now that'd mean Ragnarok will be permanently 50%, and Bagman will be permanently 200%.

That said I don't think total fairness is the point of this game. Obviously some glaringly overpowered characters could be worked on, and I don't like anyone who can win without taking meaningful (or any) damage because that makes roster mangaement pointless. But even then, the variety of PvP tournaments tend to already place restrictions on what kind of team you can feel. You sure can't bring Ragnarok to No Man's Land. Right now I think what hurts variety is the ability of certain characters to win without taking significant (or any) damage. If taking damage is inevitable, then at some point you'd have to bring out your bench while your powerhouse character rests. Of course this would also require the number of heal pack usable over the duration of a tournament be limited in some way.

Unknown

the game absolutely needs more variety. Oh look, max Thor, max Wolverine and Iron Man!

The thing is, people use who they have levelled as well and adding a rash of new cards wouldn't fix that. Personally I think they should add 10-15 cards in a batch to mix things up but it would take a while before the effects rippled through.

Puritas

abuelo wrote:

the game absolutely needs more variety. Oh look, max Thor, max Wolverine and Iron Man!

The thing is, people use who they have levelled as well and adding a rash of new cards wouldn't fix that. Personally I think they should add 10-15 cards in a batch to mix things up but it would take a while before the effects rippled through.

At the very least though, any new players after the batch release would be using different characters, so it would probably only take around a month to shake things up
Plus everyone wants to be unique

Dayv

abuelo wrote:

the game absolutely needs more variety. Oh look, max Thor, max Wolverine and Iron Man!

The thing is, people use who they have levelled as well and adding a rash of new cards wouldn't fix that. Personally I think they should add 10-15 cards in a batch to mix things up but it would take a while before the effects rippled through.

I would love to have a big PvE event with a batch of new heroes where you're required to use only the new characters to get through most of the event. Have a recruitment phase where you start accumulating them, then send them on their main mission and start them out from low levels on their own. With enough variety in new characters and powers, it could be a lot of fun and a great way to mix up the preferred teams as people pick new favorites.

Unknown

abuelo wrote:

the game absolutely needs more variety. Oh look, max Thor, max Wolverine and Iron Man!

The thing is, people use who they have levelled as well and adding a rash of new cards wouldn't fix that. Personally I think they should add 10-15 cards in a batch to mix things up but it would take a while before the effects rippled through.

It takes time to acquire new cards. Many already have Cap, Moonstone, m.Hawkeye, etc. Buff these characters and you'll see less Thor and Wolvie almost instantly.

Puritas

They're less common, but at the same time we've seen them from PvE content/tournaments quite often.
The Marvel universe is so vast and varied despite having relatively few categories of powers there's no reason we can't have more people to play with =(

Unknown

For the medium term, the game will be limited to the Dark Reign story and its characters.

If the game gets enough traction, I wonder what saga we'll get next.

Unknown

ghostlightning wrote:

For the medium term, the game will be limited to the Dark Reign story and its characters.

If the game gets enough traction, I wonder what saga we'll get next.

Define "enough traction". IMO, over 50k players for hulk event is pretty good to move out of the preview edition.

Unknown

I for 1 could care less if they stick to standard "dark reign" stuff. They can make new dark reign chapters involving whatever characters they feel like adding. Ie nightcrawler. Lol

DecoyDuck

Definitely should encourage more team combinations. Forcing a required character or incentivizing via buffs is a good way to bring neglected characters out of the woodworks. However, I always thought it strange there isn't any intrinsic value in playing a character. What I mean is that, for example, there is a BagMan required tournament with 300% buff (though my understanding is that he'd need a few percentage points more still) - and I've never dropped a single point of ISO into him. But I want to play so I spend my remaining ISO, level him up, and participate. But rather, shouldn't the ISO earned via PvP go to the actual characters who participated in the match - or at least a portion of it and the rest go to the reserves? Or maybe you need to use the character X amount of times before you are allowed to spend the ISO and move up to the next level. Like the old-school RPG's I used to remember playing.

Puritas

Wait, they actually did do a Bagman buff tourney??

Unknown

Puritas wrote:

Wait, they actually did do a Bagman buff tourney??

Bagman is so buff he doesn't need his own tourney!

(But, no, they have not. I'm torn between wanting to see the hilarity and knowing the utter, mind-numbing, soul-crushing boredom that would result from such)

Unknown

Sure would be a good way to burn through the 119 health packs I've saved up.