Behind the Scenes of MPQ : Please tell us more

Unknown

I appreciate (and I'm sure many of us did) what you showed us regarding the creation of a new character.

What would be nice, and would not violate production secret, is to know how long it WOULD take to add diversity to Lightning Rounds (since you said that was not your priority), or Improve the PvEs, so that we feel less frustrated if you do not answer our requests right away.

I really appreciated the answers of David for the monthly Q&A, but many were very vague (and as such, they were not real answers).

You chose to communicate with us directly, which is quite rare (albeit very valueable for us), and I know it is a difficult task to do so, but our frustration is as big as our love and enthusiasm for the game.

So, for my part, I'd be curious to know if it would take so long to fix the LRs (Lady Thor was so great), and the PvEs.

Meanwhile, you could release Lazy Characters if you need to release new characters : 3* Hawkeye, 2 or 3* Juggernaut, 4* Magneto...

Thank you !

(You're still not daydreaming HM, I learnt diplomacy lately )

NorthernPolarity

arktos1971 wrote:

I appreciate (and I'm sure many of us did) what you showed us regarding the creation of a new character.

What would be nice, and would not violate production secret, is to know how long it WOULD take to add diversity to Lightning Rounds (since you said that was not your priority), or Improve the PvEs, so that we feel less frustrated if you do not answer our requests right away.

I really appreciated the answers of David for the monthly Q&A, but many were very vague (and as such, they were not real answers).

You chose to communicate with us directly, which is quite rare (albeit very valueable for us), and I know it is a difficult task to do so, but our frustration is as big as our love and enthusiasm for the game.

So, for my part, I'd be curious to know if it would take so long to fix the LRs (Lady Thor was so great), and the PvEs.

Meanwhile, you could release Lazy Characters if you need to release new characters : 3* Hawkeye, 2 or 3* Juggernaut, 4* Magneto...

Thank you !

(You're still not daydreaming HM, I learnt diplomacy lately )

So lets say I was Demiurge, and for whatever crazy reason decided to say "Okay forum! We expect the PvE to come out in a month!" A month later, due to unforeseen circumstances, everything being behind schedule, and the PvE is going to take another month to finish. Now how do you think the forum would react to that news? The reason why companies in general tend to be vague with what's coming up is player expectation. If you give a set schedule, players are going to expect that stuff is released on time, and if it doesn't happen, then you're guaranteed that theres going to be player uproar about it. Also there's very little benefit to telling everyone that things are going to be fixed in a month. Sure, it'd be nice for us to have a concrete schedule, but are we going to spend more money because of it? The potential of it backfiring far outweighs the benefits of us being marginally happier, so I think it'd be crazy if they gave us any more information regarding this stuff. Companies give out deadlines that they can make with 99% probability, and the new PvE mode by the end of the year is an example of that, and honestly more than I expected from the Q&A.

You saw exactly what happened when player expectations weren't met in the anniversary week: why do you think they would want to risk going through something like that again? TLDR: Complainers are why we can't have nice things.

jojeda654

Funny thing is we just got new LRs today. Looks like they're rotated along with the tokens. Punisher and Patch are out, She-Hulk and Psylocke are featured. Oddly, Spidey is not featured, which reduces the amount of LR Heroes to 5.

Unknown

I have to admit, I cringed a little when I saw the words "Behind the Scenes..." with Arktos as the thread starter. Glad I thought wrong though

esoxnepa

NorthernPolarity wrote:

... A month later, due to unforeseen circumstances, everything being behind schedule, and the PvE is going to take another month to finish. ....

This is one of those reasons you will almost never see a Software Engineer allowed to talk about things like this on a forum. Sure the SE knows how long it should take her/him. They'd love to toss out an estimate of say a week. Then something shifts in the software, from a bug to a rework of priorities, add in life events, and all of a sudden the off handed comment that "heck, that will only take a week," becomes three months. (I had bug fixes for certain items I wasn't allowed to release too quickly, if I manged to get on the "Jazz" and fix it in an hour, because that would set expectations that all bugs could all be fixed that fast.)

I'd really like to see their priority list for upcoming features and which ones they think will generate revenue and the risk analysis of pleasing/angering the paying customers vs enraging the forum.

Of course some days it feels like they pick the feature that will enrage the forum, not lose any paying customers, and not generate additional revenue.

I hope the Anniversary and the Gauntlet made them money. I wish there was a way to show them the Venom Heroic during the Anniversary lost them money vs running something like an anniversary gauntlet.

Unknown

flnn1 wrote:

I have to admit, I cringed a little when I saw the words "Behind the Scenes..." with Arktos as the thread starter. Glad I thought wrong though

It was made on purpose for my long time readers

Unknown

And then there is a wonderful tool called : COMMUNICATION.

No one would hold the grudge against them were they be late as long as they were communicating about it.

There's a lot difference between : it's not our priority (which means we may never have a look at this problem) and say : it could take X weeks.

The original LRs took some time in the beginning. They know how long it took. Lady Thor LRs took some time to develop, and they know how long it took to implement them.

So they could answer that same question. I'm sure it's one of the fastest development in the game, since Featured Characters already exist in PvPs (graphics, backgrounds...).

They advertised beforehand about Team Ups, and it happened to be a crashed landing. And I'm sure it took wayyyyy longer to develop TU than it would take for LRs.

As for the PvEs, they also know how long it took to create the Gauntlet or each PvE (the latest one being Deadpool vs MPQ if I'm not mistaken).

Each company knows how long it takes to create something. Especially when it's past. So, to re-do something similar is a known fact.

It's not as if I was asking : How long would it take to implement MPQ on the PS4 platform (or anything else that has been asked on this forum that would completely new).

GothicKratos

OP was a good read, and I agree with it pretty much whole-heartedly, but this on the other hand;

arktos1971 wrote:

And then there is a wonderful tool called : COMMUNICATION.

No one would hold the grudge against them were they be late as long as they were communicating about it.

The past suggests, very strongly, that this is not the case. Granted, a lot of people would cut them slack if they communicated beforehand that something was going to be late and why, I feel like more people would be happy to slap a "just another D3 failure" on the tin and call it a rant.

Unknown

NorthernPolarity wrote:

arktos1971 wrote:

I appreciate (and I'm sure many of us did) what you showed us regarding the creation of a new character.

What would be nice, and would not violate production secret, is to know how long it WOULD take to add diversity to Lightning Rounds (since you said that was not your priority), or Improve the PvEs, so that we feel less frustrated if you do not answer our requests right away.

I really appreciated the answers of David for the monthly Q&A, but many were very vague (and as such, they were not real answers).

You chose to communicate with us directly, which is quite rare (albeit very valueable for us), and I know it is a difficult task to do so, but our frustration is as big as our love and enthusiasm for the game.

So, for my part, I'd be curious to know if it would take so long to fix the LRs (Lady Thor was so great), and the PvEs.

Meanwhile, you could release Lazy Characters if you need to release new characters : 3* Hawkeye, 2 or 3* Juggernaut, 4* Magneto...

Thank you !

(You're still not daydreaming HM, I learnt diplomacy lately )

So lets say I was Demiurge, and for whatever crazy reason decided to say "Okay forum! We expect the PvE to come out in a month!" A month later, due to unforeseen circumstances, everything being behind schedule, and the PvE is going to take another month to finish. Now how do you think the forum would react to that news? The reason why companies in general tend to be vague with what's coming up is player expectation. If you give a set schedule, players are going to expect that stuff is released on time, and if it doesn't happen, then you're guaranteed that theres going to be player uproar about it. Also there's very little benefit to telling everyone that things are going to be fixed in a month. Sure, it'd be nice for us to have a concrete schedule, but are we going to spend more money because of it? The potential of it backfiring far outweighs the benefits of us being marginally happier, so I think it'd be crazy if they gave us any more information regarding this stuff. Companies give out deadlines that they can make with 99% probability, and the new PvE mode by the end of the year is an example of that, and honestly more than I expected from the Q&A.

You saw exactly what happened when player expectations weren't met in the anniversary week: why do you think they would want to risk going through something like that again? TLDR: Complainers are why we can't have nice things.

While I can't speak for everyone, but I am pretty sure every time I complained was due to a lack of communication. I may be wrong. And when something was well communicated, I jumped the line and stuck up for D3. So, personally speaking, if they said "A new PvE will begin in one month", and then 27 days later they say "Bad news. Some weird bug thing showed up and its going to be another week before the release", I would defend D3. I would be disappointed due to excitement, but I would understand. Granted, some people WOULD flame on, but I think people underestimate how much decent communication would quell the masses.

Unknown

GothicKratos wrote:

OP was a good read, and I agree with it pretty much whole-heartedly, but this on the other hand;

arktos1971 wrote:

And then there is a wonderful tool called : COMMUNICATION.

No one would hold the grudge against them were they be late as long as they were communicating about it.

The past suggests, very strongly, that this is not the case. Granted, a lot of people would cut them slack if they communicated beforehand that something was going to be late and why, I feel like more people would be happy to slap a "just another D3 failure" on the tin and call it a rant.

Couldn't we just ignore them and/or thumb them down ? Don't you think D3P can skim the worst from the best ?

Unknown

Paintsville wrote:

While I can't speak for everyone, but I am pretty sure every time I complained was due to a lack of communication. I may be wrong. And when something was well communicated, I jumped the line and stuck up for D3. So, personally speaking, if they said "A new PvE will begin in one month", and then 27 days later they say "Bad news. Some weird bug thing showed up and its going to be another week before the release", I would defend D3. I would be disappointed due to excitement, but I would understand. Granted, some people WOULD flame on, but I think people underestimate how much decent communication would quell the masses.

I happen to be FAR more patient since September, and give credit to them now. So, I would be disapointed, but with the hope of getting something I wished for a long time, I could wait a little longer.

They are building trust, and so far, even if there still are bugs (hey, it's a computer development there will always be), they improved everything greatly.

Should immature people take the power and should D3P act according to the people who always complain no matter what ?

Not sure.

Unknown

GothicKratos wrote:

OP was a good read, and I agree with it pretty much whole-heartedly, but this on the other hand;

arktos1971 wrote:

And then there is a wonderful tool called : COMMUNICATION.

No one would hold the grudge against them were they be late as long as they were communicating about it.

The past suggests, very strongly, that this is not the case. Granted, a lot of people would cut them slack if they communicated beforehand that something was going to be late and why, I feel like more people would be happy to slap a "just another D3 failure" on the tin and call it a rant.

I would argue that the past suggests that RARELY have D3 ever communicated about an issue beforehand. The past suggests that a quick band-aid is the answer.

Anniversary Problem - How many days to acknowledge?
R59 late update - Didn't tell us beforehand that it was going to be late, how long to acknowledge?
Removing boosts - Didn't tell us beforehand, how long to acknowledge?
Removing Informative popups in-game - Didn't tell us beforehand, ever acknowledged?

Daken, Hawkeye, X-Force, Mags Reworks - Told us beforehand, many opinions offered, but significantly less over the top ranting.

And that's just off the top of my head. Don't get me wrong, I love what D3 has done lately. I disagree with some of their choices from the Q&A thread, but am ready to discuss them where applicable. But when it takes days to address anything significant, there are going to be problems. Even when there have been server issues, there was a time when we got a very quick "We know about it and we are working on it" which, in my opinion, got alot more praise then ranting.

NorthernPolarity

Paintsville wrote:

NorthernPolarity wrote:

arktos1971 wrote:

I appreciate (and I'm sure many of us did) what you showed us regarding the creation of a new character.

What would be nice, and would not violate production secret, is to know how long it WOULD take to add diversity to Lightning Rounds (since you said that was not your priority), or Improve the PvEs, so that we feel less frustrated if you do not answer our requests right away.

I really appreciated the answers of David for the monthly Q&A, but many were very vague (and as such, they were not real answers).

You chose to communicate with us directly, which is quite rare (albeit very valueable for us), and I know it is a difficult task to do so, but our frustration is as big as our love and enthusiasm for the game.

So, for my part, I'd be curious to know if it would take so long to fix the LRs (Lady Thor was so great), and the PvEs.

Meanwhile, you could release Lazy Characters if you need to release new characters : 3* Hawkeye, 2 or 3* Juggernaut, 4* Magneto...

Thank you !

(You're still not daydreaming HM, I learnt diplomacy lately )

So lets say I was Demiurge, and for whatever crazy reason decided to say "Okay forum! We expect the PvE to come out in a month!" A month later, due to unforeseen circumstances, everything being behind schedule, and the PvE is going to take another month to finish. Now how do you think the forum would react to that news? The reason why companies in general tend to be vague with what's coming up is player expectation. If you give a set schedule, players are going to expect that stuff is released on time, and if it doesn't happen, then you're guaranteed that theres going to be player uproar about it. Also there's very little benefit to telling everyone that things are going to be fixed in a month. Sure, it'd be nice for us to have a concrete schedule, but are we going to spend more money because of it? The potential of it backfiring far outweighs the benefits of us being marginally happier, so I think it'd be crazy if they gave us any more information regarding this stuff. Companies give out deadlines that they can make with 99% probability, and the new PvE mode by the end of the year is an example of that, and honestly more than I expected from the Q&A.

You saw exactly what happened when player expectations weren't met in the anniversary week: why do you think they would want to risk going through something like that again? TLDR: Complainers are why we can't have nice things.

While I can't speak for everyone, but I am pretty sure every time I complained was due to a lack of communication. I may be wrong. And when something was well communicated, I jumped the line and stuck up for D3. So, personally speaking, if they said "A new PvE will begin in one month", and then 27 days later they say "Bad news. Some weird bug thing showed up and its going to be another week before the release", I would defend D3. I would be disappointed due to excitement, but I would understand. Granted, some people WOULD flame on, but I think people underestimate how much decent communication would quell the masses.

Yes, but that isn't my point. You're talking about the situation where D3 KNOWS that a feature is going to be completely finished and released in two weeks, in which case they've typically failed to communicate exactly what it is and that its coming in two weeks. This obviously could be improved on. OP is talking more about a more specific timeline of planned features, which I gave my reasoning for why that was a bad idea from Demiurge's perspective.

NorthernPolarity

arktos1971 wrote:

And then there is a wonderful tool called : COMMUNICATION.

No one would hold the grudge against them were they be late as long as they were communicating about it.

There's a lot difference between : it's not our priority (which means we may never have a look at this problem) and say : it could take X weeks.

The original LRs took some time in the beginning. They know how long it took. Lady Thor LRs took some time to develop, and they know how long it took to implement them.

So they could answer that same question. I'm sure it's one of the fastest development in the game, since Featured Characters already exist in PvPs (graphics, backgrounds...).

They advertised beforehand about Team Ups, and it happened to be a crashed landing. And I'm sure it took wayyyyy longer to develop TU than it would take for LRs.

As for the PvEs, they also know how long it took to create the Gauntlet or each PvE (the latest one being Deadpool vs MPQ if I'm not mistaken).

Each company knows how long it takes to create something. Especially when it's past. So, to re-do something similar is a known fact.

It's not as if I was asking : How long would it take to implement MPQ on the PS4 platform (or anything else that has been asked on this forum that would completely new).

What do you want them to do? Tell me exactly what you are expecting from them in general, since what you wanted (LRs have rotated new characters in, QA saying that a new game mode is coming out probably addressing PvE) has already happened. The way that it's been going, they've started to answer monthly questions about general stuff, which gives us an idea of what is going to happen in the future (new game mode coming out at the end of the year). They also try to give information on features that are going to be released in one to two weeks. They've obviously been failing at this a lot, but the fact remains that they're still doing it which means that it isn't a question of "why aren't you doing this" like your original post implies, but more of a "why are you bad at doing this, get better". I think that these two things combined are perfectly reasonable for a company to do, and that anything more (like telling us that we expect to get a new PvE out in a month) is probably not a good idea from my earlier logic.

Unknown

NorthernPolarity wrote:

Paintsville wrote:

While I can't speak for everyone, but I am pretty sure every time I complained was due to a lack of communication. I may be wrong. And when something was well communicated, I jumped the line and stuck up for D3. So, personally speaking, if they said "A new PvE will begin in one month", and then 27 days later they say "Bad news. Some weird bug thing showed up and its going to be another week before the release", I would defend D3. I would be disappointed due to excitement, but I would understand. Granted, some people WOULD flame on, but I think people underestimate how much decent communication would quell the masses.

Yes, but that isn't my point. You're talking about the situation where D3 KNOWS that a feature is going to be completely finished and released in two weeks, in which case they've typically failed to communicate exactly what it is and that its coming in two weeks. This obviously could be improved on. OP is talking more about a more specific timeline of planned features, which I gave my reasoning for why that was a bad idea from Demiurge's perspective.

I see your point. What about the new PvE announced by the end of the year? Do you believe that this is completed and just sitting around waiting for release? Almost done and just working out bugs? Halfway done? I know we can only speculate at this point. I guess my point is, lets say it takes them 3 months to build a new PvE event. (Numbers may be way off, I don't know) Why cant they say, we will try to release 2 or 3 new PvEs in 2015.

I understand they don't want a disappointed public, but are there any deadlines at all? And if there aren't any deadlines, are they just working on whatever suits them with no concrete plan for the future.

If any of this make sense. I lost my train of thought a few times.

NorthernPolarity

Paintsville wrote:

NorthernPolarity wrote:

Paintsville wrote:

While I can't speak for everyone, but I am pretty sure every time I complained was due to a lack of communication. I may be wrong. And when something was well communicated, I jumped the line and stuck up for D3. So, personally speaking, if they said "A new PvE will begin in one month", and then 27 days later they say "Bad news. Some weird bug thing showed up and its going to be another week before the release", I would defend D3. I would be disappointed due to excitement, but I would understand. Granted, some people WOULD flame on, but I think people underestimate how much decent communication would quell the masses.

Yes, but that isn't my point. You're talking about the situation where D3 KNOWS that a feature is going to be completely finished and released in two weeks, in which case they've typically failed to communicate exactly what it is and that its coming in two weeks. This obviously could be improved on. OP is talking more about a more specific timeline of planned features, which I gave my reasoning for why that was a bad idea from Demiurge's perspective.

I see your point. What about the new PvE announced by the end of the year? Do you believe that this is completed and just sitting around waiting for release? Almost done and just working out bugs? Halfway done? I know we can only speculate at this point. I guess my point is, lets say it takes them 3 months to build a new PvE event. (Numbers may be way off, I don't know) Why cant they say, we will try to release 2 or 3 new PvEs in 2015.

I understand they don't want a disappointed public, but are there any deadlines at all? And if there aren't any deadlines, are they just working on whatever suits them with no concrete plan for the future.

If any of this make sense. I lost my train of thought a few times.

I think that they gave themselves ample wiggle room for the PvE to be released by the end of the year such that even in the absolute worst case, it'll still be released in December. I would guess that they expect to finish it by mid November, with the expectation to push it out early December if things end up going later.

I don't see the point of progress reports on PvE. If they say "we're almost done, just doing bugfixes!" and then it takes them another 3 weeks to finish bugfixes, they're going to have to say something like "Sorry, still bug fixing!" for three consecutive weeks, at which point you probably have hyped up forum people agitated that their new shiny feature is taking so long to complete. Compare this to just saying "It'll be ready by the end of the year", and we're blissfully happy, even surprised if the PvE comes out in mid-November. This goes back to managing player expectations: there's just no point in being more transparent with your development processes when something can go horribly wrong and set everything back a month. Again, there are two options:

Option 1. Give yourself a ton of wiggle room and be vague. Say "New game mode by the end of the year!" - Forum people are now expecting a new game mode by the end of the year. If it comes out in mid-November, great! Everyone's happy because they expected it to be out by December and it came out early!

Option 2. Be more transparent. Say "We're finishing the PvE now, working on debugging which we expect to finish by beginning of November". If it takes longer than expected, you're forced to say "Sorry, its taking a lot longer than expected on bugfixes!" - Then what happens? Reasonable people like you would defend them and say "at least they're communicating". Unreasonable people are going to be like "**** d3, you're incompetent and it shouldn't take this long to fix bugs".

And yes, you're always going to get complainers, but option 1 obviously results in a lot less complaints than option 2, and the most important thing is that there is virtually NO benefit to doing it option 1. It just seems like a completely unnecessary risk to take when you can do option 2, so I don't see the point in option 1 at all. Yeah, everyone would obviously like to know what the new game mode is going to be about, but its not like its critical for us to know every single step that's been taken in the process to begin with.

Edit: With regards to your deadline question, yes, there are of course deadlines. The company is obviously going to lose money if they don't release a new character every so often or a new event. The thing is that these deadlines are flexible: if they straight up say "We expect to finish a PvE in 2 months", then they've unnecessarily ADDED a deadline to finish it, because otherwise the playerbase is going to be mad if they didn't finish it in time. By not saying this or by being vague, they give themselves much more options and flexibility in case something goes wrong or if other priorities come into play. You're putting yourself more into a corner if you explicitly talk about the deadlines, hence why its unnecessary.

Unknown

NorthernPolarity wrote:

Paintsville wrote:

NorthernPolarity wrote:

Paintsville wrote:

While I can't speak for everyone, but I am pretty sure every time I complained was due to a lack of communication. I may be wrong. And when something was well communicated, I jumped the line and stuck up for D3. So, personally speaking, if they said "A new PvE will begin in one month", and then 27 days later they say "Bad news. Some weird bug thing showed up and its going to be another week before the release", I would defend D3. I would be disappointed due to excitement, but I would understand. Granted, some people WOULD flame on, but I think people underestimate how much decent communication would quell the masses.

Yes, but that isn't my point. You're talking about the situation where D3 KNOWS that a feature is going to be completely finished and released in two weeks, in which case they've typically failed to communicate exactly what it is and that its coming in two weeks. This obviously could be improved on. OP is talking more about a more specific timeline of planned features, which I gave my reasoning for why that was a bad idea from Demiurge's perspective.

I see your point. What about the new PvE announced by the end of the year? Do you believe that this is completed and just sitting around waiting for release? Almost done and just working out bugs? Halfway done? I know we can only speculate at this point. I guess my point is, lets say it takes them 3 months to build a new PvE event. (Numbers may be way off, I don't know) Why cant they say, we will try to release 2 or 3 new PvEs in 2015.

I understand they don't want a disappointed public, but are there any deadlines at all? And if there aren't any deadlines, are they just working on whatever suits them with no concrete plan for the future.

If any of this make sense. I lost my train of thought a few times.

I think that they gave themselves ample wiggle room for the PvE to be released by the end of the year such that even in the absolute worst case, it'll still be released in December. I would guess that they expect to finish it by mid November, with the expectation to push it out early December if things end up going later.

I don't see the point of progress reports on PvE. If they say "we're almost done, just doing bugfixes!" and then it takes them another 3 weeks to finish bugfixes, they're going to have to say something like "Sorry, still bug fixing!" for three consecutive weeks, at which point you probably have hyped up forum people agitated that their new shiny feature is taking so long to complete. Compare this to just saying "It'll be ready by the end of the year", and we're blissfully happy, even surprised if the PvE comes out in mid-November. This goes back to managing player expectations: there's just no point in being more transparent with your development processes when something can go horribly wrong and set everything back a month. Again, there are two options:

Option 1. Give yourself a ton of wiggle room and be vague. Say "New game mode by the end of the year!" - Forum people are now expecting a new game mode by the end of the year. If it comes out in mid-November, great! Everyone's happy because they expected it to be out by December and it came out early!

Option 2. Be more transparent. Say "We're finishing the PvE now, working on debugging which we expect to finish by beginning of November". If it takes longer than expected, you're forced to say "Sorry, its taking a lot longer than expected on bugfixes!" - Then what happens? Reasonable people like you would defend them and say "at least they're communicating". Unreasonable people are going to be like "**** d3, you're incompetent and it shouldn't take this long to fix bugs".

And yes, you're always going to get complainers, but option 1 obviously results in a lot less complaints than option 2, and the most important thing is that there is virtually NO benefit to doing it option 1. It just seems like a completely unnecessary risk to take when you can do option 2, so I don't see the point in option 1 at all. Yeah, everyone would obviously like to know what the new game mode is going to be about, but its not like its critical for us to know every single step that's been taken in the process to begin with.

I concede the point. I agree that the risk/reward ratio doesn't benefit them. I think the main reason of my curiosity is my desire for balanced characters and for the buffing of 2 power characters. I feel strongly that these things need to be done. So if they don't have time to do it, then what are they doing with their time. It may be good things, may be bad things, but I want to know SOMETHING. But I agree that I have to reconcile myself with the fact that it is not in D3's best interest to tell me.

NorthernPolarity

Paintsville wrote:

I concede the point. I agree that the risk/reward ratio doesn't benefit them. I think the main reason of my curiosity is my desire for balanced characters and for the buffing of 2 power characters. I feel strongly that these things need to be done. So if they don't have time to do it, then what are they doing with their time. It may be good things, may be bad things, but I want to know SOMETHING. But I agree that I have to reconcile myself with the fact that it is not in D3's best interest to tell me.

They actually answered this in the QA, which goes to show you how the monthly QA thing probably is the best way for them to approach this long-term feature communciation thing, haha:

Q: When will Loki, Doom, Ragnarok, and Bullseye get third covers?
A: “When” questions are super tough question to answer because they’re often out of our hands. We have first parties that need to approve our game, we have external events that pop up, and many other things that will constantly force us to shift priorities around. We love being able to directly answer questions, but “When” is a hard thing to stick a pin on, and we hate to disappoint.

To go back to the original question, they are on the list, but we’d rather make new characters instead of adding to old ones. Adding third abilities is difficult because it often requires reducing the effectiveness of the character in some other way to compensate for the improvements, and that’s not fun for the character.

TLDR: Making new characters earns them a lot more money than fixing old ones.

Unknown

True. The desire to make new characters over fixing the old. Ugh. Reminds me of cooking meals for a week without doing the dishes.

Please ignore the huge mess in the kitchen. It's more fun to make new meals instead of cleaning up after the old. Probably true, but sooner or later the whole house is going to stink.

Unknown

So, we've been listened to for the LRs.

Psylocke has just shown up.

Hey, D3P, I hope you don't get bored with these, cause here's another one :

THANK YOU !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

mohio

Since arktos has posted a couple times here I now think I'm wrong, but the way I originally read the OP was like this: give us some behind the scenes info so we can know in general how long it takes to do x,y,z. So, release a new character : two days to pick the next character, 2 weeks to brainstorm abilities, 2 more to pick the 3 best and tweak to be ready to test. 3 weeks for SE to code the new abilities and do first pass on bugs, 3 more weeks of testing/bug fixing, ready!

Similar breakdowns could be given for designing new pve maps, how long for writing, layout, enemy team comps, etc.

Anyway, it seems arktos maybe did want a little more specifics, but I was thinking it would be pretty interesting just to see the general timeline for some of these things (like how we know that sets of magic cards are started almost 2 years before they even come out).