December MPQ Developer Q&A - Submit Your Questions

David [Hi-Fi] Moore

Marvel Puzzle Quest community! It's time to ask us a question!

We hope you enjoyed our November Question & Answer session. We are now soliciting questions for the December Q&A.

Over the next two weeks, give us your questions for the Marvel Puzzle Quest team (Demiurge & D3) in the comment thread below. We'll then select a number of choice inquires and have the developers respond. We hope to post the answers to your insightful questions on or around December 17th, 2014.

*Any legitimate question is fair game, but keeping your question clear and concise will help. It's much easier to grasp the intent of a sentence or two.

* Let's keep this to one or two questions each so we can manage things easily. This is a monthly Q&A and you can submit further inquiries next time.

*Please submit your question for this Q&A by December 3rd, 2014.

If you missed our previous Q&A you can find it here: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=19348

Thanks in advance for participating in the discussion! Now, ask away...

Unknown

Has any thought been given to adding more permanent single-player content, either by adding the existing episodes to the prologue or allowing us to repeat the prologue with the levels increased?

Unknown

In the hopes that we get more actual info this time:

What are your plans for addressing the increasing roster slot price problem as you seem quite enthusiastic about releasing a multitude of characters but also encourage "roster diversity"?

Lystrata

As above. "We release new characters frequently because we think they're awesome" is not a valid reason. It shows absolutely no connection/consideration towards the player base. So many new characters in such short succession are causing numerous problems: HP for slots, iso for levelling, rotating characters through tokens, etc.

What's the logic behind releasing so many new characters when it simply creates more problems? And if you're going to stick with 'we think it's cool', then how are you planning to update the game so that keeping/using all these new characters are actually a viable option for players?

Or, if you can't be that specific, are you even... working on something.. that makes keeping/using all these new characters possible?

wymtime

3 things
1 what are you going to do about the high costs of roster slots with so many characters.
2 with so many characters what are you going to do about the fact it takes so long to level characters. We have an ISO shortage and playing more is not a good response.
3 with the rising cost of roster slots, and needing to shield more have you though about giving out more HP for progressions or rewards?

The reality is we would love to actually play all the new characters you have released, but generating the resources is getting a little tinykitty crazy.

Mawtful

Have you considered some kind of "developer design diary"?

I'm not talking about the interviews on Marvel.com - those are a nice preview, but are otherwise insubstantial and usually contain erroneous information. What I am talking about is discussing some things maybe a little earlier in the design process.

This could be a platform to discuss upcoming balance changes for characters; this lets players know what characters you are focusing on and helps you gauge the community response in advance so that you're not continually surprised by backlash against poorly communicated changes. Some examples:

"Beneath The Bonnet" (Can't use "Under The Hood" since that's a Watchmen reference and not a Marvel property)

For a long time, The Hood has been a quiet achiever, but now we've finally got him in the spotlight. The Hood's a support character, so his strength isn't easily obvious in the form of direct damage attacks. Instead, he steals from his opponents to slow them down and boosts his allies to get their abilities to activate faster.

With 4* Thor, Goddess of Thunder beginning to enter player's rosters, we need to address how The Hood's AP generation overlaps with the increase AP value of charged tiles. Here's our thought process to redesigning Twin Pistols. blah blah blah. And maybe here's a poll as to how the community would like TP changed - a direct damage nuke, which goes against the flavour of the character as we just described, or some other option, just as targeted AP destruction, which still slows your opponent but doesn't rush 4* Thor to the top of the metagame.
etc.

For upcoming characters, you could discuss abilities without actually naming names. Using Mystique as an example, you could perhaps discuss her Shapeshift ability like this:

We're working on a new character who has some sneaky tricks in their repertoire. Here's a look at one of those tricks:

8 AP
Create an 8 turn Countdown tile. While Countdown tile is in play, whenever the enemy team makes a match Character steals 1 AP of that color.
Level 2: Also stuns the target for 1 turn
Level 3: Also steals 1 AP whenever the enemy team makes a Blue match
Level 4: Also steals 1 AP whenever the enemy team makes a Purple or Black match
Level 5: Also steals 1 AP whenever the enemy team makes a Team-Up match. Stuns for 1 additional turn

TL;DR: Why not have some kind of dev diary where you actually discuss some changes in advance, and/or provide insight into some of the design choices being made?

Unknown

1) Any plans to cap roster spot prices?

2) In your discussions, have roster spot prices ever come up?

3) According to the latest forum posts, people are interested in roster spot prices. Any thoughts?

4) Each new character needs a roster spot. Resources are needed to purchase roster spots. Over time, resources are not increasing, but roster spot prices are. Are there any plans to address this?

5) If you misspell "roster", you might get "rooster". Are you too chicken to answer the questions about roster spots?

6) As the system stands now, how much HP will I have to spend for roster spot #156?

7) Can I trademark the term "Roster-farian"?

8) A train leaves New York at 9pm at 55 mph going west. Another train leaves Los Angeles at 10pm at 65 mph going east. What is the deal with roster spots?

9) I have a zombie friend who loves MPQ. He wanted me to ask, and I quote, "Brains. Also, Roster Spots."

10) Who picks oatmeal over waffles? Seriously?

Unknown

1. Is character rotation out of tokens a permanent solution? Are you aware of the side effects it has especially on the transitioning players? Are you working on another more viable solution?

2. Asking this for the 3rd time in hope for an answer this one around. Are you satisfied with the costs of roster slots? Do you consider the current roster slot costs a problem? If yes, are you working on a solution yet?

3. What do you think of PVE Rank Rewards? Do you think they are working the way you want them to? (Keep in mind that PVE is supposed to not be competitive). Are there any new events similar to The Gauntlet under development?

3a. Are you considering changing the current Story Rewards after you complete it? Currently it just stays there for no reason. I'd really like to see some incentive to go there and farm them again. My suggestion: http://www.d3pforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=19306

Unknown

Roster sl... only kidding.

1. Are there any plans to change node refresh timings? Currently it means that only those who can play every 2.5 hours of their day are in line for the top prizes. Wouldn't an 5 or 8 hour refresh be a little more reasonable?

2. The PVP end game is still geared heavily towards playing fast (to avoid being hit unshielded for massive points lost) rather than playing creatively with diverse rosters. This means the 'fastest' team composition will always dominate. Are you comfortable with this element of the game?

Dayv

Paintsville wrote:

10) Who picks oatmeal over waffles? Seriously?

Hey, at least he didn't say Cream of Wheat. I'm fairly sure that one's an automatic fail on the Voight-Kampff test.

Actually, devs: how do you feel about Cream of Wheat?

Dayv

Q: Have you considered any alternative methods of introducing new characters, for variety? Examples could include adding them directly to tokens, having a branched gauntlet-style PvE where players might have to decide which of two new characters to focus on, or putting the new covers at increasingly difficult progression reward levels. (This has been touched on lightly with the Ares release [covers in subevents] and with guaranteed Hulk and Sentry covers as one-time-node rewards in their early PvE events, but it's been a while.)

GrumpySmurf1002

1. Can I have some HP?
2. Are you sure?
3. What if I said please?
4. But I can't afford your roster spots and IM35 is now homeless and selling his armor for scrap metal just to eat. Wait, that's not a question. Why would you do that to him?

mags1587

I know I'm repeating more than half the people in this thread, but I really would like to get an answer about the increasing price of roster slots.

Ludaa

Let's not give them questions about anything other than roster slot pricing, agreed?

IamTheDanger

I'm asking the same question I asked the past 2 months.

Can we get an ETA on characters like Hood and BW being able to steal TU tiles?

and,... We have Torch and IW; Groot, Rocket, Gamora (coming soon); and 3 Wolverines. When will we get Thing, Mr Fantastic, Star Lord, Drax, and Sabertooth. Seriously devs, 3 Wolverines and ZERO Sabertooth. That just ain't right.

2nd edit, saw another thread that got me wondering. How long does it take to make/release a new character? I know each one is different, but I'm asking for an average time span from the "Hey guys, lets put "insert character name here" in MPQ!" to the event of their release and what goes into it?

3rd edit, with all the new players and all alliances being 20 members, is there any discussion about raising reward thresholds? From top 100 to say top 150 at least?

GrumpySmurf1002

1. Can you give any insight on to how MMR/scaling algorithms are actually calculated?
2. Has level shift accomplished the goals you had for it when it was released?

Nellobee

The 2->3 star transition has become increasingly more difficult as you have added new characters. Are there any plans in the works to make it easier, perhaps by letting us target specific characters in our tokens or similar? If not, what steps do you plan to take to let people transition easier?

Unknown

1. What are your plans for fixing the incredibly high roster slot prices, and how soon can we expect a fix? It's already near-impossible to keep up when the next roster slot costs 650 hero points, and will only get worse as more new characters are released.
2. With all of the new characters being released, pulling anything useful (3*) from tokens is becoming impossible, even with the vaulting of older 3*s. Are there any plans to split characters up into different token packs (maybe by color, maybe by theme, maybe a separate 3* token, etc.), or for a different kind of fix, and when can we expect a change?
Thank you for answering, and thank you for the increased communication in the past few months! It's definitely appreciated!

Nonce Equitaur 2

What happened to all the spam? It seems to be gone.

Seasick Pirate

We all love seeing progress bars fill up! Could some kind of an individual player rank/level system work? This would be a fun way for players to track their own progress beyond their roster, and offer up some bragging rights.
I've already brought up some ideas for this here: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=19033

Lidolas

1) Just to add my voice to the throng, is the increasing price for roster slots going to be addressed or changed?

2) Can I have your waffles if you're going to get oatmeal?