December MPQ Developer Q&A - Submit Your Questions

JVReal

DrUnpleasant wrote:

DrUnpleasant wrote:

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?

Yeah, quoting myself like a boss.

After this last weekend with sooo many of us dedicating 20% of our life (including sleep time) to MPQ in order to get Top 10. I really don't understand how the benefits to D3 can oughtweigh the unreasonable burden on our schedules.

Even 4 hours would allow people to do two 'clears' before bed and wake up knowing they've only missed out on a small amount of potential points.

yeah, NO.

5 to 8 hour refresh timer is ridiculous. If you have real life to deal with, guess what, so does everyone else. Prioritize your own life choices, don't make D3 prioritize it for you. That's like telling everyone else they can't play because you can't. I like to play on my breaks and lunch. If I can't play while I work, oh well, that's the cost of being a responsible adult.

EDIT: LOL, voted down because people don't like accountability... very telling of the sorts that are on here. "please change the game so I don't ignore my family and work because I have no self control, boo hoo."

SnowcaTT

DrUnpleasant wrote:

DrUnpleasant wrote:

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?

Yeah, quoting myself like a boss.

After this last weekend with sooo many of us dedicating 20% of our life (including sleep time) to MPQ in order to get Top 10. I really don't understand how the benefits to D3 can oughtweigh the unreasonable burden on our schedules.

Even 4 hours would allow people to do two 'clears' before bed and wake up knowing they've only missed out on a small amount of potential points.

Or just the old 12 hour timer, so folks can time out once in their morning and once in their evening (once the PVE's allow selected time). 2.5 is ridiculous, 4 hours wouldn't be much better. Six at a bare minimum, so you only "must" play three times a day to compete.

Leugenesmiff

Is there any chance you would ever stop charging HP for new cover slots? With the ever growing number of new characters it's becoming increasingly difficult to scrap together enough HP for a new cover slot each time a new character comes out, espescially now that I'm more of a casual player. I can't imagine what it's like for new players these days. With so many characters available and HP the only medium available that lets you purchase a specific cover, constantly having to use HP on cover slots makes buying covers with HP almost impossible for anyone but everyday players, and even then it was difficult to save up that much. The large pool of characters makes it even harder to draw what you want randomly, and new players have so many covers they need to get that exhausting their HP on cover slots makes the effort of getting three high level 3* characters far more difficult than it used to be. I know the creating the need for cover slots must be a major revenue generator, but the game would be so much better for the players if they didn't have to worry about who to sell off to make room for someone new.

GrumpySmurf1002

There was a time where we at least got pre-release details for each of the characters. Now we get one post every couple days that reads like a press release.

1) Can we go back to having new character details posted?
2) Do you feel vague answers once a month is a satisfactory way to engage with the forumbase?

Unknown

1) (Given the current environment with the number of 3* covers) How long should the transition process (2* to 3*) take a player that plays on a regular basis?

2) Will ISO and 3* cover distribution increase IF it is determined that those players are not able to accomplish the transition within that period?

Unknown

Now that we've had a few "time slice" PVPs, it's clear that there is wide disparity between the scoring potential in different slices. The end time problem needed to be fixed but the solution has lead to making a choice between progression rewards or placement for certain players. I'd assume this is an unintentional consequence. Is it an acceptable consequence for the devs? Have there been discussions about somehow trying to smooth things out over the slices or should we just consider this the trade-off for multiple end times?
On a similar note, since there are more options, can we please switch the 1AM EST end back to midnight like it used to be? 1 AM is a pretty unpopular time:
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=19307&view=unread#unread

Adam12

I'm sure I'm too deep into the thread to be noticed, but:

1. is the development team aware that optimal play for PvE events requires a 30-45 minute clear every 2hours and 24 minutes?
2. Is the development team aware that in order to play optimally, their players are sacrificing their personal wellbeing by changing their sleep patterns?
3. Does anyone actually think it's a good idea to encourage this kind of behavior? I understand your business model revolves around exploiting the human capacity for addiction, but to be a successful pusher you need to not let your customers' addiction overly interfere with their lives.

Wolarsen

David, can you please confirm incoming Guardians of the Galaxy character release rate through PvE events?

02/12/14 Gamora
09/12/14 Drax
16/12/14 Ronan
23/12/14 Nebula
25/12/14 Star-Lord (Xmas special)
30/12/14 The Collector
06/01/15 Yundu
13/01/15 Nova Prime Lady
20/01/15 The Nova corps guy played by J. Reilly

(I might be missing a new year's eve special release).

Will they all be released with a Rocket and Groot come to Earth event, or will you pop some Hc Juggernaut in between?

y2fitzy

If you cut a sandwich in half, do you now have two sandwiches?

Unknown

Wolarsen wrote:

02/12/14 Gamora
09/12/14 Drax
16/12/14 Ronan
23/12/14 Nebula
25/12/14 Star-Lord (Xmas special)
30/12/14 The Collector
06/01/15 Yundu
13/01/15 Nova Prime Lady
20/01/15 The Nova corps guy played by J. Reilly

(I might be missing a new year's eve special release).

Where did you get this information?

Wolarsen

It is a pure sarcasm post, Kevin, due to the extra fast pace of released characters; I thought including the Collector, Yundu, Nova Prime and the Nova Corps would make it silly enough. Sorry if I mislead anyone

Unknown

Wolarsen wrote:

It is a pure sarcasm post, Kevin, due to the extra fast pace of released characters; I thought including the Collector, Yundu, Nova Prime and the Nova Corps would make it silly enough. Sorry if I mislead anyone

Oh If I didn't get the sarcasm, your sarcasm on that subject is well-placed.

Unknown

You forgot Cosmo and Howard the Duck.

Lidolas

Paintsville wrote:

You forgot Cosmo and Howard the Duck.

And a 1* version of Adam Warlock (Cocoon)

Nonce Equitaur 2

Crit multipliers -- Why do Psylocke and Magneto have weird crit multipliers?
4.5 --
4.0 --
3.8 --
3.5 --
3.2 --
3.0 -- Everybody else.

Why is there so much emphasis on percentages, when it would be easier to state values?
Daken .... Heals/Loses 7%/3% health per turn ---> Heals/Loses 476/204 health per turn. Give an up/down arrow.
IM40 .... 10% extra damage ---> State the new damage
Rocket&Groot .... If R&G are below 25% health ---> If R&G are below 2550 health, give an indicator.
Spiderman .... Increases base Protect Strength by 25% ---> State the protections per web tile.
Hulk .... Does 30% of the damage to allies ---> State damage.
Punisher .... Downs targets below 40% of max ---> Give an indicator, perhaps a tiny skull, when Punisher is playing.
Ares .... Ares is below 25% of max health ---> State value, give an indicator.
OBW .... 50% heal ---> State value
cStorm .... If every team member is below 50% health ---> Give indicator.
Wolverine .... If Wolverine is below 50% health ---> State value, give indicator.

Why aren't there indicators of some sort for the various powers that require players to count of tiles to determine whether or not a power is active?
Blade - If there are 11 or more Red tiles on the board
Daken - If there are fewer than 9 Blue tiles
Hood - If there are more than 9 tiles of a color, steal 1 AP of that color.
Hulk - if there are more than 10 Green tiles on the board
Patch - damage for each tile on the board that bears his icon.
Patch - fewer than 10 Yellow tiles
Moonstone - damage for each Red tile on the board.
Gamora - for every 4 tiles that bear her symbol.

Character queue -- Why isn't it possible to sort characters by ways other than by level?
Sort by max health
Sort by current health
Sort by color (pick a color)
Sort by levelabillity.

Why are there still Tile / Power disparities?
With most characters, the order of their abilities matches up with their strongest/stronger/strong tile damages. The following characters all have tile / power disparities, in that their strongest tiles don't match up with the ordering of their colors.

Tile Dam .. Ability colors
-- - Beast (Modern)
-- - Black Widow (Grey Suit)
-- - Captain Marvel (Modern)
-- - Daken (both versions)
-- - Deadpool (It's Me, Deadpool)
-- - Doctor Doom (Classic)
-- - Hawkeye (Modern)
-- - Iron Man
-- - Loki (Dark Reign)
-- - Magneto (Classic)
-- - Spider-Man (Classic)
-- - Venom (Dark Avengers)

Unknown

Why is it that in PvE event that you need the previous events new award character? This does not make many people happy, it only makes the top people happy. It gives them a leg up on everything and just further supports the saying, "The rich get richer."

loroku

Do you think it will be possible to restructure the reward system of the game so that new characters are not punishing to players?

To expand: we all love new characters and I know more characters will make this game more interesting, but currently between roster slots being a major currency sink and the fact that each new character means it takes even longer to put together ONE viable character (vaulting, spreading resources over more and more areas, etc.), each new character release hurts the playerbase and makes the game harder. But in the end, this is only true because of how the reward structure works: getting covers is rare and difficult and mostly RNG-based, and there is no "end game" other than getting more new characters. Would it be possible or do the devs even want to retool the game so that getting new covers is not punishing to players, but progression happens in some other way? I ask for the long-term health of the game because I think you've set yourself up for a high churn strategy right now. Maybe thinking "long term" is too ambitious right now, but just wondering if it's on your mind or if things are all working as intended. I personally feel like you guys have absolutely nailed the "first month" for most but once you start to unpeel the onion and realize that the game is continuously making itself more and more difficult it makes me pull back more and more.

Unknown

Any word on compensation scheme for the week (s) of outages for lollipop users or is it basically bad luck, move on?

Unknown

JVReal wrote:

DrUnpleasant wrote:

DrUnpleasant wrote:

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?

Yeah, quoting myself like a boss.

After this last weekend with sooo many of us dedicating 20% of our life (including sleep time) to MPQ in order to get Top 10. I really don't understand how the benefits to D3 can oughtweigh the unreasonable burden on our schedules.

Even 4 hours would allow people to do two 'clears' before bed and wake up knowing they've only missed out on a small amount of potential points.

yeah, NO.

5 to 8 hour refresh timer is ridiculous. If you have real life to deal with, guess what, so does everyone else. Prioritize your own life choices, don't make D3 prioritize it for you. That's like telling everyone else they can't play because you can't. I like to play on my breaks and lunch. If I can't play while I work, oh well, that's the cost of being a responsible adult.

EDIT: LOL, voted down because people don't like accountability... very telling of the sorts that are on here. "please change the game so I don't ignore my family and work because I have no self control, boo hoo."

Your post was downvoted because 2.5 hour refreshes are ridiculous and you were rather rude.

Unknown

Can we please get some definitive information on the vaulting choices for various characters?

I am thinking specifically "reasons for vaulting", "how long will they be out of circulation", "what changes should we expect when they are returned", etc.


You have been extremely vague on the all of this, outside of saying "we will have an opportunity to tweak them" and mentioning that Rags, Doom, and Loki are slated to get third powers.


Will Daredevil get a total overhaul or at least a fix to his trap generation?

Should we expect changes to Punisher, Patch, Torch, LazyThor, etc?


Can we get Bag Lady vaulted so you can take another shot at fixing her, which had the added bonus of raising draw rates on Xforce, Fury, and Thora?