New game transitioning model inc. tokens and characters

yogi_

This was prompted as an attempt to resolve the characters out of token rotation issue and in turn, it also simplifies the structure of the game.

I wanted to have a go at making this whole transitioning thing much clearer by having 3 distinct phases of the game. At the same time, it’s a solution to the rotating characters out of tokens, so it’s unnecessary in the short-medium term. There should be a much more distinct character building transition across the game, eg. newer players should not be getting tokens that get them a 3* - it’s just not fair.

I have tried to make this plan as much within the current structure of the game as is possible. This is a 1* - 3* variant. There are 3 updated tokens that correspond with 3 levels of characters.

Current first stage: Collecting 1* and 2*’s and quickly getting enough 2*s to transition to begin the 3* transition.
Proposed first stage: Building much of the 1* roster and getting some 2* foundations.

Current second stage: The long **** and painful transition to a 3* roster with up to a 3rd of the characters out of rotation at any one time.
Proposed second stage: Building much of the 2* roster and getting some 3* foundations.

Current third stage: Usable cross section of 3* and battling for 4*s, while still building your 3*s.
Proposed third stage: Primary focus on growing your 3*s characters, while finishing development of your still very useable 2* roster.

The three new tokens:
Common (bronze) – Connected to the 1*’s, smal chance of higher levels, with or without the addition of 100+ ISO reward. Most availability.
Uncommon (silver) – Connected to the 2*’s, small chance of higher levels, with or without the addition of 250+ ISO reward. X characters share Y% and the remainder is ISO. Reasonable availability.
Rare (gold) – Connected to the 3*’s, this is a limited token giving out 3* characters and the addition of 500+ ISO reward. Limited availability.

This 3 model system fits in with the desire of the devs to have a simple token model that does not need regular changing.

The associated new character ranks below might not be exact but there are a few philosophies:
* For the most part, characters remain close to their current rankings.
* There are 3 ratings of max levels that average out the current max levels. Characters abilities stay the same, but individual numbers move up or down a little to correspond with their peers.
* Three variations of characters get a rank each and for the most part, two variations share neighbouring ranks.
* Given my investigation, all FF and Spider-Man characters move towards lower rankings. Similarly, X-Men don’t feature heavily in the top rankings.

The New 1*
think... around the level of the current mid-upper 1* to low-mid 2* vibe
Ares (Dark Avengers)
Black Widow (Modern)
Bullseye (Dark Avengers)
Daken (Dark Avengers)
Hawkeye (Classic)
Human Torch (Johnny Storm)
Iron Man (Model 35)
Juggernaut (Classic)
Moonstone (Dark Avengers)
Spider-Man (Bag-Man)
Storm (Modern)
Thor (Marvel NOW!)
Venom (Dark Avengers)
Wolverine (Astonishing X-Men)
Yelena Belova (Dark Avengers)

The New 2*
think... around the level of the current mid-upper 2* to lower 3* vibe
Beast (Modern)
Black Panther (T'Challa)
Black Widow (Original)
Blade (Classic)
Captain America (Modern)
Captain Marvel (Ms. Marvel)
Colossus (Classic)
Daken (Classic)
Daredevil (Man Without Fear)
Deadpool (It's Me, Deadpool)
Doctor Doom (Classic)
Doctor Octopus (Otto Octavius)
Falcon (Mighty Avengers)
Hawkeye (Modern)
Hood (Classic)
Human Torch (Classic)
Invisible Woman (Classic)
Magneto (Marvel NOW!)
Mystique (Raven Darkholme)
Psylocke (Classic)
Punisher (Dark Reign)
Ragnarok (Dark Avengers)
Spider-Man (Classic)
Storm (Classic)
Thor (Modern)
Wolverine (Patch)

The New 3*
think... around the level of the current mid-upper 3* to 4* vibe
Black Widow (Grey Suit)
Captain America (Steve Rogers)
Captain Marvel (Modern)
Devil Dinosaur (Gigantic Reptile)
Elektra (Unkillable)
Gamora (Guardians of the Galaxy)
Hulk (Indestructible)
Iron Man (Model 40)
Loki (Dark Reign)
Magneto (Classic)
Nick Fury (Director of SHIELD)
Rocket and Groot (Most Wanted)
Sentry (Dark Avengers)
She-Hulk (Modern)
Storm (Mohawk)
Thor (Goddess of Thunder)
Wolverine (X-Force)

I would also consider select character retirement. In my ideal world of a complete ranking refresh within the current model, there would be noticeable differences based upon the official Marvel Power Ratings.

My long term personal vision for the game is single version of each character (maybe additions of skins, etc), max level 100 and some sort of point based character levelling system that is independent of covers.

ronin_san

Eh, you've really got to take a better look at who's a GOOD 2* character. Self promotion here; no denying it, but I wrote up a 2* ranking guide on Reddit yesterday.

http://www.reddit.com/r/MarvelPuzzleQue ... ng_thread/

Ares is in the top 3 2* characters, second only to OBW. He's stronger than Hawkeye by a nautical mile, because he has 3 damage abilities (and thus is great on defense), has A LOT more hit points, and his abilities are STRONG. He pairs well with Thor, in that thor can generate greens. Between he and thor, he provides great redundancy - and vice versa - thus securing your investment in AP matching.

Beast is worse than Ares.he deserves to be lower. Look at it this way. He and Rocket and Groot came out within 6 weeks of each other. One has an absolute CRAAAAAAAAAAAP blue ability. One's phenomenal. Blade drops something similar to Beast's blue, and Blade's is GREAT. Beast is a tiny kitty in 3* land, if ever there was one.

And the problem with Hawkeye is that his best ability is contingent on happenstance or other characters. If he's by himself, he's most likely dying. He can be ignored, isn't played great defensively by the PC, and has shoddy hit points. Further, even in 2* territory, there are better red or blue abilities in a given team.

IM40 is shoddy in that he is best (when his yellow is) underleveled. He has abilities so expensive and poorly implemented, that they're best served on other characters. I see it like this. My external battery for my electronic devices has a flashlight. OH. A Flashlight. It's not a very GOOD flashlight, and really doesn't add to its value. I'd sooner use the light on my phone, or use a real, albeit cheap, standalone flashlight. That's IM40. YES, he can damage all with is blue. It doesn't make him good.

But when it costs DOUBLE that of 2* Storm's blue

Actually it's cheaper given that it drains multiple AP from other colors- it's JUST. NOT. GOOD. IM40 is at the bottom of the tier of 3*s. Steve Rogers, by comparison, is in that upper echelon.


The top 5 in the game are 3Daken, 3hor, 4Hor, XFW, and Fury / Black Panther ( the last of which I'd only argue based on how you have them covered).

yogi_

ronin-san wrote:

Eh, you've really got to take a better look at who's a GOOD 2* character.

As interesting as your post is, it is not relevant to the point I am making.

I gave no consideration to the goodness or otherwise of any character.

It's meant to be a rejuggling of character ranking based on a few loose establishing criteria so that the characters go from the current 1*, 2*, 3* in rotation, 3* out of rotation, 3* Gold and 4* and the horrid sequence of transitioning to 3 clear rankings and a far steadier series of 2 transitions.

Once in new ranks, all characters would be then being numerically rebalanced (for the most part, only small changes) to be broadly similar. Each ranking gets a corresponding token.

To directly respond - Ares joins the other Dark Avengers, Beast joins most of the other X-Men, IM40 will eventually be rebalanced and Hawkeye... well, nothing really to say there. Excluding FF or Spider characters, I didn't move a character more than one rank either way (eg. I would move Rags down to be with his colleagues as the former game title starters).

Anyway... it doesn't really matter. The devs have never made any signal of doing such a thing, implement close to nothing of what we say (particularly on a large scale) and have already stated they are preparing to roll out a whole new batch of 4*'s; so I am just amusing myself really.

ronin_san

I think I misunderstood, then. Knowing the speed at which the devs churn out characters vs actual playtesting and developing.... I assumed the ranking was based on existing characters and abilities.

I agree that Ares is higher in ability and strength than his given notoriety. I understand that Beast should be higher than he is. I mistook the purpose of the post. I thought it was an existing characters and rankings diatribe.

I find I agree more with you, considering your intent. I misread. I'm sorry.

yogi_

Not a problem at all.

My initial post may not have been clear enough in respect to the point you raised, which is a very valid one.

At an earlier time, I think I had a draft or two based more towards what you were getting at, but it's just too tricky, irks too many people though ultimately, at the end of the day, if the devs aren't going to change their model, there is only so far one can go with these sort of musings; sadly.

Unknown

Honestly I feel that a lot of problems could be fixed if they got rid of colored covers and just let us choose which ability to level up. I understand why they did it in the beginning since there weren't many characters available but now that we have quite a few it's time to get rid of colored covers.

Unknown

I missed the part when you buy a couple of Stark's because rewards and cover distribution is so antiquated.

yogi_

Sharing an earlier idea of mine, now that it seems apparent that the 4*'s are the new 3.x somethings.

MarvelDestiny

yogi_ wrote:

There should be a much more distinct character building transition across the game, eg. newer players should not be getting tokens that get them a 3* - it’s just not fair.

I'm not quite clear on your post, yogi, so if this isn't relevant or on topic I apologize.

I agree that it isn't fair for for newer players to get 3 or 4 * characters, but probably not for the reasons you think. It screws up their mmr and scaling. This happened to me while I was still in the prologue. I won a Dino cover in PVP and all of a sudden I was facing opponents in PVP & PVE I couldn't defeat. I had no idea what was going on and quit the game for several months. I eventually returned and the problem slowly diminished as I leveled up.

So yeah, I think players should not have a chance of getting a particular star lvl until at least one character is at or above its min level (15 for 2s, 40 for 3s, 70 for 4s).