MPQ Community Q&A #3 – December - Answer Time!

Unknown

not too much information in the Q&A, maybe its cause we asked tinykitty questions, seeing that they are going to release many more 4* is a terrifying thought, i still havent finished xforce in almost a year and ive spent 40$ on the game(i am super close tho)

Unknown

Pjoe0211 wrote:

not too much information in the Q&A, maybe its cause we asked tinykitty questions, seeing that they are going to release many more 4* is a terrifying thought, i still havent finished xforce in almost a year and ive spent 40$ on the game(i am super close tho)

Dont worry they will release tons Thanos like gody guys in 5 very soon and your xforce will become well....spiderman

Unknown

So, basically, nothing changes. You guys continue on your path of flooding the roster, I continue to think it's incorrect and don't give you any more cash.

Which is fine, you guys do what works for you and if, as I think it will, people get to breaking point then the game dies and we all move on to other things.

Those answers though? Geez. Have you thought about entering politics speech-writing? You'd be real good (or bad, depending on your definition) in the UK for sure. And to come back with "we can vote on a change or just stop doing them?" Man

Unknown

I am very unimpressed, while I quit the game, I was coming back to the forums to see if I should get back if things change for the better.

What I read here, is that you have ideas on paper, drawn with crayons, and instead of addressing the end game problems, you are going to pile them up.

I will stick around the forums to see what the new game mode is, but I fear I wont even come to the forums anymore.

Losing interest.

Unknown

Post by dearbluey » Wed Nov 19, 2014 9:43 pm
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"?

Post by David [Hi-Fi] Moore » Thu Nov 20, 2014 3:51 pm
Hi,
A quick reply to everyone with a small bit of info:
Roster Slots. We hear ya. There are discussions going on (and have been going on) regarding what kind of solutions we can provide.
Definitely more to come in future on this important issue!

Post by David [Hi-Fi] Moore » Thu Dec 18, 2014 6:22 pm
...we’ll be releasing more 4*s this year, a lot more...
...We do expect that most players will have to make choices about which characters join their roster...
...some enjoy very difficult decisions about who to keep...

I appreciate your answers, even if I don't agree with them. It tells me exactly what to expect going forward. I just don't like it.

Unknown

Solution to the Iso dilemma:

Make every day like it was in the anniversary week.

Double Iso.

That was the only time it felt like I was getting my time's worth in Iso.

Unknown

"David wrote:

Moore"]

Nonce Equitaur 2 wrote:

There isn't anything worthwhile in these answers. If you're going to have a Q&A session each month, at least put in an interesting answer in somewhere.

We really do hope this is something helpful and informative for the MPQ community. If the community would like to suggest/vote on something else or have us end the Q&As - we welcome the feedback.

Thanks!

How about you let the community vote on a few questions that you have to answer in the upcoming Q&A. My main issue is you've picked out some broad, if important topics which allows for what amounts to non-answers. If you'd given me the list of questions I could have guessed correctly at all but 1 of the responses which makes the only useful question the one about possible alternative art assets......

The Q&A is a bit like watching an interview on TV where the interviewer isn't trying hard enough to get useful answers out of the interviewee and although I think Nonce's TLDR post was a bit harsh it wasn't a million miles from the truth either.

Still, thanks for getting the Q&A done and perhaps we can get something more useful next time.

Just an FYI.... Will's post in the thread on your (terrible) shield change giving numbers was MUCH better than the content of this Q&A for me personally. It's an internet forum with internet users... we like numbers... we trust numbers a lot more than wishy washy statements... that first answer needed numbers (and 3 times more ISO than launch doesn't count as enough numbers). If you want people to believe ISO flow is enough then show some proof, describe what some people are able to achieve through LRs plus events, describe what your average max 3* roster manages, describe what your average max 2* roster manages etc.

Unknown

onimus wrote:

Solution to the Iso dilemma:

Make every day like it was in the anniversary week.

Double Iso.

That was the only time it felt like I was getting my time's worth in Iso.

Grinding enough Iso to max the new characters is indeed possible, BUT, you have to do every event, grind like hell the LRs, AND accept to have no life besides MPQ.

I know what I am talking about... Sadly and pathetically.

I've been playing for 320 days, and could earn a bit more than 6 Million Iso, which would not cover all chars anyway. And I must be one of the few who play madly. So, unless you have been here since day 1 like Colognoisseur (he's 1 in a million then), you simply CAN'T max a roster with the Iso earned.

Telling us to make a choice is just as silly as releasing more 4*... When they know they make everything possible so that we NEED all the characters one day or another.

But they must be considering they have enough idiots (I am one) to put money into the game so they don't change anything.

I think I am just angry against myself to have been fooled knowing what was behind the strategy. But for some time, I just thought and wanted to believe they were good devs.

Unknown

bonfire01 wrote:

If you want people to believe ISO flow is enough then show some proof, describe what some people are able to achieve through LRs plus events, describe what your average max 3* roster manages, describe what your average max 2* roster manages etc.

Well, I must be the one grinding the highest amount of Iso, and it took me a maxed roster plus duplicates to achieve that. Investing crazily on the game...

Example : in the last 19 days, I could grind 530K Iso. Which is huge. But still, it won't be enough to max Elektra when she's released. Provided no other 4* is being released in the first days of January, I could be able to max her and the next character if it's a 3*.

So NO, it is not possible to max a complete roster BUT in terms of playable/useful characters it must be possible if you are a vet.

Unknown

What...is this? Well I'll tell you one thing, this is the last time I attempted to ask a question. A bunch of non answers and an actual threat (because releasing more 4*s is very much a threat), all the changes we ask for are thrown into a "We'll see some day, who knows" pile? What's the point of this, to piss us off?

Unknown

Okay, here's what I propose. Next time around, we don't use the main "throw in some questions we can cherry pick" thread. We make out own, and we rank the questions in order of importance. We number them and we vote on them, and we reach a list with the questions we actually want answered. Then they can feel free to completely ignore it, but at least everyone will be clear on what's going on.

Unknown

ark123 wrote:

Okay, here's what I propose. Next time around, we don't use the main "throw in some questions we can cherry pick" thread. We make out own, and we rank the questions in order of importance. We number them and we vote on them, and we reach a list with the questions we actually want answered. Then they can feel free to completely ignore it, but at least everyone will be clear on what's going on.

That's indeed a very good idea.

What they've shown with this Q&A is that, after IceIx, David is the next spokesman to tell us ****.

D3 is a short term strategy company, and David Moore is just one piece of the puzzle.

David is now burnt in the community, Will, God Will, will speak now, until he is burnt.

I think David has just been nerfed.

Unknown

Seriously next time call this Q&N (Questions and Nothing) or Q&J (Questions and Jokes).

Really except the devs don't care at all of the advice of players (but we already knew that) we learn nothing interesting. Except keep the same direction, no major changes, no trying something new. They dodge and ignore important questions...

Apparently they are OK to do a game for bots( Be a bot and don't sleep if you wanna be competitive and maybe win something new). Competion before Fun. Only pain, stress and frustration.

Really i'm sad to see that cause this game have an interesting base, but without Marvel's Universe this game would not exist anymore with a concept like that.


Exemple of joke:

"David wrote:

Moore"]Q: Can we get some sort of superficial rewards beyond the max progression reward? 200 Iso every 5k beyond the max progression reward?

A: No plans for this. We want to make sure it’s possible (if challenging) for completionists to get every checkmark.

Really ? In PVE lot of players already reached the 100k since a long time and there is still more than 3 day since the end of the event.
In PVP top rewards are imposible to get for the common of mortals.

Unknown

arktos1971 wrote:

ark123 wrote:

Okay, here's what I propose. Next time around, we don't use the main "throw in some questions we can cherry pick" thread. We make out own, and we rank the questions in order of importance. We number them and we vote on them, and we reach a list with the questions we actually want answered. Then they can feel free to completely ignore it, but at least everyone will be clear on what's going on.

That's indeed a very good idea.

What they've shown with this Q&A is that, after IceIx, David is the next spokesman to tell us ****.

D3 is a short term strategy company, and David Moore is just one piece of the puzzle.

David is now burnt in the community, Will, God Will, will speak now, until he is burnt.

I think David has just been nerfed.

David was never nerfed, people just had unrealistic expectations of him and his position from the beginning. He's not going to be on the forums rallying and railing against d3 like Nonce. He needs to keep his job. People expecting him to be a talking piece for the forums without formatting and filtering it with his company knowledge are not being realistic. Asking the same questions hoping to get different results without any additional justification is insanity.

I would be interested in seeing where Moore is in the progression at this point, and if they've given him any hp to keep up with the grind.

Almost every one of the questions they chose to answer was relevant; many people just didn't like the answers since there wasn't anything in it for them. I was largely disappointed at the 2nd Q&A and feel they have vastly improved this time around. They didn't even throw in any fluff about how they like waffles or oatmeal this time.

Unknown

daibar wrote:

arktos1971 wrote:

ark123 wrote:

Okay, here's what I propose. Next time around, we don't use the main "throw in some questions we can cherry pick" thread. We make out own, and we rank the questions in order of importance. We number them and we vote on them, and we reach a list with the questions we actually want answered. Then they can feel free to completely ignore it, but at least everyone will be clear on what's going on.

That's indeed a very good idea.

What they've shown with this Q&A is that, after IceIx, David is the next spokesman to tell us ****.

D3 is a short term strategy company, and David Moore is just one piece of the puzzle.

David is now burnt in the community, Will, God Will, will speak now, until he is burnt.

I think David has just been nerfed.

David was never nerfed, people just had unrealistic expectations of him and his position from the beginning. He's not going to be on the forums rallying and railing against d3 like Nonce. He needs to keep his job. People expecting him to be a talking piece for the forums without formatting and filtering it with his company knowledge are not being realistic. Asking the same questions hoping to get different results without any additional justification is insanity.

I would be interested in seeing where Moore is in the progression at this point, and if they've given him any hp to keep up with the grind.

Almost every one of the questions they chose to answer was relevant; many people just didn't like the answers since there wasn't anything in it for them. I was largely disappointed at the 2nd Q&A and feel they have vastly improved this time around. They didn't even throw in any fluff about how they like waffles or oatmeal this time.

His duty is very clear : insulted by frustate forum user, nothing more

Phaserhawk

Wow, that was the biggest waste of time I have had in a long time. That was a full screen of pixilated electronic written diarrhea (lots of words with no meaning behind them) While I appreciate the sentiment of trying to answering questions you literally answered nothing, you just restated our questions talked about how you talked about the questions and then gave us no answer like Roster slots, balancing, characters, etc. I highly suggest looking into a career in politics because that was a brilliant display of answering a question without answering the question.

esoxnepa

Thank you for the Q&A.

I've quoted parts of the post, to give some feedback below.

"David wrote:

Moore"]Hi folks – it’s time for the December Marvel Puzzle Quest Community Q&A!

... We’re currently devoting a lot of thought to making that transition smoother than it was from 2*s to 3*s.
It is nice to know that you understand the 2*-3* transition is not smooth. I hope you understand it still needs work. As someone close to the 3* level, It has been a very frustrating 6 months. From enjoying the game a great deal from 1* to 2*, then hitting a wall of suck at the 2*-3*.

... 56% of MPQ players this month started playing after September, more than half in the last two months.
I hope this is because the game is growing. Is it?

Q: At the top of the leaderboards, Versus is geared towards playing fast (to avoid being hit while unshielded) rather than playing creatively with diverse rosters. The 'fastest' teams dominate. Are you comfortable with this element of the game?

A: Yes and no: In any multiplayer game, high-end competition is going to be a somewhat different game than what most people are playing. ....

It would be nice if PvP had a method to encourage diverse teams, like splitting progression rewards for PvP from ranking score. I'd like to have reasons to play a diverse team, even if it means a lot of losses in PvP, and still be able to earn progression rewards. Right now, PvP becomes very stale with just playing your best team, climbing, and shielding.


Q: What do you think of making all Story Events non-competitive, with progress rewards only, like The Gauntlet? The Gauntlet can be difficult, but it brings the players together as we discuss the characters and strategies we used to get through it.

A: Dev 1 - .... We don’t have a definite timeline, but we’re definitely looking at new twists on Story Events. Dev 2: .... Totally non-competitive gameplay is more likely to show up outside of the Event format.

I find both these statements this very positive. Puzzle Quest games, before MPQ, were about adventure and growth of skill and abilities on your own time and pace.

At Demiurge, we often use “awesomeness-per-person-day” to decide what we should be working on. We understand awesomeness as the number of people who have more fun, multiplied by how much more fun they have. So, the more players a new feature benefits, and the fewer players whose fun might actually decrease because of a change, the more likely we are to prioritize it.[/list]
This is nice to know.

A: We’ve got a couple of ideas for more permanent single-player missions that we’re exploring on paper at the moment, actually. Almost certainly new stuff, rather than a rework of episodes or the prologue.

This is nice to know.

-

I think one of the most important things you need to do if give people a place to enjoy a PvP experience with the full diversity of their rosters. I think the place for this is in the Shield Simulator. Either split the ranking score from the progression score in there, or just remove the shield simulator from season rankings. Base it only on positive point gains. It will give you a place where you can let everyone have a chance at all the rewards with any level of roster and let even fully 4* players have a playground to enjoy their full rosters. Shield training should be just that, training, with no penalty for loss, just for growth. There are enough characters in the game that if you let every player earn one 4* cover a month through it, you won't be losing anything, and it will give everyone a place to go and play the game in a casual and fun manor.

wymtime

So first of all I want to say thank you for having a Q and A and trying to answer our concerns. Your answer for Roster slot costs and ISO has the player base frustrated becuase it is not really feel like you are answering our concerns.

"David wrote:

Moore"]Hi folks – it’s time for the December Marvel Puzzle Quest Community Q&A!

Grab yourselves a hot mug of cocoa and cozy up beside the fireplace for a heartwarming holiday chat. (Did I go too far there with the whole seasonal thing?)
Quick notes: The Q&A title has been changed from “Dev Q&A” to “Community Q&A.” Some questions have been combined and some have been re-worded for clarity and brevity. Now, let’s get right to it!

Q(a): Each new character needs a Roster Slot. Resources are needed to purchase Roster Slots. Over time, resources are not increasing, but Roster Slot prices are./What are your plans for addressing the high costs of Roster Slots with so many characters?

Q(b): Obtaining enough Iso can be difficult. Any plans to help with this?/Have you thought about giving out more Hero Points for progressions or rewards?

A: Hey everyone, we’d like to group these first few questions because the answers are closely related. Kicking off Year 2 of MPQ, we’ve run into a few issues that we always knew we’d encounter (should we be lucky enough to be as successful as we have been), related to what happens when we introduce a much larger roster and increasingly rare characters. Our goal has always been to preserve the things that make MPQ awesome, and keep players engaged, challenged, and loving every match.

This part of the answer is saying you knew roster slots, resources, and progression for long time vets was going to be an issue long term. As a game you have to think short term to make the game successful and you will have to look at these items when they come ahead

In order to do this, we have to continue evolving the design and some of this will change what players have come to expect as the status quo. For starters, we’ll be releasing more 4*s this year, a lot more. We’re currently devoting a lot of thought to making that transition smoother than it was from 2*s to 3*s.

We’ve debated internally about how much to increase the inflow of Iso-8 and Hero Points, and how (to go about it).

This quote is a good thing. I predicted that you would create a 4* progression as this is something that long time 3* vets can transition too. You also want to make the transition from 3*-4* smoother than 2*-3*. I can see this as difficult becuase if it is too easy, people will skip the 3* and go straight to 4*. I don't know how you are planning on doing this but it will be a tough thing to accomplish. This quote also says you are trying to figure out how much to increase resources and how This part of your answer has been completly lost in your answer because it is vague, something you are working on, and a major issue for players now. Becuase it is such a major issue now we are frustrated that there is no solution and no answer from the Q & A.

56% of MPQ players this month started playing after September, more than half in the last two months. A lot of these players have 2* rosters, and increasing rewards for them too much would throw off the balance of the game this early, making it too easy. It’s a problem when the game is too challenging, but the reverse is also bad, as a lack of challenge will quickly bore you. Progression in any RPG eventually slows down, and speeding things up in one place often just hastens the moment when things get slow. On the other hand, increasing rewards just for more advanced players contributes to a widening gap between veterans and newer players.

I am glad you have so many new players playing and it makes up a majority of your player base. As a mobile game I understand that new players are the life of the game. You constantly need to bring more people to play, and their is a life cycle of what players actual keep playing. From a players issue this answer is frustrating becuase we see this as you not wanting to cap the price of roster slots. putting a cap on roster slots will not hurt nor will it significantly help these players. Roster slots are more of a concern for Vet's of 6+months. With the new release of characters the cost is just adding these characters to start building them is becoming high. Also players who are new are not hitting all the progressions in PVP, and are not in top alliances so there resources are still lower than vets which is understandable. With the increase in characters and consistant increase in roster slots you have made it more difficult for the 56% of your new player base to get to 3*. If you cap the cost of roster slots what will happen is for long time vets they will have an increase in HP so they can buy a 3* cover or a 4* cover while adding to their roster. For 2* teams they will be able to still add to thier roster and as they progress will eventually be able to buy a 3* cover. I would imagine the goal would be to be able to get enough HP for a 2* player to buy 2-3 roster slots per month, and possible 1 3* cover.

We’ve steadily increased the rate at which players earn Iso-8 over the past year (it’s almost three times as high as when we launched), and we expect that to continue. The inflow of Hero Points has also increased, though to a lesser extent.

This quote has been missed as it implies that you will increase ISO, but again it does not give a time frame or how you plan to do this.

We do expect that most players will have to make choices about which characters join their roster and which they spend their Iso-8 on, just as you have to make choices about which of a character’s powers get upgraded to level 5. We’re finding a balance point between a world in which those decisions are uninteresting and a world where the constraints mean that you can’t meaningfully progress. One thing that makes that difficult is that the balance point is in a different place for different players: some enjoy very difficult decisions about who to keep and level, some expect to be able to acquire and max everything, and most are somewhere in between.

This section feel very frustrating to players as we are reading this as you don't plan on doing anything about roster slot cost, or HP. The reality is we would like one or the other. Cap roster cost, or if you want to continue increase cost of roster slots make more HP achievable.

In short, there’s no easy answers to this problem; it’s a complex issue with a lot of edge cases at our current scale. We’re devoting a lot of thought to improving this transition right now, and we appreciate hearing about your experiences to help us make better decisions. MPQ needs to evolve in the coming year and we at Demiurge are extremely excited for what 2015 has in store for Marvel Puzzle Quest and our community.

It is not an easy answer to the problem and you have brought up additional concerns with your answer especially with making a 4* transition. As it is right now a FTP player might take over a year to get to 4* transition. I will repeate my suggestions for roster slots and an additional one for ISO.
1) roster slots should continue to rise until they reach a cost of 600. At this point they should cap. This will mean a vet will be spending 1200 hero points per month on new characters and could buy 1 4* character every other month.
2) ISO- this is more simple just increase each match to win an extra 20 ISO. Between LR, PVP, PVE that will significantly increase the ISO which will speed up the leveling of 3* and 4* characters, but will not make 2-3* transition much easier. 2-3* transition is more about winning covers than ISO.

fight4thedream

First, i would like to thank Hi-Fi guy and the devs for taking the time to answer these questions. It gives us a better insight into the thought process that goes into the development of the game and hopefully allows for constructive dialogue and critique between the devs and the community.

There are three points i wish to address with this round of Q&A's:

1. The transition from 2*s to 3*s, 3*s to 4*s
2. Single player mode and Story-mode events
3. Spider-Man

"David wrote:

Moore"]

In order to do this, we have to continue evolving the design and some of this will change what players have come to expect as the status quo. For starters, we’ll be releasing more 4*s this year, a lot more. We’re currently devoting a lot of thought to making that transition smoother than it was from 2*s to 3*s.
-

i am not against the release of more 4* characters, obviously that is the next phase for the game. However, i hope the devs realize that they need to first address the current problem with the transition from 2*s to 3*s. Otherwise, the rich will get richer and the poor will continue to stay poor.

As i see it, there are two main factors involved with the current problem with the transition from 2*s to 3*s:

1. All players, from beginners to vets compete in the same events (save those lucky fresh n00bs that get sharded into the mythic baby brackets) for the same prizes. This is a problem. For example, you have player A who i shall call Tiny Tim who has been playing MPQ for 4 months, loves the game, plays semi-hardcore and has a strong 2* roster and then you have player B Uncle Scrooge who has been playing MPQ for 8 months, likes the game, play semi-hardcore and has a strong 3* roster. Then there's a pVp event, let's say Fatal Attraction that offers Patch as the 3* reward and 4* Red Thor cover as the 1300 progression reward. Tiny Tim has Patch at 2/0/1 and would love to get more of his covers. Uncle Scrooge already has Patch maxed but really wants that new 4hor cover. Additionally, Tiny Tim only has two 3* Daken covers, one black and one blue while Uncle Scrooge has 3* Daken maxed. Both do their very best to achieve their goal. Guess what happens? Uncle Scrooge walks away from the event with not only a 4hor cover, but three Patch covers which he promptly turns into Iso while Tiny Tim barely manages to win one Patch cover. The next Patch event will be in two months. The next 4hor chance will be next week.

Believe me when i tell you there are enough Uncle Scrooges out there to lock out most Tiny Tims from having a decent shot at 2 covers. One cover is doable with some luck , good planning, and depending on which characters a player has but at that one cover per pVp rate it would take good luck with token pulls, progression drops in pVe and about 5 or 6 more times of pVp for a player to max out a 3*. And that's only if the character hasn't been vaulted.

2. Which brings us to factor #2: Vaulting. i understand why the devs have implemented vaulting but this system really does tinykitty the tiny guy. Obviously, if they are going to vault anyone it would be older characters BUT they have to keep in mind that besides n00bs 2* transitioning players are the least likely to have a good amount covers for new characters. Some might speculate that this is a maneuver to milk the 2* cow but i have serious doubts this is an effective way to make money. If anything, it would cause most reasonable to just stop playing. No progress = boring game.

Possible solutions:

1. Ditch sharding and develop tiered events. Now that the devs have demonstrated that they are able to create restricted brackets through time sharding, this should be the next big thing! Run two pVps one for beginner and intermediate players and another for vets and hardcore players. In the n00b pVp offer older 3* classic characters like Punisher, Patch, Black Widow, etc. And make the top progression award/1st rank prize one cover of a new 3* star character. In the vet pVp keep the format as is just with new(er) 3* or 4* characters, plus increase the amount of Iso and HP that can be won.
2. Increase the 3* drop rate of Heroic tokens or have a 3* token that can be won as a progression prize in both pVp and pVe.
3. Instead of vaulting characters, have special increased drop rate periods where a select number of 3 or 4 stars see a significant drop rate chance.

As the game currently stands, the problem of the 2* to 3* transition has not been addressed. If the devs wish to retain the casual player, it behooves them that they should fix this problem before making it smoother to get 4*.

Single player mode vs Story-mode pVe

Numbers talk. Forumers whine. And then there is the Grind. i know there are players that enjoy the madness that is pVe, bless their hearts. But playing that thing competively is exhausting. Consider the current pVe that has 36 hour subs. If a player were to take it upon him or herself to play ideally (and yes such beings do apparently exist), that means at the very least that player has done at least 12 rounds of the same nodes, the same battles, the same dialogue. Not exactly the most exciting stuff, lemmme tell ya! Sure you can raise the difficulty scaling to spice it up but as the devs are (or should be) well aware of most vets despise this because scaling is not employed equally across the board so it comes off as punishing established players for performing well.

There are way too many issues to try and tackle when it comes down to the current pVe format and lack of single player mode so i'm just going to try and boil it down to simple points:

*problem with refresh times
*lack of new pVe material
*constant competition leads to burn out

problem with refresh times
Thankfully, the refresh time has been adjusted a smidge to 3 hours but that still begs the question of why are the refresh times so short? As one forumer mentioned in the shield update thread, if the devs are so keen to keep us from losing sleep by denying us full use of 3 hour shields, why do they set the refresh times to 3 hours in pVe? It encourages unhealthy, dangerous behavior and it excerbates the need to grind. At the very least it should be set to 4 hours so two go arounds will ensure a person a good nights sleep.

lack of new pVe material
i've said it once and i'll say it again, although new characters are the life blood of the game, new game modes and material are the air that keeps it healthy and vital. Over the past year, we got i believe 4 new pVe events: Prodigal Sun, Deadpool vs MPQ, The Gauntlet and the Rocket&Groot pVe. That's one new event every three months. And yet we get a new character once every two weeks (excluding the past 2 months). Obviously the devs like making characters, but as has been mentioned previously, with the flood of new characters it's getting really difficult to care. No storyline or novel challenges to introduce the character. No exciting build up to the release. I mean sheesh Gamora was given Rocket and Groots sloppy seconds.

You did the your company and the community a really great favor by hiring a community manager, Hi-Fi guy, and he is really doing a wonderful job. Now i hope you do the game and everyone another great favor and hire a proper game event planner. As it currently exists, the game is too heavily skewed towards new character releases and competition. Where are the mini games, guerrila missions, and "the Quest"? If I knew nothing about Marvel, i wouldn't know what to think of more than half of these characters. Each character should have his or her time to shine. Not just thrown at us like they were yesterday's leftovers. i mean you totally botched the Doc Ock release (you didn't even bother to buff Spider-man for his debut pVe, much more give us an original story). You guys can do better than that. Be creative, think of new ways you can engage the player base.

For example: Say you were going to release a 3* Sabertooth. Let's buck the traditional pVe release and do something different. Something memorable. Let's run a gorrila event each week where the player has a one-on-one random encounter with Sabertooth. 2* Wolverine is required. Sabertooth is scaled down just enough that he isn't overpowered but provides enough of a challenge that the player has a roughly 50/50 shot of winning the match. i could go into more detail but i think you get the gist of it. The dialogue doesn't have to be Shakespeare, just a generic *snif snif* I know this scent....Sabertooth!" "Haha Logan, long time, no see. Did you miss me?" And then respective victory scenes. If you win, you get one of Sabertooth's covers, if you lose, better luck next time. No competing with other players, no special 3* or 4* characters. All you need is your very own 2* Wolverine and you can duke it out, mano e mano. Not only have you estabished the connection between these two for the uninitiated but you have also given players something else to look forward to during the week and a reason to keep their 2* Wolvie.

Little things like this would go a long way to freshen things up.

Constant competition leads to burn out
The only two non-competive modes in this game are the Prologue and The Gauntlet. i understand competition is the driving force and what keeps many players engaged, including myself but by golly there are sometimes when a player would like to take it easy! It's funny how you acquire new players by offering a non-competitive mode but then offer nothing but competition (with the exception of the Gauntlet). By providing non-competitive events and mini-games you allow that holy cow the casual player to play at his or her own pace and not feel like the victory train has already left. You also give more established players a place where they don't feel the pressure of competition and can enjoy using different variety of characters. Sure Simulator fulfills this function to some degree, but that is still tied to seasons and a player still has to deal with point losses and leaderboards.

Ideally, here is where "The Quest" of Puzzle Quest would happen. Where the player can embark on a meaningful journey that offers a variety of challenges that can't be implemented in pVp or pVe. Holiday events, Mini-games galore. Put more of that creative muscle behind building thoughtful challenges. This game has so much potential to go from good to great that it almost makes me feel like my head will explode! (one of the other fun parts of playing the game)

Spider-Man

Finally, as the leader of the Buff Spider-Man Brigade i would be remiss in my duties if i did not address the matter of Spider-Man. First, i like to thank the devs for keeping to their word about keeping an eye on Spidey. However, i feel they may be misinterpreting the data. i use Spider-Man occasionally. Not because i have to, not because he is the most exciting character to play with but because he is my favorite super hero and i like to show him some love every now and then. i'm very disheartened to hear the devs refer to him as an average 3*. Even our very own NorthernPolarity often disparages him as being one of the most useless 3* characters. Obviously, i am biased. But one of the first things i looked forward to doing when playing this game was to play with Spider-Man. i did not get the chance to use him in his so-called "glory" stun lock days. But i think it is worth noting that Spider-Man is by and large considered the most boring of the OP characters, and the lack of offensive power plays significantly into that interpretation.

i'll be fair, as a defensive character, Spidey actually is borderline top tier. His Spider-Sense is a worthwhile ability, and i like his stun as it is. However, it is very clear that defense takes a back seat to offense in this game. The devs have stated they try to stay true to the character's "flavor" when the create them but i am still baffled as to why Spider-Man was given a healing power. i assume the decision was more arbitrary than anything else. They probably thought it was a good idea to have 3* healer and in the good old days before "true healing" no one was going to complain about an ability that essentially allowed you to play longer with your favorite/strongest characters. Among all the heroes Spider-Man has the most friendly image so i imagine that played a part into why he was given that power.

But then he got double nerfed.

Sure, he is not as bad as Ragnarok but he isn't great either. He is just average. The devs said it themselves. But wait? Is Spider-Man's "flavor" average? Do we call him the "Average Spider-Man"?

i understand the devs have a whole lot on their things to do list and am not asking for the buff to be top priority. i can wait for however long it takes. but gosh darn, i'm not going to sit idly by and let Spidey sink into "average" when he should be "Amazing". I'm not even asking for top tier status. Somewhere around 3*Cap/Magneto/Deadpool level would be cool.

Bottom line is the reason the Devs got those average numbers is not simply a product of their design. They need to also consider the popularity of the character and fan loyalty. i'm willing to bet that the majority of people using Spidey fall into two camps:

Camp 1: Spidey fan camp. They have strong enough roster where having Spider-man contribute minimally to overall strength and they would be no worse for wear without him but they choose to use him since they love the character.

Camp 2: The i don't have a Daken/Patch pVp climb team so i fall to Spider-Man for defensive support player. Like i mentioned, Spider-Man is a fairly decent defensive character and i can see a player that has no decent true healing character using Spidey for the climb.

i would just like to see Spider-Man be a more well rounded character and i think giving him a decent offensive ability would achieve this. it doesn't have to be today, it doesn't have to be tomorrow but someday. someday...

Anywhoo, i've probably said way too much. Thanks for all your hard work and for taking the time to answer these questions. Looking forward to the new rumored game mode coming and for Dr. Doom's third power in the hopefully near future. Great job with Loki btw! Have a great holiday season and a happy new year!!

A True Believer,
fightforthedreamﾞ☆⌒o(*^ｰﾟ)v

Unknown

In regards to the HP/ISO-8 issue, wouldn't it make sense to have some sort of multiplier, maybe based on days played and roster strength that gives more of both for those veterans who have not only been part of the system for a while, but also have played enough to get a decent roster going? You say the issue is making it too easy to level for the new people, but the older players are hampered by increasing demand with limited supply outside of paying for more. It seems this might be a simple, elegant solution for the issue to me?

Xiphoen Phoenixrage
phoenix rage