It's time

fight4thedream

Friends, forumites, devs...lend me your ears! i come bearing gifts of critique and praise for this game that we all play. i believe MPQ has reached a crucial stage in its development and a change is necessary in order for it to continue to grow and prosper. i think we can all agree that generally speaking the game has improved considerably since last year: Loki and Dr. Doom have received their third covers and can finally sit proudly amongst the 3* order, time slices have allowed more players to play and compete at a time more convenient for them, interesting and fun characters like Blade, Luke Cage and 4hor have joined the ever expanding character pantheon, re-calibration of progression rewards in both pVe and pVp, and soon we will have 8 hour refresh timers for pVe to add to that list. That is not to say that the game has not stumbled and faltered, the recent TaT Scotland Yard fiasco attests to that, but it can be said in good faith that the devs are listening to us and trying meet our wants with their needs.

With this in mind and with the current tide of criticism becoming more focused on the lack of new game content, i wish to seize upon this hour to consider what new changes should be considered for the health of the game. First, it is important to recognize that this is not the same game it was last year. The player base has grown and matured and the current game setup does very little to address this. The one's who first started playing this game, the Ancients, have amassed great power and along with the Xtremists and Whales dominate the upper echelons of pVp; and such is their right, they have been the most faithful and most devoted to this game. However, when the Ancients started out, they began on equal footing. According to the myths of yore, pVp was a chaotic king of the hill battle royale where your ranking had just as much to do with luck as it had to do with the strength of roster. Then shields were introduced and alliances sprung up, turning the chaos into strategic warfare. Those Ancients that have weathered the chaos and the constant warfare have earned their rosters.

Those that came after the Golden Age of Chaos, such as myself, looked admiringly at these puzzle warlords and knew that they too wanted to join in on the fun and celebrate in the spoils of battle. During the dawn of the Age of Alliances, players could still choose the path of the Xtremist or the path of the Whale (or some mix of the two) and still hope to progress at a reasonable pace. For the Xtremist, wandering the deserts of transition, while not very enjoyable, was seen as a sort of right of passage, a way to prove one's worth. But things have changed. More and more characters are being introduced, Vaulting denies those players in transition an opportunity to cover max 3* characters, and the pVp wall only grows stronger. i recently read 2* tier players discussing shielding to maintain a position within the top 100. i never had to make such a choice when i was 2* tier player (i think the lowest i ever shielded at was in the 30s or 40s for Sentry covers or something like that and it was a one time deal, not every pVp)

Essentially MPQ has outgrown its current reward system. A clear elite made up of Ancients, Whales and Xtremists dominate pVp and will more than likely come to dominate pVe depending on rewards given. Although it is generally believed that pVp is the realm of the elite and pVe is the realm of the n00b, the truth of the matter is that if a top tier player really wants a prize in pVe they can compete albeit with murderous scaling and can hit TOP10 with some frustration while an established 2* roster does not even have a hope or a prayer of breaking top 25 in pVp anymore. Moreover, with the Demiurge planning on releasing more 4* and using pVe to introduced such characters, they are only going to exacerbate 2* player frustration.

i don't mean to sound elitist but as the game currently exists only a small handful of those 2* pVe wunderkids are actually going to be able to make use of the 4* characters they win (and that will probably involve a great amount of luck or $$$). As the system currently stands, the devs only run a 4* pVe once. Yes, you can score a single cover every now and then when that character is top prize but let's think about that for a moment:

Erika is a 2* pVe wunderkid who works her butt off and gets top rank so she scores 4 4* Star Lord covers. Plus she is in a top alliance so she pulls off a 5 cover pull! Good job Erika but guess what? You won't be seeing another Star Lord cover in pVe for at least another 3 or 4 weeks because currently none of the 4* characters are vaulted which means you are going to have to wait for Invisible Woman, Nick Fury, X-Force, 4hor and Elektra to be featured before you get another crack at Star Lord. (Let us be thankful that the devs decided not to include Devil Dinosaur into the wild. ironic i know) And after you manage to pick up 2 more covers putting you at 7 covers, they release a new 4* character so you will have to wait longer. And then (theoretically) they will start vaulting 4* characters but the wait doesn't change since they have just included another 4*. Finally after 8 or 9 months you only have two more covers to go but wait now Star Lord will be Vaulted for the next couple of months.

Can't she just pick up his covers in pVp? You're joking, right?

The point of this digression is to illustrate the problem with the current rewards system. Why are 2* players competing for 4* prizes they won't be able to use for at least a year? Why are 4* players competing for 3* covers they don't need beyond ISO?

It's time.

The player base has matured to the point that it is vital for the elite, beginners and transitioners to have separate events with different prizes. If not, the devs risks frustrating the n00bs to the point where they realize there is no point in playing the game because they will never "catch up" and boring the elite with the same events over and over again. Of course the current pVp and pVe can remain as the back bone of the reward system but new things need to happen!

Demiurge! Hear me now!2015 will be the year that makes or brakes MPQ!! You have the new Avengers movie and Marvel's Secret Wars coming out in May, you must seize this opportunity with non-competitive play!!! Offer various challenges for beginner, transitioning, and elite players and offer various rewards. The greater the challenge, the greater prize, the greater the glory! Give players weekly mission objectives, make greater use of alliances, give us boss battles and mini-games. 2014 was the year you gave us great characters, let 2015 be the year you give us great events! i know you are limited in staff and resources but something along the lines of two mini-games a month plus a new true pVe every two months should be enough to inject novelty and delight.

The game is currently too focused on competition, and when there is a dominant elite it spells disaster for new user retention. Marvel has a plethora of great material you can work from: "The Galactus Trilogy", "Age of Apocalypse", "Civil War", "Infinity Gauntlet", "The Dark Phoenix Saga", "Maximum Carnage", etc are all waiting for you to work your magic on! In my mind's eye such events can be split between Alliance specific events (fight 4* Jean Grey with your alliance mates to get her legendary covers) or community events (How will we ever stop the coming of Galactus, devourer of worlds! He hungers!) More low key events would be mini-games like gorilla events (Sabertooth Attacks) where you would need 2* Wolverine to battle Sabertooth for 3* Sabertooth covers.

i believe that providing more non-competitive game content will address three big issues:

1. 2*-->3* character transition (older 3* characters for as prizes for mid level events)
2. Inject more opportunities for collecting ISO and HP
3. Keep the game feeling fresh and interesting.

Can you not hear the whispers of rumors about daily pVes? Do you not remember how players were jumping at the chance to experience a survival mode with the the black hole bug (The Black Hole Challenge: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=21124&p=271536&hilit=black+hole#p271536) Your player base is starving for new content, not new characters. There are players worried that the current 8 hour scheme will not provide enough time to play to keep them interested. Your older players are tired of going through the same hoop over and over again. Your newer players are uncertain they can make it past the 2* tier.

Now is the time devs. You have shown us that you can make great characters, 2015 should be the year you show us you can make great game modes and events, too.

As always, thank you for your hard work! Despite the naysayers, I still believe you've got more than a few tricks left up your sleeve! Wishing you all the best!

A true believer,
fight4thedreamﾞ☆⌒o(*^ｰﾟ)v

tl;dr: the OP discusses the current state of MPQ and believes non-competitive and new game modes are the key to addressing most of the major issues facing MPQ (with maybe the exception of roster slots as that's another issue lol).

Unknown

So far as PvE goes, since the veterans are likely to have the highest concentration of hardcore players and the most hardcore guy still wins PvE, they can definitely compete though I think people greatly underestimate how many hardcore guys are running with a weak roster (perhaps on purpose).

Having clever balance or format stuff isn't going to make fighting the same 5 DAs over and over again interesting, but on the other hand having a lot of content that you use exactly the same team as every other event isn't very exciting either. The problem is that just content or just balance/innovation is not enough and currently we have neither. We need non competitive stuff for people to do that also addresses balance at the same time or it'd just be a lot of guys plugging away with the latest quasi infinite combo and then complain there's nothing to do, or that they can't beat this stuff which is tuned assuming you've some way to generate ludricious amount of AP with some cheap mechanics. For an example of how gameplay should look like, look at all the 'introduction' nodes where the game gives you 3 characters to use. Even though they're often way higher level than their opponent, it's not unusual to have a surprisingly hard time, though since you've a huge level advantage it usually works out.

mohio

Totally agree. Thankfully we've been saying this for months so maybe they've been working on something that we will see relatively soon. I'm hopeful for the daily pve but I think more is needed (either new stuff or changes in current structure) and you have some good ideas here in your post.

Phantron brings up a great point about balance and just using the same guys over and over. I would love to see more heroic style content, just not rehashing the same prologue chapters with DA after DA. It probably won't happen cause play time in it would drop but having that kind of variety would keep me around longer.

Edit: I know others have mentioned it, but it could be much less severe than heroics and instead lock out a smaller subset of chars, like the vaulted ones, etc.

fight4thedream

Exactly! There is so much untapped potential in this game and yet we continue fighting the same villains over and over again (and the same power couple at the highest echelon of pVp) We have all these characters but like you mentioned only a handful see regular use.

Some ideas i have to address this particular issue:

Create character specific events:
All of these characters have a rich history and relationship with other characters and it's a travesty that it gets largely ignored. i believe mini-games or side quests would be great way to make better use of certain characters.

My personal favorites are mini-games that require the use of certain characters to get the covers of new 3* characters. For example Sabertooh Attacks:

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.

New challenges: Instead of the same old 3 on 3 battle system that largely favors offensive powers, how about Countdown surivival modes where your team faces against an OP character like Apocaylpse who has 40,000 HP so you are not going to be taking him down and your goal is to just survive the encounter within a certain amount of turns like 6. Suddenly defensive abilities and characters see their roster value go up and will actually see play.

Or now that we have quite a few attack tile generators, a race to reach 10 attack tiles on the board first against Kraven the Hunter. No HP loss, maybe just for 1,000 ISO.

Or disarming bombs placed on the board by the Green Goblin in a certain amount of turns. The board is actually "representative" of New York city, the more bombs you are able to disactivate the more ISO you can get.

New enemies and True Bosses: I agree totally. Beyond the simple monotony of fighting the same villains over and over again on other part of the frustration of battling DA characters in pVe is that they are scaled to Boss proportions but are not actually Boss characters. I think the closes we got to a boss character is Gorgon but even then, the final didn't feel like a boss battle.

The game needs more bad guys and better Boss battles. I'm actually happy they haven't released Gorgon into the wild. Boss battles should be special so such characters should be off limits for a certain period of time.

Chronicles: There should also be a sort of check list of achievements that earn you extra prizes and titles and can be viewed by everyone in game. You finished first in pVe for the first time? Congratulations here is an extra 100HP and a star for the achievement.

Alliances: Really, I don't know what the deal is with alliances outside of organizing shield hops (which i don't do). They need to do more with it or just scrap it totally. Bi-weekly boss battles with your alliance mates where you have to fight the Shadow King or the Collector.

And the list could go on. Their is so much material they can use, i don't understand why they don't tap more into the rich Marvel mythos

Unknown

I agree the game has so much potential, and it would be amazing to see what they could come up with by branching out. Seems they current mindset is all about Competition with a capital C. Maybe they will try some new models and unlock some of that potential.

If they are so tied to revenues maybe try something like new prologue-esque story chapters, but with a $5 buy in (No, no hero points, dollars). Give as much story content as you might expect from buying an actual comic, give prizes via the node rewards. Maybe make it a way to get early release covers for new characters.

A $5 bit of story with a new 1/1/1 offered would be a great deal that most would gladly pay up for. Even opportunities for older characters many would jump at. They can give out the exact amount of rewards for it they want to and players can go grind those nodes to their hearts content.

And if nearly everyone can get a character to 1/1/1 then I would be willing to bet more would be willing to spend their HP to level their favorites up instead of waiting months till they can get the rest of the covers. Like the drug dealers say, the first one is always free, (and by free I mean $5 and then you have to earn it by playing)

veneretio

I just want every PvE and PvP event to have 2 options:

1) Whatever exists now
2) A different option with a reward structure that doesn't have 4* covers but instead has more multiple 3* cover rewards

You only get to pick one of those when you enter. This would force a divide in the player base and ultimately make the 2* to 3* transition easier. At least, that's the theory. As to how the current option should be structure, maybe more 4* covers? I don't know... I'm no where close to that to comment.

Unknown

mohio wrote:

Totally agree. Thankfully we've been saying this for months so maybe they've been working on something that we will see relatively soon. I'm hopeful for the daily pve but I think more is needed (either new stuff or changes in current structure) and you have some good ideas here in your post.

Phantron brings up a great point about balance and just using the same guys over and over. I would love to see more heroic style content, just not rehashing the same prologue chapters with DA after DA. It probably won't happen cause play time in it would drop but having that kind of variety would keep me around longer.

Edit: I know others have mentioned it, but it could be much less severe than heroics and instead lock out a smaller subset of chars, like the vaulted ones, etc.

I think they should go the direction of the introduction nodes for roster limitation. I don't mind heroic but it's obviously too limiting for most, and there's also the very valid question of 'what if you don't have that guy?' The teamup nature of the introductory nodes means you'll never have to worry about not having someone. I'd like to see nodes where it should be almost impossible to win using the characters you're given so that there's a reason to have your own version of those guys at a higher level/cover, but that way if you're missing a guy you're not just locked out. This also gets around the scaling issue, because if all the characters are provided for then you can set the enemy at a static level so that it is actually fair for everyone. The provided character ensures that anyone can at least attempt the node and not get locked out, which is what I assumed the purpose of scaling originally is supposed to be (to ensure everyone can attempt all content). For example, the game could provide you with say a base level Nick Fury 3/3/3, base level Elektra 3/3/3, and base level Star-Lord 3/3/3 against level 200 Daken + Bullseye + Ragnarok. It'd definitely be a good idea to have those characters at higher level/cover if you have them, but it's not completely out of the question to win like this.

esoxnepa

[quote="fight4thedream"
i believe that providing more non-competitive game content will address three big issues:

1. 2*-->3* character transition (older 3* characters for as prizes for mid level events)
2. Inject more opportunities for collecting ISO and HP
3. Keep the game feeling fresh and interesting.
[/quote]


It was long, but well written. I hope the Developers get your executive summary.

I have hope for next week's Q&A.

simonsez

veneretio wrote:

I just want every PvE and PvP event to have 2 options:

1) Whatever exists now
2) A different option with a reward structure that doesn't have 4* covers but instead has more multiple 3* cover rewards

You only get to pick one of those when you enter

A problem with this idea is that if they keep the prize boards the same as they are now, they'll end up giving out way less 4*s and they'll become even scarcer and harder to get. For example, if rank #1 usually gets a 4*, and we implement this idea and half of the people choose the 3* event and half choose the 4* event, there will only be half as many brackets awarding a 4* compared to before. They'd either have to cut the bracket sizes in half, or give the 4*s to ranks 1 and 2 in order to be giving out the same number of 4*s that that they used to.

DrNitroman

Let's think about this: would MPQ be more exciting if these suggestions were applied?
Yes it would be so exciting!
It's the better argument in favor of these changes IMHO

In particular I'd really like to see more non competitive events: numerous events featuring different kind of reward so that each player can choose a reward fitting with his progression tier; numerous game modes and...

fight4thedream wrote:

Alliances: Really, I don't know what the deal is with alliances outside of organizing shield hops (which i don't do). They need to do more with it or just scrap it totally. Bi-weekly boss battles with your alliance mates where you have to fight the Shadow King or the Collector.

...a game mode requiring a cooperation between alliance members, I think it's my favorite suggestion

NorthernPolarity

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=21727&start=220#p287809 is the start of exactly what you're looking for, I believe.

DrNitroman

NorthernPolarity wrote:

http://www.d3pforums.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=21727&start=220#p287809 is the start of exactly what you're looking for, I believe.

yes, I have high hopes on this too!

Unknown

Please never say "pVe wunderkid" again

(or "PVE wunderkind")

PuceMoose

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.

That could be a fantastic way to add a small bit of story and stir things up a bit, and encourage roster diversity. Maybe make four challenges per season, each featuring a one-on-one with a different required character and different rival (doesn't even have to be a new character) that makes sense from a comic perspective and fleshes out both characters a bit with a few lines of dialogue/exposition. The challenges would be scaled to the level of the required character in your roster (and change dynamically, so it would always use the version in your current roster), so even if you had a low-level required character you might still have a chance. If you didn't have a required character, you'd have all season to acquire a cover for that character, giving you at least a chance at completing all four challenges. Rewards might be a 2 or 3 star cover of whatever character you have to fight. Heck, for a few lines of extra dialog I wouldn't mind getting even a bag man as a reward for a one on one fight. The enemy could be scaled to be a bit tougher, but not unbeatable - say one additional cover and 25% higher level as a possibility? Only one boost allowed (no boost more option), no team-ups higher than your character's level allowed (or maybe no TU or boost at all). If you beat all four challenges in a season, perhaps a special reward - free cover slot, or a guaranteed three star token or similar.

DaveR4470

Excellent ideas all around here. Great thread, great OP.

An idea to help the 2* -> 3* transition phase: how about PvP events that are limited to 2* characters, and award a good volume of 3* covers? That's perfect for players with maxed out 2* rosters (and even those without them). And.... it doesn't necessarily alienate the veteran/harder core/further advanced players, if they want to participate because they want to cover up the featured character. It does, however, force them to play on the same playing field; i.e they can't show up with a maxed-out 4hor team and roll over everyone; they need to play 2*s like everyone else.

The precedent is already there with Combined Arms. Maybe even have between-season 1*-only events, too. Incentivize everyone -- not just hardcore grinders -- to keep playing, is what I say, boy howdy....

p.s.: fight4thedream, I actually finished #10 with a mature 2* lineup in Most Wanted. How, I'm not really sure. I think I just got a good shard (I had under 500 points). So it's not completely impossible to finish top 25 as a 2* player.... it's just highly improbable.

PuceMoose

DaveR4470 wrote:

An idea to help the 2* -> 3* transition phase: how about PvP events that are limited to 2* characters, and award a good volume of 3* covers? That's perfect for players with maxed out 2* rosters (and even those without them). And.... it doesn't necessarily alienate the veteran/harder core/further advanced players, if they want to participate because they want to cover up the featured character. It does, however, force them to play on the same playing field; i.e they can't show up with a maxed-out 4hor team and roll over everyone; they need to play 2*s like everyone else.

I think that could be a lot of fun. Level it even more by permitting no boosts and eliminating team-ups for those specific PVPs, and bring back revamped environmental tiles. Since no character currently uses (and thus abuses) environmental tiles, it would be a fresh start to all. I can pixie-dream some of the crazier revamped abilities:

Hotdog Stand Hootenary
11 environmental AP (I think the old system used to generate crazy amounts of EP, but let's bring it back to one environmental tile = one AP for this purpose)
The Hotdog Vendor has gone crazy! He's distributing free hot dogs to everyone! You and the enemy team immediate postpone your scuffle and race to the stand to get your free dogs. True Heals 25% of max health to each character on each team. Due to the lip-smacking deliciousness, stuns any character who was had less than 75% max health before the Hootenany for one turn, stuns any character who had less than 50% max health before the Hootenany for two turns, and stuns any character who had less than 25% max health before the Hootenany for three turns. Dog-a-licious!

Gimme that Pizza Pie!
16 environmental AP
Just as you thought all hope was lost, the pizza delivery guy shows up, with a delicious, steaming pie in his hands! He gives you a wink and a quick thumbs-up before departing quickly in his banged-up,late-90's sedan to avoid any explosions, mutagenic breakdowns, or psychic sabotage. The decadent aroma of the pizza pie invigorates your team's fighting spirit. Places an eight-turn red countdown tile on a chosen basic tile. While the countdown is active, all of your matches deal double damage and you generate 1 AP in every color each turn. When the countdown resolves or is destroyed (final slice consumed, or pizza pie destroyed), you are so mad that the delicious pizza pie is gone that you ferociously kick the empty box at the enemy team at supersonic speed, dealing (average player team level * 8) damage to the enemy team.

Unknown

A year? I've been playing for 170 days and I have a 334 xforce and no difficulty top 10ing in PvP. I'm PvE I've been placing 1st to 5th.

iLL619

fight4thedream wrote:

Friends, forumites, devs...lend me your ears! i come bearing gifts of critique and praise for this game that we all play. i believe MPQ has reached a crucial stage in its development and a change is necessary in order for it to continue to grow and prosper. i think we can all agree that generally speaking the game has improved considerably since last year: Loki and Dr. Doom have received their third covers and can finally sit proudly amongst the 3* order, time slices have allowed more players to play and compete at a time more convenient for them, interesting and fun characters like Blade, Luke Cage and 4hor have joined the ever expanding character pantheon, re-calibration of progression rewards in both pVe and pVp, and soon we will have 8 hour refresh timers for pVe to add to that list. That is not to say that the game has not stumbled and faltered, the recent TaT Scotland Yard fiasco attests to that, but it can be said in good faith that the devs are listening to us and trying meet our wants with their needs.

With this in mind and with the current tide of criticism becoming more focused on the lack of new game content, i wish to seize upon this hour to consider what new changes should be considered for the health of the game. First, it is important to recognize that this is not the same game it was last year. The player base has grown and matured and the current game setup does very little to address this. The one's who first started playing this game, the Ancients, have amassed great power and along with the Xtremists and Whales dominate the upper echelons of pVp; and such is their right, they have been the most faithful and most devoted to this game. However, when the Ancients started out, they began on equal footing. According to the myths of yore, pVp was a chaotic king of the hill battle royale where your ranking had just as much to do with luck as it had to do with the strength of roster. Then shields were introduced and alliances sprung up, turning the chaos into strategic warfare. Those Ancients that have weathered the chaos and the constant warfare have earned their rosters.

Those that came after the Golden Age of Chaos, such as myself, looked admiringly at these puzzle warlords and knew that they too wanted to join in on the fun and celebrate in the spoils of battle. During the dawn of the Age of Alliances, players could still choose the path of the Xtremist or the path of the Whale (or some mix of the two) and still hope to progress at a reasonable pace. For the Xtremist, wandering the deserts of transition, while not very enjoyable, was seen as a sort of right of passage, a way to prove one's worth. But things have changed. More and more characters are being introduced, Vaulting denies those players in transition an opportunity to cover max 3* characters, and the pVp wall only grows stronger. i recently read 2* tier players discussing shielding to maintain a position within the top 100. i never had to make such a choice when i was 2* tier player (i think the lowest i ever shielded at was in the 30s or 40s for Sentry covers or something like that and it was a one time deal, not every pVp)

Essentially MPQ has outgrown its current reward system. A clear elite made up of Ancients, Whales and Xtremists dominate pVp and will more than likely come to dominate pVe depending on rewards given. Although it is generally believed that pVp is the realm of the elite and pVe is the realm of the n00b, the truth of the matter is that if a top tier player really wants a prize in pVe they can compete albeit with murderous scaling and can hit TOP10 with some frustration while an established 2* roster does not even have a hope or a prayer of breaking top 25 in pVp anymore. Moreover, with the Demiurge planning on releasing more 4* and using pVe to introduced such characters, they are only going to exacerbate 2* player frustration.

i don't mean to sound elitist but as the game currently exists only a small handful of those 2* pVe wunderkids are actually going to be able to make use of the 4* characters they win (and that will probably involve a great amount of luck or $$$). As the system currently stands, the devs only run a 4* pVe once. Yes, you can score a single cover every now and then when that character is top prize but let's think about that for a moment:

Erika is a 2* pVe wunderkid who works her butt off and gets top rank so she scores 4 4* Star Lord covers. Plus she is in a top alliance so she pulls off a 5 cover pull! Good job Erika but guess what? You won't be seeing another Star Lord cover in pVe for at least another 3 or 4 weeks because currently none of the 4* characters are vaulted which means you are going to have to wait for Invisible Woman, Nick Fury, X-Force, 4hor and Elektra to be featured before you get another crack at Star Lord. (Let us be thankful that the devs decided not to include Devil Dinosaur into the wild. ironic i know) And after you manage to pick up 2 more covers putting you at 7 covers, they release a new 4* character so you will have to wait longer. And then (theoretically) they will start vaulting 4* characters but the wait doesn't change since they have just included another 4*. Finally after 8 or 9 months you only have two more covers to go but wait now Star Lord will be Vaulted for the next couple of months.

Can't she just pick up his covers in pVp? You're joking, right?

The point of this digression is to illustrate the problem with the current rewards system. Why are 2* players competing for 4* prizes they won't be able to use for at least a year? Why are 4* players competing for 3* covers they don't need beyond ISO?

It's time.

The player base has matured to the point that it is vital for the elite, beginners and transitioners to have separate events with different prizes. If not, the devs risks frustrating the n00bs to the point where they realize there is no point in playing the game because they will never "catch up" and boring the elite with the same events over and over again. Of course the current pVp and pVe can remain as the back bone of the reward system but new things need to happen!

Demiurge! Hear me now!2015 will be the year that makes or brakes MPQ!! You have the new Avengers movie and Marvel's Secret Wars coming out in May, you must seize this opportunity with non-competitive play!!! Offer various challenges for beginner, transitioning, and elite players and offer various rewards. The greater the challenge, the greater prize, the greater the glory! Give players weekly mission objectives, make greater use of alliances, give us boss battles and mini-games. 2014 was the year you gave us great characters, let 2015 be the year you give us great events! i know you are limited in staff and resources but something along the lines of two mini-games a month plus a new true pVe every two months should be enough to inject novelty and delight.

The game is currently too focused on competition, and when there is a dominant elite it spells disaster for new user retention. Marvel has a plethora of great material you can work from: "The Galactus Trilogy", "Age of Apocalypse", "Civil War", "Infinity Gauntlet", "The Dark Phoenix Saga", "Maximum Carnage", etc are all waiting for you to work your magic on! In my mind's eye such events can be split between Alliance specific events (fight 4* Jean Grey with your alliance mates to get her legendary covers) or community events (How will we ever stop the coming of Galactus, devourer of worlds! He hungers!) More low key events would be mini-games like gorilla events (Sabertooth Attacks) where you would need 2* Wolverine to battle Sabertooth for 3* Sabertooth covers.

i believe that providing more non-competitive game content will address three big issues:

1. 2*-->3* character transition (older 3* characters for as prizes for mid level events)
2. Inject more opportunities for collecting ISO and HP
3. Keep the game feeling fresh and interesting.

Can you not hear the whispers of rumors about daily pVes? Do you not remember how players were jumping at the chance to experience a survival mode with the the black hole bug (The Black Hole Challenge: viewtopic.php?f=7&t=21124&p=271536&hilit=black+hole#p271536) Your player base is starving for new content, not new characters. There are players worried that the current 8 hour scheme will not provide enough time to play to keep them interested. Your older players are tired of going through the same hoop over and over again. Your newer players are uncertain they can make it past the 2* tier.

Now is the time devs. You have shown us that you can make great characters, 2015 should be the year you show us you can make great game modes and events, too.

As always, thank you for your hard work! Despite the naysayers, I still believe you've got more than a few tricks left up your sleeve! Wishing you all the best!

A true believer,
fight4thedreamﾞ☆⌒o(*^ｰﾟ)v

tl;dr: the OP discusses the current state of MPQ and believes non-competitive and new game modes are the key to addressing most of the major issues facing MPQ (with maybe the exception of roster slots as that's another issue lol).

Amen.. Change needs to be made.. I'm a 2* to 3* transition day 76 player.. I need more covers for my 3* and 4* covers.. The **** token reward system dropping 2* covers you don't need and top alliances grabbing top prizes competition will never come closer as the game is.. Give better 3* prizes in PvP and pve events for 200-350 score ranking.. Its **** how the rewards are now

iLL619

fight4thedream wrote:

Exactly! There is so much untapped potential in this game and yet we continue fighting the same villains over and over again (and the same power couple at the highest echelon of pVp) We have all these characters but like you mentioned only a handful see regular use.

Some ideas i have to address this particular issue:

Create character specific events:
All of these characters have a rich history and relationship with other characters and it's a travesty that it gets largely ignored. i believe mini-games or side quests would be great way to make better use of certain characters.

My personal favorites are mini-games that require the use of certain characters to get the covers of new 3* characters. For example Sabertooh Attacks:

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.

New challenges: Instead of the same old 3 on 3 battle system that largely favors offensive powers, how about Countdown surivival modes where your team faces against an OP character like Apocaylpse who has 40,000 HP so you are not going to be taking him down and your goal is to just survive the encounter within a certain amount of turns like 6. Suddenly defensive abilities and characters see their roster value go up and will actually see play.

Or now that we have quite a few attack tile generators, a race to reach 10 attack tiles on the board first against Kraven the Hunter. No HP loss, maybe just for 1,000 ISO.

Or disarming bombs placed on the board by the Green Goblin in a certain amount of turns. The board is actually "representative" of New York city, the more bombs you are able to disactivate the more ISO you can get.

New enemies and True Bosses: I agree totally. Beyond the simple monotony of fighting the same villains over and over again on other part of the frustration of battling DA characters in pVe is that they are scaled to Boss proportions but are not actually Boss characters. I think the closes we got to a boss character is Gorgon but even then, the final didn't feel like a boss battle.

The game needs more bad guys and better Boss battles. I'm actually happy they haven't released Gorgon into the wild. Boss battles should be special so such characters should be off limits for a certain period of time.

Chronicles: There should also be a sort of check list of achievements that earn you extra prizes and titles and can be viewed by everyone in game. You finished first in pVe for the first time? Congratulations here is an extra 100HP and a star for the achievement.

Alliances: Really, I don't know what the deal is with alliances outside of organizing shield hops (which i don't do). They need to do more with it or just scrap it totally. Bi-weekly boss battles with your alliance mates where you have to fight the Shadow King or the Collector.

And the list could go on. Their is so much material they can use, i don't understand why they don't tap more into the rich Marvel mythos

Love this idea.. Does D3 even read these ideas on here to improve the game from ideas from us??!?

DrNitroman

iLL619 wrote:

Love this idea.. Does D3 even read these ideas on here to improve the game from ideas from us??!?

I'm genuinely convinced that they actually read our suggestions and consider developing some. Indeed some of the recent changes (like gauntket) were more or less based on discussions from the forum I think. Well, while it's not reasonable to hope that D3 apply all the ideas of the OP, it's definitely plausible that they'll pick some!

Unknown

Sounds great!