MPQ Community Q&A #5 – February - Video Answer Time

David [Hi-Fi] Moore

Hi everyone,

With one day left in the month - we're just in time for the February Marvel Puzzle Quest Community Q&A!

Last month's debut of the video format Q&A session got the thumbs-up from the MPQ community, so we're repeating the process.



Grab a handful of your favorite snacks, kick back and join a quartet of developers from Demiurge; Miles (Designer), Will (Lead Designer), Jae (Artist) and Casey (Designer), as they offer some answers to questions provided by forum-goers. Feel free to offer your feedback in the forum comments section and thanks for watching!

MPQ Community Q&A #5 – February - Video Answer Time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyy71stDjX4

*Update: Questions Answered:

"There have been rumblings about a daily non-competitive PVE or a third 'liquid' in the game to add ease with the transition to 3-Star. Can you provide any updates on this?"

"With more 4-Stars coming into the mix, are there any plans to increase the amount of Iso that can be gained from rewards?"

"Any progress you want to share on the fix for the Roster Slots prices?"

"What's the timeframe for a visible Shield cooldown timer? Once you've shielded, there's no way to see the remaining time left on the cooldown of a different length Shield."

"We generally understand that tiles are generated 'randomly' during a game. However, that has not stopped many of us from anecdotally observing that there are periods when the AI seems to constantly get favourable cascades, or that friendly countdown tiles (especially X-Force recovery) often seem to get cleared away in a ridiculously unlikely fashion. This could be explained by confirmation bias. Still, it would be nice if you could go on the record to settle any doubts and explain the game's tile generation process, and whether there are situations where it is not totally random."

"When deciding the artwork for a new character, are you allowed to use Marvel's previous works in comics or must you start your own from scratch?"

"How do you decide which characters get multiple versions (Storm, Wolverine, Thor, Black Widow, etc.) and should we expect to see many more multiple versions of existing characters to show up in the 'near future?'"

"What are your favorite MPQ teams to play as?"

PuceMoose

Nice! looking forward to watching it. Off to grab some more vod... popcorn, and then on to the video.

Unknown

I was looking forward to getting an answer on PvE scaling all week. Not a single mention. Pretty uninformative video overall. None of the questions answered helped me learn how to play the game at all. Next time don't have us vote on questions if devs are just going to pick out "fun" questions to answer.

Thanos

This video was not "cool".

Pylgrim

Not sure how DDQ is supposed to increase the flow of HP? You only get Hp if you get super, super lucky with your taco tokens, so it is far from a reliable and regular source of HP.

CrookedKnight

Pylgrim wrote:

Not sure how DDQ is supposed to increase the flow of HP? You only get Hp if you get super, super lucky with your taco tokens, so it is far from a reliable and regular source of HP.

You have a 1 in 25 chance of getting HP from a taco. If you consume the Deadpool General's RDA of two tacos daily, on average you'll get 250 HP every eight days. Almost 1000 a month is nothing to sneeze at, even if it is subject to the law of averages.

Ludaa

It seems Winfinite is safe for now, despite Trisul's efforts!

Unknown

CrookedKnight wrote:

Pylgrim wrote:

Not sure how DDQ is supposed to increase the flow of HP? You only get Hp if you get super, super lucky with your taco tokens, so it is far from a reliable and regular source of HP.

You have a 1 in 25 chance of getting HP from a taco. If you consume the Deadpool General's RDA of two tacos daily, on average you'll get 250 HP every eight days. Almost 1000 a month is nothing to sneeze at, even if it is subject to the law of averages.

And after about 333 tokens (167 days of deadpool daily) you should get 1000 hp. So basically 2k hp a year plus 250 a week (rounding). That doesn't seem too bad.

SnowcaTT

Yeah, rather than giving a long recap I'll do a short one this time:

"Deadpool daily fixed it!" (roster slots, HP, ISO, transition....)

I like how they mention on average you get something like 350 more ISO every other week. Except characters (which also come out every other week) need roster slots, and they cost 800 each now if you have everyone. And Deadpool actually only made it slightly worse - you need to keep at least one 1* on your roster. You know, an 800HP 1*.

It was pretty light on answers outside of that.

Unknown

I am curious what is suppose to be coming in a month or two. Otherwise I agree. Nothing "noteworthy" in the video.

El Satanno

Can one of our intrepid forumers post a transcript/summary for those of us who actually prefer the printed word?

Unknown

While light on details, I actually agree with them -- the DPDQ actually does help address a number of the top questions as of when they were asked, an it is a genuinely excellent addition to the game. The fact that it answers SO MANY of the top questions is indicative of the design targets it was trying to hit.


Anecdotally, I seem to largely be at least treading water with the 800HP roster slots whereas before the new year, I was adding money every month just to be able to keep up. I am no longer able to buy covers (of which I need mostly 4*'s at this point), but I am able to keep pace with the release schedule.

Trisul

I'm pretty happy that they answered my question about what teams they play, since that actually tells us a lot about each person's experience level in the game. Seems kind of non-competitive across the board.

Ludaa wrote:

It seems Winfinite is safe for now, despite Trisul's efforts!

You flatter me, friend! While I'm against the concept of infinite combos in principle, I'm not actively trying to get winfinite nerfed. I just think in general that infinite combos are not good for the long-term health of the game, so long as community scaling and competitive PvE exist.

My main argument was that wide usage of the combo was hyperscaling all PvE nodes, but it seems (according to the poll) that it isn't being used too often, so my argument falls flat.

Unknown

Not sure they really answered the question of roster pricing. It's great that we can get HP from Tacos (I got lucky and received 500 in the first week) but I think the question was aimed at the ever increasing cost of those slots. I'm already at 500 per which with my lucky pull afforded me a spot for Juggs so I could get the additional ISO, but what happens when a slot starts costing 700 or even more per slot!?

Unknown

TL;DW (too long; didn't watch) below:

"There have been rumblings about a daily non-competitive PVE or a third 'liquid' in the game to add ease with the transition to 3-Star. Can you provide any updates on this?"

Yes it's out. Go play Deadpool's Daily Quest.

"With more 4-Stars coming into the mix, are there any plans to increase the amount of Iso that can be gained from rewards?"

Yes, the plan is Deadpool's Daily Quest. The daily drops increased as well. They are working on a new mechanic (or something) related to this in one or two months. Go play Deadpool's Daily Quest.

"Any progress you want to share on the fix for the Roster Slots prices?"

First 25 roster slots are getting cheaper. Otherwise generally roster slots will not get cheaper but the overall "economy" has changed to increase the amount of HP available. Go play Deadpool's Daily Quest.

"What's the timeframe for a visible Shield cooldown timer? Once you've shielded, there's no way to see the remaining time left on the cooldown of a different length Shield."

Coming R72. Go play Deadpool's Daily Quest.

"We generally understand that tiles are generated 'randomly' during a game. However, that has not stopped many of us from anecdotally observing that there are periods when the AI seems to constantly get favourable cascades, or that friendly countdown tiles (especially X-Force recovery) often seem to get cleared away in a ridiculously unlikely fashion. This could be explained by confirmation bias. Still, it would be nice if you could go on the record to settle any doubts and explain the game's tile generation process, and whether there are situations where it is not totally random."

Totally random. It's in your head. Only the first few training missions are tweaked to drop more red so the player gets to use Ironman's red. It's totally in your head. Go play Deadpool's Daily Quest. Wheeeeee!

"When deciding the artwork for a new character, are you allowed to use Marvel's previous works in comics or must you start your own from scratch?"

Marvel pre-approves all art. Go play Deadpool's Daily Quest.

"How do you decide which characters get multiple versions (Storm, Wolverine, Thor, Black Widow, etc.) and should we expect to see many more multiple versions of existing characters to show up in the 'near future?'"

They have to pick carefully. No one wants to play a Marvel game that doesn't feature Wolvie. Go play Deadpool's Daily Quest.

"What are your favorite MPQ teams to play as?"

Nothing of interest. They play more for testing user experience, discussion about 1-stars and 2-stars. Jae likes how MMag's purple feeds CStorm's blue. Yes. Seriously. Go play Deadpool's Daily Quest.

My commentary: It seems to me Deadpool's Daily Quest is what the devs are -- and will continue to be -- relying on to inject some of the character and resource (ISO / HP) tweaks into the game. My general sense is that PvP and PvE overall won't change, nor do I get a sense that they will be introducing new/non-competitive game modes. I really don't think they have a pulse on (or really care about) competitive play and the meta game. Last thing I'd want to do after working on this game all day is to go play it to the level we play it competitively. Expect more covers, slightly more ISO and HP available to be won but at the cost of more playtime, no new modes. My very gut feeling is that we will see a slow trickle of new 4* and we will see an increase in the new class of Cyclops/Iron Fist-like characters that have much higher damage output but relatively low health.

turul

I hope next Q&A less game economy / "bufix" related questions will arise.

btw, which random generator algorithm is in use?

esoxnepa

turul wrote:

btw, which random generator algorithm is in use?

Turul or D3, Do you know/Will you tell: if the RND for the tile drops is client side or server side?

I still believe there is a rare race condition bug. I have seen 26 of the same color tile drop at one time more than 3 times over my days of playing the game. The odds on this are so significantly infinitesimal it indicates something is going on. (I have an older slower phone, and have eliminated some services that were slowing MPQ.)


I did enjoy the Q&A and now that DDQ is out, I know why D3 dodged the question of 2->3 star in January Q&A.

Unknown

Next time before shooting the video will someone please buy Joe the artist a cup of coffee? He looked like a kid being forced to sit through school assembly with y'all trying to pull answers from him. I do love your work Joe, but that looked painful for you.

turul

esoxnepa wrote:

turul wrote:

btw, which random generator algorithm is in use?

Turul or D3, Do you know/Will you tell: if the RND for the tile drops is client side or server side?

It's only my guess, but It may be pre-generated server-side. (So it can be replayed for development or anti-cheating purposes)

Unknown

Once again, it was fun to watch. But not very informative.

But answering a question which we already have the answer of, is disapointing (DDQ). They could at least have picked up an additional one if they really wanted to talk about DDQ.

I really liked the "my favourite team" part : it shows how far they are in the game. And they mustn't play it much, therefore, have no idea what the scaling is in PvE.

So, shall we assume that they make the game evolve for the players like them : noobs.

The game is evolving, scaling will be addressed one day, I'm sure... When far less players play it.

squirrel1120

This delivery method is much prefered to the very vague answers we'd get in written form. Its also nice to see a certain spirit of joviality among the developers. I think its easy to imagine a cranky jerk behind the keys of a keyboard when we read, 'no, you aren't getting what you want.'

As constructively intended critisizm, please don't pick a large majority of the questions you answer to be something you've already addressed. Instead, please take ALL such questions and give them their own blip at the start.

"Many users asked about the 2->3* transition, roster slot pricing, introducing more iso8 for the 4* transition, (etc, just rattle off the full list of related issues), and the short answer is that we had been working on this behind the scenes for 'x' amount of time, and feel that Deadpools daily quest will address these concerns sufficiently. Also, we've added the shield cooldown visual that's been requested, so look for that in the next game patch"

30 seconds later you still have a mostly full amount of time to address things that haven't been addressed yet, and you aren't wasting time telling your audience 4-5 times that you've 'already addressed this with Deadpool's daily quest'. In other words, don't pick the low hanging fruit of a question set, just so you can say, 'yep, we fixed this' several times. As mentioned above, I think most of us would have really rather heard anything about the pve scaling subject than the 'we fixed it' record skipping.

Still, thank you for dedicating this time to communication and relaying of info.