Changes Coming In Season XIII

Unknown

Demiurge_Will wrote:

turul wrote:

The flipside to that is that higher-level players see less super-easy targets. You’ll generally see opponents with a minimum difficulty of roughly one star level below you. (Players with maxed 3-star teams will see maxed 2-star teams and stronger, for example.) If there's a shortage of opponents worth a meaningful number of points in this band, you can be matched with easier teams than that. And if you climb high enough in the event, anyone can see you as an opponent, even if they’re much higher level.

bolded part not very fun...

This is necessary so that people can't climb to the top of an event, invulnerable to those around them, by fielding an intentionally under-leveled team or some quirky strategy along those lines. The spot at which this happens depends on everybody else's behavior, but usually we're talking about a situation where you're in the top 5-10% of high scores.

If you reach the top 5-10%, and then get knocked out of it, will you no longer be avail bile as a target to everyone? Or is this something like as soon as you hit this mark you are fair game for all?

Unknown

Does the change to event tokens also affect Thick as Thieves tokens?

MarvelDestiny

Love the changes, Will. Nice to see the guys and gals of Demiurge are listening to our concerns and workIng on the balance and transition problems. Looking forward to seeing how these changes play out.

RoryQ

Quality changes! Loving the increased draw rates

Marc_Spector

Fantastic list! Thanks so much, Will & all.

Will there be a character-update accompanying the start of the season as well?

Demiurge_Will

GrumpySmurf1002 wrote:

Just so I'm reading this right...Heroics currently are ~14% for 3* and 2.4% for 4*, that's increasing to 23% and 2.4%, relatively? Or is it 23% total (meaning 20.6%/2.4%). Either way is welcome, just want clarification.

I botched the math on this in my initial post - corrected, and sorry about that.

The 3-star odds are increasing less than that, to 18.6%, and the 4-star odds remain unchanged at 2.3%, so 20.9% total 3-star + 4-star odds.

CrookedKnight

Sorry to see that 4* odds remain unchanged, because 4* rarity is a much bigger issue than 3* rarity at this point, especially with DDQ. Still, it's a positive move.

Demiurge_Will

Tredo wrote:

Can you clarify the "packs" part of the change? Will this impact single tokens? If it's only in 10 and 42-packs, then obviously $$$$.

The odds change impacts packs of all sizes, including the 1x pack (you're right, it's a little confusing to call that a pack).

CrookedKnight

Yeah, "tokens in any quantity" would have been more clear. Glad it's the broader option!

Demiurge_Will

Ben Grimm wrote:

Will the 4* odds in packs change as well?

Not as part of this batch of changes.

Demiurge_Will

taloncarde wrote:

Demiurge_Will wrote:

turul wrote:

The flipside to that is that higher-level players see less super-easy targets. You’ll generally see opponents with a minimum difficulty of roughly one star level below you. (Players with maxed 3-star teams will see maxed 2-star teams and stronger, for example.) If there's a shortage of opponents worth a meaningful number of points in this band, you can be matched with easier teams than that. And if you climb high enough in the event, anyone can see you as an opponent, even if they’re much higher level.

bolded part not very fun...

This is necessary so that people can't climb to the top of an event, invulnerable to those around them, by fielding an intentionally under-leveled team or some quirky strategy along those lines. The spot at which this happens depends on everybody else's behavior, but usually we're talking about a situation where you're in the top 5-10% of high scores.

If you reach the top 5-10%, and then get knocked out of it, will you no longer be avail bile as a target to everyone? Or is this something like as soon as you hit this mark you are fair game for all?

If you're no longer at the top of the leaderboard, you're no longer as visible.

Demiurge_Will

WolfmanX25 wrote:

Does the change to event tokens also affect Thick as Thieves tokens?

Yep, any Thick as Thieves tokens redeemed after the change goes live tonight will have the new odds.

Demiurge_Will

Marc Spector wrote:

Will there be a character-update accompanying the start of the season as well?

If you mean balance changes to characters, no, no changes like that in this batch.

But if you mean character rotation, then yeah, the Season XIII character rotation will take effect at the same or about the same time. Details on that are posted here: viewtopic.php?f=13&t=26132.

whitecat31

Demiurge_Will wrote:

Boost Stacking Change
The Team-Up +AP boost, all-color +AP boost, and 2-color +AP boosts used to be stackable up to 3 times. They can now be stacked up to 2 times.

We’ve come to the conclusion that it’s not possible to balance the game for cases where people are using as much +AP as was available before and cases when they’re not. We still think that +AP boosts are an interesting piece of the game, and we want to keep them available, just reduce their maximum power.

For one thing this will slow the game down, in a balancing act it might slow some snipers down from hitting multiple targets. All those passive abilities slow things down as well.
I will say there is a give and take to slowing the game down, so I might think that should be a topic all by itself. Although, many of us hate change and will gripe about this and what a successful business model might be.

Balancing the game has some interesting implications.
Balance implies a game like say street fighter, where every character was supposed to have an equal chance of beating up another character.
We clearly do not have anything close to that and I am sure the metrics data shows who is used the most.

In the past when you have made a character too powerful in the boost environment that character was nerfed.

3 Magneto, Sentry, and the recent 4Nerf come to mind. Even Mystaque and 2 Magnerfo paid a price.
Will those Nerfings be removed? In particular the kitty pool that is now Sentry . I understand that 3*Magneto was completely reworked, but the other characters were just slowed down.

Another idea... maybe don't pump out so many characters and play test them better . If a character, after release, does not get that much play, perhaps remake him/her better.
We all understand erring on the side of caution, but if you fail admit it and rework it.
Please balance upwards as well as downwards.
If you fail on a remake, admit you failed, and remake them again even more so. Invisible woman for instance. I don't know whose pride is on the line at the studio, but Invisible Woman (Bag lady) was reworked over a year ago and she still stinks . We know it, you know it, and I guarantee the usage metrics show it . For god sakes, she is the Invisible woman, and professor X has a better invisible power then her .
The point I am making is Balancing is not just about AP boosts, it is about making the characters right in the first place.

Demiurge_Will

whitecat31 wrote:

In the past when you have made a character too powerful in the boost environment that character was nerfed.

Thanks for the thoughtful post, whitecat.

I think the characters that you mention were overpowered in a boost-free environment as well.

Unknown

Demiurge_Will wrote:

whitecat31 wrote:

In the past when you have made a character too powerful in the boost environment that character was nerfed.

Thanks for the thoughtful post, whitecat.

I think the characters that you mention were overpowered in a boost-free environment as well.

Maybe. Maybe Not. Sentry, specifically, seemed kinda balanced in a vacuum (Good, maybe OP, not broken) but boosts made him HELLA broken. With boosts being toned down, the Sentry's change is even more jarring, up to 12 AP for an ability that should probably cost 10.

Unknown

Demiurge_Will wrote:

whitecat31 wrote:

In the past when you have made a character too powerful in the boost environment that character was nerfed.

Thanks for the thoughtful post, whitecat.

I think the characters that you mention were overpowered in a boost-free environment as well.

I don't think many would disagree with you on that. The more important point is that you overnerfed certain characters, like Sentry, who was really only viable in PvP as your last match or with boosts. The boost nerf (which seems fine in and of itself) only hurt Sentry's playability even more.

Marc_Spector

Demiurge_Will wrote:

Marc Spector wrote:

Will there be a character-update accompanying the start of the season as well?

If you mean balance changes to characters, no, no changes like that in this batch.

But if you mean character rotation, then yeah, the Season XIII character rotation will take effect at the same or about the same time. Details on that are posted here: viewtopic.php?f=13&t=26132.

thanks for the clarification. Question, then, Will -- would a character such as Iron Man Mk40 (who was dev-acknowledged as needing some retuning) coming out of the vault unchanged imply that they weren't at all worked on while "out of the spotlight"? Could he foreseeably be updated while out of the vault, or would a re-vaulting be required before changes can be made?

Thanks!! And great list of changes -- Really looking forward to the new season's PVP.

turul

Also, when can we except the new batch of character buffs?

esoxnepa

Very nice changes.

Can Mystique go back to 9 now since we can't boost into it?