July Community Q&A - Open For Questions!

Moon Roach

Can you give us some idea of how the AI works? I'm particularly interested in two areas.

How does it decide whether to fire a power it has sufficient AP for, or to save up for another? (I'm more than happy that it fires up caltrops instead of Adamantium Slash or Debilitating Slash, for example, but is it truly random?)

Does the AI have any built-in smarts in terms of powers synergising? (I often see Adamantium Slash followed by Feral Claws, when a human would do it the other way round, and that's quite a simple example with a single character's powers.) If not, does it have anything built in to prevent synergy?

Pylgrim

Could you maybe make an official thread like this but asking for suggestions instead of answers, again allowing upvotes to show the kind of stuff your player base are more interested to see added to the game?

over_clocked

fmftint wrote:

There's no denying Hulkbuster/Iron Fist have completely taken over the PVP meta, when will you be nerfing one or both of these characters?


Everyone knows its coming sooner or later

At least this time it's not the 4* who's unbalanced.

over_clocked

Moon Roach wrote:

Can you give us some idea of how the AI works? I'm particularly interested in two areas.

How does it decide whether to fire a power it has sufficient AP for, or to save up for another? (I'm more than happy that it fires up caltrops instead of Adamantium Slash or Debilitating Slash, for example, but is it truly random?)

Does the AI have any built-in smarts in terms of powers synergising? (I often see Adamantium Slash followed by Feral Claws, when a human would do it the other way round, and that's quite a simple example with a single character's powers.) If not, does it have anything built in to prevent synergy?

This has all been explained on the forum already. First is random. Each turn, the AI makes a roll on whether to use a skill it has AP for, or not. If it has enough AP for a skill that costs 7 AP (Caltrops) and one that costs 10 AP (Debilitating Slash), it will always use the more expensive skill unless it rolls to continue saving up for an even more expensive skill (like Adamantium Slash for 12 AP).
The other, the order of skills used, is never random. It follows the colour order you see in AP bars: yellow, red, blue, green, purple, black, team-up. That's why Call the Storm can follow Thunderstrike but Smite can't follow Power Surge in one turn. The AI can skip using a skill in favour of a more expensive one, as mentioned above.

beeatch

When will we get to have a Cross Platform option and play on either Phone or Steam for the same account?

Moon Roach

over_clocked wrote:

Moon Roach wrote:

Can you give us some idea of how the AI works? I'm particularly interested in two areas.

How does it decide whether to fire a power it has sufficient AP for, or to save up for another? (I'm more than happy that it fires up caltrops instead of Adamantium Slash or Debilitating Slash, for example, but is it truly random?)

Does the AI have any built-in smarts in terms of powers synergising? (I often see Adamantium Slash followed by Feral Claws, when a human would do it the other way round, and that's quite a simple example with a single character's powers.) If not, does it have anything built in to prevent synergy?

This has all been explained on the forum already. First is random. Each turn, the AI makes a roll on whether to use a skill it has AP for, or not. If it has enough AP for a skill that costs 7 AP (Caltrops) and one that costs 10 AP (Debilitating Slash), it will always use the more expensive skill unless it rolls to continue saving up for an even more expensive skill (like Adamantium Slash for 12 AP).
The other, the order of skills used, is never random. It follows the colour order you see in AP bars: yellow, red, blue, green, purple, black, team-up. That's why Call the Storm can follow Thunderstrike but Smite can't follow Power Surge in one turn. The AI can skip using a skill in favour of a more expensive one, as mentioned above.

It would be good if something as fundamental as this was in the Gameplay FAQ.

evanbernstein

Can event result stay up longer? Right now most events end in the middle of the night and are gone by 8am EST. Some days, I wake up before 8am, but not all (and I'd guess most of the user base does not). It would be nice if results stayed up 12+ hours so everyone could get a chance to look at them.

Malcrof

Is there any type of Subscription model being entertained at this time, and if so, what might it include?

Unknown

Why is there more ISO and Hero Points sale events for android users and not for iOS users?

Unknown

A random question I think of when playing: Why is the there a noticeable pause when a goon flamethrower or rocket fires? Does the damage change in some way? What possible computation could the AI be running? It's there every time. Countdown equals Zero. Pause. Tiles destroyed. Just wondering.

tanis3303

If you read around this forum, one of the most common words you see throughout a good number of posts is "non-competitive". Its what the people want (myself included)

So...are there any plans to introduce more non-competitive content? Growth Industry and DDQ are all we have at the moment, and both events are pretty much universally loved. Any chance we can move more in this direction and less in the "grind till your thumbs fall off vs. the whole world" direction?

Malcrof

BlueRanger2012 wrote:

Why is there more ISO and Hero Points sale events for android users and not for iOS users?

android has been waiting since march or before, Steam is the only sale in recent memory

Punisher5784

Any chance that the daily SHIELD Resupply gets restructured to include Roster Slots?

You had mentioned new ways to earn roster slots in the past Q&A and we have yet to receive any update on this since, except that it will not be in the Vault (at this time).

OneenO

I am so sick of watching alliances grab mercs at the end of an event to help them shoot up the leaderboards.

Have you guys given any thought into locking an alliance(just like in the Ultron pve) once an event starts ?

GothicKratos

OneenO wrote:

I am so sick of watching alliances grab mercs at the end of an event to help them shoot up the leaderboards.

Have you guys given any thought into locking an alliance(just like in the Ultron pve) once an event starts ?

Honestly, I think this would be very bad for the Alliance driven sector of the community. Mercing is good for Alliances because it allows them to be lenient with their core memberbase, because they can just leave for a merc for the event, then rejoin after the merc leaves. It combats burn out.

OneenO

GothicKratos wrote:

OneenO wrote:

I am so sick of watching alliances grab mercs at the end of an event to help them shoot up the leaderboards.

Have you guys given any thought into locking an alliance(just like in the Ultron pve) once an event starts ?

Honestly, I think this would be very bad for the Alliance driven sector of the community. Mercing is good for Alliances because it allows them to be lenient with their core memberbase, because they can just leave for a merc for the event, then rejoin after the merc leaves. It combats burn out.

If i made a thread to discuss what the community thought about mercs then i would love to hear your opinion. But seeing how this is a Q&A for the devs im really only interested in what they think.

Sorry if that sounds rude but im just being honest.

San Narciso

Can you explain a little more how PVP brackets work?
My alliance mates were attacking each other in PVP for fun, going back and forth, and Kid A mentioned he was in fifth place. When Kid B looked at the top 10, he realized they were in different brackets.
If they're not in the same competition bracket, how can they be attacking each other?

Dauthi

GothicKratos wrote:

OneenO wrote:

I am so sick of watching alliances grab mercs at the end of an event to help them shoot up the leaderboards.

Have you guys given any thought into locking an alliance(just like in the Ultron pve) once an event starts ?

Honestly, I think this would be very bad for the Alliance driven sector of the community. Mercing is good for Alliances because it allows them to be lenient with their core memberbase, because they can just leave for a merc for the event, then rejoin after the merc leaves. It combats burn out.

On the other hand it promotes random wins at 90th-100th place. You can sit with your alliance public and random people with lots of points will join looking for a top 100 alliance. This is the new mercing, and it happens all the time. This problem makes that placement insane, unpredictable, and stressful.

I would like to see players locked into events they joined with an alliance as well. I have seen many alliances ripped apart because to be top 100 they are forced to merc a chunk of their players to compete, whether they make it or not, some of those players won't come back and you are left with a broken alliance. That is unhealthy for the game, as it promotes leaving for a big multi-alliance that shifts their players to maximize points. Why should one have an advantage over the other? Isn't this why d3 made 20 man alliances free, to combat unfairness of large alliances vs smaller alliances?

A few players possibly burning out would be a small price to pay to fix the alliance system. I don't see anyway to fix the end of season swapping, but I think the real problem is the small events, and I don't believe it would cause burnout. If a player can't/won't play an event they can say something before joining it and a leader can find a replacement.

GothicKratos

josephesque wrote:

Can you explain a little more how PVP brackets work?
My alliance mates were attacking each other in PVP for fun, going back and forth, and Kid A mentioned he was in fifth place. When Kid B looked at the top 10, he realized they were in different brackets.
If they're not in the same competition bracket, how can they be attacking each other?

You can attack anyone in the same time slice as you. Brackets are filled out to 1000 people (iirc?), then a new bracket starts.

GothicKratos

Dauthi wrote:

On the other hand it promotes random wins at 90th-100th place. You can sit with your alliance public and random people with lots of points will join looking for a top 100 alliance. This is the new mercing, and it happens all the time. This problem makes that placement insane, unpredictable, and stressful.

I haven't personally seen this happen, but...

Dauthi wrote:

I would like to see players locked into events they joined with an alliance as well. I have seen many alliances ripped apart because to be top 100 they are forced to merc a chunk of their players to compete, whether they make it or not, some of those players won't come back and you are left with a broken alliance. That is unhealthy for the game, as it promotes leaving for a big multi-alliance that shifts their players to maximize points. Why should one have an advantage over the other? Isn't this why d3 made 20 man alliances free, to combat unfairness of large alliances vs smaller alliances?

...this is a fair argument. The only thing I would honestly say is that if your Alliance dissolves because of this, I'm not really sure it would last to begin with.

In your credit, though, it makes being the leader and/or commanders quite a bit harder, since you have to be able to consistently shuffle people around.

I know I don't envy Pyper's position at all, but I do respect him and all the other Alliances that we cooperate with (shameless shoutout to OC and Django ) because we all do what we can to make sure we all end out ahead.