Regarding the "News" "Response to Recent Changes"

Unknown

The developers said they wanted to slow down the game play and they have done that very effectively however, they need to scale up the rewards accordingly. I have to think more through my matches, my matches tme a larger chunk of time, I lose more life so I need to recover for longer and I am actively looking for new strategies to speed the game up. Now I can win 3-4 matches in an hour whereas before i could win 6-8 matches an hour(not precisely but you get the point). Regardless of how many matches i win in an hour, i want to feel rewarded for that hour of gameplay. . I know iso per match is going up to counter the skip tax but iso also needs to increase because of the slower gameplay. Funbalance to your hearts content devs but inject more iso in or you take the fun out of winning.

Unknown

*takes a look at the Heroic PVE*

*looks at the boost costs*

Yeah you guys can go Tiny the kitty yourselves till you put the Tinykitty pve back to reasonable levels for everyone not just the newbies.

Unknown

I'm averaging a 40/60 - 50/50 win/loss ratio with C Storm (62, 5/5/3) Black Widow *** (60, 1/5/3) and Wolverine ** (80, 5/3/5). Currently in 8th place with 3,734. Top in the bracket is 6,348. There is no way I'm getting the 10k DD. The matches take so long that I have to take a break to charge my ipod as well as heal. I don't mind having to think and get a little lucky, but the rewards need to be adjusted. Either more points per fight, or lower rewards.

If they want to keep the scaling baddies, the points need to scale as well.

Unknown

An apology for not warning about the boosts is fine, and so is the rationale they provided. HOWEVER, the fact remains that the last 2 PVE events have been utterly broken for those who don't use massive boosts to deal with the insanely strong enemies. If they're going to reduce boost use, great. They must ALSO reduce the number of missions populated by otherwise unbeatable enemies to have an enjoyable game. Otherwise, there's no fun to be had.

bahamut685

Psykopathic wrote:

@bahamut

You say that like people in your bracket are at least close to 30k progression.

I have like 1100 points and I'm top 50.
#1 is only at like 6400. Lol

I only meant that 30k was POSSIBLE... You just had to win every match (all 5 per reset per mission), finishing matches in an average 2 minutes (the 2 minute time makes you only miss like 3 sets of resets, due to 'taking too long' to get all resets).
Required for the 54k prize (max points possible was 54120): finish each match in 19 seconds (including load times and cascades and abilities and everything). That was the only way to complete maximum resets, and therefore the ONLY way to get the x-force covers.

Unknown

MikeHock wrote:

What response?

The one in which they talked about boosts and ignored everything else? My initial reaction was.... That it was pathetic.

Here's what I read:

We want player$ to u$e boo$t$

Thanx D3.

Thats exactly what i read too! It's a small world.

Unknown

justaplayer wrote:

It was a good heartfelt start and I was pleased to see them finally say something. However,
I would like to see them say something about the ISO tax which kills the game for many.
I would also like them to address putting in message boxes so people don't accidentally spend money.
They also haven't mentioned Thor and Wolvie which many folks are upset about.

I don't hear much whining at all about the Thorverine nerf, as everyone and their MPQ playing grandma was abusing it. The only ppl that were mad were the people who didn't use this combo, because their covers weren't maxed, or new players that shouldn't have even seen this combo in competition, bud did due to bad MMR.

TheVulture

pandaberry6 wrote:

The developers said they wanted to slow down the game play and they have done that very effectively however, they need to scale up the rewards accordingly. I have to think more through my matches, my matches tme a larger chunk of time, I lose more life so I need to recover for longer and I am actively looking for new strategies to speed the game up. Now I can win 3-4 matches in an hour whereas before i could win 6-8 matches an hour(not precisely but you get the point). Regardless of how many matches i win in an hour, i want to feel rewarded for that hour of gameplay. . I know iso per match is going up to counter the skip tax but iso also needs to increase because of the slower gameplay. Funbalance to your hearts content devs but inject more iso in or you take the fun out of winning.

Much appreciate the dev post, but also 100% agree with this that the rate of reward has taken a significant downturn - unfortunately at the exact time people are being encouraged/pushed to expand their rosters.

Granted I've put minimal effort into the most recent PvE (earned the 1st Storm with 2 matches today, whatever that makes my total), but I'm so far in ISO off even thinking of boosting any of the lightning heroes to a playable level.
I don't buy that this is a nefarious scheme to extort real-money ISO - since even the biggest ISO bundle wouldn't push a 3* up near maxed 2* power-level - so I am genuinely curious what the vision is here.

Unknown

TheVulture wrote:

pandaberry6 wrote:

The developers said they wanted to slow down the game play and they have done that very effectively however, they need to scale up the rewards accordingly. I have to think more through my matches, my matches tme a larger chunk of time, I lose more life so I need to recover for longer and I am actively looking for new strategies to speed the game up. Now I can win 3-4 matches in an hour whereas before i could win 6-8 matches an hour(not precisely but you get the point). Regardless of how many matches i win in an hour, i want to feel rewarded for that hour of gameplay. . I know iso per match is going up to counter the skip tax but iso also needs to increase because of the slower gameplay. Funbalance to your hearts content devs but inject more iso in or you take the fun out of winning.

Much appreciate the dev post, but also 100% agree with this that the rate of reward has taken a significant downturn - unfortunately at the exact time people are being encouraged/pushed to expand their rosters.

Granted I've put minimal effort into the most recent PvE (earned the 1st Storm with 2 matches today, whatever that makes my total), but I'm so far in ISO off even thinking of boosting any of the lightning heroes to a playable level.
I don't buy that this is a nefarious scheme to extort real-money ISO - since even the biggest ISO bundle wouldn't push a 3* up near maxed 2* power-level - so I am genuinely curious what the vision is here.

I think ISO is held back because they don't want this to be a game of purely max level characters.

Unknown

RockMonster wrote:

I think ISO is held back because they don't want this to be a game of purely max level characters.

Which is daft, because you will spend 90% of your playing time playing against max level characters, because that is what people use.

IceIX

TheVulture wrote:

Much appreciate the dev post, but also 100% agree with this that the rate of reward has taken a significant downturn - unfortunately at the exact time people are being encouraged/pushed to expand their rosters.

Granted I've put minimal effort into the most recent PvE (earned the 1st Storm with 2 matches today, whatever that makes my total), but I'm so far in ISO off even thinking of boosting any of the lightning heroes to a playable level.
I don't buy that this is a nefarious scheme to extort real-money ISO - since even the biggest ISO bundle wouldn't push a 3* up near maxed 2* power-level - so I am genuinely curious what the vision is here.

How so? PVP has stayed on course since launch with a PVP event running constantly for a source of 70/140 Iso battles. SHIELD Training has always existed for the same. Lightning Rounds are also a great source of weekly Iso. None of those have changed in their forms. We've also been rolling out PVE Events at an increased rate compared to a couple months back which all have the same Iso rewards (100/200 per first time mission completion, 100/500/Standard Token rewards). I'm interested in how you think that the Iso rewards have taken a downturn? We're not seeing that in our numbers at all. Our users are gaining more Iso per capita than they were this time last month, much less this time October.

Unknown

All my levelling progress has also stalled at the moment, as I work all day and can only play a few fights in the evenings now to "keep" a spot in the Daredevil PvE. The 20 ISO consolation prizes on everything make for SLOW progress, and my MMR is so broken at the moment, that nobody attacks me, and I can't find a viable fight either. The boost post really means nothing to me. They wanted something changed, they'll justify it somehow. Fix the scaling. That would make us infinitely more happy.

Unknown

IceIX wrote:

TheVulture wrote:

Much appreciate the dev post, but also 100% agree with this that the rate of reward has taken a significant downturn - unfortunately at the exact time people are being encouraged/pushed to expand their rosters.

Granted I've put minimal effort into the most recent PvE (earned the 1st Storm with 2 matches today, whatever that makes my total), but I'm so far in ISO off even thinking of boosting any of the lightning heroes to a playable level.
I don't buy that this is a nefarious scheme to extort real-money ISO - since even the biggest ISO bundle wouldn't push a 3* up near maxed 2* power-level - so I am genuinely curious what the vision is here.

How so? PVP has stayed on course since launch with a PVP event running constantly for a source of 70/140 Iso battles. SHIELD Training has always existed for the same. Lightning Rounds are also a great source of weekly Iso. None of those have changed in their forms. We've also been rolling out PVE Events at an increased rate compared to a couple months back which all have the same Iso rewards (100/200 per first time mission completion, 100/500/Standard Token rewards). I'm interested in how you think that the Iso rewards have taken a downturn? We're not seeing that in our numbers at all. Our users are gaining more Iso per capita than they were this time last month, much less this time October.

To get those 100/500 ISO PVE rewards consistently almost necessitates boosts.

Unknown

IceIX wrote:

TheVulture wrote:

How so? PVP has stayed on course since launch with a PVP event running constantly for a source of 70/140 Iso battles. SHIELD Training has always existed for the same. Lightning Rounds are also a great source of weekly Iso. None of those have changed in their forms. We've also been rolling out PVE Events at an increased rate compared to a couple months back which all have the same Iso rewards (100/200 per first time mission completion, 100/500/Standard Token rewards). I'm interested in how you think that the Iso rewards have taken a downturn? We're not seeing that in our numbers at all. Our users are gaining more Iso per capita than they were this time last month, much less this time October.

You may want to rerun the analytics for this month when it ends. Main reasons being:
Thorverine nerf + increased boost cost: much slower matches, resulting in far less iso/hour, whenever if you boost or not
Decreased morale in general: less matches played over the less matches played for sheer lack of time
Oscorp heroic: rewards not resetting in the map, pitful iso total gain, even less if you decide do boost to overcome the 230s

Also please: shield training is so pointless, its fun factor is zero. If this is an example of the game working as intended, something is really wrong here

Unknown

IceIX wrote:

TheVulture wrote:

Much appreciate the dev post, but also 100% agree with this that the rate of reward has taken a significant downturn - unfortunately at the exact time people are being encouraged/pushed to expand their rosters.

Granted I've put minimal effort into the most recent PvE (earned the 1st Storm with 2 matches today, whatever that makes my total), but I'm so far in ISO off even thinking of boosting any of the lightning heroes to a playable level.
I don't buy that this is a nefarious scheme to extort real-money ISO - since even the biggest ISO bundle wouldn't push a 3* up near maxed 2* power-level - so I am genuinely curious what the vision is here.

How so? PVP has stayed on course since launch with a PVP event running constantly for a source of 70/140 Iso battles. SHIELD Training has always existed for the same. Lightning Rounds are also a great source of weekly Iso. None of those have changed in their forms. We've also been rolling out PVE Events at an increased rate compared to a couple months back which all have the same Iso rewards (100/200 per first time mission completion, 100/500/Standard Token rewards). I'm interested in how you think that the Iso rewards have taken a downturn? We're not seeing that in our numbers at all. Our users are gaining more Iso per capita than they were this time last month, much less this time October.

Because in those PvP events people were using Thorverine and now a lot of people have to look really hard at their roster again. Suddenly you're like 'woah, I need to level these characters really quickly', then you're like 'woah, those ISO costs are ridiculous!' then it's like '140 ISO for a win! How much do I need to add a level again? Ah yes, 1400 ISO...cool!'.

Then say you play these events, you're getting covers. That then need to be levelled. Of course the majority of them are absolute crud until they are levelled a decent way up the trere and you realise something else!

I have a roster full of full cover characters that will never see the light of day because there simply isn't the ISO to level them. not when 3* characters are all but worthless until you start hitting 75/80 with them. There is a massive ISO drought when you apply a basic, average playing pattern and it is slightly terrifying if Demiurge don't see it.

And yeah, best not to bring up your ramped up roll out of PvE events.

Unknown

It's not that ISO rewards have taken a downturn. It's that many ppl's needs have drastically increased. Not to mention that with the slower gameplay, churning through PvP for the 70/140 has greatly slowed down.

To use an RPG analogy, It doesn't make sense to me that I'm still earning the same 'loot' I did as a level 1 player as I am now as a level 80 player. The costs of my 'equipment' has exponentially increased.

Unknown

IceIX wrote:

TheVulture wrote:

Much appreciate the dev post, but also 100% agree with this that the rate of reward has taken a significant downturn - unfortunately at the exact time people are being encouraged/pushed to expand their rosters.

Granted I've put minimal effort into the most recent PvE (earned the 1st Storm with 2 matches today, whatever that makes my total), but I'm so far in ISO off even thinking of boosting any of the lightning heroes to a playable level.
I don't buy that this is a nefarious scheme to extort real-money ISO - since even the biggest ISO bundle wouldn't push a 3* up near maxed 2* power-level - so I am genuinely curious what the vision is here.

How so? PVP has stayed on course since launch with a PVP event running constantly for a source of 70/140 Iso battles. SHIELD Training has always existed for the same. Lightning Rounds are also a great source of weekly Iso. None of those have changed in their forms. We've also been rolling out PVE Events at an increased rate compared to a couple months back which all have the same Iso rewards (100/200 per first time mission completion, 100/500/Standard Token rewards). I'm interested in how you think that the Iso rewards have taken a downturn? We're not seeing that in our numbers at all. Our users are gaining more Iso per capita than they were this time last month, much less this time October.

Matches take longer to win. Longer matches means less matches, means less ISO.

Going against a group of level 30 PvE enemies for 200 ISO was quick, going against a group at 230 is not. Boosting up for PvP created quick matches, and quick matches led to more ISO per hour. As for Shield training, do people still do that? 1400 rating, or basic Hawkeye tier, is an amazingly high score now. I guess it's there for ISO, but progression wise you're gaining a handful of points only to lose them overnight and end up back where you were like its Sim-Sisyphus.

Unknown

Very disappointing. The devs messed up major parts of the game play for a majority of the users and then apologize for not communicating they were going to do so.

An apology would have been to back out all changes until they could come up with a better solution. What was actually said and done was an attempt to divert the problem to an easy meaningless direction over boosts.

I wonder how many people who have had a dramatic tragedy feel all better when the person who caused the tragedy says they are sorry for not telling them they were going to do said awful action?

Communication is a common courtesy, your job is to provide a fun game. Actions speak volumes over words, and we are reaching the "too little too late" mark very quickly.

IceIX

Toxicadam wrote:

It's not that ISO rewards have taken a downturn. It's that everyones needs have drastically increased. Not to mention that with the slower gameplay, churning through PvP for the 70/140 has greatly slowed down.

Just ran a quick couple sets of numbers. Overall Iso gain has increased per user, Level Ups per user is relatively steady even after filtering out level ups below 50 so we get rid of the newbies and required IM35 and Storm levels. They've been on a very slow upturn over the past month or so. Naturally, I'd have to dig deeper to see precisely which characters are being leveled. But from a brief view everything looks to be going fairly well as a pure statistical sample.

Also, please don't take "Hi! We're all 230s!" Chapter 4 as a basis for gameplay standings for all players. It's an aberration.

Nonce Equitaur 2

The Developers seem to be missing a crucial point -- when all opponents are level 230 all the time, the game is no fun.

D3PCS wrote:

Being able to first turn bust out a few thousand damage, some Strike tiles, and 2-3 stuns for anyone surviving depending on team comp made anything but the most difficult battles simple and matters of rote gameplay, not something that takes advantage of the mutable strategy of the puzzle board.

On the flip side, when all opponents are level 230, rote gameplay is the only way to win the battle. There are no longer fun mixtures of strategies and experimentation. Instead, there are set strategies for pulling off 12K + damage to the entire enemy team. Deviating from the rote play will get the party instantly killed by the overpowered opponents.

If the developers want to discourage rote play, there are many ways to do so.

1. Rare Team bonus. There are 4439 possible teams. Track their usage. If someone brings in a team that hasn't been used in 10 minutes or so, give them an automatic boost as an award. Currently, there is no incentive for trying something new.

2. Faster healing. It shouldn't take Hulk 8+ hours to recover from a single fight. Slow healing forces rote play.

3. Trophy hunt. There are 90 powers. Use a power, get a trophy, that's 90 trophies there. Survive a power, including Maggia/Hammer, there's a lot more. Get 15+ countdown tiles on board. Win a game without powers. Get 20+ strike tiles on the board. Win with one of 3500 rare teams.

4. Retreat options. Some teams have good board control. For example, those with Spiderman/Magneto, both about to be nerfed. When the Maggia are putting up 4 instant kill countdown tiles every round, board control is mandatory, and many characters can't help. That countdown tile in the corner might be impossible to match. Not puzzle skill, it's just bad luck. As an option to Retreat, offer an Inspiration option. 10% current party health give +1 to all countdown tiles. Offer a Suddenly... option. 20% current party health for a reshuffle. Offer a Logistics Failure option. 50% current party health, and enemy AP levels all get capped at 5 AP.

5. More frequent reshuffles. Often, the board becomes a Zugzwang trap. There is only one match. There will only be one match for the next 5 turns. If there are countdown timers, and a board controller isn't on the team, the game is lost. Trigger a reshuffle when the number of match choices drops under four.

6. Minor buffs to underused characters. It's been suggested that Captain America's Yellow is priced too high at 19AP. Try dropping it to 17, and see if that makes him more popular. With every major update, give out 3 minor buffs. Lower an AP cost by a point, add more hit points, increase the level of their criticals.

7. When a player uses a certain team and power combo a lot, have a "Counter-ops" icon come up for the subsequent enemy teams. (50% damage Green, 200% damage Black).

8. Buffs for teams much higher in the ranking ladder. If I'm at 100 points, there is no disincentive to attacking someone with 800 points. If their characters had a 200% buff against teams 400 points under them, then maybe I'd stay closer to my ranking. But if I did beat them, those points would be truly earned.

9. Make countdown tiles placeable. Modern Hawkeye relies on countdown tiles. Instead of placing them randomly, let the player pick a basic red or blue tile. Too often, the random choice appears within an easy match area, and they get wiped out.

10. More board control. Too many characters have powers that are completely random, and they are less popular because they have no useful role in a puzzle strategy game. For example, Punisher's Judgement skill. He can wipe out his own strike tiles. He's the only character whose animation uses an aiming scope, but his aim is terrible. Let the players pick that 3x3 block. When more characters can aid in controlling the board, the number of playable teams will greatly increase.

11. Don't buff overpowered characters. C. Storm and Ragnarok were known to be overpowered. They were put into events in a highly buffed state that made them even worse, even in the day before they got nerfed. Same with Thor and Wolverine. If there is a character that is overpowered, then stop buffing them, for any event. Do that for at least a month before considering a major nerf. Very likely, with that character staying normal while others are buffed, the overuse of that character will diminish.

12. When restricting characters, have clear goals. For Oscorp Heroic, meant to highlight Daredevil, characters like Spiderman were picked that do not work well with DD's trap-laying powers. Also, he's going to be a low-level character for most people. Forcing level 230 opponents, and including a lot maggia and hammer opponents that his traps cannot affect rather ruined any chance of Daredevil having a moment to shine.

13. More environments. The City environment is truly unloved in the current mode. How about replaying "Hot Dog Stand" with "Lane Change" -- does a reshuffle.


All of the above suggestions would add fun to the game. Currently, the plans seem to be:

1. Nerf Spiderman and Magneto.
2. Maybe raise opponents to level 230 permanently.
3. Charge more for any benefit.

The above changes won't add fun to the game. Instead, they will encourage the rotest of rote play. Forcing level 230 opponents at someone is like breaking a person's leg and forcing them to run a race with crutches. And then, mid-race, when it's noticed that the crutches are being used, taking them away. For fun! Now that he's crawling, throw more obstacles at them. For fun!

The Hulk and Ares events, with occasional high-level teams, those were fun. I could vary my team a lot more. Ares and Juggernaut were fearsome opponents, just like Ragnarok used to be at one time. But when everyone is high level, that forces the usage of a few select teams -- which forces rote play.

In other words, the Developers intended Recent Changes to lessen rote play. But the changes have instead caused the opposite effect. If they want more play diversity, I've suggested 13 possibilities.