Line Q&A w/ IceIX

JamieMadrox

Yesterday, coinciding with the BIG announcement that 5* characters and legendary tokens are coming to the game, IceIX decided to run a Q&A on Line in the largest of the MPQ rooms (that we know of). It was really fun to be a part of and I'm happy to say that not only did he answer lots of questions and clarify a lot of things, he also managed to do it without taking a massive verbal beating.

So in the interest of the keeping the forums up to date with what's going on, here is a partial transcript of the chat's Qs and As. The only changes made to the content is cosmetic (spelling, etc). It's a long read, so I've put it in spoiler tags. The chat started before the announcement so the initial questions are from before the big reveal.

I've been having issues posting the whole thing, so I'm going to do it a bit at a time in this locked thread until I get it all in here. Then I'll unlock the thread and you can comment on it.

Edit: All ready to go!

Spider6234 (****-Cmd) - So... no questions for Ice?
IceIX - Guess I get off easy.

Tanis {SKYNET2.0} - I got one! What is the air speed of an unladen swallow?
IceIX - African or European?
Tanis {SKYNET2.0} - look, regardless of the breed, a one ounce bird cannot carry a 1 pound coconut!

JediMindTrick (merc) - I think the real question is when is bagman getting a buffed week?
JediMindTrick (merc) - Dino too.
IceIX - Anniversary? Maybe?

Stax (Skrull) - When are the upvotes to ISO conversions going live, and what will the exchange rate be?
IceIX - We're discussing ISO rates, it's on the burner to fix. No announcement though.

papa07 (Cmd DeadlyU) - Can we all just sign an NDA and you tell us what's going on?
IceIX - Or you could wait a little and not have to do paperwork.

Kiamodo (Godlike) - Are 5*s inevitable or is that absolutely never gonna happen?
IceIX - 7*s are inevitable. Gotta have the Dragon Balls after all.

Jay-j12601 Djanghost - It's going to be Galactus. He can only be leveled by consuming fully leveled characters.
IceIX - He doesn't eat people. He eats planets (which happens to have people on them).

Stax (Skrull) - During the last run of pre-fix The Hunt, when an MPQ player was murdered by their significant other because the Florida sub started during an important life event, do you send two developers out in street clothes to notify their alliance commanders, or do they wear their dress denims?
IceIX - Dress denims, of course.

Atomzed (Kree) - Are there going to be changes to the shield system? (I hope not!)
IceIX - My personal opinion? It works, there are problems, and could be better. Works perfectly for my style of play though (using shields for end of event points holds)
Atomzed (Kree) - Thanks IceIX. D3 has any plans on this?
IceIX - No direct "We're doing this soon" plans. Definitely something being actively discussed.

SIROTO (Tacos CMD) - 5* Howard the Duck
IceIX - Oh do I wish.

Stax (Skrull) - On a scale of "post-apocalyptic hellscape" to "local newspaper comment section", what state do you expect the forums to be in on Tuesday?
IceIX - Local newspaper Opinions section.

elvy75 (Skrull) - Is the news going to create more discussion than true healing?
IceIX - Possible. All depends on how people take it. :)

Ms. Amazeballs - Ice- I need to hear it from you, even though many have already told me.... From your knowledge, is Gambit ever happening?
IceIX - Possible, yes. Happening as in planned at the moment? Not so much. So no, Gambit is not our next 4* release.

Atomzed (Kree) - IceIX, what is the d3 expectation of the amount of time taken to max cover a 4*? Through f2p of course
Atomzed (Kree) - In the past, it seems to be 3-6 months for 3*.
Atomzed (Kree) - Now it seems to be 6-9 months for 4*?
IceIX - Hard to say since it really depends on what kind of player you are. F2P playing "casually" and pulling off tokens and the occasional reward? Months, quite a while since you're at the whims of the RNG gods. Pushing the 1K/1300 progressions? Far less.

Stax (Skrull) - Does the developer who created Caltrops ever worry about traveling to a country with Hague extradition?
Talahamut (VI2) - No, he has caltrops
Stax (Skrull) - Touché.
IceIX - Right, he could get away.

Babinro (The Best) - Any chance we'd be able to swap character builds in the future?
IceIX - Would kinda defeat the purpose of having multiple copies of characters (except for TUs). Not out of the question though.

Babinro (The Best) - Can you comment at all on the state of The Vault?
People obviously like the improved rewards but 'feeling' as though you have to save them up for a year isn't all that satisfying."
IceIX - Vault is still in flux, it's definitely 1.0. Bugs affect usage, like using expired tokens and the like. Overall, user reactions have been good though. So it's fairly likely that we'll revamp a bit more and see what happens.

Nonnel (Chaos Cmd) - Oh. On the vault. Is the outcome predetermined?
IceIX - As predetermined as a Comic Pack pull is. IE: It rolls the dice compared to an odds table and gives the reward. The Vault's roll is pretty much

RAND(NUM_REM_ITEMS)

.
IceIX - Although if what you're asking is if there's some kinda skill game with the icons pre-pull, that's all just graphics. Zero to do with what's pulled other than showing icons for what's in there.

AcesCracked (Shield) - Can in game chat be removed please? It gives alliances too much of an advantage in finding PvP targets
IceIX - Request denied. Viva la In-Game Chat.

hex706f7#'s(skynet2) - I'm curious, if you get 300 tokens, on the 300th pull does it just rotate the last remaining icon
IceIX - It stays static, there's nothing to rotate *to*

AcesCracked (Shield) - Ha-ha, seriously though ice. You guys don't listen to those players saying line is a big advantage in PvP play do ya?
IceIX - Of course we listen. But for the most part, we're of the opinion that if it wasn't LINE, it'd be WeChat. Or IRC. Or a mass text message. Meta-kibitzing will out.
IceIX - The only fix would be to break the ability for Meta chat to affect the game. Which would pretty much mean a 90% redesign of versus.
Jay-j12601 Djanghost - On top of that people would find ways around it. Even if you had names people would announce what they were doing or level characters to certain numbers.
IceIX - Yep. 269 XDP, 290 JG, 268 PX is Jamie Madrox!

Jordan Knight ☆SBPM☆ - Ice any ISO updates"
IceIX - No updates, it's something we're actively discussing though.

Noxeema DeathKnight - Any chance PvE will become progression rewards vs the current system? Playing the PvE bracket watch game is not fun and the current system is extremely taxing on people with a life.
IceIX - Unlikely. Gauntlet is our progression based testbed. Doesn't mean we won't expand that but the likelihood of competitive PVE going away? Pretty low.

Colognoisseur - Hey late to this but I've been wondering if on a new character release you can go back to giving out the t5 individual cover as the t100 alliance reward. I thought that change was made to stop alliance hopping and it certainly hadn't had that effect
IceIX - We're actually going to be changing the Alliance reward to something else anyway.

IceIX - Post will be coming up with more info as soon as David gets it ready.
IceIX - But yes. 5*s coming with Legendary Tokens. Legendary Tokens are rewards only, you can't buy them.
IceIX - Legendary Tokens contain 4 and 5*s, only way to get 5*s for the near to mid future.

Noob-Blouses - Are 5* playable on PvP?
IceIX - Yarp. And they're playable out of the gate. No need for 7-8 covers to make them good enough.

Stax (Skrull) - Placement or progression rewards?
IceIX - Both.

IceIX - (This may change, but current plan) Alliance Season reward instead of the random single 4* now, 1300 PVP progression replacing the 1300 4*, top prize for versus instead of 4*, top score for PVE instead of 4*, additional PVE progression, every 5th day DDQ.

Malcrof - So DDQ will be the way most of us can get one
IceIX - The way that everyone that's at 4* level can get one. It's similar to 3* Essentials, need that 4* for the mission.

Malcrof - Put some in the vault as well!
IceIX - Quite possible to be in the Vault too, just not final so I didn't add it. :)

IceIX - 5*s currently cost about 550K to level to 450 from 255. Their costs to level abilities is zero. You cannot buy abilities with HP. So no whaling 5*s.

Der_Lex (Chaos CMD) - Only downside is slower progression for specific 4*s cos of losing the 1300 prog cover
IceIX - Sorta. The chances of that 1300 being exactly what you need is pretty low as-is, but yes, that's statistically true for rosters that are near maxed on 4*s already.

Der_Lex (Chaos CMD) - When will this be implemented?
IceIX - 9/10 is the plan for Surfer and Legendaries. Got some other changes coming in S19 to make 4*s more available.

elvy75 (Skrull) - Do you have plans for ISO? Plus anniversary week will it have double ISO again?
IceIX - Yep, we've got plans. Nothing to announce. But last year should be a good base guide for this year.

Noob-Blouses - 5% drop rate?
IceIX - To start, yeah, 5%.

Babinro (The Best) - Gotta say I'm concerned about 5* power level. I have to assume the health pools are going to balloon even more and match length is going to increase a good deal as a result.
IceIX - It's one of my chief concerns too.

Stax (Skrull) - PvE cap staying at 395?
IceIX - For now.
IceIX - So yeah, that does mean that you could have a 450 SS against puny 395 Ares. Given how 5* covers come though, you won't.

Talahamut (VI2) - 5* are the same 13 covers across 3 powers setup?
IceIX - Yarp. But 5*s level a bit differently. Each cover raises the level cap by a static 15 levels. Ability covers are less effective than covers for earlier rarities. Levels make more of a difference.

Colognoisseur - Are we going to have double ISO PvP again? That really helped when we had a week of that
IceIX - Quite possible.

Talahamut (VI2) - Does that mean 5* powers are more dmg based?
Talahamut (VI2) - Since levels couldn't add "x countdown tiles"
IceIX - All over the board. We're actively trying to build Meta from the ground up for this rarity since we can.
IceIX - Yeah, covers are more useful for those sorts of abilities still.

IceIX - We've got 3 5*s built out right now, gonna release them and see how things go. Take feedback, move from there. So expect a few pushed at start but not a glut. We're not trying to flood the market with it. :)

Malcrof - So that's a no to a HP sale
IceIX - No, not a no. Just that that isn't anything planned for September.

Babinro (The Best) - Not related to the announcements but...any plans on mixing up the LR weekly rotations? Would be nice to see all 3*'s rotated to say the least.
IceIX - We're focused on Anniversary stuff at the moment, so for the most part, those kinda maintenance revamps are delayed till after that's in the can.

Stax (Skrull) - How will 5* token rates scale with added 5*s?
IceIX - 5% -> 10% up to the first 3 5*s, we'll look at rollout past that.
IceIX - So 5%, 5%(x2), 3.3%(x3)

aesthetocyst <DeadC> - So 5s go up to 450?
IceIX - Yarp. If you see a 450 just after launch though, it's very very likely they're gonna get put into a sandbox with their own toys. :)

Talahamut (VI2) - Time for 4* feature PvPs regularly soon?
Noob-Blouses - Yes we want 4* PvP!!!
Noob-Blouses - Sans 3* rewards
IceIX - Possible. We want a few more 4s in the mix before we start weaving them in though. It sounds like a lot, but with ~12 4*s at the moment, that can get pretty repetitive.

Rico Dredd (Best) - Any chance roster slots will get cheaper? Not only in my own interest, but in a noob friend's too, he doesn't open tokens bc he lacks the HP for slots, and having to sell 3* makes him go all sad and pathetic
IceIX - We're still talking roster slot pricing. Big problem there is that it's one of our bigger money makers. So changes have to be carefully balanced so that any bean counting types don't go all Hulk on us.

Stax (Skrull) - Is the PvE progression legendary token being placed at a level beyond old top progression?
IceIX - Tis the plan, yeah.

Tanis {SKYNET2.0} - How far past the old top progression?
Tanis {SKYNET2.0} - As in: do you pretty much have to be t-0 for the event to get it?
IceIX - Depends largely on the PVE itself, since obviously scores are all over the place per event.
Tanis {SKYNET2.0} - Right on...so probably like 2-3x the regular top prog score?
IceIX - Fairly decent supposition, yeah.

Jordan Knight ☆SBPM☆ - Will gorgon or ultron ever be playable ice?
IceIX - Possible cameo Team-Up characters, very unlikely to ever be roster-able.
Jordan Knight ☆SBPM☆ - Maybe a playable node...ice?
IceIX - Right. They're both perfectly "playable". They're just designed as boss characters, so they're not balanced.

Stax (Skrull) - I would pay tens of dollars for a thong cyclops yellow reskin visible to my PvP opponents. Please keep this in mind when allocating development resources.
IceIX - I would *love* to get costume DLC in. The Demiurge artists go white at the thought.

tfp888/ML PvP - when will the first event we can earn a legendary token be? Are we talking next week?
IceIX - Live with Silver Surfer, planned for 9/10.

Der_Lex (Chaos CMD) - Will there be some kind of release events for new 5*s as well? Or are they simply added to the legendary token pool?
IceIX - Possible. We liked how Ant-Man worked. The 30 day thing was probably a bit much though. It was something like 90% of the battles played first 48 hours, 5% last 24, and the other 5% in the other 27 days.
IceIX - Which obviously means it wasn't very engaging outside of being new and giving something out.

Der_Lex (Chaos CMD) - Big question: how many of the upcoming 5*s have sexy butt poses?
IceIX - Zero. HOWEVER, there are two coming 4*s that have sexy butt poses.

entrailbucket(crew) - On not whaling...the forum post says you get a legendary token with each 42 (now 40) token pack you buy
IceIX - Very very unlikely. 40 pack cost * 5% chance of *any* SS cover means something like 50K for a correctly covered SS.

Stax (Skrull) - The DDQ 4* fight involves a changing opponent and a changing player character? Or is one of those fixed?
IceIX - Set 4* versus a set opponent. So PX will always face the same enemy, specially chosen as his nemesis (not necessarily, but possibly comics based. Could be ability set based too)

Salgy (# Fail) - Ice - any thought to increasing the PvP progression rewards?
IceIX - Possible, but not likely soon. Raising Versus progressions means that the new "base" high water mark raises too. Even if it's something stupid like 500 ISO, it'll be expected that that's what you need to hit. Which raises T10 scores more.

Stinki Tranny(Redux) - Also Ice can you sort Hulk out. The fact he is now a bit of a tinykitty and Thing outranks him is a joke
IceIX - A bunch of the 3*s need a bit of lovin' at this point.
IceIX - Just cause 5* is the new hotness doesn't mean we can forget about those lower rarities.

JediMindTrick (merc) - I9 I didn't see an answer to j's question. Any chance of one 4*PvP per week?
IceIX - Not immediately. We want at least a few more 4*s in the pool before we begin that sort of thing. Don't expect anything there prior to S20 earliest.

Babinro (The Best) - The whole needing to tank colours thing is a becoming a real problem with older characters now.
Babinro (The Best) - Vision as a 4* would have been pretty great potentially but as a 3* it tremendously limits how viable he can be.
IceIX - 5*s fix that, we may be backporting that. Basically, 5*s can be Tanks (+25% color strength), Standard, or Support (-25% color strength).
Talahamut (VI2) - Wait I thought you meant you could set role for each character for a battle...
Talahamut (VI2) - But you mean the character itself has a permanent role set
IceIX - That's a concept for when we backport, have a button on the pre-fight screen. Right now it's baked in.

Babinro (The Best) - Have you considered toning down match damage a bit? It's odd when simple match damage determines a matches outcome more than the use of skills on those level 395 Gauntlet nodes. The challenge should really stem from skill/passives more than anything else."
IceIX - Protect tiles, yo. Oft maligned, often get rid of match damage.
IceIX - At least, that's *my* solution.

Babinro (The Best) - Fair enough. That's why I love the kicker to Reed Richards blue. Not crazy about the rest of the character though
IceIX - His Yellow is pretty amazing. That heal comes in uber handy. And makes KK/MrF teams annoying as heck in versus.

Babinro (The Best) - Any plans to revisit character balance waves in the coming months? People seem reasonably happy with things but obviously there are plenty of characters we'd love to use more than we do.
IceIX - Possible. Designers are focused on Anniversary though, so no cycles for it right now.

Alphablackhawk - ICE any plans to have a bonus type boost like added damage or strike tiles or something when some characters are paired up
Like jean n cyclops
Cap n falcon
Reed n thing "
IceIX - In themed versus it can be rough, but most characters have some kind of special tile creation. And in open versus, something like KK/MrF/MStorm is obnoxious. Clear Black so MrF isn't invincible, but watch out for Green and Purple so Kamala doesn't rip your face off.
IceIX - No plans for a team type boost. MrF is an attempt at that in-character. But we don't want to lock Meta to certain teams being better because of an outside buff. Really messes with the Weekly buff system too.

Stax (Skrull) - How are weekly buff lists determined? Pure RNG, or with some consideration given to synergy and/or color coverage?
IceIX - Fairly random. Which is why you end up with weeks that are insane and ones where there's really only one "uber" buffed.

Babinro (The Best) - At the risk of being booted off LINE for good I'd love to know.
Is there any particular reason why Xavier's winfinite teams are allowed when there were pretty strong actions against other winfinite combos in the past?
Is it simply the fact that winfinite doesn't 'plague' all forms of play for lack of a better term?"
IceIX - We whacked MQ and MMN with the nerf bat because of PX before. If something else becomes that prevalent, we're not against whacking things again. Stunlock and winfinite just make for bad gameplay all around.
IceIX - That being said, some of that only happens when certain buffs apply, which is fine. Once in a blue/blood/cheese moon you get to do cool stuff.

Colognoisseur - What about the stealth nerf to JG? Was it so she just didn't pwn Ultron?
Stax (Skrull) - Red post said it was a clarification to her ability, not a change in the functionality.
IceIX - Correct. Text change only.
IceIX - We need to go back and figure out how to specify the differences between all that. Need to come up with some good nomenclature.

Colognoisseur - With surfer in the game can we have an Ultron-like event versus Galactus?
IceIX - Sure, but if SS is on your team, he turns on you as Herald. Oh, and since it's a boss battle, we'll go FF style and give him 4x the HP since he's a "boss character". Then he's back to normal in your party after. :)

JP189512(DjangoU) - so you can only get SS from L-Tokens right?
IceIX - Correct.

JP189512(DjangoU) - so you'd be spending at least a couple grand on packs to buy SS
IceIX - To whale a cover through 40s, a few hundred to a grand is pretty likely, yeah. If you're talking full covering you're probably better off buying a Tesla.

Babinro (The Best) - I'd love to see Apocalypse but I'm guessing he'll be out with next year’s movie.
IceIX - Apocalypse would be more likely as a boss character than a playable.

JP189512(DjangoU) - with Legendary Tokens at 1300 does this mean the Blue Jean Grey I need is gonna get eaten by a token?
IceIX - Yep. I'm seeing if we can nix the 1K NF token in an upcoming to flip in JG B.

windfallstar (Lat S) - Any chance of additional ways to acquire roster slots? Even with the cap of 1000hp the price hurts.
IceIX - Being discussed, yeah. Large part of that problem is that roster slots are real ongoing money-makers, so any decision there has to be run by the bean counters to ensure we don't cut off our own noses.

Babinro (The Best) - Finally to around to watching the community video.
Getting a Legendary token at 1300 in pop is awesome and all but I've got to say I REALLY liked the certainty of playing for a reward a knew I'd need. That's a pretty large gameplay commitment for what's likely going to be a repeat cover and 1000 ISO "
IceIX - Sure, for you. And in that case I'd definitely agree. But also remember that far more of the layer base is happy covering *any* of their 4*s with another cover. It's kind of a "needs of the many" thing.

windfallstar (Lat S) - Are there plans to increase the scope of alliances?
IceIX - We've got a very minor update for Alliances coming in (I think) R83, and yeah, it's always on our minds. You'll finally be able to see last played time for Alliance mates.

Jint - General question: how you guys ever thought about doing a post-mortem for some updates?
Jint - Been curious to see the thought process behind how team learns from each update/experiment
IceIX - I'd *love* to. We never seem to find the time to do anything but internal post-mortems before rolling onto the next thing.

AcesCracked (Shield) - Oh ****, almost forgot. Please don't take my 75 point PvP matches that show should be worth 25...thanks!
AcesCracked (Shield) - I know how to handle when they say 60 but give 18
IceIX - We want to update scores so that they show what's supposed to be there. It's a minor issue in the grand scheme though, so it keeps getting backlogged.

Jint - Weird question: has the team ever considered a 'crossover' with other IPs?
IceIX - Yup. Still love to, just haven't gotten a deal set up.

Scoregasms - Hmm, will rostering a 5* actually mess up scaling for those folks that keep an intentionally low roster level?
Scoregasms - Like the 94-100 max roster peeps I see a lot?
IceIX - Nope.

Mr Stoat (Shield) - Oh yes ... personal scaling in PvE. Needs to go!
IceIX - Well, it wouldn't "go", but could be tweaked. 395s kinda suck, but so did early days when nodes were set. Basically, if you were high level you could place well, but it meant more farming of more nodes. Low levels couldn't clear, so less placement but also less play. It was a really weird feel. "Yay, I leveled up! Now I have to play longer?"

The1WhoKnocks - How often will you be having these Q&A sessions?
IceIX - This was only planned because we assumed that the announcement was a biggie. I usually don't have a couple hours in my schedule to hang out on LINE.

Ebolamonkey-Skrull Cmd - If you could ban one forum user, who would it be
IceIX - Over_clocked. She has scourged the forums for far too long!

McDongles (Stealth) - I understand that crashes will happen but the PvP crash price is a bit higher than PvE. In PvP you lose health, time, and points whereas in PvE you only lose health and time. Is there anything in the works to change the penalty or create a save state to resume the fight in lieu of a penalty?
IceIX - Really rough one. There's a ton that goes into that on the back end since the game right now only really checks in with the servers but runs most stuff client during battle. So we'd pretty much have to have a save state on the server for every battle for every player. Then check on reload to make sure that's still valid (Tourney hasn't ended, patch hasn't been placed, etc)
IceIX - Don't get me wrong, we'd like to get rid of the retreat/crash penalty. But the work to make things "right" is actually a somewhat grand undertaking. We could do that, or we could build out a new/improved system for something else.
McDongles (Stealth) - Can't you leave it up the device to maintain the save state and if none is found then apply the penalty?
IceIX - Not really, that would make things really easy for cheaters to hack at. We'd *have* to have that server side for verification.

Atomzed (Kree) - IceIX, what is d3 opinion about having a "colorless" cover? Be it specific to a character and a specific rarity?
Having such a token will allow people more control over their progression, and hence make people feel better"
IceIX - We've discussed something similar. In both "Wildcard 4* cover" and "Wildcard Nick Fury cover" forms.
Atomzed (Kree) - Is it likely to happen then?
IceIX - We've got several napkin designs for that sort of stuff. It's a great (and very often) asked for thing, so it's more likely than not. But not planned at the second, no.

Der_Lex (Chaos CMD) - Are any of the first batch of 5* s new versions of existing characters?
IceIX - That would be telling. :)

The1WhoKnocks - I just want to officially say that as a whale, I actually support how you guys are making it so that you can't buy the covers for SS. I just want to know if all of the characters in the future are planned to be rolled out this way, or just the 5*'s?
IceIX - For the near future, 4*s will roll out as normal with normal HP costs. I can't speak for mid-long term as that's not set yet.

Vhailorx

Just finished reading the transcript of Ice's line q&a.

Since I am occasionally tough on demiurge/d3 about monetization, I should be fair,and commend them when they are up front about things.

So while I would recommend skimming the whole transcript as there was a bunch of useful information, I particularly wanted to call out this answer:

"windfallstar (Lat S) - Any chance of additional ways to acquire roster slots? Even with the cap of 1000hp the price hurts.
IceIX - Being discussed, yeah. Large part of that problem is that roster slots are real ongoing money-makers, so any decision there has to be run by the bean counters to ensure we don't cut off our own noses."

That answer is honest and reasonable! The sky didn't fall and the community didn't freak out. Thank you for being honest! I would love to see cheaper roster slots, but I also enjoy new content, which requires revenue. I hope a good compromise can be found.

Also, +1 for the casual libel against all accountants?

stochasticism

Most noteworthy answer I saw

Scoregasms - Hmm, will rostering a 5* actually mess up scaling for those folks that keep an intentionally low roster level?
Scoregasms - Like the 94-100 max roster peeps I see a lot?
IceIX - Nope.

Conspiracy theorists that believe the devs do nothing but spew lies and have anecdotal data to prove it in 3... 2... 1...

Malcrof

The best part of it was the simple fact that it happened. The Devs are getting more involved both with the community (forums, fb, Line, Reddit, etc..) and the game itself.. which some are really hardcore players.

Big thank you to IceIX for doing this. That was the most full i had ever seen the room!

Punisher5784

I don't know what on the Line is.. when I first read it about from another post I thought everyone was making a joking reference to the movie 'The Internship' haha

Anyways, this was a great read and it's great to hear from the devs more often, and I especially enjoy the very honest answers. Keep up the great work! Thank you

Buret0

Jamie Madrox wrote:

Yesterday, coinciding with the BIG announcement that 5* characters and legendary tokens are coming to the game, IceIX decided to run a Q&A on Line in the largest of the MPQ rooms (that we know of). It was really fun to be a part of and I'm happy to say that not only did he answer lots of questions and clarify a lot of things, he also managed to do it without taking a massive verbal beating.

Breaking the first two rules of Line Club...

IceIX

Vhailorx wrote:

Also, +1 for the casual libel against all accountants?

Have you seen some of the things beans can do? Best scene in the amazing movie Blazing Saddles? Jack and the Beanstalk? Beans are important resources and need to be carefully tracked by skilled trained personnel.

Stax the Foyer

This was really a great event. Thanks, IceIX. Thanks to Jamie for compiling this, as well.

I'm not sure why people were so surprised by it, though. I told you all that it was going to happen:

Stax the Foyer wrote:

I'll be on Line for the next Q&A next week!

TaoSpoons

Vhailorx wrote:

Also, +1 for the casual libel against all accountants?

-50 DKP!

*junior accountant whispers in ear*

Oh, sorry, wrong currency. -9000 HP!

Thanks IceIX for participating and Jamie for sharing! This was a really neat thing to read on top of the Augtember video.

Edit: if the post below mine is true, I was tricked! Congrats, O Legendary One, for fooling me.

san

[edit] apparently I have been corrected and this event really did occur (not a joke like the last one). Thank you for clearing that up. I expect there will be some feedback from several forumites about the unfairness of those with LINE app, but that is to be expected.

I really do appreciate the openness in communication we have seen as of late. Kudos to IceIX and others for this (I know that it's a team effort, not just one individual here). Much thanks. Cheerios.

JordonLee

What do the terms like "S19" mean. Is that a date? I'm only familiar with R?? Numbers for the patches and stuff. Sorry I'm naive, funny thread though haha.

mags1587

S19 = Season 19

JordonLee

mags1587 wrote:

S19 = Season 19

Of course, doi. Cheers.

Buret0

Ice: Can you elaborate further on this?

NM, ^^^^ asked the same question.

CrookedKnight

I think he means that when the devs are designing a new a 5*, they can decide whether to give that character "tank," "support," or "standard" match damage. From the player's point of view, we'll just see that different characters have different damage values. But if they expand that to the lower tiers, then we'd be able to pick for ourselves rather than having a situation where, say, Thor is always a Tank with boosted match damage because that's the decision the devs made.

JordonLee

So..

Can we try and guess which 4*s will have amazing butt action.

nonnel

san-mpq wrote:

The joke last time was funny. This one is even funnier, particularly because you went around compiling answers from IceIX from the forums.

While the first thread by Stax was hilarious, and of course a joke, this one really happened. Ice entertained a ton of questions and was very forthcoming in his answers. It was quite enjoyable.

To be honest, when it started, I thought Jamie was pulling an even bigger on is then what Stax did.

My line iD is in my sig. Feel free to send me a note and I can send you a screen shot or two.

IceIX

nonnel wrote:

While the first thread by Stax was hilarious, and of course a joke, this one really happened. Ice entertained a ton of questions and was very forthcoming in his answers. It was quite enjoyable.

To be honest, when it started, I thought Jamie was pulling an even bigger on is then what Stax did.

My line iD is in my sig. Feel free to send me a note and I can send you a screen shot or two.

Pretty much this. The first one was a joke. This one was me deciding that I'd hop on and answer some questions since it'd be likely to head off a bunch of repeated chatter on the forums at the pass. Jamie then took that one step further and pulled together people for it. I was just planning on busting in and impromptu-ing it.

Bowgentle

IceIX wrote:

nonnel wrote:

While the first thread by Stax was hilarious, and of course a joke, this one really happened. Ice entertained a ton of questions and was very forthcoming in his answers. It was quite enjoyable.

To be honest, when it started, I thought Jamie was pulling an even bigger on is then what Stax did.

My line iD is in my sig. Feel free to send me a note and I can send you a screen shot or two.

Pretty much this. The first one was a joke. This one was me deciding that I'd hop on and answer some questions since it'd be likely to head off a bunch of repeated chatter on the forums at the pass. Jamie then took that one step further and pulled together people for it. I was just planning on busting in and impromptu-ing it.

It was more "hey, you might want to be in GFC tonight, cause... Stuff might happen"

Still need to read up the whole thing.

Tl;Dr: Ice is awesome when he has enough time to do stuff like that.
By which I mean even more awesome than he normally is.

Der_Lex

JordonLee wrote:

So..

Can we try and guess which 4*s will have amazing butt action.

One more hint was given by Ice that didn't make it into the transcript, and that was that both would be 'Hawkeye Initiative' characters. So looks like stupid sexy Cyclops might be getting some competition...

JordonLee

Der_Lex wrote:

One more hint was given by Ice that didn't make it into the transcript, and that was that both would be 'Hawkeye Initiative' characters. So looks like stupid sexy Cyclops might be getting some competition...

I wasn't familiar with "hawkeye initiative" stuff, so I googled and the results just gave me more questions.

However, if stupid sexy Cyclops is getting a run for his money, I'm impressed. I like the art on this game, and stuff like this just makes it all the more entertaining and.. fruitful.
(trying to pick my words so I don't sound like a pervert hahaha)