On Galactus run 1 (Game feel vs Ultron)

killerkoala

jackstar0 wrote:

Adding my voice to the chorus: this event was poorly designed if the goal is to create a fun experience for the most users.

If there was another goal, I'm interested to hear about it and how well it achieved that goal.

daveomite wrote:

the goal was to sell health packs and boost, i bet the numbers will go through the roof. mission accomplished.

Unknown

killerkoala wrote:

jackstar0 wrote:

Adding my voice to the chorus: this event was poorly designed if the goal is to create a fun experience for the most users.

If there was another goal, I'm interested to hear about it and how well it achieved that goal.

daveomite wrote:

the goal was to sell health packs and boost, i bet the numbers will go through the roof. mission accomplished.

actually the sales of healthpacks wont go through the roof simply because many just stopped trying anymore
Boosts uses iso if i remember correctly.

dswan3rd

I've been reading and nodding along to all the posts and actually came up with one good thing about the event...it is *kinda* cool that the essential for a minion node can be any level...so if Wolverine is an essential, you can use Astonishing or Patch or X-Force. So, you know, there's that.

LegendReborn

I'm spending HP on all boosts. I don't have a prof x to do a lot of the comps that other players are pulling off so I'm spending some of the HP I bought in the sale (yes, I regret putting money into the game before knowing how badly they could screw up Galactus). I'm really just doing it for my alliance to help make sure everyone gets their covers.

Nepenthe

IceIX wrote:

Hey all,

...

Overall, most of the higher end Alliances are in Round 6 or knocking on the door to Round 7. Which is actually slightly faster than we were expecting people to get just based on the math. So everyone's doing pretty darned well in terms of progression.

My alliance is not "higher end" and we hit Round 6 this morning just before the refresh. I feel like there's a HUGE difference between getting to Round 6 and making any progress whatsoever in Round 6. We were really hyped up for this new event, had several people that were doing full clears every time the refresh came up... Until some of us got fed up with dying before you have a chance to even TRY a strategy due to unlucky placement of CD tiles. A couple people have said they're just done with this event, and though that makes it harder to win for those of us carrying on, I can't really blame them.

Right now I'm at 629,027 points on progression. There's no way I'm getting to 1.25 million unless I get lucky enough to have a winnable board on every single boss fight. Compared to a normal event progression reward this is ridiculous. I've earned the legendary token from PvE progression in Every Single PvE since legendaries were introduced (often with a day to spare), so I know how to do the grind. If the minion nodes had reset with the new rounds, like Ultron did, this might have been possible (though still challenging.

As it stands, when the 2nd Galactus event starts my alliance will probably be in even worse shape for it. If we don't make it through round 6 in time none of us will have Cyclops who I expect will be the essential 4*, so less attempts at the boss. And we've got frustrated players who are burned out and probably don't want to beat their heads against round 3 or 4 deaths all over again. Happy anniversary, what a great celebration.

spghttihead

I really hope they take feedback into account and compensate in some way. I decided to just continue on with Galactus for the alliance but decided to focus on PVP more, cause at least that's doable. But now even that isn't giving out Iso?! Yeesh! I know I'll keep playing this game but I won't ever spend money again. Anytime I feel the urge to spend money I'll just remind myself of this terrible event and terrible customer service.

Unknown

IceIX wrote:

To start, it seems like a lot of people are on a basic disconnect here

I agree, however the only people that are having that disconnect work in your office. Here's the feedback you're getting.

"This isn't fun"

Which, for a micro-transaction laced game, is a REALLY BAD THING.

Couple it with the fact that the rewards for what was hyped as something great are INCREDIBLY lame, and worse than heroic tokens, and a lot of people are mad about this, me being one.

Realistically, this has taken the enjoyment out of this game for me, and there's about 50,000,000 other options. I'm finishing out the anniversary events as a favor to my alliance, but after that, I'm done with the game, and it's about 30% because of how lame the whole thing has been and 70% because of the reaction to it.

Oh, I'm thinking of it wrong? Yeah, how terrible of me as a consumer. How does that work for other companies? If I went in to a restaurant and said the food wasn't cooked properly, and the waiter says "Yes it was, you just don't appreciate it", I'm venturing a really strong guess I don't go eat there again.

Piss poor job guys. You've got about 8 days to wow the hell out of me and many others like me.

mouser

Dunno if anyone else noticed the irony: When you give up and retreat to Galactus, the splash screen afterward says "You Won!".

Benjermain

I don't get any part of what IceX's explanation about why I shouldn't feel cheated by my string of 2* tokens and team wipes, but what I REALLY don't get is, why have an Anniversary at all? Was it to remind us that this game is often a futile grind? Was it to reinforce the image of the Devs as stingy and out of touch? Was it to prove who has the power in this "relationship"?

By all means, take away our Lightning Rounds and slash drop rates. Institute frustrating gameplay that reinforces failure. And then double down on it all and condescend to us like WE are wrong. I was here for the last Anniversary. It was great. I have real memories of winning Lightning Rounds and pulling something other than Moonstone. How do you take that experience and say, "Well we tried that and I GUESS it was successful. But let's try the exact opposite and see what happens!" And then hype it for 3 weeks in game and on TV.

Were you guys tired of making the game? Did you want to move on to other projects? Why not just institute a Days of Future Past storyline where each character defeat is final and each death is permanent?

Actually that sound like more fun than wiping 6 times to Galactus every 8 hours. At least there's a reachable endpoint. It means all your characters die and you can no longer play the game, but that sounds pretty ok to me right now.

LHammer

I know I said I'd move along but, after re-reading the past few days worth of hatred and the official response from IceX, I think everything boils down to a difference of objective perspective.

When designing anything, the most important thing to keep in mind is "what is the objective". Now, consider this:

Galactus Hungers Objective - Create a grueling marathon event for the elite alliances that pushes them far beyond anything they have ever done before. Make the players embrace defeat and push onward. Separate the immortals from the posers. Give the top 0.5% of the player base a challenge that will settle once and for all which alliance reigns supreme.

Mission accomplished. That is exactly what this event is doing. IceX even acknowledges that is what they wanted and brags that there are indeed alliances committing mass suicide in a desperate attempt to get to the next level. Galactus Hungers is meeting it's design objective and is doing it pretty dang well.

Now, go back up and re-read that objective statement except instead of Galactus Hungers, use Second Anniversary Celebration.

Well, there's your problem right there.

Ask any player to write an objective statement for the Second Anniversary Event and I imagine it would come out something like "get everybody playing and having fun and celebrating two years of MPQ". It seems that most of the disappointment with this event stems from this very disconnect.

IceX is correct. The Galactus Hungers event is working as intended. If it had been run last month as "Hardcore Alliance Challenge Event", people wouldn't be losing their heads over it. The problem is, everyone thought they were getting a Second Anniversary Celebration event and instead got this.

jackstar0

I'd like to add, in the past I encouraged people who spoke of quitting to just take a break and then come back to it.

Anyone who quits over this: I do not begrudge you anything. This is an event that will put people off the game, and I expect those people will find a more fun game elsewhere.

Magnum_Fox

killerkoala wrote:

jackstar0 wrote:

Adding my voice to the chorus: this event was poorly designed if the goal is to create a fun experience for the most users.

If there was another goal, I'm interested to hear about it and how well it achieved that goal.

daveomite wrote:

the goal was to sell health packs and boost, i bet the numbers will go through the roof. mission accomplished.

Absolutely on point.

Lemminkäinen

I have a 50% win-rate against Galactus Round 7. I'm a 3-star transitioner and have no usable 4-stars. But I'm afraid to post about my approach since they will probably be nerfed.

Unknown

I feel like this is appropriate for this discussion:

"Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity." -- Hanlon's razor

IlDuderino

As an English football fan I already spend far too much time watching losing thanks - if the dev explanation was meant to make this experience feel better, it didn't

Konman

Lemminkäinen wrote:

I have a 50% win-rate against Galactus Round 7. I'm a 3-star transitioner and have no usable 4-stars. But I'm afraid to post about my approach since they will probably be nerfed.

Then why even mention it?

Benjermain

Lemminkäinen wrote:

I have a 50% win-rate against Galactus Round 7. I'm a 3-star transitioner and have no usable 4-stars. But I'm afraid to post about my approach since they will probably be nerfed.

I'd be very surprised if the Devs are reading these threads. We ignorant players don't understand their game design brilliance, we can't have anything worthwhile to say.

But I'd rather one player find some success than to have more interference in this tinykittyshow.

Clanseigh

It really makes me feel like there's no reason to play anymore. Starting a month or so before the last anniversary event, I'm okay with the fact that I'm behind the biggest vets. I know that there are a lot of fights I can't win. I know that I can get better with time and I know that my completed 3* roster (generally--I have fewer than 10 covers to go to get all 40 of them optimally covered). DDQ did that. I know there are positive moves being made, and I appreciate all the work they put into easing that transition for me so I didn't see the 270 wall quite the same way I saw the 166 wall when I was making the 2* transition.

Now let's look at the last few weeks. The 4* DDQ node. The anniversary event. The duck and cover approach to this when we were promised staffing over the weekend to address any problems that come up.

I can't pull off the 4* DDQ node. Again, no biggie--it's a measure of progress, just the same way the original DDQ was when it started in February. I don't think i'm supposed to win all of them, and that's fine. Still plenty to do.

The anniversary event. There's a world of difference between "you're not supposed to win" and "you're not supposed to win every fight." Launching the HP sale BEFORE the event suckered a lot of us into purchases, myself included. I bought a Stark Salary. Thankfully I didn't buy the second one I was seriously considering--I'd feel pissed off instead of let down.

I guess I feel defeated. I can't but think the "you're not supposed to win" extends far beyond the scope of the anniversary event. Giving us (mediocre) progression rewards that are unobtainable is offensive. Nerfing token pack odds is offensive. Giving us a maximum of three turns to take out nearly 30k of health is offensive. Even a +2 to color, +2 to all boosts takes a minimum of one match to fire a power, so your first turn is still board-dependent. If you've got a 15k damage power in two colors on your roster, you've got to have the perfect two matches to get it done. Instead, we're left hoping for some lucky cascades and match damage so we can get lucky and grab half-points for Galactus. Throw in the minions who are supposed to be "easy" fights to unlock the main event, and it's a joke.

I'm half-@$$ing the event this weekend. I'm going to wait until Monday to see what we get from D3. If they come back with "This didn't go the way we hoped it had" and give us another run (including the second Galactus event if they can't recalibrate in time) with achievable goals, I'll stick around. If they double down and say this embarrassingly broken event is exactly what they wanted it to be, I'm gone. This isn't a game I want to play, and I definitely don't want to dump time and money into something that's so obviously broken.

I'd love to join in on the possible "thanks for making this right, D3!" thread, but something tells me they don't care about me sticking around. It's been a fun run.

Chipster22

Benjermain wrote:

I was here for the last Anniversary. It was great. I have real memories of winning Lightning Rounds and pulling something other than Moonstone.

I have those types of memories too, but they seem strange. Last anniversary was a "magical place".....like Tahiti.

Lemminkäinen

Konman wrote:

Lemminkäinen wrote:

I have a 50% win-rate against Galactus Round 7. I'm a 3-star transitioner and have no usable 4-stars. But I'm afraid to post about my approach since they will probably be nerfed.

Then why even mention it?

Because that is the atmosphere that the actions of D3 has harbored. Also, because it is possible to find the combo (heck, it might have been posted already) and defeat Round 7 Galactus semi-regularly (and no, it won't make the event fun).